First Cookout of the Season

First and foremost, let's all take a look at how cute my blog is now!? My blog-friend turned real-life friend Angie just re-did her header, and she was nice enough to share all her secrets with me on how to do it too. Then I just ran with it from there, and went to town designing all sorts of stuff - i.e. about me blurb, profile photo, sidebar headers, post signature, and matching button. Things aren't perfect yet (for instance, that grab button box thingy is driving me nuts, and I can't figure that out...), but it's adorable and I love it so far. And I love that I've been figuring it all out on my own!

Not too many exciting things happened this weekend, other than my new blog design of course, however, we'll do a quick run through anyways... Friday night we stayed in, ate pizza and watched "The Wolf of Wall Street" from RedBox. And we didn't like the movie all that much... not really my taste or my style, but we saw it through the entire three hours, because I'm a finisher, and I couldn't just stop without knowing the ending.

Saturday was full of errands, I'm talking, like eight or nine stops. We wrote our list out of places we needed to go to, then we put it in numerical order so we could be make the most efficient travel time. Saturday night we have some BBQ pork from the crock pot with a southwest salad, and watched "American Hustle." We felt this one was just kind of mediocre as well, but stuck it through and really the last thirty or so minutes were the best of the movie. 

Sunday however... Sunday was the first cookout of the spring/summer season! Every Sunday night since we've been married, I made us soup for dinner, and we nicknamed it Souper Sunday. Well we decided that for the next few months, we wanted to do Sizzlin' Sunday, and Jeff would grill out every week. Yummy right?! So last night was the first installment, and it didn't disappoint.

First of all, I used a super cute little bicycle basket from our wedding decor to transport all the fixin's from the kitchen to the back deck, and it worked perfectly!

Jeff did a great job grilling us each a turkey burger, a chicken hot dog, and some asparagus for our dinner! He also did a little bit of onion for each of our burgers as well. And it was all so freaking yummy!

We loved our first Sizzlin' Sunday, and are so excited to continue the tradition each week for the next few months! Right now, we don't have a table and chairs for our deck, but Jeff's mom said we can have theirs! So excited about that. We just have to make some time to go pick it up from them sometime. But in the mean time, our little TV trays did the job just fine for the night ;)

Of course there were a few other things that happened the rest of the weekend that I'm leaving out, but they're just rather boring and not too important, so we'll just glaze over those details this week, and mainly just highlight our first cookout of the season. Hope y'all had a great weekend!

Oh, and I almost forgot to include a picture of my super cute doggie girl, Primrose :) How could I forget this sweet little girl?!

P.S. - This is my 450th blog post! Whoa baby, that's a lot of bloggin' folks. Here's to the next 450!

32 Things That Make Me Happy

Yesterday, Erin at Two Thirds Hazel host a little link all about happiness. Since I had already posted a blog yesterday,  I decided to wait and use this post today instead. I started writing it yesterday though, and had fun thinking of some serious, some funny, and some random things that make me happy!

32 Things That Make Me Happy

1. Gorgeous, bright sunshine and warm spring weather.

2. Fun adventures and quality time spent with my husband.

3. My super cute and adorable doggie, Primrose.

4. Being able to make just a short drive to the beach for a day in the sun and the salt air.

5. A loving family that is also fun and supportive and caring.

6. Pizza. Seriously - it makes me happy. I just love carbs and cheese, y'all!

7. Cuddly nights on the couch under a blanket, watching a cute movie or tv show.

8. Craft time, and making random things for our house.

Just did this on Wednesday night, to finally re-pot my little African Violet!

9. Decorating our house!

10. Camping trips.

11. Walks around the park by our house.

12. Taking tons of pictures, even when it's of just everyday, ordinary things.

13. Brightly colored pens used for everyday activities. (i.e. at work)

14. The Easter wreath my MIL made for our front door.

15. Six months of marriage. Tomorrow is our 6 monthiversay of marriage, and I'd say things are going pretty great so far! I sure love this man :)

16. Living in The Sunshine State.

17.  Looking forward to seeing old friends at weddings. We're going to one at the end of the month, and I can't wait to see a big group of people I love so much!

