Wednesday, March 27, 2013

sometimes you need a good laugh..

I've been reading blogs for probably close to 5 years now, but I didn't start reading them religiously until about a year ago and I only just recently (within the last couple months) started actually writing on a blog of my own. When you're just reading blogs you hear these terms thrown around, but you don't really know what they really mean. You just go with it. For instance - "Blogging Community". I had heard it and I guess I knew what it meant, but apparently, I had no idea.

The last couple days have been a rough time for this little Blogging Community. Lots of angry words. Lots of emotional posts. Heavy thoughts. Sami's, Rachel's, Whitney's, Jen's, Becka's, Brin's are a few and I could seriously go on and on..

I'm not saying I agree or disagree with the things Becka said.

Okay, yes, yes I am. I agree with her.

However, I feel like I have nothing to say on the topic that someone else hasn't already said. So instead I decided we all needed a good laugh. The cure all for any of your troubles. Just laugh it out.

So here are 10 things that have made me laugh this month. Enjoy!

One.



All of these AT&T commercials with the kids make me laugh like a buffoon, but this one, this one makes me cry-laugh. I die every time. If you don't at least smile, then we will never be friends. I'm so sorry.

Two.


Guys, I know, I KNOW this is supposed to be sweet and probably uplifting or something, but I laugh so freaking hard every time I read it. Because the first time I read it, I misread it. So now all I can think of is something else warm and yellow pouring all over everyone and I laugh, so hard.

Three.



Where ya boyfran at? Okay, so this is an old funny video. I think I watched it in high school originally. But it was recently brought back into my life and I find it hysterical. Own that ponytail. Work that up-do.

Four.



Have you seen these floating around Pinterest? There are tons of them and they all make me laugh. You had one job. Fail.

Five.



Okay, my friends and I have this obsession with Jimmy Tatro. Years ago I found his FIRST video and I loved it and laughed for days and then I got all of my friends hooked on him and now he's popular and shit. I'm a trend setter, I think I mentioned that fact yesterday. Anyway, not everyone finds him funny, but for some reason my friends and I love him and laugh hysterically and quote his videos daily. Seriously, we've had entire convos only using Jimmy Tatro quotes. "What? I'm shocked! Spoiler alert!"

Six.



That caption gets me every time.

Seven.



Yes. Jimmy Fallon and Justin Timberlake. History of Rap. It's funny. Shout out to Sami for originally posting this clip!

Eight.



My best friend sent this to me. I laughed for 20 minutes.

Nine.



I couldn't stop laughing last week when my coworker forced me to watch this. I don't even know what's funny about it. But it's freaking hilarious.

Ten.



A mash up of three of my favorite things. HAHAHAH

Okay, I'm done for today. I've been sitting at work cracking myself up. And I bet no one else even finds these funny, but I do, sooo..


Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Finish The Sentence..

I wasn't going to do another link-up this week, but I think this one is just too funny and I've never done it, so surprise! I'm linking up. Check out these peeps, they're funny too.

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1. If calories didn't count, I would eat... a year's supply of Reese's peanut butter eggs, in one sitting.


2. On my Prom night... I ended up watching a movie with my date.. and his girlfriend.

3.When I go to the store, I always buy... some form of cheese. I have an addiction.


4. Family functions typically... involve someone being lovingly made fun of, good food, and all of us rolling in laughter at some point. We're a funny family.

5. I think my blog readers... are sweet for actually reading my blog! I really thought only my mom would read it.

6. I'd much rather be... sitting in a hot tub drinking a glass of wine. And yes, probably enjoying some cheese with that wine. It's an addiction I tell you.


7. I have an obsession with... the IU Hoosiers. Period. It's a real, true love.


8. My work friends... have no clue I blog and I'll probably never tell them.

9. When I created my Facebook account... I was in high school and created it before it was "cool" to have one. My oldest brother had one because he was in college and so I thought I needed one. I'm a trend setter.

