Blogtober day 31 : Halloween costume reveal and a pretty cute Five on Friday

Happy Friday, y'all! And HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

I'm linking up here with April for five on Friday and here with Helene and Taylor for the final day of blogtober. 

-one-

I was super anti-fit bit earlier this year, but I've recently come to see the value in some sort of pedometer. I downloaded this free app on my new iPhone a couple of months ago and I LOVE it! It's called Pacer and you can find it here in the app store. You leave it open and as long as you have your phone with you, it tracks your steps. I also enter my weight so it tracks any weight loss with a line graph. It has a ton of other features like 'couch to 10k' plans and activity graphs, but it is really easy to use if you just want a simple way to track your activity. It is a little weird when I'm grabbing my phone to run to the bathroom or to the printer and back, but I want to make sure everything is accounted for! I think I'm open to a fit bit, now!

(this was very early in the morning!)

Bar graph showing steps for the week...

...Or turn it sideways to get your trends and see activity, calories, steps, weight, and blood pressure graphs for the last month.

Plans available!

-two-

Mark and I are crazy and we signed up for a co-ed soccer team. Little back story: when we were younger, I was in band, Mark played soccer. Clearly one of us has more athletic prowess than the other. On top of that, Mark tore his ACL in his left leg during his senior year of high school. From there, he only played on our college club team and in other rec leagues. It was in a rec league 6 months before our wedding that Mark (unfortunately) tore the ACL in his right leg, bringing back bad memories and a resentment towards soccer. He hasn't played since then!

A couple of his friends play just for fun and they asked us to be in this co-ed team with them. We hesitated but they assured us that it was a super easy league and Mark wouldn't get hurt. Well, we did it. Last night was our first game and it was super fun! I am going to be super anxious this entire season about Mark's safety, but hopefully he is smart enough to take care of himself! We agreed that he would do his best not to play competitively, but I'm not sure that's possible when competition has been ingrained in him since he was 8! 

We ended up tying the game 4-4. Mark didn't get hurt, but he did cramp up and get kicked a couple times, which made me freak out a bit. I also didn't get hurt! I went knee to knee with a guy that had about 50 lbs on me and I took him down! I felt pretty good about myself, even though I later whiffed the ball about 5 times.

-three-

I've been trying really hard lately to save money and eat better and I've found that simply bringing my lunch makes a huge difference in both of those areas. We typically shop at Kroger for groceries but we have a Tom Thumb near our house (part of SafeWay) and I've found quite a few things that I've worked into my weekly lunch routine:

(sorry they don't have images I can find on the website!)

I've found two salads that are pretty similar but they are my FAVORITE! The Santa Fe Style salad and the Southwestern BBQ are soooo good. It is made up of super fresh green lettuce with the components in their own little tray on top. The dressings for both salads are super good, and they both clock in under 300 calories but you feel full after your lunch! Seriously, SO good. 

I also reallllly like their Tuscan tomato & basil bisque as well as their low fat zesty fiesta chicken tortilla soup. Both good, both relatively low in calories, and super yummy. 

And....when I'm tempted to just get fast food because I'm tired of my low calorie meals, I try to instead divert myself to Target and grab a 'treat' with this Panera baked potato soup. It is SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO good, y'all. At 420 calories for a pretty big tub, it's cheating a little without breaking the bank. Way better than a Whataburger meal! (find it in the cases next to the deli!)

-four-

As I've mentioned, I'm pretty picky. That being said, I'm trying to change my taste buds and my habits to get the nutrients I need. I finally tried out these Bolthouse Farms juices and lemme say, they are pretty good! 

Berry Boost is my favorite and perhaps the safest, but I also like Tropical Goodness and C boost. I have decided I'm definitely not a big blueberry fan because I bought Blue Goodness and while I can get it down, it's my least favorite. I also bought Green Goodness but I haven't had the guts to try it yet!

-five-

It's Halloween, y'all! We had big plans to stay home and do nothing, but they were thwarted by the offer of free lasagna, free homemade dessert, free candy (if you count stolen as free), and some good family time. We are going to go see these munchkins and hang out with their parents, my parents, and my sister's in-laws for the evening. 

I was going to show you my 'costume' of a working adult, but these were way cuter :)

You guys stay safe and have a happy Halloween!!! 

