Pure Joy

So in the midst of the craziness that is this life, I like to just stop and count my blessings every now and then.  I have oh so many, many blessings in my life and I never, ever want to forget to be thankful for them!

So here are a few things that have been bringing me pure joy lately...

Folded laundry on my bed after getting home from work on Friday.  

Bliss!  Oh man, I saw that & knew for sure (not that I ever doubted!) that my husband loves me.  He performed a few little house husband tasks on Friday while working from home and it brought joy to this weary teacher after a loooong Friday!

A good, long run.

In my new kicks!

We skipped a workout Sunday and tailgated for the Panther's game (another loss - wahhhh) & I didn't have time to run or workout yesterday.  Sadly work and the grocery store got precedent.  I was so excited to go run my little heart out on the treadmill this afternoon...felt so good to get over 6 miles under my belt!

A vacuumed floor.

Can I get an amen!?  Oh, my pretty floors - they have been neglected due to our busy schedule & had gotten so dirty!  They were in desperate need of a good vacuuming!  I can only let it go so long before it will send me to the nutty house & tonight they got the cleaning they'd been needing!

Sweet fur babies.

These 2 make me so happy!  How can you not love it!?

Fall.

I love driving through the city and seeing trees looking like this...

...and pulling up to my house and seeing this on the front porch :)

So many little joys lately!  May I not forget to count them!

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...

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

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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 :)

Weekend Recap

Welp, sadly it's already Sunday night & the weekend is coming to a close!  We're watching a movie, though, while listening to the rain fall through our open windows...so I really can't complain :)

We've had a busy, but great weekend!!  

Friday night was all I had hoped for and more - B and I took a day off from the gym & enjoyed a pre-dinner beverage on the patio after work while watching the kids play in the back yard!

We met our friends Sam & Lisa for dinner at Bad Daddy's Burger Bar and parked it on the patio.  {Very easy to eat Paleo at Bad Daddy's by the way!}  It was perfect porch eating weather, and you know I love that!!

Sam & Lisa :)

Me & B!

We took the party over to Fox & Hound afterwards where our friends Andrea and Corey met us.  We, of course got a little camera happy!  Somehow Andrea & Corey didn't make it into a pic :(

Haha, Sam's face!

Cute couple!!

Crazies

Cheesin'

Saturday we slept in & it was oh so needed!  We both got in a good workout, then ran some errands.  I went to about 5 grocery stores {ok, just 2} and Target, then met B at The Meat House to pick out our steaks for dinner!

YUM!!

We relaxed on the couch & watched 21 Jump Street with Channing Tatum & Jonah Hill.  Have you seen it!?  It's HI-larious, so you should definitely rent it!

Today we unintentionally slept in extra late, past 10!!  We never do that, but I guess these weeks are just exhausting us!  I hit the ground running and got to meal planning for the week....made my Paleo breakfast muffins, hard boiled a few eggs, chopped up a pineapple I bought and got dinner going in the crockpot.  

If there's anything I've figured out about Paleo, it takes a lot of planning!  But it's way worth it!!

B set out for a long run outside - he has his Spartan Beast Race coming up in a month so he's training hard!  I went for a long run at the gym so I wouldn't miss any of the Panther's game!!  Wooo did we smoke those Saints or what!?!?  Who Dat pshhhh.

It was quite motivating to run to the game I must say....if we did something great I was excited & pumped and if we did something not so great I was angry and ran faster, haha.

Obviously I wore Panther's colors & my Panther's hat!!

Tonight, I finished up a small bit of lesson planning while this guy just tried getting in the way...

Can't be mad at him though, he's just too cute!  And these 2 are currently snuggling :)

Hope y'all had a fantastic weekend!  I'm off to enjoy what's left of my Sunday night...here's to a lightning quick work week!

Thankful Thursday!

Today, today is Thankful Thursday!  

Why you ask?  

Because if I don't decide to be thankful today, I would probably drown in all the other noise of this world that has this way of dragging you down, overwhelming and exhausting you, and making you want to throw a temper tantrum/pitty party for yourself on your drive home from work.

Oh, that's just me!?  Well....then never mind!

Anywoo, there's always lots to be thankful for & focusing on those things can sure do wonders for attitude! =) Here's my list for today...

