My crazy, hectic life.

Okay, I'm being totally serious here.

My. Life. Has. Been. Crazy.

So many things have been going on.

I have moved out of my apartment and am now in the process of moving back in (yes, I'm crazy, I know).
I have gotten a new job and am in the process of getting a second job.

Do you know how crazy my life has been?
It honestly has stressed me out so much. I've been breaking out so bad the last couple of months.
I'm just happy my life is finally a little less chaotic.

I just wanted to check in and say, I promise I'm still alive, and that I'm trying to get used to how my life is now and then find a time where blogging can fit in.

I'll be back, don't worry.

I'm crazy.

Everyone has weird little things about them, right? Those little things inside us all that make us who we are. Or make us crazy. Or both.

Either way, mine is that I'm way too organized. I love to plan, I love making lists, I love organizing things. I'm organizing crazy. Some of you might think that's not a bad thing, and for the most part, it's not. Unless you live with other people. Mostly guys. Who are not organized. It's a struggle.

But anyways, let me just show you how crazy I am about cleaning. This is my typical cleaning schedule.

Daily cleaning:

• Pick up all of the pop cans & dishes from around the apartment. 
• Unload the dishwasher (our dishwasher gets ran every night).
• Load the dishwasher.
• Empty all of the pop cans and put them in a bag for future bottle return trips.
• Pick up the living room. 
• Clear off the kitchen counters. 
• Wipe down the kitchen counters.
• Clean off the bathroom counters.
• Wipe down the bathroom counters.
• Pick up our room.

Weekly cleaning:

• Wipe down the stove.
• Wipe down the sink.
• Wipe down the microwave.
• Dust the top of the microwave.
• Sweep the kitchen.
• Sweep the bathroom.
• Wipe down the bathroom mirror.
• Vacuum the living room.
• Dust the living room.
• Cut out restaurant/pizza place coupons we get in the mail.

Monthly cleaning:

• Clean the toilet.
• Clean the bathtub.
• Clean out the fridge, clean off the top of the fridge, and wipe down the entire inside of the fridge.
• Clean all of the windows.
• Clean all of the door handles.
• Clean everything that I normally wipe down with water, with cleaning products to disinfect.

Now you see why I say I'm cleaning crazy. My next project is to organize our closet because it's getting messy and I need to get rid of clothes. 

I know I sound crazy for doing all of that so much, but honestly, our apartment stays so clean with this schedule, and it only takes 45 minutes to do all of the daily cleaning plus about 20 minutes worth of weekly cleaning chores each day. 

What's your weird thing about yourself?

Do you have a cleaning schedule?

June Goals

I've never done these monthly goal posts before, so I decided to give it a try. I figured if I write down my goals (and will actually have to post whether I did them or not), it might be my motivation to set and complete some concrete goals. So here goes...

June Goals

• Actually do (and finish) my 30 day butt challenge. I've been working on this for about two weeks and I'm 7 days in. Do you see the problem here? I need to get on this and actually work toward finishing this. I'm giving myself until the end of the month because I know I will take off at least a couple days between there.
• Work on finding new houses to clean. I just started working for a lady I found on Facebook that cleans houses and I've finished training with her so now I get to work on houses alone. The only problem is, I need to find some houses to clean. So I'm thinking about putting up some flyers and posting a few statuses about my cleaning!
• Finish Friends. I've been binge watching Friends and I'm a little over halfway through season six, and there are ten seasons. I think I can finish it by then. 
• Set a bedtime & wake-up time. I have the most irregular sleep schedule. Sometimes I'm in bed by 9:30, sometimes I'm still awake at 12:30. Some days, I get up at 4 when my boyfriend gets up for work, some days I don't get up until 10:30. I need routine in my life, so I figured this would be a good place to start.
• Clean out my closet. I have so many clothes I don't wear that I've been meaning to sell, but I don't feel like going through half of them yet, but I don't want to post the half I have went through until I finish all of my clothes. I'm hoping to sell over 50 articles of clothes.

Alright, there are my goals. I'll check back in at the end of this month or beginning of next month!

What are your goals?

