Lazy Bones Weekend

The weather was here, wish you were beautiful!

How's the weather in your neck of the woods?  The weather here has been amazing!!  75 degrees & gorgeous today!  B and I both went for a run outside.  Separate of course, because a) he runs way faster than me & b) we fight when we run together.  Sometimes I just need to walk for a second! Those hills!  Ughh!

Haha, we both got home and took little boy for a walk, then B waxed up Rachelle (yes, the truck has a name!) while I got all Paleofied in the kitchen :)

We had breakfast for dinner tonight, B had waffles & I attempted Paleo pancakes for the first time! Mine aren't super pretty, but they were really good!

And easy to make - 1 mashed up banana, 1 egg, a dash of cinnamon & I added blueberries!  I topped with a drizzle of maple syrup & of course some bacon, duh!

While in the kitchen, I made some egg breakfast sandwiches for the week.  They were supposed to look similar to this...

Alas, they do not!  Haha, but I think they'll still be good.  We shall see!

I have a new favorite Paleo site!  It's Cave Girl Dish.  I found it last weekend and I've made 3 recipes already!

Since discovering the site, I've made their Garlic Lime Chicken (I sub onion powder instead of onion cause I don't like it, sans cilantro because I didn't have any, and I left out the veggies - did different sides), SlowCooker Pork Chops, and tomorrow I'm trying out Skillet Taco Pie with Andrea for Bachelor Monday Night!  I also made the Cocoa-Nut Date Balls today!  Brandon has approved of all so far!

We've had a super lazy weekend!!

No real plans, lots of working out, lots of couch and Shameless Season 2!  This show is so twisted, but so good.  It's like a train wreck, you just can't look away!

I've loved this weather so, so much!  I'm so afraid for Tuesday and it's high of 49.  Yuck!  But I guess this is just a taste of spring and what's to look forward to :) 

I'm going to soak up these last minutes of laziness!  How was your weekend?

Midweek Randoms

Can I get an amen for Wednesday night!?  2 days left til the weekend!

So have I showed you this lovely new addition to our foyer?

This piece is from Brandon's mom and we brought it home with us after Christmas!

I mentioned liking this piece to my MIL, I believe, our first married Christmas.  She said she would put our name on it for one day.  When she was visiting in September, she said we needed this piece for this exact spot!  And was she ever right!?

I just love it!  I think it's gorgeous and adds so much character to our foyer!  Thank you Joan for parting with it for us :)

This gorgeous print on top of it was part of my gift from my SIL, Callie, from Naptime Diaries Print Shop.  She had my name in our family drawing this year.  I just love this verse.  What power it speaks!

Today I visited the dentist.  I really love our dentist, she's great, but I really hate how she tells me I have cavities every time I see her!  Ughh.  Maybe my New Year's Resolution needs to be more flossing and swishing?!

Personally, I blame my sweet tooth & that fat girl that lives inside of me that loves chocolate!

Good TV is back!  Sunday is Happy Endings, Monday is The Bachelor & The Biggest Loser, Tuesday is New Girl, Happy Endings (again! Love it!), Private Practice, & Parenthood, Wednesday is Modern Family & Nashville, and Thursday is Grey's Anatomy!

So much good TV and so little time!  Thank heavens for DVR.  See also, I should get a life ;)

Hope your week is stupendous so far!

Weekend Recap!

Welp, even though it was a 3 day week, I sure was happy to see 4pm on Friday roll around!  Love walking out of work on a Friday...feels good!!

Even though I spent a good portion of Friday night doing school work.  Yuck!!  But a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do.  I'd much rather do work on my couch anyways!

That was only after a good workout & then some delish turkey burgers & sweet potato fries cooked by my favorite man.  Yum!  I left the bun off and topped mine with some bacon & avocado to stick to my Paleo ways :)

Saturday was a big day!  We got up early (for a Saturday) and headed to the gym, then it was time to celebrate this cutie's 3rd birthday!

Sadly, we were an hour late to the party because we were REAR ENDED in Brandon's BRAND NEW TRUCK!!!  Unbelievable right!?!?  We'd had it a total of 5 days.  5 days!!  But thankfully, there were only a few scratches on the truck bumper.  Can't say the same for the guy that rear ended us!

