High Five for Friday - Week #9

Four-day work weeks really fly by, don't they? And of course we're all grateful for that! Or at least I can speak for myself and say that I'm grateful for that. Because it was just so quick! And now it's already Friday, and that makes me a happy, happy lady. And in my usual Friday fashion, we're going to do High Five for Friday today, with Lauren Elizabeth.

1. Went to kick boxing last night, and felt great about it actually. Then Angie and I grabbed a super yummy and mostly healthy dinner at Zoe's Kitchen. I also saw two old girlfriends from high school, so we chatted for a few minutes, and made plans to have dinner together one night.

2. Shopping at Francesca's!And then while Angie and I were sitting there, I glanced up at the big sign for that little complex, and saw Francesca's on it! I had no idea we had even gotten one, but apparently it's been there for a few months now. So we walked over and browsed for a while, and Angie got a really cute skirt. And that was our first shopping trip together! #besties ;)

3. Jeff bought me some sunflowers at Trader Joe's last Friday night, and they're still looking gorgeous! So I took a couple of them outside for a little photo shoot. I needed a new picture for a blog button, because I'm sponsoring Living in Yellow this month, so I wanted to use these beauties for that!

4. Four-day work week. Duh.

5. I stumbled into a new hairstyle (for myself, every other girl in the world was already doing this I'm sure), and I'm wearing my cute little side braid to work today. I feel cute and sassy, and my hair isn't all up in my face bothering me. Win-win.

Tonight, Jeff and I are going over to help my parents in their back yard, and get the pool cleaned up and ready for summer time.  And then we'll be going back over again tomorrow, because there's no way we will finish it all in just a few short, after-work hours. Then Sunday we'll be spending some time in our spare bedroom, getting it cleaned up and organized, so that the boys have someplace to stay when they get here next weekend!! Yes, we get them next weekend, and we're both really excited about it. But first, we've got to get their room looking more like a boys' bedroom, rather than a storage room/dump like it's currently being used...

So it will be a busy weekend, full of lots of hard work, but it will be worth it once we can swim in the pool, and enjoy our second bedroom with the boys for the next five weeks! Anyways, it was a good week, and I'm sure we'll have a good weekend. Hope y'all do too!

High Five for Friday - Week #8

If anyone was ever excited to see a Friday roll around, it's on wonderful days like today, because not only is it Friday, but it's the Friday before a 3-day holiday weekend! And who wouldn't be excited about that?! I mean, I get that not everyone gets Monday off, but this State-worker and her husband both do, so that's important :) But before we just fly away and into the sunset of the upcoming weekend, let's do a little High Five for Friday with Lauren Elizabeth first!

1. Angie and I went to kick boxing last night for the first time in a couple weeks. Neither of us wanted to go, and we both pretty much hated it while we were there. It wasn't until like 9pm that we both decided we felt better and were glad we ended up going. High five for endorphins and exercise!

2. On Monday I took Primrose on a short walk around our neighborhood and found a couple of really gorgeous flowers. High five for pretties!

3. I cooked dinner in my crock pot two nights this week, and both turned out stinking delicious. And those "recipes" are always the easiest. Actually, one night I had a pre-seasoned pork roast, so all I had to do was dump that bad boy in there and go on about my business for the next 6ish hours. Easy and yum. High five for 'lazy' cooking and delicious dinners!

4. We had my parents over for dinner on Tuesday night, and it was so much fun. They're air conditioning has been out for the past week, so we invited them over for dinner and a night in the cool air. They enjoyed it, and so did we. High five for family time!

5. My sweet Primrose follows me everywhere y'all. And it's so cute and I love it. I won't be too 'graphic' and share what exactly she's waiting on, but just look at how cute she is :) High five for sweet doggies!

And a sixth one just for fun - I finished book four in the Game of Thrones series the other night. I'm only like one chapter into the fifth and final book so far, but it's good and I can't wait to see how everything wraps up! It's been a really good series, but it's also taking me FOREVER to read, so I'm ready to be done and move on to something else. So high five for finishing this series, in another month or so!

Happy Friday my friends. Hope you had a good week, but that you have an even better weekend! We have zero plans right now, but we do know we'll be heading down for a day at the beach one day this weekend. And that's all I need to know! Looking forward to some rest and relaxation, and also some productivity around the house... See y'all back here on Tuesday! :)

High Five for Friday - Week #7

This feels like it's been a pretty long week you guys, so I for one am happy (as always) that today is finally Friday! Work has been good, but busy, and we even got some good news this week - which I'll tell you about as one of my high five moments in just a bit... Overall, it was a good week, but I'm ready to get the next eight hours of work over with, and head into the weekend! But first, let's head into my weekly installment of High Five for Friday, to link up with Lauren.

1. We made really yummy homemade vegetarian pizza for Meatless Monday. Here's the quick "recipe" - spread out some fresh dough (we got it from Publix), spread a layer of Classico pesto sauce, a layer of thawed frozen spinach, some red onion slices, and mine got mushrooms and tomatoes. Top all of that with a big handful of mozzarella cheese, then dollop on little drops of goat cheese. Bake for about 20 minutes or so, and viola - delicioso! Seriously y'all, it's sooo good. I made it again for my lunch on Tuesday, on a whole wheat Flatout, and it was just as good.

