Truth Tuesday

• I've only listened to Ed Sheeran's "Thinking Out Loud" a million and one times. So maybe old Ed isn't the most drop-dead gorgeous man on the block, but whatever girl snags him up is a lucky woman. Holy smokes, he's romantic. And he adopts cats from animal shelters . . . major bonus. 

• When we originally bought our house, I thought it was beyond charming that it had a fireplace. However, I didn't know how much we'd actually use the fireplace. Turns out we use it a lot in the winter months (at least when there is no inversion). Last night, there was this wonderful snowstorm going on and so Brian lit a big old fire. Sitting near a fire is one of the most soothing things. We had all the lights off, so the orange glow of the fire was the only light we had. I listened to those flames crackle and watched them reflect and dance across our ceiling for a lengthy amount of time last night. It was the best.  

• I wouldn't mind going on vacation for a solid month. Just saying. I probably shouldn't be saying that right after the holidays. Didn't I have a long enough break from real life?

• Brian and I somehow just managed to find out that movies at the theater are cheaper on Tuesdays. Why didn't we know this sooner? I'm a little embarrassed to admit this . . . but tonight we went and saw "Taken 3". I can't help that I love watching Liam Neeson be a bad a**.

• I've never been too obsessed with board games or card games until lately. I can't get enough game nights, man. Lately I've been loving Spot It and Scattergories. If you want a good laugh, you should play Scattergories with my dad. If you get offended easily . . . then don't play Scattergories with my dad. 

• I bought a couple fake ear cuffs that I've been wearing on repeat. I really like the look and it's nice because I don't have to commit to getting a second piercing in my ear that I'd probably end up sick of in a few months. And to be honest, I like feeling a little rebellious. I'm Mormon, so a lot of us don't have tons of body piercings. So yeah, I sort of like tricking my friends into thinking I got a second piercing. I'm obviously easily entertained.  

Now here are some random photos of life to end this nonsense. Sadly, I'm not wearing my ear cuff in any of them:

The Holiday Whirlwind

Wait. What? I have a blog? I completely forgot.

Who has time to blog during the holidays anyhow? But then so many good things happen during the holidays that are begging to be documented. So now, here I am, playing catch up.

There's so much to talk about. Christmas happened. My birthday happened. It's 2015. But let's just stick with Christmas right now, before I start hyperventilating.

This year was weird for me. The holidays went especially fast. Thanksgiving happened and then in the blink of an eye, it was Christmas. We spent Thanksgiving with my family. The weekend after Thanksgiving, we ran a Santa 5k. All runners dressed as Santa Claus for the race. Brian signed up to do it with me mostly so I'd be happy. This is something I've anxiously been looking forward to for the past year and it didn't disappoint.

I mean, just imagine it. Hundreds of Santas were running together through the streets of Ogden, Utah. It was a great sea of Santas. I felt like I had an instant bond with my fellow Santa runners. I'm sure they didn't feel any bond, because I'm a wacko person, but that's fine. I felt it. I was beyond excited. That's all that matters. To add to this awesome experience, there was also an aid station where kids dressed as elves passed out milk and cookies. There was water too, but whatever. I know I'm making this all sound very glamorous, however, running several miles in a Santa suit is very hot. And those beards were itchy. Gotta take some bad with the good I suppose.

I mentioned the holidays were strange for me. For some reason, I had a super hard time getting in the Christmas spirit this year, which doesn't really make sense because on the surface it seems I did everything right. I tend to be the type of person who goes overboard on holidays. I think everyday leading up to the big day needs to be a major celebration. I understand that can be exhausting for people around me. I think it was exhausting for me as well this year. But I kept making Christmas goodies, putting up decorations, and forcing myself to watch any holiday movie I could get my hands on all hoping this void would be filled. I went to White Elephant parties (where my gift was literally a white elephant), I sang Christmas carols. Heck, Brian and I even organized the Christmas program for our church's party. 

And let's not even talk about how much money we spent on Christmas lights this year. The sad part is, we didn't have some out-of-this-world light display. Munch the pooch kept being naughty and chewing through extension cords. Let's just say Brian and our dog didn't have the most cheery relationship through the month of December. 

Anyway, I kept getting frustrated that I had this empty feeling during the holidays. Who was I? Scrooge?! The Grinch?!

