Forever Plus One.

My favorite part of the month. Letter time. The prompt for this month is on dates and the like.

Roland,

Dating has always been something different for us. Starting out with a relationship on the DL due to work conflicts never makes "dating" easy. For awhile it was something that caused anxiety and stress. For those first 6 months dating became movies on the couch and take out. And I was ok with that. It was us, homebodies.

After I moved jobs and dating in the outside world became acceptable, it was harder. Where to eat.. well now that our options were pretty much limitless, WHERE DO WE EAT? Looking back we probably should have started a system a list of places we liked and put them in a hat, or some sort of order to eat at. Still to this day, it's a huge debacle for us to pick a place to eat and we usually end up falling into our same routine of take out and movies on the couch, and I'm ok with that. It's very us.

Dating has become something different entirely. When you're dating and you read articles about "dating after your married" you think surely things won't change that much. But everything changes, we get busy, we get tired, we miss each other and instead of wasting time deciding where to eat and spending our evening surrounded by other people's days, it's easier to do it our own way. And I'm ok with that.

We find dates in our daily schedules. Dating has become breakfast with my parents, talking about our impending future, and lunch dates at Guadalajara talking about our work mornings, and picking up Chick-fil-a on your way home and flipping a coin to see what movie we're watching tonight, or on your weekends off going to the track. Dating has become picking the everyday moments of our together lives. And I'm, more ok with that.

Listening to my single friends talk about how crazy guys are and how hard dating is, I don't envy them not even a little. There isn't anything I want more than to date you for the rest of my life.


Your forever +1

Letters: The refreshing vs. the mundane

Amber's marriage letters have always been a source of inspiration to me, as a newly wed trying to navigate our new lives together. Other than our parents, Roland and I don't have any close married friends. And as parents they can sometimes be a bit bias when giving their opinion as what's better for me rather than "us." I mean they're parents and that's what they've been doing for 24+ years, so no one can blame them.

This year there are going to be a lot of changes in our household, a lot of questioning "can we do it" before the fact and the ever frustrating "why did we do it" among the crazy days. There's nothing I'd love more than to be able to look back on our time as newly weds with the world at our fingertips and smile. Reading how we grew together, better, stronger. The letters probably won't always be to my husband, but that's where we're starting today.

Roland, 

This past weekend we broke from our normal routine. Instead of making dinner and playing an hour of rock-paper-scissors to see who gets to pick the movie, we celebrated a Thunder win live and in person, we beat my parents at cards, we went jogging (that's right, I jogged). It was fun, it was new, it was refreshing. To do something outside the normal day-to-day routine is a big deal for creatures of habit like ourselves, and this weekend we stepped outside those lines in a big way. It became one of those weekends we'll look back on and think of all the memories we made together (and with Bennie).

After thinking of how fun stepping outside our routine was, it made me realize how much I craved our everyday schedules. The time in the morning when we talk about our busy day ahead of us, our lunch date through out the week when we gorge ourselves on delicious salsa and plan for the evening or make jokes about the salsa almost being TOO good. And our evenings together are my favorite. Standing in the kitchen, talking about our days or our newest adult problem (this week it's the internet) while you sneak too hot food off the stove will always be my favorite time with you. 

As refreshing as new experiences are, sometimes coming back to the "same-old-same-old" is equally as refreshing. That's what keeps me calm about the unknown of the future. Knowing that no matter where we are, together is all that matters. 

A day late, a dollar short.

