One For the Books

After Joel proposed to me three weekends ago, I told myself that it was the perfect opportunity to blog, and tell the world that way, since it had been so long since I've posted anything. Good thing we decided to let the cat out of the bag over other forms of social media because you guys would still have no idea if I would have waited to blog. I'm extremely good at putting things off. Then again, Joel and I thoroughly enjoyed keeping such a fun secret between us the first few nights, aside from telling our families, of course, the ones that needed to know.

We had our trip to Colorado planned for a few months, Joel had two shows scheduled for a Friday and Saturday night, both at the same venue. We'd get in Friday morning and leave Sunday morning. It was going to be a short, sweet visit, and oh, my goodness, it was. It could not have been more perfect. 

A few years ago, Joel coincidentally got to play the lounge area of Comedy Works in Denver, between Kevin Nealon's stand up sets. If you aren't familiar with Kevin Nealon, look him up and listen to some of his stand up. He's hilarious. He played the role of Doug Wilson in the show WEEDS that came out on HBO in 2005. It was so fun for us to meet him and realize that his personality is pretty much the exact same as the character he played on the show. Joel felt amazing as Kevin sat on the patio, ate his dinner, reviewed his note cards for the show and was almost always the first person to clap for Joel as he'd finish a song. The second time Kevin came to Denver, Joel asked to play the lounge area again and was able to. Of course, Joel wasn't going to pass up the third time he came. That was reason in itself for Joel to make the trip to Colorado, to keep that rapport going. I was lucky enough to tag along. 

We got into Denver about 7am on Friday morning, got in our rental car and turned the radio on to an interview of Kevin Nealon, promoting his stand up that night and the following. Immediate smiles on our faces. 

After breakfast and coffee, we headed to the center that I worked at to give a hug to each and every one of my former coworkers, director, and owner, and chat about life. Joel took a nap in the car. Literally four of my coworkers asked when Joel and I were going to get married. "You guys have been together for like six and half years!" I found this to be such a weird coincidence at the end of the day.

After about two hours there, we headed to our best friend's house to see them and their little man and Niece, who are both so freaking cute and are getting way too big. Our time there was too short, but I'm so happy they were apart of the day. They were just another aspect that made it great.

 Joel was adamant on buying me a new outfit or something special, so we headed to my favorite boutique in Loveland, Vintage Willows. This was a clue, but something I paid absolutely no attention to. I left with some new bras, a couple pairs of jeans and we were off to Macy's to get Joel some new attire as well. 

After more shopping, and new shoes for me, after not having spent a penny on myself, we were headed down to Denver to check in to our hotel. I felt like it was my Birthday, you guys. What the heck was the occasion? Nothing registered. 

As I was getting ready, Joel faked a phone call and mentioned that the venue had over booked, so he wouldn't be playing until tomorrow, although we would still be going for dinner tonight. The venue was close to the hotel we were staying at and I was familiar with the venue so when he drove us elsewhere, I felt like something fishy was going on. "There's got to be some sort of event going on, there's people everywhere! I wonder what's going on," I said. Event signs everywhere, parking signs here and here. When Joel pulled into the parking lot that was titled "$20 Parking," I couldn't figure out why Joel insisted on paying $20 to park when we could have just gone and parked at the venue. He assured me that it was super close and that we were just going to walk. People were tailgating, drinking, what the heck was going on? As Joel started laughing at the fact that I was almost mad at him for  paying so much for parking, he pulled out some tickets and told us what we were really doing tonight, going to see Dave Matthews. It was hot but a beautiful night for a concert outside, so I was excited and in complete shock that he was able to hold in such a surprise without ruining it with his natural excitement, as he usually does. 

The concert venue was outside and had thee coolest outdoor art museum next to it. Anyone who knows me, knows I have an obsession with trees, am a big fan of willow trees to be exact, so to walk underneath a dome made out of willow trees, vines and leaves, was like heaven to me. Picture those old, metal, dome jungle gyms that we played on at playgrounds in the 80's. It was like that, made out of trees. Ugh, you guys! The dome was completely filled with people the first time we walked underneath it. Joel knew it wasn't the time. We continued on towards the other sculptures and eventually Joel mentioned going back to the dome to get a picture under it. Here I am, still oblivious. We walked under, as everyone was walking out and it was perfect, just us and a worker for the event, a random couple sitting towards one side. Joel put his phone on video mode and gave it to the event worker to "take a picture." 

