Favorite Things

Happy Friday, everyone! If all is going according to plan, we should be completely out of the house, I should be picking up my mom from the airport in a couple of hours after finishing up some work in the office, we will head back to post to scoop up G from daycare and hit the road!

Since I'm out of blogging commission for the next few days, I thought I'd share another great blog with you. This post, via Sunny Side Up, talks about the cutest idea for a holiday party with your favorite girls. It is called a Favorite Things Party and stems from Oprah's show where she gives away a bunch of her favorites to the audience. I want to do one of these SO badly. Maybe next year after the next move, I will be settled and can host a fun little get together!

For now, wanna share virtually? I'm feeling rather uninspired (and stressed) right now, so help a sister out by supplying me with some favorites!

Leave a comment with yours! If I was better with this whole blog business, I'd create a link for us all to link up. Remember, it should be about $15 dollars and something you LOVE. Maybe all of us last minute gift buyers can get a little inspiration! ;)

xo,
H

Bargain Alert

The Lust

J.Crew Martina Suede Wedges $228

The Practical

Target Merona Milena Suede Wedges $29.99

The Practical version of the shoe made its way into my closet and have been really versatile. They look much cuter in person and I'm pretty sure I paid less than $29 in store. Definitely recommend!

xo,
H

New House Tour

Yesterday you got to see our little Louisiana house. She isn't the biggest, fanciest, or even prettiest thing, but did a good job as a first home for D and I to rent together and our sweet girl home to. With this move we contemplated living on post since it won't be for very long, but after exploring some of the off post options in the area, they were just too good to pass up.

We found a house with a big fenced in backyard (a must after this place), 4 bed rooms, and 2.5 baths. Cross your fingers that all goes well, but on Saturday afternoon, we should be pulling up to this:

Hello, lover.

You saw my old kitchen. I don't think I need to explain my excitement.

View from the kitchen into the living room.

Looking back the other way.

Dining room. Our table will go off of the kitchen and we aren't going to invest in a dining room set until we buy a house, so this will be home to my office! Since I work from home 95% of the time, I am just dying to make an enjoyable work environment.

A lot of the other rooms aren't very exciting because they are blank slates right now, but this is a view from the master, through the sitting area and into the master bath. 

That's all I have for now, but I will post more when we get there and get set up! With four bedrooms we will have the master, Grace's room, a guest room (without military decor- I promise you that), and a room that I am designating for D and his things...haha. I plan on having the new and improved guest room up and ready by the end of January, so mark your calendars and plan a visit, we'll be here through most of July! We literally had 3 visitors the entire 2 years that we were stationed at Fort Polk and I'd really like to beat that in the 7ish months we will be at Fort Benning. Let's go ladies...plan some road trips...or check out ticket prices into Atlanta. You know I'm a good time. :)

I'm off to figure out how to work at home while movers are packing and frantically finish a few things. I have a few posts scheduled for the next few days, so it won't seem like I'm gone for very long. Can't wait to update you on everything!

See you all soon?! (Visit, visit, visit...)

xo,
H

Old House Tour

We just had our walk through. Packers are scheduled to show up tomorrow and should have our house in boxes by the end of the day. I'll be making a double batch of cookies tonight...some to sit out as a thank you/bribe to the packers to please treat our things with care and some to accompany Grace to daycare for her teachers that we are going to miss so much.

Things are starting to get done:
-The cable/internet is set to turn-off on Thursday
-I've scheduled our power to be switched back to the leasing office as of Friday
-We have our route mapquested out (yes, I still use mapquest, even with GPS available...)
-Hotel arrangements are made for Thursday night on post

...but...

There are still things to do:
-Pack Grace and I with a week's worth of clothes, to be safe
-Find/book a hotel for our stopping point Friday night
-Do several loads of laundry while we still can
-Clean out and prepare our cars for the roadtrip

Want a peek into the madness? I've never done a "House Tour" before...mostly because there is not much to see! We live off-post, but our digs are very much like military housing. I wish I had taken pictures before D started taking things off the wall and moving some things in the dining/living area, but I'll keep it real and show you how it actually looks, right now. It's been pretty calm thus far, but here is a little look at our itty little piece of paradise as we prep for the move...

