The Best Valentine's Day Ever

What do laser tag, bacon, Inglorious Bastards, and chili have in common?

The Valentine's Day I spent with my boyfriend, Ben!!

You wish you were awesome like us.

Yeah... you can just feel the romance in us running around and shooting each other. And the pretty tulip in the background. ^_^

And the best part is it was just the two of us chasing each other around in this arena and sniping each other (more like me sniping him, but we won't split hairs).

It is truly incredible to have met someone who is just as dorky as me. Someone who gets excited when I suggest laser tag for Valentine's Day.

But that's not all! I wasn't able to get him much for Valentine's Day, but I wanted to do something special for him so I made him these.

Yes those are roses... But not just any roses.

Roses made out of bacon!

I'm not going to lie, they were delicious. A bit undercooked... but they were still good!

We also had a new tradition which is to make white chicken chile and watch Inglorious Bastards which was the first thing we did together just the two of us (a long time ago, just as friends).

It was far from a simple Valentine's Day, but it was well worth it. I know we both put a lot of work into it and it paid off. For example: he found my car at college and decorated it with post it notes and window markers. We had a grand old time! And it was a great first for us. Cheesy, but great.

True love. This is the face of it.

And it's full of bacon.

21 Day Daniel Fast

So I've been doing this 21 day Daniel fast with my church and today is my last day (I started late). I've learned a lot of things from this, spiritually. Emotionally. Mathematically.

(For those of you who don't know, the Daniel fast can be found in Daniel 1:8-14 &10: 2,3)

First: it's hard for me to remember not to eat bread and cheese!! Ben had to constantly remind me that I couldn't have things.

Second: speaking of Ben, he was so awesome during this! When I first told him, he was so excited for me and it was great to have such support through the emotional ups and downs. He even went out and bought me food or would go shopping with me (always carefully checking the labels of everything). We had a lot of grocery store fun!

Third: I've come to appreciate food I pass by so often. Making my own food from scratch has been an amazing experience. I'm never buying bagged tortilla chips again. I also felt better physically because everything I had was so healthy. Guacamole, hummus, beans and rice are all amazing. Also, like no one already knew this, but Triscuits are so freaking good!

Fourth: I also appreciate all the food I've not been able to eat for these past three weeks. At midnight I'll have a Guinness and some chocolate cake! And then probably throw up...

Fifth & Final: asking God to work in you and rip out roots in your heart HURTS! But it has been amazing and I'm a lot stronger than I realized. I have a lot more self control than I thought I did. And for the first time in a long time, even though I'm still emotionally up-and-down, I don't feel crazy. I really feel like I am stable and sane.

Looking for a world-rocking experience? Fast. Exercise your self control. Give up your strength to a God more powerful than you. Let Him do what He needs to do.

Thirty Day Photo Challenge- Day 12

OKAY! I'm done pussyfooting around with this stupid love blog thing. For crying out loud I need to stop over-thinking things!

I love beer.

I also love this picture. These advertisements are awesome and when I went to England I almost got some underwear with this toucan on it. I should have.. but £15 seemed a lot for a pair of panties.

I was on my way to Thanksgiving dinner when I heard a Miller Lite commercial on the radio. Now, I always enjoy their commercials because they can be clever, but I really listened to it and laughed when they said "Man up! And get a beer with real taste!"

Ha.

Now, I am not a beer snob. I used to be! But I feel as if I have grown up in my drinking palate. I will try anything. But I know for a fact that there are plenty of better tasting beer out there than Miller Lite. And I know they know their main competition is Bud and Coors and the like, and that's who they're directing this at. But still!!

Man up and drink a beer that's not lite!

Like Guinness. It's like the anti-lite.

Now, I know it's narrow minded to say that Guinness is the best beer but I'm gong to say it anyway.

Guinness is the best beer!

And I can't wait to try it when I get to go to Ireland this summer.

Oh, did I forget to tell you? Yeah, I just found out this week that I'm probably going to Ireland for three weeks in July for a nanny job. It's not set in stone, but I am very excited about the idea!

Though I'm terribly worried I'll never want to come home. And that I'll never want American Guinness ever again.