2. My mama tried a new recipe for making her own iced coffee, and so on Wednesday morning she picked me up before work, and brought me a cup of it! It's so good. And she even made her own creamer for it too. Here's the recipe she found from Pinterest if you're interested. 

My sister gave me this tumbler as part of my MoH present :)

3. We got good news at work this week. For my section, there are supposed to be 10 total positions that do what I do - right now however, we're only at six. And it's kind of killing us. But we found out on Tuesday that even though our whole Department is on a hiring freeze, they're allowing us to get new employees, and fill our empty OPS position as well! This is a huge deal guys, even if it doesn't quite sound like it - believe me, we're pumped about it.

4. I posted my summer bucket list the other day, and I'm excited to get movin' on it! Hopefully we'll be better at this one, than at the springtime one I made, because I didn't do hardly anything from that one... Oopsies!

5. Primrose is a really funny dog, and lately, she's starting refusing to eat by herself. So one night, we came home to find she had carried her bowl into the living room, leaving a trail of food behind her. We cracked up laughing when we saw it. Well now, if she hasn't eaten by the time we settle onto the couch for the night, we have to bring her food bowl in there with us so she'll eat her dinner. She's so funny and we love her so much :)

Tonight we might have a couple friends over (if one of them is up for it after her nursing shift) to grill some burgers and sit on the porch. There's a concert at the park by our house tonight, and we can hear it just by sitting outside! So that should be fun, and the weather is gorgeous today, so that will be nice to enjoy being outside for a while tonight. Then tomorrow we're going kayaking!! And I'm so freaking excited about that! Can't wait! Happy Friday y'all, see ya Monday!

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! :)

High Five for Friday - Week #4

You guys, I'm really enjoying being back in the blogging world now. The five-month break I took was absolutely necessary, for a couple of reasons, but now that I'm back, I'm so glad to be here. I came back excited about writing, and about sharing my life, and reading about your lives. And I came back refreshed from all the silly blog-drama that goes on when thousands upon thousands of girls are all trying to achieve some level of popularity at this little hobby of ours. It's just silliness really. But it feels good to have gotten some perspective on that.

And now I just want to get back to documenting my life, and my interests, in whatever way I want to, without the pressure to conform or perform, or get 30 bajillion page views a day. So that's what I plan on doing. I just wanted to get that all out in the open now that I've been back for about a month now. Anyways, let's move on and get to the fun that is High Five for Friday with Lauren, because I really do like these posts :)

1. I went to a new kick boxing class with a friend from work last night, and it was killer! It's "cardio kick boxing" so it's very high energy. Thursday's is apparently arms day, and so we did a lot of pushups and little weight things too. Then at the end, she made us all go outside and run a lap around the center, which was probably less than half a mile, but it was still rough. I forgot to wear my Polar heart rate monitor, but I feel like I must have burned like 11,000 calories... Going back again next Thursday though!

2. One of the photo prompts this week for the April photo challenge on Instagram was "Hobby." So I took a photo of some of my very favorite books, and I just like it :)

3. My self-designed blog is so super cute, right? And the best part, it completely fit into our budget this month, because it cost a whopping ZERO dollars since I figured it all out myself. Still not perfect, since I need to tweak and fix a few things, but I'm still loving it :)

4. Speaking of the budget, we cut up some credit cards this week at our weekly Financial Peace University class, and that felt great! We completely paid off one of them last week, and now it will never have a balance again! (The other one was Macy's and it had only been used once in like, 2011, just to get 20% off my swimsuit purchase...)

5. I made this amazing SkinnyTaste Macaroni Casserole for dinner the other night, and it was so stinking yummy!! My pictures may not look magazine-worthy, but let me tell you, this was so delicious, and so easy! I modified the recipe a bit though, because I was scared of the whole not-cooking-the-pasta-ahead-of-time thing. So then once I put it all together, I just put it in the oven long enough to melt the cheese, so like 10-15 minutes.

And since more than just five things need high fives this week, here are a few more awesome things I just want to share today...
- Did y'all see the round robin giveaway on Instagram this week? Well, I won a $10 Amazon card from it!
- I printed a whole bunch of pictures last weekend for the house, and I also updated all the frames and stuff in my office, and it's making me happier.
- I've been reconnecting with a lot of my old blog friends this week and it's been a lot of fun.

So that's about it for today now. This weekend is sure to be fun, because it's the opening concert weekend at the new Cascades park! I won four tickets, so we invited two of our friends to meet at our house, then all go together, so we're looking forward to that. Tonight is also a big block party for the FSU spring game, which is tomorrow. And who knows what else the next few days might hold?! Looking forward to it of course :) Hope y'all have a had an equally good week, and wishing you an even better weekend!

