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

P Title's Are Getting Difficult

For a couple of weeks now, or maybe a month or so (I've lost track of time I guess), I've been thinking about changing up my blog. Not like some drastic change where I start doing fashion posts hashtagging my #OOTD photos or anything...not that those are bad, they're just not ME - I'm not a fashion-blogger-kind-of-girl. But I've just been thinking about changing the NAME of my blog. The title. The header. The name. But it seems like such a big deal to change it, after blogging for over three years under Penguins, Pasta & Polka Dots...

I just feel like I'm tired of that title now, and I'm ready for something new. I'm also realllyyyyy tired of trying to come up with titles for each and every blog post so that they all start with a P. (I bet some of you didn't even realize that before I just pointed it out to you, huh?) In the beginning it was really cute, and I loved doing it. But NOW, 430+ posts later, and it's exhausting. I currently have about 10 posts (wedding-related recaps!) sitting in my drafts folder waiting to be posted, simply because I can't think of titles for them. Lame right? I want to just name stuff whatever the heck I want to! But I simply can't bring myself to do that as long as my title is still the same, and it's still the same schtick around these parts. Once I get a new name, I'll finally feel like I'm allowed to title my posts however I want to.

Here's the biggest problem I have though - I can't actually think of a new blog title!!

I've been thinking about it for so long not because I'm just so torn up over the decision of whether or not to change it, but more so because I have no idea what to change it to. I have zero ideas that make sense or sound cute or that I wouldn't immediately regret. So here I sit -- wanting a new blog title, but having no brilliant ideas of what that would be.

So I've got some questions for my fellow friends and bloggers: How did you come up with your blog title? Was it easy? Did it come to you in a rush and you knew immediately that was the right one? Or did you mull over it for a while until you tweaked and perfected it until you got just the right thing?

I'm totally open to suggestions and ideas if you guys have any random thoughts or titles lying around just waiting to snatched up... Feel free to toss those over my way. For now though, I'll just be sitting over here racking my little brain to bits trying to come up with something. I'll also keep stashing away wedding recaps for a bit, and then y'all will be flooded with a barrage of wedding showers, bridesmaids luncheons, rehearsals and the likes...So prepare yourselves for that :)

Much Love,
Halie

Planning, Dresses & Purple Pens: Some Favorites

I got up this morning (even when I really super didn't want to), and did my early morning run of 2.5 miles. And it felt rough. But at the end, I felt good because I have now completed week 5 of my 5K training, and we're just under a month away from race day! Holy crap that's crazy! But I'm excited and ready and I can't wait to have a blast actually running a race...weird!

Today, in honor of completing week 5, I'm sharing five of my current favorite things for "5 Fave Friday."

ONE - Cute, snuggly little boys. Every night for the past two weeks, I've been reading a book to them out loud, and every night they come and snuggle up next to me, and sometimes fight about who's turn it is to sit closer to me. And it's just so stinking sweet. It kinda makes my heart almost burst it's just so sweet. I really do love them, and I'm incredibly blessed to be able to inherit these these precious boys as my step-sons!

TWO - Gems with Friends. It's one of those Zynga games for your phone (like Words with Friends and all those others), but this one is definitely my favorite of all of those. And I'm more than a little obsessed. The problem is, almost no one I know actually plays it, so all of the 'friends' I play with, are just anonymous opponents. So some of you lovelies should get it and then we can play together :) My username is Halez88...

THREE - Buying new dresses, in smaller sizes. It seems like almost all of my clothes are now at a point where they're just getting too big to still be worn. And hello - obviously that's exciting! But my favorite is buying new dresses for work at Target, and instead of buying an XXL (I have a couple of those from a few  years ago), I'm now buying just an L. Definitely a favorite.

FOUR - Wedding planning. Duh. I was going to try not to talk about wedding planning on this list since I talk about it in just about every other post it seems like...but I've got serious "Bride Brain" right now. Soooo #SorryImNotSorry, but planning my wedding is definitely a favorite.

FIVE - Writing in cursive. I know that's a really weird one, but I'm just trying to share 'the real me' with you guys, as nerdy as that real me might be sometimes...But seriously. I started doing it a couple of months ago, in order to practice my cursive handwriting, so that it would look pretty when I hand address our wedding invites. Well now, I just do it all the time! And I really have gotten better, so at least I accomplished my goal of improving. I'll be addressing the envelopes next week, so hopefully I make each one look so pretty!

This awesome purple pen is also my favorite....

And that wraps up five of my most random favorite things right now! Hope you guys liked this little glimpse into some of my weirdness ;) Sometimes I try to keep the weird stuff to myself, but sometimes I just gotta let it out and share it. Today was obviously one of the sharing days. Don't hold it against me though, mmkay?

