The Happiness Project.

A few months ago, I splurged and bought myself this book I found in a local bookstore.

If you know anything about me, its that I could waste an entire weekend in any type of bookstore and never get bored. Its so fun for me! Reading over 50 summary's on new books and writing down the titles, promising myself I'll read a few before the years end... well, lucky for me, this one required no reading.

It's a book that you fill in.

I'm sure many of you have heard about it, and I couldn't be happier that I bought it before a lot of huge life events started happening to me. Its called The Happiness Project, its a 5 year, one sentence a day journal. It has already been so fun to look back on from a few months ago, when I had no idea how my life was going to change so quickly.

Its like $15 and seriously -- how cute is it?!?!

At the top of every page, it gives you a quote. They are mostly motivational, happy, or just plain silly. I haven't found one that hasn't made me smile.

It sounds so easy, "oh, just write a sentence every day".... but let me tell you. It's hard! BTW - I know I've been updating you randomly on the status of my new years resolutions, so here goes it--

1. Flossing my teeth? Yes, every night before bed. Can you believe it?!? 24 nights in a row now. It blows my mind, too.

2. Insanity? Caleb and I started, and had to put it on a temporary hold due to his knee injury. He told me to keep going, but I started it with him, so I'd like to finish it with him also. Hopefully he is better before the weeks end!

3. Reading my Bible every day: YES! I am so proud of myself. I am doing a whole year bible plan and can happily say that every day before I go to bed, I take 20 minutes and read the passages that are given to me on my app, while taking notes, and really letting it all sink in. It truly is the perfect way to end my day, so I feel great when I wake up.

4. Eating healthy? I've been trying my hardest. So far so good, I just feel better when I do. I still let myself cheat every now and then (cause if I didn't, I'd go insane), but its going great so far. YAY for a hopeful lifestyle change!

So... how are your NY Resolutions holding up?? Looks like we made it past "Blue Monday"... which is apparently declared "the most depressing day of the year". How sickening, right? Who actually makes up a day like that.

Well, I am boycotting it. You should, too.

Stay happy, folks.

Wednesday funnnn!

Waaddduppp ladies? So, yesterday I got to have a half day off work since I had my annual doctors appointment, and my doctor surprised me by sticking a needle in my arm. YAY! ...... not. It's not like I'm scared of needles, but I can't say I'm a fan of something breaking through the surface of my skin and injecting what feels like a bee stinger inside of me. & now I have another appointment in February, gotta love em. Ahh the joys of womanhood...

ANYWAY-- I got way off topic there, sorry guys! So, it's Wednesday morning, and my funny friend Amanda wanted to do a blog swap/guest post. So, after reading below about her and all of her awesomeness... head on over to her blog, and read my guest post. You never know what new things you could learn about me? ;) I'm full of interesting facts................. promise.

Meet, Amanda.

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Hi guys, I am Amanda from this IS my real hair!

I know that we just met, and this is crazy? but I am a very honest person,

so I feel like I have to share this with you right from the beginning:

I hate it when people say that guest posts suck!

"oh I know guest posts suck... but I'm going to write one anyway"

listen dude, if your guest posts suck, stop writing them!

mine is about to be awesome, and we are about to become BFFs.

[also... the pictures in this post have nothing to do with what I'm writing about. don't judge me.]

Kayla and I recently met through this little blog world we find ourselves in.

I can only imagine that she had been stalking me for awhile before making contact.

she seemed to know an awful lot about my life when she first reached out to me.

which hey, can you blame her? probably not at all. I'm a good person to stalk.

why? because my blog is completely random. for real.

the only thing you can really count on is Ticked Off Tuesday and some cuss words.

I am working on the swearing... but life long habits are hard to break!!

anyway, Kayla is wonderful, but we... well we are not very similar at all.

she is cute, polite, and positive. and of course her blog reflects all that.

I, on the other hand, am not sure anyone has ever used those words to discribe me...

my blog is sometimes negative, but don't panic, it is always entertaining!

we do have some things in common:

1. we are working out hardcore to get healthy and feel good about ourselves. um also we want to be skinny...
2. our posts are always honest and reflect our true selves. we don't try to change to get more readers.
3. we rock a sexy pair of fake lashes
4. we both have amazing men in our lives, and we aren't scared to admit, that we would be lost without them!

alright, I will wrap this up now before my guest post does suck.

I hope to see you guys over in my neck of the woods!

