Quick Check In

Hi!! Just popping in to say a quick hello since it's been a while since I've blogged. To be quite honest, life has been fairly boring lately - definitely nothing blog worthy. I haven't taken any pictures of anything in like 2 weeks lol!!

We spent NYE at our friends' house!

Thankfully, our calendars have been quite empty these past couple of weeks and we've been loving it. We've both been catching up on our big to-do lists before it does start to get busy again.

My big project right now is making a website for PPE!! I'm so excited to get it done but I know it'll take some time - can't wait for everyone to see it!

Our other friends got a sweet puppy Daisy a few weeks ago

Anyways, I just wanted to do a quick check in before I go radio silent for another few weeks ;)

Life Lately

This week has been filled with so much fun so instead of doing just a weekend recap, I'll share some fun bits of our week. Monday, our nephew was born so Tuesday we took a half day and went to meet him at the hospital. He was so precious and little - we loved getting some one on one time with my BIL & SIL and new baby Luke.

Luke with the things I made him

He's crying because his Aunt has crazy eyes lol

Later that evening, we attended our newlywed ugly Christmas sweater party. Stephen and I finally got to break out our sweaters we bought at Wal-Mart. It was so much fun seeing everyone's sweaters and showing off how ridiculous ours were. 

Wednesday during lunch, one of the ladies who is retiring had the whole group over to her house for a traditional Caribbean meal which was quite delicious! I tried ox tail and goat for the first time but I definitely won't be ordering it at a restaurant ;)

Friday was national ugly Christmas sweater day so all the girls (and our boss) wore our sweaters to work. Everyone got the biggest kick out of the reindeer sticking out of mine lol! Definitely a fun way to end the week and spend my last day in the office for the year.

Saturday, we wrapped presents while starting "The Christmas Prince", which ended up being quite cute - Stephen even liked it! After lunch, we headed over to my BIL & SIL's house to spend time with Luke and Siena and while we were there, we also did Christmas gifts. 

We got Siena a swimsuit cover up that I added a little "S" to and she was excited to put the shoes on that we got her which are 2 sizes too big lol!!

Stephen's parents got her a toy iPhone and she was loving taking pictures of everyone

After presents, Stephen and I headed to a co-worker's house for a lovely dinner party! It was great company and amazing food - we stayed up way past our bedtime. 

Sunday, we relaxed for once, finished up the Christmas Prince movie and I did some embroidery orders. It was a great weekend and I'm ready for this week!! Thursday, Stephen and I will be celebrating our Christmas at home before heading up to Chattanooga to spend time with my family. We're so excited to get up there and see everyone so with that being said, I'm going to take a break from the blog for a little bit and hopefully be back in the New Year!

I hope everyone has an amazing Christmas and New Year surrounded by friends and family :)

Life Lately

Since I'm all thrown out of wack after Irma, a life lately post was due! Last Thursday, my SIL called to see if my niece and her could stay the night with us. We were so looking forward to spending time with them and getting to hang out with our niece. We had so much fun just hanging out, eating dinner, going on a walk and watching 101 Dalmatians!

The sweetest!!

After reading all of her books, Siena found my manners book ;)

Look at that sweet face ready for a movie!

We went out for lunch on Friday to our favorite trendy, Vietnam restaurant. Of course, I overindulged in my chicken bowl but it was worth every bite ;)

Friday was our first night without guests so what did we do? We went to Target so check out the Threshold sales ;) If you haven't heard by now, Target is getting rid of their Threshold line and slowly, all of their items are supposed to go on major sale. I've been told the stores will have different things on sale but we found some good stuff! We got this lamp for only $17! We will definitely be keeping our eyes out for more sales. After spending wayy too much time in Target, we came home and ate dinner then watched a documentary about one of the wealthiest guys on the internet. It was quite interesting! 

The next morning I went to breakfast with one of my friends to the new First Watch which was decorated so cute! The food was delicious and I can't wait to go back. That night, Stephen grilled us some amazing food. Sometime, I'll have to share the recipe for these out of this world smoked potatoes. 

