Things I'm Loving Friday II

Happy Friday Everyone! I cannot believe how quickly this week has flown by! And Michigan is starting to see a bit of warmer weather than we have in the past month.  Now if only we could get it to stick around for a while! 

• Not Your Mother's Dry Shampoo

I ran out of dry shampoo last week and needed to find a quick replacement.  I found several options at my local CVS, but after reading several horrible reviews of other products, I was excited when I saw this one had a ★★★ review.  I tried it and it worked pretty well! I cannot wait to try it again when I'm not planning on wearing my hair back for the day.

• This Chap Stick 

This winter has been brutal for my lips and skin in general and this chap stick has been a lifesaver! It is light and smells good while taking good care of dry lips.  They have other flavors that I like quite a bit, but this one has seemed to work the best for me this far.

• The beautiful clouds we have been seeing! 

Sorry for the blur on the picture.  My phone was having a bad day when I snagged this picture but I just could not pass up sharing these beautiful clouds with you! Michigan has been so dreary and gray this winter so when the clouds come out to play, everyone gets very excited! 

•  Essie's Mint Apple Candy Polish

I loved this nail polish when I saw it in Danielle's collection and just had to try it out.  With the sunshine coming out, it seemed like the perfect color to start channeling my inner Spring personality.  It is a bit brighter than I would normally use on myself, but it seems to be perfect for the Spring! 

• This picture! 

Oh my gosh.  I laughed way too hard at this picture  when I saw it.  I think I found it so funny because it is true for so many of us.  I honestly do not know anyone who can do a "sexy lip bit" and when I saw this it nailed it right on the head.

• Tell You Time Giveaway Winner

          I am moving the giveaway back by a week to allow people more time to enter for a chance to               win!

Previous Things I'm Loving Friday Posts:

• March 7

#jackabeedaily2014 Week 12

Happy Thursday Readers! It is time for another #jackabeedaily2014 post! This past week was allll over the place so the pictures will be random and fun! 

Day 80: Spend the evening cuddling with this adorable doggy for National Puppy Day! He is not a puppy since he is 13, but is sure is adorable! 

Day 81: Signed up for Project Management Institute and finally began studying for my CAPM class starting a week from Friday.  1 chapter down, 12 to go! 

Day 82: Made my way to Ann Arbor for an "interview".  Once I know more about the opportunity, I will make sure to share with everyone.  Oh and I also got to enjoy this delicious Caramel Apple Spice on the cold March Sunday.

Day 83: Spent the evening with my girls celebrating St. Patrick's Day by making Shepherd's Pie and Tipsy Tuptakes.  My kitchen was a mess and that is exactly how I like it! 

Day 84: Celebrated International Waffle Day by making waffles and bacon for dinner

Day 85: I noticed my orchid is starting to lost it's pretty flowers.  I'm going to keep watering it so hopefully I can get it to bloom again!

Day 86: This made me laugh way harder than it should have... Such a funny kitty picture.  

You can keep up with me every day in 2014 on Instagram @runwithjackabee or find me here too...

Find me on Twitter here.

Find me on Facebook here.

Find me on Pinterest here
Find me on Instagram here.

Previous Weeks:

• Week 11
• Weeks 9 & 10 

Tell Your Time Book Review + Giveaway

Happy Tuesday Everyone! 

Today's post is going to be dedicated to my review of this month's book:

 Tell Your Time: How to Manage Your Schedule so You Can Live Free.

This book is part of my 2014 Monthly Challenges and it was a quick and easy read that I would recommend for anyone looking to find a simple way to organize their life.  

Synopsis (from Amazon):

An excellent read as you begin 2014, Tell Your Time is a short, practical ebook outlining a straightforward yet effective approach to time management. A book about time management shouldn't take long to read and implement. There shouldn't be a lot of fluff and filler. This one is specifically designed to help you identify what's most important in your life, set meaningful goals and develop a workable schedule so nothing of value falls through the cracks...all within a few hours.

My Review:

If you are looking for a quick way to manage your time and energy without spending too much time reading about how to do so, then this book will be right up your alley.  So many of us are constantly battling our ever growing to-do list and often find ourselves letting it get to the point where it is just too overwhelming to handle.  This book shows you a way to prioritize everything so that you can can help beat feeling overwhelmed and begin tackling your to-dos.

What I loved about this book is she gives you actual copies of her lists and her schedule so you can see how her life has been broken down to meet her needs and the needs of her family.  Her lists inspired me to take what I had to the next level of detail and importance without feeling too much guilt.

She also had the book broken down into four sections which you could easily do one step at a time as your schedule allows.  This allowed me to take the sections and read time as I had time here or there without feeling like I was missing out on too much.  Reading the book this way allowed me to take time to really reflect on each area and categorize them with thought instead of rushing through.  