18. New nail polish. Especially super bright colors that are perfect for spring and summer.

19. Wearing flip-flops all year long. And yes, I really am one of those girls that does that. I'm pretty sure I was wearing them with my sweater, scarf and jeans on Christmas day this past year...

20. Finishing a good book.

21. Our ever-growing collection of movies, both for grown-ups and "kids". AKA - Jeff and I still watch the kiddie movies just as much as the regular ones :)

22. When my husband texts me randomly in the middle of the day just to tell me he loves me.

23. Good music.

24. Getting coupon codes for Shutterfly in my email, making a book the day it expires, getting it only a week later, and being in love with it!

Thanks to my husband for being the hand model in this one ;)

25. Burning a yummy smelling candle in every single room of the house, so when I walk around I get bursts of a new smell in each room.

26. Spending an entire day in my pajamas - but most importantly, not putting on a bra the entire day.

27. Game nights with friends.

28. Making lists, of any kind. (Also see, I'm OCD and I love lists....)

29. Singing along at the top of my lungs while watching a musical or movie at home.

30. Florida State football.

31. Chapstick. Especially if I haven't put it on in a few hours and I've been craving it, my lips get real happy once I'm finally back together again with my beloved Burts Bee's or EOS.

32.  Having so many happy things in my life! I think I could list at least 32 more (my brain is still on a roll right now thinking of more things), but for the sake of brevity and closure and sticking to Erin's allotted number of 32, I'll cut to the credits now...

This was so much fun to make! I think I need to make these kinds of lists more often - things that make me happy, things I'm grateful for, things I love about where I live... I just want to bring so much positivity into my life and into the blogging world, and what a fun, easy way to do that!

Oh, and one more thing I'm happy about - it's Friday!!

Sunny Love,
Halie

Spring & Summer Playlist

Morning! Something my husband and I like doing every couple of months is making a new playlist for us. Jeff uses Google Play on his phone, and he pays for "All Access" which is awesome and means you can listen to ANYTHING. You can download a whole album, or make a radio station (similar to how Pandora works), or you can create your own playlists. This is actually what we did for our wedding reception, and just had our own playlist going in the background, rather than having to worry about a DJ or asking a friend to pick random stuff. We got to pick exactly the songs we wanted, and put them in the order we wanted them too. It was perfect. 

And we've been listening to that playlist a lot since October, but we were ready for a new one for the spring and summer, so this baby was born last week. We listened to it on the way to the beach Sunday, and it was great! Now it's a little heavy on the country music, but I did try to add in a good mix of other stuff too. Just thought I'd share this with y'all, in case you'd like to use it as inspiration for your own spring and summer playlist!

 

• 19 You and Me - Dan & Shay
• Automatic - Miranda Lambert
• Beat of the Music - Brett Eldredge
• Best Day of My Life - American Authors
• Bottoms Up - Brantley Gilbert
• Chainsaw - The Band Perry
• Compass - Lady Antebellum
• Cop Car - Keith Urban
• Dark Horse - Katy Perry
• Don't Let Me Be Lonely - The Band Perry
• Done - The Band Perry
• Drink to That All Night - Jarrod Niemann
• Everything I Shouldn't Be Thinkin' About - Thompson Square
• Goodnight - Glorianna
• Groovy Little Summer Song - James otto
• Happy - Pharell
• Hey Brother - Avicii
• Island Song - Zac Brown Band
• Jump Right In - ZBB
• Keep Me In Mind - ZBB
• Not A Bad Thing - Justin Timberlake
• Play It Again - Luke Bryan
• Pompeii - Bastille
• Radio - Darrius Rucker
• Red Lights - Tiesto
• Rewind - Rascal Flatts
• Send Me On My Way - Rusted Root
• Slow Me Down - Sara Evans
• Song About A Girl - Eric Paslay
• Sunny & 75 - Joe Nichols
• Sweet Annie - ZBB
• Talk Dirty - Jason Derulo
• Team - Lorde
• That's My Kind of Night - Luke Bryan
• That's The Only Way I Know - Jason Aldean, Luke Bryan, Eric Church
• The Man, Aloe Blacc
• The Mona Lisa, Brad Paisley
• This Is How We Roll - Florida Georgia Line, Luke Bryan
• Timber - Pitt Bull
• Toes - ZBB
• Wagon Wheel - Darrius Rucker
• Wake Me Up - Avicii
• Whatever She's Got - David Nail
• Wild, Wild Love - Pitbull