Sunday after church, we went to lunch with our friends which was so nice getting to catch up after all the craziness lately. And of course, we didn't get the things we actually needed from Target so we went back after lunch and had to get these apple pie Oreos... they legit taste like a fall candle. They're so good!! We also picked up a new puzzle because we're goobers and can't wait to get working on it! If only I had remembered those for during the hurricane lol

We were supposed to have one of our biggest conferences of the year last week at Disney, which I was so looking forward to but Irma had to go and ruin it. She also ruined our first big cookout with all of our friends last Saturday. Even though I'm in Charlotte this week, I'm thankful I had a month off from traveling which gave me time to recover from all of the spring and summer travel I had been doing. I'm also glad this current trip has me in a place where there's actually fall ;)

Linking up with Annie

Irmagrsh

I wanted to blog about Hurricane Irma for quite some time now but we had guests every night for a week (Friday night was our first night with the house to ourselves) so I didn't have time to talk about our hurricane adventure. First off, I want to thank everyone who messaged or texted us to find out how we were doing and send prayers. It was so thoughtful and we felt so loved. Also, the power of prayer really works - the storm changed course countless times but through it all, the Lord protected us and kept us calm.

Saturday, we saw the beginning of the storm start to come through so our friend came and stayed with us since he was in an evacuation zone (long story but his wife was out of state and his flight to join her got cancelled the day before) and we hunkered down. Thankfully, we had quite some time to prepare so Stephen was able to help board up 3 houses, including ours, so we didn't feel as rushed as we did with Matthew. Saturday was low key, lots of wind and rain but nothing too crazy so we watched movies, ran around outside while we still could, I baked and the boys played video games.

Sunday was go time. The wind started picking up so we stayed indoors and played board games and video games. The worst of it was that evening/night. It sounded so awful - definitely worse than Matthew. Throughout the night, we kept hearing branches hit the roof and thinking it was our oak tree out back falling on the roof. We started to see some small leaks in the roof but thankfully, it was from the vents and not the roof coming apart. It was an intense night but thankfully the Lord got us through and once the eye was beyond us around 2 am, it wasn't as crazy outside so we were able to get some sleep. I seriously can't believe that our power didn't go out until 12:30 am Monday morning and then it came back on at 5 am - our street is seriously on the best grid!

After sleeping for a few hours, we decided to go outside Monday morning so assess the damage. We literally couldn't believe that we didn't see any big roof damage (we still need to get it inspected to verify) and there were no trees on the house! There was definitely a lot more debris down than Matthew but no body's house was damaged!! The Lord truly protected us. There were breaks in the main water line for our county so we didn't have water for a few hours. We decided to stay inside for a few more hours since it was still windy. After lunch, we walked a few streets to see the damage then started the clean up the yard. Thankfully, we only lost water for a few hours so we could shower but we couldn't drink it for a few days. The next few days, we cleaned up the outside and checked out friends' houses and helped them clean up as well.

This was the biggest area of debris. Thankfully, the magnolia didn't fall so now we're trying to pull it back into place

Since we were already doing a lot of cutting, I decided it was time to finally give our front bushes a good trim lol Everything looked so clean after all of the yard work!!

This plant got the worst of the wind and so I had to basically cut the whole thing down

We both went back to work on Wednesday which was difficult to do but we were thankful we were able to clean up the yard before going back. A few of our friends lost power for a few days after the hurricane so we were more than happy to have them stay with us until their power came back on. I'm so glad we had power and was able to help them out :) 

For now, we are enjoying getting things back to normal for only the past few days ;) Today, I left for a week long business trip to Charlotte and it seems that there's 2 more tropical storms in the Atlantic that could hit us so we'll see... Probably shouldn't have taken down all the plywood just yet ;)

Linking up with Biana

Life Lately

I figured since so many things have been going on for us, it was time to do a little life update.

As I'm sure most of you have seen on Instagram, we recently got back from a 5 day trip to NYC - I was actually hoping to have some blog posts up this week for it but haven't had time to write them. Stephen had the opportunity to put his name in the running for a conference with work in NY and he got picked! This was an exciting thing for us because he's usually so busy at work, he can't even request to go so all the office people in Denver get to go. I've always wanted to go to NYC but Stephen's always been indifferent about it so when we found out the conference was an hour north of the city, we jumped on the opportunity to make a mini-vacation out of it. Stephen was extra excited because he didn't have to pay for a lot of his expenses due to work ;) We left on Friday and his conference was Saturday & Sunday so my sister actually flew in so I could ride the train into the city and hang out with her and her friend. It actually worked out so well! After Stephen's conference was over, we moved into the city for our final days and saw so much! I can't wait to recap everything and share all the pictures - especially the ones Stephen took!

We got back on Wednesday and I was invited to tag along on one of the group's team building event at work the next day. They rented a pontoon boat for the day and we drove around one of the river's nearby, stopped at a swamp house for lunch and then cleaned up and went to a German restaurant for dinner. It was so much fun and the perfect way to ease back into the work week ;)

I went to work on Friday - at the last minute, I joined a few co-workers for a Good Friday service at one of the nearby churches. That was a neat experience getting to worship alongside your co-workers.

