monday montage - week of 12/23

This one is going to be short and sweet. I decided to show you the "not so traditional" pictures from my holiday week in this Monday Montage. I didn't want to bore you AGAIN with my family pictures and pictures of Jason and I. They tend to all look the same anyway.... ha!
But if you DO want to see the more traditional Christmas pictures, check them out here and here.
And now, this week's MONDAY MONTAGE:

And now it's time to enjoy some of mama's Chili and a cup of hot cocoa loaded with marshmallows. Have a great week!

holiday love

As I mentioned in this post, the holiday season is my absolute favorite. It's the time that I get to spend with family that I don't get to see enough. It's a time filled with an abundance of great food, and rooms full of laughter, stories and empty beer bottles.
With that said, I now bring you a few pictures and memories from my 2013 Christmases (is that a word?). 
It started the weekend before Christmas with my mom's side of the family. Christmas #1!

It was my family's turn to host the family Christmas for my mom's side so we used the Walford Community Center - it's the only way to do it when there's 10+ little kids running around spilling punch. :) 

I was in charge of running the kids craft table and I couldn't help but smile as Jason helped my little cousins make pinecone Christmas trees. Super precious!

And we all got to meet the newest member of the family - baby Ryker (he was 3 weeks old at Christmas, being held by my cousin's son Carter)!

And then it was time for Christmas #2 with Jason's family in Osceola. Jeff and Lori got us all lottery tickets to scratch off on Christmas morning after we opened our stockings, and I was the only one to win. So of course when we went back to redeem my ticket we bought more! 

The Ehrhardt kids and I. Such a fun family! We laugh and laugh and laugh, especially when we play darts! ;)

And another traditional picture of Jason and I, as if we don't have enough. Oh well! :)

After opening presents Christmas day at Jason's house, we drove the two hours to my house to do the same with my family - Christmas #3.

When it was time for the family/couple pictures, my brother had the idea to go out in the snow for pictures... it's hard to tell, but it was chilly!

Mom made Tom and Jerry's for all of us to enjoy on Christmas day. This used to be a Christmas staple during the holidays back in the day, so it was fun for everyone to try them again!

As we scratched tickets in Osceola, Jason and I became addicts - for lack of a better term. So naturally, we bought some more for my family to do. Four of the six of us won some cash (so we bought more... and more... and more... ;)

And then we woke up early Friday morning for a big breakfast before making the trip to Kansas City to spend the weekend with my aunt and uncle, their two sons and my cousin's little boy, Nolan - Christmas #4.

My cute little family at my aunt and uncle's house.

And little Nolan. He gets so much attention from everyone because he's so stinkin' cute. Watching him eat ice cream at dinner was priceless. The look on his face when he got brainfreeze just made us all laugh!

The holidays, as always, were a great time. It's so fun to see everyone! Now the countdown begins to Christmas 2014 (I may or not be joking....).

I hope you all had a great holiday!

merry christmas!

For those who know me, you know I am absolutely in love with Christmas. I have over 200 Christmas songs in iTunes at all times, I own a whole drawer full of Christmas socks, and mom and I have a tradition of making Christmas candy to share with family and friends (although I've missed the past couple years because I've been out of state, I was there this year!).
It is just a HAPPY time of year! I am that girl that plays Christmas music all year round, but I start my real listening the day after Halloween. I squeal inside when I see Christmas sections start popping up in stores (and no, I don't care if that means July. I love it!). And, like most other Americans, I also love the Starbucks red cups. These are just a FEW things that scream Christmas.
When David (brother) and I were little, my parents arranged for Santa and Mrs. Clause to come to our house on Christmas morning. Although I was scared out of my pants, it still warms my heart that my parents loved Christmas enough to make it so magical for my brother and I! And all those years when we begged to sleep in the living room and our parents said no... and all the milk and cookies we left out for Santa... ohhh, the memories! 
Growing up, David and I were spoiled with presents from our parents, grandparents, etc. I'd say I was extra spoiled as I am the only girl grandchild on my dad's side. But of course I loved it! Looking back at when we were little, I remember walking into my grandma and grandpa's house in Lancaster, WI  and seeing half the living room literally filled with gifts. We easily got 20 or more. Each. But it wasn't just about the gifts (but let's be honest, as a child... it was the main part), it was about family. Although my grandparents haven't been with us for over ten years, Christmas always makes me think about them - especially my grandma. She was hilarious, caring, loving, a great chef and the queen of party planning.
So as the holidays are here, I truly cherish family. Both mine and Jason's. I love the little things. The family game nights, the Christmas baking and cookie decorating, the sledding, the Christmas movies, EVERYTHING.