We finally made it to the party!  This little guy is always sleeping through the action.  It's tough work being a baby  :)

Roen was there to make sure he didn't need any help!

He got lots of fun new toys, even a remote control Ford Raptor, just like Uncle Brandon's!!  We didn't even get that for him, ha.

They had fun checking out the real thing, too!

We headed home to shower up & head off to the second party of the day - Rob & Gale were having their gender reveal party!!!

They found out the gender Wednesday at lunch after their anatomy scan & had known for 3 whole days!!

It's a....

Girl!!!!

This picture is awesome!!  Rob already knew what was coming out, but by the look on his face you would never know!  Haha, he has said all along he really didn't care, boy or girl, as long as the baby's healthy!  His face is saying "Oh, boy, what are we in for!?" hah!

We're so excited to welcome a new little niece!!  She'll be our 2nd niece out of 6 nieces and nephews, it was about time for another girl!  :)

We picked up some dinner and planted ourselves on the couch for the rest of the evening.  There was nothing on, so B indulged & let me watch Pretty Woman while dog slept in between us.  It was bliss!

We slept in today, boy did we need that!  Then barely finished out a long run.  It was hard today! We ran our normal Sunday errands, I did a little food prep & then more school work.  Womp womp. Now we're relaxing on the couch & watching The Biggest Loser!

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We love Bob & Jillian (and Dolvett now, too)!  I want to be them!  My dream job :)

Happy Sunday evening friends & happy TV watching!

Weekend Recap!

Well friends, as always the weekend flew by and I feel like I need another weekend to recover from my weekend!  If only we could work that out somehow.  

But alas, today was back to work - we have lots of training this week and a different grade level is bringing breakfast each day!  That sure makes coming to work a little easier, knowing a yummy breakfast is waiting, hah, but not so fantastic for the waist line.  Whoops!  Thursday is open house & I get to see all my kiddos, and Friday I'm off to meet B in Michigan for the weekend - should be a good week! :)

But back to my weekend recap...

Friday night we fought off the rain & headed downtown to get our tailgate on!

My partner in crime :)  And a rude photobomber!

Bromance

Andrea, Angela & moi

The men!

A sweet friend from school gave us their tickets for the night and we scalped a few more!  The game was so fun and my Panthers were looking pretty good!!

A little blurry but I love the background!

The night was going perfectly according to plan - rain held off, fun was being had by all, a new Panthers shirt was bought, the Panthers were winning (and won!), and then I had to go and ruin the night by dropping my phone in the toilet!!

Did you get that!?  Yes, I dropped my phone in a dirty pee toilet!!! 

You see....my phone was in my back pocket, I went into the bathroom as we were about to leave the stadium, and as I was sitting, my phone fell out of my back pocket into the toilet.  Unfortunately, I did not see it at that point, and proceeded to pee on my phone!  {Sorry, TMI?!?  Haha}

Then, I stood up to fasten my pants and proceeded to turn & flush the toilet only to realize first, that, oh yes, that is my phone in the toilet & second, the toilet is FLUSHING!!!  Automatic flush!

Thankfully {or maybe not} my phone was too big & didn't flush down the toilet.  So you better believe after it flushed I stuck my hand down in that dirty pee toilet and grabbed my water logged phone!  

I was basically in a state of shock!!  I have a mild {ok, extreme} addiction to my phone and never in my 10 years of owning cell phones have I completely ruined one.

Until Friday night.

Upon getting home, I put my phone in a bag of rice and it stayed there until about 4 pm Saturday.  I tried plugging it into my computer, but nothing would happen!  The apple would pop up, then go away, but even when it popped up it looked...wet.  Haha.

So I spent the weekend phoneless and contemplating my options.

Saturday, we attempted to sleep in and I attempted to pretend my phone wasn't ruined!  We watched a few episodes of Dexter Season 6 (!!!) and finally convinced ourselves to work out.

We had friends over Saturday night to cook out & Berkley got to meet 2 doggy friends, Rookie & Hugo!  I'd love to show you pictures, but I didn't have a phone, so therefore none were taken :(

It was fun to hang out, watch the pups play, and just enjoy each other!!  We have some great friends!

