I Don't Do New Year's Resolutions

I am not a fan of New Year's Resolutions. I love new calendars and I love planning for the year but resolutions? Not my thing.

Why? Because honestly I don't believe you have to wait until the New Year to change something. If you decide on October 7 that you want to go to the gym more- start going to the gym more that day. If you decide December 5 that you want to read the bible everyday- start reading the bible everyday that day. You see how the list goes on...

But one thing I did start doing which doesn't really have much to do with the New Year, except the fact that I finally have some free time, is reading more. I kind of forget how much I enjoy reading until I take the time to sit down and read a book. I am kind of a bad reader though because I get so involved with a book, enjoying the characters, that when it ends I sit there thinking how will I ever fall that in love with a book and the characters again....and then the cycle starts over.

I think the other tough part for me is that I like to read as an escape. I don't like reading anything too complicated or that may be depressing. Sometimes I just want to be entertained. I just want to immerse myself into a different world. And I want it to wrap itself up at the end and not leave me feeling depressed....maybe that will change but it's where I am at now with my taste in books.

Two fun things I have done that I recommend- I joined this online community called Goodreads. It's pretty great because I have a kindle but the tough part about a kindle is the lack of going to a book store and trying to find books...sometimes I get overwhelmed trying to figure out which books I would like or should try. Goodreads allows you to import your kindle books into the account, rate them and then gives you recommendations based on what you like. So far their recommendations have been dead on and I am really loving the site.

What have I read recently and loved?

I really enjoyed this book. I also really love Dan Harris. I may try out meditating as a result of this. That's another post for another day.

I know, I do love my GMA anchors. I saw this book at my Mother in Law's house over New Year's and picked it up and started reading it. It's a great story. Robin Roberts has been through so much. The biggest takeaway "make your mess your message." Life is messy, mine especially- wouldn't it be great if we were all more open about the messy?

Yes, I read this book. Do not judge me- you know I love The Bachelor. And I mean at the end of the day, I need to be more grateful for the positives in my life instead of focusing on the negatives....did I love it? Ehh, it was okay.

Loved this book. I want to read more by this author. It's a sweet story of sisters, love, Texas and NYC. I never would've heard of it if it weren't for Goodreads. 

Loved this book too. I read it because I had heard such great things about this author because of this book which I haven't read yet. It all revolved around a road trip. I've still been thinking about it since it ended. It was also another Goodreads recommendation. 

Have you read anything good recently I need to read? Want to follow me on Goodreads. I can't guarantee you anything mentally stimulating but I can guarantee you some "fun-take a break from life" reads. 

I'm Dreaming of a Dreamy Thanksgiving

Even though I am traveling and not hosting Thanksgiving this year, I imagine some day Kristina and I will dabble in this effort together. I envision a very chaotic day of sweat pants, wine and lots of food...and fighting.

For instance...here is a little glimpse into one of our Thanksgiving gatherings circa 2009:

Starting a live auction of items in the fridge in an attempt to get all the leftovers into the fridge. Kristina is on the phone with an anonymous bidder.

Who wants creamer?

The bidding starts getting competitive over a bottle of Grey Goose.

I am getting yelled at for my choice of Tupperware containers.

It all finally fits- Success!

Now if that doesn't scream a non-dreamy-unorganized-unPinterest-Thanksgiving I don't know what does.

However, right now we are in my dream world and there Thanksgiving looks like a Pinterest ad. Here are my dreamy Thanksgiving finds in case you too would like to dream of a festive-organized-Pinterest looking Thanksgiving or maybe actually can execute this...or maybe you are just looking for distractions to avoid talking to relatives...whatever the case may be, hopefully I can help!

1. Dreamy Decor: 
Thanksgiving Decor courtesy of Ivanka Trump's new website which I also love. I also love her shoes. I am a major fan.

2. Dreamy Food: 
Rachel Ray's essential Thanksgiving recipes courtesy of The Skimm which I also love. If you don't read The Skimm you are missing out. It's the only way I can figure out what is going on in the world.

3. Dreamy Apparel:
While everyone else is sitting around watching football or napping, I intend to be getting my pre-Black Friday pre-Cyber Monday online shopping game face on and figuring out what is on sale where. So far all I've got is JCrew Factory but that alone is enough to stock my closet. 50% off every.single.thing. Boom.

4. Dreamy Cocktails:
I usually have zero patience for mixing up a cocktail at home and stick to wine. Pop the cork, pour, done. However, in dream land I would mix up all kinds of cocktails and this list would be where I would start.