Here's a sample of the schedule I came up with as a result of the book.  It seems overly complicated, but if you break it down it will help me keep my life a bit more organized.  

Reviews from Other Bloggers

• Organize 365
• Moving with God
• Tea Time with Annie Kate
• Vicki-Arnold Blog

Think this is something that you would like to read? Well you are in luck then! One lucky reader will win a copy of this book! Remember, this is an eBook, so if you do not have an eReader, then I cannot send this book to you.

How to Win: Leave a comment on the blog about your time management woes and why this would help you! The winner for this contest will be drawn Friday March 28!


Next Months Book: The Girls Guide to Hunting and Fishing by Melissa Bank

Divergent Movie

Hello there! How are you this Monday? I trust your day is going well so far and you have gotten your week off to a great start!

If you can remember from my post last Thursday, I was super excited to go see the movie Divergent with a group of my friends.  So on Thursday after work, I rushed home to grab my outfit to change into before running off to get my hair colored.  Now, typically, I am not one to get all excited about dressing up for a movie, but I figured it would be simple enough to dress up for this one since they really are only limited to colors.

If you have read the book, you will know what "faction" I was dressed for.  Just for fun, I took this quiz to see which faction I belonged in and I ended up with Dauntless, so it was easy for me to pick out my outfit.  I ended up borrowing the leather jacket and combat boots from some friends to complete my look.

I also ended up designing a "tattoo" for my collar bone to match the main character of the book.  I actually had quite a bit of fun designing the tattoo for myself and actually may consider getting one in the future... but for now, I am tattoo free.  

To get the actual tattoos on my skin, all I did was draw the birds with a pencil on a note card, use the pencil lead to transfer the design onto my skin, then filled it in with a permanent marker.  It was super simple, and they were washed off by the next morning for when I went into work.  If you would like to try to make a tattoo that last longer than one night, check out this pin I found on Pinterest.

Movie Review

If you are anything like Justin and I, then you pay great attention to the small details when watching a book that is converted to a movie for the first time {and many times to come}.  Can I just say, they did a pretty good job when they converted Divergent  to a movie!  They paid great attention to the details and made sure to capture the essence of each faction really well.  The characters were cast nearly perfect personality wise; however, they did not stay accurate as far as looks go.  They missed the mark on a few key players, but those changes were not significant to the overall story anyway.

I did notice that they took out a few characters that were important in later books, so I am curious to see how that plays out in the next movies.  They also took out a few of the more graphic/violent happenings during initiation that I would have preferred they did not, but I understand that the movie is PG-13 so they probably cannot show a majority of the things that happened in the book.

Overall I really liked the movie and think they did a really good job capturing the essence of the book and I cannot wait to see the next two! 

Question of the Day:

What is your favorite book turned movie?

#jackabeedaily2014 Week 11

Happy Thursday! It's the day before the weekend and I am sure you are as excited about the weekend as I am! Today's post is dedicated entirely to #jackabeedaily2014

Day 73: I am totally loving my new soup mug my mom bought me!

Day 74: Had this delicious breakfast from the local Coney Island

Day 75: I tried to have a few peaceful minutes in the bathroom, but apparently that is not acceptable to Frye.  He promptly barged into the bathroom and gave me this look! 

Day 76: Happy St. Patrick's Day! I've got my green on! 

Day 77: I got my sweat on at the gym with a run and some weight training! The workout was not complete until I filled my ears with upbeat music!

Day 78: I laughed too hard at this cat facts thing on Buzzfeed.  This one especially made me crack up.  Click here to see other silly and fun cat facts that might just make you laugh

Day 79: SOOO excited to go see the movie tonight! I'm going to dress up and everything! I cannot wait to see how the did the movie.

You can keep up with me every day in 2014 on Instagram @runwithjackabee or find me here too...

Find me on Twitter here.

Find me on Facebook here.

Find me on Pinterest here
Find me on Instagram here.

Happy First Day of Spring! 

Previous Weeks:

• Weeks 9 & 10 

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Happy St. Patrick's Day! 

Happy Monday! I hope you had a wonderful and restful weekend and were able to start your week off without too much angst!

This past weekend, Justin and I had no plans and it worked out perfectly because we really just needed to be home.  On Saturday, Danielle and I made our way to Zumba and it was SO fun! I have not tried Zumba with the new instructor at my YMCA so I was very nervous but she was wonderful and made it so enjoyable!

Once I got home from Zumba, I relaxed for a bit before Justin and I ran out to get our taxes done.  I hate doing taxes so you can imagine how thrilled I was.  We ended up owing this year but not as much as we had thought, so I am relieved.  Plus, now the Band-aid has been ripped off, we know what to expect.

