Florida, Love Languages, and The Equals Record!

Hey y'all! It's been too long. I have been in Florida for work the past 9 days. It was quite an adventure! 

We had beautiful weather the first few days, then were hit by tropical storm Debby for the last few. We went without power the last 24 hours and it was SO hot. But because of it we got to see some incredible lightning, thunder, and rain storms, and see the ocean wash up over a sand bank and create a big river in front of the house.

 

This next video is a bit difficult to explain, but this is the river I mentioned above. The "river" Elisabeth walks out into is flooding from the ocean. You can see where the normal ocean is where the waves are out in the distance. It was crazy cool, and only got worse!

I love this picture so much. We were trying to take "family pictures". It was past bedtime.

I missed my sweetheart SO much. We didn't get to talk much while I was gone. Like REALLY talk. Like REALLY say everything we wanted to and felt because I was around people the majority of the time. So we talked each others little ears off the whole night I got home. We are still trying to get it all out of our systems. 

The best part of my days were quietly calling him after we had all gone to bed and listening to him say prayers into the phone with me ending in a whispered "Amen". I highly recommend this to couples when far apart. We all know that being apart is hard for so many different reasons, but there is something so comforting about these prayers. 

Derek had me convinced that he would be in a work meeting when I got home so he would just meet me at home afterwards. To my surprise, he was standing in the entryway with flowers when I walked in. I was completely shocked and so overwhelmed with happiness. Gosh it's good to be together again.

He really is getting so good at those flowers and sweet surprises. In the past, he didn't really understand the whole flower thing, but I think this next paragraph has a little somethin' to do with his flower giving awesomeness.

Have any of you read "The Five Love Languages"? If so, awesome right?! If not, you must read it. We are understanding each other SO much better. Unfortunately for Derek, I think all five love languages are equally important to me. We can't figure me out. Haha. But we really are able to understand each other better. Remember THIS post? This experience and many others had me frustrated because I couldn't figure out why he just didn't seem nearly as excited as me when I had put so much effort in. Well duh, those things don't speak LOVE to him as much as me just saying "Thanks for all your hard work" or "I am amazed by how well you vacuum that rug". Haha. Ok ok, silly example. Moral of the story: Awesome book. I recommend it for singles and married. You can buy it HERE.

Last thing: We would love and need your help!

I work with some incredible women on The Equals Record and it is full of amazing things. This $250,000 grant would help us incredibly to really get going and we'd greatly appreciate your help. We need 250 votes by Saturday. Voting is very easy. It only takes a second. You just have to log in through your facebook (you can have it not post to your wall by selecting 'Only Me' on who you want to see it), search for "You + Me", and click vote! Go HERE to vote! Thank you so much in advance! 

We really appreciate your help!!

Thank you all for your support and love always. It means the world to me and I'm so grateful for all of you!

xoxo,

Mandy

Teaser

I'm home from Seattle, and off to Florida in the mornin'!

I'll be there for work for a week or two. 

I'm so sad to be leaving Derek again so soon. We had an incredible weekend together going to the Mets game Friday night, and Coney Island on Saturday. I'm so tired and exhausted. Hoping I can get back on a good sleep schedule in Florida. 

I don't have time to do a full Seattle, anniversary, whatever else post. I'm sorry. But here are a couple pictures I took while in Seattle I'm going crazy over. I'm just starting to figure out the camera and I'm LOVING it. Maybe too much. In the 3 days I was in Seattle I took almost 800 pictures. Totally worth it. All of these pictures are straight from the camera with different settings. I am excited to go in a do a little editing on some of them later.

Bald eagles flying for hours above our heads. This picture is seriously legit. No editing, no cropping, nothin. It takes my breath away.

Anniversary flowers that D showed up with at 10:15 PM after his long day of work and school. 

I heard a knock, answered, and there my sweetheart was with flowers and '100 Years' playing on his phone. 100 Years has been "our song" since we were 14/15 years old. We danced to it on our wedding night, and it practically brings me to tears every time I hear it. It sure did the other night as we danced to it. 

Coney Island

yin yang, save your bacon!

And now the section of the blog name that pertains to "that's what HE said."

Greetings!
In case you didn't catch my opening line there, this is Derek (the husband) speaking. Man, when was the last time I posted here? Yeah, I don't know either. Long story short, it has probably been a long time.

