The World Isn't Over?!

I'm sure, like all of you, it was a huge surprise the world didn't end on December 21st. NOT! Well, I'm still here and I'm still blogging. Every December post I've talked about my birthday, Christmas, some kind of ski trip, blah, blah, blah! Yes, I had another momentous birthday and Christmas this year. As apart of my December posts, I also discuss what I've learned for the year, and set new goals and/or aspirations for myself in the coming year. Perhaps you read this blog to give yourself some new motivations or ideas, or maybe you're just interested to see what goes on inside the head of a newly married, 28 (EEK!) year old brain and what she has to brag or complain about. Well, here are the top five things I realized in 2012:

5. "Choose your friends wisely, you become what they are..."

It's ideal to surround yourself with people who aspire you to be better than what you currently are. It's best to be a dynamic character, and always ready to change in a positive direction. Looking back over the year, you should be in a better position now than you were in the previous year.

4. "Turn your weaknesses into strengths"

It's self-explanatory, but if you find a weakness destroy it! When Rob and I got married I didn't cook very often, because most of the time I had no idea what I was doing. I decided I was done with that, wanted to experiment, and now he has to all but force me out of the kitchen. I love to cook for my man! And, of course there was the constant blogging about how I couldn't run if my life depended on it (read about it HERE). I decided I was done, made the choice and commitment, and in 10 weeks went from walker to 5K runner extraordinaire! You can attain whatever you set your mind to...

3. "Don't sweat the petty things..."

Sometimes it's easier said than done, but don't let the small, insignificant things get you down. Does it really matter anyway? Will Smith once said, "Stop letting people who do so little for you control so much of your mind, feelings and emotions." In the end, opinions are like butt holes...you know the rest.

2. "Happiness is only real, when shared..."

Yes, I'm quoting from the movie Into the Wild, but it's still true. I've never been happier in all my life, than I am now. Knowing my husband is with me until the end of our lives is a very special feeling. I also believe this is the reason why social media outlets like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are so popular. People want to share their lives and have others respond with positive reinforcement, whether it be a compliment to boost our self esteems or just the general knowledge that people keep track of our lives by looking at pictures or reading posts.

1. "Life isn't about finding yourself, it's about creating yourself."
Stop waiting for things to happen for you, and go make them happen. You are the single, sole reason for the way your life turns out. If there's something you don't like or want to change, it's up to you to make the necessary decisions and compel the change.

So, what does muah have in store for 2013? Well, I certainly like being more active than I was last year. I hope to at least maintain my running, and perhaps do more races. It's not only good for my health, but also for my self esteem and overall zen. Accomplishing a goal that was once thought to be "impossible" gives me a new sense of self worth, and causes me to crave more of it. I'm also going to attempt new things this upcoming year. In January, a bunch of pals and I are all heading up to French Lick Resort in Indiana (yes, it's really called that) to hit up the casino, perhaps visit the spa, do a wine tasting at the local winery, and attempt SNOWBOARDING. I love to ski, but I've always wanted to be a snowboarder. It looks waaaayy cooler than skiing, it's hip, it's new, and although I know it's gonna be painful I still can't wait! Check back soon to read allllll about that little escapade. Other than those few things, I haven't really decided what I could do to "outdo" this year, but that's ok. I'm not trying to find myself, I'm thinking of how I want to create myself :)

#Twitter

Well, it finally happened...I joined Twitter!!! <Horrified screams and gasps simultaneously erupt>. It just makes me feel old to know technology has continued to move forward, while I have chosen not to participate. Instead, I've dug my heels in and been dragged, screaming and kicking, across the floor until I was finally catapulted onto the Twitter bandwagon. I have to admit from the beginning I've been curious about Twitter. How was it any different from Facebook? Why in the world would someone care about following Lindsay Lohan? Why the hell is everyone using # signs? I'm in over my head, but not to worry. I decided to do what any respectable, top-notch scientist would do in my shoes...an experiment! Next thing I know, I'm signing up for an account and it all just happened so fast, I don't even know what happened. Anyways, lets see if I can say this right: Follow me on Twitter MJWesterling4 and check out my latest hashtag (Holy crap, I sound legit!) #freezingmyassoff for a giggle.

