Safe Haven

Hey there!

Sooooo... I have actually finished two books this week.... Gone Girl and Safe Haven but i'm going to start with Safe haven review and probably do Gone Girl a different day, because I enjoyed Safe Haven a lot more then Gone Girl considering I got through it in two days!

Ok this is your warning now, this is a SPOILER alert!

 True-fully  this is also my first Nicholas Sparks book that I have read and right now I would say this is book is my favorite!!! Safe haven is such a cute book! I love the setting, I love the characters, and the small town feel. When He describes the setting it just makes me want summer to be here with the warm air blowing threw my hair! 

Safe haven is about a women from boston that runs away from her abusive husband named kevin, stealing someone else's identity. She ends up in Southport North Carolina. She gets a job at a restaurant called Ivan's and meets a lot of people including her "neighbor" Jo and a store owner named Alex. Alex finds something in her that draws him to her and she just sort of starts this life there where she's starts to become comfortable and she can be her self, while also have this guarded suspicion that someone is gonna end it and the life she's leading won't last. As for kevin (her husband) I was so drawn into this book I found myself saying how the man needed some major psychotherapy... believing women are "selfish, that girls were like that". Saying things to my self like, obviously he was never taught how to respect women and as equals! Overall Amazing book couldn't put it down! Can not wait till the movie next week! I want it to be Valentines day TODAY!

My obsession this week consist of brain storming the races I want to conquer this year! 

My goal is to run 3 5k's a 4 mile, 5 mile, 7mile and a half marathon! I want to get back and shape and run the races i've always enjoyed while adding some new ones as well. I want to make posts about them and update on my progress up to the race day! Have you heard of UAwhatsbeautiful? You declare your goal and then you show under armour women how its done. Check it out. you can post challenges and you can crush them or they can post challenges and you can crush them too! I haven't looked at it in detail but i'll probably do a blog post on it if I stick with it!

Now since I have an ass hauling to do i'm going to start with enjoying the rest of the night with some relaxing with ryan with some beer, bacon cheeseburger pizza and some black ops II! Have an awesome weekend!

Passing Into February

Happy Sunday!
So when we get a chance to sleep in (which was today) we take full advantage of it so, our day started around ll am :)

We headed to the store and I have to say that I am super excited I got to finally fill the fridge with all of this deliciousness and begin to eat healthier! this stuff wasn't even half of it!

     Also happy February <3 <3 <3 .... Who is everyone rooting for tonights Super Bowl? I'm not really going for either the 49ers or ravens. If I absolutely had to I would just say the 49ers only because there colors make me hungry for a twix candy bar! yummy. Ryan thinks the 49ers will win but, he wants to see the ravens win because ray lewis has been playing for 16 years and he would like to see them take home the win. We will just have to see :) I'm just excited for the commercials and half time because you know Beyonce won't be lip singing because the super bowls a bigger deal then the presidents inauguration hehe i'm just playing... i'm just playing... she's beautiful and I don't care what people say she has an amazing voice!

Also, I was excited for this month because they put out the new spring/ summer catalog for Scentsy consultants!!!!!! They have a ton of new stuff they added and new smells too! ( seen a perk me up in the cafe section that supposed to smell of coffee.....all I can say is yummmm!) I'm also so excited for the scentsy charitable cause warmer this season! I will be doing another blog dedicated to the reason why the warmer is so important to me! My mom and I have already decided that we will be purchasing the charitable cause warmer!

Last but not least! my obsession of the week is is is .... wait for it ... wait for it....
I'm obsessed with the jewelry on this website I found! sammydress !!!! They have so many unique things on there and really cute stuff i'll post below some of the things I will be going to get... also there stuff is also pretty reasonably priced along with free shipping. The downfall I have heard though is that it takes a fairly long time for you items to come in.

Twins On The Brian!

So I recently finished a book while having a chest cold so I thought I would give you my review on what i thought of The Last Child! I thought I was doing myself some good by getting outside, while still being a little chilly rather then keep going to the Y and getting on the treadmill but nooooo I end up getting a wonderful cough and somehow ended up with this chest cold. Was it because I was running outside and changing it up? or was it already in my system? I made sure I was dressing appropriately and also not over doing it and I felt fine! Someone had told me it wasn't the running outside that made me sick because thats supposed to make my immune system stronger so I don't know what to believe at this point. 

