Memorial Day Weekend

Long, holiday weekends are simply the best kind of weekend, am I right? I'm sure most of you would agree with that. If not, well then I probably don't want to hear it. But thanks anyways... ;) Mine was the bestest, and honestly it wasn't long enough...it was full of sunshine, good food, friends, and relaxing. If only every weekend could actually be three days, right?! Right.

FRIDAY - we went to Hobby Lobby real quick after work (haven't actually done the craft I bought the supplies for yet), and then we ate dinner at Momo's Pizza again, since we were on that side of town. Super yummy.

Had to send out a Snapchat to a few friends of course ;)

SATURDAY - we met some friends down at Alligator Point Beach, and spent the day soaking up the sunshine, with our toes in the sand. The weather was perfect and breezy, and it felt great. On the way back to town, we stopped to eat dinner at Tropical Trader in Panacea. For you locals that might not realize this, it's like the little brother of Angelo's! Owned by the same people, but more casual and a bit less expensive. Such good food too! We all shared an appetizer of calamari, and I got a mahi mahi sandwich.

SUNDAY - ate sandwiches for lunch at Jimmy John's, and then went back down to meet our friends at the beach again! The weather was lovely again, and it was another good day in the sunshine.

MONDAY - we were up bright and early, so that our landlord could come by to look at the hot water heater, because it had stopped working... Long-story short, he ended up just buying a new one, and by 7pm last night, it was finally installed and working properly again. Thank the lord he worked so quick to get that done for us, or else this morning's shower would have been so freezing! We also did a lot of work around the house - laundry, tons of dishes, Jeff mowed the lawn (until the mower just stopped working), and we went grocery shopping.

Jeff grilled burgers and corn on the cob for dinner, and we had watermelon. And what I'm most proud of, was my homemade coleslaw! Our neighbor brought over a fresh head of cabbage from his garden, so I threw it in the Ninja blender, added in some carrots, mayo, salt, pepper, sugar & balsamic vinegar, and then topped it with sunflower seeds. It was so good y'all! Jeff and usually don't really even like coleslaw, but we both loved what I made last night! I was sad when I realized at like 10pm that I didn't take a picture of the fresh cabbage or the coleslaw though, so y'all will just have to pretend like I did, OK? :)

We were exhausted last night after a couple days in the sun, and a long day of working in and around the house. But it was all worth it, and we had a great three-day holiday weekend! We're thankful for those who have served in our military to make our lives so amazing in this great country of ours. We remember those who gave their lives, so that we can live ours free!

Happy Monday Tuesday! (This is going to be a confusing day...)

Cookout, Games, Kayaks & Food

Hey there fellow bloggers! I'm actually really excited about today's weekend recap, because of two reasons: 1. I used an actual camera this weekend, not just my phone, and 2. it was an awesome weekend, so there's good things to share today! I mean sure, there is always something good to share from the weekend, but this one was particularly good, so let's get to it, shall we?

FRIDAY

Some friends came over and we grilled hamburgers and corn for dinner. We sat out on the deck until after dark just having fun and talking, then finally moved inside once we couldn't see anymore. (We don't have a light out there...) Then we played some games for a while, and eventually they had to head home early, because she works the 7am-7pm shift at the hospital, so she needed some sleep! It was a great night though, and lots of fun for sure.

SATURDAY

Saturday we used our Groupon for Rum 138, and went kayaking down the Santa Fe River! It was gorgeous and sunny and we loved it so much. The current is pretty strong, so we hardly even had to paddle that much, so we basically just floated a lot of the time, and that was nice and relaxing. We packed a cooler full of lunch, waters, and some fancy giant cans of Arizona tea, and had lunch at the picnic tables at Poe Springs Park, about an hour down the river. It was so awesome! The trip was about four hours total, and it was gorgeous. We definitely loved it, and were glad we were able to go on this little adventure together! (And now I get to cross this off of our summer bucket list!)

