Tax Free Weekend!

Happy Friday, friends! I hope you all have awesome weekends planned. I plan on living on the couch with DayQuil trying to kick my newly acquired crud. While I'm not couch living, I will be shopping Tax Free weekend (and sales)! Here are my top 5 things on my list for this weekend:  

New Khakis for Jackson. This was my steal last year and he has lived in them, so I need to grab a couple more pairs this year	This dress is so simple and cute and is something I need in my closet. It will be cute for work and weekend plans!
These jeans from JCPenney will hopefully replace the poor old ones Jackson has. They fit him perfectly, and I'm hoping these will, too!	This dress is the perfect summer to fall transition dress! I love the block of color at the bottom!!

I need new jeans something fierce.  I feel like all of my jeans are skinny jeans, so I'm on the hunt for the perfect pair of boot cut jeans!     Not pictured: the obligatory undershirts, underwear, and socks.  ;) I hope all of you Tennessee folk enjoy the shopping weekend, and the rest of you have a great weekend as well!  

Life Lately

Lately, life has not been going anything like I planned. Anyone who has been here for 2.5 seconds will know that this has been killing my Type-A everything.   So, quick update on the house front... there is no house.  Long story short, we'll be in a better place when tool debt and school debt are paid. That being said, we're back on the apartment train with no regrets. We are totally okay with it and even found one we love.  We applied, paid the admin fee, and busted our tails to make sure all of our ducks were in a row for moving out.  And they were...   ...until they weren't   The new apartments don't have anyone who has put in notice for the floorplan we like, yet. Also, any time past the end of our lease is treated as "month to month" which will incur an additional $100 fee, and it's almost a whole month's rent to stay for 10 days. No thanks.   So, the grand plan is to put our notice in for the end of September in hopes that something comes open before then. If not, we will bunk with his parents for a couple of weeks until it does.   Oh, you thought that was all? When we needed a copy of Jackson's social security card months ago, we found a loophole so we could use something else in place of it.  Did we ever order a replacement? nah... that would have made sense. So now, they can't run our new apartment application until that comes in. We're winning for sure.  Also in other news... I've been to Knoxville once a week for the last two weeks. I've planned one baby shower and one wedding shower.  I'm exhausted I've been working for what feels non-stopped for weeks.  

Nice and Pretty

Scrolling through my instagram during work yesterday, I noticed how nice and clean my life looks. I noticed all of the handsome pictures of my husband being helpful and thoughtful. I noticed all of the pictures of Feeny looking all snuggly. Social Media is not real life.   By that I mean this...   This is not our cat:

Our cat is a high energy, 50 mile per hour running, furniture ripping, scar leaving cat.  He is rarely calm and quiet and napping, yet those are the photos I choose to post. (mostly because bleeding battle wounds aren't as cute).   This is not my weekend:

My weekends are jam packed full of running and driving and doing.  There is rarely a moment for us to pause and just be together by ourselves immersed in the great outdoors, yet these are the photos I post.

 

This is not my kitchen table:

My kitchen table is a home to four chairs, each filled with jackets and bags and random things we don't have a place for.  The top is filled with bills, apartment notices, mail, and sometimes laundry; yet, this is the picture I posted.  If you look close, you can see the straggling bobby pin left over from my "throw everything in the floor for this picture" sweep.

 

Our real life is messy and busy.

I don't take or post pictures of the messiness because no one wants to see that. 

No one wants to see that we went over our grocery budget for the fourth week in a row. No one wants to see the makeup ground into the carpet because the cat stepped in my eyeshadow then took off running.  No one wants to see the awful things a childish friend drew on our chalkboard. But that is our life, and I'm doggone proud of it.

 

Here's to living real life and not sugarcoating it for an audience!

   

Fire.

Monday I was off work and sitting on the couch. I was mentally in Tree Hill, North Carolina scrolling through real world facebook.  I came across a post that said "Does anyone know where this smoke is coming from?" It was on our community facebook page, so I decided to read through the comments. I quickly learned that it was the apartments behind ours.

I jumped up, threw tennis shoes on and went outside.  I went to the playground to get a good view and noticed that the smoke was coming down our hill. I could hear the crackling. It wasn't long before I noticed it was in our complex.    Eight apartments were destroyed. Eight more were damaged. Two dogs were killed, more pets went missing. Three firehalls cleared, fourteen trucks appeared altogether     No one knows what caused it, or if they do, they're not releasing it. It's disheartening to think it may be something in the apartment. Of course minds and curiousity are running wild. 

Those are our neighbors... they're our apartment family. Please be praying for the families, for those displaced, for those who lost everything.

The Time We {almost} Bought a House

Over last week, I looked through thousands of houses, condos, etc. in Nashville.  I hit refresh on Thursday and our dream home appeared.  Garage, three bed, two bath, fenced in back yard, adorable kitchen.  So we went on Saturday and fell in love.  

