Gretch Runs

Hi everyone and Happy March!  It's already time for the monthly What's New With You linkup, and today I'm going to be talking how Frugal February went. Overall, I did really well with my goals.  I managed to stick with all of them (with the exception of one small exception in my first category).  But- this was one of those months where a few things went wrong and we ended up having to spend way more money than we wanted to.  First, our car broke down and we had to spend money just to get it home, then had to buy a repair kit to fix the issue.  Then, we had a pipe in our basement crack and leak all over the place.  Luckily, our home warranty covered the issue, but we still had to pay the consultation fee and a bunch of our stuff was destroyed.  Finally, Selma had her annual vet appointment and was due on a bunch of shots, so that added on to our bills as well. In happier news, we got our tax refund for the year, and were able to put that all toward...

Hi everyone and Happy February!  Today is the monthly What's New With You linkup, and today I'm going to be talking about a big goal I have for the month. You all might know by now, but I am a very goal-oriented person.  Give me a challenge or rules to follow for a set period of time and I am GOOD.  In that spirit, I decided to make a challenge for myself (inspired by Ciara ) and have a no-spend month in February!  I'm calling this Frugal February (cute, right?), and have decided on some rules that I'm going to follow for the month. Luckily, I'm not doing this alone!  I'll have Ciara doing this with me, and also got Annette , Jessie , Steff , Jess , and Maddie to join in as well.  It's so much easier to have a support system when you're working on a challenge, so we already have a group Instagram chat going, and will be supporting eachother on our own No (or Low)-Spend Month! Here are the rules that I'm going to be following, along with some id...

Happy New Year everyone!!  Can you believe that 2017 is over and it's already 2018?  To me, that doesn't even sound like a "real" year...it sounds like some crazy number people would throw out when I was in elementary school.  "Aliens will live on earth in 2018!", "Everyone will have a flying car in 2018!".  Alas, it's real and it's here.  It's also my golden birthday (which I'm going to basically turn in to a golden year), so I already know that 2018 is going to be the best yet. Before I get too far ahead of myself, December was such a fun and busy month!  I'm excited to recap it all today with the first What's New With You linkup of the new year.  This year I'm going to be better about visiting new blogs and postings and being more interactive on here- and that all starts today! Make sure you join the monthly linkup with  Kristen  and me by linking up below- Now let's see what's new with  me! This mo...

Can you all believe it's DECEMBER?  I still remember sitting down at the beginning of the year, listing out all of my goals and resolutions for the year.  I'll have to find that and see if I was successful at all  (who knows!).  The end of the year is going to be super busy with some fun stuff coming up that I can't wait to talk about, so today's post will be short and sweet! Make sure you join the monthly linkup with  Kristen and me by linking up below! Now let's see what's new with me! Stay Active .  I started training for another marathon this month, so I've definitely been really active.  The first few weeks have been great, with a little sidelining because of travel and holidays.  I figure that it's better to get these bad weeks out of the way earlier, and really nail the training at the end! This month I also tried out Class Pass for the first time.  I wrote all about it here , but the TL;DR version is that I love it and...

Happy November everyone!  It's finally starting to cool down here and it pretty much came out of nowhere!  Last week it was in the 70s and now all of a sudden it's in the 30s.  Next year, can we please gradually change temperatures (I'm told that this is called "fall")?  That would be great. October was kind of a weird month.  Dan had to travel for work, and I was busy working on getting a new app released at my work (which finally went out- yay!), while working as a relationship manager on a new campaign, translating our current app to Spanish, and doing my daily responsibilities.  I feel like I was really busy and the month passed by quickly, but when I think back it seems like I didn't do much of anything.  Anyone else have those kinds of months? It's time again to recap the month and see what's new!  I would love to hear what you got up to in October as well, so make sure you join the monthly linkup with  Kristen and me by linking ...

I want to start out this post on a bit of a serious note.  A lot of really bad, awful stuff happened this month in the world.  It seems like every day (pretty much this entire year) the news is full of horrible events that have happened, both natural and man-made, and it just makes me feel a sense of fear and helplessness.  I'm lucky to have been able to stay out of danger and have all of my loved ones stay safe as well, but I know a lot of other people (maybe even some of you reading) aren't as lucky.  Even if I don't talk about it on social media every time something happens, you're all in my heart and prayers, and if there's anything that I can do to help out, please  contact me. One thing that this year has taught me is that life is uncertain and you never know what's going to happen when you wake up in the morning.  With that in mind, I'm trying to (as cheesy as it sounds) live life to the fullest, not take things for granted, and let the small stuff...