5. Dreamy Day Overall:
And to sum it all up, here is a Modern Guide to Thanksgiving Etiquette that I can only wish to achieve every aspect someday.

Wishing all my friends and family a Happy Thanksgiving! So thankful you are in my life!

It's Game Day- Get Your Monogram On!

I feel like I am late to the party on the monogram. I grew up having things like my dance bag, sweatshirts or bags monogrammed but then I just kind of stopped. I think it grew harder to find a place to do monograms and then at some point in college, I had in the back of my mind that I would eventually get married and my initials would change...so I just stopped.

Then I did get married and my initials changed and I went through some sort of identity crisis. It is really hard to change your name. It's really hard to all of a sudden not have the same last name as your family or your sister. Four years later I feel I am finally settled into being AGW.

A few weeks ago Kristina told me to enter a blog contest she saw where Marley Lilly was going to send a few bloggers an item to blog about...so I entered. They asked me to describe my blog and I was a bit stumped....so I said I write about my life sarcastically. This blog is basically an exercise in not taking myself too seriously.

May I also point out that it is really sweet how my sister is thinking of me as she trolls her instagram. 

So I entered. And guess what....last Saturday I had a notification that we had a package and Gregg arrived upstairs with a box that had this inside:

A creme colored scarf with my initials in a dark brown. AGW. That's me! 

Coincidentally I was also getting dressed/more like prepared to freeze at the Texas A&M game that evening before we drove to College Station that day. I thought hmm...this goes perfectly with my outfit, it is really cute, I think this will be the ultimate test of this scarf. It is SEC game worthy with its southern monogram style...but will it keep me warm....stay tuned for the verdict...

My new scarf packed in my bag to head to College Station with my A&M gloves courtesy of Forever 21. A neck scarf for my Grandpa. Beanie hats. You get the picture. It was basically like we were moving to College Station for the day and trying to stay warm.

Let me tell you what would have made for a cuter bag though:

Monogrammed Large Jute Bag 

It has a zipper, it is lined and in black it would work very well sitting in the stands. It is the perfect "throw around and throw everything in" bag. You know what I am talking about...everyone needs one and you really need one with a zipper. Instead I took a big purse that I shouldn't have taken and was not super durable in the elements and well...I think it is going to recover but the poor bag was never intended for such use.

Back to my story...finally made it to College Station. Gregg and I headed to see some friends briefly before Kristina arrived with Papa. They were driving up on the A&M bus from San Antonio.

Wearing my scarf. Staying warm. 

One final picture in front of what is the soon to no longer exist side of Kyle Field. Look how cute my AGW scarf looks.  I know they appreciate me renaming it my AGW scarf.

Can I also point out that it is really fun to wander around your old college campus drinking beer? Luckily the tailgate I went to was giving out some free koozies. But I think a fun stocking stuffer or addition to a gift for a friend who loves a tailgate would be a monogrammed koozie. It would also be the perfect gift if you had a friend who just got engaged or a friend who just had a baby...since everyone I know seems to fall into one of these groups recently, this seems appropriate. The newly engaged friend would appreciate seeing her new initials and the new mom would appreciate you thinking of her return to the land of beer and wine. She'd probably also appreciate a cute monogrammed onesie for the baby. Onesie inside of the koozie. Boom. Done. Someone is getting that soon.

You could do blue if your friend is a new boy mom, pink if they are a new girl mom. any color if they are a new fiancé. I could come up with tons of reasons to buy this koozie. 

It's also really cute that you could choose to put the monogram on the bottom instead. 

Post-beer....Kristina arrived with Papa.

These two. The hilarious duo. 

The second she got off the bus she was showing me the mini wine bottles she had stolen from Dad...she had one left. And you know what...she could've used a koozie too...granted she wasn't drinking a water bottle... but I think this size would've worked best

It is a water bottle "koolie" but considering the size of Kristina's mini wine bottle, I think this has multiple purposes. I also think I need one of these for summer. I may also be getting her one for her  upcoming summer honeymoon.

After wandering around and hitting up another tailgate with Papa we finally were ready to head into the game.

See those smiles? Approximately 5 minutes after this picture it started drizzling, then raining. Do these look like the faces of people prepared for freezing temps AND rain. 