In other news, obviously I've finally gotten around to changing my blog address to incorporate my new last name. Score! Possibly some new visual changes are gonna be happenin' to this page too, as I bore easily. And, almost two months in, married life is absolutely wonderful (as it should be!). Though, it's definitely brought out my inner Rachel Ray as evidenced by my recent chronicles with the muffin tin! It's beyond addicting. Married life definitely suits me :)

Image from www.twitter.com

Muffin Tin Chronicles: Part 2

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! Ok, I know I just posted several recipes last week, but I have a few more for you to try and they're straight from my muffin tin! Today's post includes a bruschetta appetizer, queso wontons and BEC hash brown cups (aka bacon, egg & cheese). These are all super fun, super simple recipes that can be made in very little time. So, lets cut to the chase:

Bruschetta Cups:

Prep: 5 minutes, Bake: 8 minutes 

Ingredients: square wontons, tomato, onion, minced garlic, mozzarella shredded cheese, basil, EVOO, s&p

Heat the oven to 400 degrees. Dice up a tomato and some onion (red or white preferred). Combine in bowl with <1 teaspoon of EVOO, minced garlic, and salt and pepper to taste. Toss until well mixed creating a bruschetta mix. Spray each cup of a mini muffin tin. Line the cups with the wontons. Spray the wontons. Bake in the oven for 4 minutes, this will start to toast the wontons. Fill each wonton cup with a good amount of mozzarella cheese (as much as will fit). Put back in the oven for 4 minutes to melt the cheese. Pull out, and fill each cup with bruschetta mixture. Top with sliced basil. Viola! Yummy little bruschetta cups.

You won't believe how easy and delicious these are :)

Queso Cups:

Prep time: 10 minutes, Bake time: 5 minutes

Ingredients: block of queso cheese, can of rotel, can of chili (no beans), wontons

Heat oven to 400 degrees. In a bowl, melt queso cheese in microwave. Add entire can of rotel and can of chili (no beans). Mix well and microwave again until well blended. Spray mini muffin tin and line with wontons. Spray wontons once lined. Put in oven for 4-5 minutes, or until toasted. Pull out, and fill each cup with queso mix. It's like having the chip and queso already made and put together in little servings.

I know this recipe is super easy and obvious, but when you put it in a mini cup it really adds the unique factor to it. Don't add as much queso to each cup either, as I did. It was really good, but messy.

BEC Hash brown Cups:

Prep time: 10 minutes, Bake time: 30 minutes

Ingredients: Shredded hash browns, bacon or sausage, shredded cheddar cheese, eggs, parsley (optional), s&p, butter

**This recipe makes 12 cups/breakfasts**

Heat oven to 425 degrees. In a large mixing bowl combine hash browns and 1/2 cup of melted butter. Add s&p to taste. Spray a regular size muffin tin, and line each cup with the hash brown and butter mixture. Mold it to the sides and base of each cup creating a "nest." Bake for 15 minutes or until hash browns are golden. Add shredded cheddar cheese to each cup and bake for another 4 minutes or until cheese is melted. While that is baking, cook half a pack of bacon (you can also use real bacon bits or sausage). Tear into smaller pieces. Once the hash browns are done, pull out muffin tin. Put small pieces of bacon in cups. Crack a single egg per cup into each hash brown nest. Bake for another 15 minutes (depending on if you want sunny side up eggs, or more cooked increase baking time). Top with diced parsley for decoration. Viola!

Hash browns are toasting :)

All ingredients baking in the oven. Note: some of my eggs did bust, but all the flavors combine anyway, so no worries there.

Finished product and SUPER delish!

Thanks for reading about my muffin tin chronicles this week! Hope you get around to trying some of these delights, and let me know how they turn out!

Muffin Tin Chronicles

Welcome to the first blog post about my muffin tin recipes, which I will now deem the Muffin Tin Chronicles! I've recently become obsessed with baking everything and anything possible from a muffin tin. What made me oooo and ahhhh over such a simplistic, no-brainer idea? Well, it began with Pinterest, of course! I went to a Pinterest party and we all had to create a dish we had found on the website. I chose the first recipe below, and it was a great success! Along the way, I found more online and then purchased The Muffin Tin Chef book. I'm outta control now! I love it because it makes individual, little, easy-to-grab and eat bite size servings in a short amount of time. I haven't found one recipe I'd label a failure, and so I'll continue to post about my muffin tin experiments. Here's a few to get your mouths watering...