I know no one technically asked to see the playlist I made, but maybe you'll enjoy it anyways. I know we are enjoying it already, and will for the next couple of months, until we decide to make a new one! I'm sure we'll also add some more songs along the way, because these kinds of things are never really final. Hope y'all have an okay Tuesday, and I'll be back tomorrow to share another wedding shower post :)

Sunny Love, 

Halie

Prim's First Beach Trip

Another couple of days just happened that were just too good to make me want to go back to work on a Monday morning... also, I just realized how weird that sentence sounded once I typed it out, but I'm too lazy to reword it or even change to a whole new sentence, so let's just roll with it, mmmkay? :) And let's just hop right into the weekend recap, where my brain has to work as little as possible...

Friday night, Jeff's youngest brother and his wife were in town from Texas, so we went over to my in-laws house for some quick pizza, and then they treated us all to a night at the movies! We saw "Noah," and we actually really liked it. Now, please hear me say this - it is NOT 100% scriptural. There are parts of the movie that are just blatantly wrong, or not the way the story happens in the Bible, but that happens a lot when Hollywood spins their take on a Bible story. However, it was still a really good movie.

Saturday, Jeff helped one of his coworkers move into a new house. So I stayed home to do all the little wifey duties around the house - laundry, dishes, straightened up a couple rooms, went grocery shopping, played with Prim and her rope, and did a few other things. Then I got to watch a couple episodes of Parenthood on Netflix before he got home. For dinner we walked to Chili's for dinner (we live less than a block away from one), and then Jeff fell asleep on the couch around 8:30 :) I put him to bed around 9:30, and I continued watching more Parenthood!

Sunday we decided to take Primrose to the beach for the first time! We decided to try out a new beach, so we drove about two and a half hours over to Santa Rosa Beach, which is close to Destin. We did end up driving around Destin a bit, and had a late lunch there at The Shrimp Basket. Then we went back east a tiny bit to Santa Rosa Beach to enjoy the sand and sun for a while. The beach was gorgeous, but we decided we still like our usual spot at St. George Island best. It was good to explore a new place though!

The skies were blue and clear, and the water was absolutely gorgeous - but it's still freezing! I walked in the waves a tiny bit, but barely let it get up to my ankles. Mostly we just sat in our chairs enjoying the great outdoors, and laughing at Primrose. She was so funny, because she really just wanted to sit in our laps, even though we brought her little bed for her to sit on.

Well, it turns out, she HAD to sit in our laps anyways, because Walton County requires a permit to have your dog on the beach, or you get a $100 fine! Well, the Sheriff that came to talk to Jeff was feeling nice I guess, and told us that as long as we kept her in our laps, we wouldn't have to leave, or get fined. So she sat in our laps for the last hour, which she loved of course anyways :)

Everything was fine in the end, but I guess we'll have to check to make sure doggies are allowed on the beach next time we go somewhere. Oopsies! At least that Sheriff was feeling generous yesterday, right? It was kind of chilly with the wind blowing like crazy, so we finally packed up and got the car all loaded up again.