High Five for Friday: Week 3

It's Friday morning now, and I'm just clinging to the hope that work flies by today, because as usual, I'm ready for the weekend! (Not like there's ever a Friday that doesn't apply, but still...) This past Monday I didn't feel like writing a post, so I didn't recap my weekend. And since not too much happened this past week, today's High Five For Friday (with Lauren Elizabeth) post will be a mix of last weekend, and a little bit from this week as well...

1. Seriously you guys, my doggie is the cutest girl ever! Look at her squishy little face sleeping under the pillow :)

2. Last weekend, my Mama and I had a little day-date together, and it was such a nice day. We had lunch at one of our favorite local spots, Hopkins, and sat outside to enjoy the nice weather. Then we ran some errands, including a "grand tour" of the local Hobby Lobby. (That means we walked up and down pretty much every single aisle.) And somehow, I made it out of there spending under $20 bucks. Amazing right? I know, I know. 

3. I absolutely love making us really yummy Saturday morning breakfasts. This past weekend, I made "open-faced" ham, egg & cheese biscuits. Well, they only turned out to be open-faced because I had prepared too much eggs and ham to all fit inside the biscuit. But it was delicious!

4. Have you guys heard of The Little Free Library? I only just heard of it a couple of weeks ago, when I stumbled upon the hashtag on someone random persons Instagram. But they're so cool! It's just a little "take a book, return a book" kind of deal, but they put them in the cutest little baby book-houses! Last weekend, my Mama and I found the two here in town, and I got some great books. (20,000 Leagues Under the Sea {hardback, Reader's Digest copy!}, The Cricket in Times Square and Hansel & Gretel, A Little Golden Book.) Can't wait to see what other things I find the next time I go back! If you like books as much as I do, you should check out their national map and see if there's one in your town.

5. I watched "Frozen" twice this past week, and it was so stinking good. Once on Wednesday night at home with Jeff, and then on Thursday night with my whole family on family dinner night. When I watched it at home with Jeff, I was singing at the top of my lungs to every song, but I tried to refrain from such dramatics with the whole family, because some of them hadn't seen it yet, and I figured they might want to hear Idina and Kristen rather than me ;) It's just so stinking good!

So that wraps it up here for the past weekend/week and my high fives... This weekend we were going to go camping, but it turns out it's supposed to thunderstorm pretty much all weekend. So we're postponing the trip, and hopefully we'll go next weekend instead. If the weather isn't too nasty, I might do some garage sale rummaging in the morning with my dad. Otherwise, I'm sleeping in and being lazy on the couch all morning. And then we're crossing our fingers that it's sunny on Sunday afternoon, because we want to head down to the beach for a couple of hours! So here's hoping that happens. 

Hope y'all have had a good weekend, but that you have a great weekend! I'll be back on Monday to pick up right where we left. Peace out friends.

Sunny Love,

Halie

High Five for Friday: Week 2

Friday's are always the bestest. Everyone is just in a better mood, things seem a little more jolly since the weekend is so close, and there's only nine short hours of work to get through until you're free for a couple of days. (Minus one glorious lunch hour in the middle of the work day.)

I want to join in with Lauren again today and celebrate Friday with a couple of virtual high fives, and highlight some of my favorite things from this past week :)

1. Jeff and I started Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University class on Tuesday night, and we're both pretty excited about it. Wednesday night we sat down and did some of the homework, and we're both feeling ready to really accomplish some of our debt and get our budget under control! We can do this!

2. My sweet little Primrose, always ;)

3. Making my springtime bucket list for the next few months. There's lots of fun things on the list, and I'm looking forward to getting to do some of those things. I think my goal will be to do at least one of those things this weekend..... but which one should it be?!

4. The new Cascades Park down by our house is really pretty! I took Prim on a walk around the park yesterday to check it out more, and there's so many cool parts of it! The beautiful waterfall feature is just one of the cool things, but there's really so many more!

5. Instagram :) Seriously you guys, I love Instagram! I didn't do as many of the photo-a-day prompts this week (because some I didn't like, and some I just couldn't think of anything), but I still like to upload some random pictures anyways, so this is a mix of some of the photo-a-days from the week, and some "regular" IG photos.

Top L: "Letter" S is for springtime! // Top R: I just liked the light // Bottom L: yummy sammie // Bottom R: Cropped.

Tonight my aunt and uncle are having us all over to their house for a cookout, to welcome home my cousin on his spring break from seminary in New Orleans. So I'm really excited about a big yummy dinner with my family! We're a pretty crazy family, so I know we'll all have a good time together. Then tomorrow I'm looking forward to lunch and Hobby Lobby shopping with my mama :) 

Thrown in to the other bits of the weekend will be the usual house cleaning, and maybe some time spent in the sunshine as well - because time in the sunshine is always necessary at this time of the year. Hope y'all have a great weekend, and I'll be looking forward to reading the recaps on Monday! :)

Sunny Love,

Halie

High Five for Friday: Week 1 (of my return!)

Morning :) Still trying to get in the habit of actually blogging, rather that just reading other blogs, and playing around with my settings endlessly. It's tough starting over from scratch, but it's also fun... Anyways, let's just get to it, shall we?