Sledding with the Ehrhardt's!

We went to see the movie Frozen. It's so adorable, you have to see it!

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM JASON AND I - WE WISH YOU A VERY HAPPY HOLIDAY!

Today was filled with presents and fun at the Ehrhardt's followed by an evening of presents, dinner and laughter at my house. And the night is just getting started! More photos to come when I'm not so busy with family and everything. (PS - I had this partially prewritten, so no I am not sitting here blogging for a long time while I'm with family. :)
HAPPY HOLIDAYS ALL! 

monday montage - week of 12/16

You know what day it is.... Montage Monday!
This last week was another great one. Jason's first week in the big ol' city of Davenport. I think it's safe to say we both love the whole living together thing. Although we had a few mishaps.... like locking the apartment and mail key IN the mailbox. All in all, good times. :)
The week went pretty quick for the first part but then Friday went pretty slow because I kept looking at the clock at work waiting for it to be time to go, knowing I have the WHOLE week of Christmas off! Wahoo! No work for 9 days!
I came home Friday and Jason and I started our "Friday Tradition" - it's something we've talked about for over a year and now that we're together we get to make it happen. I'll probably have a post on it in the future. It's very us.
We also went to the Davenport Assumption boys and girls basketball games on Friday night. They serve Chick-Fil-A chicken sandwiches in their concession stand, have a sno-cone machine where you can go down an assembly line and add your flavors, and they sell pretty sweet Nike apparel. And they pray before games. That was a new sight to me.
I forgot to mention, Jason and I had our own little Christmas before the game on Friday. It was great!
Saturday we had Christmas for my mom's side of the family (the Heitman bunch) which just keeps growing and growing. Kids on kids on kids, but they're all so cute. And it's so fun to watch them all grow up together. I was never close enough in age to any of my cousins to have that, so it's cute to watch them. :)
With all that said, I now give you this week's PHOTOS:

I hope you all have a MERRY CHRISTMAS and safe travels if you are going somewhere for the Holiday!

this week's happenings

This week has been full of laughs, fun and chore lists for Jason. Now that he's all moved in my closet has shrunk and my favorite couch spot has been stolen. But all in all, I suppose it's alright!
So Monday was obviously a great day. I came home for lunch and found Jason waiting for me at the apartment. It was rough going back to work the rest of the afternoon; especially when I kept getting texts like: "Where is the trash can?" "Do you have disinfecting wipes?" "Where should I put my kitchen stuff?" - Haha.
That night we had to go to Target to pick up a few things and it took all of our might to not stop for ice cream. It was very hard. But we did it.
Yesterday Jason was home all day while I went to work and he got more things put away. It's starting to come together more. We also finally go to do the photo wall in the living room, which I love! The neighbors weren't too fond of us hammering nails into the wall for an hour... as we found out when they pounded on our wall.
On another note, we finished it this afternoon while most people were at work. I did some DIY in creating the fun letters (tutorial soon) and I love our clock. So sleek and lovely. The saying is from this beautiful Etsy shop. They're closed now for the holidays but they have so much cute stuff. Without further ado, HERE IS THE WALL:

Please ignore the one empty picture frame.... still working on finding one more.

