Weekend Recap #4

What a dreary, crummy, cold, and just plain gloomy weekend we had!  We didn't get the see the sun until Sunday evening at 7:30 PM when we were on our way home from dinner.  Crazy!!

We haven't seen the sun since Thursday....

I would recap the weekend, but to be honest, it was not that trilling except for the 5k on Saturday which I plan to recap on Thursday for you all!  :) I thought I would just show off photos I took this weekend.  :) 

How cute is this photo of Andy and Keeley!!

Smokey burrowed himself in the guest room comforter.  When I went to pick all of the sheets up, I noticed it was so heavy and he was inside them all comfy as can be!

Look at that sweet face! 

We had just gotten home Sunday night and apparently Keeley really missed Andy.  I thought this was so cute!

 Andy decided he wanted a snack before bed, so both animals decided to "hang" out on the bed in case Andy wanted to "share" his snack.

Haha!!  Such beggers!

5 for Five #18

Thank you sun for FINALLY showing your face this morning!!
What a gloomy weekend Saint Louis had!

Thanks to Jenn and Jessica for this fabulous link up as always!!

Here's how I did last week at my goals:

{Aqua=goal reached, Pink=goal not reached}

April 22-26th

1. Workout 3 times this week (Monday, Wednesday and Friday)
2. Vacuum the house
3. Wash sheets and towels
4. Change out winter sheets in guest bedroom to summer sheets.
5. Organize the guest bedroom, put away things in the closet.  Make the room pretty again!  :) 

~Ugh, what a rough week in my household!  Working out was non-existent for me last week. Vacuuming did take place, but just on the main floor, not the upstairs.  The sheets and towels will be washed today, I never took the effort to work on them over the week. I did change out the sheets in the guest bedroom, but realized we do not have many pillow cases for the amount of pillow we have.  Thanks to Target, we now have 2 more pillow cases to add to the guest room.   I did get some thing put away in the guest room, cleaned it up as much as I could.

It's a new day, a new week, and a short work week for me!! 

April 29 - May 3rd

1. Finish washing sheets and towels
2. Get my hairs cut 
3. Pack for going out of town
4. Finish vacuuming upstairs
5. Get all ends of work all tied up before 2:30 PM on Wednesday (that's when Andy will be picking me up at work)

I hope you all have a fantastic week!

Sunday Social #13

Welcome to another weekend edition of Sunday Social!

Sunday Social

Once again, I'm linking up with Ashley and Neely for Sunday Social!

This week these questions are all about your childhood.

1. Did you sleepwalk as a child?

No, but apparently I was a really big mover when I slept.  I am told that at night, I would fall asleep at the head of the bed, in the middle of the night I would turn myself to the foot at the bed and by the time I woke up I would be back at the head of the bed.  Weird....

2. Did you ever try to run away or sneak out of your house?

Heck no!  I am a goody good!  All I had to do was ask if could go somewhere.  Normally it was a yes unless we had something planned with the family.  It helped having Ali down the street from me.  My time to come home at night was when the street lights turned on.  

3. Did you have any imaginary friends?

Nope, never.

4. Did you ever go toilet papering?

Once, my senior year.  We toilet papered our band director's house because we placed 1st at a band competition.

5. Did you ever sneak tv shows you weren't allowed to watch?

Nope, never had that problem.

Bonus Question:

What were your favorite old school toys you played with?

My Nosy Bear, you pushed the tummy at the balloon in the nose would blow up

Cabbage Patch Kids, I am pretty sure I had the one on the top.  The second one my cousin Julie had and I loved that thing!!

My brother got this flash light one year for either Christmas or his Birthday and we use to play with it when we were suppose to go to bed.  You could change the light color, either clear, red or green.

Who remember's when McDonalds gave these away as a Happy Meals  Toy one Christmas?  It's the Muppet Babies!!!  I loved the Muppet Babies!

Pound puppies and Pound Kitties!!!

I hope you all have a wonderful Sunday!

Menards Home Improvement Store

Let's face it, I am not that much of an outdoorsy type of person.  Camping in a tent sounds like torture and I am not a fan of getting dirty.  I always see people having garden's and think, I can do that.  But in all honesty, I just don't think I would be able to keep up with a garden and the watering and the bugs and weeds.  I saw my blog friend, Jen set up her own Herb's to grow at her place and I thought to myself, I can do that at least!!  

