monday montage - week of 2/10

So there weren't many pictures over the last week, mostly because of the reasoning described in my last post. Despite the lack of pictures, it's been a busy, interesting and exciting week.
I took ZERO pictures on Valentine's Day (mostly because I forgot... and I also didn't want to be that girl that was more interested in bragging about what she got as opposed to actually enjoying time with her loved oen - BOOM), but Jason and I had a great last minute date night. We got home around 6 from Independence and then we decided to relax and unpack before thinking about dinner. We decided on Hu-Hot because it was the one restaurant that we thought most couples wouldn't go to because it's not romantic/expensive/valentinesque. We were right - 15 minute wait and we were in. Yummy!
We then came home and I got the greatest gift I could have asked for. Relaxing time with Jason. Followed by a gift card so I can treat myself to a spa day. Wooooot!
With that said, I now bring to you this week's Monday Montage!

I got breakfast in bed on Saturday. Jason knows the way to my
heart: DONUTS. And.... yes.... we ate all 6 for breakfast.

We've talked about getting something to hang keys on for quite some time,
and then we found this beaut at Target yesterday. I love it!

AND THE BEST PART OF THIS WEEK IS..........................
coming up in my next post.
:)

a tribute to a great man

This post is a tribute.
Jason's grandpa passed away Tuesday out of nowhere. It broke the hearts of Jason's whole family and everyone his grandpa had touched, myself included. Dealing with the death of a family member, even though it may not have been mine, is never easy. Unfortunately, I've been through quite a few. But for Jason, a different story. The first.
When I got the phone call on Tuesday from Jason I was driving back to Davenport from Cedar Rapids. I was shocked and didn't even have words. Our conversation ended pretty quickly because I just was dumbfounded. Nobody expected it. 
I still had an hour left in the car and I could feel the tears welling up in my eyes. Just knowing the pain that Jason and his family would soon be going through. My best friend since high school, Tonya, and I had scheduled a phone call to catch up and so I called her, as promised, and we "caught up" - she is the best at talking about tough things with me. 
I worked a half-day Thursday and then Jason and I headed to Independence to be with family and to attend the visitation. Friday morning was the funeral. There is always one part at the funeral that makes me lose it. It's when they roll the casket down the aisle at the end of the service. So, per usual, I was crying and trying to control myself before we had to walk down the aisle behind him.
Makes me tear up just reliving it.
So where's the "good" in all of this? It's hard to pick out the good in such a terrible situation. But I truly believe that a funeral on Valentine's Day is such a huge sign of love. Don't get me wrong, no funeral is "good" but this is about as good as a funeral could get (although yes, not really good at all). The love he had for everyone in that funeral home Thursday night. The love he had for everyone in the church Friday morning. The love he had for all the family that was sitting in his living room Friday afternoon afternoon.
His love was unending, and I was fortunate enough to have met him and spend time with him over the past year and a half. His wife, kids, grandkids and great-grandkids are all very lucky. To spend time with Jason's family over the past couple days and meet more of his extended family, there was love everywhere.
That's the theme of Valentine's Day. LOVE. It's not all about couples, romance, roses and nice dinners. It's truly about what love all encompasses. Family, friends, support and happiness. 
So this year's Valentine's Day was for you, Don Cottrell. And I cannot thank you enough for teaching your grandson the values of a great man.

second sunday this week

Today is weird. It's Wednesday but feels like Sunday... I guess it's because I only had one day off and I'm back to work tomorrow. Hopefully today and tomorrow go quick so I can get another weekend ASAP. I like weekends. :)
Oh, I forgot to mention- HAPPY NEW YEAR.
Now I have to try and remember to write 2014 on all my papers at work. Yikes... this has always been difficult for me. Especially because I didn't figure out how I wanted to write my 4's until I was in high school. And it still changes some days.

It used to be this.... now it's the 4 that has a tent thing on top. How the hell do you explain that?!

Back to NYE. Obviously Jason and I are huge party animals (sarcasm), so when NYE rolled around we knew we had to go big. Fancy dresses/suits, high-end champagne, fancy bar, etc.
Joking.
We threw a party at our apartment. 
The catch? It was a party for just the two of us. We are awesome. This party consisted of us in our pajamas (well Jason in sweats and me in hot pink sweats and fuzzy socks), the TV on some college basketball and some yummy appetizers on the dining room table. 