I kept blaming it on the fact that we had no snow. Christmas just isn't Christmas for me if it's not a White Christmas. It's easy to blame things on the weather. But I think the void was actually there because I needed an attitude adjustment. 

While the presents, and the lights and the snow are fun bonuses to Christmas, I think I kept forgetting the simple truth behind this special time of year. When you take all the chaos, food, parties, and glitter away, Christmas is really about a baby. He was sent here for us because God loves us. That baby, born in the most humble of circumstances, grew up to be a very brave man. He's the man who suffered and died for me so that I might overcome my faults and insecurities. He lived a life where He was often lonely, and He made that sacrifice so that I never have to feel alone. For that, I am very grateful. I know I said this post is just about Christmas, but let's delve into the new year a little bit. In 2015, I'm looking forward to strengthening my relationship with Christ and being able to understand my eldest brother a little better. I'm so very grateful for His life and example.

Now I know I really just needed to adjust my focus during the holidays, but I also knew a little snow would help my attitude. Christmas morning, I woke up to find my wild dreams came true. We fell asleep on Christmas Eve to dead, brown grass. We woke up Christmas morning to a thick and pure blanket of snow. That experience will make this Christmas one I will never forget. I didn't really want any presents this year . . . just some magical snow. God delivered!   

And I know I'm late to the party . . . . but here's the Weller Christmas card if you missed it: 

Are we hip or what? 

XO

Sunday Best: Better Shape Up

dress: DownEast, sweater: Buckle, tights: vintage, boots: Old Navy, hat: Bella Me, necklace: Old Navy

You know you better shape up, because tomorrow is the first day of December. That means Santa Claus is coming to town. You don't want to be on the naughty list, do you?

In all reality, I chose my title because I've been on this kick of adding basic geometric shapes to my outfits (although, I'm stoked out of my mind for Saint Nick). So I was super excited when I snagged this necklace along with triangle earrings at the Old Navy Black Friday Sale. That's about all the shopping I could handle on Black Friday . . . and that was at 6 pm. Yep, not much of a Black Friday shopper here because: 

A) I hate big crowds of people crammed in small areas. 

B) I'm basically useless after midnight. A girl needs her beauty sleep. 

C) I shop deals all year long. Why go on the day that everyone else does?

Well, it's time to go decorate our Christmas tree and deck our halls. It's tradition the Sunday after Thanksgiving . . . at least around these parts. I know some of you have had your tree up since Halloween ;). I won't judge you. I'll probably leave mine up past Valentine's Day. I constantly live in denial.   

Hoarding Gourds

Brian and I like holidays a little too much. Especially Halloween. We currently have a graveyard in our lawn, a skeleton sitting near our front door, and a glass bowl full of skulls on our dining room table. Oh, there's also a giant spider hanging from the ceiling above the dining room table.

Needless to say, our trip to the pumpkin patch was sort of intense this year. Our poor friends we recruited to go with us probably think we are a couple of crazies, but they keep agreeing to hang out with us, so we must not be that bad.

We've lived in our bungalow for a year now. A YEAR. My, time flies. We moved in last October, so we didn't get to deck the halls for Hallow's Eve as much as we would have liked. This year we are making up for it. Last year we managed to buy a few pumpkins, but they looked rather pathetic sitting in the corner of our very large deck. So this year . . . we were ready. We were prepared to buy ALL the pumpkins. We piled big ones, small ones, warty ones, smooth ones, green ones, orange ones, and white ones into the back of the pickup truck. 

Then when we got them all home and arranged them very nicely on the deck, Brian and I both agreed we needed more pumpkins. But we refrained because we aren't millionaires. I'm certain that's what millionaires blow their money on too; pickup loads of gourds.

Anyway, I look forward to our pumpkin patch trip each year. I'm really quite sad October is about over. Just this morning as I was drinking my orange juice, I got rather depressed when I saw the sell by date was in January. January is a sign that all the best holidays have ended. So let us all learn a lesson from my Simply Orange Juice. Time is valuable and life is short. Take some time to celebrate the everyday moments with friends and family. Especially if those everyday moments have anything to do with Halloween. Who knew I'd learn something so profound from a fruity beverage?    

Sunday Best: Headbands to the Rescue!

top: H&M, jeans: Kohl's, meow loafers: Delias, earrings: F21, headband: Claire's

I have a feeling my headband collection will see new growth over the summer. I turn into a gross human being during the warmer months. My inner child comes out. I get extremely dirty and cry at the thought of having a bath. Okay, so I'm not that bad. I bathe on a regular basis. But I do avoid washing my hair at all costs. 

