Well, I started going through my pictures yesterday to post this blog and then my fever came back…WITHIN AN HOUR it was up to 102.4! Needless to say, I'm posting it now.

I still can't believe it's been SEVEN years that I've been with the love of my life. Just so you know, this is a picture OVERLOAD post.

This was during our first year of dating, 2006, with our kitty Schmittens whom we no longer have.

Yeah, we're still just as retarded.

I do believe I was probably 15 pounds overweight in 2007 and didn't know it lol

Our trip to Universal Studios in 2008

Tim's brother's wedding, fall 2008

New Year's Eve 2009

July 4, 2010.
Just looking at this picture makes me not want summer to come-I hate hot weather. Anything higher than like 80 degrees is awful. Tim agrees, he wants to move to Alaska lol.

My sister's wedding, April 9, 2011

Sleighbell Parade 2011

Trip to Middleton, WI, summer 2012

Us being awesome, summer 2012

Not so great picture, but it was such a fun day :)

Sleighbell Parade 2012

Tim and I have been together through thick and thin, better and worse, richer and poorer. We're not even married yet. I think we can handle anything that comes our way. Love you babe!

Okay, so I haven't been doing so hot at one of my New Year's Resolutions….blogging lol. However, I have a couple good excuses-I planned and we had my sister's baby shower (I'll post pictures in a later post) and then I got super sick and did nothing but come home and sleep…and cry (tears from sickness, not because I was sad lol-they just kept POURING out because I had such a high fever). I'm on the mend, so I figured before I go to bed tonight, I'd post a couple of pictures from my newish job (I started in mid-December)! It was such an answer to prayer. I'd seriously been praying for approximately two years about needing a new job. I was getting so frustrated with feeling "stuck" at my old job, and it was putting a damper on my optimism-I wanted to feel good about my life and where it was headed. This job came at the PERFECT time, which I'll explain why in a later post :)

In case you're wondering, I received that trophy for being "such an awesome friend" to my friend Rosa lol. She made me promise I'd keep it at my new job :)

This is going to be the only post I do on my job since I don't want to post anything about work :) I had to post something though because it's SUCH an answer to prayer! I work with the most amazing financial company. I never thought I'd go into financing, even as an Office Administrator. I never found it interesting; and as stupid as it sounds, I never thought financing was all that important until later in life. Tim used to handle our money. He used to pay our bills-he'd just tell me how much my half of the amount was. I never cared about the rest. That's changed. I've only been working there for about a month, but I've learned SO many interesting things in my training. The training for my job takes a YEAR! And even then I won't know everything because they are constantly updating to keep up with the times :). I have great hours, M-F, 8-4:30 and 8-4 on Fridays because my boss likes getting out early :), WAY better pay, and good insurance too. The company is so great to their employees; and honestly, everyone's so nice-I literally had like 10 people I didn't know call me on my first day to welcome me and let me know I'm not alone. The company is managed very well, something I couldn't say about my previous job. And I couldn't have asked for a better boss-we get along GREAT.

 This was a day I just HAD to take a picture because I was so proud of myself for getting all that mailed out in time :) And yes, EVERY letter mailed out had a hand-written address on it.

 I was rewarded with this from my boss-yes, it was still in the Halloween bowl lol

Me and my new headset :)

You should have seen how many pictures I took of myself lol

Here's an outtake:

Good grief.

I think I'll be skipping around a bit since I only posted once since October, and I do have quite a few events that happened since then :) But I'm going to try my darndest to keep posting at least once a week!

New Year's Resolutions:

1. Read one book a month.
2. Try one new recipe a month (we're cutting back on spending money, so this is doable).
3. Find a way to show Tim I love him every day.
4. Put my clothes in the hamper, not next to it…this will help with #3 :)
5. If you've ever read Gretchen Rubin's books ("The Happiness Project" and "Happier at Home"), you know they're awesome. If you haven't read them, read them; you'll think they're awesome too. I plan on incorporating a few ideas of hers into my life. I'd like to work more on being content with my life.
6. Simplify how we live. We're going to be on my income only for 6 months while Tim is working towards his degree, which means a major cutback on spending for the both of us.
7. Travel somewhere, ANYWHERE, once a month. It could even be in the next town over, just somewhere. I want Tim and I to try something new every month. Keep our lives exciting :)
8. Write in BLOG once a week.

