Meet Berkley!

After making Thai Chicken Pizza & watching the Olympic opening ceremonies with a few beverages Friday night, enjoying one last night of really good sleep, and a good workout, B and I finally went to pick up Berkley!!!

And if you follow Brandon or me on Instagram or Facebook, you've probably seen most of these... 

So without further adieu, meet the newest fur baby of our family!

Berkley Shuck

His ride home was interesting, but no one was peed on, so that's a success :)

In the driver's seat!

Riding on the console, perfect size

Attempting to get a picture with a squirmy puppy is...difficult! Ha

Meeting his big brother :)

Big brother showing Berkley who's boss!

Chillen

Being a puppy's hard work!

He's decided this toy of Benson's is now his...which is only ok because Ben never really liked that toy! ;)

Being cute!!

It's been a pretty smooth transition!  B and I sat around the rest of the weekend watching a lot of Olympics, laughing at the entertainment that Berkley & Benson provided, and falling in puppy love!

So far, Berkley loves his crate during the day time when we leave the door open and cries less and less each time he's put in it at night.  He wakes only once a night to go out and there have been less accidents inside than successes outside :)

He's a handful and so fun!  He plays hard and then takes a big ol' nap without fail.  He has razor sharp claws which are getting trimmed at the vet today and I'm secretly hoping his ears never totally perk and stay semi floppy forever!

Thankfully Ben still sleeps right on my pillow and although he's a little standoffish, I think he & Berkley will be BFFs (or at least I'm hoping!)!

Hope y'all had a great weekend!  Happy Monday friends :)

Insanity Update

Since I'm rather transparent on here and for accountability purposes, I thought I'd do a quick Insanity update on the blog!

I started Insanity on Monday, June 11th & I was super faithful and didn't miss a workout for 3 1/2 weeks...that is until July 4th and VA Beach curtailed my workouts.  Leave it to sun, sand, and cocktails to screw with your workout mojo.  

Never fails for me, daggumit!

I missed 3 workouts that week, so in an effort to attempt to make up for it {and punish myself} I tried to do a few two-a-days the next week.  It was mildly successful.  All the while, I was prepping for yet another beach vacay with my family.

Since I knew we had another week of vacation approaching, I stretched out Month 1 an extra week so my "recovery week" would fall during our Carolina Beach trip.

In theory this was a great idea - doing a relatively easier video the week I was away.  Except, this theory requires follow through and actually doing the video on vacation.  

I did it twice.  Whoops!!

So now we're home & I'm back in the routine.  I've started Month 2 and it is NO JOKE!  Sweet Caroline holy Moses, if these Month 2 workouts don't kill me - then I better be Jillian Michael's ripped!  If not, I want a refund!!

Post one of the Month 2 workouts - that's one sweat soaked Dirty D hat right there!!

I'm still running, but I'd like to be running more.  I'd also like a maid and a personal assistant to run all my errands, but we'll just have to see about all that ;)

So here's to completing Month 2 with fidelity, being completely Insane, pushing myself a little harder, and getting Spartan Race ready!

Happy Working Out & Happy Friday, y'all!!!

P.S. - Berkley comes home tomorrow!!  I'm so excited I could pee!  I mean not really, but we're really super excited! ;)

Photo Wall

One of the tasks on my Summer To Do List was to complete a photo wall on the giant empty wall in our bedroom...

Excuse B's suitcase in the corner - life of a traveling salesman

See, big, ugly, boring wall.

This wall definitely needed some help and since we moved in I'd had this idea of creating a photo wall somewhere in the house.  We really don't have any large open walls left in our house, so I figured this would be a great spot for a photo wall!

Anyways....thoughts were swirling, twirling in my head creating the photo wall and as of this past Sunday, it all came together!  So here's the finished product...

Ta Da!!!

I just love the way it turned out!!  I couldn't be happier!  Brandon's really good at hanging stuff - so that definitely helped ;)

The details...

The 3 prints of Michigan, North Carolina, and "It is well with my soul" are by the wonderful and talented Jessi of Naptimediaries from her Etsy site. She had a flash sale earlier this summer so I snatched them up in a heartbeat!  The 3 frames are from Garden Ridge.