Blogtober day 30 - Facts about me

Blogtober day 30!!!

I’ve met a TON of fun new bloggers through this linkup and I think Helene and Taylor came up with the perfect prompt at the end of the month. If you’re new here, I’ve gathered some facts about me in an effort to re-introduce myself! Here we go:

Hey y’all, my name’s Diana!

These are the facts:

-I was born and raised in Texas and I will never leave (except for that future vacation home in Colorado. I’ll go there)

-I have one older sister who is hilariously shorter than me. People say we look alike and I was called "little Bennett" all through high school (she was 3 grades ahead)

-I have one niece and nephew from my sister and one niece and two nephews by marriage

-I come from a LARGE extended family and we really like tex-mex. No, REALLY. We eat it on Thanksgiving. It’s the best non-tradition EVER.

-I went to two different colleges : Stephen F. Austin State University in east Texas for 3 semesters, and then transferred to Texas Tech and finished in 2010. Read all about my transfer and love of Tech here. (Let’s not talk about last weekend, though.)

-I met my husband (who is Canadian born) in class during my last year in college.

-Mark’s an architect and I’m a designer, hence why we had class together. No, we would never work together.

-Mark’s family lives in McKinney and mine lives in Arlington/Mansfield so we are able to see them fairly often, plus it was easy for us to meet up while we were dating and home for holidays, summer, etc. (the two towns are both in the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex but about an hour apart)

-Mark and I were married in McKinney in 2012 and honeymooned in Hawaii. I FINALLY attempted a recap of our honeymoon here this week! We loved it and suggest Kauai to anyone that asks!

-We each brought a cat into the marriage (although I’m the cat person) and adopted our dog Motley a few weeks before we got engaged in 2011. She’s the apple of our eye!

-We didn’t live together until we got married, and we had the cutest little tri-plex in an up and coming part of Dallas. It was perfect and we miss it so much!

-We surprised our friends and bought a house last year, which is when I started this blog! It’s a 1960 ranch style house in the Dallas suburbs and I’ve done as much as I could on a limited budget to make it our home, including a Thanksgiving weekend kitchen remodel!

These are the quirks:

-I’m extremely sarcastic and try to make everything funny

-I’m a planner but also a dreamer and I hate having plans changed!

-I’ve recently become obsessed with Netflix and it’s pretty much all I watch. Scandal, New Girl, and Gilmore Girls are my favorites. I also LOVE me some Homeland.

-I love doing things. I can stay home and be a homebody, but I have to plan for it. I love getting out and having adventures!

-That being said, a large concert (at any place other than billy bob’s) sounds like the least appealing thing to me.

-I have an addiction to Dr. Pepper and all things bad for you. I love fast food, junk food, high fructose corn syrup, all of it. It’s a daily struggle to try and live a more healthy life!

-People describe me as picky, but I'd say I'm only slightly picky. I eat salad and spinach! 

-My favorite restaurant is Abuelo’s.

-Thanksgiving is my favorite time of year

-I love driving and road trips

-I eat macaroni and cheese at least once a week. Picky or not, that’s God’s gift to humankind.

-I was in band from 6th grade through my second year in college and I miss it sometimes!

-I also grew up playing volleyball and soccer on rec teams (like YMCA). I went to the first day of volleyball tryouts in 8th grade and did pretty well, but I didn't go back because they made us run a mile. Um, no thanks. 

Happy Hallows eve!!! 

Blogtober day 29 : most embarrassing moment

We are SO close to the end of Blogtober, I can feel it! I’ve loved this series but I can’t wait to get back to my normal  blogging routine and share some updates from around the house!

Today’s prompt is ‘most embarrassing moment’…

When I hear this, the first thing I think about is a time in 5^th or 6^th grade in the girl’s locker room during P.E. I was never considered a ‘cool kid’ although I longed desperately for full-priced flared Limited Too jeans and Doc Marten sandals. On this day, we were getting changed and I spotted a small spider (I’m talking super tiny) near a bench. I’m not sure why, but acting dramatic and overly girly (read:stupid) in this moment made me think I would earn some sort of ‘cool’ points. Anyway, because of my desperate cry for attention, I screamed shrilly and jumped on top of the bench. All I got were stares. My cool factor dropped steadily after this moment.

these were THE COOLEST!

