Thrift Store Haul Video

I finally did my first thrift store haul video! This is only part one and it ran a little longer than I originally was going for, but I like how it turned out. Check it out if it's something you're into!

More Favorites

Here are more things I am loving lately!

1. The Ellen Show

I absolutely love Ellen Degeneres and everything she stands for. I DVR her show every day! She is so funny and generous and kind and it inspires me to be a better person. 

2. Interrupted

This book by Christian author Jen Hatmaker completely changed my way of thinking about how I live my life. It is inspirational and convicting, and I only made it through two chapters before grabbing a pen and highlighting my favorite passages! As soon as I finished, I left it on my dresser rather than shelving it away with my other books because I know I will want to read it over and over. I highly recommend this book for anyone unsure about their faith.

3. Shopkick

A coworker tipped me off to this app and I am addicted! You download the app and use it to scan certain products at certain stores. It's like a scavenger hunt! You use the points for products or gift cards, and I'm currently saving for a Coach bag :) I'm definitely that weirdo wandering around Target looking for a certain dishwasher detergent or bag of pretzels, scanning the barcode, and wandering off. Oh well. When I get my Coach bag, I'll be the winner!

4. Looney Tunes Dash!

This app is similar to Temple Run (remember that?) except it's more fun because you're playing as a Looney Tunes character. Plus this game gives you seven lives instead of the standard five! I'm pretty sure this game is marketed towards kids or teenagers, but I definitely play every day.

5. America's Got Talent

I am allll about this show!! The first episode of the season premiered this week, and I encourage you to check it out if you've never watched it. It's a family-friendly show and, in my opinion, more entertaining than American Idol or So You Think You Can Dance because the acts are varied and it's not just a solid hour of only singing or only dancing.

Green Thumb?

I decided that I need a garden this year. Our yard is not very conducive for planting in the ground, so I decided that a raised bed would be the best option. So we headed to Lowe's!

We got three 2x6x8 boards, one of which we cut in half. This would be the border for the bed itself! We also got some wire mesh to put on the bottom of the bed to keep out the moles. After a stop at a local nursery for some dirt, we were ready to go!

Husband did most of the building for me and he did a great job! We placed one half of the cut board on each end and screwed that together first.

Then we laid the wire mesh out and stapled it to the frame. The worst part was cutting off the excess!

We flipped it over and filled with dirt - done!

The Pinterest tutorial I followed recommended stakes in each corner to keep it from shifting, but our dirt was so hard that we couldn't get stakes in the ground further than about an inch. The bed is fairly close to the house, so I was hoping it wouldn't shift too much. We've had some flooding here the last couple of weeks but the bed hasn't gone anywhere yet!

I don't like your typical "garden" vegetables (cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers...) and I only planted what I like and what I cook with. We have lettuce, onions, carrots, broccoli, and green beans. I got these cute little signs at the nursery when we got the dirt and you can write whatever you want on them!

I planted about a week and a half ago, and we already have some little sprouts!

On a less successful note... I also planted blackberries and strawberries about a month, month and a half ago.

We also planted this pretty lily.

I took this as the "before" picture, and they all still look exactly the same. I don't think I'll be getting my strawberries and blackberries! :( The lily was pretty for about a day, then we had a tornado warning and the wind ripped all of the flowers right off the stems. Sad day.

Fingers crossed that my vegetables do better than my fruit and flowers!

Netflix Docs {Part 2}

Here are five more of my favorite Netflix documentaries!

1. The Price of Gold

This documentary is about the Nancy Kerrigan/Tonya Harding drama where Harding was accused of injuring Kerrigan in order to ensure her own gold medal performance in the 1992 Olympics. This was a completely riveting drama that did not actually feature Nancy Kerrigan. Tonya Harding had a whole ton of crazy and it all comes out in this documentary. 

2. Crazy Love

Okay, I really don't want to give away spoilers but this story is CRAZY. This documentary is a little slower-paced than some of my other favorites but the story is so compelling that you don't want to turn it off. 

