Old Soul, Young Heart

One of my favorite authors is Elizabeth Gilbert, who wrote Eat Pray Love . I know a lot of people probably think that book is silly (I mean, the title kind of is), but it's a great book and it really introduced me to her as a writer and I love all of her other books. Anyway, I follow her on Facebook and Instagram and she's basically just a really inspirational person and makes me want to be better. At the beginning of 2015, she posted a photo of herself with this ginormous glass jar and explained that every day she puts a little note inside this jar about something she's grateful for or happy about on that day. I'm trying to be a more mindful and grateful person and this seemed like a nice, easy, tangible way to give thanks. So I did it for 2015! Well, I tried to do it. I did not do it every day... in fact I have exactly 73 entries out of 365 days. But it's something. Here's what I wrote in no particular order. Beautiful azalea at Phil & Joy's Engl...

Several times over the course of 2015, I've had a thought and it was this: It sure would be nice if I kept track of all the books I read . I'm curious about how many and what types of books I've read this year and I want to keep track of the ones I started but didn't finish. So a great new year's resolution is in the making! I'm going to write book reviews! It's a good way to track what I read and also give me a recap of what each book is about, since I oftentimes remember the title of a book, but can't remember its plot. This will also give me the opportunity to write because I miss writing. (I haven't blogged since June!) I'm reading a book right now called The Taming of the Queen by Philippa Gregory. She is one of my favorite authors of historical fiction. So my first book review will come soon because I have just a few days left of it! So stay tuned.

I started writing this post in April of last year. Whoops. Three bathrooms is more than we had ever hoped for in a house. We knew we wanted at least one and a half. It's nice to not have guests go into the bathroom that you shower in. We are so lucky to have three toilets! The bathroom on the first floor has been kind of, maybe, the biggest "reno" project to date. (I had nothing to do with it besides painting and decorating.) It is teeny. Like super teeny tiny. We call it "the little bathroom." But it works. This is what it looked like before: Mauve paint. Plastic, cream-colored shelving. The smallest toilet seat you've ever seen/sat on. High school bathroom sink/faucet. Mirror/medicine cabinet from the 1970s. Everything just nasty with grime. You can't even see the light fixture, but rest assured, it was awesome! Seeing this picture again grosses me out. It was so nasty! Even the paint color on the wall behind the bathroom grosses me out. Oliv...

Ever since pleasant outdoor weather started this year, I've had our back deck on my brain. It is a great size deck, but it was in need of some serious tender, loving care. There were two boards that had big holes in them; we're thinking from the huge dog that the previous homeowners had. My dad, being the good sport that he is, helped me get two new boards from Menards. They ended up being the wrong size (too thick), but my uncle, being the woodworking wizard that he is, notched them out so that they would fit correctly. I'm so glad that I have men in my life that are handy! It had obviously been a few years since the last homeowners had cleaned and/or stained the deck. The areas that are mostly in the shade throughout the year, if you looked closely, had a small whisper of color to them, hinting that the deck used to look decent. The areas in the shade had a nice green mildew tint, as well. Just lovely! New boards and green mildew tint. Pre-power wash. With the...

I actually am liking this conference more than I thought I would. I had no idea really what to expect. I applied for the scholarship in February; I had randomly come across it from the AAWCC website, an organization that I am the chapter president of at Heartland this year. I thought, "Hey, why not? Free trip to SLC and I've never been there." Besides that, I believe in the mission of AAWCC and the conference sounded like a great thing, even though I didn't know much about it. I put heart into my application. And I couldn't believe that I actually got chosen! I am the youngest one here (from what I can tell) and I feel a bit out of my element. My "I don't know why I'm here" and "I don't feel like a leader" mentality has been met with a lot of the women saying to me, "Everyone's a leader in their own way," or "You just don't realize the potential you have," or "You never know what opportunities mig...

The kitchen was deee-sgusting when we moved in. The fridge was the first thing I started cleaning when the house become ours and it took me like 2 hours to get it livable. And then I wiped down the cabinets, which didn't even really help because they are just so grease covered. We think they must be original (which means they are from 1969). Unfortunately I don't have any before pictures of the kitchen (what the heck?!). It's like the one room that I missed, I guess! I think maybe I didn't take before pics because the cabinets are still the same and they'll be the same for probably years. If we ever get new ones, the kitchen will be so much better. But here's a pic of us before we painted in there, though! It's a door knocker with our last name on it (thanks, Joy and Phil!) and a giant "new home" cookie (thanks, Aunt Peggy)! In December, we decided to paint the kitchen. We had friends coming in from Florida and so we thought it would ...

My mom was diagnosed with leukemia either in December 2003 or January 2004. I found out about it, though, in January 2004. Mom was really tired around Christmas 2003, but she still did as much for us as she had in past years. She didn't have as much energy and I remember taking some of the Christmas morning pictures that she normally would've taken. I took some pictures of her opening her gifts, which, if you look through past albums, there are of course hardly any photos of her since she was always the one behind the camera. A few days after New Year's 2004, I was at my boyfriend Philip's house with plans of spending the night there, which wasn't an uncommon occurence for me even though we were only a few months into our relationship. My mom called my cell phone, I guess to check up on my plans for the evening, and had asked me to just come home for the night instead of staying. She said that she had something to talk to me about, but I insisted on not coming ...