We all could've used a rain jacket over the tons of layers of clothing we already had on...the irony is I was sitting there thinking I wish I had a rain jacket like I had when I was in college that said Pi Beta Phi and lo and behold this is the same thing but I could get it with my initials. Granted, I would love to still sport my sorority letters everywhere I go but I may need to update.  

Sigh. To be dry.

Don't be fooled by the smiles. We are FROZEN.

I tried getting the monogram portion of the scarf in a large amount of 'stand selfies' Kristina and I were taking because we were losing and frozen. It wasn't working out so well and this is the best one. But I was as warm as I could be given the elements. 

The verdict: This scarf did its job keeping me warm and looking as cute as possible given the weather. 

Let's be honest, we look pretty rough. We left at halftime and found warmer and drier temperatures across the street at the MSC where we finished watching the game. There's my AGW scarf. Still keeping me warm.

The only that would've been better is this sweatshirt....which I think I need for winter. It's cute enough that I can wear it indoors lounging or running errands and look like I got dressed even though I didn't. That is my favorite kind of weekend outfit, fyi.

It comes in a lot of colors but duh, I want it in purple. This neon is amazing though. It gives the  sweatshirt such pizzazz! 

There are approximately 5,000 other things I could've used to stay warm at the game. I was already wearing leggings, jeans, cowboy boots, wool socks, and two shirts and a jacket and a hat but clearly that wasn't enough for or any of us. 

Maybe a fleece vest would've made the difference...or a fleece...or who am I kidding we were never going to make it out of there warm or dry. The other people in the stands that dressed in full on hunting camo gear with wind jackets and pants though clearly came more prepared...similar to the guy next to us in the stands who brought a cardboard box to shield himself from the rain. We have so much to learn.

Crazy game days of being crammed into Aggie football games with these people- they are some of my most cherished memories. We won't have these exact season tickets or seats next year but it's been a fun ride full of wonderful memories with Papa, class of '47.

Hope you enjoyed my game day recap combined Marley Lilly post! 

Go get your monogram on! 

The Case for Online Shopping

I know this may sound awful and lame of me, but I really don't like the mall. Let me be clear here- I do not dislike shopping, I just dislike the mall.

Here are the thoughts of anxiety that go through my mind when I realize I have to go to the mall to get something:

• Panic over parking
• Confusion over where to go once I get there as crowds of people stand between me and my purchase 
• Annoyance over long lines of people at registers
• Even more annoyance over the inefficiency of people working those registers 
• Frustration because I can't remember the links I saw online am trying to find in the store. 
• Anger when my cell service doesn't work meaning I can't look online to see which items I was trying to find in store. 
• Irritation because of the waste of my time this "fun experience" has been.
• Exhaustion when I got home as I promise to never return again. 

My Sunday went something a little bit like that....because consider this a newsflash/PSA/news you can use:

If you purchase items from JCrew Factory you cannot return them to a JCrew store. 

You have the following options:

1. pay to ship them back yourself 
2. have the cost of shipping deducted from the return you are owed 
3. find a JCrew Factory store and return them yourself. 

I discovered these options after dealing with first Annoyance over the two people behind the register ignoring me and taking 10 minutes both helping the one customer before getting around to me. Then there was the panic over parking to get to that JCrew in the first place. Then the confusion of figuring out where to go in order to get to that JCrew and the closest JCrew Factory. And finally this has led to exhaustion and promising to never return to the mall again. 

It also led to me calling Gregg and yelling about how we would not be doing any Christmas shopping in store and would be doing it online again, just as we did last year. All I can say is #worthit

And if I can find a way to purchase all gifts from Nordstrom's with free shipping and free returns it is happening. I would honestly purchase my groceries from Nordstrom's if there was a way to do it. 

Anyone else feel this way or maybe you just think I am crazy? 

National Cat Day

National Cat Day was yesterday! A day that I did not know existed or have not paid much attention to in the past. Coincidentally it also falls in the same week as Halloween, which is Chloe's most favorite day of the year. We are slightly obsessed with our cat. She is quite the character, quite the diva and quite the pet.

In honor of the day, I thought I'd give you a few facts about Chloe:
(Disclaimer: You may read this and you may judge me for being too obsessed with my cat.) 

1. She is a long haired black cat. To say we have a fur situation in our apartment is an understatement. I have officially mourned and moved on from the fact that my living room will never be full of beautiful white couches and tables. No not happening. No.

2. She has this stupid box that Gregg received a shipment from Bonobos in and she climbed inside and never came out. She is always sitting in it. Consequently the box now lives in our living room and is never going away.

