Here it is!

I have changed by design a little bit!! Since I am clearly not HTML design savvy, I used Shabby Blogs to help me! I have a feeling that I will want to "decorate" my blog for Christmas this year, too (coming from the girl who is ALREADY listening to Christmas music).

What do you think? Too sweet??

It's time for a change!

I love to change things. I used to dye my hair with the seasons, and I will wear different makeup and jewelry depending on my mood.

Back when I had that classic Nokia cell phone (aka BRICK), I used to change the faceplate all the time. I remember that was the only way to differentiate your phone from your friends, since that was pretty much the only phone available!

What does this mean for my blog? It means it's time for me to change my faceplate! Keep your eyes peeled for a new background! I'm excited for the change!

A Different Kind of Mess

For the last 5 years or so, I have been very inactive. I worked a desk job where I commuted for close to three hours a day. Basically, I sat all day long. Now that I am not working, I have so much more time!

Last New Years, I made it a resolution to take better care of myself. While I did good with my eating for a while (Lean Cuisine's for lunch for a few MONTHS in a row instead of getting takeout subs or something), I never got much use out of my gym membership. I signed up for one on January 5th, worked out on January 6th, and never went back.

Thankfully, my friend Christie moved close to the gym that I belong to. She is also trying to get into better shape so we have been each others gym buddies! We've been trying to work out together at least 3 times a week, and when we are there we stay for about 2 hours. Here's a little run-down of what we've been doing.

• Start out on the bike for about 20 minutes to warm up. This is also where we do most of our catching up and chit chat.
• Then we go into the circuit room so that we can use the weight machines without being out in the big area of the gym. This is much less intimidating than working out in the large room with all the dudes. Seriously.
• Depending on the day, we will also do some ab stuff in the circuit room using a medicine ball.
• Then we hit the treadmill. Since my knees are terrible from being so tall all my life and lots of years of volleyball, I can't really run. I spend the 45 minutes to an hour using the weight loss program. Generally, I will wind up doing a pretty quick walk while the treadmill varies the incline. This is my favorite part (and not just because of the Motown playlist that I listen to).

I have seen some results that make me smile, and I can't wait until I can really feel strong and confident in the gym! Fitting into my skinny clothes would make me happy, too but that's not the point for me.

What's your favorite way to exercise?

A Little Study Break

I am finishing up my work for the last part of the two classes that I am taking right now, but I need a little study break! Last week, my friend Tara over at Connecticut Yankees in South Carolina posted some questions for her readers to answer. Here go the questions and answers from me!

1) Do you think you're a good cook? Why or why not?

I think that the things that I cook taste good. Do I think that I am a good cook? No. This is mostly because I am not very adventurous when it comes to what I make, and I don't feel confident enough to just "whip up a dinner".

2) Regardless of your answer to the above question, share a recipe with me :)

I am totally cheating on this question, and will just direct you here. This is supposed to be a quick study break after all;)

3) Do you feel as if crime shows such as the Law & Order series or Criminal Minds scare you or make you hypervigilant?

We watch Law and Order: SVU all the time. Even before we did, my Dad was a big L&O fan, so we watched a lot of it with him, too. I don't think that it really scares me or makes me hypervigilant, but it does make me wonder a little more. If I see something suspicious on the side of the road, I tend to think it could be something more than just a bag of trash!

4) Where was the last place you went on vacation?

The last place I went on vacation was to my Mom's house in Wilmington, NC. My cousin and I got to go together and spend the weekend.

5) In regards to the above question...did you enjoy yourself? What was your favorite part?

We had a great time! It was so awesome to see my cousin April, my sister, my brother, and my Mom. We got to go to the beach one day, and since it was already September, the beach was quiet and awesome. We also got to kayak near the house and wound up on a little beach there, too! My favorite part was the night that we spent drinking wine and eating baked brie. The food was delish, and it was nice to relax with everyone!

6) Name anywhere from one to three of your favorite stores. They can be anything from grocery stores to shoe stores!

My favorite stores are Target (I can always find something I love!), Savers (Again, I can always find something to bring home), and Christmas Tree Shops (since I am in a crazy decorating phase right now!).

7) What was the best pet you ever had? Cat, dog, guinea pig, I don't care! What was its name, what did you love about it, etc. :)

I've never been much of a pet person. We always had indoor/outdoor cats and they weren't my favorite. I guess the best on was a cat named Tiger. He was a striped cat who was just very relaxed. I'm sure this will change once Nick and I get our first pet!

8) Now share a [preferably personal, as in yours and not a random one from the internet] picture! Either of something you've cooked, from the vacation mentioned above, or of that favorite pet you just wrote about :)

Here is a picture of the view from the beach that we kayaked to. My Mom lives in the middle area of the picture!

