Happy Thankful (Thursday) Thanksgiving

I have so much to be thankful for. A small list on this here blog can not even begin to cover my blessings. But we'll go ahead and try. =)

I am thankful for my husband, the love of my life, the person I know knows my heart and soul. (You can go ahead and excuse yourself to barf, I won't mind.) I seriously don't know what I would do without him.

I am thankful for my family. My parents, my in-laws, my siblings, my sibling in-laws, my grandparents. I love them all.

I am thankful for Doodle. <3

I am thankful for my friends.

I am thankful for wine, and ice cream, and let's just be honest... food in general.



I am thankful for yoga.

I am thankful for my faith in Jesus Christ.

I am thankful for my break from school.

I am thankful that my dad finally scheduled a much needed surgery.

I am thankful for my iPhone, seriously I feel lost without it.

I am thankful for my readers, and that some people might actually like reading about my little life.

I am thankful for CostCo. Period.

I am thankful for books. I'm bookin it through a few over break, reviews coming soon! (See what I did there?)

I am thankful for the roof over my head and the clothes on my back.

I am thankful for my job, and my amazing coworkers.

I am thankful for all of the bloggers out there that are so encouraging and friendly.

I am thankful for reality TV. Shameful but true. Not even embarrassed.



I am thankful that I am getting to spend Thanksgiving with some of my favorite people.

I hope you all have an amazing holiday. I'll be back on Monday to share all about my (sure to be wonderful) holiday weekend.

tobi.com

A few days ago when my stylish little sister was in town she was telling me about a great website she had just ordered a new dress from. I headed over to tobi.com and was presently surprised with what I found. Totally cute dresses perfect for the upcoming holidays and at reasonable costs!

And when you create an account with them and link it to your Facebook, you automatically receive a coupon code for 50% off! Who doesn't love that?!

Here are some of my favorites:

I did not receive any compensation for writing this post. I just like the website and wanted to share with you all! 

A really good weekend

Do you ever have one of those weekends that's just relaxing and fun and great and perfect? That was pretty much my weekend.

Friday night was spent drinking a serious amount of booze. We found a gas station that sells 30 racks of Coors Lights. Which we had never seen before. It was exciting. We played land mines. It was wonderful.  (If you're interested in the rules of this glorious game, just let me know.)

Saturday I got to spend the day shopping with my MIL. We had lunch and wine, went to Macy's, Sephora, and Michaels. Really... three of my favorite places. It was a great day.

When I got home Justin and I went and saw Catching Fire. And it was GOOD! Really good! Better than the first one even.

We also got to see the preview for Divergent. I had heard that it was going to be a movie but I didn't realize I was going to see it so soon!! If you haven't read it yet you probably need to real real soon so that you will be prepared for the movie!



And after that we went to Sushi dinner! We were still kind of celebrating my birthday because of how crappy my actually birthday weekend was. But this totally made up for it. Amazing day right?!

Today we went to Costco, one of my favorite places. Because Thanksgiving is this week they had some fabulous taste tests. It was delicious. And I got a bag of this stuff:

Yea, it's called Holidrizzle. It's amazing. 

Then we cleaned our entire house top to bottom because we have a showing tomorrow. (!)

But then we ordered in Thai food to reward us for our hard work.

Funny how the weekends just staying around town and doing pretty normal stuff can be so fun. It was seriously a wonderful weekend.

Birthday Recap and Thankful Thursday

Tuesday I woke up actually feeling ok for the first time in 5 days. I started getting ready for work while Justin busied himself in the kitchen, not letting me out of the bedroom.

And here is what he prepared:

How lucky am I, right?! I got a little excited about my gift and ripped open the pretty packaging before I had a chance to take a picture of the whole set up. Also, ripped into one of those pancakes. Whoops. #sorrynotsorry

I had been wanting these boots for awhile and was soo stoked when I opened that pretty box and saw them!

I went to school and worked all day but it was still a great day. The people I work with are so nice and amazing, and the kids are hilarious and everyone wished me a happy birthday, and I got tons of compliments on pretty boots.

