Musings of the Week

Happy Friday, y'all!!  We made it to another weekend, bless it.  Grab a refreshing drink and hold on for the ride....here are some of the highlights of my week and other rando streams of thought....

1. Apparently this week was National Teacher Appreciation Week (although my school celebrated last week?) and my friend and former fellow teacher, Ashley, sent me this!

Amen!

Bahahaha...I really wanted to upload it to Facebook (a friend tagged me in it!) but decided I shouldn't.  And that I would just post it on my blog instead.  Ha!  This is funny stuff and so true!

2 - This picture also made me smile this week...

You can't see it, but my hand is raised also!

Don't get me wrong, I definitely have thoughts and feelings on this topic and definitely have serious concerns about the size of our government and/or their designation of rights or lack there of...but WOW!  I mean Facebook & Twitter have been blown up with everyone and their mom's opinions (and their brother's and grandpa's...ok you get the idea) and it's all just a little overwhelming.

All I know is I may not know what tomorrow holds, but I know the One who holds tomorrow and I really liked these words from Antoine de Saint-Exupery

"As for your future, your task is not to foresee it, but to enable it."

So onto far less controversial topics.... ;)

3 - I cut these beauties from our yard this week!  Gorgeous right?!

I love hydrangeas!  One of my favorite flowers for sure.  Sadly, I had to move them to the mantle, I heard they're poisonous to cats/dogs fyi.  But they still look pretty from there :)

Looking at them gives me hope, that although I had nothing to do with the growth of this fantastic plant, I can have the desire and will to grow other such beautiful plant life in my yard!  So here's to hoping!

4 - Benson is probably the coolest cat ever and cracks me up.  He finds the oddest "comfy" spots to hang out...this is now where he hangs while I get ready in the am :)

5 - I'm obsessed with my new breakfast of champions!

I've been making enough breakfast sandwiches for the week the past 2 Sundays and they're delish!  I love eating one every morning!  I would also love a skinny vanilla latte every morning, but alas my wallet and my waistline probably wouldn't.  So I only visit the mermaid once or twice a week!

6 - I also have a new fav snack I thought I'd share {thanks to Dr. Oz and my friend Andrea who actually watched Dr. Oz and told me about this snack}....

Slice your apple, throw it in a bag, add a few splashes of lemon juice and cinnamon to taste, shake and bake (ok I got carried away, don't actually bake!) and eat!  Delish!!  It's like healthy happy pie.  You're welcome!

7 - Have you seen the iPhone commercials with Zooey Deschanel or Samuel Jackson?  They're all having a conversation with Siri and she's taking care of their every request.  Ugh...makes me want a Siri real bad!  But I'll just hold out for the iPhone 5 - whenever that may come out!

8 - I've really been trying to go to bed earlier.  I'm one of those people that requires a lot of sleep and I stay up wayyy to late for someone who wakes up at 545 daily.  3 out of 4 nights this week I've been in bed before 11!  That is a feat for me, y'all!  And I like it.  I'm gonna try to keep this up.

9 - I'm so stinkin' excited it's Friday!!  I'm trying a new recipe tonight, we're going to work in the yard tomorrow and reward our hard work with a date night!

10 - Hope your weekend is shaping up to be just as fantastic!!

Aloha Lake Weekend

This past weekend, we were Virginia bound for a Wedding Luau for my cousin Erin & her fiancé Ryan!  I left as soon as the kids did Friday, our friend Andrea dropped off her cat with Bencakes for the weekend, and all 3 of us were off!

The traffic was minimal & after a stop at Sheetz (our first experience!) and a few radio jam sessions later, we were there!  My aunt greeted us with a cold refreshing Mich Ultra - the perfect welcome to the lake!  Yum!

We had a few drinks & then all went out on my aunt & uncle's friends' pontoon boat.  Good times ensued, including, but not limited to - a short downpour, running out of gas, paddling back to the dock, refueling, backflips into the lake, mucho laughter & grande fun :)

My aunt & uncle's lake house is probably one of my favorite places in the world & Friday night is exactly why!!  Of course I didn't take a single pic - too much fun was being had :)

Life doesn't get any better than this.

