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To the New Year...

Here we go...another year.   Last year was insane, between planning our wedding, moving into our first place together, moving to a NEW place a week before the wedding, and well getting married...2012 kind of flew by. 

This year is our time to focus on building a life together, not just making it through day by day.  Being married has brought on all sorts of new challenges.  I never thought that my instinct to move furniture around every few months would be considered annoying, or that my habit of putting food in the oven before letting it reach its optimal temperature would be bad.  Live and learn. 

As 2013 is now upon us I've decided to focus daily on a few small things, not resolutions per say maybe we will call them ideas.  Yes, ideas for being happier and healthier.   When you have a great idea your allowed to fail occasionally and mess up as time goes on.  No one is perfect, but everyone has ideas of how they want their life to be and a direction to take. 


1. Be happy.  Ok so this seems easy, but as someone with major anxiety issues...this is a daily struggle.   I can go from 0 to 20 in no time.  One thing can turn a great mood into a bad day.   So being happy is an ongoing goal.  This goes hand in hand with my next idea. 

2.  Laugh.  I've been blessed with a husband that no matter what the situation, can always crack a joke.  He was put on this Earth to balance out my crazy ass I'm sure of it.   C is a clown, I've never met someone who can walk into a room and within minutes have everyone laughing.   So its probably a good idea that I laugh with him. 

3. Challenge Myself.  Being comfortable has always been just out of reach, but you know what I'm ok with that.   A big part of this year will be challenging myself with this blog, my Etsy shop, and maybe tackling a few side projects as they come up.   Oh, the biggest challenge of all for myself this year...my 5K in April.  

4. Harmony.  After living with my sister for 4 years we had found a grove, a routine, a certain harmony that allowed us to handle being around each other constantly.   Now living with C is a whole other thing.  Its only been 6 months, I'm sure having moved twice in those 6 months hasn't helped.   After being fully unpacked at our old place, pre flood, we had found a harmony of where things went and how we managed.   After the flooded basement and move to the new (bigger) place we are still struggling to have that harmony.  We will find it, but man #2 is gonna have a play a big part in that. 

5. Remember.  Sometimes lifes biggest lessons can be learned from remembering the past.  Also, being able to look back and remember the small things.  I wasn't blessed enough to have a lot of time with my Grand parents before they passed on, but there are small things that I can look back and remember fondly.  Like how my grandpa towered over me with such a mighty force, but would sit on the couch and laugh at me while I tried to find the Indian he told me was in his Budweiser clock mural.  It's the little things. 

Hope you can have some great ideas of your own for this fresh start, this clear horizon, this Happy New Year.  

Follow my documented journey here on the blog, and through pics on my #365project challenge on Instagram. 

Onward.....

New Additions

I find it only fitting that since I've take about a week off from writing here that I fill you in with some new additions to my "Murtaugh List".

I'm too old...

-to become offended when someone declares that the Backstreet Boys are better than 'N SYNC.  I heard someone say this the other day and my instinct was to given them a laundry list of reasons as to why 'N SYNC is and always will be better.  The 14 year old me was very loyal.

-to understand half of what is going on in Hot Topic.  After casually walking in a while ago so C could look for spacers for his ears, I wandered off to the graphic tee wall.   I'm not even ashamed to admit that I couldn't name half the "bands/artists/musicians" (I hesitate to use ANY of these words to describe these people) on the wall.  On top of that I couldn't read half the shirts either.  There is something wrong about a Lil' Wayne basketball jersey, next to a Justin Bieber "slim fit" shirt, residing far to close for my comfort to a Johnny Cash Tee. 

-to be an Olympian.  Michael Phelps is 4 months younger than me and just became the all time most decorated Olympian.   After watching a few hours of swimming, gymnastics, and other various sports its safe to say that I'll never receive an Olympic medal...or apparently get off the couch.  

Turn Around

Do you have a secret pile, a small space where you pack away all of your

 "almosts" or "will do" projects? 

I used to, it was called under my futon...now in a new space its obvious how many projects were left half done (or not even started, lets be honest here).   Between being busy, not having the right supplies, or whatever other excuse I came up with the evidence was right in front of me.  I'd post a picture, but its shameful...and to be honest I haven't even compiled the ones left at my old place. 