Tonight was so great. I had a last minute meeting with QCESC (Quad City Engineering and Science Council) and I learned quite a bit and met some great people that can hopefully partner with Girl Scouts in the future to teach girls about STEM. Exciting!
I came home to Kayleigh being at my apartment, which is always nice! Jason and I made dinner and Kayleigh brought the appetizer and dessert. I made homemade sesame chicken - I must say, it might be better than HyChi. Jason made fried rice and Kayleigh brought crab rangoons.
It was a yummy Chinese night! And of course we finished out the night playing a game of Sorry that Jason and I bought at Black Friday for $5. Kids at heart.
I'm so ready for this week to be over so I can get the whole next week off to spend with Jason's family and mine. Big plans! And my lovely cousin is doing my nails on Sunday and I cannot wait! It's been a while since I've had that shellac thing going on.
I'll try and update more as Christmas rolls near but I'm also getting busier and busier, so who knows. No promises. :)

monday montage - week of 12/9

Happy Monday!
This week's Monday Montage is a little different because before we get to the business of last week's photos, I am a little too excited about what else is happening today!

Jason is moving in today! EEEEEK! We've been counting down for quite a while on when this day would come that we'd both be done with school and be able to live relatively close. In this case, everything worked out perfectly and we get to live in the same city, in the same apartment. Roomies! ;)
But for real, this has been much awaited as we've been doing the whole long distance thing for a long freaking time! Not to mention how much we're going to save by not having to buy as much gas to travel across the state all the time!
Anyway, that's that. I'm thrilled!
So here is the traditional Monday Montage that you all are used to. This week/weekend consisted of a busy time at work and a relaxing time at home. Rounded out with a day of baking Christmas goodies with mom and playing games at my brother's house!

I hope you have a great week!

i love iowa. it's home.

There is really nothing like the feeling of being HOME. When I first went to UNI, I never thought I'd miss home. I'd be having to much fun with friends and too busy with homework (and other social activities). Well that was somewhat true. In the early years of college I only really came home during breaks - Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc. And then Junior and Senior year we lived in a house on University Ave. with no laundry (looking back, silly choice... but oh well), so I never wanted to go to the laundromat and pay through the roof for some public laundry service... so my mom was kind enough to do my laundry every other weekend. This meant I went home for a night or usually we just met halfway (it's a good thing I was only an hour and a half away). 
All throughout college, I never lived at home for a summer. After freshman year, I stayed at UNI to take summer classes and work. After sophomore year, I traveled to the Caribbean. After junior year, I went to Cincinnati for an internship. And after senior year, well here I am.

I need this shirt.

My first time going away for a while was when I went to the Caribbean. Granted it was only 26 days, but there was no internet, no cell phones, nothing. It was like a whole different world. I thought it would suck a little bit but it was AWESOME getting to hang out with everybody on the cruise ship when none of us had technology to get in the way. It was like a flashback to 3rd grade.
So then I went to Cincinnati for three months and missed home a little bit. I loved all the fellow interns but I lived by myself in a little apartment that could be somewhat scary at times. 
After that, my best friend and I went to Maryland to study for a semester. I missed Iowa (I think we both did). There really ain't nothin' like the Midwest! But we sure as heck had ourselves a good time on the East Coast!
Once we were done in Maryland, it was back to the homeland in time for Christmas. So lovely. Then I accepted an internship in Colorado Springs and moved there shortly after New Years. Didn't help that I hated the job (although I did like the people I worked with), but it was nice to come home shortly after moving. I can never thank my family enough for moving me in in January and driving back to move me out in February. :)
Then I thought it'd be smart for me to go to Cleveland for a couple months and work for TeamWork Online. It really ended up being great because for the second half of the time I was there, Jason was down in Cincinnati. We'd drive 4 hours every weekend to see each other. It was like having a piece of home/comfort. It was great!
So once Cleveland ended at the end of June, I had nothing planned so I went down to Cincinnati to spend a month and a half as Jason's roomie. It was pretty neat I must say. Especially the time his family visited for a whole week and we had sleepovers on the living room floor every night! And the time both of our families came out to Cincinnati to celebrate my birthday! Memories I'll never forget. :)
AND THEN I came home. Got a job in Davenport and made my way to the Quad Cities. I love it there. And I love that I'm a little over an hour away.

