The Facts!

Since I did a link up yesterday, I think I might as well do as many as I possibly can! Maybe I can even conduct an experiment on link-ups and how much they increase your blog's popularity.

Yeah, I'm not doing that. BORING.

But anyway! Today, I'm linking up with The Life of Bon (one of my favorite blogs!) to tell you:

5 Facts You DON'T Know About Me

Unfortunately, the last time I did a list like this I did 5 really stupid facts, so I'm excited to do not-so-stupid ones...if I can.

(Are y'all proud of me for not using one of my many many gorgeous wedding photos? )

1. I hated my first job so much (it was a call center) that I would hit "end" instead of "call" on the phone and have fake conversations. I quit before they could fire me....my work ethic has greatly improved.

2. I talk very very quietly, but I hate repeating myself. I'm like the asian girl in Pitch Perfect, but less confident and not good at beat boxing. :)

3. I make a very impressive Grandma. People honestly mistake me for a grumpy, southern, old lady. I take pride in this. Although, I still deny that I am a "drama kid." I love acting! Hate the "culture" (I cheated. That's 2 facts.)

4..My real name is not Kolie. In fact, no one calls me Kolie except my husband (rarely) and my blog friends. Everyone calls me Nikole! I wanted it to be a thing (cause I think it's cute), but it's really not catching on. :( Although, my in-laws call me Makolie :) 

5. My mom is dating a cowboy...well not dating dating. But he calls her "lil city slicker" and it's ridiculously cute! Now that it's not a "secret" anymore, I hope that means I can blog about it! Isn't it just the cutest thing! Cowboy and a city girl. awww....

newlywed link up: how I met my hunky mexican lover

I love link-ups! You meet new people, share stories, have fun :)

So, I'm joining in on a newly wed blog hop :)

they ask you questions, you answer, you meet people.
Deal.
Done.
Fun!
The question this time around?
How did you meet the Mr?

How did I meet my hunky Mexican lover?
My roommate decided to sell Pest Control in Portland over the summer (in 2011),
there, she met this kid Taylor.
They became best friends and she told me a lot about him,
even before I met him I would ask her "well, what does Taylor think?" whenever she had some relationship question or problem :)

Towards the end of their summer, Taylor got real bummed, and complainy.
He asked Jenna if she had any friends she could hook him up with.
Well.
She did.
And it was me.
We texted every single day for three months straight.
Finally, he actually called me.
haha! I was surprised to hear his voice, pleasantly surprised!
He told me he was moving down to Provo!
(He also said something about his mom getting her hair "did")
Anyway, yay!
So, without meeting him, I drove up to Rexburg, Idaho and picked him up.
(we met halfish way from Portland)

he came down with 2 interviews, 2 suitcases, and 30 dollars.
...and a real big love crush on me.
And the rest is history :)

the problem with a little space

I love my little vintage apartment. I really love it!

But after only 5 months of marriage I"m starting to get a little...uh...frustrated with the "little" part.

The tall ceilings make it look spacious and large, but the illusion is wearing off.

Not that I want a huge apartment or anything! Good heavens, I reaaaallly don't care about that,

BUT

we have slowly gained more and more things..

The zero counter space and single drawer in the kitchen worked when we didn't try to grocery shop and make dinner, but now we are.

The one tiny closet kind of worked when we had a handful of  summer clothes, but our winter stuff can only fit in the closet if half of it is in bins.

I really do love my little vintage apartment, but it is so hard to keep clean!

There's not enough cupboards for food and dishes, there's not enough drawers for clothes, there's not enough closet space for ANY shoes..

Every time I try to put something "away" something else has taken it's "spot." 

Consequently, there's always stuff with no where to go!

Which means, my apartment is never clean!

It's driving me crazy.

I am very very grateful for how lovely and cute my apartment is!

And I love that I have a place to call my own.

I delight in the fact that I have a cozy home with my very best friend

 I will just continue to love my little vintage apartment.

And never invite anyone over...or let anyone inside.

:)

Problem solved!

lucky lucky me :)

My life is slowly getting to be too good to be true.

And if that sentence didn't have to many "to's" then this one will:

How can one do all the "to-do's" that one wants to do in between all the to-dos that are too good to be true?

Taylor is talking to some people about summer sales, and it looks very promising. He's working so hard at both his jobs! He even won me Pitch Perfect at one of 'em! I don't understand how I am so lucky!

