rushley & crew

Life is so hectic! I have so many different things going on, and I feel like this is the first chance I've had to breathe, let alone blog, in over a week. And really, I should get back to homework, but I just wanted to do a little post. My sister-in-law Mackenzi is pregnant with her first baby, a little boy due in November. Mom Holmes was coming into town this last weekend to help Lacey with an event, so she proposed that we fit a baby shower into the weekend, too! It was a group effort to make it all come together . . . Mom did most of the work--including the planning and most of the food and decor prep. Lacey made delicious cupcakes and made the pages for the ABC book, I made invitations and other print elements, and Stephanie got on a plane so she could join in the fun! We were only missing Chantry and we would have had all the Holmes girls! Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures, but I did want to post my designs, because, not gonna lie, I was pretty happy with ...

One of my 23 before 23 goals is to read 23 books. Along the way, I'll do book reviews every so often. Here is the first :) {ONE} The Book Thief by Markus Zusak Genre: Historical Fiction Synopsis: A story about a young girl's life, including its normal-ness as well as the difficulties that came from having a life in Germany during WWII, all told from Death's perspective. My thoughts: Russ and I read this book together, so it took us about six months. Perhaps because we spent so long reading it, it lost some of its power. I liked the book, but I can't say that it was completely amazing and changed my life or anything. {TWO} Loser  by Jerry Spinelli Genre: Young Adult Fiction Synopsis: The book follows Donald Zinkoff from kindergarten to fifth grade, and shows how all the other people in the story react to this "different" boy. My thoughts: This book was a really quick read with a powerful message. Humans are so quick to be judgmental an...

I'm having trouble getting the motivation to get back into blogging. Which is weird, since I really enjoyed it when I was doing it consistently. And I'm not lacking motivation in other areas, which is equally startling, as I'm not usually a go-getter. But let me elaborate about my productivity in other areas, to show for comparison about what a bad blogger I've been: I've worked out four days (so far, there's still tomorrow!) this week, and today I even got up at 6 to run despite the fact that my running buddy cancelled on me, and Russ declined to go with me as well. I've been doing the readings for most of my classes for the first time in my life. I applied for two jobs within the last week, one of which I've already been offered, and the other for which I have an interview today. The house is cleaner than usual, because I've been trying to clean at least one room per week. I'm telling you--motivation on all levels except blogging! The pr...

Recently (and by recently, I think I actually mean about a year ago) I looked around the apartment and saw only engagement and wedding pictures. It was time for some new pics of our tiny family! But somehow, we didn't actually get any taken until last week. Guess it took a while for our photographer to be available . . . My brother is really a videographer, but he's got some photography skills, too. Plus, he's free since I sometimes babysit Miss Hadley. So here they are, some summer pics of me and my handsome man :) LOOK AT HIS FACE! I die. I seriously think he looks sooo handsome in this pic :) favorite :) and even a few bloopers for ya . . . my cheeks were tired from smiling! and Russ wanted to do his crazy-person smile :) I love this man of mine :)