What's new with me...

Woohoo for Thursday, it's my Friday this week! It seems like the last couple have flown by.  With the beginning of the year, I didn't make any resolutions, however there are some things I am doing differently now days.  Nothing over the top, possibly not even worth blogging about, but I want to use it for my own memory.

1. Different foundation and powder
I knew I needed to get different make up because 1) what I had was almost gone, and 2) it wasn't really doing what I wanted it to do.  I have a combination/oily skin type and by mid day my "T-zone" is often oily- which I hate.... Clinique to the rescue. I have been using the stay-matte oil-free foundation and it has been great. Next time I will get a shade darker, though. You can find it here.


source

I have also tried new powder.  I have been using loose powder for years, and it's actually what I prefer, but I tried this compact powder, also stay-matte.  I have liked it so far, but will get a shade darker in it as well.



2. Food Choices
I have really been trying to do better with food choices and thinking about calories and food intake instead of just eating what I want.  Watching portions, as well.  I've been logging my food daily with My Fitness Pal and I feel like I have been doing better than I have started trying to do this in the past. I've started prepacking and preparing meals ahead of time and it makes eating healthier SO much easier.  My daily lunch for the last 2 weeks has been raw veggies and fresh fruit. Of course I slip at times, but I feel like it's a step in the right direction. 

3. Exercising
I've always exercised on and off, but what's new this time is that when I don't get to work out because of working late or other evening commitments, I actually miss it.  I've never missed working out before.  I have started doing Zumba again at a place I hadn't been to before and the environment and peers is fantastic!

4. Organization
With my job, there are multiple due dates, clients, etc.  I have created a new organization method for myself to keep everything on track and it is working wonderfully- here's to being on top of things!

5. Current Netflix Obsession
We all have those shows that we binge watch at times, don't we? Just me? Recently we started watching "Once Upon A Time". It is different than something I would usually watch, but it's been pretty good. I feel like it's a really long movie broken up over episodes.  I've also been watching "Gossip Girl", also not something that I would normally watch... it took a while to get into it, but now I'm hooked.

6. New Book
This is where you come in! I've been wanting to start a new book but not sure of what I want to read.  I loved "The Fault In Our Stars" and like stuff such as "Heaven Is For Real"... any and all book suggestions are welcomed and appreciated!

Blog fail and an update

Okay, I really thought I had posted a weekend recap last week.... I was certain I had made another post since writing about Thanksgiving, but it doesn't look like it.  Must have thought about posting it, does that count?  I guess since I haven't blogged in forever it's time for an update!

 

So what have we been doing since Thanksgiving? 

 

The first week of December my younger sister and her squad had their regional cheer competition.  After work I headed straight to the Expo center to watch.  The girls did great and got 1st place in their division, sending them to state!  Also during the first week of December, my younger brother and sister turned 15 years old. 15. How in the world did that happen?  The morning of their birthday we had church directory pictures to take at church and then afterwards, Brinley came to our house for a little while, we watched The Grinch if I'm remembering correctly.  Brice had an away basketball game.  Later that afternoon, two of Brinley's friends came to our house and we headed to get some necessities for the evening at Wal-Mart.... and by necessities, I mean biscuits and gravy, ice cream, and a gingerbread house kit.  We had breakfast for dinner, at the birthday girl's request after we got back to the house.  Shortly after, Brice and my parents got back from his game and brought a cookie cake to celebrate their birthdays.  They stayed a little while and then after they went home, the girls made their gingerbread house  a mess. It turned out....okay. Cupcakes were also baked and decorated that evening. 

 

The second week of December, we had church and then went out for lunch to celebrate Brinley and Brice's birthday since we didn't get to have a "birthday dinner" on Saturday.  After lunch we headed to my parents' house for Brinley's ice cream cake (remember, Brice had a cookie cake the day before). Also in the second week of December, Preston and I finished up making some props for our youth Christmas program.  We also attended a concert and finished Christmas shopping.. but that's for another post. 

 

This week, we're wrapping and getting everything for Christmas. I'm also working extra hard at work (part of why I have been MIA lately) to be ahead since I will be taking off the whole week of Christmas and will have 9 glorious days away from my office that will be filled with family time, friend time, and sleep.

 

Anything new with you all?

