rushley & crew

After I posted my 23 before 23 bucket list , my sister-in-law Lacey immediately helped me get started on one of the items-- #21. See a Broadway musical (a traveling Broadway production counts). I put that on my list because at the time, we were considering a summer trip to New York. And then, even if that fell through, my mother-in-law had mentioned that Wicked was in Boise, so I figured we could make a road trip for that. But then Lacey told me that Wicked would be in Salt Lake this summer, so that was much closer and easier, and I was sold. I've been to Wicked twice before, but Russ and Lacey had never been! I was excited to share the magic of Wicked with them :) This one has been in the works since less than a week after I made my list, and now I'm finally able to check it off the list! Last night, we headed up to Salt Lake and first went out to the Cheesecake Factory with Lacey. Russ and I went to the Cheesecake Factory on our honeymoon, and ever since then, we love...

a balanced diet is a cupcake in each hand, right? ;) via Why hello there, blogging world! It's been a while. For about ten months, I have posted often; for about five months, I have posted every MWF; but then for the past week and a half, I haven't posted at all. So it hasn't been that  long I suppose, but my consistency really fell off the face of the planet. That's because right now, I'm just trying to find some balance in my life. There are so many different things we can devote time to in our lives, and I want to make sure I'm deliberately choosing the things to which I devote my time. I'm sure blogging will continue to be one of those things, because for the first time in a long time, I'm enjoying writing. I also enjoy making new friends in the blogging world. But I just haven't quite figured out how I'm going to balance everything I want to spend time on. But I want to, because I want to grow! And even though that might take more d...

One item on my  23 before 23 bucketlist  is to scrapbook 23 pages. I made this goal thinking that if I did just one layout per month, I would meet my goal. Well, turns out I can exceed that goal in a week (remember how I'm not in school right now and my job has very few hours per week? I've got lots of free time . . .) Ordinarily, I couldn't do so much so quickly, but I had a whole trip to scrapbook, and I had printed so many pictures  of that trip! So I ended up doing the whole trip collage style, and that really made the whole trip very cohesive, which I love. Also contributing to the page count were my last few pages of a different trip. These first four pictures (eight pages) are from a family trip to Florida in November 2010. We went to this awesome place called Discovery Cove and swam with dolphins! Also at that place, there was an aviary filled with birds that didn't really have any qualms with perching on your hand or even head! These next ...

via I was reading in my book this weekend about how media and advertisements are aimed at single, unhappy people. Not that that's specifically what they say to themselves when they're making the advertisements, and not that consumers see themselves as only single and unhappy, but that's indirectly what it's all about. This is because advertisements are all over telling you to "Buy this; it will make you happy! It will bring you the fulfillment you desire!" Maybe it's true, maybe it's not, but the logic made sense to me. Along that same line, she was saying that happy married couples are advertisers' worst enemies, because they are already fulfilled and content, so they don't buy into "needing" all the things. As a result, advertisements are often trying to break couples up. The advertisements try to convince you that marriage is dull, and the excitement in life comes from always searching for something new--even going so far ...

Remember how, oh so long ago, I mentioned my girls' trip to Texas, and promised a recap soon? Well, better nearly five months later than never, right? And I'll even do it Oh hey, Friday style :) So pretty much every year, the girls+kids in my family all get together for a trip. I've never actually been on one, because they always seem to choose a time that is inconvenient with whatever classes I'm taking at the time. This time, however, I made it work, so I got to spend five days with my mom, sisters, sister-in-laws, and nieces and nephews. That's six adults and nine kids (under eight years old). It was CRAZY! But also fun :) We spent the first part of the trip in San Antonio, and we stayed at the house of some of my parents' friends while that family was on their own spring break vacation. Some of the things we did were . . . one. Sea World. It was fun to watch shows and see animals with the kids, but the best part was when me, Anya, and Brooke (the non-p...