Celebrate the Little Things

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So Tuesday was my birthday. The big 2-6. I like to call August my birthday month and attempt to get my husband to buy me a present every day. It never works. However, he does spoil me rotten so I guess that makes up for it. Kinda.

When the best day ever came rolling around, it got me thinking about what has happened since my last birthday. I'm not sure I'll ever have such an eventful, amazing, crazy, busy, wonderful year. Let's break it down:

*August 28, 2011: Turned 25
*September 24, 2011: Got married
*September 25, 2011: Moved out of house that we sold
*September 25, 2011: Moved into other house that we had for sale
*October 2011 to April 2012: Fixed up said house
*December 2011: Signed paperwork to start the building process of our new home
*February 2012: Went on on honeymoon (finally) to Mexico
*March 2012: Spent 2 weeks in England with my guard unit
*June 2012: Sold the house we were living in and lived with the in-laws for a few weeks
*June 2012: Signed a million papers and moved into our new house
*August 2012: Sold my car and bought a new car
*August 2012: Had to move out of our new house for the Parade of Homes and then move back in a few days later

*...and here we are. Holy moly.

I can't forget to mention that I also worked full time, drove 6 hours to Montana one weekend a month for guard drill and tried to squeeze some fun in there as well.

While my 25th year was certainly the best I've ever had, I'm hoping this year has a few less major moments. I want to cherish the simple things in life. Read more. Explore close to home. Be a newlywed. Make our house a home. Blog more. Cook and bake more. Spend more time with family and friends. Spend more time with Travis. Walk Riley more. Do nothing once in awhile.

Those big moments sure make life exciting, but it's the little things that makes life that much more wonderful. I am, however, planning on checking off lots of things from my 26 in 26 list and I'll definitely keep you posted. I can't wait for the adventures and little moments! I'm headed to Boulder tomorrow and I can't wait to share my Aunt's wedding. It is going to be such a fun, beautiful day.

When's your birthday and how do you celebrate? Do you make a big deal out of it or keep it quiet? I like to tell everyone. It is my day, after all!

House Tour: Pre Move-In

The day has come! I’m finally getting around to posting pictures. I almost don’t want to tell you that I took these pictures the day we closed on the house ::cough, June 20, cough:: It is before we have anything moved in aka before we could make any messes. I plan on posting updates as we slowly get our house decorated. We have so many projects planned that we are so excited about. Anyways, enough of me rambling, I hope you enjoy the photo overload.

p.s. to get an idea of our floor plan, check out this post.
p.s.s. excuse the horrible photo quality. I’m still learning how to use my fancy-schmantsy camera…
p.s.s.s. picking colors from tiny swatches is probably one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do…

The basement with a cozy, corner gas fireplace. I spy Jess legs. I forgot to take a picture of the door. We have a walk-out basement. It’s to the left of me in the bottom picture. It’s amazing.

Our wet bar AKA where we spend most of our time. Ok, not really. But once we get bar stools? Really.

The extra bedrooms. The one on the left is our office and the right is our guest bedroom.

The main bath with the cutest little closet you ever did see.

The mud room off of the garage with a separate door to the laundry. Oh, and a happy darg.

Our dining table nook with a terrible view, and the nook looking towards the kitchen.

I. Love. My. Gas. Stove. and the chipped edge granite. and wine in boxes.

More terrible views. This is pretty much what we see from every window on the back/side of the house.

Our main living area which is open to the kitchen. This door will go out to our someday amazing deck. Yes, I picked green as an accent. Yes, I love it. Yes, I’m sure I’ll get sick of it someday.

Where the magic happens AKA beauty sleep. The closet is bigger than it appears. So is the room.

Our lovely master bath. Yes, the tub is as amazing as it looks. Yes, that is a thermometer for the heated floor. Yes, the mirror really is that huge. Yes, we got that last light covered. You were going to ask those questions, right?