On the way home, we took the back country roads instead of the interstate, and we came upon this super cute and absolutely delicious BBQ place in the tiny town of Mayo, Florida. The portions were huge, and everything is super fresh and homemade. She also makes her own desserts, so we enjoyed some peanut butter pie before heading back on the road.

SUNDAY
Sunday I accidentally slept in till after 10am, so we missed church yesterday. I was exhausted though after our big day on the river, so it felt good to get some extra rest. We lazed around for a bit, then decided to treat ourselves for lunch out somewhere, and I chose this new place I've really been wanting to try - Merv's Melt Shop. And y'all it was so good! I had a clubhouse sandwich, and absolutely loved it, with sweet potato tots. Jeff got a breakfast sammie of fried eggs and cheese, and his was really good too. We will definitely be back here many more times to come! (And this is new restaurant 1 of 3 for my summer bucket list!)

These next two pictures are just some random ones from before lunch.... These cute little dandelions are growing all over our yard right now, and I'm loving them! Unfortunately they're only growing because the yard is overgrown and needs to be mowed, but that's okay, I'll enjoy them while they're here! And then the second one is just because my little Primrose is the cutest girl in the world!

After lunch, we didn't do too much except check out a townhouse for rent (we didn't love it...), and went to Winn Dixie. Jeff is dealing with a serious cough and severe allergy issues, so he pretty much slept the afternoon away, while I watched Parenthood on Netflix. I cooked us dinner, and played super-wife doing all the laundry, dishes, taking out the trash, and straightening up. Normally Jeff would have been helping with all that, but since he was sleeping, I just handled all of it, and I felt super accomplished!

It was definitely a good weekend, and I loved just about every second of it. (Except for the fact my pitiful little husband was feeling so awful yesterday.) Thankful for all these great things and blessings and people in my life! Hope y'all had a great weekend too. What did y'all do? And Happy Monday :)

Weekend in Atlanta

Hey there Monday, it's not so nice to see you again, but I guess I have no choice, so I'm not going to complain too much... Let's just do the typical blogger thing, and write us out a good ole weekend recap, shall we? Yes, let's do just that...

Friday after work we made our way up to Atlanta, to spend the weekend there for a wedding. We found this super random spot in Cordele, GA to eat dinner, and it was so yummy. Carter's Fried Chicken & Hamburgers has been around for years and years, and has quite the reputation. It's just a tiny little hole-in-the-wall kind of place, but the chicken sandwiches were sooo good!

Saturday morning, Jeff's best friend (who was his best man) picked us up, and we returned to a spot we found the last time we were up there, and had a super delicious brunch at Folk Art Restaurant. I got a build-your-own-omelette with caramelized onions, mushrooms, turkey sausage and cheddar cheese, with a side of grits (with corn in them - yum!), wheat toast, and their own house-made peach jam. Holy so delicious you guys. I want all of that to magically appear in front of me right now again, because it was so good and I'm hungry right now! This tiny yogurt just isn't cutting it...

We ran a couple of errands (had to buy new black shoes for the hubs) and then headed back to the house we were staying at for some rest time and some HGTV shows :) I took a tiny nap, and then it was time to start getting ready for the wedding. Some friends of theirs came to meet at the house, and there ended up being six of us, so we called an "Uber" instead of a cab. It's a much nicer car, and it costs less than a cab sometimes. An Escalade picked us up, and we made it to the gorgeous venue in just about 10 minutes.

The venue was gorgeous, and so was the ceremony. The bride Ellen was of course gorgeous, and their sweet vows made me tear up.

The reception was yummy salad and rolls, followed by your entree choice. I chose the vegetarian pasta option, and it ended up being Gorgonzola cheese ravioli - holy yummy. But of course I also taste-tested Jeff's choice of chicken and beef, and that was really good too. Very good wedding food :) After quite a few sweet speeches from lots of family members, they had a cool photo booth, and a fun DJ for some awesome dancing. I wasn't feeling very good though, so we got a cab back to the house kind of early, and caught some more HGTV before heading to bed.