Tomorrow we take the boys back to their mom, and we won't see them again until our wedding. (Whoa that sounded weird and crazy.) It's been a great six weeks with them this summer, and we've had so much fun together! We have to wake up super early in the morning to hit the road, then drive five hours to North Georgia. Then Jeff and I will head over to Atlanta, to spend one night at his best friend/best man Adam's house. Tomorrow is also our two-year anniversary! But we're putting the celebration on hold for a few days, and we'll go out one night next week. Sunday my whole family will get together for lunch to celebrate our two August birthdays, and then I'm hoping to get some wedding planing or wedding crafting done in the afternoon/evening.

Definitely going to be a busy weekend, but I'm still of course looking forward to it! Hope y'all have good Friday's, and fun weekends as well!

Much Love,
Halie

Plane Tickets for the Honeymoon Have Been Purchased

So for a very abbreviated story real quick - I was cut off BIG TIME in traffic this morning on my way to work, and it infuriated me. I was yelling and laying on my horn like crazy, and my heart was racing. My mama (who was directly in front of me in her car), saw it happen and she said was so livid she wanted to get his tag number and call the police to report his aggressive driving. Suffice it to say, that wasn't the loveliest way to start off my day.....

But in much more pleasant and exciting news, I really just wanted to stop in here for a bit and say how freaking EXCITED I am, because Jeff and I got our honeymoon booked last night!!!!! Thanks to his very generous parents and their time-share-owner-points-stuff through Sheraton hotels, we will be spending seven nights at the Westin Lagunamar Resort in Cancun, Mexico!!!!

We also got a jump on it and booked our plane tickets last night, and found a pretty awesome deal through Priceline.com. Thanks for negotiating those prices for us, Mr. Priceline Dude. We appreciate that! So now, Plane Tickets for the Honeymoon Have Been Purchased, and the reservations at the resort have been made! And clearly I'm pretty pumped about that! Just to make you drool a little bit, here's some photos from their website of where we'll be staying :)

You guys, I'm so excited about this I can hardly even stand it! We're only 58 days away from wedding day, but that feels like so long in respect to boarding that plane to Cancun! Holy crap, we're going on our honeymoon to Cancun! Seriously, I might explode with excitement and happiness. Be prepared to clean up bits of confetti and glitter and sunshine rays, because I'm sure that's all that's inside me right now with all this excitement :)

Much Love,
Halie

Prints, Twins, Paychecks & Jeans

Here comes another random blog post of some of my ramblings and musings on this pretty Thursday morning... :)

I get to wear jeans to work today for special "disaster relief" recognition, and that makes me happy. Here's the thing though - I'm down to one pair of jeans that "fit" and actually they don't really fit at all, because their to BIG! I need to go grab a new pair in a smaller size that will look a whole lot less baggy and saggy and droopy. Not a bad problem to have, huh?

Tonight at midnight my paycheck will be direct deposited into my account. And that's normal. The exciting part is, this will be my first paycheck of my new position! So it should be a niiiiiice little upgrade from that old crappy position :) Yay for a new big girl job and new big girl paycheck to go with it!

Yesterday, Jeff's twins Ryan and Gabe, turned seven years old! Their Nana (Jeff's mom) always let's them pick their own presents from Toys-R-Us, so we went there first, then Chick-fil-A (where they were given huge ice cream cones instead of the kid-sized ones since they told the worker girl it was their birthday), and then we even had some cake at the house! Love these cute little guys :)

Yesterday I got an email from Shutterfly for 50% of any of their products - the catch was that it expired last night at midnight... So when we got back to Jeff's house last, I planted my bootay at the kitchen table with my laptop, and I made it happen! I made a super cute photo book of all of our favorite pictures of Jeff and I from our whole relationship, and we're going to use it as our guest book for our wedding! I'm sooo excited to see it in real life, so I hope it ships super fast!

Also last night, we were talking about our wedding invitations, and blah, blah, blah... Well my blog-friend turned real-life-friend Angie (who has a degree in graphic design) has so so so graciously offered to design our invites for us, for free! We will just have to get them printed ourselves. So we started talking about VistaPrint, and that I've occasionally seen deals for them online, so we checked, and lo and behold we found a LivingSocial deal for pay $10 and get to spend $50! There was only 5 hours left on the deal before it expired, so we each bought one. It won't cover the entire cost of printing them, but it will certainly help out quite a bit. Thank goodness for that - budget bride over here!

I realized I never shared our save-the-date card or our engagement pictures last week like I said I would - oopise! Well, here's our save-the-date card, and I still plan on sharing all the rest of the pictures, but I'll save that for it's own post, since there are so many photos I love and want to include!

Let me just brag on my future husband for a bit here really quick too... When we originally picked our wedding date, it was October 12th. So we made a cute little banner in our wedding colors to take pictures with, with the intention of using it on our save-the-dates. Well then we had to change our date to the 5th, but our banner and picture still said the 12th. I didn't want to not use it, so my dear fiance came up with a great plan - we just painted a new square with the 5 on it, took a picture, and then he used his fancy computer skills and PhotoShopped that baby in there! And you can't even tell! I watched him do it and I was just amazing at how efficient he was with it, and how easy he made it look! And I'm 100% happy with the final project and how it turned out. Thanks honey :)

Florida is still basically experiencing monsoon season, and my tan is practically non-existent anymore at this point. My powder is almost too dark for my face (seeing as how I'm using my "summer color" now), and that is unacceptable. The plan is to head to the beach on Saturday with the boys for a little while, but if it ends up raining and spoiling our plans, I'm going to be one sad girl over here. I need sunshine in my life!! Get it together Florida.