If I could sum up the last couple months of my life in one word, it would be the word "balance." Truthfully, "balance" really only entered my life like 4 days ago, but these four days has permission from myself to speak for the entire two months (or since I last posted). I don't really remember unimportant things past like 4 days anyways, you know, "out of sight, out of mind" type stuff.

Balance entered my life in the form of a board, a balance board. Here is a picture:

I think it is pretty straight forward how it works. Anyways, I have been kind of obsessed with them for a while, after reading many articles about all the physical and mental benefits and all. Here's one.

Basically what it comes down to is that balance is everything to us as humans with motor skills. Anything physical we do relies on our internal balance. Balance boards' primary objective is to improve your internal balance system. Along the way, it improves your coordination, reaction time, and strengthens your core, as well as your lower body joints (primarily ankles and knees) that tend to get injured easily. If you run or walk often, think about how a slight imbalance in your walk or run could have negative long term effects on your joints.

The physical aspect is just that half of it. Balance boards improve the connections between your left and right brain hemispheres while using the board. This is because your entire body is involved in trying to stay balanced on that thing. This improves our short term memory, ability to focus, and attention span.

In fact, some people use balance boards to improve the attention span of autistic children by reading to kids while using the board, or teaching them words. Balance boards have also been known to help kids (and adults) improve their penmanship.

In addition to all the benefits, balance boards are way fun! Look up on youtube balance board tricks and you will find tons of cool stuff. Here is a crazy cool one.

I just realized that this whole blog post makes it sound like I am being paid to write this. Truth is, I don't think I am. But maybe this blog post will be so influential that balance board companies around the world will just start giving me money.

Speaking of promoting things that I am not paid to... One of my best amigos just released an app for iProducts called Save Your Bacon. It's actually quite addicting and challenging. You are a little pig running away from a big scary butcher. There are many obstacles along the way. I wonder if vegetarians would be inherently better at this game...? Anyways, I encourage everyone to buy it and play it. Trey (the developer, and my dear friend) has offered $20 to anyone who can beat the last level while getting a perfect score of 5 bushels of corn (you'll understand once you play it). Now that I have announced that to the world... This is not a guarantee that Trey will actually pay anyone for anything. But you never know.

My new boyfriend

This boy is to die for. I've been here half a day and I almost have 100 pics on my camera of him. And he's such a poser! He even bats his long eyelashes to flirt. True story.

I'm running away. YOLO right?

not really. But kind of.

For those who are a little more behind than I was, YOLO: You Only Live Once. You're welcome.

My Nana and Mom both called tonight, suggested I go to Seattle for my week off work, and within minutes my flight was booked.

Thank you mother for working for the airlines so I can have these experiences. I love you.

I leave in about 6 hours for the airo-porto.

I CAN'T WAIT. I get to see some of my favorite people in the whole world.

MY BAG  IS PACKED

MY TRAVEL OUTFIT IS LAID OUT AND READY

AND THE CAMERA CHARGER IS CHARGING.

I can hardly wait to take pics in the city. Eek!

I'll post about our anniversary, exciting weekend coming up, and my trip to Seattle later gater!

XOXO,

Mandy

Happy boy

Recently we decided we each need our own spending budget. We can spend it on things that aren't a necessity. It seems to be working great! And we love not having to get permission from each other to buy certain things. We can save up months to get something big, or use it that month.

What have you found that works for budgeting shopping/spending money?

Derek decided to use his budget for a penny board. He is one happy camper about that thing. He was like a kid on Christmas coming home from school to see that package. He was in the door and right back out to ride that thing. I loved seeing him so excited.

We're also giddy about our weekend coming up. I don't know that Derek would choose the word giddy(too feminine for baseball), but that's sure how I feel about Friday and Saturday this weekend.

Friday looks like this...(look'ed' like, until we just barely realized, after I posted this, that's next friday. So so sad. Poor guy was SOOO excited)

And Saturday we are celebrating our 2nd anniversary. I can't believe it's been two years. I'm one lucky lady to have that boy in my life forever. I thank my Heavenly Father for him daily. Derek has it all planned out and I can't know a thing. Yip! I love surprises. And him. More than I ever thought possible.

the FIL

Derek's dad came to town and totally spoiled us. We had such a great time with him.

We ate out many a times, saw a broadway show, did sealings, did some bookstore shopping, and had long talks.

Talks about the gospel, talks about business, talks about family, and talks about babies.