Sunday was a lazy morning with more Dexter & I went to upgrade my phone :/  Thankfully, I was eligible for an upgrade, but I upgraded to the white iPhone 4S (I had the iPhone 4) which wasn't exactly cheap.  

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B was none too thrilled.  Expensive mistake friends!!!  PSA - Ladies, do not keep your phone in your back pocket when going to the restroom!!  Please and thank you!  You're welcome :)

We finished our Sunday off with a long workout, the grocery store, some laundry, and fighting off the Sunday night blues!  

Another work week, but B is home tomorrow night before flying out Wednesday, I have a working phone & a great week ahead...I guess I can't complain!

Happy Monday, y'all!

A Weekend at Home

We had a pretty quiet weekend at home over here - it was very relaxing!

I'm just trying to soak up every free and quiet moment & really enjoy it as my summer is slipping away!!

Saturday we slept in as late as you possibly can with a puppy {so, not very late!} and got in a good workout!  Then B did lots of yard work while I cleaned the house.  

We also had a lawn service come out and evaluate our yard and they should be sending us a quote.  With B traveling as much as he does, he spends a lot of his at home time working in the yard - no fun!!  Plus, fall is approaching which means things like aerating and seeding and fertilizing - so things we know nothing about!  Haha :)

I mean, seriously!  How cute is this guy!?

We spent Saturday night hanging with this guy!  I'm sure his other ear is going to pop any day now, but I'm thinking about taping it down so he keeps one up, one down forever!! ;)

We thought about going to dinner & a movie downtown Saturday night, but we figured that might be a little too long for little guy to be locked up just yet.  Instead B cooked dinner, poured me some wine & we watched episodes of Shameless - our latest series obsession!

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And finally, Dexter Season 6 is available this month!!  Woohoo - we'll be all caught up just in time for Season 7.  We don't watch a lot of TV around here or anything ;)

Sunday, we woke up slow, already looking forward to Lasagna leftovers for dinner {fatties :)} watched some DVRed shows, and finished off the first season of Shameless.  I made some delish Banana Bread & hung my jewelry organizers!  Love, love, love!

B is off for his travels for the week and I'm planning to take full advantage of my last full week of summer!

Happy Monday, friends!

Don't Judge

I've been sitting on my couch for almost the last hour or so watching clips from last night's Oprah's Next Chapter -  The Kardashian Family....

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...while also mildly stalking Sean's (from the Bachelorette) sister's blog thanks to Kate's disclosure of said blog.

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I think it's safe to say I'm team Sean!  But I cannot lie, I also like Arie (the race car driver) and Doug (the guy with the 11 year old).

Please don't judge my shallow Monday afternoon reality TV binge that will continue straight into my Bachelorette Monday Night :)

Updates

I'm back from Wedding Weekend & I'm not dead - just don't have time for 

a full recap post today :)  So here are a few updates in bullet form!

• Speaking of Wedding Weekend, we survived!!!  It was an absolute blast & we had so much fun with family & friends!  Erin & Ryan are off to Mexico - so jealous.  I'm looking forward to doing a full recap!

• I think our flea problem is finally under control!  After a second bath...

...and a treatment of Frontline (apparently we bought the wrong kind at first) 

we're seeing little to no flea dirt on him/in our house and have found about 3 

dead fleas on the floor.  We're on the mend!

• Tonight is Monday night and you know what that means - Bachelorette Monday Night!!  

• B's actually home tonight, a rarity.  He leaves tomorrow until Saturday for his work review.  He said he didn't mind if the girls still come over, though, for our Bachelorette viewing pleasure.  

• I'm making him a yummy send off dinner before hand and as a thank you :) 

• I have 2 more teacher workdays, y'all - 2!!

• And I already have my first lunch date of the summer :)  Thursday, you'll find me, Ashley, & Rachel enjoying one another's company and maybe a fun mocktail or two!!

Wedding recap later this week!  Happy Monday friends!

I like it hot!

My food that is!  What were you thinking? ;)

I used to be super picky!  Like way, super picky.  Just ask my momma...she'd let me eat bowl after bowl of cereal for 2 or so meals a day sometimes so I'd actually eat!  And it wasn't for her lack of trying, I was just stubborn and picky.  