This gorgeous fall weather!  

This week has been so pleasant, a breath of fresh air!!  The mornings are cool, I even dare say chilly & the highs have been around 80 every day.  Pure bliss!  Berkley is loving the fall temps, too!!

Our afternoons are spent outside for a good 30+ minutes doing lots of this...

Seriously, highlight of my day!  Love that stinker :)

Friends who run off steam with you and then indulge in mani/pedi night!  

Last night, Andrea came over for a run, then we made a girls night of it with a little mani/pedi action.

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I got one of OPI's new colors - My Very First Knockwurst.  I love it!  I think it actually looks a little darker than that pic, a nice fall pink.  Might just have to buy it!

It's amazing what some pampering and polish will do for a girl's mood ;)

Tomorrow's Friday!

Oh yes, I'm very thankful for that!  B and I have plans to meet some friends, park ourselves on a patio for some good food & drinks, and enjoy a fantastic Friday night!  I can't wait!!

This weekend is shaping up to look like a good one.  We have a few things to do around the house Saturday & are looking forward to some good R&R!

Cheers to the weekend friends!!!

Thankful Thursday

Well hello there little blog of mine!  I haven't meant to neglect you since Monday, but in case you've forgotten, right now is the beginning of the school year.  It's just a tad busy {that's sarcasm, y'all!} so, sadly I haven't had beaucoups of free time to sit & write!

But I thought it would be more fun to be thankful today, instead of griping about the easy, leisurely days of summer being ripped from my grasp... tear :,(  <-----that's a tear!

So today, I'm counting my blessings!  Here's what I'm thankful for....

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1.  My job.  As challenging, under eye, dark circle provoking, and all time consuming as it is (see this post), I'm thankful to have a job, an abled body in which to use to work, and a paycheck at the end of every month!  Amen.

2.  Changing seasons.  There's just something about the change from summer to fall - the cooler temps, the football games, the smell of sharpened pencils!  Leaves changing, boots and scarves, chunky sweaters, and pumpkin things!  Oh yes, it might be my favorite.

3.  A pretty, working, non-peed-on phone.   It is so pretty!

4.  Friends who will watch our fur babies & treat them as their own.  This weekend will be our first time to leave Berkley!  Our friend Andrea & her kitty cat Oliver will be staying at our house to watch the babes!  She's sweet to give up a weekend of freedom to play mom to our fur babies (a puppy mind you!).  She's played mom to Benson, though, many times before :)  I know Benson & Berkley will love having Oliver over to play!

5.  A weekend away.  Brandon left yesterday afternoon for Michigan & I'm flying up Friday, mid day! We're headed up for B's Company's annual summer work party!  We were hoping to squeeze some family time in, but most everyone is busy when we're free :(  We're planning to make the best of it though and have an out of town date night!  Fun right!?

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We're over the hump, friends!!  Happy almost weekend, y'all!

Lovin' It

The CMAs are on tonight and I am LOVIN' IT y'all!!!  I love country music, it's my favorite! It's in my blood after all!  :)

Carrie Underwood's legs are smokin' and she and Brad Paisley have some good writers are pretty funny!!  No, but really, I love all the performances and seeing all the artists!  And Luke Bryan can shake it for me anytime!  ;)

Anyways....I'm also LOVIN' this week and this time of year!  So so much to look forward to and celebrate!!

For instance, 1 more school day this week and then a 3 day weekend!!  That makes me super happy!!

This sweet thang has been crawling in my lap every evening and nestling in my hair :)  I think he's cold, haha.  We haven't turned the heat on yet so I just layer up and sit under a blanket!  And we LOVE that cheap power bill!

Not this weekend, but next, we'll be celebrating our 1 year anniversary in ASHEVILLE!!!  Are you serious!?  Where did the year go??  I'm so excited to visit Asheville & take Brandon to visit the Biltmore during their Candlelight Christmas Evening Tours!  Hello Christmas card :)  We're going to shop around downtown Asheville, visit the Biltmore winery, tour the house, etc.  SO, SO excited!

Around our anniversary, I thought I'd post some of my favorite wedding pics on the ol' blog since I hadn't started it yet this time last year.  I just love looking back through our photo book :)

After our Asheville trip, I'm down to 2 work days until THANKSGIVING BREAK!!!  