I tend to embarrass myself on a daily basis but those are usually cringeworthy moments that I dare not share here on the internet…so I’ll leave you with that.

Blogtober day 27 : a letter to my younger self

Dear self (pre-age 23),

Quit buying teddy grahams and canned icing. This does not an every-day snack make. Sure, it doesn't seem this way in college, but the minute you graduate, all that trans fat WILL catch up with you and wreak havoc on what was formerly known as your body.

You were wrong. Skinny jeans did not, in fact, fade out after 6 months as you so poorly predicted.

On that note, gauchos were not a good thing.

(this was the only picture I could find as evidence)

Blonde doesn't work for you. Not only that, but it doesn't work for your hairs. They will die a slow, sad, charred death. Save yourself the trouble and don't do it! Also, don't ever cut your hair. It's rate of growth slows rapidly post college, probably due to the canned icing.

Always have help or a spot-checker when dyeing your hair. Otherwise, you'll forever be known as 'streaky hair' and end up dyeing your hair in a hotel bathroom in Chicago.

While you shouldn't fully regret taking out a credit card to buy a computer (because you needed it , and all), maybe getting one with zero rewards and 20% interest wasn't so smart. Don't worry though, you paid it off....eventually.

I hope my wise words have somehow touched one of you out there before you make the same mistakes. If not, ah well. At least I've got some good memories!

Blogtober day 26 : who would play me in a movie

Well well well, here I am, back again.

Sorry for my absence yesterday, I was busy being lazy, cleaning my house, and burying my face into the pillows after the most embarrassing loss in the history of football. You know that geeky guy in high school that doesn't do too bad and manages to stay afloat for awhile and then ends up totally crashing and burning and trips with his lunch tray and then gets stepped on? Yeah, that's essentially what my alma mater did yesterday in the game of football. We're bad, and we've been bad before, but wow. Wowwwwww. 

Anyway, I'm moving forward and am back for today's blogtober prompt: who would play you in a movie.

In high school, I was approached by strangers and told that I look like these two beautiful women:

I can't really see it, but I'll take it! I've heard I beat some resemblance to them both, but they are not who I think would represent me best in a movie. Nope. 

I'm super weird, awkward, and try to make everything a joke, typically while embarrassing myself in the process. I'm not sure what movie would ever be about me (see previous paragraph detailing my daily activities) but if for some reason there were one, I would definitely be played by her:

I'm definitely not claiming her looks, but I feel like our personalities are pretty similar. Plus, she's awesome.

Hope you all are having a great weekend!

Blogtober day 23 - my pet peeves

I'm so behind here! I need to get my stuff together.

Day 22 for blogtober was "what's your pet peeve" but I'm changing it up and doing it today. I'm just keeping it mysterious this week for the sake of the blog!

So here we go...I could go on and on, but these are the first things that came to mind!

-being late

-braking HARD in the merge lane to cut over, OR driving in the exit/merge lane until the very end and then cutting in, all the while blocking the exiting driver from, well, exiting.

-ALSO (a lot of my pet peeves revolve around driving) riding the exit lane and access road to get around rush hour traffic, therefore clogging up those lanes for people that are actually exiting off the highway.

-hearing the same story 5 times from the same person. Yes. I know. You told me. I listened.

-one-uppers. This should be self explanatory

-using 12 gifs on Every. Single. Blog. Post.

-dishes piling up in the sink

-people that can’t say “no”. You know who you are…

-misuse of "their, they’re, and there"

-misuse of "your and you’re"

-the little baby hairs and fried hairs that stand up on my head. Hate those!

-shoes that pile up in walkways

-small talk. It bugs me! “Hey, how are you? Good! How are you? Good.” That’s all fine and dandy when you don’t see someone for a while, but every day at the office, or someone you talk to all the time? C’mon, we’re past that!

-vagueness. If you want to talk about something, come out and say it.

-girls that play dumb. Come ON!

-leaving the TV on when you’re not watching (or not in the room, or the house…such a money suck!)

That's all I can muster up for now. What are your pet peeves?

Blogtober day 15 - Favorite quote and why

Happy hump day, everyone!

