2014...BALANCE...jan update

earlier this month i talked about my goals for 2014. my main goal/word of the year is BALANCE. how am i doing so far???

i took this picture at 12:07 am. it is now 12:20 am, and i am finally sitting down to write this post. i know i know you are all thinking i am crazy and should just go to bed. you're right...to both. i set a goal to go to bed by 12:00 every night. the first week i did pretty well. 4/5 is pretty good for me. i don't think i have gone to bed by 12:00 since. i need to continue to work on this goal.

the other truth is i washed these clothes last weekend. another weekend is about to start. that means i have had clean clothes on the drying rack for nearly a week because i haven't had time to put them away. 

my other goal for the month was no unnecessary spending. i have done pretty well as far as not spending random money at target, but i did spend some money on the blog that i wasn't really planning on. i'll keep working on this as well.

so basically balance isn't going very well so far. i started out the year planning to do monthly goals again, but i have changed my mind...sort of. i still plan to work on something each month, but i want it to have something to do with balance. i really really need more balance in my life.

my goal for february is to continue to work on getting to bed by 12:00am. i know i need more sleep, so i am really going to try hard. feel free to check in on me. how was your january? did you accomplish your goals?

unintentional day off+a surprise

i'm over at serenity now today. come see what i have to say. my job is really flexible. i do my own scheduling so i have a lot of control over when i work. somehow i ended up with no appointments yesterday. my plan was to work from home for about half the day, and do other things (blog catch up, emails, crafts, clean, etc) the other half.  i made an appointment with brooklyn at her school for a deep condition. best idea over. i not only was pampered, but we spent a couple of hours hanging out and talking mostly about blog stuff. it was fab, and i will definitely be back in there soon. 

everyone thought i got my hair colored today. i guess i should prob wash it more often. thanks brooklyn for the fun relaxing morning.

i was supposed to come home from my hair appointment, and read a text book and watch some autism videos for work, instead i painted some pots, made a fruit bouquet, cleaned the house, and did other things i would do if i was a stay at home. conclusion..i'm no good at working from home. this is completely unrelated, but what would you do is coming up soon. this month we are talking about WHAT WOULD YOU DO... with a Target (or any other store) cardigan. take some pictures and come link up with us. just for fun, i'm teaming up with a few other bloggers to offer a bare minerals gift card. enter below. a Rafflecopter giveaway

blogging the bach 18.4

kimberly, ashley, and i are back for another round of blogging the bach. before i get to this week's bach chat, let's talk about sean and catherine's wedding for a minute. did you watch? 

i loved loved loved the wedding. i'm such a sucker for that stuff. i loved sean's season, and i really love sean and catherine. i miss sean's season...a lot. how cute are the lowe's? forget looking for a husband. i'm looking for in laws like the lowe's. i decided to live tweet the wedding rather than blog so i'll end by saying i'm a hopeless romantic. onto to the bach...

intro

juan p has to say goodbye to his daughter and family. i hate goodbyes! they really are the worst.

is anyone else wondering why they are already traveling out of the country? 

juan p arrives in south korea and says "love" 6x in 1 min. this is going to be good.

group date numero uno

dancing all day seems really fun, but did anyone actually spend any time with juan p?

the spice girls reference took me straight back to high school (yes I said high school. i'm old)

kat has no problem acting like she owns the place. i'm not loving her this week.

i have really liked nikki this whole time. she was really smart to go along with the dancing even though she felt like a fool BUT starting smack talk with the girls is the dumbest idea. has she never seen this show? this is going to bite her in the butt for sure. 

the drama is really starting. if these girls were smart, they would realize this is the chance to make the best friends of their lives since only one of them will end up with the final rose. look at lesley and catherine from sean's season.

sharleen's one-on-one

everyone on the show seems to be falling in love except sharleen. too bad juan p is so obessed with her. again i wonder why???

their terrible mismatched style seems like a pretty good representation of them...a major mismatch.

