Five on Friday

Happy Friday!!

5 on Friday is definitely my favorite link up, so I'm glad to back to blogging my Friday 5 & linking up with April & Christina!

Here we go!

1 - I am now the proud owner of this functional beauty...

Longchamp via

Seriously, I love this bag!  I carry all of the things in my bag all the time!  If you opened it right now, you'd find my iPad, a snack bag of Berkley's dog food, a shaker bottle, protein bar and a pair of socks in addition to all the normal stuff, ie my wallet & chapstick!  I'm back & forth to the gym so much, this bag is the perfect size to function as my purse & my catch all bag!!

I love the black & brown, it goes with everything!  A bff of mine & my cousin swear by this bag, so I knew it needed to be my next purse purchase.  I see a long, loving relationship budding between Longchamp & me ;)

2 - I had my first Flywheel experience this past Sunday morning!  My friend Jackie is a Flywheel addict & I was finally able to go with her!  She is also a CrossFit/Weightlifting addict (my kinda gal ;) ) so we left Flywheel & bee-lined it to the gym for 2 hours of weightlifting!  This was my face after....

Legs were complete jello for the rest of the day!  Whoa nelly!  Flywheel was definitely fun & an awesome cardio workout!  I can see myself throwing it in to my workout mix for a little variety (and leg killing) on occasion :)

3 - Speaking of working out....I am in my very first CrossFit competition this weekend!!!  I'm only slightly nervous, anxious, excited & terrified all at once ;)

I'm competing in the SuperFit Games tomorrow(!) at CrossFit Steele Creek!  There are 3 workouts, all partner style, that day!  My partner & I are competing in the scaled division (read - not as hard!) & our team name is the FRANtastics!  Our heat times are 10:43, 1:21, and 4:39.

Brandon & Warren are competing also, in the RX division because they are beasts!  It kind of came about last minute (a week ago!) that I'd be competing!  My partner Meagan is a friend of a friend & when her partner dropped out, our friend thought of me to partner up with her.  So here we are!

Tomorrow's the day!!  It will be a full but very fun & exciting day!!  The top 5 teams from each division (male rx or scaled, female rx or scaled, male/female rx or scaled) will go on to the final WOD & we have high hopes that Brandon & Warren go all the way!

4 - So much in this photo that I'm loving!

I love some sparkle on my nails, that makes any day better!  And how can you not love these cute earrings?! Calorie free cupcakes are the way to go!

5 - Nina's Paleo Pumpkin Spice Granola!

This was my very first attempt at homemade granola & I'm sold!  It was so easy & so delicious! Brandon & I (ok mostly me since B is gone most of the week.  Oops!) have already eaten through an entire batch that I made Sunday night!  It's that good.

I'll be making more very soon & can't wait to share over Thanksgiving & Christmas with our families!  Yum!!

That's all I have for you!  Hope over to April & Christina's blogs to read more 5 on Friday posts!  Happy weekend!  :)

Random Musings for Your Friday

Happy Friday there, friends!!  It's crazy how my alarm isn't as terrible on a Friday morning and how much a tall skinny vanilla latte can perk me up :)

This Friday means I'm down to 14 school days before break!  And counting.  I have A. LOT. of work to complete in those 14 days.  My break will be well earned!!

Last week, the rug for our dining room arrived & our chairs arrived this past Wednesday!!!  Now all I need is our table :)  Here's a little sneak peak....

Oh, so...

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Can you believe it!?  I'm so excited!  I love December!  I hope to see some snow like the above picture at least once this winter, maybe even have a white {after} Christmas when we're in Michigan!

Most of our decor is up & we're starting our Christmas shopping tomorrow!  We have a long list to tackle, so I'm excited to check some things off the list!  Then we're celebrating a friend's birthday out to dinner & taking Christmas card pics on Sunday!

Love, love, love this season!  Merry, jolly, happy holiday season, y'all!!

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 :)

A little Friday love...

Happy Friday y'all!

Good news - you made if through the work week!!

Sad news - by next Friday, I, too, will have also made it through a work week...eeep!  A 2 day work week nonetheless, but my summer will be over and I will have returned to work.  Common Core & Lesson Plans & Scheduling...Oh my!! :)

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Since it's Friday and all good things are summarized in this day of the week as it surely begins the weekend, I thought I'd share just a little of what I'm loving this week...

