Hi, my name is Jenny and I have no follow through...

You can see the best examples of this here and here. The first being back in 2009 when I first decided that I wanted to try out Blogging, that became a 3 year saga of ZERO follow through and procrastination. Seriously I think I blogged like maybe 13 times in those three years. The second is a example of my most common lack of follow through...EXERCISE!!! Yep, I've started and stopped this process more time than I can even remember. So, when I wrote that post about exercising I thought if I became accountable to my little blogging world, then maybe I would keep it up. HA, I showed myself, not even being accountable would help me follow through. Now let me just say that its not a lack of wanting or desire that keeps me from completing my goals its...PROCRASTINATION!! I seriously have a problem with this! Like with blogging, its not a lack of ideas or projects its my constant thought of "I'll do it a minute" that kills me! I constantly am telling my sister, Peggy, that I have posts already written in my head its just a matter of sitting down and writing them out. I always find myself sitting down to blog and two hours later I've got nothin...but my Facebook status is updated, I know whats going on in all my friends lives, Im up to date with the latest celebrity gossip, and I've blog stalked all my favorite blogs including reading all their archives AGAIN (oh but how I love them)! I seriously have a problem! That being said here is a little peek at what you can HOPE to expect here at Pictures of Happy in the near future...

I mentioned before that I love free things, especially free furniture. It doesn't phase Jed to just ask strangers what there plans are for discarded furniture in backyards and garages; and the majority of the time people are glad to have him haul it away. 

I was counting all the different pieces of furniture in our house and also pieces we have sold and given away and it totaled to about 12; 2 dressers, 2 dinning tables (one with 6 chairs), 3 entertainment centers, 2 night stands, 1 coffee table, 1 headboard, and 1 lounge chair (we also have gotten lamps and a bike, but they were way ugly so I don't count them). We've made about $400 dollars reselling free furniture, and furnished about half our house. That's why I love FREE stuff!

This is our newest free item that Jed picked up from a sweet old lady. She also told him that she has a matching dresser that she wants to give us! (but that probably won't happen, since we don't know her name)

Jenny and I have a small obsession with mid century modern furniture and this is one of the first pieces that I own now. It is somewhat worn out in places but I really love the natural wood color and couldn't bare to paint it. We used some Old English polish on it and now it looks so much better.

Get your cupcake on!

Super Yummy Frosting Recipe

1 container cool-whip
1 8oz cream cheese
powder sugar to taste
1tsp strawberry extract (optional)

Throw everything into your mixer and let it go. I find that the longer you mix the lighter your frosting is. I ended up putting about 2 cups of powder sugar in mine. You can flavor yours any way you want, also is pretty dang good if you add some mashed up strawberries.

The cake is my signature Texas Fudge Cake. Its SUPER moist and DeLiCiOuS. Easy and quick too.

Texas Fudge Cake

Bring to boil: 1 cup margarine, 4 tbsp. cocoa powder, 1 cup water

Pour over: 2 cups flour, 2 cups sugar, and 1/2 tsp salt

Mix well and then add: 2 eggs, 1/2 cup milk, 1/2 tsp. baking soda and 1 tsp. vanilla

Mix well and pour into greased 9x13 pan (or cupcake pan OR bunt pan, basically anything you want). Bake at 375 for 30 min or until wooden skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean.

first

Jed and I  celebrated our first anniversary last week! Life seems like it was a blur this last year.. so much has happened and changed. 

-We moved into our first tiny apartment together in Rexburg

-I graduated college with my two best friends (that I miss a whole lot)

-We moved to New Mexico and into are second apartment

-I started my first 'grown up' job as a social worker

(I guess that isn't too much stuff, it just seems like a life time ago that I was in Idaho with all my friends)

To celebrate the day we slept in. It was amazing. And then went to the park and played. It was fun. We also got dinner at the Melting Pot. It was delicious.

Being married was and still is a whole new world. You have to agree and compromise and take into consideration someone else's feelings. Which doesn't sound too bad, but man did it throw me for a loop. 

But even though it's so different; it is so great. My top three favorite things about being married are: 

1. always having a friend. Its great to always have someone to hangout with; and you never have to think about what you are going to do on the weekend because they are there.

2. Opening up the fridge and knowing that all that food is yours. During college it was always hard to share a fridge with 5 other girls. We would all buy food and then it would get lost and by the time you found/remember what you had it was rotten.

 

3. Getting to hangout with Jed everyday. While we were dating it seemed like we were always in separate places; either one of us would be at college, or in New Mexico, or he was on his mission. I always miss seeing him and just wish that we could be in the same place.

I just love Jed a whole lot I might be some what obsessive and am so glad that we are married and get to spend the rest of our lives together.

presents.

Presents are great and frankly I was pretty spoiled this year. Jed and I aren't really good at keeping things a secret and so we ended up opening all of our presents by Christmas Eve; which for us was quite fun. 

But the best present  was being able to talk/Skype my little brother. He is serving a mission for our church in Washington D.C. and we haven't to talk to him since he left in July. He is doing great and it was fun to hear stories from his mission. We miss him so much, but are happy that he is helping so many people and learning so much.

Love you Quinn!

Quinn Skyping at investigators home

The whole family trying to squeeze in front of the computer

2012

I hate endings. I think that is why I hate New Years. And my Birthday. But seeing how its January 1st, 2012 lets talk about why I hate the ending of a year. Because its over. It will never come again. (annnd yes that is me, Captain Obvious). Enter feelings of nostoligia that will bring on depressing feelings. I know I'm such a 'cup half empty' type of person. The argument of "But its a new BEGINNING!" doesn't work with me either because I'm not too found of starting things either. I like the middle. Thats probably why summer is in the middle of the year - because its the happiest season. But thats neither here nor there. Right now I'm in a funk. A 'we just lost 2011 and I don't know what to do with myself' funk. I guess I should make a resolution. Its been on the back of my mind to make one, but I haven't given it that much time in the front of my mind. But I think i've decided. Instead of doing a yearly resolution (which is just way too big of a time commitment) I am going to do monthly resolutions. Because really we can all do something for 30...31...28 days. That is quite possible. So....

January's Resolution (singular):

Drink a Green Smoothie every day.

I thought of doing something more profound, like solve my organization's financial crisis or maybe getting my personal life back on track. But then I thought that maybe I should start small....not get ahead of myself...i'm really not an overachiever (fixing that maybe should be October 2012's resolution).

Angie