I Love October

I'm so glad to live in a state like Michigan where we get the full autumn treatment. 

Five Things I Love About October:

1. This song. It just screams October.

2. Halloween!

Oh my, I love Halloween so much. I've got to #tbt to my two favorite costumes in the last few years:

I won $150 with this costume! 

This one just made me laugh so much and I didn't have to wear heels or makeup. 

3.  Honeycrisp Apples

I ate one for lunch today and it was perfectly juicy. Unfortunately, due to the price of the honeycrisp, one is all I will be eating this week.

4. Stews and Soups

It is time to bust out all of the soup recipes from Simply in Season!

Do you have this cookbook yet? 

5. Pumpkin Spice Lattes -__-

Make Your Own Pumpkin Spice Latte!
Happy #FirstDayOfFall! Here's a recipe for the ULTIMATE pumpkin spice latte.
Posted by Above Average on Wednesday, September 23, 2015

Earworm Wednesday: Gotta Dance

When the Hubs has to learn a cover, I have to hear it about fifteen to twenty times in a night. This has never irritated me, which is probably why the guys often have rehearsal at our house. Today's earworm is song he's been learning (and he sounds fly). Michael Jackson and Justin Timberlake's Love Never Felt So Good has been playing all throughout the house and it's the perfect pick me up song for this string of dreary fall days we've had in Michigan:

I got out of an appointment earlier than expected and I'm killing time at Starbucks right now writing this post and watching this video and I can feel my shoulders moving to the beat. I need to go dancing. Not get-all-dressed-up-and-put-on-makeup dancing. Not take-a-dance-class dancing. Just good 'ole move-your-body-and-don't-take-a-break-until-the-sweat-soaks-your-shirt DAN. CING.

Here is what else is going on with me:

• Working like it's my job.
• Starting a leadership program tomorrow through Southwest Michigan First. 
• Writing a teacher book proposal and getting all stuck in my own head about it. 
• Getting back on my regular workout schedule. It burns.
• Trying to eat better and make more meals at home. It burns. 
• Starting yoga on a regular basis again. I'm loving Yoga with Adriene. She has a good attitude, as evidenced by her morning yoga video:
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• Working on the office redo and even more purging. Crossing my fingers that it will be done by the start of the month. I'm thisclose. I'm just getting frustrated by this idea of gallery wall. Pinterest is amazing, but it also makes me create very unrealistic home makeover expectations for myself. 

Thank you, Universe

I'm not a religious person anymore, but I'm very spiritual. I'm a big believer in nature, karma, and balance. Although I've learned over the last few years that the mantra, "You get what you give" isn't necessarily true, I still believe that there is always balance. Things have been balancing themselves out quite well lately.

The day before we were supposed to leave for Christmas with my family, my transmission failed. Of course... things like that always happen before major holidays, right? My car was not drivable and the Hubs' truck is not for road trips. I curled into the fetal position as soon as I was told how much a transmission costs and posted a sad sack Facebook post about probably not going home for Christmas. It'd been months since I'd seen my mom and I had been looking forward to our family being all together for the first time in a long time. I was feeling pretty low.

As soon as I posted the status, a relative of a friend messaged me and said we could borrow their hybrid, no worries. I'd been thinking that we would have to stay home because we didn't have money to rent a car for four days. Letting us borrow the car was one of the nicest things anyone did for me in the last few years. Plus, my transmission failed in our driveway instead of on the highway. We borrowed the car,  made it to my family Christmas, and all of my siblings were together again. It was awesome.

Last week, one of my favorite people gave me an airfare voucher so I could visit her in Florida over my spring break. I've spent the last six spring breaks with her and I was looking forward to a seventh, but when I called to schedule my flight they said the dates I wanted to use were blackout dates and it was a no-go. I went searching for a ticket so I could go on my own, but prices have crept up to almost $700! I was bummed. I resigned myself to staying at home, reading, and working out.

A few days later I checked my email and there was an email from travelzoo.com with their top 20 travel deals of the week. In my last blog post, I revised The List and talked about how I probably wouldn't meet my goals of seeing my grandparents in California or buying my mom a ticket to California. And how interesting... one of the travel deals was a 48 hour sale on round trip tickets to San Francisco from the airport I use. My grandparents, aunt, and cousin live outside of... San Francisco. The tickets were so cheap I was able to buy two: One for my mom and one for me. Although I won't be on a beach soaking up the rays in April, I will get to see my grandparents before they move back to the Philippines! It's a good trade-off.

I can't wait to see them for the first time in six years. 

One of my favorite things to say is, "We'll see." When I'm trying to make life decisions, things are going swimmingly, or things are going horribly in my life, I respond in a number of ways: I curl into the fetal position, I cry, I dance, I eat candy, I laugh, I smirk, or I say, "We'll see." It's probably a coping mechanism, but you really never know what is going to happen. Even though I sometimes dread the future, I mostly enjoy waiting for what is going to happen next.

Self-Portrait Saturday

Inspired by Dana at Wonder Forest, I've decided to participate in Self-Portrait Saturdays. To me, this means that when I remember to take a picture of myself on Saturdays I will do it-- no matter what I'm wearing, how my hair looks, or where I am.

 

Today's self-portrait is coming to you from our couch after I watched The Office instead of vacuuming, grading papers, writing lesson plans, or doing laundry:

Confession: I didn't wash my hair today. Whatevs.

I finally had a Saturday to myself without a school activity and I spent it eating samples at the first Farmer's Market of the season, hunting for deals at a huge neighborhood garage sale in town, scoring free and cheap swag at a runner's expo, on the couch weighing the pros and cons of finding a new job, and cheering on my friend Alana at the roller derby. I love free time because I fill it with a bunch of other stuff to do besides work and cleaning.

A glimpse into my fun-filled Saturday: I got a sweet new Michigan running shirt, flowers, my 5k race bib, and some Jelly Belly Sport Beans with caffeine.

The couch felt great after all of the aforementioned activity.

Tomorrow is my first 5k since knee surgery in 2008. I hope I finish without effing something up. I'll never forget the sound of my patella tearing. I'm aiming for finishing under 30 minutes. Six years ago I was clocking in at around 24 minutes. Maybe I'll get there again someday.

I'm off to bed to rest up for tomorrow! After I finish the 5k I'm going to ride my bike along the half marathon path until I find my inspiring runner friends and scream lots of encouragement at them. 

I'll leave you with a picture of my new favorite gift-- another item I found in town on my very productive Saturday: Men Crying Magnets. 

Enjoy. I don't know what it is about a man crying that cracks me up so much, but I think these are hilarious:

[via]

Goodnight!