Well, I think I've rambled on and on for long enough now. (Is it ever really long enough for me though considering how much I just love to talk? I don't think so...) But anyways, I'll just go ahead and wrap up now, before I overstay my welcome. Hope y'all have a great day, and I'll "see" you again tomorrow!

Much Love,
Halie

Piano Guys, Pentatonix & Other Cool Stuffs

Well my fiance has always loved watching all sorts of random videos on YouTube, but I've just never really been quite as into it as he is. He has watched probably thousands and thousands of videos over the last five or so years, where I've probably only watched a couple hundred, max. But there definitely are some videos that are just way too awesome not to share.

So today, I'm doing Things I love Thursday, with a special theme of really cool musical stuffs. There are only six videos below, so I say if you have time, you should definitely watch every single one of them. It's for me to even pick a favorite, because they're just all so awesome!













And if this last video by Kina Grannis is one of the ones you watched, you should also checking out the making of this video as  well, because it's very impressive. I mean, that's a lot of jelly beans people.

Do y'all like just sitting around watching YouTube videos? That's what we did last night for about an hour or so, and it was actually really fun. We hopped and skipped around to all sorts of stuff, just having a good time and singing along to lots of videos. And we found some cool new stuff, so it was a fun time!

What are some of your favorite YouTube videos you think are worth me checking out? I'm already craving another video-watching-session, so that might be happening again by tonight, so let me know some good ones!

Much Love,
Halie

Promotions, Peaches & Things That Make Me Happy

Sooo, it's Friday! Duh. Us bloggers always like to point that out though don't we? Now, for those of you that have seen this appear in the form of a guest post lately, so sorry about that...my brain needed a little break, and that break came in the form of just editing a saved draft post I already had :)

But anyways.... I love trying to take the time to recognize and appreciate some of the small things that make me happy. Of course it changes all the time, sometimes almost daily it feels like, but today I just want to share with you five quick things that are currently making me super happy!

1. Summer time. I love the sunshine and the beach and swimming and working on my tan. Seriously - it's one of my favorite things about living in Florida. (Well, Florida's kinda sucking it up in the sunshine department these last two weeks, but still...) I'd permanently set up my beach chair in the waves right there in the picture below and read endless books and get a gorgeous golden tan, if that was an acceptable life choice.

2. Wedding planning! We're at a pretty fun part of the process, and I definitely have what a fellow blogger-friend of mine described as "bride brain." It's all I can think about sometimes!

3. That my co-workers bought me a pretty plant to take with me to my new office. They also all signed a really cute card and we all ate cake together yesterday. I definitely felt the love and support from my old section for my promotion, as they bid me farewell and into my new section!

4. Watching the whole series of FRIENDS again. I've seen the whole thing multiple times (probably three or four, and then of course random episodes all the time), but my fiance hasn't ever watched them all the way through. We just started season one last week, and I'm loving it. It's definitely my favorite show!

5. Fresh fruits! Mangoes, peaches, strawberries, cherries (the fresh kind, not those nasty jar ones), green apples, bananas and watermelon - seriously y'all, summer time is great for fresh, yummy fruit, and I'm definitely trying to take advantage of that! And and even more than just the fruit, is putting fresh fruit on my fro-yo, because I'm definitely loving some fro-yo lately!

Simple list, but each of these things brings me so much enjoyment and happiness. I think y'all should also try to list at just five little things that make you happy. I think it makes us stop and appreciate those things so much more when we take time to actually recognize them! So think about it, and then make sure you take advantage of those things.

If it's a person - tell them.
If it's a place - go for a quick visit.
If it's an activity - get out and do it!
If it's food - definitely eat it.

Whatever it is, just make sure you take time to enjoy whatever it is that makes YOU happy!

I hope y'all have a great Friday today, and of course the most bestest weekend too! Come back again on Monday, and I'll have some 'fresh content' for ya from my weekend happenings and hoopla's. Tootles ladies!

Much love,
Halie

Position With Benefits

GUYS!!!! Anyone know what happens tomorrow? Well, probably not because I haven't actually mentioned it yet here on the bloggy-blog, buuuuttt....I START MY NEW POSITION TOMORROW! And obviously I'm quite a bit excited about it. Can't you tell? At least a little bit?

