Popping In For an Update

I'm sure we're all grateful that today is Friday, right?! Yes. Just popping in real quick today for a little update on our lives and how things have been this week...

First of all, Jeff and I have both been sick all week long. Mine started last Saturday, and his started around Tuesday. And we can't seem to shake this! It's just a cold or a sinus infection (for him), but it's annoying and it's just time for it to scoot it's way out of our lives. Yet here we are, still both suffering from it's silly little symptoms. Here's to hoping this stuff moves on sooner rather than later.

Next, Jeff bought me a new phone!! My iPhone 4 was over two years old, and really start to slow down, biiiiiiig time. It was super slow and annoying, and it was always full. Like 1,000+ photos really take up that much space?! But anyways...he surprised me last week and bought me a brand new MotoX, that's all personalized and in pretty colors and stuff. It's awesome. And I'm loving it! And it does cool things like make AutoAwesome pictures in Google, like this one:

Such a a pretty, sparkly Christmas tree!!

Tomorrow morning we are going to go to the matinee priced showing of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, so tonight, we'll stay home and get cozy with a blanket and a bucket of popcorn to rewatch the first movie. And I for one and super stoked about that. (Both the Friday night at home, and the Saturday morning plans, that is...) I read "The Hobbit" over the summer, so everything is much cooler now that I know what's going on. Plus, I just always like reading a book before seeing the movie, and try to make sure that happens pretty much every time. So now I'm really looking forward to our little "double feature" movie dates tonight and tomorrow!

In case you don't follow me on Instagram (you totally should, because I post on there a lot more than on here lately, and it's usually really cute stuff...), then you don't know I've been attempting the #fmsphotoaday challenge this month. Today is Day 13, and I've missed about 3 or 4 days. But whatev's - at least I'm trying! And it's still fun anyways. Here are my top 4 favorites so far this month...

Top L: R is For.... // Top R: Green // Bottom L: Tiny // Bottom Right: Silver

And we finally got our wedding pictures back from our photographer! We looked at them last night, and there are some truly beautiful photographs. We also have a ton from a friend of Jeff's family who did a great job as well. So over the weekend, I'll spend some time sorting and organizing, and then I'll be sharing pictures all over the place! Yay!!

Oh, and in case you missed Wednesday's post, I'm in the process of renaming this here blog. Go check out that post, and leave me some feedback, mmmkay?

Well anyways, that seems like enough for the day. I have a long day of work ahead of me, and then a nice little relaxing weekend is definitely in store. And hopefully with some more rest, Jeff and I can both kick our colds in the bootay, and be better by Monday! Oh, and maybe we can get a little bit of Christmas shopping done too, because holy cow, it's in less than two weeks now. Sheesh time flies. Am I right, or am I right. Happy Friday to all of you lovelies! :)

Much Love,
Halie

Peppermint Tea & Christmas Movies

Good morning bloggy ladies :) Have a good weekend? I started getting a little bit sick half-way through my weekend, but that didn't stop me from enjoying a little bit of my two days away from work anyways...

FRIDAY
I know I made buffalo Bleu cheese turkey burgers for dinner, but other than that, I seem to have forgotten the rest of the evening. I assume it involved a Christmas movie and a bit more decorating of the house, but I'm just not too certain. My, what a short-term memory I seem to have...

SATURDAY
Woke up and made myself an egg sandwich for breakfast, and then waited on my Mama and sister to come pick me up. Then we went down the road to the fair grounds, for a big giant craft show, called Market Days. It's huge and awesome, and there are lots and lots of different vendors, from all over Florida, Georgia, and Alabama. My mom and sister both bought quite a few things. My mom got us both a cute little gingerbread house (that smells like cinnamon!), and Meg got lots of random things. I got a present for my family's Secret Santa exchange, and a Christmas ornament to celebrate mine and Jeff's first married Christmas together!

After we ate lunch there and walked around a little more, they dropped me back off at home with my bag full of goodies. Jeff and I then spent quite a few hours cleaning up around the house, and working on our second bedroom. That room has kind of been the "dump zone" as we moved both of us in over the last few months, and it was quite a disaster. However, the twins are coming here for 9 days, and that's "their" bedroom, so we need to get it cleaned up and ready for them! It's nowhere near done yet, but we got a lot done.

