Ten Things You Never Always Wished You Knew About Me (List of Ten Tuesday... On Monday.)

List of Ten Tuesday has been annoying me lately.  Mostly just the part about Tuesday.  I know, I know, I know. I'm the one who said there are NO rules to L.O.T.T., but I will admit that the simple fact that "Tuesday" is mentioned in the title has me feeling a little committed to posting my list on aforementioned day of the week. 

And I don't like rules, and I don't like expectations, and I don't like scheduling my other posts around Tuesday all the time; so from here on out, I will make no promises as to when my List Of Ten will appear.  Not that I ever really did, but I'm ESPECIALLY not NOW. 

So there.  You will have to read my blog every single day of the week to find List of Ten... day.  Sometimes it may fall on Tuesday, sometimes it may not. Alrighty?  Moving on.

My list of ten today actually involves a blogger tag I received from my dear friend Marissa!  Now to be quite honest with you, oftentimes I find these lists of questions rather dull and arduous, especially if they aren't accompanied by at least a few pictures... but then again, sometimes I also wonder if I'm a little A.D.D. and require massive amounts of visual stimulation in order to remain interested in a post for longer than 60 seconds.  But anyhoo.  I have answered the below ten questions to the best of my ability, attempting to make it somewhat interesting and providing visuals for as many items as I could.  Enjoy! ;)

List of Ten Things You Never Always Wished You Knew About Me

(but now you'll be SO glad to know them)

1) Why did you create your blog?

I've kept several blogs in the past and, in the beginning, blogging was just a way for me to creatively exercise my writing skills and keep my family and friends up to date on all of my exciting adventures (yeah, right). 





Via

 

But then when the only people who ever seemed to read my blog regularly were my Mom and Grandma (love you Mom and Grandma!), I started feeling unfulfilled by my blog.  I wanted more people to read.  I wanted to make a difference in people's lives.  I wanted to make people smile and laugh and think and be inspired.  And it wasn't enough that just a handful of people read my stuff. So that's when THIS humble little blog was born.

Because, as a writer, it's my dream to be read by hundreds or even thousands of people.  I want to, even if it's just in some small way, make a difference.    

2) What kind of blogs do you follow?

ALL KINDS.  I read everything from lifestyle blogs to fashion blogs to cooking blogs to interior design blogs to just plain weird blogs.  My favorite blogs are the ones I really feel I get something out of, especially if it's laughter, inspiration, or helpful tips of some sort.  

3) Favorite makeup brand?

Guess I don't really have one.  Almost every single piece of makeup I have is of a different brand.

4) Favorite clothing brand?

Oh J.Crew, how I love thee! But how expensive thou art!

5) Your indispensable makeup product?



This Lancome concealer. 
You see, fantastic genetics have afforded me rather frightening dark circles under my eyes, and without this concealer, I feel DISGUSTING.  Sometimes I even wear it to bed so my husband doesn't think he's sleeping with a dead woman.  It is that bad.



6) Your favorite color?

I just love COLOR in general, but my favorites are any variation of blue, aqua, turquoise, and green...

7) Your perfume?



Funny face required to make boring perfume question more interesting.
My "signature scent" has been Guess by Marciano for quite some time now, though I'm now in the market for a new perfume.

8) Your favorite film?
There's a lot that I love, but I'm a huge fan of all the comedies with guys like Ben Stiller, Vince Vaughn, and Will Farrell.
I think my all time fave is Dodgeball - I kid you not.



I wonder what this says about me?

9) What country would you like to visit and why?
That's a hard one!  I lived in Europe for three years, from ages 7 to 10, but I'd love to go back now that I'm older and would remember it/appreciate it more. 
I'd really love to go to Italy - it's one country we never visited, and I always wanted to go!

10) Write the last question and answer it yourself.
***What is your indispensable piece of clothing???***
Easy. 
Leggings.
I'm obsessed.
I almost never wear jeans anymore.
Why wear pants that cut off the circulation in your crotch when you can wear deliciously comfy leggings?!
I have no idea.

  This is not me.
Via


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COMMENT OF THE DAY!
(the most epic yet)

The comment below was left on last week's L.O.T.T. post by someone who is very near and dear to my heart.  We were best friends when both of us were living in Germany, and thanks to the wonderfulness of social media like Facebook, we were able to reconnect.  And she leaves EPIC comments on my blog.  I heart her very much.  The comment is split into two pictures. And you have to read last week's post or this won't make sense. Click to enlarge if needed.

 And she has a blog.  Go there.


Cheers, darlings!!

J

List of Ten Tuesday: What's In YOUR Emergency Bag?

