devastation

(there used to be three houses on this piece of land)

The devastation here in the South is unbelievable.  

I think I have been in shock most of the day.  

I have been filled with sadness and worry for all those greatly affected by these crazy storms.

These photos were taken by my friend Jenn.  They were right in the center of the storm and were very blessed to come out okay.  She, along with her hubby Travis and baby Gavin, are staying at our house tonight because they have no power.

They are one of the 95,000ish without power.

Jason and I feel so blessed to have come through this without any damage.

Please keep those less fortunate in your prayers.

all i need is ruby red slippers and a dog named toto

We have been having some crazy storms in my neck of the woods.

Yes. Those are golf ball sized hail.

The storms have been going on pretty much the entire day with a few breaks in between.

The lightning is so intense followed by thunder that shakes cars and buildings.

The rain has been pounding the ground and at times going completely sideways due to the roaring wind.

We have had several tornado watches/warnings and a good number of tornado touchdowns.

We got let out of work early due to the severity.  On my way home, I saw countless trees down and branches all over the place.

I am happy to report that we are okay and there has been no damage to our house.

What a day!

the cutest ponytail i ever did see

My sister sent me this photo today of my niece, Adelynn.

She is sporting her first ponytail!! (my heart is melting)

I can't believe how much she has grown since the last time I saw her.

My sister will be here in June with the kiddos and to say I'm excited is a super understatement.

I miss them so so so so so much!!

is the weekend really over?

shirt and necklace-f21, jeans-ae, shoes and sunglasses-aldo

What a busy weekend!!  

Wow.  

I can't believe it is time for Monday to roll around again.

This weekend I did a ton of work around the house.  Okay, okay I supervised hubby and his friend Travis doing a lot of work around the house.  I can't wait to show you some of the awesomeness; soon.

I also got to go to one of the greatest places on Earth a.k.a. Ikea.  I am still shocked that I made it out of there spending less than $50.  So did my friend Jenn.  That's gotta be unheard of.  So we decided to reward ourselves with some yummy Cheesecake Factory.

Oh and there was some pool time mixed in there too.

Basically a fantastic weekend.

How was yours?

p.s. i was a guest blogger over here too. check it out!!

featured on all things thrifty

Guess what?!  I was featured on All Things Thrifty today!

Remember when I redid my breakfast area and did a d.i.y. with these frames?

I used a tutorial from ATT for the frames.

If you have never visited Brooke's blog, you need to. Like now.

Have a fabulous Easter weekend!!

p.s. thanks for all the kind words after my last post. you guys are the best. and i am happy to report things are going much better :)

lemons

Sometimes life throws you lemons...

and right now I am just having some trouble making lemonade.

I may need a short break from blogging, but I'll be back real soon.  Promise.

shhh he's sleeping

Jack has developed this new habit of sleeping in.  

It's totally not fair; especially on a Monday morning when I have to get up for work.

What he does is he waits until hubby or I get up and then he proceeds to do a spot steal.

Look at him looking all comfy with his head on the pillow.  I want to sleep in today.

We had a great weekend.  We got a lot of stuff done around the house and even washed our cars.

Somehow I managed to take no pictures though.  oops.

Happy Monday everyone!!

a little hair cut and some dessert

I did it.  I chopped off my hair and it feels fantastic!

A little bit ago, I mentioned cutting my hair short.  I get this itch every few years.

I've never had this particular style before; it will take some practice before I master styling it, but I an excited to try some new things!

Random question - what is your favorite treat?

I have had a long standing love for the Swiss Cake Roll.  I never allow myself to buy them though because I know I can easily eat the whole box within a few days.  I seriously can't remember the last time I had one, until tonight that is.  Hubby told me to close my eyes because he had a surprise for me.  So I obliged and closed my eyes; i heard the wrapper and instantly I said "is that a swiss cake roll?!"

Hubby thought that was hilarious that I knew what it was.  I can't help that I'm a dessert genius!

 I am so glad it's the weekend!! How about you?  Of course you are!

sometimes we do strange things

top-old navy, pants-express, shoes-rocket dog via dsw, necklace-uo

If you follow me on twitter, you might know about this already...

Just like most couples, hubby and I have a certain side of the bed that we sleep on.

Mine is the right and hubby's is the left.

So last night we went to bed, on our respective sides of the bed, and I fell right asleep.  I was exhausted.

When I woke up, something felt a little weird.  I looked to the left and saw hubby's alarm clock and looked to my right and hubby was there sleeping.  I instantly though - why am I on Jason's side of the bed?

Hubby woke up about the same time wondering the same thing.  He said he woke up and wondered why the edge of the bed was on his right side.

Apparently at some point in the night, we switched sides of the bed and neither of us has any recollection of it.  I've been laughing about it all day.  It's just so weird; I really wish I had a recording of our sleeping selfs somehow switching sides.

Oh the joys of being married! ha!

breakfast for dinner

I have a confession to make.

