twenty-four {{birthday recap}}

I really want to thank all of you lovelies for the birthday wishes on my last post! You guys are too sweet!  I had a GREAT birthday, I really couldn't have asked for a better day!  

The husband and I both had the day off from work and we had a whole day of fun planned! He started the day off by spoiling me rotten! I must admit he is pretty good at that!  I had a few lovely packages waiting for me when I woke up. 

Can you tell which one he wrapped himself?  LOL! :)  He is kind of hopeless in that department, so when I saw the beautifully wrapped package on the right, I knew he couldn't have done it himself, and I was right.  He had it gift wrapped! What a cutie!  So, here's the lovely little things he got me! :)

A book to add to my collection, and season 1 of Tori & Dean (love them!) and the BEST of all....

COACH SNEAKS! AHHH!! Aren't they gorgeous?! I am in LOVE! :)

We started off our fun day together with some bowling (yes, we are that geeky) and I actually wasn't trailing horrible far behind him!  It MUST have been my birthday!

After bowling, we had lunch at Benihana which is my absolute fav! It was SO very good and I even got a special little birthday treat! 

After stuffing ourselves full, we ventured over to Barnes & Noble and my hubby couldn't resist getting me another gift (again, he spoiled me rotten).  I found this amazing book to add to my coffee table book collection.  It's such a fun book and totally me since I have a major sweet tooth! 

But the birthday fun didn't stop there! The hubby brought me to dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings, and it was SO yummy, definitely one of our favorite spots.  I even got a little crazy and took a shot....of lemons that is.  (You didn't think I was serious now did you!?!)

Friday night was my birthday night with my favorite girlies! We had dinner at The Cheesecake Factory (YUM!)   They seriously have the BEST food ever and it's more than one person could ever possibly eat!

My girls are the best and they totally got me the BEST gifts ever.  Can you find the theme? :) 

Yes, the theme is JUSTIN BIEBER! I must confess, I love him! He's stinking adorable.  I love that they got me a book and the card is Justin BEAVER, LOL!! Hahaha, so great! :)  

And of course, we had to finish the dinner off with cheesecake.  I opted for the chocolate chip cookie dough and it was heavenly good.  They even put a candle on it and wrote Happy Birthday on the plate! 

We finished off the night with going to see Soul Surfer (major tear jerker!).  I had such a fun night with my girls celebrating the big 2-4!

and FINALLY, I finished off the birthday celebrations on Saturday celebrating with my hubby's family.  My sister-in-law Shaynah's birthday is 10 days after mine, so we usually have a joint celebration for our birthdays.  We had dinner at this adorable malt shop called Snuffy's and then went back to her house for cake.  My nephew of course had to help with bowling out the candles! :)

So, there you have it! It was definitely the most fun birthday celebration and a great way to kick off turning twenty-four! 

{{P.S. You need to swing by my sister-in-law's amazing fashion blog, Layered Black.  They are hosting a  GREAT giveaway and you don't want to miss out!!}}

what i'm loving wednesday

Well, it's been a rough start to the week here in the Dodge household.  Sunday night, I got really sick and was up all night hugging it out with my "friend" the toilet bowl (sorry for the not-so-lovely visual there).  I ended up staying home from work on Monday, and was feeling a lot better after resting up all day.  Then on Monday night, it was the hubby's turn to pay a visit to my "friend". :(  So he took a sick day on Tuesday, what a bummer couple days it's been in this house! We are thinking that we got food poisoning. I absolutely HATE when that happen, it's the worst! It certainly was not how either of us planned this week.  I am thankful that it seems like the worst of it is now behind us.  I just hate being sick!!!

Anyways, I had such a fun time last week linking up to What I'm Loving Wednesday over at This Kind of Love that I decided to join the party again this week!!!  So here we go!!!

No. 1) I'm officially addicted to Pinterest!! I absolutely LOVE it!

 I saw a friend mention Pinterest on a Facebook page a couple weeks back and it looked interesting so I decided to request an account and I am SO happy that I did! I love it! It's basically a place to put together all your favorite things.  Not the best explanation I know but it's so fun and you should check it out! Here's the link to my boards to give you a feel for it! http://pinterest.com/kimmydodge/

No. 2) Femme Fatale-Britney Spears

So, I am a HUGE Britney fan and the hubby decided to get this for me as an early birthday present!! I love, love, love it and it hasn't left my CD player/iPod since I got it.  I am loving the more dance vibe of this album. I am horrific dancer, but it's fun to put it on and dance around while the husband laughs at me.

