Summer "To Do" List

I have disclosed several times my love of lists, list making, and the joy of crossing things off a list :)  And some things never change, for instance, right now I currently have 21 running lists in the notes section of my phone...

Don't judge me!!

I just can't help it.  So much goes on in this big ol' brain of mine, if I don't write it down, I'll forget it!  So anyways...a current ever growing list of mine is my Summer "To Do" List. Seems appropriate as a teacher that I should at least be accomplished during the summer months when I'm home & finally have time to get stuff done!

Last summer my list was rather short, and I accomplished 4 out of 6 tasks, which I think is pretty decent.  But this summer, my list is rather long and since we have a house now, pretty much a lot of this list coincides with the "things to do for the house" list!

But, alas, that list is far too long and many of the things on that list fall into a "will be completed in the future" list, haha.  {aka - they require beaucoups of moo-la!)  So house things on my summer list are definitely things I can accomplish this summer!

I've already gotten a good start on the list as well...

1 - Clean out my email.  I tend to let emails from places like Groupon, Living Social, Spartan Race WODs, etc pile up in my account.

For example.... I may see a good deal in a Groupon email and think, "Well let me think about that and I'll come back to this email" OR "Ohhh that looks like a good workout, I should keep this email so I can do this workout one day."  And then I never go back to the email.  So then I have 5467 emails in my account....ok, not really.  Just 900.

I plan to tackle this while I'm holed up traveling in the car with B next Monday & Tuesday!

2 - Work on a photo wall for our bedroom.  We have a giant empty wall in our bedroom that I plan to fill with a desk and photo wall.  I've already ordered a canvas of this print...

...purchased this mirror...

...and I have a few other prints on their way (that are kind of a surprise to B!) that I'll frame once they get here.  It most likely won't be finished with these few things, it's a big wall, but it's definitely a good start!!

3 - Make a desk for our bedroom.  I actually don't know if that will happen this summer...but I'm hoping!!  I found this post off Pinterest and I'm completely inspired!  It will go under the picture wall in our bedroom and be sort of my workspace since B already has his home office.  

Our desk will be a bit different, though.  We'll be using a glass table top from our old coffee table instead of wood and these cabinets instead of the ones pictured in their post.

4 - Spray paint all the door knobs & hardware in our house.  Currently, all 24 of the doors in our house have gold/brass knobs & hardware.

It's fine, it's just not really our style.  Our kitchen hardware is a bronze color & we really love the look of it so we planned to eventually change out every door's knob and hardware to a new bronze knob and hardware set, but after checking into the cost of that, it was going to be about $50 a door!  $50 a door!!!!  Times 24 doors...you do that math!  Too much $$$

I saw Melissa, from The View From Five Two, tweet something about spray painting their door knobs in their house a few weeks ago and I knew we had to try it!!  Worst case scenario, we'd be out about 7 bucks for the spray paint and we'd eventually replace the door knob and hardware of the door we tested and didn't end up liking.

So last weekend, we tested out a door from our guest bedroom...and it looked great!!!  Such a rather cheap and relatively easy fix!  And it completely changes the look of the doors, which I love :)  I'll do a complete post about it once all the doors are finished, but this is currently what our laundry room looks like...

...and our garage...

  

Haha, kind of a mess, but hopefully by doing 2-4 doors a week/weekend, I'll have this completed by the time I head back to school.

I might be most excited about this task :)

5 - Get a chair for our family room.  We purchased a sectional couch when we moved, but we really need a nice chair in the corner to complete this room....

I'm attempting to find/thrift a relatively affordable one and possibly recover it if needed. These kinds of chairs with fun, colorful, vibrant prints are my inspiration...

via

6 - Organize our closet & create a jewelry wall.  Ever since seeing Kate's {from Every Mile A Memory} posts about her custom closet & jewelry wall I've had a strong urge to get organized!  I really just need to rearrange my clothes to the specific way I want them (should I organize by color or by article of clothing??  i.e. all tanks together, sleeveless shirts together, tees together, button ups, sweaters, etc - oh the possibilities!) and order the wall mounts for my jewelry!

