wedding goals

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I am getting to the age where my friends are getting married and I am attending a lot of weddings. It's true, we are "at that age" and it is extremely exciting to watch my friends marry their best friends. To recap on the wedding adventures:

2016: I attended six weddings and could not make it to two. That's eight weddings in one year. That's not even the most I have seen by other friends (apparently I'm not as cool as them, thankfully!)
2017: on the roster for this year is three weddings. One I am still unsure of it I will attend because no plus Liam and it is the weekend right before my 30th birthday, which I may want to spend with my significant other. Liam's high school best friend will be getting married and one of our mutual friends is getting hitched in August (super excited).
2018: yes, you see that correctly, we have weddings already planned in 2018! THREE in fact! For three amazing friends, I mean they're all amazing but we're saving dates so far in advanced for them! There is a potential fourth one for one of his friends, but we haven't heard anything yet so we'll hold off!

So why are we chatting about this?
Well, in the last few weeks, we have been talking about getting married. SHOCKING. No really, there's no sarcasm there. It has been a touchy subject for us, not in a bad way but, for me, I didn't know if I saw myself getting married. I didn't know if being with one person was for me and if weddings was something I envisioned for myself. When I met Liam, it was something I said very early on, he laughed and told me he knew how he would propose to his future wife one day. I asked him to tell me but he said he didn't want to spoil it in case I was the one, I rolled my eyes at the thought. Now, 12 months later, we are having that conversation.

We went ring shopping to see what I liked and didn't like about rings.
It was a new experience for me. Everything I pictured in my head was nothing of what I wanted. I like simple, minimal and that's not what I had originally pinned all over Pinterest. Yes, I still pinned tons of things even in my "I don't want a wedding" mindset.

We looked at future venues. Yup, call me crazy. Liam wants a wedding, I want to elope. I want to save money and he is more traditional and wants the wedding. You could say that the roles are slightly reversed in our situation. Although I had my reservations on marriage, I have found the one person who makes me feel whole, he puts up with my crazy and I can't imagine coming home to anyone other than him, and of course Fifa. We decided on a compromise for the actual wedding, if we had a wedding it would be small compared to some of the others we have gone to. We want it to be 80, I say "we" when I really mean me because if it were up to him, we would be inviting 150. So compromise. Wedding, but small-ish.

It's exciting.
I am excited.
We are excited.
My mom is ecstatic because she wants grandkids, hold that thought for a long time.


But we're being responsible and we're going to save for something intimate and meaningful. Life is going well for us, between the crazy and the happy.

reading list | 02

I was on a roll when I first started the year, I mean we're only at the end of February so I have a lot of time for my 30 book reading list but it seems like so many! That is more than two a month, not every month but many. My reading has slowed down but the second book I read had me sucked in. Again, I apologize for the terrible picture quality, things are taken and edited with my iPhone because my laptop is still dead.

The Nightingale: A Novel by Kristin Hannah

It takes me back on a history lesson during the war, Hitler, the Nazis, but a love for women who stand up for what they believe is right. I read it during the time of all of the Women's Marches and it is empowering to read. I began to really feel bad for some of the characters and even liked some of the essential 'bad guys' but had my anger towards many. The beginning for me was not nearly as exciting as the middle and end, there were nights I did not want to put it down and go to sleep. I had to put a timer on so I would remember that yes, I do have to go to sleep and wake up for work tomorrow.

This was a great book and it made me want to revisit my history books. I never appreciated history when I was forced to memorize it in high school but I wish I could remember it now. The second book in my list is a must read for me and I loved the characters, the storyline, I felt it was very well written and kept my attention. I was super sad in some situations and I would gasp in bed reading, Liam would always ask oh no what happened in your book!? As I read these books, he always asks for an update on it and at the end I explain the whole book in a short 2 minute version for him. It's like he's reading with me haha.

blue apron review

We ordered Blue Apron a few weeks ago because we have heard great things about its ease and good tasting food. We can not deny the fact that it has great tasting food, from what we have cooked so far but we decided this way of cooking was not for us.

This sounds confusing, I know, but our life right now is a little too crazy for the "ease" of Blue Apron. We have a beautiful new kitchen we can now cook in, but sometimes we don't have the time or, in all honesty, the energy to cook Blue Apron. Yes, it gives you everything in one box to cook it but we have very different pallets for food which makes choosing the meal pretty difficult. Liam is a meat guy, he loves meat and potatoes and is not a fan of vegetables. On the other hand, I only eat vegetables and occasionally shellfish and some types of fish. See how this can cause some problems?

The meals are able to be selected for the upcoming deliveries but I do not eat fish often enough to want it every week. Liam also does not want vegetables, especially ones he has no idea what they are. He really enjoyed the burgers and sweet potato fries but it's not something I can enjoy with him. Although we love cooking together, touching burger meat is not my forte.

Blue Apron works for some lifestyles but for ours right now, I don't think we have the energy to put up the effort. We cook what we're used to and I think it is what works for us. Between work, gym, walking the dogs, and Liam taking classes 3 days a week, there is too much happening during the week. In the future, this is going to be something we want to do together. I highly suggest it, I love the recipe cards that we can keep and we might still look for recipes on the website.

life lately

Coloring really is relaxing, no wonder kids love it and people have reinvented the adult coloring book. I need to begin coloring the February edition of my planner. My spare time has been spent mostly reading books or napping. It has not been the warmest of weathers here so my energy levels have been on low, especially not going to the gym (which I need to tomorrow). I am 1/4th through my second book and it's pretty good. I don't love it as much as Station Eleven.

Blogging has been difficult since my MacBook died. My heart broke when I realized it wouldn't turn on, I restarted it a few times and it never actually turned on. I have not backed it up in 3 months so... oops there goes my stuff. Luckily, we have Liam's laptop that he never uses so here I am! The sad thing is that it has no photo editing software so my phone is all I have right now! I need to replace the hard drive, which I bought a few months back knowing it would crash. I have had it since college and it was my first big purchase alone. Hopefully I can revive it instead of spending $1500 on a new one.

A lot in life is going on all around us and it's going to be a tough few years. It breaks my heart every time I see a new story with how much hate is going on and blatant disregard for humanity. I think another update is needed for that though.

So if my post seems sporadic, it's because they are.