Show and Tell Tuesday: The Struggle is Real

Happy Tuesday everyone! 

I hope you have had a great start to your week and are looking forward to some fun things this coming long-weekend! 

Today I am teaming up with Andrea for another fun round of Show and Tell Tuesdays.  Our topic for today is:

The Struggle is Real

This week we are talking about The Struggle.  This particular post leaves things open to interpretation and I thought I would talk about mornings and my large disdain for them.  

Every morning around 5:30 a.m., against my wishes, my alarm clock goes off and I am violently pulled from the soft and dreamy state of sleep.  Every time this happens, I quickly slam my hand down onto my alarm clock and drift off to sleep for another glorious 9 minutes until my alarm starts screaming at me again.

This cycle of screaming and slamming repeats several more times before I have officially waited until the last possible second I can get out of bed and still make it to work on time.  Once I have finally gotten myself to sit up in bed, I sit there for a minute looking like an electrocuted zombie until I get myself to stand up and make my way into the bathroom.  

After I've taken a few minutes in the bathroom starting my day (if you know what I mean), I get myself to the sink to start my morning routine of brushing my hair, attempting to style said hair, taking my inhaler and brushing my teeth.  Once this routine is complete, I go and stand in my closet for what feels like forever staring at all of my clothes and wondering how it is possible for me to have so many, yet have nothing to wear. 

At this point, I pick something relatively decent looking to wear, get myself dressed, then head downstairs to gather my items for the day.  This usually includes finding my phone, grabbing my backpack/computer and grabbing breakfast and some water before getting out the door.  If I am feeling ambitious, I also use this time to get items ready for dinner, but often this does not happen as I have wasted so much time picking out my clothes that I cannot take the time to pull out food for the evening to defrost.

Once my stuff has been gathered, Justin and I make our way out the door and to the car to make our long drive into work, which consists of 49 miles of traffic and bad drivers.  Lately I've been listening to books on tape on the way in so it makes the drive less terrible, but some days even the books do not cover it all.  

 Once I get to work and get settled, I go and grab my Starbucks and finally wake up for the day a full three to four hours after I woke up that morning.  All I can say is, thank God for Starbucks.

Well that is all for my Show and Tell post this time! I hope you enjoyed this rendering of my daily morning struggle. 

Question of the Day: What struggles do you face on a regular basis? 

Feel free to share your favorite vacation in the comments below or on my Facebook Page! 

Next time on Show and Tell: 

Home Tour

I have been meaning to post pictures of our house for a while now, so this is a great opportunity for me to grab some of the house.  

Question of the Day: What is your "Struggle is Real" routine? 

I'd love to hear from you!

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Show & Tell Tuesday: Travels

Happy Tuesday everyone! 

I hope you have had a great start to your week and are looking forward to some fun things this coming long-weekend! 

Today I am teaming up with Andrea for another fun round of Show and Tell Tuesdays.  Our topic for today is:

Travel 

For as long as I can remember, my mom and I have traveled in the summertime.  For most of my childhood we would go up north for the 4th of July and out to Massachusetts for a week every summer.  Until recent years, I have gone up north to Mullet Lake with my family for the 4th of July.  This usually included a long weekend filled with boating, swimming, hiking and lazing around.  I have so many fond memories of my summers up there.  

When I was in High school, my parents took the family on a trip to Vegas/The Grand Canyon.  We flew into Vegas and spent a few days walking around the strip and enjoying the pool before renting a car and driving to both the North Rim and South Rim of the Grand Canyon.  Looking back on it now, I am thankful my parents took us to the Grand Canyon for a week because we got to experience something I maybe would have never done before.  Plus, we had fun scaring my mom by climbing all over the rocks.

In 2010, I had the wonderful opportunity to go to France and Italy with my best friend, Sarah.  She had been studying abroad in Morocco and had decided to backpack across Europe for 10 days.  Her parents did not want her to go alone, so they sent me out there to meet her and we spent 10 days visiting several cities in Italy and sending a few days in Paris.  This was my first time leaving North America and I am so glad I got the chance to travel with Sarah!