So, we wrote a contract on the house Saturday afternoon. We called on our way home to tell our realtor to add the Washer and Dryer to the list of appliances we want to keep with the house and he told us he just got off the phone with the listing agent who accepted an offer five minutes before. 
Our luck. 
So, the house hunt continues. There's one out there, and I'm looking forward to finding it!! 

Friday!

Is it really Friday? I thought Wednesday was Thursday all day long. I thought yesterday was Friday all day long. I just really wanted the end of this week to be here.    1. Our house hunt is finally on for real. As in, working with a realtor to find our home. Once we realized how much our rent is going up to and how much it will be if we live in any other apartment even close to Nashville, we decided it's pointless not to go ahead and get something that will at least do some good for us, too. It helps that the realtor is a friend and knows what he's looking for. I'm just going to leave these hardwood floors riiiight here....

 

2.

Downloaded Periscope this week. Since doing so, I have watched a kitten in Germany, been taken on a tour in Hawaii, and watched John Mayer play fetch with his dog.

 

3.

I'm in Season 6 of One Tree Hill - why did no one warn me about the feels?! Seriously.

  4. We had VBS this week which was exhausting to say the least. It was a whole lot of fun, though, so it was 100% worth it.  Jackson was in all of the skits which totally put him in his element. It was great.

  5. My allergies are kicking butt today. Thanks, Nashville. Thanks.   Here's to another weekend full of plans and no sleep. Praying for a tiny nap here sometime soon.    

Planning An Engagement Party

Remember when I announced that my best friend is getting married?!   I took on the duty of throwing her an engagement party.  No one should have to wait until the next year to start enjoying wedding festivities.  She isn't getting married until October 2016, and I didn't want her engagement to go to anyone's back burner.  Two words came to mind when I thought of a party motif: Sunflowers and Gingham. September is still summer in Nashville, so I didn't want to make it too fall-y. Acorns and Pinecones feel like sealing the decoration deal, but I'm thinking Pumpkins will be a little too much.  I've found some great deals (AKA: Dollar Tree) on faux sunflowers to make centerpieces. I'm thinking we'll string lights and paper lanterns around the top of a pavillion at a park. Cornhole is a must, too.  We'll have a Wedding Hashtag Contest (I'm thinking I'll win with #ShutUpAndDanceWithGhee), a "He Said, She Said" game, and maybe some cute table games like Wedding related Mad-Libs.   My favorite thing so far is a wooden monogram I ordered them that matches Ours that we used as a guestbook for our wedding.  I plan to use it as their guest book. It'll be a party of 25 or so, so there will be space to write short notes on it, too. Here's my inspiration so far:  

Weekending!

Happy Monday morning, friends!   As you read this, I'm still snoozing because having Mondays off work means no alarm. (insert praise hands here).     Friday, I worked like normal.  Note: When someone asks you if you want to go to a Train concert because they were given tickets? you accept gladly. Friday night I got to see Train, the Fray, and Matt Nathanson do their thing! It was a great concert!

  Saturday, we awoke rather early to head to the church to set up for vacation bible school.  It was a day of skits, decorations, and cutting out lesson plans and buletin board letters. Saturday evening, we joined my parents and sister (who is finally back from her London adventure) for a Mexican date. My best friend and her husband needed to come do laundry, so while they did, we played games. There's a reason this was so funny. 

 
 Sunday, we had church, lunch, and two minutes to breathe before we were back to church for Vacation Bible School. 
I hope you all had a wonderful weekend!! 

Planning my Best Friend's Wedding

My oldest best friend got engaged a little over two weeks ago.  We have been friends since fifth grade, played millions of soccer seasons together, and she stood beside me on my wedding day.  I really am thrilled for both of them.

  She's waiting over a year to get married, so that gives us plenty of time to plan.  She's not the planner type, so I jumped in with both feet to offer any and all assistance.  Classy, Cozy Fall is what I think of when I think of her wedding. She's very hippie chic, so it will fit her perfectly!!  

   

Weekending

My quality time tank is overflowing this rainy Monday.  I had a whole weekend with my sweet husband (mostly) to myself.  Some weekends all I need is some quality time and a good nap to consider it successful.   Friday afternoon, I went to my Dad's after work.  Jackson and I had dinner and then went to the grocery.  We're so edgy... grocery shopping on a Friday night. haha.   Saturday morning, we took Luna to the vet to get her shots.  We took her in, they weighed her and took her back to run her tests. The vet brought her back and said she had some news. "Luna's a boy!!" We were mortified. haha. So, now we have Feeny. :)

  We went to my aunt's for lunch because my Grandmother was in town from Branson. On the way home, we stopped at T-mobile to get Jackson his upgrade.  He went with the Iphone 6 plus.  IT IS GIGANTIC.  I'm torn between the Galaxy 6 or the iPhone 6.  We went home and cleaned a bit to prepare for Sunday and turned in early.   Sunday, we got up, went to church, and had Jackson's parents over for lunch and so they could meet Feeny. 

  Sunday included the best Sunday nap and church, followed by a fire. It's been so long since we could do a fire because it's been so doggone hot.    Happy four day week to all!