Friday's Letters

Joyous of all days, it is finally Friday my friends :) Linking up with Ashley from Adventures of Newlyweds today for a few letters....shall we?

Dear Halloween....I'm kind of over you this year, but I can't lie, I'm totally going to eat some candy and savor every bite!  Paleo might just have to get put on hold for a little bit of Halloween candy ;) Dear Paleo....I'm finding it hard to be as strict as I was the first few weeks.  Womp womp!  But keeping with your rules about 90% of the time is still pretty good, yeah!?  I think so.  I'll take it!  Dear This Week....You have won.  I handed you full victory as the tears freely flowed when leaving school on Wednesday.  I'm not sorry you're over.  Dear Friday....Seems like it took for.ev.er for you to get here this week.  You're killing me smalls!!  Dear Dining Room....We just might be headed to pick out your furniture this weekend!  I could squeal with the excitement, I can't wait to see my vision come to life!  Dear Weekend....I'm so excited you're bringing back the fall weather.  I can't wait to wear a sweater, some skinnies & boots.  Dear Husband....Thanks for being you.  And for never making me feel silly for crying on a Wednesday afternoon about not having time to fold laundry.  To the moon, baby!!

Currently

Hello there sweet blog!!  Oh, how I have missed you!  Sadly, it's been almost a month since I last posted :(  I feel so incredibly behind!!

It's seeming lately, that I need to first read and reread this post and secondly, just be present in my life.  Free moments, let alone, free time to blog are few and far between these days.

My weeks are spent doing school work, house work, working out, attending to and enjoying my fur babies and rare dates with friends and weekends are spent enjoying time with my husband, our fur babies and our little family.

Blogging has taken a back burner for now.  Which, truthfully, makes me sad.  It may seem silly, but I really miss blogging!  I miss writing and recapping our weekends and what we've been up to.  I miss sharing pictures and recipes and anecdotes from our lives.

I really hope I can get back to blogging more regularly, and soon, but I'm not sure if I'm there yet.  I've seen several "Currently" blog posts floating around so in the mean time, here's what's going on Currently with The Shucks....

Loving:  Lately, I'm loving this weather!  It actually feels like we've had a fall this year and didn't just jump over to winter!  We've been enjoying fires in our new fire pit...

playing with Berkley outside, and sleeping with our windows open!  Lovely I tell ya!

Reading:  Well, not much lately.  As we've covered, I have close to zero free time lately so not much reading has been going on.  Every now and then I try to read a little at night, but reading at night puts my straight to bed, ha!  I've been reading The Other Wes Moore for about 2 months now.  I have Gone Girl and Where We Belong just sitting in my night stand, waiting to be read!  I have high hopes to finish these 3 by the end of... spring break!?  Haha

Watching:  Sticking with my current theme of being behind, my DVR is bursting with new fall TV, but what I have watched so far this fall, I am loving!  Some of my favorites include Modern Family, Parenthood, Grey's Anatomy, Boardwalk Empire, and New Girl.  We watched the first episode of Nashville last night and really liked it, too!  I can't wait for Happen Endings to come back on and I'm now 3 weeks behind on Private Practice.  Whoops!

Listening to:  Some of my current favs include Phillip Phillips - Home, anything by Maroon 5, Fun. - Some Nights, as well as {no shame here} Taylor Swift  - We Are Never Getting Back Together and the Biebs - As Long As You Love Me!  If any of these are on the radio, you better believe the volumes up and I'm jamming out :)

Thinking about:  All things holidays!!  We've gotten some new fall decor...

...and have some outdoor fall decor in the works!  Fall gets me so excited for our Anniversary, Thanksgiving & Christmas!  We recently drew names for our family Christmas gifts so I'm in the process of putting together my wish list :)  This will be our first holiday season in our house and I'm so excited to decorate and celebrate!!!

Looking forward to:  Babies!!!  My SIL is due any day now with my 4th niece or nephew and my sweet friend Rachel is also due soon with her first baby!  Brandon's sister & BIL find out the sex of their baby on Monday!  Ahhh, can't wait to meet all these sweet babies!!

Laughing at:  Berkley's new Halloween shirt!

Making me happy:  Quiet weekend nights at home.  Like tonight!  Maybe I'm boring, or just getting old, but nights like tonight....dinner out and now sitting and blogging with my husband laying beside me, the dog running around and a movie on - perfection :)

Celebrating:  Lots of fall Birthdays!!  

B turned the big 2-9 at the end of September!  His mom came into town for the first time since our wedding and we had a great weekend of celebrating!

We took Joan to Asheville for the day and toured the Biltmore House!

The next day we had friend meet us for dinner and cookie cake back at our place to celebrate!

Last weekend we celebrated my sweet nephew, Jude Leeland!  Can't believe he's already 5!!

Some birthday loot!

Cakepop love :)  Such handsome little nephews!

Tomorrow is my handsome brother's 32nd birthday!!  Happy Birthday Josh!  Couldn't be prouder to call you my older brother :)

Wearing:  I love me some fall fashion!!  Boots, sweaters, leggings, scarves....love it!  I've made a few new fall purchases, but I'm trying to rein myself in from spending too much!