In 2011, Justin and I made our way to Jamaica for our honeymoon and I have to say, this was my favorite "relaxing" vacation.  Typically when we travel, we are always on the go and it was nice to just spend a week relaxing by the beach and taking my time with everything while I was there.  We did do one or two excursions while we were there, but it was so nice to just not have plans and to relax.  

In October 2015, I went on another big trip with Sarah and Christina to Uruguay! This trip was a little less planned than the others because we had a smaller window to get to Uruguay (due to Sarah's parents only being in Uruguay for a short period of time).  I think this is one of my favorite vacations because of the amount of sheer fun and adventure the three of us girls got into while we were there.  Let's just say, we were clearly American girls traveling in another country and we had a lot of people laughing with us while we were trying to figure everything out.

 

Since Uruguay, I've been to Florida twice, California, Traverse City and a few other fun places! It's kind of funny because I feel like I do not travel often, but when you look back on it, I travel quite often.  I am hoping this year to get out to Bali to see Sarah, Massachusetts to visit family and back out to Traverse City again with Kimmy! These long-weekend trips end up being some of my favorite because they are so fun and exciting. 

Well that is all for my Show and Tell post this time! I hope you enjoyed seeing highlights of some of my favorite vacations over the years! 

Question of the Day: What is your favorite vacation you've ever taken?

Feel free to share your favorite vacation in the comments below or on my Facebook Page! 

Next time on Show and Tell: 

The Struggle is Real 

This will be a fun one I think! Or it could be really frustrating, but I guess we will see! 

Question of the Day: What is your favorite vacation you have taken?

I'd love to hear from you!

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This post may contain affiliate links. Read my full disclosure policy here.

Show and Tell: If I Won the Lottery

Happy Tuesday Friends! I hope all is well and you are having a great day so far! Today I am teaming up with Andrea for another fun round of Show and Tell Tuesdays.  

But before I get started, I wanted to say for those of you in the United States - please take time to go and vote today.  I am planning to go sometime in the morning and will anxiously await the results with everyone else.  

If I Won the Lottery...

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If I won the lottery.... what would I do? I honestly think this is something that Justin and I talk about on an almost weekly, if not twice weekly basis.  It is so fun to dream about what I would do if I had a million dollars or even millions of dollars.  

So here is what we've come up with when we talk about winning the lottery....

1. Pay off all of our debt.  As someone in their late twenties, debt is a very real part of our lives.  I mean, it is less common now than ever for someone to get through college without debt.  So the first thing we would do is pay off our debt (house, school, car, etc.).

2. Set up college/wedding funds for future children.  So this sounds super responsible, but we have always talked about wanting to be able to bless our children with not having debt after college or getting married.  Both of our parents provided us with a large blessing to not have to pay for any of our wedding so we would like to do the same for our children.  

3. Travel.  So this would be more a me thing than a Justin thing, but I would want to take some time and travel the world.  I have been on three different continents, so my goal would be to hit all of them.  And with lottery money, it would be so much easier.

4. Give Back.  While the previous three items may come across as selfish, the biggest thing Justin and I would like to do is find a way to give back to our community.  Whether it is building a homeless shelter or providing opportunities for someone they might never have, we want to make sure that we give back.  If we were to ever be blessed with winning the lottery we would plan to give anywhere between 10-20% back.  

5. Invest. While this option is not "fun", we would want to make sure that we invest the money back in a manner that is wise.  In this situation, we would have to do something with a financial planner.  

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Well that is all for today's post! Looking back at it, it almost looks like we are being too practical doesn't it? Oh well! At least we know we'd try to be responsible with the money if we ever won anything.  

Next up on Show and Tell Tuesdays.....

Gifts you'd like in the categories: Want, Need, Wear, Read.

Question of the Day: What is your favorite Halloween memory?

I'd love to hear from you!

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Show and Tell Tuesday: Scary or Fun Halloween Story

Happy Tuesday Friends! I hope all is well and you are having a great day so far! Today I am teaming up with Andrea for another fun round of Show and Tell Tuesdays.  

Share a Scary Story or a Fun Halloween Story

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For this session of Show and Tell Tuesday, we are to tell a scary story or share a fun Halloween story.  To be honest, I am not a great scary story teller, so I thought it would be fun to talk about my time celebrating Halloween in other countries! 

