Hey Y'all Hey

So remember how I said I would be kind of MIA in this post? That turned out to be more true than I thought it would be. We took a trip to Tulsa last week to help move my in-laws here to Jax! And it turns out we didn't have internet pretty much the entire time (which was kind of awesome actually).

I had a post planned for Friday and figured I would post at least on Monday or Wednesday this week, but since I didn't really want to write out a post on my phone that didn't happen.

 It was a total whirlwind of a trip. We arrived in Tulsa on Thursday night (last week), spent a few days packing the house and the moving truck, drove roughly 20 hours back to Jax, arrived in Jax late Wednesday night, and then unpacked the moving truck yesterday. I'm back at work today and while I feel surprisingly well-rested, I also feel kind of zombie-like.

ALL that to say, I know I have a crap-ton (yes, that is a measurement) of comments to respond to but I promise I will! I'm currently slogging through literally hundreds of emails (deleting most of them because they are junk) and I know I also need to announce a winner for the giveaway which I plan to do on Monday. Thanks for your patience in the meantime!

I also wanted to say a huge THANK YOU and WELCOME to all of my new followers! So good to see you all here, and I look forward to learning more about you! Cheers to Friday!

Thank you + A Giveaway

Well, well. I have survived an entire year of blogging. One year ago on this day I wrote my very first post (Don't laugh). 185 posts later, this is probably the most successful I have ever been at keeping up with any journal-type thing with any amount of consistency.

 I started this thing not really knowing where it was headed, but I could not be more thankful for all of the wonderful ladies I have "met" and gotten to know through this experience!

What keeps me coming back to this space is most definitely you, my lovely readers.

So thank you to every single one of you who have read and left sweet comments and become my friends! I am so amazed and thankful that anyone cares to come to this space and read my words. I know my blog is nothing special, nothing mind-blowing or life-altering or even "pinnable" most of the time. But I love this little space, and I love that we can share our lives with each other.

So all that to say, I just wanted to do a little giveaway as a thank you! I wish I could throw a party and bake cupcakes and invite all of you! But I'll have to settle for giving away a Starbucks gift card. ::shrugs::

The giveaway will run for one week! Good luck!


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Currently...

- Continuing to majorly slack in the blog department. If you left a comment on Friday's post and it has not been responded to yet I am very sorry and I promise I will get to it soon! With the in-laws here this week my schedule has been even more off than it already was and I've been focusing on enjoying time with them in the evenings rather than being online.

Not that you're all waiting on the edge of your seats for my response or anything, but I try to always respond to every comment because it means a lot to me that you all read and comment on my babbling!

- Trying to decide what I should do for my one year blogiversary coming up in August. Has it really been almost a year?? Shut. up.

- Thinking I might need to cut down on my Bloglovin' follows. I always feel bad doing that but my feed is getting outta control and there are just some blogs I follow that I hardly ever or never read and I'm having a hard enough time keeping up with all of my daily reads!

- Really needing to finish planning Adam's half-birthday dinner like now, since it's coming up in about two weeks.

- Wishing Florida didn't have flesh-eating bacteria in the ocean so we could go swimming at the beach without feeling like we're risking our lives. I wish I was kidding. I realize it's not that common for people to actually contract it and die, but really, who wants to take a swim with some flesh-eating bacteria??

- Enjoying the Summer but already looking forward to cooler temps, long sleeves, boots, and pumpkin everything. I realize I live in Florida and we have at least two more months of Summer temps but let me dream.

- Honestly so ready to put the first half of this year behind me. It wasn't horrible or anything, just disappointing and frustrating in a lot of ways and I'm ready to move on.

- Looking forward to eating dinner tonight because my MIL is making her Rigatoni and OMGeeee it's so good!!

 

What are you up to these days?