I just got this cute Gap sweater in the mail...

via

As well as this Under Armour running shirt to benefit Breast Cancer Awareness!

via

B and I are in the need of some new running shoes as well!  I think we're heading shoe shopping tomorrow and I really excited for some new kicks :)

Planning:  Our 2nd Anniversary trip to Nashville!!  We love Nashville and are so excited to go back and really explore a little this time!  A spring break trip back to Puerto Rico has also been in the talks, but we'll have to see about that one.  Keeping my fingers crossed!

Feeling:  Overwhelmed and stressed.  Finding balance between work and non-work activities has seemed near impossible this year.  I can't really put my finger on why, probably the same ol' reasons as always, but it just seems to weigh on me so heavily this year.  Praying it all levels out here soon.

Also feeling:  so incredibly blessed!  Whenever I fret over the stuff I mentioned above, I start to feel guilty.  My problems could be so much worse!  I have a wonderfully, fantastic life that I share with my amazing best friend & husband as well as my incredible family & friends.

Really, I'm just a big mess of feelings, haha!

Browsing:  For a Dining Room table!  Instead of buying for each other this Christmas, B and I plan to buy some dining room furniture (and hopefully a rug) for our large, empty dining room.  I have a general idea of what I want, but there are so many options out there.  Hopefully we find the right one soon, so that it's actually here by Christmas!

Enjoying: Girly at home manicures :)

It's simple little things like this that get me through the work weeks!  Right now I have a fun, sparkly brown on my nails!  Makes me happy when I look down :)

Cooking:  All things Paleo!!  I swear a Paleo post is coming, but in a quick summary, I'm down 5 pounds and having some of the best workouts I've ever had!  I feel so much better about myself, the way I look and feel.  It's been very eye opening.  I can't wait to write that blog post :)

Dating:  This sexy beast!!!

B finished his 2nd Spartan Race today -
the Spartan Beast Race!!

How luck am I!?  For real, I married a beast!  I'm so grateful for him - the way he partners, the way he motivates me and supports me in all things!!

Savoring:  Sweet snuggles from the fur babies!  This was us last night :)

A kitty in my lap, then a cute white doggy snuggled on the other side!

Wondering: If my Panthers are going to win again anytime soon!?!  :(  Don't get my wrong, they're still my team and I love & support 'em!  But I need some more Ws this season!!  Tomorrow is our bye week...so at least we can't lose!

Missing:  Blogging more :(  

If you read this far, well, bless you!  Haha, and thank you!  I definitely hope to be back more frequently.... So posts won't be this ginormous....at least a weekly update or something!?  We shall see!  

Hope you all are well my sweet blog friends!  Thanks for sharing this ride with me :)

Happy Halloween!!

Happy Halloween y'all!!!

Jethro made an honest woman outta me and we done got hitched ;)  It says so on the back of my shirt, we just didn't take a picture of that.

Hahaha, B and I put in our fancy teeth, our best Sunday clothes, and I threw in my beautiful veil - voila! - Jethro and his Mrs.  I don't think my character really had a name!

Brandon found the ever so classy and camouflaged beer to match his outfit and I added some Harris Teeter bags under my tank.

It was the strangest thing I tell ya!  That belly creeped me out!!  Haha, it was so life like!  I'd look down and couldn't see my feet and wow, it just felt convincing!  Too convincing.

Those teef were magic, too I swanny!  As soon as B popped 'em in, Jethro came out!!  He had a big ol' southern twang and just didn't know how to talk no good.  He wasn't raised to speak good and only had 4 teef (with stains around the gum an everythang!).  He weren't lucky enough to go to no dentist when he growed up and didn't know how to floss so good.

Jethro was CREEPY y'all!!

But hilarious!!!  This has to be one of the most fun costumes (and most affordable!) I've ever done!  My Harris Teeter belly was a little itchy by the end of the night and a few people actually asked if it was real.  They musta' been drinking ;)

Hope y'all had a SPOOKTACULAR Halloween!

Now on to Thanksgiving & Christmas =)

Low Key Kinda Weekend

Our weekend over here was pretty low key....and as it turns out it was just perfect :)

We feel like we go, go, go SO much, especially Brandon since he's gone 4 days a week, and just in general since we fill our weekends with friends, family, and trips so often.  This weekend was uneventful and much needed.

Friday night we watched my niece and nephews while my brother & SIL went to a friends wedding.  We had lots of fun hanging out with the kids!  Wells was a stinker, though, and wouldn't go to bed!!

In the history of all my years of babysitting and nanny-hood (which is upwards of 13 years), I don't think I've ever had a child not go to sleep for me. So now, my first non-sleeper was a family member!  Haha, guess he just needed Momma & Daddy to tuck him in :)

The kids (and my week in general) obviously wore me out, I was asleep on our couch about .35 seconds after laying down once B and I got home.  B put a movie in and I think I made it through the title and introduction.