Today's #blogtober prompt: "Favorite quote and why"

For me, my favorite and most inspirational quotes come from the good book, the Bible. It is so pure, so simple, and the words have a way of wiggling themselves into my head and heart. This one has always stuck with me:

via

This quote means so much to me because it is one of the foundations of my faith. To know that God has a plan for me, that I won't be harmed, and that I have hope for a future, knowing I'll be taken care of.

That's it, for me! Love that verse. :)

Blogtober day 12 - best advice you've been given

Here we are, day 12 already!

Today’s prompt is “best advice you’ve been given”.

I’ve been given LOTS of advice and I’m known for giving some advice myself (sometimes unsolicited), but I had to really think about some advice I’ve received recently and how it applies. As I wrote Wednesday, I’m pretty into Pinterest so I headed over there for some inspiration. My very favorite board is my “happiness” board. I pin anything and everything to it that makes me happy so there are lots of pictures, designs, recipes, and quotes to be found there. I pinned this image a while back:

It’s such a great reminder for all aspects of my life. I can be pretty hard on myself and I love this advice. Allow yourself to be a beginner! I started working out at the beginning of this year and I remember vividly how proud I was when I ran through an ENTIRE Kelly Clarkson song. I felt pretty silly confessing this to a veteran running friend of ours, but nonetheless I was proud of myself. I’ve NEVER been a runner! And here I am now, running almost every day. I’ve gotten up to 20 minutes straight. I’m not a marathon runner by any means, but I was happy with my progress even when I was doing very small things. Not everyone starts off as an expert. Good to remember!

This is another quote that I pinned a while back and I actually have this in our bathroom. I didn’t really think much of it when I printed it out, I just thought it was some semi-manly art for our semi-masculine bathroom. Now, though, I look at it every day and it makes me smile. It makes me take a deep breath and remember to keep moving and to get outside and do something fun. It’s invigorating! Do something you’ll REMEMBER!

Don’t you just love good advice?? Join us here for blogtober14 for even more!

Blogtober day 10 - I never thought blogging would...

Blogtober day 10 – I never thought blogging would…

…suck me in so easily!

I made it pretty clear from the beginning that I didn’t know how far I could make it on this blogging train. I guess I’m growing up though because I’ve totally followed through on my commitment! Here I am, way over a year later and I’m blogging a LOT. I’m almost at 200 posts! I can’t even believe it.

(make sure you check out my new about me page!)

I’ve learned that I love the creative outlet that blogging offers. I love how I can’t wait to sit down at the computer and get my thoughts out or share something I’m proud of, be it my house or my etsy shop, what have you. I love the ways in which I stumble upon new bloggers that are eerily similar to me, or those that are so different yet so intriguing and I just GET them. I love that blogging has pushed me to do more with my life, more with my time, and it’s held me accountable from day to day. I’ve been inspired to upgrade to a DSLR, get out of the house, break out the ‘big’ camera, and live more fully. I’m dyinnggg to get my hands on a new MacBook so I can be even more advanced and flexible with my blog! (My 7 year old iMac is slowly dying)

check out my blog buttons and all my side ventures!

It sounds super cliché and kind of scary, but I think my blog has turned me into a different person. I’m more detail oriented, more in love with our ‘home’, more invested in life in general. I never thought blogging would do that for me!

I can’t wait to see where I am after 5 years!

Join us here for #blogtober14!

Blogtober day 9 - Best/Worst Halloween Memory

Today’s prompt: best or worst Halloween memory.

I’ll be honest, I’ve been super #blessed and can’t think of a bad Halloween memory. That doesn’t exactly make for great blog content, though! Oh well, I’ll still share some of my best memories!

-In sixth grade, I dressed up as a witch and went to a friend’s house. We were WAY too cool to trick-or-treat but not too cool for me to go sit on her brick mailbox and pretend to be a statue. I seriously thought I was SO realistic but really…come on! And that’s when I knew I was a weirdo.

-Two years ago, I ordered my girlfriends to buy some candy, dress up, and come over to our apartment. It was when we lived in Winnetka Heights so we were the one rental house in the neighborhood. We grabbed our lawn chairs, sat on the porch, and watched as THOUSANDS (not even exaggerating) of kids, teens, and adults (really, people?) invaded the neighborhood. We had lots of laughs and the candy was gone SUPER fast. It was so fun though!

(this was pre-iphone!)

