Today is an awesome day. For me today has just begun. It's just after midnight in Japan. And already, it's an awesome day. My husband is on leave (like a vacation) from work. It's only for 2 days but it gives us a 4 day weekend and I will take it. In the military you can't call in sick. Ever. If you can't go to work you'd better be in the hospital hooked up to a monitor or dead. Those are pretty much the only excuses. Even when he needs it, Aaron can't take an R&R day. So that's what this weekend is for him. And it sure put him in a good mood! He's been so happy all day and it's contagious. His smile just makes me smile. I love when he's extra happy! And that's just one of the reasons today is awesome. 

I did a guest post & a giveaway for Megan at And here's to you, Mrs. Robinson. You should definitely check it out for multiple reasons. I'm giving away a purse from Japan that is just beautiful. I did that Sue thing where I was brutally honest about life and talked about something that most people don't talk about. And Megan is fantastic. Her blog is one of my absolutely favorites and if you don't already read her you should. She is sweet and fun and REAL and that's my favorite thing about her. 

Another awesome thing... remember when I posted my entry to Our Reflection's Photo Challenge last week? Well I won third place. Third out of twenty four entries! I was pretty excited when I saw that. I'm a newbie photographer and the picture I took meant the world to me. My husband is my hero. And I'm just thrilled about winning third place. So if you're a newbie photographer and you're hesitant about entering Laura's weekly photo challenges, don't be! It was fun just to enter and a thrill to win.

And yet another thing that made today awesome in the first half hour of existing is this: I secretly entered my best friend into an awesome bridal giveaway for her wedding and SHE WON. Seriously. She won so many fabulous things for her upcoming wedding and I'm so excited about it. She definitely deserves it! 

And I think today is my lucky day and I should go skydiving over the Pacific just to test it.

To end my 10 Day You Challenge I wanted to do something really fun. So I broke the rules again. I give you one picture {collage} of the many hairstyles of Sue. They're in order of evolution. Forgive the terrible center picture and yes, I actually dyed a big chunk of my hair purple. It was fabulous. 

Oh, and one more reason why today is awesome. Like I need another one. Aaron bought me a giant princess coloring book because he understands that I am four years old at heart. I love that this man "gets" me.

Because we like to dance like crazy people, Aaron and I had 2 wedding songs. 

Our sweet and romantic one. 

And the one where we could dance like this.

 two songs

1. Marry Me {Train} Can you think of a more cheesy, perfect first dance song? I wanted to dance to Good Life {OneRepublic} but Aaron thought that was weird. So we went with my second choice.
2. Party Rock Anthem {LMFAO} That's right, our "other" song (or real song as Aaron says) is one where everyone had to get up and dance with us. The above picture is me teaching everyone to Shuffle. With a sprained ankle. Because I'm cool like that.

10 Day You {3} & Other Things

Today was a lovely day. I'm finding more and more of those as the sun comes out and the snow melts away. It was also One Day Without Shoes. If you don't know what that is, go read about it. It's pretty cool. These are the places my bare feet went today...

In other news, I got a new toy that is awesome. If only I could get the tutorial videos out of Japanese and into English... You need to be able to read Japanese to see where to change it to English so this may take a while.

And did you know that in Japan you're allowed to park in the street? Not just stop and wait with your hazards on. Literally park. Go into a restaurant. Eat your dinner. Come back out. Your car hasn't been towed. Awesome.

Last thing... I updated my About Me page so tell me what you think!

Now on to my 10 Day You Challenge. This is getting harder as the days go by. Today I'm supposed to pick three films. I assume they're supposed to be my favorites. And that's where it gets tricky. I don't like (most) chick flicks so I can rule those out. Except Pride and Prejudice. The 6 hour BBC version. Don't worry, that's on my list. But the other 2? It's a hard choice. And I hate making decisions. I should have thought about that before starting this challenge. Ugh.

three films
literally my all time favorites

1. Pride & Prejudice (BBC version)
2. Braveheart
3. Kick Ass

Today is the day I have to pick 4 books. How exactly am I supposed to do that? I have a true story for you.. When I was little and I didn't do my chores my mother would ground me FROM MY BOOKS until my chores were finished. That's right, not from friends or tv or playing outside, but from books. I have always been a nerd and I've been reading since long before it was "cool" to do so. And now I'm doing this challenge thing where I'm supposed to pick just four books to share with you? I'm not so sure I can do that...