1. There is a new park opening up right by my house today, and we're really excited about it. It has a small amphitheater stage and seats and there will be concerts and cool stuff happening there. It's only about a 5 minute walk, so I'm sure we'll spend lots of time there in this gorgeous Florida weather. The other fun thing about it is that we can hear the sound system from our front porch, so we'll be able listen to the music for free sometimes, if we don't feel like actually going to the concert some nights. Cool huh?! Tonight there will be food trucks and popcorn, so we'll definitely go down there and check it all out!

2. I stinking love my husband. :) Like for real y'all, he's so sweet and cute, and being married is just super fun. I know you're not all super stoked about mushy-gushy stuff on the internets, so I'll keep this point brief, but I just wanted to send him some virtual love this morning!

Don't worry, wedding pics will most definitely be shared on here in the coming weeks....!! :)

3. I started watching Parenthood on Netflix this week, and it's so good so far! Usually, Jeff and I always watch tv series on Netflix together, but I also like having something that I watch by myself, for those days where I get home from work way early than he does, or on a Saturday morning when I can't sleep past 8:30 am, but he can sleep 'til noon.... Anyways, this one was a good choice for me, and I can't wait to get into it more.

4. I am obsessed with Instagram. This obviously isn't news to anyone I'm sure, but I'm just throwing it out there again. I've been participating in the daily photo prompt challenge sponsored by Chantelle from Fat Mum Slim, and I love it. I've actually decided to make it my goal to get featured in her Fab 4 one day. That would just be so exciting for me!

Prompts: Top L: Fresh / Top R: Something good / Bottom L: 10 am / Bottom R: oops, that was just a regular IG pic..

5. It's really fun getting back into the blog world. Slowly but surely I'm working on getting it all together and back up and running (almost) the way I was before. It's tricky, but I'm working on it!

Well that's all I've got for you lovely folks today, but if you want, you could go check out the other High Five for Friday posts with Miss Lauren Elizabeth, because that's where I'm linking up today!

Sunny Love,
Halie

Peppy

It's Friday! It's Friday! It's Friday! And I'm feeling extremely Peppy = zippy, energetic, vigorous, lively. And this level of energy and excitement is not just for any 'ole Friday - although I do love me a Friday. But today's excitement is because it's the 2nd annual girls weekend with all of my friends from St. Augustine, at one of the girls' farm house in the country. Last year was sooo much fun, and I'm quite sure that this year is going to be just as great, if not even better. So today after work, I will make the short 45-minute drive to the farm house, to see six of my bestest girl friends!! 

Oh, and we've nick-named this annual tradition KAG dubbs - which stands for "kick a** girls weekend." (Sorry Mama for the language!) We decided the weekend needed a name that was equal to it's amount of awesomeness, and just "girls weekend" made it sound lame and not very awesome. So obviously we had to kick that up a notch. Can't wait to see them all tonight, and spend the whole weekend talking and laughing and slip-n-sliding and playing games and painting our nails and driving ATV's and holding hands and being silly and just having so much fun. It's gonna be the greatest.

But for today, let's hop into five awesome things from this past week, and link up with the cute Lauren Elizabeth.

1. Running and zumba is so much more fun when you do it with a friend! So glad that my friend and bridesmaid Lacey starting coming with me every Tuesday!

2. The cake tasting at Publix earlier this week was sooo delicious. And these tiny cakes are just adorable, aren't they?! Publix made it all pretty easy on us too, and they are definitely a great bakery choice for anyone who's looking for one.

3. This pretty little gazebo is where I'll become Mrs. Halie Pullen on October 5, 2013! We officially sent in our forms and deposit yesterday, and I am so stinking excited!!

4. My dessert for the past two nights has just been a spoonful of Trader Joe's Cookie Butter, and it's been so yummy. Don't judge me.

5. Chick-fil-A breakfast on the way to work this morning was definitely a great idea.

And not pictured above - we did our second registry last night, at Target! We've been super productive this week with wedding stuff. Since just last Saturday, here's all we've done: bought my dress, registered at Bed, Bath & Beyond and at Target, picked our cake, and Jeff's groom's cake, found our venue and submitted the deposit. Things are coming along quickly now, and I couldn't be more freaking excited!

Also, I'm excited because the look of this little bloggy is about to change again, thanks to the most awesome sauce designer and friend, Erin. And I'm so pumped for that!

Well I think that's enough blabbing for today, so I need to stop myself now before I just go on and on forever because I feel super hyper and amped right now, so I could just talk and talk forever.....(And that was a super long run-on sentence.) I hope y'all have had a good week, and that your weekend is even better. I know mine will be! Happy Friday!

Pastors, Pizza & Patriotic Fruit - H54F

It's a little ridiculous how excited I am that it's Friday now, considering I only worked four days this week. But who cares - it's still Friday, and I'm still excited! It's been a pretty crazy busy week, and the weekend will be just as crazy. We've been trying to get in a ton of wedding planning before June 8, because that's when Jeff's boys get here, and they'll be here for three full weeks! We're obviously excited for them to be here, but it leaves us not much alone time, and definitely not much wedding planning time. So we're trying to cram before then!