Hi everyone!  Happy September to you all.  This is probably one of my favorite months- cooler weather, fall food and drinks (especially pumpkin beer), sweater and boots come out, and I don't feel like I'm going to pass out when I spend more than 10 minutes outside. Before we get to that, it's time to recap my month of August, which ended up being a lot of fun with some exciting activities happening.  It seems like every weekend was busy, which is just how I like my months!  I would love to hear what you got up to in August as well, so make sure you join the monthly linkup with  Kristen and me by linking up below! Now let's see what's new with me! Goals and Resolutions Do Something Crafty . Eek, definitely didn't do well with this in August.  I'm going to make the excuse that I spent a lot of time outdoors to enjoy the nice weather.  I'm sure I'll pick up with this goal again when it starts to get colder outside, but for now I'm no...

July was such a busy and fun month, and I can't believe it's August already.  I seriously can't believe that the summer is basically over..before we know it there will be pumpkin spice lattes, scarves, and Halloween decorations everywhere!  Before then, you all know what time it is.  That's right...it's already time for the monthly linkup with  Kristen and me.  Make sure you link down below and tell me what's going on! Goals and Resolutions Do Something Crafty .  This definitely took a back burner in July.  I was so busy with being outside as much as possible, hanging out with friends, visiting with family, hosting guests from out of town, that I didn't really do anything crafty!  Whoops :) Be Musical . I've been playing piano like crazy and I can tell a huge difference since I started!  I'm so glad that we splurged and decided to buy a keyboard last year, and it's definitely one of the most-used things in our house.  ...

Hi everyone and welcome to the July What's New with You linkup!  Can you believe it's the second half of the year already?  2017 has already been a great, fun year and for this month's post I wanted to share all of my favorites from January through June.  Make sure you link up below (and check out Kristen's blog as well!) Fashion Express Minus the Leather Jacket  - I've talked about this jacket so much on my blog, but it's seriously my favorite and most-worn item in my wardrobe. I originally got it for a trip to Europe, and I wear it constantly!  It's the perfect jacket when you need to wear something but don't want to wear a heavy jacket (so, most of fall and spring, as well as parts of summer and winter!).  It also makes anything that I'm wearing look about 100 times cooler, which is a nice bonus as well. Lululemon Love Tee  - I love all of my Lululemon pieces, but this is probably my favorite.  The cut of the top is really flatterin...

Happy JUNE everyone!  Can you believe that it's nearly halfway through the year and summer has (un)officially started?  Time seems to be flying by lately and I've been so busy lately, that I almost forgot about today's linkup!  That's right...it's already time for the monthly linkup with  Kristen and me.  Make sure you link down below and tell me what's going on! Goals and Resolutions Do Something Crafty .  I didn't do so well with this in May.  I was really busy with work and other things (see below) so this kind of got pushed to the side.  In June I really want to sew something- maybe a dress or cute top for summer. Be Musical .  I got a few new piano books, and they're really challenging me!  I can already tell that I'm improving a lot, and the music is really fun to learn.  I've been using this as a way to de-stress at the end of the day, and I'm loving it.  The books that I got are 100 of the Most Beautif...

Can you believe it's May already?  I'm definitely a summer person and I could just feel myself busting with happiness as the days get longer, the sun shines brighter, and the air warms up.  There were days when I would literally skip around the house, singing to myself and twirling around (Dan might think there's something wrong with me but I can't help myself- evidence below).  Does anyone else suffer from SAD that can relate? Since it's a new month, you know what that means!  That's right...it's already time for the monthly linkup with  Kristen and me.  Make sure you link down below and tell me what's going on! Monthly Goals Last month I mentioned that I wanted to switch things up and make some new goals for myself.  Here's what I plan on working on for the next few months: Do Something Crafty .  I've mentioned this a lot of times before, but I love being creative and doing something crafty.  I'm not going to make s...