please don't ever describe me as "not bland"

i laughed a little when she said this was their first real date. this is the bach girl. this might be your only.

they have a major makeout sesh, and i'm seriously afraid he might eat her face off.

i don't get these 2. i really don't, but i think she's around to stay.

group date numero dos

i'm a little bit over it by this point. i actually like some of the girls on this date, but i'm bored.

i really want renee's mint skinnies. i've been obsessed since last spring and never have found the right pair. i'm also afraid she's in the friend zone.

clare definitely has the first date curse. they really seem to fit the best together, but she might be a little too possessive. i still don't think she will be the last one.

juan p seems to really like andi. i'm glad because i really like her too.

best dressed

clare

renee

andi (consistently good fashion)

not my fave

cassandra

sharleen

randoms

ashley might shoot me for saying this, but juan p isn't my fave. i'm having a hard time feeling like it's really going to work out with any of these girls. i hope i'm wrong. we all know i'm super obsessed with the bach, but with all the sunday specials+monday nights, it's just a lot of tv for me. maybe i'll be more excited in the next few weeks.

word tally

journey/adventura...1

amazing...7

love...14 (6 in 1 minute)

connection...3

no mention of fairytale

sexy...1

make sure to check out what kimberly and ashley(a bit later in the week) have to say and link up below if you blog the bach.

catch up  week 3 week 2 week 1

weddings and wedding cake...steve and rachael

i decided to live tweet the bachelor wedding instead of blog, but i will have a couple of thoughts on the wedding in tomorrow's blogging the bach post. let's just say, i love sean and catherine. 

i love weddings! sometimes as a single person they can be a little rough, but mostly i love them. back in college, one of my bffs and i used to dream about being wedding planners someday. she got married and moved away, and i graduated and went a different direction. i've never forgotten about that dream. it's part of my someday dream right now.

when celsey and i started making cakes (mostly gender reveal), i really wanted to do a wedding cake, but i was also really nervous.

when my good friends rachael and steve asked me to make their cake, i was equal parts flattered, excited, and terrified. what if i messed up their wedding cake?!?

it was a pretty simple cake which took off a ton of pressure. even though i was scared, i really really loved doing it. it was so exciting taking it to the venue and working with the floral designer to make it look perfect. i was so happy with how it turned out. thanks rachael and steve for trusting me with your cake and making a small part of my dream a reality.

photo credit heather ellis photography

wear it...not wednesday

i realized yesterday most of my recent posts have been about running and the bachelor. both of those things take up a decent amount of time lately, but i'm sure people want to hear about other things...like what i'm wearing.

i sit on the floor with kids most of the day so what i wear to work isn't always all that exciting. i always wish i had a job that required business dress, but i'm sure that would drive me crazy too. yesterday i needed a little more professional look because i had a meeting with a community partner. i had some church responsibilities in the evening and needed to throw on a skirt and heels. i don't often love my clothes, but i kind of loved this.

gap outlet cardi, old navy button down, kohls red skinnies, target ballet flats

13.1...st george

i ran another half marathon on saturday. i wish i kept track of those races so i had some sort of idea how many i've done, but i don't. i run with a group. we typically keep a 10-13 mile base so i usually just go run a half without much thought. i say that like it's no big deal, but what i really mean is i have never trained specifically for a half.

between the holidays, bad weather, and nasty air, my base has dropped to somewhere around 8-10 miles. i didn't feel very prepared at all.

before start with tiffany

i ran this race as part of the st george runners series. i run 2 races down there and automatically get in the marathon. prepared or not, i had to run. i had pretty low expectations for my performance and decided to have an enjoyable time in the nice sunny weather.

the weather was amazing! i was so happy to be out in the sun. i walked a lot of this course, but i stuck to only walking 60 paces at a time before starting to run again. everyone always asks if i run the whole thing. the answer is a definite no.i run as much as i can and stop for walking breaks when needed. the key is not walking so much that the body cools down. 60-100 steps about the right amount of walking.

i didn't really pace myself this race. I ran faster and walked more. my time was still pretty close to the usual.

i was really dreading this race. even the night before i kind of freaked out a little. i'm so glad i did it. it was a beautiful day. it helped me get my base back up a little higher. time to start training for nashville.

blogging the bach 18.3

is it really only week 3?!? with all the sunday night specials it seems like this season is going on and on. speaking of the sunday night specials, i have a few things to say about this week.

