Travel Tuesday: Segovia, España

Happy Tuesday Everyone! So sorry I've been missing lately, but I started a new job as a Spa Concierge at the J.W. Marriott so I've been busy (and I've been loving it!). So for this Travel Tuesday I have a very special city that Alex and I share our love for: Segovia, Spain. He visited me twice while I was living in Spain, and we managed to make it to this city THREE different times! We were also fortunate enough to have Pedro (a family friend) as a tour guide. There's nothing better than visiting a city with a local. That being said, Alex and I ate some of the best food of our lives and drank the most delicious wine ever. Take a look for yourself!

The Aqueduct of Segovia. It's so impressive to think that these are just stones so intricately placed on top of one another. It baffles my mind as to how they even did it.

Alex and me by the Aqueduct.

Okay now for the food! Pedro brought us to a place called Jose Maria's and it is by far Alex's favorite restaurant ever. Warning, if you're a vegetarian....I would skip past the next photo.

Cochinillo! Also known as, baby pig. You might be judging me right now but it is super bueno!

Of course we had to finish the meal off with some Ponche, the traditional dessert of Segovia. 

Here are a few more photos from the city:

And my personal two favorites:

Have a great rest of your Tuesday! I leave for Washington D.C. on Friday for the Run for Hope, so wish me luck!

xoxo, K

Laura's Month of April via Instagram

Just like March, April came and went at high speed.  Is it seriously May tomorrow? 

April was an amazing month.  Time really does fly when you're having fun.  And it surely was BUSY. 

Here's a little recap: 

1. Katelyn and I at the Whitecaps home opener in the Mlive suite.
2. Crocheting a new afghan to help with my insomnia.
3. Stacey and some of her bridesmaids at her bridal shower.
4. Birthday cards! I celebrated turning 26 this month.
5. A little advertisement up on the wall at work for Mlive Movie Night at the UICA.
6. My boyfriend Steve Rivers played two shows on April 19th and 20th at the Back Forty Saloon in GR.
7. Grand Rapids experienced a flood this month. The river was high than some of these office windows.
8. My fellow account associates and I celebrated Administrative Professionals week with a giant orange cake.
9. My best friend of 26 years married her man Ted this past Saturday and I had the pleasure of being her maid of honor. So happy for them!!

Hope you all had as great of a month as I did. Let's hope for a fantastic month of May!

xoxo, 

Laura

7.

Spring Stress

It's insane how busy and stressful this week has been so far.  I thought that with the weather in west Michigan finally heating up and the sun showing it's face every now and again that things would seem less stressful.  Boy, was I wrong.

Fortunately I have a family vacation coming up two weeks from today.  I seriously may never come back home. 

Maybe I'm just in a funk, or maybe it's just the week I'm having at work, but I just want to hide under a rock and take a deep breath. 

So for now I will do this: 

What are your favorite stress-relief activities? I think tonight I will take a hot bath and do some crocheting. That always seems to calm my nerves.

xoxo, 

Laura

Grand Rapids is sinking!

So for those of you who don't live in Grand Rapids, or Michigan for the matter, our city is flooding! The Grand River is at a record high level for the past few days. People are literally lining up along the side to watch it and take pictures. Alex happens to find the fact that the Titanic exhibit is at our Public Museum right now is hilarious/ironic. What if the Titanic sank twice?! So I luckily had the day off yesterday so I got a new library book, a nice almond milk latte from Madcap, and took some photos of the rising river. Take a look for yourself:

Downtown looks all cute and rainy. 

Until you reach the river, and it's SO high. 

Here's a comparison photo that Laura took a little while back:

Crazy, huh? Here are a few more photos too of all the craziness.

That's all for now! Please keep the families affected by the flood in your thoughts and prayers. 

xoxo, K

 

26

I thought about doing a lengthy blog post today about the upcoming events going on this weekend, but I'll think I just take a break and relax on my birthday. :)

I WILL say, however, that I have the best friends and coworkers a girl could ask for. 

Matching roses from my sales team. :)

Have a fabulous day, friends! 

xoxo, 

Laura

Travel Tuesday: Washington D.C.

This week's Travel Tuesday is all about our nation's capital! So my mom and I traveled to Washington, D.C. on our very first solo trip almost two years ago, and this May we're going back! My brother works for the airline SunCountry so we get crazy great deals through him, and I work for a Marriott so we're usually very taken care of when it comes to a nice hotel. I was so pleasantly surprised with how clean the city was. So the real purpose of the trip was to run a 5K in honor of a close family member who was diagnosed with brain cancer a while back. This year, I'm actually trying to prepare for the race a little better so I've been running regularly and trying to eat super healthy, which is hard to do when you were born with the biggest of sweet tooth's. Here are a few photos from our trip!