Random Acts of Kindness

Personally, I love doing the smallest, simplest things for people to make their day. My mom loves to do them as well, which is where I've gotten most of my ideas. I just thought that I would share these with all of you so that maybe you could make someones day by doing just one simple thing. Some may cost money, but there are many that don't!


1. Leave a sticky note on a personal belonging just saying simple things such as "You're an awesome person," or "Have a great day! :)" It also makes people smile, especially when they're left wondering who left it. Or, similarly...

2. ...leave one on a bathroom mirror or a mirror in a common place! Even the back of a door (provided you cannot get into trouble by doing so). Simply leaving a note on a girls' bathroom mirror saying "You're beautiful, you don't need this mirror!" is all it takes to make a person's day.

3. This is my mom's specialty so I just thought I would share this with you. This one can get a little more pricey if you do it often, but it's so worth watching the reaction. If you go through a drive-thru, preferably before work/school, not around dinner time unless you want the potential of paying for a full family's meal, ask the person working the register how much the person behind you's meal will cost. If it's in your price range, hand over the money. Then while you're at the next window, you can watch their reaction from a safe distance, and that saves you from interacting with them, if you're concerned about that!

4. Do a favor/small job for someone, and don't accept a payment, in any form. It only takes a little bit of time and it can mean so much to someone else who is maybe having a bad day or their check was smaller than they'd like, etc. It can help someone out monumentally.

5. Write a note or letter to a person that has helped you out. Thank someone. Just think how happy you would be if someone did this for you, a thank-you out of the blue!

6. A little bit similar to the last one, call or write a letter to a parent or parents, or even someone who has been a big part of you life. Parents, coaches, teachers, old bosses, pastors, etc. They've done a lot for you, I'm sure. Tell them you love them. You appreciate them. They're some of your biggest supporters so why not give them a little love too?

7. This one is special to college students/people residing in some apartments, etc. If you live somewhere that there are coin-operated laundry facilities and you happen to have some extra quarters lying around, get the amount needed for one and put them in the machine so someone gets a nice surprise when they go to do their laundry!


Random Acts of Kindness are one of the most simple things you can do to make a big difference in someone elses' life. Make someone smile!
What are some of your favorite RAK's to do?

Four Things

I found this post on Kimberly's site and I loved the idea, so I decided to try it!

Four nicknames:

1. Brookie: I've had this since I was little. Mostly family. Sometimes friends when they're being annoying.
2. Barookacka: My friend Alisha & I started adding syllables to everyone's name one day in high school, and a bunch of the nicknames still stuck: mine, Alishasha (Alisha), Jennanana (Jenna), Kaylala (Kayla) Ashaley (Ashley), etc. We're strange.
3. Fancy Pants: I was over a friend's house one day wearing some bright blue skinny jeans and his dad (he's basically one of us though) looked at my pants and decided my new name was Fancy Pants and that stuck with a few of them. It was also my Twitter name for a very long time.
4. Brooker Hooker: I am so serious, two of my little cousins started calling me this while I was babysitting one day and I made the mistake of telling one of my friends and they like to tell everyone when they have the chance.

Four Things in My Bag:

1. Ibuprofen: I occasionally have mom-like traits, like carrying around ibuprofen and tampons and pads with me in case anyone needs any.
2. Quarters: I have a pocket in my purse specifically for quarters. No pennies, nickels, or dimes. Just quarters. The life of living in an apartment building and having to use laundry mats. 
3. Movie tickets: I save all of my movie tickets, and as of right now, I probably have somewhere around 30 from the past two years in my purse. On the back of each, I wrote who I saw it with in case I'm wondering stupid things like that.
4. A gross, disgusting mixture: In one pocket of my purse, I made the mistake of leaving a pop-tart in it... Well, that broke, and there were crumbs everywhere. But I forgot about it. Then some friends and I went one a road trip and stayed in a hotel. We all took the little soaps and whatever. I put the conditioner in my purse... It broke open. It mixed with the pop-tart crumbs and made a disgusting goo that has crumbs in it...in my $150 purse. I still have no idea how to clean that out, so I avoid that pocket at all costs.