Saturday morning started with Snoopy & some Joe and then we all headed down to the lake!

The weather cooperated til about lunch time, but a little clouds didn't keep us inside.  We still hung out at the dock & got a boat ride in.

Floatin'

Drea & I

B & J tubing :)

Once we came in from the water, we visited my with my grandmother for a bit and then it was time to get luau ready!  The Luau was held at my aunt & uncle's friends Kristin & Alan's house.  They have an amazing water front all beached out and they had a fantastic luau set up!!

Richard & B luau ready!

My girlies at the Luau - Me, Kelsey, & Andrea

Me & my man!  Love this pic :)

Bros - Justin, Ryan & Brandon

Me, Andrea, & JM 

Andrea & Justin

A blurry pic of some of the group.  Had to include it, it's the only one I have with the
bride & groom! 

I was terrible about taking pics - didn't get one of my bro & SIL either!  Ughh

The weather hadn't cooperated most of the day & unfortunately, that rang true for party time as well :(  Just after we dug into the delish BBQ spread they had and stuffed out faces, the bottom fell out!  We all huddled in tents, ate dessert, complained about the rain, debated on calling it a night - and then the rain let up!!

And the dance party began.... :)

The Electric Slide Maybe?  Pardon the quality, but these are some of the best pics
all night!!

The Macarena!

We didn't let the rain ruin our fun...but we did call it a night shortly after the dance party ended!  We woke up, hung out a bit and then got back on the road to the QC.  The going home is never as much fun!

Sunday afternoon consisted of some cleaning for me and B mowed the yard.  Let me just say, this is the first time I've cleaned the house top to bottom and oh my sweet heavens - it is a task!!  Took me a good 2 hours to sweep, mop, and clean 2 bathrooms.  Whoa!  But all totally worth it - it's our house after all :)

We made a grocery run and then finally parked ourselves on the couch for some Dexter.  And before you know it, it was Monday!  

Man these weekends, they fly by I tell ya!!  

We're counting down the days to this coming weekend....we'll be home - B's super excited about this as in the 3 weeks we've lived here, he's only actually slept here for 8 nights!! - I see some Lowe's trips and some yard work in our plans this weekend....and I'm really looking forward to it!  I might just be growing a green thumb, but let's not speak too soon just yet ;)

Be blessed, y'all!

Case of the Mondays

Tonight I had big plans of blogging and recapping our weekend....but then a big ol' case of the Mondays set in!  YUCK!

After a late day at school, setting off our alarm when leaving for a run, running back to check everything out and reset our alarm, running and attempting a P90 video....it was almost 745 and I was done.

So to remedy my case of the Mondays, naturally I....

...ate some sushi for dinner....and then had 2 bites of a cupcake before throwing the leftover ones in the trash (temptation get behind me!)....

...painted my nails a girly shade of pink....

and relaxed on the couch to catch up on some Private Practice in my DVR!

Hopefully, I'll be back tomorrow with a recap of our weekend at the lake!  But for now, I relax :)  Here's to a speedy work week friends!

Whoops...

So last night, I had my first house blunder.  After my workout, I planned to tackle a few tasks around the house including taking two rubbermaid Christmas containers from the garage to the bonus room attic space.  One was rather heavy, so a nice little real world task to top off my workout, right!?

I went out to the garage to get the containers and didn't want Benson running out to hide under my car...so I closed the door behind me.

Bad.  Bad, bad, bad!!  Brandon and I have already had the conversation about the lock on our garage door.  It's just a twist lock, not a deadbolt.  If it happened to be twisted locked and you didn't know or had forgotten and were to walk out and shut the garage door behind you....well, you'd be locked out!!!

So when I closed the door behind me, I was locked out!!!!