I had woken up feeling a little strep-throaty, so by 4 pm, I was exhausted and just needed to sit down and rest. Primrose came and cuddled up with me on the couch, and I ended up taking quite a nice little nap. While I was asleep though, Jeff ran out and picked up some Chinese food, so when I woke up it was dinner time, which was great and so yummy. We spent the rest of the night just laying on the couch, cuddling our doggie, and watching Christmas movies on Netflix. One of which, I would recommend if you're into Christmas music - "The Mistletones." It's an ABC Family movie, and it's really cute :)

Oh and then of course we watched my amazing Seminoles woop that Blue Devil bootay! National Champs here we come!!!!

SUNDAY
I woke up feeling even worse than the day before, and even though it was only 8 am, I couldn't go back to sleep. So instead I  watched another ABC Family Christmas movie :) This one was also cute, so check it out if you're into that kind of movie - "A Christmas Kiss." I got a little stir-crazy, so I did very minor cleaning around the house, and put away some clean dishes. I quickly ran to the grocery store for just a few items, and then spent the rest of the day back at home again. After a very late lunch, I threw together some soup really quickly, and let it simmer in the crock pot all afternoon for dinner. I was thankful for this super yummy recipe of mine, because it's so stinking easy to put together, it was even a cinch while not feeling so great.

This recipe actually debuted on my blog an entire year ago, so if you're interested in the recipe for Crock Pot Chicken Enchilada Soup (and you should be interested because it's delicious), then you can check out that post here.

The rest of the afternoon was spent relaxing and staying hydrated with lots of water, hot peppermint tea and some cran-apple juice. While Jeff blew off the leaves in our entire yard, I worked on some wedding recap posts and rounded up some pictures from our honeymoon in Cancun. (Those will all be coming soon, finally!) We watched "Robin Hood," Jeff fell asleep on the couch at 7:30, and then I watched the newest episode of "Once Upon A Time," while writing this very blog post. I went to sleep not much longer after that to try to get some rest and get better before beginning another work day.

So even though I was feeling kinda sick and yucky all weekend, there were still some bright spots that managed to peek their way through :) Now if I can just get rid of this icky-ness and get better, things will be all good! Happy Monday again ladies!

Much Love,
Halie

*Update* I was too sick to go to work today, so I'm at home still. I'll be going in to my doctor later, to make sure it isn't strep throat. Ugh, gross...

Pitaria Weekend Happenings

Good morning Monday, and blog, and bloggy friends. Have a good weekend? I did. Although, let's talk about how going from a four-day weekend, back to just a two-day weekend, is a little rough and I wasn't a huge fan of that. When can we work out another super long holiday weekend? Anyone with me on that?

Well anyways, despite it's seemingly short length, it was still pretty great, and it of course deserves the usual weekend recap, I mean am I right?! So let's back it up...

FRIDAY
Well, first of all (before it was officially the weekend), I spent the entire day in training with my new supervisor (who is extremely nice and I like her a lot), and started learning my new position. And it was a loooooot to learn, and we barely even scratched the surface. Still so much more to learn before I get it all down, but I'm on my way at least. I also got to spend just a few quick minutes in my new office, and I can't wait to set up and decorate in here! It's so bare right now and just begging for cutesy little things to brighten up the drab space.

Friday right after work, I went on a short 1.16-mile run for my second run of the day - go me! Then Friday night was the last night of leading games and rec at VBS for Jeff's church, so we took the kids outside and played water games. The kids loved getting soaked just as much as we loved spraying them with squirt guns and water hoses! :) Afterwards, we got cleaned up a bit and went to hang out with a couple friends for a while before finally calling it a night.

SATURDAY
Went with my parents to pick up some furniture that my mom's boss was giving away to her for free. We got a big comfy chair with an ottoman, and a huge coffee table. Mom wants to keep the chair (even though I tried to convince her to let me have it), but she said Jeff and I could have the coffee table. It's not exactly our style though, so we'll definitely want to try to DIY something for ourselves. Anyone know what we could do to get that marble out? We're thinking about maybe using some mosaic-type tile, or some Spanish-style stuff, but first, that marble stuff needs to go!