7 - Change the title for my car to be solely in my name.  This requires a trip to the DMV. Joy of all joys!  When I pay my car off next month, I'll receive the title in the mail, which will read my name as well as my dad's since I needed a co-signer when I bought the car in college.  But now, since apparently I'm all grown up, I'll be changing it :)

8 & 9 - Get a queen box spring, mattress & railings and make a headboard for the guest bed room.  Sadly, I don't think I will actually accomplish tasks 8 & 9 this summer. :(

Brandon apparently thinks it's gross to buy a used mattress set (per say off of Craigslist) but I didn't think it would be that bad!  Especially since it would be in our guest bed room & we wouldn't be sleeping on it, ha!  Would you buy a used mattress??  Is it really that gross??

Since B vetoed that idea, we'll eventually be forking over some money for a new mattress set.

And I've seen so many of these types of headboards all over Pinterest & this is definitely what I want for our guest bedroom...

I even found a great tutorial here, but I think I'm just running out of time considering items 1 - 7 as well as two week long beach trips coming up!!  But that's ok, I'll get to it one day :)

So there's my list!  Long right!?  Props to you if you even read it all ;)

I'm off to spray a second coat onto the knobs & hardware currently drying in my garage!

Happy Friday, y'all!!!

Family Fun!

My mom was in town until this morning, keeping my niece & nephews while my bro & SIL were on a mini getaway to the mountains.  She kept them Sunday and Monday nights, so to break it up, she brought the kids over Monday afternoon for a sleepover at Aunt Michelle's House!! :) Woohoo!

After a much delayed start due to my mom's car battery dying, a trip to Kia to get a new battery, and traffic, they finally made it over about 430.  Poor Wells fell asleep so we let him sleep til about 5 & then played a bit & ordered some Mellow Mushroom Pizza.  Heaven - everyone was happy!

The kids then christened our big soaker tub in our master bath (which I'm so sad I didn't get a picture of!) and we spread out sleeping bags & read books.  My mom and I had this grand plan that the kids would be asleep by oh, 830, and she and I would start the Bachelorette on the DVR.  Ha. ha. ha.

Not so much!

I think the kids just had so much excitement going on from being in a new/different place to sleep, etc.  Sweet things didn't go to bed until after 10 and continued to stir most of the night!  So much for watching the Bachelorette!

But it was OK!!  We all woke up in the morning {my mom & I ran to the coffee pot} and made a yummy breakfast.  Then, we were off to the farm!

A small farm, Hall Family Farm, is just down the road from our house so we thought we'd try it out!

Roen James

Jude Leeland

Wells Bascomb

It was definitely a small farm.  I don't know what I was expecting, but it didn't quite meet expectation.  Their strawberry season was already over, but they had a few fun things for the kids to play with and were also selling lots of veggies!

Haha, farmers!

Wells wanted to be big enough for the Trike...I just pushed instead :)

Roen riding around!

We had a fun little morning, then my mom piled everyone in her van to head back to their house in time for lunch & to greet their parents.  That afternoon, my mom came back over to stay the night with me!  We had big plans for dinner out with the fam (minus B & my Dad) for my brother Rob's 30th birthday at Cantina. Yum!!

I only took 2 pics at dinner...

Wells with a mouthful of quesadilla!

Birthday boy!!

My SIL, Gale, brought a DQ Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Ice Cream Cake for dessert since Rob loves him some Reese's!  Oh my goodness...that cake was worth every calorie.

I knew Rob was getting a new bag for his golf clubs from Gale for his birthday, so I thought I'd continue with the golf theme and get him 30 golf balls for turning the big 3-oh!  Well, golf balls don't really come in boxes of 30....so I got these instead!

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Recycled golf balls...how cool!  Now it doesn't matter if you have a terrible swing and lose all your balls, cause they weren't new to begin with :)  I had never seen or heard of these and thought it was such a cool idea for any golf lover in your life, so I wanted to share!

**Hope you had a wonderful 30th birthday, Rob!!  Thanks for being my big brother!  Love you!**

That night it was fun to just sit and chat about anything and everything with my mom once we got back home!  We got to watch the Bachelorette & she definitely got a good, much needed, uninterrupted night's rest before heading back to GA this morning.  

She made sure to note - this is why people have children when they're young(er), because it's exhausting to keep up when you're old(er)!  Haha - hey, even I thought it was tiring and I'm still pretty young.  Oh boy!  

Thanks for being my house guest, momma!

It's been a fun few days full of family - I just love it!  

If you're working this week, you're over half way there!!  And if you're not working (like moi), happy hump day anyway! ;)

Weekend Recap

This weekend, we took a more adventurous approach to our Saturday and went to the US National Whitewater Center!