I've been super sucky when it comes to writing in this blog. I recently started a new job (YAY) and I'm either too tired to blog or nothing interesting is going on. HOWEVER, I WILL BE BLOGGING AGAIN. I just looked through all my pictures that I've taken since I last posted; and holy crap, there will be things to blog about :)

like this :)

Sorry I haven't blogged in like 3 weeks! But SO much has happened :)

Ok, the weekend of my birthday started out with a girl's night with Heather :) We went to the Sportsman's Bar, had some delicious food (and drinks!), and then realized it was TRIVIA NIGHT!!!

 Our team was the Nancy Drewers. And we got second to last place… :)

This is my birthday present from Heather. She got it from my favorites on etsy :) I LOVE IT!

 My sister got me this cute little necklace from my favorites on etsy too :) She also made me some homemade caramels and gave me some apples. They're AWESOME!!!

 Tim and I went to Grand Rapids to go mainly to Plato's Closet. I didn't find much there, which was disappointing, but we did go to Krispy Kreme :) I was just going to get one donut, but Tim suggested we get a dozen. I willingly agreed lol :)

 Bavarian cream, lemon, pumpkin spice, blueberry, chocolate, cinnamon roll, and regular. Yummy!

 We then took a random picture with the gourds at Meijer...

 On my birthday, Tim said he'd be making dinner and cake! And um, no that is not a spatula, it's a pie cutter/pickerupper lol. He rarely cooks. 

 Yummy, red velvet cake with vanilla frosting. I had wanted german chocolate cake with frosting, but Tim kept saying how he wanted to write on the cake, so I got red velvet. Still good :)

 Making the one AWESOME dish he knows how-tortillini with cherry tomatoes and spinach.

 SO GOOD! Don't mind the just showered, no makeup look. Tim said I should take a shower since I just worked out and looked like crap lol.

 THIS IS WHY!!! Tim covered my eyes, led me into the kitchen where the cake was lit, and when I opened my eyes, he was down on one knee :) It was so nice. We ate so many candles LOL! I was COMPLETELY surprised and started crying, as I was perfectly content with him just making me dinner/cake for my birthday, unaware that he had other plans :) Tim had originally planned on having a friend come pick me up and us drive around a little bit, ending up at a place where he would come riding up on a horse (like my knight in shining armor), get off the horse and propose :) AND THEN IT RAINED…ALL WEEKEND! :( I still love the cake though-and his handwriting :)

 Since it's just us two, we sometimes drink out of containers rather than getting cups. I know normally guys only do this, but it's SO MUCH easier than getting a cup dirty lol :)

I always thought I'd want something vintage, not realizing that this is me. Simple but SUPER sparkly :) I love it. I can't wait to see it with the wedding band :)

I did my own nails because I'm cheap that way. Oh my gosh, it's hard making an upside-down heart lol!

Quinoa burgers and sweet potato fries

I don't know WHY this picture turned out the way it did-quinoa burgers look more appealing than this :) Click on the link below to see a delicious looking quinoa burger :)

Tim and I have been trying to eat healthy; however, this normally includes me sneaking healthy foods into our dinners. Tim's parents didn't really have any fruits/vegetables at meals besides corn. When Tim and I first started dating, it was super difficult to try and make meals because he was super picky and wouldn't try anything new. Well, I'm proud to say, I've changed him. He doesn't eat carrots raw or anything, but he'll eat pretty much anything I make now. I've just "hidden" the vegetables. Chicken pot pie, shepherd's pie, chicken noodle soup, chili and lasagna (with added veggies)…etc., he'll eat it all. And these quinoa burgers? I'm happy to say, yes he ate not only one, but TWO! I love quinoa, not only because it's good for you, but because it has such a unique taste/crunch to it. This recipe has some interesting ingredients in it that you wouldn't think would go together, but they do.

On top of our quinoa burgers, we had sour cream. I actually even tried cottage cheese on top (besides what was in the recipe), and that tasted pretty good too. Tim wanted more flavoring, so he added some ranch dressing. I also made homemade buns that were AWESOME!

I wasn't sure what to eat with the quinoa burgers but finally decided on Alexia Foods, spicy sweet potato fries. Tim and I have been trying to find good sweet potato fries; however, we were disappointed again. They were OKAY, but nothing special. We'll keep looking and let you know if we find the right one :) By the way, we have tried their onion rings, and those were good (besides the ones I burnt), so if you like sweet potato fries, try these; maybe you'll like them more than we did :)

You can get the recipe I used for the burgers HERE. I used the carrots in this recipes; however, I have used zucchini in the past, and it tastes great! I didn't use normal quinoa in my recipe, I used (can't remember the brand) a spicier quinoa with black beans. It just added an extra kick to it that tasted great. You will not be disappointed by this recipe.