Life Updates

It's been a long time since I've written a blog post about what's actually going on in my life.
So let's do that today!
Because this is my blog and I can say what I want to. #cantstop #wontstop


November Goals
So I started one of my November Goals yesterday. 64oz of water a day. Do you know how much water that is? A lot. It's a lot. I think I went pee about 39 times yesterday. It's very annoying. However, I made my goal. Now to just continue that through November so when December rolls around I can increase that to 72oz a day. I know, I'm ridiculous. I'm okay with it.

Crying At Work
I teared up at work yesterday. Twice. Watching these 2 videos.. They're must sees!

Basketball Season
It's officially official.. College basketball season has started. No worries, I understand your confusion, since college football season isn't over yet. Coming from someone who works in college athletics, November is quite the stressful little month. Lots of sports are happening at once. I'm torn between being excited and being annoyed. Which is how I spend most of my life anyway, so really, what's new?

Christmas Decor
Last year I didn't decorate my apartment for Christmas, at all. Not one little twinkly light or one hint of green garland. This year I've decided I want a tree. So it's going to happen. I've already started looking for a cheap-ish one and some affordable decorations. Or I'm considering DIY all of the decorations. We'll see. I'm also going to make a Christmas door wreath. Since my Fall door wreath was so ridiculously easy and I'm so in love with it.

Need For Change
Last night at 7pm, I rearranged my kitchen. I moved my refrigerator. I know, what the hell?! The layout was just annoying me and I decided that it needed to be changed right that minute. Patience is not something I'm good with.

Injuries
I'm 90% sure I've broken my little pinky toe. I've stubbed it 3 times in the last 2 weeks. This last time I did it, pretty sure it just went ahead a broke. It's a nice color now too. Sigh.. Oh, and then I broke a fingernail on Monday night, all the way down to the skin. It hurts real, real bad. I'm also aware I'm being incredibly whiny and obnoxious.

Things October Taught Me
I discovered the importance of baby steps. I want so many things out of this life. My list is almost never ending. I cross off 1 thing and add 4. It took me a lot longer than most to figure out what I want to spend the rest of my life doing, but I've figured it out. Now that I have, I want it all right this minute. I may have mentioned that I'm not very good with patience. However, I'm really trying every day to remind myself that the journey can be just as amazing as my destination. In the end, that's what life is all about, right? Right.
This whole journey thing has forced me to think of all small steps to accomplish to help me get to the big steps that I'll need to accomplish to achieve my goals. It's like a really, really long staircase. I'm down at the bottom and I have so many stairs I need to climb. I'm trying not to be annoyed by the whole thing and just enjoy it. I'll let you know how that's going.


I guess that's my life right now.
Just hangin' out.
Climbin' stairs and what not.
Livin' the dream.
And now I'm gonna end this before it gets out of control.
Have a wonderful Wednesday, my loves! 

November Goals

I loved October.
Gosh, it's not even funny how wonderful October was for me. I'm more than a little sad to see it go.
Now I'm just hoping November will be just as wonderful!

Now let's talk goals.
This is my favorite thing I started doing when I started blogging. I love having these lists to keep me on track and I usually throw some random stuff on there just because I can and I always love it. I can not sing the praises of my Monthly Goal lists enough! I highly, highly recommend doing it!

Now that I've said that.. October was wonderful and very, very good to me.. But I totally forgot about my monthly goal list. I mean totally forgot about it. I usually print it out and post it somewhere in my apartment, but I didn't and I filled October with so many other things that I just forgot all about it until last week.

Somehow, though, I think I managed to cross a few things from my October Goal List. Let's look..

• Hang bedroom wall decor. Nope. This was a carry over from September and I still haven't done it.. I suck.
• #paytiforward This might be my first time I haven't done this.. So sad..
• Do something spontaneous. Done.
• Purge the extra "stuff" in my apartment. Done!! I mean, I could always do MORE.. But I've purged tons of stuff already!
• Organize my DIY/craft supplies. Done! 3 hours of organizing!
• Corn Maze! Done.
• Go to a Festival. Oops, not done.
• Walk more/Run more outside before the weather won't let me. A little walking, but I'm calling this not done.
•  Sell the 3 things on Ebay that I've been meaning to sell for 2 months. Nope, hah.
• Blog all 5 days a week all month long! Almost! But no..
• Do things the minute I think about doing them. Procrastination is my enemy. HAHAHAH
• Bedtime before midnight, every night! (excluding bar nights and work event nights) HAHAHAH
• Be a better sister. Eh, probably gonna call this not done, because I didn't do anything extra, just what I usually do. (i think i'm a damn good sister most of the time if we're being honest)
• No "grunge" days. (aka do my hair and wear something besides sweatpants and a tshirt) Halfsies.. I did really well with this most of the time, but not as good as I could have done.
• 64oz of water a DAY! HAHAHAH

FINAL TALLY: 4.5/15.. Uh.. OOPS!