At lunch Justin surprised me with flowers too!

After school I headed up to my in-laws house and relaxed, hung out, had a glass of wine, and had a delicious delicious birthday dinner with my favorite dessert!!

This beautiful concoction is a brownie with hot fudge, nuts, and homemade whipped cream! 

It was a fabulous day!

Now on to Thankful Thursday!!

I am thankful for my husband. When I had strep throat this weekend he took such good care of me. I do not know what I would do without him. And would you scroll up and look at how he spoiled me on my birthday?!

I am so thankful for all of my family and friends who showered with me love, and texts, and gifts, and cards, and happy thoughts, and everything that was sent my way on Tuesday. I am beyond blessed.

I am thankful for my health. Funny how I said this last week and then I got strep throat. But I am thankful that I am recovering and that I feel almost back to myself.

I am thankful for my MIL. She pretty much stood on standby in her kitchen waiting for me to give her the go ahead that I was feeling ok enough for birthday dinner for 3 days in a row, and I appreciate her.

Link up with me and let us read all about what you're thankful for!

30 Before 30

Oh hey, guess what! It's my birthday! And I am now a quarter of a century old. I have decided that I am going to set some goals. Thirty goals actually. Thirty goals to accomplish before I turn 30. And what better time to publicly announce and dedicate myself to these goals then my 25th birthday. Some are for fun, some are serious, but I hope to be able to accomplish them, and document them as I do so, here.

01. Host a major holiday dinner.
02. Start having babies!
03. Run a 5k.
04. Run a 10k
05. Read 100 new books.
06. Buy someone's coffee in line behind me.
07. Host a dinner party.
08. Take Justin to a 49ers game.
09. Throw a surprise party for someone.
10. Go to Europe.
11. Get a pet pig.
12. Donate to a charity at least once a year.
13. Join a book club.
14. Travel somewhere I've never been before.
15. Have a girls trip at least once a year.
16. Complete the 12 Days of Christmas Giving for someone.
17. Take a sushi making class.
18. Order dessert first.
19. Stay in bed with Justin all day one day. Reading, cuddling, watching movies, eating take out, taking naps, talking, all that good stuff.
20. Ride an elephant.
21. Hold my headstand in yoga, and come down with control, not because I'm about to fall.
22. Take Justin whale watching.
23. Go to the 4 corners.
24. Milk a cow.
25. See the world's biggest something.
26. Host my own giveaway on the blog.
27. Make a t-shirt quilt for my brother.
28. And for myself.
29. Have a wreath for every holiday.
30. Buy our first home together.

The 30 before 30 Project is actually a real thing that quite a lot of people have participated in. I got the idea here. If you decide to start a 30 before 30 list or you already have one going, I'd love to here about it!

And I'll be back to let you know all about my day, tomorrow!

Birthday Weekend Ruined, kind of

Want to know one of my all time favorite things?

My birthday.

In fact, I love it so much that in our home we get a whole week dedicated to our birthdays! Pretty great right? Well my birthday is tomorrow (!) so obviously I had a pretty exciting weekend planned.

Yoga on Saturday, then a mani pedi session, then family dinner with some of my favorite foods.

Then celebrating Saturday night with friends and drinks!

Guess what actually happened? I got strep throat.

So much for a fun birthday weekend. Instead I spent the entire weekend in bed under a butt load of blankets and sipping hot tea and praying I would make it out of this alive.

The good news is I lost 5 pounds. Barely eating all weekend will do that for you.

Another good thing... Justin brought me one of my birthday gifts on his lunch break today.

I have to stay home still because I'm contagious, so he thought I could use this:

Thats right! The super sweet new Kindle Paperwhite! And an awesome leather magnetic case too.

If I have to be sick at least I get to do it with a new kindle and tea and naps right?

Fall Favorites Giveaway

You guys, I have some very exciting news to share today!! I am teaming up with some of the greatest people out in blog land to bring you a wonderful giveaway! When Karissa and Brittany invited me to cohost, I was almost sad I couldn't enter... would you look at all of those awesome things someone is going to win!!