3. Imposter

Basically, this kid went missing and a random guy pretended to be the missing kid who turned up years later, fooling the actual missing kid's family and friends until the FBI got involved. 

4. Hotline

This one goes behind the scenes of various telephone hotlines, like suicide hotlines and teen help hotlines. It's really interesting to see what the volunteers go through just by trying to help those in need. 

5. Love Me

A documentary about American men trying to find Russian mail-order brides. My favorite part features a Ukranian woman who moved to Australia with her husband and now has a Ukranian-Australian accent. CRAZY. 

Lately

I haven't done a huge update post in a while but life has been just as hectic as always!

I got to chaperone the trip to state basketball and it was a fun game, even though we lost!

Husband finally got a chance to put together our Christmas present from my parents now that it's finally nice weather and he has grilled out quite a few times! I will never complain about a delicious steak on my plate :)

We got rid of the old fan in our bedroom because the blades no longer turned...

And here is our new fan! And the blades turn! It ended up that poor husband had to rewire something and put something somewhere else... he finally got it all taken care of, at least :) what a handyman I married!

As far as my health is concerned, not a lot has changed. I guess I haven't really updated since my initial problems, so here's a giant update. I got a CT scan mid-February and it showed nothing. So I went to a gastroenterologist and they ordered up a colonoscopy and endoscopy for me. Those both looked normal, so they did biopsies of my stomach and intestines, and nothing there either. They tested for Crohn's and Celiac, both came back negative. The colonoscopy prep wasn't horrible because I did a liquid diet for two days prior, rather than just one. I felt like I was dying the entire time I had to do the prep, but the prep only lasted about 6 hours, so I was feeling decent again by about 9 pm and I still got a full night's sleep! I only did about half the prep and I was still good to go so I would highly recommend a 48 hour liquid diet to anyone who has to get this done! Sorry if it's an overshare, but I figure someone somewhere is going to read this and will be glad they did :)

The day after my colonoscopy I had stomach pain that was about a 9/10. I tried to make it through work but it just wasn't happening, so I made it through half the day and went to the ER. They X-rayed my abdomen to make sure my stomach and/or intestines weren't perforated during the colonoscopy - scary! Luckily, it was just super strong stomach pain and nothing was perforated :) They hooked me up with more fluids (I never have enough fluids, apparently) and some pretty decent pain meds, and as they were getting ready to send me home, my mom goes, "I think you're allergic to the pain meds..." I looked spotted. Like a dehydrated, pink dalmatian. So they got some Zyrtec in me and sent me on my way!

So far, they've tested me for Ebola, measles, pregnancy (a million times), hepatitis, Celiac, ulcers, pancreatitis, Crohn's, and cancer. They've tested my blood about 10 different times, plus my urine and stool. I've had a CT scan, colonoscopy, endoscopy, and X-ray, and they have absolutely zero answers. So frustrating!

That's all that's new at the band life house. Husband finished up his final two concerts of the year and we both helped with the choir's musical review show! We only spent one day of rehearsal under a tornado watch, so that's not bad, right? ;) He's now on summer break, and I'm a little jealous when I'm getting up to go to work at 6 am and he is still comfy cozy in bed! But I guess we're even, because I definitely don't envy his 5 am rehearsals during marching band season...

Things That Change When You Get Married

I tell people that marriage makes problems worse. When you live with someone and know that they have committed to you through thick and thin, it makes things a lot more real and raw. I don't mean this in a bad way at all. If you have problems before marriage, they will probably not get better just because you put a ring on it. If you dislike things about your partner, marriage will not make you magically like those things. And a lot of things change after the I Dos! Here is my (lighthearted) list of what changes after the honeymoon is over...

