Internet Diet Update [or] "On Writing"

SO. I'm having a hard time because a lot of the people I care about are on facebook and I want to know what they're doing with their lives and I wanted to show all of them this:

My most lovely Mother-in-Law made this BY HAND for me! Her body and button-joints and hair and face and clothes and shoes and dinosaur are all hand stitched. How IMPRESSIVE is that?? She is so sweet and I love how much this little doll that I've named Karen resembles me. She has my same eyebrow shape I love her little hat and her fun sock monkey overalls (that really work as overalls, you can unbutton them and everything!) and her Dinosaur named Deeno...
What a great Mother-in-law I have.

I've been to facebook a few times but it hasn't been as excessive and I feel like I'm making strides here. I haven't been to any of the waste time sites I usually went to. I've found a few things on pinterest that I like. I've made dinner the past couple nights (besides tonight because Sean wanted to grill) and I sort of rearranged our living room and I've been feeling better about myself. I learned some new make-up tricks and my hair has been looking exceptional...  It's all been better.

Right now, Sean is writing his latest work which he is really excited about and I'm really excited for him. I think it's really important that he writes because I know that it's something he loves and I like seeing him write. He types a bunch and then reads me a chunk that he's proud of and I love it. Plus that gives me an opportunity to pull out my editing skills and give him a few pointers and stuff. We both can do what we love and it's excellent.

There's a little book exchange that opened up a block or so from our house and the ladies that own it are super sweet and fun to talk to. Sean and I have been there twice and both times we've stayed for about an hour just talking about everything. Sean gave them one of his books (which you can access here and here and here or just google "sean donner unlucky" and you'll have all the websites) and they're all excited to read it and host open-houses or things for his future books. Which is one of the reasons he's so excited about writing this new one.

Yay! What a great time.
love, Ellen

This is harder than I thought.

I might've accidentally already checked facebook once today. But I quickly realized that I didn't care about anything on there, really.

And now I'm watching taxi and finding a crock-pot recipe for dinner tonight. I might try taco soup or something. Or we have all the things for mac n' cheese but I don't think that's a stand-alone meal...

I need a break: My Internet Diet

I decided just a few seconds ago that I need to go on an internet diet. I'm going to (do my best to) cut out facebook, twitter, 9gag, iwastesomuchtime, slow robot, and what ever other mindless scrolling website that I go to too often. I'm going to cut back on pinterest and youtube. I'm still going to allow myself to do online jigsaw puzzles and crossword puzzles, and I'm also going to be online doing bills and researching stuff. I'll also keep doing online surveys that help me earn a little spare money.

I'll also continue blogging because it's a definite outlet that I can just relax and write down all my stuff.

I just have been feeling really useless lately. I just sit on the internet endlessly scrolling through page after page of ridiculous posts about stuff I don't really care about and not enough improving myself.

Instead, I will do things like
1: Clean and organize my house
2: Read a book
3: Do arts and crafts
4: Exercise
5: Learn how to cook better
6: Getting ready to move
7: Watch television and movies without  internet
8: Gardening
9: Practicing skills like photography and writing
10: Learning new skills and gaining new hobbies.

I needed to just set this all up for myself because if I didn't I wouldn't really do anything about my goal. I have a hard time sticking to things so I needed to set certain boundaries and allowances so I wouldn't go crazy. I was originally thinking just an internet fast and then I realized I still needed to pay bills online and I still want to blog and do crossword puzzles so I just cut out the junk.

It's just like a regular diet. You need to cut out the junk food if you're going to get anywhere and you need to have better snacks there in order for you to not turn to the unhealthy ones, which is why I made a list of "Insteads" that I can go to when I don't know what to do.

Plus my computer has been frustrating lately and the last thing anyone needs is that one more annoyance to fuel the fire. If you have any other good ideas of things I can do, please let me know! I'd love to hear them because I'm sure there's plenty of things I forgot. Thanks!

love, Ellen

And I Helped.

Today my parents made a million freezer meals (okay... 20 something... still a lot) and I helped a little.
Anyway, now my hands smell like garlic and it's really gross.
Good thing I have smelly lotions I can put on so they don't gross me out all night.

Also, I feel like I should put this here because I felt beautiful yesterday (not a first, but not always something I feel) and decided to document it.

