Anniversary Photoshoot

I am guest posting about a few of my summer goals over @ The Arizona Russums. Be sure to pop on over and say hello to Jen. She will have some fun guest posters this week as she is busy with end of the semester stuff.

I'm linking up today with Carissa today for Miscellany Monday. 

I wanted to share with you some of the pics from the anniversary photo shoot my husband and I did on our anniversary, April 17th. We went back to our wedding venue and had our good friend DaisyJo snap some shots. She did an amazing job and we are so happy with the photo's we got back (over 150 of them). I am here today to share just a few of our favorites. I've broken them down into his and her favorites as I like to see the differences in our taste :)

HIS

I have a version of this one that's a favorite of mine too. We are looking at each other in it.

this is a favorite of mine too, but I like the color one better

one of my favorites too :)

HERS

We hope to take a picture every year on our anniversary holding the photo from the year before

I love the tenderness of this photo

Be sure to stop by tomorrow for the launch of MAYSPIRATION. I can't wait. I have some amazing ladies and gents lined up to share some inspiring and motivating stories. Good stuff! Happy last day of April to each of you! ♥

Sunday Funday

Well, at least I hope it's Sunday Funday for you. For me, it's back to the working grind. But, I sure did enjoy my Friday & Saturday off.

Friday my husband was pretty much even more amazing than usual. He completely cleaned our house for me. Literally. Friday was our day to clean around the house and prepare for our housewarming party on Saturday. Yes, we moved in February, however the past few months have been SO busy, we just got around to having our house warming party. Anyways, my husband is always helpful around the house, and I know I am blessed for that. But, Friday, I didn't have too much on the honey do list, the big thing was the bathroom. I don't like tackling that. Ew! But seriously, while I was out and about running some errands before settling in to clean, he put up laundry, did more laundry, put that up as well, swept all rooms, cleaned the bathrooms, cleaned the kitchen, cleared our coffee table, and more. I was in awe when I came home. What seems like such a huge task to me, and takes me forever because I allow myself to become distracted, took him just two hours. All that was left for me to do was mop. Wow. Thanks honey!

Saturday was the Great Strides walk for Cystic Fibrosis as well as our house warming party.

I have pictures I want to share, as well as more details, however I just wanted to pop in quickly since I haven't since Thursday. 

Speaking of Thursday, I became some how involved in office drama at work which is never any good. I like to avoid drama at all costs, but, talking to my sister, she said something to me that stuck... "Those that have nothing to hide, hide nothing" and isn't that the truth? Love it. I have a new quote :)

I've also been busy this weekend organizing various guest posts that have been submitted for MAYspiration. Can you believe the 1st is right around the corner? I am excited. I want to share some inspiration with you. I want to help motivate you. There are so many things, big and small we can all be doing to change this world and make it a better place. And, there's no time like the present to start. I still have a few spots open for guest posts, if you are interested in being part of MAYspiration, please shoot me an email @ browneyedbellblog at yahoo dot com. Even if you don't have anything to share right now, there will be a big link up on May 31st, so, consider joining in for that. Please feel free to grab a MAYspiration button and place it on your blog to help spread the word.

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Happy Sunday Friends. ♥

Thankful Thursday V8.4

This weeks Thankful Thursday edition is in honor of all the social networking sites and applications that I probably waste too much time on.

♥ blogger - I love documenting the daily adventures, or misadventures of my life. It's basically an online scrapbook and I feel so blessed that YOU find it worthy of reading.

♥ twitter - I don't update this as often as I see others do, and often I will go all day without posting at all, BUT I do enjoy twitter, especially following tweets of celebs. I love that I can communicate with people I admire, such as former biggest loser contestants. Without twitter, I likely never would have chatted with them. so cool.

♥ pinterest oh pinterest. what can I say about you? It's a love/hate relationship. I love that I can store a plethora of information on various (organized) boards instead of having an overloading bookmarks menu. I hate how an hour can go by and it feels like just a few moments when I am lost in your wonder.

♥ Instagram - Daily photo's are fun, no? Find me, HeatherLC02

♥ My Fitness Pal - this app really keeps me accountable with how many calories I've ate. It helps me to avoid overeating which is SO easy to do. Without it I never really counted calories, but it makes it so easy, and when I see I am over, it really makes me think about my food choices.

♥ Facebook - easy way to share blog posts with my followers :) 

♥ DrawSomething - I am ridiculously horrible at this game, no joke, but it's still fun! If you'd like to see my horrid drawings and try to figure out what on earth they are, find me, HeatherLC02

♥ Words With Friends - This was my go to, before I got addicted to DrawSomething. It's still fun, find me if you are bored, HeatherLC02

I am torn with technology. It can do SO much good, yet just as much bad. There's always a battle between good and evil. I am very thankful for technology and all the good it does.  I realize just how blessed we are. This truly is way beyond anything our parents ever used to have. Heck, it's amazing to think that computers had just begun the to be dreamed up in the 1950's. According to wikipedia, it is estimated that in 1993 the internet carried only 1% of the information flowing through two way telecommunication. By 2000 this figure had grown to 51% and by 2007 more than 97% of all telecommunicated information was carried over the internet. Really?! Wow. Just wow. 

What websites or applications are you thankful for? 
I would love to have you link up!

Note: Linkytools is down, so I am doing just the text link up with inlinkz

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I am linking up with some other Thankful Thursday's this week: 

The Fontenot Four, Kate Says Stuff, A Punk, A Pumpkin, and a Peanut, Black Tag Diaries, & First Day Of My Life.