And so for today's post, I'll tell you five things about this past week that made it good in the midst of the busyness, because today, we're going back to good ole' High Five for Friday with Miss Lauren!

1. My sister and her new husband hosted their first party at their house for Memorial Day lunch, and Jeff and I were in charge of fruit. So we got festive and made red, white and blue fruit skewers! Yummy, healthy, festive and easy. Perfect.

2. Tried a Lean Cuisine French Bread Pizza for the first time, and that baby was delish. And only 310 calories.

3. We looked at another wedding venue on Wednesday, and we really liked it. Not as much as Maclay, but it was still a really good location. Unfortunately, we found out that Maclay is already booked for all of October, so this new place (The Dogwood House) is now our number one choice. The pro's of this place over Maclay though, is that it's $200 less, and it has more tables and chairs that come with it. We'll probably be booking it in the next few days!

4. Sat through two hours of high school graduation on Thursday night, to see some very special youth of mine walk across that stage. This group was in 6th grade the first year I worked with our youth group, so I've seen them grow up all through middle and high school, and it's been amazing. Last night, about 15 of them graduated, and I was so proud of all of them!

5. Over the years, this special girl has become more than just one of my youth, and I am so glad I got to watch her grow up into the beautiful lady that she is. She is going to do amazing things with her life, and I can't wait to watch her!

And not pictured above is number 6. We finally talked to both of our ministers, and we're all set to go with our wedding officiants! Jeff's dad (who is a pastor) and my old youth pastor/mentor Duncan, will both be officiating our wedding ceremony, and I could not be more excited about that!

So yeah, it's been a busy week. And this weekend will be busy. And next week will be busy. But hopefully at the end of next week, we will have made a lot of progress in our wedding planning, and will be able to breathe a bit. Because holy moly it's only  four and a half months away now!! This weekend we have two graduation parties, wedding dress shopping, registering, and a family birthday party. Bring on the fun and the crazy and the busy!

Pizza, Presents & Purple Flowers

FRIDAY! Hooray :) I'm so glad it's here. It hasn't been a particularly rough week or anything, but I've been feeling exhausted this whole week. I think it is still stemming from super early mornings last weekend, followed by super full days. And I just never was able to catch up after that! I think I get to sleep in a little bit tomorrow, so that will be oh so lovely. Hopefully at least. Anyways, for the past couple weeks I did some other random posts and took a break from High Five for Friday, but it's back today, so here we go! And I'm of course linking up with Lauren.

1. Beautiful blue skies in Florida almost this whole week. Which was a very welcome sight because last week was so gray and dreary the whole time!

2. Celebrating my sweet man's birthday at a special lunch place he requested - VooDoo Dog. We shared the Bleu Moon Burger, and it was sooo good. Giant burger with bacon and their homemade Bleu cheese - delicious.

3. FroYo for two is always a great idea. Especially getting watermelon flavor and loading it up with more fruit like mango, kiwi and strawberries.

4. Went on my first blate yesterday with my girl Angie, and she was so so sweet and brought me a little engagement present. It's a yummy smelling candle! And we all know how much I love candles :) Also, this is officially the first thing I get to cross off my 30 Before 30 list!! Hooray!

5. This is the delicious salad we actually both got on our blate yesterday - the Black & Bleu salad - from 101 Restaurant. And it was amazing. I'm obsessed with Bleu cheese crumbles, as well as asparagus, so this baby was perfect.

The only thing about this week that wasn't so great, and I don't want a high five for, is forgetting to take a picture with Angie on our blate. I took pictures of my food and the present and my walk to the restaurant, but not with her! What was I thinking? Apparently we were both bad bloggers in that sense. Ugh. But we've already started talking about getting together again, so we'll definitely make sure it happens next time!

Tonight Jeff and I are going on a bike ride, and riding to dinner and the mall for a little bit of shopping/errands, and then relaxing at his house. Tomorrow we are going on special adventure for his birthday to the Monticello Karting Track! It's like really awesome go-karts for grown-ups, that go super fast. He's done it before and says it awesome, so he's getting a small group together to go tomorrow, and I'm pretty pumped! Should be lots of fun! We're just hoping the rain holds out until after we're done. Or else we probably can't do it in the rain :(  Then tomorrow night we're going over to my friend Lacey's house to make our special Popeye's Pizza, and hang out with either a movie or a game night.

Sunday is Mother's Day and family lunch and family time and hopefully shopping for a couple dresses I need for next week (bridal luncheon and rehearsal dinner). Also, next Saturday is my sister's wedding (in case you somehow missed that after I've mentioned it so much lately!), so I'm lining up a couple of posts to publish Wednesday-Saturday even while I'm busy doing all sorts of MOH duties and things. So if I don't respond to your emails and comments right away, just give it time and I will eventually :)

So there ya go. There's some good things from this past week, and the things I'm looking forward to for the weekend! I hope y'all had a good week too, and also that you have great weekends.