Sunday morning we got packed up and headed out rather early, and grabbed coffee and croissants at a local spot before hitting the road. We took our time on the drive home, and just enjoyed some back country roads of Georgia. Jeff's dad was nice enough to let us borrow his convertible VW bug for the trip, so we had the top down on the ride home, just loving the wind and the sunshine! Although, Jeff did get a little sunburned since we didn't have any sunscreen, but it was still so nice!

We made it back in time to meet my family for Mother's Day dinner at Outback, and we all had so much fun together! There were lots of silly stories shared, and lots of laughs had by all. We had a great time being together, and I'm glad it worked out that way. Afterwards, we headed over to Jeff's parents house to pick up Primrose, and spend some Mother's Day time with them too!

All-in-all, it was another good weekend, and we were glad for a couple days off work, spent with friends and family who we love so much! Here's hoping the week isn't too awful, and it goes quickly, because we've got exciting plans to go kayaking this Saturday!

High Five for Friday - Week #6

Welcome, Friday - good to see ya, old friend! Another long week of work is in the books, and thankfully another Friday has arrived. And it's arrival is a great thing. And of course since it's Friday, today we're going to be joining in with Miss Lauren Elizabeth for High Five For Friday.

1. This week has been employee appreciate week at work, so they've actually been really good to us, and loaded us up with treats and goodies. Monday we got Chick-fil-A biscuits when we walked in the building; Tuesday my bureau chief provided us donuts; Thursday we got ice cream; and today they'll be providing us lunch. Oh, and my bureau chief also got us all travel coffee mugs with the Department's logo on it. They're pretty neat. Overall, it's been a good week here at the State!

2. Wednesday was Jeff's birthday, and we've just had so much fun celebrating that a couple of times. We've had a total of four birthday dinners with different family members, and it's been so great spending time with everyone!

3. Sunday night we grilled out on the back deck, and it was so lovely out there. Sizzlin' Sunday's are becoming a favorite of ours for these warm summer nights!

4. On Monday night after work, Primrose and I met Angie at the new Cascades Park for a little run/walk time together. We did two miles, and just enjoyed catching up a bit on our walk.

5. Back in January, I bought a Living Social deal to Fabness.com, to order a custom photo canvas. It was going to expire April 30, so last week I rushed to finally get my order placed. Yesterday when I came home at lunch, it was sitting on my doorstep, and I actually squealed a little bit I was so excited! And y'all, it looks so stinking amazing! I don't have a picture of it, but as soon as we get it hung up, I will share it here. I'm so glad it turned out so great. (I'll at least post the picture I ordered though....)

This weekend we are going on another road trip, to attend another wedding! This one is up in Atlanta, and we're pretty excited about this one too. Also, I got a new dress to wear to the wedding, and I'm excited about that too :) Praying for safe travel today, and good weather throughout the weekend. I'm just going to miss my little Primrose while we're gone, because she's staying here with the in-laws again. (Jeff's mom has fallen in love with her, and is really looking forward to keeping her for us again!)

Thankful for a great week, and looking forward to an even better weekend. Happy Friday to you lovelies as well!

High Five for Friday - Week #5

Today is one of those Friday's where I am just beyond excited it's the weekend. Why you might be wondering? Because after work today, Jeff and I are driving over to St. Augustine for the weekend! One of my old friends from college is getting married on Sunday night, so we are heading over to spend the next few days in St. Augustine. And of course I'm really excited for the actual wedding itself, but I'm also just really excited to see some old friends that I haven't seen in literally years! Some of my old friends still live there so I see them more frequently, but some of the girls have moved away and I haven't seem them in like four years, which is craziness! And I am just literally so pumped right now I can hardly stand it...

But let's get to today's post now, and talk about some awesome things from this past week, in celebration of High Five for Friday with Lauren Elizabeth...

1. We had some overnight guests on Wednesday night, and let's just say the house was a bit more crazy than usual... We loved having them though while their owners were out of town!

