Sunday Confessions Link Up

Happy Sunday!!! 


You know the drill - grab a button and link up.
  <center> <a href="http://itsalyx.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7148/6701442513_4c7153a301.jpg" width="200" height="200" /></a></center> 1. I'm too busy celebrating the Huskers' win to come up with any confessions. Sorry, Keetha - just have to tell everyone how excited I am that we redeemed ourselves. GO HUSKERS!!!!

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PS: Yesterday was my dad's birthday. I didn't get the chance to blog, but I want to take a second to let him know how much I love and appreciate him. Dad, go enjoy yourself this week - you deserve it! 

...And please get a real balloon instead of a latex glove. Thanks. 

Favorite Things Friday

Happy FRIDAY!!! 

FINALLY. This weekend we are headed up to Sioux City to hang out with the in-laws, and I'm pretty stoked about it- it should be a good time. Plus, my Huskers will be playing Wisconsin, which should be a pretty good game. Hopefully.

Anyway. Time for my favorite things this week!

1. Smoothies. Specifically ones from Juice Stop. I'm not sure if Juice Stop is a Nebraska thing, but if it is, I will die if we ever move. They have like, 50 different types of smoothies to choose from, each one more delicious than the last.

2. Having a clean car. I used to work at a car wash, and my car was always spotless, inside and out. As it should have been - I did get free car washes and interior cleans (if I cleaned it myself, so really I just had access to all of our stuff). Now that I don't work there, though, our car got a little... messy. Today we had it washed and vacuumed it out, and it feels amazing. I love having a spotless car.

3. Raising Cane's Chicken Fingers. People. If you ever find yourself in Lincoln, NE, come to Raising Cane's. It's the most amazing fried chicken ever. Of all time. It's a little pricey, but oh, so good.  I really wanted some today, so we caved and went, and it was oh, so satisfying. Hit the spot.

4. Book club! I'm getting so pumped! So far we've had about 35 votes, and The Perks of Being a Wallflower is in first place. If that's not the book you want, don't fret! You can still vote.
Also... I want you all to know that you don't have to sign up anywhere to participate - no one should feel obligated - this is just for fun. I have, however, decided to start an email sign up for those of you who are interested in the occasional email with reminders as far as dates for link ups and google video chats. I will not spam your email, and I will never send out anything that doesn't deal specifically with book club. You don't have to sign up to participate - this is just if you want to.
5. Awesome points! For those of you that don't know, I have this little thing called awesome points. I give them out for random, mostly ridiculous things. Once you have 75,000, you cash them in for an awesome package! It's a surprise, and I won't even know what it is till I start putting it together. It's just a fun way for me to reward my readers for being, well.. awesome! It's better than a giveaway, because you don't have to be lucky to win them. It's up to you how many you get.

That being said... let's give away some awesome points, shall we?

All you have to do is guess which blogger is which. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy. This is for 2,000 awesome points. If you get it partially correct, you get partial awesome points. Answers can be found by visiting blogs and looking in the about me section.

Kim//Erinn//Madison//Whitney

twitter//instagram//facebook

facebook//twitter//pinterest

twitter//facebook

Twitter//Facebook//Instagram

Blogger one: This blogger was in a sorority in college. Don't let that fool you, though - she says she's quite the nerd. She loves Harry Potter, Star Wars, and Lord of the Rings. She loves music almost as much as her new husband, and though you wouldn't know it from her picture, she loves making ridiculous faces for the camera.

Blogger two: This blogger likes to bite off more than she can chew, which might make it awkward if you ask her a question while her mouth is full. She, like every other blogger, loves Harry Potter (are we sensing a theme here?) and Pokemon. She has a husband, a blog, and a really cute dog (I should be a poet). She loves to get her DIY on and stalk Pinterest for new ideas.

Blogger three: This blogger is a high school Spanish teacher who loves to travel. She just got an iPhone 5 and is also obsessed with Harry Potter. She probably also thinks she is dying at any given time, because she's a self-diagnosed hypochondriac. You may see her pull a ketchup bottle out of her purse.

