Catch up and a Grandma Update

I thought I would catch you up on what has been going on around here lately. Nothing major but lots of little things tend to add up don't they?

Well we (me, the bf, his mom, his moms fiancé, and 3 dogs) moved in with the bf's grandparents.

Meet grandma randy and grandpa tim

They own a succesful construction company that the bf hopes to take over some day.
They have a very nice house with lots of room for us hooligans.

While the bf's parents are building a new house, we will be residing here. Or until we move into the dorms in September, whichever comes first.

Of course I could stay with my parents and avoid all of this chaos but what fun is that? Although I do love my parents very much :)

Im not sure that Tim and Randy are quite sure what they are getting themselves into. 3 dogs can be quite the patience tester. Im sure I will have many stories, good and bad, to share about our Living at the Connerys(thats there last name) this summer. Let the good times roll??

In other news...

My grandma (not the one mentioned before) but my moms, mom has been quite sick for some time now. She was diagnosed with Lung cancer a few months ago and underwent a few rounds of radiation. She has also been suffering from severe back pain. They initially thought that it was caused by cancer spreading into the bones but that turned out not to be the case. Thank goodness. They are saying that it is most likely just a fracture that can't heal due to brittle bones and a weak body. She was hoping to have a surgery to try and minimize the pain but when she went for her pre op appointment they saw that her heart was in pretty bad condition and that she may have even had a heart attach without even knowing. Pretty scary.

So they decided that it was to risky to do surgery and they are going to try and manage her pain with medicine better. Its not the outcome we hoped for but we will take all the moments we can get with her.

On a lighter note...

Had a fun night on thursday. Dalton agreed played softball in a league (they needed a sub) with some of his friends. I brought Rachel and Johrdin along to cheer the team on. Im quite certain that the bf drank more beer than he caught balls but he was a good sport and we had a good time watching him too.

As I have posted about before I work in the floral department at HyVee. They have been letting me arrange and experiment with a lot more lately. I have been practicing pin on corsages. Ive been trying to think of unique new ways to do them. Obvioulsly this pink and purple color combination isn't the best but I use the left over flowers. I did love the style of the leaves and wax flower off to the side.

Finally got to try out my new nail polish color. Mint apple by Sinful Colors. Love it.

Sorry about the rambling post, I just wanted to get everyone caught up on life around here!

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What are you wearing?

You can find out how to make these barrettes here.

And then I went outside and realized that it was 97 degrees out. Not really maxi skirt weather. I tossed on a pair of khaki shorts and I was out the door.

Follow stories of a girl and share what you are wearing. I will be sure to follow your blog too!

The Farmers Market

This weekend my mom and I headed to the Madison Farmers Market. Its a pretty large farmers market and wraps all around our capitol square. There are tons of booths selling flowers, veggies, berries, honey, baked goods etc. You get the point that it is pretty amazing.



It gets pretty busy so the walk is pretty slow but its a good place to people watch too.



Our Purchases:
Radishes (for the bf)
White onions
Fresh Garlic cloves
Zucchini- We grilled it for dinner. YUM
Hot Spicy Cheese Bread from Stella's Bakery. Its a Wisconsin thing.
Some spices for a hot pepper dip
And some peas. EW.



Try your Zucchini grilled. Its delicious.
Just slice the zucchini the long way and put it in a pan. Cover it generously with olive oil, salt and pepper. We added a little garlic too. Grill 3-4 minutes on each side until they are soft but not mushy. Its a great easy healthy veggie to go along with anything grilled.

Go out and have a great start to the week.

P.S. Follow my blog and I will return the favor xo

Insta FRIDAY

Linking up my photos for insta friday at liferearranged

I'm off to meet a friend for coffee. No big weekend plans just a little farmers market and maybe some garage sales.

Xxxxxxx

GFC Blog Hop

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Xxxx
Ali

The way to a mans heart...

I always find buying something for Fathers Day challenging. I know that my dad loves to golf and loves to vacation and he loves to grill. But I can only buy so many golf gift cards and grilling tools. And lets be honest my budget does not allow for a fully paid vacation for fathers day. (They have a house in Florida anyway so its not like they need my vacation planning skills)

This year I decided to make my dad something instead. I found a recipe for No-Bake Peanut Butter bars and I was in love. Yum.