Monday night we ventured off to the new home improvement store in Saint Louis, Menards

Holy cow is this store HUGE!!!

I swear it would take hour's just to look at everything in that dang store.

I scored a big deal there.

4 of these water bottles for $7.49 a piece!!!

That's a huge deal when these things normally go for almost $20 a piece!!

We picked up 2 grey ones, a red one and a blue one.

We also found this awesome chair there:

How much fun is that chair!  The arms hold 6 drinks too.  Seriously it was on sale for $99.99 a piece.....I think I'll pass.  But it did provide a funny photo!  :) 

We also picked up a new lunchbox for Andy to take to work and some herb seeds to plant.  The seeds were on sale $1 a packet.  Not sure if that was much of a deal or not, but I was happy.  The following herb seeds I picked up: sweet basil, cilantro, chives and parsley.  

I plan on planting my seeds when we get back from our trip to Wisconsin.  I hate to plant the seeds, they start to grow and die while we are gone because they haven't been watered.  Of course I will have to update you all on my planting and growing process.  :) 

High Hive for Friday #2

Oh Friday, how I love you so!  :) 

The alarm went off at a very early 5:15 am this morning and it took me so very long to get out of bed....wished I could have slept a little bit longer.  Getting up early tomorrow is going to be rough....Sunday you will be my sleep in day!  

Let's celebrate this Friday by giving it a High Five!

1.  Keeley and I cuddling on the couch, this is a daily occurrence that I am MORE than OK with!  :) 
2. Smokey joined us at the dinner table for dinner.  He sits in his chair and waits for a little something we are eating.  NO JOKE!  That night he got a couple very small pieces of bacon.  HAHA!
3. Isn't this chair HUGE!!  I love it!  We checked out Menard's Home Improvement Store Monday night and I had to get a photo of me sitting in that chair.  For sale, only $99.99.
4. Andy drinking his home brewed beer.  That was the first taste of his first ever home brewed beer.  He was so excited.
5. WAFFLE WEDNESDAY!!  Yes you read that right.  In our household we decided that Wednesday nights were going to be Waffle Wednesday.  :) 

Linking up with Lauren for High Five for Friday!

The Color Run - 5K

Yep, you read that correctly, The Color Run 5K. 

I signed up for a 5K!  
Go me!  

It's the first step towards my yearly goals!!  
Do I think I will actually do good at this 5K?  No!  
Do I think I can run the whole thing? Heck No!
But you know what, I am getting over my fear and signing up for that 5K!  

My friend Ali asked if I would sign up with her and some of her friends and I was game.  

Weather forecast for Saturday, 4/27: Cloudy, chance of rain.  High: 62 Low: 47

Love and Marriage - Part 3 and 4

You can follow Jenna, Shay, Jenn, Lindsay, and Megan, which I highly recommend :) 

The last post is 2011, 2012, our wedding and about my closing thoughts, advice, perspectives, etc.

2011

Andy and I were living in our apartment and our lease was about to expire in April of that year.  We decided to go ahead and sign another year's lease even though we were not happy with the apartment since we didn't know where to go next.  We knew we didn't want another apartment but we didn't think we could get a house at the time.  We decided to look at houses a week after the year lease was signed (DUMB! Yes I know).  We only looked at houses to build, not sure why, but that's what we did.  We looked through so many model homes and finally came across our subdivision.  We decided to go ahead and plan out options in the house and realized we could afford it.  We called the apartment complex and spoke to the manager and asked to get out of our lease.  They thankfully agreed and we moved out of the apartment Memorial weekend in May.  We moved in with our families.  His parents on the weekdays, mine on the weekends.  Construction started on our house in June 2011 and the house was completely finished and signed over to us on September 3, 2011.  I remember that day so vividly.  I still to this day cannot believe I am old enough to be a home owner. 

Andy was ready for a pet but I wasn't so sure about one just yet.  He talked me into getting a cat and we found Smokey.  Those blue eyes suckered us in immediately!  He joined our family in February 2011.  We found our dog on an adoption site.  We decided to go visit her and see if she was meant to be.  One lick to Andy's chin from Keeley and we were hooked!!  Keeley joined our family on September 2011. 