Day 30 - A Dream for the Future

Well, here it is, my last post in the 30-day blog journal!! It's been fun, and I am excited to keep going with this blog!

My dream for the future is BABIES. It's something that Nick and I both want, but we know that we will be waiting at least until we get married. Honestly, this is probably the part of our lives that we are most excited for. It's a few years away, but it is certainly my biggest dream for the future.

Day 29 - hopes,dreams and plans for the next 365 days

This next year is sure to be a big one for me! Here are some of the things I am excited about!

-I am finalllllllllllllly going to be graduating from college in May! I started way back in 2003, but only stayed for a year. I went back in the fall of 2008 and am so ready to be done! Best thing is that I will be an alumnus of the same college that I started at right after high school!

-Nick and I have been talking about buying a house! This is so exciting for us, but something that is very new. I am hoping that we will have said house within the next year! I am sure I will be blogging about our process as we get more into it.

-We will set a wedding date this year! That is something that I know FOR SURE. I need at least a year to plan this bad boy, and we are thinking fall 2012, so we HAVE to set a definite date this year.

-I will get into better shape. This is something that I have already been working on. A great friend of mine and I have become gym buddies! We have been working out together for the last few weeks, at least three times a week (although I try to go at least one other day, too!). I think I am actually beginning to see results! Even if the visual results take a while, I am feeling better. I love the way sore muscles feel!

-We are going to Wilmington, NC for Christmas to be with my family. I can't WAIT! This will be the first time since July that we have all been together, and I am already looking forward to spending time with everyone (and listening to Hanson's Christmas CD with my sisters!). My Mom, Dad, Step-Dad, 3 sisters, brother, and Nick and I will all be there. Did I mention that I can't wait?

-I am still, and always, hoping that I can get a handle on keeping the house cleaner! It's still a work in progress!

Day 28 - What's in My Handbag/Purse

This one is pretty easy, because for once in my life I am not carrying a huge purse around. My best friend even commented the last time she saw me, saying that the coach wristlet that I was carrying was the exact opposite of what I usually have!

What's inside:

• An etsy wallet that was given to me at my friend Heather's bridal shower (This has all of my credit/debit cards, license, AAA card)
• About a million random receipts
• A stick of softlips chapstick (It's thin so it fits!)
• A thumb drive that I use for school
• Some random letter cutouts from a class I was in last year

Day 27 - My Worst Habit

I don't think this is a secret (judging by the title of my blog and my previous posts), but I am messy. My worst habit is not picking up after myself and ignoring my (and Nick's) messes! I have been really trying to keep up with the housework, but even Nick said that our kitchen seems to repel being clean, and I am bad about keeping our bedroom clean. I know the bedroom will be the hardest habit to kick. No one ever really comes into our room, and I can always close the door. I need to change that thinking!!

Lately, I have been spending a lot of time at Marshalls, TJ Maxx, HomeGoods, and Christmas Tree Shops buying little things to make our apartment feel more home-y. I think if our house is decorated in a way that I like, I will want to make sure our house is inviting and presentable!

Day 26 - Your Week in Great Detail

I don't have a weekly schedule. I am not working, and Nick's schedule is purely dependent on the weather. Most night we eat dinner, watch a little Law and Order or Pawn Stars and then go to bed. Sometimes, depending on what Nick has to do the next day, we might go to dinner or hang out with friends. I have been trying to go to the gym a couple of nights a week as well.

Pretty boring, but I wouldn't have it any other way!

Day 25 - Your Day: In Great Detail

Well, this post will be very boring, and slightly embarrassing. My days are pretty much free for me to do whatever I want or need to do. Here is an example of an average day

• Nick leaves for work around 7. I get up to help him find his keys (yes, this happens pretty much everyday!)
• I go back to sleep, until I wake up again (usually between 9-10)
• I wake up and make myself 2 Eggo nutragrain blueberry waffles
• I eat waffles and catch up on my Hulu TV
• Get really going around noon
• Run errands/go shopping/clean and organize for most of the afternoon
• Head to the gym around 6:15
• Get home from gym around 9 and eat dinner with Nick
• We watch an episode or two of Law and Order: SVU and then head to bed.

I guess I've been having a harder time filling up my day with useful things since I stopped working. Maybe I should work on being a little more productive during the day!

Day 24 - Where I Live

If you look reeeeeaaaaally closely, you can see our neighborhood on the left!

We live in a 2 bedroom apartment near the Sagamore Bridge on Cape Cod, MA. The Cape is beautiful. It's where Nick and I both grew up (me in Falmouth, and him in Barnstable). We lived in other parts of the state, and very briefly in NH, but we both know that the Cape is where we want to live. There is something very special about the Cape, and while we won't always live in the area we do now, we will always call Cape Cod home!