My hair is extremely dry and course. I've found that one of the best things I can do for my locks is minimize the washing. While shampoo might make my hair smell good, it strips it of all its precious natural oils. I know it sounds kind of gross, especially since I workout every morning and put in a good sweat, but I tend to only wash my hair maybe twice a week. Since I dyed my hair red in the past month, I've been holding off on washing even more so (why must red fade so quickly?). 

Luckily, my hair doesn't get noticeably greasy until maybe the third or forth day without washing (I'm disgusting). However, there are those moments when my hair starts looking questionable and it is much too short to pull back in a ponytail. That's where cute headbands step in and save me from tragic bad hair days. I bought the above polka dot one a week ago and I've already worn it three or four times. Yes, headbands might just be my new favorite accessory. 

I don't know though, Munch the Pooch made a pretty cute accessory in that last photo. We matched with our black and white outfits ;).    

Trespassers

Our long weekend was a good one. Brian and I spent the entirety of our Saturday out in our yard. It was an exhausting day of planting, digging, mowing, and running into plenty of tree roots with our shovels (I'm convinced that our whole yard is just an entanglement of tree roots). We went to bed that night tired but happy. I love yard work. I would do yard work over house work any day of the week. We also put in a fire pit, which I was very excited about. So excited that I posted about it on Facebook.

On Sunday after church, we packed a bag and went to my in-laws. We would spend Memorial Day with them, visiting graves and getting our first rays of sun out on the boat. On Sunday night, I got an Instagram notification. I had been tagged in a photo. Apparently a couple of my high school buddies decided to drop by the bungalow, wanting to burn stuff with me in my new fire pit. This is the photo they tagged me in . . .

Captioned: Visiting our pal Kelsey! #probablyshouldacalledahead #watchdog #didntevenbark #cantfigureoutthethreehousedoor #wecametoburnstuff #stillchillinontheporch #munchthepooch

I was pretty distraught I missed my dear friends, more distraught that my dog makes friends with complete strangers who sneak in our yard, but very amused by the photos.

Then on Monday morning, I found this lovely on Facebook . . .

Not only do they sit on my porch and befriend my dog, but the next day they meet up with MY family for breakfast (this was completely accidental, they did not plan it).

Finally on Monday evening, we made things right with a weenie roast in my yard. Good friends are the best. I hope I can always stay in touch with these hooligans from my high school years.

Now . . . who else wants to come over and burn stuff?!

Meet Munch

Really big and really important news! We've made an addition to our family. Meet Munch the Pooch. We rescued him from a shelter and are currently working through the adoption process. I was trying to keep my mouth shut until all the papers were signed . . . but it's taking longer than I had anticipated. Hopefully he will be officially ours by the end of the week. He's been at our house for almost a week now and he has adjusted so well. Also, I think Luna has finally accepted that she is no longer our only pet. She can be such a priss . . . but I think she's decided Munch can stick around since she's still the superior animal. After all, she gets to sleep on the humans' bed at night and the dog has to sleep in a crate.

Munch is such a sweetheart. He is gentle and loving . . . he never wants to leave our side. He's had a bit of a rough life: missing teeth, torn lip, cut ears. I can't wait to pamper him and give him the love he so deserves. And oh my, the summer is going to be a ball. I can't wait to take him on runs, walks and hikes. I took him out on his first run on Monday . . . we took turns dragging each other . . . but by the end, we were in our element. I think I have a new running pal.

Speaking of pals . . . the shelter actually gave Munch the name of Pal. But he doesn't respond to Pal, so we thought it would be okay to rename him. Does anyone know, is this breaking some kind of sacred rule or will it be okay? I really don't want to offend anyone at the shelter because they've been so great to work with.

I can't wait to share our journey of finding the right dog on this here blog. A dog is a huge commitment, and I'd like to share our experience with others who might have the same questions we had. And I know it's so important to do what's right for you personally, but I do think adopting can be a great option. If you have any questions, ask. I'll be writing a follow-up post soon.  

Truth Tuesday

• After I returned from a busy day of work today, I planted my moon cactus. I thought moon cactus was a pretty dreamy name. You know . . . like . . . ohhhh, a moon cactus, how romantic. Then when Brian saw it, he laughed and said it looked like a penis. Then I think he felt bad because he told me it was cute. Now I look at it and just think, "Awe, there's my cute penis sitting on the shelf in my kitchen."