And Thanksgiving break brings family, fellowship, good food, Christmas decorations, Christmas shopping, parties, ugly sweaters, eeeeeee!!!!  I'm LOVIN' IT :) 

The trees are gorgeous shades of red, yellow, and orange here and I'll be getting a skinny Peppermint Mocha tomorrow morning to round out my 4 day work week and welcome the 3 day weekend!

Hope you're lovin' your week, too!

Let's Rediscover Why We're Best Friends

So I totally wasn't kidding when I said "onto Thanksgiving & Christmas!"

It's muh favorite!!

Today, I welcomed November with open arms and a SKINNY Peppermint Mocha :)

That's right, I drink aspartame in an effort to cut calories.  I said it!  In moderation of course, ahem.  Now if only they had sugar free white mocha syrup.  Oh to dream!!

Today, I wore a sweater and a scarf (and was still FREEZING all day at school) and cute boots!

Tomorrow, I will enjoy a pumpkin muffin for breakfast and wear a cute plaid button up!

This month, I will help my brother & SIL move into their very own house, celebrate 1 whole year of marriage, attempt to make Shuck family noodles for the Acuff clan, and make the stuffing (duh!)!!!

HOORAY November!!

I'm in love, I'm in love, and I don't care who knows it!!

(Can you name that movie?!)

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 ;)

Camping in Black Mountain & Tackling Mt. Mitchell

Last Christmas I bought Brandon some camping gear - a tent, sleeping bags, and few accessories.  This weekend we FINALLY put them to use!!!

Saturday morning we woke up bright and early to set off to Black Mountain for the night.  It's at the base of Mt. Mitchell, the highest peak east of the Mississippi River.

We wanted to get there early to set up camp so we'd have plenty of daylight to hike up Mt. Mitchell!  We had read about the trail all week long in anticipation.  It's technically about 11 and a half miles round trip.  One website describes the trail as follows:

Level of Difficulty: Most Difficult

Trail Tread Condition: Very Rough

Climb: Climbs Steeply

Intimidating....yes!  But we figured we're fit, active, pretty in shape.....we can tackle it for sure!  And so we were determined to do so!  Hahahahaha....

**Disclaimer - lots of pictures start now!  :) **

We got to this point and stopped so I could hop out to take a pic.  I pulled out our camera and realized I left the battery charging at home!!!  :(  I was SO sad!!  I could've cried!  But surprisingly, my lovely iphone and B's phone did a pretty good job capturing pics and we got some pretty good ones I think!

Made it to camp!

Intimidating!!

Oh boy...what are we getting ourselves into!?!

Oh how our enthusiasm would waver, hah.

B + M 4 eva!  <3

Such pretty colors!

Strong man!

Enjoying a protein bar and taking a breather, already feeling it in the legs!  Haha

Can't really see me, but we were finally gettin' up there and enjoying a view!

We made it!!!  SUCCESS!!!!!  Ahh the feeling of accomplishment!

The view paid off!

Handsome hubs

Ughhh....we made it to the top, but we still had to go back down!!!  Holy moly!  It took us about 4 hours, including lunch, to make it to the top!  And then another 3 to make it back down.  This hike was not for the faint of heart my friends!!  What naive hikers we were!  Haha, on the way down our legs were literally shaking.  We weren't sure we were ever gonna make it!  The black diamond hike lived up to its "most difficult" description for sure!  But we did it!!

Our awesome set up =) 

And our fire!!  We had the perfect set up - some tunes, celebratory beers, and yummy food!  We roasted some awesome wieners and delish s'mores over this baby!

We spent the rest of the night hanging out by our fire and enjoying our little adventure!  The ibuprofen kicked in so our legs weren't quite as sore.  

Whoa buddy are they sore today!!!  Haha, just a little reminder of our adventure that will probably linger for a few days!  We drove home reeking smelling of campfire and looking forward to a shower :)  In fact, somehow my phone still smells like campfire!  But all in all, it was a blast and I survived!  

I MAY or MAY NOT have walked into a tree AND/OR submerged my foot into cold spring water while trying to cross....but again, I survived!  We encountered no bears or bugs and we climbed a MOUNTAIN!!

I'd say camping was a success!