I think it's really important for everyone to feel beautiful once in a while. I know I have my days where I show up to work at 6 am and then around 9 I finally look at myself in a mirror and think "I seriously looked like that for 3 hours and didn't do anything about it?" But there are plenty of days where I come home from work and realize that I don't even need that second shower because my hair looked just fine and my makeup was still good and all I need is a change of clothes and I'm good.

I know for a fact that no one sees as many flaws in oneself as they do (sense?). I could tell you plenty of things in this picture that I'm not a hundred percent happy with, but I could also name plenty more that I'm in love with.

Cons:
I have zits
My hair needs a trim
I should smile better
I own too many grey sweaters
etc.

Pros:
I have pretty eyes
I like how my hair curls
I have a cute face
I like my cheeks
I look good in grey sweaters
I can pull off almost any color of lipstick
etc.

See? I know that Even behind all the things I hate, there's a thing I love. I just need to look past the zits and hair problems sometimes and be glad that I have all the things I like.

This ended up being a lot longer than I thought it was going to be. Originally I was just going to post my selfie and tell you about my garlic hands... Hmm. Maybe someone needed to hear this.
love, Ellen

Is it Spring yet?

I am so excited to be able to go outside and play. Only 6 weeks until the opener of the Bee's baseball season! (sidenote: the Bee's are Utah's Minor League baseball team.) Sean and I have tickets to a bunch of games this year and I'm so excited to use all of them! It's going to be so fun!

I'm so excited to go out and play catch again. Sean and I have a couple times this year but it's been a little chilly and the ground was still pretty wet, but it was great. It's one of the only things I like doing that is similar to exercise.

Speaking of tickets, we also have tickets to any Hale Center Theatre play this year. My bosses bought them for us for Christmas. Yay! I'm pretty sure we're going to see Big River, which is a great play.

Anyway, I'd say this year is going to be a good one... once it starts being Spring. haha
love, Ellen

Valen-Times 2014

Wow. I've been really bad at writing on here. I don't really have any excuses... Sean was a little sick this week (and wrote this), we're still on our way to buying a house, our apartment is particularly moldy, it's been raining, the Olympics are on... Really just stuff you'd expect.

A week ago tomorrow was our 2 year dating anniversary and we went to Red Lobster. It's a lot easier to celebrate that than to fight the hoards of people on Valentine's day itself. Plus it's a little more special for us. We are still going to do Valentine's gifts. I painted Sean a picture and he got me something from the internet. I think we might go to Five Guys or Rubio's or something just because. Other than that, Valentine's is a pretty normal day.

Our first Valentine's day... Whoo, it's a good story. I guess I was soooooooooo blinded by Sean's adorable-ness that I didn't realize it was a hilarious story and should've written it down here but I didn't.

It started out pretty great. I walked over to his apartment because I didn't have time/wrapping paper enough to wrap his Build-a-Bear which I cutely named Sean the Jedi and dressed as a Jedi. Plus he had to finish a few things with dinner. I got there, rang the bell, and then straight away gave him the bear when he opened the door. He handed me a cute bag with 3 awesome Beatles Mugs and a Batman magnet inside.

He pulled the steaks out of the oven and they were heart-shaped. AW. He also had potatoes in a casserole dish ready for eating. He dished it all up for us as I sat at the counter and admired the roses and candles he'd put out. The steak was super delicious, I remember because my first bite was much too big so I was chewing it forever while trying not to choke because Sean was laughing at me and I was laughing (as much as I could) too.

We finished eating and then went on a drive and ended up at Blickenstaff's Toy Store in Provo. We wandered around and then... Actually... I don't really remember what happened after that. I think we probably.. OH YEAH. We went back to our neighborhood and went to our friend Jayme's house to pick up my copy of Scott Pilgrim vs. The World she'd borrowed. Then we went back to Sean's and watched it.

It was really sweet. Like he always is. The funniest part of all of this, though, was that he spent about $200 on the whole night. "What?" you ask. Yes, he had to buy household items to have Valentine's day at home. He was offered reservations at a nice restaurant but turned them down because he didn't want to spend a ton of money on a girl he'd just started dating. HAH. Joke was on him. He bought plates and stools and food and flowers... What a guy.

Anyway, I still love him just as much as then and I'm so happy he's my forever Valentine.
I gotta go check if our bed is still wet from me stupidly putting the humidifier on it while vacuuming... bad idea.
I'll post a picture of my painting once I give it to him tomorrow. Squee!
love, Ellen