-Last year, Mark and I made a point to keep it low-key. I wanted the ultimate trick-or-treating experience in our new house. The house was decorated, candles lit, and we watched Hocus Pocus as about 20 kids came by. It was honest and simple and fun! Growing up isn’t so bad after all. J 

Join us here for #blogtober14! 

Blogtober day 7 - best/worst vacation

I’m not sure I have a worst vacation…I feel a little ungrateful saying anything bad about the opportunities I’ve had!

The one thing that comes to mind would have to be our trip to New Orleans last fall. Honestly, we had a really good time and I dream about the beignets from Café du Monde every day (#omgyum). We saw lots of beautiful things and the wedding we went to was gorgeous and a BLAST!

parts 1, 2, and 3 here!

The ‘worst’ part of that vacation would have to be the 7 hour drive that took us 10 hours because of POURING rain (seriously, we couldn’t drive faster than 30mph for a solid 2 hours), the complete middle-of-nowhere feeling we had on that stretch of highway before hitting New Orleans, the rain that lasted all weekend, the stench of Bourbon Street, and the weird, dirty infrastructure that we found everywhere in town. It was mostly the city of New Orleans/Louisiana that we didn’t like. Plus we got a red light ticket (that we didn't pay). BUT it was a great time!!! Have I made that clear?!

I think the award for best vacation is kind of a tie. I LOVED our honeymoon on Kauai (again-post coming someday on this!), it was gorgeous and we had a blast, but our hotel wasn’t everything we had hoped for and we were still jittery from wedding stuff so I couldn’t totally relax. The other contender for best vacation would be our most recent trip to California. Our awesome hotel with all it’s perks coupled with our good planning, budgeting, and happy-go-lucky attitudes made it for a pretty care-free and awesome trip. It wasn’t Hawaii, though!

I've blogged about California WAY too much, but in case you missed it, here are the recaps! 

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

I try to make the best out of any trip, and love squeezing everything good out of them!!! What was your best vacation??

Join us here for #blogtober14!

Blogtober day 6 - 5 things I told myself when I started blogging

Happy Monday! I'm back for day 6 of #blogtober14. Check my two older posts for days 4 and 5 over the weekend! :)

I’ve only been blogging a little over a year, and I can’t say that I told myself a variety of things, it’s just that I had some crazy broad ideas. So I’m going to narrow this down to the 5 things I told myself when I started blogging:

-5- 

I’d blog every day with good content about DIY projects in my house with breakdowns of cost and time. Y’all, that is a LOT to keep track of and keep up with! I’ve definitely had my share of DIY projects and how-to’s, but I can’t stage every project and break down the cost of everything because that takes time and frankly, I’m super impatient!

-4- 

I’d make a ton of blog friends. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve corresponded with plenty of you guys, but so far, no blogger meet ups! I’m not counting Kendi, because I wasn’t blogging when we met. Oh yeah, on the night of my engagement. :)

-3- 

Sponsors would be dying to PAY me to write for them. Bahahahaha! Yes, I’ve been contacted by sponsors, but I’m definitely not close to quitting my day job.

-2-

I’d be Young House Love famous in a few years. Well, I hear there might be an opening in the market, so I’m not totally writing this one off yet… (don’t leave us YHL!!!)

 -1-  

     HTML was so super easy to learn (it’s not the hardest thing ever, but it can be challenging!) I was literally stuck for about 3 months because I had hit a glitch on blogger and I wasn’t able to update my page or profile. I finally did some serious googling and figured it out. It was so frustrating!

yikes.

I will say this - I've learned a ton during my short stint at blogging and I love what it provides for me, monetarily and emotionally. I love reading stories and I love documenting my simple life and reading back to see where I've come from. I'm so glad you're reading too! 

Happy Monday! 

Join up with us here for #blogtober14!

Blogtober day 5 - fall bucket list

I posted my fall bucket list last year and didn’t end up reaching all of my goals, but that won’t stop me from having another list this year! Here it is:

-attend a football game in cold weather gear

-visit a pumpkin patch or fall themed festival/carnival

-watch football with the windows open and hot chocolate in hand

-make one crock pot meal every other week

-simmer fall smells on the stove (via pinterest)

-jump in a pile of leaves

-take an evening walk once a week

-have some fun fall photos taken of Mark and myself (already scheduled-after I made this list!!!)

Join in here for #blogtober14!