Blogger four: This blogger can do one mean rendition of the chicken dance, electric slide, or macarena - whatever it is, she can do it, because she loves dancing. She has probably seen a moose (or ten) and maybe a polar bear. Or Russia. From her backyard. Anyway, she plays the sax (I said sax, not sex), and is really good at that, too. She probably loves Harry Potter, even though it doesn't say that in her "about me" section.

So who's who??? Visit their blogs and guess away! If you like what you read, be sure to visit their other social media so that you can stalk them forever.

What's in my Bag. The Vote. Mike ate all the Pizza. Awesome Points Scoreboard.

Happy Hump Day!!! 

As of noon, I will officially be halfway done with my work week, and you guys have no clue how stoked I am about that. Maybe you do - I don't know.

Anyway, Emily and some other awesome people are hosting a What's in Your Bag? link up, and I'm gettin' my vlog on to join.
In other news, we narrowed your suggestions for October's book down to three, and we want YOU to vote and pick the one we read!
And finally, I think you all should know that I'm human. I got mad at Mike last night. I yelled at him for like, three minutes and called him a poopy-butt-meanie-face-fish-head while he was on the phone talking to our insurance agent. Want to know why? He ate all the pizza, cheese sticks, and cinnamon pie. Yeah, I know - I'm mature. But that's what happens when my husband eats all the food.

Okay, I lied... now it's finally. Here's an Awesome point score update:

Genius idea for Book Club (Obviously not Mine)

Happy Monday!! 

So this is going to be a really short post because I've just got a couple things to mention.

1. Voting for the book for book club will happen this week. We're going through suggestions and picking the three books to choose from. By the way... those suggestions were all AMAZING. Like, I wish we could read all of the books. In fact, I probably will. Just because I'm a book whore. Anyway... We're thinking that the vote will go up sometime around Wednesday or Thursday.

2. Kim is a genius. She had this great idea of not only discussing the book via our blog posts, but via a live google chat if anyone is interested. I think it'd be a pretty fun time to be able to actually talk through the book rather than just read other people's thoughts, so of course I was like, HECK FREAKIN' YES!! What do you guys think? Kim and I will probably do it regardless, because we're dorks, but it'd be fun if even more people joined!

3. Kaylee will be joining our crew of cohosts. She had a book club of her own, but her cohost had to sort of bail, so we joined book club forces. Awesome, right? Right.

Sunday Confessions Link Up

Good morning!! 

How the heck is it already this time of the week again?? It always creeps up on me, and I'm never quite ready. Hopefully you guys are, though! Grab a button and link on up!!
  <center> <a href="http://itsalyx.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7148/6701442513_4c7153a301.jpg" width="200" height="200" /></a></center> Before I get to my confessing... It is Mike's birthday, so I just have to do a little shout out.

Dear Mike, 
Happy Birthday, [insert ridiculous pet name here]. I love you so, so much. You are the best husband in the world, and I feel so lucky to have you by my side now and forever. I have so much more that I want to tell you, but I'll keep that just between you and I so that my poor readers aren't subjected to so much mushiness. Just know that you're the best thing that has ever happened to me. And you look dang fine in a suit. Don't ever change, babe - don't ever change. Ha!

1. I have been an awful blogger this week. I didn't visit you guys, I didn't respond to your comments, and I didn't really feel bad about my lack of response. I've just felt pretty "blah" all week. Maybe this next week will be better?

2. I'm obsessed with Game of Thrones. I'm writing this post on Saturday night, and I can hardly wait to hit the "schedule" button so that I can finish the first book. Only about a hundred pages to go. If I haven't already convinced you to pick up these books, you'd better believe that I will within the week. Maybe.

3. I wish I was more organized. I try, really, I do. It's not that I'm disorganized or sloppy, it's just that I'm not totally organized. I'm a little scatterbrained, and it's hard for me to keep everything in my life straight. I think the only place I am organized is work.

4. I almost felt bad for Idaho State yesterday. My Huskers gave them quite the beating. I almost felt bad... till they scored and made it 73-7 instead of 73-0 (okay, so they scored when we had 66, but still).

