this is the life: May 2011

automatic cars are where its at

top-gap, shorts and sandals-ae, belt-thrifted, necklace-f21

Phew. I feel so much better after a long and relaxing weekend with my hubby. We got in some major pool time, had fun with friends and family, got some cleaning(me) and studying(hubby) done and ate some yummy food. What did you guys do??

Well maybe I should tell you about one part that wasn't so great. My hubby started teaching me how to drive a stick shift. The last time I really drove one of those was when I was 15 and my dad was first teaching me how to drive. Then every car I have ever had was automatic, so I pretty much lost everything I had learned. Without going into major details; I'll just tell you that I was on the verge of tears by the time we got home. I don't think I was ready for that much pressure. The 10 cars behind me didn't really help the situation either. It's gonna take a lot of convincing for hubby to get me behind the wheel of his car again (he just got this car last week, before that his was automatic).

I am curious to know; do any of you drive a manual car? Or are you an automatic driver like me?

you can catch me on hearted girl today

hello long weekend

I'm not gonna lie, this was a pretty rough week.

Thank goodness I have an amazing (and super hot) hubby that won't allow me to end a week on a bad note.

This is what I came home to - beautiful flowers, movie tickets (via groupon), and candy for the movie.

I can't think of a better way to start off a long holiday weekend!!

This weekend I am planning to relax, soak up some sun and of course we'll fire up the grill.

I hope you all have a fantastic weekend. Make sure to eat a hamburger!!

sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do

dress-tj maxx, cardigan-target, shoes-f21

Have you ever had one of those insane craving for chocolate where your mouth is watering and you feel like you will go crazy unless you get a Snickers? Yea, me too. Really it happens about once a month - ladies, you should know exactly what I'm talking about.

So on my way home I figured I'd run into the gas station real quick and grab that chocolatey goodness. I looked in my change holder and I had 95 cents. "Perfect," I say to myself. A Snickers is probably about 50 cents, but I decided to bring in all the coins just incase. As I enter the gas station and go straight to the candy isle, I gasp - $1.29. What?! In my head I am going crazy; since when does a candy bar cost $1.29! My eyes race up and down the isle and there is nothing with chocolate under $1.29.

I left the store insanely frustrated. Good thing there is a grocery store nearby. I head to the store and inside I find the candy. Under the Snickers it says 99 cents. I wasn't about to use my credit card for that amount so I quickly look around and see ice cream 2 for the price of 1. Bingo! I grabbed two cartons of ice cream and my Snickers, hit up the self check out, and once I was in the car I sunk my teeth into the amazingness of a peanut butter Snickers. Heaven. Definitely worth all the trouble.

And if you follow me on twitter, you may have read that I had a craving for ice cream the other night and there was none in sight. That problem is now solved. That's what I do people; I kick problems in the butt.

It was raining all day long, so when I saw there was a break I quickly snagged hubby to take some photos. We weren't outside even 5 minutes and the rain started again. But I am not complaining because our yard is always thirsty :)

our backyard is transformed

A little over a month ago this is what our backyard looked like. Dirt and weeds. We dreaded it anytime it rained because Jack's paws would get sooo muddy. So one of the top items on our to do list this spring was grass.

Hubby did all the prep work. He was super excited to use this machine thingy a.k.a. a dingo. (i love the name. hehe) "Hey honey, are you done playing with your dingo?!" hahaha

Hubby recruited a group of his friends to help him lay the sod and voila! I am ecstatic with how it turned out. The guys did such a fantabulous job. Jack loves to run around and play fetch. And I love the fact that I can go out in our backyard with bare feet. I can't wait for the kiddos to get here so we can run through the sprinklers :)

I got these awesome lanterns for our now awesome backyard. They are LED and they are powered by a little solar panel. Basically they are amazeballs. And they come from IKEA (of course)!

Oh and Jack says "hi!"

oh mondays . . .

top-express, blazer-target, jeans-ae, shoes-aldo

Oh Mondays, how do you so often seem to get the best of me?

After a very long day, I crawled into bed with my laptop with the intention of putting together an awesome blog post. So here it is my friends.

Okay, so my brain is empty. Which is probably why I am currently getting majorly distracted by The Bachelorette. I turned on the t.v. and it just happened to be turned onto the right channel. The big question is, will I get sucked in this season? Hubby is shaking his head yes. He's probably right. He knows me so well.

a trip to the market

This weekend we went to the Chattanooga Market. The market is the perfect place to find local produce and other neat treasures. I love browsing through all the booths and seeing all the unique handmade pieces people come up with. The market is also filled with gorgeous flowers, yummy food and sometimes even local entertainment.

Our main mission this week was to find me some local honey. My allergies have been killer this season and several people told me that I should try eating local honey. It is supposed to help your body build immunity to the pollen in your area. Luckily we found some and I am super excited to give it a try. Starting today, a teaspoon of honey a day is now a part of my daily diet.

One of our favorite treats at the market is fresh lemonade. The booth is always conveniently located at the beginning of the pavilion so we always make sure to get a large cup to quench our thirst as we make our way through the market. mmmmm. Just typing about it is making me crave some right now!

Aren't these flowers so pretty?! There's just something about fresh flowers, they always make me smile :)

happy birthday sister

{photo circa 2008 in gatlinburg, tn}

Today is my sister's birthday. Happy Birthday, Ash!!!

(check her out here)

I can't wait to see you in less than a month.

I hope you have a fabulous year and receive many blessings!

or maybe just one more little Blessing ;)

Love you!

(isn't my nephew the cutest?!)

back in action and feeling inspired

top-gap, pants-express, shoes-steve madden via tjmaxx, necklace-f21

I realize I have kinda been a bad blogger for the last little while. I don't have a really good excuse or reason. I guess my time management skills just got away from me. Oh and I think I got a little lazy too. But I am back in action now so don't fret my little pretties.

Actually, yesterday something really crazy happened. I got an overwhelming desire to go back to school. Now that is just plain weird. Especially since I was a person who used to say I never wanted to read a textbook or write a paper again. And now here I am, looking into a sonography program. I think some of this is coming up because hubby started his CRNA program and it has inspired me. That being said, he just started classes this week (i am so so proud of him) and the program is 27 months long, so if I did go back to school it wouldn't be for another couple of years (since i am now officially the sugar momma in our house, ha!). So I have some time to think it over. Just thought I'd throw it out there :)

Boy I've missed you guys! Have you been missing me? ;)

bye bye carpet

A little while ago I mentioned that we had some unexpected projects pop up.

Well here is the major one. Over the winter, one of our pipes froze and decided to leak and then eventually burst. As a result, our guest bathroom and bedroom flooded.

Although we knew we eventually wanted to get rid of all the carpet in the house, it was not on the agenda for the near future. But this incident kinda bumped it up a few spots on our to do list. After doing a lot of pricing and research, we decided to go ahead and tear up the carpet in all three bedrooms and put down laminate hard wood floors.

Even though this was a very unexpected expense; in the end, I am glad we did this project. I am soooooooo happy to be rid of all the yucky carpet. Jason and our friend Travis did all the work and it turned out amazing!

I'm so thankful I have a handy hubby with lots of handy friends! ha!