Saturday, we headed down to my in-laws for Easter weekend. It was so much fun seeing our niece again - we definitely can't go 4 months without seeing her again because she grew so much in that time! I will say it's been so nice being home this week.

Stephen finally finished most of his work on his big project at work which I am so thankful for - no more 60 hr weeks!

It's so funny how everything hits all at once... my business has had a steady flow of orders but over the past week, I've gotten over 20+ orders and all need to be done by the first week of May. I am so so thankful for the business and I can't wait to get these orders done but I am a little overwhelmed. This entire weekend is blocked off for PPE.

We're finalizing plans for when my family comes down to do a week at Disney after my sister's graduation and I'm so excited! I picked out all of the fastpasses last night and we have all our dinner reservations made. I did run into problems when I attached two sets of tickets to two different accounts for my sister but thankfully, Disney is the absolute best and got it all straightened out for me.

I've officially joined Tone It Up and signed up for their bikini series which starts on Monday! I've been preparing this whole week since we didn't eat healthy for 10 days with NYC and my in-laws and I've been loving living a healthier lifestyle. I can't wait to see how the bikini series goes!

Linking up with Annie.

Random Thoughts

Wow, it's been a while since I've posted anything - the break has been nice but I miss the interaction with everyone! I finally kind of  caught up on my blog reading yesterday and loved seeing everyone's Thanksgivings! I can't believe I was only able to do 3 blog posts in November - let's hope things will pick up in December. Speaking of which, today is December 1st! I am so excited and can't wait to indulge in all things Christmas :)

I hope to have our Thanksgiving recap up next week but here's a little glimpse into our Thanksgiving week:

• We drove to my parents in Chattanooga, TN and spent a fantastic week with them saw lots of extended family and friends!
• We got to enjoy the beautiful fall weather with some hikes
• Stephen and I LOADED up at a used bookstore and I finished The Night Sister in one day (my new record ;)) - it was SO good!
• We saw the horrifying news of the Woodmore Elementary bus crash - such an awful thing. My dad actually went to elementary school there and grew up close by. Since we were in town, Stephen and I wanted to help so we loaded up on food from Publix and brought it to the hospital
• On Thanksgiving morning, my laptop finally bit the dust so thankfully, we were able to cash in on a black Friday deal! 
• I also got a Nikon camera pack (as my actual Christmas gift) for Christmas and I can't wait to learn how to shoot in manual; even though I have no clue what any of the technical terms even mean ;)
• We killed black Friday shopping and was able to check off all of our Christmas lists
• We helped my parents decorate their Christmas trees before making the trek back home

Some other random thoughts:

I'm so thankful that I decorated for Christmas before we left for Thanksgiving (minus the Christmas trees and outdoor decor). The last 2 things were stressful enough to get done so next year I'm aiming for everything except the outdoor decor

I convinced Stephen to get a 2nd Christmas tree the day after Christmas last year for our living room. We got it all decorated and set on Sunday and then when we tried to turn it on (it's a pre-lit tree) Monday after work, it wouldn't come on (it worked on Sunday). So, the tree is broken... GE is sending replacement adapters and if those don't work, I think it's just going to be an un-lit tree this year. Next year, we'll probably add lights to it because I'm not about to lose that money lol

Stephen's been so gracious to modify my new laptop for me so I'm running at optimal performance. Unfortunately, this has been taking longer than either of us thought which means no blogging or embroidering for me

We had all sorts of plans for this weekend (3 parties), buying our Disney tickets and relaxing but now Stephen has to work which pretty much ruins all our plans. I'm hoping he'll get off work at a normal time Friday and Saturday so we can still do 2 things.... and depending on how we're feeling, maybe we'll be rebels and go to Disney on Sunday lol Even though I'm SUPER bummed to be missing out on our Saturday activities, I'm ready for an open day to be extremely productive - I've got a whole pile of things that need to be monogrammed! 

Do y'all remember my friend, Madison, who guest blogged for me a few months ago? She started her own lifestyle blog! Head on over, pay her a visit and send her some love :)

Bravo if you made it through this word-heavy post! So many things to catch up on. I hope everyone has an amazing Thursday!