Much like a lot of people I know, growing up I always thought I would never live in Iowa. I always saw myself living in the big city (not sure why now that I think about it... since I have a phobia of public transportation). But after many experiences and living in numerous cities, I love Iowa. It's HOME.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - -
In unrelated news, there's a new section on the blog that I encourage you all to check out if you love reading blogs or have thought about blogging. It's the bloggers i love section. Scroll down on the right and you can see my blog favorites. Looks like this:

I hope you all had a great weekend and listened to lots of Christmas music!

diy: yellow dresser

So I mentioned that I did quite a few DIY projects when I found out I'd be moving to a new apartment that I needed to make look like my "home" - well here is one!
I took a dresser that used to be my dad's when he was a little boy and made it my very own,bright, functional, and cheery TV stand/dresser. I love it!

Why yellow, you ask? Because I got this duvet cover a few years ago and I still love it just as much today as I did the day I begged mom to get it for me. Thanks, mom (and Pottery Barn)! So I chose yellow because I love that I can put a lot of fun colors with this. :)

So I got the dresser out of our basement and consulted with a few paint strips on which color I was going to do. I decided to choose the color Decisive Yellow. It just spoke to me (probably because it had the word decisive in it). 

First step, gathering supplies. Rollers, brushes, tape, primer, paint, and BAM- ready to go!

So here's the dresser in it's original state. It's a brown, beautiful laminate dresser. It really was in GREAT shape so I got lucky there!

Please disregard my obnoxious pink and yellow sock. Oops.

The first step was priming. This was just to help the yellow paint stick to the dresser and to make everything smooth. The dresser was laminate, not wood, which meant no sanding for me. Thank the heavens! By the way, you can't sand laminate furniture or it will completely damage and ruin the piece. Fun fact. I highly recommend oil-based primer. Laminate is such a shiny finish that if you don't prime the furniture that paint will not stick at all and it will just peel off in one big chunk once you think it's dry. So use that oil-based primer and prime away. Just be sure you have some Turpentine to get it off your hands when you're done. I thank my dad for that tip! :)

After doing priming with the large roller, I went in with the little tiny brush (this brush was actually made for people who make/paint model cars) and it worked perfect. I went in all the cracks, and made the part where the you pull out the drawers look better and smoother. I let this dry for a few hours before cracking open and stirring my DECISIVE YELLOW!

Time to paint! I did three coats with the acrylic paint pictured below and used a foam brush. This made the paint look much smoother, and not chunky and textured. If you want the textured look, I'd recommend just using a regular roller. I could have stuck with two but I just wanted to top it off one more time and make sure it was as smooth as possible. The paint dries rather quickly but I recommend letting it sit for a week or so before using and putting in the drawers. This helped the dresser get over the sticky-factor. You can seal it with polyurethane if you feel necessary. I didn't.

So, there you have it. Honestly, SO easy. I could have kept it brown, but that would've really been boring. And I'm far from boring, did you see my comforter! 

 I have a lot more projects to share in the future, so stay tuned!

words of wisdom: relationships

When I first went to UNI, I was under the impression that I'd meet the man of my dreams on my first day of class and we'd live happily ever after. It sounds is so stupid, but I know I'm not the only person who thought that.
We see it all over, especially in those cheesy love movies - and I haven't even seen most of them. Anyway, I was never much into all the mushy gushy in relationships and it made me want to throw up when I saw Chad Michael Murray run into the stands after his football game in A Cinderella Story. For a refresher, go to the 2:30 mark.