1. Taking couple selfies every day

I totally admit that I used to take selfies with husband back when he was boyfriend. They weren't even selfies with cool things in the background or in funny poses, just pictures of our faces taking up the entire frame at hockey games, family outings, or just hanging out on the couch. It was part of my way of saying "look how cute we are and how much we hang out!" And I know I'm not the only one guilty of this! But once you get married, people obviously assume you hang out with your spouse. Except for our honeymoon selfies, I've barely taken any compared to how many I took before we got married! I've noticed most married couples really tone down the selfies after they get married also.

2. Cute texts

Pre-marriage, I would text boyfriend "have a good day, I love you and miss you!!" with eight or nine heart emojis at the end. After marriage? "Did you pick up milk?" "What sounds good for dinner?" I actually saw a Buzzfeed video about this very phenomenon. Married-people-texts are 90% informational and 10% romantic.

3. Hand-holding in stores

We still do this, but not nearly as much. When we went grocery shopping before we got married, we would wander the aisles with our fingers intertwined and have cutesy conversations about our favorite cereals. After marriage, it's a divide and conquer situation. "You grab the bread, I'll grab the crackers... and BREAK!"

4. Dating

We still go on dates and we make time for each other, but it's in a very different way. Now, the time I look forward to is laying in bed together before we fall asleep, talking and joking with each other. We don't go out for fancy dinners as much because we aren't trying to impress each other, and because we have a mortgage now ;) dates involve watching Netflix with the cat or chatting while I fold laundry. It's not a bad change, it's just different than before. But as a self-proclaimed homebody, I have absolutely no problems with sitting at home with my better half after a long day at work!

5. SSB

Sex and the City has a whole episode revolving around Secret Single Behavior, or the things that you do when you're single that you would never do in front of someone you're casually dating. In marriage, or at least in our marriage, the SSB is no longer Secret. There is still some mystery to each other, like we don't use the bathroom with the door open. But husband knows way more about my body than I ever thought I would be comfortable sharing even a year ago, thanks to my recent sicknesses. Living with someone who you know won't judge you for various Secret Behaviors really breaks down those walls. With all of the times husband has peeled me off the bathroom floor in the last three months, there's no point in being shy around him anymore!

6. Social media posts

You know those couples that always upload cutesy Tumblr quotes and tag their bf/gf? Or the couples that check themselves and their bf/gf in at every place they go? "BF and GF are at McDonald's! BF and GF are at the gas station!" Living with a person cuts down on the check-in opportunities. Monday: "husband and wife are at home!" Tuesday: "husband and wife are at home!" It's much less exciting. And as I mentioned before, people kiiiinda expect you to be hanging out together.

7. Looking cute

Not to say that you don't want to look cute for your spouse, but when they still love you after a three day bout with the flu or after seeing you first thing in the morning every day for a year, the pressure to look perfect every single day is really lessened. My husband and I hang out together at home with me in sweatpants and him in basketball shorts, and it's much more gratifying than the days where I spent hours trying to look perfect just to go run errands.

8. Tagging along with your spouse

When we were dating, I had serious FOMO (fear of missing out) with regards to boyfriend's life. Every single time he had something going on, I wanted to go too. Now that he comes home to me every night, I'm perfectly fine with missing a work party or dinner when I have something else going on. We have things going on together and separately and it has done wonders for our relationship! Having separate interests means you actually have things to talk about!

Marriage is so, so hard, but also the most fun thing I've ever done in my life.

Wedding Card Book

We got so many beautiful cards for our wedding and I couldn't stand to just put them in a box and never look at them again, so I decided to make an album of cards!

I went to Michael's and picked up this little album, a two-pack of pearl flourishes, some decorative letters, and a hole punch.

I started punching each card and quickly discovered that I could only punch your standard greeting card, and the more extravagant cards were impossible for me to punch through. So I went back to Michael's and got a heavy-duty hole punch. Problem solved!

The front of album #1.

The pearl flourish!

The album only held one-third of our cards, so back to Michael's I went. Luckily, the same albums were buy one get one free, and I needed two, so I was a pretty happy girl!

Album #2:

Album #3:

I would recommend this project for wedding cards, graduation cards, shower cards, or any cards that you want to keep organized in a cute place!