Anyways, I currently work for the State of Florida, doing assistant/clerical kind of work, which I've been doing for two years and seven months. My old position is OPS (Other Personnel Services), which means that I am still paid by an hourly wage, I don't get benefits or any retirement options, paid vacations or any holiday/sick time. So basically it kinda sucks, as far as all that goes. Well, about a month ago, I interviewed (and had to do a test!) for a new position in my Department, in another section, and after waiting around for literally four weeks, I just found out last Monday that I was selected for the position!

This entire week, I've been training a girl who will be taking my place, and that's been interesting.... I'm having to try to teach her everything I've learned in almost three years, in just three days. And y'all, that's a TON of information to try to tell somebody! Luckily for me, she seems to be a pretty smart cookie, and the training hasn't been too difficult. I've just been running my mouth nonstop trying to go over every possible little thing, in hopes that I'm making some sense to her!

So today is my last day of training her about my old position, and then tomorrow I will report to my new supervisor to begin training with her. Then I'll be learning and training with her for at least a week, maybe two depending on how quickly I can catch on, and then finally I'll move on and start all my new duties on my own.

But y'all wanna know the best part of this deal? Well actually, there's lots of perks with this new position. The first one is that I'll move from OPS into Career Service, which means I now have a salary (like a big girl!), and I'll get paid vacation days like Labor Day and Veteran's Day and Christmas and all those fun kinds of days. I'll also start accruing annual and sick leave hours that I'll get paid for if I need to use those to be out of work. I'll also get my own benefits and insurance now.

But now let's actually get to the best part - I will have my very own office! It has four walls and a door...and a WINDOW! This is the real deal y'all, not just some desk out in the open where everyone passes by me 4,271 times a day. This will be my very own office! And I'm stoked. (Once I get some cute stuff set up in there, I'll share some pictures of the new space.) Yes, my new position is definitely going to be much harder, and I'll actually have to put more effort into work each day, but I'm OK with that. I got too settled into a mediocre job before for too long, and it led to basically nowhere. It's definitely time to invest a little bit more, and work at being a real grown up.

So here's the deal though, I ummmm, used to blog from work (please don't tattle on me for that one), but that's definitely not going to be an option anymore, or at least not for quite some time. So my plan right now is to blog at night and schedule them for the next morning, but who knows how that will work out. Some weeks you might get five posts, some weeks you might get two. So just bare with me for a while, and I'll do my best! Because I love blogging too much, and I love y'all too much, to just give it up all together, so I'm not going anywhere.

Well actually, I'm moving up five floors to my new office, but don't worry, I'll still be here in my same little corner of the internets, blogging about my little ole life :)

Pinstagram Moments

I took the day off work today in order to enjoy a nice, long four-day weekend. So Jeff and I are running errands and planning and researching all-things-wedding. The original plan for taking the day off was to hit up our favorite beach, but it's cloudy and stormy, so that's not gonna happen. So I'm just popping in real quick today to share some little moments from my life lately, through the lens of an Instagram filter. (Idea inspired by my good bloggy friend, Rachel.)

*Side note: I started using the word "Pinstagram" a long while back in order to make it fit in with my theme of starting each post title with a P. However, my dear friend Nicole told me I wasn't allowed to just make up my own words, but I say pish, posh. I like 'Pinstagram,' so 'Pinstagram' it shall be! :) Haha*

1 // This super colorful umbrella makes rainy days a little bit brighter

2 // I wish I could always gorge on delicious sushi, but that's not a healthy idea...

3 // Still obsessed with making this caprese for myself every chance I get

4 // Love cuddling up on the couch with my man and just reading our own books together

5 // We went through a phase of playing card games every night for about two weeks

6 // Random mani, showcased on top of 'The Hobbit' (which I finally finished on Tuesday, and loved)

7 // Got kinda emotional while writing graduation cards for my high school seniors

8 // Delicious cake tasting appointment at Publix, with the cutest wittle baby cakes around

9 // These beautiful purple flowers are blooming allll over the city, and they're so gorgeous!

I love sharing photos on Instagram, and following along with all of my blog friends as well. So of course I'd love for you to hop over and join me there! My username is HalieRenee88, and you can find me here.

Hope y'all's 4th of July celebrations yesterday were tons of fun! If you had to go back to work today, I'm so sorry about that, but no worries - the weekend is well within your reach. Happy Friday to all, and I'll see ya back here on Monday morning!

Patriotic Festivities

"It's Independence Dayyyyyy!" (Pleas sing to the tune of the classic Martina McBride song from 1994. That's such a great song, and don't you even try to deny that.) You know what else, it's also my super sweet Granddaddy's birthday today as well. Yes, he shares his birthday every year with our country's birthday as well. And so every year, we get to celebrate a national holiday, and a family birthday as well, so of course it's always lots of fun! 

I for one am super excited about today, and so I wanted to share some about what my day will look like!

First of all, I'm totally splurging on this healthy eating kick, and eating a super delicious meal for dinner tonight, including ribs, baked beans, potato salad, mac and cheese, and some dessert thrown in there as well. And I'm not going to let even one ounce of that deliciousness make me feel guilty.