From L to R: Primrose (mine), Ace & Gus. They were all so sweet and fun!

2. Angie came to kick boxing with me last night, and she says she's gonna come back again! Working out is always more fun with a friend there with you :)

3. I took some time (OK, a lot of time) one night this week lining up wedding recap posts for the next few weeks. I uploaded all of the pictures into new posts, and now I just need to write some in each of them before they're ready to go. But having the pictures all in order and uploaded is the biggest bulk of the process, so it feels good to have that done. Get ready for a flood of wedding recap posts in the upcoming weeks!

4. I'm still having fun on Instagram doing the photo-a-day prompts and challenges, so you should come join me over there sometime :)

Top L: 4 things // Top R: Pop of Color // Bottom L: Sunshine // Bottom R: Entrance

5. We're having a pizza lunch here at work today, provided by the boss-lady, and I'm pretty pumped for that. Pizza is always a favorite, and when it's free it's even better!

Seriously you guys, I'm so freaking excited for this weekend I can hardly even stand it right now! I'm not leaving at lunch today, so that I can leave work at 4, so we can try to beat the traffic a little bit getting out of town. First though, we're dropping Prim off with Jeff's parents, who are going to keep her for the weekend. I know she'll be in good hands with them, but I'm going to miss that little snuggle girl so much while we're gone! (I'm turning into such a crazy fur-mama these days...)

I hope y'all have had a good week too, and that your weekend might be just half as good as mine! :)

Pitching Our Tent

We were so very blessed to receive so many awesome gifts and gift cards for our wedding. Seriously. We were so thankful for all the things we were given and were able to buy because of the love of our family and friends. And one of the things we were so excited about was our own tent. We were able to buy a 6-person tent from Target with some of our gift card money (or what we now call, "Imaginary Monies.") We've had it for a couple of weeks, but hadn't used it yet. So we decided Veteran's Day weekend would be the perfect time to break it in!

We made reservations online for Sunday night, at Three Rivers State Park, in Sneads, Florida. We made our packing lists, went grocery shopping, and tried to plan out our time there. We left after church and lunch on Sunday around 3 pm (after a quick stop to grab some firewood from my parents - thanks Papa!) and made the quick, hour-long drive to the southwest corner of Lake Seminole. We had just gotten our new puppy Prim the day before, and so of course we had to bring her with us. She did great in the car though, and seemed quite excited for the adventure!

We got the tent put up pretty quickly, and got the rest of the camp set up too. The weather was great, and the park was very nice. It was definitely going to be chilly though, so Jeff got a fire going right away.

Before leaving, I prepped chicken, potatoes & veggies to make hobo pouches for dinner. So after hanging out and talking and exploring a tiny bit, we started getting dinner ready. The pouches turned out pretty yummy, even though the potatoes got a little bit burned on the bottom. It was all still good anyways. And then of course in true camping tradition, we made s'mores for dessert!

While we were eating, an armadillo ran by our campsite, and Prim went crazy over it. He stayed in the little clump of trees right next to us for a long time (which freaked me out), but Primrose just wanted to go over and investigate the whole time he was rooting around over there. Jeff wanted to let her go after it, but I was against that idea, so I had a tight hold on her leash. I guess he finally went away after about an hour or so, and then she calmed down.

Then we just sat staring at the fire and talking and enjoying the peace and quiet. It was really nice to just sit back and enjoy the silence and the outdoors and the fresh air. We sat in comfortable silence for a while, and then continued on with our normal conversation. I sure loved spending the night with this husband of mine. And since we aren't completely shut off from technology in this generation, we took my laptop into the tent and watched a couple episodes of "FRIENDS" before finally falling asleep.

And then the next morning, I got to wake up to these two cuties... :)

Well this was actually a quick nap-time later, so that's why he's wearing glasses...

We woke up right after 6 am, and after taking Prim for a quick walk, Jeff got the fire blazing again in order to make some breakfast. I was going to let Jeff be in charge of making breakfast, but I'm too much of a control freak (and I also just really like cooking), so I ended up jumping in and helping out quite a bit too. Between the two of us though, we had ourselves a nice breakfast of fried eggs, turkey bacon and potatoes.