A few notes:

* The paint is the same throughout the entire house with the exception of the accent wall. {Sherwin Williams – Nomadic Desert, Dried Thyme}. It was expensive to paint each room different, so we’ll do our own painting and save moolah. I wanted to stay pretty neutral so I could decorate with lots of color.
* I didn’t show you all of the closets. They are all amazing.
* There is more to the basement but it is unfinished. One room we use as our band room, one as the workout room, and we have a toilet in the unfinished bathroom. I can’t wait for that project! Seriously.

There ya have it! Our empty, clean, new home. It’s amazing how wonderful hanging pictures and setting up furniture looks. It makes it much more cozy. Anyone have any decorating tips/ideas? I need all the help I can get.

Friday's Letters to my Favorite Things

So perty. Boulder, Colorado. via

Dear PBJ Band, I'm so excited for your little gig tomorrow. I love watching my husband sing and play music. It's one of my favorite things about him. Dear Colorado, I can't wait to visit you next weekend. I'm so happy for my Aunt AKA pretty much big sister to finally tie the shot. Eileen is one of my favorite people and Boulder is one of my favorite cities! Dear Birthday, you are next week and I'm so excited for us to meet again. Until the day I got married, you were my favorite day of the year. You're still pretty close though. Dear 26 years old, let's make you my favorite age, since I do that every year. It just keeps getting better and better. Dear Riley, you are my favorite dog but that doesn't mean I don't want another one. I'm so dog desperate hungry. Dear Nip/Tuck, holy crazy, batman. Even the husband is addicted to you right now and there's no doubt that you are our favorite guilty pleasure right now. Thank you, NetFlix, for turning us into piles of zero productivity.

Pretty please, husband?? via

I'm getting a little crazy today and linking up to TWO of my favorite bloggers, Ashley and Lindsey. Did you hear The Bargain Blonde is moving to Vegas?! So excited for her new adventure and that we get to hear all about it!

I hope you guys have a fantastic weekend full of adventure and maybe a little nonsense.
p.s. The House Tour WILL be posted Monday morning (yes, it is scheduled so I have no excuses) so make sure you check back!

Bloggy Break Mission: Complete

...well, for the most part. Anyone still here?? ...crickets...??

I sure hope so! The you still being here part! I missed being here but I'm pretty much addicted to blogs so I stayed caught up reading all yours. Priorities! We are all moved back in after having to move out for the Parade of Homes. At the time, it was a huge pain in the rear, but now that it's all said and done, it was so totally worth it.

We had hundreds of people walk through our house while we had to stay somewhere else, but we got this beauty of a wet bar for payment.

We had it framed in the building of our house but were saving some dough by planning on finishing it ourselves. Well, they finished it way more fancy than we ever would have and saved us time and money! Woo! And in case you were wondering...Yes. We're lushes.

Am I the only one that thinks he looks like Bradley Cooper?

Anyways, I'm so excited to FINALLY post a reveal of our new home. No it's not decorated and will be a work in progress for awhile, but I'm excited to share our adventure in DIY and decorating. There's bound to be a lot of misadventure as well, but hey, that's what life is all about.

Oh, and if you're looking for something extremely delicious and easy to make for a party or guests, make this SKINNY Banana Cream Pie from SkinnyTaste. It was so easy and so good. I used Plain Greek yogurt in place of the sour cream and crushed up a Heath Bar to sprinkle over the top. You could use your favorite candy bar instead, but trust me, don't skip this step. It's only a few extra calories per slice and is so worth it!

 

You can even be like me and eat half the pie yourself while having a lazy day of a Nip/Tuck marathon with your movie-star husband. It was a great Sunday, indeed.

p.s. I got fancy and created some blog buttons! See them over there on the right? You likey? If you're interested in swapping, send me an email! I'd love to put your prettiness on my blog.

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner

Am I the only weirdo that says that? It's always the first thing that pops in my head when I think of the word winner. And now I want chicken. Crispy, greasy chicken. With mashed taters. Then I will wash it down with the amazing-ness that is this. Seriously? Yummy.

Anywho, I was uploading some photos from my camera and I came across these cuties...