2012

May was a HUGE month for us!! Andy was to graduate college with his Bachelor's degree, I started a new job 2 days later, and 14 days after his graduation we were married!  WHEW!!  I realize I haven't gone into too much detail of those wedded bliss details, but promise soon!  The rest of the year was low key compared to May.  I started my blog in October of 2012 and am ever glad that I did.  

Currently

I realize that my blog may seem like everything is honkey dorey, no issues and that we never fight.  Yes, we fight, bicker, argue and disagree, but I don't see the point in blasting those things out in the public.  I always wanted a partner to love me for who I am, not judge me for being goofy for saying stupid things like, "Why are you taking your jacket off and opening the window if you're hot" (True story!)  The most important thing we ever said to each other, probably one of the first things we ever seriously talked about was being truthful to each other.  Don't lie, just tell the truth.  Best decision to ever agree on!  While communication is an important key (sometimes I struggle to come out with everything because sometimes I think too much and what's the point of airing the silly stuff out), but being honest is so very important.  The day of our wedding I wasn't nervous at all.  In fact, I was amazed that he was making my dream come true.  I had the dream dress, the dream wedding and someone who loves me unconditionally.  I remember in the middle of our vows, I messed up.  I messed up my vows because I was not listening to the officiant.   All I could think of, "Was this really happening?!?"  As silly as it sounds, I never thought I would find someone who would love me for me, and I was standing next to that person vowing to love him forever.    

Weekend Recap #3

Good Wednesday Morning!

This was intended on being posted Tuesday, however; I got home from work yesterday and just didn't feel like finishing this post.  All I had to do was post one more photo.  Silly me. 
It's gloomy, rainy and cool today; not how I wanted to spend this Wednesday.  Monday's weather was absolutely perfect (High around 70 degrees), yesterday andtoday, rain and cold.  Boo!

Here's the recap from the weekend:

Friday - 

I left work and was heading home to meet up with my friend Ali and her boys to see my house.  While driving on the highway I noticed a light on, on my dashboard.  My trunk was open.  I think I must have hit the trunk button on my key fob in my purse while at work and my trunk was slightly opened.  Well I was on a busy highway and didn't feel like pulling over, so I got off at the nearest exit.  Waited for what seemed like forever at a stop light to pull into a parking lot to shut the trunk.  I swear it took me forever to get home.....  Andy and I went to dinner at 54th Street Grill and it was PACKED!!!  I kept checking twitter to see if they had found the Boston Bomber yet.  By the time we got home, he was found in the boat and about to be arrested.  Thank god he was found.  I know, not a thrilling night, but it was relaxing so that was nice.  :) 

Saturday - 

I met Ali and her boys at Chick Fil A for lunch (YUM!) and of course we went to Target to shop around.  After we parted ways, I shopped in Kohl's and found a frame on clearance for $13.99.  I checked my emails to see if there were any Kohl's coupons and BAM! there it was, an extra 20% off of anything!  Score!  I picked up my frame for $11.00 with tax.  (Now, I just need to get wedding photos printed finally and hung up!)  

I also found a little light that will clip onto my sewing frame so I can see the "boxes" easier in my cross stitch.  Thank you Michael's for that 50% off coupon!  Although, I did notice that Michael's has changed their App and you are only able to use that coupon once.....that was different.  Sewing light, $9.99, with coupon $4.99.  

While getting back into my car I was going to open my sunroof and nothing....these were my exact thoughts, "fjdfklajgiohdgiloafidlfhadif".  Ok not really, but still I was mad.  I decided to hit up the KIA dealership before the service department decides to close and get this noted and schedule an appointment to have it fixed.  The car goes in the shop on Thursday evening and a loaner car will be given to me.  Hopefully it wont take long to fix and it gets fixed right away.  That night we made dinner at home and I wanted frozen yogurt (I'm obsessed, what can I say!).  So off to Chill Frozen Yogurt we went.  

I was in a fruity mood.