We stopped at Wendy's on the way home and fed Primrose some nuggets for dinner, since we forgot to bring some food or treats. And I'm sure she didn't mind, because she devoured those nuggets! But since we ate lunch so late, we just waited till we got back to Tally to grab some Chinese on the way home to share. And that was so yummy. We unpacked, gave Prim a bath, showered, and then crawled in bed pretty early after a long, fun day.

It was a great weekend, and I'm glad spring and summer are finally on their way here! It's not completely hot yet, and that's good for now, but I'll be so glad once it's full-blown summer and we can spend the whole day soaking up the sun and just enjoying life in Florida! I love it here :)

Sunny Love,
Halie

Springtime List

Happy first day of spring ladies! Isn't that an exciting thing to hear? Well, for me it is anyways. Because down here in Florida, it actually does feel like spring, even when a lot of the country is still suffering from this past winter's crazy attitude. Sorry to those that applies to - feel free to move down to Florida and enjoy our loveliness!

Spring in Florida doesn't really last too long, because by mid-April, we're practically already experiencing some full-blown summer temperatures. But nonetheless, I want to make sure we take full advantage of these next few weeks while the weather is practically perfect in every way (we watched 'Mary Poppins' the other night...) and really make the most of spring time. So today I'm doing a copy-cat post from one of my favorite blog-friends, Miss Erin at Love, Fun and Football, and sharing a spring bucket list!

1. Finish hanging pictures and cute things around the house. After more than five months of marriage, just this week we finally started hanging things, and I want to get that finished! And I'll probably swing by the good ole' Hobby Lobby to grab a couple more items this weekend, because I got an email this morning that home accents are 50% off this week. Score!

2. Spring cleaning, of course! This past weekend I got a little start on it, but there's still a lot more to accomplish... The BIG one we want to tackle is our spare bedroom, because right now it's a disastrous dump zone for anything and everything. And it's a nightmare for my OCD self, so it's got to go. Immediately, if not before.

3. Go to some concerts at the new amphitheatre that just opened by our house! Actually, I won't have to try too hard for this one, because I've already won tickets to the very first concert! Tracy Lawrence will be here on April 12th, and we get to go for free - awesome.

This is our new little amphitheatre, from the grand opening of the park last Friday night.

4. Have a picnic in the park date. There are tons of parks very close to us. Some within walking distance, some within biking distance, all within driving distance :) I can make us yummy sandwiches, pack some veggies and ranch dip, with some sweet treats as well. We can throw a blanket in the car, and just enjoy the great outdoors!

5. Attend at least one weekend afternoon FSU baseball game. The tickets are only like $8 a person, and we get to sit in the sun, eat a hot dog, and watch some baseball? Sounds like a good deal to me!

6. Eat out at a restaurant we've never tried before. Even though Tallahassee sometimes feels like a small town, there are still tons of restaurants all over the place, and new ones popping up all the time. I'd love to start trying new ones more frequently, so let's start this spring!

7. Go camping again. Back in the fall we bought a big tent with some of our wedding gift cards, but we've only used it once! We went camping back in November, but then haven't been since then. And I really want to go again. So we need to pick a good weekend, and head to a local state park for some quality time enjoying nature and each other's company :)

8. Start exercising again regularly. I've been off my game ever since we got back from the honeymoon basically, and I really need to get it under control. I've definitely gained weight since the wedding, and that's GOT to go! Time to get active again, and what more perfect time to do it than in this beautiful spring weather?

9. Shop around for some patio furniture. We have a front porch and a side deck on our current house, so there's lots of space to hang out outside. Except there's nothing on our side deck right now. So I really want to find a cheap little patio set for out there! So I've started looking around on Craigslist and stuff. And even if it's in bad shape or something, we're both pretty crafty and I'm sure we could fix it up to look real nice.

10. Go to the flea market or some garage sales. This will actually help with a couple of our other things as well, like finding more cutesies for the walls, and maybe even some patio furniture. Plus, I just like browsing around and seeing what treasures I can find - especially when you can get things for so cheap! Also, I love adding to my book collection this way :)

Can't wait to get started on some of this stuff! It's going to be a good spring, I can tell already. I mean, it's our first spring as newlyweds, our first spring in our precious turquoise house, our first spring with little Miss Primrose, and just so much more! I'm really excited right now, and it's actually killing me to not be outdoors even as I write this! Ready to start enjoying this Florida springtime, and ready to get some things accomplished!

