Five on Friday

TGIF!! Thanks to having strep throat not once but TWICE, it seems like this is the first full work week I've had in a while and it felt long.   1. Today is HALLOWEEN!! One of my most favorite holidays. I've been listening to the Halloween Party station on Pandora and watching a little bit of Halloween movies on tv here and there as I've had time. This is a picture of my favorite Halloween costume.  

2. I just made a hair appointment for the Tuesday of Thanksgiving week. I always look forward to hair appointments. I always feel like a new woman afterwards. Does anyone else feel this way?

 

Rosie Huntington-Whiteley

 

3. I am *trying* to go on a spending freeze as far as buying myself clothes in order to start Christmas shopping. So far I've gotten nothing for anyone. Part of my spending freeze means that I am not going to let myself look at the new items on the Lilly Pulitzer website. Too tempting.

 

4. I've absolutely devoured Little Big Lies, The Husband's Secret, What Alice Forgot, The Last Anniversary and am currently reading The Hypnotist's Love Story. I LOVE Liane Moriarty.

 

5. So far I have nothing but wonderful things to say about our Stearns and Forster bed. I saw some bad reviews online after we bought it. It's so comfortable and I slept so peacefully last night. It's been a life changer. I will post a bedroom post soon.

 

Weekend Recap

Nick and I had an absolutely wonderful weekend. Friday after I got home from work and barre, we went to the movies. We saw The Judge. It was sad, but really good. Robert Downey Jr. is such a talented actor. I started really liking him after Due Date. We had Mexican after and then went home to sleep on our new mattress for the first time.  Oh my goodness, what were we waiting for?! Upgrading to a king sized bed has been one of our best decisions ever. 
Saturday morning we went to a pet costume contest at a state park near our house. I was so proud of Yadi for being so well behaved. I thought both of the dogs looked adorable in their costumes. Poor Trinket really hates her butterfly costume though, the pom poms kept getting in her face.   

Afterwards Nick watched football for the rest of the day and I cooked dinner (and watched Blue Jasmine, again). 

Sunday we met a friend of ours at a shooting range. We had a wonderful time. 

 

I made spaghetti and meatballs last night, and I was sad to see the weekend go. It was a great weekend, and CHEERS to six months of married life!! 

I hope all of y'all had a wonderful weekend.

 

 

Five on Friday

1. Gone Girl. I could not have possibility loved this book more, and I am happy to say the movie did not disappoint. In fact, I want to go see it again. The casting was AMAZING. I also really love Amy's house, the decor is perfect.   I can't wait for Dark Places to come out as a movie with Charlize Theron.  

2. True story: there are donuts in this office today and guess who isn't having one? I will be getting my chef salad (all turkey, no pork) from Swansons's Deli. I go to Swanson's every.single.Friday.

 

  3. Tomorrow morning the dogs are entering a pet costume contest. I am super competitive, so of course I am hoping they win.   4. This Sunday Nick and I will have been married for six months. This has been the quickest six months ever! I mean it has absolutely flown by. I have to say, it's been a great six months of married life!  

5. I am in the mood to cook, and I see this happening (bottom right of photo collage) this weekend.

 

Have a wonderful weekend!!

 

Weekend Recap (on a Thursday)

I'm just getting over having strep (AGAIN), so here is my belated weekend recap. Today is the first day I've been at work this week. We had an absolutely wonderful weekend celebrating my college homecoming.   Friday we had dinner at Harper's. It was so good. The parmesan truffle fries are amazing! We went to my work event, but really only stayed just long enough for my boss's boss to see me. I think I was already starting to feel a little bit sick.  

