my favorite time of the year.

The most wonderful time of the year, that's my favorite season. Christmas. I love the sights, sounds, decorations, music, drinks, foods, carefully wrapped packages, smiles, family, friends and cold weather. There's nothing like it. I'm thankful that even through my health issues(update coming in my next post), I'm still able to enjoy the season :)

we'e had lots of this-rain. and no.snow. unless you count the few flurries that came down and didn't stick yesterday

cinnamon chex while setting up the Christmas tree 

I'm a bit addicted to taking pictures of Christmas lights. Bokeh to be exact. I'll stand in front of our tree and take like 15 straight. 

I hope you all are having a great Christmas season and that your eyes are being opened daily by Christ's amazing love.

{there are definitely more posts coming, including a health update and award/tag!}

xo,
Marissa

October.

starting from the top left and going around clockwise. 

*I haven't worked out in a few weeks and wanted to start again but lacked motivation but when I(my mom) bought these 2 new workout tops at ON earlier today, I'm feeling inspired! Nothing like new clothes to kick yourself back into gear :) 

* a really encouraging sign above the scale at my friend's house. YOUR WEIGHT DOES NOT DEFINE YOU. 

* rewatching Downton Abbey. Sybil and Branson are just...yeah. 

* I love my momma <3 i="i" nbsp="nbsp">

* Love Light's 'Cactus in the Valley' lyrics 

* healthy breakfast start to the October month! 

* fall leaves 

* we had lots of rain last week and after a shower, I went out and took some pictures. 

* sunset 

* GF donut love 

* Go Packers! I havent' been able to watch any games but you can be sure I stay in the know ;) 

* fall colors 

Happy October y'all! Its hard to believe its October and officially fall. Oh fall, its my favorite season. Its just perfect. I'm especially loving it because we are having such a much more colorful and fallish-fall than last year where it just rained and the leaves were brown before they fell from the tree. The photo in the center of the collage is my absolute favorite instagram I've taken and I'm in love with it. I took it this morning when my family and I stopped at some beautiful trees to take pictures while out running errands.

Update on my momma: She is doing a lot better compared to when she first hurt herself, but still is sore and can't do much. She will have physical therapy for 4 weeks starting Monday.

Update on me: I have an appointment with a food allergy specialist on the 16th because this new doctor I went to last week said that there's not reason why I should have so many allergies/intolerances. now I'm having nutrition deficiency. She also said that I most likely have a germ/disease in my gut that needs to be healed. We are praying hard that this specialist has some answers and can help me feel better. In the mean time, I feel tired, more than sleep can cover and have a hard time dealing with all the emotions. but I'm so thankful for what i have and I'm reminded daily of how Christ loves me and he is so much stronger than life and its struggles. remember that always friends, don't stop fighting. You are loved by the most awesome God and its even okay to not be okay but never quit.

with that said here's some of my goals for this week and month:

week: 

-workout 3 times. Including running, yoga and try a new workout.
-respond to the personal emails that have been sitting in my inbox for *a while*
-eat the best I can.
-track food and exercises on Livestrong
-practice a good night time routine (see month goals)

month: 

-workout at least twice a week(hopefully with mom getting better I'll have more time for working out)
-try going to youth group (I've had trouble fitting in my youth group at church during the past year so I stopped going and starting serving in nursery and participated in a bible study. well this year, I've been in contact with my small group leaders and such and i feel like i should try it out.)
-be positive
-pray more
-practice a good night time routine: computer/iphone off around 8/9, tv show/reading till 10:30. then sleep.


what are your goals for this October? its never too late! :)

your friend, 
marissa

monday.

those are some shots from my monday so far. its gorgeous out...the air is off and windows open! its so sunny and breezy :) We are leaving this weekend to spend a week visiting family about 10 and 8 hours away so I'm slowly getting this together and ready for that and checking things off my To Do list. packing my clothes stress me out, anyone else? I can pack food, electronics and everything else fine but i'm always rechecking and making sure I have enough clothes and if I have that one favorite tank or have enough socks ;)
and that soup... Cheese Potato Broccoli soup to be exact. yum yum YUM.

