And that's a wrap

Labor day has come and gone, and with that means another summer {and another lake season} have come to an end. If I stopped long enough to think long and hard about it, I would probably become pretty upset with this fact – because I do love some summertime – but before I can get too beat up about it, I think about how excited I am for fall.

Oh, by the way, yes, today was the first official day that the Pumpkin Spice Lattes are out. Walk Run to get yours. {Yes – I did get one today because a sweet coworker brought one to work for me – and I like mine with two pumps of toffee nut, so check that out!}

All I’ve wanted to reflect on lately has been how blessed I have been. I’m sure this is a constant struggle for most people, but do you ever just look around and become at peace about your life? I sure do, and lately, more than I ever have. I’ve seen a lot of heartache and loss this year, more so than in past years, and while I could use this time to question my faith and how God could let these terrible things happen to such good people, I’ve used the time to focus my energy towards being thankful to God over the immense blessings He has bestowed me with.

I have two adorable nephews, a precious niece, wonderful parents and siblings, in-laws that love and accept me, the sweetest and cutest Dobermans in the world, a job that I enjoy going to every day, and last, but certainly not least, a husband that means everything in the world to me.  

The following bible verse has been coming into my mind lately {I’m sure you’ve heard it!}:

 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

If I replace the word “Love” and enter the name “Charles,” I find that the verse I am reading is true. Charles is patient. Charles is kind. Charles does not envy, Charles does not boast, Charles is not proud. Charles keeps no record of wrongdoings. Charles does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. Charles always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. This is how I know I’ve found the man for which I am meant to spend my entire life.

I’ve always felt that I’d found my match, my person, in Charles, but lately this feeling has been overwhelming. Maybe it’s because we are approaching our 2^nd wedding anniversary later this month, or maybe God is just working in mysterious ways, but I have a feeling of peace about our future. It truly is well with my soul. Maybe all the sorrow and heartbreak I’ve seen lately was meant to happen to teach me the significance of the greatest blessings that I have right in front of me.

 

Life Lately

FRIDAY! Hello, old friend!

Do you ever have those weeks where you have gotten so much accomplished…and somehow, absolutely nothing accomplished at the same time?

Welcome to my week.

I have somewhere in the realm of 10 meetings this week. We have about 6 or 7 new hires joining our group next month. I’m overwhelmed, but in such a good way. Shockingly, the house work and our “better eating habits” haven’t fell behind. Even so, I can’t help but feel like I need to spend tomorrow deep cleaning the house. I want to open the windows, get some fresh air circulating {and it’s supposed to rain tomorrow…even better, the sound and smell of rain and an indoor day cleaning}, steam clean every piece of carpet, clean the windows, clean, well, everything.

I used to fight my parents tooth and nail to do chores. Now I {gasp} like doing them! It’s almost therapeutic..and Charles will be out with a friend all day tomorrow, so I can pop in a chick flick and clean away without interruption! A perfect end to an overwhelming week.

As for our Friday night…for the past month, Charles and I have had “movie night Friday night,” and this week is no different. We are going to watch “Bad Grandpa” and get some Popeye’s chicken {ok, not healthy…but the new one just opened close to the house and we have been eating so well, we wanted to splurge!} It’s a rainy day here, so it will be perfect to sit with a glass of wine, a fire, a delightfully tacky movie, and fried chicken {we’re rednecks tonight.}

I know we were supposed to go to the lake this weekend, but what can I say, mother nature and her wacky weather ways has a mind of her own. We didn’t want to driver down in rain, be in rain all Saturday, then drive back in sleet and snow on Sunday for the Superbowl. So here we are.

 

Life lately..

Date night with this handsome man...and look at the adorable photobomber in the background..

Married night in watching an adorable movie!

Had a rough day, came home to a bottle of wine from my wabes with the most adorable bottle stopper!

Honestly, this has been my "life lately"...papers on papers on files on work. Cube life at it's finest. Having a blast, but absolutely needing more than 1 cup of coffee each day.

What a gorgeous Friday I woke up to this morning! You can't beat sunrise, you just can't! How great thou art.

Baby shower at work for my friend Allison and her soon to be baby boy, Will! I work with some great people, and it's fun to celebrate big life changes with people that you love!

 

 

It's funny how the people you surround yourself with can impact your attitude. Surround youself with the wrong people and you'll be irritable, it will cause you stress, and just overall unhappiness. Why waste the time hanging around people that bring you down?

I understand that you've had the same crowd since high school. But that doesn't mean you can't grow apart. People want different things out of life. It's as simple as that.

I'm blessed to work with people who have the same goals and the same attitude towards life as I do. You can't cruise through life working part time at a fast food joint and not go to school and expect hard working "grown ups" to want to spend time with you. Let go of the people who are bringing you down.

"Be with those who help your being...I want to be around people that do things. I don't want to be around people anymore that judge or talk about what people do. I want to be around people who dream , and support, and do things."

French Dips and Football

Happy 2014, friends!

 

It's FRIDAY! Hallelujah thank you Jesus. These holidays are throwing me off and wearing me out, I need some revamping time. It's a little after 5am here, I decided to get to the office early and make a blog post before the woman I am training for the next few days arrives. Plus, I was running early, since I decided to leave my hair natural today and not straighten it {all part of that New Year's thing I was talking about...including, but not limited to less heat on the hair, drink more water, always take my makeup off at night, eat better...you get the point.}   Ok, recap time:

I hope you all had a fun and exciting New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day. Ours was uneventful, can you believe it?

