16 again

Next up on the list is "list 10 things you would tell your 16 year old self, if you could"

1.) Grow your hair out, it looks awful short
2.) Yes, you do get a boyfriend
3.) Yes, you can drive stick shift
4.) Pay more attention in school, it will help your GPA
5.) Be nicer to your mom
6.) In swim practice make sure you work on your backstroke and flip turns more
7.) You ARE smart, it just takes longer for you to study but stick with it!
8.) Stay true to yourself
9.) You aren't too skinny, don't worry about what other people think you are an athlete, strong, and beautiful.
10.) Keep asking questions about your faith, it will lead you to amazing discoveries on who you are.

I love this list, it really makes you think about things you normally wouldn't think about!

My beautiful baby girl is almost 9 months old, she definitely got the best of both of us! This is her before we went on a walk yesterday, I am so jealous of her eye lashes!

xoxo

Next up

Next on the list is: Describe your relationship with your parents.

My relationship with my parents is awesome.  We went through some not so great times but have overcome them and moved on.  My mom is one of my best friends I tell her everything, and we talk almost every day.  My Dad is amazing too, they are both great people and I hope someday Charlotte can say that about me.

Since we have started training for our half marathon October 21, we have both lost a lot of weight and have gotten a lot stronger.  I am so proud of this and hope that we continue to live a healthy lifestyle and show Charlotte (and future kids) that it is fun to be healthy.  Recently Charlotte has started loving to walk with one of us holding her hands, or walking in between the couch and ottomans, she is so proud of this fact and it is the cutest thing.  

xoxo

fears

Next topic on the list is: List 3 legitimate fears you have and why you have them.

1.  Spiders-  I cannot stand spiders, even if they are teeny and won't hurt me I make my husband kill them. I think this came to be because when I was growing up in Texas they were literally everywhere in my house and I just couldn't fall asleep unless there weren't any in my room, so my mom would have to dispose of them.  I think I just don't like creepy crawling things in general.

2. Death/Dying- I think I am scared of this because it is unknown.  It really freaks me out even thinking about not being here anymore.  I think that is why I struggle sometimes with my faith, but it calms me knowing that when I do go to church and I hear a sermon about death that there IS an afterlife.  At least I believe there is one, or else I would go nuts thinking about it if I didn't believe in one.  

3. Landing and take off when in a plane - It just scares me with all the noise and bumps etc.  I still love to travel, but if I could just skip the part where we land and take off that would be ideal.

Well there you have it!
Our weekend in pictures:

 Rooting for Michigan (they lost)

 playing

 Meeting baby Andrew

 Sleeping (ALOT bc we are all sick)

helping to pay bills

We didn't have a very eventful weekend, but we all got sick so we just needed to rest up and get better!

xoxo

30 Things

I have a really good friend who is in med school and she has this blog that really inspires me, she posted about 30 things awhile back, and I really wanted to do it ever since.  Today I will just do number one: List 20 random facts about yourself.

1. I love cheese
2. I am obsessed with hiking (anywhere)
3. I love to travel
4. My daughter is the best thing that has ever happened to me.
5. I am going back to school to become a teacher
6. We live at my parents house on the top floor
7. Fall is my favorite season
8. Charlotte is going to be an elephant for halloween, Russ is going to be a bear, and I am going to be a tiger.
9. My mom is one of my best friends
10. I always have to wear socks to bed
11. I have a younger brother
12. My favorite color is pink
13. I love wearing striped anything
14. I have 72 dresses... (I know I am obsessed)
15. Russ (my hubs) is getting his phd in chemistry and will be graduating in 2 years (I know I married a smarty)
16. Elf is my favorite christmas movie
17. I hate being sick
18. I love cake
19. I have 2 cats
20. I used to be really great at swimming

Anyways I will try to post about a different thing every day!

