summer

I have always been a summer girl.
It seems to suit me finer than the other seasons, though spring is a close second.

This is my first summer as a self proclaimed adult, and I've found myself wondering what does summer even mean to me now?

It's not playing till 4 in the morning.
It's no longer sleeping in till noon.
It's not endless hours at the pool.
It's not tan skin, shorts, and tank tops.
It's not vacation. It's not stress free.

It's June, and as childish as it seems, this realization has left me feeling a little sad. Something that has brought me naive happiness for 19 years, is loosing it's luster.

My days are not hard by any means. I will be the first to admit that I am a lucky girl, with a good life.
I guess I'm just having my first lick of a real life adjustment, as silly as it may seem.

I have 3 months to find the magic of summer.
I have a feeling there's more to it than the strict definition I've always limited it to.
I just haven't figured it out yet...

some thoughts before I start my weekend

- 3 dreams about Justin Bieber in 1 week. I'm not sure if I should be thrilled, or concerned.

- I won the little contest at my job, and I'm feelin' pretty proud.

- "Zombie" attacks in Florida, AND in Maryland... What. the. heck. This world is becoming a pretty scary place people, and only the comic book and Walking Dead nerds are prepared.

- I got eyelash extensions as a birthday gift to myself. Barely over a week later, I have officially picked them all off. One of my quirkier moments in life to be sure.
Some mascara and eye liner, and you can hardly tell I've only got stubs for lashes.

Happy Weekend Everyone!

my mysterious and super fascinating life

Why am I watching this show?
Plot synopsis goes a little like this; beautiful, but vapid model dies and then presses a button in heaven and ends up in a beautiful, brilliant lawyers body, who happens to be a bigger body type than the model prefers. It's like legally blonde, but completely different and full of cheese.
I'll say it again, why am I watching this show?

And while I'm at it, why am I picking off my eye lashes one by one? That's probably the weirder of the two.

Unsolvable predicaments.
In the mean time, I will be watching and picking.

my newest obsession

I discovered essie, and I'm currently in love.

Cheers to cute sister-in-laws who make it possible to purchase these babies for 2 whole bucks. 

been growing out my hair for over a year

Yesterday I decided I'd had enough. 

So I chopped it. 

My inspiration was this...

And I don't miss an inch. 

Day 3

Are we sick of hearing about my big birthday yet? 

Me too. 

But Sunday my O'Gwin family went out of their way to make me feel special, and it deserves to be mentioned. And documented, of course. 

It started out with breakfast made by Zane. French toast, my favorite. 

Followed by dinner, cake, presents and games at the O'Gwins.

Ignore my nasty hair. It's in the works.  

And of course, we watched the eclipse. Through pin holes in pieces of cardboard, no fancy glasses for us.
The damage to my eyes probably won't register for a couple years anyway.

It was a perfect weekend.
I have officially left my teenage years behind, but it's still a good life.

Day 2

Saturday morning I helped my cute dad plant flowers as our Mothers Day gift to our Bethy.  

We've done this service for my mom years past, and mostly I only enjoy the end product. This year, I actually enjoyed all the diggin in the mud (with gloves on of course). Gardening can be kind of meditative. I am finding myself wishing to plant some pots of my own, and look forward to the day I have my own garden. 

But most of all, I enjoyed spending that time with my dad, and pooch, in the sun. 

 Tell me this isn't the prettiest pooch?!

That night we celebrated with my side of the family. 

It was my Uncle Brian's birthday a couple days before mine, so we decided to celebrate together. 

We had an absolutely delicious dinner at Chilis, followed by games and cake at my parents house. We even got to Skype with Bri to complete the Borup family circle. 

I love my family. 

These goofy people complete me. 

Birthday Celebration: Day 1

I really only had one big wish for my birthday this year, a new camera.
A nice, fancy one. One that will take crisp clean pictures of my future babies, and other adventures.
A camera I knew would cost a pretty penny.

Zane, as gentle as possible, convinced me that this was just not in the cards this year.
So I told everyone to not get me anything, but to help me save, so I could eventually buy myself a little camera.

But I came home from work on Friday, to a little surprise gift from Zane.

Some simple chairs I wanted, so we could spend some summer days reading on our little porch. 

Followed by a trip to the aquarium, in honor of my obsession with all things water. (If you haven't gone since they got their River Otters, you should go. They  truly are, "Otterly Adorable")

We took a lovely little nap afterwords, and then ate my weight in Chinese food at Shoots. It was a perfect day of celebrating. 

When we were home, Zane said he had one more surprise for me. "It's really small, and I don't know if you are going to like it."

Ta-da! My DREAM camera!!

