Eat, Pray, Love

Here's a fun fact about Jillian: I loooooove to check out books (as well as music) from the library. I have a huge passion for reading, I find it to be a great escape; a way to relax, learn and spend time doing something healthy for mind and soul. Anyways, as many avid book readers know, it is an expensive habbit, especially if you buy your books from Borders, Barnes and Noble, etc. So I decided to start making full use of my library membership and began checking out my books instead of buying them (and reading them once, mayyybe twice if it's THAT good.)
Consider doing this! haha No joke. It is a fabulous (and did I mention FREE???) resource to indulge in your book/music/movie-loving life.
The whole point of this post wasn't to tell you about my library,(although I'm sure you love me for it, right?!) but rather about this amazing book I am reading currently.
It's called: Eat, Pray, Love. It is good, good, GOOD. Ok, so I'm only halfway through it, but trust me, it is good. It's about this woman who dedicates a year of her life (after a tough divorce, && struggling to find selfworth) to travel to 3 places in the world (Italy, India, & Indonesia), where she engages to find pleasure, prayer and love. The author, Elizabeth Gilbert, is entertaining to say the least. Her writing is full of spunk--the way she relates her crazy encounters to real life is truly something that will keep a smile on your face and eager for more.

Go check out a copy of it STAT, you just have to trust me on this. Because c'mon, I'm not a book critic--I can only say so much, so just trust me.

Hope this inspires you!
<3 J

An apoology for my readers..

I feel as though I owe an apology to my many, in fact thousands, of readers...(NOT..in reality there are only a select few) for not being a good blogger. If only I were Julie Powell and started a blog and soon enough thousands of readers were following my blog posts, which turned into getting offered to write a book about my blog and then turned into a movie--wouldn't that be awesome!? Why can't that happen to me? Maybe I need to spice things up a bit. Who knows. I always think about things I want to post throughout my day, but then when I eventually go sit down at my computer-- I completely space out on my blog-worthy stories, isn't that awesome?! So, here I am. I've been so busy this summer/especially lately and have had soo many amazing things happen but I have no idea where to start. Instead of going through it all, I think I'll skip the details and just let you know that life is great. I'm anxiously counting down the days until I head back to school, unsure of whether I am excited or sad to be leaving summer in the dust. I just can't believe I'm already a JUNIOR!! Holy cow, it really really does go by fast. The first year seemed like forever but once you tackle that hurdle it flies by--that is not a joke! Two years left doesn't seem that bad, it is definitely something I feel like I can manage ( && hopefully sustain my spot on the Dean's List :))

Here are a few big things that have happened over the past few weeks (thus leaving me hardly any time to post..unfortunately)

-I moved back home!!! Note: it will not be official until the end of summer, but still. It is soo nice to be back home.
-My mom and I have been busy painting and re-vamping some awesome furniture items we found at garage sales--yes it's true, we garage sale shopped til we dropped! (well, sort of. That is a very tiring task, because it takes forever until you find what you want!!)
-I got tickets to go see Rascal Flatts at the Tacoma Dome for Sam and I! (We will be celebrating our 2 year aniversary! And this must really mean something...because Sam is not into country music AT ALL. Just shows what kind of a guy he is- very sweet and thoughtful.)
-I hosted a sushi party at my house this past Sunday; it was sooo much fun! && not to mention yummy :)

I think that's all. I don't really feel like racking my brain on what else I've been up to.
Have a great sun-filled day!
<3 J

Samuel <3

Sam visited this past week, which was fabuloso! We were busy the entire time doing fun things and enjoying the sun && eachother's company. Here is what we did.
Thursday: After I was done babysitting, he swooped me up and took me out to dinner at BJ's (which is delicious, but I always leave feeling really full and slightly sick after the pazookie's...hmm)
Friday: Spent the afternoon shopping at Pier 1, picking up some sweet stuff for mamasan, with Sam and Jaimie. Then we had a family birthday dinner for Peggy and Stef at our house (so much fun- i love them all so so much!)
Saturday: Went to Pike Place Market with Sam and mom, bought some BEAUTIFULLY enormous sunflowers and ate lunch at Matt's in the Market (thanks to Dean's recccomendation).
Sunday: Went garage sale hunting for a queen size bed frame and a dresser...was pretty successful for finding a cute dresser for $20 AND they gave me a rocking chair too! both in really good condition, but I will def. be sproucing them up with lots of flava!
Monday: Went with Sam to Seattle to watch his little brother, Max, play 2 baseball games! It was a lot of fun && plus, when we were leaving, we got a glimpse at the Barcelona Soccer team practice at UW's soccer field. It was awesome..although I couldn't understand a word anyone was saying....
Tuesday: Went on a trecherous hike on Mt. Si. It was crazy!! Either that or...I'm incredibly out of shape. Probably the latter of the two, but still, it was tough. But definitely beautiful.
Wednesday: Went out to lunch at Panera and then had to bid Samuel farwell.

And now I'm one sad and lonely girl :(
But it was a lot of fun! I always love when he visits......
I will post some pictures of our adventures real soon....stay tuned.
<3 J