Then we had lunch and ran a few more errands around town, and eventually Jeff came and met us at Marshall's. I bought some cute new things for my office, some cards to use as shower/gift 'Thank-You's', and my Mama bought me a few office things too! Then Jeff and I just hung out at his house for a bit searching on Craigslist for random things, and found a nice comfy chair to buy, almost identical to the one my mom claimed earlier in the day, for only $30! Score. Then we went with his family to see "The Lone Ranger," and we all thought it was a pretty great movie. Definitely entertaining, and I enjoyed it.

SUNDAY
Went to church and Sunday school with my parents, and then a group of us did a pot-luck style lunch all together, and that was a great time. Mom and I then spent about an hour going over the guest list and doing a few wedding planning things, and then I went to meet Jeff for more wedding planning. We went and hung out at a local coffee shop down close to FSU's campus, Atomic Coffee, and we sat there for about two-ish hours with laptops and sketch pads and to-do list's, and I think we got a good couple of things accomplished, and at least got the ball rolling on some other things. Then we walked to the Greek restaurant that was right next door, Pitaria, and had a yummy gyro for dinner. It was probably the best one I've ever had. So yummy, and so huge and filling! I was real full from just the gyro, and brought the whole salad home for another day. Definitely going to visit there again.

After dinner, we drove around for a bit checking out a few places we found online to rent, but none of them ended up being good. They were either kinda crappy looking (not like their online picture of course), or one was in an extreeeeemeeeelyyy ghetto part of town. Like whoa. So they all got ruled out tonight. But then we went back to his house, and both pulled out our laptops to continue more wedding planning and research! And guess what, we have even more wedding planning stuff on the schedule for tomorrow, and Tuesday, and Wednesday, and well...you get the picture.

So see? Pretty great weekend, if I do say so myself! Good food, time with lots of family and friends, and Jeff too of course, some shopping and lots of wedding planning. Sadly, the only thing I would have wished to add is some good ole' Florida sunshine! It only barely peeked it's head out for a couple minutes at a time, for a total of like 15 minutes the whole weekend, so it was still practically non-existent here in "The Sunshine State." Psh! Yeah right. Here's what I have to say to that though, "Rain, rain go away! We can't take another day!"

But ending on a happy-ish note - I'm back in training again today, and looking forward to learning more. And maybe I'll get a few minutes to start setting up the cute new things in my office! Tonight after work we're going to pick up that chair we found online, check out some potential groomsmen wear, and then get some save-the-dates sent out! Hooray! Hope y'all had a good weekend as well, and that of course your Monday is off to a good start also :)

Much Love,
Halie

Pleasant & Patriotic 4-Day Weekend

Well, I've been out of work and out of the blogging routine for the past four days, and it's been great. I mean seriously - super long holiday weekends are amazing, and definitely necessary for your sanity, and I enjoyed every single bit of it. What about y'all? And since I had such a long amazing weekend, there's a ton to catch up on, so today's post will once again be very picture heavy, and kinda light on the writing.

Let's back it up all the way to Thursday, for the 4th of July!

Actually first of all, let me just show off our dinner from Wednesday night that we made ourselves. Super yummy Turkey Santa Fe Stuffed Peppers. Sooo good. I'll be sharing the recipe tomorrow!

THURSDAY
I was house/dog-sitting all last week for my friend Lacey, and for some strange reason I woke up before 8 a.m. without an alarm. What is wrong with that picture? So I took the dog out and fed her, then I was quite productive for a few hours. I did some dishes, loaded and started the dishwasher, started a load of laundry, swept the house, uploaded and edited some pictures, bought new music on iTunes, made a new running playlist, and finally made my new playlist for the summer (another check from my summer bucket list!). And I did all that before 10 a.m. Impressive right?

Jeff came over around lunch time, and we made turkey taco lettuce wraps with the leftovers from our stuffed peppers the night before, then just lounged around for a bit watching National Treasure 2 on TV. We then went out and attempted to find cute matching shirts to wear, but no such luck. So we came back to the house and made our mac and cheese to take to family dinner.