Linking up with Annie

Hurricane Matthew Update

The Lord was so faithful to us last night and this morning. The hurricane stayed offshore and didn't end up hitting us directly like we thought. Stephen and I stayed up all night watching the news and listening to the wind and rain get worse and worse. We were SO thankful that the power never went out so we were able to keep up with what was going on outside. I think we would've had pretty extensive damage if the 100 mph winds ended up hitting our house.

God really protected us and kept our house safe. We haven't found any damage - we still have all our shingles! lol There are some tree branches towards the back of the yard that we'll have to clean up tomorrow but other than that, everything stayed put. Most of our neighbors houses are safe as well, a lot of people lost parts of their fences and some screen damage but no trees through houses.

The worst of the damage - the left tree is almost completely bald!

We were excited because the screen held up!

A LOT of people did not come out of this storm as well as we did though. I cannot believe my eyes when I see the news coverage of Daytona and Jacksonville/St Augustine. There is so much flooding and devastation which could have easily been our area. Please keep those areas in your prayers still!

Thank you so much for all the prayers and for making sure we were okay!! We had a friend stay with us Wednesday and Thursday night but thankfully, their beach condo was safe to return to this afternoon. I'm laughing because my sister is coming tonight with a friend on her way down to Miami and then my parents are coming tomorrow afternoon to stay a few days. Things will be quite busy but I am so thankful - the blog will probably take a back seat so hopefully I'll be back in 2 weeks!

Thanks again and I hope everyone has a great weekend - and the Floridians enjoy the cooler weather that's coming!!

Life Update

It's been a few days since I've been able to get a blog post up and I definitely didn't mean for the radio silence! Since we just finished fortifying the house for Hurricane Matthew and it's not here yet, I figured I'd give everyone an update.

We've had an interesting past 2 weeks to say the least... two weekends ago, we went with our friends to some local springs for the day. We had so much fun but my mom always warned me against going into any sort of water between Aug-Oct when it's really hot outside because bacteria can grow easier. We figured since the springs were so cold, we'd be fine. Fast forward to last Monday after work, we bought my new car and not 30 minutes after getting home, I started feeling symptoms of an infection. I was up all night and felt so bad - Tuesday morning I ran to urgent care to get some medicine.

My mom told me she was allergic to the medicine they gave me but she's about allergic to everything so we thought I might be fine. Thankfully, I started feeling better and was able to go pick up my car once Stephen got home Tuesday and I returned to work the rest of the week. Towards the beginning of the weekend, I wasn't feeling well - something was off. After church on Sunday, I noticed I was getting a rash which meant an allergic reaction to the medicine so we raced off to another urgent care since the original one I went to was closed. I was put on a steroid once a day and was put on a different antibiotic.

I won't get into too many details but thankfully my biggest reaction was a rash and nothing to put me in the hospital. Throughout the rest of Sunday, the rash continued to spread. I was worried because I was set to leave Monday morning for Kansas City to run a photoshoot at a power plant. I didn't want to let my co-workers down but I was so nervous to leave all while in the middle of an allergic reaction. I was advised to cancel my trip if I woke up Monday and the rash was worse. Well, Monday I was worse so I cancelled my trip and was off to the original Dr I went to the week before. He gave me a shot, upped my steroids to 3 times a day and gave me some other medicines to take as well.

Thankfully, all of those worked, I am slowly getting better and I'm so glad I didn't go on my business trip - the Lord really protected me especially with the hurricane. My co-workers were awesome and had everything under control! Wednesday (yesterday) rolls around and it's time for me to go back into work after being home Monday and Tuesday and what do we hear, Hurricane Matthew is legit coming for us. Thankfully, Stephen had me to go to the store during lunch while I was at home on Tuesday and I was able to stock up on a lot and one of my co-workers in Orlando picked up water for us since they were all out over here.

Stephen left work really early on Wednesday to start working on boarding up the house and thankfully, two of our friends came to help since I couldn't get off work until later. I joined everyone before our buddy had to take his wife to the airport and we worked on boarding up the house until past 11 pm. We were up at 5:30 am this morning finishing everything up and I can officially say, WE ARE READY!!

We never boarded up for hurricanes in Tampa - this will be interesting not being able to see anything!

I want to thank everyone who made sure we're alright and offered a place for us to stay! We are right on the coast, but we're not on any islands and not in any evacuation areas. We have a friend staying with us since they live right on the beach - he has been SO helpful (and this will be his first hurricane ;)). When you see the eye starting to hit FL, think of us and keep us in your prayers! We should be fine and I will be sure to let everyone know our status on instagram.

And because this is legit happening and SO funny, I had to share