Prim also hadn't eaten much in the couple of days we had her, so we made her a couple of eggs for breakfast as well, and she loved them! Also, we decided to take advantage of the camping tradition, and decided to make some s'mores again :) And Jeff decided to take a couple of really flattering pictures of me eating them. None are super cute, but here's the "best" one....

Since we woke up so early, we were actually super tired, so we decided to take a quick nap. Even baby Prim was tired, so she took a nap with us too.

After nap time, we hung out around our campsite a little more, then had to pack up camp to be out by noon. We then drove down to the public part of the park to explore a bit. We walked out on the boat ramp/dock, to check out the gorgeous view of Lake Seminole, and it was so calm and pretty. Then we found ourselves a nice little trail to hike close by. We walked for about 45 minutes to an hour, and Prim absolutely loved it! She seemed to really just enjoy being outside and exploring and smelling everything. She led the way most of the time, and it was a good thing we had a 24-foot retractable leash on her!

Afterwards, we all had some water, and then made our way out of the park. We found a tiny local restaurant and had the pizza and salad buffet for lunch before heading out of town. We had such a great time camping out together as a little family, and we definitely can't wait to be able to do it again! We're hoping to do it at least once more before it gets way too cold, and then we'll be excited again in the spring once the weather starts warming up a little bit. We want to check out all the state parks close to Tallahassee with camp grounds, so we'll have fun going to a lots of new campsites, and putting our new tent to good use!

Much Love,
Halie

Planes, Grains & Automobiles

Monday morning - we meet again.... and this is a seriously exhausted Monday morning at that. This weekend was so crazy busy, I got very little sleep, and I could have definitely used an extra day just to recover from it. So let's just head straight into our normal recap, shall we?

FRIDAY
Jeff's parents took us and the boys to see the new Disney movie, "Planes," and it was really, really cute. Good job Disney for making another heartwarming movie that brings a tear or two to my eyes... But really, it's a great little movie and we all enjoyed it :) After the movie, we got the rest of the boys' stuff packed in the car and ready to go for the next morning.

SATURDAY
Got up bright and early for our drive up to north Georgia to meet their mom. We grabbed breakfast from Chick-fil-A, and then hit the road. A couple potty stops and five hours later, we ate lunch, and said our goodbyes to those super sweet little boys. We are so thankful we got to spend six full weeks with them this summer, and we just had so much fun with them!

We then made our way over to Atlanta, to visit Jeff's best friend/best man. We went to a cookout at one of his friends' house, and had lots of fun. All of his friends were really nice and welcoming, and didn't make it awkward for us even though we knew no one! After a delicious dinner (grilled chicken and sausage made by an awesome guy from Australia) and some homemade ice cream, we all played Cards Against Humanity. It was my first time playing, and I loved it! I want it for myself now of course. There were 12 or 13 of us playing, and I actually won with five black cards! Holla!

SUNDAY
Woke up bright and early again to head home from Atlanta. We splurged again and got Dunkin Donuts for breakfast, and it was oh so yummy. We took a different route home from ATL than we normally do, and we loved it! It was so gorgeous. We saw so many fields of crops and things, and it was actually really interesting. (We ended up Googling how corn and peanuts are harvested, and we learned something new while we drove...)

A couple of potty stops, some gorgeous back roads of Georgia and about four and a half hours later, we made it to my Grandparents house for a big family lunch! We celebrated my Aunt and my Papa who both have August birthdays. I later worked on addressing the envelopes for our wedding invitations, then we had our first pre-marital counseling session. We stopped by Publix to grab a bit of groceries and pick up a Redbox (since we had a code for a free night!), and then spent some time just resting at Jeff's house...while I addressed some more envelopes.

