My love's too big for you, my love

Every once in awhile, I find a song that is so healing and calming. Just beautiful songs that I could listen to over and over and anxiety goes away. What are your calming songs?

Here's one:



Here's another. Pretty much all songs by Ingrid Michaelson.



And another.



Another....



One more....




In other news, I made this the other day.



It started out as an ugly gold mirror from DI...I think I got it for like $1.00. I painted the rim green and painted a wooden "J" the same color. Then I used the vinyl design that we have in our living room and put it on the mirror. I used super glue to glue the J onto the mirror. I think it turned out pretty cute! I've actually had a few people ask me what the "J" stood for.........

wow.

Mangos

I've been really happy lately. I can't really put my finger on exactly what it is that has made me feel so great, but I guess I just finally feel like my life is actually my life. I went from being single, in school, working part-time to being married, done with school and working a full-time job within a few months. It was a bigger jump than I thought it would be. Everything change, not really in a bad way, just different

But the last month or two that has all gone away. I feel like my own person. I have friends that I love to be with, hobbies that I enjoy, a church calling that brings me closer to the gospel, a husband who truly still makes me feel very in love and who I find completely adorable, a family support system (in both my family and preston's) that I know will always be with me no matter what, and a job that provides just enough money so we don't have to constantly be stressed about money. I never thought I'd be the type that couldn't go to sleep if the kitchen wasn't clean, but I am. I never thought I'd be the type of girl that has 100 blogs that I must read, but I am. I never thought I'd constantly think about ways I can make my apartment cuter, but I do. We all grow and change, and that is just fine. I'm trying to learn to not judge people, because you honestly never know when you'll be in their situation. You really SHOULD walk a mile in someone's shoes before you criticize them. Things are so different from the inside than it appears from the outside.

Last night I got mad at Preston for trying to tell me how to cut a mango. Haha really? Thinking about it makes me laugh. He just let me be mad about it for about 5 minutes and then we didn't have to speak of it again. Hahaha oh man....I'm ridiculous. I love that boy. I'm lucky. Oh, and in case you are wondering, here's how you cut a mango.

Thoughts...

-LOVED the LOST finale. We laughed, we cried, we discussed, and we were actually truly uplifted. I'm sincerely going to miss this show and these characters. I've never felt so emotionally connected to characters that aren't real.

-Bed, Bath and Beyond is so utterly and completely overpriced. Why do we let that happen? Seriously that place has a freaking monopoly. I recently went there with Natalie to pick out a present for a friend's bridal shower. We got a few items that were pretty heavy and asked for them to be gift wrapped at the store. So they take about 20 minutes to gift wrap my gift, and come out with a huuuuge and very heavy bag. So I take it by the handle and walk out of the store ready to go along with my day. Halfway across the parking lot, the bag breaks, tissue paper flying everywhere. Some dude in a truck drives by, laughs at my awkward struggle to gather the tissue paper without further damaging the gifts and yells out his window "Thats rough..." One of the gifts inside was glass and broke when it fell. You would think that they would gift wrap something so that it could be carried more than 50 feet without falling out the bottom. So, a new wrapping job and 30 minutes later, I'm finally on my way out the door. I hate going there. Slotted spoons for like 10.99? Seriously, its a spoon. Its used to stir stuff. I think I'll pass. Yet, I find myself there often because I live in a state where marriage is rampid and everyone registers at Bed Bath and Beyond. If I was ever going to get married again, I'd boycott that terrible place.

-I'm going to dye my hair soon. Preston wants red like it was when we first met. I'm thinking either that or blonde again.

-I ordered this ottoman today. Preston's parents have something similar to this at their new house and we wanted one when we saw it. Its got storage to put all my blankets in or DVDs or whatever, and the tops flip around to be TV trays! Cool. Anything else that I've found even remotely close to this one costs around $300. Someday we will get super fancy furniture for our home, but this will be great for now. It is a DEFINITE upgrade from the folding table we've been using as a coffee table for the last 9 months....

Meals for the week:
Pineapple Jerk Chicken
Pepper Jack Chicken Pizza
Indian-Spiced Pork Skewers
Chicken Fajitas
Grillled Cilantro Lime Chicken
Chinese Lemon Chicken
Spicy Honey Chicken Salad

Pineapple Jerk Chicken was yesterday...and it was soooo easy and delicious. Like seriously, done in 20 minutes.

Tuesday/Thursday Boredom

Every Tuesday and Thursday this summer, Preston works an 18-hour shift, starting at 2:30pm and ending the next morning at 8:30am. The poor guy has to stay up all night. He comes home just in time for me to take the car to work at 9. The nice thing about this job is that he only has to do two shifts per week, plus one rotating (and shorter) Saturday shift.

So one thing I'll be doing with my tuesday/thursdays is improving the decor in our apartment. I'm not like the most crafty person in the world, but I'm trying.

This idea came from dollarstorecrafts.com.
These ugly hooks were from dollar tree:



And mine turned out like this:



I also did a little "Weekly Dinner Menu" memo board made from a picture frame. I'm not completely satisfied with how it turned out. I'll probably take the yellow bow off and do something else with that ribbon. I'm not sure yet. But basically I need to buy a dry erase marker and then I'll write that week's dinners on it.



I have some ideas about other projects I'll be doing this summer. Should be fun!

And...week two of our meal goals...

Monday- No dinner...still traveling home from California.
Tuesday- Jambalaya
Wednesday-Sloppy Joes
Thursday-Leftovers
Friday-Bean, Chicken, and cheese quesadillas
Saturday- Creamy Pesto Pasta and Rosemary Focaccia
Sunday- Eating over at a friends
Monday- Korean Fire Beef Salad (Seriously delicious...hardly counts as a salad. I'll post the recipe later)
Tuesday- Spicy Honey Chicken

California Blues...

Just returned from a weekend in California. We love being there, so it is always a drag coming back. We figure that we won't always be able to take long weekend trips when we have kids, so we try to take advantage while we can.

This weekend we had a barbeque out by the pool, swam in the pool/hot tub, went shopping, got yummy burritos at Jimmy Deans, saw Iron Man 2, got Pazookies from BJs, frozen bananas from Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory, made tasty treats, watched the laker game, celebrated Mothers day, got to talk with Preston's brother who is on a mission in New Jersey, and just spent time with family.

It was so great. I wanna go back.

I went to bed last night feeling like the luckiest girl in the world. Which is quite awesome considering we had just spent 10+ hours in a car.