Mandy, the Halloween Queen

My sister is amazing at Halloween. gumball machine?



well' this isn't Mandy, but it is her boyfriend. :) Dumb and Dumber... you CANNOT look at this and not laugh :)



a twister board? AHH...

Love her. :)

Happy Halloween, everyone!

PS. The wedding diet (well I shouldn't call it a wedding diet because it is going to be a lifestyle, not a diet) begins November 1st. ;) So I am REALLY going to enjoy Halloween. Oh my gosh, please don't tell my Weight Watchers leader or my psychologist about this eating lots of candy idea :)

Easy as 1-2-3!

I remember when I graduated high school (umm... almost TEN years by the way?!?!?) I had sooo many awesome, inspirational cards from all the people that I love most in life :)

They all had such good advice, quotes and just made me so happy. I remember thinking, "okay. I know someday I am going to want to re-read these and show them to my kids when they are skipping class and on the brink of failing pre-calculus and not graduating" but in the meaaannntime...

What do you do with them??

or all those fun 21st birthday cards, or baby shower cards, or get-better-soon cards when you got that horrible call from the doctors office. You want to save them and keep them all in one place, but where!?!?!

dun dun dun duunnnnnnn...


this is my "engagement/pre-wedding" words of wisdom ring! So fun! Add a fun piece of ribbon and you are set to go :)

<3

this weekend i learned:

this weekend I learned:

i learned: old fashioned cards are good for the souli learned: lists are going to be my new best friends.

i learned: how thoughtful my friends are and just how much I love holidays

i learned: my friends can make caramel dip from SCRATCH! I didn't even know that was possible. and then the fact that they did it for me?!

i learned: I should not drink red wine at my wedding. it stains my teeth :)

i learned: even though my friends make the cutest babies ever, one day E will give me payback. Evy was sound asleep in her room during the engagement party. We may or may not have been "accidentally" too loud so she could wake up to come play :) She had to try on her "My First Halloween" bib. duh :)

i learned a lot. that i am so blessed and so thankful :)

annddddddd that I really AM GETTING MARRIED! AHHHHH ;)

i seriously have the most amazing friends and sister in the whole wide world :)

and to top it off? they are pretty darn creative ;)

"It's okay to be flawed AND fabulous"

I missed my psychologist appointment this week, so I have had to repeat this quote in my head over and over and over and over :)

Kinda had a cheat/binge-ish eating day on Thursday afternoon. I think it was a little of the stress of the last few weeks catching up to me. I got SOO mad at myself because I had been being SO good to myself and really just focusing on being healthy. A stumble may prevent a fall... I have come sooo far and I am learning more everyday ;)

My Plans

i had my first meltdown. (as a bride-to-be, that is)

i was sitting on the floor in my velour sweatsuit, eating frozen yogurt (no, no not the cool, hip, Golden Spoon or RedBerry, but like an actual container of Yoplait yogurt that was frozen from being in the freezer) looking at some bridal magazines.

All of a sudden, the tears started coming :)

I remember in college there was always that quote that said, "Nothing good ever happens after 2AM. Ever."

Now, that I am wise and much older ;) I would like to revise that quote.

NOTHING GOOD EVER HAPPENS AFTER 10PM!

Like really, you decide at 11 PM it's a good idea to organize your closet, or rearrange the living room. An hour into it, you have an even bigger mess and you are ready for bed.

I was waaaay too tired, too crabby and too emotionally worn out to have ANY constructive thoughts. Let ALONE about planning a WEDDING.

I went to bed, and woke up feeling much better :)

especially because tonight, someone made me dinner, we went on walk to Mallards for ice-cream and these :)

no matter HOW many bridal magazines I read, how much I spend on my dress, how hard I try to prepare for the presentation at work, how many miles I run, how many sit-ups I do, I am not in control.

"Want to make God laugh? Tell Him your plans!"