I like to think I know my husband pretty well, but every now and then he'll do or say something that really catches me off guard and makes me realize that there's still a lot I don't know about this man. 

For example.  A couple days ago Matthew and I were in our bedroom tidying up, he rummaging around in a closed storage area accessed through our closet, and I cleaning up the bathroom (or something).  Suddenly, Matthew says "hey babe, do you have an extra box of tampons?"

Me: "Umm, what? Not really.  WHY?  Who's asking?"

Matthew(nonchalantly): "I just need it for our emergency bag."

Me (interest peaked): "Our emergency bag?  I was not aware that we had such a thing.  What exactly is this emergency bag for and what does it contain?"

Matthew: "Well, it's for times of great emergency.  You know, like in case of nuclear fallout or for if the robots take over the world.  We have everything we'd need to survive for a while."

Me: "I see.  Innnnnteresting.  How very forward-thinking of you."

Matthew listed a few things that the emergency bag contained, and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't laughing hysterically.  I wonder what the statistics are on people who are prepared for nuclear fallout versus those who are not.  And honestly, I wouldn't expect much less from my husband.  He is the MOST prepared person I know, in every way.  He is always thinking months and years down the line - always preparing, always planning, always protecting.  But I truly wasn't aware of this "emergency bag," and I just HAD to see what was inside.  And take pictures.  For my blog. 

Ready, set, go!

 Ten (plus) Things In Our Emergency Bag

(And you should have them, too)  

The Items (and there are MANY more than 10,

by the way - this is just a smattering):

1. (Obviously) A six month supply of drinking water and dehydrated food

(photo of water in item #4)

2. A food cooker

I do not know how exactly to describe this, but it does, supposedly, cook food.

3. A water filter

Capable of filtering e. coli, the ebola virus, etc (says Matthew)

4.  Tampons

Sorry to be graphic, but it IS rather sweet (in a weird way) that my needs are addressed in "the emergency bag."



Also pictured: the emergency drinking water.



5. Condoms 

Because who wants to be pregnant during nuclear winter or the attack of the robots? Nobody.

No picture for this one - sorry.  My mom and my grandma read this blog - awkward!!

6. Large body wipes

Even if there's no access to running water, at least we will still smell civilized.  

7. A bite and sting kit

And you knooow those snakes and bees will find me.

8. A full surgical kit

Obviously.

9. An ax

Because you never know when you might need one.

and 10. Many other miscellaneous items

Such as toothpaste and a toothbrush, mouthwash, extra clothes, a sleeping bag, a tent, duct tape ("to seal up the house and keep bioagents from seeping in" -Matthew), a rain suit, a portable toilet, water canteens, and a hand crank radio.

IS ANYONE ELSE AS UTTERLY AMAZED AND AS COMPLETELY AMUSED AS I AM?!

One thing is certain: in case of disaster, we will be well prepared.  I may be laughing now, but it's better to have something like this and not need it than to need it and not have it.  Plus,  it gives my husband a hobby.  He is asking for more items for his bag for Christmas.  Adorable.

And now, friends, I hope you'll write your own List of Ten Tuesday one of these days! It's super fun, and you'll find yourself brainstorming topics all week!  

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COMMENT OF THE DAY!!!

(I should probably call this comment of the week cause I don't do it as much as I should!  I'll try and be better!)

This comment was written in response to last week's List of Ten Tuesday post, and was regarding my mention of how unfriendly my neighbors are.  Allison is a really cool (and adorably preggo) girl who ALSO lives in Austin (just like me), and I always enjoy stopping by her blog.  This particular comment made me LAUGH OUT LOUD!!!  I'm sorry this happened to you, girl! ;)

The Blogivers

Have a happy, happy Tuesday... :)

J

List of Ten Tuesday - HALLOWEEN EDITION!!!

While deciding on the topic for this week's List of Ten Tuesday post, I debated heavily between writing something inspirational and relatable or something completely random and entirely self-indulgent. 

Ultimately I decided to go with latter. There's just no way around these types of posts every now and then!  I did things this weekend, pictures were taken while said things were being done, and it would just be a shame not to share. 

Feel free to join me and write your own list of ten (or five or eight or a hundred) today, and don't be shy - share your link in the comments!!!  I'd LOVE to read what you have to say! :) (You're welcome to use my L.O.T.T. picture too!)  

Let's get started....