Memorial Day Weekend

Whoops, didn't post for over a week... I think we all have those "life is super busy and I don't have time to do much extra" weeks. However, sometimes in the past week I have had time, but I've either been asleep or glued to the book I'm reading. Anyways, this 3 day weekend has been great and I loved it! 

 On Friday, after work I came home to change and then went to get ready for the after graduation party for our county. I am a part of the Drug Free Community Coalition so I participated in this event, the purpose of the event is to give teens a fun, safe environment, drug free, to celebrate and party after graduation.  There was a huge inflatable that was a foam dance party, laser tag, airbrush tattoos, a photo/video booth, game room, DJ, etc.  They also gave out some pretty incredible prizes. I worked the event from 9-2am (well 6-2 if you could set up). Preston also volunteered... we were both wiped out by the time we got home. 

Saturday morning, as you can imagine, I enjoyed sleeping in for a while...which I haven't done in a long time. Then it was off to the graduation party venue to clean, which surprisingly wasn't bad. Later I felt pretty rested, but must not have been since I took a nap that afternoon, which was also glorious.  By the evening I felt motivated to get things done around the house, laundry, mopping, dusting, you know.."the works".  I was satisfied with my cleaning that evening and called it a night shortly afterwards. 

Sunday I had only planned to go to church and then home, but my mom asked before church what my plans were for the day... I didn't have anything I really needed to do since I had finished everything the night before so it was an impromptu trip to my parents' house for the day.  I was able to visit with family and layout on a float in the pool for about 3 and a half hours, score!  After a good amount of time in the sun, I visited with my grandparents for a while and headed back home, arriving shortly after 10pm. It was so great to set my alarm clock later than normal for a Monday morning! 

Monday I was happy to sleep in again, this time until 9:30.  We had Nana and Pawpaw over for lunch, complete with a hot fudge cake, all I can say is YUM! We enjoyed time with them at our house and then headed to the greenhouse. Nana got a couple of hanging baskets and I got a few flowers to plant in our flower beds. After getting home, we got our petunias and marigolds planted and then I enjoyed reading on the front porch.  Preston and I spent the rest of the evening at home and grilled shrimp and veggies for dinner, yum! 

Our Memorial Day weekend was spent with family and much needed time at home, nothing too crazy or exciting, but exactly what we needed.  Hope everyone has a great week! 

Here are some pics from our weekend, if you follow me on Instagram you may have seen these already :)

New [to us] house... so much WORK!

Hello! Just a little warning, this post may be boring for you to read, and if so, just come back when I post something else... but, I am not sure if I have shared or not, but Preston and I are moving into a new (to us) house this month. The house comes in part of Preston's benefit package from his job, so we are being tremendously blessed with a spacious house. This post is for me to be able to remember all the hard work we have been putting into it, I wasn't even going to write about it, but I want to be able to look back in a few years and see how far we've come! So...

The house is an older house, but has recently been upgraded, workers have done these upgrades, not us. Our master bathroom has been completely re done with new floor, bath tub, vanity, and toilet. Also in the upgrades, some walls were painted with a fresh white coat and others were painted colors that we were able to pick (the kitchen, dining room, and game room). Also, new laminate hardwood floors, that I love, are all throughout the house now, except for the bathrooms. The house is looking very nice, but there are some things that we still want to do before we move in. We will be working on some of it this Saturday, our families are even coming to help (so thankful)! I will be posting another post for a house to do wish list that I would like us to work on now, and in years to come.

Now that the renovations have been complete, what have we been doing? CLEANING! Every evening after I get off work I have been going to the house to clean. There were items in the house that we don't want to use, such as dishes, that we wanted to box up and store in the attic. We have got the items in boxes, now we just have to get them in the attic. At first the cleaning was over whelming and I didn't know where to start, so I made a room by room checklist of things to clean. The list had a total of 46 things for me to clean, from cleaning windows, to sweeping, mopping, and dusting fan blades, there has been a lot to do. However, as I have crossed my list off, I now have just 8 things left to clean. I am hoping to get those 8 things done before Saturday so that we don't have to worry about cleaning then.