And then I really wanted to throw my head against the wall when I saw the end of She's The Man. See the trend? I try to watch the sporty romantic movies and they just make me wanna run out of the building because they're so unrealistic stupid. To me anyway.
Anyway, I met my man in Cincinnati, Ohio when we were doing the same summer internship. We are both from Iowa. I just think it's funny how life works. 
So I found this, and it makes me think of all the girls who are struggling to be happy with themselves because they think they have to be in a relationship to be happy. I mean, yes - relationships are happy and wonderful (or at least they should be!), but being an individual is just as beautiful. Seriously, ask Jason - we both need some "me time" every now and then to enjoy being individual people. And to keep sane.


Which brings to me another point.
You have to love YOURSELF before other people can LOVE you. I learned this, and I know some of my friends did, too. If you're the girl with your arms crossed at the bar because you're the only single one in your group of friends, stop it. If you're the girl who's flaunting the boobs you don't have in a dress that's ten times too small (I am referring to the girl I saw on the hill last time I was at UNI singing karaoke), stop it. 
Respect yourself, girls.
And if you want that Cinderella Story love.... well you better head to the West Coast and ask to star in the next movie.
So that's a rap. Take it or leave it. I know I don't have the same views as everybody, but I'd like to think I'm not a complete idiot. :)

monday montage - week of 12/2

This past week was awesome. The work week went fast. The first snowfall took place. I got groceries and didn't break the bank. And I went to an ugly sweater with a plethora of ladies and gents rockin' the hottest finds of the year, especially the turtleneck/vest combo. WORK IT.
But for real, here is this week's Monday Montage! Oh, and congratulations to my cousin on having her fourth baby today - welcome to the world little Ryker!

busy week!

This week was so busy. It went so quickly, and I love that.
The new job as been going really well and I feel like I am finally starting to get the hang of little things and am better able to answer questions when troop leaders call, which is always a plus. This week I had meetings in Cedar Rapids and Waterloo and therefore was able to spend two night's at mom and dad's house. Nothing beats that home cooked meal! This is what my entire drive looked like:

Yuck!

I was only in the office for Monday and Friday so that's probably what made the week go so quick, but no complaints here! Also, I got this cute little jar from my supervisor. She's so creative and I just adore her. She made all of the Leadership Experience Manager's a JAR OF FUN. It's to remind us to always have fun with our job and to always plan programs that will be FUN for girls.

This weekend is going to be full of relaxing, shopping, sleeping and relaxing some more. Cannot wait!

monday montage - week of 11/25

This week's Monday Montage consists of a lot of things I talked about in the Black Friday post on Saturday. You can find that here.
But I can't just NOT follow tradition. So here it is!
Side note: I have my first meeting tonight as the newest committee member for Scott County Relay For Life. For those who know me, you probably know how excited I am! Wahoo!

thanksgiving & black friday

Where to begin....
Thanksgiving is always a holiday that I love (not near as much as Christmas, but I do love it quite a bit). This year was nothing shy of a great Thanksgiving thanks to my great family and Jason and his lovely family!
Jason and I headed to Osceola on Wednesday night to prepare for Thanksgiving in Des Moines on Thursday. And of course we had to stop at Scratch on our way there.

I got the Caramel Crunch cupcake - or something like that. Delish!

And when we woke up it was Thanksgiving day and the newspaper ads were abundant. Not only did I eat a lot of turkey, mashed potatoes and pie on Thanksgiving but I also avoided taking a nap ALL DAY. That's a victory in itself.
So after eating a lot of food, it was time for Jason and I to head to the stores for BLACK FRIDAY SHOPPING. Geesh. This was something I had never done before simply because I've always just thought it's easier/less stressful/more relaxed to just buy things before or after Black Friday and pay more.
Well I decided to cave this year and see what the madness was all about. With that said, Jason and I made our way to the Walmart in West Des Moines (along with everyone else). Thankfully neither of us were in the hunt for big ticket items like TVs and gun safes (which were actually a big item at Wally-world this year). Jason did get a new video game though that he's pretty excited about!

