so true

I saw this e-card on Taylor's blog last night..
it could not be any more true!



this bloggity blog world is so competitive...
you sometimes just wonder what you are doing that is soo wrong.
am I not getting enough exposure? or is the issue deeper than that?
am I not funny enough? yeah right.
do I swear too much? or worse! not enough?
are my topics lame? are my posts too long or too short?
the stress is sometimes just too much!
so all I can do is wonder and then... keep on doing it!
blog for the 30 people who love me!
and the other 20 who came for the give away...
eventually those 20 will be over taken by my humor
and attractive nature! duhhhh.

yeahhhhhh buddyyyyyy

so what if I did just count to make sure there was the same amount of h's and y's...

so what if I have a secret gangsta crush on Pauly D... that is no longer a secret...

it is finally Friday which means that I am trolling for followers...
totally kidding. or am I?
either way ...
I am linking up with Lauren over at From My Grey Desk

it is pretty safe to say that this was a good week.
I felt like it was my obligation to enjoy this week regardless...
it was the last week of August ya know!
so lets get down to it!

/1/ snuggling with my puppy after a long day. it just makes you happy! plus then you know she's not up to anything... like eating a box of q-tips [including the dang box].

/2/ exercising multiple days this week. feels great not to be a lazy B. I've been eating pretty healthy too and I am really starting to feel it in my mood!

/3/ sushi! I love it. even when it's not great I love it! yum-o

/4/ casual Friday. nothing feels as good as wearing jeans to the office. plus these eggplant heels are gorg.

/5/ my first and only Starbucks for the week. it was definitely as delicious as I thought it would be. just another reason to look forward to Fridays!

I am pretty excited for this weekend. not only is it a weekend, which gets me geeked in general,
but it is a long weekend too!
there are many good things in this world... having a few Monday's off is definitely one of them!
something that I am really looking forward to this weekend is something that Aaron and I have never done before.
we are going to Arts Beats & Eats tomorrow. ...I love eats and I like art & beats. it should be a good time!

What are you looking forward to this weekend?!

jam out [with your clam out?]

haha totally kidding.
but really...
I went running in these shorts yesterday,
they kept riding up, like WAY up...
at one point it was as if I was running in underwear.
totally hilar. in the kill yourself kind of way
it was completely embarrassing!

on to my real post now please?

I am linking up for It's Ok Thursday with Amber and Neely

...it's okay

• to post completely random and unrelated photos so that this post has at least a couple images in it. posts with no photos are totally boringgggg.

• to be late to work almost everyday this week because my boss is on vacation? it actually hasn't been on purpose at all.. I just haven't been getting a lot of sleep.
• to have just started class yesterday, have homework already and be ignoring it.
• to be thinking about dinner.

• that I still have laundry to do from last week, even though I want to do laundry one day a week.
• to be annoyed when people are constantly on their cell phones. it kind of makes you wonder why you are even there... ya know? 
• to love the Chris Brown cd. (a real life guilt issue here people.. a story for another day I think...)
• that I really need to get back to work because I have a deadline today that I have really been half-assing.

I hope this Thursday blows your mind with greatness?

sooo what...

so what! if...

• i was late for work this morning. i'll stay a little later this afternoon, and the sleep was totally worth it.

• i strongly considered getting Starbucks today.. on day three of my month without Starbucks.

• i love candy as much as a small child.

• i created a brief list of things i should do each day of the week:
• Monday: straighten house
• Tuesday: work on portfolio
• Wednesday: homework
• Thursday: straighten house
• Friday & Saturday: free days
• Sunday: blog, edit photos, laundry, homework

• i created that list and then haven't done anything that i wrote down.

• this list is totally brief because i am in a decent mood for once! haha

go link up with Shannon and see what everybody else is saying "So What!" to this week!

totally eventful

yesterday was a good day.

I finally finished something at work that I had been stressing over...
anything with a noon due date freaks me out.
people think that means they have until like 11am to get there shiz together.
um no. finish it the night before please.
anyway :)
I got it out a little early and it was perfect.
a page under the maximum even. good work Amanda!