[blog] [twitter] [instagram]

XXO Amanda

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 See? She's pretty awesome, eh? Go follow her! ;)

A different Tuesday

I am finally joining my friend, Amanda for her weekly "Ticked Off Tuesday" posts. She once called my blog "all sunshine and smiles" and I can't say I hate her for it, hehe. So when she asked me to participate, I thought sure.. it might be a fun change of pace for the day.

& no one said I had to be toooo negative. ;)

Promise. This won't be a post where I complain complain complain, because I'm very thankful... BUT. There are a few things in life that make me slightly annoyed....

SUCH AS:

-Those people who leave their shopping carts at random spots of the parking lot after shopping. Seriously? Don't be that person. If you had the energy to leave your house, put a bra on, and do the groceries... you have the energy to put it where it BELONGS!

-Fun suckers. Don't be one! If I have exciting news that I want to share with you, don't suck all the fun out of it for me by complaining about your own life and making me feel selfish for being happy! Silly people. Just be happy with where you are.

-Coin laundry. One thing I am NOT looking forward too about apartments. Hoping we get lucky enough to find one with a washer/dryer hook-up inside, or you better believe I'll be hang drying EVERYTHING. My place will look like the alley ways of an old china-town.

-Those stupid Galaxy S 3 commercials that trash talk the iPhone like its their job. Get lost. I mean, I get it. Its a cool phone, but it makes you look like crap by bashing something else just because you couldn't come up with it first.

-Generic mac and cheese. No, thank you.

-Wedding vendors who never respond to you. Uh, thanks but you are not helping your business out any by ignoring potential customers. Crazies!

That is enough complaining for me today. 'Bout did me in for the week ;)

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Last night, Caleb and I had our first appointment with an apartment complex, it was a very fun first experience, we just aren't sure they are the ones for us. Which stinks, because they are less than TWO miles from my work! But, we know God's got something out there for us... we just have to find it!! Thanks for all your excitement via twitter/IG/my blog along with me about all of this wedding planning. You all are AWESOME!! Have a great day.

My life lately.

You know what is super hard??

Finding a title for every. single. post. Why can't there be some kind of random generator built into Blogger? Oh wells, onto my weekend recap, and some random pictures from the past week.

Friday night after work I went straight home, changed into my workout clothes and met up with Caleb to do our fourth day of Insanity. Oh, I didn't tell you I started Insanity? Well, I did.

Its nuts. We tried to do it once before, but we let life happen to us... and you know how that goes... oops...

See that second picture there? That is before my hair was soaking in sweat, and that dummy in the bottom left pic? That would be me, trying to pull off my friends glasses. Not working for me? I know, its sad. 

As I told you all Friday, I was going to Dayton to go dress shopping with two of my bridesmaids for my wedding and one of them found "theeeee dress"!!! She looked awesome in it, and I can't wait to see how gorgeous all of my ladies will look on my big day. I better look amazing, cause I have some pretty hot ladies up there with me. Don't believe me? Check em out, here, heeeere and HERE!

Awkward photo time...

We're good at being awkward...

Angie admiring her fake friend...

My "diet" is slowly turning into a lifestyle change... I went to the cheesecake factory on Friday, and my impulse was to order a hamburger. "No bun, please" were the words that came out of my mouth. What?! Who am I!!? Guess who ALSO didn't order a side of fries, but instead... green beans? Yes. Guilty. Can't say I was mad... it was quite a delicious meal.

& the numbers I'm seeing on the scale are paying off., and that makes me happy. I'm not doing this only to lose a few pounds... my skin looks better, I have more energy, and I sleep like a rock all night. It's incredible. You should try it ;)

Sadly, that hike I told you Caleb was going to go on this weekend? 32 miles? Well, he got to mile 15 and had to cross a creek, and his poor left knee went out of place (again--this has happened a lot in life), leading him to fall in the freezing cold creek, and he had to call it quits. So, instead of Insanity these next few days we'll be taking very LONG walks around his neighborhood. I could continue on my own, but we started this together, and I'd like to stay in this together. But oh well, it will pay off :)

Happy Monday all, hope your weekend was fabulous and full of relaxation!

Wedding time: The Church

Finding our church was NOT an easy task, let me tell you. We called a million. Okay, I am exaggerating a hair, but seriously it was a lot. Most of them either didn't have a center walk way for me, wouldn't let anyone get married in their church unless they were a member, or if we weren't members of that church, their pastor had to perform it, not one of our choosing. Which was sad to me, because Caleb and I are both members at a fantastic church...its just not quite big enough. Besides, we wanted our pastor to perform our wedding.

I think all of these rejections were a blessing in disguise because one day, I found out that a super sweet lady I work with went to a church right down the road from our company, and her father was the senior pastor. I kind of brushed it off thinking, "its probably some old school-tiny church"... 