I have been feeling a little blah and have not felt motivated to cook.

So we've been eating out a little more than usual.

Last week we headed to the new Waffle House near our house.

Waffle House is kind of thought as a place that you go to at 3 a.m. after you've had too much to drink.  And it always tastes amazing.  Since this is a brand new Waffle House, we figured it was safe to go to during daylight hours.  ha!  We were so glad we did.  It hit the spot!

We have already discussed becoming regulars.  Yes, it was that good.

a little bit about our weekend

Our weekend was packed full of stuff.

We went out to eat with friends.

Ate yummy burgers at Urban Stack (the best turkey burger i've ever had).

Took Jack for a play date with Lucy.

Went to see Jars of Clay at our church.

Worked on planned house projects and came upon unplanned house projects (thanks to a major leak).  More on that later.

Overall it was a great weekend with wonderful weather.

How was your weekend?

p.s. still trying to work out kinks with the blog.  i made a few boo boos and may have totally messed up my old template :(  i am by no means a blog designer and really have no idea what i am doing.  it may be time to call in a professional.  any ideas, guys?

it's all about the necklace

top and leggings-old navy, cardigan-varga, necklace-f21, boots-target

This week has been all about comfort for me as far as clothes go.

This outfit was probably the most comfortable one by far.

I basically felt like I was wearing pajamas all day and it was amazing.

The trick is to just throw on a fancy-ish necklace and people assume you are dressed up.

Works like a charm, at least for me.

p.s.  i'm making some changes to the blog, so please excuse the construction zone as i try to make things just right.

the year 2011

Apparently 2011 is kind of a unique year.  Let me explain.

There are four unusual dates - 1/1/11, 1/11/11, 11/1/11 and 11/11/11.

The month of October has 5 Sundays, 5 Mondays and 5 Saturdays.  This only happens every 823 years.

The craziest thing of all is this: take the last two digits of the year you were born and add the age that you turn in 2011.  The result will be 111.  For everyone.  Trust me, I have tried everyone I know.

(I was born in 1985 and I turned 26 this year. 85+26=111)

Freaky isn't it?!

date night in

A few nights ago hubby and I decided to have a date night in.

We tried out Kevin's Burgers for the first time.  It's a little shack-ish place about a mile up the road from our house.  

The burgers were HUGE and delicious.  Definitely a new favorite for us.

We also picked up some redbox movies.

This is my idea of a great night :)

hubby thinks i should title this post "blazin it up"

blazer-old navy, top-target, jeans-nordstrom, shoes- kelsi dagger via tj maxx, necklace-f21

I wore this outfit last week on Friday.  Fridays are casual dress day at work and it's kinda my favorite work day.  Not only because I get to wear jeans, but also because it means the weekend is upon us.

What did I wear today, you might ask.  Well today my outfit digressed and became pretty un-fantastic.  I may or may not have worn christmas socks and a fleece jacket.  I would have taken some photos, but we are currently in the middle of severe thunderstorms. So darn - no outfit photos of today's un-fantastic outfit.

Something you might be noticing is that I have been wearing my hair in a messy bun just about every day.  That's because I am super in need of a hair cut and color.  I am currently in the blah state of hair - ladies you know what I mean.

I am thinking of doing something quite different.  And by different I mean short.  

Maybe something like this. What do you guys think?

jack can swim!

{jack and lilly}

Over the weekend we discovered that Jack is a swimmer!

We have this large pond in our neighborhood and we never really thought about him swimming in it.  But when some friends came in town with their dog, Lilly, and let her swim in the pond, I thought I would see if Jack would be interested.  He sure was!

I was so proud at how well he could swim.  Hubby and I got so excited.  Jack loved the water; I think we will be taking him there to swim a lot this summer.

We spent most of Sunday over at our friend's (Tanner and Kelly) house -who are also our neighbors- celebrating Tanner's birthday.  They have two beagles that are buddies with Jack.  Needless to say, Jack got a lot of play time in this weekend.  

We had gorgeous weather here all weekend.  I sure wish weekends were longer, don't you?!

{jack and gus}

happy weekend

Okay, okay.  Hubby got me good.  

After I got home from work, we went on a little family stroll through our neighborhood.

I love times like these.

Have a fantastic weekend!!!

april fools

april fools amber! 

(insert sinister laugh) 

for all her readers, this is a photo of amber when she was a freshman in college, before we started dating. best part about it is that this is the reason i asked her to marry me!

no, not because she looks absolutely HOT in this pink and black wetsuit, but because it was things like this act that i loved about her. (i'm trying to win some points so she doesn't kill me)

and to think, this is the only picture i posted...out of the many, MANY i scrolled through today (trust me, there were worse ones than this...much worse)

so with that said i've started the countdown of how long i have before she realizes i posted this and to see how long it may or may not stay up.

i hope you all have a fun and safe april fools day!!!! 

love ya babe!
hubby