Last year I went to Uruguay with Sarah and Christina and had the opportunity to celebrate Halloween while we were visiting in Punta Del Este.  It is so interesting to see how other countries celebrate Halloween because they have different customs, but from what I can tell, the people in Uruguay celebrate with a large party, much the same as we would do here.

The only difference between Michigan and Punta Del Este is the fact that their parties do not start until two or three in the morning whereas ours end around two.  So once we got settled into the hostel, we decided to take a nap and get up around 12:00 to start getting ready for the night out. 

Once we were ready to go, we made our way to the local casino to join other people our age and have a fun night dancing and hanging out.  I was honestly surprised by the amount of people who could speak English and speak it well.  We were given help by several of the locals in ordering a drink as well as where to put our jackets and other items.  

Once we were settled, we went down to the dance floor to check everything out.  I was surprised at the number of American songs I heard mixed in with some local music.  It was nice to have something familiar to dance to while we were meeting other people our age.

Throughout the evening, I saw a ton of different costumes that I must say I was even impressed with.  In fact, there was a Big Ben costume that was pretty epic.  They did a great job making the costume, and I believe they managed to even win a prize for their costume.

The night ended with us grabbing a ride "home" with a taxi and going to bed at 6:00am.  Such a fun evening!

A few days later, we made our way back to Montevideo to see Sarah's parents and ended up meeting with some local ladies to go out dancing in costume.  We had packed some fun animal print leggings and ears and tails that made for a fun costume to wear! It was fun having us all dressed as animals.  

This evening wasn't quite as fun since the other girls disappeared on us and we went home fairly early since the club was filled with younger people and the music was very trance/electronic and not so fun to dance to.

So that is my fun story of celebrating Halloween in Uruguay! 

Have you ever celebrated Halloween in another country?

If so, share your story in the comments! I'd love to hear about your adventures.  

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Well that is all for today's post!

Next up on Show and Tell Tuesdays.....

Quirks, Nicknames, Phobias, or Things That Make You "You"

Question of the Day: What is your favorite Halloween memory?

I'd love to hear from you!

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Show and Tell Tuesday: 3 Things I Cannot Live Without

Happy Tuesday Friends! I hope all is well and you are having a great day so far! Today I am teaming up with Andrea for another fun round of Show and Tell Tuesdays.  

Three Things I Cannot Live Without

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For today's post, we are going to talk about the three things that I just cannot live without.  When I was thinking about doing this post, I honestly was struggling to come up with things because I try not to put too much value in possessions.  However, when I started taking this in the literal sense, I started to realize that I could not survive without a few things in both the physical and the mental sense.

*~* My Family and Friends *~*

The past few years have really showed me the importance of my family and my friends.  Growing up and experiencing life is not designed to be done alone and is something that should be shared with the people that we love.  

Of course Justin is one person I cannot live without.  He keeps me grounded when my head is in the clouds and he encourages me to be the best "me" I can be.  Without him, I would be missing a ginormous part and would have a large void.

Both of our families are extremely important to us both and I could not live without them.  My mom is ever my encourager and supporter when I am feeling like I do not have support.  My brother and step-dad always bring a good laugh and are very protective of our family.

Justin's parents have always been extremely supportive of Justin and I and I am grateful for them always being there to lend a hand when we were a little overwhelmed by life.  And Justin's sister and her family are always a spot of joy for me.  I love seeing the little ones and just loving on them.  It warms my heart to spend time with them.

Last but definitely not least are my two best friends.  These girls are my rock and I would be a lost puppy without them.  

*~* My Phone *~*

Because I have family and friends all over the place, my phone is the best way that I can stay in communication with them.  While the phone can pose as a very large distraction in my life, I also find that it allows me to be there for people when I am not able to be there in person.  My other best friend and college roommate just moved to Massachusetts and having my phone has allowed for us to communicate and stay connected as we both undergo huge changes in life.

*~* My Car *~*

If you know me, then you know that I love to drive.  I will literally take any opportunity I can get to drive and my car has taken me on plenty of adventures over the past almost five years.  Not to mention I kind of need a car to make my 80 mile round trip per day drive to work.  I love my car and all of the adventures it has taken me on.

