Wonderful Weekends: C-A-T-S CATS CATS CATS!

Here we are at Monday, friends! Okay, before I start my weekend recap, can someone tell me how it is already the last day of March and that we will already be in month 4 of this year tomorrow?! I feel like we just celebrated Christmas, am I the only one feeling this way?  Anyways, we had an enjoyable weekend and I hope you did as well!

Friday after work I headed home to get ready for our basketball party.  I'm not sure if you all are basketball fans or if you have been following along with March Madness, but we sure have.  Being from Kentucky, I bleed blue and love the Kentucky Wildcats. We had friends over for 2 games on Friday evening.  We had quite the spread for our food, mainly appetizers and cake. We had such a fun time with friends and enjoyed a UK win over Loserville Louisville.

Saturday we had planned on going to watch my sister, Brinley play softball, but due to the weather it was cancelled.  Since we were home and hadn't planned on it, I didn't have a whole lot to do.  Preston went somewhere with a guy from our church so I decided it was finally time to do something about my nails.  I had arylics since Valentine's day and decided it was time for them to go. Normally I try to remove them myself and end up ruining my nails.  I am so glad I paid to have them removed, much less painful and my nails don't look weird like they normally do when I take them off.  Since I was already in the shopping center, I ran in Cato where I scored some cute earrings for $1.99 and then went to a shoe store and got a pair of Clark's sandals on clearance, which was perfect because my black sandals are just about worn out, and Preston got some shoes for church. After catching up on some laundry and painting my nails, Preston and I went to our local Mexican restaurant for dinner, went grocery shopping, and then went home to watch a movie.  We rented "The Butler" from Redbox, it is such a good movie, if you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it.  Oh yes, also on Saturday I noticed my flowers have started blooming, hello Spring!

Sunday we went to church and then came home for lunch.  I had a Sunday nap (that's two weeks in a row, woohoo!) and then went back to church in the evening.  I came home with time to catch the second half of the UK game.  It was a close game, but the Cats pulled through with a 3 pointer at the end, sending the Big Blue Nation to the Final Four in Dallas!

Did you all do anything exciting this past weekend? I'm hoping to post more throughout week, but I'm not making any promises...Have a great week!

Wonderful Weekends: Date Night, Cleaning, and a Sunday Nap

Woohoo for Friday! Normally if I post on Friday it's about what's happened through the week, but I need to go back a little bit farther. It's taken me all week to get last weekend's post up, oh well, life happens. Sometimes if I were this late in posting, I would just forget about it and not post it all together, but last weekend was fun, so I want to write to remember it, mainly for my own sake.

Friday evening I finished up with work and I was excited to get home because Preston and I planned an evening in Bristol. I was looking forward to shopping at a few stores that we needed to go to and as always, I looked forward to Cheddar's for dinner. We got to Bristol and stopped at Target first, I needed to pick up a few baby shower gifts from a registry for a lady at church. I also picked up a couple things for sweet Lilly's birthday. I'm not her mother, or sister, or aunt, or cousin.... but I love her to pieces to I embraced the occasion so spoil her :). After Target we went to Ross because I was in search of an Easter dress. If you've been to Ross in the spring, you know they have tons of dresses. After trying on 18 dresses, I ended up buying the first two that I tried on and they were $15 each, score! We have been looking for a rug for our living room, we needed a pretty large one and when I was looking at dresses, I caught a glimpse of one out of the corner of my eye.... went for a closer look. I loved it, Preston loved it, and now it's in our living room and matches perfectly! I took a picture, but it's not a very good one so I'll post a better one later. After our other stops at Petsmart and Books a Million, it was time for Cheddar's... yum! We had dinner and made our way back home, it was a great evening together.

Saturday we slept in for a little while, cleaned some, got caught up on laundry, and didn't do a whole lot. Oh, I washed my car, too. We did our weekly grocery shopping Saturday evening.

Sunday we went to church and then went a different local church because we were invited to our friend's going away lunch. It was great to see friends that we hadn't seen in a while. After lunch, we went home and had the best.nap.ever. Then in the evening, it was church again and then home.

