Friday Favorites!

I havnt done one of these in awhile! But its a good way to capture the week and not get so far behind! haha John and I looked back through some of the blog not long ago and I was reminded just how special it is. It has captured the past few years of our life and it's so much fun to look back on. Hopefully, I can get better at blogging more regularly- but so far I dont have a great track record. lol

Backpack!- one of Josh's co-workers was selling her hiking backpacks. She let him bring them home for me to try on and we bought one! I am so excited to use it now!! and even more excited that we will actually have weekends together where we can use it! YAY! Now to book a camping trip...:D

Not the best picture of it, but I'm SUPER excited!

Girl Night!- Scandal is back and best friend lives in my neighborhood. I dont think it gets much better than that. haha. Yesterday when I got home we went for a run together, made dinner, then caught up on last weeks episode of Scandal and then watched this week. With wine and pjs of course! :D Jenny joined us this week and Alli came over too. It was nice. The boys went to play basketball after work and crashed our party halfway through, but it was fine. haha :D 

Workouts- Krystal and I decided to change out our workout routine and so far it seems to be working for us- granted it's only been 3 days. haha BUT we started a new couch to 5k program (a moderate level one) and run Tuesday, Thursday, Saturdays. Mondays and Wednesday we get up at 5am and do a workout video. I wasnt sure about getting up that earlier and I've only done it 1 day, but I felt amazing the rest of that day! I wish it was warmer out so we could switch everything to mornings. It's really hard to find motivation to run after an hour drive home. lol But yay for doing it in the cold and for 3 days in a row so far (we started Tuesday :D). Hopefully, this will help me lose some weight now!

Brad- Brad started this week at John's job! No more friends with terrible hours! We had Brad, Jenny, Krystal, and Josh over for dinner to celebrate this past Wednesday. YAY for both him and John no longer working nights and still having each other!

Charlie Brown- I got him back yesterday! He's all prettied up! Now we need to order the stripe and take off the old one. I did enjoy my rental car though. It was an old person car- a Toyota Avalon- but it drove so smooth! I'm glad to have my car back though :D

Sunday's weather- it was GORGEOUS! It got up to close to 70 out! We spent as much time as we could outside and grilled out with Krystal and Josh. It was a great day. I wish spring was coming now. I'm so over the cold. Which, it's FREEZING out today. blah. lol

Anyway, I am BEYOND thankful it's Friday. I am POOPED! :D Bring on the weekend :D

Jim and Jane turn 60!!

SURPRISE! :D 

Well, it's not a surprise they turned 60 and to their dismay I reminded everyone I could, BUT it was for a good reason :D John, Julie, Joel, and I all planned a huge surprise birthday party for them! We planned for MONTHS! Of course I couldnt post anything on here because it was a surprise, but it consumed A LOT of time :D TOTALLY worth it!

Jim and Jane are some of the greatest people on this planet. God was really looking out for me by not just giving me an amazing husband, but an incredible in-law family too. Jim and Jane have huge hearts and just do SO much for every one around them. We wanted to make sure their big birthday did not go unnoticed and wanted to make it super special for them. 

We held the party in January- the day after Janes birthday. I felt a little bad for Jim because I think he thought we didnt care about his birthday, but with the holidays it was just too hard to throw it before we did. I think we made up for it though :D

In October, I started to contact people for the gift we wanted to give them. I saw on pinterest a few years ago this project a girl did for her father. He didnt want any gifts, so she collected memories and letters from 60 of his friends and family and wrapped them up pretty and gave that to him as his present. I saved that link for years because I just knew that would be the perfect gift for them. I wanted to make sure they knew just how much they meant to everyone :D So I collected letters and memories for the next few months and we picked out a really pretty trunk to put them in and that was their gift! I finished the day before the party and we had 61 memories and letters (the 61st one of course being from Carter ;D).