Humpty Dumpty Photo Dump

Steff  may not be hosting Humpty Dumpty, but I am still participating today :D

Yesterday was a really bad day at work. An unexpected bad day. Sometimes I can go in and be fully prepared mentally for a bad day, say, days that we are overbooked for instance. But yesterday? No, we weren't overbooked. I don't go into much details about my employment on here as I prefer not to write about work, but, I have to vent about my day today. Let's just say I made a mistake. A mistake that cost the company and we are going back into field today to "make up" surveys for free. Did I mention I work at a call center? It just sucks because I've been doing this position for at least 5 years, and stuff that I've done for YEARS has changed, so you have to be extra careful not to do stuff the old way, or you can cause technical issues. BOO! So yes, today I will be dealing with the same job that made yesterday miserable. Here's to a better afternoon!

To brighten this day, I figured a humpty dumpty (Wednesday/Hump Day) photo drop.

Anniversary steak dinner where we met :)

 Part of the top of our brownie cake, one year later.

Friendly neighborhood gopher 

Vintage singer sewing table that Ryan refinished for me ♥

Pizza... mmm.

Indian food, butter chicken & naan bread.

A friend is trusting me to borrow this!

Kicking crab chowder @ work

Friendly neighborhood horsey 

My friends son, Levi on a morning stroll today.

Happy Hump Day everyone! Half way through the week.

Miscellany Monday

I am not here today because I am keeping Ashley's blog company while she is enjoying some time away. Head on over to The Shine Project to say hello!

I am blogging about MAYspiration. Can you believe May is just around the corner? I can't! Wow. time sure does fly as you get older. I can remember in high school I'd constantly complain about how slow time moved, and how long it took for summer break to get there. Not anymore. Slow down, please.

Anyways, be sure to swing by The Shine Project if you've never been before. I guarantee you will become a new follower. Ashley is so inspirational, she is BEING the change she wants to see in this crazy world.

If you'd like to grab a button for MAYspiration feel free to, there are a few options on the right hand side of my blog. Also, be sure to check my post from yesterday for an update on the two charity events I participated in this rainy weekend.

A Rainy Eventful Weekend

Well, that rain us Floridians have been praying for? It finally hit.... this past weekend. A weekend in which I had not one, but two outdoor charity events that I was participating in. Ouch! But, beggars can't be choosers, and even though the rain effected the events, I am still very grateful to get some saturation. We desperately needed it. Maybe the burn ban will be lifted soon? I want to have some bonfires!

I had such a jam packed, but fun, weekend.

We will start with Friday. Bartow Relay for Life. My friends and I have been participating in the Relay for Life since 2008. Since that time we have probably raised closed to, if not over, 5,000. This year our team, the Cancer Knockouts was able to raise $852. Individually I was able to raise $317. Every little bit helps! The rain greatly effected this years Relay, which is a bummer. The turnout was not nearly what it has been in years past. And the event was actually called off at midnight due to more impending storms. Relay normally goes from 5pm Friday - 8am Saturday. One of the best parts about Relay is the food. It's like fair food. But, this year was disappointing. Some of our favorite vendor's didn't show, likely due to the weather. But, we did still manage to find some eats. I had, don't judge, fried brownies, fried oreos, and a cheeseburger. The fried brownies were out of this world amazing. I should have never tried one! Now I crave!

Mutant Turkey Leg?

fried brownies

Survivor Lap <3 One of my bestie's Ashley is in the pink jacket.

Gina & I

missing Ash in this pic :(

Saturday was the 20th annual SPCA Walk-a-thon. I've been participating in this event since 2005 and have raised over $10,000 for them. As most of you know, I am a huge animal person so this event is one of my favorites to participate in. I was able to raise $571 for this years event. One of my favorite parts of the event is the costume contest as me and my friends have always been real creative and won many years. In the past I've entered my Dad's two dogs, Tanner & Paris as a team.  They have been Rapunzel and the Dark Knight, Wilbur & Charlotte, Cops & Robbers, & Biggest Loser Dogs. This year instead of taking the two as a team, I decided to take my dog, Bullseye as he is better behaved. I was super excited to have a unique costume. My friend and I made a pacman arcade box and dressed Bullseye as Pacman. I definitely think we would have taken 1st, 2nd, or 3rd prize had there not been a theme this year! WHAT?! Yes. In all the years past that I've participated there has never been a theme and this year there was. BOO! The theme was Jimmy Buffet Bark-a-ritaville. And yes, Pacman has NOTHING to do with that. But, I had no shame. I put time and effort into the costume, and I was going to show it off. So, we sat around in a little circle filled with tons of Hawaiian themed dogs, and we rocked the Pacman, proudly. Since my wedding was the same weekend as the walk last year, I wasn't able to make it. SO, they very well may have had a theme last year too. I am not sure. What I do know is I am NOT a big fan of the 'themed contest'. It doesn't give participants many options as to what to do. I am not kidding that most people just dressed their dogs in Hawaiian type gear this year. I'd much rather just have a general costume contest and let the most creative win. Oh well, at least I know for next year, check the theme.

early in the day, just watching everyone

still happy, ears up

ears back, not happy. "Mom, whyyy?!"

"are we done yet?"

this was one of my favorite costumes. :)

one of the winners

2nd place

another winner

side note:  I am still so sad Picnik closed. Any recommendations on where I can go for editing and make collages? I used picmonkey for the above, but they don't have collage capability... yet. It appears they will be getting it, as well as charging for membership soon.

Another awesome thing from the weekend is the fact that one of my best friends drove up to stay the weekend and participate in the events. It was awesome having her stay with me for two nights. I don't have many friends that enjoy eating outside the norm, and she does. Last night we enjoyed some amazing take out Indian food. We brought it home and watched The Vow. Before that, we caught the matinee showing of The Lucky One. Can we say chick flick overkill? Yup. Pretty much.

I had a wonderful weekend. I hope you did to! What did you do?