10. My least favorite word is... flabbergasted. I don't know why, but I've always hated that word.

11. I really don't remember... life before my sister was born. She's my best, best, bestest friend.


12. Justin Bieber... needs to stop. Just.. stop. I like some of your songs, but you.. no.


Okay, that was fun. But now I have to be a big girl and do actual work today. Waahhh!

Anyway, link up with these two! They're fun! Do it, do it!


Monday, March 25, 2013

ATTN: DSLR camera users..

Anyone and everyone with a DSLR camera.. 

I plan on purchasing a new camera next week. The only thing I think I know is that I want to stick with a Canon. Other than that, I'm clueless.

So if anyone has any advice, tips, opinions, etc. Please send them my way!

You can leave a post comment or email me at kstoll129(at)gmail(dot)com

Thank you, thank you, besticles!

What A Weekend..

Happy Monday, besticles! I had such a good weekend that I actually started writing this post last night. My emotional well-being needed this weekend so much and I went to bed last night ready for this week and ready for the future (imagine a super cheesy grin right here)! Not even last night's snow storm got me down! (even though there was a snow storm at the end of march.. doesn't mother nature know it's spring?)



My weekend started off at one of my favorite places to be.. the baseball fields.


 My love for basketball is huge, but my love for baseball definitely gives it a run for its money. In fact, I don't know which one I love more. I do know that my love for my IU Hoosiers is incomparable. I LOVE THEM. So I had no problem spending my entire day Saturday watching them kick butt on their new field. Also, nothing beats a Hoosier boy in baseball pants. Can I get an amen?


 But let's jump back to Friday night really quick. I rented 3 Redbox movies.



Trouble With The Curve, The Paperboy, and The Perks of Being a Wallflower. That's a random assortment, but I have very good reasons for each choice. Ya see, Trouble With The Curve was because I was in a baseball mood and because I had been listening to JT all week and my girl Sami blogged about him almost every day last week, so he was on the brain. The Paperboy is because Zac Efron has been my dude since I was a lowly sophomore in high school and he was little Troy Bolton. I'm not kidding, I was obsessed. When I got accepted to IU my senior year, I had to create a "passphrase" and it was "Zac Efron Is Bangin". True story. Perks of Being a Wallflower was chosen because Whitney blogged about it and because I'm definitely one of those Harry Potter nerds so I had to support my girl Hermione Emma.

So here are my reviews.. Loved Trouble With The Curve, but I'm a sports movie fanatic, so I wasn't surprised that I loved it. Perks lived up to the hype, I liked it, but I think I need to read the book now to fall in love with it. The Paperboy.. I'm not even sure what to say about it. It's weird, but I think I liked it, but I'm not totally sure. If you've seen it, then I'm sure you understand what I'm saying, if you haven't seen it, then you'll never understand.

Sunday, oh Sunday.. Sunday was all about those Hoosiers! And the NCAA tournament. So I spent almost the entire day.. at a bar.


Rocking my very best #ootd featuring those candy stripes..


My friends and I also discovered our new favorite drink.. Redd's Apple Ale. So freaking delicious.. So we had a few..

And even though the Hoosiers gave us a scare and I was starting to get stressed (aka i stopped breathing for the last 2 minutes of the game).. my boys pulled it out!


Well, I hope everyone has a fantastic Monday! Remember, every Monday you can share your weekend shenanigans and link up with Sami! I'm slightly obsessed with her, so you should be too!


MUAH!


Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Opinions and Assholes

Who's heard the phrase "opinions are like assholes, everyone has one" ?

No one? Just me? Super.

Well this is a phrase that I thought about a lot yesterday while I was puking my guts up. Yesterday I stayed home from work because I was puking my guts up sick. So for a good majority of the afternoon I was on my couch watching Law & Order: SVU reruns and ya know, just sort of asking myself what the hell I'm doing with my life.

I mean I spent the whole day in a Swamp People Choot Em shirt..
Yes, I'm serious. Now do you understand why I spent a large majority of the day trying to understand my life choices?