I was also very excited because Michigan finally saw warm enough weather for me to wear my new TOMS shoes! I got them on sale through Zulily and have been waiting patiently for them to arrive and they did just in time for me to wear them for the warm(ish) weather this past weekend! I have never had the joy of wearing TOMS like this and I can say with 100% certainty that I am a fan.

After Justin and I got done with our taxes, we had planned on going to the grocery store, but that somehow did not happen and it happened all weekend.  Do you love our little note spot for things we need at the grocery store? It is actually the white board I had outside my dorm door in college so it has been around the tracks, but it works for what we need it for.

On Saturday night we rented two movies: Red 2 and Catching Fire.  Both movies were pretty exciting, but I never imagined how much Catching Fire would make me cry.  I am not sure if it was the lack of sleep or just plain old hormones, but I was a blubbery mess at the end of Catching Fire.  That being said, I cannot wait for the next movie!

Sunday we slept in, had a delicious pancake breakfast, ran errands then went to my parents house for dinner.  

Can you spot the moon in this picture? It was so beautiful! I love seeing a full moon because of the colors it changes to! Of course, it is almost impossible to capture a good picture of the moon on a cell phone, so I guess this would have to do.  The evening ended with Justin and I doing laundry and hanging out at home.  Overall, I am very satisfied with our low-key weekend.

Question of the Day:

What movie did you cry at that you never imagined you would?

  

#jackabee Daily Weeks 9 & 10

At the beginning of this year, I made a resolution that I would keep a "picture diary" for myself and I would call it #jackabeedaily2014.  The idea came from Mix and Match Mama in her #shayeveryday posts and I am now finally getting around to sharing the posts with you all.  

If you can remember at the beginning of March, I committed myself to complete the 30 day crunch challenge, read Tell Your Time, workout at least 15 times and do #jackabeedaily2014.  It seems like a lot of work, but so far I have been able to keep up with everything and today's post is showing that to you!

Day 60: I helped host a baby shower for a coworker and this is one of the diaper cakes I made

Day 61: I fell off of a snowmobile when we were up north with Josh and Caroline

Day 62: Leilah made herself comfortable in my suitcase when we got home from our trip up north

Day 63: Celebrate Fat Tuesday at work by eating a lemon paczki

Day 64: Was reminded of the 

Day 65: Spent some time cuddling with this cute fluff ball before I went out of town for the weekend

Day 66: Celebrated my packing job I did for the ladies retreat with my mom.  I can never take a small bag.

Day 67: Found this hilarious sign while out shopping with my mom and had a good laugh.

Day 68: Spent the afternoon sewing this (and two other) adorable baby aprons

Day 69: Grabbed a cute picture of Frye while he was staring out the window

Day 70: Got  great workout in with Danielle doing Double Step and walking. 

U

Day 71: Michigan was hit with Winter Storm Vulcan and we saw about 8" of snow over a 12 hour period

Day 72: I got my first ever TOMS shoes in the mail! I cannot wait to test these babies out and they came just in time for Spring

You can keep up with me every day on Instagram @runwithjackabee!

Question of the Day:

What are you favorite lightweight shoes to wear?

Blustery Wednesday & Delicious Brownie Cupcakes

Hello Everyone! I hope you're having a wonderful hump day! Michigan has been some of it's classic crazy weather today with Winter Storm Vulcan.  Last night around midnight we started seeing some rather heavy snow fall that carried over through most of the day today. 

Because of the weather predicting to be so horrible, Justin and I stayed home and worked from home for the day and I am super glad we did! Plus, Danielle ended up coming over for the day because she was home from work and only lives a mile away.

Frye got all excited when I went to open the blinds to take a picture, so I made sure to grab one really quick while he as being all adorable and what not.  How can you not want to pet that fluff ball?

Once we were done with work for the day, Danielle decided it would be fun to bake something since it had been so long since either one of us had baked anything! She came across this pin on Pinterest but I did not have boxed brownies.  So we made the brownies from scratch and went from there.  Of course the directions we followed made them look absolutely perfect and ours were...not so pretty.

Theirs:

SpringRaine's Page

Ours:

Notttt exactly the same thing right? I guess we put too much batter into the bottom of the pan and put too much on top which made it near impossible for the marshmallow to melt in a natural position.  Just remember if you decide to try and make these that you need to put about half as much batter as you would expect and they should turn out perfectly.  Next time I make them, I will try this theory out and let you know how it goes! 

In the mean time, here's a grainy picture of what they looked like as they baked.  I laughed pretty hard! I think the marshmallows puffed up a bit more than any of us were expecting.

