Check!

I get to check another thing from my bucket list and I couldn't be more excited about it!

Get Married to the love of my life
Have children

Buy a house with a large back yard

Plant a tree

Impact someone's life

Graduate college (almost there!)

Leave the country

Go on an African safari

Visit Paris

Donate my first paycheck as a nurse to St. Jude

Make money taking pictures

Understand organic chemistry

Hike a mountain

Run a marathon

Go white water rafting

Go snorkeling

Shoot a gun

See the seven wonders

Go to carnival in Brazil

Take my girls to Disney World

Visit all 50 states

Be a big sister

Milk a cow

 

I can't even call it work because I enjoyed doing it so much, but I finally did make money from taking pictures.This family made it so easy and made capturing these photographs so easy:

Happy Easter!

The Lord has risen!

Our Easter festivities began Friday night when hub and i turned our kitchen into an egg boiling factory. I had 7 dozen eggs that got a lot of the stares at the grocery, like people didn't know it was Easter or something haha. We ended up having 11 kids, so I did what any problem solving mama would do and cut the dozens in half and gave each kid 6 instead of 12.

I had a ton of these plastic tumbler cups left over from Riley's strawberry shortcakes and used them for the egg dye cups and these cute veggie shooters I have seen a few places now:

The Easter party was very impromptu and I used stuff from my Easter tote that was full of clearance buys from last year and things I have accumulated over the past few years. I made a quick stop by Kroger Friday night and picked up some snacks and voila:

These little containers I found at the dollar tree a few months ago and they were like 3/$1 or something crazy. I have a thing for party containers. 

We had pink lemonade, but I didn't realize how the use of fresh lemons is for garnishment purposes only haha because I put them in the night before and the lemonade the next day was sour! I had to dump a ton more lemonade mix in haha. Ya live and ya learn I guess.

I had a pretty impressive egg dying station going on too if I must say so. 

Cutie Raigan and my sweet mother in law. 

Riley actually letting me take her picture! 

It stopped raining for about a 45 minute window that allowed us to do the egg hunt outside. We did the younger kids in the front and the older kids in the backyard, which worked out so well. 

Here are my sweet girls from today. I was very reserved on their Easter baskets this year, because the holiday just snuck up on me so fast. It was actually really nice though, not going overboard like I usually do on the holidays.

We watched a cartoon version of the Passion today too. Riley was really interested and went and got her children's Bible to follow along, it was really cute. I'm glad that she is starting to understand that the egg dying and hunting are fun and all, but Jesus dying on the cross is the real reason we celebrate.

Am I crazy?

I have been all about checking off my Bucket List lately. I think it's my way of avoiding the extra stressful last two weeks of the semester. I hate that the last two weeks are the hardest because this is when I'm most burnt out. I would rather work super hard at the start of the semester when everything is fresh and not quite drug out yet. Blah. Bah humbug! Waahhh!

Ok, I'm glad I got that out.

One of the things on my Bucket List is to make money from taking pictures.
Another is to leave the country.

My brother has been teachign English in Japan now for two years and is about to return home in August. I can't believe that he has been gone for two years, or that these years have past by so stinking fast! I have had intentions of visiting him since the day he left, but I had a baby, got a new job, and have been kind of busy with day to day life for the past two years. Two years, it's still a crazy thought that it has been that long no matter how many times I think about it!

There are lots of peices to my point, so bear? bare? with me?

I have been reading the book Three Cups of Tea for my leadership class and have been so inspired by Greg Mortenson (until I saw 60 Minutes the other night) or atleast the story of the book and the message behind it that I want to do what I want to do in life. I want to take charge and accomplish things regardless of the obsticles. I have the power to do that, we all do.

So my solution? To take pictures (something that I have loved doing since I was a child) make money, even if it is a small amount, and use the money to visit my brother in Japan. I almost don't even want to hit the publish button though, because at first it seems like such a crazy idea. Will people ever really pay me to take their pictures? I have no idea what I'm doing about advertising or finding people or anything else and inbetween. Should I be courageous? Can I even make $1500 for a plane ticket? We'll see, but this is a journey I would like to try to take, and as a bonus I can kill two birds with one stone for my bucket list. :)

A Few Random Thoughts

I lost an NCLEX workbook that I have to do and I thought I was going to have to buy another copy and redo all the work, but then I found it.

Time has seemed to slow down all around me and I love it. The other day I didn't worry at all about being late, left late, dropped Raigan off at my mom's and there was no traffic and I made it to where I needed to be one time. It's was like I was in slow motion. I think I may have been watching too many phsych thrillers in my literature and film class. haha

I'm so excited that this semester is coming to an end and I'm a little bit closer to graduation. I have 4 more classes to take and one semester left before I get my BSN. I find it funny though that currently I am thinking I'd like to run away from nursing and pursue a career in photography. That's normal right? To think twice about what you have put the last 4+ years of your life into and what you feel so passionate about and makes your heart thump and makes you want to save the world? I think I'm just scared, because once I start it means I'm a true grown up. As if having a hub, 2 kids, and a mortgage doesn't make me a grown up. I'll come around I'm sure.