 That would be me after the 5k, looking a little sweaty.

My awesome mom!

These next two photos are courtesy of my stepdad, Wayne, who will be joining us this year for the race.

What I loved about this city so much is the cleanliness, how easy it was to walk everywhere and how easy the metro was! I can't wait to go back so soon and to really check out more of Georgetown as well. 

Have a happy Tuesday everyone! Let me know if you have any suggestions of places to check out while we're in Washington D.C. and Georgetown! :)

xoxo, K

p.s. If you would like to donate to our team for the Race for Hope click here! You will be donating on behalf of Julie Jensen (my mom). 

Music Monday

In honor of Music Monday, this week I have decided to share my workout playlist titled "Get Fit". It's poppy, ridiculous, and mostly filled with guilty pleasures, but it is also filled with some great beats for rocking out some cardio.

Hope you all have a fantastic week! I'm looking forward to pushing myself at the gym and working on my beach body for my Myrtle Beach vacation in just a few weeks!

xoxo,

Laura


Link up with Music Monday w/ Relatively Offbeat: 

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Grand Rapids Event Spotlight: Mlive Movie Night

 
On Friday, April 19th, I will be attending an event at the Urban Institute of Contemporary Art for Mlive Movie Night, where several Grand Rapids filmmakers will be featuring their short films. I'm happy to be submitting a film that I was the production assistant for-- a film entitled From The Heartland. 

You can check out an article featured on mlive.com HERE!

This film was created as a part of a 48-hour film competition for 48 Go Green (a worldwide competition).

Big Foot Films was born February 2008 out of East Lansing, Michigan. A few years, films and projects later, Big Foot Media was created to take on interesting creative freelance projects. Big Foot Films is highly collaborative and brings together video professionals and non-video professionals alike. Our crew includes high school teachers to restaurant managers; everyone has a chance to be creative.

Since its origins in 2008, Big Foot Films has produced 9 films for 48 hour film projects in East Lansing and Detroit. We also competed internationally with "From the Heartland" which received the award of being a top 15 finalist amongst over 40 films in the field. 

Big Foot Films highest accolade came from their win at the 48 hour Film Project: Detroit in the summer of 2011. Their dark comedy - "Maybe Tomorrow" received: Best in Genre, Audience Choice Award, Best Director and Best Overall Film amongst a field of 61 talented Detroit filmmakers!

Visit Big Foot Media for your viewing pleasure! 

If you're in West Michigan, come on out for this really cool and FREE event next Friday!

xoxo, 

Laura

Travel Tuesday: Guatemala

It feels like time is going so fast lately! In honor of it being Tuesday, I've decided to share a little bit about my trip to Guatemala a few years ago. My junior year of college I decided to sign up for a mission trip to Guatemala during my Spring Break. The beautiful thing about mission trips is you start off as strangers with this group of people who also are giving up their time and money in order to help others and serve the Lord, and you wind up becoming SO close. While there, we worked with an organization called WorldWide Hands. It was a ton of work, but we definitely got some free time to explore as well. Here are a few of my favorite memories:

This is our leaders for the trip praying and preparing for the day. Also, look at that view! This is where we stayed for the majority of the week. I don't know what it is about this photo, but I love it.

Our job for the week was to move ALL those cement blocks onto the second floor. We were all tuckered out at the end of each day.

That would be me hanging out with all the adorable nuggets during lunchtime. Their school was literally right next door to the new school we were building.

Me and my good friend Chelsea wearing the traditional Guatemalan dress. 

At a random bus stop taking in the view and the mountains. Guatemala was so naturally breath-taking. It was such a nice change to wake up and see mountains everywhere!

Have you ever traveled to Guatemala or south of the United States?

xoxo, K

Music Monday

In my efforts to listen to some great new tunes, I've dedicated Mondays to the one thing that gives me inspiration throughout my days: MUSIC. Today I am sharing a playlist I originally created back in July of last year. Since then, I've been adding more and more indie/instrumental/experimental/dance tunes for my listening pleasure while I'm at the office. So now, I'm sharing it with you guys! My playlist today is named "Dirty Twirls", after the ever-so-charming Zoe Deschanel in New Girl.
Feel free to share some of your favorite songs/playlists as well!

