30 Day Blog Challenge

Tomorrow I will be starting a 30 Day Blog Challenge. I will be doing this as well as my regular posting on my life. If you want, please feel free to post along with me. So here is the list of things for you to look forward to:

Day 1: Introduce, recent picture of yourself, 15 interesting facts
Day 2: Something you want to do before you die
Day 3: Your first love
Day 4: Your parents
Day 5: A song to match your mood
Day 6: A picture of something that makes you happy
Day 7: Favorite movies
Day 8: A place you've traveled to
Day 9: A favorite picture of someone you could never imagine your life without
Day 10: Something you're afraid of
Day 11: Favorite tv shows
Day 12: Something you don't leave the house without
Day 13: Something that means a lot to you
Day 14: A picture of you last year - how have you changed?
Day 15: Bible verse
Day 16: Dream house
Day 17: Something you're looking forward to
Day 18: Favorite food
Day 19: Something you miss
Day 20: Picture that always makes you smile
Day 21: Favorite Picture of yourself ALL TIME Why?
Day 22: What's in your purse?
Day 23: Favorite Movie
Day 24: Something you've learned
Day 25: Picture of your favorite band/artist
Day 26: Your Dream Wedding
Day 27: Original Photo of the city you live in
Day 28: Pet Peeves
Day 29: 3 Wishes
Day 30: a picture of yourself this day and 5 good things that happened since you started the challenge

Five Question Friday

Yah! It is finally Friday. I'm not a regular on Five Question Friday anymore, but I thought that I would again today. If you aren't familiar with Five Question Friday, take the list of questions posted below and blog on them, then head over to My Little Life and link up to share with fellow bloggers. 

Here we go:

1. Can you drive a stick shift?

Yes. Chris taught me how when we were first dating. I am definitely better at trucks than cars due to the distance between the gears, but I can get it done. Next on the agenda is to learn how to drive the dump trucks and the Peterbilt tractor (9, 13 and 18 speeds)

2. What are two foods you just can't eat?

Liver - I cannot even get past the smell of that stuff, its just so gross. I would be happy if I never have to see it or smell it again.  And spinach - I just never acquired a taste for it

3. Do you buy Girl Scout Cookies? What is your favorite kind?

Yup. I was the porker who ordered 12 boxes. Granted I will be sharing with my mom. All but one of the boxes is Thin Mints (guess that tells you what my favorite is)  But I only eat them out of the freezer. Thin Mints warm are so gross

4. How do you pamper yourself?

Spending time just by myself and doing things for myself. I will go shopping, take a walk, currently anything wedding related I consider pampering myself, and mani/pedis. I love those!

5. What is your nickname and how did you get it?

I actually have several nicknames. 

Linnie Shell - combo of my first and middle names (Lynsie Rochelle) - my dad started it and most of the time calls me that and refers to me as that. I have even had his employees who think my name is Linnie

Tumblebug - another nickname from my dad, not sure where it came from 

Lynz - my sister started this one, just shortening my name 

Chief - bossman calls me this every time he walks by my office, hitting my door frame 

Bitch - people started calling me this (I guess because they think I am a bitch) but then it becomes a joke in our house and they all often call me that 

Chris calls me lots of little put names that are far too many to name 

Hope that you all have a great weekend! I am off to visit home. I'm looking forward to a weekend in the country and to see Chris, my puppies and family. 

Blog Awards

Well, I was tagged by Mallory at A Day in the Life of the Thompsons for a blog award. Thought I would play along.

Here are the rules for getting this award...
1. Thank and link back to the person who awarded this award to you.
2. Share 7 things about yourself (I'll make them 7 different!)
3. Award 15 recently discovered great bloggers
4. Contact the bloggers and tell them about the award!

1. I just mailed off my application to the Missouri bar. Eeek!!! July and the bar exam will be here before I know it.

2. I am getting married exactly 7 months from today. There is still so much left to do but I am soooo excited!

3. I am a mother of three to the most adorable and precious furbabies, Kit-Kat, Dozer and Boots!! And I'm looking forward to seeing them all this weekend on my visit home.

4. I am the baby of the family. I have three older brothers and an older sister. All of my siblings have 3 or more kiddos. Too bad I only want 2

5. Together Christopher and I have 17 nieces and nephews. Makes the holidays very expensive.

6. I'm a control freak and a creature of habit. If you are in my life personally, you should accept these thigns quickly and life will run a lot smoothly.

7. My body naturally wakes up around 5:30 every day, and sometimes even earlier. Most people think of it as a curse, but I enjoy it. I get tons done in a day!

Well, if I had time I would go through and pick 15 of your individually, but I need to get back to the schoolwork and write a journal for my negotiation class. So, I am tagging all of you. You should play along!

Happy Birthday Boots!!!

