Birthday Weekend!

Yesterday, I turned the big 2-7 {if you can even say that with 27?} & I spent most of the weekend celebrating!  I was glad to finally have B home on Friday night!  We ate a quick dinner at home & watched some House of Cards…

Saturday morning classes were a lot of fun at the gym, followed by a little coaches meeting.  B & I picked up some Earthfare meal deal lunches & then I popped over to Blakeney for a little birthday shopping!

I found these cute espadrilles at Target & couldn't pass them up for only $30!  I wore them out Saturday night with some skinnies, the perfect shoe to transition into spring!  :)

Saturday night we started off at Lenny Boy Brewery, a local kombucha brewery here in Charlotte. {Kombucha is a non-alcoholic fermented drink made from tea, sugar, water, & a symbiotic culture of bacteria & yeast.  Some consider it a raw food with probiotics & health benefits!}  We've gotten into drinking kombucha lately since B has been training so hard for the Open & we haven't really been drinking too much alcohol.  We were excited to finally try Lenny Boy out!

Lenny Boy is tucked away in South End, their little tap room is really cute!  We got a flight to sample all of their traditional kombuchas & their wild kombucha ales (containing alcohol)…

Andrea & Karl met us for a drink before we headed over to Peculiar Rabbit in Plaza Midwood!

I took fun selfies in the car on the way to dinner, because it's my birthday, duh!

Warren & Kelly met us there & gifted me with some pretty flowers!  I failed to take a single picture at dinner.  Boo!  Major fail.

Dinner was delish & we were home to my Paleo Brownies, wine & bed by about 930 or so.  If celebrating 27 this way is wrong, I don't want to be right!

Sunday, we woke up slow, laid around & then got ready for the gym!  I started off 27 with a brownie {breakfast of champions} so as to do well on my birthday WOD & dropped this boy off for a haircut {as you can see it was much needed}…

An after picture to come, once I take one!  The weather was gorgeous all day Sunday!  We love to prop the gym doors open & let some warm air in!

Brandon redid the Open workout, getting 354 reps this time, then it was my turn!  I got 248 reps, which was my exact goal!  I got 5 rounds completed & 23 more double unders, so I was very pleased!

Aren't my cupcake earring so fun?

We spent the rest of the afternoon doing a little work, B made my very favorite bacon burgers, we watched more House of Cards {holy crap episode 1 of season 2!!!!!} & I ate a very large red velvet cupcake!!!

So far, 27 is looking pretty stellar :)  Thank you all for the sweet birthday love all over social media! You sure know how to make a girl feel loved!!

M.I.A

Missing. In. Action.

That is what I have been lately!  Sadly, most of the action hasn't really been too exciting, ha!  Just the regular old stuff.  Work, working out, playing with fur babies, cooking, cleaning....it's a glamourous life really ;)

Last week we celebrated Valentine's Day!  I am spoiled with somewhat of a romantic husband, and he definitely speaks my love languages!  I posted "The Story of Us" last year on Valentine's Day, so feel free to read up on us if you like :)

B & I cherish good quality time together, some in part due to the fact that Brandon travels 3 nights/4 days a week.  So for Valentine's Day this year, a nice dinner in, some wine, our sweats and Grey's Anatomy sounded like a perfect evening!

And perfect it was!

B spoiled me with flowers at school, in addition to the gifts he'd already given me!  (We're so bad at waiting to gift each other!!)  See...I told you, spoiled!

I got him a coupon book!  Yep, you read that right.  Haha, a coupon book!  A real one, too!  From the cutest website called Datevitation.com.  You should definitely check them out for a unique gift!

B now has 10 super fun dates that he can cash in whenever he likes (some require more planning than others) like breakfast in bed or visiting a nearby winery!  I'm so excited for him to use them up :)

We were super surprised to see some snow this past Saturday!  They were calling for us to get some, but we were skeptical.  We were sitting on the couch doing our taxes, looked up and the ground was almost completely covered from the down pour of snow that started!

B dog loved it!!  He was sprinting around the back yard!  Crazy dog.

We braved the roads that night and headed out for dinner to celebrate our friend Greg's birthday!  The roads weren't too bad and, per usual, good times were had by all :)

I was so thankful to have this past Monday off!I had a super productive day, if only every week could be 4 days!

I took a crack at the above workout I found on Pinterest on my day off!  Kicked my butt :) in the best way possible of course!  I dare you to try it!  And if you do, tell me your time!  I finished in 16:35.  I'll have to try and beat that again soon!

I'm so glad this was a short work week!!  Even so, it felt so. long.  Bless it!  Is it bad that I already feel like I'm in survival mode!?  Just trying to survive til spring break...til summer.  Yikes, it's probably too early for that :/

At least it's the weekend!!  Cheers to that!  