• I've been in this weird rut lately. Probably because it's January and the air quality in Utah is terrible. 

• On Saturday, I spent the day go-carting with my mom and sisters. It was such a fun girls' day and we were exhausted afterwards. On one of the races, I made the mistake of not putting my visor down on my helmet and a piece of tire went in my eye. It was worth it. 

• Sometimes I think about how much fun it would be to create a blog under an alias and just write crazy things. Don't worry, I won't actually do it. 

• BWell and I really want a dog. Throughout the day, I send him pictures of dogs from Four Paws. I really want to adopt them all . . . especially the homely ones. 

• I can't stop watching Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. It's becoming a problem. I think up these scenarios of someone attacking me and what I would do to escape. 

Truth Tuesday

• I often accidentally call Luna, my cat, Chloe. Chloe is my little sister. 

• I have this fear of talking on the phone, which is pretty funny since a big part of my job is calling lots of people I don't know.

• Today I sent a text message meant for my husband to a guy I was setting up an interview with. Talk about awkward. I shouldn't be allowed to text people.  

• I can't eat with chopsticks. I wish I could but my fingers just don't work that way. Perhaps one day I will master the art of eating with chopsticks. 

• I also technically don't write with a pencil/pen correctly either. Probably another sign that my fingers don't function like a normal person's. My kindergarten teacher was on my back forever about holding my pencil the right way but she never broke me. Still to this day, I clutch that pencil with all five fingers. 

• I read this article about feminism and it totally rocks. Everyone should read it. 

• We got new armchairs and check out how cute they are! We got them for a pretty good deal too. Today I was talking to a friend about decorating my house and I mentioned it'd be nice to have tons of money so I could blow it on decorations. Then she said, "Yeah, but it's kind of exciting to go on the search for little treasures that are affordable." And I thought to myself that she is totally correct. I'm pretty certain if I were a millionaire, I would still search for the perfect throw pillow at Ross. I enjoy the adrenaline rush of a good treasure hunt. 

Don't forget to enter to win a custom made leather bracelet! Winner will be announced this coming Friday.

Reflecting on 2013

I love looking ahead to a new year. A fresh start. But it's also fun to look back on the last year and smile at the fun memories, remember the hardships and just realize how much of an impact 12 months can have. Here's a quick look at my 2013. 

In January, we started what would be our last semester EVER of school. I spent as many days as I could snowboarding with my little brother at Beaver Mountain and we even took our friend from Ethiopia for his first time on the slopes.

February was spent doing lots of homework . . . including homework for my billiards class. I became a little obsessed and drug Brian to the pool hall on more than one occasion. It payed off though because I ended up winning our eight ball tournament in my billiards class. On top of school work, I also started my job as a morning deejay on Utah's VFX. In other words, my social life quickly died in the month of February since I had to go in to the studio every morning at 5:30 and then straight to classes after. My bedtime ended up being at 9:30 pm. It was all worth it though since I LOVE my job. Brian also got called into the bishopric during this month. Needless to say, we saw a lot less of each other.

With March came Spring Break. Conveniently enough, Brian had Allstate meetings in Las Vegas that very same week. I took time off from work and we made a trip out of it. While BWell went to meetings all morning, I spent time by the pool reading. We also went to the Beatles Love Show, something that's been high on my bucket list for a very long time. We also ate lots of good food, visited the dolphins at The Mirage, went shopping, and did a bit of gambling. In the month of March, I also had a neat experience where I got to do a few stories for Channel 4 News. We're talking shooting, writing and editing. It was high stress but great fun.

In April, I surprised Brian for his birthday with a weekend getaway to St. George. His birthday also happened to be the weekend before finals week. So we didn't study hardly at all for our last finals. Instead, we went swimming and spent time hiking in Zion National Park. Worth it. I also jumped on the ombre hair bandwagon. Oh, and I dyed a streak of my hair Aggie Blue too.

May was an exciting month! We both earned our degrees from Utah State University. Brian was nice enough to walk with me so we didn't have to suffer through two separate ceremonies. During this month, my mom, my aunt, Brian, and I ran the Ogden Half Marathon. It poured rain during the entire race. In May, I also started writing for Cache Valley Daily and my brother received his mission call to California. 