It's September y'all! 46 days till the Rios wedding! Last night I drank a few too many glasses of wine and while I was going to sleep my brain was going a million miles a minute. My notes app got a work out to say the least..  I've been really slacking in the blogging department lately. So when Whitney introduced her blog everyday in December, I knew I had to jump on this bandwagon. Mainly because I really regretted not doing it in July with Allie, Juliette, and Faith, also because I really like Whitney and my brain has been too crowded with tool, taffeta, and ties to be able to come up with any quality posts on my own.  But of course, per my own mantra, I am a day behind. Yesterday I started to write a post and by the time I got to the end I hated it, so I closed my computer and didn't think about it again until this morning. So here we are, Blog everyday in September, RE-introducing myself.  I'm Sarah! Soon to be a Rios, and I'm fully prepared for people to start asking me "You're mexican???" I'm working on my tan, but I'm not sure that will help.  I like to think I'm funnier than I really am. My best friends have my same sense of humor so they think I'm hilarious. My fiance, Roland, is actually hilarious so he laughs at my jokes when he feels bad for me (not even then actually... he says he doesn't want me to go in public an embarrass myself because I thought something was so funny especially since he laughed at it.... so kind?)

We have a little baby chihuahua who is an absolute angel. That's not true. He's more like a Tasmanian devil, but I love him.  He's not very photogenic, and I can't find any decent pictures of him that wouldn't embarrass him on the interwebs right now.  A little bit about me other than the basics,  I love handbags. LOVE LOVE LOVE handbags.  I pretty much collect phone cases.. I buy more to "swap them out" but by the time I'm ready to "swap" them I end up finding another one that I like better.  We have a nephew that I'm obsessed with, because I'm convinced he's the cutest.  He also might have a case of Resting Bitch Face, we were watching The Lion King, and how could you not be happy during The Lion King? I don't like peanut butter.  I have a love hate relationship with twitter. I change my hair color as often as I can, mainly because if I don't, I'll end up cutting it all off, and that's a sad sad story we don't want to relive, friends.  I'm obsessed (apparently I use that word a lot) with Friends. OBSESSED. Who wouldn't be? I'm hoping I get all the seasons for Christmas because I can't stay up and watch them on Nick at Nite anymore. I'm too old for that. Oh, I'm 24.  DAY 2: Most Prized Possession
My most prized possession..... this is hard. I tried to think of the one thing that I would just be heart broken if I lost or if it broke. Toby, was the first thing I though of.. and my engagement ring was the second.  So I'm sticking with my engagement ring, and since it's pretty much a self explanatory "history" I was going to tell you how he proposed... but that would make for a really long post, so it'll have to wait for another time. 

Oh Hey Friday!

      Ages ago, I did 5 on Friday's. Mainly because they were easy and how could you not come up with five things? Am I right? Well those fell to the wayside, but recently I've seen Karli's Five on Friday link up "Oh Hey Friday." I'm totally not against saying hi to Friday because come on, it's like the weeks best friend.        1. These strawberries from Shari's Berries are everything. 

  My mom sent them to my office so I couldn't eat them all by myself (Roland is allergic..), but I'm probably going to take them home at lunch. Hashtag loophole.  2. Roland and I are getting our engagement pictures taken this weekend.  So I took some birthday money I'd gotten from his mom to Dillard's to find a dress to wear. I found one for $18. EIGHTEEN people. A dress I'd been lusting after, at that. Normally when I wait for something I want to go on sale, my size is gone. 

$18 dress. Holllaaaa.

So then because I had gotten such a sweet sweet score, I continued my quest to see what else I could see. I, of course, found a dress I loved equally, but alas it was not on sale. But... engagement pictures people. And, birthday money. I could splurge a little bit. So Dillard's caught me in there web of "come for the sale stay for the full price stuff" and let me tell you, they won. 