I found this guy who continually works ridiculously hard for me, who is constantly loving me, who has never ever yelled at me EVER, who comes from an amazing family, who respects me and other women, who stands up for what he believes in, and who has this incredible view on life.

He's never worried.

Which, I admit, is hard sometimes.

Sometimes I am freaking out about whatever and he "doesn't even care." Or so I think.

He does care, he just doesn't see the point in fretting about it.

He's incredible.

This post was not supposed to go on and on about how lucky I am for finding my Mr. Right.

It was supposed to be about how lucky I am for all the things and opportunities I have been given.

Haha, I guess he's just my favorite :)

But we're becoming more active in our ward, eating healthier, and making better decisions!

Which makes me happier!

Which makes me appreciate everything more!

Which makes me happierer!

Anyway, I wanna make an effort to be a better blogger, especially since I may just have a computer soon! Hahaha...oh the life of a computerless blogger.

Well, not computerless, just goodworkingcomputerless.

Oh, and look! 

Yesterday we had "Build Your Own Salads" for dinner!

It is Taylor's favorite meal so far, haha he thinks it's fun.

"like a little kid making his own pizza"

summer dreams

You guys.

It ICE RAINED...rained ice, whatever!

Ice is everywhere! Ice and cold and awful.

I'm a sniffling mess that's getting over the flu, and you know what?

I am dreaming of summer!

My summer dreams?

~To leave Utah

~To be tan!

~To be fit

~To be active 

~To have fun!!

And most importantly,

~To be sealed to my best friend for forever :)

I need to start preparing for all of that NOW

Which means...

I need to make plans!

I can't wait for all the discussions that Tay and i are going to have about, well, everything.

Marriage is awesome.

Can't wait for it to be for eternity :)

My Fair Wedding: Part 11

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3,
Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, 
Part 7, Part 8, A Hard Decision, Part 9
Part 10

I feel like so many brides get really caught up in the dress, the groom's attire, and the attire of the bridal/groomal party.

Consequently, they spend A LOT of money!

So, here's what I did...

The Bride:

My dream was a summer vintage wedding :)

My dream dress? 

~Mermaid

~Ivory

~Lace Overlay

~Long train

I found 2 dresses that fit my criteria.  One was $400 and the other was $1000.

I heard A LOT of "It's your big day! Forget about the price! You only get married once and you should wear what you love the most"

Yeah, a lot of that. And you know what? I'm calling it! That is NOT true!

You do not need to borrow more money from your parents, or use your credit card, or go on a payment plan to buy your "dream" dress.

Everyone will see you in ONE dress. And you're going to look beautiful. They're not going to see you in your dress and the other one you were considering. They're not going to make the comparisons that you make, because they'll only see the one dress!

If you love it and you look beautiful, then that's all you need, even if you like a more expensive one more.

Just sayin.

The Groom:

We were lucky! 

Because of my causal vintage theme, Taylor didn't need a suit :)

He loves vests, so we decided to go with a gray vest/slacks combo.

He picked a beautiful tie and wore his favorite shoes that he inherited from his older brother

Bam. Done. And, he's a STUD.

Bridesmaids:

This is where I became a bridezilla.

I was getting so stressed out with all the changes and the advice and the BLAH, that I was like.

Enough.

This is how it is.

I like this dress.

Get it if you wanna be in the wedding.

Most of my bridesmaids were like "finally, girl!"

Afterall, I can't make everyone happy. I just can't! It's impossible!

I let them pick their shoes and dress it up however they wanted.

They look pretty good, eh?

I hope they don't hate me ;)

Groomsmen:

To keep the simple, vintage theme going, I didn't want the groomsmen to match.

I also didn't want them to have to buy too much stuff.

The plan?

Wear whatever khakis you have, get some cheap suspenders, white shirt, dress shoes, whatever purple tie.

I LOVE how they look!

It is exactly what Taylor and I wanted :) 

Throughout planning my wedding, people asked me what shade of purple and what color shoes and what blah blah blah.

I tried to think about it, but I just didn't care!

I wanted it to not match.

Haha! :) Call me simple?

And they still look like they go together!

Awesome.

Check check check!

And it was a dream! :)

accidental bangs

So, I got a new haircut.

I had lots of dead ends, no style, frizz central...a MESS.

I told Taylor that I just wanted to go to a hair school,

I just needed a trim!

Not hard!

But, Taylor, (oh I love him) said something like,

"No, we're going to get you a NICE haircut"

:)

YAY!

So, we went to an actual salon and paid an actual salon price!