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5. I think it would be awesome to own a golf cart and drive it on the sidewalks. What kind of person thinks about these things? The thought of someday ruling the sidewalks on my golf cart occurred to me earlier today and now I'm determined that it will happen, even if it's not till I'm a crazy 80-year-old living in a nursing home. Dear future children: please never put me in a nursing home - I won't forgive you.

What do you have to confess today?

OH!! If your name is Kaity Brown, you won the $50 to Paypal - holler at me and I'll get you set up with Natasha for your prize!!

AND! I haven't forgotten about you totally cool people that won awesome points. I'll email you someday (okay, today) to give you your total.

Favorite Things Friday

Happy Friday!! 

You guys have no idea how happy I am to be saying those words. Hopefully you're just as happy to hear them! So... on to this week's favorite things!

1. Fall weather! It's coming to Nebraska (knock on wood), and I couldn't be happier! It's perfect football weather, and I get to wear sweaters and scarves and boots! Super stoked.

2. Starting a Harry Potter marathon. Mike and I started one last night, and we're going to watch one movie every week for the next seven weeks, until we've finished them all.

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3. The Game of Thrones books. I haven't had much time to read this week, but nearly every spare minute I find has been spent reading this series. It's so good. I think I'm going to spend all day tomorrow devouring the first book.

4. The Maise Dobbs series. This is a mystery series set in England between WWI and WWII. It's really, really good, and I highly recommend it if you're into reading mysteries.

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5. Mint chocolate chip ice cream with chocolate syrup. Holy moly, so good. I have to brag a little about Mike, too, because after I mentioned that it sounded good yesterday, he went out and bought a half gallon of it while I was napping!! I love that dude.


What were some of your favorite things this week?? 

The Newest, Most Amazing, Best Game Ever. And a Perfect(ish) Morning.

Hiiii!!! 

I think I'm back, whether you want me here or not. I gave my computer a stern talking-to, and it decided to put off its imminent death for a few more minutes hours days weeks months hopefully years.

Anyway, I think you all should know something. I slept through church on Sunday. I have an excuse, but I'm not going to bother you all with it. Anyway, I'm a sinner, because it was the most wonderful Sunday this week. Wanna know why? I will freaking show you.

Yeah, food. Delicious food. That's the way to my heart. Right now, anyway.

Now that we're all drooling, I thought it would be really fun to play a game. Now, I can't take all the credit for this here game, because this amazing, ingenious, awesome person thought of it.  So here's the deal. You are playing for 1,000 awesome points. If you don't know what awesome points are, just email me - but know that they are not imaginary or dumb - they are awesome, and they will make you win stuff.

Anyway. I have two people and four quotes below. Try to match each blogger to the two things that she said. If you feel so inclined, you can visit their blogs to try and find the answers (I promise they are freaking right there and will be easy to find). If you get some right, but not all, you can get partial awesome points. In case you didn't know, I'm a math whiz and can totally divide 1,000 by four.

So... are you ready? GO!!!! 

Blogger one: Emily from Hope Squared. [She's the one rockin' the awesome tooth fairy costume]

Blogger two: Maria from Peppermints and Pixie Dust. 

Now get to guessing!! 

Quote one:  "I haven't ever worn heels with shorts, partly because I don't have any cute heels I love, but I've always wanted to."

Quote two: "Music is the best medicine for any mood.  Bad mood.  Sad mood."

Quote three: "All men looked like Don Draper in the 50's/60's right?"

Quote four: "So for now, I'm just trying to discover who I really am and what I love."

ALSO: I'm reading Game of Thrones, and that queen is a friggin witch. And disgusting. I mean, really? Her twin brother? And cruel. Like, what crawled up her butt and died? Poor Bran. 

My Computer is the Spawn of Satan.

Please excuse my absence in blogland today - my computer has decided it hates my guts. I'm pretty sure my wireless card is broken, and my hard drive is making noises that sound a little too much like a dying cow and not enough like a computer.