All the oo's and ahh's here people. I'm obsessed with this dress. Like if I didn't have to wear it for pictures tomorrow I'd be wearing it now. (but I'm wearing leggings now instead so still a win in my book.) 3. My birthday is Sunday.  I'm only turning twenty-four and since we're budgeting for the wedding, I know Roland is feeling restricted because he is a birthday celebrator if there ever was one. The first year we were dating he went to my apartment while I was at work and hung streamers and balloons and got dinner and it was magical. I don't even remember what I got, but I remember walking into that.  Last year, I met Roland at his mom's house for lunch and there was a whole princess shebang set up.  A princess banner, princess cake, little princess crowns and sashes for all the guests (Roland's mom runs an in home daycare, so I got to party with the craziest guests around, 3 year olds. If you've ever seen a three year old high on sugar, you can agree.) We ate lunch and blew out candles. It was magical. Roland's Birthday is Wednesday. I suck at birthday's compared to him. And he already got his birthday present. His friend was selling his X-Box One and Roland has been dying to have one so I told him he could get it for his birthday.. so it's at home plugged in. Boo, I know.  4. My "Bachelorette party" is coming up next weekend!   Also, Google tried to tell me bachelorette should be bachelor. I'm extremely excited to see all my friends that I haven't seen in ages! We're going to a wine and pallete (and we're painting truffala trees from the Lorax.) and then we're going to grab some dinner and have a lingerie shower! I'm so excited. My best friend Ashliegh is coming up from New Mexico! It's going to be a blast.  And for those of you that have no soul and haven't seen the Lorax:

Truffala Trees.

  5. My Super Cute Nephew.    

   you guys. I can't even. Look at that face he is making?! He's getting such a personality it's adorable. I can't express my love for this little guy. It's going to be so sad when Roland and I move and can't see him on a regular basis.     Happy Friday All!   

confessing it all

It's Wednesday ladies, you know what that means. I've rather enjoyed hanging out with Kathy at Vodka and Soda. It's like a little therapy every week. Sometimes it's not even enough and I think I should probably see a real therapist.. but who has time for that? Nobody. 1. This has been weighing on me for about a week now. I loathe my job. I hate going to sleep at night because I know when I wake up, I have to get ready and getting ready means I have to come to this place. It's not that I hate what I do (insurance billing) it's not terrible. I don't want to go into too much detail on the interwebs, so that's all I say about it. I know what you're thinking "get another job." It's complicated and for another post.. (Way to start it off deep, Sarah)  2. I'm getting sick. I'm going to punch the patient that brought in these germs.  3. I tried watching Two Broke Girls the other night, and it is just not for me. The humor is not on point, it's crude... it was really hard to watch. I was okay with Roland changing it to basketball.....  4. Speaking of basketball... I'm so ready for it to be over. I'm totally fine with regular season once a week games. Sure babe, we can watch basketball tonight.. but seriously? EVERY NIGHT? Usually it's not a big deal because Roland's asleep by nine so I can turn on Hulu and catch up on my shows that I missed.... but I've been in bed by 9:30 the last week or so.... I'm avoiding anything that even looks like it's about Scandal, Revenge, or Once Upon a Time.  5. I like how when an actress gets pregnant in real life and they write it in to the story line of the show.  6. I've been obsessed with Swagbucks. I have enough points for a $25 gift card right now, and I have no idea what to get.... I'm leaning towards a Sephora one. Mama needs a new pallet.    7. I've been binge watching USA lately and I'm not sorry about it. Law and Order: SVU and Modern Family are the best. 

Happy Wednesday! 

Could they burn C.D.s in 1998?

Helene and Sarah are hosting a prompted link up, Total Social, to get bloggers in the vast corners of bloglandia together. Today's post is about your first. First...whatever. 

Since I couldn't decide (naturally) I picked a couple.
First Country Song: I remember this like it was yesterday, my parents never listened to country music, which is ironic because at the time we were living in Tupelo, Mississippi pretty much the birth place of country music and Elvis Presley. 
Anyway, my best friend down the street, her parents were all about country music, I remember driving in the car, and this song came on and I loved it. Some how I finagled a copy of it (I don't know if they could burn c.d.s then..) and my dad HATED it. But after awhile he came around. Fast forward about 10 years, we took a road trip from Oklahoma and we listened to Tim McGraw's c.d the WHOLE way. My mom and I still have every song on that c.d. memorized. True Life. 

First Awful Haircut:

Of course this is a first because there are usually many of them. But in my defense I didn't have any control over this one. This was all my moms doing. The self-cut bangs of 2007 though? I'll take full responsibility for those.