I no sooner took a step before realizing the huge blunder I just committed.  {Begin the freaking out and small panic attack.}

Oh holy crap I'm locked out!  Oh, no, no, no, no, I did not just do this!!  Ohhh my gosh... {cue inappropriate words that I shall not type out & the tears!}

My keys, my phone, my car keys, my life... {overreact much!?} all locked inside.  What in the world am I going to do!?  I can't call anyone, drive anywhere..... {more bad words} ....I could walk to my friend Sharon's, but they'll surely thing I'm a moron.  Ok, I'm not walking to Sharon's.

In a moment of clarity I remembered I hadn't locked my car door - yes, I have old manual locks :) - so surely there was something in there I could use to break into my own house! Ah-ha!  An old, empty Starbucks gift card.  People use credit cards to break into doors all the time in the movies...

I can do this!!

Ok, I'll slide it in here and... Ughh, I can't do this, ahhhh why isn't it working?!?!  Ok, here's a paint can opener...can I wedge this in the...ok nope.

Cue even more bad words - it was plain naughty - oh, and more tears!

Ok, I could go ask the neighbors if they have a key to my house.  You know, neighbors share keys and things so the old owners might have shared a key.  But then, the neighbors might think who's this little brunette with red eyes who owns a house!?  Clearly she shouldn't be a home owner!!  Ok scratch that.

Let's try this gift card again - which now has bent edges - maybe I can just jam it....or ok, no, let's try this paint can opener again.... {beep!@%$^&(@*$&*#@}

Well, I guess I'm walking to Sharon's.

I high tailed it to my friend Sharon's house - she's the speech pathologist at my school and has become a sweet friend and thankfully lives probably less than a mile away!  I could have tracked the distance if I had had my phone!!

I was walking up to Sharon's house when her son pulled into the driveway.  Sharon, nor her boyfriend Yani were home at the time, so thank the heavens and all that is good in the world that Scott pulled up when he did.  It was getting dark out, so here I was, in my sweaty gym clothes, tear stained cheeks, calling out "Scott?" from the street.

Oh good gracious, as I recount it, it's all kind of funny!  But it wasn't funny.  Not then!

Anyways, I told Scott my house fail - and tried not to cry in front of him - and he told me to hop on his white horse in his truck and he'd help me break in!

So of course, we pull in, he chooses his credit card of choice and 4.7 seconds later....wa-bam!!  My door is open and we have successfully broken into my house!  I promptly texted Sharon and told her her son was my hero and then called and cried to Brandon about how stupid I felt.  :)

Clearly, it could have been a lot worse....I could have been naked or in a towel or I could have locked a baby inside (a baby that I don't have, but you see what I mean!) or locked Benson & I out.  Phew!!  I really dodged a bullet & didn't even have to pay for a locksmith!

Which, could actually be concerning.  Apparently anyone, but myself, can break into my house!  Fantastic.  Thank you Lord we have an ADT System!  Looks like I need to invest in a hide-a-key as well.

Whoops!!

First Weekend as a Homeowner

We christened out first weekend as homeowners with 2 different trips....

to Lowe's!! :)

The first of many trips I'm sure!  Friday night after our workout, we drove just over the border into SC & picked up a whole lotta things!  A rake, inside broom, outside broom, ladder, paint supplies, floor cleaner, and too much to even recall.  The good news - it was all FREE!!

The downside of B's job is the crazy amount of traveling he does...but that traveling provides us a lot of perks truthfully.  He stays in hotels typically 3 nights a week & those stays = mad hotel points!!  So last weekend, B traded a hefty amount of points for 2 $200 Lowe's gift cards!  How fantastic is that!?!

So every Lowe's purchase we've made thus far, has been F, R, double E!  Including this...

Our new rug!

Whatcha think??  I love the pattern, I'm just wondering if it's too small for the space.  It's a 5'x7'.  Our friends who came over Saturday seemed to like it and think it was a good size, especially whenever we get a chair for that corner.  So for now I'll definitely leave it, but what is your opinion?

Saturday we slept in a bit and then got our workout on!  I ran a bit at the gym, then ran home (about a mile) to do my P90 video while B finished his workout at the gym.  We originally thought it would be a pool day, but the weather changed a bit and was slightly chilly & overcast - so we did some house things & ran a bunch of errands.