1. for some reason, i looked up des and chris's proposal on you tube last week. it is the most awkward thing ever. it looks like they are happy so that's good, but i would want a do over.

2. does anyone else feel like you could be friends with the bach people? i really like some of them.

3. i've seen lots of stuff about trista's book on social media. i love trista and ryan. i really want to read the book

4. i always say i want a fake wedding ring...either that or neil lane

now onto week 3 of juan pablo and his ladies. make sure to go check out what ashley and kimberly have to say and link up below if you wrote a post.

date #1...cassandra

juan p doesn't want to waste her time since she's a single mom. so, what about all the other girls and their time? just wondering

by the time she told us for the 5th time this was her first first date in 3 years, i decided she has nothing else to say about her life. i kind of want to know more about the former part of her nba dancer sitch. i mean i agree. first dates suck, but your car turns into a boat which leads to a sunset makeup and dinner cooked by a hot (even if he can't speak english) dude, who cares when your last first date was. this is better.

i'm not sure about cassandra yet. she's not my fave, but i don't hate her.

date #2...group date

google image

juan p says camila is 1/2 his life and the other 1/2 is soccer. where does a woman fit in?

digressing for a minute...i played soccer once. i was 5. i picked flowers all season long. my sports anchor dad never made me play again. i wish i would have kept playing. i think i would like it now, but i feel way too old to start.

i keep asking "who is that blonde?"---turns out it's christy.

love andi's black with a little sparkle dress. still love andi.

juan p kisses lots of girls. they seem to forget they are on the bachelor. he's kissing everyone ok.

most awkward kiss of the night goes to sharleen. it only gets worse when she says it feels so organic. you know he has no idea what that means. i'm not even sure i know what that means.

during the game i thought for sure sharleen was getting the rose. it went to nikki, and i agree.

daye #3...chelsie

elise is really starting to bug me.

favorite line of the nights it's a "high dive on crack."

chelsie needs to take a tip from selma from sean's season...jump or you're going home. even though juan p gives her the choice, there really is no choice.

they jump and proceed to make some really cliche/bachelor analogies about jumping and life, etc.

she gets the rose, but i think she will leave soon...until the concert, and now I'm not so sure.

breakfast/pool party

no girls want to be seen without makeup. it's just embarrassing. BUT it probably is a good idea to catch the girls off guard just a little.

the girls seem to forget that it's the bachelor, and he likely is kissing all of them. i get it. that would be crappy, but it's what they signed up for.

a few random thoughts...

1. what is chris h wearing at the very beginning? if that's from his line of clothes, i'm worried.

2. why does juan p like sharleen so much?

3. i'm getting more worried about renee. she's totally in the mom zone. does he even look at her as a possible interest or just as the mom?

4. have these girls ever seen this show before? he kisses lots of girls. the end

best dressed at the rose ceremony goes to...tie between renee and andi

not my fave...elise

and the word tally

journey...0

amazing...7 but i'm pretty sure i missed some

love...10

connection...6

fairytale...0

sexy...3

what did you think of this week? who is your favorite? 

weekend happs...st george

we all know how I feel about winter. anytime I get the chance to get the heck outta here, I do it. i spent the weekend in sunny st george and am seriously trying to figure out how to be a snow bird in my 30s.

stopped off at sodalicious in Provo before heading out of town. my drink was too big so I ended up with 2. 2 small drinks seems more ridiculous than 1 big drink, but whatever it's so good.

the main reason I went down was to run the st george half marathon. separate post coming...

my carabox partners live down there so we attempted a meetup at the swig. there were a few complications so Kenzie and I met up. love love love meeting blog friends in real life.

got to see Kristine at her house. blog talk could go on for days. 

we ate a ton..especially Mexican food. 

spent some time outside

the weekend was so nice. I could be in a warm place forever. now today I have the day off to celebrate human rights and get prepped for the week. how was your weekend? any exciting happs?

friday feature...haley brianna

Hey, readers of Dreaming about Someday! I'm Haley and I am a fashion blogger + photographer over at bliss. I love getting to know new bloggers and making friends so come on over and send me some love so I can find your blog and send you some love back! 