And I'm still kinda picky...but I've come a long, long way!!  I've branched way out in my older age and now I have quite a taste for all things spicy & hot ;)

Last week during my meal planning and domestic goddess-ness, I ran across this recipe on Pinterest.

Yum!! via A Small Snippet Blog

Now, Brandon & I love some Thai food - and the spicier the better!  Our favorite local Thai place is Basil (which I've mentioned before), but every attempt I've ever made to make good Thai for us at home has failed miserably.  Until now!

This recipe was banging, y'all!!  I do not tell a lie!  This blog recommends serving it cold - but I served it hot & added chicken since my man likes some protein with his dinner!  But I made it again last night for Bachelorette Monday Night for Andrea & Emily - since Emily's a vegetarian, I left the meat out.  Still so good!!

There were leftovers from last night, too, so I'm excited to try it cold!

Below is the recipe card from the blog, of which I will soon be printing out to add to my recipe stash!

Just fyi - the recipe card doesn't mention the carrots so I accidentally left those out the first time I made it, and I didn't have any cilantro the first time either.

So for realz...go get these ingredients and make this recipe asap!

Also, if you have any ripe banana's laying around, Emily brought some "Healthy Chocolate Chunk Cookies" with no sugar or egg to our Bachelorette Monday Night & since they were healthy, we all ate 3 :)

via Kitchen Karate Blog

These were delish and so, so good, I'll be making these soon!

Happy spicy, sweet & "healthy" eating, 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!!

Yardwork Weekend

Well, our weekend was rather busy, but I can proudly say our front yard is well on it's way to looking about 10x better!!

Friday night after our workouts, B stopped by Lowe's to pick up our chore for the weekend.

And this was just the first load!  Hah, but Friday night was for relaxing!  I tried out a new recipe that night that 2 blog friends (Classic Annie & Dee's Adventures) had raved about: Skinny Taste's Cheesy Jalapeño Popper Baked Stuffed Chicken.  If 2 blog posts about this dish didn't convince you to try it, maybe a 3rd one will!  It was definitely a big hit in our house!!

I won't lie to ya....it was not an easy-quick-throw-together meal - it took some work!  But it was delish & I'll definitely make it again!  I made it with another Skinny Taste Recipe - Skinny Cilantro Lime Rice.  One of my fav recipes form this site!  This time I mixed in some corn & black beans with the rice - yum!

The rest of the night we hung out with our boys and watched some Dexter!  Yes I said boys...

We're keeping my bro & SIL's dog, Huckleberry, for the weekend while they're away camping at the beach!  Benson's not so sure about him - he's gotten closer and closer over the weekend.  But for the most part he watches him like a hawk & just meows these funny meows at him!!  Ha, but we like Huckleberry :)  He's so sweet & well behaved!

Saturday was D day.  We woke up and got our workout on, and then finally after lunch it was time to get to work!!  Here are some before pics...

Holy weeds right!?!?  I love the beds and the way they look, but good gracious, they had been left untended just a little too long.

We had high hopes to complete the front and back yard, but we were naive!  Ha, yard work is killer and not for the faint of heart!  By about quarter to 5 Saturday, we called it quits. Our backs were breaking, all the pine needles we had had been spread, our fingers were tender from weed pickin' - we were donezo!  And it was date night :)

OOTN

We went to dinner & a movie and in between, this happened...

Frozen vanilla yogurt with Reece's Peanut Butter Cup in a White Chocolate Dipped
Sprinkle Rolled Cone

Heaven.

We earned it after all that yard work! :)  We saw the Avenger's and it was really good and actually pretty funny!  Robert Downy Jr's Iron Man is my favorite character.

Today, we were determined to finish weeding and Brandon bought 12 more bails of pine straw.  We finished weeding all the beds in the front, but haven't even touched the back. And our 12 more bails weren't quite enough either.  But here are some after pics of what is fully pine strawed up...

So much better right!?!  I'll post the after pics of the front yard beds next weekend after they're fully covered.  I have to say though, we feel pretty darn accomplished!  A neighbor stopped by to say the yard looks the best it's ever looked!!  He saw us working both days and said we were doing a fantastic job :)  Feels good!

We somehow managed a run today after all of that, & also got caught in the rain.  That always makes for a good time!  Other than that, we've been lazy today!  Just a little laundry & the grocery store and a lotta couch and TV.

Hope y'all had a good weekend & mother's day!  Sadly, we couldn't be with either of our Mothers today :( but we're sure thankful for them!!  Without them, we would surely be nothing!!!  So thank you Mom & Joan (MIL) - love you both tons!!

I'm down to 18 days of school left...just in case you were wondering :)  I think I can...

Spartan Race Weekend

Our Friday & Saturday this weekend were pretty low key....all building up for the big Spartan Race on Sunday!!  But more on that in a bit....

Per usual, Friday and Saturday involved a lot of couch and a lot of Dexter :)  Just the way we like it!  I also threw in a haircut Saturday afternoon and then we visited furniture row here in Charlotte and browsed about 14, ok I exaggerate, 12 (seriously, it was a lot!) furniture stores.  Just some perusing & getting ideas... no purchases just yet!

Saturday evening there were some crazy storms all over NC.  I was washing dishes, mid sentence talking to B, no lie, and happened to look out our window to see this....

Gorgeous, right!?

Well, if you're local, you may have seen this photo circulating around Facebook & the news lately and it is nothing short of amazing and absolutely puts my shot to shame, ha!!

How amazing is the photo!?!?

A local photographer, Chris Austin, captured the photo and the local news covered it here. I've already inquired and submitted a request to purchase a copy of the photo!  How amazing would this print look hanging on a wall in our new house!?  I just love it!!  Photo of a lifetime!

The storm blew over and before we knew it, it was race morning!  Brandon was so excited he could hardly sleep and ended up leaving his change of clothes, towel, and signed waivers!!  My competitive man :)  Whoops!  Even after turning around, we made it to the Whitewater Center around 915 & met my bro and SILs and the guys got numbered up.

My brother Josh, Brandon, my other brother Rob, & Josh's neighbor Ben
The Before!

Almost Race Time!

Still Clean & headed to the starting line :)

B's ready!!

3...2...

After the start, the men were lost in the woods and we didn't see them for over an hour! This race is no joke, y'all!!  We headed out to find the best spot to watch them and we parked over by this hill they would run up towards the end.  Once up this hill, we would get to see them in about 6 or 8 different obstacles and finish out the race!

Roen & Jude cheering everyone on!!

The kids loved cheering everyone on!!  They would yell "Good job!  You're almost up the hill! G-O, let's go!"  Haha, it definitely added some smiles to some weary faces coming up that hill!

Wells yelling "Good job!"

At the top of the hill, there was a wall they had to scale...and falling off meant 30 burpees!!  (If you don't know the h*ll that is burpees, google it!)

Scaling

Unfortunately, he fell off, so burpees it was!!

Next, was the 200 meter row!

And then the javelin throw - if you don't make it in - burpees again!  Luckily B made it!

After the javelin throw, they had to crawl across a rope bridge over the rapids up and down another crazy hill to the last few obstacles!  Almost there!!

Climbing up the slippery wall!

Then over the fire pit (not pictured)...

...and to battle the jousters and swim to the finish!!!  (not pictured)

B's official finish time was 1 hour 16 mins and some seconds!!  I have to brag on Brandon for a second....he got 80th overall out of 1600 people on Sunday!!  And 22nd in his age group for Sunday!  That's right, my hubs is a beast ;)  So proud of him!!

Josh making it up the hill!!

Rob battling up!

Slow & steady makes it across!

Rob rowin' it up!

No javelin success for either bro :( 30 burpees!!

Finally met up with my spartan!!!

Congratulating Josh on his big finish!!

And congratulating Rob!!

Woohoo!!  Spartan Finishers!!!  Such strong men!

So proud of my brothers & husband!

It was such a fun day at the Whitewater Center!!  I was pooped just from watching them, and all I did was stand around, haha!  They're apparently crazy, because they're each signing up again for next year!  And apparently I've lost my marbles as well, because tonight, I let B sign me up!!  Gulp.  So my year of training begins soon :)

Hope y'all had a fantastic weekend & Monday!  Here's to a short work week!!