We've also been working on things outside the house as well. This week, my dad used his pressure washer and cleaned the porches for us. He will be coming back at a later time to clean the sides of the house (brick). Preston has mowed the grass and weed eated as well, it looks so great! I am planning on revamping the flower bed that is there, well, right now it was more of a garden bed.... I pulled some of the things up and have been clearing out the space so that I can plant the bulbs I am ordering. I cannot wait to see our front yard in the spring!

I would also like to make note that in this cleaning process, I have had an in grown toe nail and I had it removed last Friday, the whole nail (ouch!!!!). So I had 2 days of rest that I didn't clean, but other than that, we have been working on it every day.

I know that all of our hard work will pay off, I am so looking forward to everything being moved in and in place (can we just fast forward to that time, please?). I'm thankful for the blessing this house will be to our family and I am excited to see what this house brings us.

How things can change in a year

Have you ever thought about where you were in your life this time last year? Since last August, lots of things have changed for us. I have decided to do a flashback comparison month by month to show a difference between then and now... so, I am rewinding the past year just to remember what has happened over the past 365 days, warning: This post is very long and has some an overload of pictures!

August 2012: We were living in Elizabethton, TN. I was a full time student working towards my Master's degree at ETSU, I was working at my internship placement part time, and I was working at a shoe store part time.... Preston was working on his Master's degree through KCU, and was working at Best Buy. Preston and I also celebrated 4 years of being together since we started dating, we went to a Tenth Avenue North concert

September 2012 Last September was a lot like August, consumed in school, work, internship, etc. In September I also made my first deco mesh wreath so that it would be ready for October, it turned out like this:

In September I also made chicken and dumplins' for the first time!

October 2012 In October, we continue with the working/school routine... I made this wreath for halloween.

In October I went to my friend Deanna's baby shower and got to see some friends from high school!

November 2012 In November, my mom and I did our annual Black Friday shopping (we LOVE it) and my sister got to join for the first time.... after that, we were on the road and Florida bound for Emily's baby shower!

December 2012: In December, we enjoyed Christmas, the Biltmore estate, and a short break from school!

January 2013 January came and we continued school, but I was excited for it to be my last semester. Towards the end of January, for the first time, I interviewed for a full time social work job position for after graduating school. In January I picked up a new hobby and began crocheting sashay scarves

In January I also got a picture of Chloe sleeping like she normally does, on her back, on a pillow, covered up, with her tongue out... spoiled?

February/March 2013: In Feb and March, not much changed... the same school/work routine. We must have been either boring or busy because I didn't even take any good pictures.
April 2013: In April, Preston and I found an amazing deal on a cruise (thanks to my brother who told me about it)and we booked a cruise on the spur of the moment and we were ready to set sail in just 2.5 weeks. If you know me, I'm a huge planner, so going on a trip like this without planning it was crazy to me, but it was so much fun!

At the end of this cruise, I got a voice mail which led me to talking to someone from the company I interviewed for back in January, I ended up being offered and accepting the job!
May 2013: In May, we had already planned to go on vacation with our friends Adam and Renee to the Outer Banks in North Carolina so we went on another vacation. Also in May, I graduated from graduate school with my Master's of Social Work degree!

June 2013: In June, we moved to Virginia and began to get things situated in our new home. I planted my first rose bushes, which I was extremely excited about. My family had planned a beach trip.... so I was blessed with another vacation, this time to Myrtle Beach, SC.

In June I was also honored with being a bridesmaid in my dear friend, Jade's wedding... it was such a fun wedding!

Also in June, I started my job as a social worker doing what I love and working with children every day. It's great to go from having a crazy schedule to only working 8:30-4:30 Monday through Friday, I love my schedule!
July 2013 July continued work, but my 3 month streak of vacations came to an end! I did enjoy visiting the church camp a lot in the evenings after work, though!
And that brings us to where we are now, August... I'm enjoying the changes that have made, our move, and my job, I'm excited to see what the next year brings. What's been going on in your lives lately?

I totally stink at blogging....

We all know it..... I am really not good at blogging, I start... and then stop, and start... and then stop again.  I couldn't believe that when I looked at my post the most recent thing I had written was from 2 years ago, sheesh!  Those two years seem like so far away, but at the same time, it has went by so quickly.  I haven't stopped reading blogs, though.  I love reading Emily's  blog and others, daily!   