I have always loved fashion since I was a little girl. Now that I have a fashion blog I am able to document my taste in clothing and share it on my own little corner of the internet. 

Today I wanted to talk to you guys about mixing prints! I l o v e putting stripes and dots together in an outfit. It's always a fun idea when you can put two things together and make them look compatible. This skirt was found on Amazon for ten dollars and they threw in the belt for free! I absolutely adore these types of dots with the forever 21 striped shirt. 

My blog is all about dressing fashionably on a budget. Since I am a college student I do not have the money to go get new clothes all the time. It's amazing what you can do with a closet if you have a little inspiration! I hope you find some of that inspiration you need on my blog under the tab "style." 

Thanks for letting me guest post, Aubrey!

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wear it wednesday

i had some other plans for today, but they didn't work out. i posted this on instagram last week, but it's way too good not to share. i have been hearing about these must have leggings from HUE forever and ever. they really are must have. they are thick and comfortable and nice. listen to me right now...go get some. they aren't the cheapest thing, but you get what you pay for. head over to nordstrom, macey's, wherever and get some ASAP.

sweater...urban outfitters. cream shirt old navy

blogging the bach 18.2

ashley, kimberly, and i are back for week 2 of blogging the bach. i've said over and over that i love all things bachelor. i really do, but the first few weeks are a little rough. we have no idea who anyone is, and nothing too exciting usually happens. well, this season we still have no idea who anyone is, but the excitement craziness has already started.

first one-on-one goes to clare. although really exciting, getting the first one-on-one is usually the kiss of death. the previews make it look like she sticks around for a while. my prediction is they want us to think it's her in the end, but it's not really her in the end. the final person doesn't usually get that much air time this early on. i could be wrong, but that's the norm. 

clare says she doesn't date much, doesn't go to bars or date online. she wonders how she is supposed to meet someone. i wonder the exact same thing. let me know if you have any answers.

juan pablo blindfolds clare and says he loves surprises. that always scares me a little. i like some surprises, but i'm not really good with them most of the time. i usually figure it out. do you like surprises?

i hate snow. i hate winter. all i can think is i would be really mad if i was in the middle of LA and got stuck on a snow date. on the other hand, this might be the best way to enjoy winter.

the hot tub comes out, and this is the steamiest date of the night. he stares at her boobs, they make out, she gets the rose, they make out more, and i stand by the fact that she won't be the last one standing. i do think she will go far. 

lucy/free spirit continues to be the free spirit. i wonder how long they will keep her on. i literally cannot relate to her one little bit.

the only thing of note about kat's date is that it was in utah. why in the world did i not run the electric run? i keep thinking i will run into 1 of the utah bachelor peeps, but so far is hasn't happened.

i thought the snow date was my nightmare until the group date. modeling with puppies would be the death of me. i'm not an animal person at all.

lucy talks about borrowed shoes, and we're all happy she's actually wearing shoes.

i feel so bad for andi. i would freak out too. juan pablo was so cute with her, and it makes me like her even more. she's still my pick for right now. i honestly can't decide what's worse...being naked or modeling with dogs. i'm sorry to all the animal lovers, but i just am not one, if i had andi's body, i'm thinking i would say being naked wins over posing with the pups.

it's obvious over and over that juan pablo really likes nikki. i'm in love with her low bouffant bun.

renee cracks me up as she talks about 1/2 way ok not really kissing juan pablo. she is definitely the mom in the group always comforting people.