We had a great weekend, a mix of fun time out and about together, and some down time at home, just what I needed! Hoping this weekend is as good as the last!

Recipe Swap: Cheesy Bacon Ranch Dip

I don't know about you all, but I love a good dip so I am always up for trying new recipes!  My friend Katy told me about the cheesy bacon ranch dip and it's so delicious.. and so easy, which makes it even better in my opinion.

Ingredients:

• 16 Oz. sour cream
• 1 Ranch seasoning packet
• 2 cups of shredded cheddar cheese (I estimated)
• 1 bag of real bacon bits
• chopped green onions (I took the lazy route and bought them already chopped)

Directions: 

• Mix all ingredients together and eat with tortilla chips or Frito scoops

Yes, that is really it... and it's so good!  Enjoy :)

Wonderful Weekends

First of all, thank you all so much for your encouragement and kinds words in response to the post about us losing Mawmaw.  Your words mean more than you know.

On to the weekend recap...here we are at Monday again, is it me or did the weekend fly by?  This past weekend we didn't have many plans, and that was just what I needed.

On Friday, my friend Katy and I decided to meet up after work to walk.  We walked the bike trail in our town, I hadn't ever been to it before.  The beginning of the course had lots of uphill walking and we definitely felt it!  My legs were so sore, but I suppose that's a good thing! We ended our walking after 3.3 miles.

After getting home, I got ready and Preston and I decided to go out for dinner and a movie. We had Chinese, made a quick trip to Wal-mart, and then watched "Son of God".  The movie was really good, but long and since it started at 9:25, I was tired by the end.  I was in the bed shortly after we got home.

Saturday morning, I slept in until about 9 and after gaining some motivation, I cleaned the house that afternoon while Preston was gone to a benefit basketball tournament.  After cleaning the house and cleaning the inside of my car, Preston got home and we did our grocery shopping for the next week.  I have been wanting to try some new recipes, so I am happy that every dinner we have planned for this week is something new!  When we got all the groceries put away, I made cheesy bacon ranch dip that Katy told me about.  YUM, it was so good! Preston and I had a "snacky" dinner of chips and dip, boneless wings, and pretzel bites... not the healthiest but good.  We had a pretty low key evening at home after dinner; I watched movies while Preston worked on homework.  Even though it was pretty slow getting started, it ended up being a pretty productive day.

Sunday we went to church as usual.  Afterwards, the youth stayed to practice for the Easter play.  We took them to a local pizza place for lunch and then killed time at our house watching a movie and playing games until time for evening church.  Miss Chloe loved having company over and of course, made herself the center of attention.

We had a good weekend and are ready for work week; here's to hoping for a smooth week!

HAPPY SAINT PATRICK'S DAY! 

A Tribute

Remember last week when I wrote about our weekend and mentioned going to Preston's grandmother's house for Sunday lunch? We didn't know it would be our last dinner at Mawmaw's table with her. Last Thursday, March 6th, we got our day started, went to work like normal. However, about 10:00 am, we got news that changed everything, Mawmaw had passed away. How? We were just with her on Sunday, she just prepared Preston's favorite meal of hers (meatloaf) 4 days ago... and how thankful we are that all 10 family members were at Mawmaw's house on Sunday.  After getting the call I work, I immediately left, came home to Preston, our friend Scott picked up Chloe girl as we were packing, and then we were off to Abingdon.

While this post could be a reflection of grief, as there has been so much through this past weekend, I don't want to write about that.  Sure, as a family, we will miss Mawmaw, we will miss her giggle, we will miss her smile, we will miss her character as a whole, but let's focus on the positive and reflect on memories. 

Let's remember that she always wanted to hug Preston on his left side so that she could hear his heart beat. 

Let's remember how much she enjoyed preparing Sunday lunch.

Let's remember her silly jokes. 

 Let's remember that she always had an abundance of household items, like Splenda, foil, and dish washing liquid.  