     The Last Child is written by John Hart. This is the first book that I have read by him and it most definitely will not be the last! This book was really good and it was a fast read. It constantly had me trying to figure out this mystery/thriller. At first thought this book made me really sad but it goes beyond the sadness as the twist of events keep you reading. I also didn't mind that, when it was the next chapter it was a different character telling the story. Usually it throws me off a little bit but this book did not.
     This book is about a 13 year old boy, Johnny Merrimon who has set out to find his missing twin sister who has been missing for a year. he is destined to find her believing that she is still alive. His mother is a drug abuser that seems to have lost all hope and detective Clyde Hunt is also obsessed in finding this missing girl promising to find her while potentially messing up his career.
     For a fictional book it thought is book was VERY good and well written and even had some good introspective! I can't wait to read another John Hart book!

    My weekly obsession this week? The Lying Game! This show started in 2011 on abc family. They are airing the second season now. (you can watch season 1 now on Netflix) This show is about two twins, Emma and Sutton which are the same character but I don't care this show has me hooked! Emma essentially came from a shitty foster care home and Sutton was adopted by a wealthy couple. Sutton talks Emma into taking her place for a few days while sutton tray to find the truth behind who their mother really is and why they were separated. Its filled with mystery and love and risk as they try to figure out their lives and stay out of trouble.

Sunday Funday

     So my original plan today was to blog since I had the day off but, last night a girl I work with had a family medical emergency and asked if I could work for her. Of course I did because I like the extra money plus you gotta help a girl out! So I went in at 5:30 and worked till 1.. not that bad....I was still able to have the afternoon and evening free!

     But Happy 2013! I have to admit I have not come up with a new years resolution. I think i'm leaning towards eating healthier and running more races this year since I missed a lot of my favorite ones last year. Plus some of the family favorite cookie recipes i'm about to share with you has allowed me to gain an extra 15!!!!! pounds this winter. 

     Another thing that I want to start doing more of is...(but be smart about my choices) I wanna start using more of my resources and and finding bargain's on things that Ryan and I can buy to use or put in our home or maybe even just get for ourselves... whether it be checking out little home town stores (supporting small business) or going to the spring and fall garage sales. My newest addiction right now is on Facebook I have 3 local towns around me that have started a sort of called swap and shop pages!!! There can be some real steals on there too!!! I've began to sell and buy stuff myself! There are some people that have had some bad experiences with it but I haven't had my share yet but I find it convenient and addicting to look at! So in your search bar just type in your local towns name ex.. DeWitt local online swap and shop and garage sales... join the page and wahlaa and if you can't find one or know of one maybe you can be the first in your area to start one!

     

     My mother and I made chocolate chip cookies, almond covered pretzels kringle cookies, oreo balls, Almond bark candy and chex mix this season! I don't have the Kringle cookie recipe on me so if you want it leave me a comment and I can most defiantly post it! We made those this year because my mother and I use to work in a nursing home and there was a resident there that was from Germany and he loved kringles. They are actually a pretty good cookie. In my own opinion its kind of like eating sour cream bread dough but in a form of a cookie! A true german cookie!

Almond Bark Candy (MY FAV <3)

 

What you will need:

2lbs. Almond bark

2c. miniature Marshmallows

2c. Dry roasted peanuts

1c. Peanut Butter

3c. Rice Krispies

What to do: Melt the almond bark in 200 degree oven. Add the remaining ingredients and then drop them on some wax paper and cool. We set our's outside on the deck to cool off!

I'm always looking for comments good or bad about my blog please feel free :)

GOOD NIGHT!!

MY FAVORITE CHRISTMAS MOVIES

HELLO! HAPPY HOLIDAYS! MEERY CHRISTMAS & ALL THE ABOVE!
     Its been awhile since I have blogged, but I hope to blog a lot more because I'm officially done with my college career! I will blog about this a later day but since Iowa had its first major storm of the year, and I've been stuck inside all day there is nothing better then a good movie I thought it would be cool to share some of my favorite christmas movies!

#1. ELF

#2 White Christmas

#3Home Alone

#4 Home Alone 3

#5Jack Frost

#6Dr. Sueses How the grinch stole christmas

#7A charlie Brown Christmas


#8Frosty The Snowman


#9 The christmas Carol

These are all some of my favorite christmas movies to get me in the christmas spirit! Enjoy! I will be doing a blog on the christmas cookies I did this year too! Talk again soon!

Fall Is Here!