 

Every time I have watched this video since, I laugh at how thrown off I am at the fact that I had no idea he had this planned. Planned for the last month and planned right down to the exact spot that we were standing. You can literally see it in me. I had no clue. I enjoy surprises, but I like to have control. It completely took me off guard, I didn't know what to say, my mouth couldn't form words and I swear, I blacked out. So, it's a great thing he got it on video. As you can hear, me yelling, "Noo. Nooo, no you're not," completely over-powers what he's saying, but it went along the lines of, "You smell, you're ugly, I don't want to spend the rest of my life with you. Will you marry me?" We have the most playful, sarcastic, yet loving relationship, that I'm so happy he asked me like that. I tell people that that's what he said and you should see the looks I get. We are both such emotional humans and I know if he would have been serious, we both would have been crying like babies. I know now that our only hope of a wedding ceremony without constant tears, will be a sarcastic one. 

After my nerves calmed a bit, we headed back inside and found a spot to sit on the grass to watch the show that was going to be starting shortly. I felt super awesome and like I wanted to just feel this awesome feeling with just Joel for awhile. We couldn't not tell our parents, so I sent them a text, with a picture, saying that I now had a Fiance'. I love social media, and posting about our lives but I just wanted to enjoy this feeling between the two of us, we wanted to drink it all in on our own. The show was amazing, as usual, such insane levels of talent and so inspiring for Joel to watch. We left shortly before the show ended, avoided the crowd and ridiculous amounts of traffic and went back to our hotel, being newly engaged and literally high on life. I purposely had three beers all night and felt so 'there,' so present and I'm so glad for that. 

Fiance' not Boyfriend

The next morning, we woke up, ate the best complimentary breakfast I've ever had, maybe because we were still high on life and love, but who cares, and headed to Denver Botanic Gardens, a place we never got to visiting while living there. The weekend was about the get even lovelier, if that was possible. The day was way too hot, but so beautiful and I was in my happy place, surrounded by green and too many flowers, fountains and sculptures and at the side of the one that loves me enough to want to do life with me. We noticed a bench, with words written on it, that really stuck out to us. 

"Never above you, never below you, always with you." 

We've always had a very balanced, fair relationship but we understand that sometimes in life, it's easy to slip from this mindset, seeing each other as equals, not one being superior to the other and vice versa. Because we're saps, we decided right here, in front of this bench that we would do our best to always remember this. We're always on the same team, we'll always support each other and constantly remember that even though we sometimes do life differently, we are always rooting for each other. A team! 

After stopping by another friend's and sharing the news with everyone we came in contact with, we were finally headed to the venue that Joel was scheduled to play at. A lovely night on the patio with friends, turned into popping a bottle of celebratory and complimentary champagne from the venue, getting into the comedy show for free, laughing our butts off, chatting with Kevin Nealon a bit afterwards and getting a signed CD and DVD from him.

 

 The weekend was truly ours, you guys. 

 

 

 

To Midwest Summers and Marriage Equality.

I read an article awhile ago, something along the lines of "Things You Must Refrain From Doing Once You Pass the Age of Twenty Six." I think it was shortly before my twenty sixth Birthday, or soon after, so I was intrigued. One of the things, was 'posting albums to Facebook.' Another thing was 'shopping at Forever 21.' Well, considering photos make me happy and I love taking them, have always taken too many, and the fact that I'm a teacher and don't make bank, I'll continue to do both those things forever, at least for a little while. Perhaps, just to rebel, I'll continue to do other things on the list too. No one likes to be told what to do.

So, after posting an album of pictures to Facebook just now, I can tell you about how wonderful it's been, living back in the Midwest and diving head first into Summer. We've been constantly surrounded by our best friends, family and familiar people. One of the first Friday nights back home, Joel didn't have a show scheduled, which is an extreme rarity, so we decided to have a small gathering around our fire. After laughing way too hard over hilarious face coasters, (look here to have a giggle) feeding our salt water fish and being huge nerds over our predator tank, beer drinking, brat eating and of course, the best company, everyone left and Joel and I laid on our hammock, talking about how phenomenal it feels to be back, listened to the trees and then fell asleep until we woke up shortly before 4AM and moved inside.