I wish I could find more to say about this special part of the state, but I honestly think that you have to visit in order to really fall in love with it!

Day 23 - A YouTube Video (Part 2)

Alright, I saw this online in February, and honestly I thought it was hilarious and something my little sister totally would have done when she was that age...she had 3 big sisters after all! If you watch this, you have to watch until the end, because that is the funniest part!! I made my dad watch it and he thought it was too funny. A little sad, but very funny. Overtired 3-year-olds are the best!!

Day 23 - A YouTube Video (Part 1)

Back before YouTube, this was the first "viral" video that I ever watched. I remember my sisters and I gathering around the computer and watching this (probably a few seconds at a time since I'm pretty sure we had dial up internet in 2003!). We thought it was so cool back then, and we had never seen anything like it! Flash forward about 10 years, and anyone and everyone posts videos like this to YouTube.

Day 22 - A Website

This summer, Nick was able to work with the state and the leading shark biologist in the state to tag great white sharks off the coast of Chatham, MA. Himself, his father, and their spotter pilot were hired to put scientific tags into as many great white sharks as possible. This was also something that they were able to do last year as well. It's been very cool, and people are really interested in it, so we put together a website! Enjoy!

Cape Cod Shark Hunters

Day 21 - A Recipe

A friend of mine gave me this recipe years ago, and I still have it on the original photocopied paper. She was telling me how it was a favorite of her and her husband's. This recipe originally came from a Cooking Light magazine that she had bought many years before she gave it to me.

I was going to type the whole recipe out for you, but I found the exact one here so I might as well just link it! Give this one a try. Every time I make it, people love it. It takes a little bit of time to make, and is not great when making if for social situations (I wound up watching from the kitchen while everyone else socialized!). I can promise you though, that it is truly delicious!

disclaimer: I have never made the sauce with this recipe. I am not that adventurous.

Hellllllo Barilla!

Day 20 - A Hobby of Yours

This one is a day late, too! forgive me?

hobby n. , pl. , -bies . An activity or interest pursued outside one's

regular occupation and engaged in primarily for pleasure.

If I go by this definition of hobby, then I can only think of a handful of things that I do that count. I guess I would have to say that my main hobby is reading magazines. I also read books, but reading magazines relaxes me. I have loved them since my first issue of Tiger Beat (Hanson was probably on the cover!). I remember being sick and my Dad would get me an issue of Seventeen along with my tissues. Right now, I have active subscriptions to O Magazine (Oprah), Sports Illustrated, and Country Living. I will also pick up Real Simple, Glamour, Allure, Brides, Family Circle, Woman's Day, or Marie Claire depending on if I see something appealing on the cover that month!

I admit that I tend to hang on to magazines for far too long. But, in my defense, I do re-read them. There are housecleaning tips in Real Simple that can be used over and over. There are beautiful homes in Country Living that I want to keep drooling over. Family Circle and Woman's Day both have a million recipes an issue (although, I am pretty good about tearing out the recipes and throwing the rest of the magazine away!). If you were to come into my house, there would be a stack of magazines on the bottom shelf of each of the bookshelves in the living room, and another stack next to my bed for night reading. I love magazines!

Day 19 - A Talent of Yours

I don't know if this really counts as a talent, but it's something I can do that I think is pretty darn cool! I know lyrics. lots of lyrics. And not just lyrics, but song titles and artists.

Ever since I can remember, I've known lyrics. Friends of mine can say a part of a lyric and I could probably tell you the song (and if you're really lucky, the year it was released!). I generally have a great memory anyway, but songs are the thing I remember most. A friend's boyfriend once tried to test me out (with music playing at a restaurant). I was able to I.D. all of the songs. He was pretty shocked. I mostly listen to country music, but I know lots of pop, rock, oldies, and even Christian songs. My Dad asks me often when I am going to try out for The Singing Bee and I think I could do just as well on Don't Forget the Lyrics! For now, I will just use my skill to rock at karaoke (I'll pretty much sing anything!).

Day 18- Your Wedding/Future Wedding

I know that this is a day late, but we are actually in Albany, NY for a wedding and were travelling pretty much all day yesterday. Anyone who has driven on the MassPike can probably understand my frustration over the random mid-day traffic that we hit.

Since we just recently got engaged, and are planning on a long engagement, there is not much to share about our wedding! We think that it will be sometime in fall 2012, and it will be held somewhere on Cape Cod. Since Nick and I come from "rival" towns, there is some discussion as to where the wedding will actually be.