We had a hard time initially trying to find a location to hold the party and eventually decided to host it at our house. This is the part where we kicked getting the house together in to high gear! haha. We found a beautiful sofa table for the entry and found all sorts of stuff to go on the walls and decorate our house :D We decided to make the party a floating party- our house cannot hold the 50 people that were coming! Yes 50!! We were able to get the majority of Jane's family, Jim's family, and their small group plus some to attend! Julie, John, my mom and I made all sorts of yummy food and we had pulled pork catered for the main dish. We had all sorts of desserts and got some black/white/red decorations to make the house look even more like a party :D Julie came in the night before the party and was a rockstar in helping get ready for everything!

 i LOVE how our foyer turned out!

Saturday morning came and we put the finishing touches on everything and John went and grabbed the bbq and hushpuppies. Jim and Jane believed they were coming over to our house and we were going to be taking them to a nice lunch and then spend the day with us playing games. We had to find a way to get them to not show up early, so we told them we would be at the vet beforehand (they like to come early to whatever we are doing so they can have time with Carter first. Seriously. So cute.) We didnt want them to show up early so the first round of guests could come. We had Jane's family come at 12:30 and Jim and Jane were gunna show up at 1pm. Jim's family came at 2pm and then the life group came at 3pm! It was perfect. When they got to our house, we were outside playing with Carter and then we invited them in. They were SO surprised! In fact, I have video of it (my husband is brilliant!) and need to get the clip! We had SUCH a great day and time seeing all of our family and the church. I'm so glad it also wasnt spoiled for them! With that many people knowing about the party for so long, I am SO surprised it didnt get blown! Aunt Carolyn was able to come! And she actually called Jim and Jane if she could stay with them and told them she was coming because it was the only time she could for awhile. So even she didnt spoil it! It was seriously awesome.

Unfortunately, most of the pictures I got were hard to see- it was SUCH a bright day!

 Grandma took a selfie with me!

 And of course Carter got some lovin'

Such a great party- I really couldnt have hoped it would go any better :D and I sure did sleep well that night! haha

Anyway, Jim and Jane, Mom and Pops, I hope you know just how special you are to all of us and know just how much you are loved. I hope your birthdays were wonderful :D

Life Lately

I feel like I always have a post titled something similar. LOL. Life has just not slowed down at all. I feel like it's finally starting to now that the holidays are over, Johns parents surprise party is over, we've sorta gotten settled into our jobs, and the Kinlaws are finally here! It's been bananas, but I wouldnt have it any other way. :D

New Years Eve- Let's start with New Years Eve, as I believe that is where I left off :D So only a month and half behind! YAY? lol. John and I decided to host NYE this year as it was our first one that we both had the night off for! That hasnt happened in YEARS. Plus, I dont love to travel on NYE. So we invited some friends over and had a great time! Of course I didnt get to take many pictures, but these pretty much sum up the night :D Good times, with good friends, to start an amazing year :D

Our Jobs- John and I are LOVING our jobs. We've both been able to travel recently and have really enjoyed ourselves. Still adjusting to our new schedules, but so thankful for so much more time together! Sometimes it still feels so surreal! We are also in a weird place because we are so used to having our own time and tons of it, that sometimes the adjustment can be difficult. I mean I wouldnt change it for anything! But we need to find our groove :D I mentioned travel for work! Which is a really neat thing for both of us! John has been able travel to Pinehurst and Greensboro and stay in some fancy places for work! and I went to Houston, Texas! It was a quick, but great trip! I ate a TON of TexMex! and it was delicious. In fact, I took pictures of most of my meals :D lol

 We went to Texas for a job fair at Rice and to get me familiar with the campus, as it's one of our summer locations. It was a very unique and beautiful place! Michael (my co-worker that I went with) is alumni, so I learned SO much about the history and culture of this great school!

THERE WAS AN A GIANT ARMADILLO! So of course I had to get a picture with it :D

 Get in my belly. It was as delicious as it looks.