Fresh Florida Oranges and Pink Lemonade Frozen Yogurt

Mango and Strawberry Boba's and maraschino cherries

Sunday - 

Shopping with the mama and my sister.  The usual: Target and Dierbergs.  Lunch was at Olive Garden.  YUM!!!!!  Oh how I love Olive Garden.  Half of my chicken parmigiana went home with me for lunch the next day.  I came home and started on some of my cleaning.  Most of the time was spent on the couch with Keeley.  Andy had brought me home a surprise.  I light to go next to the couch to help me see my sewing!  How lucky am I!! He was called out on Instagram for being #husbandoftheyear.  

Dinner was the ever boring Taco Bell...haha!  Just wasn't in the mood to cook and neither was he after working so hard on the basement.  I really need to get photo's up for you all to see the progress so far.  Andy and Tim are doing an amazing job on the basement.  It's also amazing how fast everything is going!!

That's about it for my weekend.  Nothing too major, just the usual at home stuff.  :) 

5 for Five #17

Thanks to Jenn and Jessica for this fabulous link up as always!!

Here's how I did last week at my goals:

{Aqua=goal reached, Pink=goal not reached}

April 15-19th

1. Put the construction notice piece of paper up on my front door (To be done ASAP!)
2. Workout 3 times this week (Goal: Monday, Wednesday and Friday)
3. Drink more water and eat smaller portions.  It's all about portion control.
4. Stop stressing out!
5. Take a deep breath when I feel like I am stressing out.

~Dang you construction notice.....completely forgot about this goal.  

~Oh working out.  Monday was great.  Wednesday did not happen but Thursday did!  Friday I had every intention on working out, buuuuuuut it did not happen.......bad Jessica.

~Water has become my go to drink.  I drink water all day long at work.  Dinner time I want a  little something different to drink, so I will drink some green tea.  

~I was good at not stressing, just need to remind myself that if I feel stressed out, to take a big deep breathe in and slowly exhale. 

April 22-26th

1. Workout 3 times this week (Monday, Wednesday and Friday)
2. Vacuum the house
3. Wash sheets and towels
4. Change out winter sheets in guest bedroom to summer sheets.
5. Organize the guest bedroom, put away things in the closet.  Make the room pretty again!  :) 

I hope you all have a fantastic week!

Sunday Social #12

Welcome to another weekend edition of Sunday Social!

Sunday Social

Once again, I'm linking up with Ashley and Neely for Sunday Social!  

1. What is your shopping weakness?
Most anything.  I love to shop, ask my husband.  If you really do ask him, he will mostly just roll his eyes.  :) The credit card gets used mostly at Target.

2. What is your food weakness?
Depends on what I am craving.  Lately it's been pizza.  Weird because I never wanted pizza before, but now I love it all the time.

3. What is your go-to movie to watch when nothing is on?
Most anything that is on TV.  Right now, Tangled on ABC Family.  Last night, Pretty Woman.  I'm easy going.

4. What is your go-to breakfast food?
Coffee with sugar and vanilla creamer in the winter.  A fruit smoothie in the summer.  A couple hours later it will be a bowl of multigrain cheerios or oatmeal.

5. Do you drink coffee?  If so how do you take it?

French vanilla coffee with vanilla creamer and 2 teaspoons of sugar

High Five for Friday!

Good Morning All!

Today is Friday, and while I didn't have a super stressful week, it's been a long one with lots and lots of thunderstorms and rain!  I am super thankful for rain since last year we had a bad drought, however; the sunshine sure would make my day!  It's been an ever gloomy week which makes it super hard to work and be motivated to work hard....

1. Obsessed with Sweet Potato fries!!  I don't know what it is about them, but man are they ever delicious now!!  :)  They paired nicely with chicken patties!
2. Most relaxing lunch ever.  You can read about that here.
3. Oh the weather.  I woke up to that morning being 47 degrees, on my way home, its was 86 degrees!  On a positive note, I am getting better gas mileage as you can see in the Optima now that it is spring!  :) 
4. Andy took a photo of the animals yesterday.  I thought it was too cute!  They were just hanging out in the bathroom while he took a shower.  It's normal in our household for them to be where ever we are.  
5. Waffle Thursday!!  :)  Haha!  Normally we have Waffle Wednesday(makes sense, right!?!!) but we decided to grill with the neighbors so we moved it to Thursday.  I made some bacon and turkey sausage to go with the waffles.  It's so easy to throw the bacon and sausage in the over to bake rather than fry in a frying pan!  