Boy was I wrong, and glad I was! We visited, totally thinking in our heads it wouldn't be what we wanted or were looking for at all. We were in shock as we pulled up to this gorgeous 1/4 mile long winding black driveway, surrounded by 25 acres of hilly grass and one beautiful, ginormous church. 

This is the back view of the church, their website doesn't have many pictures. We will be having our reception outside under a giant tent, throwin' up some twinkle lights and we're slapping a dance floor down there outside and going to have ourselves a huge party. We cannot wait to say I do, right through those little windows.

Caleb and I started our pre-marital counseling last week, and goodness it was awesome. I HIGHLY recommend this to ANY of you ladies who are getting married. Its a great process that gets you more familiar with the expectations of marriage, keeping Christ in the center, and learning to love each other for who you really are, despite your own flaws. I can't wait for our next session, in a little less than two weeks! I'll be keeping you all updated on my potential DIY's, colors, and details as they happen.

Happy Friday, all! Have a great weekend. Anything fun planned? I know I do! I'll be trekking up to Dayton to spend my Friday night so I can spend my Saturday doing early morning Zumba with Angie, and then taking her and another BM (Becca) out to find their dress for my wedding, yay! While I am out perusing beautiful clothes, Caleb is going on a 24 hour/32 mile hike with some of his family/friends all day long.

& Sunday? It goes like this...

Be still, my heart.

Beware, I know I don't usually get allll mushy gooshy on you all too much... but let me just tell you. The quickest way to my heart (besides food), is my man being around kids. Ahh, goodness.

We have some super close friends who have theeee cutest daughter on the face of the Earth, little Nora. I've talked about that awesome family multiple times on my little blog here. She just turned two and this past weekend we helped set up her birthday party which was Dora themed. She hadn't seen Caleb and I in a little under two weeks, which is completely unusual. They just moved into a new apartment and so Nora felt inclined to scream of excitement and show us around the place.

I was playing with my camera, looked up... and saw this.

I mean seriously ladies. Is there anything hotter than a man being all fatherly? I don't think so. 

This seemed to be a recurring theme throughout the day... kids are drawn to him. I can't say I mind.

Now that I got that off my chest, onto the birthday girl. Isn't she the cutest?

She actually opened this and said "AH! My bible!" :) so precious.

Have a great week. Is it Friday yet??

My ladies: Part 3

I've already told you about the first four of the amazing pool of ladies I get to have stand next to me on my wedding day (here & also here!), and now its time I wrap these "meet my lady" posts with this one!

Meet my fourth bridesmaid: Ashley

Ashley was my very first friend when I was scared to death moving to a new school in 6th grade after my parents divorce. I knew we'd be like best friends when she complimented my amazing american flag velcro Skechers on the first day of school. Who didn't love a good pair of kicks back then? We also were famous for both buying "Kangaroos", writing each other notes, and zipping them up in our shoes. You haven't lived until you can store things inside your shoes, people. No but seriously, this girl is a constant light in my life. She is literally one of the funniest people I've ever met, and her laughter is infectious. She can make the hardest situations much easier to deal with, and  I am so blessed to have her in my life. We have both been through a lot for ladies our age, but have always stood by each other to cry, or laugh.. whichever way we feel like dealing with it that day. I love her to the moon and can't imagine my life without her!

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My fifth bridesmaid: Becca

I met Becca in college, and man am I happy I did. She is always up to do whatever, the most random things, and have the best time doing them. This chick is incredible at hair/make up (as you can see, pictured above), so you know I took advantage of that when we were still college neighbors. She is so much fun to be around, and she made a lot of difficult times for me seem easy to get through. She is such a sweetheart, and will tell me how it is, right when I need to hear it. I so appreciate her and our friendship, random text messages, and constant love... and only wish that we lived closer so we could run to Walmart together like we always did in college for absolutely no reason. Oh, this girl also knows how to rock a sweet pair of velcros... don't make me show you pictures. ;)

So, that wraps up my "meet my ladies" posts. I can only hope that when I am recapping my actual wedding, you will realize these are some familiar faces! Can we talk about the fact that my wedding is a craaazyy 130 days away! WHAT!? *panic mode* ... just kidding. I have kept myself pretty cool throughout this planning process, and have only cried once, and aunt flow just so happened to be on visit that week, no judging. 

PS-- If you are a new follower, email me! I want to get to know you! :) its because of YOU guys that I keep on doing this. Your support means more than you know! Happy Tuesday, friends.