I love love LOVE my new haircut, except...

I asked for "swoop bangs"

When she was all done, I was very confused.

My new bangs were lacking the "swoop" I had imagined.

I asked her what the deal was, and she said it was because of my cowlic and how she blow-dried it blah blah blah.

Okay, sounds good.

The next day, I got out of the shower and...NO swoop.

I've styled "swoop bangs" for years!

I CANNOT get these bangs to swoop!

So, now, I have really choppy, uneven, straight across bangs.

I tried to even them up, and you know what?

Who cares?

Taylor really likes my new accidental bangs!

I'll just be confident with them (or try to be), and pretend like I'm trying to be like Carly Rae Jepson, Taylor Swift, or something!

stop looking for a photographer!

I have all my wedding photos now :)

Taylor and I aren't the richest and our photographer let us set up a payment plan!

That's just one reason that Carrie Lee Photography is just..well, the best!

She's also:

~Fun to work with

~ Affordable

~Talented

~Easy going

and

~Often uses another photographer, so that she catches everything :)

She's the only photographer that was willing to work with us.

I mean, when we found her, we just changed our date and lost our previous photographer...

We had less than a month til the big day, and we weren't entirely sure where we were even getting married!

That didn't phase her.

She knocked off 20%, set us up with a payment plan, and said she would take formals, ceremony, and reception pictures...

no matter where our ceremony ended up..

Taylor and I were so stressed and overwhelmed with the all other aspects of our wedding, 

that Carrie was a huge life saver.

And she actually KNOWS how to take pictures! :) 

She knows what looks good, and she tells you how to position your body or face so that it looks the best!

And, at the same time, she's really fun and captures precious, raw moments too!

She's a complete professional and genius!

She gave us the rights to the photos she took,

and burned us ADORABLE CDs 

Here's what other people have said about Carrie

My pictures were better than I could have hoped for! I love her style :)

 Her style is exactly what I have been looking for! Great with my kids. So cute :)

 Her style is exactly what I have been looking for! Great with my kids. So cute :)

Taylor and I just want her to take pictures of us all the time!

My Fair Wedding: Part 10

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3,
Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, 
Part 7, Part 8, A Hard Decision, Part 9

My wedding planning, and life completely changed in the course of all these "parts"

It's really interesting..but I think I like being the more mature person I am now..

Anyway,

After Taylor and I made the reluctant, but right, decision to have a civil marriage, I felt like my life blew up.

I really wanted to get married in the temple.

I felt like people were constantly talking about me, judging us, gossiping...

My mind went CRAZY!

Oh...and I had to plan an entire ceremony in less than a month.

It was hard for me to even think about the ceremony that I never dreamed of...

I also picked up another job working 10-12 hour days right up to the DAY BEFORE my wedding.

That's when my 3 heroes saved my life. AND my wedding.

My Aunt, Grandma, and Mom stepped up BIG TIME!

They planned EVERYTHING, made EVERYTHING (except bouquets and boutineers), they did it all!

Angels. They are Angels.

Taylor and I are so grateful for what they did for us. I don't think we'll ever be able to repay them.

Here's a taste of what they did for the ceremony/luncheon..

Without all this help, I don't know what I would have done!

I'm so happy and grateful for my family's love and support :)

friday's letters 1.11.13

Dear house,

I hope you are liking being clean, Tay and I sure are!

Dear dishes,

I have defeated you, but nice try.

Dear Friday,

I'm kinda scared to start you. You never know what the day will have in store for you, and I really hope today is good for me...and Tay :)

Dear Apple Pie,

You are beautiful AND delicious, plus you made for one of my most popular instagram posts ever! I felt so warm and fuzzy inside :) :)

Dear Drivers,

Be careful driving in the snow! And don't let your "courtesy" cause accidents...cause it does.

Dear Husband,

I love you :) Don't smother your fire!

it's clicking

After four months of marriage, things are clicking!

Taylor is working so hard with his two jobs,

he is getting noticed at both!

Chances for advancement may be on their way, and he's the record breaking top salesman at one of his jobs!

Can someone say proud?

Yes. I can.

I'm so stinking proud of him!!

And, today, while Tay was at work I

~Budgeted our money

~Figured out our car insurance

~Went grocery shopping

~Took down all the Christmas decorations

~Made an apple pie for a dinner party tonight

~AND cleaned up around the house

I'm finally being productive instead of moping around waiting for Tay to come home!!