I'm sure you're all probably sick of hearing it because I've mentioned several times so far during 2013 that I'm going to be making changes and getting my life in order. But I keep saying it, because I mean it. While I truly love those fluffy blogs I read occasionally where they paint this perfect picture of their life and everything is lovely, I know it's not real. I know they're lying. It usually doesn't stop me from reading the blog, because I don't mind a little bit of that "my life is perfect" mojo they're spewing out, but I love the blogs where I can tell there is a real person back there. Real struggles, real setbacks, and real triumphs.

So here's my real struggle. I have so many things I'm wanting to change that I may have gotten a little ahead of myself. Jumped in feet first with no safety net. I've overwhelmed myself a bit trying to make all of these changes at once. This is something I know about myself. I always do this. I make a decision and I'm all in.

I wish this was my biggest problem lately, but it's not. My problem right now is that I have a lot of people in my life that mean well. I am truly blessed. However, everyone has an opinion on what I should do. My family, my friends, my coworkers. Lately I've been getting a lot of "advice". Some of it I've asked for and some I haven't. It has quickly come to my attention that everyone has an opinion on what I should do with my life and everything thinks their opinion is the right one for me.

I should mention again that 90% of these opinions are coming from people who truly mean well and who love me and just want the best things for me.

The issue is that these opinions are all so different. In fact, it reminds me of a scatter plot. Any math nerds out there know what I mean? It's like I have all of these opinions and I somehow need to find a "line of best fit".


And all of this brings me back around to "opinions are like asshole, everyone has one". Yesterday I decided that while I appreciate most of the advice I'm getting, I need to decide what is best for me on my own. Some of the opinions I've gotten have been great advice, just not for me. I've spent my whole life listening to what other people think I should do and look where I am. I'm in a place that I want to get out of. So I think this time around I'm going to make my own choices. Of course I'll continue to listen to the advice given to me and maybe even take some of it into account, but I need to crawl out of the sand and find my way to the sea.

After all, who's life is it? Mine.


Thursday, March 14, 2013

Hey, Must Be The Money!

Now who else has this song stuck in their head? Good. You can sing it with me, since I've been singing it since last week when it came on my Nelly Pandora station. Yes I have a Nelly Pandora station. It's right under my Luke Bryan Pandora station. I don't know why you're surprised.

I've been thinking about posting something like this for a long time a day or two, but I just now got around to it. So let's talk about money.

I've mentioned that I have big plans for myself this year and future years. I've also mentioned that I make lists. Gosh I love my lists. One of my lists included figuring out new ways to manage my money and save money. Some of my big, scary life goals are going to cost me a few pennies. And by "a few" pennies I mean millions of pennies.

This all lead me to declare March as my month to get my life goals the kick in the pants they need. Because when I think of March I think of this..
Okay, I also think of this..


But that's a little off subject.

Leprechauns and their pot of gold is what I think of during March (rainbows too!). So March seemed like the perfect time to work on my finances! I added that exclamation point at the end of that sentence to make that look way more exciting than it is. It's not. But I just thought I'd let everyone know what I've been doing and the tips I've picked up the last couple weeks. And I just realized it took me 275 words to get to the point of this post. Good Lawd. Somebody shut her up.

As far as where I collected some of these tips, well.. some I've known a long time. My parents aren't extravagant spenders, so I learned a lot from them. My grandpa is frugal too. Leaning towards the side of cheap. But I've learned so much from that. I also was thrust into the "poor college kid" role and learned the hard way how far a paycheck can or can't go.

Some tips I learned from blogs. It is seriously crazy the things you can learn from blogs. People post what they know and some of them know the value of a dollar. I spend a lot of time reading (and taking notes on) things John and Sherry have written about regarding money. They mostly just post about what they do to live frugally and it's all great advice. I'll summarize some of the specific tips I'm using in a minute.

Months and months ago I made my own "Home Management Binder" like the ones you see all over Pinterest. Except I don't have kids or a husband, so mine is much simpler, but I love it and use it. However, I did update the way I manage my finances in my binder. I took tips from 7th House On The Left's finance binder.