Sunny Love,
Halie

Professional Style Spring Break

So, many of us have moved past our fun college days, right? I have at least. Sadly. (College was seriously so much more fun than the "grown-up world!") And I'm extremely jealous of those of you that still get to go away for a week and live it up on the beach, while I'm just slaving away at my office desk, under bad fluorescent lighting. So, when my blog-friend Veronica @ Passion, Pink & Pearls wanted to do this fun link-up for a blogger's spring break? I was totally in! Introducing, How to Spring Break in the Working World!

Let me break it down for you. Everyday this week, there are certain Spring Break-like activities that I and I hope many of you will participate in, then we'll share with each other our working world spring break here! Check it out:

Day One: Hit the Beach!

Wear your flip flops and shades. If they cannot be worn to work then break them out at home. Refuse to wear anything but flip flops and sunglasses, that is on your feet and face...don't be going nude yall.

Day Two: Time to Snack it Out
You heard me right, break that diet today! If you were on a spring break trip right now you'd be eating some fried fish and ice cream. So grab your favorite snacks/ "junk food" and enjoy it!

Day Three: Bring on the Romance
It's time you found your spring break fling...and by that I mean find your favorite beachy romance movie, kick your feet back and rest your sweet bum on the sofa.

Day Four: Refresh Yourself
Bring down that dusty blender and serve up your favorite fruity drink, top it off with a tiny umbrella and ask your hunny for a massage.

Day Five: Out on the Town
You've played in the sun and now it's time to bask in the moonlight. Grab your hunny or your gal pals and go do something fun like put-put!

Day Six: Yellow Polka Dots
By now your tan is looking pretty smooth so it's time to strut your stuff in your swimsuit. No matter where you are, put that swimsuit on. If your weather is nice go outside, otherwise wear it around the house and pretend your bed is the ocean. But please friends, don't be wearing it to work, it's probably not allowed and I will not stick up for you in front of your boss.

Day Seven: Pack it on Up

It's time to cram into the car and go home spring breakers aka clean that house and get ready for spring! I know, I know, but we all knew it was coming.

You guessed it,

It's a LINK-UP!

...and some fabulous ladies are joining me as co-hosts!

<a href="http://passionpinkandpearls.blogspot.com"><img src="http://i1326.photobucket.com/albums/u655/passionpinkpearls/SpringBreakButton_zps29217d3e.png" /></a>

The Game Plan:

Grab the button and share the plans, let everyone else know!

Participate in each day's spring break fun and take pictures of it!

Post the pictures of how you participated each day!
Instagram some of the pictures! Make sure to tag them: #SBProStyle (aka Spring Break Professional Style)

Link up your blog (not each post though, just your blog in general, the same link-up tool will stay up all week)
Follow some of these lovely ladies helping me out!

The Co Hosts:

Marquis @ SimplyClarke


Halie @ Penguins, Pasta & PolkaDots


Shae @ Sprinkles & Glitter

Karla @ ForeverNewlyWedded


Kelly @ TodayWasAFairytale


Bri @ My Life Would Suck Without Me

So Link-Up and Have Fun on Spring Break!

Prepping for Springtime

Happy Monday ladies! This is my second post of the day so far, but the first one was simply pictures for the Ten on Ten link up that happens every month. This post is for the usual blogger-weekend-recap, of course!

Friday right after work, I went to the local high school track, and ran/walked two miles! And I think I did an excellent job. My routine is run/walk every other lap for the first mile, and then for the second mile, I run the straights and walk the curves. But I was able to do it faster this time, and I ended up running almost the entire last lap of the second mile, and it still felt great. I mean, I was definitely breathing super hard and out of breath, but it felt great to finish strong and be able to push through it! My total time on Friday was 27:50! Slowly but surely I'm getting faster and better!!