Linking up with Lauren for High Five for Friday!

Most relaxing lunch ever

Yesterday(Wednesday), I had scheduled an interview with an applicant at one of our other campus location.  The interview was scheduled for 1 pm so I took the opportunity to get out of my office at noon, stop at Lion's Choice for lunch and then head over to the campus for my interview.  I decided to eat my lunch inside the restaurant and just relax and enjoy myself.  Seriously, the best lunch I've had in a long time.  I had good food, read a book on my Kindle and just enjoying life.   

I sent this photo to Andy and my friend Ali and said:

I'm proud of myself because I relaxed, was not stressed one bit, and did not over eat!  Normally I would get a large roast beef, large fry and large Diet Dr Pepper.  Yesterday, nope not me!  I just got a regular roast beef (extra seasoning), regular fry and regular Diet Dr. Pepper.  

Next question you'll ask, "Did you go workout yesterday Jessica?"

Um, well no.....bad me!  I had planned on it but decided against it.  It was really hot and muggy and I needed to go to Walmart for some things and was already late getting out of work as it was.  But the gym bag stayed in the car, so the gym will be calling my name today. You can guarantee it!  :) 

Weekend Recap #2 / WIAW #18

Before I start my weekend recap from last weekend and the WIAW, I would like to send out my thoughts and prayers to those affected in Boston.  I realized I am way behind on posting my weekend recap and just got the WIAW post in on time .  The recent events in Boston and now in West, Texas at the fertilizer plant have really made me sad and to reflect on how much love I have in friends and family around me.

Friday - 

My weekend started off just as they all do.  Leaving work early on Friday!! :)  I left work and was determined to hit the gym.  I even packed a bag of gym clothes to take with me so that I didn't have to stop home and come up with some excuse as to why I shouldn't go work out.  Another reason why I packed a bag, because when I get home, the animals thing, "Dinner time!!" and are restless until I feed them.  So the gym it was.  I have to say, I am quite proud of myself.  I spend 30 minutes on the tread mill, 10 minutes on the elliptical and spent another 20 minutes on abs and arms.   Dinner was at Saint Louis Bread Co (Panera Bread for those who do not live in Saint Louis).  We spent the rest of the evening watching tv.  So thrilling, I know!!!

Saturday - 

That morning I was going out to my friend Ali's house and to deliver an old weight bench that I sold to someone in Ali's neighborhood.  We made $50 off of that thing instead of selling it free on craigslist!  :)  I got my workout that morning and moving the weight bench and multiple weights from the car and to the porch.  I then made my way over to Ali's house.  She first showed me that house that they are going to build.  I am so excited for her.  The new house will be twice as big for her and her family!!  We then made our way over to the Mills Mall where we of course shopped and spent money.  I ended up purchasing 2 shirts from Old Navy.  My total bill, $4.90!!  The shirts were buy one, get one free and I had a $5 coupon!  Woohooo!  That evening we barbecued hamburgers and hot dogs with Andy's parents and watched, "Man on a Ledge".  Really good movie.  

Sunday - 
I planned on my usual cleaning of the house (vacuum, laundry, dishes).  I completed it all and had to run out to get some things from Target.  A cornucopia of some groceries and some cleaning supplies.  Thank you Target for carrying both!  :)  I originally was only going to get a couple things, instead; I came home with a cart full of items.  Go figure, I was at Target!  That night I planned on a nice dinner with Andy to a new pizza restaurant I had been wanting to take him too.  It's called Dewey's Pizza and it is sooooo good!   I was a good blogger and took several photos from that night. 

Andy was THRILLED to find out they had on tap, Dead Guy Beer

Good ol water for this girl!  :) 

Random geese walking in the parking lot

My AWESOME ceasar salad!  Seriously, I should have gotten a large salad it was that good!

Caprice

Olive Oil, Minced Garlic, Mozzarella-Fontina Blend, Fresh Basil, Roma Tomatoes

Andy's Calzone.  It was soooo good too!  It had ricotta and mozzarella cheese in it.  He added, ham, bacon and pepperoni in there.  I had a bite and it was fantastic!