What's Up Wednesday

This week has been crazy, fun, busy, and I am so looking forward to the weekend!

Hope you all have had a great start to your week:)

This week, I'm eating a whole lot of.....

Weight Watcher's Meals! 

Anyone else out there slowly have the pounds creep up on you?! Well I've decided I'm going to do something about it! I make my own breakfasts and lunches, but sometimes, it's nice to come home and have something easy! So that's what I've been eating this week!

What I've been reminiscing about....

My Vail vacation! The weather here is finally cooling off, so it's definitely reminding me of the perfect weather we had this trip!

What I'm loving....

This weather! People just look at those next couple days! 65, 73, 72, and 68 degrees! I'm in heaven!

What I've been up to....

Get togethers with co-workers and friends. I've been so lucky to work with people that I can now call my friends, both in my current job and in previous jobs! How lucky am I to have people that make it so fun to go into work?! I got together with this group last Friday night and I have a dinner planned this week with another friend!

What I'm dreading...

First, I'm dreading winter. With fall comes the promise of snow and cold weather, much quicker than I'd like. But what I'm really dreading is heading home for the Holidays and knowing that this precious peanut is not going to be there. After 14 and a half WONDERFUL years, our sweet Mulligan passed away. She lived such a wonderful life, was spoiled rotten, and always was loved. It was tough to see her the last few months, as you could tell she was in pain and would soon be saying goodbye, but that still can't prepare you for the heartbreak you feel when you lose your pet. She was my first puppy and the reason I knew I wanted another dog (since she was the family dog, she didn't travel to Iowa City with me)

Goodbye sweet girl. Rest easy

What I'm working on...

New Bedding! I graduated from grad school in May. And I'm still using the bedding I purchased in undergrad. It was super cool at the time, but now I question what I was thinking! 

So, I've decided it's time to upgrade and get some adult bedding. So I've been working on researching bedding to get the look I want, that will last me a long time! I want something versatile and I'm loving the all-white look!

I'm leaning toward this white, ruched set from Pottery Barn! Now I just have to figure out how to dress it up, because we all know white needs an accent color or two! If you have any suggestions, let me know!

What I'm excited about...

Reuniting with this crew! So many friends are coming back for our programs annual Healthcare Symposium, the MHA Golf Outing, and Homecoming! After graduation, almost everyone moved away to head off to their respective jobs in new places, so the thought of having some return makes me very excited:)

What I'm watching...

If you missed my entertainment post, where I recap all my new favorites, check it out here!

I cover all my favorite TV shows that started back up last week!

What I'm listening to...

As I type this I'm listening to 

Mariah Carey and some Christmas music! It was 52 degrees out on my bike ride this morning and I've decided that's cold enough and I'm ready for the Holidays!

What I'm wearing...

Last Friday it was Scrubs!

Now this is an old picture, but on Friday, I biked to work shortly after the rain ended. I thought I'd be fine. Turns out the mud and puddles I biked through thought otherwise, and I had a GIANT mud stain coming up my backside. So I got to wear scrubs all day! They were pretty comfy and I was pretty happy:)

What I'm doing this weekend...

Cheering on these guys! It's homecoming weekend so I'm excited to see everyone back in town to cheer on our Hawkeyes!

What I'm looking forward to next month...

October means Halloween!! I love celebrating and decorating for Holidays! So much so, that I even got Kenni a Halloween collar and costume! She'll be rocking the collar starting Saturday, so I'll share pictures soon!

Finally, my favorite fall recipe...

Okay y'all. If you haven't tried Shay's (Mix & Match Mama) Taco Chili you are missing out! It's a new favorite. I've made it for myself, I've made it for friends, I'm going to be making it for family! It's an all-around awesome recipe that everyone from the kids to grandparents and everyone in between will love!

Well that's all! Happy Wednesday everyone!

xo,

j

Let's Talk - Entertainment!

So today, I'm linking up with Erika to talk about some of my favorites! Every month, she and Andrea chat about a different topic and this month is Entertainment!

Now I don't know about you, but this post could not have come at a better time for me, because this last week ALL my favorite shows started back up! So needless to say, I've been posted up on the couch or the bed watching all my favorite TV shows. 

Can we just take a minute to recognize and give thanks to the creators of DVR. I stick to my 9:30p bedtime on weekdays, so I can't always watch my shows that start at 9p! So I've been DVRing everything and watching it over the next couple of days!

So my shows start on Tuesday nights!

Tuesdays are my guilty pleasure nights with my junk/reality TV. 

