by Joey | Jan 29, 2014 | Throwback
on a snow day
our front yard & the business school across the street
they plowed before I took this picture. bummer.
And anything in this situation translates into taking an epic nap and eating too many donuts. Whatever.
On Tuesday night, as the snow started to fall, the energy around the campus became almost tangible. Every exterior light was on outside every single house and building just watching as the white stuff piled up.
And once there was a good amount of accumulation (if you have no idea what that is in the South–it’s ANY kind of accumulation), the students ventured out.
Now, my front room–that is supposed to serve as a fancy dinning room, mostly acts as the bird and people watching station for the dog and cat. So I grabbed a glass of wine and my trusty kitty side kick and settled in in front of our picture window and watched the crazy.
Directly across the “street” from our house is the business school parking lot. Also now known as the perfect place to do donuts on a snow day. That parking lot also happened to be the meeting ground for some students to have a snow ball fight.
Do not confuse that mini snow ball fight with the one that was announced on twitter. That one was going down in the academic quad at midnight. One of J’s players tweeted about it, and he decided to tell me.
I asked if I could go. He said no; that I was an insurance liability. dammit so true.
And then he said that when I fell, which I inevitably would, a student would wail “Oh, no! Someone’s mom fell.”
Thanks, husband. Thanks a lot. So I downed my wine and went to bed instead. Muttering.
by Joey | Jan 28, 2014 | Throwback
Hi Friends!
First of all–we are anticipating a good amount of snow today. And here in NC we see snow some, but it always ignites a level of excitement (okay, or panic for some). So I am sitting here in my office with a stupid little smile just staring out the window every few minutes like I’m waiting on Santa Claus or something.
I want to talk with you today about being your own boss. Good in theory–scary in execution.
As a girl who has worked for herself for almost a year, you’d think I’d have this whole be your own boss thing down. But in all honesty I fell off the productivity train. I’ve spent a lot of time lately waiting. Passing time. Living for any moment but this one. I lost direction. I lost sight of where I’m trying to go.
Sound familiar? You’re getting through the day. You just have one more project to finish. You just have one more show you want to watch. You want to try to beat that level on Candy Crush just one more time (even though it makes you want to fling your phone out the window).
Time is very valuable. I’m not telling you anything you don’t know. And typically you have some kind of routine or schedule in place. Your day is shaped around where you go–work or school. You have responsibilities and a set amount of time to accomplish them. There is a designated start and stop to your day.
I am my own boss. And my work is just a stumble across the hallway into the next room. That’s the dream. This is my dream. But I do struggle with time management. That almost makes me laugh now because when I was working 40+ hours a week, I still managed to find the time to commit to writing a book, planning a wedding and figuring out a move out of the state. Why is it that when we have more to do, the more time we find?
Since I was so sick the last half of the year and then came the holidays–I noticed that I’m still kind of in vacation mode. J put on real pants and headed back into the office on January 6th, and I waved goodbye from the couch while still in my PJs devouring episode after episode of Gossip Girl.
So how do you get back to the grind when you’re the only person holding yourself responsible? Laziness feels so good. But productivity feels much better, I promise you.
Figure out what it is you want*
Implement a routine.
Implement rules.
Find your groove
*This is so much more important than you’ll ever realize. Pin pointing exactly what it is you want is absolutely crucial to making that happen. Seems simple enough–but a lot of times we have this vague idea of the kind of life or job or partner we want instead of being specific. Map it out. Take out a piece of paper and a good old pen and figure it out.
When I noticed how unproductive I was being, I penned down a few things that I need to change. Some seem pretty obvious. Some seem silly and ridiculous. But I know myself (and I’m sure you know yourself).
I hope you all have a wonderful and productive day! And if you’re hanging out here on the East Coast with me–I hope you have LOTS of fun snow to play in by the end of the day!
by Joey | Jan 24, 2014 | Throwback
1. On Tuesday night, Bailey was snuggled up really close to me (read: I was pretty much hanging off the bed). Well at one point she stretched and pushed me a little bit. I was dead asleep but woke up just enough to realize I brushed up against something. I wasn’t sure what it was though. Then I heard a sound like the remote hit the hardwood floor, but the remote was in front of me. What on Earth was that? Then I heard a pitiful “meow.” Poor Campbell was sound asleep next to me in the bed, so when I got nudged, I nudged him out of the bed. And he fell. Onto the hardwood. On his head. What kind of animal doesn’t wake up when they’re falling? What kind of cat doesn’t land on his feet? The poor dude. He’s okay–but I think he thinks the fall gave him hulk like abilities. He’s been trying to scale the walls since.
2. I shifted my shower routine to the evenings. I’ve found it so dang relaxing to crawl into bed squeaky clean. It also feels really nice to wash the day away. I actually find it more relaxing than a bath in the evenings because I bring my phone/ipad/book etc into the bath with me so I’m still engaged. In the shower–it’s just me and my thoughts. I’m a fan.