But oh, look! A pretty picture!

5 Things Bloggers Talk about in Emails. A Vacation to China.

Happy Monday!! 

Let's all cross our fingers that this week flies by, okay? Okay.

So here's the deal. I'm horrible at answering emails lately. But occasionally, I'll be okay about it and successfully have a conversation with one of you. I would like to present you all with a list of Things Bloggers Talk about in Emails. Names of bloggers involved in these emails have been withheld, because I don't want them to shoot me in the face when you all tell me how ridiculous we are.

1. Blogging Biker Gangs. Or something like that. It'd actually be a bicycle gang with spandex and geeky helmets and ridiculous shoes (the words "saddle sores" may have been in this conversation as well), but a bike gang is a bike gang, right?

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2. Having blog dates via skype. Not just Skype chatting, but taking a laptop to a restaurant while skyping a bloggy friend, and having a dinner date. Totally normal thing to do, right?

3. Reasons to get pregnant. This list is endless and full of absolutely ridiculous things. Apparently there are a lot of silly reasons to reproduce.

4. Books. Obviously. I realize that this isn't exactly ridiculous, but it might be ridiculous how often books just creep into conversations. Which leads me to remind you - we are still accepting book suggestions for October book club!

5. Exotic animals you'd like to pet. Maybe I'm just friends with weirdos (or I'm the weird one, which is more likely), but somehow, email conversations often get turned to exotic animals. Whether it's the ones I'd like to someday ride (ahem - elephant and kangaroo) or someday pet (tiger and koala bear), it's always a good conversation.

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Do you email other bloggers? What sorts of crazy things do you talk about? 

Maybe you talk about your travels, who you are, where you came from, where you want to go? Well, I don't think it's any secret that I'd like to go to China someday, but I definitely don't have the cash for a spur-of-the-moment vacation as I'm sure is the case with many of us, so I'd like to treat you to an imaginary, all-expenses paid vacation, courtesy of Natasha. Close your eyes and use that imagination!
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Hello adventurers! This is Natasha from the Picablocks. Thanks Alyx for having me today!

I'm a graduate-to-be from Malaysia, and I blog blocks - blocks of pictures, blocks of life. Photos are what drove me to establish this blog, and I think they are what keeps me writing.  Though I share mostly about photography on my little blog, today I want to talk about a Chinese festival - the Mid-Autumn Festival.

This festival, also known as the mooncake festival is celebrated by Asian countries. We celebrate it in Autumn, on the 15th of Ba Yue (August). But, like any other Chinese festival, the date of mooncake festival changes every year on the standard calendar. This year it's on the 30th of September.

To this day, how do the Chinese celebrate the day?

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At night children place candles inside specially made craft lanterns and run around the town in parades. 

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Mid-autumn festival is a day to spend with family. That night, the family gathers and we eat moon cakes, play with lanterns, and admire the moon. During the mooncake festival, the moon is the roundest and biggest of the whole year. It symbolizes this reunion. 

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We eat moon cakes. They are of all sorts of shapes and tastes.

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There are also huge lantern parades and exhibitions from different Chinese organizations. 

The Mooncake festival is a traditional chinese festival that preserves our culture, but the average Chinese people love it because of its warmth. It's that day that families and friends reunite, sit down, and talk about happy things while looking at the moon. 

It literally tops my favorite 5 festivals of all time!

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Have you guys ever been to a traditional festival in another country? I think it's amazing to step back and take a look at all of the different cultures around us. 

If you haven't already, you can stop by Natasha's blog to say hello! Don't forget to enter this giveaway - she's generously giving one lucky reader $50!! 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Sunday Confessions Link Up

Happy Sunday!!! 

This week went by pretty slowly, but of course the weekend flew by. Don't you hate how that goes? Anyway, it's Sunday, and you all know what that means - time for confessions! Grab a button and link on up!
  <center> <a href="http://itsalyx.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7148/6701442513_4c7153a301.jpg" width="200" height="200" /></a></center> 1. I'm a horrible secret keeper. It's really hard for me to keep secrets, especially if they're happy ones. I always want to shout them from the rooftops. So... if you have a happy secret, don't trust me with it unless you want at least my husband to know. I have to tell at least one person the good stuff!