Let's remember that she had a wonderful smile.

Let's remember that she always painted her nails with clear polish.

Let's remember she loved water aerobics.

 Let's remember that she loved word search puzzles. 

 Let's remember that she loved Jesus, and she loved her family. 

Let's remember she always put left overs in butter bowls.

Let's remember that she was an independent hard worker, that had to have her pressure washer taken away when she was 80 years old.  

Let's remember that she was joyful.  

Let's remember that she loved sewing.

 Let's remember that Mawmaw is a gem. 

Let's remember that now she doesn't have arthritis, but she's walking on streets of gold.

  Let's remember that she is no longer missing her husband, but that they are together again. 

 Let's remember that she lived her life serving her Lord and others around her.  

Let's remember that this isn't goodbye forever. 

At Virginia Beach

Mawmaw and Grandmama at our wedding shower

At my Master's graduation

Being escorted at our wedding

At a different wedding shower

After our wedding reception

Before our wedding

We will see you again, Mawmaw, until then, enjoy Heaven for us, we love you. 

          

In My Purse

Most of us ladies carry a purse of some sort sometimes, or all the time. Everyone carries different things and after seeing another post about what's in your purse, I decided to write a similar post.  Since I was switching purses, what better time to write it?  So, here's what's in my purse:

First of all, my purse I am currently carrying is a Vera Bradley Mailbag.

So just what do I carry around daily?

In the first pocket of my purse, I have:

• My work lanyard with name badge and office keys
• Bath and Body works Shea Cashmere hand lotion
• Ibuprofen
• A mini deodorant
• Sunglasses  
• Tissues
• Pony tail holder

In the Zippered pocket of my purse, I have:

• Wallet
• Checkbook
• 5 lip products
• 3 ink pens
• Nail file
• glasses/ glasses case/cleaning cloth
• Hand sanatizer
• Gum

There is room for my keys and phone in the front pocket of my purse.  I love how much room there is in this style of purse, and I always like a cross body purse.  

So what's in your purse... anything you think everyone must have?

Wonderful Weekends

How was everyone's weekend? Ours was pretty busy, as we were in 3 different states, but all for good reasons.  I didn't work Friday so that we could head to West Virginia for a funeral visitation and service that was held this past weekend.  On the way, we stopped in KY (where I am from and where my family still lives) and we had our rings cleaned, the oil changed in my car, dropped Chloe off at my parents' house, and had a hair appointment.  After all of that was finished, we continued on to WV and went to the visitation service.  Of course, we hated the circumstances, but it was great to see people we hadn't seen in a long time.  After the service, we met our friends, Jade and Eric for dinner and then we stayed with them that evening.  The last time I saw them was last year when I was a bridesmaid in her wedding, we were so excited to see each other! 

Brinley had way too much fun w/ Chloe!

On Saturday, we met our friends Adam and Meghan for breakfast and went to the Christian bookstore. I was happy to get 3 new albums, I felt like I had been playing to same music for a while.  Then, we attended the funeral service, it was one of the most well done services I have ever been to.  After the service, we were back on the road.  We stopped again in KY to see my family.  We had dinner at my grandparents' house (Grandmama's fried chicken... yum!) My brother Bradley and his girlfriend had their winter formal dance, they looked great! After getting Chloe girl from my parents' house, we were back on the road to home. 

Bradley and Laikin

Sunday morning, after getting ready, we headed to Bristol to go to church with Preston's family, well first we dropped Chloe off at Nana and Pawpaw's house.  We had a great church service and then all had lunch at Preston's grandmother's house.  On Sunday we also went to Petsmart where Chloe girl was so good!  Normally she always wants me to hold her, but there she was happy to walk around on her leash.  We got more fish for our aquarium, and of course got Chloe a bag of treats. We were headed home to beat the snow after that.  

Our weekend was a busy one, but we were with family and friends we hadn't spent much time with lately, so it was great.  I'm sure I'll be a little tired at the beginning of this week trying to catch up on sleep, but it's worth it... here's to a great work week!