By the end of my life I will have read this many books.

four(ish) books

(I'm counting series as one book, don't judge)

1. Wuthering Heights {Emily Bronte} If you have not read this book I feel so sad for you. And you should read it. Soon. Possibly today. There's a reason this book is a classic.
2. Harry Potter {JK Rowling} I am the Harry Potter generation. You can learn so much about life from these books. They are not just for children and telling stories. They are for lessons and courage and doing the right thing against all odds. 
3. Graceling {Kristin Cashore} One of my absolute favorites. The heroine is deep and intense and all sorts of confusing. She's also one of my all time favorite heroines in a book, and that's really saying something.
4. Uglies {Scott Westerfeld} I've loved Scott Westerfeld's books since the beginning of time. Maybe not that long, but pretty close. The Uglies series is (in my opinion) his best work. This series will make you think long and hard about life. If you're the thinking type.
5. 13 Reasons Why {Jay Asher} I recommend this book to everyone. Men, women, old, young, it doesn't matter. This book will make you take a second look at the life you're living and help you see the person you really want to be.

Okay, I cheated. But I'm over it. There was no way to narrow it down further and I'm all about breaking the rules. That's what they're for, right? Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to read.

Just a few random pictures from our weekend... Aaron was supposed to work and ended up with the weekend off so we celebrated by adventuring out with the puppy.

This is a 2 minute drive from my house. I love Japan.

Twink loved his Easter treat.

I love the look on Twink's face here. He LOVES the dog park.

Twink now wears a tag of himself because he's cool like that. Find yours here.

And now on to my 10 Day You Challenge. 

five foods

1. Homemade Eggrolls. You cannot know how amazing these are until I've made them for you. The only people who make them better are my parents. But I'm pretty awesome too.
2. Hamburgers on the grill made by my husband. I am incredibly lucky that I went from having a dad who makes amazing burgers to a husband who makes amazing burgers. I've never had to live without them.
3. Honey Mustard Chicken. Another of my parents combined specialties. Separately they made good food. Together they make awesome food.
4. Honey Teriyaki Chicken Wings. These are one of my specialties. I'm pretty much amazing at making wings. There are two secrets. The first is find (or make) a marinade that is delish- and not a sauce, an actual marinade. There's a big difference. The second is to marinade said wings for 4-5 days. The longer the better. 
5. Avocado on toast. It's as simple as it gets and yet it's so delicious it shouldn't be allowed.

Do you see a trend? I love homemade food. It's so much better than going out to eat. But going out is so much easier. You don't have to do dishes after. That's really the only benefit going out has. Okay, and it's fun. I'm done rambling now. Tomorrow is four books and I'm not sure how I'm going to pick JUST four books. I am a bookaholic and proud of it. Tomorrow's post should be interesting.

Are you sick of my 10 Day You Challenge yet? Well if you are I'm halfway through already so it will be over soon. Personally, I'm having fun and I'm pretty sure that's what matters on my blog. This is a fun blog! Okay, I got it out of my system. I'm in a chatty mood and Aaron is passed out like a puppy right now so he's no fun to talk to. I'll just talk to myself instead. Or my blog. Whichever.

six places
{my husband edition}

1. Lake Crescent, Washington {where I met my husband}

2. Eden, Utah {where I married my husband}

3. Caribbean Islands {where I honeymooned with my husband}

4. Northern Japan {where I moved far away from everything I knew for my husband}

5. Shimoda Mall {where I adopted my puppy for lots of money with my husband}

6. Our Little Home {where I get to live happily every day with my husband}

10 Day You {7}

seven wants

1. Aaron to get Easter off work (not going to happen...)
2. Twink to stop struggling when I dress him (crazy dog lady, remember?)
3. Nail Polish that doesn't chip
4. Fujifilm Instax Mini to take instant pics
5. Toms to stop being mean to me and ship to APO's (seriously...)
6. One Tree Hill to not be over
7. Cafe Rio salad

I have nothing else to say today. Except now I want a Cafe Rio salad even more because I talked about it. I should learn to let it go... Or maybe open a Cafe Rio in Japan? It would definitely be popular. The ONE mexican restaurant in town is so busy most days that if you don't go right at opening you don't get a seat. Good thing my hubby loves it too and takes me there for dinner anytime I want.

eight fears

(this one was HARD because I don't have fears as much as worries...)

1. My absolute biggest fear is losing my husband
2. A very close second is losing any other member of my family
3. Losing a very close friend (sensing a trend here...?)
4. Twink will run into the street because he's naughty like that. 
5. Okay, I have no more fears. Literally my only fears in life are losing the people I love.

