Happy Wednesday All! It is the last day of September and we are one day away from my favorite month of the year - OCTOBER. October is the height of Fall, it's also the month of my wedding anniversary, and I just think of fun sweaters, falling leaves, a crisp breeze in the air. Is there anything better than October?
Before we get to October though, let's wrap up September, shall we? I'm linking up with Shay and Sheaffer for What's Up Wednesday.
This handsome boy made his appearance on July 16 and I can't believe it's been eight weeks already. I thought that after two months, it was time to jump back into the blogosphere and what better way than with Henry's birth story!
It's Wednesday! And the last Wednesday of the month! That means it's time for What's Up Wednesday. This is a monthly link up hosted by Shay and Sheaffer and is a fun recap of the last month.
Before I hop into what we've been up to this past January, I want to remind you about the GIVEAWAYthat posted yesterday. You can win this gorgeous Stella & Dot necklace.
Happy Wednesday! How is your week going? We are halfway to the weekend. It has been warmer in DFW lately and for that, I am grateful! In Monday's post I mentioned protein waffles that we made for breakfast. I've mentioned a few recipes on the blog lately, and thought I would pull them all together into one post. These are some of our favorites lately.
Weekends go by too quickly, don't they? There wasn't anything crazy or out of the ordinary about this one, but it felt like it flew by.
Last week was crazy busy at work - Tuesday was the first day of class and we were swarmed with students. The beginning of a new semester is always exciting, a little crazy, and very exhausting. But I love how it's filled with promise.
Here's a peek into our life last week (including my new favorite clutch) #sogood
Well hello friends! Welcome to the LAST What's Up Wednesday for 2017! Can you even believe it? 2018 is right around the corner and I cannot wait for all that is in store. But before we get to 2018, let's close out 2017, shall we?
What We're Eating This Week
Now that we're all unpacked and settled in the house, we are getting back into our normal routine, finally.
For real? We are already at the end of September? That came up fast, didn't it? I am excited though, October is my favorite month of the year - fall! halloween! costumes! chocolate! And now, going forward, the added bonus of my wedding anniversary. But before we move on to October, let's wrap up September!
Good Morning Y'all and Happy Monday. I cannot believe we are less than five weeks away from the wedding! I've been working on a lot of final details and I've got a walkthrough of the hotel planned this week with my wedding coordinator. As you'll see, a lot of this Monday's post is dedicated to wedding details.
Started off Monday with my current favorite skirt. It's a fave for a few reasons. 1 - I love a pencil skirt. 2 - it's yellow and grey. 3 - it's basketweave. The top is a medium, which is what I usually get at J. Crew, unless it's a button down and then I size up to a large. The skirt is a 12, which is my usual size at J. Crew.
Y'all. It's almost October #fallishere #buyallthepumpkinthings #scarvesandboots
I can't wait to break out my boots and sweaters and scarves. Fall is seriously my favorite time of year (which is why we're getting married next October).
Saturday is October First, ushering in my favorite month of the year. That means today is the last Wednesday of the month and I'm linking up with Shay, Sheaffer, and Mel for What's Up Wednesday.
What We're Eating This Week - We just got back from vacation where we ate such delicious meals.
There were fried pickle chips
And this tasty platter of fish and chips
Um, did I mention the stuffed French toast? #sotasty
And there were many beverages consumed. So this week we're focusing on eating healthy again. This is what a typical week looks like:
Monday - Meatless Monday; this week it was veggie burgers. We totally punted on this one. Usually we'll make a super tasty Cooking Light recipe like zucchini burritos or veggie burrito bowls, but we were still wiped out after vacation.
Tuesday - We had fish and roasted cauliflower
Wednesday - Tonight it's pork tenderloin with cauliflower rice and roasted broccoli
Thursday - On the menu is grilled chicken and some type of vegetable
Friday - Turkey Burger Friday. This week we're opting for Shay's Caprese Burgers.
Saturday - We're at the Rangers game that night so we'll see.
What I'm Reminiscing About - Totally reminiscing about the best vacation ever. Last week in Disney with the family was just such a spectacular week. Every part of it. We can't wait to go back. It'll be a few years until we get back again. Next on our docket is Hawaii for our honeymoon and maybe a long weekend in New Orleans.
What I'm Loving - It's football season y'all!
Welcome back college football, we missed you. My Buckeyes are starting strong, especially that win over Oklahoma. Let me tell you, I am all in for an upset - that Auburn/LSU game? War Eagle! I was all for an Auburn victory. As long as it's not my team, I will cheer for the lower ranked team all day every day.
What We've Been Up To - It's basically been all trip prep, vacationing, and catching up from being away. At the moment we're trying to recover and set some plans in motion for the Fall/Winter. We're looking for a house to rent after our apartment lease is up and we're getting close to having to notify our apartment complex. We're in that weird place where it's too early to actually rent a place, but we want to keep an eye out.
What I'm Dreading - Moving! Ugh, didn't we just do this? Whatever rent house we end up in, I hope we stay there until we're ready to buy a place.