That stops now. No, I'm not gonna go all crazy and try to finish them all this weekend.  That would be madness, and extremely tiring, and not possible given the 48 hour time frame.  However, I will accomplish something. 

This pile of previously posthumous projects will not just lie there. 

New life will be pumped into them. 

They will hang, sit, or lay with a purpose. 

(I'm pumping myself up, excuse the optimism)

Now I just need that timer from the show "24" to keep me in line and on track,

or Jack Bauer on my ass...that would work too. 

2 months

Its been 2 months.  2 months since C moved to St. Louis.  We've spent the last 4.5 of our 6 years together living in opposite corners of Missouri. 

Good news, we haven't killed each other yet. Bad news, we are still trying to get used to seeing each other daily.   The littlest things are taking some getting used to.  We work opposite schedules, which is good AND bad.  We miss each other, but enjoy our time apart. 

While going to bed one night (at 9pm mind you), I put on the second season of Modern Family.  I've watched the episodes multiple times, always thinking how funny the show was.   Only watching it this time one relationship seemed oddly familiar.  

Phil and Claire Dunphy. 

Their relationship and how different they really are is at times too close for comfort.  She is an excentric perfectionist and he is a goofball with endless amounts of jokes. 

For all the ways they disagree, argue, and remain polar opposites...at the end of the day all that matters is their love for each other and their family.  Granted C and I don't have kids, but the dynamic between Claire and Phil is a small window into our future. 

Ok, I know you're probably thinking Laura these are characters, not real people. I get that.  I'm not crazy.  But these are characters that are built after real life experiences. 

Their relationship can be summed up by the below quote.  Claire was worried that their son was too much like Phil, and that he was going to get lost in the world because he was too trusting, not focused, and too care free. 

Phil: You know why he's gonna be ok?

Because somewhere out there is a little girl who's making lists and labeling bins...

and he's gonna find her.

 

It's true I guess, opposites attract.  Not because they have to, but because they create balance. 

 

If a loveable strong goofball like C can fall in love with a crazy organized weirdo like me, then there is harmony in the world. 

 

 Two months in...and a lifetime to go.

MacGyver

Today is one of those days when a simple oversight snowballs into a much larger problem.

Every morning when I leave the house to go to work I put on my flip flops and head to my car, knowing full well that I leave my "work shoes" in my car.  It wasn't until I got to work this morning that I realized that yesterday apparently seemed like a good day to change out my daily "work shoes", which I had forgotten about this morning.  All of this means that I was sitting in the parking lot at work with no shoes but my crappy black flip flops.   Strike One.

Dress code aside these flip flops have seen better days and also have the pesky tendency of turning the bottom of my feet black, not an attractive trait on anyone.  Strike Two.

Strike three came in the form of catching said flip flops on the bottom of my desk chair, causing the toe part to rip away from the bottom sending the safety/all important/structural disk from the bottom flying. 

I'm out.  The third strike did me in.  My plan of attack was to avoid getting up the rest of the day and just sit there.   Well a few neglected copies, faxes, and conversations later...just sitting...not an option. 

Enter THE paperclip.  With nothing but office supplies around me I NEEDED to fix my shoe.   Then my instincts kicked in, I am my father's daughter. 

My father can fix anything, he is MacGyver. 

Problem solved.

Granted it sounds like I have on tap shoes when I walk, but it will work.  I'll survive another day. 

After being very proud and sending a picture to C entitled "Just call me MacGyver", he proceeded to text back with the very loving response below...

I call that "you'll have a paper clip embedded into your foot by the end of the day."

So sweet right?  Atleast he offered to bandage my foot if that happens.  True love right there. 

Murtaugh List

If you are a fan of the 1987 film "Leathal Weapon," then you probably remember Danny Glover's character Roger Murtaugh.  He always used the phrase, "I'm too old for this sh*t". 

Also if you're a fan of the show How I Met Your Mother, you know that Ted Mosby has a list of things that he feels he is too old to do, hence the birth of "The Murtaugh List".

So now I'm 27, there weird age between after college and being an ADULT.  The perfect time to start my own "Murtaugh List". Here are a few to start.

• To hang anything on the wall using pushpins or scotch tape.
• To beleive that eating uncooked ramen noodles constitues as a meal.
• To put aside modern medicine in favor of the this

"I'm too old for this sh*t"