I got myself out of the house and did a short run.
it might not be much but at least I did something.
Aaron worked until 11 last night so there was a good chance of me doing nothing at all,
I got Breanna to come over and we went.
We did like two miles.
I would have liked to go further but we had to get to the pharmacy before they closed.
excuses, excuses right?
I definitely plan on going again today, so don't worry about it!

since I had such a productive day at work,
and also because I burned 200 calories (obvs)
Breanna and I decided to go get sushi!!
<she's so cute! 
I got a salmon roll and a shrimp tempera roll.
we tried a new place and I wasn't the biggest fan...
I probably won't go there again.
the location was nice I guess but not really worth it.







also, last night our friends had their baby!
I cannot wait to take pictures.
he is so so cute already.
and clearly he is a considerate guy.
showing up at 9pm is just the classy thing to do.

<so damn attractive... 
today I am at work.. alone so far.
the ladies keep coming in later and later.
which isn't so bad. especially today..
because, well,
I was totally late.

today I plan on completely finishing my guest post for my September Sponsorship of The Daily Tay.
I have a feeling that it is going to take me quite awhile...
so since I am putting in so much effort make sure you keep an eye out!
it's going to be great...
embarrassing if nothing else.











have an amazing Wednesday everybody!

rehab

(via)

it is day two without Starbucks..
it has been rough to say the least.
I'm totally kidding. it hasn't really been too bad.
but that is probably because it's only day two,
andddd because I haven't stopped the iced coffee.
I just can't quit it..
fortunately I have found a product so now I don't even need to.

I'm pretty sure it's going to change my life...
well if nothing else it will change my budget.
I can probably get a week of this stuff for the equivalent of one day at Starbucks.
of course it's not exactly the same. let's not even try to pretend..
but when we are talking $4.29/day compared to $4/week the mind can convince you.

uh why did I just have an amazing idea?
Starbucks money saving challenge? obviously.
hold that thought.
let me track through my bank statement to determine how much I spent last month!
actually, if you know anything about me, you know that I'm pretty damn lazy.
let's just estimate, kay?

($4.29/day)(3days/week) = $12.87/week
($12.87/week)(4weeks/month) = $51.48/month

alright so being totally conservative we get $52 being spent on Starbucks a month...
and by conservative I basically mean that I am a liar.
now if I remember to follow through with this until the end of September we will see how much I save by drinking that stuff instead of buying Starbucks. which unless you remind me I totally won't!
ya know why? because I am an addict and we all know that I am going back...

 

not as productive

as I would have hoped.. but it was good none the less.

yet I am still participating in two separate link-ups to tell you about it:
The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly with two new faces: Kati and Kate
and also the usual The Weekend Update

ready? excellent.

/the good/ there was a lot of good this weekend. we had some fun, some relaxation, and some good food. on Saturday Aaron and I slept in, which was really really needed. We had a nice breakfast with Barbara [my grandma] and then headed over to Aaron's friend's house [Derek]. He asked Aaron to stop by to help him with something "real quick, 10-15 minutes". Yeahhh. We ended up over there for like 2 hours but it was a really nice time. He's wife is pregnant so there is always a lot to talk about, and in general she's a cool girl anyway. We then went to Ann Arbor to shoot some more photos at The University of Michigan, to eat, and to drink. I will post photos from that as soon as I edit some that I think might be of interest to you guys!

 sexy right... lol

something you might be interested in knowing,
I made fruitloop treats!
you know, like rice krispy treats, but way more sugar.

twice the deliciousness

/the bad/ Aaron has been having some real bad back pain so on Friday we had to go to the urgent care. depending on who you ask this actually ended up being a good thing though because the urgent care we went to was the one that Breanna works at. She got to give him a shot in the ass... she loves giving injections and he is a huge baby it was quite entertaining. It was bad though because he was kind of cranky and made this face all weekend:

such a party pooper!