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Well that is all for today's post!

Next up on Show and Tell Tuesdays.....

Favorite Blog Posts

Question of the Day: What three things can you not live without?

I'd love to hear from you!

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Show and Tell Tuesdays: Advice to High School Self

Happy Tuesday Friends! I hope all is well and you are having a great day so far! Today I am teaming up with Andrea for another fun round of Show and Tell Tuesdays.  

Advice to High School Self

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For today's post, we are going to talk a little bit about high school and what advice I would give myself if given the opportunity.

For me, high school was so much fun.  I was active, I had tons of friends and I was involved in pretty much everything with which I could possibly be involved.  Every day I would come to school, eat my pop tarts and spend my morning socializing before I would make my way to classes.  

After school I would either head my way to piano lessons, soccer or dance and the evenings would end with dinner with my family and homework.  Honestly, high school was pretty good for me. 

So looking back at it now, what advice would I give my high school self? 

Slow your roll, sweetie 

In high school, everyone spends their entire high school career looking forward to the rest of their lives.  And like everyone else, I did too.  Looking back on it now, I wish I would have just taken the time to really enjoy my high school years.  Yeah there were some negative parts of being in high school, but sometimes I wish I had really appreciated my time there more than I did during my four years there.  

Trust your gut, it is probably right

 

In high school, one of my best friends had severe issues with self-harm.  When I found out about her issues, I was really not sure what to do.  Of course, the natural thought would be to tell someone, right? Well I was so afraid of what would happen to our friendship that I kept it to myself.  Thankfully someone else ended up speaking up to the counselor and they got her help.  But looking back at it now, I wish I had trusted my gut in this situation (and several others).  

 Follow your passions

In high school, I managed to be active in several different sports, but I still wish to this day that I had done Cross Country.  In high school, it was just too much for my mom to manage working and me doing sports year round, so Cross Country never made it on my list of sports I played.  But I should have worked with her to come up with a way for me to do this.  Running made me happy and to this day I wish I would have pushed back on this area with my mom.  

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Well that is all for today's post!

Next up on Show and Tell Tuesdays.....

Tell us a scary story

Question of the Day: What advice would you give high school self?

I'd love to hear from you!

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Show and Tell Tuesday: What's in My Bag

Happy Tuesday Friends! I hope all is well and you are having a great day so far! Today I am teaming up with Andrea for another fun round of Show and Tell Tuesdays.  

What's in My Bag?

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Today we are going to be talking about what's in my bag! I love seeing what everyone else carries in their bags on a day to day basis because everyone carries different things based on their lifestyle.  For today's post, I thought I would share what I carry in my purse.

In My Bag

My Bag

Currently I am carrying my coach hobo bag.  I saw this one right after Christmas when I was out shopping with my sister-in-law and mother-in-law and fell in love with this purse.  I am very particular about the purses I carry so when I fall in love with one I try to buy it (if it is in my budget of course).  

Kate Spade Wallet

This wallet was a gift from Justin for our fourth anniversary.  We ended up going to Niagara Falls for our fourth anniversary and he surprised me by taking me to the Kate Spade Outlet in New York.  I ended up getting this wallet and have been using it for the past 18 months.

Uruguay Crossbody Bag

This bag I got while I was travelling in Uruguay and I use it for my day-to-day stuff when I do not feel like carrying my whole bag.  This carries my headphones, credit cards and headphones.  Obviously I switch things around from time to time.  

Glasses

In my purse I usually have one pair of sunglasses and two regular glasses - one pair is for driving and the other is for reading (I really should be wearing the reading ones right now but I totally forgot to grab them).  I believe my sunglasses are in the car right now with all of the driving we've been doing the last week between work and moving.

Keys/Gum/Painkillers

I always try to have gum and painkillers in my purse at all times as they always come in handy.  Gum is usually a go to for me when I need something to chew on.  I always have my keys in my purse too because I have a push-to-start car.  The key fob I have on my keys is from Thirty-One Gifts.  I bought it a few years back and love it so much.  

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Well that is all for today's post!

Next up on Show and Tell Tuesdays.....

Tell Us About Your Pets

Question of the Day: What would your Talk Show be like?

I'd love to hear from you!

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