New Blog Coming Soon

As you can see, I've pretty much stopped blogging here.  There are a lot of reasons for that all of which will be explained in September when I launch my new blog.  On September first I will be switching that blog onto my Bloglovin' page.  Hope to see you there!

Bucket List: Go On A Mission Trip

I actually went on two missions trips over back to back summers.  The first was in 2004 and the second in 2005.

I talked about my first missions trip a few days ago.  We went to Chicago to work with Jesus People USA.  This was a 100% missions trip.  We worked the whole time and only had one evening of free time.  We went to a soup kitchen, visited with the elderly, worked at a halfway house and so much more.  It was a great trip and an amazing learning experience.

The second missions trip was part missions trip part fun trip.  We went to Acadia National Park in Maine.   However, we didn't know where we were going until we got there - only the leaders knew.  On this trip we did a lot of fun things but the missions work was also super fun.  We got to help out with the Central Maine Egg Festival.   As weird as it sounds, it was a lot of fun!  There were games, face painting, crafts, etc.  We were actually featured in the local newspaper - they wrote about our trip and our work with the festival.

My Travel Bucket List

This question should be illegal.  For Belinda's Blog Every Day in May Challenge, she asked us what is on our travel bucket list.   This post could seriously take days!  I pretty much want to go everywhere and my top places change all the time.  I was planning to write all about these places that I want to go, but I'm feeling lazy and it's the weekend so I am going to share some items from my Travel Bucket List board on Pinterest.

My Story in Photos

 This photo was taken in 1998 at Niagara Falls in Canada (me, Mom, sister and Grandpop).  This is when I first discovered that there is more to the world then the USA.  This is when I first really became curious about other cultures and other countries.   This trip planted the seed for my travel obsession.

Oh, Colorado!  This was the trip that really fueled the fire on my travel obsession.  I absolutely fell in love with Colorado and the Rocky Mountains.  I planned to go to college out west but unfortunately lack of  money kept that from happening.  However, me and Josh are planning to head out that way for vacation next year and I plan to convince him that we need to move there!

 This is one of my favorite wedding photos.  I am not much of a planner and though I hate the planning process, it ended up being a fantastic day.  And, even if everything would have gone wrong, I wouldn't have cared because at the end of the day, I still got to marry my favorite person.

My trip to Costa Rica was life changing for me.  I fell in love with this country and it's people.  I have such a heart for Central America now and I can't wait to take Josh here one day so he understands why I'm basically obsessed.  I learned so much on this trip I couldn't even begin to express it.  Costa Rica is definitely my favorite country I've visited and I can't wait to get back there.

I thought about putting up a photo from my Europe trip because that was another life changing trip for me, but I decided to go with this one because the Europe Trip gave me two of the best friends a girl could ask for.  Meagan, Britt and I became fast friends on that trip and managed to stay in touch almost 10 years later.  Meagan (left) lives in Florida and this photo is from the first time the three of us were together in 8 years!  Meagan had an internship in DC so me and Britt (who lives in my county) met up with her before a concert we were both going to (total coincidence).  We all picked up right where we left off and its really a testament to the great friendships you make while traveling.

15 Things About Me

I have decided to try to participate in Belinda's Blog Every Day in May Challenge.  Today we are supposed to introduce ourselves and since I am totally a list person, that is how I'm going to do this.  So here are 15 facts about me.

1.  I love Christmas movies and will watch them year round.  My favorites are Dear Santa, Christmas Kiss, Holiday Engagement ... and a bunch more that I can't think of right now.  Anyone who looks at my Netflix account would probably think I'm completely crazy - crazy chick watching Christmas movies in June.

2. I like to be alone.  As weird as it sounds I prefer shopping alone, I like eating alone so I can read, I live driving alone, and going to the movies alone.  This can definitely be a stressor for me and Josh because he is such a social person.  It's something we're always working on.

3.  I make lists for EVERYTHING.  The amount of notebooks I have that are filled with lists is insane.  And it drives Josh insane.

4.  I used to never stop reading a book no matter how much I hated it, but I've started growing out of that.  It started with Interview with A Vampire.  I hated that book and couldn't even force myself to read the last 100 pages. 

5.  I am a serious daydreamer.  My ability to stare into space for up to about an hour seriously amazes people. 

6. I love Instagram!  Facebook lately seems to be full of useless crap and people whining.  But Instagram is a simple photo and caption which I really like.  (I am also not a big fan of Twitter).

7.  One of my biggest "pet peeves" is being late.  I am one of those people who is annoyingly on time for everything. 

8.  I hate feet!  My own are fine but I cant have anyone elses near me.  I also really hate when people put their feet on my pillow.  This isn't such a big thing now as it was when I was a kid and friends would come over and sit on my bed. 

9.  I eat about 80% Organic.  I feel like the food tastes better and is usually more healthy.  Also, check on the expiration date on regular milk vs Organic - Organic lasts much longer which is great for someone like me who doesn't go through a lot of milk. 

10.  I only buy cruelty-free products.  I have an app called cruelty cutter and it is awesome.  You just scan any product and it'll tell you if it is cruelty free or not!

11.  I am one of those intense readers who will completely block out everything thing else.  People have to either touch me or make a really loud noise to snap me out of it.  I was actually at an old job on break and someone was trying to get my attention by yelling my name and I didn't hear a thing.  She ended up throwing an apron at me to get my attention.  I have to be careful not to get to that point at my current job.

12.  I love all animals but I am definitely more of a horse and dog person.

13.  I don't mind doing laundry but I hate folding and putting away my clothes.  I have 3 baskets full of clean clothes sitting in our bedroom right now. 

14. I am mildly obsessed with Tattoos.  I currently have 4 and have plans for 3 to 4 more.  I am also obsessed with watercolor tattoos and I am so glad I found an amazing artist who does a great job with them.  I would also love to get my lip pierced but I'm pretty sure my job would have a shit fit.

15. Because I can't think of another thing to add, I'll state the obvious - I love to travel!  It's one of the things I daydream about often.  As I get closer and closer to having some of my student loans paid off, I get more and more excited about being able to travel more!   I actually have a few trips in the works now.

Bucket List: Visit Chicago

I have been fortunate enough to visit Chicago twice; once in 2004 and once in 2013.

 My first visit was in 2004 with my church youth group.  We roadtriped to Chicago to work with an organization called Jesus People USA.  We did so much work there but the things that stand out were working at a halfway house, visiting elderly people, going thrift shopping, putting tire pieces on a playground,  working at a soup kitchen and learning how the organization worked throughout Chicago.  Thrift shopping was the most fun.  We were each given $5 to shop with and had to pick out as much as we could with that five dollars without going over.  We then had a fashion show to see who could get the most with their money.  The other was putting the tire pieces down on the playground.  We had a nice assembly line going and used the single black bucket (the rest were white) to keep track of how many buckets we used.  The first photo below is with our 100th black bucket (I'm in the white holding the bucket). We also had one free night in Chicago where we walked around and ate some of the famous deep dish pizza! The photo quality isn't very good because most of these were scanned.

My second trip to Chicago was in 2013.  My friend Heather was living there at the time for an internship and needed help moving back.  I flew out there and was only in Chicago for all of 8 hours before we started our drive back.  It was supposed to be longer but some other stuff came up and we had to cut it short.   We did get some sight seeing in and had a delicious lunch before getting on the road.  It was probably for the best because it was freaking freezing!!