/the ugly/ there is a girl at work. her job is to find us work to pursue and she has this white board that for the longest time has said "we need a whale". I was bored at work and drew a whale..  not my best attempt.

anddd that was my weekend!! lol

also guys, there is a huge give away going on over at Living In Yellow

I'm in it duhh. go there and do that shiz!

my lover's birthday

Aaron's birthday was actually during our vacation as it is almost every year.
I don't know about you, but I love, love, love, a good birthday.
or even a bad one, really... it doesn't matter. I love birthdays.
Aaron on the other hand does not care at all.
He has finally accepted though that I will make a huge deal out of all of them.
this year's was especially important to me because Aaron turned 25.
this means that for a short time he can no longer call me old or make jokes about trading me in.

you see, I am 8 months older than him and he NEVER lets me forget it.
this year I want all out with a birthday banner, "home made breakfast," and an army man cake!
yep. I am an amazing girlfriend. he should really put a ring on it.
I made him toast lol I didn't even make the coffee, my mom and brother did.
he seemed to enjoy himself though and that is all that matters to me!

happy birthday Aaron! I can't wait to see what happens for the big 2-6 next summer! I love you :)

on my own

today is going to be a little hectic, but I could not be happier that it is Friday!
I am alone in my department which is also pretty exciting.
there will most definitely be music blaring and probably me singing...

in order to embrace such a fantastic day I have decided to try a new link up:
I am linking up with Lauren from My Grey Desk to participate in high five for friday.

/1/my birchbox finally came. while I was excited that it had finally arrived, I wasn't 100% sold on the contents. although, I did receive a pretty nice razor (which I'm sure we can all agree are so expensive and totally over priced, so that was nice to get). I am really looking forward to seeing what comes in the September box! hopefully the stuff inside will be photo worthy this time.

/2/I went to the University of Michigan to do my first semi-professional photo shoot for work this week. I was really nervous but it was amazing. I had a great time and the photos came out better than I expected. The 8 hours of editing wasn't even that bad!

/3/the past two weeks I have been really struggling over what to write for my guest post for September. then yesterday out of the blew, the topic just came to me! over the course of the day my post got so long that I had to start taking things out. it is always such a great feeling to break through the writers block.

/4/finally went running yesterday. it felt great and I actually did fairly well. I can't wait to go tonight. I seriously want to improve my distance. at this point I really don't care how slow I'm going as long as I can keep moving... and breathing might be nice!

/5/Starbucks. duh.

now. I am off to a meeting and the craziness that is my day!

this might possibly be a rant..

I think my blog has gotten boring. do you know what? I think I have gotten boring!
I haven't really been doing very much so there hasn't been much to talk about...
lame, right? it's a little early in this entire situation to be boring!

I start school again soon. next week actually. I'm sure that will give me a lot to bitch about!
coming back from that vacation and getting back into the swing of blogging and working has been difficult. excuses, excuses, right? gross.

you know how when you have a lot going on, or a lot of stress and thoughts in your mind, you just shut down and do nothing? the fear of starting is so overwhelming that you don't know what to do with yourself? well that is where I am...

my list continues to grow while my actions stay minimal

• get back on track health wise: stop being so damn lazy, just run because I like it. cook and eat healthy because I feel and look so much better when I do!
• finish my portfolio. do you know that I have been taking grad classes for like... 2.5 years now for a program that I am not exactly accepted in? (it's complicated)
• finish my portfolio to get an awesome job! why is it that you can hate(ish) your job but do nothing to change it?
• create some sort of design based resume. word doc resume is not what I need in this field.. what the eff am I doing!? clearly nothing.
• just go. go take photos, travel, go places after work. whatever the heck, just GO!
• edit photos? why do I have like 3000 photos and 100 of them are edited? oh yeah because those 100 were for work. dumb.
• get out of debt, its only a little debt to get rid of before I can start paying towards my loans... I don't know why I can't just stop being dumb and spending money on really dumb things..

it will be better tomorrow.. okay? let's all believe that!