Link up with Music Monday w/ Relatively Offbeat: 

<a href="http://www.relativelyoffbeat.com" target="_blank"><img border="0" alt="Music Monday with Relatively Offbeat" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v393/neez/musicmondaybutton_zps24ce6f17.jpg"></a> <div style="text-align: center;">

How to Embarrass Your Cousin

Step 1: Post a really old photo of you guys together.

Step 2: Don't tell her that you're going to dedicate a whole blog post to embarrassing her.

Step 3: Wait for her response. 

Happy #tbt ya'll! This is us in Mexico a LONG time ago. Like, so long ago that it was super cool to get your whole head braided.

xoxo, K

Running Shoes

We want your input, ladies. What shoe do you choose to run in and why is it your favorite? While Katelyn and I are on a mission to better our minds and bodies, we would love any help we can get with selecting the right products for us.

 

In our efforts to be healthier, we have started juicing. We are also doing Zumba 2-3x a week at the YMCA downtown with Tieka and it is SO much fun!  

Juicin' is so easy and fun!
   

Share your tips, advice, and ideas. We'd love to hear from you!
  

Also, we have linked up with some fabulous fellow bloggers for Random Wednesday via Because Shanna Said So.

It's a great way to meet new blogger friends. 

All aboard!

Laura's Month of March via Instagram

Is it just me, or did the month of March FLY by? It seems so crazy. I remember thinking in February "UGH, this month is dragging!" and now I'm all like "Where did March go?!"

I'm usually excited for April. Don't get me wrong, I'm excited it's "officially" Spring and that the  new month has arrived, but it's STILL snowing in Michigan!! When is it going to end?!

Anyway, here's a small review of my month of March through the eyes of Instagram. 

1. Hanging out on the Blue Bridge in Grand Rapids. 

2. Syrus lounging on his favorite sofa in my living room. He's the laziest dog. 

3. Painting nails, eating snacks, drinking cocktails, and watching movies with my bff, Tieka of Selective Potential.

4. Steve's gig at the Dirty Dog Saloon in Hamilton, Ontario.

5. My first visit to Niagara falls with Steven and my parents. 

6. Outside my office, Mlive Media Group in downtown Grand Rapids.

7. The CN Tower in Toronto during Canadian Music Week.

8. A little note and gifts to cheer me up from Katelyn. How awesome is she?!

9. The silk tie Easter eggs my mom, sister and I made before Easter Sunday.

Follow me on Instagram: humanbehavior

Hope you had a wonderful month. Bring on SPRING!

xoxo, 

Laura

Travel Tuesday: Granada, Spain

Lately, I've felt pretty homesick for Granada, Spain. It's funny because I only lived there for a total of seven months, but it was such a memorable life changing time that it will forever feel like home to me. I removed myself from everything and everyone familiar and comfortable in my life and the outcome was unbelievable. If you EVER get the chance to do a study abroad or work abroad, do it! I have learned so many life skills from this experience that I would encourage literally every single person to get out there and learn about new cultures first hand. Here are a few of my favorite pictures from my time there.

I love my friends.

Nighttime look at the Alhambra via Mirador San Nicholas 

My first home stay's paella (seriously to die for)

Sunrise walk to my early morning classes, not too shabby.

Both of my hermanas enjoying a little after lunch dessert. I love this photo and how happy they look :)

Day time view of the Alhambra and my city. 

Alex and I are planning to move back to Spain for a few years when the timing is right. Until then, Grand Rapids, Michigan will have to do! 

xoxo, K

P.S. Speaking of traveling....I'm traveling over to Becker's Bridal to pick up my wedding dress! The big day is coming up FAST!

Roaring Twenties Bachelorette Party

As some of you may already know, my best friend Stacey is getting hitched at the end of this month. As her maid of honor, I had the honor of planning her bachelorette party. She's known for being non-traditional and she loves old Hollywood glamour, so what better to do than plan a Roaring Twenties themed soiree. This isn't to say the party planning went off without a hitch. Planning a party of this caliber requires some creative thinking and a WHOLE LOT of glitter, sequins, feathers, and pearls.

 

The homemade invitations I made // The bride's Bachelorette Evening dress

 

 I sewed sequin headbands for the girls to wear. Accessories are key when doing a decade-themed party.

Then our guest of honor showed up!

The beautiful bride-to-be! 

 

We played some fun games and did a champagne toast to our bride before heading out to the SpeakEZ Lounge for cocktails and hor dourves.

 

 

Then we headed out for a night on the town. I was honored to throw Stacey a party where she could celebrate and rejoice in the presence of friends and family. I hope she thoroughly enjoyed it. :) Until next time, folks!

 xoxo,

 Laura