Practicing the Ukulele - H54F

It's Friday!! And today Jeff and I are driving over to St. Augustine for the weekend! And we're getting our engagement pictures taken finally! And clearly I'm pretty stoked for the day and the weekend :) But there are also some things from this past week that I'm pretty happy about too! So I'm joining Lauren formerly at From My Grey Desk now at Lauren Elizabeth for High Five for Friday!

1. One of the bouquet's of flowers from my sister's shower was still alive and looking great, so for family dinner this week, I trimmed them up, and separated them into three mason jars, and they looked so cute! Especially with our super spring-time-y tablecloth :)

2. I ran another PR this week! And this one blew my old one out of the water! My previous PR was 13:39, and this weeks was 12:32!! Holy crap! That's over a minute better than my old time. That's craziness.

3. I started learning the ukulele this week! So far, I've got about five or six chords down pat, and can actually play a whole song with just four of those :) I'm focusing on "Summer Vibe" by Walk Off the Earth, and I'm getting really good at it too! Can't wait to learn more chords and more songs.

4. Yesterday after my run I had some crazy hair, and I thought it was amusing. Oh, and I went to zumba like that too :)

5. My Mama bought me this last night, as my "healthy" dessert, and it was quite yummy! Only 200 calories for 1/2 cup, so not too bad. I don't think I even ate that much of it though, so that's a win for me :)

Like I said before, we're leaving for St. Augustine today right after work, and I'm so dang excited! I can't wait to see all my friends over there, and of course take our engagement pictures as well! However, the weather forecast isn't looking so great, so I'm a bit nervous about that. Pray for the weather to clear up a bit for us, so we can take pretty pictures and not get soaked in the rain! And I hope y'all have great weekends too! See y'all on Monday, same time, same place :)

Popcorn, Friends, Shells & Sand - H54F

I, for one, am glad to see Friday arrive. This week has kind of been stressful at times, and I'm ready for a couple of days to hopefully relax. I'm hoping to go to the beach tomorrow, so I really would love for that to work out. And I want to work on a few wedding-related things as well this weekend. But other than that, we have no other plans, and that's good. Because last weekend was crazy busy! I need a bit of rest this time around... First though, let's talk about some of the great things from this past week, and link up with Lauren at From My Grey Desk for High Five for Friday!

1. My wonderful friend Nicole came and surprised me on Monday night! She actually lives 3 hours away from me, but was close to Tally for work, so her and Jeff worked out a surprise dinner! You can read all about it in my post I wrote from the other day, here.

2. The weather this week has been wonderful! (Well, except for last night when it started storming like crazy. And today's it's still pretty gray and icky...) But mostly, it's been so beautiful outside and so warm! I've loved it.

3. I wore a tank top to workout in for the first time (instead of a big, baggy t-shirt). At first I was self-conscious and felt kinda weird. But I got used to it, and it felt great! And then I wore it again the next day too 'cuz I loved it so much - don't judge me friends ;) Definitely want to get a couple more.

4. Movie theater popcorn is seriously always the yummiest. Don't even talk to me about the calorie count or how much butter or salt they put in there. I don't care. It's too delicious to care.

5. I finally got around to fixing this beach jar from our trip to Shell Point, back on March 16th! Jeff and I collect sand and shells from each new beach we go to together, and create a little memory jar like this one. (We write the beach name and date on the bottom of each one to remember.) Now this is our sixth one!

And now I'm going to reference back to point number four, for a quick story -- We went to see Jurassic Park in IMAX 3D last night, and it was going really good. Well, with about half an hour or more left, the power went out in the whole theater, and that entire end of the mall as well. They came in to tell us they didn't know when it would come back on, so they gave us all "re-admit" tickets to come back again. So tonight we're going to go back, and attempt to see the ending. But now we have to sit through almost the whole entire thing again. Which isn't too bad, it's just a long movie! But I definitely need to see the ending. I haven't watched it in yeeeeeears, so I don't remember much at all about it, but I was really into it last night! And now I absolutely need to finish it!

And now I'm off to attempt to make it through my work day. I've got a supply order to submit, and a ton of papers sitting on my desk, just waiting for me to deal with them! Ugh. No thank you to both... Hope y'all have a great Friday, and that you each enjoy your weekends!

Packed Full of Fun Times - H54F

It's Friday! And I'm only working a half day today! Hooray! I'm taking off work at noon, so that I can go spend a few more hours with the twins before Jeff has to take them back this afternoon. So that's sad that they're leaving, but I'm excited to spend a bit more time with this today! And even though we were only able to have them down here for a week, we've definitely made sure that this week has been Packed Full of Fun Times, in order to make the most out of it!

But let's jump into High Five for Friday with Lauren now!

1. My sweet little sister sent me "Thank You" card in the mail for her shower gift from a couple weeks ago, even though we live in the same house :) She's so silly, but also so cute. Love you Little!

2. I found a really cute dress to wear for our engagement pictures! It was a toss up between this one and another one, but when put to the test on Instagram and this here blog the other day, this navy one won out big time. Then a friend of mine suggested I wear some bright turquoise jewelry with it, so I'm on the hunt for some pretty turquoise jewelry now!