 We went and tried out a place called Gingerman that Michael never got to try as a student. These faces show how bad the live music was....lol

 View from the floor I was on!

 That is a chile relleno on the left- it was amazing.

 and in the morning!

Kinlaws! They are here! They are here! And we have pretty much spent every day with them since. lol. It's been wonderful. It's so nice to have them so close! We've taken turns doing dinner and while we have a few must-dos dinner nights (Taco Tuesday, Girls/Guys Thursdays, and Brunch Sundays) It's pretty much turned into- okay who is cooking tonight?! lol. Krystal has also been keeping Carter on some days and I know it really helps for him to have Bailey around. It's nice for him to get more exercise and have some company :D Krystal and I also started to work out together and this week it has been successful :D She really helps motivate me to work out- especially on the really cold days that I dont want to. lol. We LOVE having them here. I dont think I can say that enough :D 

Of course the only picture I have taken since they moved in was of food. Krystal made chicken and waffles for brunch one Sunday and it was seriously one of the best meals I have ever eaten. Ever. 

Superbowl- We had a pseudo Super Bowl party this year! We just had a few friends over and made pizzas and watched the game. Very disappointing ending and what was with all of the sad commercials this year?! At least the pizzas were yummy?

Charlie Brown- I got in my first real accident a few weeks ago :( Of course I chose to drive the mustang that day. I actually had an entire debate that morning about which car to drive. I CHOSE THE WRONG ONE! It was nothing major, but I got rear-ended close to work. The girl was really nice and I even ended up hugging her. I guess it was bound to happen at some point with the commute that I have, but it sucks. The damage was very minimal and all they really had to do was buff out some scratches and repaint the bumper- we are glad for that because I dont even think that goes reported as the car being in an accident at all, which will be good whenever we decide to sell it. Some good did come out of it though! The place we got it fixed was FANTASTIC! The owner was super nice. They were going to have to remove the stripe on the bumper and replace it. She was going to have to buy the whole kit and agreed to give us the rest for free! We ended up asking her if we could get cash instead and she said yes. We decided we wanted to do a double stripe on the 'Stang instead and are going to try our hands at it. We really wanted to redo the stripe for a long time now, so now we can try our hand at it for free! 

Pictures/Furniture- John and I have slowly been working on the house! We hosted a surprise party for Jim and Jane (a post coming!) and it really kicked us in to gear. We got some beautiful furniture for the foyer and hung pictures in the living room, hall, guest bedroom, and our bathroom!! Still have plenty to do, but the house looks SO much more cozy :D I need to get pictures of the house and post them up here :D

Gonza Tacos- This is a restaurant right next to the building I work in. They contacted my building to see if we would want to come to a soft opening and try their food and give them feedback, all the food and drinks were free! We just had to pay tip. I went on a Friday with some work colleagues. We had a great time! I feel so very blessed to have great people to work with! The food was SO good and they were looking for people to come back that I asked Krystal, Josh, Brad, and Jenny if they wanted to come back with us. We did. And the food did not disappoint again. They gave us appetizers, free drinks (which were amazing), chips, salsa, queso, then our meals, then dessert. Such good food. It was totally worth the drive all the way out here on a Saturday. haha :D 

Here are my co-workers! Of course I didnt take any of us on Saturday :(

The Carters- He has this rash on his leg and has now been to the vet twice. Poor guy. He gets such bad allergies some times that they told me to keep him on Zertec. He is the most adorable dog in the world though :D He LOVES having his girlfriend in the neighborhood too. They are so cute together :D Anyway, hopefully the new cream they gave me will work and it will go away!

American Aquarium- Wolves! AA's new CD was released and they played in town. This was the first show that neither John or I had to work that night or the next morning!!! We had so much fun and they played for MUCH longer than they usually do! I miss going to them like we used to, but glad they are more popular now too. 

NC State Basketball- Is terrible. I dont even care to watch it this year, but will because NC State fans suffer. It's what we do. **sigh** 

I think that's it for now! :D