Four movies I've watched more than once:

First, I would like to say, oh dear god, I have seen like every movie I've ever seen at least three times. How do I decide?!

1. All of the Fast & Furious movies: Seriously, the greatest movie series ever. I have a deep love for every one of these movies. I've heard people say it's just some stupid movies about cars and half-naked girls and I absolutely despise that description. They are about family, loyalty, and maybe a liiiittle bit of cars. However, I know literally nothing about cars and I still absolutely adore these movies.
2. Without A Paddle: If you haven't seen it, do it. Shaggy from the real people version movies of Scooby Doo, a hot guy, and a tiny little awkward guy are all in it, and it makes for a really entertaining movie surrounding a great storyline: three friends go on a camping trip that their now dead friend planned for them before he died. There are so many hilarious parts.
3. Big Daddy: Early Adam Sandler movie. The best. I used to watch this every night as a kid. My boyfriend and our other roommate and I always make references to this movie while grocery shopping. Microsoft went down three points.
4. Coyote Ugly: My guilty pleasure movie. Don't judge me for this, it's about a girl who moves to New York to become a songwriter and ends up working in a bar while gaining the confidence to become a singer and it's so great.

Four favorite drinks:

1. Mountain Dew: Can I use this for all four? Because I drink waaay too much Mountain Dew. 
2. Blue Kinky: I hate almost all alcohol besides a few and this is one of the only ones I like.
3. Cherry Coke: The second best pop ever.
4. Rum Chata: Liquid Cinnamon Toast Crunch. The best.

Four random things I'm thinking about:

1. How much I love Sundays. My boyfriend has the chance of working any other day of the week, and he switches days around all the time so I never know what days he's actually working or not, but Sundays, his work is closed. It's my favorite day.
2. What movies to watch when I wake him up. He's napping right now, but when I'm done with this post, I have to wake him up so we can finish our movie day (which, so far, has been a Weeds binge watching day).
3. How hot our apartment is. Or maybe it's not actually hot and I'm just overheating. Either way, I'm uncomfortable.
4. I should make brownies.

Four places I've travelled:

1. San Diego, CA: Seriously the best place ever.
2. Marquette, MI: I love going up north. It's beautiful. The UP of Michigan is amazing.
3. Cumberland Falls, KY: Such a beautiful place.
4. Delaware: It sounds lame, but my mom's work paid for her to have an apartment there because she was working there four days a week, and I went for a week last year and had her super expensive apartment to myself all day. It was heaven.

Four places I've lived:

I didn't move much until the past couple years (lived in the same apartment with my mom from age 6-18), so I'll just do after that.

1. Great house in Monroe, MI: My mom and I lived in a nice and big house (4 bedrooms for the two of us and our two cats) for about a year, mostly while I was at college, so I wasn't there much but still.
2. My grandma's in LaSalle, MI: It was a change going from always living in town to living 15 minutes from town in the country with no phone reception. I lived there for about six months (though I literally was not there for three months of that- couch hopping my friends' houses/the occasional night of sleeping in a friend's car or a hotel room besides we had money and wanted to adventure).
3. A friend's house in Monroe: I moved in with my boyfriend who lived with a friend of ours and our friend's dad for about three months. 
4. Our new apartment: We moved in here on my birthday (Feb. 14th- yes, Valentines Day). I'm so happy we have an apartment now.

Four TV shows I'm currently watching

1. Friends: I've loved this show for year but haven't seen every episode so I started it on Netflix and I'm on season five now.
2. Breakout Kings: My boyfriend and I started this together and it's a really exciting show! I believe we're on season two.
3. Weeds: My boyfriend and I also started this together (yesterday) and we're on season two now. We have a problem with watching one show a time, we get bored of binge watching.
4. Orange is the New Black: I finished both season on Netflix last summer, but season three will be out June 12th and I'm so excited!

Four things I'm excited for this year:

1. Road trip: My boyfriend and another couple we're really good friends with are going on a trip to the other side of Michigan sometime soon!
2. Hopefully getting a kitten: I love cats and I get to get a ginger kitten once I have a steady paycheck!
3. A great job: I just recently started a great job, cleaning houses. I only work about one day a week right now, so that's disappointing and I'm not making much money right now, but once I start getting my own houses to clean (because I'm still technically training right now), I'll be working more and I'll have money finally.
4. OITNB Season Three: Did I say this already? Oops.