 My coworker Becky, who lives near me. We are going to start Real Housewives of Blythewood

 

Before the game Saturday

 

Nick and the Reverend (you may recognize Brock as the minister from our wedding pictures)   The game Saturday was a lot of fun, although I was already feeling tired and had a sore throat. I thought surely it was just allergies and thought there was no way I'd have strep again. Besides that, it was really fun to spend Saturday with our friends. After the game I went back to our house to get our dogs and brought them over to the Reverend's house. We had pizza from Pizza Man (a favorite of mine from college) and watched football for the rest of the day. Yadi had a ton of fun playing with the Reverend's dog, and Trinket was very popular with our friends' little girls.     More coming soon. Our new bedroom furniture was delivered Tuesday evening, and I can't wait to do a bedroom post when I get everything together. Thanks for reading and have a wonderful Thursday!  

Homecoming 2014

Here's my obligatory yearly college homecoming post. You can see last year's post here. I work for the college I attended, and will be at a work event tomorrow night in celebration of homecoming. I am super excited about the Kenneth Cole dress I picked up yesterday to wear to it. College was such a crazy time - some of it good, and some of it bad. What really made it so amazing is the friends I made.   Some of my favorite classes were Dr. Willer's Sociology class, Daniel Freeman's Chemistry class, Cindy Flach's Jazz class (my soul MISSES dance), and Ann Dreher's Theatre Appreciation class (where I met my best friend for life, Benson).   I should add that if memory serves me, we also spent an ungodly amount of time watching tv. We were obsessed with Newlyweds with Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey (okay that was just me, but I forced everyone to watch it, and I will not let Nick get rid of it on DVD), The Bachelor, S&TC, and Flavor of Love.  

 A typical night out

 

 Jerry dated one of my best friends in college and we have the same birthday

 

 One of Ashley's suitors took us out for a night of celebrating my graduation in 2007

 

This picture is terrible quality, but it is still one of my favorite pictures from college   The Gamecocks haven't been playing very well this season, but I am still excited to spend time with Nick and our friends at the game. I am planning on making this Skinny Poolside Dip from Pinterest. Has anyone tried it? It looks really good, so I am excited to try it out this weekend.     What are/were some of your favorite things about college?  

Weekend Recap

We had a much needed lazy weekend. It was a bye week for the Gamecocks, so we just stayed close to home. Friday night we planned on going to see Gone Girl, but ended up stopping at Haverty's to check out their bedroom furniture and then had dinner at Outback.   We have been talking about upgrading to a king sized mattress, and getting new furniture for our master bedroom for at least a year and decided now was the right time. I am absolutely counting down the minutes until our new furniture and KING sized mattress is delivered on the 21st. I have a feeling is it going to make a world of difference! We went with a Stearns and Foster plush top mattress, and I have high expectations for it.  

**NOT** our bedroom furniture, this reminded me of Tony Soprano's house   Saturday I went to the gym and then got us lunch from Rush's. I took a nap and Nick watched football. We got pizza from Schiano's for dinner, so needless to say we totally fell off the healthy eating wagon, but you need to give in and have a cheat weekend sometimes.   Sunday after taking a day to think about it, we went back to Haverty's to pull the trigger on our big purchase. We had at late lunch at Cracker Barrel and then went back home. I took another nap, watched an episode of Scandal on Netflix, watched Real Housewives, and went to bed. Not the most exciting weekend, but I feel rested and ready for a busy week.   This is more for myself than anything, but here is a list of things for me to get to this week: -go to Bed, Bath, and Beyond to get sheets for new bed -get a dress to wear to a work event Friday evening -study for an upcoming test! -pure barre Mon and Thurs -dentist Wed afternoon -order a few last minute things for Halloween -get a birthday gift for my grandmother   Thanks so much for reading and have a wonderful Monday!  

A College Halloween Story

**A warning of discretion, this is a very unladylike story and contains hygiene subject matter**   If you know me then you know I love Halloween. I love dressing up, and some of my most memorable Halloween's have been spent with my best friend Ashley. We had one Halloween weekend in particular in college that was spooky in it's own unique way. This is still one of the most bizarre things that I've ever encountered.

