100th Post!!!

I can't believe this is already my 100th post! I have come a long way from where I was when I first started this blog.... 1390 miles, to be exact. I can't thank my little group of followers enough for encouraging me, inspiring me and entertaining me throughout all of this time! :) I really have enjoyed this experience and I hope I can only continue to get to know all of you better!

I wish I had something cool to do for my 100th post, like a giveaway, but money is tight and I am not especially talented to make anything I'd feel comfortable giving away to anyone... so I promise I will have a giveaway as soon as I possibly can, keep your eyes peeled!




Today I'm doing a survey I was tagged for by the adorable Kaelah Bee
If you don't already read her blog, go and check it out! She's such a super sweet, genuinely kind person and she gives amazing advice! I am so glad I met her :)

And now, on to the survey...

1. If you could have a tea party and invite any 4 people, who would you invite and why?
Celebrities: Ellen DeGeneres, Nelly Furtado, Oprah and Charlaine Harris.
Non-Celebrities: My mom!!, Kaelah Bee, Alexz from Bird Trouble and Rachael from Talk2theTrees :)

2. What is one city you'd love to explore?
I'd really love to go traveling mostly anywhere. If I had to choose somewhere in the United States, I'd probably choose San Francisco or Salem, Massachusetts. I'd also really love to see the Greek Isles, maybe India.

3. Describe your perfect day!
Wake up in the morning (...feeling like P. Diddy... no, I'm joking) to cuddle with Cade for a while, then go and have a nice big breakfast with fruit. After that I'd love to go visit my family (even though they live sooo far away) and go to Cape May, NJ with them. We could all hang out on the beach and look at all the cute little shops there. After that, we could drive to Wildwood and go to the boardwalk to ride rides, and grab a slice of pizza from the Hot Spot and some Dip'n Dots. If it was Friday we could watch fireworks on the beach (they have fireworks every Friday night in Wildwood) and then we could all go home and go to bed :)

4. What are some of your guilty pleasures? (Music, food, movies, etc)
Music: I listen to a lot of stupid pop music, and rap, that isn't necessarily good music, but I enjoy dancing and singing along to it. I probably wouldn't admit any of the songs though...
Food: I love anything covered in cheese, especially pasta. I love macaroni and cheese, and I'd probably eat it every day if I could.
Television/Movies: I could (and have...) spend an entire day just watching tv or movies. I can't pull myself away sometimes. I hate to admit it, but I love stupid talk shows, reality tv and contest shows. The Tyra show, Ellen, Oprah, America's Next Top Model, America's Got Talent, American Idol, Last Comic Standing, Forensic Files, Operation Repo, to name a few...

5. What is your astrological sign and do you think you fit the description?
I was born on January 19th, the last day of being a Capricorn. Capricorns are described as

Personality Traits of a Capricorn:

• Good organizational skills
• Neat & tidy
• Practical
  Realistic
  Strong work ethic
• Materialistic tendencies
• Conventional
• Respects authority
• Egotism
• Cruel taskmaster
• Servility
• Excessive perfectionism

Likes... Simple food Antiques History Responsibility Not being pressured Unconditional love Privacy Elitism Family

Dislikes... Untidiness Disorder Being teased Familiarity Surprises New ideas & paths Loneliness Being useless Public embarrasment

I would say I feel as though I identify with most of these traits. The ones that do not describe me are liking elitism, disliking familiarity, egotistic and cruel taskmaster. Everything else sounds like me :)


6. When do you feel your prettiest?
When I've just gotten out of the shower and dressed in something cute, done my hair and makeup and everything looks perfect before it gets ruined for the day. I like it when Cade tells me I look cute, so I usually try to make myself cute every day =P

7. Do you keep a written journal or diary?
I have tried many times, but I would always forget to write in it for months and then start a new one. I really wish that I could stick with it. Maybe someday?

8. What is your main life goal?
I'm gonna go with the cheesy answer here and say: To be happy!! :)

what are you so afraid of?

I feel like I have some strange phobias, so I decided I'd share some of them with you guys:

1. Fear of being late: I can't find an actual scientific name for this, but I am always paranoid/anxious about being late for things. I live 5 minutes away from my work, but I always leave at least 30 minutes before my shift starts because I'm afraid I'll get stuck in traffic/have to make a detour or something and I'll be late. I'm this way about everything, though, not just work. I'd rather be an hour early for something than a minute late.
   
   
   
   
   (weheartit)
   
   
   
2. Venephobia: One with venephobia usually can't stand looking at their own wrists, hands, or neck, fearing of seeing their own veins and arteries. No one ever understands this fear of mine, and I can't explain it. I hate seeing my own, or anyone elses', veins or inner elbows. I freak out if I see someone touching their inner elbow, and I break into a cold sweat if someone touches my arm there. I literally avoid looking at that part of my arm because it grosses me out so badly. I have to get bloodwork done often because of the medication I'm on and I have anxiety days before the time I have to do it. Strangely enough, though, I don't mind tattoo needles ;P
   
   
   (sorry, can't bear to look at any visuals for this one)
   
   
   
3. Lygophobia: Fear of darkness. I am a lot better about this than I used to be. I used to need a nightlight to sleep, but now I am okay with the subtle glow of the street lamp across the road shining in our bedroom window at night. Cade likes to take advantage of my fear all the time. He will turn off the bedroom light before bed, and he sneaks around the room because I can't see him, then he grabs me. It still scares the crap out of me, even though I know it's him.
   
