20 from my 20's

Tomorrow is April 1st, which means that I will enter the last twenty days of my twenties. 

I turn 30 on April 20th.  

So, in honor of this past decade of my life, I will be posting 20 memories from my 20's for the next 20 days until the 20th, when my 20's come to a close. 

These memories may come in the form of stories, pictures, or videos. I am still working on all that. But, here is a little taste of what's to come:

 

At the end of each post, I will also include an item that I would not mind getting as a birthday gift.  Not to drop hints or anything. 

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Weekend Creations

On Saturday, all of my sisters came over so that we could do a little party planning and crafting. Even Kristina flew in from Atlanta. The day ended up turning into more talking than anything, but some stuff did get done.

Here are a couple of things that I made:

 A ruffled pillow

And,

 

I bought the face towels at the 99 cent store (they are not the best quality, but I don't really plan on using them).  Then, I just sewed some scrap fabric onto them. 

I had plans for much, much more, but it just didn't happen.  Maybe next time.

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eight years

Eight years ago today, Nick became my boyfriend. 

This is me on the phone with Nick as he's asking me out on our first date.  It was a GYRAD (get your roommate a date).  His floor got a box at the Anaheim Pond for a hockey game.  We didn't really hang out in the box much though. We were busy talking in some empty seats at the top of the arena (and secretly hoping the kiss cam would put us on the big screen....it didn't).

 

Here are some pictures from the first few months of our relationship.

Time has flown by and a lot of life has happened since then.

I'm glad it's been happening with him.

We've come a long ways.

(but we still have the same kitchen table)

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Dreamy Decks

We have a deck in our backyard.

It's a great place to sit and enjoy the view when the weather is nice. (Which it has not been lately.)

 We hung some candle holders on the deck that were wedding gifts and some string lights I gave Nick as a Christmas gift.

  But, I have never really been a big fan of how much space this deck takes up in our yard.

We have a huge hill in our yard which would be the perfect location for a deck.

 So, these are some things I am dreaming about for our hill:

 

                                                                                                  Source: tumblr.com via Mindy on Pinterest

                                                                                                                      Source: tumblr.com

                                                                                                                          Source: flickr.com

                                                                                                                       Source: greayer.com

                                                                                                                   Source: mykotori.com

                                                                                                                        Source: Pinterest

And this is just amazing:

                                                                                                                      Source: tumblr.com

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Lemon Tea Cookies

We have LOTS of lemons on our tree. (Come get some!)  

So, I decided to make some Lemon Tea Cookies.

They were yummy.  I was driving home from school one day fantasizing about eating one when I got home.  So, you can imagine my disappointment when I got home and Nick had eaten the last one (or 2 or 3 or 4).

ANYWAYS...

I'm sorry for this uninteresting blog post.  I just hadn't blogged in a while and didn't want people to think that I am some sort of boring homebody with nothing to blog about who just likes to sit at home and watch Prison Break on Netflix....because that is so not me.  I've actually been so busy doing so many interesting things, that I haven't had time to even think about blogging.

(Okay, actually we are a little addicted to Prison Break....just a little.)

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Laguna Beach

This sort of picture of me happens on occasion.  I ask Nick to take a picture of me when he is not in a picture taking mood, and this is what I get.  He doesn't like to wait for me to smile.

But, he humors me most of the time.

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My Editor's Opinion and Help Japan

My blog editor called me the morning after I posted my fluffy post.  Yes, I have a blog editor....she is my mom.  She calls me whenever she sees some sort of grammatical error in my writing. (Which, I should say, is hardly ever.  I pride myself on my grammatical capabilities.  But, I did inherit that from her, so she may notice a few things here and there that I may have overlooked.)  In this particular post, she did not like that I spelled dying d-i-e-i-n-g.  But, upon further inspection, we found that it can actually be spelled both ways.

Then she told me that she liked the post, but she thought that instead of putting a picture of me running (which was actually me tieing (or should I say tying?) my shoe), I should have put a picture of my abs. 

