Snow Day and Photo Dump

There hasn't been too much going on with us in the past month, hence the lack of posts.  However, this weekend, we were given a pretty sizable amount of the white fluffy stuff...

14 inches of snow in about 24 hours.... that's a lot of snow!  Thankfully, my employer was closed yesterday for President's day and also closed today due to the inclement weather.  While the snow doesn't completely excite me, I will definitely take the extra paid day off!  

Between the last two days of being home, my days have consisted of a little cleaning, netflix, soup, playing Just Dance for some cardio, and taking pictures of our pets. 

Here are a few pictures: 

Finally Friday!

Finally, we've made it to Friday! This week has taken forever to get through... but finally the weekend is almost here.  I'm ready to dump some random thoughts:

1. We have  a new member of our family- meet Niko (pronounced nee-ko).  Niko was a surprise this past weekend. Niko is a Maine Coon cat (who will grow to be very large).  My aunt breeds cats and we thought we would be able to get one this summer, but it happened a little sooner.  This is the friendliest cat I've ever seen.  He has done very well adjusting and surprisingly Chloe dog hasn't seemed to mind too much.

2. Of course I can't mention the cat without mentioning the dog... our dog Chloe has cataracts causing her to be mostly blind.  She still has some vision, however from our walk this past Sunday, it was evident that her sight has gotten worse. 

3. I'm ready for Spring... who's with me?  Flip flops, flower beds, and warmer weather- I'm ready to see you again!

4. We already have our vacation rental for this Summer booked and I cannot wait to be back in the Outerbanks!  When I'm on vacation, I like for things to be low key and not a rush. Since the OBX isn't very commercial, it gives us just what we need for vacation- relaxation.

5. I'm excited to say that I have met my January goal for weight loss- trying to lose at least 5 pounds a month... that'd be 30 pounds before our beach trip!

6. I have been going to Zumba a few times a week.  When I am exercising, the most annoying thing is my pants sliding down and having to keep pulling them up.  Well, last night I wore a new pair that I had ordered from Kohls and they were fantastic! I didn't pull at them one time, making it a better hour of exercise because I wasn't worried about my pants.  Only problem is now I want a pair in every color! You can find these capris here.  They do run a little big so I ordered a size down and they were perfect. 

Okay, that's all I've got today.... time to finish out the work week before heading to Brinley's cheer competition this weekend!



(I did not receive any compensation from Kohls or Fila for mentioning the workout capris, all thoughts and opinions are my own, just wanted to share!)

Snow Day Birthday!!

Happy Thursday, folks! Today I am home from work on a snow day! It started snowing yesterday about 3:00 pm and hasn't stopped yet. This morning we woke up and got ready to take the dogs (we are dog sitting for friends) out and to see all of the snow! After we were all ready, we went out and Preston measured 9.5 inches of snow so far, that's a ton of snow for us! It is so pretty, but Chloe girl hated it! She doesn't usually like rain, snow, or anything other than completely dry grass for that matter, so it wasn't a big surprise. It was Cujo's first big snow, so we snapped some pictures for Scott and Machele (his owners). Before I post pictures of our snow day, I must say that IT'S CHLOE'S 7TH BIRTHDAY TODAY! We will have our party later complete with vanilla ice cream, her favorite. Of course, she also has a couple of presents. So, in honor of our birthday girl, here is a picture of her from a couple weeks ago:

And now for snow pictures,and for the record, I used manual on these shots... making progress with figuring out my camera!

Meet Cujo!

Hope everyone has a safe and warm day, I'm off to make hot chocolate and finish our minion puzzle!

Deer and Dog

It's Wednesday, we're half way through the week, people! Not only is it hump day, it's snow day... so I am home today with Chloe girl.  The morning has started slowly and I think the rest of today will include cleaning our house, repainting my nails, and then going to church this evening.  That's one great thing unexpected days off, you can kind of do what you want because you weren't supposed to have it off...well, that's how I look at it anyways.
It started snowing yesterday afternoon and didn't stop until night.  I got home from work, parked at the bottom of our hill, and walked up (in flats, again).  We spent the evening in and didn't do a whole lot.  We saw a few deer outside and then after getting a picture I decided to take a few pictures of Chloe, I just love her!
Also, I got my SLR camera last year, but if anyone has any good tips on how to use which setting for what, it'd be appreciated!

 

Excuse my tshirt and robe :)

"Seriously, mom... no more pictures!"