I was surprised to say the least. Tears literally welled in my eyes, which is admittedly a little dramatic. 

We finished the night off by playing games with all my O'Gwin siblings.

The really great thing about having your birthday on Sunday, is you get the whole weekend to celebrate. And Friday was the perfect day to kick of the farewell to my teenage years. 

Thanks to Zane for a perfect day, you know me too well. And thank you to everyone who helped Zane keep my big surprise, a big surprise. 

Life is good, and the partying continues. 

mmmhm

On our first date, Zane told me he did magic. 

I laughed out loud, I thought he was joking. 

He wasn't.

So hot right now. 

My birthday is on Sunday

And it's really all I can think about, 

That and the fact that this time last year, I looked like this..

And by this, I mean extremely tan, chicken skinny, brunette, and wearing tank tops. 

Back to the days when all I had to worry about was getting to the pool early enough to get a good chair. 

Ahhh to be young again... 

Still, at the end of the day, I wouldn't trade the husband and our new life

 for a closet full of booty-shorts, and a lifetime by the pool. 

And that my friends, is maturity at it's finest. 

guest blogged

My lovely friend, and pure joy of a [past] roommate, Courtney Kearns, don't hesitate to call her Courty Beans, asked me to be a guest blogger on her own blog. 

I was honored. I mostly introduce myself, so it may or may not be old news. 

But what you do need to tune in to read is Courts blog, she's a smart girl with big opinions. You can find her here. 

There's a chance one of her other featured bloggers will catch your eye as well. No better way to pass the time than blog-stalking a new face. 

I'm off to the gym, or maybe to watch old One Tree Hill episodes on Netflix.

 It's a tough choice. 

a little honesty

Sometimes Zane and I will argue.
It feels dishonest to pretend it's all sunshine and rainbows.

99% of the time, our disagreements are 100% ridiculous.

For example, remember when I took a picture of my dresser corner?
What prompted that brilliant piece, was the most silly of scuffles with Zane.

I began to notice, on my daily quickie cleaning run through of the apartment, that Zane's deodorant bottle always seemed to travel from the bathroom, and settle itself on our bedroom dresser. Thus, everyday I would place it back into the bathroom cabinet.

One night before bed, while me and Zane were laughing and genuinely enjoying just hanging out with each other, I decided it would be the best time to bring up the deodorant bottle. Good timing seems to always allude me.

It started off as more of a joke, but turned into more of an argument. I mean, I always leave my laptop, among other things, in the family room instead of the office, and I also leave my clothes on the floor. So why bring up the deodorant bottle?
Touche husband.

We obviously are in the process of learning how to pick our battles, or maybe just I am. Since Zane hadn't brought up any of my annoying habits, until I mentioned his.

The memory is a little hazy now, but I don't believe we truly settled that battle.

What I do remember is waking up the next morning with a clean dresser. In fact, I haven't seen anything belonging to Zane sitting on that dresser since.

The point is, we may still be learning about good timing, and worthy battles, but we do know how to patch everything up with a little love and sacrifice. And isn't that what matters most?

I am grateful for Zane.
For watering the plants that are too high for me, for letting me put touches of pink in our bedroom, for getting up in the night to check doors and windows when I'm feeling scared, and most of all, for always being the first to say sorry.

reclaiming my rep

My last post had my parentals, and others, commenting on my slob-ness. Granted, they were well deserved.
But let me just say, my home is actually rather clean. Usually.
Zane and I both decided that turning this little condo into a place where we could feel at home was high priority. We wanted it to be the place we day dream of coming home to on a long day. A place we can count on to feel at peace.

It's not perfect, it's not finished, but we truly love it.
And most days, it looks like this...

Bedroom, bathroom, and office all look generally unfinished.

Money doesn't grow on trees, you know.  

So there you have it. I do clean. sometimes. 

one bad habit

My aversion to hanging up clothes has become a bit of a problem...

woops.

this is old news

but :09 is the best thing thats happened to me all week. 

"They just look like, dirty socks"

PS. I identify with these 4 year olds. My taste buds have not evolved. 

soul mates

 I believe in them. 

vacation thoughts

Hi. I'm in California.
Turns out 3 theme parks in 3 days, plus walking downtown LA, will wear you out.
We already know this from my previous Disneyland/world posts. I'm kind of a baby when it comes to park stamina.
Personally, I feel like I've done an incredible job this time around. Bri's opinion on the matter might differ, but you'll never know that.

It all boils down to this, the first trip out of good old Utah with the husband has been fantastic. Tramtastic, even.
In the case that one of you isn't following me on FB, I'll give you a run down.

Day 1: Universal Studios just the O'Gwins while Bri is at work.
Dinner as a fam bam, and some hot tubbin.