The Holy Grail of muffin tin recipes

The first recipe I attempted was Lasagna cupcakes. To simplify the preperation and ingredients list making it an easy-to-throw-together type meal, I have changed the directions somewhat. I like meals that are quick and easy without alot of prep time, so if you feel the need and have the time use fresh products.

LASAGNA CUPCAKES

Prep time: 15 minutes, Bake time: 18-20 minutes, Serving Size: ALOT

Ingredients:

1lb of ground beef, Wonton wrappers (round or square), jar of Emeril's roasted gaaarlic sauce, ricotta cheese, mozzarella shredded cheese, grated three cheese mixture (includes Romano, Parmesan and asiago) and fresh basil.

Directions:

Heat oven to 375 degrees. Brown meat in saucepan, adding Emeril's sauce once cooked. Spray muffin to keep from sticking. Line cups with wonton wrappers. Spoon in meat/sauce mix on top of wonton, and sprinkle with mozzarella, three cheese mix, and spoon in ricotta. Put another wonton over this, trapping the mixture in between two wonton layers. Repeat step with meat, sauce and all cheeses on top. Continue doing this till all cups are filled or desired number is created. Bake 18-20 minutes at 375 degrees. Allow to cool for 5 minutes, and garnish with fresh basil.

The wontons soften to a pasta-like texture while it bakes, and the final product tastes just like lasagna without having the huge portion sizes. Viola!

Yummy lasagna cupcakes are always a hit!!

The next muffin tin recipe I attempted was a brunch tailgate for a football game. Everyone was in charge of bringing some kind of breakfast food to share, and I decided on a side hashbrown type dish. 

CHEESY POTATO BACON CUPS
Prep time: 20 minutes, Bake time: 25 minutes, Serving Size: 12-14
Ingredients:
1 pack of bacon (flavor doesn't matter), package of frozen shredded hashbrowns, shredded cheddar cheese, Emeril's Four Cheese Alfredo sauce, one egg, real bacon bits, salt, pepper.
Directions:
Lightly cook all of bacon in saucepan. Line sides of muffin tin with strips of lightly cooked bacon. Cut small pieces of bacon to line the bottom. It will be semi-difficult for it to stay, but it all comes out looking and tasting great. In bowl, combine 2.5 cups of hashbrowns, one beaten egg, 1/2 cup of alfredo sauce, 1/2 cup of shredded cheddar cheese, real bacon bits (as much as you'd like), and salt and pepper to taste. Spoon in portions of hashbrown mix into bacon cups. Bake for 25 minutes at 350 degrees.

These cheesy potato bacon cups are perfect for breakfast or dinner, and are sure to catch some noses! For vegetarian version, substitute bacon for Morningstar Soy Bacon. YUM!

Best made muffin tin recipe yet!

I attempted this most recent muffin tin recipe last night for a sorority Thanksgiving potluck. I was the host of last nights party, so I wanted to be the person providing the "main dish" of Thanksgiving, which is turkey. I actually mixed two different recipes, one I found online for chicken pot pies (I substituted with turkey) and the other from my muffin tin cookbook. 

MINI TURKEY POT PIES

Prep Time: 20 minutes, Bake Time, 20 minutes, Serving size: 16

Ingredients:

1 can of Grand's Flaky biscuits, 1 slice of oven roasted turkey 1/4 inch thick (3/4lb), 1 package of frozen veggies (with corn, peas, carrots and green beans), 1 can of cream of chicken, 1 can of chicken broth, 1 stalk of diced celery, onion powder, garlic powder, salt and pepper.

Directions:

Cut up turkey into small cubes. Coat tin with non-stick spray. Cut flaky buscuits horizontally in half. Flatten out on cutting board. Line each cup with biscuit. In bowl, mix frozen veggies, diced celery, cubed turkey, 1 can of cream of chicken, 3/4 can of chicken broth, and all seasonings to taste. Bake for 20 minutes at 400 degrees.

The mini turkey pot pies were alittle messy, but tasted wonderful. Keep in mind that biscuits rise as they bake, and don't overfill the cups with too much of the filling.

I may try using more biscuits to cover the top of the pies next time

Thanks for reading all about my muffin tin ventures. I know I'll have more recipes to share in the future, including mini fish tacos and bruscetta. Do you have any muffin tin recipes to share? I'd love to hear all about it!