Well today is Boot's first birthday. Well, in all honestly, I have no idea when his birthday is since he was dumped off at the house. But, like Dozer, I picked him a birthday so we could celebrate. I wish that I was there to celebrate with my little buddy.

I will never forget the day that we got Boots. It was over the summer and like all evenings over the summer, Chris, Dozer and I were outside. I was watering the garden and Chris was working on the driveway. There was a truck that stopped in front of our house, apparently pushed the pup out, and sped off down the road. Boot went running up the driveway and ran right to Chris. Dump offs happen regularly so we knew what had happened. We took him in gave him some food and a bath. He slept most of the evening. Poor little guy was starving and exhausted. 

Boots, you a a spoiled puppy and a true daddy's boy. Daddy buys you food when he goes through the drive through. Daddy gives you everything you want. He makes sure that you have a light on when he leaves. He leaves you a window open. And even a few times, he has left you the TV on. You love being outside and have ruined our yard and Ma and Pa's yard digging holes. You love playing with your siblings, but aren't afraid to show Dozer who is boss every once in a while. You are a hunter by nature so we have to chain you up most of the time to go outside. Occasionally, you have gotten lose to chase cars, cows and horses. You are stubborn as they come. You get in trouble all the time, but go right back to doing the same thing. You are protective of things important to you. You stick up for Dozer when he got attacked by another dog. You love Sadie and never let anyone else near her. You know something is different about her and you feel it is your duty to protect her. You love doggie cookies. You think you need one every time someone walks into the kitchen. You also love chews. You hide them in the couch cushions, in the ground outside, and behind just about anything you can find. You sleep curled up with daddy which probably won't set well to me when I move in. Although you are the most annoying dog in the car with your howling and eat everything in sight from firewood to hats to shirts to paint rollers to the coffee table and everything in between, mommy and daddy love you and are happy you got dropped off at our house.

Happy birthday boy!

Gotta love small towns

I just wanted to share a little story that brightened my day yesterday. Chris came home last night to an envelope from the bank in the mailbox. He called me freaking out thinking something was wrong before he even opened it. I handle all the finances for him and myself. Chris jokes that he doesn't know what he would do without me because he wouldn't even know where to begin on his bills. So he opens the mail to discover a really nice gesture from his banker/loan officer.

Last week, Chris and I were featured in a Love special of our local newspaper. It told our story and mentioned our plans. The banker, Ron Thompson, had taken that article, matted it to red paper and had it laminated for us. It was just such a nice and thoughtful gesture.

We feel so blessed to be surrounded by wonderful people throughout our lives, even in the smallest aspects like our bank.

People shouldn't lie just because it is Valentine's Day

I have never been a fan of Valentine's Day. I think the concept of the holiday is really stupid. I hate that people think they need a holiday to declare their love to each other. Chris and I choose in the beginning of our relationship to not celebrate it because we celebrate being in love every day. And we are very open about our feelings about each other. We don't need a day to tell us that we should share our feelings. I also don't want presents on the same day that everyone else does and get the exact same presents. I love getting flowers just because Chris was thinking about me. Chris will often bring things back from the store just because something caught his eye and made him think of me. He does sweet things for me all the time. I appreciate how he puts thoughts into my birthday and our anniversary or just special dates that we have. We have been together over 7 years and there isn't a day that goes by that he doesn't make me feel special in some way or another.

Anyways, I also hate how people are fake about it. I hate seeing people profess their love all over Facebook. Many people I saw today are doing it just for show. I can name people who professed love to significant others who are abusive to them, both physically and emotionally. Some people had just recently talked to me about getting a divorce. Not too long ago telling me that there was no marriage there and they weren't in love. And as honest as a person that I am, it is soooooo hard for me not to post on their status about how it is a sham. You were wanting to get divorced not celebrate many more "happy" years to come.

Although I do not think the holiday is anything special, I don't try to rain on anyone's parade. I just get annoyed when people continuously ask me what Chris and I did to celebrate or what he got me. It get's worse when they tell me I am stupid for not celebrating. Um, hello. Do not tell me that my reasons are stupid. I didn't tell you that you were stupid for celebrating it. I just said that we didn't. I know that I am in love (I don't need that reminder) but I still just choose not to celebrate a holiday.

For those of you who celebrated, I hope that you had a great day and sorry if I offended you (that wasn't my intention). I just wanted to share some honest feelings.

Save the dates

I officially placed our Save the Dates in the mail yesterday. It was so exciting. Just one more thing to mark off the check list. I thought I would share a few photos with you .

These are little business cards showcasing our wedding website. The website didn't look that great anywhere on our Save the Dates, but I wanted to put our website out there.

These are the actual Save the Dates. They are magnets. I am so happy with how they turned out. I was lucky enough to get one for my fridge (not that I would forget the date)

These are all 94 envelopes scatter on the floor. Eeeek! All envelopes were hand addressed by me. Talk about a hand cramp. 