My Granddaddy - the Birthday Boy!

My Mama made these super cute eagles as her surprise dessert treat!

My sister made these patriotic themed cupcakes, which were delicious.

We played a giant game of 12-person Farkle, and my Granddaddy-the-birthday-boy won!

And of course my sister and I had to take an unnecessary amount of goofy pictures, just like we always do...

The problem was however, that Florida couldn't get it's crap together to stop raining long enough to do any fireworks. Thanks a lot. So I didn't get to see any this year. What a sad 4th of July with no fireworks, right?! Oh well, Jeff and I already decided that next year, we're definitely heading back to St. George Island beach for July 4th festivities, and that will be awesome.

FRIDAY
I am honestly having a hard time remembering what we did on Friday...I know it was still raining, so I think we ran errands and stuff around town. Oh yeah - we went to Hobby Lobby and priced some silk floral stems for wedding purposes, bought a few cute glass jars, raided an awesome new thrift store of all their vintage books and a giant empty wooden picture frame, and a couple of other random things. And I got a wonderful little package in the mail from one of my friends from college. She lives in Tennessee now, and it's been a looong time since I've seen her. But she sent me the cutest little things! Later, we got Tropical Smoothie for dinner, and then went to Jeff's church to help decorate for Vacation Bible School, which is this week.

Set of fold-out, vintage Florida postcards, a wrap bracelet, hand-painted (by her!) cards, & a super sweet note.

SATURDAY
It was still raining (for about the billionth day in a row now...), so we did some more running around and found another cool new thrift store, where we scored this really cool wicker-basket-trunk-thing for only $15. The top of it is messed up, so we are going to try to figure out a way to redo it to make it look nice. We also shopped around town for what we want Jeff and his groomsmen to wear for the wedding.  The rest of the afternoon was low-key and boring, but then we went out for date night on a budget. We used coupons at Black Bean (local Cuban place Jeff hadn't ever been to before), then finally saw 'Fast 6' at the cheap theater here in town. And that movie was awesome!

We needed a pick-me-up after so much shopping. He got a Mocha, I got a Peach Green Tea Lemonade. Yum.

SUNDAY
Church and lunch with my parents, then Jeff and I spent the afternoon driving around town looking for 'For Rent' signs for our future place! We drove around for like three hours, took down about 30 addresses and numbers, and then started calling almost all of them last night. We're so excited about finding a place to live now, and hopefully the process won't be too obnoxious and difficult.

OK, so I think that about wraps everything up now, finally! Hopefully I didn't bore you all to death, and you're still interested in reading my blog again after all this... But even more than that, I hope each one of y'all had a great weekend too! I wish we could have had less rain and more sunshine, but hey, not every day can be perfect, so we just live with it and move on. And in the meantime, we just hope for sunny days and better weather in the future! The weekend was still good, despite the crazy amount of rainfall, and I had a great four days off of work.

Oooh, and one more thing - this morning I officially started using Hal Higdon's novice 5K training plan, to get ready to run my first 5K race this coming September! So follow along with me as I get ready for that! I'll be sharing my usual collages on Instagram, and logging it all with RunKeeper.

Happy Monday, y'all! And I almost forgot - here's the nails I did for my 4th of July festivities! (I did them like 2 days before I took the picture though, so that's why they're a little chipped already...)

Much love,

Halie

Perfume, Pictures & Plans (Currently I'm...)

Thursday. One more day before Friday, and then the weekend. Ahhh it's so close I can almost taste it. Right?! Anyways, I love doing these "currently" posts, and it's been quite a while since I've done one. So guess what? That's exactly what I'm going to do today. (Big surprise right? Not like that was actually hard to guess or anything.)

- Wishing: that I didn't have to work today. Jeff took today and tomorrow off to hang out with the boys, and I wish I could have done that too. But I'm OPS (hourly, not salary) so I don't get paid if I'm not working. And I need to get paid...

- Wearing: the pretty pearl necklace my sister gave me as part of my bridesmaid gift last month

- Listening: to Lady Antebellum's newest album 'Golden' on repeat allllll the time. It' so good!