                                            Karissa & Company                                                                          Happy is a Choice

                                              Life Style Love                            The Florkens                            Always a Blogsmaid

                Life of the Lane                                Karly Kim                        Marvelous Flight of Cara               Everyday with S&J

$10 Starbucks Gift Card | Kenya Starbucks Coffee | Cable Knit Sweater Mug | Journal          

             Essie 'The Lace is On' | Pumpkin Carving Candle | Elf Lip Gloss Set

One winner will take home all seven prizes. Giveaway will end next Friday. Good Luck!

Have an amazing weekend everyone!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thankful Thursday

Happy Thursday people! And welcome to my first ever linkup!

I am thankful that Justin and I agree that Christmas decorations go up after Thanksgiving. Maybe it's because my birthday is in 1 week (!) but all these people putting up Christmas decorations now are making me be like... Stop that. We still have time! You're pushing in on Thanksgiving's territory!

I am thankful for ice cream. Ice cream makes everything a lot better.

I am thankful for the people I work with. They are so helpful and I just couldn't do my job without their help.

I am thankful that I got to celebrate my first Thanksgiving this last weekend.

I am thankful for yoga. It always makes me feel really great, physically and emotionally. And I love the strength I'm gaining from it as well.

I am thankful that my darling husband made me this delicious dinner for me, and had it waiting when I got home from yoga, to kick off birthday week!

I am thankful for birthday week. =)

I am thankful for my health. After being sick and exhausted for the last week, it feels so so nice to have energy again and not be sick!

I am thankful for Pinterest. It makes my job easier, my house prettier, and my husband's tummy happy. You can follow my Pinterest board here.

I am thankful for my kindle, and for the Amazon kindle gift card my mother got me for my birthday! Awesomesauce. Do any of you have any great book recommendations?

I am thankful for clothes that don't need to be hand washed. I am going to be honest with you.... if I buy a shirt that needs to be hand washed I never wash it  wash it about once every couple months.

I am thankful for all of you readers, and the few of you who might linkup with me!

What are you thankful for you? Grab the button and link up!

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Thief

Thief is the third book in the Love Me With Lies trilogy. I loved The Opportunist and Dirty Red, so I knew I was going to love Thief too. It is told mostly from the perspective of the male in the love triangle. After finishing the second book I still had so many questions and Thief did not disappoint. But it did not end exactly as I thought it would either, which is nice. It's no fun when a book is too predictable.

Amazon's description:
Caleb Drake never got over his first love. Not when he got married. Not when she got married. When life suddenly comes full circle Caleb must decide how how far he is willing to go to get the aloof and alluring Olivia Kaspen back. But for every action in life there is a consequence, and soon Caleb finds out that sometimes love comes at an unbearably high price.

I have also heard that the trilogy is going to be turned into movies. Hopefully the Caleb Drake in the movies is as good looking as the man on the cover. Just saying.

Thanksgiving #1

Being a child of separated parents means that I have gotten to celebrate two of every major holiday for awhile now. Now that Justin and I are married we have even more family to spend holidays with, which I am not complaining about. So our weekend was spent celebrating our first of probably three Thanksgivings this year.

Justin and I traveled down to Moscow on Saturday once he was off work and met up with my siblings, and my mom and step dad, who had traveled over from Tacoma.

Saturday night we had dinner at one of our favorite Mexican restaurants, and my stepdad, my sister, and I all got sombreros and birthday treats for our November birthdays!

Sunday was spent cooking, and eating, and taking family photos, and of course playing games. 

 The Minerts =)

the bookends

photobombing at its best

my beautiful momma

sisters <3

siblings

take 1

take 2

there we go

Poodle love

game time

how to open wine when you can't find a corkscrew

Thanksgiving dinner! 

We headed home this morning in time for me to make it to school. That's right... I still had to work. Dumb. 

But that's not the reason for the day anyway, thank you so much to all of the service men and women who have served our country. Thank you. I appreciate you all.

Now here's to a great week! And remember to come on back here Thursday to link your Thankful post, and on Friday for a wonderful surprise!!