Found via Google image search

Oh, and that mac and cheese I mentioned earlier, Jeff and I are in charge of bringing that, so I've scoured my "Pasta is my Favorite" board on Pinterest for the past week, in search of the yummiest recipe. And I think I've found the winner folks. We're going to be using cheddar, jack and mozzarella cheeses, and adding fresh crumbled bacon on top. Hello?! Who wouldn't eat that yummy, cheesy goodness?!

From the recipe post on White on Rice Couple blog

Moving on from food now, I will be rocking as much red, white and blue from head to toe as I can possibly manage - as long as that doesn't include my blue and white umbrella in all this nasty, thunderstormy weather. Come on Florida, get it together. I have some ideas in my head of outfits I can wear, but those are my backups. But first, Jeff and I are gonna hit up Old Navy to see if we can find something matchy-matchy to wear, and just be that sickeningly cute couple :) Now, I don't think it'll be quite like the picture below, but who knows? If we find it on sale, maybe...

Found via Google image search

In addition to my sporty red, white and blue outfit I'm sure I'll be wearing, y'all know I'm also gonna be rockin' some festive and patriotic nails as well. I actually already painted them two nights ago, but I don't have a picture right now, so I'll just wait for Mani Monday to share them with y'all. In the meantime though, here's a picture of some awesome nails, I only wish I had the talent to paint free-hand!

Photo found on the Pams & Kin Facebook page

Now what I'd like to be doing tomorrow afternoon before dinner is laying on the sand, with the sun shining bright in the beautiful blue sky, getting my tan on. But noooo, the weather in Florida has to be rainy and crappy all week long, so the chances of my preferred scenario happening are pretty slim right now. However, if I had it my way, this looks like the perfect spot to hang out on the 4th of July...All I would need is a bottle of sunscreen, a cooler of snacks and drinks, and a book to keep me company. And I guess my fiance would be a good addition too ;)

Photo found via Google image search

Oh sorry, I gotta jump back to food for a bit. Since my whole family (of 12) is eating together, we're doing it potluck style and each contributing, thus why we're in charge of the mac and cheese. So my mom is bringing some dessert for us, but she's keeping it a surprise and won't tell us what it is. We know it's festive in some way, but that's about it. Oh, and she said she's sure it'll end up tasting good, but she's not sure how it will end up looking, so who knows what she has up her sleeve. I'd love to see her attempt something as pretty and Pinteresty as this, but I guess we'll just have to wait and see...!

Photo found via Google image search

And of course at the end of the night, after gorging ourselves on some yummy food, and maybe playing a game, and definitely sitting around having weird, random, hilarious conversations, eventually there will be fireworks. Now, I don't actually know if we're doing them ourselves, or if we're going somewhere to watch them, but either way, they'll definitely be happening. And if they can look even a little bit like the ones below, I'll be a happy girl.

Photo found via Google image search

I'm so grateful and thankful for this country I was blessed to live in. I hope you guys know how lucky we truly are here in America! I hope y'all have a great 4th of July celebration today (and throughout the weekend too probably), and that you enjoy your time with family and friends! Happy Independence Day, and Happy Birthday America, and another Happy Birthday to my Granddaddy!

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 :)

Patio Dining & Sunshine: Reasons I Love Florida

I'm feeling a little tiny bit creative today, coupled with a feeling of just really loving where I live. So I've decided I want to come up with a list of the reasons why I love living in Florida. It won't be anything fancy, but ya know, it'll do :) So the following is a quick list of some of my favorite things about Florida.

+ It's nickname is "The Sunshine State," and that right there is enough reason for me to love it. I mean seriously, it's sunny here about 89% of the time (I totally made up that statistic on my own, so don't quote me or anything), and I'm a girl who loves my sunshine. I mean even during the months of November through February when the majority of the country is drowning in rain, snow, sleet and hail, we can still have gorgeous blue skies and a bright shining sun. I love the sunshine.

+ Hand-in-hand with the glorious sunshine, are the gorgeous beaches that surround 89% of the state (that's a made up statistic too, in case you hadn't already assumed that). I mean, did y'all see that picture above? That's not taken on some remote, Caribbean island. That was taken on the Gulf Coast, at St. George Island last year. Beautiful. Am I right, or am I right?

+ Florida State football is perhaps the greatest in all the land of college football. Don't even try to argue with me on this one, or I'm pretty sure we can't be friends anymore. The Florida State Seminoles are my absolute favorite. And plus, I look pretty good in garnet and gold.

+ We have some of the most amazing entertainment places within just a few hours' drive of anywhere in the state. I mean hello? Orlando is like the top tourist spot in the country or something, right? (I guess I could have actually done some research to give y'all real stats, but I'm not all about that today...) Orlando alone is home to Disney World, Universal Studios, Islands of Adventure, Harry Potter world, Epcot, Sea World, Wet-n-Wild, and about 15 other amazing amusement parks.