No. 3) The Brady 6

So, if you spend even like 30 seconds around me, you know I am a obsessive HUGE Tom Brady fan!!! I honestly didn't think that I could love him even more, and then I watched this documentary and I totally admire him even more.  It's amazing how great of an athlete he truly is!  Having to overcome all the things that he did, and be as phenomenal of an athlete as he is, is pretty remarkable! And he is pretty to look at, well maybe not in the above pic (Tom, I love you, but your GOTTA cut that hair)!

P.S. I don't think it's coincidence that this documentary aired the week of my birthday. ESPN knew I was in need of a Brady fix! 

No.4) It's my BIRTHDAY tomorrow!!

(Think someone will show up at my door with a load of gifts like this? Nah, me either! :)

I think it's pretty self explanatory why I would LOVE this, but this birthday will be even better since the hubs and I am both taking 4 day weekends.  Tomorrow we are spending the whole day together, doing whatever I want (gosh I love birthdays) and I am so excited!  I cannot believe that I am turning 24, where has the time gone??? I can't wait to celebrate with the hubs, friends, and family.  I have a whole weekend of events planned and I can't wait for it!  

In honor of turning 24, here's some embarrassing/fun memory filled pics to share with you!

My big family! Love that I'm the baby of the family (if you can't tell!)

Aww my 4th birthday, seems like yesterday! LOL! :) 

I was the chunkiest baby ever, 9 lbs, 10 oz. Hello TURKEY! :)

I'm considering bringing back the Snoopy/Snow White & The Seven Dwarfs combo for my bday this year.  Seems like it worked well for me back in the day! :) 

Do you remember password journals?! I thought they were epically awesome back in the day! LOL! I love the annoyed look on my face! 

Hope you all have a fun week! Make sure to swing by and check out what others are digging on this Wednesday!!

thoughts for a thursday

what i'm loving wednesday

So this is my FIRST time linking up to What I'm Loving Wednesday over at This Kind of Love and I think I'm going to have to do this more often! It's such a fun idea!!  So here's my list!!!!

First off I am totally loving that this is the sight in my backyard right now.  

Brown grass, melted pond, and SUNSHINE!! All signs that SPRING is finally here! This winter felt especially LONG and to finally have all the snow melted and 50 degree weather is like pure bliss for us Minnesotans!

Secondly, I am so loving that my birthday is already next Thursday!  Birthdays are a big deal for this girl and I am especially excited since the hubs and I both took a 4 day weekend next week to celebrate!! YAY for turning 24! 

Thirdly, I am convinced that I need a pair of adorable rain boots ASAP! I am drooling over these beauties, what girl doesn't want some Juicy Couture in her life?!  So, anyone wanna get them as a birthday gift??! I've been a good girl and totally deserve them! Hahaha :)

Lastly, I am loving this video of my little buddy that I got the other day. His little voice just MELTS my heart into a big ball of mush! 

Make sure to swing by and check out what everyone else is digging on this Wednesday!!

http://littledaisymay.blogspot.com/

the loft reveal!!!

After many months, the loft is finally finished!!! My vision for this spaced has changed many times, but I couldn't be happier with how it all turned out! I honestly think that it has become our favorite new space in the house by far.  The whole feel of the room is super cozy and comfy.  Whether it's early in the morning and I am using it to have my quiet time reading the Bible and sipping on some cocoa, or if it's late at night and I am snuggled up reading a book while the hubs is gaming, it's the perfect room!!  I am so excited to finally be sharing it with you guys, hope you love it as much as we do!!

Here's the view from the upstairs hallway!! I loooove that we decided to get 4 bookshelves, it's the perfect look!

Our adorable love seat from Ikea! Perfect size and style for us.

My corkboard now looks so in place! I still am so in love with this revamp.  You can see the whole thing in THIS post! :) 

Here are some closes up of our bookshelves.  It's a perfect mesh of the two of us! We each have 2 whole shelves to fill with our stuff.  It seriously cracks me up how different we are! 

Can you tell who's shelves are whose?! I had to get close ups of my favorite books! Tom & Gisele of course made it and I love Rachel Ashwell's Shabby Chic Interiors, so much drool worthy stuff in there!

All that's left now is adding some paint to the walls, but that's seriously the biggest project we have to do.  Because of our big open ceilings we are going to do one big mass paint job instead of small spaces at a time.  I can't wait for that, but it's lower on the project list.  Our next big to-do is finish up our 2nd bathroom upstairs.  I will definitely be blogging about that as we get started, but that won't be till later this summer/early fall.

So I can't wait to hear what you think!! I hope you love it as much as we do!!

a little bit of this, a little bit of that

So, I have all my pictures of my finished loft taken, they are just waiting to be blogged! I have been somewhat busy, and just haven't had the time to collect all my thoughts into a post, however I am planning on doing it this week (fingers crossed) because I can't wait to reveal it to you all!!! I am in love with it! It's become our favorite place in the house!