This weekend, the one that's happening as I type, has been probably my favorite so far. Friday morning, I woke up feeling irritable and wanted chocolate for breakfast. I got to work and the toddlers were all cries and mostly whines and well, they were on my level. I was with them! On my lunch break, I watched the "Breaking News" snap story on marriage equality and cried a little bit. Then I laughed to myself and thought, "You know you're getting your period when the marriage equality snap story makes you cry." I felt so extremely happy and thankful to live in a place where being able to marry the person you love, is finally legal, in all 50 states.  And then I thought to myself, "Is this really happening now? Why hasn't this already happened? How was this an issue for so long?" I love that I'm able to remember this day in history and am able to live it, be apart of it.

Friday night, I made my way to Minneapolis to spend the night with one of my very best friends. I hadn't yet seen her place, since she moved while I was still living in Colorado. Her place is perfect and in a perfect location. She treated me to, like 7 or 8 courses of delicious, to die for food that they serve where she works, restaurant Alma. We sat at the bar and started with champagne, progressed to each course, each paired with a different glass of wine and then had 2 or 3 desserts? Gosh, it felt like my freaking Birthday. After each bite, my world was rocked and I couldn't stop laughing at the fact that I must not get out much. I felt so happy. The first glass of wine we drank was straight from Malaga, Spain, the place Joel and I stayed together back in 2012. This fun fact really got me going.

Not even half.

Even after a belly so full of delicious food and a serious wine buzz, I couldn't say no to cappuccinos that looked straight out of a movie. Of course, I took pictures of everything. 

After spending a little more than 4 hours, content at the bar, chatting with the fun people she works with, we decided it was smarter to go back to her place, drink a ton of water to balance out the great amount of wine we drank and watch a funny movie like we used to do when we were younger.

We slept in until noon and then I was treated to mimosas and brunch. 

 We have been so busy, constantly going, going, going, that I haven't had much time to think about Colorado. The one thing that I do think about daily is that I would much rather bask in the Colorado heat, where there's no humidity, like there is here in the Midwest. I get snapchats of my best friend in Colorado and her little boy and for that, I am thankful. I don't even have to ask for them. Every day I drink out of the coffee mug that my co-teacher bought me before I left and I know, more often than not, I would go straight for that mug, even if all my other mugs were unpacked and stored in the cupboard with it. 

My first couple weeks back to work at KinderCare have been great. I love the Summers there. The smell of sunscreen just constantly wafts through the halls. I'm enjoying getting to know all the kids and new co-workers I spend my days with and am loving bonding again with all the old ones I've missed. I can't get over how big all the kids are, considering how little they were when I left them 3 years ago. I've gotten so many hugs from parents that tell me that seeing my face around the school again is something they love and look forward to. "You were one of the hardest to watch go and I'm so happy you're back. You are one of the best teachers." Spending my days with little siblings to some of the kids I had before I moved, make me feel like I never left. Some of them, I wasn't even aware that there was baby number two or three. "It just wouldn't be the same if you didn't take care of all three of our boys." 

 The constant "Welcome backs" make me feel even more at home than I already do. 

I feel so freaking thankful life brought us back to this point. 

Cheers!

Stay At Home Girlfriend

 

“There’s a trick to the ‘graceful exit.’ It begins with the vision to recognize when a job, a life stage, or a relationship is over — and let it go. It means leaving what’s over without denying its validity or its past importance to our lives. It was important. It involves a sense of future, a belief that every exit line is an entry, that we are moving up, rather than out.” 

| Ellen Goodman 

 

 This quote could not be more perfect for my life right now. 

My last day at Goddard was originally scheduled for May 29th, two days before we planned to move. I moved the date up to the 22nd, realizing that I would be a giant stress ball if I didn't take some time off to successfully pack up our place, organize and get rid of things, something I love to do.  The feeling of cleaning and throwing things away that I no longer have use for or straight up, don't like anymore, is something I thoroughly enjoy. I ask myself, "If someone were to secretly throw this away, would I notice?" If the answer is no, in the trash it goes, or the Goodwill pile, depending. 