I've decided to give blogging a try again, especially now that I have a more regular/routine schedule.  Before, my days were split between school, work, an internship, and still trying to manage my home life.  Thankfully now I have graduated school (happy dance) and I have started my full time job as a social worker.  I wanted to start my blog completely over, but there were some posts that I wanted to keep to remember some details... so I ended up just deleting some posts I didn't think were worth keeping. Will I regret it later? Maybe.

So, since the last time I posted, Preston and I have moved to Tennessee, I graduated from my undergraduate school with my BSW.  I started more schooling straight away and worked part time at a shoe store.  I graduated with my Master's of Social Work degree, and now we live in Virginia... where I have started working a job that I love, we're so blessed! Other highlights from this year include going on three, yes three, vacations which included a cruise to the bahamas and grand turk, a beach week in Outer Banks, NC, and another beach vacation to Myrtle Beach.  It's been a good year so far, hopefully you'll get more updates from me....before another 2 years pass!  Here's to hoping, stick with me, I'm going to really try!  Follow me!

-Brooke

So much!

Hello everyone!  With all of the hustle and bustle of getting things ready for the wedding and finishing up my junior year of school, blogging seemed to be put on the back burner for me.  However, I never stopped reading... just posting.  Well, I have decided to get into it again and hopefully do a better job than I did before.  There has been so much that has happened in the last few months so it is going to take a little while to get you caught up... 3-2-1, here we go!
My last post was in March, so I will try to briefly recap each month since then, in April, I was completely consumed in school, finishing my short term practicum, final assignments, ect.  I was going home every weekend to get wedding "stuff" taken care of, whether it was getting invitations ready, taking bridal pictures, or stuffing kiddie bags, there was always something that needed to be done.  Then we get to May.  May started off by ending my junior year with  exams, and then the 7th was Preston's (my husband for those of you  who don't know) college graduation.  Sadly, I do not have a picture of him in his cap and gown on my new computer or I would share.  Moving on... the next 6 days were busy busy busy... because on the 7th day, I married my best friend.  The ceremony was amazing and we had a wonderful reception, everything went to smoothly.  Well, other than our ring bearer not wanting to go down the aisle, but hey, he's cute.  Here are some moments of our big day:

Me and my Daddy-O

"I DO"

Mr. and Mrs. Riffe!

Wedding Party

Our Family

Getting ready to eat!

Father/Daughter

silly picture :)

We are so thankful for the many blessings we had throughout our wedding, including the showers, attendance, prayers, and thoughts that were with us as we started our new journey together.  Well, soon after the reception came to an end, it was time to head to Cincinnati... we had a 7am flight to catch the next morning, a flight to Miami we were boarded to glorious Carnival cruise ship, Glory!  We were so excited about our trip, especially since Preston had never been on a cruise before.  We made it to Miami and got through security at the cruise terminal lickity split with no problems.  The only wait we had was right before we boarded due to a storm.  We got on the cruise and we were off to Grand Cayman, Cozumel, Belize, and Isla Roatan (Honduras).  As you can imagine, we had a wonderful vacation that included snorkeling with sting rays and checking out the Mayan ruins!  Pictures don't do the trip justice, but I'll try to give you a little peak of how much fun we had!

First time on our balcony!

Our fabulous view

snazzy!

Cozumel :)

Belize

2nd elegant night... we lookin' fiiiine :)

bliss.

 We returned from our honeymoon at 4:30am, yes, you read that correctly, 4:30am.  We had flight delays in Chicago- it was storming as result of the storms/ tornadoes in Joplin.  We are happy to be home safe and sound.  We had a day to get things settled, and then I began working my summer job.  I had a work study in house keeping and let me tell ya, it was hard  exhausting!  In June we celebrated Preston's 23rd birthday.  We had a visit from Nana and PawPaw that we enjoyed and I baked/decorated a cake for Preston.  In July we really just continued the basic stuff, with an addition to a fun trip to King's Island amusement park.  Now it is August and school has started back.... but hey, it's senior year- almost finished!  I am currently working on getting my practicum placement set in stone and I am sure you will hear all about it when I know where I am going.
I know I have left out details, but now that I have got you somewhat caught up with our lives for the past few months I can continue posting... see you next time!

Brooke