one of the things on my To Do list is to take my little sister to go see Brave tomorrow! I'm so excited! She's only been to the theaters once before and I know she will be thrilled when I tell her plus I'm looking forward to seeing the movie too ;)

what are you up to on this monday? 

eat.sleep.ice.tumblr.

this picture makes me smile. one of the little girls i watch. the adorableness doesn't stop.

that's been my saturday. then add my little brother falling outside off the tree house and having to go to the ER at 10 this morning. (he's okay but his face is swollen and bruised.) I have an awful awful awful sinus headache. there's so much pressure pushing on all sides and its overwhelming. My mom is currently at good ole' wally world getting some medicine for me that will hopefully help. I thought i'd write a blog post to help keep my mind off the pain.

--I saw Snow White and The Huntsman last sunday. it was pretty good. more thoughts on that later.

--while we are talking movies, my dad and i watched The Prestige the other night. whoa. SO GOOD. I loved it. I was kinda lost the first 45 mins but I caught on quickly. PLUS it had Christian Bale(Batman), Scarlett Johansson (The Black Widow), Hugh Jackman(Wolverine), Michael Caine(Alfred, Batman's butler) and Andy Serkis(Gollum in LoTR) so an awesome cast. I highly recommend it.

--remember when shared that i had lost a bunch of weight last summerish? welp, i've recently slacked on keeping it off and i've gained more than half of it back :/ yes, i'm a bit discouraged but I'm choosing to be motivated and not let it get to my head. i know i can get it back off and keep it off. it takes dedication and discipline. i've upped my workouts. for instance, last night I did an 1 hour of yoga and then ran a mile. i had to push myself so hard to run that mile straight, its been a while since i've ran but man, that felt SO good. I felt SO refreshed and energized and my headache was gone(or i didn't think about it)...for about 20 mins then I started feeling bad again. but it was worth it. and i think of how i felt with those pounds lost, that's motivating. I keep reminding myself that my weight does not define me. and it doesn't define YOU either. there are NO excuses when it comes to eating healthy and working out. absolutely none. i did that workout last night even though i had a terrible headache and had an extremely long day. make good choices everyday. you can do it!

--can this kitchen be mine? puhleeze.

i can't think of anything else to say. except I'm loving this set of gifs. don't know why.

i hope you are having a fabulous weekend <3

just a random post.

its been a while since i've done a random post? talking about this and that. they seem rather popular with you all and i like to write them ;)

--well right now its 84 degrees. ITS MARCH 21st!! the weather has been really extremely hot lately. in the winter, it was super cold and then it went straight to hot. but i'm trying not to complain, I do love having the windows open and the sunshine. i keep thinking about all those dreary winter days when it wouldn't stop snowing or raining. i'm even trying not to say its "hot". its very warm. ;) with everything so warm though, the trees/flowers/bushes are in full bloom. its really pretty! here are some shots i got over the past week.

--I finished up Robin Hood. I watched the very last 2 episodes yesterday. TALK ABOUT SAD. I won't say much about it for those people who haven't watched it yet. but maaan. beware if you go to my tumblr, there are spoilers.

yes, i am a nerd.

--i wish i had the time and skills to makeover my blog myself, it reeeealy needs a facelift. but alas, i don't want to use a free cheesy template or pay big bucks for someone else to do it. *sigh*

--I'm entering into the Hunger Games world. errr district? ;) I bought my own copy of the 1st book and it came today! i babysat till 4:30pm and i could not wait to get home! I'm planning on starting it tonight. :) i've heard and seen so much about it, TONS of stuff about it on tumblr.

speaking of, I looked up the soundtrack and fell in love with this song: i'm sure i'll like it even more after i read the book.



that's all the randomness for now! i'm off to workout, shower and start my book ;)

<3

so that was Christmas and this is break. i like it.

just how can it be Decemeber 30th?? it was just Christmas like...5 days ago. And 2012 is literally right around the corner. well, I had a pretty great Christmas and this week has been pretty nice as well{aside from physically feeling crummy most of the time}. A break from babysitting kids(except for 2 days), school and the regular daily routine.
 lets start with Christmas :)
the day consisted of church, breakfast muffins, opening gifts, cinnamon rolls, spending the evening with friends, playing the wii and taking naps. oh and NO SNOW[just fyi]. at the end of the day this is how i summed it up-- (from my twitter)
 today was one of the best days ive had in a while. despite physically feeling bad i was happy :) i'm so blessed by my God, family & friends!