The month of June brought a few fun trips. We spent a weekend in Park City at Sundance Resort. We stayed in a cozy small cabin and watched some Robert Redford films. We also hiked to Stewart Falls and did some shopping at the outlets. We went to Lake Powell for a few days with Brian's family in the month of June as well. BWell also opened up his second insurance office and it was all celebrating over here. I also started serving as an Activity Days Leader in my church ward. Brian and I also decided to start looking into purchasing a house but we kept it on the down low.

July was a month filled with family time. Brian's siblings came to Utah for Independence Day. We hung out with them and watched fireworks that night on the boat. We also spent as much time as possible with Jace before he left on his mission at the end of the month. We went fluming, swimming and mountain exploring with my family. I also served as Assistant Camp Director for girls' camp and July was the month of camping. We had an amazing time and ate like queens. Toward the end of July, we had our annual party with my mom's family at Bear Lake. Only a couple days after Bear Lake, my dashing brother packed his bags and we dropped him off at the MTC, saying goodbye for two years. 

In August, we celebrated our second anniversary. It seems like we spent every weekend hiking. I also went to my very first Bees' game and we went with our friends Jace and Shay. August was also fair time. It also felt very satisfying when everyone went back to school but we didn't have to.  

September. Ah, September. This was the month we bought our bungalow. As soon as we were handed the keys, we ran over to Home Depot and bought paint. We had a lot of work ahead of us. From there on out, we spent all of September prepping our home. We repainted nearly every room in the house. Boy, it was a lot of work. But it was worth it. From all the painting, packing and other manual labor, my arm muscles grew and Brian and I grew closer together too. 

October is always a favorite month and this year's didn't fail me. We moved into our new old house and continued working to make it our home. The first week of October, I went to Brave Girls' Camp with my mom. We created art in a little barn in Idaho, surrounded by women from all over the world. We entered the barn as strangers and left as sisters. BWell and I went a little overboard on Halloween. We dressed like zombies and donated canned food for our town's Zombie Walk (an annual event for our local food pantry). We were glued to our television watching scary movies. We wrapped up the month and the Halloween holiday with a friend Halloween party. 

Basically the whole month of November, I was battling a bad cold but that didn't stop me from fitting in some fun. I went to a Selena Gomez concert with my mom and sisters. We also took my sister, Chloe, to her first USU football game. We hosted Thanksgiving at our bungalow and that was quite an adventure. Thankfully, Brian's family is awesome in the kitchen . . . so they brought the food to us. After getting so sick of my longer hair that I wanted to pull it out, I chopped it all off instead. In November, I also wrote a blog post that went viral. That was a strange experience.  

December was filled with everything Christmas. We were able to spend a lot of time with our families. We finally got to meet our sweet little baby niece and we Skyped with my brother on Christmas Day. We also hosted way too many parties. By the end of the month, I think we just wanted to lock our doors and hide inside for a while. We bought ourselves an early Christmas present . . . a treadmill! Hello to working out at home. In between Christmas and New Year's, I celebrated my 23rd birthday. 

******

To be honest, 2013 wasn't my best year. On the surface, it looks great. I earned my degree and bought my first house. I still have good health and all the necessities of life, so I can't really complain. However, 2013 was a hard year for me personally. I experienced lots of doubt and faced my insecurities head on. I battled through some dark patches where I felt completely alone and the hardest part was that during the dark patches, I had to go on with life acting like there was nothing wrong at all. Looking back, I don't really know how I made it through a couple of the past months, through a handful of the last 365 days. But I did it. I kept taking steps forward, praying I'd see some light again. And now there is light all around and light all ahead for the year of 2014. I know this paragraph is very ambiguous. Perhaps one day many days from now, I'll be more comfortable with the trials I faced to talk about them. Or perhaps they'll always stay as they are now, between me and God. Either way, I just wanted to share that I had those days--months--where I just wanted to throw in the towel. We all have them even if we never talk about them. Looking back on 2013, I definitely wouldn't want to relive it . . . but I'm grateful I lived through it once. Hardships bring growth, and I've seen that in myself. When I look in the mirror now, I don't just see a person. I see a soul. And I see souls of others now when I look around me. I'm grateful that 2013 taught me to see the world with different eyes.

Happy 2014! May we all celebrate the good days and be grateful for the hard days.