NEW BLOG!

Come on, followers :)

come visit me on BBharveysnest.blogspot.com

Transitioning

Hello friends and fellow blogger fans,
I wanted to let you all know I have created a new blog, and invite you to stop by!

http://bbharveysnest.blogspot.com/

Growing up

Last night, as I sat surrounded by 5 of my best friends from college, I found myself evaluating what we've been through, where we've all come from, and where we've all ended up. Growing up is difficult, because along with age comes a loss of innocence. We eventually realize that the world isn't really as wonderful and simple as it was when we were children. We realize that after school, work becomes your life. We experience SO much. We love, we lose, we makes mistakes, we hopefully learn from those mistakes, we change, we grow, some friends come and go, unfortunately, and we learn that only our closest will survive our life experiences and be there with us until the end.

I thought back to where I was in my life when I met these women. 18 years old, college, parties, sororities, classes, dorms. My social life MADE me. Life has changed so much since then. We are all career-oriented women. Some of us married, some of us starting families, buying homes, moving in with significant others, making livings and establishing ourselves. Yet when we talk, its as if nothing has changed in these 5 + years that we have been friends. I feel blessed to have this group of friends, as well as the other close friends that I am lucky enough to still have strong relationships with. These women have laughed with me, cried with me, grown with me, held my hands, held my head when I've cried, and given me pep-talks when I've felt down. I've also learned that although I don't speak with these women on a daily basis as much as I'd like to, I always feel at home with them. These women are part of me and if there's anything that I've learned from growing up, its the importance of holding these people close and never letting them go.

Mixin' it up

After some long, hard thought and discussion with the hubby, we both agreed that it was time to rearrange our living room area to be more "welcoming." For those of you who have visited our house, you know that our couch blocked half of our entry way area and our tv sort of became the focal part of our house, laying along the wall opposite the entry way. It didn't really create a very welcoming space. I had been lurking around on the Target.com website and found an area rug that I immediately knew I had to have! It was brown, and has gold and maroon circle accents on it (which just so happens to be the colors of our living area). I totally almost impulse-bought, on the Target website, because it was on sale for $109, but my hubby insisted that we wait until we could at least see it in person. So, guess what appeared in the Menards ad this week? The same exact rug for a mere $79. Talk about meant to be! So we swung in after an ever-so-busy Saturday, snagged the rug, and completely flipped and rearranged our living room. Let me know what you guys think!

The new view of the living room when you are standing in the entry way

Kitchen! Not much has changed, but just thought I'd post a pic for those of you who haven't seen it.

Another one of the living room

Looking to the entry way from the living room

So those of you who had seen our house before .. what do you think? We think its a HUGE improvement and now we've really found a way to divide the space into separate areas. It's almost like the curse of the open lay out. When we were house hunting, we walked into this house and absolutely fell in love because it had the open floor plan, but was also in an older, more established neighborhood in St. Paul. Decorating and dividing the areas into defined spaces was a little bit more challenging that I had anticipated. I mean, I definitely watch HGTV more than the average human, but applying the things I learned in the shows to my actual house was tough. I can safely say I think the living room is complete. . . near complete. Still on the hunt for a new coffee table.

Bucket list

Yes-
This post is inspired by the amazing film staring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman. The movie is incredibly inspirational because it tells the story of this terminally ill man who has a list of things he'd like to do before he 'kicks the bucket.' I was thinking the other day about how great of an idea this is. Not only will it force me to be ambitious and strive towards reaching my goals, but also will allow me to cherish the lovely moments that I have on this earth.

Now some of the things on my said 'bucketlist' have already been accomplished, but when I think back on my life, were things I told myself I had to do. For example:
-Graduate from College
-Find the love of my life
-Get married

. . . yadda yadda- all things I have done.

Some things will be more difficult to attain because, well- maybe they are more speculative.
-Make a difference
-Be happy
-Don't take any moment for granted

. . . These things aren't things I can just check off after one occasion, but are more ongoing things I'd like to achieve.

Then there are things that are very black and white- I do them or I don't.
-Become fluent in Spanish
-Run a 1/2 marathon
-Travel to Europe
-Go skydiving
-Become a manager or director
-Start a family.

Honestly, my bucket list goes on and on, and one day I am actually going to physically write these things down and start crossing them off. I feel like this will provide me with more drive towards completing them. There are so many things I want to do and life is too short to sit around waiting for opportunities to approach us. Get out there and accomplish your dreams and goals :)

Does anyone else have a bucket list? What's on yours?

Movie Mondays

Back by popular demand, I have decided to get back on the blogging train. I'll admit, I've fallen off on a number of different occasions and really never thought people were enjoying reading my blogs, but I have heard from more than a handful of people that they actually DO enjoy reading about my life. Well it seems to be perfect because I greatly enjoy sharing my life experiences with my fellow friends, family, and blogging communities.

Life has been incredibly busy for the hubs and I this summer. We are at that age (which people told us we'd reach) where a large number of our friends are getting married. Along with getting married there are the bridal showers, the grooms dinners, the bachelorette parties, etc. It seems like every weekend this summer we've had something going on. I'm happy to be busy, especially when it involves spending time with the people I love, but sometimes I really enjoy relaxing. Mondays have become our recovery days from our action-packed weekends, and I've started to call them "movie Mondays." Its a time for Luke and I to make a nice dinner together, snuggle up on the couch and watch a movie, relax, and sort of plan out our next week of chaos. The last 2 weekends have been so busy and filled with friends I couldn't ask for a better way to spend my free time! But here we are again, movie Monday-ing with our kitties curled up in our lap, and a discussion of what this week will consist of. I love this stage of our life. I think its so fun to have friends that are 'grown ups' like we are pretend to be, and working hard so we can play hard. There are times when I wish that we were back in college with not a care in the world, but I've worked towards paving this life for my husband and I, building these relationships that I have with my friends and I love the time I have with them. I love Movie Mondays because I am able to ease my mind and truly appreciate what I have.

Happy Monday all :)

What's your love language

When my husband and I began dating, one of my friends handed me a book called "the Five Love Languages and insisted that I read it. "

I sort of buried the book under a pile of others on my I'll-read-that-never-if-not-much-later pile and told myself I didn't believe in self-help books like this. When we were engaged and found the church we got married at, our pastor reccommended the book, and I thought to myself, Hmmmmm. . . I think I already have this book. Well I did what she said and read the book. I immediately felt changed. I truly believe that there are no 2 people in the world that can completely understand the thoughts and actions of one another. I often think to myself, What was he thinking? or What is he doing? Not because I don't approve of his actions, but because I truly wonder what is going on in his mind. This book, by Gary Chapman, truly forces you to not only identify the love language to which our significant other uses, but also learn to accept and appreciate their way of loving you. Chapman identifies the five different love languages as: Quality Time, Words of Affirmation, Gifts, Acts of Service, and Physical touch. It sounds ridiculous, but when I thought back to all of the things that I did/do to show my husband, my friends, and my family how I love them, I notice a trend. Whether you hug your loved one, hold their hand, mow the lawn, or simply just spend time with him/her, we all have different ways of how we show our loved ones just how much we love them. I ask you all, how do you love? What is your love language and how do you go about appreciating the other languages?