Before I started working in childcare, I had this weird "year curse," I called it. Every job up until the one I had in a center setting, I completely lost interest in around a year, give or take a month or two. I felt a need for change. I didn't feel the need to change professions, but I did need a change inside the company, so my director, at the time, was happy to put me in another classroom, if I needed. Thankfully, this was an option. Well, I had been at Goddard for a little over two years, loved my classroom at one point and the age group, toddlers, but my last few weeks at Goddard were tough. I had this thought in my mind that I was leaving, my kids were challenging, I just didn't have the patience or want to grow that connection and relationship with the newer kids in my class because I didn't feel it worth it. This was a constant mindset of mine, I had a hard time steering clear from it and this was not good for me on a day to day basis. It was time for a change. I needed change.

Long story short, I was done with work a lot sooner than planned, without a graceful exit, not going to lie. After leaving work so frustrated, I had a hard time holding back tears on each drive home, I decided it wasn't worth it. Financially, it would be tough, having a couple weeks off in between my end date at Goddard and my start date at KinderCare, but this was less important to me than my happiness. I would rather be even more of  a broke joke for a couple weeks, than have upset, frustrated thoughts towards such an amazing company, one that I had been happy with for the last couple years of my life. I wanted to remember Goddard as the place that came as close as possible to the first center that I worked at, the one that set the bar extremely high. I was so happy there. I wanted to keep those grateful thoughts I had towards that place and the management, instead of spending my last few weeks in Colorado, upset and frustrated at the end of every work day. 

So, this week and next, I'm a stay at home girlfriend. 

With the help of our road trip at the beginning of this month, I can now stay awake later than 8PM. I no longer wake up at 6AM and have 2 breakfasts before 10. I actually went back to sleep yesterday and woke up at 11AM and felt extremely disgusted with myself. So, I made myself work out. I decided that I'm going to make amazing use of my time this week and next. 

 This morning, I went and observed another toddler classroom at a high quality center in Boulder. See? Keeping myself busy. I have always been curious about other classrooms, only ever having been in the ones in centers I've worked for. It was an eye opener for me. Seeing the teacher's interactions and love towards the kiddos just made me realize even more that I wasn't in a good place my last couple weeks at Goddard. I was so frustrated that I wasn't taking the time to be the teacher that I can be, and know to be, to better the children and all of our happiness day to day. I also learned, that I need to let go a bit and let toddlers be toddlers. The teachers in the classroom weren't constantly, or at all, worried about things being neat or picked up. How do I even have this mindset with children? Let them be messy! Let them have the option of a bunch of different toys and activities, because they learn when they are having fun and when they want to. Not on my time. I'm taking this realization back to my classroom in Wisconsin, whatever classroom that may be.

In the last week, Joel has been taking apart our yard, replanting things in different planters, rearranging what we're leaving here and getting everything ready to go back to Wisconsin with us. We'll have a yard to call our own to invest time and money into, hooray! Yesterday, he took out each fishie, crab, eel and snail, put them into separate bags, drained the water in our salt water fish tank, took it apart and loaded it into his truck to drive it home to Wisconsin. This motivated me to start some packing myself. I started to take down pictures, pack candles, home decor and put them into boxes. "This is so insane," I kept telling Joel. Packing up our life here seems so surreal, it came so fast. When Joel was finally ready to take off, I kissed him goodbye, told him to be safe and turned the outside light on, a habit, when he leaves and I don't expect his return until late at night. I turned the light off and reminded myself that he wouldn't be home tonight. He would be back in Wisconsin. And then I felt extremely home sick. I thought to myself, how in the world could I feel so homesick? Or was it another feeling? I need to be here. I only have ten more days here. Ten more days in this amazing state that we've called 'home' for the last two and a half years. Oh, Colorado, you deserve a blog post all to yourself. 

In ten days, we close our Colorado chapter and move our life back to the Midwest. It's going to be so weird, great, but so weird to be back there and not just being there to visit. It will be our home. Colorado will now be the place that we visit, not somewhere we come home to. I'll have to remind myself when we get back to the land of cheese that I won't be on vacation but staycation. That's what we said when we moved our lives to Colorado, a little more fitting for this state than Wisconsin.

I'll let you know how my staycation is this coming winter back in the Midwest.

