my sick day

Last week John had the stomach flu... I felt bad that he wasn't feeling very good at all, but honestly, I LOVED playing housewife and taking care of him. I fed him chicken noodle soup and everything! I think he enjoyed the banana popsicles and peach yogurt more though. For anybody who doesn't know, yoplait has the yummiest peach yogurt! 

Well... I guess it's my turn now. I was up in the night, with nausea and it hasn't stopped. That's not even the worst part though! John is doing a 24 hour shift at the fire station today so he can't even be here to take care of me. Don't worry though I've been snacking on saltine crackers all morning because he told me I should try to eat something. We'll see if I can keep them down! 

In honor of the final twilight movie coming out this week, I've been having a marathon by myself. I'm not the biggest twilight fan but I will admit I'm excited to see the new movie. I've been working on convincing John to come to the premier with me. Wish me luck on that one...

Does anybody use essential oils? Well I've made myself some peppermint tea for my stomach using doTERRA's peppermint oil. I just boil some water and put a drop of peppermint in it. You can add some stevia or honey to sweeten it up if you would like. Or you can just rub some on your stomach and it helps. Just be sure to put some kind of lotion or massage oil on first to dilute it because the peppermint is so strong and can burn your skin. I use coconut oil for that! 

My Mom and sisters are really into essential oils. I have a few of my own, all from doTERRA. My favorites are peppermint, lavender, melaleuca, and their own mix of oils called on guard. Everyone of their oils is all natural and each are used for different healing remedies. Check out their website! I highly recommend it.

missing our plunger

 One neat thing about living in an old basement duplex is that all of our appliances are just as old. Anybody who has seen our place is definitely jealous of our green refrigerator. But unfortunately our toilet is pretty ancient as well. We're lucky if we can get anything through it without having to use the plunger.
Well this morning we found ourselves in need of a plunger but we lent it out to a friend. I don't think very many people can say they've lent out their plunger but a few weeks ago one of my friends found herself in a little situation. We'll leave her name out of this to save her the embarrassment.

I have learned lots of life lessons from being married and this is one I'm not proud to admit but here it is: if the toilet doesn't flush the first time, don't flush it a second time. If by some chance you failed to read that first lesson and flushed it a second time, don't flush it a third time. All you end up with is soggy carpet, wet feet, and an "I could be happier-husband." Good thing he's so patient with me. Life lesson learned... We did eventually get our plunger back and currently we have a giant fan drying out the damage.

On a not-so-gross note, I'm taking a photography class and here are a few of my photos from my last assignment. While working in black and white, we were supposed to show the effects that natural sunlight has on our surroundings and also how to capture that light in our photos. Unfortunately I haven't been at my best creativity level in this class, and for an art major that can be quite frustrating at times. I'm working on it though and improving with each week. Give me some of your thoughts!

Some of these photos were taken out by Eagle Park Campground in Rexburg, close to what is commonly known as the "duck pond." Other photos were taken outside of our house.
I used a Nikon D3100 to shoot with and a 55-200 mm zoom lens. I'll do better keeping track of my aperture and exposure in the future for anybody who is interested. I don't usually edit my photos very much at all. I usually just bump up the exposure and the contrast a bit. I do this in Adobe Lightroom. It's an awesome program and simple to use. I have Photoshop as well but I'm still learning the tricks on that one.

to blog or not to blog

...THAT is the question. Once I started a blog, made two posts... and then deleted it. I never posted anything, and quite frankly, I got tired of my own blog. Surely nobody else could have been enjoying it. This time is different though (or so I say now). I spent some time this week brainstorming ideas. I didn't want to just be a family blog, a DIY blog, cooking blog, or fashion. My problem is that I want it to be an EVERYTHING blog!

So here I am. This is my lifestyle blog. Hopefully I can make my life seem interesting enough for people to read about. I haven't exactly figured out this whole blogging thing yet though so if you're reading and know what you're doing, some tips along the way would be much appreciated!

You can read more about me and my blog here and feel free to follow. I would love to follow your blog too so hit me up with a link. 

Happy happenings!