I let my watch run longer, because I forgot to start it for the first lap, and then it was all off from my RunKeeper stats...

After my run, I met Jeff back at his house, and we headed over to house/dog-sit for one of our friends. We made ourselves a delicious dinner of chicken, green beans and couscous, and watched a couple episodes of Fringe! It was a really chill night, and we enjoyed the time to relax and play with the dog before we both went home for the night.

Saturday morning, my family went out to breakfast at Cracker Barrel, and it was soo good. I tried to order as 'healthy' as possible, and then only ate half of the giant meal that came! Afterwards, my mama, sister and I all went shopping for a few hours! We were looking for dresses to wear for the upcoming wedding showers for my sister, but we weren't all successful. My mom got her potential mother-of-the-bride dress (unless she finds something she likes better), and another dress too. And Megan ended up with a cute little dress for her honeymoon. After hours of wandering the mall and Ross, we finally decided we were done for the day. While at Ross though, I found these super cute pots, for only $15 for both! So I bought them and will save them for my future house with Jeffrey :)

Then Jeff and I continued our day of shopping and random stuff, and also drove around to every single used car dealership possible, 'window shopping' for a potential new car for him. (He's been thinking about trading in, in order to get a smaller car payment to start saving more money.) We ate a delicious Faturday (that's not a typo people) dinner outside at Gordo's (pretending it was a bit warmer than it actually was), then did some more shopping at Target. And I got a new pair of undies, in a smaller size!! We also picked up some cookies to bake, and then headed home to watch some more episodes of Fringe!

Sunday of course was spent helping my mama teach 3rd grade Sunday school, and then going to big church just like normal. Then I headed to Jeff's house, and we immediately hopped in the car for another mini road trip down to the coast! We found a cute little restaurant on the water at the marina in Panacea, and ate a really late lunch. Then we went to Alligator Point, and explored Bald Point State Park a little bit, and then drove down the rest of the island! We got to spend a little bit of time on the beach, with our toes in the sand, and taking pretty pictures of gorgeous water. We eventually made our way back to Tally, I painted my fingers and toes, and then once again spent the rest of the night cuddled up watching more episodes of Fringe!

This was definitely one of those great weekends that are slightly busy, but completely full of fun things. I got to spend time with my family and my fiance, and some time in the sun. And I also got to eat some good food, although it wasn't healthy for me at all... And I got to just relax and chill and enjoy some down time too. These weekends are the best. And our mini road trip down to the beach yesterday got me really ready for and craving spring and summer time!! I'm ready for warm weather and lots of sunshine and sun dresses all the time and tan skin. Bring it on Florida!

Hopefully you had at least half the fun and relaxation that I did! I tried Prepping for Springtime this weekend by being outside when possible, and dressing for warmer weather! Hopefully it comes soon :) How were y'all's weekends?!

Oh, and I almost forgot to show off my nails from last week! This was another way of trying to prep for springtime just a little bit more, and usher it in faster, on my nails at least! ;)

Linking up with: Covered in Grace, Glitter & Gloss, Sami's Shenanigans and Synfully Delicious.

Pink, Blue & Polka Dot Bookmarks

Since I'm at home recovering from my wisdom teeth removal surgery, I had some time on my hands, but had to keep my productivity at a low, easy-going level. So, I made some super simple, super cute bookmarks for myself and some of my family members.

Supplies:
Scrapbook paper scraps
Scissors
Glue stick
White paper
Laminating machine (or simply some clear masking tape if you're not as fancy as me to have a machine...)

Cut up some little shapes (mine are all basically triangles, squares or weird rectangle things), and then glue them on in a mosaic-fashion to a bookmark sized piece of white paper. Flip it over and do the reverse side. I'm lucky enough to have been given a tiny little laminating machine a while back, so I then stuck the bookmarks into the little plastic pockets, and fed it through the machine. (I also made two bookmarks per plastic pocket, then cute them apart, and fed them through again separate to reseal that open edge.)

