#lionsdontcarewhatlambsthink

The other day, my friend, Jenessa posted a picture of her "real" life on Instagram (click here to read about it) and put the hashtag, "lionsdontcarewhatlambsthink." I loved everything about her post. It was so refreshing to see, since this is something I've been thinking about a lot lately--how we all portray our lives on social media, and how sad it is that we have to explain what is our "real life" and what is not. 

Oh, and since you asked for a picture of my real life, here it is. Seriously though, the first thing I do when I come home is change into sweatpants, grab my bag of chips, and turn on Netflix until Chris comes home--a little embarrassing, no? Anyway, back to me attempting to write about relevant things on my blog...

It's SO easy to feel inadequate after looking at any kind of social media. Patty Pinterest made another table out of  pine cones?! Freddy Facebook is in Hawaii again? How does Suzie Instagram afford to go out with her husband every night?!  It's not uncommon for me to feel a little sad after getting off of my phone. Yet, I still continue to look at it almost every minute of every day. Why?! I'm still trying to figure that one out.

So, how do you stop being sad and feeling inadequate after looking at social media? Demand that everyone post "real" things? Un-follow everyone that seems to have a better life than you? Suck it up and just remember that you chose to follow those people? Of course not! Besides, you wouldn't want to risk losing any followers... ;)

Sometimes, I think it's hard to remember that it's natural to just post about the "good" things going on in our lives--we're excited about them! And we want others to be excited with us. I don't think anyone really posts a picture and thinks, "Who can I make feel inadequate with this post today?" We just naturally like to share the great things going on in our lives, and keep the not-so-great things to ourselves. So then we fall into this routine of posting only great things and give the illusion that our lives are perfect.

Now I'm not saying you shouldn't post those happy, beautiful, or glamorous moments that happen in your life, because girlfriend, if you are having a good hair day and want to post a selfie, post away! Just remember that those "not-so-great " moments that you think no one cares about (like the tears you shed the day before when you weren't having a good hair day), there's a good chance that someone else out there cares about it. There's a reason people are looking at your blog, Instagram, or Facebook--they want to know what's going on in your life! All different aspects of your life. Well, maybe not ALL aspects of your life... no one needs to see that you're texting your spouse to bring you more toilet paper, but you get the point.

I think another half of this problem (for me at least) is not being grateful enough for what I have. I am so focused on what others have or what they are doing that I forget the blessings I receive daily in my life. Silliness! How can I be jealous that Suzie Instagram's husband surprised her with flowers when my husband brought me home a gallon of peanut butter cup chocolate ice cream the week before? It's easy (almost too easy) to lose sight of all the daily blessings we're given, and even easier to compare our blessings with someone else's.

I feel like I'm getting a little preachy here, and I apologize, because I know I'm guilty for more than half the things I've mentioned, but I'm working on it. So feel free to join me and do the same, but if not, that's okay too--chances are I'm still gonna double tap my screen and like whatever you post.

But before I go, I would just like to ask you one question: How refreshing would it be to live in a world where selfies were posted with captions like, "It took me 1.5 hours to get ready before I took this picture," or "I had to use 3 DVD cases and a candle to hold up my phone so I could take this picture in my room by myself" or even "It took 13 tries to take this selfie"... ? A girl can dream, I guess. But anyway, I'm going to get back to keepin' it real with my Chris, and continue to watch football... on seperate couches.. on our Saturday night.

Happy "real" Saturday! Peace + Blessings

TWENTY TWOsday! (see what I did there?)

Yesterday, I turned 22.

[insert Taylor Swift's "22" here]

As you can see, I definitely got spoiled yesterday. And no, I didn't just make my bed so I could neatly place my birthday presents on it and take a picture for my blog, ya silly.

Chris asked me yesterday if I liked my birthday better as a single person or a married person. My answer: definitely as a married person (are you even surprised by my answer?). You just have such high expectations for your birthday when you're single, ya know? But now, going to Texas Roadhouse, Yogurtland, watching a documentary on Netflix about gangs, and falling asleep before 9:30 is all I'd ever ask for on my birthday!

I think one of the  highlight's of turning 22 was when Chris took me to Texas Roadhouse and was thwarted by our waitress when she asked him if he'd like grilled onions on top of his steak, and failed to mention that it costs $2.99 extra. What's even better was that this wasn't a first occurrence for Chris at Texas Roadhouse. Not only did this reaffirm Chris that he likes Outback more, but that he'd also be the greatest waiter on earth and tell customers that it costs extra to add onions to your steak.

 Seriously though, I loved every minute of my birthday. Including all the calls, texts, and Facebook posts wishing me a happy birthday from my friends and family--I am beyond blessed! I think that's one of my favorite parts about having a birthday, you realize how blessed you are to have so many people that care about you. Also, it doesn't hurt to have a husband that is willing to get up early and cook you pancakes ;)

I am so happy with my life right now, and can't wait to see what a whole year of being 22 brings me.

a post about the Holy War... but not really.

There are very few things a Chris Gourley asks of his wife, those things include, but are not limited to: willingness to scratch his back, sleeping with NO lights on(exceptions have been known to be made during seasons of The Walking Dead, though) and watching football.

Last night, we (and everyone else in Utah county) went to the BYU vs. Utah game. I could give you the illusion that I am one of those cool girls that LOVES football by telling you that BYU needs a new offensive coordinator, and that the last play of the game should have been called as a PI, but I won't. Although, for Chris' sake, I wish I was one of those girls. Bless Chris' heart for being patient enough to answer my questions after every single play, only after I would point out something the cheerleaders had just done.