Yikes.

 

Tattoo O'Clock

I got on here intending to blog about our super amazing road trip we did at the beginning of this month but I started to look through my trillion pictures, decide which ones I wanted to post and then my brain started to hurt so I stopped. We'll see if I ever develop ambition for that post of way too many pictures.

I will on the other hand, share some pictures from this past week. 

Last Tuesday we saw Lana Del Rey at Red Rocks, which made my day take a complete 180. I was a little bummed that the weather wasn't as nice as I had wanted it to be and the crop top and high waisted shorts were a 'no-go' but a little chilliness didn't stop me from crying tears of complete and utter contentment. She looked amazing, sounded amazing and I swear, her and I had a moment during "Blue Jeans." Joel and I were both shocked at how young the crowd was. We joked with the couple next to us, who were our age, about the fact that most of the people there probably had no idea who Courtney Love is. Yes, that's right, Courtney Love opened up for Lana Del Rey and it was fantastic. I especially loved her entry into her set, "I'm going to take it back to the 80's, long before you little f***ers were born." She clearly noticed the crowd too. 

My music tastes have calmed, extremely, since we've lived in Colorado, like I've said before. I'm not constantly fist pumping to EDM anymore. Don't get me wrong, I love a good dance party but I spend a lot of time listening to Ben Howard and Lana Del Rey. I'm so happy we were able to see both of them during our Colorado chapter. 

After months of counting down, even via Snapchat (see below) I was reunited in Colorado one last time with one of my best friends. 

This best friend and I date back to Sunday School in our Elementary years. We started out going to church together and bible camp and our friendship has come a long way since. We are similar in ways but also very different and I love her just the same. It was time for her to get one more visit in before we move back to the Midwest. IN 12 DAYS. This is an insane realization, by the way.

Punch Bowl Social Club.

After a little run in with urgent care, too much money put towards medications, an inhaler, rest and some movies, all on her first day here, she was a bit more in "vacation mode." We headed down to Denver for Joel's show and my life was seriously made, sitting next to her and having one of the little boys in my previous class and his parents be there as well. 

Sunday we hiked Greyrock in Fort Collins. I read about it forever ago and needed to do it at least once before we moved. We got on the trail at 11:50AM and got off shortly after 6PM. We literally spent the day hiking. 

Not going to lie, it looks tiny in this picture. But, we were at the top. 

This explains my bad knees. pc: Joel Kachel

Heart rocks, everywhere.

Greyrock is on the right. After getting to the top, we wound around down and through the meadows loop next.

We found perfect walking sticks during our hike and decided to leave them for the next person or group. A little more than six hours later, we finished and felt accomplished, both having trouble blocking out our sore knees. Bad knees at twenty seven, I've accepted it. 

And then yesterday, we got tattoos. 

I have been contemplating getting another tattoo for awhile now and I think the only reason that was, was because I had forgotten what it felt like to get one. I didn't remember it hurting, but being terribly annoying, aggravating. Han went first, first timer, and then it was my turn. I sat down and straight up told the guy not to listen to me if I told him to stop. 

Inked, finally.

pc: Hanna Schulberg

I remember now why I walked out of the tattoo shop the first time and told myself I would never get another one. Who knows, maybe seven years down the road, I'll change my mind again and go get another.

My shoulder now says, "Property of JK Music." 

Just kidding. 

Mother Nature is my Main B

It's actually thundering and lightening outside right now, you guys. I heard one, little, sorry boom of thunder at work a week or two ago, and saw lightening once through the blinds during nap time but this is my first full on storm of the year. This is so exciting. Cleanse my mind, body and soul, Mother Nature, cleanse me. Gosh, it feels good. Just to look out my living room window and see pouring rain. What makes it better is the fact that it's still light out, a nice glow, if you ask me. Let's be real, the sun is shining! As summer is right around the corner, the days are getting longer and it's light until after 8PM. This is the best, the realization that our days are getting longer, warmer. There is nothing like light, and sunshine and a good downpour all at once. This is something I will miss dearly when we move back to the Midwest, the sunshowers. The weathermen actually talk about them. They exist. You got it, it's when the sun is shining bright but it's raining. It's the absolute best. 