2. I didn't have any time to read this week, and that makes me super sad! Lately I've had this pattern - one week I'll read like, five books, and then the next week I don't have any time to even read one! It's kind of ridiculous.

3. I just saw a preview for "Here Comes Honey Boo Boo," and I am considering wasting my life away by watching it. Yeah... how sad is that? I don't really have much more to say on this note.

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4. I did 7 loads of laundry yesterday. This is a confession because I had 7 loads of laundry to do - that's like, 3 weeks worth. Yeah, I'm awesome.

5. I got the First book in the Game of Thrones series for my Kindle. I'm so stoked to read it. I just have to find a little bit of time to do it.

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Speaking of books!! We are going to start our book club in October with a young adult fiction novel. We are taking suggestions from you all for the next week. Once we have suggestions, we will narrow it down to three books and hold a vote in the last week of September. Leave suggestions in the form below!

Also - have you entered this giveaway yet?? $50 of free money, yo!
a Rafflecopter giveaway
So.... link up your confessions!! 

Favorite Things Friday

FINALLY. HALLELUJAH! 

It's Friday, beaches. Hahaha, sorry guys. You aren't sandy beaches. I love you all. I'm just a little bit too excited for Friday. It's pathetic, really.

Anyway. Moving on like Donkey Kong. Or something like that. Time for my favorite things this week.

1. Food Day. Yep, part of the reason I sound like I'm on crack right now is because I'm wildly anticipating the smorgasbord at work. It's food day, and I'm ready. Be jealous that you don't get any of the crock pot spinach and artichoke dip that I'm making.

not the recipe I'm using.

2. This commercial. Am I the only one that thinks it's the best thing ever? Because it is.
3. My new shoes! I'd been wanting these shoes for a while, but couldn't justify spending the money. Then I went to Target, and what do you know?! They were on clearance for $7.50! And that's how you win the game of life.

4. My cat's new bed. I woke up this morning, walked into the bathroom, turned on the light, and was greeted by a kitty in the sink. He's found a place to call home.

5. Free money. Too bad I can't win it. But you can - $50 straight to your Paypal account, courtesy of this beautiful lady.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

And... a special shout out to my little brother - today is his 19th birthday!!! 
Happy Birthday, Ryan! We love you!! 

PS - All you ladies in UT, he's tall, dark and handsome! HA!

5 Year Flashback. My Jeans are Older than my Cat.

Linking up here. 

jeans: BKE cami&tee: walmart tennis shoes: new balance(not running shoes - that would be a sin)

Happy Hump Day!!! 

There is something you should know about me. 

I am a jeans hoarder. Seriously. If I can fit my butt into a pair of jeans, they do not get thrown away until there is a gaping hole the the nether regions. Don't believe me? These jeans are older than my cat. In fact, here's a picture of me wearing them five and a half years ago.

What's that? You want to know all about the freak in the "then" photo? Okay.

Five years ago, I was the girl you see in the "then" pictures. I was only eighteen. I had about a month to go till I would graduate high school, and I could eat an entire large pizza by myself. I had only ever had two boyfriends, and I skipped school a lot. I was actually playing hooky with some friends when those photos were taken.

I took my friend to the senior prom because no one asked me. I once got in trouble for wearing shorts that were "too short." To this day, I am convinced that my shorts weren't too short - my legs were too long.

I thought I couldn't wait to get away from my parents. I wrote a twelve page essay on the history of Barbie, and why she contributes to eating disorders among young girls. I gave the speech at my high school graduation, and wished that I'd been better prepared. I went to Nashville for a modeling competition and was told by 10 agencies that I was too tall. 

Five years ago, I was on my way to becoming the person I am today. Since then, I've loved, had my heart broken, made mistakes, learned from those mistakes, experienced more than I ever thought possible, and met and married the man of my dreams. Five years has brought me a long way. 

Where/who were you five years ago?