hello there! {Let me spell it out plain and simple now. You.can.count.on.me.}

hey there fellow blogger friends! I hope you are having a good weekend. its raining right now and i'm hoping it cools things off. because its been hot.
We got back from out trip late Tuesday night and I haven't had the energy or time to sit down and blog. It was a very nice, low key trip, just what we needed. but alas, we're back to crazy busy normal life! ;)

Okay so most of you know that Mat Kearney's new album "Young Love" came out a few days ago. Once i heard "Down" on the radio I knew I wanted to own the whole cd. Because Mat Kearney's songs are just amazing. and Young Love is nothing short of awesome. and what made it even more awesome is that I got the deluxe edition for $5.99 at Best Buy! SCORE. So needless to say, its been on repeat since it came out :)

here's a song for ya: [warning: it might be stuck it head just after one listen]



 
Remember these goals i made for the trip? well lemme do a little report of how i did.

• take my soccer gear and touch the ball everyday. work on passing, dribbling, control, etc. - oh boy. well i didn't do so well on that goal. i only touched the ball/did drills, ONCE. there i said it. it was so hot(like 95+) and humid and there were gnats that would not leave you alone. and i didn't feel like going outside very much.
• walk/run every other day if not every day. I really need to do this. -i didn't do this either. blah. i WAS going to one day but there was this dog that had decided that half of the lane(my mom's family has their own lane, cuz we're awesome like that) was his territory and chased anyone who went down there. so i opted out.
• stick to my gluten(and other allergies) free eating deal. My mom and I are making lists of foods and meals I can take/make there so I have food I can definitely eat. As always, there's a stock of candy/sweets at Grandma's so it will take some strength and self control not eat it ;) -This is the one I actually did well on! I stuck to my free food plan the whole time except for when I ate a few mini Snickers bars which had nuts in them and oh.my.stars. the reaction was one of the worst i've ever had. like 5 mins after the 3rd one i ate, my legs broke out in red super itchy bumps. all over. my legs were all swollen and red. yeah, not fun. thankfully they just stayed on my legs and didn't spread. I had to take Benedryl and after like 20 mins. i was a lot better. but there are still scars and scabs from he episode. i stayed far away from the nuts for the rest of the trip!
  

• Do the 30 DS at least 4 times. -yes! I actually did pretty well on this! I worked out 3-4 times(can't remember exactly) while i was there and i'm proud that i did that! :) 

*i did some yard work and such while i was there so i'm counting that as exercise*

• take tons of pictures and work on my photography -i did take a lot of photos! like a couple hundred. mostly of the landscape and flowers :) I experimented with light and angle. pictures to come!
•  don't forget my time with God. a lot of the time when we're visiting family, God gets put on the back burner because I'm not focusing on Him. okay so i think i could of done better on this but I read some sections of Crazy Love and the content was on my mind for the rest of the week and i thought a lot about it.
• enjoy my family! :) - CHECK! :) I did enjoy my family! There was little fighting among my siblings and I so that was oh so nice ;) I think the reason was that everyone could spread out and kinda do their own thing so we weren't with each other all the time. :) 

well that's it for now! Just wanted to give ya a little update :) I'm planning on posting pictures from the trip this week!

I'm off to make pancakes!

much love,
Samarah♥