+ Just about every restaurant has a patio for outdoor seating, and you can sit there almost the entire year. There's just something a little bit special about eating at a restaurant, but still getting to sit outside. Do y'all agree with me on this one? Especially the places at the beach where you can just walk up off the sand, and plop down right in your bathing suit and still get service. Those are the best.

+ And for more entertainment, there are of course zoo's and aquarium's, and there are even some pretty neat museums too. (Nerd alert over here for this girl!) But more importantly, you can take airboat rides in the Everglades. Which is pretty stinking awesome. And they even let you hold baby alligators.

+ I can wear flip-flops and dresses basically year-round. Yeah, people will sometimes be all like, "Hey crazy girl! Aren't your feet freezing?" And yes, sometimes they are. But sometimes I just don't care. And I hate having my feet all confined in restrictive shoes, so I'd rather just brave the "cold" and wear my flip-flops in December. And I know all you Northern girls love your Hunter boots, but I barely even know what those are. (Never heard of them before this past winter in fact.) And I'm glad I don't have to wear them just to make it to my car to prevent my feet sinking down in the snow and having frostbite start setting in before I even make it to work. No. thank. you.

There really so many other reasons I love living in Florida, but I think it's time to wrap this up for now. Maybe I'll do a Part II to follow this up sometime in order to rub it in your face how awesome Florida is fully detail why I love my state.

If YOU live in Florida, what are some of your favorite things about living in this sunny state of ours? Let me know, and I might include it in my next list. :) But if you don't live in Florida, I want to hear why you love the state you live in! I guess some of the others out there are pretty cool, so let me know about that too! In fact, we may even make it a one-time link-up, but I don't know yet. I just threw that out there as my brain thought of it, so let me marinate on that a bit more. We'll cross that bridge when we get to it, and I'll let y'all know later if it'll actually be a link-up or not!

Much Love,
Halie

Pudding Mix, Games & Randomness

And thankfully, another Friday rolls around again to grace us with it's presence. This week has been fun, but exhausting, and that makes me so glad it's the weekend, where I can rest and play and recharge myself a little bit. And since this week has been a bit crazy, I have no specific topic for today's post, so I'm just gonna wing it. But these random thoughts posts always end up being really popular for me, so I guess wingin' it is A-OK with me!

First of all, let me tell y'all about my breakfast. I mentioned in my weigh-in post from Wednesday that I'm drinking ViSalus shakes every day for breakfast and lunch. This isn't my first time doing this (I did it for a while back in April), but it is the first time I've jazzed them up a bit with some fancy recipes. And y'all, this morning's was de-lish-us. It's called the Butterfinger shake, but even as much as I love me a Butterfinger, I was skeptical this would actually taste like one. I figured it would be good, but not actually match the flavor of the candy bar. But boy was I surprised when I took the first sip. It tasted exactly like you would expect a Butterfinger milkshake to taste like! Soooo yummy. I'll definitely repeat this one.

For those interested, the recipe is: 1 cup unsweetened almond milk, 2 scoops of Vi-Shape mix, 1 tablespoon sugar-free Butterscotch pudding mix, 1 tablespoon PB2, 1 cup of ice cubes. Blend until smooth and creamy! And then enjoy your super yummy breakfast shake, for only 163 calories. Yup, 163.

A while back, I got super excited for my first ever 5K race. I pre-registered for the Run or Dye race here in Tally, and got super pumped about it. But that was back in April and then my excitement kind of fizzled out. But this past week, it's ramped back up again. First, I confirmed with my friend Jenni (who has already done like 4 marathons!) that she is planning to come up from Orlando to run the race with me. Second, because I actually figured out a "training schedule" of sorts for myself, that I'll start the first week in July. It's gonna be pretty rough (with it being about a bajillion degrees and all), but I'm pretty determined. And then third, my friend Lacey also pre-registered to do it with me as well!

Last night after dinner, Jeff and I and his mom took the boys to Nuberri for some frozen yogurt for dessert. Mmmm yummy. I was good though and only got a little, and only topped it with fresh fruit and a tiny bit of sliced almonds. Still so yum. And those boys are just so dang cute :)

Sunday I'll be seeing my sister for the first time in two weeks, and I'm really excited! It's still so strange adjusting to not living with her, and I miss that girl. So glad that we get to all have lunch together for Father's Day, so that forces us to have some time together.

I just started reading "The Hobbit," and even though I'm only about 20 pages in so far, it's still really good already. It probably helps that I've seen the movie a couple of times, so I'm picturing that as I read, but I'm still really into it so far. Hopefully I can find the time to read some more, so I can add another book to my read list for the year!

Since Sunday night, Jeff and I have been playing a running game of Rummy after the boys go to sleep every night. Normally, we would be watching a movie or catching up on some of our favorite TV sitcoms, but it's been really nice to have some time to just be together and talk and laugh. Last night, the boys actually went to sleep super early, so we sat next to each on the couch and just read our own books for a while, and that was really nice too. I just love spending time with this man, no matter what we're doing :) But back to the card game - I'm whooping his tail...