The gorgeous mirror is from Sleepy Poet, a great antique booth shop here in Charlotte, and the Canvas is from CanvasPeople.com which I bought with a website deal.

I bought the wrought iron piece many moons ago and it hung above our door in our old apartment.  We just couldn't find the right spot for it in the house until I started putting the photo wall together.  I think we found the perfect spot!

My last purchase was the burlap monogramed S.  I'd pinned it a while back to my Pinterest "For The Home" board & remembered it when I had one last empty spot in the photo wall.  I followed the pin right back to the Etsy site and thought it would be the perfect addition to complete the wall.

Well I think it's complete...I guess I could still go out both directions a bit more if I found the right pieces to add.

Here are just a few more views...

And Ben was such a good helper in hanging the photo wall...by, ya know...laying in the middle of all of it!

Eventually, we'd planned build a desk to go underneath the photo wall, but now seeing the finished product, I'm thinking something like a low bench or table would be better suited for this spot. Something like any of these..

via

via

via

Not sure when we'll actually get a bench or table, but I'm loving the wall regardless!  Looks like I have another excuse to head back to the Sleepy Poet! :) 

Change up!

I acted on impulse this morning and completely changed up my blog design!

And I'm pretty much in looove <3

Like hearts and flowers and x's and o's!

My blog design hails from DesignerBlogs.com and was super easy for this not so tech savvy gal to install!

And - best part - wait for it - this pre made template sells for 10 smackers!!  Now that is a steal!

I've done the research on custom blog design, it can be costly, and well let's be honest, my little blog just isn't there yet ;)  So I'll take a $10 template and run with it!

Hope y'all like the change up!

Happy Tuesday :)

Weekend & Happenings around the Shuck Household

Since getting back from the beach this past Friday, Brandon and I had a very productive few days!  

Friday night we relaxed & finally watched The Vow.  I cried through most of it - I just can't imagine!!  But I really did like it despite hearing a lot of mixed reviews.  

Lots of laundry and grocery shopping were also accomplished as per usual once back from vacation - fun, fun!

There was also a bit of painting involved this weekend.  I haven't recapped this story on the blog, so for memory purposes, I suppose I should....about 2 weeks ago, B walks into the kitchen only to notice a lovely bubble in our relatively newly paint underneath the light switch, which actually turns out to be filled with water.  This means one thing - A LEAK!  Great :)

The drywall was wet, paint and drywall were just peeling away {cue panicky husband} and when we turn our master shower on, we hear a drip, drip, drip behind the wiring of the light switch.  Fantastic right!?!

Actually, it could have been much worse and I'm so thankful it wasn't!  We were able to discover the source of the leak - our shower - and it was an easy fix for the plumber!!  Well, minus the two holes he had to cut in our bedroom behind our shower and in the laundry room ceiling under the shower in order to pinpoint the leak!

Haha, but they came back last week while we were away to repair the drywall & holes - thus B and I did a little paint job to finish it off.  Minus the laundry room ceiling, that is, as we don't have the right color paint.  So I'll be taping the ceiling this week so we can paint Friday night.

You see we need to finish painting Friday night because....

....this sweet thing comes home with us on Saturday!!!

Meet Berkely!!

Saturday, after a mandatory post vacay killer workout, we ran errands to pick up all the puppy essentials we would be needing!!

Berkley is a Westie and was born June 1st.  He'll be 8 weeks by the time we bring him home and we're so excited to introduce him to his cat brother and get started one house training before I head back to school in a few weeks - ahhh!! :/

We're ready & waiting for him!!  His collar hails all the way from Southport, NC where we went shopping during our beach trip :)  I think I'm even nesting {insert sarcasm}...I organized all the clothes in my closet today - now I just need my hanging jewelry racks and I can cross the closet off the summer to do list!

We also have our pest people coming out to flea bomb our house tomorrow {womp, womp} in prep for Berkley!  Despite being treated and multiple flea baths, our sweet indoor kitty just can't shake these fleas - grrrrr.  Angry fur mom over here!  B will also be spraying our backyard to kill those suckers off {I hope!!}.