I've been thinking so much about traveling lately and wished I had a million dollars and the courage to drop everything and travel the world with my family for a year or even more. We are going back to South Carolina in a few weeks and it couldn't come soon enough. I'm craving beach time and getting the hell out of dodge.

In my workout class this evening I thought my thighs literally going to fall off and then when we were swimming someone had an accident in the pool. When we go up to our community center is feels like we're packing for a week for the 4 of us.

I have hardly taken any pictures this past week and I feel like apart of me is missing, but here are some from a week or two ago when I took pictures of my best friend for her graduation announcements. We met on the tire swing on our childhood street and have been friends ever since. She's graduating this May and I couldn't be happier for her!

A Light

Yesterday I went to a Managers Council meeting or something of the sorts at Cincinnati Children's, it was early in the morning and I was running late, shocker, I know. Since I was running late I didn't have my morning fuel which comes int he form of coffee. I sat numb through this meeting of all these high up managers dressed very nicely and speaking in dialogue full of acronyms that I didn't understand. I thought I was going to get nothing out of it as the meeting started and then, the person leading the meeting referenced the book, The One Thing You Need To Know. by Marcus Buckingham.

Suddenly I perked up. What is the one thing I need to know? 

I have to preface this by saying that I have had the nastiest attitude lately about pretty much everything. The semester is coming to an end and I have hit the proverbial wall, probably weeks ago if I want to be truthful. I threw my positive outlook and attitude out the window and have been whining about lots of things. I have even at times asked my husband if I could just give up and drop out and sit at home all day watching tv.

I was joking  (kind of haha) and he said no of course.

So what is that one thing? What is the one thing Marcus Buckingham thinks I need to know? It's:


Discover What You Don't Like Doing and Stop Doing It.

I love it. Isn't that exactly what we should be doing? Our lives are so short so why should we waste it doing things that we don't want to be? Is there anyone out there that would love to clean my house and I will do something for them in return that I love to do? Anyone? Anyone? I'm sure there is that one person out there and if it's you let me know. Until then, I'll be out doing what I like and the laundry will wait. 

Day 21

Day 21 - A picture of something you wish you could forget.

I don't want to forget anything. I want to live life in every word. The good things, the stupid things, the bad things, the scary things, the beautiful things, they all have lead to me to right here where I am. I think it's a pretty beautiful place to be too.

Also, if I forgot some of the stupid choices and decisions I have made in the past, nothing terribly dumb thank goodness, I may just repeat the same mistake twice, and could you imagine? Never learning from experience? I would be pretty dumb, let me tell you. I learn most form my mistakes and I think most people do.

Day 20

Day 20 - A picture of somewhere you'd love to travel.

 photo from google: http://www.world-finance-conference.com/futuremeeting.php

Since I already used Paris for one of my pictures, Rio de Janeiro is another place I would love travel. I would love to go to Carnival in Rio too. I would love to travel the world and see everything actually.

A Hidden Gem

I love getting to explore our city, but here lately we haven't had much time with school being so crazy and work and life. Riley had been more and more interested in trying new things and seeing new places, so today I had the day off of everything. We explored and we found this little hidden gem down in Mainstrasse in Covington, Ky:

Stoney's Gifts: All Things Princess & Fairy. 

I dreamed of a place like this as a little girl, and I love that there are people that still have little unique stores like this that offer things that you aren't able to find anywhere else.

There are so many cute things offered that are specific to princesses and fairies, naturally.

Riley and I were in love with all of it, even the tulle displays and the fairy splattered paint on the floor.She was especially fond of the little fairy tree house displayed on an authentic tree stump, what a creative idea! 

This store is packed with unique creative things,including an array of fairy outfits to choose from:

The shop owner paints as well. I'm desperately in love with the one on top of the boy and girl kissing that I may just have to go back and buy it, it's pretty adorable.

If you have a little girl should definitely hold a place on your things to do and see list. 

It's located at 323 West Sixth Street in Mainstrasse Village in Covington, KY 41011. 

Their website is www.stoneysgifts.com for more information.

Saturday Morning Swim Lessons

This is where we've been spending our Saturday mornings and I couldn't think of a better place to be.

(my girl's faces crack me up)

 

I always looked forward to swim lessons and hair bows and hugs and all the beautiful things that come along with being these girls' mommy and now I get to enjoy them. I'm one lucky lady.

Last Weekend

Last weekend after Riley's swim lessons (which we made to on time!)  my little family and I ventured downtown to eat at It's Just Crepes.

I love being in the city, any city, it just makes you feel like you are apart of something bigger. 

We also enjoy exploring new places and trying new things and living life. It made me so proud when Riley told me while we were down there, "Mom, I like to explore the world." 

I also had intentions of taking way more photographs, but don't really know the rules of taking pictures in places, so maybe next time. 

The food there was soo good, I got a Hawaiian crepe with ham, pineapple, and brown sugar. Riley and Raigan of course loved theirs because it was full of marshmallow, nutella, and ghram cracker. Nutritious? no, but you only live once. 

It was just an overall fun place. I'm sure we'll be back.