in my new(ish) living room

Yesterday we had to clean the house. We leave for Florida early tomorrow morning and don't return until next Saturday night. And somehow I agreed to have people over on Sunday for lunch. Not sure how that happened... (Kidding. I'm excited.)

But, still, that meant the house needed to be cleaned. There's no way I'll feel like doing it when we get home next week. So, we did it yesterday.

Aaron, the wonderful husband that he is, agreed to help me and we started with the downstairs. We were trying to hurry because we still had to pack for our trip, run some errands, and get ready for Sunday.

About 30 minutes in, Aaron said, "Our couch cushions are so flat on this side. I wish there was something we could do to use the other side more."

"I know," I said, "but I think the only thing we could do is move the whole living room around." (We sit on a certain side in order to see the TV well.)

I was only kind of joking, but little did I know, my words would soon result in this:

We somehow began a two-hour long process of re-arranging all of our furniture.

Our arrangement went from this:

To this:

We weren't even sure we would like it after we went to all the trouble, but thank goodness, we love it.

Aaron said, "At least we cleaned behind everything even if we move it all back to where it was."

Not sure what kind of pose that is...

So, even though we probably could have done something else on the to-do list yesterday, we changed it up. Literally. (And that's a big deal for me on all fronts!)

Now, we have what feels like a brand new living room for free! That's a good day in my book!

about iPhoneagraphy

Today, I thought I'd write about one of my more recent hobbies. (Or Aaron might call it an addiction.)

I love taking pictures with my iPhone.

Me with my iPhone 4s and it's 8 megapixel camera.

Now, you hand me a camera, and I'll hand it right back. I have no idea how to work a camera, let alone one of those fancy cameras that people have.

But, I have schooled myself in the art of taking pretty iPhone pictures in the past year or so.

One way I did this was participating in FATMUMSLIM's Photo a Day Challenge for a whole year. Chantelle, who is the author of the Photo a Day challenge, often writes blog posts on iPhoneagraphy. She is where I got a lot of my limited knowledge.

I also love photo editing apps.

Seriously, I'm no photographer. At all. But, with the right filter, any picture can look way better.

Some of my favorite photography apps, in no particular order, are:

1. VSCO Cam:

It was recently re-released as a free app. I was only a tiny bit sad that I had forked over the $.99 months ago. It's way better now. And I may or may not have splurged for the bundle of all of their cool filters...   Anyway. Here's a photo I took and then edited with VSCO Cam.

2. AfterLight:

What I like about AfterLight is they have a lot of cool frames and textures. Both of these pictures were edited and framed with AfterLight.

3. Camera+:

Camera+ is another editing app that has some cool pre-set effects that I like. I mainly use it for the "Toy Camera" and "HDR" effects. Here's what they do:

4. Over:

Over was recently one of the Starbuck's Apps of the Week. But, if you weren't lucky enough to pick that up, I think it's $.99 in the App Store. Over lets you add text to your photos. For example...

5. PicFrame:

PicFrame lets you put multiple photos into one collage. It lets you add up to nine or ten, I think. It also has some frames, and you can add text.

6. Whitagram:

Whitagram is basically only useful if you are posting to Instagram (we will get to Instagram in a minute). If you know Instagram, you know the photos you post must be square. Well, if you don't want to crop your pretty photo into a square, Whitagram is your ticket. 

7. A Beautiful Mess:

A Beautiful Mess might just be the most adorable photo app out there. I. Love. It. I try not to be annoying and use it all the time. Or else I totally would. It has the cutest borders, doodles, phrases, and fonts to add over your photos. It's $.99 in the App Store.

8. Instagram:

Obviously. Oh, Instagram. What do I say? Basically all of the photos I already posted were then shared, and perhaps even edited further, with Instagram. Instagram is the reason I got all of those other apps. It's the place to share your "masterpieces" (I use that term very loosely). I love, love, love Instagram. If I had to choose between Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, Instagram would win. Always.

I'll stop with eight. In case you're wondering, no, I don't use every app every time I'm editing a picture. I normally stick with one or two at a time! A lot of them do very similar things, so you can pick and choose. I'd be happy to answer any questions!

And, if you don't already, follow me on Instagram: @whitneylbauer. I'd love to follow you back!

about trips and vacations

Just when I feel like we are back in our "normal" (if you could even call it normal) routine, we are getting ready to turn around a leave again. Yes, on Monday, we leave for five days in Florida to visit my dad's side of the family.

Don't get me wrong, I'm excited to see my family, some of whom I haven't seen in three years. But, traveling does get a little tiring.

I don't know if I've expressed to my husband how much it means to me that he is willing and happy to travel on three family trips this summer with me when he is completely swamped with stuff at Journey. He also took a week off to whisk me away on a cruise vacation. And, on top of all of that, he is taking kids to two different camps in July, plus speaking six sessions at a camp that has nothing to do with our church. He never ceases to amaze me, and I know he will do all of them with excellence.

Anyway. A busy summer seems normal to me because I grew up visiting both sets of grandparents every summer. I mean, that's the only time we really saw them. They both live far enough away that it can't be a weekend trip. But since Aaron and I have been married, we haven't been able to join in on the family trips. We would save up our vacation days to use on the two of us. 

Sometimes, you have to prioritize, even when it's hard.