- Missing: my friend, old roommate and bridesmaid, Bridget! She lives in Ohio, so it's not like I see her often, but we have a phone date scheduled for tonight, so I'm excited for that!

- Obsessing: over Gems with Friends on my iPhone. Seriously guys - I think I might actually be obsessed with this game. Get it, and then add me to play: Halez88.

- Craving: sushi again, and I just had it last night. (Not low-carb, I'm aware, but I don't care....) But that's what seems to happen with me though - once I eat it, I crave it again and again and again. Oh, but this was a new place we tried, and liked it a lot. Great prices too, especially for dinner-time sushi. Definitely will visit this place again.

- Planning: a wedding, duh! No but seriously, once the boys go home for 2 weeks, that's 2 weeks full of go-go-go wedding planning time.

- Ignoring: the huge stack of mail that I need to go through. I hate getting junk mail, and I hate having to go through it. I know there's some bills in there though too, so I guess I really do need to get on that.

- Anticipating: Going back to the pool on Saturday for some water and sunshine, and Wild Adventures on Sunday!

- Loving: that the new camera we ordered finally came in last night! We had talked about getting a new one for the honeymoon, and when we saw a great deal on Groupon, we snatched it up real fast. Can't wait to test it out later tonight!

- Reading: 'The Hobbit' and really liking it so far, although I'm only about 50 pages in. I've seen the movie a couple time already though and loved it, so I'm pretty sure I'll like the book too.

- Procrastinating: laundry. I always hate doing laundry. Hate it so much.

- Feeling: dumb because I locked my keys in my car last night, again. This is probably my worst habit - I get to where I'm going, but I'm not ready to get out quite yet. So I turn off the car, and pull the keys halfway out of the ignition. I sit for a minute or two or gather up all my stuff, and then exit the car, lock the doors, and leave the keys still hanging from the ignition. I've got to figure out a way to break that bad habit. (Luckily, I have the greatest fiance ever, and he drove over to my house with his spare before work this morning.)

- Smelling: same as last time I did this in January, my favorite perfume - Versace Bright Crystal

Well that was fun and easy, just like usual. And look at me go - I even had relevant pictures to accompany the post this time. (Granted, I took one of those at my desk this morning just for this post. I'll let you decide which one that was...But still, better than nothing.) We're taking the boys swimming again tonight, at one of their church-friends' houses, so I'm looking forward to that. All I have to do is make it through the rest of the work day first. Blah.

So what are you currently up to? Have any other fun 'ings' to add to my list? Happy Thursday friends :)

Pool, Hot Tub, Slip-N-Slide, Games & Girlfriends

I don't mean to rub it in or anything, but I'm pretty sure my weekend was better than yours. Actually, I'm quite positive it was better than yours. I got to spend it with seven of my bestest girlfriends, at a farm house in the country, playing games and having fun and slip-n-sliding and laughing a lot, and just having the most awesome time. Because this past weekend was our second annual KAG dubbs weekend! (As previously explained, KAG dubbs is our awesome nickname for girls weekend, that just makes it sound so legit, and stands for kick a** girls weekend.) I could go into a ton of details and account for every fun minute, but instead, I'll try to give you the "Reader's Digest version" of the weekend!

Friday night we all met up there around the same time, got our cars unloaded and claimed beds, and then immediately started having so much fun. We made some dinner and then started right away playing a game! We played for a couple of hours and then finally called it quits pretty late, only to stay up with two of the other girls chatting till 3 am. But it was so great to have some real talks, and get caught up with them, and just enjoy our time together.

Saturday morning we woke up and Kaley made us breakfast sandwiches, we put our bathing suits on, and then we got our giant slip-n-slide ready! We played on that for a while, and then made our way over to the not-so-full-pool to hang out in there for a couple of hours chatting and making up our own games. We also ran around in circles to make a whirlpool a couple of times, which was fun and funny. Dani and Jeannine took orders and made sandwiches, and we sat on the amazing back porch eating sammies, chips and veggies.

After lunchtime, a few of us played some cards and then got back in the pool once we got hot. Then we all sat in the hot tub for a while and put in some yummy smelling eucalyptus-scented hot tub stuff and it felt like we were on vacation in the mountains. Then we went back in the pool for a while until we decided we had had enough water for the day. Saturday night, Nicole and I made tacos and Spanish rice for dinner, and we just kinda chilled for a bit watching TV.