Ten Random Things Pertaining to my Halloween Weekend and/or My Unneighborly Neighbors

1. Friday Pumpkin Carving Festivities

This Friday I was determined to carve our pumpkin even though my poor husband was grumpy from a long day of work - yeah, I was pretty much like "Matthew-I-don't-care-if-we-have-a-terrible-time-doing-it-but-we-will-carve-this-damn-pumpkin-and we-will-act-like-we're-having-fun-even-if-we're-not-and-we'll-take-MANY-pictures-of-ourselves-in-the-process-because-I-need-them-for-my-BLOG."

And in the end? We DID end up having fun! 

Just what the hubby needed to relieve some of that stress!

2. Then we roasted the pumpkin seeds. 

It was completely anticlimactic and they weren't at all how I remembered them tasting when I was little.

Oh well.  A word from the wise? 

Salt the seeds before you roast them. 

I put the salt on after they came out of the oven, and it didn't stick.  You live you, you learn, I suppose.

3.  I went to a Halloween/Housewarming/Birthday party

with my mother-in-law, and I was Cat Woman.  Sort of.  I had the mask anyway.

4. And my mother-in-law?  Cutest little Bavarian woman EVER.

5. Oh, and I held a precious little baby!

This was the sweetest, quietest, and best baby of all time. 

She barely made a peep throughout the entire party!!  My kinda kid. 

I also got to talk to Amy, the baby's mother, for quite a while.

She was diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer just days before giving birth to this little one (her second child), and she HAS to be the bravest woman I know. 

I can only pray that I would have the same strength and poise if something like this were to happen to me.

Be SO grateful, ya'll.

You never know what you have until you realize you just might lose it.

6.  I wrote my very first guest post!

Head over to Lauren's Life with a Lab (when you're done reading this list, of course) to check it out!

7.  I handed out candy to all the little goblins and ghosts...

and bums with cardboard signs that read "will work for candy."

True story.

That was an actual costume a kid was wearing!

And if you live in Austin, you know how funny that is.

The bums are everywhere!

Here I am waiting for the trick or treaters (this was towards the end of the evening - that basket was FULL when we started!)...

8.  I met my neighbor across the street for the FIRST TIME.

Ok, so this is a bone of contention with me.

We have lived in our new house NINE MONTHS now, and I had only met ONE of our neighbors up until yesterday.  And that first neighbor I met was only by default, because Cooper bulldozed through two fence pickets and into the yard next door - so I HAD to go meet the neighbor.

And I KNOW I should have done a better job these last nine months of, oh, I don't know, maybe just KNOCKING ON SOME DOORS AND INTRODUCING MYSELF, but I really thought the neighbors are supposed to come to YOU when you're the new one.  Like, "welcome to the neighborhood?" But no.  Not a single person has introduced themself to me (although Matthew has had words with two of our neighbors in passing). 

So picture this.  Our neighbor across the street comes trick-or-treating with her husband and three small kids, and finally introduces herself.  And when she asks if I'm liking the neighborhood?  Naturally, I start rambling on about how I'm-only-23-and-I-feel-a-little-out-of-place-and-I-should-be-reaching-out-more-but-I-probably-need-to-have-a-baby-so-I-can-befriend-the-other-moms, or something. 

God, I wish I could just direct people to my blog before I ever open my mouth.  I'm much cooler on the Internet.

9. So I decided to make them all cookies.




Via



That's right.

I decided that sometime in the next week or two,

I am going to get pretty Fall plates and bake pretty fall goodies and hand them out to all our neighbors.

I hate to think that we live every single day of our lives just FEET away from other families, and we don't even know their names!

So I'm going to change that.

And I'm sure I'll blog about it afterwards. ;)

And finally...

10. I got super excited when I saw these at the grocery store...

I can't wait til Christmas!!!

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COMMENT OF THE DAY!!!

The winner below left a comment on last week's List of Ten Tuesday post all about PMS...

Jess from Dude and Sweeties!

This woman is HILARIOUS and always makes me LOL.  Check her out!!!

Cheers!

J

List of Ten Tuesday! Except on Wednesday. PMS edition.

***We now return to our regularly scheduled programming!!***

Except kind of a day late.  Actually, almost two days late. Sorry.

List of Ten Tuesday may not exactly be occuring on Tuesday, per se, but didn't I say in my very first List of Ten Tuesday post that I reserve the right to write a list of ten on any day that I please?  Why yes, yes I did.  So now I will exercise that right.

Yesterday I was emotionally exhausted from the energy it sucked being mad at and writing a post about the anonymous commenter (whom I have since received an apology from).  But I have to say one thing before I get to my list: I have THEE sweetest, THEE coolest, and THEE funniest readers/blog friends in the entire universe.  No joke.  The amount of positive and encouraging feedback I received on my last post was ASTONISHING!!!  All throughout the day yesterday and today I have been absolutely in awe as some of the nicest, kindest, and sometimes most hilarious comments just POURED in.  And I really tried to reply to them all, but I sincerely apologize if I missed anyone - my Gmail account kind of confuses me and I may have skipped one or two of you unintentionally.  But PLEASE KNOW: your comments were a bright and sunny spot in my day. :)  I could never in a million years pick a favorite, so my last post will not have a "comment of the day" winner.  They were ALL THAT AWESOME.