And now for a little preview of the weekend: tonight I'm having dinner with my parents, because I haven't seen them since Sunday basically; tomorrow we're going with some of our friends and taking the kids to go swimming at Wakulla Springs; Sunday is family lunch and Father's Day and fun time; and hopefully I'll be able to find some time to straighten up my room a bit and do a load or two of laundry. Gonna be a good weekend! I'll get a good mix of family time, sunshine, time with Jeff and the boys, friends, cleaning and rest. Love those weekends. 

What are your weekend plans? Will you be doing anything crazy fun, or are you keeping it low-key and just relaxing? Whatever you do, I hope you enjoy it! Happy Friday, friends!

Prompt #17 - Favorite Photo & Why

Day 17 - A favorite photo of yourself and why...

Well first of all, I'm cheating and including two pictures, because I love them both so much. These photos are both from our engagement session last month (with the amazing Phil Pullen Photography!) and I just love them both so much. 
A few reasons why:  One - my sweet fiance is adorably cute, so of course I like that :)  Two - they were both taken at Flagler College, where I went to school, and I just loved it there. I love the beautiful campus and the education I got, and mostly the amazing friends I made while there. Flagler College in St. Augustine, Florida, is a special place for me, and for Jeff now too since we've visited there so many times together!  Three - these pictures are a obviously just a great way to celebrate our engagement!

These photos are special to me because they celebrate not only our engagement to each other, but at the most basic level, they celebrate our love for each other. And that is so special to me. He is such an amazing man and I love him so much, and I am just so stinking excited to marry him in October!! As much wedding planning as we still have to do before then, I also just can't wait for that day to be here. 

But before we get to my wedding - it's my little sister's turn to get married!! Her wedding is TOMORROW, and holy crap how did it get here so fast? She's been engaged since last June, and at times it's felt like forever, but mostly it seems to have gone by pretty quickly. I just can't believe it's finally here for her, and that she will now be Mrs. Walker! Craziness. There's a special post already scheduled for tomorrow morning, so come back and check that out, for some mushy gushy lovin' on my little sister, complete with lots of old pictures of us :)

Paleontology to Plantation

Last week, my blog-friend Kristen posted about using Wikipedia as a boredom-buster game. She suggested you start on one page, and click through to five different links, reading a bit about each one as you go, and just see where you end up! Well that's fun, but I play that game a little differently. I was first introduced to this my some of the kids in my youth group over two years ago, and I even wrote a little post about it! (Back when I had like 11 readers, all of which were my friends and family.) But I'm gonna talk about it again today!

So here's the deal - it's like Connect the Dots with Wiki articles. I can't remember right now what it might be called though...? You randomly choose two words (any words you think might have a Wiki article) and see how many clicks it takes you to get from the first word to the second word. The goal is to keep the number low!

So for example - let's start with "Spaghetti" and try to get to "The Holocaust."

Go ahead. I want you to try it. Really!

It takes a bit of reading, and figuring, and making strategic clicks. Think about how you can get from a food to an event, and that makes it seem a little more manageable. You may have to scroll through a bit of the article before you find something that seems like a good idea. Don't just click on things all willy-nilly without thinking it through though!

So have y'all tried it yet? How many clicks did it take you? It took me only TWO! But I'm a pro at this point, honestly. I had people text me their challenges with word combinations while I was bored at work. I spent quite a bit of time on Wikipedia that summer I first learned this game ;)

Here are a couple more that I just randomly challenged myself with. And of course I want you to try these as well. Let me know how many clicks it took you on some of these!

Paleontology to Plantation (I can't actually get this one!?!)

Lampshade to Penguin (6)

Meatloaf to Computer (4)

Globe to Soybean (5)

Kelly Clarkson to Fax (4)

Body wash to Outback Steakhouse (10)

So how did y'all do with those? Did you beat my amount of clicks? Or maybe did it take you twice as many clicks as it took me?! Did you at least have a little bit of fun?! I did :) Except those first and last ones were really hard. I never could figure out the first one, and the last one took forever! There's got to be an easier way to connect body wash to Outback, right?! Oh, and here's another helpful tip - I like to read over the ending term a little bit first, to get a couple ideas on how I might be able to make the connections. Learn a little bit about it, and it'll be easier to figure out how to get there.

Anyways, I always love random games. Can y'all think of any good combinations that I should try? Maybe I'll send a little prize to the person who's suggestion takes me the most amount of clicks! So let me know which combinations you think I should attempt!

Oh, and in case you're wondering how I did the first one, here's how:

Spaghetti - scroll down to the section labeled 'Consumption' and find the link for World War II in the first sentence. Then scroll wayyy down to the section labeled 'Impact' and you'll find the link for The Holocaust in the last sentence of the second paragraph.

Spaghetti > World War II > The Holocaust = 2 clicks. Boom.