I do want to add, that even though these were not very pretty looking, they were very delicious! I would recommend you trying them when you have a chance! 

I also had some time today to work on a St. Patrick's Day craft that I will share when I share our mantel with you all! I'm hoping I will actually get the mantel decorated before St. Patrick's Day next Monday.  Fingers crossed! 

Question of the Day:

What recipe have you tried that did not turn out at all how you were expecting?

Blog Topics Series Part V

Hello Tuesday Readers! It's that time of the month again where I share some fun and creative ideas for topics you can use on your own blog! Feel free to share this list and other ideas on your blog!

+ Host a Things I'm afraid to Tell You post.  The idea of this post is to take time to evaluate how you see your life versus how your blog details your life.  It is also a chance for you to share confessions with your readers that you might not otherwise consider sharing.

+ My Biggest Pet Peeves Post inspired from Story of My Life.  The idea is to post your pet peeves.  Seems simple enough, right? Just remember, there are several different areas in which you can post your pet peeves: driving pet peeves, social media pet peeves, gym pet peeves, etc. 

+ Top 5.  Share a post with the Top 5 anything you cannot get enough of.  Again, this one is filled with options: Top 5 nail polishes, Top 5 blogs to read, Top 5 clothing stores and the list goes on!

+ A Day in the Life of ________ inspired by Little Baby Garvin.  Oftentimes readers are genuinely curious of what your life looks like on a regular basis.  This is a chance for you to share your day - either in words or pictures- with them! 

+ Have a Thrift Shop Challenge inspired by Young House Love.  The idea is to take $20 to your local thrift shop and see how many items from the song you can find.  This would be fun to see who can get the most items in under $20.

So what did you think of today's post? See any ideas of things you would like to try for your blog? I'm always excited to hear back from readers on things they tried for themselves! I am also hoping to start incorporating some of these things in to my own blog.

Happy Tuesday! 

Previous Posts:

• Part I
• Part II
• Part III
• Part IV

Ladies Retreat Year 3

Hello Everybody! I trust you had a wonderful Monday and your week has had a great start!

This past weekend, my mom and I made our way up to Bay City for our 3rd Annual Ladies Retreat! If you remember, last year we went to the same retreat with my mom's church; however, every year is a different location and a different theme.

This year's theme was Sweetly Filled and the weekend was filled with all kinds of fun a sweets.  

On Friday, my mom and I got up early and made our way to the salon to get pedicures.  It was so nice to get our feet rubbed and have our toes look really pretty! After the pedicures, we made our way up to Birch Run to shop around and I got myself a pair of running capris from Under Armour.  I have never really shopped at Under Armour because their clothes are so expensive, but I could not resist these cute capris that I found and just had to buy.

After shopping around for about an hour, we made our way up to the hotel to get settled in and make plans for dinner! 

I was so excited/proud of myself for packing everything I need in one bag and only having enough clothes for what I needed.  I tend to majorly over pack whenever I travel and I was able to put everything I needed for the weekend in one bag with space to spare! 

After dinner, mom and I made our way to the event for the fun to begin.  This style of retreat was less structured than last years because the ladies at my mom's church were hosting it versus a bigger group, but I really enjoyed this style because things were a bit more relaxed.

Saturday we woke up early in the morning and got ready to head down for breakfast and the first session of the day.  For each session we watched a segment of the Woman of Faith conference.  This year's speakers were Lysa TerKeurst and Sheila Walsh and they were just so wonderful.  There is nothing better than getting a good laugh while learning about some pretty awesome stuff.  My favorite topic we covered was one Lysa did about conflict.  I'm planning on sharing my notes from that with you all because it is such a powerful discussion.

After the session, we all at lunch then had the afternoon to go do whatever we wanted.  My mom and I made our way to the mall to go shopping and we ended up finding some great deals on clothes/shoes/accessories at Younkers and Marshalls.  I have been on the hunt for some good athletic gear and was very excited when I found even more good stuff at Marshalls! I ended up getting three shirts, a sports bra and a pair of leggings to wear to the gym.  I was so excited!

Plus, I came across this totally hilarious sign at Younkers.  How silly is that? 

We spent Saturday evening attending another session and playing a few rounds of Bunco.  I have never played Bunco before, but it was SO much fun! I am hoping to try and incorporate it someone in the near future for a game to play with my friends!

Sunday morning saw this beautiful sunrise as we were getting ready for the day.

After breakfast, we attended the last session for the retreat before heading home for the day.  I had such a wonderful time at the retreat (besides being sleepy) and look forward to going again next year with my mom!

Question of the Day:

What is the favorite thing you do with your mom? Any fun traditions?