1. First & foremost I'm loving the feedback I received on my last post.  It's sometimes hard to convey your true tone or the meaning behind any "serious" post per say.  

I, by no means, was digging for pats on the back or props for my job & would never want to minimize anyone else's job!  I certainly could never be a nurse {Change a bedpan or clean up vomit!?  Eww, no thanks!}, salesman {Oh, you're not interested in my product?  Ok, sorry I ever bothered you!}, police officer {Me? Take down criminals weighing in at 285 and 6'3 with my 5'1 self!? Ha}, or many other professions!

But I think y'all really understood my tone and that I just needed to write from my heart on that subject :)  So thanks!

2. I'm loving the clothes I got Wednesday when I did a little back to school shoplifting ;)  

Next Thursday means wearing actual clothes every day again & not lounging in my pajamas until I decide to put my workout clothes on, so I thought a little back to school shopping was in order and Brandon obliged :)  

I stopped by Old Navy & NY&Co {they're having their annual BOGO Pants Sale!} Here a few of the treasures I got...

Yep, these are the same shirt & I got 2 different colors :) 

This tank was 5 bucks!  And I got a new cardi in navy, but couldn't find it online!

3. I'm loving that it's August & that means one thing....FOOTBALL IS BACK!!!  The Panther's have their first pre-season game this Saturday!  Woohoo!!  We're not going, but we are going next Friday night when they play the Dolphins!  I can't wait!!  Are you ready for some football!?!?

New logo!!

4. I'm always loving these 2 stinkers...

....but that goes without saying!

5. I'm loving the summer thunderstorms each night!  It's perfect to relax on the couch with a book & the Olympics playing in the background :)  Although I'm not loving potty training a puppy in the monsoons each night!  Ugh!!

6. I'm really loving my healthy eating habits this week!  Feel like I'm finally back on track from vacations, summer & eating pretty clean again.  My waist line says Amen.

That's all I've got for today, friends!  May your weekend be warm, sunshiny & blessed!

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!

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...

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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!!!

What I'm Loving Wendesday!

I'm linking up with Jamie today for What I'm Loving Wednesday :)

It's been a good week so far and I just love Wednesdays....over the hump & that much closer to my man coming home on Thursday and the weekend just around the corner!

I'm really loving our new pillows!

We picked these up over the weekend at World Market with a gift card we had from Christmas!  We'd been saving that sucker for a sweet purchase for our home and I'm very pleased with what we got!  Love the colors...I want to incorporate the greens, yellows, browns, greys, and blues into whatever chair we eventually get for our living room!

This week I'm also loving Monday!  Ok not really Monday...more like Monday night...

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Monday night is now Bachelorette Monday!  Emily Maynard is this season's bachelorette and it was filmed in my beloved hometown, Charlotte!!  Emily lives here in the Queen City and for the first time the show moved filming for the bachelor/bachelorette.  

My friend Andrea came over & she I watched the first episode while making and enjoying homemade Banana Bread, some spinach artichoke kale dip and salad for dinner!  Yum!!  Girls nights now every Bachelorette Monday!!

After our yardwork this past weekend, I figured out I'm not allergic to poison ivy - and this is fantastic!!!  

A few of the ginormous weeds we pulled out of our flower beds were poison ivy.  I've never had poison ivy so I didn't really even know if I was allergic, but my brother is highly allergic so I was kinda worried.  I wore gloves, but it still touched my arms and my gloves definitely brushed my face a time or two - I was sure I was going to be swollen and itchy almost immediately.  Gladly, there has been so swelling or itching to date.  Phew!!

I've pretty much been a domestic goddess this week - between sweeping and mopping the upstairs & downstairs floors yesterday and today, doing some laundry, unloading the dishwasher, meal planning for the weekend.... yeah I'm awesome!  And exhausted, just call me Cinderella :)  I'm trying a new recipe tomorrow, so if it's a keeper, I'll share soon!

As part of my domestic divaness, I also started taping the kitchen!

Cause we're painting this weekend!!  The winning color is....the second color from the top....

...City Chic!!  It's kind of a grey, mocha, khaki color and I think it will look great with our granite!  I'm super excited to get the painting over with see the finished product!  Pictures to come next week :)

What I'm really loving....my bed and the fact that I'm about to go to sleep :)  Testing at school this week is wearing me out!  Down to 15 days!!!!!

Happy Hump Day y'all!!