What I'm Working On - Some things. I know, that's so vague. I've been accepted to a graduate certificate program in Enrollment Management and I start that at the end of October. It's a year long program and it will be a nice little credential to add to my lineup.
What I'm Excited About - This show:
How good does that look? It's like Downton Abbey meets The Queen. I am all in for this show.
What I'm Watching/Reading - I tuned in to the first episode of This Is Us on NBC and I LOVED IT. If you liked Parenthood you'll love this show. Watch it! I just finished The Royal We and oh how charming and delightful. I just loved it from start to finish. It's a fun summer read. Now I'm on to Devonshire Scream by Laura Childs.
What I'm Listening To - I've found a new podcast that I am loving, it's called The Nutrition Diva. It's a once a week podcast and they're less than 15 minutes, so it's a quick one. She has the most soothing voice. I could listen to her read the phone book. You should check it out.
What I'm Doing This Weekend - The Rangers have clinched a playoff spot and we have tickets to their last homestand of the regular season. The weather forecast is showing that it's going to be a gorgeous night for the game.
What I'm Looking Forward to Next Month - Fall! Thanksgiving! Pumpkin Spice Lattes! Scarves, boots, leaves! Everything about the next few months. We're also having our engagement photos done at the end of the month and I'm looking forward to that.
What Else is New - I'm typing this post from Phillip's laptop as mine is currently unable to identify the hard disk #gulp. I have an appointment at the Apple Store on Sunday. Fingers crossed they can fix it. I really don't need to have to buy a laptop right now.
Favorite Recipe - At the moment, my favorite Fall recipe is this cake from Shay (aka Mix and Match Mama. It's warm, gooey, spicy, and delicious. My plan is to make it for Thanksgiving this year to bring to Phillip's parents house for dinner.
That's all from our little neck of the woods. We're still trying to recover from vacation!
Happy Monday Y'all! Hopefully most of you have a long weekend like I do. It's nice to have the extra day off and enjoy an extended weekend. I pay for it later though when I'm trying to fit 5 days of work and meetings into 4 days. It's less than 2 weeks until vacation though, so I am hoping these next two work weeks sail by in a flash #fingerscrossed.
It's actually a really nice day for Texas this time of year. The cats are enjoying a little time sunbathing on the porch, I've got ID TV on in the background (also known as murder tv in our house) and I am enjoying spending some time catching up with you all. What has been going on lately you ask?
Barre class has been what's up. My alarm goes off at 4:40am on MWF and I am out of bed and out the door 20 minutes later. I love my classes. I've got 5 scheduled for this week #onlyalittleobsessed. Honestly, I feel such a huge difference in my core already. I feel great the rest of the day when I go. I've been trying to get in 4-5 classes a week and I love it every time. It's interesting too, because I sweat when I do this. I sweat a lot. But I cool down much quicker than when I do cardio. When I get home from barre, I am showered and dressed and out the door and on the way to work in 30 minutes and I feel great. 30 minutes after a run and I hop in the shower, I get out and I am still hot and sweaty #justbeinghonest.
It's also a crazy busy time at work. I just finished a very intense week and next week looks to be worse in terms of meetings. It's always like this the beginning of the semester. There is just a lot of clean up and registering that happens and a lot of it is on deadlines, especially when it comes to international students. Trying to power through it with coffee and lots of water. I tend to stress eat so I am working hard at not doing that. Some days are better than others though.
It didn't help that on Friday when I arrived at another campus where I was scheduled to work that afternoon, I opened my laptop and saw this. Grrrr. It took me two hours to get it resolved which left me not much time to get much of anything done before the end of the day. #sigh
It has been a pretty mild August by Texas standards. We've only had a handful of days where the temps got over 100 degrees. When we get home from work at night we'll open the porch door and let the cats enjoy the fresh air. For real, the love it out there. They curl up in the chairs and watch the traffic or the people walking their dogs to the little dog park we have on property. It is their favorite place at the moment. And I for one am not complaining about the "cooler" temps.
Phillip was having a craving for Chicken Lasagna from this restaurant around the corner from us on the other side of the lake. It reminds me a little bit of Uncle Tony's or Twins (but not, no one can top those two). The food is good and I decided to try something new so I ordered the sausage, ricotta, and mozzarella calzone. Holy cow, it was bigger than my head! I feel like the picture doesn't do it justice. It was delicious, but I hardly made a dent. We took the rest home for lunch the next day.
And then this happened, so sad. He always came across as such a sweet man in interviews and his Willy Wonka will always bring me right back to my childhood. I was never a Mel Brooks fan, so Blazing Saddles doesn't do anything for me, but Willy Wonka will always hold a place in my heart.
O-H-I-O! College football is back, baby! And it was a great kick-off weekend culminating in that amazing overtime win by Texas over Notre Dame. I love love love college football so this is a very exciting time of year for me. Unless OSU is playing, I tend to root for the underdog and love a great upset.
And it's a long weekend and I have no where to be, so a t-shirt and jeans fit the bill nicely today. A couple of errands to run, some work to do around the house, and a little bit of relaxing for the work week picks up again tomorrow.
Come back Wednesday, I'm going to highlight my morning make-up routine and show you how I get out the door in 30 minutes after I get home from morning barre class.