poor victoria. what a hot mess! i don't drink, but when she tries to say she only had 1 drink, i'm going to call bs on that. she was just a mess.

kelly got the group date rose. i think it should have gone to andi-mostly for tolerating the naked pics.

even though juan pablo took some english lessons, a whole lot of this season seems to come down to the fact that he can't speak english

sharlene redeems herself from last week and makes a joke of saying "sure". she still might be trouble, but i like it.

cassandra was the obvious choice to call first after her major meltdown.

i can't seem to remember lauren to save my life.

my best dressed goes to...sharleen. i can't find a picture anywhere. she wears bold neutral dresses. i could never ever wear a dress like that, but i love it.

not my favorite...danielle. she looks like she poured herself into liquid gold. yikes!

and for the word tally

journey/adventure...7

amazing...9...i might have missed a few

love...13

connection...5

fairytale,,,1

sexy,,,6

did you watch? what did you think? if you blog the bach, make sure to link up.

and if you missed last week...

week 1

random rambling...thoughts on running part 5

i'm running a half marathon this saturday so i thought it would be a good time to finish up my running story. catch up on  part 4 part 3 part 2 part 1 after an emotionally and physically challenging 6 months, i had surgery. even though it was in the works for a while, it all happened really fast.

this doesn't even make sense, but i had high and low expectations for surgery. i was hopeful that with time i would run again, and at the same time i was terrified it wouldn't work.

the surgery was very successful. i did more intensive physical therapy for a few months. by the end of physical therapy i started running again. i remember the day i was allowed to run for 1 minute on the treadmill. it's crazy how excited i was. the process was slow. i literally started from ground zero. it took about 6 months after surgery to start building any kind of distance. the setbacks were discouraging, and the progress was encouraging. i never gave up. i stuck with it and worked to build the miles back up. 

i was very cautious in the beginning. i was so afraid to push myself too far. once i got the miles up just a little, i went back to my running group. i missed them so much. they were all training for marathons so i usually met them for a few miles before breaking away.

towards the end of the summer i felt strong enough to run the last 1/2 of the top of utah marathon with our oldest runner. i couldn't believe i could finally run 13 miles. 

i have definitely had some hard times a long the way. at first i thought i would be back to 100% normal the way i used to be. my hip still gets tight...a lot. that is the new normal for me. i can feel the fact that i had surgery almost every single day. there are still things that are not good-lunges, squats, jumping, sitting on the floor, but for the most part i can do the things i want to do.

i really wanted to run another marathon, but i didn't want to do it before i was ready. a little over a year and a half post op i finally ran another marathon. it was hard..really really hard, but i did it!

that was in september of last year. the marathon was really hard, but my hip did really well. i am really glad i had surgery. it was totally worth it. i am back to normal enough that i can run mostly what i want. i have a hard time doing sprints and problems running a lot of uphill. 

for a long time i was really worried my running story was over with my injury. i am so fortunate that my running story doesn't have an end. i am running the nashville and st. george marathons and possibly the big cottonwood again. if i do those 3 this year, i will be at 10 marathons.

if you think "there is no way i can do that", i promise you can. if you want to get into running, email me. i'll talk you into it. 

people ask me why i run. the very simple yet complicated answer is because i can.

Christmas in Cali

my trip to california for the holidays was basically amazing. the weather was so nice, and i loved spending time with family. i was there for 10 days and could have stayed for 10 more. i was so sad to leave. besides soaking up the sun, this is what we did...

took pictures with karlee the photog

 saw the coolest neighborhood of lights set to music

saw Frozen. as long as he had snacks, kyler did so well for his first movie. we all loved it and listened to the music for a week straight.

played with christmas toys

remember these?

got dressed up and went to church. i know. i'm dying too.

jumped on the trampoline...a lot

met bloggy friend kat IRL. we talked and talked forever. i'm pretty sure we could have stayed another 2 hours.

i played with the kids, relaxed, enjoyed the beautiful weather, and had a great time. i think i need to plan another trip soon.