Happy weekend friends!!!

Happy Saturday!!

HAPPY SATURDAY Y'ALL!!!

WOD Junkie

Brandon & I started our Saturday morning with this workout!  It's a Crossfit workout that we did at our gym & it is no. joke.  I dare you to try it!!

We had to modify a bit because of what the gym had - I used 20 in box, did 25 pound push press, B used an 15 pound medicine ball and I used an 8 pounder.  We also had to do air squats instead of double unders because they had no jump ropes.

But still, it was a butt kicking good time!  I'm excited to try it again and try to beat my time today!

Welcome February!!

 If you recall, I was aiming for a booze free January and also decided for a Starbucks (and any other coffee) free January in an effort to boost my Paleo habits.  I made it til last weekend alcohol free!!  26 days....I think that's pretty impressive!  And I made it all month without coffee!

So you best believe I had a tall vanilla latte in hand yesterday morning :)  I'm going to keep it to a one latte a week minimum, though.  Better for the body & the wallet!

I'm also down 2 pounds since the beginning of the year!  Whoop whoop!!

That's less than I had hoped for, but I've really upped my weight training once again and can definitely see a difference.  Muscle weighs more than fat & I'm not going to obsess about a number.  It's so much more about how I feel, look, and how my clothes fit.

But - seeing those numbers go in the right direction sparked some more motivation for sure!!

Puxatony Phil predicted an early spring today & our back yard seems to agree!  Bring it on spring, I'll gladly kiss these cold temps goodbye!

Hope your weekend is shaping up nicely!  I'm going to paint my nails a fun bright color in honor of an early spring, meet some teacher friends for dinner & then head out with my man!

Cheers friends!

Ginormous Sized Update

Hello blog world!!!  Man have I missed you!

I think I'm finally {bless it} getting into a good routine with school, which means I've found a few minutes to actually blog! :)

Since it's been {ahem} 2 weeks since I last posted, there's a lot to share!  But in an effort to keep this from being the world's longest blog post ever, I'll just detail the highlights, bullet point style!

• The last weekend in August, B & I flew off to Michigan for his company's summer work party! Friday night was spent on a dinner cruise on Lake Michigan with everyone in the sales department...

We kept the party going in the bustling town of Muskegon and went out with everyone afterwards!

Saturday, we were off to Michigan's Adventure where we got our roller coaster/water slide on {aka waited in a lot of lines!} and I nearly died on the Rip Cord {video posted here}!

We were glad to get back home to this naughty boy...

Someone shouldn't be on the pillows!!

• It was back to real life on Monday after getting back as school started!  B sent me a gorgeous bouquet on my first day, as he always does :)  He never fails to make me feel special!

• Our Labor Day weekend was full of family, friends & fun!  We had a family cook out at my bro & SIL's house up in Concord.  It was pretty much a dog party (their 2 dogs, Berkley & my parents dog!) and Berkley got to meet his doggy cousins :)

Sunday night of Labor Day weekend, we finally caught up with our friends Kelly & Ryan!  They brought their {huge} pup, Bentley, over and we all ate some awesome food and watched the pups play!

Tug o' War!!

• Somehow, even a short work week after labor day was still exhausting!!  But I survived the first 2 weeks, so I'm counting it as a win :)

• I started the Paleo diet on Labor Day and I'm on week 2.  I'm loving how I'm feeling & really loving how I'm looking!  So far, it's much easier than I was prepared for and I don't miss dairy or grain near as much as I thought I would....but Paleo requires a post of it's own, so more on that another day!

• This past weekend, I helped host a baby shower for my sweet friend, Rachel, at my house! Rachel is expecting a precious little baby girl toward the end of next month, so soon now!

Rachel with the hostesses :)  Katie, Erin, Rachel, Ashley, & Me

2 out of the 4 hostesses are also expecting!  Something's apparently in the water, but don't worry, I filtered mine before I drank it ;)

The shower was so, so gorgeous!!  Unfortunately I didn't take pics, but when Rachel, Erin or Katie blogs about it, I'll share the link!

• B & I grabbed dinner with some good friends Saturday night and then enjoyed a busy, productive Sunday together!

Surprisingly, I think that pretty much sums up the past 2 weeks in a nutshell!  I had several meetings today at school, but the rest of my week is shaping up to be less busy on the school front, so I'm going to relish that and this amazing weather while I can :)

Ahhh...feels good to blog again!  Hopefully I'll be able to manage at least a post or 2 a week, but I can't make any guarantees just yet!

Happy almost hump day!  Here's to a speedy rest of the work week friends!!

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!

KA
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!