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Project: Do You #16


#1 - Read one book per month. The Fault in our Stars (by John Green) was a FANTASTIC book! I highly recommend it as an easy summer read - one that will make you cry and laugh all on the same page. It also counted as my "October" book, so this goal will be crossed off as soon as I finish another two!

#2 - Work out on a regular basis. I've been active, though not as much as I should be. Not that it's an excuse, but our house hunt has been taking every extra ounce of energy I have. This week will be better - I hope. The Color Run is in less than two weeks and I need to spend more time running outside!

#11 - Make more time for crafting. You may have seen a few pictures if you follow me on Instagram (@YouAndMeAreWe), but there will be more pictures to come here as soon as the paint's dry! A $30 table from Craigslist has never looked better, let me tell you. There will be a few more crafts coming, along with a dresser and bookcase makeover. I've been enjoying my time getting crafty so I'm guessing this will be checked off the list pretty darn soon, as well.

How are your goals coming along?

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Hey there, stranger!

It has been far too long since I've sat down and blogged, much less typed up something worthy of hitting 'post' for you all to see. My mind has been elsewhere lately. I've hardly slept and my thoughts keep returning to the same things.

What on Earth could possibly be occupying my mind so frequently? Creeping in between every other thought that passes between my ears.

And it's time to come clean with you!

Trevor and I have been working on buying a house: applying for loans, crunching numbers, looking at listings, going to open houses, crunching numbers, meeting with our Realtor, spending countless hours looking at house after house, and crunching numbers. Oh, wait, did I mention we've been busy crunching numbers?!

We came thisclose to putting an offer on a perfect two story colonial home this past week. Everything was going along swimmingly until we invited our parents to see it and they noticed evidence of a wet basement. And some structural "enhancements" - if you could even call them that. Bottom line: we're still trying to get to the bottom of what's happening in that basement, but odds are that we're letting that house go. It's just not worth spending $20k to redo an entire basement!

And now I find myself dreaming of that home - the main floor and the upstairs moved somewhere else on a solid foundation, of course - and thinking of how I would paint, decorate, and arrange things. I am constantly dreaming of us owning our own home, making minor improvements, making the space our own. My heart is heavy.

Clearly, we are sick of renting. We hate that we are spending thousands of dollars on rent every year - and our landlord only comes around once a year if he's in the neighborhood. He doesn't care to take care of our needs but he makes sure to raise heck if he's looking for money, that's for sure! For the amount of money we are spending, we could be paying a mortgage and stashing away some pennies for home improvements. We're ready to move on to bigger and better things, that's for sure.

So where does this leave us? Still looking for a home to call our own, spending Sunday afternoons looking at open houses, and dreaming of the future. And still in our rental. Ugh.

I apologize for the lack of posts and for today's somber attitude. Honestly, there hasn't been much going on in our lives except spending the day working and the evenings looking at homes and gathering paperwork for our mortgage lender... and nobody wants to hear about that.

Don't worry - I won't leave you high and dry! Here's what's coming down the pipeline: a DIY furniture tutorial coming soon, the perfect summer scrub "recipe" to keep you legs silky smooth, a new blog design (!), and plenty of life updates. In the next month, I'll be running The Color Run, preparing for nursing school, and heading to Chicago with Whit.

Stay tuned!

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Allergic to Everything {and Why I Love 1-800 CONTACTS}

Most of the pictures you see on here don't involve glasses of any kind. Not because I don't need glasses {actually, I've had them since 4th grade} but because I wear contacts most of the time if I'm doing something other than working or hanging out around the house... and let's be honest, you're not interested in seeing pictures of me cleaning at home.

Needless to say, I wear contacts a lot! Sometime during college, it came to light that I have massive allergies. After months and months of allergic conjunctivitis {allergy-related pink eye} and therefore months and months of not wearing contacts, it was decided I would head to an allergist for testing. She did a scratch test and it only showed I was allergic to cockroaches and spruce trees. We knew there had to be more out there that was making me as miserable so I was sent home with a large patch containing common allergens taped to my back. Within a few days, I could feel blisters forming and my back was so itchy! At the end of the week I had blisters on top of blisters in a few key sections of my back: where the potassium dichromate was, and where the cobalt was.

So what did this mean for me? No more contact lens solution: I switched to daily disposable lenses. Lots of allergy eye drops and a daily Claritin. And it meant I was basically allergic to about half of my world. Make up? Allergic to most. Hair dye? Allergic to most. Printing inks? Allergic. Metal alloys and ceramics? Allergic. Paint primers, leather, and cement? Allergic, allergic, allergic.

Years later, I've managed my allergies well and have to come to realize that apart from avoiding what I'm allergic to {which is next to impossible, let me tell you!} one of the best ways for me to reduce reactions is surprisingly to continue the use of my daily contact lenses rather than switch back to monthlies.

So when the time came to order more contact this year, I had my eyes set on one brand: SofLens Daily Disposables. And wouldn't you know that my eye doctor's price was crazy out of this world? Even after employee discounts and vision insurance coverage, I'd still have to pay at least $100 out of pocket for a six month supply!

And that's when I started looking elsewhere for places to get my contacts from!

Disclaimer: the opinions in the rest of this post continue to be mine, and only mine. I have not been compensated for writing this post - I am just happily sharing my experience with my readers!

I came across 1-800 CONTACTS and quickly found my brand of contacts on their website... for much less than my doctor's office was selling them for! Plus, they had a rebate for an extra $30 off. I realized I was stupid not to buy my contacts this way!

It was simple to buy contacts through 1800CONTACTS.com - all I had to have on hand was have a copy of my latest contact prescription and my credit card! Easy peasy. I chose the power of each eye, how many boxes I wanted, and clicked them into my cart. From there, I finished checkout {but not before Googling a coupon code for an extra $10 off!} and found an email in my inbox telling me that they'd call my eye doctor to confirm the prescription I entered but I could speed up the process by texting them a picture of my paper copy instead. I snapped a pic message and sent it to the number they provided. Soon after, the contacts were on their way to my house!


Here's how it went down:
10:30 am, order placed, confirmation email received
10:51 am, text message was sent
12:00 pm, $30 rebate form was printed, filled out, and in my mailbox for pickup
12:30 pm, email received telling me my contacts were ready to ship

A few days later a small box arrived on my porch and my contacts were in perfect condition. They're exactly what I would have gotten from my eye doctor's office - except for the massive price difference. In fact, with all of the rebates and discounts from 1-800 CONTACTS, my vision insurance is reimbursing me for every single penny of the contacts! What was going to cost me at least $100 out of pocket ended up costing me nothing at all!



I tweeted and Instagrammed a picture about how great my experience with 1-800 CONTACTS was and within minutes had company representatives liking and commenting on my photo. So not only do they ship quickly but they have fantastic customer service and a great social media team!

If you are looking for a a quick and easy ordering process, even better product, and an overall positive experience you seriously need to check out 1-800 CONTACTS. For real. I'm not kidding. I'm not getting paid to say it. {Though, they're welcome to send me free contacts!}You just need to try it. FAN FREAKING TASTIC!

Have you ever ordered from 1-800 CONTACTS? What about another mail order contact place?

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