How awful is it that I can't stop laughing at what a fail October was as far as goals goes? I'm cracking up. It was such a GREAT month though, so I'm not even a little bit upset. Now I'm just excited for November!

Speaking of..

• HANG BEDROOM WALL DECOR! 
• #payitforward
• Be Spontaneous! (my favorite thing ever every single month)
• Lose 6lbs! (i have a new accountability partner and a new little plan with her and i'm so freakin excited)
• Sell my Ebay stuff! (i need it out of my apartment and out of my life!)
• Work on my procrastination "issue". (i'd hate to call it a problem just yet, but if the shoe fits..)
• NaNoWriMo (with my awesome writing buddy Meagan!)
• Go to bed with no dirty dishes every, single night. (i loathe doing dishes, so this is huge)
• No "grunge" days. (aka do my hair and wear something besides yoga pants and a sweatshirt)
• 64oz of water a day! 
• Family time, family time, family time!!!

I know the list is much smaller than usual, but I really want to focus on only those things this month. It's usually when I try to do too much at once that I fail. I'm sick of failing.

So Happy November! Now who's joining me and making monthly goals? Tell me, tell me!! 

Weekend In Photos + Some Deep Thoughts

Hi.
Weekend.
In pictures.
Ready, go..

And now I'm looking at these "weekend pictures" and thinking about all of the things I did this weekend that aren't shown here.

It's interesting the things we take pictures of and the moments we have to remember in our heads.
Those are some of the best moments.

And with that deep thought.. I'll see ya tomorrow, folks.

Blogger Book Club - Olive Kitteridge

Welcome, Welcome!!
It's that time again!
Time for the Blogger Book Club link-up!

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<a href="http://www.kaysbestintentions.blogspot.com" title="The Best of Intentions"><img src="http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b552/kstoll129/bloggerbookclub300x300_zps6413460a.jpg" alt="The Best of Intentions" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

For October 2013, the BBC decided to read and review Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout!

My thoughts?
I liked it! I really, really liked it! However, I did not love it.

I'm glad I read it, but it's not a book I'd necessarily read a second time.

The book actually feels like 13 short stories messed together only because Olive Kitteridge is featured in each story. Sometimes she's the main character and sometimes she's a supporting character, but all of the stories involve her in some way.

Now I don't mind a story with a depressing tone. I don't even mind a story that doesn't have a happy ending. However, this was a book full of 13 stories with depressing tones and no happy endings. After story 7 that became a bit frustrating and annoying.

What I did find interesting is that even though I was starting to feel depressed during the book, I also was able to compare Olive to people I know. She isn't a likeable character, but she reminded me so much of someone I know that I was starting to feel invested in the stories. The same goes for many of the supporting characters, I felt like I knew them! They were my old classmates, my extended family, my coworkers, and neighbors.

Having said all of that, my favorite part of the book was how well written it was! Elizabeth Strout is a wonderful writer! There were so many beautiful passages and the way some of her sentences flowed together, oh I just loved it! She made the characters feel real and she made you care about their stories, even when they were depressing the hell out of you!

So the big question - Would I recommend it?
Yes, but only to those who can handle depressing stories, because this book is 13 of them conveniently bundled up into one!

What did YOU think of Olive Kitteridge?! Link-up at the very bottom of the post! Link-up will be open for TWO weeks!

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For November's Book Club pick I decided to choose a book that is actually about to become a movie!

 The Book Thief by Markus Zusak! 

GoodReads description:

It is 1939. Nazi Germany. The country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier, and will become busier still.

Liesel Meminger is a foster girl living outside of Munich, who scratches out a meager existence for herself by stealing when she encounters something she can’t resist–books. With the help of her accordion-playing foster father, she learns to read and shares her stolen books with her neighbors during bombing raids as well as with the Jewish man hidden in her basement.  

The movie The Book Thief is actually set to come out in theaters November 8th! Which is why this is BBC's November book! I'm planning on seeing The Book Thief in theaters Thanksgiving weekend!
Here's the trailer!

Can't wait, can't wait! The November link-up will be a little bit early because of the holidays!
November Blogger Book Club link-up will be Tuesday, November 26th!

Now link up your October BBC reviews on Olive Kitteridge below! :)