Honeymoon in Europe

Honeymoons are always memorable occasions. Duh, its EPIC,whether you have a good time or not. You're newly married, and everything supposed to be lovey dovey as your share your first official trip as husband and wife. Our honeymoon was an 11-night cruise in the Mediterranean with stops in Italy, Turkey and Greece. This was Rob's first trip, technically, out of the country, because I don't really count the Caribbean with it being so close to the states. We traveled over a great, big ocean (the Atlantic, for those who don't know geography) to get to our port city of Civitavecchia near Rome, Italy.

Itinerary: eleven day cruise to the Mediterranean Sea, including ports to Italy (Rome, Naples), Turkey (Istanbul, Ephesus) and Greece (Santorini, Mykonos and Athens)

Cruise Specifics: Celebrity Equinox, Celebrity Cruises

Weather: high 70s/low 80s during the day, high 60s at night

Planned Excursions: guided tours in Rome, Naples (Pompeii), Istanbul, Ephesus, and Athens

Most Anticipated Activity: seeing the ruins in Pompeii and Ephesus

Cruise Highlight: getting lost in Istanbul for hours, making friends with semi-nonspeaking English good Samaritans and traveling by taxi, metro bus, subway and water taxi just to get back safely to our cruise ship. We only spent $6 to do all of this lol.

Cruise Downer: catching the norovirus and throwing up for 24 hours, getting mud-butt, followed by fever, chills, headache, and joint aches and pains. It basically felt like I had food poisoning and on the way to in the bathroom I got hit by a bus. Most terrible 24-hour sickness of my life, but thank God it only lasted a day. Because of this sickness, I couldn't get off the boat in Mykonos, Greece :(

Best Souvenir Bought: Glass Turkish lamps handcrafted with colorful beads and designs from the Grand Bazaar in Turkey

Scariest Moment: I did get nervous being lost for so long in Istanbul, and there was a definite communication barrier. At one point, Rob asked our good Samaritan how we were going to get to our ship. She replied, "Boat tomorrow." Rob flipped out and exclaimed, "TOMORROW?! Boat TODAY!" Needless to say, she thought we were talking about the water taxis, not a cruise ship. She gave us directions in Turkish and we somehow made it back unharmed. This experience was both the highlight and scariest moment of our trip lol.
Best Moment: There were too many awesome experiences to only pick one as my favorite. We got a relaxing couples massage, robbed the casino of thousands of dollars which ended up paying for all our expenses onboard, we had dinner at a specialty restaurant on the ship where they cooked us lobster right at our table, we saw an entire city made of marble at Ephesus, we had a romantic dinner while watching the sun set in Santorini, and we got to bask in a two week vacation with just ourselves and the open sea.
Worst Moment(s): It's always us missing our kitties at home. Especially this time, as we were gone for almost two whole weeks. The norovirus was also pretty bad.
New Things?: I loved arriving in Istanbul to see that we weren't in Kansas anymore. It was a completely new country with new sights, sounds, smells, and culture. Mosques were everywhere and five times a day you would hear the call to prayer. The Turkish people were so friendly, I'd definitely visit again.
Most Disappointing: It was super disappointing to visit Athens, Greece. I was really excited from the start to see the Parthenon, travel around the city of Athens, and to taste the fabulous cuisine. But, Athens was a super dirty place, the majority of the people we met were very rude, and after seeing Ephesus, Athens wasn't very cool at all. It wasn't preserved as well, they were reconstructing everything so it didn't seem very original, our tour guide was monotone, boring, and at times extremely rude to other fellow cruisers, and the food was just ok. I expected more Athens! Not a place I have to see again before I die...
Worst Money Spent: The $110 we had to spend to buy a new camera when we dropped ours at Ephesus :( 
Best Money Spent: the entire trip :)

The Parthenon in Athens, Greece

Pompeii at the base of Mt. Vesuvius in Naples, Italy

The Library of Celsus in Ephesus, Turkey

The Colloseum in Rome, Italy

The Blue Mosque in Istanbul, Turkey

The town of Oia in Santorini, Greece

The legendary Amalfi coast in Italy (this is actually Positano, a town about twenty minutes north of Amalfi)

All in all, it was a remarkable honeymoon and I can now mark several items off my bucket list. I'm not sure when we'll travel to Europe again, but this cruise has allowed us to figure out which places we like (Amalfi!) and those which we don't have to visit again (Athens!).