I started watching Below Deck one day when it was snowy out a loooooong time ago. My mom, brother, and myself watched season 1 while snowed in! And ever since then, it's been a good, mindless, entertaining show!

Again, a super entertaining, crazy TV family that's pretty fun to watch!

Okay y'all, this just might (definitely) be my new favorite show! It is SO GOOD! If you haven't checked it out yet, you definitely need too!

And then Thursdays come. Shonda you are a genius. I live for Thursdays on ABC. Scandal is out this fall (Olivia Pope in real life is having a baby), so it's been replaced with a new show called Notorious. So far, it's living up to the TGIT standard!

Finally, Sunday night brings....

Quantico! I love this show and am super excited to see where they take the new season!

So crazy to think that I've also had some time to read books in the midst of binge watching all these TV shows on my couch, but I've also had some awesome favorites this past month!

I love Amy Schumer. I love her honesty. I love that she's no BS, give it to you straight, and doesn't try to pretend she's something that she's not. So this book was an awesome mix of humor, life lessons learned, and a whole lot of other things all thrown in. It's a good read (although maybe not for innocent, young minds)

This book was a perfect thriller! It kept me on my toes the whole time and it was a surprise ending that I just couldn't predict, so I was guessing the entire time!

Because we all need a good love story, I decided to check out A Light Between Oceans. 

I was thinking I wanted to see this movie when it comes out, but I hate not reading the book first. So I added it to the list. But be warned - it's definitely a tearjerker!

My final book came from Shay's book review! 

I'm only halfway through this book but I can't wait to finish it and figure out what happens! It's about a plane crash and the book follows the before of those who perished and the before and after of those who survive! It's another good suspense if you're looking for one!

So that's what I've been watching/reading lately! Let me know what you've been loving lately!

Happy Monday!

xo,

j

Life Lately

Happy Tuesday! I hope everyone had a great weekend!

Lots of exciting things have been happening in my world, so I thought I'd share Life Lately...

Last week, all employees at UIHC received an email about how they were running low on blood and were looking for donors! Now I hate needles and have yet to have a successful blood donation, but I figured, why not?! People need help, so I should be able to face my fears and help them!

So I called and made an appointment to donate blood! After work I headed home, changed, let the pup out, and made dinner before making my way back to the hospital. 

Here I am, blissful and ignorant. I assumed, since the tubes filled with red, that my donation was going well. Turns out, I was wrong. Unfortunately, I threw a clot and my  blood stopped flowing :( Therefore, my donation was QNS - 'quantity not sufficient' and I had to watch as they threw 4 tubes and a bag of my blood into the bio-hazard bag. There is nothing more defeating in the blood donation process than watching so much blood just be thrown away:(

But, it went much better than my previous attempts, so I've decided I'll be back in 8 weeks, which is the earliest turnaround they allow! I'll keep ya posted on if that one goes better!

I also got to watch two little munchkins last week!

This little one and I were in the middle of our game of Frozen 'Go Fish'. We're still working on how to play, but she's loving it and so am I!

Munchkin #2 definitely doesn't have the game down, so she helped with drawing cards and played with her hair. You can't quite see it but she wanted to ponytails to go with the one on top of her head. It was silly, but I happily obliged. She walked around all night with three ponytails. I think she's a new trendsetter ;)

After that, it was time for the weekend! Since I've started working full-time, I've realized how precious these two days are! Full of time for friends, family, and the pup!

I threw a mini-tailgate and had two co-workers come over to watch the game with me! Of course that meant cheering on our Hawkeyes (win or lose, we still love them!) and taking lots of pictures with the pup!

Kenni hasn't quite mastered the selfie with Nicole, but I bet they'll keep working on it....

And Kenni loved jumping up onto Angela's lap!

I just love this little nugget :)

This weekend was extra special because one of my friends from grad school came to visit and another friend from grad school was free and so I got to meet up with both of them!

Lindsey is in Milwaukee, which is a lot further away than the whole one street over she used to be for the two years of grad school!

Emma is busy getting her SECOND Master's degree, so when she isn't busy studying, working, or babysitting, I love getting together with her:)

So that jumbled mess of random activities has been life lately:)

Have a wonderful rest of your week!

xo,

j

Stranded

This week I'm joining up Mix & Match Mama & A Little Bit of Everything! Stranded with... is a blog they do monthly talking about the three things they'd take with them if they were on a deserted island!

This week's topic is movies! So I have to pick 3 movies that I'd take with me. So here we go, my three favorite movies of all-time!