xoxo

30 THINGS THE LIST:

1. List 20 random facts about yourself.
2. Describe 3 legitimate fears you have and explain how they became fears.
3. Describe your relationship with your parents.
4. List 10 things you would tell your 16 year-old self, if you could.
5. What are the 5 things that make you most happy right now?
6. What is the hardest thing you have ever experienced?
7. What is your dream job, and why?
8. What are 5 passions you have?
9. List 10 people who have influenced you and describe how.
10. Describe your most embarrasing moment.
11. Describe 10 pet peeves you have.
12. Describe a typical day in your current life.
13. Describe 5 weaknesses you have.
14. Describe 5 strengths you have.
15. If you were an animal, what would you be and why?
16. What are your 5 greatest accomplishments?
17. What is the thing you most wish you were great at?
18. What has been the most difficult thing you have had to forgive?
19. If you could live anywhere, where would it be and why?
20. Describe 3 significant memories from your childhood.
21. If you could have one superpower, what would it be and what would you do with it first?
22. Where do you see yourself in 5 years? 10 years? 15 years?
23. List your top 5 hobbies and why you love them.
24. Describe your family dynamic of your childhood vs. your family dynamic now.
25. If you could have dinner with anyone in history, who would it be and what would you eat?
26. What popular notion do you think the world has most wrong?
27. What is your favorite part of your body and why?
28. What is your love language?
29. What do you think people misundertand most about you?
30. List 10 things you would hope to be remembered for.

Life

Well, I did it! I PASSED the math basic skills test FINALLY!!! Third times a charm I guess :) Anyway what does that mean I am sure you are wondering? It means I get to start my career in teaching! I will start school in the winter semester at Eastern, and hopefully it only takes 2.5 years.  I am so excited, I finally get to start my dream! 

On to another topic, we had the BEST mini vacation over the weekend to Macatawa, Michigan near Holland.  Our family friends rented a huge 6 bedroom house/cottage there for a month for their family reunion, and invited my family there for the weekend.  It was RIGHT on Lake Michigan and it was exactly what we needed.

 The Owl's Nest where we stayed

 Russ and Charlotte on the beach

 Beautiful sunset

 We had so much fun

Walking on the beach

We are also going on a weekend away to Chicago just Russ and me in October, and leaving the baby with my parents! We are super excited.  That is what has been going on! Until next time,

XOXO

We have pretty much finished Charlotte's room in our new house except for a few items such as storage and a mirror...but here is the before and after picture of it so far.

 It is super girly, but not too matchy which I hate.  Our favorite part of her room is her chair, which we take monthly milestone pictures of her in...we love that she gained a few windows and it makes it so much sunnier and bright in her room.  My goal is to get her some storage for her changing table and for her ever growing supply of toys and stuffed animals.  My other goal is to get a round mirror with hot pink surrounding it to match her awesome picture frames that are hot pink.  Her rug is a hand me down from her cousins that live in upstate New York, and all the furniture is from my parents, from IKEA.  The shelves that you see were Russ and his brother's growing up and fit nicely in with the theme of her room.  The picture of Alice through the looking glass was in my room growing up and gives it that nice vintage, girly touch I was looking for.
The other room in our new place that I have done a little bit of work on is the bathroom.  

We absolutely love that my parents made this room very neutral from the beginning.  All I have added so far is a new shower curtain and a soap dispenser and toothbrush holder.  I still would like to ad above the toilet a cabinet to hold all of the random items you need in a bathroom like extra toilet paper and etc.  

Here is our bedroom:

We love how much space we have and how bright it is, we got our first bedroom furniture set from Art Van Furniture, we love the dark wood and the queen sized bed upgrade we got from our small full sized bed in our previous apartment.  I love my new dresser with the mirror, and it all fits perfectly with my vision of how I see it looking.  I would like to add new curtains, long ones that are the same color blue as our pillow shams, we are going to eventually get a couch and ottoman for the blank wall across from our television, and we will eventually hang some pictures or shelves for storage.  We will also be purchasing a corner shelf for the blue ray player and cable box, so I don't have to have them on my dresser.  
That is our place so far, more pictures to come!

xoxo
Amy

Summer is coming to an end

Well summer is almost over and I have to say a lot of changes happened this summer! We moved into my parents house last week, they are moving to Connecticut so it came at the perfect time with our budget being stretched to the max! I am starting school soon, going to Nicaragua, Charlotte is almost 8 months old (how the heck did that happen so fast??).  Needless to say it has been really busy over here lately.

We went to Colorado with my family for a fun vacation, and Charlotte loved hiking, we hiked over 40 miles on that trip and were VERY tired after we got home. 

Anyways I will post pictures of our new place next time, and after we have finished our trips to home Depot!

xoxo
Amy