But anyway, enough niceness.  I'm actually kind of grouchy.  Not because I have any reason to be, but simply because I am female, and women are cursed with wildly fluctuating hormones that, once per month, cause us to be rude to strangers, downright mean to people we love, and often even crueler to ourselves.  So, in honor of that lovely time of month we girls get to celebrate all the way up until menopause, I give you.... 

The PMS Edition.

Ten Side Effects of Being Female and/or People, Places, and Things That Actually Kind of Make Me Want To Stab Someone Approximately Once Per Month

(Gentlemen, don't sign off just yet.  This applies to you.  In a roundabout way.)

Shall we begin?

1. People at the Grocery Store (or any public place, for that matter).

Now, NORMALLY I looooove going grocery shopping. 

I kid you not. 

But whilst PMS ensues, I am bubbling over with animosity and irritation with my fellow shoppers.

The person slowly strolling through the crosswalk while I'm trying to park annoys me.

The person who left their cart in the middle of the aisle while they leisurely read the back of the cereal box annoys me.

Actually, anyone on the same aisle I am annoys me.  I prefer to have the aisle to myself.

The screaming children annoy me.

The people attempting to get me to try a sample annoy me.

You get the picture.

2. Facebook Statuses.

The things some people post on Facebook always amaze me, but while in the grips of PMS, I become enraged especially annoyed by them. 

A few of my favorites?

(Taken from my actual Facebook page. If any of these offenders read this, I do apologize.  It's that time of the month, and I cannot be held accountable for my actions)

The Cryptic Status

(i.e. no one knows what the hell it means):

The Passive Aggressive Status (also often cryptic)

(i.e. using Facebook to lash out instead of addressing issues constructively)

and The Completely Pointless Status

(most often utilized by those with complete lack of imagination)

Enough said.

3. Drivers on the Road.

If there were a recording device in my car during PMS, it would capture a lot this:

BLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEPPP!!!

Not ladylike.

Not recommended.

I'm just being truthful, ya'll.  Let he with no sin cast the first stone. 

Sins committed during PMS are exempt.

4. Paula Deen.

Do I really need to elaborate?


5. The Tears.
(this is more just a PMS side effect, not a person, place, or thing that makes me want to stab someone) They just come.  For no reason. 


Tears because of a commercial on TV. 
Tears because of a song on the radio. 
Tears because of an adorable baby I saw on a blog.
There is no rhyme or reason to the tears. And they frighten my husband.

This is not me.

6. Customers at the restaurant I used to work at. 

This won't apply to everyone, but when I was a waitress (for almost 8 years during high school and college), PMS hit HARD while at work.  There is simply nothing like the service industry.  People can be so darn rude - you have no idea!  And when rude people and PMS mix?  There was a lot of rage. 

Did you see the movie Waiting?  Remember Naomi?  That was me a little bit.  Once a month anyway.

7. Husband Antics I

I adore my husband, and normally I overlook his occasional messiness, etc. However, during The Severely Hormonal Times, I become fixated on certain things he does, and allow them to eat away at me until I ultimately explode into a fit of righteous anger.  Over things like this:

Ridiculous, I know.  Yet irksome, nonetheless.

8. Husband Antics II

My husband is always soooo surprised when "that time of the month" roles around and I turn into the Wicked Witch from the West.  You would think by now he would have it figured out - maybe written it down on a calendar or as a reminder on his iPhone.  It could look something like this:

But no!  Instead? Shock!  Horror!  Offense!  "Whhhhhy are you so GROUCHY?"

For the same reason I was last month, dear.  And for the same reason I will be every month for the rest of our forseeable future.  Love you!

9.  Cheerful people.

Normally I am one of them.  But while PMSing?  They bother me.  A lot.

10.  Migraines, Break-outs, Bloating, Rapacious Hunger, Extreme Fatigue, and Exceedingly Sore Bossoms.

Isn't PMS FANTASTIC???!!!

Bits of Truth

What are some things that drive YOU crazy during "that time of the month?"

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COMMENT OF THE DAY!

(from two posts ago)

The Ruby Turtle Hippie Times

There were a lot of fun comments in response to the question I posed, but Samantha's really made me chuckle. Check her out! :)

J