We have a tradition of going to the lake with friends and family every NYE, but plans get messed with when holidays decide to fall in the middle of the week. It’s not as easy to make a trip when you worked all day and have to work again the day after. So lo and behold, we actually stayed at home and had two friends over. We grilled and watched the Texas A&M v. Duke game {anyone else watch that? Great game, more exciting than I anticipated given the teams}. We all had worked that day, so we made it to the New York ball drop {11pm for us!} and quickly fell asleep. So no, technically we didn’t stay up until midnight {So. Hard.} But we had a fabulous time nonetheless.

New Year’s Day I had the fabulous  horrible idea to go to the Dillard’s annual New Year’s Day sale. I’m sure you all know that after Christmas, Dillard’s men and women stores have their red tag clearance event, where they mark down a lot of their items to extremely reduced prices. Well, every New Year’s Day, everything with a red tag on it is an additional 50% off. I haven’t been able to go to this sale yet, as I am always out of town, but I went this time! Now I’m kind of wishing I didn’t. I arrived at about 9:50 and barely got a parking spot. I waited out in the cold for 10 minutes and got trampled over and couldn’t even move around.

Women are crazy.

I walked around for an hour and barely saw anything because there were so many people, but I did score a very nice top, a pair of Steve Madden reflective sunglasses, and an extremely nice turquoise necklace for virtually nothing.

Then I walked to the Men’s Dillard’s to browse for Charles. It was packed in their as well, but no trampling, no screaming women, and {in my opinion}, better deals. I got Charles some Polo Ralph Lauren golf pants {originally close to $100} for $20! I also got him a Ralph Lauren cozy long sleeved tee for about $10.

It may have taken me 2 hours to go through 2 stores, but I suppose it was worth it. I went home and took a nap, though, because I was worn out {and had a not so slight headache…thank you, screaming women}.

At least there was a Dance Mom’s marathon on all day! Charles was thrilled. I really need to spoil him, because I napped, cuddled with puppies, and watched my shows for about 4 hours and he did all of the laundry, dishes, took down the outdoor Christmas lights, swept, and played outside with the dogs without complaint. I lucked out with him!

We met up with a few out of town friends for drinks and dinner, and had such a great time chit chatting and catching up that we didn’t realized it had gotten late, and we both had to work the next day. 

 Thursday, I decided that since it was a very chilly day, there was football on in the evening, and because I had all of the ingredients on hand, I was going to make French Dip sandwiches {in the crockpot, hallelujah, 10x easier and the house smelled delicious when I got home from work!} I threw together some broccoli salad to go with it, because even though everyone says to serve fries with it, I think that's just too heavy for such a heavy sandwich. Broccoli salad is a crowd pleaser, especially with Charles and his buddies that were over last night. We had a blast, but we stayed up too late, and now I have woken up with a tired induced headache and dark circles...it may be a 3 cup of coffee kind of Friday...do I dare!?

Ok, photo time:

My 11pm kiss!

Champagne toasts with good friends!

 

Just so you can see a bit of the Dillard's madness before the store opened...

By far the best invention ever. Makes baking SO much easier, absolute necessity for a kitchen.

I may or may not have a chocolate obsession...Making some brownies for Charles and his buddies

The absolutely incredible French Dip sandwiches..maybe I'll share the recipe..to be continued

Look at the neat little table I purchased at a consignment shop yesterday for $20! It's perfect in between our conversation chairs, and I hadn't found anything cheaper that I liked.

 

 

Is anyone else as ready for spring as I am? I feel as though sometimes I try to rush through life, but be honest, do you not feel like after Christmas, the cold weather can just leave and not come back until December 1st? I'm tired of freezing and having to stay inside all the time {although I am loving the fireplace in the new house!}

Spring for my husband and I means a few things: First and foremost, the Horse Races at Oaklawn. We are obsessed {partially because of the out of this world reubens that they have there...} It is also when Charles gets out and golfs the most and we take the dogs for the most walks, and now since there is a park right down the street from us, we will be walking with them even more! It also means beautiful thunderstorms {I love the smell in the air right before a storm...is that odd?}

Float trips are also a common occurence for us during the spring, and I get to bust out my teva's and my chaco's. And let's not forget...Abita Strawberry comes out in February {you're welcome for reminding you}. This quickly became my go to beer last year, but there was limited production of it, and it was seasonal. This year they are supposed to be able to produce a higher quantity, and you better believe I will be stocking up!

In this picture alone, from last spring, I have about 5 of my favorite things: 1} Abita Strawberry in hand, 2} I'm wearing my chaco's, 3} Spring colored nail polish, 4} I'm at the lake and 5} it had just thunderstormed

 

 

I'm not going to say spring is my favorite {that award goes to fall, my friends}, but there are things I get very excited for in the spring.

I've heard it said so often before that a way to help your marriage succeed and thrive is to do couples activities, and get out of the house and your normal routine. Charles and I are thinking of new ideas to try, such as walking the dogs together after work, riding bikes, and things of that nature that keep us active and in shape as well as spending quality time together. What do you do as a couple to become closer?

“The best time to love with your whole heart is always now, in this moment, because no breath beyond the current is promised.”