Chloe girl

Last Thursday, Chloe starting itching and scratching... however there weren't any fleas and we hadn't changed her food so it should have been a reaction. Her skin was really dry and flaky in spots. Normally Chloe runs to the door when I get home and she's usually pretty active with her toys. Friends kept her over the weekend while we were in Pigeon Forge. She laid around all weekend and seemed pretty miserable. We had done the vet's recommendation of children's benadryl 1/2 teaspoon twice a day, but it wasn't helping anything. On Sunday when she still had no energy and it was obvious that she didn't feel good, we decided for Preston to take her to the vet the next morning.
She got a shot, cream for the raw places she had scratched at (one on her back is really bad, but starting to heal now), and an antibiotic for her to take for 7 days. Since going to the vet, she has been doing better, but still wasn't herself. She started playing more, but not like usual...
Well, that changed this morning! She must be feeling better and had a good night's sleep because as soon as we woke up, she was ready to play with her chicken. I am so glad my little furbaby is feeling better!

Long Weekend Recap

Hello, Everyone... I feel like sometimes I just get in a rut of only posting weekend recaps because I don't have much to say throughout the week. This week has been a pretty low key week so far, but we are adding some fun tomorrow evening, we are having friends over and then Friday and Saturday we'll be in Pigeon Forge. Remember me telling you I was looking forward to the Dixie Stampede Christmas show? Well, we are going this Saturday and I cannot wait! Be sure to check back for detail from that adventure, but for now, this is a post about our previous weekend, one in which I had an extra day off.
Friday evening Preston and I headed to Lowe's to get some an enormous amount of soil so that we could plant our fall bulbs. We had a successful trip and came home with 13 bags of soil, 2 flower pots, and a clearanced halloween garden flag that I will use next year. After getting the soil unloaded at home, we visited with friends and their adorable new puppy, Cujo.
Saturday we had some breakfast and shortly after that Nana and PawPaw arrived and we got started on yard work. We cleared out weeds, planted our flower bulbs, pressure washed the sidewalk, etc. I couldn't believe the difference, I wish I would have taken before and after pictures because it seriously looks SO much better! For dinner, I tried a new recipe and made baked spaghetti, it was different than normal spaghetti because you use cream cheese in it, it was pretty yummy, thanks Pinterest! I made brownies so that we could have brownies and ice cream, but we were all too full. Nana and Pawpaw took theirs to go and then they were on their way back home. We are very thankful for their help and as usual, it was a great visit with them. Saturday evening we ended up getting to go see our friends Cujo again. We enjoyed the rest of the brownies and ice cream and then went back home.
Sunday we went to church and then after a quick lunch we washed my car inside and out. I don't know about you guys, but I love a freshly clean car, I didn't want to drive it anywhere because I wanted it to stay clean, but of course, the purpose of a car is to go, not to just sit in the drive way.
Monday I was off for Veteran's day and I really enjoyed the extra day off. I planned to sleep in, but my internal clock got me up as usual, I did a few things around the house, snuggled and napped with Chloe girl, and got all the laundry caught up. Preston only had to work until around noon on Monday, so we enjoyed the afternoon together. I also went for my car inspection and got my sticker for my car, I'm officially a Virginian now. After a workout at Curves, I made breakfast casserole that we had for dinner and it was so yummy, if I do say so myself!
We had a good weekend and are excited for the next one. How are you guys? Any fun weekend plans coming up?

Wonderful weekends: game night, new hair, and home improvements

Happy Monday, everyone... just thought I would recap our weekend, while it wasn't very relaxing, it sure was productive!
Friday I left work early because I needed to head to the DMV for my.Virginia driver's license... I was not a happy camper, I had guests coming over for dinner and needed be home at 5:30, plenty of time, right? Wrong! We didn't leave the dmv until 10 til 6.... after finally getting out of there, we got home and I started making the soup for.dinner. Even though the evening started rough, see enjoyed having friends over for dinner and game night, we played clue.
On Saturday, Preston and I both went to our hometowns, but not together. Preston went home to work on his car, fixed the problem and gave it a wash. I went to Kentucky because Chloe girl and I had hair appointments, after dropping her off at the groomers, I went to my appointment. I knew I wanted to go brown and ditch the blonde.  After looking at some colors, we (my hair dresser that I've known since birth and I) picked a brown with a tint of red... yes you read that correctly, RED! I wasn't sure about it, but now I love it. In this visit I also bought the flat iron I've been wanting and I was super excited to get it for 25% off! After mine and chloe's appointments, we went to my parents house and I helped my mom organize her sewing room and install a new cabinet and counter top. After a visit to my grandparents, it was back on the road and an hour later I was back home.
Sunday we went to church, then walked back home for lunch. After a quick lunch we started laundry and then went outside to work on our flower bed project. The bed is now ready for planting, which is this coming Saturday's project. We also got the new medicine cabinet put on the wall in our master bathroom and we love it! After that we headed back to church. We've started working in the kids Christmas musical and it's going to be great! We enjoyed Mexican for dinner and ended the night with straightening up the house a little bit. It was a great weekend and we got lots accomplished! Already looking forward to next weekend!