August 16: Mama's Birthday!

It's my mama's birthday today. I love my mama. She's the best. I don't think anyone could argue with that. When I was little, I used to tell everyone (strangers, even) how old my mama was. I don't know why...I just did. I'll hold back and not tell everyone how old she is...just know that you'd be surprised! She's aged quite well :)

I wanted to share a few pictures! Ok, more than a few. I just love her!

Me with my mama, Summer 2007.

Mama, Elise, and me, Summer 2007.

Christmas 2007

She loves her kitties. Mama with Alex, Fuzzy, and Squeaky Pearl.

Mama teaching me how to make Grandma's Sugar Cookies at Thanksgiving 2009.

Twinsies.

Photo op at Kroger.

Mama with three of her siblings.

Jenny, Meredith, me, Mama, and David.

Mama with my Bailey dog.

Mama and Meredith, Christmas 2010.

University of Arkansas campus, 2006.

Europe, 1998.

Mama and me in Europe, Winter 2009/2010.

Me with my mama on Hanover's campus before my freshman year classes started. 

Mama and me in the Minneapolis Airport after I visited during a holiday break from Hanover.

Mama with her good friend, Gloria.

David, mama, and me.

Me with my mama at my college graduation.

We don't exactly look like mother-daughter.

Mama with Fuzzy, Mohawk, and Squeaky Pearl.

Mama and David (my brother) at my college graduation.

Happy 25th Birthday To Me!

This past Friday, August 10, was my 25th birthday. I took three vacation days on the 8th, 9th, and 10th, then I was off work over the weekend as well, so I got a five day break from work! It was nice to be able to sleep a lot and relax, but it went by very quickly.

Ryan took my birthday as a vacation day, too, so we got to spend the day together! We had gone to bed very early the night before, so we were awake by 7am! We made a big breakfast, lounged (our favorite pastime), ate lunch, then went to the outlet mall to do some birthday shopping! 

After shopping for a few hours, we went to dinner at Oaken Barrel Brewing Company. It was sooo good! It was a really fun day.

Birthday breakfast: peanut butter banana pancakes, hash browns, and a bacon roll (woven bacon strips baked at 400* for 20 minutes, covered with shredded cheese, and rolled up.)

Two of my favorite things.

Birthday flowers from Michelle :)

Enjoying a Razz-Wheat beer at Oaken Barrel

Snuggling with my bestest.

Wisconsin Burger at Oaken Barrel

Tonight, I exercised. It was the first exercise that I have done in a LONG time. It was hard. And it was only 20 minutes. It was a treadmill interval workout and it kicked my butt.

This is harder than it looks.

Super sweaty.

Bedroom Art & Aldi

I wanted to share some art that I made for our new bedroom. I made the middle piece of this art a couple of months ago, and I made the outer two pieces a couple weeks ago.

The words on the middle piece are lyrics from the song "Ho Hey" by The Lumineers. Ryan and I love The Lumineers, and since we like to [talentlessly] sing that line to each other, I thought, "Why not make some art?" I got the idea for that piece from a pin that I came across on Pinterest.

The outer two were inspired by another pin that I came across on Pinterest! I used a stamp to make the background pattern, and I just freehanded the "R" and the "K," making sure I made them look as similar as possible. I really wanted to do exactly what I saw on Pinterest, but since I had already made the center piece of art, I knew I wanted to use it.

I love making art for myself. Partly because it is a less expensive way to decorate my apartment, and partly because if it's for me, as long as I like it, it doesn't matter if anyone else likes it or not! And it doesn't have to be perfect. It's quite obvious that I wasn't worried about being too perfect with the outer two pieces of art, but I think that makes it unique and you can tell that it is homemade.

Earlier today, Ryan and I had our first Aldi shopping experience! It was great. They have pretty much everything you could possibly need, for a fraction of what the same products would cost at Kroger, Target, or even Walmart. My favorite part was that you could recognize what the products were because, although the brand/company name was different, the packaging was in the exact same colors and designs as well-known brand name products.

Some of my favorite comparisons:

 

We ended up getting 18 items for $50. To me, that seems like a really good deal! Included in those items were 3 large chicken breasts and 2.38lb 90/10 ground beef! We were really surprised at how much quality stuff we got for just $50.