Prompt #9 - Moment

I just went to lunch with my girl Angie for our very first blate! We both work downtown, so we chose a restaurant downtown to meet at, and we both ended up walking to the restaurant from our offices. We had a great time, it was a beautiful day, and I also got a few photos from my walk!

I used my RunKeeper app to track my walk (just because I was curious about how far it actually was), and it was only 1.25 miles, round trip to and from lunch. Why hadn't I thought about walking to lunch from my office before? There are a ton of options downtown that are easily within walking distance, that I never even thought about. Silly me. I think I need to do this more often now! Not only is it just a tiny bit more exercise during the day, but I get to enjoy the outdoors (as opposed to my window-less office), get some fresh air, and try new places! Which I always love!

Prompt #8 - Advice

Sooo....I've kinda failed already at these "Blog Every Day in May" prompts, but I knew that would happen from the very beginning. My goal was just to do them when I can, rather than kill myself to do it every day, and so I'm doing my second one today, on day eight of the challenge.

Today's prompt is to give advice - anything at all. One of my dear blog-friends, Emily @ Be Blessed, Y'all, did her advice in A-Z list form, and I thought it was a great, fun idea. So she gave me permission to copy her, and I did just that! My list of advice is really for myself. These are things that I know I want/need to remember in my life - both now, and in the future. But even though this is advice for me personally, I still think there are some pretty great things on this list, that can be used and applied for just about anyone :)

Admit when you're wrong

Believe in yourself

Control your anger

Develop meaningful relationships

Enjoy the little moments everyday

Forgive quickly

Go have fun!

Hold your loved ones close

Invest in something worthwhile

Jump for joy!

Keep your chin up

Love deeply

Make things

Never stop learning new things

Opportunities are everywhere

Pray

Quit holding grudges

Risks are necessary, and often very worth it

Sing loundly

Travel to as many new places as possible

Use your talents for something 'bigger'

Visit friends often

Wish upon a star once in a while

X-ercise!

Yell as little as possible

Zits aren't that big of a deal ;)

Puzzle Piece

Today is my fiance's 32nd birthday! So I couldn't let that just get ignored, now could I? Nope, absolutely not. And of course he's so special, he get's his very own post :) And so that's why there are two posts today! The first one from earlier today is here. I just want to share a few of the reasons why I love him so much, and why I'm so thankful for him...

Today at VooDoo Dog for his birthday lunch! :)

+ He makes me laugh so much

+ He always takes care of me and protects me

+ He watches girly movies with me

+ He knows when I just need to be held and loved

+ He pushes me to workout harder and eat healthier

+ He is patient teaching me to play the ukulele

+ He is so very proud of me

+ He sings loudly in the car with me

+ He helps me learn new things

+ He is always so encouraging of my weight loss

+ He can read my mind and know what I'm thinking

+ He brings me water without me even asking

+ He can be extremely silly and goofy and fun

+ He is a great listener and can have a great conversation

+ He is simply an amazing man

+ He is a wonderful fiance

+ He fits with me perfectly like a puzzle piece

And I can't wait to see what kind of husband he'll be as well!

Jeff, first of all, Happy Birthday my Love! You truly do mean more to me than I can tell you! This is only the second birthday I've gotten to celebrate with you, but I know we have many, many more to come throughout the rest of our lives together. And I'm so glad! I can't wait to see what each new year together brings us. I hope you have the greatest birthday today! Looking forward to our dinner date tonight!

I love you with my whole heart, Weeble!

Produce Aisle First - FFTL Link Up

Hello friends and bloggers and readers! I'm so excited today, because today Hallie and I are re-starting our weekly link-up, with just a slightly spiced-up version, From Firsts to Lasts! In case you missed the 'big announcement' from last week, you can read all about it back here for more information of what's going on with the changes. Today though, let's just jump right into our 'first' topics!

First aisle you hit up at the grocery store

First store you head to at the mall

First aisle you hit up at the grocery store

No matter how much or how little the amount of groceries I need to get, I almost always need something from the produce section of the store. I'm also a creature of habit, so even if I don't necessarily need something from there, I still like to start out on that side of the store, and then proceed from there... So I definitely always head there first! I almost always get bananas pretty much every time, and some of my other produce staples are: carrots, strawberries, onion, avocado, and a few others...

First store you head to at the mall

Um, well the first store I head to for any "normal" shopping would probably be Target or Kohl's. But neither of those are technically at the mall, so I guess those don't count. In the mall however, I like shopping at Old Navy (it's right outside of our mall, but it's close enough so I'm counting it), Macy's & Dillard's sometimes (sometimes they're just wayyy to pricey for this girl), Bath & Body Works for some yummy smells, Gap if they have decent sales, and honestly I still get some jewelry at Claire's from time-to-time. Judge if you must...

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

2. Please follow both me and Hallie

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

4. Link up with us! (Link will appear on both blogs.)

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

6. Spread the word on Twitter and/or Facebook

And if you'd like to prepare for next week's link-up, the two 'first' topics will be:
1. First major in college 
2. First date success story 

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