Once we were rested and ready, we started playing games again! I got a real bad stomach ache, so I laid down for a nap around 9 p.m. and missed the end of the game, but woke up around 10:15, just in time to have a giant nail-painting party with everyone. We took out all of my nail polish and the supplies, and everyone painted our fingers and toes and they all looked so pretty. Then even though it was after midnight, we wanted to watch a movie, so we watched "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel." It was my second time seeing it, but most of the girls' first, and it was so cute and they loved it.

Sunday morning, I was the first to wake up so I sat on the back porch reading a little bit until some of the other girls woke up. Jenni and Cally made us omelette's and a fruit salad and we had a late breakfast/brunch. Then we had an issue with the trash compacter, so a couple of us worked on it for about 30 minutes, before we realized there was a latch on the side that made the whole thing kinda of flap open, to make it easier to empty it.... Awesome. And then since we were tired and it was overcast, we decided to just camp out indoors for a while, so we watched "Identity Thief" and ate sandwiches and snacks and it was such a funny movie.

Finally, we started getting the house cleaned up, and put the water stuff away, and showered, and packed our bags and our cars, and then it was time to head out. We of course made sure to take a couple of group shots though first, and they turned out great. I love these girls so much :)

And of course we're all already excited for KAG dubbs 2014. Hopefully we can arrange it on a long holiday weekend or something, because two nights and only one full day just isn't enough time together. We definitely need an extra day in there! Can't wait to see them all again, and soon. Love y'all!

Parasites & Pelorosaurus: FFTL Link-Up

Well, most of us are all back at work today after a long, three-day weekend, which makes today feel like a Monday. Which isn't the greatest feeling, until you remember that it IS in fact Tuesday, and we only work four days this week! So then it's not too bad :) And since it's actually Tuesday, and not Monday, that means I'm going to skip my weekend recap for now (maybe it'll happen later this week?), and today we're doing From Firsts to Lasts link-up! And I'm excited because today is the first day we're doing the "lasts" part of this, so I'm excited for a tiny switch-up in things today!

Today's LASTS topics are:

Last book you read

Last movie  you saw in a theater

Last book I read

The last book I read was "The Host" by Stephanie Meyer. I really didn't know anything about the book, but one day Jeff's Granny gave it to me to borrow after she had finished it. She is 85 years old, and I'm 25 years old, and we have the exact same taste in books - we both love the weird, sci-fi/fantasy stuff! I let her borrow The Hunger Games series, and the Divergent/Insurgent books, and she liked those a lot, so now we share books pretty often :) 

So anyways, when I first started reading The Host, it actually took me quite a while to get into it. I had no idea what it was about, and so I was confused at first. But once I found a couple reviews and I got a feel for it, I couldn't put it down! I was constantly trying to sneak in 10 minutes here or 15 minutes there to read just a little bit more. And then once I got near the end, I stayed up till about 2 a.m. one night finishing it! It was really interesting, and I certainly liked it. If you like that kind of genre, then I highly recommend it! I haven't seen the movie yet, but I'm hoping to soon, as it's currently in our "cheap" theater here in town. (They get movies about 2 months after they come out, and it's only $3 a ticket!) But anyways, it's about aliens who call themselves "souls" (although the humans call them "parasites") who have invaded Earth, and taken over 99.9% of the human bodies. Some humans still remain in hiding, and this is about their fight for survival. It's really interesting, and I would like this to have been a series so I could read more of the story!

Last movie I saw in a theater

I'm not 100% sure on this one, but I'm thinkin' it was Jurassic Park about a month ago. And we actually saw it one and a half times! We went on a Thursday night, and got over half way through the movie, when the power went off in that entire part of town. So they kicked us out of the theater, but gave us free readmission tickets to come back again. So we went back the very next night, and watched the whole thing from the beginning again! And it was so good - way better than I remembered! I was actually jumpy and squealy at a few parts, like I was 7 years old again! But it was lots of fun :)

If you'd like to join in on this fun link up, check out the super simple 'rules' below, and get to writing! Can't wait to see all the new link ups this week, meet new friends, and read y'all's posts!