Welcome to our casa

Come on in...

 

View from doorway...coat closet to the left, kitchen to the right, dining and living room ahead

Kitchen. Ick. Note gate that leads into laundry room/pantry. It's for the dogs, not Grace.

It's "cozy"...hahaha

Pillows thrown about to keep dogs from jumping up on furniture. So hot right now.

Why do we have two leather chairs? Ask D. I don't want to talk about it. The one in the background is not welcome in my new living room. See that doorway? That leads to a hall were you can find three bedrooms and a full bath. There is another full bath in the Master.

Grace's room. Seeing all of her things down is actually starting to make me sad. Almost.

Hallway leading to the master. We are not stopping in the bathroom on this tour. Sorry if you really wanted to see it...

Remember I said "keepin' it real". I'm in the process of packing...

Bathroom in the corner- on my side of the bed since it was a must during pregnancy!

My most hated room in the house. This is the guest room/office/man cave. D really likes showing off his decor on the walls. There is Army paraphenalia everywhere. I'd like guests to be able to relax and not have dreams of going to war while they visit us, ya know?

Horrific desk area. My favorite aspect of the new house? The office, guest room, and man cave will all have their own place. Also, the man cave will have a door I can close as to not have to see the interior everyday.

A sampling of what is on the walls? D's plaque from his platoon. This ish is massive. Like 3' x 3'. It is actually super cool and I love to read all of the messages his guys wrote to him, but it deserves a space that is all man to be displayed. Did I mention he has another one of these coming from the Battalion. It is also very large and in charge. Yay.

So there is our quite humble abode. I swear it doesn't always look like a hot mess and used to be quite cute when everything in the living room was hung up and in it's place. Actually, seeing it in this state makes me very ready for change.

Up next (or at some point this week)? An intro to our new digs! Let's just say that we definitely are "movin' on up" and I've already started to make some home purchases. Can't wait to share. :)

xo,
H

Move week, move week!!!

Happy Move Week!!! Even though I'm the only one celebrating, I had to throw it out there. :) It's finally almost here and I feel like a kid the night before Christmas...except we have 3 more days until it's really go time. I need to calm down.

We spent the weekend getting in some last minute quality time here in Louisiana, starting with a Tacky Sweater Party at a friends house. Of course I didn't take any pictures. Boo! We had a blast and it was a great way to relax on our last Friday night at Fort Polk.

Saturday started bright and early because my number one girl can't seem to figure out that weekends are for sleeping in. We all seriously haven't slept past 5:30 am in longer than I care to remember. Can't fall asleep after a crazy night of holiday partying? Still awake at 5 am? Give me a call...I'll be the one clutching my coffee mug with a death grip and muttering curses at Goofy for being the most annoying character I know on Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. Kidding. Sort of. Luckily we're morning people over here.

After a stellar almost 3.5 hour nap for Grace (and a solid hour for Mom and Dad), we ventured out to the PX for some Swamp People...and ya'll, it was everything I hoped it would be. Except the line was ridiculously long, so we loitered to the side and stared for a few minutes. I think D was secretly disappointed that he didn't get a picture with them, but he has the patience of a 14 month old...haha...so obviously the line wasn't happening. We should have taken stalker pictures from our view point, but again, I'm terrible with taking out the camera...maybe this has something to do with the 25 lb monkey toddler that prefers to be permanently perched on my hip. Who knows? Here's a pic from the web for those of you who aren't familiar with Swamp People or Joe and Tommy. You should look into the show...highly entertaining. It follows several teams of alligator hunters in the bayous of Southern Louisiana. Some of the accents are so thick they have to have subtitles. Simply amazing stuff.

 After our stalking sesh, we hit a park on post where I did get some pictures. Check 'em out....

My new fave G pic. (Heart explodes.)

Ignore the nugget she is clutching...

Joy.

Staring down a big kid who came to play nearby

Needs to be cropped, but LOVE.

Curls!!!