I had a lot of fun with this post. If you do it too, leave your link in the comments!

Welcome to my new blog!

Welcome to the first official post of The Brooke Diaries! The Brooke Diaries was previously known as This is Me until my recent name change that came with my brand new blog design!

Take a look around and see all of the changes!

Here's some of the new things:

• Brand new design! I made my own header and about me link (in my sidebar) and designed the whole page myself.

• I have a newsletter! It'll be sent out weekly. If you want to join my email list, there is a subscription box in the sidebar just below my about me link. 

• It's a lot easier to contact me now! Just below my header in my tabs, there is a contact form available.

• My Twitter and Pinterest accounts are now right in my sidebar for easier access to connect on other sites! Feel free to connect on these sites with me, I'll be happy to follow your blog as well.

• I'll also be posting more regularly. I've started an editorital calendar to become more consistent with my blog, as well as being more prepared for the future of The Brooke Diaries.

I'm so excited about all of these changes! 

Tell me what you think about my new blog! I would absolutely love to know your opinion on all of the changes! 

What is your favorite & least favorite part of my blog? 

What kind of posts would you like to see more of or less of?

The Easy Way to Start Doing Yoga

source of yoga photo

About two weeks ago, I decided I wanted to start working out, but I wanted it to be something quiet since I live in an apartment building and something I could do at home. I had seen a friend post about yoga so I decided I'd give it a try. The first video I found, I loved! It was actually perfect because it was for lower backs and my back almost always hurts. It's super easy, it's only 20 minutes, and it's really relaxing! Take a look here:



If you haven't yet, try it out! Let me know in the comments what you think about it!

Later on, I also found a few 30 days yoga challenges. I haven't started any of these, but if you want to, I wanted to include these for you!

• "Yoga with Adrienne" video: start here!

• "DoYoYoga: video: day 1: getting started.

I hope you all have fun starting your yoga and let me know if you find any more 30 day challenges and I'll add them to the list!

Let me know if you like these videos and if you decide to keep going with one of the challenges!

The Top 5 Most Amazing Recipes I've Found on Pinterest

I love when I find a blog that has a list of a bunch of links to great recipes so I figured- why not share my favorite recipes with all of you- of course, in cool list form with pretty pictures. I've found all of these on Pinterest and I believe most of them are pinned on my own boards, so I encourage you, if you like these recipes, or even aren't a fan of these but want more, to head over to my food board on Pinterest and check it out, and maybe follow me! I'll be sure to check out your Pinterest as well, and maybe follow you too!
**all pictures are from the original post- not my own!

• Taco Soup: this recipe is actually a vegetarian recipe, but with this, it doesn't even matter that there's no meat in it! It's just that good. I do think it could maybe use a little more spice, but then it might as well be considered chili, but I really do love this recipe, and it's honestly the easiest recipe ever! All you have to do it take six cans and two packets and dump it in a crock pot and let it cook! That's it. I love it.

• Crock Pot Tacos: this recipe doesn't actually have a link to the recipe- I found it on Pinterest, but the link takes you to a website about home repair. The actual recipe is in the description of the pin (below the picture). It's really simple and easy to make, and it tastes great. I also love that there's no prep for this. 

• Sweet & Sour Chicken: I absolutely love this recipe! It tastes absolutely amazing and even though it's a bit more time consuming, it's so worth it. I like this more than the sweet and sour chicken from any restaurant and the guys I live with agree! 

• Brunede Kartofler: I have yet to figure out how to say the name of this, but it's so good! It's potatoes with a caramelized sauce (butter and sugar), and that may not sound good, but it is seriously my favorite recipe for potatoes, and it has so few ingredients that you can make it almost any time!

• Pepperoni Pasta Bake: this was my first recipe I made off of Pinterest and my roommates and a friend that was over ate so much of it. It's really good. The only thing that I had a problem with was that the noodles were a slightly colder temperature than the rest of the food. My boyfriend also suggested instead of mixing everything and dumping it in, to layer it instead. 