We're reading our scriptures every single night, praying together, applying for schools, and really doing things.

We're figuring stuff out :)

It's the best!!

My happiness level?

A MILLION!

 I wonder why it took me so long to click everything into place.

And now that we're using our money wisely, and I'm actually budgeting it, we can perhaps afford this!!!

That's right!

There's a formal dinner dance in the Provo Library Valentine's day :)

Sounds so fun to me!

:) 

I LOVE dressing up!!

Kissy Kissy! Meet Lauren :)

I decided to title my blog "Stubborn Delight" because I believe that we are in charge of our feelings and emotions. I'd rather be happy, or delighted, all the time! Not angry, sad, and blegh. Although, I feel all that nasty stuff too. BUT, I have to admit, the title fits even more perfectly when you see how stubborn I am! I'm crazy stubborn!  It's ridiculous.

 Anyway, I have a new friend, Lauren, that is super stubborn about something else! She's a RIOT! I mean it! I love bloggers that are witty and fun, she's both :)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 Hey there! I'm Lauren and I blog over at Kisses from the Mrs. where I detail the adventures of being a newlywed and provide the world with a sneak peak into my fun, faith, and growing family.

I'm thrilled that Kolie is having me write over here on her blog today! I love doing guest posts - see, when I do a guest post I always try to do a play on words with the title of the blog I'm writing on. And hello, how could it get much better than Stubborn Delight?! It's perfect!!

Anyways, I was trying to think of ways I could show you all who I am while highlighting my delightfully stubborn attitude and BAM! It hit me. One of the things I'm most stubborn about is taking pictures... silly pictures, to be exact! The thing is, I'm whole heartily convinced that some of the best pictures are those that capture real laughter. And I'm sorry, but real laughter is hard to come by when standing in front of a camera! My solution? Make funny faces. Lots and lots of funny faces. Because right after the funny face, there's almost always an awesome real laughter face!

As a result, I have a ton of funny face pictures. And honestly, they've become my favorites - maybe even better than the real laughter pictures. How's that for the product of stubbornness being delightful, huh?? I think these silly pictures are my favorite because they make real laughter happen now too.

Like this one, from when I lived in the dorms with my best gal pal Elora and we dressed up for my birthday.

And see, I can't even go to a classy museum without stinking my finger up a statue's nose and making a funny face.

At least my husband knew what he was getting into. While dating, if Chris ever took a photo of me I'd be sure to give him one of these first. It's obvious why he fell in love, right?

Thankfully, when we were married he was right on board and gave into my stubborn demands of taking funny face photos. Feel free to check out more photos from our big day, they're delightful!

Of course, the honeymoon was no different. South Lake Tahoe probably had never seen that many silly faces. I obviously married my soul mate.

And when we went to Fort Bragg to celebrate our three month anniversary, the hubs even snapped one of me and our precious dog doing silly faces together. Trust me when I say the next picture was a pretty fantastic real laughter picture. I swear, the theory works!

But we most recently used this trick when we went to Disneyland. There may have been long lines but we entertained ourselves with funny face picture after funny face picture.

There you have it. My stubborn demands to have silly faces photos have resulted in delightful pictures and even better memories that Chris and I will be laughing at for ages, I'm sure. I can't wait until we can include our kiddos in on the fun! You should join in too, maybe we can start a new trend... Or if you'd rather just keep seeing goofy photos and hearing about our crazy adventures come hang out at Kisses from the Mrs.

friday letters 1/4/13

I realize that one post between "friday letters" is not enough...

oh well...

Dear 2012,

It's been fun. Within your year, I was engaged and married...pretty much the best thing ever.

Dear 2013,

I'm excited for all the things we get to do this next year! Traveling and visiting and working and school and...most importantly...getting married for ETERNITY!!!! :D :D :D :D Who says 13 is unlucky? (knock on wood)

Dear Weather,

I'm sorry, but you are way too cold! I have to walk home today in single digit temperatures, I'm not okay with that! I'm also not okay with THIS huge icicle waiting above my porch to impale me! Luckily, I have a beastly husband..

Dear Tootsie,

Thanks for hanging in there! Three winters of icy roads, and you're still runnin' strong! Whoooooo Tootsie!

Dear Body,

You're gonna be lookin' fiiiiiiine in no time!!!

Dear Husband! 

I'm really excited for our date next week :)

Dear Fur,

I really do wish I had more of you.

Dear Provo Library Users,

Can't we all return our books a little more.. staggeringly. (word?)