3. Occasionally, I’ll download a bunch of free books from Amazon. I almost never read them, but I like “having them” in case I run out of things to read. Well the other day I finished a book and was in the mood to keep reading. So I randomly selected one of the free books I’d downloaded years ago. FOCUS It was about a woman who was diagnosed with a degenerative eye disease and how it (and the treatment) changed her life. I figured it would be good enough. Well, the book was chalk full of inspiration for writing. There was no way for me to know that when I dove into the book. But it said all of the things I needed to hear at this specific moment in my life. I love when stuff like that happens.
You have a dream that’s eating away at your soul but you don’t go after it?
When you go after something you are truly passionate about, the universe has a way of opening up paths for you.
4. Speaking of writing. After
Lauren read my book, she gave me some great feedback for revisions. It was the push in the right direction that I needed. I’ve been working hard on fine tuning and tweaking since. The goal is to have it off to the
copyeditor by the end of February. The plan is to self publish this novel sometime this year. I will keep you all updated with the details on that and definitely let you know when it’s up for sale. I’m still working hard on my second novel as well. I’ll take the path of querying out agents with that one since it will be a better representation of my writing at this point. My first novel I wrote almost 4 years ago.
5. I’m itching to reorganize my nail polish collection. Eventually I’ll bribe the hubs to build a shelf for them (or shelves, rather). In order to do that, I need an accurate count so I know what measurements to use. I’m almost afraid to admit the number. It almost makes me feel ashamed. Almost. 197. I have a problem. Someone check me into rehab. And at the same time I can’t help but think I only need three more to make an even 200. See? I have a problem.
by Joey | Jan 24, 2014 | beauty, Loves, Throwback
Since we are in the dead of winter, I needed a little something to brighten things up.
Hearts, polka dots and sparkles always do the trick for me!
Polishes Used:
Cover Girl Outlast Glosstinis Blue Hawaiian this was my first time using a polish of this line. The husband gave me the entire mini collection for Christmas. This is three coats. Each coat was pretty streaky, but I’m happy with the overall finished look of the polish.
Pure Ice Beware
Sinful Colors Black On Black
Kiss Nail Art Paint Silver Glitter (for the heart)
Tools Used:
I love this for a fun, different take on a traditional Valentine’s Day manicure. Don’t get me wrong, I love pink and purple as much as the next girl, but sometimes it’s fun to change it up!
linked: thenailfiles
by Joey | Jan 23, 2014 | Throwback
Have you seen the second S&TC movie? Well, there’s a scene where Carrie expresses fear that she and Mr. Big are becoming too…Mr. & Mrs. Married.
My four year anniversary is just around the corner. And while that may not be that long to be that married, the hubs took his dear sweet time before popping the question not that I’m still bitter or anything, so we’ve been together a good long while. Because of our football lifestyle, there will always be the element of change and adventure. But I hate to tell you that no matter how frequently (or infrequently) you move, it’s kind of the same stuff different day. Different surroundings. Suddenly you have your rooms set up with the same furniture and just like that…it’s home. It’s life as normal. Next thing you know he’s got sport center on TV and you’re yelling that the shelf in the living room isn’t his personal cubby space for all his crap.
That’s comforting to me. The fact that no matter how our lives change. No matter how many places we move; home is still the same. Mr. & Mrs. Married doesn’t have to be such a boring thing. I’m thankful for our norms. I’m thankful for our little life and our quote unquote boring routines.
We don’t have much of a budget for extra things right now. We live in a small town without a night life. We don’t have many friends close by. We have to rely on each other to keep things interesting. And that can be scary for a lot of couples. Especially couples like J and me who don’t really have much in common. He’s side splitting hilarious. I’m really not funny. Or at least not in a cracking jokes kind of way. My humorous abilities mostly come from those “did she really just say something that stupid” kind of moments. Or because I’m clumsy. He loves football, and I love glitter. He wouldn’t read a book if it was the only thing available to do. I could lock myself in a room all day reading book after book.
But we love finding shows that we can both get into. When we first got married, we binge watched How I Met Your Mother before we got cable. And we tune in every Monday night for that (no matter how horrible this season has been so far) and 2 Broke Girls which we laugh out loud at every single time.
We also devoured the entire series of Friday Night Lights our first year of marriage. That was an obvious pick for us–and I think I’d be lying if I said we didn’t want to model our family after the Taylors.
We recently started (and finished embarrassingly quickly) the Orange is The New Black series. And no we’re anxiously waiting for season 2 to be released.
He also recently started watching New Girl with me. When he expressed interest in watching it with me it almost made me love him more. Is that weird?
I know that might sound boring to a lot of you; finding a show and binge watching with your spouse. Some of you might be shaking your head thinking “nonono, you should be going out to dinners and taking lavish vacations.” That’s just not in our budget at this stage in our lives. So we make do with what we’ve got. And there’s just something really comforting about enjoying something like a TV show together. It’s a reminder that despite how different we can be that we have things in common.
What do you do to spend quality time with your lifelong buddy? Do you binge watch shows with your spouse? If so–what do you watch together?