We ended our Saturday with thai take out and J. Edgar on the big screen.  B and I basically gave ourselves a history lesson while watching, haha.  A pretty perfect evening!

Sunday was another workout & Bachelorette Sunday Night!!!

All in all, a great weekend.  I'm ready to soak up these last weeks of summer!  Before I know it, I'll be back to school for teacher workdays and open house!  Eep!

Back from the Beach!

Welp, all good things must come to an end.  Alas, our beach trip ended Friday night and I made my way home back to my husband, kitty cat, and house by way of my parents who were breaking up their trip back to Georgia!

We had such a fun week at the beach!!  My family has been beach hopping for the past few years and haven't found one to call our "own" just yet.  Last year we visited Corolla, in the Outer Banks of NC.  Carolina Beach might just be in the running to be "our beach", though!  We really enjoyed our stay there!  It has such a small beach town feel, but yet, lots of good restaurants within a 5-10 minute drive.  

We had a great 3 story house 2 blocks from the beach.  Every day we'd set up our tents nice and early and mosey on down usually sometime after breakfast and before lunch.  It was so nice to enjoy a leisurely pace, so different from life at home!

I didn't really blog or tweet much, just a few Instagrams here and there.  It was a nice technology break for a bit!  Sometimes just necessary during vacay!

We enjoyed lunches on the beach and on the pier, taking turns cooking dinner, going out for dinner, playing Settler's of Cataan, filling out the baby pool for Josh & Callie's new addition, laughing at all the entertainment the kids provided, laughing with each other, shopping, eating way too much, and just soaking up sweet moments together!

My heart is full!

Here is our week in pictures...

Waiting at the SeaWitch for our house to be ready last Saturday!

Gorgeous view from the upper deck of our house!

Once we got settled in the house we headed for the mad house also known as the grocery store!  Time to stock up for the week for 16 people - that equals a whole lotta groceries!!  That night no one was cooking though, we ordered amaze balls pizza from Uncle Vinny's!!

Just chillen with Mimi :)

Uncle Scott & Aunt Stacy vs. Rob & Gale in Ladder Golf

Ladder Golf was by far the best purchase we've made so far!  Everyone had so much fun playing at the beach!!  B and I remained undefeated the whole week :) pros pretty much!

view from our tents

A man and his hole

Jude in the hole.

Drinks for the week :)

Playing Settler's of Cataan...

...and taking ridiculous pics, obvi :)

Including a few with CamWow..this one was too good not to
share!  Haha

B passed by our Shack on his run :)

Rockin' Uncle B's sunglasses

Beach!

Monday night we tried out Michael's Seafood Restaurant!  I highly recommend it!!  Best Chowder in the world apparently, and pretty great shrimp and crab legs in my opinion :)

Wells mean muggin' waiting on dinner

The many faces of Uncle Scott

Josh & Callie

Dinner is served and then devoured!!

Mmmm Mmmm Mmmmmm I love crab!  Crab Crab Crab

Couples at dinner!

Tuesday morning photo sesh with nieces & nephews :)

Diggin' again with Uncle Brandon

We brought out all 3 tents Tuesday as my Uncle Steve, Auntie Anne, Cousins Nikki, Betty Anne & Scott and their baby James made a day visit from Raleigh!  Of course I failed to take any pictures of them...ughh!  Tuesday was also B's last full day, he left Wednesday morning to work for the rest of the week.  Yuck!

Look at this cutie who stole my phone!

My and my Ro :)

Wells wanted to be buried!  Haha, it was bright!

Our view from the pier for lunch!

Wednesday a few of us walked down and discovered the pier restaurant - you can eat outside right in your bathing suit!  It's attached to the Ocean Grille and we liked it so much, we ate there again Thursday and went to the actual restaurant part for dinner Thursday night!

Uncle Rob & Wells after dinner

Thursday night they have live music on the pier and fireworks!  It was a pretty great ending I must say.

What!?  It's the last day!?!?

Yep, last day :(

Until next time East Coast...