She is funny.

I like my mom.

Mom...I used parentheses inside of parentheses.  Is that allowed?

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ALSO....

By buying one of these shirts, you will help the Salvation Army's relief efforts in Japan.

And, you will own a really cool shirt.

Go here to purchase one.
And, keep praying.

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Fluffy

Once a month, we have a police officer who comes in to teach "Too Good for Drugs" to the class.  She was talking about making healthy choices today and brought up "fluffy" people.  She herself is a "fluffy" person, so she was emphasizing the fact that it is important not to make fun of fluffy people.  We all found this to be very amusing.  

Well, she came and went and the day went on. 

Right before lunch, one of my students raised his hand, and when I called on him, he informed me that one of my lovely little boys had been telling other kids in the class that I am "fluffy".  So, I called my little friend over to have a chat with him about that.

The conversation went pretty much like this: (I will refer to my little friend as S.)

Me: Did you tell people that I am fluffy?

S: Yes.

Me: Why would you say that?

S: Well it's just my opinion.  I just think you are a little "fluffy"

Me: Do you know what fluffy means?

S: Yes, it means chubby.

Me: Ok, what makes you think that I am chubby?

S: Well, I just think you are a little fluffy.  It's just my opinion.

Me: Okay, what about me would you say is fluffy?

S: Um, like in the stomach area a little bit.

Me: Okay.  So, you think that I need to lose some weight.

S: No, I think you are a nice size.  I just think you are a little "fluffy".

Me: Ok, but fluffy means that I need to lose weight, so you think that I need to lose some weight in my stomach.

S: Well, I mean it's not like it's a lot.  I think you are a nice size.  Like, if you just walked a little every day, you would be able to get rid of it.

Me: I run everyday

S: Oh

And then of course I went into the whole lecture about how if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say it at all.  

And, I gave him a behavior slip.  

In my head, I was dying laughing.  I didn't want the conversation to end because he was saying the funniest things.

This was all coming from the same kid who randomly said when we were walking to the library one day, "Mrs. Kinnier, you're skinny."  He didn't seem to have any recollection of that.  I guess I've gained some weight this year.

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Dining Room Before and After

We finally have an "after" for one of our rooms.

 

This is what we started with:

And we did our best to work with it until the house was ours:

Since the ceilings and lighting and floor and baseboards and paint are all done now, I am having so much fun decorating.  This room is the first room that is completely completed, with pictures on the wall to finish it off.

My total cost to furnish and decorate this room was about $48.

Not too bad, if I do say so myself.

The sign was a wedding gift from my dad's cousin, who makes all kinds of signs using vinyl.

The chairs were from the book section in my parents store, and my Grandma made the pillow.

The wine rack was $40 of the $48 that was spent on this room.

The other $8 was spent on frames from Goodwill and a Rite Aid that was going out of business.

My parents bought me the table for my college apartment, and the mirror on the wall was a wedding shower gift.

I think that about covers everything.

I love this room now.  It feels so complete.

So there you have it.  Our first before and after.  There will be many more to come...hopefully in the near future.

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The Wedding!

Getting Ready:

Isn't she beautiful!?

The Ceremony:

Not many pictures here because most of us with cameras were in the wedding.

The First Dance:

Cutting the Cake:

The Bouquet Toss:

More Reception:

Sadly, this was the only picture we got with Katie at the reception.  And it is in the bathroom. So pathetic  We were helping her unbutton the bazillion buttons on the back of her dress before she left.....hmmm, I wonder why we were doing that.

And they headed off up the coast of California and onto Napa Valley.

We saw them on Sunday and loved hearing all their honeymoon stories.

Congratulations Collin and Katie Redden!

I love you both!
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So, Amy has been getting inspired for my 30th birthday that is coming up real soon.  She is creating inspiration boards with theme ideas for a party and posting them on our Caramel Cup blog.  I am in love with this first one, and I don't know if she will be able to top it with others, but I am excited to see what she comes up with.  Check it out here.

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