Day 2: Disneyland with the whole gang, plus Bri's cute roommate Bethany.

Day 3: Six Flags; Magic Mountain, with the 3 of us. Downtown LA to see the Chinese and Kodak Theater's.

And because I am too tired to write well, some fun facts...

- I've sent back 2 orders of food so far. Not embarrassing at all.
- It is stinkin' stinkin' hot. oh man. so hot.
- I am burnt to a crisp.
- The first night here we discovered the air mattress we brought has a hole.
- Consequently, Zane attempted to build, and sleep in a hammock on the balcony.
(so sad I didn't get a picture of this.)
- And not surprisingly, we ended up sharing a twin air mattress. best night's sleep ever...
- I blacked out multiple times at Magic Mountain. Oooh yeah, totally awesome.
-I am the WORST backseat driver. Learning something new everyday.
- Zane and I have officially been married 4 months.
- I don't like big cities. Though fun to visit, I look forward to coming home to my quite little life.
- I think I've grown myself a butt.

Oh, you've already seen these?

 It's possible I will write again. 

Using complete sentences, and no Instagram collages if we're lucky. 

If not, let me just say, it's been real fun. 

I am so grateful to Bri, my cute parents, and cuter husband for making this little trip possible.
Life is good. 

something different

Monday Zane and I had a little date night for Family Home Evening.
It included seeing The Lucky One, and eating some delicious chinese at my favorite restaurant Shoots.

That night my chocolate dipped fortune read this...

And at 8 o'clock tonight, Zane and I are off to California to visit the sister.
So it turns out we're the lucky ones, eh eh? get it?

Happy Early Weekend!

bye-bye bri

This has been a weeks of weeks. Much too busy for my taste, and much too emotional for Zane's, and anyone else who had the pleasure of interacting with me.

Work managed to be rather busy, and painfully slow, at the same time.
It was the last week of school before finals, meaning punishment for all my procrastination.
My sister leaves for her internship in California tomorrow, thus my hand-crafted [and extremely thoughtful] gift had to be finished today.
And the cherry on top, my special lady time of the month making me cry 4 times a day over the stress of it all. I also may have shed a few tears because of replies to text messages being too slow, and wrong pizza toppings.

In the end, I pulled it all off.
Homework assignments are turned in, and Bri's book of Love Letters is completed.

Essentially, I had a bunch of Bri's friends, and family, write her a letter as a goodbye gift before she left for Conan. [She's interning at the Conan O'Brian show, I know, she's totally cool.]
After sucking up all of my crafty juices, and destroying my home, I finally compiled them into a scrapbook-like gift.

My home has looked like this for days.

The letters look a little something like this. 

She loved it!  

Tears were shed, not from me for the first time in weeks. Though I cried many touched tears while working on the project. 

It turned out pretty perfect, if I do say so myself. 

I really want to thank everyone who took the time to write something for Bri. So many sweet words were said, and there was never a more deserving person. 

It meant so much to me, and even more to Bri. So a HUGE thank you to anyone and everyone who contributed.

I love my sister very much, and will surely miss having her around this summer. 

She's an essential piece to the family puzzle, and it won't be the same without her.

Thank goodness the week is over. 

I'm looking forward to enjoying some sun, love, emotional stability, and maybe a bit of sanity.

On this rainy Tuesday

I'm grateful for all the good men in my life. Especially my sweet husband, and awesome dad.

If you're loving the men in your life, can I get a     "what, what!"       *raising the roof*

at this exact moment

I feel like this woman is speaking to me.
Honestly, whenever I take the time to read her thoughts they speak to me.
Sometimes I feel daunted by the lengthy-ness of posts, but always leave feeling inspired.
She speaks truth, and I figure we all could use at least a little of that rarity.

Today I read this:

"comparison. always, always comparison. comparison isn't just the thief of joy, it is the thief of the present moment and the slippery slope to what feels awfully akin to insanity."




She's good. 

memory lane strikes again

A friend of mine at work is in love, and we have been discussing how in the world he can bring up the marriage conversation. Such a scary topic in a relationship headed in said direction.

Zane and I danced around the "M" word for about a month.
Little phrases and words implying a mutual future. Dates planned months ahead of time. I have a journal entry for every occasion Zane inched towards the big M.

I tried to pinpoint the moment Marriage became a spoken topic, so I could help my friend move his own process along, but could not.

I asked Zane if he remembered, he didn't even hesitate.

I came to visit him at work, took a seat on his lap, and said "I want to marry you. Just wanted to say it out loud."

And marry we did. 3 months later.

Thank goodness someone said it. 

Sometimes I wonder where that blunt and brave girl went. 

I haven't seen her in the mirror lately.