"I Love You Because:"

I have been trying to read a lot of "marriage" books and articles just because I find people's opinions and observations so interesting. I hear that the first year of marriage is one of the hardest, so I feel like any wisdom I can get is nice :) and I just love reading :)

Something that I have been seeing over and over and over is how important it is to stay grateful and appreciative of each other. (for instance: last weekend drew turned to me and said, "since when did I become your fiancee AND a credit card?" :) I just had asked if someday we could get mountain bikes. geez, over-reacter :) I really though have noticed how easy it is though to get sooo caught up in where we are going to live, what dress I am going to wear in our wedding, how much time Drew can take off from work for all the wedding festivities etc. It's easy to forget all the little things that make us a perfect couple in the first place. :)

I thought this was such a simple, sweet idea so I tested one out and gave it to my parents:

~Get a cute frame

~Find some cute fabric or paper.

~Use stickers or handwriting to write "I love you because:" on your paper or cloth.

~Frame the cloth/paper. ~Set the frame up somewhere you both walk by frequently or see.

~Use a dry-erase marker to write a reason :)

Hopefully my dad was trying to be cheesey? ;)

then, you just grab a paper towel, erase and...

...

write another reason. ;)

"Better is a bowl of vegetables with someone you love than steak with hatred"

~proverbs 15:17

Slippers with the Furrrr

I've been engaged for a week! :)

I took a picture of my room on Saturday night at 10:45PM.

I was going to show you all the picture.

I seriously have NO idea where it is. Not on my cell phone, not on my nikon, not on my ipad. Weird. My mom says it's a blessing in disguise that I can't find the picture to upload.

The first week of being engaged had made my room a DISASTER :) Who has time to clean your room/make your bed/put away makeup and laundry when you have a sparkly diamond to look at? Certainly not me ;)

it was similar to this. a lot less black, and a lot more pink.

it was so bad, I found ALL five (monday-friday) outfits on the floor WITH their corresponding shoes. Boots, flats, TOMS, workout shoes. everything I wore this last week, laying on the floor.

But don't you worry. I put on my new slippers, lit my pumpkin spice candle and went to town. We are all now organized and ready for the week. Back to the old Lindsay. hot pink furry slippers, my bathrobe, outfits for Monday-Wednesday laid out. well. and a diamond ring, of course :)

Yep. That bag contains ring-pops. My sister is so clever ;)

Brookies (Brownies + Cookies)

"don't let comparison steal your joy.

One of the reasons we fight insecurity is because we are comparing our behind-the-scenes with everyone else's highlight reels."
~ steven furlick

so this weekend. apply this concept. Don't try and decide if you like chocolate chip cookies better than brownies. MAKE THEM BOTH!

and get off facebook and go enjoy the fall sunshine;)

Wooohooooo :)

We came to my parents house and found some artwork,

We carved the little pumpkin,

Drank some beverages,

the "boys" smoked some celebratory cigars,

had a few moments of panic, as in "umm. what did I get myself into?" :)

while I celebrated inside with my favorite family friends in the whole wide world who are way too good to me :)

and so good to my mom (this was her part of my engagement gift) :)

WOOHOOO! We love you all, thanks for the support! :)

Pumpkin Bling

I LOVE holidays, and pumpkin carving is definitely up there in my top holiday activities :)

Sunday came and went, the Seahawks WON, I got some awesome new slippers, went to Costco... Then I went back to Drew's around 6 for dinner. He ALWAYS makes chicken tacos, and I am a beef girl :) I was kinda dreading going for chicken tacos to be honest, but I went :) SURPRISE! We were having BEEF tacos :) yesss...

Ate our dindin, and then Drew was like "let's carve my little pumpkin"

Sure.

He cut upon the top and then brought over a plate thing to put the guts in. I started pulling out all the gross stuff and then decided I needed some machinery. I asked him for a knife, because I wanted to scrap the sides so I could get more of the gunk out. He was VERY reluctant to hand me the knife and kept avoiding handing it over. I finally grabbed it myself and was like, oh my gosh. I won't cut myself, just let me me skin the sides. He said he would do it, so he took the knife and did some scraping. There was more gunk. All of a sudden I felt something hard and kinda shook it on the plate. Then Drew said, "What is this??" AHHH... The wax he had used to cover up the hole he had cut in the bottom of the pumpkin was pretty much all over the ring. :)

I kept saying, "wait, are you serious?" as he got on bended knee and asked me to be his wifey (no, he did not use those words but I will spare you all the sappy details;)

I don't think I had said "yes" yet, because I was so in shock.