We had the typical meat/cheese/cracker platter, beer bread, homemade chicken nuggets and homemade fried pickles

I had to get a close-up of the fried pickles I made because they were AWESOME! Jason said they might be better than BWW but I'm assuming he was drunk by that point (JK, we didn't get drunk - but I don't know what he was on!)

Oh, and I forgot to mention the champagne that we drank out of Iowa State glasses. Classy! I also quickly realized that I do not like the taste of champagne. Ew. 

Clearly this was taken before I tasted the awfulness that is champagne. Disregard the food on top the fridge- dad is in the process of building me a food storage shelf contraption thingy. :)

Once 10:00 rolled around I was struggling quite a bit to keep my eyes open. Cut me some slack, I worked all day on NYE.
By 10:15 we were laying in bed watching the Texas A&M football game.
By 10:30 we had our "New Years Kiss" and I had fallen asleep.

I guess sweats and the comfort of home will do that to ya... yaaaaaaawn

With that said, HAPPY 2014!
Today was supposed to be a lazy day full of relaxation as it was snowing pretty hard outside and it was a day I didn't have to worry about doing anything work related. Well I saw that Salvation Army was having a 50% off sale so I decided to drag Jason along as we looked at discounted used merch. Didn't find anything worthy.
Came home, read my book under a blankie and felt satisfied with the day. :) Then Jason mentioned making crockpot soup for dinner. I immediately thought of my friend's blog and to make her cheeseburger soup. Yummo! But it required us to go to Target and pick up olive oil and kosher salt. Worth it, it was super tasty!

If you know me, you know I LOVE bacon cheeseburgers. So, naturally, I added bacon to my soup. :)

And now I get to lounge on the couch in my PJs and watch UNI kick Bradley's bottom in basketball. Go panthers! Wooooot!
One last thing. I met Miriah a little over a year ago when I was visiting Jason at BV and Jason and I decided to go out that night with some of his friends. And when I met her, I seriously thought she was such a doll. And she's hilarious because she will tell you how it is. Which is also what I'm like. I get her. Anyway, when she messaged me the other day telling me she was going to start blogging because she enjoyed reading mine, my heart melted. I love hearing that! And I got to help design her blog- which I also love doing! She posted for the first time today, and I LOVED her post. So please go check her out! Yay, Miriah! Welcome to the blogging world! 

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!

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!

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!

scatterbrain thoughts

Not only is Thanksgiving on Thursday but this is also a short week of work and I cannot wait to be with my family and Jason's family and eat so much food! Not to mention, we get to hit a few stores for Black Friday shopping as well (which is really on Thursday these days...).
So starting tomorrow, hello driving..........

Anyway, do you recall me telling you the back story? Well here's an update for you. First of all my new chiropractor here, Dr. Rannfeldt (I call him J), is like a God. Not only is he great at making me feel better, but he's also just a fun doctor. Not to mention, he is one of the team doctors for the United States Olympic Committee and Team USA Olympic staff. So my chiropractor is going to be at the 2014 Sochi, Russia olympics helping athletes. And here he is, helping me. 

I mean I'm practically an Olympian! Right?! Oh.... no? Haha, I crack myself up.

So I walked into the office today for my appointment and was handed this brochure on scoliosis (which I officially have..... sweet) but anyway, the first flap states the following:

Inspirational, right? Hahaha, this made me laugh. And then I showed J (Dr. Rannfeldt) and he just kind of chuckled and tried to make me feel like I was nowhere near that. Which I hope is true, but the x-rays seem to say differently.

Anyway, I'm hopeful that these regular appointments fix me right up!

I couldn't wrap up this post without wishing a happy birthday to the lovely, smart and hilarious girl I call my best friend - Kayleigh. Not only did we live together all through college, but we went to Maryland together for a semester and now we live 30 minutes apart. Couldn't be happier! Without further ado, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

With that said, I am BEYOND ready to eat so much pie these next couple of days, and I cannot wait to just be home and in Osceola/Des Moines with Jason and I's families. Lots to be thankful for!

I'm also thankful that I get to experience my first ever Black Friday experience this year. Not sure how I feel about it yet and I'm pretty sure I will be a little overwhelmed but I will be sure to share the goods when it's all over.