It is a really easy recipe. Heres what you need:


2 Cups Powdered Sugar
1.5 Cups Chocolate Chips
2 Cups Graham Cracker Crumbs (I smashed my own but you can buy the boxed kind too)
1 Cup + 4 Tbs peanut butter (I used all natural but you can use regular too)
1 Cup (two sticks) Melted Butter

In a mixing bowl combine powdered sugar, graham cracker crumbs, 1 cup peanut butter and the melted butter.

Press this mixture onto an ungreased 9x13 pan. You could use a 9x9 if you want them to be thicker.

Combine chocolate chips and 4 tbs peanut butter in a microwave safe bowl. Microwave for 30 seconds at a time stirring afterwards until the chocolate is completely melted.

Pour chocolate mixture over the graham cracker combination and refrigerate for at least 1 hour before cutting into squares.

Lets just say dad approved. And while we were sitting at a restaurant last night an elderly lady in the table behind us saw that I had made these bars for my dad and so she leaned over and whispered in my ear, "The way to a mans heart is through his stomach. And you will make some man very happy one day."

Life snippets

Just a few quick snippets from our seemingly too short of a weekend. They never seem long enough, do they?










The weather has been continually really hot and in my taste absolutely beautiful. I love the really hot days and I find it hard to relate to people that don't share my love for the sun.

It was our local festival this weekend too. All proceeds from the rides, foods, and beer tent help our our local volunteer fire fighter squad. On the Saturday of the festival, they always do a parade down main street. Nothing spectacular but the belly whistlers always crack us up.

I just can't get enough of my big turquoise ring. I find myself wearing it with every outfit. I received a few good suggestions on Twitter about where to find some similar ones. Yay. (follow me @storiesofagirl_)

The bf's parents are building a new house on the lake and we have been looking through design catalogs like crazy. (It will also be our home when we are not away at school, or have not yet moved out;)) The new neighbors invited us over for a crawfish boil and some home brewed beer. Its great to know we will have such fun neighbors.I ended my weekend with some design catalogs and a glass of wine. And don't forget a few episodes of Sister Wives.

Today is going to be devoted to finding a good Pandora station and cleaning my life away...

I hope everyone had a relaxing weekend and don't forget to smile a lot this week.

{Part II} Practice Smiling

I recently wrote about one of my favorite movies Love Happens. You can read part 1 here.

I think part II is just as important. (If not more)
Part II is all about smiling. I think this is a great one for a Friday. Its almost the weekend and we have so much to be happy about.

"Happiness is a state of mind. Devote 5 minutes each day to smiling and after awhile, it will come naturally."



What do we have to lose by trying to smile more? I've really been tested the past few weeks on this one. Heres how: I work at Hy-Vee. For those of you not from the mid west, you have probably never shopped at one but Im sure you have seen the commercials. "Where theres a helpful smile in every isle." Yep. I work in the floral department at Hy-Vee. And they aren't kidding when they say you better be smiling.

Cant a girl have a bad day? Nope.

But it really has been good for me. It can do nothing but make my day better when I smile at someone else. Not even just customers. My boyfriend, family members, friends.

Smiling is the universal way to show friendliness.

My boyfriend found me in a sour mood the other day and after watching the movie he decided to remind me the lessons of my 'corny chick flick' as he called it. He said "practice smiling for 5 minutes each day." Of course I gave him the I'm gonna smile for 5 minutes straight sarcastic look but honestly. It made me smile. Sour mood gone.

So try it. Remind yourself to smile more. And pass it on.

{Date Night} Inspiration Workshop

I'll be honest when I first saw that the topic for this months Inspiration Workshop was about Date Night I felt a little nervous and anxious. Not the 'wow Im lonely and have no one to go on a date with' nervous but more of the 'were not the fancy date night type of couple' nervous.



Now don't get me wrong, we do love to go out to dinner together and go on boat rides together or take the dog for a walk. Its not like were one of those miserable couples that never wants to spend time with each other. I decided here that I wasn't going to be the nagging type of girlfriend so instead of begging the bf to take me out on some fancy date night I decided that time spent with just the two of us was good enough for me!

I made garage sale signs for the charity garage sale to prevent domestic violence thats going on this saturday.



And the bf worked on fixing the boat so we can enjoy it this weekend!



And Ike caught a muskrat.
Whats date night without a dead animal? Right?