 AND tips from Jen from iHeart Organizing's finance binder. 


Just look at them. They're pretty. They're functional. They're organized. *SWOON*

Jen also sells her printables for her finance binder, plus printables for her home management binder. I created my own printables, but if I hadn't, I'd have bought her's. Love them. Love her.

If you don't like either of their binders then you're crazy all you have to do is hop on Pinterest and type "finance binder" or "household binder" into the search bar and watch magic happen.

I picked up other tips from here, here, here, and here. There are TONS of tips out there. FREE TIPS. You know I'm down for anything free..


I've read so many articles the last couple weeks that my eyes went a little cross-eyed. But it's been good for me. So here's what I'm doing specifically right now to manage money and save more in the long run..

  1. Every. Single. Dollar. that I spend this month is being written down. I started writing it all in a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet, then realized I work at an accounting/CPA office and so I transferred everything into Quickbooks, which was already installed on my laptop for work reasons. For those that don't have that, an Excel spreadsheet would work just fine. Or even an notebook. The point is to see exactly what you're spending money on. You'll probably be just as surprised as I was by how much "extra" money you're spending without realizing it. I enter every dollar and categorize everything. So on April 1st I can see where my money went in March and adjust for the future.
  2. I'm limiting myself to eating out once a week. This is also a bonus one because it'll help with my get healthy goals too. It's just so much cheaper to brown bag it and eat at home. If you took a month to track how much money you were spending eating out (that includes quick trips to starbucks in the morning) you'd probably cry when you saw all the money you were spending. So eat at home and brown bag it for lunch.
  3. MEAL PLAN. I've been doing this for a while and I noticed immediately how much less I was buying and ultimately spending. If you meal plan you don't go to the grocery and pick up things that you "might" cook that week. Lots of those "maybe meals" get left in the pantry or freezer and a couple trips to the store later and you have a full pantry of food that you still haven't eaten. Which brings me to #4..
  4. Eat what you have. On Sunday when I was meal planning for this week, I went through my cabinets and fridge/freezer and wrote out potential meals that I could make using only what I already had. So I added some of those meals to the plan this week. Because of this on Sunday when I went to the grocery store I bought lettuce, spinach, eggs, milk, apples, and chicken. I had everything else. Ridiculous savings there, kids.
  5. Have a garage sale. I don't actually plan on doing this until late June, early July, but it's a good idea. You're selling things you already have that you no longer want. So it's purely extra money. Bonus money. Also the organizer in me loves it because you'll be getting rid of things that are just cluttering up your house/apartment. I'm already planning mine and I've asked every single one of my family members if they want to join in. Whatever doesn't get sold goes straight to Goodwill. 
  6. Check for coupons. I'm not saying you need to go coupon crazy, but if you buy something online, anything, open your Google search bar and type in the name of the store and add the word coupon after it. For example.. "Kohl's coupon" or "Joss & Main coupon".. If there isn't one, no big deal. It took you 30 seconds to check. But if there is one (and 9 times out of 10 there is) you'll be saving money. Repeat after me.. a 5% off coupon is better than no coupon at all.
  7. Ditch the DVR. Almost every single TV show posts the episode online the next day or the next week. Even if you need to invest in Hulu, that is still cheaper than the ridiculous amount most people pay for their DVR service. Sacrifices, people.
  8. Can you DIY it? Would it be cheaper to DIY it? Ask yourself this before you buy something, every time.
  9. Shop around. Big purchases need thought out. Period. If you look around you can almost always find the exact same product for a lesser price somewhere else. Not every time, obviously. But it doesn't hurt you to look. 
  10. Become hyper aware of your big goals. For instance if you want to save up money for a Euro-trip, then before you buy something you don't really need, remind yourself of that. Think "this pretty ceramic buffalo is cutting into my Europe fund. Worth it?". Hey I'm all for ceramic animals, but I'd rather buy one from Paris. Ya feel me?
These are just 10 of the tips I've been utilizing this month mostly because I really want..
  • a DSLR camera.
  • a desktop computer
  • to go to Europe with my best friend Summer 2014
  • to create a cushion for myself so I can concentrate on school and not worry about money 24/7
Those are my big wants right now. Things I'm saving for. Writing them down will keep me focused.