Yes, that is me. In the ever so popular hounds-tooth-esque dress. And the retched bowl cut. At least in this picture you can tell I'm a girl.. There's a picture from a Christmas the same year and I'm wearing my brothers clothes. A blue tank top with matching blue shorts, I almost asked my mom who this strange boy was in the picture that looked just like me until I flipped it over and saw my name....... I tell my hair stylist that I'm still scarred from these days. That and the year I cut off 6 inches from luscious to ludacris in 6.5 seconds. That was before I started getting my superfluous amount of hair thinned on the regular. 

What are some of your firsts?

Confessionals

It's Wednesday, and today I'm jumping on the confessions bandwagon. Choo choo! 
+I may have eaten an entire bag of trail mix for breakfast... it's supposed to have enough for six servings.  + I'm getting more blonde added to my ombre on Friday, but chances are it will still be in a top knot 98% of the time. #noshame

+ I'm obsessed with Disney movies. The Lion King is my favorite and I know every word to every song, for some reason that bothers Roland. All I can think about is how cool our kids will think I am. 

+ I hate when people say their kids are "21 months". You don't see me saying I'm 276 months.... They're almost two, or a year and a half... 
+ We went over on our data plan this month, and I'm pretty sure it was my fault. I never remember to close the pages in my web browser... 

That's all for this week! Hope you have a fabulous Wednesday!

Honey Roast ya' self!

Today's the day! The sun is shining (the tank is clean!)! It's Honey Roast time! Last week I was thinking about how hard we are on ourselves (at least I know I am) all the time. It can be exhausting. How nice would it be if we could just have a day to consciously make the decision to be as nice to ourselves as we are to our friends, or even strangers. And the Honey Roast was born! A special thanks to my awesome co-hosts Becky from Made in the Shade Blog, Juliette from The Other Juliette, and Kay from The  Best of Intentions. This wouldn't have been a link up without Kay's encouragement.  Sarah, girl you are too hard on yourself, it's time to Honey Roast.  +You can rock Nike shorts all day everyday like nobodies business.  +You've been hitting the gym with surprising consistency, those results will start rolling in! +You've done a good job staying on top of those dishes that never seem to end.  +You're only 23, you have plenty of time to decide what you want to do with the rest of your life.  +Your closet looks great after that spring cleaning surge you got this weekend. Don't let those dirty clothes tell you who is boss! +When you cook, it's the bomb. Those made from scratch chocolate chip cookies, mmmmm. +This wedding planning is stressful, but you're on top of most of it. All the major needs are booked, go get a pedicure.  +You sure do love those babehs (Toby and Voldemort). They know how lucky they are to have a good home.  Honey roast yourself, give yourself a little pat on the back, and link up below!  Have a fabulous May 1st! 

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Confessions

Long time no see! I've actually written up two blog posts this week, but by the time I finished them, I wasn't feeling them. So I just popped around (British much? I didn't even have tea today) and read everyone else's.

Last night I was thinking about what I should post today (because who really prepares their posts for the week? If you do, well, you clearly haven't mastered procrastinating.) and I remembered seeing this link up around a couple times, and I knew I had some stuff I wanted to get off my chest, but not enough to put each one in it's own post. And none of it really jives enough to mix together. Until now!

+I have no idea what I want to do with my life. I don't hate my job, but I also don't want to do it for the rest of my life.

+I've been considering getting my aesthetician certification. I've always been obsessed with skin care, so why not have some real knowledge on it other than what I've read online. The only problem is I live in a small town with only two dermatologists so I have no idea what I'd be able to do with the certification right now. Other than clear up my own skin troubles.

+I also considered taking some design classes, I've been playing with the thought of making my own wedding invitations, but I'm beginning to realize I don't have creative skills. Everything I come up with looks, well... doesn't look as good as the ones that I could just buy. I'm a shopper. If I can buy it better, I will.

A little preview of what I've got going on so far.

+Another reason I considered taking design classes is blog design. I love changing my blog design and learning new techniques and tricks. I would also love to make designs for other people. But I don't think I'm to the point yet where I need to add "design" to my pages.