In other random thoughts, I am SOOOO ready for Spring to come, you have no idea!! Maybe that's what's playing into my apathy about not getting around to doing stuff.  I look outside at the cold winter snow and it makes me want to crawl in a ball and sleep until April! LOL!!! :) I know I just need to bare through a few more weeks and it will be here, but it's been a LONG winter and a few more weeks feels like years to me!

To keep you entertained until my next post, you really should check out this video of my sweet little nephews Kaden and Ethan! I got to babysit them last week since Momma had to work and I just adore my sweet little buggy boos.  They are such loves!

count it all joy!

I don’t know about you, but I am pretty excited to see February go! Why you ask? Well, February has been quite an interesting month for me…car wise that is.

Earlier this month, on one of the most brutally cold days we’ve had (it was around 15 below if I remember) my lovely little car battery decided that it was just going to bite the dust as I was trying to start it up to drive home from work. Thankfully one of my kind co-workers spent 20 plus minutes helping me jump start my car to get home (yes, it was THAT dead, usually it only takes like 5 minutes, EKK!). My handy dandy hubby and I went to buy a new battery, and he was able to change it out himself (thankfully!). About a month before my car battery died, Scott’s had died and my father-in-law taught the hubs how to change them out! What can I say, this Minnesota winter has been brutal on car batteries, and with both our vehicles being around 5 years old it was time to change them both. Bummer that it happened so close to each other, but that’s kind of how it worked out, such is life! After that little hiccup, it had been smooth sailing…until this morning.

I was pulling out of my driveway on my way to work early this morning and my car just felt weird as I was driving it. It was making a weird noise and something seemed off to me. Now, I don’t know you about but I am totally clueless when it comes to cars! I never know what should make noise, what sounds normal/abnormal, and so on and so forth. I pulled quickly over to the side to check my front tire and it looked fine to me so I kept driving. As I pulled off my side street on to the main road the noise got REALLY bad and I just knew something wasn’t right so I decided to turn around and take the husband’s car instead of my car to work. (Side note: this is when it’s REALLY nice that he now works from home!) I was still right by my house so it only took me about 2 minutes to get back home and once I pulled into the garage I went to look again at that same tire and it was totally flat as a pancake! YIKES! Not how I envisioned my morning going at all!

At this point I knew that I had two choices, I could either let myself get really frustrated and annoyed with the situation, or I could choose to laugh it off and count it all joy. As I was thinking about all this stuff God gently reminded me in my heart what it says in James 1: 2-4, and it was just what I needed to be reminded of in that moment! Love how He does that!

James 1: 2-4 (MSG): “Consider it a sheet gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all side. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. So don’t try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way.”

I decided to not this situation that was thrown at me from the enemy ruin my day or steal my joy. I began to laugh it off as I switched out of my car into my husband’s. As I was driving to work and spending time praying and talking with my sweet heavenly Father (as I do every morning) my joy became fuller! Instead of choosing to complain and give voice to all the things that I felt went wrong this morning, the Lord instead prompted on me to give thanks for all the things that went right, so that’s exactly what I did.

I started listing off all the things that I was thankful for about this situation:

-I am so thankful that my tire went flat right by my house instead of on the freeway, or at work would I would have to try and change to the spare. (Lord knows that would have been REALLY bad!)

-I am so thankful that I was completely safe and sound in getting my vehicle home and that it happened to go flat perfectly at the right time.

-I am so thankful that I was able to swap cars with my husband and not be delayed in any way in getting to work.

-I am so thankful that my husband is working for home so that I could take his car and that today wasn’t a day that he needed to go into the office.

-I am so thankful that we have two vehicles that are (usually) in full working condition and that each time we run into an emergency we have a back up to rely on.

-I am so thankful that we have the finances to go buy a new tire tonight (in cash, not credit) and that we do not have to sweat out how to cover the cost of the repair. I know many people aren’t in that position and I am so thankful for the blessings we have!

In every challenge that we face, we always have the option to choose our attitude, as well as choosing how we’ll respond to adversity that we are dealing with. Let me be the first to say that I am not perfect!! There are WAY too many times when I choose the wrong attitude. I automatically get frustrated and start complaining, doing the whole “oh poor me, I don’t deserve this” thing and so on, and so forth. However, I am thankful that God never gives up on me! He is always working gently to correct and remind me of the things I need to change in my life and I am thankful that He was quick to show me this morning the right way to deal with this situation. It’s so awesome to be His child!

With all that said, here’s hoping the rest of this week is less eventful!!!! :)