I'M MARRIED!

I'M MARRIED!! Yay! I'm so happy to finally be Mrs. Westerling! Rob and I are finally back from our honeymoon, and between doing six loads of laundry, opening all the gifts, writing a gazillion thank you letters, and cleaning up the house I'm finally getting around to blogging about all that's happened in the month of October. We went on a two week honeymoon cruise to the Mediterranean, so you'll have to tune in next week when I can get around to blogging all about that ;-)

Now, to the good stuff. The wedding was absolutely indescribably perfect! Seeing my dream come alive, all my hard work put into substance, it was a thing of perpetual bliss all culminating into a single day. Sure there was stress, and as soon as I saw everyone showing up I got a little nauseous (true story!), but all in all it was quite the memorable party. The best part was seeing all my family and friends there to support my marriage to Rob. Although everyone told me how quickly the whole day flies by, they really didn't convey just how fast it actually goes. More like warp speed, or a day on super fast forward. So many people came from all over the country just to see Rob and me. Although I tried to speak with everyone at least once, I am still super disappointed most people didn't know just how much I appreciated their presence on that very special day. It was a super hectic, fast paced, chaotic day and I really do thank all those who were able to come. 

Below is a little sneak peek from the wedding if you missed it from Facebook. Photos courtesy of the absolutely amazing Joe and Kathleen Atkins of JOPHOTO (more info). Wedding venue took place at Maple Grove Inn and was coordinated by Vicki Lafollette (more info). Flower arrangements designed by Flowers by Tammy. Cake created and designed by Linda Crowley of Culinary with Jazz (more info). Party rentals provided by Campbell's Tent Rentals (more info). Disc Jockey was Jim Ogle of Ogle Entertainment (more info). Wedding environment and vision created by ME! And crafts, programs, and photo booth made by Rob.

The Ladies!

The Cake!

The Kiss!

The Look!

The Westerlings :)

Thanks for reading! Check back soon to hear all about our adventure in Europe. I promise it'll make you laugh :)

17 Days till "I Do!"

So, I'm sitting here thinking about what I have left to do for wedding preparations and I just realized it's 17 days away. 17 DAYS! 17 days till I say "I Do!" 17 days till I marry the man of my dreams. And, 17 days till I'm Mrs. Michele Westerling. That has such a nice ring to it :) My, how time flies when you're busy planning, busy working, and busy living life. But, it's almost here and I couldn't be happier. Most everything is done, and now we just sit here and countdown the rest of the days....

18 DAYS. 18 days till Rob and I head on our first trip to Europe together, and spend almost two weeks on a Mediterranean cruise hitting various ports in Italy, Turkey and Greece. I'm daydreaming of the amazing historical significance of every city we visit, and Rob is having nightmares about being kidnapped, assaulted, robbed at gunpoint, and possibly murdered. Awesome....

In the meantime, it's like Christmas over here at the Westerling residence! We are surrounded by loving friends and family, blessed with many gifts, and super grateful. Our house is most certainly becoming OUR home. Thank you to everyone who has made us feel super loved and appreciated! Hope to see many of you at the wedding...in 17 days!!!

Rob says he doesn't have the skills to save me if I'm...TAKEN!

Aesthetic Makeover: Guest Bathroom Edition

Can you believe I'm already showing off another room in our house? Well, like the last makeover, this one is only semi-extreme in comparison to the living room edition. But, nonetheless I've decided to share the befores and afters of our little do-over in the upstairs guest lavatory. Just so you can appreciate the perils we encountered whilst completing this project, I'll give you some short background history of this particular room. Rob had a male live-in roommate for about two years, and I'm not sure he ever cleaned the bathroom. That's it. Enough said. I'm sure you get the picture. So, not only did small aesthetic changes completely alter the entire look of this room, but it also made it habitable. I kid you not, I almost threw up several times into the toilet while cleaning the toilet. HA! Ok, now to the good stuff. The original room, like the entire rest of the original house, had solid white walls (maybe with some dirt, and who knows what else), the fixtures and all hardware were a tacky 80s brass finish, everything needed to be re-caulked, and we had a leaky shower. Basically, everything was old and dirty. I would have liked to have waited showing off this room until after we got a new toilet, double sink vanity, tiled the bathroom floor, and maybe even a bath re-fitter for the shower (making it an extreme makeover), but as soon-to-be newlyweds that's just not in our budget. This is also the reason for the phenotypical/aesthetically pleasing changes, rather than gutting the whole room and maybe even fumigating the premises. So, it is without future adieu, I present to you old bathroom:

Take notice of the white walls, old shower curtain and rod, brass hardware, missing shower head, and mess (no pictures can accurately show the grossness of the room from previous male roommate)

View of the double sink covered in supplies

Another view standing near the shower and looking at the door

Some items, like the towel rack and holder seen in the last photo, were already converted to chrome. The vanity light above the mirror (not shown) has six blubs and was also brass finished. Now, for the makeover! We painted the entire room our Roasted Cashew color, but with a semi-gloss. Then, we thew out the brass knobs and fixture and changed them all to chrome. We also put in a nice new shower head, new curved curtain rod, completely new color scheme to the navy shower curtain, hung matching towels, some accessories here and there, and of course cleaned the living daylights out of it. VIOLA!

Beautiful new navy curtain and rug (Thanks to Jennie Free and Shannon Hays for our bridal shower)

Super clean and pretty (hoping to replace the sink fixtures next)

Last view :)

Thanks for checking out our latest project! Stay tuned for the next one!

Semi-Extreme Makeover: Master Bedroom Edition

Rob and I had our first couples shower last weekend, and we received a mountain of gifts from our friends and family. Lets just say we need to find more things to register for, because our entire list is being bought! We received everything from a Dyson vacuum cleaner, goose down comforter, casual dining dishes, cookware, bakeware, frames, and entirely new utensils for the kitchen. We are completely stoked over here at the Westerling residence :) On that note, I've decided to show off our new bedding set, and maybe in a few weeks the upstairs guest bathroom makeover. Ok, so maybe this doesn't constitute as an extreme makeover for the bedroom, but we did get entirely new bedding and it totally gives the room a whole new look. Before and after photos for your viewing pleasure :)

Plain, mocha color scheme

Unmade bed, with pj pants

Barbara Berry's Poetical Duvet set

I think it's absolutely gorgeous!

I could stare at this set all day :)

So, as you can see, the room was already painted, and nothing has changed except for the duvet set (and the curtains not shown). The bedding set was a gift from my wonderful parents, and the 1200 thread count goose down comforter you can't see (but can definitely feel!) was from Rob's parents. So, now that we have a beautiful and comfortable place to rest, I won't be losing anymore sleep.

Pillowcase from the soon-to-be in-laws, Dick and Nancy 

Joint Account?

As our wedding gets closer (73 days!), Rob and I decided to join all of our accounts together to alleviate some of the stress after we return from our honeymoon. We now have a joint American Express account, car insurance, renter's insurance, and most noteworthy, a joint checking and savings account. I was totally ecstatic in the beginning to merge our little nest eggs into one nice joint Regions account, but when it actually came down to following through, I admit I freaked out quite a bit. It's very unnerving to give someone complete access to ALL your money and have to share EVERYTHING. Especially since it took me so long to save up so much. But, Rob and I agreed early on that we would have a joint account, as well as a personal account for each of us. We've designated 90% of our take-home income to be direct deposited into our joint account, and 10% of each of our biweekly incomes to be allocated into our personal accounts. This way, all the bills (rent, gas, groceries, car insurance and payments, travel) are deducted from the main account, and when one of us wishes to purchase a CD or get a pedicure (I hope that applies to me, and not Rob) you use your own personal account. Gifts you purchase for one another around Christmas are also purchased with this personal account. We wanted to be able to say we bought each other items without the other person actually contributing to the payment of that gift. Or finding out a gift was even bought by looking at the monthly credit card statement. I don't know anyone else who uses this system after they are married, but I think this arrangement will work perfectly for Rob and me. To be completely honest, it's been very mind-blowing to put so much trust in someone not to take advantage of you. I know Rob and I will be married for life, but I guess now with all the combining of assets and debt (student loans) it's become real for me. He'll take care of me, and I'll take care of him from here to eternity :) 