It makes me think of a time I had a terrible day at work and then drove home and on my way, was blessed with the most amazing sunshower and then the clouds parted and the rain went away and the sun fully came out just in time to go down. It was beautiful. 

Of course, I Instagramed, think  I didn't? 

The caption was, "Proof that there are greater things than today's frustration." 

Oh man, does Mother Nature feel me. She knows my moods. She knows that this evening's rainfall is all too appropriate after the day I had, the week I had, I should say. The weather is my emotion's, twin, I'm telling you. Between my challenging class of one and a half year olds and my last couple weeks spent at Goddard, my eyes have been leaking lately, lets just say. I've felt frustration and a sense of happy and both are making me more emotional than a pregnant woman. I'm the biggest baby you'll ever meet, I swear to you.

 

What I need is a good downpour to cleanse my mind. And a vacation. I can cross one off the list tonight and the other come, early Sunday morning. Conveniently, today was my last day of work for 9 days and Joel and I are anxiously awaiting a road trip. We dreamed up this plan a couple months ago. Dreamed up, is that right? How do you say that? It's like hanged. Anyways, we developed this master plan and I am so excited we are following through. We are heading towards Utah and doing some camping in Moab. We knew we would never make this trip, after we move back to Wisconsin. Being six hours from Moab is far more manageable than like what, 18 hours? I've always wanted to visit those beautiful arches, stand underneath them. You can bet there will be some pictures taken. After Moab, it's back into Colorado to Telluride, down to Mesa Verde, the Four Corners, back up into Durango and Salida to visit one of my Mom's best friends from high school. We had an amazing last camping trip during the Fall last year, not too far from where we live and thinking about it makes me even more excited to do this road trip. We will be seeing a handful of great places we have not yet seen since we've lived in Colorado. What a wonderful way to start our last month in this beautiful state.

I suppose I can share a couple pictures from my Birthday weekend, last weekend. One of my best friends was in town. She had never been to Colorado, was truly running out of time, us being so close to our move and what better weekend than the one in between our Birthdays. There was nothing like having her here, basking in the sunshine in my backyard and drinking my morning coffee with her. Sharing some drinks, Birthday cards and gifts, laughs, cake, and just being in her presence, gosh, it was lovely.

 

Bridesmaid Material | pc: Joel Kachel

She bought me Drew Barrymore's book for my Birthday. I love cute and/or hilarious coffee table books like it. It's a book of pictures she's taken over the years, hearts in random objects, places. Hearts. Perfect. We all know how much I love love. 

Always wearing those leggings. 

And then look at what I found on my beer glass later that night. 

That's not just my very talented boyfriend playing music in the background, it's a heart puddle of beer placed so perfectly on my glass. Is this real life? 

 

When deciding what I wanted written on our Birthday cake, I took all three of us into account. With Tier having just turned twenty six, me twenty seven, and Joel twenty eight, we needed something fitting for all of us. This is what I went with: 

 

Sparkler candles that didn't really sparkler at all, but we didn't fret. 

 

We visited a couple friends in Denver that had just taken in five foster kittens. Five kittens. At once. Have you ever played with five kittens at the same time? It's happiness, at least, in my world.

 

 

I got no group pictures because the little buggers were speedy things and I was just thoroughly enjoying the moment. Picture this guy, plus four more. Skipping around. Biting each other's ears, wrestling. Greatness. How our friend will give them up, is beyond me. Good luck, Lia.

 

Joel's Mom was also in town for work and was able to stick around for a Joel Kachel show and our Birthday festivities. 

 

Mother In Law Material

Well, that's just not the best cell phone picture ever taken.

 

It was a short, sweet visit from a couple ladies I adore and I loved every minute of it, even though I wish they could have stuck around longer, have seen more, gone exploring. 

 

It's okay, there will be exploring done this week, lots of it. 

Road trip To-Do list, here I come! 

 

Moab road trip: 2 days 

Lana Del Rey at Red Rocks: 11 days 

(Another) best friend comes to town: 12 days 

Move back to the Midwest: 30 days 

 

 

 

Green & Blue Paint on a Paper Plate; That Was Our Art Project Today

Today, my toddlers did an art project in honor of Earth Day, our Beautiful Mother Earth.

So it's my turn.

 

Here's to you, Mother Nature.