Here's a funny thing about living in Japan. We don't have "normal" water heaters. The water is cold all the time. If you want hot water you have to manually turn the water heater on, wait for it to heat up, turn on your shower, and wait for that to heat up. And then you have to remember that you did all of these things because you are constantly busy (like me) and don't just sit there starting at a wall while said water is heating up. So you forget you turned the shower on until 15 minutes later when you're done writing your blog post and realize the water's been running this whole time. It's a good thing I don't have a tight schedule!

Also, I signed up for this class and I am so excited about it.

nine loves

1. aaron
2. twink
3. books
4. pretending to be an artist
5. tv on dvd
6. shoes
7. nail polish
8. taking pictures
9. lipgloss/lipstain/lipstick

Today's list was a lot easier to come up with. And now I have to apologize for sucking. I had an awesome (in my mind) giveaway and I picked a winner and I got super busy and I forgot to announce the winner and this is a horrible run-on sentence. So I apologize. The winner of my birthday giveaway is 

Salena @ A Little Piece of Me!

 Congrats to you my lovely bloggy friend & thank you to everyone who entered my giveaway! It was so much fun to read everyone's favorite birthday gift. Also, there were three lovely ladies who linked up vlog's for everyone to see their cute faces: Brittany, Jane, and Daneilia. These ladies are three of my absolute favorites in the blogging world (so go visit them!) and I LOVED being able to see them in a vlog. I feel like the vlogs bring us all closer together because we get to know each other beyond just the words (and pictures) on the page. And since they were all so awesome to link up with me I'm skipping over choosing one winner and sending them each something special just for being so awesome. Thanks again ladies! You all made my birthday extra special this year!

10 Day You {10}

I've been thinking a lot about my little blog here. It started out as a way for me to document my life. It was purely for my entertainment. Then my family and friends started reading it. Then other bloggers started reading it. I haven't gone out actively looking to expand my readers until a month or so ago when a fellow blogger encouraged me into it but I've slowly gained readers over time. Then I thought about how I've never done an "about me" post because it all started with people who already know me. I still don't want to do an about me post because I'm not really sure what I'd say in it. I already know me so it's hard to think of what to tell others about myself. Then I found this really cute 10 Day You Challenge that I thought would be fun & also be a good way to let my readers get to know me a little better. I'm pretty sure you're supposed to start with one and work up to ten but I'm going to go the opposite direction and count it down. I also meant to start this yesterday but I got busy and forgot. Pretty typical for me. 

ten secrets

1. I'm terrified by the prospect of one day having children but my husband is slowly trying to convince me it will be a good thing. He will win eventually.
2. My body is not what I want it to be. I eat when I get stressed out. I know this about myself and I'm trying to change it but it's been a struggle and probably always will be.
3. I like to read graphic novels. They're like picture books for adults and they usually have a dark and twisted theme, which I find fascinating.
4. I don't like chick flicks. Yes, I just said that. I can count the chick flicks I actually enjoy on one hand. I'm prefer an action/comedy/horror/psychological thriller to a chick flick. My husband is very lucky in that regard because I never make him watch them with me.
5. I have a love/hate relationship with books that are made into movies. I love to see them come alive but I (almost always) hate the changes they make to the stories. I also think some of the very best movie ideas started out in book form. 
6. I have more than one best friend. I know that's contradictory in itself but I don't care.
7. I am obsessed with music. If I go to long without listening to music I begin to feel antsy. I always have at least one iPod+headphones with me and I'm usually humming or singing to myself.
8. I need things to be neat and organized. Our shelves in our (very small) house probably look messy to other people but I know exactly what's on each shelf and exactly where things go and to me that is neat and organized.
9. I've been trying my hardest to minimize the amount of "stuff" that Aaron and I have but it's hard. Since I moved here with one suitcase and one backpack it's mostly my husband's stuff that takes up space in our house and oh my goodness, he has way too much stuff. 
10. It's been really hard to come up with 10 "secrets" and I ended up just telling you 10 little known facts about myself. And since that's not a secret or a little known fact I'll end with this: I was never an animal person until we got Twink. That little man (who is affectionately called "Sir" when he's being naughty) came into my life and made me a crazy dog lady. I completely blame him and his adorable face.

Also, I'm linking up here today because Spring to me is the time of new beginnings. 

This project is my new beginning!