These were taken the day we closed on our house. I felt like Riley. Tired. I also felt like Travis. Delusional. After Travis stood up, Riley posed per usual. He likes to show off the goods, or lack thereof.

You're welcome for saving your eyes from dog nudity. I won't be having this little blog of mine be known as the one that includes dog porn, that's for sure. Did I really just say that? Gross.

Anyways, the reason I came across these gems was because I had to send some house photos to our builder. They asked us to put our home in the Parade of Homes, and in return, they'd finish our wet bar for FREE! That's basically $1000 in our pockets. Awesome right? Well, you want to know what's not so awesome? It starts in ONE WEEK from today. But wait! No, this isn't an infomercial.We have to be out of the house by Tuesday and everything that isn't pretty/up to their standards has to be packed up. The garage has to be empty. Our whole third stall is f-u-l-l. Basically, we have to move out of the house we just moved into, to move back in again in a week and a half, all so millions, hundreds, maybe thousands of strangers can walk through our house.

All I can do is the crazy laugh. Ya know, the one with the fake smile and forced noise because it isn't funny but there's nothing you can do about it? Basically, what it comes down to is posts are going to be hit and miss around these parts for a little while. I hope you guys don't forget about me, because you all are awesome and don't worry, I will be reading all of your posts!

Now, back to the main reason for this post. Chicken Winners. I received my second blog award! One of my first blog friends, Sarah, passed the Versatile Blogger Award on to me, along with 10 other pretty ladies. Check out her post so you can check all the nominee's out.

 

This award requires me to share 7 random facts about myself. This is probably a good thing so you guys can learn a little bit more about my crazy self. Here goes:

1. I do not have cable, therefore I live vicariously through you bloggers that post recaps on any reality television. If I had cable, I would be addicted. Therefore, we save $50.00 a month and I'm more productive! We do have our faves on network TV, though, but usually have to play catch up online.

2. I am a Staff Sergeant in the Air National Guard. Yep. A weekend Warrior. I went to Air Force Basic Training and everything. My enlistment is up in November but it truly was a great experience. I mostly did it to pay for college and I was never deployed. I did get to go to England for two weeks, though! Maybe that will be a future post...

3. I have never smoked anything, not even trying a cigarette! I'm sure some of you can say the same thing, but this is something I'm very proud of myself for. Smoking = gross.

4. The only jewelry I wear are pretty earrings and my wedding ring...usually. I love the statement necklace trend, but I'd rather wear statement earrings and let them have the attention. When I travel somewhere new, it's always my mission to find earrings that are unique and made locally. I guess you could say I collect earrings! 

5.  I originally went to college to fulfill my lifelong dream of being an elementary teacher. I made it two years through the program and changed my mind. So much pressure and politics! Looking back, I think I'd really enjoy being a high-school teacher. I ended up graduating with a degree in Business Management and Human Resources. I'll probably go back to school eventually. I just can't make up my mind!

6.  I am the worst decision-maker. Even the silly ones that involve which fast-food place to hit up. It drives the husband crazy. It drives me crazy, too. Just pick one already!!

7.  I have eight grandparents! Yes, you read that correctly. It's because they were all divorced and remarried but that was before I was born. The best part is they are all still around and healthy! My siblings and I are pretty lucky. But I'm not spoiled at all. Not. I'm totally spoiled, even at 25 years old! I hope it never ends. Maybe that's why I'm waiting to have babies!? ;)

There ya have it! I'm also supposed to link to and send the award to 11 blogs that I love. Rather than do that, I want you all to check out all the lovelies that follow me on the side bar (since as of right now I have 14 and that's only 3 more than 11 so take that! I'm a rebel nominating 14! Ha!) I follow and love all their blogs so check them out. I know some of them have already received this award so they are double double awesome.

You guys rock and I'm so glad I started this blog. I can't wait to get to know all of you! Even though I won't have too many posts in the next few weeks, I'll still be instagramming it up @jstjessontheloop and tweeting so find me there! I'd love to follow you back if I'm not already!