Okay, so I get this is kind of cheating. But I would take the entire Harry Potter series. I fell in LOVE with Harry Potter as a child. I loved reading as a kid (I get it, I was a nerd) but my parents gave me the first book and I loved it! So from then on, every time a new book was released, we were in line at the bookstore. I re-read these books about once a year and I live for the Harry Potter Marathon weekends on ABC Family/Freeform. So these movies are definitely packed in my bag!

   

Again, another series! But who doesn't love Home Alone! Macaulay Culkin crushed it as a kid left behind on family vacations. I also know these always tend to play around the holidays, since that's when the McCallister family takes off for vacations, but I love these year round!

My final movie selection is.....

The Sound of Music!

I grew up watching this classic, especially with my mom! We love Julie Andrews, we love the music, we love this movie! Plus, I figured it was best to throw in a classic.

Now, if I really had a my choice, I'd bring Netflix, Amazon Prime, and some other streaming service, so that way I'd have access to almost all of my favorite movies! But, these three selections will have to do!

Happy Wednesday!

xo,

j

Vail Vacation

Happy brutal return to the work week after a three day weekend! I keep reminding myself the positive is that this week will only be 4 days long! But it's always a tough adjustment returning to work after time off!

This past weekend I headed out to Vail, Colorado for a weekend getaway with some friends!

My weekend started early, as I left work to head home, finish packing, and catch my flight out of Cedar Rapids. I arrived in Denver and headed to my friends' gate to meet them! 

After their flight arrived, we headed to pick up our rental car where, I kid you not, we waited over an HOUR to get our car. This place was packed full of people getting a car for the long weekend and we had to wait forever!

We finally got our car, picked up some groceries, and then it was time to head to the mountains!

The next morning, we all woke up super early, ate an awesome breakfast of eggs & bacon thanks for our weekend breakfast chef, Madison, then headed off for our hike!

Since I knew we were only going to be in Vail for a short time, I decided we should do a shorter hike, but one that also has a lot of bang for your buck. We drove up to Vail Pass to hike the Shrine Pass trail! This is my 4th year in a row of completing this hike and no matter how many times I see this view, it will always take my breath away!

We started off the hike and it was cold! Madison and Claire come from Dallas and I hail from Iowa, so the 45 degree temperature was an adjustment!

 

But with no humidity, we definitely weren't complaining! 

What hike isn't complete without stopping for multiple pictures?!

Claire and I even gave rock climbing a shot. It wasn't graceful by any means, but we think the picture was worth it!

After a couple hours, we made it to the top!

Just as we were taking off, a man arrived and offered to trade pictures. So we took a bunch of him with the view and he took a bunch of us, so we had more than just our selfies (never in my life did I actually think I'd want a selfie stick as much as I did on this hike!)

The top of this hike might be my favorite place in the whole world. It reminds me of how small and insignificant I am in this great big world that God created. No matter how big or difficult my problems might be, it always reminds me that I'm so lucky and blessed to be given all that I am. God's pretty amazing like that:)

And since I've done this hike four years in a row, I had to put a collage of all my pictures together!

After taking more pictures than I could ever post, we headed down the mountain. Nothing sounded better than burgers and a beer!

We went home, showered, and got ready to head to the village. 

Gourmet on the Gore was happening this weekend, so it was packed! But luckily, we got a table at the Red Lion to watch our Hawkeyes beat Miami of Ohio!

We spent the rest of the day walking around before heading home and calling it an early night! Turns out climbing a mountain wipes you out!

The next morning, we got up early and looked outside to see clouds and rain! We hung around the condo for a bit before trekking to the soccer fields to get some exercise in!

It was about 45 degrees and rainy that morning, and I obviously packed the wrong clothing. But it felt great to get a workout in and made our afternoon of splurges even better!

Once we got ready for the day, the sun started shining so we headed down to the Village. After more shopping, a coffee stop, and a trip through the Farmer's Market, we headed to Lionshead to make our way up the Mountain! We bought our tickets to the Gondola and headed up!

The top was cold! There was a huge temperature difference and it was extra windy! So we happily sat down to order some drinks! We sat outside and froze, but our warm drinks made it worthwhile!

After we lost feeling in our fingers, we headed down the mountain and walked home to get ready for dinner!

The sun was shining, the weather was perfect, and we had to stop for a selfie!

The remaining time in Vail was spent at dinner, after-dinner drinks, sleeping, packing, and brunching!

It was a great trip and I was so excited our friendcation worked out! I love getting to reconnect and spend time with friends!

After we parted ways at their airport to catch our different flights, I got a picture of this little nugget...

A happy, muddy mess! 

Kenni had a great weekend at my aunt & uncle's house with my cousin!

So that's my Labor Day weekend! Hope you all had a great weekend too!

xo

j