This is not a joke.

3. She hates seeing luggage and hates when we leave town.On the contrary she hates traveling and doesn't understand why anyone would voluntarily do it.

 4.She loves to watch the birds. They are her best friends in the world. Even though we know she is plotting to kill each of them in her mind.

5.She will straight up beg for treats until she gets them. I tell Gregg she is peer pressuring me all the time.

6.She believes everything in the apartment is in some way hers and takes possession over things in strange ways.

7. A good amount of the time she looks like she is over me. And over life.

8. She loves the Bachelor and had a deep crush on Juan Pablo. Her feelings about him changed when she saw this happen. 

9.She loves Gregg. They are best friends. She only loves me at night when she magically appears in our bed and starts to cuddle. Such a shacker.

10. She was the greatest souvenir I got from Austin. Gregg may have left with an MBA and a job but I left with a new best friend.

Happy National Cat Day, Chloe!

Grocery Store Trauma

Tonight I was at the grocery store because I don't feel good...my head is full of pressure that is shifting between my ear and my head and back again. I realize my ear is on my head but I have no way to differentiate that so just go with it. It is a fun time. All I wanted to eat was some Rotisserie Chicken Salad from HEB. Sidenote- this stuff is delish.

But I was checking out and the cashier was helping the guy in front of me. Their exchange began with a question I am asked every time I check out at the store. And it went something like this while I waited for my turn:

Cashier: Thanks for shopping at HEB today. Did you find everything you were looking for?

<Me: zoned out>

Guy: No actually.

<Me: zoned in>

Cashier: Oh I am sorry to hear that. Can I ask what you weren't able to find?

Guy: Pillsbury frozen pie crust. You only have the organic stuff. And I looked. You never have what I need. Always having to go elsewhere. And I try to come back here. I do. But you never have everything I need.

And the guy proceeded to just complain, complain, complain about HEB not having things and all of his complaints were rooting from the Pillsbury frozen pie crust. I was kind of dying on the inside. Mainly because I never think twice when answering that question- it's always yes and I move on to checking out my groceries and leaving the store. If I am frustrated enough to not be able to find something then I go find someone and ask them where it is...I don't wait and hold it all inside until the cashier asks his "opening line."

Here is my rule of thumb in dealing with cashiers: This cashier is just doing his job and his job is to be nice- so be nice back. So complicated.

But apparently people have very strong opinions about grocery stores, the people in them and the people who work in them.

Case in point:

But the best is this article by Buzzfeed

Apparently I have only begun to scratch the surface of grocery store irritation among all of us....but have you ever seen anyone respond no they couldn't find what they were looking for?? 

Growing Into My Cut

I cut my hair. Now let me back up. It had been entirely too long since my last hair cut/highlight....my hair had gotten long. Too long. People like my hair long. So they say. I don't really know what my preference is in all honesty. I don't like it really short but I also don't know the magic length. I just know it hits a certain point and it's like my hair won't do anything anymore. Let me back up for a second time. My hair barely does anything as it is....it is straight. So again in all honestly I do not know what my perfect hair length, hair style is....I have been alive 30 years and my hair has nothing to show for it. I feel so defeated.

But Saturday while we were in Dallas I visited my hair stylist and we were chatting. I told her I wanted to try my hair darker for winter....which I did. Then I told her I wanted some length off. Which we did. Then she did a new layered hair style. And before I knew it...my hair was cut and styled and inside I was freaking out and quasi-mourning the loss of the long hair I had just a few hours before and hated. What is wrong with me.

Regardless....here are the results....

Thursday evening- en route to Dallas/McKinney/the rehearsal dinner. Oh yes, did I mention we had a wedding this weekend?  That's all we do- attend weddings, wedding events or wedding planning events these days. I also throw in a baby shower or two also.

Hair cut time

The aftermath- please note my hair won't look this styled with this cut for awhile. This is also a bad pic of Gregg but good of my hair (minus the awkward one strand) so it stays. 

Gregg the groomsman for his best friend and our best man.  It's pretty amusing to go to a rehearsal dinner with long hair and show up the next day with a new do- Be advised that it really confuses people. 

So there we go. I don't know. I am still undecided. Kristina keeps saying your hair is not short. She is right. I think it's confusing me because it's thin on bottom and lots of layers on top. In two weeks I will like it more but I have to get used to the layers. I need to figure this thing out.

I need to "grow into my cut"