So there! That's what I love.

Moving on now...

Thirty day Photo Challenge

Day 12 - A picture of something you love.

Wow... It's been a long time. And I know I say that a lot.

But this time I was purposefully avoiding blogging because love has become somewhat an enigma lately...

Well, having had a really big break up in the spring and then (last I blogged) starting a new relationship and just trying to figure things out. And then he ended up leaving me in October so... Yeah.

Love wasn't something I really wanted to talk about.

Still don't really. 

But there are different kinds of love, right? Agape, philia, eros, all that good stuff.

I think I think far too much about this kind of stuff. I should just write about how much I love Guinness and get it over with.

Thirty Day Photo Challenge- Day 11

Day 11 - A picture of something you hate

I don't actually hate facebook. Nor do I hate the changes. But I recently decided to delete mine.

It started when I realized I was freaking out when my boyfriend (haven't come up with a clever nick name yet) wasn't rushing to add our relationship online. Like I just broke down. And he just asked me why it was so important and even though I had a few reasons, I realized they weren't really that big of a deal anyway!

Then it's like I started hearing about the fruitlessness of facebook everywhere: we talked about it in class, it was on the news, friends started complaining all the time. I realized it was more annoying to keep it than to get rid of it.

I stopped caring about people's updates and my news feed seemed cluttered so I figured it was time to at least purge it. But I've done that before. You know when you go through and delete a few people that you wonder why you added them in the first place.

But this time I got rid of a ton of people! And I cleaned out a lot of stupid "likes" I didn't care about and apps that were outdated. It felt pretty good actually. Like a weight off my shoulders. But I still decided to get rid of it.

It won't be forever (I love keeping up with my family way too much to get rid of it forever), just until I know it won't be annoying anymore.

Also, I'm hoping, that when I come back there will be more changes that will take away all the useless crap that's been added on.

Thirty Day Photo Challenge- Day 10

Day 10 - A picture of the person you do the most stupidest things with. 

Remember my best friend Jenni? Well that's her cousin Eva on the left, then me (look at that freaking long hair!), Jenni's behind me and then their two friends whose names I haven't asked permission to use.

This is "Ode to Brush 2".

You'll have to turn it way up to hear it. There's a little kid giggling in the background. It's hilarious.

Just be grateful Eva hasn't finished "The Crystal Orb 2". I'm always in their sequels... No originality in me! I just let them drag me along with whatever nonsense they're doing and we always have a hilarious time.

Thirty Day Photo Challenge- Day 09

 Day 09 - A picture of the person who has gotten you through the most.

This is a harsh question. Who has gotten you through the most? At least it is for me because I've had a lot of people get me through a lot. 


I am a "too open" person and I have been known to dump too much on people too quickly, and it turns
 people off. But I feel like I've grown into myself and understanding the balance between being open and expecting people to carry my problems for me.


And since I'm a procrastinator, this blog came at a great time because today was the last day of me seeing my therapist, Liz.


I've been going to see her for almost 2 years now, I started in December of 2009, and today we reviewed some of my goals that I had set way back then.


It was pretty incredible to see how far I've come and how I've reached every single goal I set for myself... Well except for working out more. But that's minor. ;]


My biggest thing was becoming my own person without having to rely on people to keep me "propped up" so to speak.


I love my friends dearly! But I know that I can be so... overwhelming to people and it's not healthy to not be able to make decisions on my own.


But now I feel like I can and it's a beautiful thing. And just the little touches on it felt like small gifts from God.


I didn't know that I was her longest client, and she said I had grown so much it was amazing to her to be able to move on to a new job and leave me in a better place emotionally. It also helped that I was the last client she saw at this job... just a nice little touch. I've been saying that God has given me these little "bows" on things as a final touch to make them special for me, and this was one of them.


I got her a journal as a thank you present and after she unwrapped it she gave me the small ribbon back and I decided to keep it on my rear-view mirror as a Spiritual Souvenir to remind myself how far I've come and that God loves me enough to give me these little "bows" on parts of my life, like a finger print.


(That's something Pastor Mark talks about in his book Soul Print. You should check it out!)