I can say what I have envisioned for our wedding. I want it to be beautiful, without being fussy. I want the ceremony to be short but sweet (jury's still out on whether we will write our own vows). I want the reception to be lots of fun, with lots of dancing (Do I hear 90's music?). I want all of our closest friends and family to be able to share in our special day.

I know the next two years will just fly by, and I can honestly say I am so excited for our future wedding day!

Day 17- An Art Piece

We don't have much art in our house, lots of personal photos, but not much art. I have a talented cousin, Cari, who just started a facebook group for her art, so I will share some of her art today.

She is truly talented. Here are some of my favorites.

Day 16- A Song That Makes You Cry (or nearly)

Music makes me VERY emotional, and always has. I can remember in the 4th grade, shortly after my grandmother passed away, having to sing very sad song in music class and having to leave the room crying. Then in high school after a break-up there was a certain song that always got myself (and my empathetic little sister) crying, every time. I tend to associate music with everything, and I pretty much have a song that I think of for lots of different times in my life. Since I primarily listen to country music (and Hanson! ha), I find that a lot of the songs are super emotional, sometimes I just can't help but cry!

I figure since I am a musical crier, I will write about the song that made me cry most recently. I saw a post on WeddingBee the week that Nick and I got engaged talking about father/daughter dance songs. I am pretty sure Daddy-o and I already know what we will dance to when that time comes (he has a favorite), but I still gave this song a listen. "Walk With You" by Edwin McCain is one of the sweetest songs I have ever heard. Maybe it was the fact that I had just been proposed to and all things wedding related were making me a little weepy, or the fact that my Dad had just moved far away from me for the first time in my life, but I cried big fat tears when I first heard this song. I am such a sap.

Day 15 - Your Dream House

I love old houses. Generally, anything built from the late 1700's - about 1900. I know that this means that I like a lot of different styles of houses (Colonial, Federal, Victorian), but I just think that the houses that were built then were so much grander than the new construction. The details in old houses, like built in cabinets and crown molding, just make them seem so special. If I were to have a colonial style house, or a farm style house, they would HAVE to have a big, wrap-around farmers porch. I pretty much imagine any house that I look at with an added farmers porch! Also, I love history, especially American history, so I like to imagine what it would have been like to live in those houses when they were first built.Since Nick doesn't like old houses and thinks they are creepy, if we ever get to have our "dream house" it will be a newly constructed house based on an antique floorplan:)

Here are some pictures of two styles that I really like; a farmhouse from upstate NY, and a Victorian from the Belvidere section of Lowell, MA (my favorite part of living in such a historical city was all of the amazing homes!).

source

source

Day 14 - A Non-Fictional Book

Since I am in school, I think it's only appropriate that I use my text book for this entry. In my Global History to 1500 class, we are using the book "World History in Brief: Major Patterns of Change and Continuity- Volume 1" By Peter N. Stearns. I don't really like the book, because I feel like it gives a lot of information on things that are unimportant and then glances by the things that are very important. Also, my awesome history professor has had to flat out tell us that the book was wrong on a couple of occasions. Since it's "in brief" it doesn't have much detail anyway (which I guess makes sense for a six week class!).

Day 13 - A Fictional Book

I am slightly addicted to buying books at my local Savers store. Paperbacks are $2.49, and when you buy three books you get the fourth free. Needless to say, most of my library in my house is from this store.

On my last trip, I picked up a couple of books. The one that I am reading now is "Lipstick Jungle" by Candace Bushnell. It's similar to her other well known book ("Sex and the City"), because it follows a group of women and their lives in New York. It is different because two out of three of these women are wives with families, and they seem to be older than the characters in SATC were (at least in the beginning).

I am about a quarter of the way through, and am enjoying it so far. I'm actually excited to read the book so that I can watch the TV series (which I have added to my Hulu queue!).

Day 12- Something You are OCD About

Well, these are going to sound random, and they are totally unrelated, but here are the two things that I am most OCD about.

1. Wet towels. If they are ANYWHERE other than hanging up, it makes me frustrated. I don't care where they are hanging (designated hook, towel rack in bathroom, top of the door), I just can't stand when someone (coughNICKcough) piles them on the bed or the floor. They will not dry right and then you can really only use them once. And, let's be honest, who REALLY wants to wash towels three or four times a week, not me.

2. When I'm eating bite sized foods (goldfish crackers, M&M's, skittles, popcorn), it really bothers me to have my chewing uneven (like 2 goldfish on one side of my mouth, and 6 on the other). It is random, and totally ridiculous, but I have to make sure that I have an even amount of food on both sides of my mouth. Don't ask me where this even comes from, it's just something that I do.

Day 11- A Photo of You Recently

This one was taken at the beginning of September at my cousin's apartment in Raleigh, NC. I think it's pretty cute (...I've never been one to be too modest, ask my sisters...)