   
   (weheartit)
   
   
4. Entomophobia: Fear of insects. Yep. All of them. Butterflies are okay, but I would still probably freak out if one landed on me. Something about all of the legs.
   
   
   
   I took this photo when I was in Venezuela. It's the biggest bug I've ever seen in my life. I had to take a picture of it, but it moved and I screamed and ran away.
   
   
5. Aquaphobia: fear of drowning. I wouldn't call this a HUGE fear, but I always think about it when I'm swimming, and it would definitely be the worst way to die (in my opinion). I get the willies when I watch the part of Titanic when the people are drowning. I almost drowned the summer I was in Venezuela because my friends and I got pulled out in the rip current and we couldn't swim back to the shore. Luckily some people were able to come out and get us. We were really lucky because there aren't any lifeguards on the beaches there, it was just random passersby.
   

(weheartit)

So, tell me 5 things you are afraid of!! Leave a link in the comments :)

me... domesticated?

Today was Laundry Day here in our little apartment. Because we are poor freeloaders, we packed up our dirty laundry and hauled it to Cade's moms' house to spend the afternoon washing clothes.

While we were waiting for our clothes to finish, Cade treated me to my first hair cut since December! I had major anxiety about this for the past week because I couldn't decide whether or not I wanted to just trim my hair, or chop it all off. I'd been going to the same girl to get my hair done for the past 4 years or so, and I have only had bad experiences the few times I've strayed from her. I am sooo pleased with the way my hair turned out! I decided to get it short, because I can barely stand the heat here as it is, and everyone keeps telling me it's only gonna get hotter... so off with my hair!



















Some random brand of hair dye was on sale at my work (CVS) last week so I dyed my hair dark dark brown. You can't really see much of a difference in the photos, but it's got less yucky random shades of blonde in it now. I like it!


I decided I'm going to try to make some real, honest homecooked meals more often, so I tried to make meatloaf for dinner tonight. I found a recipe online for bacon wrapped meatloaf, and I figured anything with bacon would be right up Cade's alley. Cade is the pickiest eater in the ENTIRE world, I swear to you. He does not like any fruits or vegetables at all. You can see where my frustration comes from. I used ground turkey to make the meatloaf in an effort to counteract the artery-clogging properties of the bacon. It turned out sooo good-- and Cade wanted seconds! I would have taken a picture, but it fell apart a little bit when I sliced it up and it didn't look very appetizing, but it was, I promise!
I adapted ours from this recipe, here.

After dinner I gave little Bean a bath. He loves getting baths, he just pretends to hate it :)
Is it bad that that the whole time I'm bathing him I am humming this song?

Here's a little video I made of Cade and Bean playing together yesterday:

summer playlist

Create a playlist at MixPod.com

wedding bells

If you recall, back in March Cade proposed to me. I've been thinking a lot lately about when we're going to get married, and how the day in general is going to go. We already know it's going to be a simple day, just us, getting married at the Justice of the Peace. But I still want some special (inexpensive) touches to make the day magical :)

This is the dress that I have my eye on:
It's under $40 from Delia's!

And these cute little peep-toe flats from Blowfish:

Some cute little undies from Aerie to match my dress (because I am weird like that):

I want to go out to a nice lunch or dinner after we get married, but I don't know where to yet. Maybe we'll just decide that day! Who knows?

I've been trying to find somewhere cheap, close-by, but romantic to have a little weekend getaway for our "honeymoon". I found this charming little Bed & Breakfast called Ashton's in New Orleans and it looks absolutely adorable and perfect. It has like 300 reviews on Google and they are all 5-stars... the owners are apparently very sweet, the breakfast is to-die-for and it's only a few blocks away from the French Quarter, where we can do some sight-seeing. I'm hoping we can spend a few days here...



I want to stay in the Bourbon Street room (it's room 7 on the website) I'd post a picture, but the site is using flash player so I can't copy the photo... but check it out, seriously! The room is gorgeous! :)

Since it's just going to be Cade and I that day, I want to send out some cute little customized wedding announcements to our family and friends. We're planning on doing a big family wedding after Cade finishes school and we have more money to do it.

I'm hoping that maybe sometime near the end of the summer we can make all of this happen!~
I am so excited!!! :)

school days, school days...

Hey, everyone! I promise I'm not becoming one of those bloggers who does nothing but post surveys. I'll write something with substance eventually... when it happens!

I got this survey from Jamie over at Inspired Mess :)

1. Where did you grow up?
Aston, Pennsylvania. It's super close to the city-- Philadelphia, about an hour away from the Jersey shore and minutes away from tax-free shopping in Delaware. Perfect!

