Hi. I'm Monica.

The aftermath of my birthday festivities are nonexistant.  Probably because my birthday festivities weren’t really all that festive.  However, I had a great time.  I could not have asked for a better celebration of yet another year of life.  And I’m officially starting to feel old.  Yep, I said it.  Twenty three just seems so adult-ish.

I started twenty three off with a nice morning jog that consisted in my shoes becoming a muddy mess.  Oy vey.  I decided that I couldn’t use my birthday as an excuse to skip working out.  Especially since I slacked a lot last week and over the weekend.  A run was such an energizing way to start my day, that’s for sure.

Being at work on my birthday was just about the best thing ever as well.  I wouldn’t have had it any other way.  I casually mentioned my birthday before I left for the weekend and was surprised to have a gift waiting for me when I showed up to work.  It was completely unexpected, really not necessary and definitely appreciated.

And in that gift?  A new pair of TOMS!  Ahhh!  And they are “Earthwise Orange,” which is like coral in TOMS language.  And coral is my favorite color.  They are pretty and I cannot wait to wear them.

I would not have done my day any differently.  Work was great.  Mina and I went to the library for baby story time, which is always so much fun.  She loves other babies.  After work, Grant and I walked around Lake of the Isles and then we met up with Aana and Jared for dinner at Burger Jones.  We also went and sat on the rooftop at Stella’s which was pretty amazing.  I had never been up there so it was definitely a fun new experience.  Grant had to ditch us to go to work after Burger Jones so I ended the night by hanging out with him at his Grandpa’s house (which is where he works as a PCA. sweet, right?). I, of course, failed to get any pictures of my evening and the gorgeous birthday dress I got for myself.  I’m definitely not very happy about that.  But I feel that as I continue to blog, I’ll get better at that.  Hopefully..

Last night was so low key, which was completely fine by me.  Especially considering that today is Jared’s birthday and I’ll be going out again this evening for that.  He’s got more of an eventful night planned as well as more people coming out so I know it will for sure be far from low key.  

Today has been such a great day.  Words cannot express how grateful I am for the mom I have been blessed with.  I enjoyed every minute of celebrating her and the contribution to not only my life, but the life of all of my siblings as well.  I don’t think I would be able to rave about my family the way I do if it weren’t for my mom being the backbone of it.

By far, the best day of the week.

Every Saturday, I babysit my little sisters and even if I didn’t have to, I still would.  I feel so blessed to get to watch them grow up and it is crazy to me how fast that is happening.  You honestly can’t take them being little for granted because of how short that amount of time really is.

I think my favorite part of Saturdays is hanging out in our PJs pretty much all day.  I still feel pretty new to working full time and that is probably the one thing I miss the most about being in school.  I kind of wish I had more than one day a week to do that.  I take advantage of that on Saturdays and wait until noon or later to start getting ready for the day.

Back to the point of this post, I am in love with Saturdays and can’t imagine them being any different.  I really would hate to miss out on my sisters growing up, especially since it’s happening so incredibly fast.  Mackenzie will already be a year old in less than a month.  Seriously, where did that time go?  It’s crazy to me.  Michaela is already four, which is even more insane.

We also do what we call “Pinterest Saturdays,” which is really just an excuse for me to make food and only hope the girls will eat it.  This week, they did.  Only because we made Chocolate, Peanut Butter, Banana “ice cream.”  The best homemade ice cream ever.  And I, of course, forgot to take a picture of the finished product. All that went into it was frozen bananas, peanut butter, and cocoa powder and it was easy.  I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a healthier ice cream option.  I really couldn’t taste the difference between that and regular ice cream and because I am addicted to ice cream (and by that I mean that I feel the need to eat it every single day), I needed to find a healthier alternative.

Well, I’m going to try.  Hopefully, I’ll actually keep up with it.  Since I’ve had tumblr, I’ve only really used it to reblog posts but I am finding that I want to use it for more than that.  I bought a new and nice camera in November and feel like I have nowhere to put the pictures.  I am not a fan of Facebook and no one actually cares about the personal things that get posted on there so, here I go.  This will be fun.