Thennn, we had to wash the ring :)

My brilliant fiance (hehe that word is awesome) made sure there was NO way that diamond was gonna fall down the garbage disposal.

One more step to de-pumpkinfy the ring and we were good to go. A piece of floss got out our last little bit from under the setting and we were off to celebrate :)

Ohh, and yep, I said YES :)

I feel like these last few months I have really been making progress in just living in the moment.

I seriously need constant reminders, so I decided to make a little reminder. Take a piece of plywood, glue on little wooden letters saying whatever you want it to say. Then paint the board and the letters all the SAME color. :)

(Hint: It would probably be MUCH easier to paint the letters FIRST, before you glue them on the board. This way you won't have to use tooth-picks and Q-tips to get the paint around all the little white nooks and crannies of the letter :) Of course I realize this halfway through the darn little project :)




So. I dunno. Simple. Cute. Cheap. Kind of modern art-ish. Look at me with all my art terms. ;)

I want to make my next one painted in a pale yellow color that says "you are my sunshine."
wouldn't that be cute for a baby nursery or something?

Watch out Baby Boy Mowry, Auntie Lindsay is feeling crafty ;)

Beyonce

Last night Drew and I made a quick little stop at Fred Meyer and while we were walking to the back of the store to get our purchases he said, "Hey Beyonce" to try and tell me something.

I stopped in the organic meat aisle, turned to him and said, "Why did you just call me Beyonce, ya weirdo??"

Turns ouuuuuut. He had said "fiance" becauuussseeeee...

Look what I found mixed in the guts (I know, such a great word choice huh?) of the pumpkin when I carved it last night??? ;)

Goodbye Super-Wal Mart!

I am switching jobs (same organization) and will be working at a different office. The drive will be waaaay shorter :) BUT. I will no longer be able to spend my lunch hour wandering around Super Wal-Mart. I will miss you, Wally-World but I'll be sure to visit when I am down south and stock up on Weight Watchers yogurt. ;)

Spring 2012

TOMS is coming out with a line of ballet flats this SPRING :)

Yesss... Cute, affordable, functional.

Mini Meeeee

I went and got my hair cut and look what BRILLIANT thing I bought in this fancy-schmancy salon bag? A MINI BOTTLE OF OPI NAIL POLISH! FOR ONLY 2 DOLLARS!

I always go back and forth back and forth at the store when it comes to buying nail polish. OPI is by farrr the best quality but who wants to spend 10 DOLLARS on a bottle of nail polish when you don't even know if you like the color? (Heck, who wants to spend 10 dollars on a bottle of nail polish period? Even if you LOVE the color?
Enter this brilliant little invention. Enough polish for two coats on the fingers and two coats on the toesies and by then you are over the color anyways and it is time to move to the next hot trend. Do-it-yourself shellac manicure anyone? More to come on this later ;)

Do you know what ELSE came in my fancy-schmancy salon bag?

These mini-triscuits!

haha. no. just kidding. but I was sitting down to paint my nails with my new mini-bottle and saw that my mom had just bought these mini triscuits. ;)

Mini OPI Nail Polish= GENIUS

Mini Triscuits= Not feeling it... :)

Why one would want these is beyond me. Your slice of cheese would be waaaay overpowering for the poor little cracker.

You know you live in the Pacific Northwest when:

A grocery store runs prove our pumpkin lattees go everywhere with us. Gatorade? psshh. What are electrolytes when you have CAFFEINE?

Driving down the freeway today, you see a car FULL of young men (at least 6 in a little, little car) with window paint saying

"On our way to SeaTac to see if Amanda Knox will marry me...

Honk if you want Foxy Knoxy!"

;) How was YOUR Tuesday? :)