2. Do you consider your childhood a happy one?
Oh, definitely. Sure, things happened that I wasn't happy about, but all in all, I was so happy all the time mostly.

3. Do you have any siblings?
I have a little sister, Allison, who is going to be 16 in September (so we are like 4.5 years apart). We weren't very close when we were younger (I'm talking knock-down, drag-out fights) but we got a little closer over the past year and I'm glad.



4. Who did you think was the smartest person in the world?
I really admired my classmate, David. He always got a perfect score on every single assignment and he NEVER studied (or so he said). I was JEALOUS!

5. Did you ever run away from home?
I walked out the door with nothing but my cellphone when I was like, 14 or so? I walked around the block and hid behind someones trees in their yard as it started to get dark and sat there texting for a few hours. My mom drove by in her car, looking for me, and demanded that I come home immediately.

6. What about being a child do you miss the most?
Really fun family vacations to New Jersey. We went to Wildwood almost every single year of my childhood for a week or two during the summer. I love the rides, the food, the beach and spending time with my family there.

7. Where did your family go on vacation?
I actually just said that for number 6 =P



8. What is something you really wish you hadn't started earlier in life?
Eating meat. I would LOVE to become a vegetarian, but I have eaten meat for 20 years and I really do like the taste of it. I don't think I could ever stop eating it now. If I had been raised not eating it, then things would be different.

9. Did you have any serious accidents or illnesses as a child?
I was born with Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis, I had/have a milder case of scoliosis, and I broke my collarbone falling off a horse when I was in 9th grade.

10. Did you have any nicknames?
Em, Embo, Emily-Squared (in highschool when I was with my friend Emily)... that's really all.

11. Name 5 school days accomplishments.

1. I was one word away from winning the spelling bee that would take me to the Scripp's National Spelling Bee (yeah, that's the one they show on ESPN. Kinda glad I didn't make it, now that I think about it).

(don't these kids at the Scripp's National Spelling Bee look EXCITED about SPELLING?!)

2. I was the "president" of the Poetry club in high school. I loved reading/writing poetry, and I adored the teacher in charge of the club-- Mr. Brown was the most unique man I have ever met in my life!

3. I won a "Light Up Christ in Christmas" art contest in elementary school for a drawing I did of the manger, and I think it was put on a greeting card or a stamp or something like that.

4. I made honor roll almost all of the time... ish.

5. I only got called to the principal's office twice in my entire life. Once for making faces at someone, and the other time for possibly casually stating that I wanted to kill someone.

12. What stories have been told about yourself as a baby?
I used to cry all day unless my mom put my in the jumper thing that hung from the ceiling. I recall my dad pretending I was like a tetherball and batting me around in circles around the room.

13. Did religion/church play a part in your childhood social activities?
I went to Catholic elementary school, but my family isn't Catholic (my mom just sent me to the same school she had gone to). I begged her to let me go to Catholic high school because I was a little goody-goody and I feared that the "bad" kids in public school would eat me alive. I wish I'd actually gone to public school, now, but I did enjoy my high school. But no, I never was and never will be a religious person. Just not my cup o' tea.

14. What objects do you remember from your childhood?
A toy I really liked was my Kitty Kitty Kitten, which was a stuffed cat with some kind of marbles (??) inside of it and it purred when you shook it (Ah yes, encourage the children to shake small animals!)

15. What was the number of students in your graduating class?
8th grade class was 19, high school was 400-something.



16. What is one thing that you never did in high school that you wish you would have done?
Actually try to do well in my classes, instead of just doing enough to scrape by with a passing grade.

17. Did you go to college and what was your major?
I did one semester at community college as an Undecided. Then I did 8 months of Dental Assisting at a trade school (but didn't finish my externship). Now I am a self-made nationally certified, licensed Pharmacy Technician. I obviously don't know what I want to do.

18. What was the funniest thing someone wrote in your yearbook?
I left my yearbook at my parents house, but I remember there were some pretty awesome doodles and stuff in there.

19. How has your hometown changed since you were a kid?
Some new stores/restaurants/etc. were built, but not very much has changed. Nothing got worse, that's for sure. I loved the new Wawa (don't make fun of Wawa-- if you don't know what it is, that's your loss!!)

Where else can you get cheap-ass gas,
a DELICIOUS breakfast sandwich, a hoagie
and an icee all in one trip? Nowhere, that's where!

20. If you could go back and tell your younger self anything, what would it be?
Find something you LOVE to do and go to college for it! You will end up a 20-year old with no passions in life and no direction! Also, stop being such a drama queen.




I want to tag a few people for this, because I'm particularly interested in seeing their responses, but if you do this, leave me a comment and I'll read it, too!

Hayley because she grew up semi-close to where I lived as a child.
Alexz because she lived in the area for a little while.
Rachael because we are a lot alike.
Chelseybell because we have similar interests.
Kaelah because she grew up in the south.