Brandon and I went back in 2009 when his sister and BIL, Ashley and Casey, were visiting from Michigan.

Circa 2009

I still get flack about this picture because I'm somewhat smiling and my paddle is out of the water, so obviously that means I wasn't helping!  Ugh..not true!  That was our first time at the Whitewater Center & it was such a good time!!

Anyways, I digress, back to this weekend!  Ha, we met our friends Devin & Morgan for the day.

It was H-O-T hot on Saturday, that water sure felt good!!!

Morgan & Devin climbing!

The boys racing!  Always a competition - B won :) 

Although there is no proof I actually rock climbed, I did!  I made it about 2/3 of the way up before deciding that was good and high enough for me.  No thanks!

Ready to zip line!!

We grabbed some lunch & a tall boy after zip lining and then made it over to whitewater rafting!  It was a fun & wet ride - Morgan and I managed to stay in the boat, Brandon and Devin, however, went for a little swim! :)

We had a fun guide and he told us lots about the grounds while we were there.  If you've never been, I highly recommend it!  It's a bit pricey for the day, but good entertainment for sure!  We're thinking we may need to purchase all season passes in years to come!

Saturday night, we all went to Rooster's downtown for dinner.  B & I had been to the Rooster's location at Southpark a while ago, but had pretty much forgotten about it.  It was much better the 2nd time around!!  So, so good!

Yesterday, I took my first day off working out in 13 days!!  Phew...it was nice.  B went on a super long run and mowed the lawn while I cleaned - Sundays seems to turn into days of chores instead of days of rest :(

We met my Mom {who's in town to keep my niece & nephews for a few days while my bro & SIL are off on a short babymoon of sorts} along with the kiddos and my grandmother for some Chinese for dinner and then ended the night plopped on the couch!

The weekends always go so fast, though!  Yes, I realize it's summer and I don't exactly have a lot going on that's too pressing, but Mondays mean my man is off for the week again :/

Thankfully, my mom & the kiddos are coming over for a sleepover, so I'm off to workout & finish cleaning before the clan arrives!

Happy Monday, y'all!  Hope you had a fantastic weekend!!

Busy Summer Days

Welp, it's officially summer now!  Sadly the days will only just get shorter and I'm already down one week of summer vacay ;-( Tear!

But the days are still long for now and I've been taking advantage of that summer day light!

I'm 11 days into my 60 day Insanity workouts!!  And...I'm really loving it so far!  It's hard. Like, sweating out of every pore in my body, heart beating out of my chest kinda hard.  It's high cardio interval and resistance training which I think is just what my slow metabolism body needs!

I took before pics and while it's hard to visibly see a lot of changes in my body yet, I definitely feel a lot of changes!  Things are feeling tighter!  :)  So that's definitely a good sign!

Besides working out...I've been quite a busy housewife!  I've decided it's definitely my favorite job, even though I don't get paid a dime for doing it!  So far, here's what I've tackled this week...

We ran out of the floor cleaner we bought after first moving into our house back in April and I've read tons between blogs and other sites on the internet about cleaning with vinegar.  

So Tuesday at Target, I figured for $2.64 for this giant gallon of vinegar - I wouldn't be out too much money if I hated it.  When I got home, I diluted it with water in my spray mop and mopped away.

I'm hooked, y'all!  The floors look amazing and shiny and I'm sold!  I'll never buy floor cleaner again.

Wednesday, I had a hair appointment...

It was time.  Time to chop off some of that long length.  It was too much and just had to go!

So here's the finished product after I showered last night and straightened it.  I love the choppiness & long layers :)

Today I put Pinterest to good use & tried out two recipes I'd recently pinned.  And they're both keepers, so check 'em out!

First I made this Skinny Vanilla Mocha Iced Coffee.  The recipe actually calls it a frappe knock off and blended it using coffee they had frozen.  

I, however, did not freeze my coffee because I needed instant gratification, so I just made mine iced coffee.  It wasn't Starbucks, but it was a close second!  The recipe made a bunch so I had half today, and half left for tomorrow!  And, bonus, it's way low cal - no guilt :)

For dinner I made this Cheesy Chicken & Rice Bake.

Super easy and B & I loved it.  Basically it's a burrito bowl casserole.  And it will definitely be a keeper in our house!