3. We took the boys to see "The Croods" on Monday night, and then for some dinner at Burger King. And they were little rebels and kept the 3D glasses, because they like when Jeff pops the lenses out. And they look so dang cute in them! (Even though Gabe looks like a goofball up there!) They've still been wearing them all week too :) And the movie was super good too! I would recommend it for us "big kids," even without little ones. It was a really cute movie. Definitely one I'd like to own myself one day!

4. Last night we took the boys to play at Fun Station Jr., because Jeff had bought a Groupon! It's full of tons of bounce-houses and bounce-slides, and also some arcade games. Our friends Josh & Lacey met us their with little Beans, and a family from Jeff's church brought their two boys as well. And they all had a great time playing together! Then us four, and Josh and Lacey and Beans had a fun dinner together at Po'Boys, right across the street, and we also had a Groupon for dinner too!

5. I am officially pre-registered to run my very first ever 5K race!! The Run or Dye is tentatively scheduled to come to Tally on September 7, and I'm so super pumped. Time to start some training I'd say!

The sad news of this week is that we won't actually be taking our engagement pictures this afternoon like we had planned. Our photographer actually lives in Nashville (she's a longtime family friend of Jeff's whole family), but she was down in south Georgia for their kids' spring break this past week, and that's how we were going to do it today. But now she's had some big family medical issues, and needs to be with her dad today. So that's sad news. But, we're already in the process of getting it worked out with someone else. So not to worry, it will still be happening soon-ish!

Tomorrow is the wedding shower for my sister that I'm throwing along with my Grandmother. In the morning, my Mama and I will be doing some last-minute decoration stuff, and getting things ready, and I'm so excited for it! I hope we have a great turnout, and that everything is beautiful :)

I know this will be a good weekend, and I'm excited for all the other fun stuff I have planned! I'll of course be back on Monday to share it all with y'all, duh :) Until then though, I hope y'all have a great weekend too! Enjoy your couple of days off work, and spend some happy time with friends and family!

PR, Passion & Puppy - H54F

Good morning my dear friends and readers! Today is Friday! And I know we must all be excited about that. The weekend is finally supposed to warm up, and get us back into the upper 70's, and I'm just really crossing my fingers that it actually happens. I'm ready to put away my sweaters for the year!

This afternoon after work, Jeff and I are heading up to middle Georgia to spend the night at his brother's house, and then drive a couple more hours on Saturday morning in order to pick up the twins for their spring break! They get to spend the whole next week down here, and so obviously we're super excited about that. Looking forward to getting to spend some time with them! Also, this will be the first time we've seen them since getting engaged, so we will finally tell them face-to-face about it. But first we have to figure out how! I might be Googling later "How to tell a 6-year-old what engaged means." Ya know, just for some references ;)

But this morning, let's hop right into High Five for Friday, with the ever-so-cute Lauren at From My Grey Desk.

1. This cute little boy had to get a bath the other night, and he doesn't like those. But then afterwards, he was so sweet and just laid with me for the longest time, resting his head on my leg. So cute!

2. Ate a delicious dinner at Earth Fare, and looooved it. That's broccoli and cranberry slaw, italian caprese, and vegan mock curry chicken salad. And I gobbled up every. single. bite. of that up there. Soo good.

3. Jillian kicked my butt on Wednesday after my mile run. I both love and hate her at the same time. She drives me crazy, but she sure does know what she's doing.

4. Oh you know, just taking some "selfies" in the car after Zumba...

5. Set a new PR for myself again this week! Last week's PR was at 12:58, so this one is 9 seconds faster! I'll be honest here and say, I am constantly amazing and impressing myself guys. I mean, when I first tried to run a couple of times back in August, it took me about 16:30 to run a mile. Sheesh. And now look at me go!! (Oh, and I was wearing my infamous penguin shirt when I hit this PR. I'm thinking it's my new lucky t-shirt.)

And here's the sixth thing, I just don't have a picture for it.... But I need you guys to keep it on the down low OK, so don't go blabbing this around just yet (Tally peeps, you especially). But, I have a job interview this afternoon, that I'm so dang excited for! It's a good job, with much better pay, benefits (I'm OPS now and have none), and at a great place. And that's all I'm gonna say about it now. It's at 3 p.m. this afternoon, so if you think about me, just say a quick prayer or send me some good thoughts :)

Also, more importantly than anything else I've shared in this post, today is Good Friday. The day that Jesus Christ died on a cross for all of our horrible sins, because he loved us so very much; because of his extreme passion for his children. He did that so that we wouldn't have to pay for our own sins, and so that we could have the chance to spend eternity in Heaven with him and the Father. What an amazing gift! Make sure you take some time to reflect on that, and celebrate the fact that although he died on Good Friday, he rose again on Easter morning!!! And that is truly something to celebrate. (You can read the story if you're interested in Matthew 27:11 - 28:10. Or feel free to chat with me too.)

I hope y'all have an amazing day today, and a great Easter weekend as well!