Now I am off to eat a little dinner and work on more wedding projects.

Taxes - My mini rant

People talking about tax returns had been cluttering up my news feed on Facebook over the past few weeks. People are bragging about how much they are getting back or complaining because they haven't got W-2s back yet and really needed the money. This absolutely drives me insane for many reasons. I have been venting to my mother and Chris but I'm sure they are tired of hearing about it, so I will just post on here. 

1. W-2s only have to be mailed out by the end of January. That is the law. If you do not have a W-2 back by January 5, please stop complaining. The employer does not have to make special concessions just because you are desperate. It reminds me of a saying my dad quotes a lot

"A lack of planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on mine"

2. Stop going and getting loans on your tax refunds because you are so desperate for money. Doing a regular filing takes only about 1-2 weeks to get your money back. Surely, you aren't so hard up that you couldn't make it 2 weeks to get the actual return. Plus, if you are desperate for the money, those loans are hella expensive. Maybe you should budget yourself a little better next time. 

3. If you happen to be one of those people who took out the loan on your refund, stop complaining about how expensive it is. It is the law of supply and demand. If you are desperate for the money and need it now (now singing the JG Wentworth in my head) then you have to pay the high price for it. It is just the same when you go to a payday loan or title loan company. If you don't like the fees, don't pay it. 

4. You may think that it is amazing to get back $10,000 on your taxes. (I typically do not think you deserve it, but that is a whole 'nother topic). I would like to remind you that while you have been bragging about getting back that much money, you should realize that one of the reasons you people get back that much money is because you keep producing children (most of the time that you cannot afford anyway). I know the government typically helps you raise your children with healthcare, WIC, foodstamps or whatever program you are on, but honestly, in all reality it takes more than $10,000 a year to raise your 3-5 children. So, as great at that number seems to you, think about how much it cost you over the course of a year to get that. 

I will also remind you that I don't get much back at all (I think last year I got $400.00) so you are welcome for supporting you and your family. 

5. Quite talking about your BIG plans for your refund. Most of you are desperate for this money and need it to get caught up on bills. Maybe you should pay your bills off instead of paying the minimum and blowing it on something stupid and something you don't need. Additionally, savings is a great idea if you have kids too. If you would get caught up on your bills this year, maybe next year you won't be waiting around for your tax refund and can do something great with it. 

I think that it about all that I have to say at the moment. Happy Thursday to everyone. Looking forward to a weekend of warmer weather. 

Hey Guess What - More Snow

Apparently Mother Nature has not forgiven me for whatever I did to make her mad. I will never understand. But here is my weekend.

Friday, I watched the weather. There was only a calling for a dusting of snow Friday night, so I decided to venture home. I took my friends Maggie and Sara with me. We were going to head to Springfield Saturday to pick up my wedding dress. We hit the road around 1 p.m. It was a decend drive. MoDot had cleaned the highways pretty well after the blizzard. Then it started snowing on us when we were about 20 miles from my mother's house. Then it continued snowing all evening and overnight. The little dusting forcast turned out to be like 4-5 inches. Needless to say I wasn't very happy. Because my appointment to pick up my dress was in the morning, we decided to forego the trip, not knowing what all the roads would be like. Turned out the temps were like 40 on Saturday and we would have been fine, but oh well. Guess it will be another time to go to Springfield.

The snow was really pretty in the Country though. I had to snap a few pictures outside my parents house. One more reason why the country is so amazing and I cannot wait to get back there.

So instead, we spent Saturday running errands and doing a little shopping. It was a pretty enjoyable day even though it wasn't what I wanted. Saturday night, we went to dinner at Colton's (a steakhouse that Chris and I love). Then we headed back to the house to watch The Social Network. Very interesting movie.

We got up and around pretty early on Sunday not sure what the weather was going to do. We spent some time with my family and puppies before we left. We wore Dozer out.

We left town around noon. When we got to Columbia, we got supplies for our Superbowl get together. I will admit that I enjoy Glee way better than the game, but hey, I didn't have a huge connection to either team. I was rooting for the packers. I was extremely disappointed with the commercials, but whatever.

I'm off to pay some bills, read and watch the Bachelor. Have a great week.

Blizzard 2011

So, I just came in the house from shoveling my drive. I am so exhausted but have been going crazy sitting in the house. We have had two snow days from school and school is closed tomorrow too.

The blizzard started Monday with freezing rain all day. Then overnight it turned to snow. We have at least 18 inches of snow. With the wind, there are drifts in upwards of 3 feet. Right outside my front door, the snow is 27 inches. Crazy. So I thought that I would share a few pictures with you.

I'm just glad that the snow came early in the week. I'm heading home for the weekend. Well, better get back to picking up the house.