Done and Done! So fast. So easy. So cute. And free since I didn't have to buy any new materials!

L to R: mine, mine, Jeff's, Papa's, Megan's & Mama's. (I already gave my Grandparents' to them before the pic.)

I made eight bookmarks total - one for each of my Grandparents, one for each of my parents, one for Megan, one for Jeff, and two for me. :) And this is one of my spring cleaning to-do items, so that's another thing I get to check off! Real cute, and it took about half an hour for this cute and simple project! My kind of craft :)

This week was crazy busy and rough with the oral surgery, and so I've missed blogging regularly. But I plan on coming back full-force next week once I'm better! Because I really like writing, and from what I can tell, some of yall like reading what I write :)

Oh, and based on the amount of page views that my weight loss and diet posts get, I'm planning on sharing a lot more of that journey, and being completely open and honest about my weight and my journey and everything that comes along with that! So, get ready for more of those kinds of posts in the future.

Love to everyone! :)

Purposefully Busy

Mondays are not fun. Pretty much ever. But you know what's almost always fun? Weekends. And this past weekend certainly delivered in the fun department. I didn't take nearly enough pictures to document the greatness, and that makes me sad, so I hope you will at least enjoy the few I have from Wild Adventures later in the post. So, moving on to the details and descriptions and a slightly lengthy recap post...

Friday right after work, Jeff and I were treated to a nice little dinner at Logan's with his mom. We ate yummy food and had good conversation, and it was a nice time. Then after that, we met up with some friends at the Downtown Get Down. (Block-party style event the night before each FSU home football game. This past Saturday was the spring game, hence the Get Down.) Great weather, good friends and fun wearing our Garnet and Gold :)

Saturday morning, I was able to sleep in a little bit (9 am), then got a quick shower and got ready for some shopping with my Mama. We both needed a few "girly" items, so we searched high and low for the right ones. We went to Burlington and ended up with some random home goods, and some pretty beach mats we plan to use in our pool chairs. At Ross, we each got a new dress - and we plan on sharing them with each other. This instantly adds items to both of our wardrobes, which is awesome. Then we went to Sonny's for lunch, and got the dieter's chicken plate, which is salad bar and smoked chicken. Yummy. During lunch, we told lots of funny stories and laughed a TON. We had so much fun together :) Then we went to Beall's, where I got another dress and 2 pairs of earrings, and she got some of those "girly" items we were looking for. We made another stop at the pool store for a water sample test, and to get our chlorine jugs filled. Then on a whim we went to the Goodwill bookstore, and both lucked out with some good finds. (A post on that later this week...) We had a ton of fun shopping together and laughed so much. I'm glad I got to spend some good quality time with my lovely Mama!

After our shopping trip, I went to meet Jeff at his house. The two of us drove out to Midway for one of my oldest friends' going away party, even though we couldn't stay long. We got to spend a few minutes chatting with her, and catching up with her parents after I hadn't seen them for a couple of years. When we left, Jeff and I both said we wish we would have had more time to stay longer, because that would have been fun, and we missed a lot of the festivities! But we were still very glad we were able to go for a little bit!

Gonna miss her. We've been friends for 14 years - since 4th grade!!

After we left the party, we drove out to Robert and Jacob's house to go to Wild Adventures for the first concert of the summer! Their parents went too, and drove us in their brand new, super fancy awesome Chrysler mini-van. So sweet. We all have yearly passes, and we really enjoy the concert series that happens every summer. Last Saturday was the first one this year, and it featured the Newsboys, and about three opening bands before them that we skipped listening to. Instead we chose to ride one or two rides, and Robert, Jacob and I got to drive the go-carts. Unfortunately Jeff could only watch, because he wasn't wearing closed-toe shoes like they require. :( The three of us still had a ton of fun, but we'll definitely make sure Jeff wears the right shoes next time so he can join us too!