Super busy, and super fun. We had a great weekend, but we are definitely both exhausted. I skipped my run this morning so that I could sleep until 7 am, rather than 6 am, and just that one hour wasn't quite enough. I'll run tomorrow morning though, so I can start week 6 of 5K training! Tonight and tomorrow we will be busy working to get our invitations stuffed and ready to go, so that we can get them sent out by no later than Friday! Ahhh, so exciting! They turned out great, and I can't wait to show them to you in a couple of weeks, once they've been sent and seen :)

Hope you lovely ladies are having a good Monday so far. I'm looking forward to working on wedding stuff tonight, and making what Jeff has named "Adult Bagel Bites" for dinner! I'll try to make them kind of healthy-ish, and count the calories, but they're just gonna be so yummy!

Much Love,
Halie

Planning, Dresses & Purple Pens: Some Favorites

I got up this morning (even when I really super didn't want to), and did my early morning run of 2.5 miles. And it felt rough. But at the end, I felt good because I have now completed week 5 of my 5K training, and we're just under a month away from race day! Holy crap that's crazy! But I'm excited and ready and I can't wait to have a blast actually running a race...weird!

Today, in honor of completing week 5, I'm sharing five of my current favorite things for "5 Fave Friday."

ONE - Cute, snuggly little boys. Every night for the past two weeks, I've been reading a book to them out loud, and every night they come and snuggle up next to me, and sometimes fight about who's turn it is to sit closer to me. And it's just so stinking sweet. It kinda makes my heart almost burst it's just so sweet. I really do love them, and I'm incredibly blessed to be able to inherit these these precious boys as my step-sons!

TWO - Gems with Friends. It's one of those Zynga games for your phone (like Words with Friends and all those others), but this one is definitely my favorite of all of those. And I'm more than a little obsessed. The problem is, almost no one I know actually plays it, so all of the 'friends' I play with, are just anonymous opponents. So some of you lovelies should get it and then we can play together :) My username is Halez88...

THREE - Buying new dresses, in smaller sizes. It seems like almost all of my clothes are now at a point where they're just getting too big to still be worn. And hello - obviously that's exciting! But my favorite is buying new dresses for work at Target, and instead of buying an XXL (I have a couple of those from a few  years ago), I'm now buying just an L. Definitely a favorite.

FOUR - Wedding planning. Duh. I was going to try not to talk about wedding planning on this list since I talk about it in just about every other post it seems like...but I've got serious "Bride Brain" right now. Soooo #SorryImNotSorry, but planning my wedding is definitely a favorite.

FIVE - Writing in cursive. I know that's a really weird one, but I'm just trying to share 'the real me' with you guys, as nerdy as that real me might be sometimes...But seriously. I started doing it a couple of months ago, in order to practice my cursive handwriting, so that it would look pretty when I hand address our wedding invites. Well now, I just do it all the time! And I really have gotten better, so at least I accomplished my goal of improving. I'll be addressing the envelopes next week, so hopefully I make each one look so pretty!

This awesome purple pen is also my favorite....

And that wraps up five of my most random favorite things right now! Hope you guys liked this little glimpse into some of my weirdness ;) Sometimes I try to keep the weird stuff to myself, but sometimes I just gotta let it out and share it. Today was obviously one of the sharing days. Don't hold it against me though, mmkay?

Tomorrow we take the boys back to their mom, and we won't see them again until our wedding. (Whoa that sounded weird and crazy.) It's been a great six weeks with them this summer, and we've had so much fun together! We have to wake up super early in the morning to hit the road, then drive five hours to North Georgia. Then Jeff and I will head over to Atlanta, to spend one night at his best friend/best man Adam's house. Tomorrow is also our two-year anniversary! But we're putting the celebration on hold for a few days, and we'll go out one night next week. Sunday my whole family will get together for lunch to celebrate our two August birthdays, and then I'm hoping to get some wedding planing or wedding crafting done in the afternoon/evening.

Definitely going to be a busy weekend, but I'm still of course looking forward to it! Hope y'all have good Friday's, and fun weekends as well!

Much Love,
Halie