We decided there must be a reason kids typically come one at a time.....so their parents ease themselves into the whole parent thing.  3 at one time would be a lot, so rest assured I will surely not be praying for triplets over here!

Saturday we slept in which was oh-so-glorious!  Well didn't sleep in too late actually, about 830, but when you go to sleep at 930 the night before, that's a whole lotta sleepin'!  :)  I felt brand new.

We ran some errands Saturday morning and picked up a few things for our Halloween costumes!  And no, we are not being SMURFS!!!  Hallelujah, Praise the Lord, Amen....I do not have to paint my face or ANY part of my body for that matter for our new costumes!  Thanking all that is good in the world that we got off that idea :)

Can't tell ya what we're gonna be though!!  You'll just have to wait til next weekend to see some awesome pics, my friends!  And let me just say....they will be awesome!

Remember this past summer when I had a "to do" list of a few things I was going to accomplish with all my time off from school?  Well about 3 things didn't get completed, but I was able to cross one off Saturday!  Only 2 months late.  Whatev...

We FINALLY have artwork for above our bed!  I wasn't 100% it would work just looking at it in the store, but once we got home, it was perfect!  Our bedroom is complete :)

We hit the gym after our errands and then came home to relax for the rest of the evening.  I found a yummy recipe for Pumpkin Spice Muffin's here so we tried them out!  Between the muffins cooking in the oven and our Creamy Pumpkin candle burning, our house smelled of fall perfection!

We cooked some delicious Omaha burgers on the George Foreman and watched the movie The Set Up.

It was filmed in B's hometown of Grand Rapids so it was fun to watch it and have him point out all the spots he knew!  I even recognized some places!

This guy snuggled and slept in my lap while we lounged on the couch...

He's such a good boy when he's sleeping!!

We finished The Set Up pretty early in the evening so after it was over, we were looking for something good on TV to leave it on.  Much to my surprise and enjoyment, this movie was on TV...

I was so excited!!!  Haha, this is by far one of THE best movies to sing along to!  Brandon indulged me and turned the volume nice and loud so I could sing along and break out some couch dance moves :)  This movie brings back my days of choir and makes me miss it so, so much!  I love singing, but these days the most action I get is in the car, stereo up loud, belting out.  It'll do!

In other news (outside of my love for choirs - nerd alert!), the Panther's finally added another W to their season today!!!!

We thought about going but we're trying this new thing out where we act responsible and adult like and stuff (which is for the birds in my opinion) in order to save $$ so we can buy a house next year!  Spending $120 on tickets just didn't seem like the responsible choice today....so we watched my boys get the W from our couch.

We also threw in a long run, a good apartment cleaning, and a little work today.  And now here we are, gearin' up for another Monday.

Those Mondays sure come around a lot.  I'd like to spread them out a little more ;)

Midweek Randos

Well it's not quite mid week yet, but I thought it was Wednesday pretty much all day so I feel like this is an appropriate title!

If you look above....I've added a few pages.  

An "About Me" page - just a intro to me, my life, and my little ol corner here in cyber space.  As well as a "Recipes" page with links to all the recipes I've blogged about.  

This one is almost more for my convenience - ha it's definitely more organized than any recipes I have at home.  You'll find all my recipes in a large stack in a semi-neat pile in a "catch all" cabinet.  Maybe one day I'll organize those.  Maybe not... :)

I have a few more pages I plan to add, but I'm not sure when they'll be up. Probably around one of those days when I have time to organize my recipes!

I FINALLY finished The Help!!!

I started reading it this summer, but then school started back and got in the way of any free time I had!!

Week nights, reading puts me straight to sleep! I was terrible at reading text books in college, haha, heavy eyes ensued almost immediately!

Anyways....I would read a chapter here and there and I did finally finish!  It was SO SO good!  I can't wait to see the movie now!  (Yes, yes, I realize the rest of the world has already seen this! I'm just slightly behind.)

I already have two other books on my "to read" list.

I've loved all the Jodi Picoult books I've read and I've heard this one was another great one!  I want to read all her books, but for now this is the next one of her's I'll read.

A few years ago, Oprah interviewed Wes Moore.

He shared his story of how as he was growing up, making great strides and accomplishing great things, another man from a nearby neighborhood by his same name was doing the complete opposite.  I'm a firm believer that our choices lead us down a certain path which is exactly what this book is about. I love the quote on the front of this book...a chilling truth and a tragedy, one name and two fates.  I can't wait to read it!!

Any of y'all have either of these books??  Care to share?  ;)

I sure do love my husband, ya'll.  And I would do just about anything for him!!  Except maybe this...

Brandon wants to be a SMURF for Halloween!!  Really?  Really!?!  Painting myself blue, or any other color, is probably the last thing on Earth I want to do.

I mean, I'm a fun person and I like Halloween and eating all the yummy candy getting all dressed up!  But I don't. want. to. be. BLUE!!!  Body paint just does not sound like a good time to me!  

HELP!!!  What else can we be!?!?  Please, I beg, someone give me a good idea so I can change his mind!

Happy (almost) midweek friends :)