1. Write your own post about this week's topics & link up with us!

2. Put the new button on your post or somewhere on your blog

3. Visit some of the other links, and share the love with them on their posts!

4. Spread the word on Twitter and/or Facebook

<center> <a href="http://penguinspastapolkadots.blogspot.com/search/label/From%20Firsts%20to%20Lasts" target="_blank"><img alt="First Things First" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVrwkIAid5vWXfGGkNjq6FQv4vvqZDxLXcMp670eJ2k7tfrfkBrZYiGCr0icOPCsIYvq5MR3qLifCTXPxMVdiq77A56Zq2_nIiRzk2hyphenhyphen1gEmgp6NcoBlX5TNfobmRzpUAjnkoXPjsNXIU/s1600/Firsts+to+Lasts+-+1.jpg"/></a></center>

And if you'd like to prepare for next week's link-up, the two 'first' topics will be:

First blate you went on (or who you would like to meet if you haven't done this yet!)

First blog you visit on your reader, blog roll or RSS feed

Particularly Good Weekend

Good Morning! It's Monday. And HO. LY. CRAP people - this is the week my little sister gets married!! I woke up this morning almost as excited as if it was my own wedding and not hers. We still have a lot to do, but it's almost here and we're definitely all ready for it! I'm only working today and tomorrow, then Wednesday is slam-packed full of stuff, Thursday is all sorts of luncheons and decorating and the bachelorette party. Then Friday is more wedding stuff and rehearsals and dinners and then the wedding on Saturday! So, so crazy, but so, so awesome.

Before I get too carried away talking about wedding excitements of the upcoming week though, I want to recap the fun of my weekend, of course!

This Weekend I........

This FRIDAY I.....

- Went to dinner at The Front Porch with Jeff's family, for his birthday dinner, and it was delicious of course

- Rented two movies from Redbox and we watched the first one, Jack Reacher, that night. Great movie!

This SATURDAY I....

- Jeff and I went to breakfast at The Egg, and I thoroughly enjoyed my giant meal, even though I only ate half

Jeff's: He kept it simple and just got bacon, eggs, English muffin and the potatoes.

- Then we met some friends at the Monticello Karting Track, for some amazingly fun go-kart driving!

- (These are adult go-karts, that go up to 45 mph - they are no joke! And they are freaking awesome! Also, they don't have power steering, so driving them is actually hard work. My arms and sides are still super sore today from it!)

- Went and grabbed yummy pizza for lunch with our friends in downtown Monticello

I wasn't smiling inside my helmet, because I didn't think you could tell. Well, you can. But I promise I was happy!

- Shopped at Kohl's for Mother's Day presents, and I also got 2 new dresses for wedding stuff this week

- Went home to shower, and then me, my sister, our mom & aunt picked up Meg's dress, and learned how to bustle it!

- Ate dinner real quick at Jeff's house, then we headed over to our friend Lacey's house for a chill night just hanging out

This SUNDAY I....

- Went to 3rd grade Sunday school and big church with my family

- Had a great Mother's Day lunch at my aunt and uncles house, and had a nice family time all together

-Went shopping for a bit with my Mama, and got some new shoes to go with my new dresses

- Eventually headed over to Jeff's house, where we just relaxed and took it easy the rest of the evening

- Oh, and we watched our other Redbox movie, Django Unchained, and it was real good! (Just super long.)
- Stayed up 'til 1:45 a.m. while I finished reading "The Host," and it was soo good! I was sobbing at one point...

Another great weekend, full of fun stuff and also some relaxation. So thankful for days off of work to spend doing things I want to do, or even need to do, but at least I get that luxury! (Also I just realized I didn't know how to spell "luxury" - so thank you red squiggle line for that one.) Looking forward to the craziness that this week brings, and all the fun times we'll have and the memories we'll make!

And don't forget to come back tomorrow to join in with myself & Hallie for another week of our fun link-up, "From Firsts to Lasts!"

As usual, I'm linking up with Covered in Grace, Sami's Shenanigans & Synfully Delicious.

