Five on Friday

Happy Friday friends!!  Time for my favorite link up :)

Let's go….

1 - I came out of the shower the other night to this scene!  Haha, cracked me up!  He must have had some important emails to send with a quick little bone break in between!

2 - We've been using our old comforter for a few weeks now, as you can see above, since our sweet little cat decided to barf all over our white comforter!!  Lovely, right!?  Thankfully, we have an awesome member at out gym who happens to own a dry cleaner in Pineville.  He had me bring it by to work his magic & we've yet to put it back on yet since the white dog pictured above needs a serious bath!  B just doesn't understand my need for a white comforter, but I love the way it looks!

Clean, open, airy.  It just has to be white!

3 - Have you heard of Fabletics??  A friend just recently turned me onto them…they're an athletic wear company developed in part by Kate Hudson & you can get 2 & 3 piece outfits starting at $49.99!  That alone sounds like a steal, but the real kicker is your 1st purchase is 50% off!!  So a 3 piece outfit - bottoms, sports bra & a top is - just $25!  That's pretty much a steal!  Oh so much cheaper than my beloved lulu lemon! 

 

I think this might be my birthday present to myself!  Cute right?  If you want to sign up, go here.  {FYI I'm not getting paid or sponsored for this, that would be sweet, though!  I just live in athletic wear & am always looking for a deal!}

4 - The weather here this weekend is looking glorious!!!  I'm so excited for these warmer temps, I can't wait to be outside some - throwing the ball with Berkley, cleaning the cars with B, enjoying a drink on the patio - yes, please!

5 - I saved the very best for last….Brandon & I are terrible at gift giving!  I mean, we give pretty great gifts, we just have a hard time waiting for the occasion to give the gift!  My birthday is next Sunday & B decided he needed to show me my gift last night!  This is what he showed me…

We're going to Puerto Rico!!!!  Talk about best birthday present ever!!  He needed to make sure we didn't have anything going on the weekend he picked out for us to go, so he needed to go ahead & tell me so we could book our flights!  We fly out April 10th & come back the 13th and I'm already counting down the days - 48 days!!

We have been longing for a tropical vacation so this couldn't come at a more perfect time!  We'll only be gone 3 nights, but I think it's just what we need.  And Puerto Rico has a special place in our hearts, it's where we got engaged almost 4 years ago!  I'm so, so excited!!!!  Happy Birthday to me, right!?

Happy weekend, y'all!

Our 3rd Year in Pictures

Today is Brandon & I's 3 year anniversary!!  3 years!  It feels like yesterday and forever ago at the same time!

B's somewhere in the middle of Pennsylvania tonight, traveling, supporting our little family while we grow & develop our dream job here at home.  I'm so excited to celebrate with him this weekend! We have a fun Saturday planned!

I love going back & reliving our anniversaries, but my favorite is rereading each year in pictures!  Our 1st year is here (2011) and our 2nd year is here (2012).  So in keeping with my tradition…

Our 3rd Year in Pictures

December 2012
Our photo booth pics from B's work Christmas Party

January 2013
New Year's Day (barely) on the way home from the party - welcome to 2013!

February 2013
Little date night at the wing spot up the street ;)  Love to be silly with him!

March 2013
Spartan Sprint Finishers!!

April 2013
At our favorite spot in our favorite place - Lost Dog Cafe in Folly Beach :)

May 2013
Date Night on the patio at one of our fav spots in Ballantyne

June 2013
Goofy car pics are our speciality :)  B taking me on a date to the mall!

July 2013
Happy 4th!  Celebrating at our friends' awesome party!

August 2013
In the Mitten at the Double J Ranch getting ready
for a Rodeo  - we're so good at those silly faces!

September 2013
Back to our happy place, Charleston, for some wonderful friends' wedding

October 2013
Oktoberfest!  So much delicious pumpkin beer :)

November 2013
My very 1st CrossFit competition with my boo!

I'm blessed beyond measure to do life next to this guy!  Every year with him just gets better & better. He's the constant in my life, my encourager, my biggest fan, my rock.  I love you, Brandon!  Here's to year 4 & many, many more!

I'm baaaack!

Why hello there little blogosphere!  It's been a while a little over 3 months!  Whoops.  I sort of fell off the face of the {blog} earth!  Obviously, you all noticed!  I mean how did you survive without me!?

I didn't exactly mean to drop off the {blog} planet, but it just kind of happened.  I was kind of stuck in this rut back in July, if you recall.  I tried to keep on blogging, but the rut won.  Rut - 1, Michelle - 0.

I still don't really know why I backed away so suddenly.  I sort of felt fake this summer in my blogging life.  I don't know why....I've never been fake on this blog or tried to convey a picture that doesn't really exist of my life.

It kind of just felt like I was blogging to put on this pretty show, to keep up with this chore.  Looming over my head...but I had a lot going on and I just didn't want to, to be really honest!  I couldn't keep up with my blog...it felt like work.  So I needed a break.

I wanted to be in my life, be intentional.  And that meant letting go of the blog, and of twitter, and Pinterest for a while.  So I let go!

I kept reading all of your blogs!  I still love keeping up with everyone's lives, but I think I just needed time away to miss my blog.  And, finally, after 3 months....I miss it!  I miss recapping our weekends, funny stories, sharing pictures, & recipes.  All the good ol' boring stuff!  So I'm going to give this another chance & hopefully keep this journal going.

I'm baaaaack!!  And just know that's a very loose term ;)  I may only still post once or twice a week or not a all a week here and there, but, I want to be back!  So here goes....

3 months in a nutshell!

End of July/August

I ran the Electric Run with some friends, we continued to enjoy drinks in our driveway (because we're classy!), worked out (a lot. duh!) at the box, & traveled to the Mitten for B's work summer party - we got to see our cutie nephew Weston oh so briefly, step our feet into chilly Lake Michigan & enjoy a rodeo!

September

We enjoyed double dates with great friends, celebrated Labor Day, threw an awesome Mustache Bash for Brandon & Warren's 30th Birthdays, and celebrated our friends' Greg & Ashley's wedding in the beautiful city of Charleston with good friends :)  It was such a great weekend away!

September/October

We celebrated multiple Oktoberfests, got new tattoos, celebrated lots of October birthdays with sweet family in town, killed some more workouts & got some sweet new Reebok CrossFit gear - it was like Christmas in October!

More October & early November

We bought a gorgeous new chair for our living room (which I feel is finally complete!), drank lots of Cottonwood Pumpkin Ale (our new fav!!!), snuggled our cute Halloween pup, & enjoyed a wonderful weekend away in the Mountains with awesome friends!

It's been a great & busy couple of months!  I'm already feeling so mushy & thankful approaching this Holiday season....busy or not, there's always so much to be thankful for & I love documenting it all here!  I'll try to fill in the gaps here & there on these last months when I can & I'm going to be more intentional about blogging.

So if you're all still out there, still reading, thanks!  It's good to be back!

Charleston For the Win

Welp, sadly, all good things must come to an end and I guess Spring Break 2013 is no different. SB '13 has now come and gone, although I'm still romanticizing our brief love affair in my heart.  I'm going to keep the love affair going a little longer and recap the end of the week and our trip to Charleston!

Friday morning we were off to Charleston, SC for the Cooper River Bridge Run!!

We dropped Berkley dog off to be boarded for the first time...

We sure missed this cuteness, I mean how could you not!?!

But a mimosa at Southend Brewery upon arrival really made up for it :)

We picked up our race packets at the super crowded expo, checked into our hotel & then waited on our friends to arrive!

Lisa & I - my twin!

The weather was awesome so we headed to the rooftop bar Vendue for drink numero uno :)

We sort of made a progressive evening out of it and headed to Mad River for drink numero dos & then headed to happy hour and an amazing dinner at Fleet Landing.  Yum!!!

Found a new koozie ;)

Since we had a mere 6.2 miles to run and an early wake up call the next morning, we figured we should turn it in early(ish)!

Race day, we had to wake up super early, stand in the cold for our shuttle, find our corral amongst forty some odd thousand people, then run up and across a ginormous bridge and into downtown Charleston!!  

Cold & on the shuttle!

That hill can suck it!!!  Oh my word, I wanted to walk so bad!  Haha

Finish!!!  Hallelujah!

Sweaty & done!! :)

I've obviously let go of any vanity I had and went ahead and posted these gross pics of myself.  Just keepin' it real y'all!

It was definitely fun race (ya know, once it was over!) & I'm glad I got the experience, but will I do it again!?  I dunno...  My hilarious (and half Kenyan) friend Mindy at Keep Calm and Have a Cupcake recapped her run here!  She basically summed up my exact feelings on this race!!

I'm no Kenyan, that's for dang sure, I'm just impressed I made it in under and hour!!  I'll take it :)

We celebrated post run at probably my most favorite spot in the whole world...Folly Beach!!

Clearly our first stop was Lost Dog Cafe for celebratory peach mango mimosas!!!

"Into each day, put in about one teaspoonful of good spirits, a dash of fun, a pinch of Folly, and a cupful of good humor!"

We had a drink at the beach bar, napped while the boys played....it was a perfect post race afternoon!!

My handsome man!!

We kept the party going with 89 cent rum runners at the hotel bar & an amazing, for real, so, so ahhmaaazing dinner at Anson's!

I was sad to wake up Sunday because it meant reality was right around the corner.  Boohoo!!  (I'm so spoiled right!?)  But it did mean back to my sweet boys at home :)

Today, was, well a work day.  Haha, just 43 and counting (yes, I'm counting!!) til my next love affair with summer!  Thanks for the good times spring break!

I'm so glad the weather has started to look more like spring, I fully plan on enjoying it this week!

Hope your Monday treated you more like a Thursday!  At least it's over right? ;)

Midweek Randos

Happy hump day friends!!  Thought I'd pop in for a little midweek randomness :)

1.  Today is actually like my Thursday because tomorrow is my Friday!  Friday is a workday so I'm opting to start my spring break a little early!!

2.  Thank all that is holy for spring break.  Seriously y'all, this spring semester has about kilt me!

3.  We'll be in Charleston for the second half of my spring break and the weather is not looking so hot.  Literally!  Highs only in the 60s, rain chances....what is this?!  I am in need of beach weather, or at least 70s!  Come on Momma Nature, help a sister out!!

4.  We're not having the best weather luck lately!  Our Spartan Race weather this past weekend was not the greatest ever.  I was nervous about surviving, but I posted Monday and if y'all follow me on Instagram, then clearly you figured out I survived :)  A full race recap is coming, I'm just waiting on Spartan Race to post their pics!!

Spartans!!!

5.  Can we talk about the awkwardness of my hands in this picture!?  Hahaha, I was clearly super muddy and just didn't know what to do with them.  Just call me Ricky Bobby I guess!

6.  Erin, from BlueEyedBride, posted yesterday asking what's your strut song?  I could definitely strut to a bunch of the songs her readers left, but when I was running tonight I realized my ultimate strut song when it came through my 'Run' shuffle mix...

Matisse featuring Akon - Better Than Her

This is definitely my dance around the bedroom, run a little faster, walk a little taller song!  Do you have a strut song?

7.  So I started making my bed every morning last week!  For all of like 4 days in a row....and now I've gone 2 days without making it.  I've already fallen back to my old ways!  Oops!!  I'll restart tomorrow!

8.  I hate ending things on odd numbers.  Weird?  Yes.  Slightly OCD?  Yes.  Now you know :)

Hope you have a super fantastic end to your week!!

Friday's Letters

Friday's Letters!?  Let's :)

Dear husband, 4 short years ago just yesterday you & I were getting ready to go out with our respective friend groups for a night out.  Little did we know we'd end up at a fun little bar named The Attic meeting our future spouse!!  Wild right!?  What a fun & fast 4 years it's been!!!  I can't wait for what's next!

Dear weather, in case you haven't gotten the memo, it's SPRING now!!  Why must winter continue with the cold and the rainy and the yuck.  Especially this weekend of all weekends....I really need spring!

Dear Spartan Race, please don't kill me.

Dear Berkley, how are you so dang cute!?  My new favorite part of the day is playing with you for a bit on the bed each night before you get in your own bed!  You're so fun and smiley!  We're glad you're ours!!

Dear Spring Break, please hurry!  I'm ready.  Really, really ready for a little R&R and a lotta Folly Beach & Charleston!

Dear friends, happy, happy weekend!!!

Head on over to Ashley's blog & read all of Friday's Letters :)

2012 in Review & Looking Forward to 2013

2012 was a great year!!

Of course, it had it's ups and down, but thankfully more ups than downs and the ups were pretty great :)

I tried to keep my year in review shorter rather than longer.  But, let's be honest, we all know I'm long winded ;) I have noticed I have a few more followers, though, so hopefully this will be a better way to get to know me, and I'm looking forward to "getting to know" all of y'all through your pages!

In 2012....

I turned a quarter of a century in March!

In April, we went on a cruise...

And then came home & closed on our house!!

In June, I was one of the MOHs in my cousin Erin & Ryan's Wedding!

And July brought lots of beach trips...

July 4th Week in Virginia Beach!

And my family beach trip in Carolina Beach!

Then at the end of July, we brought this cutie home!

It's hard to believe he was ever this small!!

The fall brought fire pits, football, & B's 29th birthday!  My MIL came in town & we took a trip to Biltmore to celebrate that weekend!

October brought Baby Fever!

My nephews, baby Abel & Wells :)

Sweet Maggie, my friend Rachel's baby girl!

In November we toasted our 2nd Anniversary!

And I got my first tattoo!!

Looking back, I can't help but be thankful for a year of health and happiness!

Looking forward to 2013, I can only hope for the same!

I set a few goals last year.  We didn't achieve all of them to the level we may have hoped, but that's ok.  I'm not huge into resolutions because I think people don't stick to them.  But a goal, you have to work toward a goal.  So that's what I like to set!

In 2013, I hope to...

1 - Finish the Spartan Race.  My goal is finishing!  Haha, I'd like to finish around the 2 hour mark, but I'm not going to be hung up on the time.  (See B's Spartan Race Recaps here & here.)

2 - Complete the Cooper River Bridge Run around the 56 minute mark!  It's a 10K, 6.2 mi, so I think 56 minutes is totally doable, I just need to continue with my running and work on my speed a bit!

3 - Stick to Paleo as a lifestyle.  Of course, I can't do Paleo 100% all of the time.  I mean, I had to have a piece of cake at the gender reveal this past weekend.  But I do want to make sure I'm eating Paleo at least 85% of the time or more!

These are my main goals.  Brandon and I have a few house goals - furniture for the guest bedroom, maybe an outdoor patio this year?  A few spiritual goals - visiting the church that meets at the high school near our house, continuing our devotional.  Some financial goals including paying off my student loans!!  We have a few professional dreams on the horizon as well, so we'll just have to see where 2013 leads us!

I'm so looking forward to a new nephew & niece this year, hopefully a few vacations, a lots of great new memories!

Here's to 2013!!