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.