Places To Go & Things To Do

I haven't shared a good "About Me" style post in a couple of months now, and my blog has definitely grown a lot since then. So today I've decided to give y'all a little more insight into my life! I've seen this in blog-land before, so I can't take credit for it, but I have no idea who came up with it to give them credit....Oh well. It's gonna be fun anyways :) So here's a reverse pyramid of getting-to-know-Halie facts.

10 Favorite Foods

Pizza - just about any toppings make me happy

Pasta - I like the 'short' noodles best, i.e. penne, rotini, bowtie, elbow...

Popcorn - at the movie theater is best

Buffalo Chicken Po'Boy -or anything buffalo!

Chicken Pot Pie - homemade by my Mama

Chocolate cake - or anything chocolate!

Chips & Salsa

Pretzels

Big juicy burgers from restaurants

Cupcakes

(Note: these are my favorite foods regardless of how healthy I'm trying to eat. I try to limit them, but I still love them anyways.)

For the record - Jeff & I split that and made it into 2 burgers. I didn't eat that whole thing...

9 Favorite Movies

The Sound of Music

Pitch Perfect

Pirates of the Caribbean

My Girl

How To Lose A Guy in Ten Days

The Little Mermaid

The Princess Bride

the Harry Potter series

The Holiday

(Note: I have sooo many favorites, narrowing it down to 9 was difficult!)

8 Favorite Musical Artists

The Civil Wars

Carrie Underwood

Gavin DeGraw

Rascal Flatts

Kelly Clarkson

The Band Perry

Lady Antebellum

Walk Off the Earth

(Note: Again, I have so many different ones, and they're constantly changing, but this is good for now...)

7 Things I Love Right Now

The sunshine

Avocado

My Polar Watch

Vine (find me! - HalieRenee88)

Bike Rides with Jeff

Learning how to play my ukulele

"The New Girl"

6 Places I'd Love To Visit

Italy - let's be honest - to eat my way all over the country

Switzerland

Cincinnati, Ohio - to visit Bridget!

Any tropical island (really, I'd take just about all of them)

California

Paris, France

5 Favorite Games

Catch Phrase

Pictionary

Quelf

Golf (the card game, not the ball & putter game)

Phase Ten

4 Things I'd Like To Do Again

Take a trip back to NYC

Go on another cruise

Take a cross-country road trip with my college girlfriends 

Go snorkeling in the Keys

(Seems like all the things I want to re-do are all travel-related!)

3 Things I'd Like To Do in 2013

Visit a new state

Ride my bike 500 miles total (Only 7 down...)

Read 24 books (So far, I'm only on number 6)

2 Facts About Me

I get really easily creeped out - random things give me the "heebie-jeebies" all. the. time.

I've never broken a bone or had surgery or had braces

1 Meaning Behind My Blog Name

It's just three of my very favorite things - that just all happen to start with the letter "P!" I also really just like alliterations wherever possible, so that's one reason I did it that way. And for those those haven't noticed, every single one of my blog post titles starts with a "P" as well! (Full story of when/why I started my blog HERE.)

And that does it for the about-me stuff!

This morning, I did day 2 of the 6 Week Six-Pack, and was able to keep up a tiny bit better. Not completely, but better. By the end of this thing, maybe I'll be able to stay with her the whole time!? I'm feeling pretty great though, and it was a good way to start off my day, despite the fact I did not want to wake up that early to do it. But I'm glad I did :)

I'm only working a half day at work, and then leaving at noon. Then, the Family & Child Sciences department (my sister's major) is hosting a reception for the graduates and their families, so we'll hit that up this afternoon. Then our whole family is having dinner together and finally heading to the Civic Center to watch my sister and my cousin both graduate from Florida State University! Yay!! Tomorrow, myself, my Mama and my Aunt Suzanne are going shopping in Jacksonville (mother-of-the-bride dress for my mom for Meg's wedding, and wedding dresses for me!). And then Sunday Jeff and I have planned a beach trip to St. George Island for the afternoon! Definitely looking forward to that. Hopefully the weather cooperates!

I hope y'all have wonderful Friday's, and even better weekends! Enjoy your Cinco de Mayo!