The flower beds in our back yard along the house have been begging for attention!  They need some weeding like whoa.  {And since you can't see the back yard, this task has gone on the back burner, unlike the completed front yard :) }

I didn't get a before picture of this bed, but I hacked the h-e-double-hockey-sticks out of it this morning!!  And it is now weed free :)  See all the hacked up area in front of the old pine needles?  That used to be crab grass - not anymore, my friends!  

It was too daggum hot to tackle the other bed.  That's now on next week's to do list!

Today is an easier video in the Insanity workout schedule, so this afternoon I met Andrea for a run at the greenway...

And it was hot!!  We managed 35 minutes (with a bit of walking!) in the scorching heat - Drea probably could've gone longer, she's quite the runner - but she slowed down for me cause she's sweet!

Tomorrow I'm planning to touch up the trim in the kitchen from when we painted it a few weeks ago.  And tomorrow night, I'm looking forward to trying this recipe out, also on my Pinterest board...

Twitter & the blog world have been raving about these grilled avocados so I'm really excited to try them!  I love avocado and this just seems like the perfect side for a summer night's meal :)

It's been a busy summer so far, but I'm loving it!  My summer to-do list keeps getting longer, too :/  I have a few projects I'm hoping to tackle, so I'll share those soon!

Hope you're enjoying these long summer days, as well!

The Wedding Day!

Last week I blogged about The Day Before Erin & Ryan's big day, so I figured since E & R are already back from their honeymoon and onto real life, it's high time I get around to blogging about the actual big day - The Wedding Day!!

So on Saturday, the party really got started about 11:30 am.  Erin had a huge suite booked at the Holiday Inn (where all my family was staying - right across the street from campus, The Inn at VT, chapel, and stadium!) for all the girls to get ready in!  

Her parents had a delish spread from Panera delivered so we were able to have lunch and snack all afternoon!  Included was champagne & oj - per the bride's request - the perfect pre wedding drink!!

After lunch we were off to our hair appointments!  While we were getting all dolled up - there was a rather large pool party forming at the Holiday Inn pool.  Most of the young people in town for the party had nothing to do all day, wedding wasn't until 7 pm.  So create a pool party they did!  B joined in on the par-tay.

Disclaimer - most of these pics are either from my camera, my phone, B's phone or Facebook :)  All are friends/family from FB so I'm stealing with permission to not link back.  I will link back to all photos taken by Kris Anders, as she is an actual photographer - just not employed for this wedding!

As we all left for our hair appts - we were slightly jealous we weren't at the pool
party!  Hah

Ash gettin' her herr did!

And the Bride!

When we got back to the hotel we snacked, lounged a bit, put our faces on, and got excited!!!  Before we knew it the photographer was there and it was time to get in our dresses! 

E's gorgeous dress!!

And E in her dress!
"I'm getting married!!  Ahhh!"

Sisters - the Bride with her sister and new SILs :)

Me & E

My sisters!

The cutest flower girl ever showed up!!

And then, it was time to head to the chapel!!  Woohoo!

E & her dad in the limo!!

Almost time!

E & R's ceremony was at War Memorial Chapel on VT's campus.  Gorgeous site for a wedding!

Love this one!

KA
First Kiss!

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Every body dance now!

KA

It was such a gorgeous ceremony!  As a surprise to Erin, Ryan's sister played the bag pipes after they lit the unity candle (the Webb's are Irish!).  She was so surprised & Kim did fantastic!  Such a unique touch.

The Hooptie picked the wedding party up to cart us around for a few pics...

Hooptie Hoop :)

MOHs!  Love her!

Reception bound!!

The reception was at the South End Zone at the VT Stadium!  We didn't arrive in time for a day light view, but here's our friend's Aaron & Kelsey with the field behind them!

KA
First time in public - Mr. & Mrs. Webb!!

KA
First Dance

KA

Cake cutting {Red Velvet - to die for!}, Toasts, & Parent Dances :)  

KA

Watching the dance fun!

My girlies!  (And my hair beginning to fall, ha!)

The man of the evening!!

KA
Ashley, Erin, & Aunt Stacy!  Gorgeous!!

They took the aisle runner & wrapper E's car!  Love it!

And the grand send off!

It was such a fantastic day!!  Erin & Ryan I'm so, so happy for you and was so honored to be apart of your day!  I hope you had an amazing time in Mexico and I know you'll be so happy starting your life together!  Wishing you every happiness in the world!  Love y'all!