There are my favorite recipes I've found on Pinterest- and I hope you love them!

What are your favorite recipes you've found from Pinterest? Feel free to leave links (as long as they aren't spam!)

Guess what!

My blog is going to be going through some renovations!

I haven't been using my blog much in the past few months, so I figured that a re-launch, if you will, of my blog was in order, along with a change in scenery (at least on my blog).

Lots of things will be changing soon! Some things might include a new name, new look, and a weekly newsletter!

Get ready for this blog to look a lot different soon, and not just in appearance.


Here's a sneak peek of one change....

The blogging struggle.

I haven't blogged in a while... That makes me really sad.
But do you know why?

I literally just have nothing to write about.

I have no ideas.

I want my blog to be good and I want to blog and I think about blogging quite often but I just have no idea to write about anymore.

I am stuck. I am in a blogging rut. I have bloggers block (yes, that's a thing now).

Send help.

Top Netflix shows {part 2}

A little over a year ago, I made a post titled "Top Netflix Shows," which you can see by clicking here, and it was a decently popular post so I thought I would make a part two and share with you some of my new favorites!

• Once Upon A Time: {rated PG} A few friends had recommended this show to me and I started watching it about two weeks ago and I am addicted! I'm not done with it yet, but there are three seasons of this show on Netflix and the show is still going, so there will be more added in the future. It's about fairytale and Disney characters that are cursed and sent to a town where no one remembers that they're actually characters until the daughter of Snow White and Prince Charming comes to save everyone. It has such a great storyline. It's really interesting to see the flashback scenes of when they remembered who they are and you get to see what happened to the characters after their story ended. 

• The Road to El Dorado: {rated PG} This movie was one of my favorites when I was younger and seeing this on Netflix made my day! It's about two guys in search of treasure, specifically gold, and in the process, are mistaken for gods. It's entertaining, cute, and definitely a great movie.

• Orange is the New Black: {rated TV-MA (mature adult)} WARNING: this show is not appropriate for anyone younger. I'm sure you've all heard of this show. Something along the lines of "the crazy show about a bunch of lesbians in prison." I'm not going to lie, that is essentially what it's about, but it's also a lot more than that. I've seen a Tumblr post that explains it perfectly; something like, "It shows that everyone has a past, but everyone has a story." It's an addicting show, and season three comes out June 12.

• Brick Mansions: {rated PG-13} this was the last movie Paul Walker completed before he died {still makes me sad} and it was great. It's an intense movie and I was really excited to see that Netflix added it. Paul's character is a cop and has to bring down the man that killed his dad. 

• Friends: {rated TV-14} because who doesn't love Friends? I was ecstatic when it was announced that Friends was coming to Netflix because I've loved this show for years and you get so emotionally invested in the show and their lives. The last episode will forever make me cry...

• The Wolf of Wall Street: {rated R} WARNING: this movie is also not appropriate for anyone younger. This movie is a very, very interesting take on Wall Street. It follows the life of a man that becomes the top man on Wall Street and involves a lot of drugs, swearing, sex, etc. It's a very long movie {three hours, to be exact} but I'd say it's worth it.

These are just a few of the more recent great things added to Netflix.

It's been awhile.

Just today, I realized it has been nearly a year since my last post, and that makes me very sad.

I'm really going to try to get back into blogging.

Just to catch everyone up on my life, have some updates on the life of Brooke!

1. Here's the newest picture of me. I feel like I look really different now.
   
2. I've been dating this wonderful guy for three months (as of today). His name is Dom and we've been friends for about five years. He's wonderful.
   
   
   
3. My birthday is on Valentines Day, and this year, my birthday present was getting my first apartment with my lovely boyfriend and a friend of ours (those who have been following me for a while may also know him as Steven, my ex. Long story, but no, it's not weird for me.)

   

   This was our first apartment selfie and we were super excited.

4. I don't know if I had announced this on here last year or not, but I decided to not return to college after last year and I am now in the process of trying to find a job (it's really not fun, it's difficult). 

So yeah, yay, life updates. 

Hopefully I'll be blogging more soon!