You've graced me with so many wonderful moments to photograph these past couple years in Colorado. This is a true Wayne and Garth, "We're not worthy" moment here. 

Photo Locations (from top to bottom)

 

1 & 2.  Poudre Canyon

 

3. Hanging Lake

 

4 & 5. Trail to Deep Lake Campground

 

6 & 7. Poudre Canyon 

 

8. Highway 287

 

9. Trail to Deep Lake Campground

 

 

Liebster Blog Award

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Well, this makes me feel incredibly special. The other night, I received a notification from my friend and fellow blogger, Kylie Bores, nominating me for The Liebster Blog Award. The award was created to discover and recognize new bloggers and welcome them to the blog world. Well, my blog is a happy four years old as of February, she isn't new by any means, but I very easily fall out of a blogging routine and I still have a lot to learn.

Kylie asked me a series of questions and here are my answers. (Doesn't this bring you back to Myspace? Who remembers Myspace? I lived for these Q&As)  

 

1. Are you a morning or night person? I am a morning person, hands down. I leave my house by 6:30 every weekday to make it to work by 7. Sleeping in on the weekends means no later than 7. Most days it's about 6:10. One accomplishes way more of the day this way.

2. What is your guilty pleasure? I don't feel guilty about any of my pleasures. ;) I honestly don't know what to put for this. Can I say, Gossip Girl? That show makes me wish I had a better sense of fashion. and money. 

3. What is your favorite holiday? Why? Christmas! The smells, the decorations, the food, the company, just the overall feeling it brings me, is simply wonderful. 

4. What is the first thing on your life bucket list (today)? The incredibly annoying snowfall outside makes me really want summertime. I've always wanted to experience a field of sunflowers. To walk through, or alongside, I would be so happy. I thought about saying Coachella but I think I've become too calm for a weekend long party like Coachella.

5. What is your favorite season and something you love to do that time of year? As the years go on, I find myself loving Fall more and more. The cooler weather, the attire, the scents, the amazing changing colors of the trees. I live for cool Fall weekends, drinking hot apple cider, with Fireball going to apple orchards or wineries. 

6. If you had a day all alone with no plans, what would you do? I would sleep in till 7 sip way too much coffee, listen to Ben Howard Pandora, catch up with all the blogs that I love that are full to the brim with beautiful pictures. I would spend it outside if it were nice, with my cats, of course. Which, would lead to taking pictures of them. I would do laundry, read my book at some point, perhaps work out. If Joel is out of town, this is basically how I spend my Saturdays and Sundays. I'm a Grandma. 

7. What is your favorite song currently? Hideaway by Kiesza. I seriously want to live in the music video and learn the choreography.  

8. Upload a favorite picture of your self and tell us where it was taken. 

This is me at probably age 2, in the house I grew up in, back in Wisconsin. I have the same face, same hair, same personality and I still love to climb mountains. 

9. Would you rather scuba dive or sky dive? Scuba dive. I would have to be pushed out of the plane to sky dive. 

10. What is your greatest fear? Knives. 

11. If you had the time for a new hobby, what would you like to do? I would love to learn to knit. Someday, I will. 

Bloggers I nominate: 

• Alyssa at You, Me and Baby Make 3 

• Chelsea at Writings off the Mat by Chelsea

• Anna at The Ruffled Mama

• Linnea at Her Soul Sparkles

• Jamie at Life As {Emma's} Mom

• Elise at Profiteor 

*Ladies, I know a few of you haven't blogged for awhile. I understand that life is crazy busy and most of you have a baby or 4, but I hope you find time to sit down and accept this award and spill some thoughts. It's fun and I truly miss reading what you have to say.

Questions for my blogger nominees: 

1. Why did you start your blog?

2. What is the easiest/hardest thing about keeping a blog?

3. Where is one place you would love to visit but have never been? 

4. What is your favorite form of social media and why? (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, etc.)

5. What is something you do everyday?

6. In your opinion, what is the most important aspect in a relationship?

7. Are you a cat or dog person?

8. What does the most perfect day look like to you?

9. How would your closest friends describe you?

10. What's your favorite quote or motto in life?

11. In your opinion, how does one live a happy life?  

Happy Blogging, fellow bloggers!