I think Walmart had plenty of tupperware for everyone to take 10.

We got to Walmart at 5:30 and the sales started at 6. We were out of there by 6:30. I must say I was VERY impressed with Walmart's ability to keep the checkout process quick and efficient.

Saw this at the register in Walmart and about threw up all over the floor. Ew.

After Walmart, we weren't sure where to go... the next stores we wanted to go to didn't open until 8. Blah. So we went to Best Buy simply because they opened at 6. We walked around and browsed. Ooh'd and Aah'd at the cheap movies but had no desire to wait in their slow, hardly-moving line. We then went out to the car and sat for a bit when we realized the huge line forming outside of Old Navy.

You heard right. Hundreds of people were waiting to get into Old Navy...... of all stores.

I thought this was weird and did a little Google search to find out that the first 500 in each store have a chance to win $1,000,000.

Well heck, Jason and I had nothing else to do so we got out of the car and walked to Old Navy. Turns out we didn't win the million, but at least we tried.

By this time it was 7:30 or so and we headed to Jordan Creek. This was lovely because we could wait INSIDE the mall, in the warmth, for the stores to open.

Waiting for the mall stores to open!

Let me just say that the ladies were going NUTS over the boots in Younkers. If I had been in the hunt for boots (which thankfully I'm not), I would've had to push and shove my way through. And if you know me, I usually have no problem doing that! ;)

I pondered over getting a picture for the living room and then I thought about picking up one of the memory foam pillows. Walked out with nothing.

It was time for Target. I love Target and I loved Target on Black Friday. By the time we got there it was 8:45 so I think most of the madness (if there was any) was pretty well over. We picked up some $5 board games, a couple $2 placemats and Jason got a few other things. Once again, the line was so quick and efficient! We weaved in and out of the grocery aisles before we could go check out and the line went super quick.

Now, it was time for us to head to Kohl's. HOLY MACARONI. Kohl's was nuts and a mess. All I wanted at Kohl's was their deal of 10 pictures frames for $15. That's it. Everyone else had piles of clothes, sheets, comforters, kitchen tools, pillows, blankets, rugs and so much more. Jason and I got in line, which was wrapped all the way around the outside aisles of the store and moved maybe 20 steps in 30 minutes. Then this little sales associate comes walking around saying, "If you sign up for a Kohl's credit card today you can go to the front of the line"....... hmmmmm. Interesting. So I gave Jason the look like, should we? We decided to wait a bit. After about 10 more minutes I said screw it and went to get that credit card. It was nice that I got an extra 35% off my already 50% off purchase. For people who spent over a couple hundred dollars, which was a lot, I think I definitely would've done that. Needless to say, I'm now a Kohl's charge owner. Great.

It was now time for a two hour drive to Tanger Outlets in Williamsburg. Long drive. Pitch dark. I slept for about 30 minutes while Jason listened to sports talk radio. Sums up our car rides. Tanger was much busier than I thought it'd be! We headed to Gap before going to Nike. Nike's employees were either all on crack or just very excited to be there. They were dancing in window sills to the live DJ that they hired to bring in strobe lights. It was a party. I got two pairs of Nike sweats for $20 - and one pair is hot pink!

It was now time to head home. This time, to Walford.

We got back at 2am and went straight to bed. Got up around 9am the next day and went into Cedar Rapids to hit up Walmart, Target, JCPenney, Younkers and Kohl's. Got a few more things.

Last night was my family's Thanksgiving and we were all rocking our elastic waistband sweatpants. Just one reason I love this family. We played games and then ate and drank lots of food/beer/wine.

When you don't have a coozie to fit a tall boy, put ice in a container! Haha!

Today is a relaxing day filled with college football. On that note, the Michigan/OSU game is nuts. Go blue! Mom and I put up the Christmas tree and Christmas decorations this morning and I have my pile of Christmas stuff to take back to Davenport tomorrow.

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving and got to spend it with those you are thankful for. Can't wait for Santa to be here!