It's Okay {Thursdays} to have a caffeine addiction

ah yes. it is that time again.
let's see... what am I making excuses for this week?

it's okay

...to have 5+ shots of espresso in one day.

...to not be sure what I'm going to do with my life (career based only of course) even though I am almost 26 years old.
...to love taking photos but let someone else edit them just the way I say.
...to really, really, enjoy certain aspects/tasks of my job but in general dislike it. seems to be the way life is...
...to fight with friends as long as everyone can see their faults, apologize, and learn something out of it all.

(via)

 ...to want to be the skinny one in ^^that photo^^ lol
...to be planning to go buy those old lady slimming underwear after trying on those dresses this morning.

  (via)

...to still not have started be finished editing vacation photos to use here in a real post.
...to have accidentally hit Aaron in the eye ball (for real, wetness on my finger :X) while folding laundry.

yep. it is all okay with me!

Edit Schmedit

today there is a whole heck of a lot to say SO WHAT! to...
I should probably get started.

so what! if...

• I got excited when my boss complimented me on a bio paragraph I wrote. it's the little things in life isn't it?
• I went to Starbucks twice and had Breanna bring me Tim Hortons yesterday... I had a long day of shooting! p.s. don't try the Tim Hortons' Iced Latte, it probably goes without saying but it was pretty sick.
• I plan on going to return something so I can buy something #brokeassproblems
• my pants are still tight after vacation. I've been good since Sunday.. shit I forgot about those donut holes...
• I edited photos for 8 hours last night and probably won't get paid for it. just kidding, I'm kinda irritated about that one.

• I put on two dresses this morning and than changed to pants.
• I really want to move to change things up but I can't decide where. it has been narrowed down at least? Grand Rapids, MI - Chicago, IL - a "farmy area" close to my city now so I can still shop and have Starbucks... 
• I really really really love Taylor's blog. saw her on gchat last night and had a deep conversation with myself as to whether it would be creepier or not to message her, only to realize she had already signed off... creeper.
• I haven't folded laundry since we were actually up north on vacation. I have laundry baskets all over the place at home.
• I am seriously behind on all the things I need to get done for this beautiful blog. just kidding again. it is stressing me out.
• I think I am excited to start classes but we both know that I'm really not.

okay. I should stop... this list could literally go on!

have an awesome day ladies (and gentlemen? I doubt it.)

Work... What's that?

it is that thing that I sometimes do...
and today I am doing it.
I am out on location doing my first ever shoot.
photo shoot that is...
I felt I needed to clarify since you know my deepest anger issues.

I leave you with this thought,
and only this thought:

oh yes my friend.
that is me, my fatty fat arms, and the lumberjack
have a happy Tuesday everyone!!

What Is Brown & Sticky

{a stick}

hahahahah

insta-cation

/1/heading out on the road to our week long vacation. /2/had to create a vacation sound track! and of  course had to decorate the disk.. /3/Aaron getting his drive on. /4/so... i bought some mustache straws to celebrate Aaron's birthday week. He seemed to enjoy it. /5/mother. /6/hermano.

/7/hermano shooting the AR. I took pictures and did not participate. the boys were not happy about it. /8/this vacation we went all out tourist and got some old time photos done. I kinda look hot... /9/hell yes, lumber jack show. please come back to my blog really really soon so that you can see all the photos from the show! /10/quicksand beach in the upper peninsula. /11/we almost hit a deer and practically ran out of gas on this particular car ride north. Aaron was jazzed to make it to this hill billy gas station! /12/chillin' in the woods, obvs

 

 /13/wandering through the woods, we took a picture together. how totally normal. /14/giant boat. /15/Aaron drives a lot, okay? don't judge me!! /16/YAY!! we found a starbucks!! SO SO SO happy! /17/so comfy, sleeping quietly in the car. /18/just kidding. have a horrible ride home, in the pouring rain, with your crying dog, hahahahahaha, love god.

Miss You

don't leave me guys. I'm on vacation...
doing a shiz ton of stuff to entertain you with.

a great post is coming your way...
Monday I promise!!