 

 

 

Confessions with a side of Hashtags

I just found out that the phrase "on fleek" originated with Ariana Grande and Kim Kardashian. It all makes so much sense now. #stopmakingupwords

I just watched a video about how taking loads of selfies in fact does not lead to better self-esteem but actually makes us more self-conscious and more likely to focus on our flaws, and my thought was "Um, duh??" #icouldhavetoldyouthat

I didn't really care all that much about the Lilly Pulitzer/Target collab, just not my thing. But now that everything is gone and I'm seeing pictures of the stuff they had I'm kind of like "Awww, that's so cute, I want it! " #alwayswantwhatyoucan'thave

I just finally looked into Blogging for Books and signed up instantly because um, free books? Yes, please! But now I'm kind of nervous. I haven't really done book reviews on the blog before because I don't really know what to say about a book without giving too much away and I feel like I would just be awkward. But too late now, they're sending me a book as we speak. #stillexcitedaboutthefreebook

Do you ever have one of those days at work where you've only been there for 30 minutes and you're already thinking, "Yup, I'm going to be raiding the vending machine today." #notmyproudestmoment

I just ate my last Cadbury egg and I'm kind of sad now #chocolatestash

When Adam isn't going to be home for dinner I eat like a 5 year old. Like my options are either soup from a can or PB&J. I just really don't like to cook after working all day, especially when it's just for me. #lazy

After the BBQ party I was looking through the pics people posted on FB of me and totally agonizing over them because I HATED how I looked in pretty much all of them. Why does this always happen? Why am I the least photogenic person on the planet?? #I'msovainIproblythinkthispostisaboutme

Um, yes. Literally all the time. I hate Facebook so much. 

Weekend Recap: Party Edition!

So this weekend was fabulous and I really don't understand why 3 day weekends aren't just the norm. I mean, 2 days?? That's barely enough time to get the house clean and go grocery shopping, forget relaxing! Who do we need to talk to so that this can be a thing?

You guys. I made a button for my blog. I feel super smart and savvy now. I realize this is pretty basic stuff but I'm still all proud.

<div align="center">
<a href="http://www.gracemakesnew.blogspot.com" title="Grace Makes New"><img src="http://i1124.photobucket.com/albums/l573/loveyoualatte/grace%20makes%20new_1.png" alt="Grace Makes New" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

Here it is if you want to grab it! Let me know if you do, and now that I know how to add buttons I can add your button to my blog and it will be one big happy button swap love fest! That sounds kind of awkward. Moving on.

I got my gallery wall hung on Wednesday night so it was ready for the party! I lurve it:

Friday we slept in really, really late. Like way later than we have slept in a long time. Clearly it was much needed. We woke up slow, as Jack Johnson would say, and it was glorious! Then we went out to lunch and went to the store to get everything we still needed for the party. It may be nerdy and/or cheesy of me, but I just really enjoy little things like shopping with Adam and running errands. He makes everything more fun, even buying groceries! I know, I know, cheesy cheese.

After that we came home and I did some cleaning and prepping food for the party. I made the crust and filling for a fruit pizza and the Crack Pretzels. Adam made the most AMAZING BBQ chicken and ribs for dinner.

After dinner we watched the X-Files and I did my Jamberry manicure, more on that later!

On Saturday morning I finished up my cleaning and the food. Everyone arrived for the party about 3:30 and we had a great time!

IDK why my upper arm looks so out of proportion to the rest of my arm in this picture, it's kind of freakish. Clearly I have no idea how to pose for pictures in the most flattering way. Photogenic I am not. But it's the only one I have of me and Adam and other than my freakish arm it's a good picture! 

Saturday evening Adam and I watched movies and relaxed, the perfect ending to the day!

Sunday was a pretty lazy day, Adam went out to the field and I started watching The Good Wife, which I am now hooked on. We went to lunch and got treats:

And binge-watched Brooklyn Nine-Nine while I worked on our budget and meal planned. I've got another semi-short week this week because I only work half the day this Friday, so hopefully this week will go fast! How was your weekend? 

Confession: I'm a Perfectionist and It's Not Fun

So remember how I was going to use my blogging break last week to write a bunch of posts that have been just sitting around in my brain waiting to be written? Yeah, um, about that.