I've definitely hated not visiting my grandparents, but we knew that if we used days off to visit them, we would have no vacation alone. And we have definitely set vacation alone as a major priority around here.

I mean, I think there's a big difference between a trip and a vacation.

I encourage any couple to set aside at least one week a year to go on a vacation alone. No kids. No pets. No one you know. It might not be a full week at a time. Maybe three days here and there. But, do it. Go on vacation with your spouse. If we still need vacation after three years of marriage, I imagine everyone does.

For us, we've made a deal to always have something planned on the calendar to look forward to. It may be a few months away, but it's planned, paid for, and a light at the end of the tunnel.

This doesn't have to be something super expensive. I mean, of course we wish we were headed to Disney World every few months. But, a Groupon to Wilmington for a long weekend is a battery re-charge too!

That way, when work seems overwhelming, I can hardly bring myself to cook one more meal, or people around us are driving us crazy, we can say, Hey, just think, in a couple months we will be relaxing on a _________ in __________ and having so much fun.

You get the idea.



While we're on this topic, I better get to hunting down a vacation deal. Our cruise is over, and unfortunately, these family-filled trips and camps this summer do not count as our next vacation to look forward to! :)

feeling like a zombie...

I just woke up two hours ago.

We made a whirlwind trip to Indiana. Let's just say that 24 of my last 60 hours were spent like this. (I was sad that I couldn't figure out how to embed that...)

We saw a lot of the sunrise and sunset and moon.

We did have a great time celebrating my cousin, Elizabeth's, wedding. She is the older daughter of my mom's older brother. I hadn't seen her since I was like 12 and she was 9 or something ridiculous. It had been too long! So it was really cool seeing her all grown up and getting married!

And, I loved seeing my aunt and uncle and other cousin, Emily. My grandparents were there too. It was a good time with family.

My grandparents. Me and Aaron. My cousin, Emily (on the right).

My aunt and uncle's heads. Elizabeth and Zane.

The wedding decorations were super cute.

My parents made the trip with us and we all rode together. We were able to rent a fancy car to drive, which was awesome. Does anyone want to buy me a Chrysler 300s? No takers?

We were so off-schedule that our meals were all thrown off. We were, however, able to enjoy a local Indiana treat.

The girl at the counter thought we were crazy that we have never heard of or been to her beloved restaurant. It was good though. We liked it.

I am definitely not ready for anymore whirlwind, driving through the night trips anytime soon.

Back to work tonight for Aaron and then a normal week. Next Monday we head to Florida!

about our cruise

I think I've decided that since my Instagram contains some of my favorite "photography" from our cruise, and Facebook contains the other nice cruise pictures, I will use the blog for the funny cruise pictures. Because of course, we had some funny times.

We left for Florida at 3:00am last Monday. The drive down was so easy, which was nice. We arrived at the port at 10:30am and proceeded to park our car and head in to the terminal.

We were lucky to have been given priority boarding a couple weeks prior, and we were setting foot on the ship by 11:20am.

When this:

was one of the first things we saw, we knew it was going to be a good week indeed.

We ate lunch on the deck, and made a new friend.

Then we meandered around the ship until it set sail at 4:00pm. I quickly realized that a dress and long hair was going to be a bad choice for being out on the decks.

Our first night at dinner we got to meet our table companions for the duration of the cruise. Thank God they were normal and not insane like most people we encountered.

i.e. this drunk moron catching seagulls off the back of the ship.

Our table friends were newlyweds from Alabama, and we enjoyed their company quite well.

Our table

The next day on the ship was a day at sea. It was uneventful and relaxing and wonderful. This was our actual anniversary day, and how fitting that it was formal night. Unfortunately, we didn't get a good picture of us all dressed up. Just this one from the elevator ceiling...

We looked sharp, I promise.

The next day, we ported in Nassau. I had been to Nassau before, but Aaron hadn't. What's fun about this day is that Aaron's best friend and best man from our wedding was in Nassau too. Staying just a few blocks away from the port. We were excited to try to find him, because we had no phone or internet. It was really just going to be by chance.

But, before we got too far, we needed a picture with the ship. Never ask old people to take your picture...

Anyway, we set off to find Chad, who was actually waiting for us in the terminal. So it wasn't hard at all.

We visited the famous Straw Market, but were quickly overwhelmed by the heat and crowds and yelling and went to lunch instead.

It's not actually made of straw, nor are there many straw things for sale. Ironic.

At lunch, I ordered a bottle of water which had the tiniest nutrition facts ever. I don't think this picture does it justice.

After lunch, we proceeded to get a picture together. However, the sun was bright, and the boys just couldn't get their act together for awhile.

These are four of literally 20 bad pictures and 2 good ones.

We made one more stop in search of souvenirs, where Aaron found this treasure:

Just $20 for your cassette storage needs. Special edition, no doubt.

We said goodbye to Chad and set sail for another island in the Bahamas called Little Stirrup Cay. Aaron and I opted to stay on the boat all day instead of getting off. It was a wise choice, seeing that the ship was basically deserted. We even had time for the arcade, where Aaron chose the winning suitcase in Deal or No Deal!

If only the casino games were so easy...

We really did have a nice trip and had so much fun, obviously.

There's one more funny picture/story, but I'll let Aaron write about this one later. Here's your teaser trailer for now: