I Heart Reese's...

It's finally Friday!

I'm really excited for this holiday weekend. Halloween used to be one of my favorite holidays when I lived at home. I loved passing out all of the candy and getting to see the kids dressed in their outfits. They are just the cutest! Except for the time I gave a little boy a piece of candy and he replied, "Thanks poop." I'm not even kidding..

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This will be the third year Matt and I have lived in our house for Halloween. The first year I was crazy excited to be able to pass out my very own candy! And you know what? We got two kids. Two. And they came at like 6:00 p.m. I stood at the door like a sad little puppy, waiting for the kids to come so I could pass out my huge bowl of candy. Instead, I ate the Reese;s Cups myself.

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The next year, I was prepared. I only bought one bag just in case. But we got ZERO kids! Ouch! And I ate the candy, again.

So this year, we have taken a different approach. We're going over to one of our friend's houses and helping them pass out candy. They get a ton of kids....and they have a little boy who is celebrating his very first Halloween!! So not only do I get to pass out candy to kids....but I get to see baby Braden in his little outfit and I can't wait!


The rest of our weekend will be fairly low key. My parents are coming up on the 13th of next month...so I have some stuff to do to prepare for their arrival...but that's about it!


Hope everyone has a wonderful and safe Halloween!!

This Gives Me The Chills

Okay, so y'all watched The Office last week right?

Remember the part when Dwight was giving Michael the chills?? Okay. I used to do that! I didn't remember it at all until Dwight cracked an "egg" on Michael's head and then I went all crazy like, "Holy crap, I've done that!!" Of course, my husband thought I was nuts and had no idea what I was talking about. But you know, right?

I tried my darnedest to find it online, but as you may've guessed, there are many, many versions. This is the one that is closest to the one I remember doing:

Concentrate, concentrate. Think about what I'm saying. People are dying, children are crying. Concentrate.

Crack an egg on your head, let the yolk run down, the yolk run down, the yolk run down.
Crack an egg on your head, let the yolk run down, the yolk run down, the yolk run down.

Stab a knife in your back and let the blood drip down, the blood drip down, the blood drip down.
Stab a knife in your back and let the blood drip down, the blood drip down, the blood drip down.

Then you have to tell them this story:

You're at the empire state building, way at the top. You're walking, walking, walking... Suddenly you hear someone call your name. You look up, down, side, to side. No one there. You keep walking. Then you hear it again. You look up down, side, to side. No one's there. You keep walking. Look, you've reached the edge of the building. Look, there are cars below you, can you see them, way down there? Your name again, but you ignore it. Suddenly you feel a PUSH!

Ah. Memories.

We also used to do this thing at slumber parties, light as a feather, stiff as a board. How about you?

From Wikipedia: (the best source ever seeing as anyone in the world can write anything they want about any subject...so you know you are getting the best possible information--Michael Scott)

One participant lies flat on the floor and then the others space themselves around him or her, each placing their fingers underneath his or her body. Some people report that the apparent weight of the person lifted seems lower than expected or that the person becomes completely weightless.

The person being lifted is told a story about their death and asked to imagine it happening to him or her. Each of the people lifting the other person uses only one or two of his or her fingers on each hand to do the lifting.

Then the entry goes on to explain the "apparent success" of the levitation is because of mind tricking or a self fulfilling prophesy. Well I don't care what Wikipedia says. My friend Erica really was weightless when we lifted her at her birthday party is 3rd grade. And I know that for a fact.

:)

Weekend Round Up with Recipes!

Friday:

Matt and I went to dinner with some of our friends at a Mexican restaurant. Now, this not your typical Mexican food....as it is actually called mod mex and the restaurant serves things like duck and boar taquitos, weird flavors of margaritas, and crazy types of guacamole. Excuse me for not being sophisticated enough to understand the coolness of "mod" but I really much prefer chicken soft tacos, chips and salsa, and a regular lime flavored frozen margarita...but whatever...no one asked me.

Dinner was followed by....wait for it...salsa dancing lessons. Ha! Obviously not our idea. It was...interesting...but overall pretty fun. We learned the basic moves of salsa and were given a chance to do a little dancing after the class. My dear husband, bless his heart, did such a great job. I was so proud of his effort. He was the cutest little salsa dancer I had ever seen.


Saturday:

This weekend was filled with all sorts of yumminess! Thanks to my wonderful friends Lucy and Shaina...I was introduced to the amazingness that is pumpkin. Matt and I headed out to buy some ingredients for my pumpkin baking extravaganza and also bought a few more decorations for the outside of the house which I will share later this week. They may or may not include hay stacks and pumpkins!

I whipped up some pumpkin chocolate chip bread as well as pumpkin cream cheese muffins in the afternoon. They were both delicious. I was partial to the bread...because of the chocolate of course...but Matt fell in love with the muffins and had three for breakfast the next morning :)

Sunday:

Still overflowing with apples from our apple picking adventure of '09, Matt and I made an apple pie in the morning. We also tried our hand at homemade pie crust which was oh so yummy!

Here's a before picture of the pie before it went into the oven:


And the after:


It smelled delicious. And this is coming from a girl who does not like apple pie. Matt loved it...and I loved the crumb topping...so success all the way around :)


With the leftover pie crust we made these fabulous pie crust cookies!


Baked up...they were freaking unbelievable and ruined my diet for sure.


Matt went to the Browns game with a friend Sunday afternoon...so I hit up DSW for a new pair of black boots and Old Navy where I snagged these gorgeous fall items:

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I had a coupon for $50 off! Who can beat that??

I hope everyone had a great weekend! I am looking forward to getting out of work and heading to the gym to try and work off all of those devilish pie crust cookies!

XOXO

Talk About A Wake Up Call

As some of my long time followers may remember, I am currently making my way through The Bible for the first time. Sure, I've read chapters from probably every book before, but I have never just sat down and read the whole thing from cover to cover. And that is exactly what I'm doing....and have been doing since February (it's a long book people!). I read the chapters in my Student Bible my grandparents gave me when I was a kid (it rocks by the way!) and then I read the summaries of every 3-4 chapters or so in another Bible I was given...just to make sure I have soaked up all of the important information. This Bible is called The Daily Walk Bible.

During yesterday's reading of the summary of Hosea 1-3, I stumbled upon, no...really it hit me right in the face like a sledgehammer, this section about God's love. Here is what it said:

Your Daily Walk:

Love it truly a "many-splendored"--and oft-mistaken--thing.

There's Because Love: "I love you because you're beautiful...because you're talented...because you make me feel special."

There's When Love: "I love you when you're good...when you're faithful...when you're obedient."

There's If Love: "I'll love you if you please me...if you don't hurt me..if you measure up to my expectations."

And then there's God's Love. He doesn't say, "I love you because," or "when," or "if." Rather, God simply says, "I love you, period." No conditions. No "fine print." No timetable.

The Daily Walk Bible, Hosea 1-3.

************

Way back when, I did a post all about why I loved my husband. You can view that post here. The title of that post was "I Love You Because..."

Yeah.

Holy cow. Talk about a wake up call.


It definitely makes me truly appreciate God's love for me and the fact that it is unconditional. He doesn't love me because I do anything. Thank goodness for that. He just love me. And I will spend the rest of my days trying to show that same kind of love to my husband. To love him not because of what he does...but just love him. Period.

Yowzers!

I just realized that I forgot to put my sports bra in my gym bag this morning.



That elliptical is going to do a number on these C's for sure.



But there is one bright side. It's not a running day.


Ouch.

Weight Loss Update!

It's been a while since I have talked about my exercise/weight loss routine, so I thought I would give you a little update!

I have really hit my stride in the last two weeks. I've continued doing The Couch to 5K program and am now on Week 4. I'm running faster than I ever have. (Note: this is relative. I know you speed demons go way faster...but 5.5 in my book is lightning fast!) Although the running increment increases week to week are tough at first, I gain confidence with every day I am on that treadmill. Not only am I getting my cardio in by running, but I am also throwing in some time on the elliptical and the bike doing burst training. I incorporate weights and abs 2-3 times a week as well.

Onto the subject of food. Obviously this is an area of weakness for me, but besides the wedding I attended last weekend where I indeed partook in some cake (yum!) I have stayed on track with my Weight Watchers plan for two whole weeks. I have lost 4 1/2 lbs. so far and I couldn't be more excited. 4.5 down...24.5 to go! It's a daunting task and I am aware that it will take me some time to get there...but just putting it out there really helps and makes me feel like I have a distinct goal in mind. I will try to remember to keep you guys updated on my progress at least every other week so we can motivate each other! I've also added some weight loss and running info to my side bar for additional accountability.

I have found an incredibly amazing support system here in blog land and the accountability with my workouts and food intake has been key to my success thus far. I have no desire to have to tell my friends that I ate 1/2 a pizza and downed a bag of candy corn for dinner...which I have done before. I seriously could not do this without you ladies and your unending support of a girl who starts and stops weight loss programs like it is her job. I cannot thank you enough!

So, how are you doing??

Mix & Match

My pantry is filled with opened boxes of cereal. Who is the culprit you ask? Well I'll tell you. It's this man!


Oh yeah. I just went there...posted a picture of you stuffing your face, getting BBQ sauce all over yourself. Sure, he looks all cute and innocent, but don't let that face fool you.


My dear husband is constantly leaving boxes of cereal in the pantry with less than one bowl's worth of cereal left in them. Now, maybe this wouldn't be so much of an issue if it were only one box. But there have been upwards of four boxes at a time like this! Those boxes take up a lot of space people! Why does he leave it in the pantry and not throw it away? No idea. It is a long five steps to the trash so maybe that has something to do with it?? But I'm leaning more towards his inability to get rid of anything.

I should note that we rarely share cereal. Matt likes grown up cereal while I intend on eating Count Chocula and Reese Puffs until I die. I will occasionally indulge in Frosted Mini Wheats, but that is as adult as I get. Proof the boxes are his doing.

So what is my solution?

I eat them. And I mix them with my cereal to make a whole bowl. In fact, I mixed the last of the Fiber One Honey Clusters with Frosted Flakes this morning. And it was pretty darn good. I mix everything. I've even mixed three cereals before. Hubs won't even touch this idea and he thinks it's weird....but I find throwing them out wasteful so mixing it is.

Anyone else do this?

Wedding + Cake=Good Time!

The weekend is over. And I'm actually kind of excited! I know. What the heck am I talking about, right? Well, the stress of the wedding is behind me and a cake that I have had hanging over my head for 9 months is finished!

Matt and I headed out Saturday morning for Michigan City at 7 a.m. We loaded up the Taurus with all of the cake (thank goodness it all fit!) and we were off! We made it to the reception hall in one piece and began assembling the cake. Two hours later, with several mini cake disasters averted, I give you my 2nd wedding cake ever!



Here's a view of the whole cake table they decorated:


They also requested a Groom's cake in the shape of Chewbacca. Apparently I was dealing with a seriously Star Wars obsessed groom. Please don't make me mention the bridal party introductions involving light sabers. No, I think I will just forget those....


This cake was my favorite part by far. I think it turned out awesome and the chocolate buttercream was to die for.


After we set up the cake, Matt and I headed out to get some lunch. We stopped by a pub to watch some of the Purdue/Ohio State game...and I can't believe I can actually say this...but we beat those stinkin' Buckeyes!! You have no idea how great today is at work. As a minority Ohio State hater in Cleveland...this day is one in a million.

GO BOILERS!!!

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The ceremony was held at 2 p.m. so we scooted over to the church to see little Dara get married. It was a very emotional ceremony for her. Dara's dad died when we were in college so her uncle walked her down the aisle.



But everything went smoothly and here is the happy couple after becoming a Mr. and Mrs.!



Even Matt got into it! Rare shot my friends...



We had a few hours to kill before the reception began (?..not cool) so we hit up the outlet malls and then headed over to the reception. I got to see some old friends from college and it was just wonderful catching up with them. It made me miss Purdue and my group of friends so much. College is such a unique experience and I am forever thankful for my time there. Some of my favorite memories I will ever have are there and with those people and it was just fabulous to see them again.


Matt and I ended up making the drive home that evening since we wanted to get a few things done on Sunday. We pulled in the driveway at 1 a.m. Crazy long day...but it was really fun. We spent Sunday grocery shopping, napping, and relaxing. I do wish we had one more day to decompress after our busy weekend...but I have so many things going on next month to look forward to...I simply cannot wait for them to get here!


Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend!

A Million Thanks!

I wanted to send a huge hug out to the blog world today. I have been a little on the (as my mother would say...) "stressy" side this week with the wedding and all, but everyone has been so supportive and encouraging and I cannot thank you enough.

I lieu of this, I have received a couple of awards and I wanted to pass them along this morning.




I received this "Dragon's Loyalty" Award from Kristen at Happily Ever After. Thank you so much friend! I really appreciate the love!

I'm supposed to pass it along to 3-10 loyal fans.

I tag:
A Journey Through the Waiting Game
Adorably Distracted
everything happens for a reason
For the Love of Stilettos
Naturally Caffeinated Family
New England Girl




I also received the "Your Blog is Over the Top" Award from Angela at Sweet Tea Diaries. Now her blog is seriously over the top and you should definitely show her some love. She's one of my faves!

Here are the Rules:

1. You can only use one word to answer the questions!
2. Pass this along to 6 of your favorite bloggers!
3. Alert them that you have given them this award!
4. Have Fun!

1. Where is your cell phone? purse
2. Your hair? up
3. Your mother? crazy
4. Your father? hilarious
5. Your favorite food? pizza
6. Your dream last night? overeating!
7. Your favorite drink? wine
8. Your dream/goal? babies
9. What room are you in? office
10. Your hobby? cakes
11. Your fear? birds
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? South
13. Where were you last night? kitchen
14. Something that you aren’t? skinny
15. Muffins? yum!
16. Wish list item? clothes
17. Where did you grow up? Indiana
18. Last thing you did? blog
19. What are you wearing? jeans
20. Your TV? huge
21. Your pets? dead
22. Friends? love
23. Your life? simple
24. Your mood? appreciative
25. Missing someone? brother
26. Vehicle? Taurus
27. Something you’re not wearing? jewelry
28. Your favorite store? Costco
29. Your favorite color? pink
30. When was the last time you laughed? today
31. Last time you cried? week
32. Your best friend? Jill
33. One place that I go to over and over? grocery
34. One person who emails me regularly? Hubs
35. Favorite place to eat? Mexican

I tag:
A Girl Can Dream
Always a Northerner
Classy and Fabulous
French Kiss
I Love You More Than Carrots
Jeans Friday

Is That Icing on Your Face?

As promised....here is a little peak into the disaster my kitchen becomes during a cake making process. Maybe someday I will catalog the whole endeavor...but this time you just get a little taste of the icing! Ha! Get it?

Okay..moving on.

Just so you know what I'm dealing with, here is a picture of all of the cake I made over the weekend.


Whoa. And before you ask, yes, it is in the freezer. Sue me. I work full time and do not have time to bake 10 cakes and decorate them two days before the wedding. It took me two days just to bake them. My solution=freezer. It's not ideal in my book...but it works and doesn't alter the flavor or texture of my completed cake. Again, this is not standard practice for me. I just do it on a "have to" basis.

And this is what happened to my kitchen after making all of the icing.




Don't worry. I cleaned it up immediately. Matt didn't even see this mess when he got home from work! But my goodness...you should see it now. The cakes are iced and sitting all over the place. Disaster zone for sure.


So, what did I get for all of that work?? This:


Four humongous bowls of icing.


And would you believe that I have to make two more batches tonight because I ran out? Yep. Can you say stressed much?

I love you Dara, but is your wedding over yet? Eek!

Shrimp Chowder

After the icing extravaganza of 2009 (by the way Lucy, I took pictures but didn't have time to upload them..so tomorrow..be prepared!), I managed to throw together a dinner as well.

We had Quick Shrimp Chowder. It was ridiculously fast (hence the name...duh), easy, and so yummy! Great dinner for a chilly evening on the couch under the electric blanket. And it was very WW friendly. The entire recipe serves 12...I only made 1/2...and then was able to eat a 1/4 of that for only 6 points. Did you follow that?? Hm. If not, just know it's healthy and yum!

I've been finding my recipes lately on My Recipes, a division of Southern Living. It's easy to search by ratings...so we always make 5 star meals :) It's been a yummy couple of weeks. They also feature recipes from Cooking Light which is always a plus!

So here's the recipe! Enjoy

Yield

Makes 12 cups

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons butter or margarine
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 2 (10 3/4-ounce) cans cream of potato soup, undiluted
• 3 1/2 cups milk
• 1/4 teaspoon ground red pepper
• 1 1/2 pounds medium-size fresh shrimp, peeled*
• 1 cup (4 ounces) shredded Monterey Jack cheese
• Garnish: chopped fresh parsley
• Oyster crackers (optional)

Preparation

Melt butter in a Dutch oven over medium heat; add onion, and sauté 8 minutes or until tender. Stir in cream of potato soup, milk, and pepper; bring to a boil. Add shrimp; reduce heat, and simmer, stirring often, 5 minutes or just until shrimp turn pink. Stir in cheese until melted. Garnish, if desired. Serve immediately. Serve with oyster crackers, if desired.

*1 1/2 pounds frozen shrimp, thawed; 1 1/2 pounds peeled crawfish tails; or 3 cups chopped cooked chicken may be substituted.

Snackies!

We are utterly slow at work. I have already made my grocery list for the next two weeks, written out a schedule for my cake decorating activities for the week, planned my workouts, and caught up on all of my blogs. What's a girl to do at work when there is no actual work to be done?

My solution:

List some of my go to healthy snack foods that I eat on a daily basis. At first I was going to list the things that I am craving right now...but I decided against posting pictures of cupcakes, candy corn pumpkins, and Oreo truffles. Your waistlines can thank me later.



For breakfast, I always have cereal. Always have, probably always will...for one reason. It's easy. Oh...and I'm lazy.

My current cereal is:

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It is okay. I probably won't buy it again. I'm not a huge fan of the Fiber One cereals, but I had a coupon. I'm just hoping there are some Frosted Flakes left in the house when I'm done with this box.


I eat breakfast just before 5 a.m. so my morning snack comes around 8:45 a.m. My staples are currently:

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I usually add a cup of fresh fruit to my yogurt to punch it up a little.


For lunch, I'm currently on a sandwich kick. I either do salami or chicken breast with a 35 calorie/slice bread and a very little spread of this to eliminate the dryness:

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I've also been enjoying low fat cottage cheese, one of the billions of apples I have leftover from apple picking, and these:

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I have an afternoon snack when I get home from the gym and then my husband and I eat dinner around 7:30 p.m. when he gets home from work. My afternoon snacks vary, but I adore these...as they usually serve as my sweet of choice:

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What are your favorite go to healthy snacks??

Bake Off!

How was the weekend action ladies!?!

Ah, relaxing weekend I did not have...but it was super productive and I actually feel quite accomplished...so plus!

Friday:
I ran some errands after work and then came home to assemble my cake boards. I am making a wedding cake for one of my old co-workers from college. She is getting married this weekend!

My dear husband called to say that he was going to be working a little late. You know what time it was when he woke me up on the couch? 11 p.m. On a Friday. Poor guy. He had BBQ Fritos for dinner :(

Saturday:
I had an event for the Junior League at 9 a.m. We were required to take part in a trolley tour of Cleveland and it's surrounding areas. It sounds a little lame for someone that has lived in the city for 3 1/2 years, but it was actually really fun and super informative. The trolley car did hurt my butt sitting there for over 2 hours, but other than that...successful trip. Did you know Chef Boyardee started in Cleveland? Or that delivering mail door to door began here? Yeah. Neither did I.

I headed to the gym to finish off Week 2 of my running program and then went home to start the baking process. I had 10 cakes to bake over the weekend, and I was able to finish 7 of them on Saturday. It took me all freaking day...but I digress.

Sunday:
We headed to church, hit up Walmart for a few more baking supplies, and came home to finish the madness. I baked the final 3 cakes, made some cupcakes with the extra batter, and concocted probably 100 cake balls with the cake scraps I had leftover. I spent the rest of the evening cleaning the disaster zone.

But today...I have very little cake balls in my house because I sent them to work with my husband, my kitchen is sparkling, I have nothing more that needs to be baked, and I am happy.

Except that it's Monday and I'm at work.

The Truth is Out

Did you know I lost almost 80 lbs. before I got married?


Want to know what my highest weight was?? Or how I did it??



Come on. I know you want to.



Head on over to Happily Ever After where I am guest posting today and find out!

And then pinky swear not to tell anyone, okay? Thanks.

Glee Exposure

Attention: Glee spoilers ahead. Do not read this post yet if you don't want to know what happened last night!




This is a conversation that just took place between my co-worker, K, and me.

K: Did you watch Glee last night?
J: Yes, but I fell asleep halfway through. The last thing I saw was the guy's performance where they were dancing around in their leather outfits high on OTC drugs.
K: Oh, ha! And then the girls went and did the same thing! Except for the pregnant girl of course. She just took folic acid. It was really funny. And then those teachers got engaged. It was a good show!



Wait. Did she just tell me the ending to the show? Even after I told her I hadn't watched it yet? I think she did.


This is not the first time this woman has done this to me. She does this so often that I have come to include in my answer to, "Did you watch (insert show here)?"...."No, and don't tell me what happened!" This time, I didn't. And I paid, dearly. This is such a huge pet peeve of mine. I get that some people would maybe want to know what happened, but I am not one of those people. If I wanted to know, I would ask. I didn't.


So in the future, keep your trap shut lady.

That is all.

Obsessions...

This weekend I discovered something wonderful!!! What, do you ask, deserves three, count them, three exclamation points?

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Of course it's food. What else would it be??

I'm not a huge ice cream girl, well, at least not at the grocery store. I rarely buy it. But this little beauty caught my eye and I knew it must be mine! And guess what?? It's only 100 calories per serving! Yep. 2 totally worth it points. Top it with some Lite Reddi Whip and you're good to go! It's like pumpkin pie yumminess without the crust.

I also spotted some Peppermint and other seasonal flavors that I cannot wait to try! Yum!


And on another note...my fabulous friend Sonja from For the Love of Stilettos presented me with this award the other day.

Her own blog is freaking fabulous (that's probably why she got the award to begin with!?!) so check it out if you haven't already.

The rules are to tell you 5 things I am completely obsessed with and nominate 5 of my fabulous favorite bloggers as well!

My current obsessions include (but are not limited to):
1. Candy corn--> Note I haven't had any yet this season, but my mind is constantly thinking about it. I especially love the pumpkins.

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2. Sopranos-->I have been re-watching the whole series of the Sopranos and I am finally almost done! I think I only have 3 more DVD's left to get from Netflix. I seriously love this show. Sometimes it makes me want to be in the mob. Wouldn't it be awesome? I mean, think about the perks...and the money...and the family loyalty!?! So there may be a wee little violence involved, and being a female in the mob is probably not the safest position to hold, but hey, no job's perfect.

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3. Glee-->Speaking of TV, Glee is definitely my new favorite show this season. I do find it a little hard to get used to when they burst into song during the middle of a scene, but I love it. The main guy kind of annoys me and doesn't really fit the whole quarterback stereotype they have given him, but I'll give him a pass. He's kinda cute...for a high schooler and all.

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4. Cake!-->I have an order for a wedding cake that I am starting to work on this weekend and it is all I can think about. So.much.to.do!

5. Traveling-->This isn't something that I am just obsessed with right now but all of the time. I'm constantly looking for my next trip, to my husband's chagrin, and I am always planning things really far in advance in my head...like a trip to Texas, Paris, Israel, Rome, Greece, Las Vegas, Alaska...

See what I mean?

I will pass this award along to some of my very favorite bloggers. Girls who are so fabulous sometimes I cannot stand that I do not know them in real life....because we would for sure be the bestest of friends.

Dollface at Inner Workings of a Real-Life Barbie Doll
Llama at Llama Tales
Lucy at Lucy's Life
Shaina at Post Smith
The Shabby Princess

Fall Decorations

As I mentioned yesterday, I spent some of the day on Saturday decorating our house for fall. I had so much fun digging into those boxes of decorations! I'm one of those crazies who goes out the day after and buys up everything on sale, so there are always new decorations to use each year! This year I even found some cake decorating tools I thought I lost in one of the boxes! How they got there, no idea. But it was like Christmas!


Anyways, here are a few pictures of the fall and Halloween pieces I used. Enjoy your little glimpse into our home :) Maybe someday I'll share more...perhaps when my parents come to visit next month because then I know it will be clean!

This little guy lights up!



Ah, the massive TV. This was purchased before my arrival...but I have to admit...it's awesome. I have no idea what is on TV though. It was during a commercial of the Brown's game.



A little closer look...

The hanging scarecrows are by far my favorite piece in the house. I've been wanting to change my flower arrangement but that vase it super hard to match.

Table decorations...

This hangs over the table! Don't worry, we don't really eat there that often. Scary though, huh!?! You can also see the scarecrow on the wall which says "Harvest Time."




This is the arrangement in our dining room...which houses this coffee table because we don't currently own a dining room table. Love it!



This guy shakes, his eyes turn beet red, and he makes some really creepy noises. Very cool!

These are the window clings on our front door.

Outside decor...

Further away...

So there you have it! My house is finally done! I'd really love to get some hay stacks or something else to put on the porch, but I'll get my pumpkins soon and it will look much better!

Hope y'all have a great day! The CEO of secret global aerospace company is coming to our site today to present us with some award so it is a mad house around here. Hopefully the day flies! Think I could talk her into getting me out of this dump? Hm. Probably not the best time to bring that up? Ha!

Apple Picking

Good morning!

Weekend update...coming up!

Matt and I had such a lovely weekend!! I had wanted to go apple picking all week, but the weather was seemingly not in our favor. My hopes were low when I woke up on Saturday, but it wasn't raining so we took a shot. Oh my, I am so glad we did! It was a perfect fall day, no coat required, and simply beautiful outside. It was the first day I loved that it was fall.

Right as we got there I wanted to snap pictures of course! So I took this one!

As you can tell, NOT a picture. I was accidentally taking video...but it made me laugh so I thought I would share. Please do not judge my hideous laugh....

Please excuse the hair in my face...obviously I was struggling.

Matty...an action shot!






Peek-a-Boo!

I wanted to act like I was eating the apple right off the tree..but instead it looks like I am eating the branch. Funny photo FAIL.



Take Two...Success!






Matt in the tree getting the perfect apple! We later read a sign that said you weren't supposed to climb the trees. Oops. Sorry tree. Our bad.

We finished the day with a trip to the grocery and enjoyed homemade lasagna for dinner by yours truly! It was yum! Tomato and Basil Prosciutto! Yeah for leftovers!


We got our butts back to church on Sunday which felt incredible and hit up Sonic on the way home. Then I finally put up all of our fall/Halloween decorations! I am so excited to share those with you guys...perhaps tomorrow...

Then the very best thing happened! I went to the gym for about an hour, came home, and walked into a kitchen where ALL OF THE DISHES WERE DONE and I could hear the faint sound of the laundry running. My husband was busy, busy when I was gone. Talk about a love tank overflowing. My tank runneth over. I have to admit, I got a little teary. So sweet!


I hope everyone had a fabulous weekend!! I cannot wait to hear about them all!!

XOXO