Turns out I have writer's block. But not the kind where you run out of ideas. The kind of writer's block where I have plenty of ideas swirling around in my head but then when I go to actually put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard?) I just kind of blank out because I feel like I don't know how to really articulate my thoughts. So instead of just starting to type and working it out as I go, I freeze up and don't even try. Lame.

Ok, this ecard is actually rather perfect here (no pun intended) because it articulates my exact feelings BUT the mistake in the grammar is driving me crazy. So wonderfully ironic. *I'd rather...*

This is not a new phenomenon for me. It pretty much comes with territory of being horribly perfectionistic. And I don't say "I'm a perfectionist" in that humble-brag, "I do everything perfectly or not at all" kind of way (because of course I don't do everything perfectly). Being a perfectionist is actually really frustrating, because it paralyzes you. It says "I don't know that I can hit this out of the park on the first try, so forget it." Or "I tried that once and sucked at it, so never mind."

Of course at the root of all of this is ugly, stinking pride. Being afraid to fail because what? I'm afraid what people will think? I'm afraid my worth will go down in their estimation? And so what if it does? Why am I SO afraid of that?

Pride does not serve. Pride does not love. Pride is more concerned with it's own comfort and status than it is with helping others.

It's really funny too, because of course I KNOW being perfect is a big ol' lie and entirely impossible, and I've already failed at being perfect. Like, on Day 1. So I know what I need to do instead is to "cease striving." But I still struggle.

I think ultimately I just don't want this fear to keep me from the potential to accomplish some pretty great things. From following God's plan for me into the great unknown. Gosh, I hate unknowns. I'm pretty much the exact opposite of an adventurer, someone who's willing to throw caution to the wind and just go for it. I've always said I wish God would just give me a 5 year plan, you know? Just lay it out for me so I know what the next 5 years is going to look like and which way I'm supposed to go, and I'll be good. That's obviously not how it works though.

I know my goal in life is not meant to be "Do everything perfectly and make sure everyone likes you and always be safe and never do anything you could fail at." If you never try, then you'll never know, right? (h/t to Coldplay)

Sheesh. This got heavy in a hurry. Sorry about that. I just have a lot of feelings.

I'm Back!

Well hiya! I missed y'all! Last week was actually really nice though, I thoroughly enjoyed my time "unplugged". How was everyone else's week? I feel so out of the loop!

I did a lot of reading and finished The Husband's Secret and OMG SO SO GOOD. The epilogue. I won't give any spoilers but suffice it to say mind. blown.

This weekend was really nice as well. We go to our church's Thursday night service, so our Easter service was Thursday night instead of Sunday morning.

Then Friday at work was actually pretty nice because things were pretty slow and low-key. Adam dropped our fur babies off at the vet Friday morning so they could get caught up on all of their shots and check-ups and heartworm/flea meds and HOLY WOW it was a small fortune! Don't have three dogs unless you want to spend a buttload of money every time you go to the vet.

Then when we got home from dinner that evening we opened the garage door and heard a loud POP. This is not a good sound. Turns out one of the cables on the side of the door had slipped off the track and the door got stuck. Adam worked SO hard to get it fixed and he did fix it, he got the cables back on the track and retightened the springs, and he got it to go up and down a few times! But as he was finishing up and tightening one of the big springs in the middle it broke in half.

So now we have to pay to have someone fix it.

I guess when it rains it pours, huh?

On Saturday we had plans for Easter dinner at a friend's house, so I spent the morning baking and decorating a Carrot Cake to take.

Dinner was wonderful and we had a great time with our friends! 

Adam said he made this face because "The Easter Bunny Cometh" 

AMAZING Lemon Meringue Pie made by friends

All the yummy goodness

The inside of the cake! 

Our selfie

Sunday looked mostly like a whole lot of this: 

It is most definitely way past time for me to really get back on track with my eating plan, so I planned out my entire week, every meal including snacks. That seems to be the best way to keep me on track. So today is a fresh start, and I am so ready! 

How was your Easter weekend?