Sunday we took turns working out, lazed around for much of the afternoon, did our last grocery run, and started to address Christmas cards! We got most of them mailed out today and I'll share them on here later this week. I'm not thrilled with them this year...the quality of paper was less than what I had expected and we

I started to get frustrated and just went with my top choice after getting "feedback" from D (major eye roll here). Whatever. They are getting done...early...and there is a pretty sweet girl featured on the front, if I do say so myself. ;)

Hope you all are having just as exciting of a start to your week as we are over here! I'll keep you updated on our move progress as things get underway and am hoping to get a little post up on this house, before it's all in boxes, and then introduce you all to the next one!

So much to look forward to...like the change in time zones that I pray tricks Grace into sleeping until 6:30 instead of 5:30...

xo,
H

Short and sweet

Tonight D and I are going out, sans child, to our first holiday party of the season. I am just a little excited. :)

My dessert to share has been made, our gift has been purchased for the Oh well, Noel game, and a tacky sweater is hanging in my closet thrown on my bed, ready to be worn it all of it's over-the-top, festive glory. It's gearing up to be a fun time.

 I'll try to get an outfit picture tonight. It should be pretty heinous. (But note I'm super psyched that my tacky sweater has little gold beads that coordinate with my Kate flats that were a STEAL!) Remember these?

Swoon

Then begins our last weekend prior to next week's move. We don't have very much planned aside from our last Louisiana grocery trip and the usual errand running, but here's a fun fact: Joe and Tommy from the hit series Swamp People are making an appearance at the PX (on post Walmart-type store) on Saturday. Would you think I've gone completely off the reservation if I say we might go check 'em out?! Obviously the camera will be capturing the moment if that occurs. Guess you'll just have to come back and see what happens on Monday!

Hope everyone has a fantastic weekend.

xo,
H

Back to the dreaded Shred

Well hey, Thursday! Remember back in college when Thursday's were dubbed "Thirsty Thursday" and the weekend began after your last class that afternoon? Those were the days. :)

Now my Thirsty Thursday's involve way less booze and way more of sweating my booty off in spin class each evening. I kinda wish I'd spent a few more Thursday's spinning in college...haha. Oh Freshman 15, how I despised you...and then lost you Sophomore year...and welcomed you back Junior year...and kicked your ass to the curb again Senior year. I guess it was a love/hate thing. Kind of like my relationship with Major...

Anyways, I guess you could say that I get on a workout kick and rock it out for periods of time and then occasionally go through lulls, where I'm not as focused or dedicated. I wouldn't say I'm in a lull right now, but I'm definitely not as hardcore as I was earlier this Summer when I finally dropped the rest of the baby weight. I feel like I've been coasting...and I think I'm starting to look like it too. You know that "soft" feeling...where, sure, you might still be fitting into your clothes, but you can feel that slight difference? I'm afraid I'm starting to border onto that territory and with the move coming up (our house will literally be in boxes on a truck one week from today), my schedule is getting crazy, my stress levels are on the rise, and working out has been moved down a couple of notches on my daily to-do lists. It's still happening, it's just not as intense, more rushed, and less enjoyable since I'm usually thinking about what I should be doing at home.

I'm thinking Jillian Michaels might have to make her way back into my rotation while we are in transition between houses. I need to explore the class options at our new (and totally amazing, compared to here) gym on post at Fort Benning. There is also a mile track on post and I'll have to look into local trails. Winter is the hardest time of year for me to stay motivated, so I'm trying to keep on track by keeping my workouts interesting and different. In the past I've never been able to make it 30 full days on the shred. Not because it was too hard, just because I got lazy or bored of the repetition. I don't know if I'm going to commit to the full 30 days in a row...but if I do, you all will be the first to know. :)

Anyone have other suggestions for video workouts or easy things to do outside of the gym? I'd love to add one to my Christmas List for some variety while we are traveling over the holidays!

Aside from the present plans, I'm really looking forward to settling in and starting to train for another half marathon this Spring. A few of my college bffs and I are discussing the OBX Flying Pirate Half in April. By "discussing", I really mean, have already committed to running it together, so I need to jump on board and start planning out my training schedule. It is looking like D's coursework is going to allow for lots of free weekends for a good part of the next year, so we I am already planning to take advantage. I've asked him to train with me...we'll see what comes of that. ;)

I'm off to finish up the work day and get prepped for the some sweating. Everyone ready for Friday!?!?

xo,
H