Dia de Gracias

I'm grateful for quality time with the people I love.{My Mom and I}

{My nephew and I}

{My babe and I}

Moments

So the other day, as I wrote an e-mail to my best friend who is on her mission far far away in Bolivia, I began to reminisce about the memories I had with her - in high school, in college, during summers - and I began to leaf through pictures that I have that date all the way back to when we were 16 (that is 6 YEARS AGO, AH!) until just before she left on her mission last September - I couldn't believe the difference, but I also couldn't believe the amount of pictures that I have during those years! My friends and family have always commented (and when I say commented, I mean made fun of me) on how many pictures I take - no matter what occasion or circumstance it is - I have always taken a lot of pictures - until, that is, I moved here! I still take a fair amount, ya know, snap one here and there when I actually remember my camera AND its charged - not a small feat, mind you - but it made me realize something deeper about myself - when I was 16, and even when I was 20 in college, I felt like the pictures I took, especially the volume of them, represented the importance of that event, or trip, or instance. I thought that in order to remember how significant that moment was in my life, that I needed 10 -12 images to capture it. Now I realize, not only do I not need 10 pictures, but I don't really need any - that the most important moments in life are actually those that don't usually call for a camera to be whipped out - or when they do, sometimes the most "imperfect" shot depicts the perfect moment - and sometimes, that one picture can remind you of a million memories you had that night, that week, that month. Sometimes it can remind you of all the moments you have shared with that person. Just that one can be powerful. It may sound silly - well I guess it is, actually - but I really believe its true. Images can document our lives, or we can allow people, places, events, and memories to become what defines us. And every so often the two mediums collide and allow us to do both.

For example:

{playing flashlight tag at Shelby Farms after hours :)}

Handy Work

I have a confession: I'm a terrible handy woman.

Now that I have made that disclaimer I feel comfortable sharing the adventure I undertook during my 5 day stay-cay.. and that is HANDYwomanWORK! I have been meaning to complete a couple of projects in the past few months - but being on the road for the majority of 2 1/2 months has put them on hold - so when I got 5 consecutive days off, and a boyfriend overly involved in school activities and therefore in Nashville for 4 out of 5 of those days, I decided to get things done!!

After many hours of measuring, hammering, screwing, leveling and "eyeing it" most of my creations came out less than perfect - with the exception of my shadow boxes - and thats only because they never actually made it to the wall, but are instead subbing in for an end table that I do not currently possess - but that is besides the point.... Here is a catalog of my efforts:

Next up: MY BEDROOM! :)

Alarm Clocks

What "Little Thing" I'm enjoying today do you ask? The absense of my alarm clock. Yes ladies and gentlmen, I know it will come as a surprise, but I, Julie Marie Bennett, inadvertantly turned OFF my alarm instead of ON last night and therefore did not wake up to that hideous beeping noise that jolts me from the wonderous world of dreams and happy slumber - but instead woke up to the beautiful sun shining through my drapeless window and realizing oh so sadly (and unfortunately very quickly) that I had indeed overslept... by a lot. So of course I was late to work... by a lot. So you might be wondering...why am I enjoying this little thing? Because I have felt so much more rested and energized the entire day - and fortunately for my coworkers have had a happier and more easily dealt with attitude (maybe thats due to the cookies I brought it for them, and not me - but a girl can hope) It's amazing what a little much needed beauty sleep can do to a woman - and when its unplanned, its just a little more enjoyable :)

Rule 32: Enjoy the Little Things

For those of you who have not seen the movie Zombieland first of all, you're missing out. Second of all, that means you wouldn't really understand my blog title. which means you're again missing out. Lo siento.

Either way - the little thing I enjoyed last night: grocery shopping. Forreal. I haven't done that "little thing" in about, hmm... 2 months? That's what happens when you are a bank examiner and travel constantly. When I'm home on the weekends theres never any point in buying food that will go bad the following week while I'm gone .... but I am officially in town for 10 straight days and I'm going to enjoy every minute of it! Don't get me wrong - I love my job! I love working at the banks with all different kinds of people and meeting new examiners and taking road trips with my girlfriend/coworker Meredith - but I also love my apartment, and my own bed, and my boyfriend!, and just being able to drive my own car anywhere I want somewhere familiar. I love the little things. So for the next 10 days it will be all about enjoying the little things.

Yet....some big things have been happening recently, and I thought maybe I should update!

Big thing #1: Chicago!

I went to attend a class for work - the class was great, the city was great, the shopping was GREAT.

About 15 of us from the class went on a segway tour of the city - I was so scared at first, but it ended up being so fun!

This is Meredith and I in our cab on the way to the airport (to go back to Memphis) Our cabbie got off the highway to go to the bathroom - while we sat in the car waiting!!

Big Thing #2: Corn Maize!