I made a target run while B mowed {why can't everything from Target be free!?  Ughh...that place gets so much of my money!!} and then we dropped off our keys to our apartment so now it's really, really official, we're all moved out!  We also picked up my car from getting an oil change & 2 new tires - spending more money.  Yuck!

Friday night I made Lemon Drop Cupcakes, so I finally got around to frosting them after all our errands Saturday.  

Yum!!  They are SO good!  Unfortunately, not so good for you, so please, someone - come eat the leftovers!!

Saturday night we had a few friends over to grill & hang out.  It was, as always, a good time and we, of course, love having every one see the house!  :)

Sunday we slept in a good bit - so needed!  I made Carolina Charm's Breakfast Sandwiches and we watched a little Dexter (Shocking end to season 4 btw!!! Whoa!) before attempting to lay out on our patio.  B made me a shirley temple and I read some magazines...but it was just so dang hot!  And no pool to jump in, ha.

B and I set out for a run in our new 'hood and found a nice 3 mile loop.  When I'm feeling brave, I'll definitely attempt that loop twice to get a good 6 miles in!  Maybe this week...

Then we headed back to good ol' SC for our 2nd Lowe's trip of the weekend!  I got some gloves so I can weed our flower beds (yay! Insert sarcasm), a hose, some car wash supplies, and some paint samples!!

So these are the options for the kitchen...

The lighting in these pics isn't the greatest so bare with me...but the top is a gray, 2nd is a mocha brownish, 3rd down is called universal khaki - kinda brown, kinda gray and the color in our downstairs bath, and the bottom one is too light so don't look at it!

What's your pick??  Tell me yours & I'll tell you mine ;)

The rest of our Sunday was lazy, just the way we like it!  And today was back to the work week...bleh.  But the good new friends, we're already a day down!!

Happy almost Tuesday, y'all!

Midweek Randos

I can't begin to tell you what a relief it is to have the thought and anticipation of moving lifted off our shoulders!!  I feel about 12 pounds lighter {ok, not really, but that would be fantastic!}  No, but seriously, big sighs of relief over here!

While we're super happy to be moved in, this guy is still a little unsure....

I think he still feels like he's a city kitty & just isn't used to the 'burbs quite yet!

All these neighborhood sounds and the big space of this house - as opposed to the old apartment - are just a little daunting for this little scaredy cat!  He'll come around I'm sure!

Now that we have a fenced in back yard, I think Benson might feel a little more safe in the 'burbs if he had a companion!  Or I'm just looking for a reason for us to get a puppy ;)

Problem is - we really have no clue what kind of dog we want.  All we really know is not too big, not too small, friendly.  Help!!  What kind of dog should we get??

Hopefully we'll get a pup sometime this summer!

And the summer countdown is in full effect, y'all...30 days!!!  Pure survival mode from here on out.  Kids are antsy, teachers are antsy, testing season is coming & summer's knocking at the door.  30.

The first book I plan to read this summer - 50 Shades of Grey!  I've read the reviews & I just need to check it out for myself :)  Judge away!

Yesterday I took out our trash bin & recycling bin.  Most mundane of tasks to most.  Not for me!!  It was really, super, exciting to take out our trash & recycling bins!  For the house that we own.  Craziness!

Don't mind me, I'm just living in a constant state of disbelief over here :)

Happy hump day, y'all!

Moving Weekend!

** I feel like all my blog posts lately have been rather long winded recaps of major events in my life!  Hah, so please excuse the length of another long reap post....I think my life is slowly returning to a normal pace :) **

All last week, I was waiting, waiting, waiting for the weekend to arrive!  I guess this isn't too different form normal (ha!), but this weekend was moving weekend & B and I could hardly contain our excitement to finally, freaking move ALREADY!!!  We could barely concentrate all week!

B got back into town Thursday and that night, we got to packing!  We were very successful & got a lot done.  We packed his car full, then met at the apartment after work Friday, packed my car full & took it all to the new house!