 

  This was my first year at USC and I lived in suite style dorm (West Quad if you are familiar with USC). I had my own room and shared a hall and bathroom with another girl, Keisha. There was a common living area, and the another two bedrooms and a bathroom on the other side. I think by this point in the semester, both of the residents on the other side of the suite had left school.   The girl that lived on my side of the suite seemed nice, although a bit strange. I spent almost every waking second that I wasn't in class or at the gym with Ashley, who I knew from home, and I also had come to USC already having a long term serious boyfriend (which I don't recommend-date and enjoy college life!). I didn't really spend a ton of time at West Quad or get to know Keisha very well. We were friendly when we saw each other in passing, but that was the extent of our interaction except for the time or two I took her to the grocery store since she didn't have a car.   Thursday night of Halloween weekend we went out to a country western style bar that used to be in the Vista. As would usually happen, Ashley met this really hot guy and I ended up being her wingman all night since I had a boyfriend all through college. The guys we met were in the Army and both from Alabama, and if my memory serves me they were very good looking. We hung out with them in the Vista for several hours, and then left and went back to West Quad. They had a cooler in their truck that they brought in, and we were hanging out in the living area listening to the radio. From there things got a bit more rowdy, but not too out of control. It was just the four of us, so it wasn't like a loud party. I know at one point the two guys were being pretty noisy, and one of them bit a huge chunk out of a candle I had because I said that it smelled good enough to eat.   The next thing we know, there is a terrible commotion from Keisha's room. It sounded like things were being thrown against the wall. It would subside for a few minutes and then start back up again. We were confused at first, and as this progressed we all became concerned. We wondered if someone was attacking her in her room and if she was okay. We yelled asking if she was okay and never got a response. As this continued, it seemed like she was in her room alone and we didn't hear any signs of a  struggle so we didn't think she was in danger. We couldn't really decide what was happening, and ended up leaving to go eat at Waffle House.   Upon returning to West Quad, one of the guys and I opened the door to the hall that went to my room. Laying on the floor near my door was an enormous, very used maxi pad face up. I think I screamed in horror and the guy was completely disgusted. We didn't know if it was left on accident or on purpose. We dubbed it the "trick or treat."   I found it so weird that I spent that night and the next at Ashley's dorm, and didn't return to West Quad until really late Saturday night with a girlfriend. My friend spent the night and we got up around lunch on Sunday to the sounds of Keisha moving her things out.   To this day we have no idea if the maxi pad was a message of some kind or just accidently fell out of some trash or something. We also never had any idea why she moved out. In all of the rest of our time at Carolina, she was never seen again. Ashley and I will still occasionally recall her odd behavior, and the "trick or treat" she left in the hallway.    

Weekend Recap {Happy Birthday Mom!}

I have been super sick for about a week now with strep throat. I didn't even know you could get that as an adult! Turns out you can, and it is going around at my work. I have been laying low, but I did get out Sunday to celebrate my Mom's birthday.   We started her birthday celebration with lunch with my grandparents at a Chinese restaurant. Her cake is a pink ruffle cake with a horse on top, designed by yours truly (and made the The Sweetery in Anderson). After lunch I treated her to a movie of her choice. We saw Annabelle. I may never sleep again.   I think it's probably a compliment to the directors that I would compare this movie to The Exorcist or Rosemary's Baby. I think The Exorcist is so scary that I've seen it once, in 1997 when I was in 7th grade, and haven't seen it since. Annabelle was truly terrifying. If you are into psychological thrillers, definitely go see it. I used to love scary movies when I was younger, but I find that the older I get, the less I can watch them. I just get too scared. It doesn't help that a several years ago before I met my husband I had an ex-boyfriend who wouldn't leave me alone, and the fear from that comes back sometimes. It's a creepy feeling.  

 

 Some pictures of my Mom from our wedding.

 

 

  Nick was home this weekend, which was nothing short of amazing. I wasn't up for doing much, but I don't think he minded since that meant he could watch plenty of football and the Cardinals game. We also decided that we have *got* to get back on our wedding diet.   Happy Monday and thanks for reading!