While discussing which items constituted as a joint versus a personal expenditure, I kept thinking about how poor I was going to be from here on out. I get 10% of my income every two weeks?? It's gonna take me forever to save up for clothes or a hair appointment. I unleashed my frustrations onto Rob one night, to which he clarified that a hair appointment would be considered a joint expense. "I have to get my hair cut, so you can get your hair done too," he explains. REALLY?! It's joint?!? Why in the world would choosing to get my hair colored every couple of months constitute as joint? Plus, it's alot more expensive than a men's haircut. Well, apparently if its upkeep of health we're gonna declare it as joint. So, I've decided to twist and turn all my personal expenses into being considered "upkeep of health or lifestyle." HAHA! Pedicure? I have to get one, it's good for my feet! Clothes? Upkeep of my appearance so I can look beautiful for you! New books? I have to keep my mind alert and strong for you! HAHAHAHA! Maybe this joint account stuff isn't so bad....

Cuckoo for Corbie

It has occurred to me I should blog about my totally amazingly adorable nephew, Corbin. I have refrained from doing such not only to give my sister her privacy, but to also keep this cutie from making it viral :) So, I've decided Corbin is so beyond being the best looking baby on the planet that I must share his good looks to all who wish to see. First off, Corbin is now 5 months old. He can roll over...kinda...at random spouts by himself. Second, he apparently loves rice cereal over peaches. And you know why that is? Because Corbin is already too sweet, he doesn't need peaches (this is based on a true story btw). Second, he already has a slew of nicknames, including but not limited to: Corbie, the Corbmyster, and lastly and also my favorite, Megamind. As you will soon see, this kid has a giant head. He's already super smart and has good looks to top it off. He loves his elephant stuffed animal, and enjoys taking long walks on the beach (not a true story, cause he can't walk yet...DUH! But the elephant part is true). This kid will be the next president of the United States, so take notice now. So it's without further adieu I introduce to you...

Corbin Jay Clariday

Born February 16, 2012



Say it with me...AWWWW!



Sleeping Corbie is so cute!

Already into politics! So brilliant!



Bath time! Christine and I call this his "E.T." picture

Snow baby!

 

Going to work with daddy in his scrubs

Corbie and Grandpa Jay

Snuggle baby!



Mom and baby

Face of an angel. He's gonna be a heart breaker...



LOVE! He adores that stuffed elephant

As you can see, he's quite an adorable child and if you're anything like me you just can't get enough of these photos. Being an aunt has been so wonderful, and I only hope I can make more visits to Nashville in the coming future. Our next visit is in two weeks, and we'll be taking some professional photos of Corbie, so stayed tuned!



The Weekend Festivities & What's Next?

Well, I know this has been a long time coming, but I completed my first 5K race on July 3rd and ran the entire distance (YAY!). And for my first 5K, I'm very satisfied with my overall results (even better!). So, you might be wondering WHAT'S NEXT? 

Well, actually I hadn't given it much thought. I'm very proud of where I am:

- Academically (Bachelor's degree and continued education)

- Financially (paid off debt and saved a nest egg)

- Professionally (great job in a fascinating field)

- Personally (getting married to the perfect man for me)

- Mentally (well rounded reading material to continually challenge my brain. Btw, I'm currently reading The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch. Read with me!)

- And finally Athletically (5K race DONE!)

I have debated about training for a 10K this fall when the weather is more cooperative (and not so freakin' hot!), but for now I'll be maintaining the distance with which I'm currently accustomed. Since my athletic goal has been met and it now has a huge RED check mark beside it, I find myself believing the sky is the limit. What can't I do when I put my mind to it? Absolutely anything and everything seems possible now. Reading back on my "New Rules for the New Year" list of resolutions (read here), I had vowed to "push myself to new heights". But, the problem is I don't know where I want to go from here. Stayed tuned to see what I come up with next :)

On a side note, I went to a wonderful bachelorette party in Nashville this past weekend, and boy did it crazy! With a capital C! I don't have any photos I can post for my PG-13 blog, so you'll just have to use your imagination. Bottom line, Vanessa (awesome girl!) is getting married in September, so we had to give her a night to remember...or forget...or I'm not sure which, but it had to be great. It was so wonderful catching up with friends I hadn't seen in awhile. Love those girls! It has me thinking about my own bachelorette party just around the corner....