We unpacked, grabbed a quick dinner & then went to make a purchase B has been SO looking forward to... a new TV!!  60 inches baby!  Oh, my man is so happy!  And the picture is pretty dang amazing, I can't lie.

We made one last trip to the apartment Friday night for a 2nd round of moving things & picked up BenCat.  We slept on the air mattress Friday night in our new bedroom....even though we woke up partially on the floor {we apparently have a slow leak} it was still fun to wake up in OUR HOUSE!

Saturday was for real, moving day.  We picked up the Uhaul & my dad, brothers & uncle met us to help us load up! It went surprisingly fast - even with a trip to go pick up our new couch from the distribution center.  We were at the house UNloading before 11am!

In the midst of moving...sadly I did not take a single photo :(  I fully regret it, but I was just trying to get through it - the type A control freak in me really comes out at times like these ;)

The rest of the day was spent unpacking, arranging, putting together, setting up, etc.  Oh my good gracious, I was tired!  All of our fam came over in the midst of the chaos-that-was-moving for lunch and my mom stayed to help with all the unpacking, arranging, putting together & setting up!  Thank you, thank you mama!!!

Then, my sweet mom, grandmother & aunt took me to Target for a few little house warming gifts :)  We got new bath mats & a hamper!   A new homeowner's dream ;)

Our friends Justin & Andrea helped us break in the house with a little grilling & family style dinner.  We had a few drinks and just relaxed in front of the new TV - it was a perfect Saturday night! (and I was asleep before 10! ha)

The boys, all matchy, matchy before dinner :)

Sunday, we slept in a bit and relaxed that morning before unpacking a bit more, hanging some things on the walls and settling just a little more.  We managed to squeeze in a run, lots of errands, some Dexter, and I put together our 2 new side tables!!  That's right, just call me Bob...the builder.  Obvi.

It was super rainy Sunday & our new lawn was looking rather jungle-esk.  In hopes of not getting kicked out of the neighborhood after only being moved in a day, B managed to cut the damp, front yard during a short break from the drizzle.  The back yard is still jungle-esk, but Lord knows I'm not cutting it I don't know how to cut it...I'd probably lose a limb!

B & his new toy :)

Well without further adieu....here are some pics of the new house!!!  B took them last night & uploaded them to Facebook...so if you're my FB friend, you've probably seen all these.  I just picked a few of my favs...and I left out the rooms that are empty - ha, we'll fill those eventually!

The kitchen!

One of my favorite spaces!!  The eat in area is to the right which houses our kitchen table.  Red is not my fav color for walls - I love it as an accent color! - but it's gotta go.  We'll be picking a paint color soon and probably paint it one weekend in May!  Our first project :)

The family room - right off the kitchen!

I love this room.  B really wanted his new TV, we both really wanted a new sectional couch, & I really wanted new side tables :)  So we compromised and got it all!  Ha

TV - Sharp Aquos

Couch - Overstock.com

Side Tables - Ikea

The office

One thing we loved about this house is it had a living room space we could use as an office for B without having to sacrifice a bedroom.  No one ever uses a living room anyway!  Ha, or at least we figured we wouldn't.  Clearly we need a bigger desk and some rugs for all these hardwoods would be great!!  Ha, again...eventually!

Our Master Bedroom!
I did not take this pic....I would've made sure the sheet was tucked in ;)

Our master bedroom - my favorite part is probably the amazeball fan!!  And the master closet (a total work in progress - but huge!).  And the master bath.  Ok I love everything about the master bedroom :)  We just need the mirror & dresser that matches our bedroom suit.  One day!

The Bonus Room!  Please do excuse the large piece of glass still wrapped from moving on the floor, ha.

I love, love the bonus room!  The built ins are fantastic, as are the hardwoods!  A great hang out spot & my new workout room :)  that also needs a rug!

So that's the pad, friends.  Clearly, you can see that we have quite the Type A tendencies - as I mentioned - as everything is pretty much unpacked and quite settled!  We feel very accomplished....I just couldn't go to work this week with chaos at home!

It's an amazing feeling to have a HOUSE to call our own!  I don't think the newness of this feeling will be wearing off any time soon :)