 

Its pretty much fall time to me and I love fall! My fall classes have begun, the pumpkin spice latte's are here, I can bust all my hoodies out of my closet, My fall shows such as, greys anatomy and vampire diaries will be on! and lastly of course the cooler running weather which has always been my favorite! So speaking of running I found this great work out schedule that is working great for me and keeping my body in shape and I'm posting to share it. This one makes me feel great! I also plan to use this into the winter season. I found this reading through the Outside Magazine.

Remember with every workout to warm up and cool down at an easy pace for about 5-10 minutes! Also they also added that through weeks 2-5 to add a 1/2 mile to each weeks run and 1-2 more intervals per session.

     Another great thing I have found that the article talked about was how you can find music that will match your pace and you can naturally quicken your pace if the tunes are 180 beats per minute. I've already added a number of songs to my running playlist from this site so check it out Here! you can even create your own play list there as well.

  

 Lastly but not least september brings on a challenge I found and its the squatseptember challenge! I found it on a fitness blog one day and was thinking, "yea i can do that". Although september has already started you can always join in and finish a few days later. In October I will post my before and After photos to see just how big a difference there was. 

Chicago 2012!

     Today I'm going to do a travel blog! This past weekend we took our first trip to Chicago and it was a blast and at the same time a total life experience and so glad we got the chance to experience it. The original plan was to just go to the cubs game, with my side of the family as a gift for my grandfather for fathers day seeing that he has always wanted to go to a cubs game. Ryan and I decided to make a full weekend out of it.This was just a two day trip filled full. 

8/11/12 DAY 1:

 Arrival. we arrived in Chicago around 2:40 pm later than scheduled due to traffic stops but you will have that. We went straight to the Hotel downtown to drop off our stuff and to valet park. we then started walking towards the red line to catch the subway to the cubs game. Although I was headed in the right direction due to the time crunch and second guessing my self we took a taxi instead. Taxi fare from downtown to the game was about 20$. The game started at 3pm and it was against the Cincinnati Reds. Sadly we lost :( 4-2 but it didn't matter seeing that the game was so much fun and exciting seeing all the cub fans energy around us. The weather was also perfect with just a slight breeze!

My grandpa and I at our first cubs game!

Also a FYI: If you have to go out and smoke a cigarette make sure you get your hand stamped to come back inside. We learned the hard way because they have a no re-enter policy once you have left and we didn't know since Ryan needed a smoke, so we stood outside for 10 minutes till this nice old guy was able to let us back in. showing your 50$ tickets is not good enough reason to let you back in i guess. After the game we said our goodbyes to the family and walked around to some of the shops and bars around Wrigley field.

Navy Pier

     After taking the red line back to downtown (which was crowded but very simple) we checked into our hotel. We stayed at The red roof Inn. It was around 174$ for one night and 36$ for 24hr parking. I read mixed reviews about the place. Yes it was small but the people were nice. I liked that it was in the middle of everything that we wanted to do and it was a perfect for us. All we needed it for was, to sleep anyways so it was worth it. We walked down to the navy pier which wasn't even a mile away and you really couldn't miss it. We actually went back on Sunday and decided the night version was way better and we really enjoyed it! There was so much to do and we went to so many little shops. Saturday nights they have fireworks which were nice to watch along with the children street dancers.

We walked back to the hotel and decided not to go to bed so we walked around downtown and checked out a bar called snickers bar and grill and had a drink there and just people watched.

8/12/12 DAY 2:

     

     Millennium Park/ Grant Park

We woke up around 8 and walked down to Millennium park and took some pictures along the way. We went to cloud gate to see the bean! We also checked out the crown fountain. They are two fountains that are made up of glass bricks that have water streaming down them into a shallow pool. The people of Chicago are placed on the fountain and even at some points they spit out water through their mouths. We also walked to grant park and checked out Buckingham fountain. 

Giordano's

    For lunch we went to Giordano's which was fabulous! It was a little bit of a wait but it was totally worth it! we got a small deep dish pizza with sausage and pepperoni and we finished it but we were stuffed! all around with the small pizza and a pop and tea it was around 25$. Afterwards we took a taxi to water tower place. Water tower place is an 8 level mall where we spent the rest of our afternoon doing some shopping where Ryan was able to find some good stuff! 


Lastly... you can't not go right? before we left we had to go to Willis tower. It was a long wait which stinks unless you paid for the Chicago pass but its a bundle deal and we weren't going to be there that long. But it was pretty cool to be that high in Chicago. In all it was an awesome view!
If I think we were to go back again we would feel a little more comfortable with what we were doing and do some new things... since there is just sooo much you can do there but we really did enjoy our time there and I hope you enjoy my travel blog!