Peppier Than Ever - H54F

Last week was the first time I joined in on the very popular High Five for Friday, and it was lots of fun, so I'm doing it again! So I'll be linking up again today with Lauren from At My Grey Desk. You can should us too!

1. Last week I told you that I ran my fastest mile ever - well I beat that again and set a new PR for myself on Wednesday. Last week's mile was at 13:04, and this week was at 12:58 - which is 6 seconds faster!

2. I've been noticing a lot of my clothes are getting bigger and baggier. This t-shirt used to be a tiny bit snug on me, but now it falls down past the bootay.

3. Made some time to just sit around and read my favorite magazine earlier this week.

4. Loooved getting to spend some time in the sunshine at the beach with my dear fiance on Sunday. We may have both gotten burned, but it was worth it to be sitting by the ocean :)

5. Made quesadilla pizza for the first time, and it was delicious! Can't wait to do it again, and try out new "topping" combinations and see what else we can come up with!

Tonight after work I'm going to run a couple miles around the FSU campus, and then go to the FSU baseball game with my parents! (They have season tickets, and I'm just joining them for today.) Tomorrow morning is the second wedding shower for my sister, and this one is being given by the ladies at our church. Should be lovely! Then after the shower I believe we have some more wedding-related errands to run and we'll just hang out a bit.

After work, Jeff is going to middle-Georgia today with his parents, to attend the 1st birthday party of his niece which is tomorrow. Then when they get home tomorrow night, hopefully it won't be too late so I can go over to see him! I have no specific Sunday plans yet, but hopefully it will be a nice relaxing day. I never made it to Kohl's last weekend like I wanted to, so maybe I can do that on Sunday afternoon sometime!

And guys - lately, I've just been feeling Peppier Than Ever. I'm feeling great in the mornings, despite not drinking coffee. (I gave it up during my Daniel Fast starting January 8, and still haven't had any since then.) I have tons of energy, and I'm pretty sure I can attribute that to a better diet and more exercise! This getting healthy thing is going great ;)

I hope y'all have had a good week, but I hope that your weekend is even better! What are y'all's plans? I wanna hear 'em!

Pointless Title Because I'm not Feeling Creative Today...

(Hey, at least it still starts with a "P," so that's gotta count for something right?!)

Happy Friday my lovely ladies! Before I get into my regular post, I have some "housekeeping" stuff. With all the hoopla over Google Reader and GFC lately, here is just some quick information for y'all... First of all, GFC isn't actually going away (yet), so stop freaking out about that. The two things are completely separate. You can still follow via GFC, and keep up with blogs from the Reading List right on your Blogger dashboard. Only Google Reader is going away on July 1.

Second, although it's not going away yet, there's no guarantee it'll be here for long, so you might want to think about other options to follow me, such as through my BlogLovin profile. You can also subscribe via email, through the little box on the right side bar, under the GFC widget. In addition, don't forget you can always follow me as well on Twitter and Instagram (@halierenee 88 for both) for other random shenanigans, and I post all blog updates on Twitter too. And on that note - I don't have Facebook fan page for my blog, but I'm thinking about making one. Any thoughts/opinions on that? Should I do it? And is it worth it?

Moving on now! Today I'm going to try something new, and switch from my usual Friday's Letters, and instead join Lauren @ From My Grey Desk for High Five for Friday! Super simple, but should be super fun :) And hopefully I'll meet some new blog friends today through this new link-up! If you are stopping here from HF4F, make sure to let me know, so we can exchange an email or two at least :)

1. Wore my very favoritest t-shirt the other day for my run/workout, and I loved it. It's little penguins that are lined up to look like a piano! So cute :) And definitely the softest and comfiest shirt I own.

2. Ran my fastest mile yet on Wednesday!! (While I was wearing the penguin shirt.)

3. This frozen yogurt is soooo delicious. I mean for real. And for only 110 calories for 1/2 cup, that's not too shabby, huh?! I just gotta be careful I don't get carried away with it though...

4. Had a great 1-mile run and 60 minutes of Zumba on Thursday for my workout session.

5. Did a LOT of laundry earlier this week (that's not even all of it in that basket, there were about 15 dresses hanging up to dry still), and I've actually put almost all of it away already! Which is a huge accomplishment for me...

I'm actually not too sure what all I've got planned yet for the weekend. Things are still kind of all up in the air right now, and I'm fine with that! Means there are lots of possibilities :) If it's not freezing in the morning (although I think it's supposed to be), my friend Sara and I are gonna go for a run/hike at Maclay Gardens. Then hopefully I'll be going to the beach in the afternoon with Jeff and some friends of ours. The high for Saturday is supposed to be like 78 or so, and I really hope that happens. Sunday I seriously need to do some grocery shopping, and maybe stop by Kohl's and Old Navy too - just to check out what they've got goin' on there ;) And of course I'll try to get in a workout or two as well at some point.

What are y'all's plans for the weekend? Anything fun? Is it warming up where y'all are too?! I am sooo ready for spring and summer and warm weather and sunshine!! And it's so close I can taste it!