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.

New Apartment!

A week and a half ago, I moved into a new apartment. Many of you know how I felt about my last apartment from my bitchy Facebook posts. It was horrible. This move was a huge step up! I was living with one of my best friends, Michelle. That part was awesome. She was the second person I became friends with during orientation at Hanover and we have stayed close friends ever since! That's almost seven years of best friendship...pretty awesome :)

Anyway, I have a new roommate. It's my boyfriend, Ryan! We are very excited to be living together. It's nice to be able to spend more time with him after work when we wouldn't normally see each other. Here are some pictures of our apartment so far.














































































































































Keep a few things in mind: (1) These pictures were taken with my phone, so they aren't the best quality. (2) Obviously since we have only been in the apartment for 11 days, we aren't done decorating and we still need things such as dining room chairs and a couch. However, for only 11 days, I'm pretty happy with how it looks! I absolutely LOVE this apartment.

Looking into the apartment from the entryway.

Immediately to the left when you enter the apartment is the laundry room.

Dining room...with no chairs yet. And we will be painting the legs black.
p.s. Recognize the wall art from my last two apartments? I painted that in 2010 and it has made an appearance in every apartment since!

Messy, but it's a built-in desk across from the dining room, between the living room and bathroom.

Left side of the kitchen. Favorite part? Built-in wine rack.

Kitchen from an angle. 

Right side of the kitchen. I made the art above the sink.


Close-up of my kitchen art.

Awesome pantry space.

Living room. Need a couch.

Looking toward the entry.

View from our 3rd floor balcony!

*FYI--I don't know why there is this huge white space under this text and it's not letting me delete it, so keep scrolling because there are more pictures!*

Bedroom.

Bed with my art above it. And we need lamp shades.

My art. We will be painting this one wall a dark red color.

Looking into the bathroom from the bedroom.

Sink/cabinet space in the bathroom.

The porcelain throne.

Walk-in closet in the bathroom.

Shower.

Garden tub.

Well, that's about it! Hope you enjoyed looking at my new apartment as much as I love living in it! :) :) :)

Pepperoni Roll-Ups

Super simple, super delicious.

 Here's what you need:

1 tube Crescent Rolls (8 count)
16 slices pepperoni, cut into quarters
2 pieces string cheese, cut into quarters
Italian seasoning

Here's what you do:

1. Separate and lay out Crescent Rolls on baking sheet.
2. Place 8 pieces of pepperoni on each Crescent Roll.

3. Place one piece of string cheese at each small end of the Crescent Roll.

4. Roll string cheese up into Crescent Roll. Pinch edges to seal each one.

5. Sprinkle each roll-up with Italian Seasoning.
6. Bake for 10 minutes at 375 degrees. 

7. ENJOY!

Church

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him and he will make your paths straight." [Proverbs 3:5-6]

I just got home from church. It's a new church I've been going to and this was my third time there. The first time I went by myself, the second time I took Ryan with me, and this time I went by myself (we have opposite weekend work schedules so I can't make him go with me every time).

I really like this church. In some ways, it reminds me of my very favorite church in the whole entire world, United Christian Church. I wish UCC could video record their services and have them streaming on the internet so I could watch from my home and not even have to get out of my PJs but still get to be there. I miss that church and church family a lot.

This new church is called Saint Andrew Presbyterian Church. The way that I found them through my Google searching was by looking for a church that was "open and affirming." Or, as the Presbyterians say, "more light." I like open and affirming better because it's easier to understand. As I was sitting in church today and reading my bulletin, I read Saint Andrew's mission statement. This is the reason why I love this church already:

"At Saint Andrew Presbyterian Church, our mission is to love God and neighbor. As a congregation, we welcome all people into the life of the church regardless of age, sex, race and ethnicity, sexual orientation or gender identity, socio-economic status or marital status, physical or mental ability, or any other worldly condition. We affirm that no one should be judged or excluded for who they are. Called to be the hands, feet, and voice of Christ in the world, we work for justice for all people."

Now, you tell me--how could one read that and not fall in love? They stand for everything that I stand for when it comes to accepting all people for exactly who they are. I absolutely love that.

"I wanna see smoke comin' outta that bum when I'm done with it."

Yes, it's true. I started another Jillian Michaels workout video and she did say that while we were doing a specific move that was targeting our bum muscles. I'm not going to make a wild claim like I did last time...I'm not going to do this video every day and I'm not going to get ripped in 30 days. But I am going to try to get "Killer Buns & Thighs" to shape up my bikini body.

Following my best friend's lead, here's my life lately in photos!

Scared while attempting to shape up my buns & thighs.

I was trying on these shorts at Target and noticed a giant lump in the pocket.
There were two Super Tampons in the pocket of the shorts. Nasty. Who does that?

Out this past Tuesday with Ryan for our 1.5 year anniversary!

Filet Mignon and mashed potatoes from St. Elmo. Amazing.

I got to spend some time with my cousin before she went to Ecuador!
We have matching MAM tattoos :)

These are Pill Bugs. They like to come into my room from God knows where.
I'm pretty sure these two were doing something naughty, and I'm not cool with that.

Just some dirty foot prints in the middle of the wine/beer/liquor aisle at Walmart. Classic.

I saw this gorgeous rainbow when I was on I-65 between Indianapolis and Columbus!
I don't think I've ever seen something so beautiful in person.

I was driving from Indianapolis to Columbus to visit Cody!

This is me surrounded by the drugs that I deal. I'm also using a pen with a duct tape
flower on the top that Cody's little sister, Emily, made for me! Lime green is the best.

This is the most recent thing that I painted. This isn't the finished product,
but I'll have to wait to share it later on!