Even though the Cougs suffered a tough loss, I still left the stadium feeling like a winner. Why? Because me and Chris walked away with a free burger and shake from Carl's Jr., and 2 for 1 coupons to Sundance's scenic lift rides--gotta love tailgating!

This post was intended to go in a little deeper about my love/hate relationship with the Holy war, but for now, I'll just focus on the love aspect of it. Love the free stuff we won, the giddiness of Chris that comes from being at a football game, the people watching that I got to experience (both BYU and Utah fans), and the fact that I don't have to worry about Cougs losing to Utes for another 3 years.

The One Where They're Up All Night

My fellow Friends watchers, is it or is it not true that you can relate almost anything in your life to an episode of Friends? If you answered anything besides true, it's more than likely that you haven't watched Friends enough (and that you didn't cry when Rachel "got off the plane"), but anyway, you know the episode where Phoebe's fire alarm goes off and there's absolutely nothing she can do to get it to stop beeping? That was exactly what happened to me and Chris last night.

                                

Chris woke up to a loud, chirping noise only to discover that it was our fire alarms going off. I was asleep until I heard him moving our TV stand so he could stand on it to disable the alarm. The only problem was that even after he took it off, it still kept making that loud chirping noise. Luckily, Chris kept his cool and didn't start smashing it with his shoe, unlike Phoebe. Then all of our other alarms started going off! I could hear Chris mumbling under his breath, and moving objects out in our hall, but I didn't question his methods because at that point, it was 5:53 in the morning, and I had planned to wake up at 6:23 (I woke up at  7:18 and forgot to brush my teeth...oops).

I'm still not exactly sure what Chris did to make the alarms stop. Maybe he wrapped it up in Monica Gellar's blanket and tried to throw it down in the trash shoot and then had a fireman return it to him? I don't know. But whatever he did, it involved our office chair in the middle of our hall, and our ottoman at the bottom of the stairs, blocking our coat closet.

Thanks, Chris.

Concrete Jungle

 Am I the only one who feels like blog world has unspoken rules? Like there is some mama blog that makes all the rules and if you don't follow them, you're in trouble? Yeah... me neither, ya big weird. So despite what this imaginary blog mama might say to me if I posted about my trip to Chicago that happened over a week ago (that's like 3 months in blog years), I'm doing it anyway. You ain't the boss of me, mama blog!

So onwards! To Chicago!

People usually ask me why I'm going to Chicago, to which I simply reply, "To shop and eat good food while my dad works," which are the exact same reasons I went back this year for my third time. It never gets old to me. While the reasons for returning are the same, there were some different note-worthy things about my trip this time:

+ My sister-in-law Haley got to come with us! I don't think I'll ever be able to experience Chicago without her and my cute niece, Evie, ever again.

+ The Windy City was anything but windy. Seriously, it was almost record highs for Chicago while we were there... it almost put a damper on shopping... almost.

+ We went to Millenium Park. The big metallic bean was so cool! Until some creeper guy came up to me and asked if he could take a picture with me...it was nothing a little shopping couldn't fix, though. ;)

+ Wildfire. Hands down, the best steak I have ever had... I still have inappropriate dreams about the filet mignon I had there. Did you know that filet mignon can have crusts on it? I didn't either, until they offered parmesan, blue cheese, and twice baked potato crusts on my medallions of filet mignon... sigh. Thank you, dad for the very expensive meal.

+ The power in our hotel room went out. Luckily, Shelbs brought her Surface so I could watch How I Met Your Mother and distract myself from thinking that a crazed killer was coming up to our hotel room.

+ I actually came home with leftover cash. Granted, it was only $8, but still! That's got to count for something, right?

+ It was the longest time I've spent away from Chris. This year was my first time being a wifey while in Chicago, and it was hard. I missed Chris. A lot. And judging by the candy poster (you know, like the candy posters you use to ask someone to a high school dance with? ha) Chris surprised me with when I got home, I think it's safe to say he missed me too.

+ We actually went on the Ferris wheel at the Navy Pier. I made Haley and Shelby go with me. Mainly so they could take picture of me up by the skyline (I hate Ferris wheels)--most expensive pictures I've paid for in Chicago.

+ I only ate Ghirardelli's ice cream once. Don't be fooled, I still set foot in there every day to get my pumpkin caramel spice chocolate sample. It's the little things... ;)

Chicago 2013 was definitely a success. 

Chicago, you will be missed. Until next time.

back to school

Ever since I started college, I've never been too excited for the first day of school. Well, I guess I might have been excited for the first day my freshman year, until I rear-ended another poor freshman in a hurry to get to class, and then set foot in chemistry or American Heritage or any other class I didn't do well in?

But this semester, I was excited for the first day. So excited, that I asked Chris to take a picture of me so I could show the instagram world how excited I was! Also, I was having a good hair/makeup day, but that's besides the point. The point is, that this semester is my first semester as officially being a school health education major with a coaching and PE teaching minor! After having a big fat meltdown winter semester about applying for nursing school, I decided to change my major. Sometimes I feel silly telling people I've changed from pre-nursing to health education, but then I remember all the tears shed from classes like chemistry and physiology and any other class that ended in 'ology' and I'm reminded that I made the right choice. Validate me?!

Anyway, I'm so excited for this semester! Not only do I get to learn about infectious diseases, but I get to learn about them with my older brother! Having a class with your sibling + your sibling being a genius = A+ for Shayli. I'm also really excited about my teaching sexuality in the curriculum class! I apologize in advance if I start using the word 'sex' a lot in any future posts. I have a feeling I am going to become very comfortable with that word after this class.

I'm sure after a week or two of classes, my excitement will cease. But for now, I'm excited and still over-the-top motivated. This is my semester, and you're gonna hear me roooooaaaar (thanks, Katy).