I hope this was at least a little bit helpful. I know some of them are small, but those small things really add up. I'll post an update after I've finished an entire month of tracking every penny I spend. After that's analyzed I'll be ready for a new plan to save in April and probably work on a second goal.

Also because this post is long and word heavy here's a picture of my current favorite cup, for no reason other than it makes me giggle.


 

Monday, March 11, 2013

Weekend Shenanigans

I mean.. It's Monday and do I really need to say anything else about that? No. Good, because I think my brain has shut down and I'm just trying to make it through the day.

So today is the perfect day for a link-up!


So this weekend started out with this..

Dat's my momma. She made dinner for my step-dad's birthday on Friday night and in a rare, surprising turn of events, all five of their children showed up, plus my sister-in-law. So I have to admit, that was fun. Now that we're all older and only my little brother lives at my parents house, it really is rare for all of us to be together like that. Mad love for my famdamily.

All of the children, except for the guy on the far left. He's my step-brothers' half brother. Follow? Complicated, I know.


And look at my parents pound puppy. She's such a big girl now and I just love the shit out of her!


Then this happened..
Karaoke, again. 2nd Friday in a row. And 2nd Saturday in a row I've woken up feeling like death. But I do love my girl, KD. Oh, and bonus points to whoever can name that song!


The rest of the weekend looked like this.. I got new shoes..


I tried POM Pomegranate Juice for the first time! So freaking good! I really didn't think I was going to like it, but SURPRISE, I did! Loved it, actually. Going to be a new staple.


And what would my weekend recap be without mentioning the biggest and best part of my weekend.. The Hoosier win yesterday! OMG, OMG, OMG! Big Ten Champs! And probably a #1 seed in the NCAA tournament. Hello, my #iubb lovers!


And Victor Oladipo and Tom Crean had a precious little moment after the game. So sweet. Love this team. Love those Hoosiers.


So happy Monday to me. I'll be back tomorrow, hopefully. Love ya'll!


Thursday, March 7, 2013

Workout Playlists & an embarrasing moment..

So do you want to hear something funny and embarrassing? I meant to post this yesterday.. And instead I saved it as a draft. I didn't notice it until this morning. I'm brilliant. If only this was the most embarrassing thing that's happened to me in 2013. Sigh. So here's yesterday's post..

. . . . . . . .
 
So, I thought we'd discuss playlists today.


Two-ish weeks ago, I thought I was going to be able to start C25K. Which by the way is going to have to wait until spring. I can't stand a treadmill and it's too dang cold outside. No, 50 degrees isn't cold. But 30 degrees is. So anyway, off subject.. I made a bunch of playlists to use while I was running. I wanted different options so that every time I ran I could switch it up so I wouldn't want to shoot myself... Okay, at least lessen the chances of me wanting to shoot myself.

I just thought I'd share my current workout playlists, as they are labeled on my iTunes. I'm ALWAYS looking for more songs, so please, please don't hesitate to comment with more songs for me to add! And feel free to steal these playlists!
. . . . . . . .

I've added the YouTube links to all of the songs, so if you click on the title of the song a separate window will pop up and you can listen to the song! Just making your life a little easier. You are welcome, lovers.
. . . . . . . .


This is pretty self-explanatory. It's my playlist filled with country music.

This is like "America's Top 40", ya know? It's just a playlist of popular songs that are always on the radio.

Again, pretty self-explanatory.. Rap, Hip Hop, R&B, whatever.

This title is misleading. It's mostly just 80's music, but I called it my "Oldies" playlist to annoy my mother. I think it's funny. She won't.

This is my random playlist. Some of the songs are on the other playlists. Some of the songs just didn't fit anywhere else.

So I hope you can use some of these! And I'm not kidding, please PLEASE send me more songs!



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