 It was SO fun to watch my family open their gifts especially my siblings. my sister freaked out when she opened her Jamie Grace CD I got her. freaked out i tell ya. ;)

I got some pretty cool things too! here are a few of them.

one of my favorites are...these boots. 

an armband for my ipod & The Dark Knight and RV movies from my dad. :)

yum.

as for this week-- I've been fighting a really bad headache. we're not sure the cause of it {like most of the time} and it will get really painful then will lessen up and so forth. its very frustrating to say the least. so that had taken a toll on my enjoying this break :3 a good thing is that I can rest and not do anything because I feel so bad and not feel guilty about not getting school done! haha ;)
The week has been spent relaxing, playing the Wii, lots of movie watching, ignoring the book that I really should be reading for school and other things like that ;)

Speaking of movies, in the past week and a half my dad and I have watched the first 3 Pirates of the Caribbean movies. It was my first time seeing them and I really like them.  the first and second ones are my favorites. [the 1st one might very well rank as an all time favorite. whoa.]the third one wasn't as good in my opinion compared to the others.

yep.

and the music scores are so awesome. I love 'em. I've had "Singapore" stuck in my head. mmhmm.

on Wednesday my friend and I went on a spontaneous trip to the movies to see We Bought a Zoo.

 

It was really cute and a feel good movie. at times i was like okay where in the world is the plot to this movie and where are we going?? but I didn't think about it too hard ;) it was a good pick me up after a bad morning. :) plus, I love going to the theater. with friends.

now its friday. and i've spent the morning first watching Some little house on the prairie with my sister and then on the computer. I'm gonna go spend more time on the computer and later go do something useful ;)

what have you been up to this past week? :) 

Christmas wish list {plus some photos}

Merry Christmas Eve everyone! I hope you are enjoying a relaxing day :)

here are some photos that I've taken over the past week or so. they are my first tries at the whole "bokeh" thing.

 

 

 

And when i discovered pinterest and all the wonderful things you can find through it, I created a board just for Christmas and Birthday wishes ;)

1. Starflower Knitted Hat
2. itouch/iphone charger holder
3. Fingerless Gloves 
4. Mr. Darcy Proposal Mug- i love this! ;)
5. The Dark Knight Soundtrack
6.  Clay Matthews Packers Jersey but really any Packers Jersey will do ;)
7. Thor Soundtrack
8. Brown Burnish Buckle Boots. --we actually found some similar to those at Kohls and my dad got them as a Christmas gift for me. Can't wait to open them and wear them! :)
9. Emma- i adore that movie
10. love that movie too
11. no words needed
12. I have 5 and 6 and would really like to have the rest! such a good wholesome series.

So what do you have anything in particular that you would like to have?

:)

favorites from the week.

happy saturday friends! here are some favorites from this past week including both things i've found online and little things in my life :) [warning, there are a lot ;]

stunning photos of London over HERE

THIS adorable couple Christmas/winter shoot.

THESE gorgeous wedding photos that I LOVE

keep stepping.

getting and finding all kinds of wonderful new free food including Glutino's Gluten Free Chocolate Covered Pretzels. SO good!

got this album on Amazon for $2. some lovely holiday tunes.

yes.

Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer

watching Murder She Wrote and Monk with mom at night

Coldplay. a band I recently discovered. Viva La Vida is a favorite right now.

before i die.

Jennifer's inspiring post about being original. {not to mention that her photos are downright gorgeous. like the one above}

these 2 Tim Hawkins videos. hilarious.




 what are some of your favorites from this week?

*all photos that do not have a link are from pinterest.* 

I slept in till 11 this morning and that was very nice. I ate breakfast and I'm now spending my time relaxing. {i.e.-- being lazy on the computer ;} and then later tonight I'm babysitting. what are YOU doing today?

much love♥