+I have a Sephora problem. We recently (like last Saturday) got a Sephora, Monday when I found out I left work and went straight there. Roland met me down there and told me to go ahead and get the cleanser I was looking at! I already can't wait to go back. Also, they're grand opening is on Friday, but of course since I have to work, I'm commissioning my friend who has Friday's off to go up there and get me a goodie bag! I'm telling you, it's a serious problem.

+I got a gift card to Ulta, and I've been waiting for ours to open for a month. This is the longest I've ever held onto a gift card.

+Someone in the gym has a really long song as a text tone, and their phone keeps going off. You're holding it, why don't you turn it on silent?

+I'm so excited for tomorrow! I know today wasn't very intrigueing, but be sure to come back tomorrow to link up with Becky, Juliette, Kay, and me for the HONEY ROAST.

Have a fabulous Wednesday!

Attention California Friends:

Roland and I were talking about our honey moon, we're going to San Diego! Which is super exciting because neither of us have ever been to California at all. Needless to say, I'm ecstatic, and we get to fly? I love flying. Maybe I should look into being a pilot, or like a professional "plane spy," you know, people that get paid to see how the service is on certain airlines. I would rock that job. Anyways, we were talking about how we should probably by a book or something so we can get a game plan together (so we can ignore it when we get there and just go with the flow) 
But then I thought about all the people that live in the area (or have been to San Diego) that could give me suggestions on things that we could do while we're there. So here's a post just for you special Cali people. 
 All I know for sure right now is that we'll be there October 19th-25th and we have to go the San Diego Zoo and the beach. Other than that the week is pretty open, so if you live in the area or you know some fun things to do in that part of the great state of California, I'm all ears and your suggestions will be much appreciated!
I will probably mention this again, but feel free to email/tweet me suggestions as you think of them!  Thank you! 

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Also, if you've visited Kay's blog today, you already know what's coming, act surprised? 
Next week Kay, Juliette, Becky and I are linking up with all of you to roast a little bit. I'm sure you're thinking "Sarah, what are we going to roast on? If you don't have something nice to say, you shouldn't say it at all." There has never been a truer statement. But how many times do we stand in the mirror and roast ourselves in our head? It's not being said, but it's still having a negative effect on our confidence and self-image. Our link-up is no regular roast, no ma'am. It's gonna be a Honey Roast, for yourself! So stop vinegar roasting yourself, and pour some honey into your day. 
Next Thursday, May 1st. Start your month off right! 
That's all for today, have a fabulous Friday!

Things I never thought I'd do:

Oh it's Thursday, and in light of yesterday and the day before yesterday's post (night and morning), today we're doing a LUNCH ROUTINE. Just kidding, I wouldn't do that to you. Even though lunch is my second favorite part of the day. (That and dinner... ok maybe its bed time... don't make me choose.) 

 I read Juliette's list of things she didn't think she'd ever do, and I'm so glad she made it into a link up.  Here are my things I never thought I'd do.  --Wear leggings as pants. What are those p-a-n-t-s? Are they 90% cotton and 85% heaven? No? No thanks.  --Drive a mom car. When I wrecked my Toyota Camry a couple years ago I didn't think I'd be back in a four door car anytime soon. But I said bye to the mustang and hello to leg room, purse room, room for all 80 of my cups...  --Own a cat. I've never been a cat person, but Toby needed a friend and we knew we couldn't handle another dog in our apartment just yet. Puppy training with two sets of stairs? No thank you. So here I am, with a kitten, named Voldemort (we couldn't think of a name for him, so I told Roland we should just name him Voldemort aka "He who shall not be named" and it stuck)  --Pay for Hulu again. We had Hulu before we had cable. Now we have cable and I still watch Hulu most of the time. It's easier for me to be the calm & cool fiance and let Roland watch basketball when I know I can watch Scandal tomorrow during lunch.  --Write a blog. Sure I think I'm funny and have interesting things to say.. but will anyone else. That's when you realize you're probably not the only un-recognized hilarious person in the world. If you build it, they will come.  What are some things you never thought you'd do?