Can y'all believe tomorrow is September 1 already? This year is just flying by, I can't even believe it. And we are 424 days away from the wedding. Eek! Oh, and less than three weeks away from vacation!!! #disneyherewecome
What We're Eating This Week
- I've mentioned before that Phillip and I are meal planners. We sit down before we go to the market and plan out what we are going to have for dinners for the week. On the menu this week? Quesadillas Sunday night (he's cooking); for Meatless Monday we're having zucchini and black bean burritos courtesy of Cooking Light; Tuesday we're having pork with cauliflower rice and broccoli; Wednesday it's grilled chicken and sweet potatoes; Thursday is tilapia and cauliflower; and Friday is always Turkey Burger night. This week I've had a request for barbecue turkey burgers.
The roasted broccoli and cauliflower rice are staples on our dinner table. We eat them all the time. We basically prepare all of our roasted vegetables the same way - a little drizzle of olive oil, some garlic salt, and fresh ground pepper. #sodelicious #healthyeating
We're really trying to focus on our eating because we know we're going to go off track a bit when we're in Disney.
What I'm Reminiscing About - We started planning this Disney trip when little miss was a baby. We've been planning for 4 years and now it's less than 3 weeks away. I've been reminiscing a bit about when she was just a baby and we started making these plans for a family trip to Disney. Auntie Nichole is super excited to be with her on her first trip to Disney World.
What I'm Loving - Barre Class. Have I mentioned lately how much I am enjoying Barre? I did a whole post last Friday about my obsession. It also gave me a chance to share some of my favorite workout gear with you all.
What We've Been Up To - Date nights have been fun lately. This past Saturday we ate at Kona Grill. It's one of my Dallas favorites because they have a great sushi menu and a great everything else menu and since Phillip does not like sushi at all, we both win.
Work has been crazy busy for both of us right now, so when we're not working, we're working. Our goal is to leave for vacation and leave it all behind. I've already warned my boss and my staff that I will be turning off the work email for the week. Other than work, we spent a lot of August watching the Olympics!
It's over now, and we just need to wait two more years until the next Winter Olympics rolls around. I also got to fly home for a quick weekend for my cousin Miche's wedding. It was great to wake this little miss up on Saturday morning. She was super excited to see Auntie Nichole.
What I'm Dreading - The next 2.5 weeks! We are so excited about this upcoming Disney trip. I'm going to beg your forgiveness now because that's pretty much all I'm going to be talking about the next two weeks. Lots to do in the next couple of weeks, but I'm hoping it goes by fast!!!
What I'm Working On - My nutrition, staying hydrated, and focusing on my workouts. The start of the school year is crazy chaotic and I can be a bit of a stress eater, and with 20 pounds still to go before I'm at goal, I need to be mindful, especially this time of year. For more on my weight loss see Monday's post.
What I'm Excited About - Disney! Disney! Disney! A little bit about our trip which I promise to fully recap when I get back. We're staying at the Boardwalk Villas and have several character meals planned and one day during the week, Grammy and Papa are going to keep the little miss and Louie, Katie, Missy, Phillip, and I are going to head to Universal Studios for some Harry Potter fun and adventure.
What I'm Watching/Reading - I'm currently reading The Royal We by Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan and The Good Girl by Mary Kubica. Both are great. The Good Girl reminds me of The Girl on the Train. Definitely a pageturner.
What I'm Listening To - With football season starting, I've been back on sports radio, but I also am addicted to true crime podcasts. I can't get enough of them. I've always been interested in true crime, so these podcasts are right up my alley. If you're a true crime fan check them out:
Criminal - www.thisiscriminal.com My Favorite Murder - @myfavemurder on twitter The Last Podcast on the Left
Criminal is very straightforward, almost a storytelling vibe and the host - Phoebe Judge - tells a great story. MFM is technically classified as a comedy. Hosted by Georgia Hardstark and Karen Kilgariff it's more like having a conversation over drinks with your girlfriends who also happen to like true crime. The Last Podcast on the Left is almost as if you crossed Criminal with Adult Swim. It's slightly irreverent but incredibly well researched.
What I'm Wearing - a little of this, a little of that, some fun outfits from the last month:
What I'm Doing This Weekend - We have a couple of errands to run this weekend to prepare for the trip and it's the long Labor Day weekend too! Yay for Monday off. I've signed up for a couple of barre classes, we'll probably go for a run, and we're still undecided about where to go for date night this weekend.
What I'm Looking Forward to Next Month - Um, Disney??? I can't even you guys. Also, I have a new staff member starting and I am excited to be able to shift some daily tasks to her so I can focus on some other things. I have a feeling September is going to be a great month.
What Else is New - I found my outfit for our engagement photos and I'm hoping to have those scheduled shortly. We're looking at some time in October. All the Fall Scents are here! I've been burning Cinnamon Sugar Donut in the living room and it is heavenly.
Favorite Transition Piece for Fall - This shirt from the Nordstrom Anniversary sale!
I opted for the red plaid version and it's ironed and ready to go...maybe this weekend for date night.