We matched because of the FSU Spring Game :)

The Newsboys were pretty decent in concert. However I didn't know most of their newer songs, and so they ended up all sounding pretty much the same to me. I did know about four of their older songs though, so I sang along to those when I could. Oh, but I killed the verses/rap part of "Jesus Freak" from old school DC Talk. I think I did a better job than Michael Tait did Saturday night... :) Then the last few songs they did were worship songs, and I definitely knew those, so I thought those were the bestest.

He didn't sleep enough Friday, worked all day Sat., then napped during the concert!

When we left the concert, Jacob let Jeff play with his iPad. He found a sketch-book-style app, and so he ended up playing around with it a little bit. Once he got used to it and how it worked, he was hooked. He then spent the next hour and 15 minutes completely engrossed in his sketching, and made a pretty little picture of me! I think he would be amazing at this if he had his own to play with all the time! He of course wants one, but that's not exactly in the budget for him currently...so for now, he'll have to stick to the old pen-and-paper method of sketching, and just hope to borrow other people's iPad's when he can!

I really like his drawing, and think he did a great job. He might be a little confused about how long my hair actually is, but it looks pretty anyways :) My favorite part is definitely the eye. The color is right on, and he even drew pretty eye shadow! I love the sketch, but it's even better since it was drawn by my wonderful boyfriend! (I put the sketch below through Instagram, but it looks almost exactly the same.)

Sunday morning was spent at church with my youth, and friends and family. We had a guest preacher, who was amazing. He was there to kind of test out the waters to potentially be our interim preacher while we're doing the Senior Pastor search. He was a good speaker, with a very engaging personality, and a relevant message. My family all enjoyed him, and we're really hoping that it will work out for him to be our interim preacher for a while! After church, Jeff joined my 4-Fam for  lunch with my aunt and uncle, as well as my dad's best friend, his wife and their two boys at El Jalisco = 11 total. A lot of talking, jokes, and some good times, and I was able to stay carb-free!

Jeff and I were planning on a bike ride in the afternoon, but the Mexican lunch made my tummy hurt, and he had a headache, so we opted for movie rest time instead and watched HP2. (We're working through the whole series.) It was definitely a good decision, and we enjoyed the much needed rest after a busy weekend. We then went back out to my church for Sunday night youth. We only had a few kids, so we just hung out and chatted for a while, then headed out. My Mama had made a very carb-filled dinner for everyone, so we stopped by Publix before we went home, so I could get a no-carb meal of turkey meatloaf and asparagus from their prepared food counter. So yummy!

Then Jeff and I did some hard labor brushing the pool and getting ready for the beautification process of the water. My aunt and uncle came over, and we all watched "The Amazing Race" together - which Jeff now likes even though he claims to not like any reality TV :) I then spent about two hours making a cute little headband tin for Megan (the same way I made mine a couple weeks ago), and it came out pretty cute. She wanted a lot more magazine pictures on hers than I had, so Mama helped me pick out the best stuff, and figure out the placement of pictures while I ModPodge-d it all together! I'll be honest though - I definitely like mine the best, but Megan likes hers a lot, so that's what's important!

I was busy pretty much all weekend, but I was Purposefully Busy with things I wanted to do. I was blessed with enjoyable things that filled my time - friends, shopping trips with my Mama, a concert, craft time, big family meals, church time and more... I'm thankful that I'm healthy and loved and can have fun doing things that make me so happy, with some pretty amazing people! Thank the Lord for lovely times in our lives like these.

Sending love to all my friends and family, both here and there and everywhere!

P.S. - If you're ever looking for quick, summarized stories, apparently you're looking in the wrong place. Not only am I chatty "in real life" when I talk, but I'm also chatty when I write "in blog life." The nickname I was given when I was about 4 or 5 years old, "Little Miss Chatterbox," will be forever stuck with this girl, and I'm totally OK with that :) Hope y'all are too!