I have never been through a corn maze and made a deal with Morgan if he went with me to the maze we could go to a Haunted House (since I HATE HALLOWEEN, especially haunted anything). Well the maze ended up being haunted the night we went - So I got totally screwed on the deal - But it was still a lot of fun! :)

What do the guys do in haunted corn mazes? eat corn of course!!

Big Thing #3: The Branch Halloween Dance!

Morgan and I went as Mr & Mrs. Incredible - We had the idea for awhile (courtesy of my mother) but didn't really inact it until the day of the dance (traveling so much knocks the whole halloween costume thing down a couple notches on the to-do list) and I ended up making the shirts - they turned out great though and the dance was so fun!

My friend Jenn and I - she was Tinkerbell and won the Cutest Costume title!

The Incredibles :)

:)

Big Thing #4: the BASH Dash 5k!

I forgot to take pictures, but I was so excited about this race. I ended cutting 2 minutes off my time and finished in 28 minutes flat! Morgan came and was the loyal supportive boyfriend... definitely made me run faster knowing he was at the end :) Next up: Turkey Trot 5k over Thanksgiving break in Kansas City with my marathon-runner-mom!

Big Thing #5ish: LIFE!

It has been crazy but I love every single minute of it!!! :)

Did I mention?

That I ran a 5k?? I know I snuck it in a few times that I was training for one... and well, it happened! and actually its already been a month, I have just been so busy. And I just remembered about it today because I'm doing my second one this coming Saturday! I'm pretty excited about this one - the cause is awesome. The charity is called Girls Incorporated of Memphis and the 5k is named the B.A.S.H Dash which stands for Bold and Strong Heroes. It helps those girls in the community that don't have strong female role models in their lives and lends strength to them in any way they can - I know how grateful I am for the strong women in my life that have not only been my role models but my friends, inspirations and lifetime heroes, I think everyone deserves that. Anyways so wish me luck!

Here are a couple pictures from the last race (Sole to Soul, benefiting local homeless shelters)

Morgan is the one who got me started on my running kick (to prepare for a 1/2 marathon that I no longer have any desire to do, haha) and our friends Lara and Ryan (the cute engaged couple :) joined in on our fun.... Lara, Morgan and I were all 5k virgins!

Lara, Morgan and I after the race... Ryan finished in 27 and split, he had a class to get to...
These are our "trophies" Ryan got 1st place in his and Morgan's age group and Morgan got 3rd... I got 2nd in my age group! :)

Sega & N64

So every day around 11:17 my "boss" Brett (he's not really my boss, hes just 10 years my superior, but still...) locks up his office and claps his hands and moseys on over to our (Mere, Pope and I's) cube farm and says "Who feels like eatin" and I raise my hand and Meredith says "I'm starving" and Pope makes a phone call to his stockbroker and meets us in the cafeteria-ish place about 2 minutes later. ok anyways the point is, I eat with my coworkers every day - its always the 3 musketeers (again... Mere, Pope and I) and then whoever else is in the office (meaning whoever isn't traveling on an exam)... Well, Brett recently has moved over to the monitoring division so he's in the office 24/7 and lunch has become an interesting event. We usually end up talking about old college stories (his from 15 years ago, ours from 5 months ago), stupid things we do, football, pet peeves, and usually my love life (i dont know why, they are FASCINATED)... so a few days ago at lunch Meredith started telling a story about a "pre-party" her and her friends had before a formal at school (me being the naive byu-idahoan did not know these existed) and so as the story progressed Brett and Pope started telling us how guys did their pre-parties and it made me laugh... remember Sega? and Nintendo 64? Mario Kart and Golden Eye and Aladdin? That and a six-pack of beer. Boys are so weird. And don't pretend like you guys dont do that... or wish you could. I mean minus the 6 pack of beer I would be so down with that. I grew up with 4 brothers and I remember playing Sega & N64 for hours... and remember when it would freeze and every one had their own way of making it work? Like they were some kind of video game mechanic extraordinaire? I always blew into the bottom, like those few bits of dust that were housed in the piece of plastic were what was stopping the entire machine from working. righhhht. My brothers would always turn the console on and off like 18 times... like they were trying to trick it into working or something? Yeah I miss those times. And since I've been away from my brothers for awhile now I've started to forget how much fun simply hanging out playing a video game was, or how driving to the movie store to get $1 rentals is the perfect Thursday night, or getting Taco Bell at 2:00 AM after a midnight movie is probably the best weekend adventure. I mean as girls we always want to pretty things up... bake something, get all dressed up, plan minute for minute... boys arent like that. I think there are a lot of things girls can teach boys.. like hygiene, and a little more maturity (emphasis on the little) but there are some things we can learn from them.. like how to be more laid back, or how to pretend intelligence (ok maybe not that one), or just how to fix a frozen video game. I mean, I'd be alright with that. Boy do I miss my brothers.