And then we went for a nice moped ride around town. I love the nights when its still 80 degrees at 8 at night.


Always the third wheel on date night. He's a good sport about it.




Time spent together is time spent together and that is all that matters!

P.S. I realized that I have had my 'follow this blog' option turned off for the past 3 months. Oops.

Follow my blog and I will return the favor!
xxxxx

Freshly Painted.

I'll admit I may be a few steps behind on the whole "1 nail is painted a different color than the other nails" trend. But I see this a lot and I always usually think it looks cute.



My cousin has tons of cute nail polish and she is always painting her nails a different color. Sometimes several times a day. Yes last night she changed her colors 3 times. Yep 3 times. We have been making it a ritual to get together on Monday night to watch the Bachelorette together and since she has all the best nail polish colors, I will take full advantage of that little bonus too. By the way... If you watch the Bachelorette, Im rooting for Sean but I also really like Jef although Im not sure how they would mesh their lives together. (Not that I am a matchmaker or anything) I think she needs to get rid of Ryan. What a complete doo doo head.

For all of you that don't waste your Monday Nights watching the Bachelorette, I am sorry for that little ramble session.

I love having freshly painted finger nails. It makes me feel so much more put together. But on the other hand nothing bothers me more than having chipped nail polish. Yuck. So I find myself using lighter colors on my fingers more often so they aren't as noticeable when they chip. But summer is about trying new things right?

So heres to one nail being a little bit different than the rest....For now anyway.

Life Lately.

We have been busy, busy, busy around here lately and summer is in full swing.

Im on the final book in the 50 shades series. There has been a lot of discussion about these books and I haven't made a decision on what I really think about them yet.


Hot weather, iced lattes, and lots of lake time


Watermelon, workouts, and time spent with girlfriends.

Insta Friday

How can you resist letting that face sleep under your feet all night?


Outside 'get togethers' at the lake house


Locally grown Ranunculus. Moms favorite


Finished 50 Shades Darker (book 2 in the 50 Shades series)


Ike showing off his motherly instincts even though that is definitely not his baby.


Sunshine on the very white legs.


So in love with my iPad. Just downloaded all of my books from my kindle onto my iPad.


Happy Friday Folks.
Enjoy the beautiful weekend. I'm linking up here
http://liferearranged.com/

{Part 1} Love and Lemonade

Do you ever find a movie,book,poem,song..etc that just encourages you or fits your life right at that particular time? Well the other night the bf was feeling very tired and I knew I wouldn't be able to fall asleep if I wasn't tired too. I decided to pop in one of my favorite movies. Love Happens. It stars Jennifer Aniston and some other guy I can't remember. (Oops sorry) Well normally I just watch it and enjoy it but this time I really took in the lessons that are discussed in the movie. I thought they would be great to discuss here on stories of a girl. So take it in and enjoy. And if your not to busy today or this weekend, watch the movie! Its fab.



We all know the signature quote "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade." But really we have two ways to look at every situation in life. We can make a sour face, or we can make lemonade.

Think about a situation in you life when you want to confront a friend, boyfriend, parent, parter about something. Whether you know you are doing it or not, you are deciding to handle that situation in that particular way. Let me give you an example...On Monday night after I returned home from watching the Bachelorette over at my cousins, the boyfriend was still at the lake house. I was laying in bed playing on my new iPad. He had had a long day at work and on his way home he texted me asking me to put some food in the microwave for him. For some reason I didn't hear my phone beep so as a result there was no food waiting for a tired, hungry boy. Yikes. It was a mistake and I admit I would be hungry too. But he was frustrated that I didn't hear my phone. Fair enough. Well fast forward to last night. I had worked all day and by 8 o clock I was tired and also hungry. The boyfriend was at his grandparents eating dinner and my plan was to go there too. I called him when I was done with work. Ring Ring Ring Ring. No answer. See a pattern here?

Now, I could have confronted him and gotten frustrated about him not answering his phone. But I thought about it. Would getting mad over this little thing really help or benefit our relationship in any way? Although lets be honest I was tired and maybe a little grumpy I realized that starting a tussle would in no way,shape, or form benefit either of us.

Have you ever experienced something like this? Sometimes we call it 'picking our battles.'

Make a sour face? Or make lemonade?


Pink lemonade in this case:)

Stick around for more Love Happens Lessons.
and follow me on twitter Storiesofagirl_