A LITTLE ABOUT ME (OR A LOT BECAUSE I HAVE A TENDENCY TO TALK A LOT)

I’m 23 years old, well almost.  I will be 23 on Monday.  Pretty exciting, right?  I live in Minnesota, in the Twin Cities area and absolutely love it.  I moved here from Sioux Falls, South Dakota when I was 9 and have stayed here since.  When my family first moved, I hated it.  But, I’ve grown to love this area, primarily because I am old enough to experience what the city has to offer.  I recently graduated from Bethel University with my Bachelor’s in Psychology and right now, I am figuring out what I want to do with my life.  I am sort of deciding between going into nursing or nutrition.  What I’ll probably end up doing is applying to both programs and deciding after I see what I get in.  I really enjoy putting decisions off until they are absolutely necessary.  At this point, I feel pretty passionate about my desire to do both.  Eating healthy and exercising has been something that I have recently become interested in and I decided to consider it for a career path about a month ago.

My family means more to me than anything else in the world.  I can’t imagine what I would do without them.  I have (in my mom’s house) a brother and 3 sisters.  The two youngest were both huge surprises to us.  My mom got married to my stepdad my freshman year of college and they came along shortly after.  Michaela (the red head) is 4 and Mackenzie (the baby pictured below) will be 1 in June.  I can guarantee that the majority of my posts will be about them.  They are always the center of attention and very babied in our family.  My sister, Ketra, is 14 and has recently become more of a best friend to me than a sister.  I’ve watched her grow into a beautiful young lady and cannot wait to see what lies ahead in her future.  She’s got a little bit of an attitude but she’s also really smart and that alone will get her far.  I also have a brother, Damon, who is 20.  We’ve been pretty close as we’ve grown up, both in fighting and in friendship like any siblings have to be.  He’s a sophomore at Bethel, studying physical education.  I have no doubt in the world that he will be successful in that.  He’s always been passionate about sports and good at them, as well.  I have always enjoyed attending his baseball and football games.

In addition to my amazing family, I’ve also got an absolutely amazing boyfriend, Grant.  He’s really passionate about music and an amazing drummer and bass guitarist.  Most of our dates have consisted of going to see live music and I absolutely love it.  I’ve always been into music, but who isn’t?  There’s something out there for everyone when it comes to music.  I’ve definitely learned that recently.  We swing dance too!  AND it was all his idea and so much fun.  We’ve been together for 7 months now and I’ve gotten to a point where I cannot imagine my life without him.  I feel like that really sums up our relationship.  We are both getting to know each other and this is my first “real” relationship.  I have never felt the way I feel about Grant with anyone else and that still amazes me.  I never thought that I’d be able to figure out who I really am by being around someone else but Grant has definitely proved that to be possible and through him, I am learning so much about myself.  It really is crazy.

I also have the most amazing job.  I am a nanny for the cutest baby on earth, Mina.  I have been working as Mina’s nanny for almost a month and so far, it has been great.  I cannot get over how adorable Mina is and we get along so well.  She loves reading and going on walks and especially enjoys watching me be a goof, which honestly doesn’t take a lot of effort on my part.  Before starting with Mina, I nannied for another cute baby, Mamie.  She moved to Arkansas so after a short 7 months with her, I had to say a very difficult goodbye and find a new job.  Although Mamie will never be replaced, I have definitely found a job that will be great for me and do a pretty good job of filling that void.  So far, I have kept in contact with Mamie’s parents and know that even though I’m unable to see her everyday like I used to, I will get to see her.  Their whole family is still in MN so they’ll be back to visit plenty and they promised to let me know when they are.  Nannying has been a great way for me to step back from the stress of life and figure out what it is that I want to do.  I know for sure that going back to school is in that plan but when, where and what for are all decisions being made.

My hope for this blog is to have somewhere to post most aspects of my life because Facebook and Twitter are just not places that I can do that.  I have so many interests that include but are not limited to:  dance, photography, music, babies, food (eating and making it), health and fitness, and beauty (and by beauty, I am primarily referring to my naturally curly hair and how I “deal” with it, but I’ve also taken an interest in makeup and stuff, as well).  I am sure this will be a great place to really express those interests in a tactful way.

do-the-russian-twist:

• The amount of sugar in fruit
• Eating too many carbs
• Eating too much fat 
• The yolks of eggs 
• Getting bulky 
• The fact that you weigh 5lbs more in the evening than you do in the morning 
• The cupcake you ate last tuesday 
• The circumference of your thighs