Reason #227 Why I love my husband

Mr. Nature lover and I decided to check out the new outdoor store REI on Friday night so that he could stock up for his upcoming camping trip. When we left I was starving so I asked him, "Hunny, what do you want for dinner?" Without hesitation he says "Well we could go back into REI and stock up on space ice cream!" He was being totally serious. He wanted to eat freeze dried ice cream for dinner. From what I remember it is actually delicious, but I wasn't feeling it for my dinner...at least not this time. Sorry hunny.

Welcome Novemberrrrr!

November means...

Layering

Chili in the crock pot

That it is almost okay to start listening to Christmas music

Boot weather

Operation Christmas Child

Slippers

Thanksgiving in Nashville 

Craft Shows
Being thankful

Turkey

Starting my Christmas list

Scarves

Frisch's Pumpkin pie

Big, cozy sweaters

Christmas shopping

Colder temperatures and more cuddling

November is also the start of Thankful Thursdays on this here blog. I'm joining forces with some amazing ladies (Emily from Meme & He, Tara from A Brew of Blessings, Katie from Hope Engaged and Kristen from Love, Done Simply) to talk about embracing our everyday blessings with the help of Ann Voskamp's book One Thousand Gifts. We will be posting every Thursday through the month of November beginning on November 8th. We would love for you to read along with us. All you need to do is go buy the book, grab the button below, read along with us and then post your thoughts along with the button on Thursdays. Easy as pumpkin pie.

 Welcome November. I'm glad you are here!

Homemade Halloween costumes for your viewing pleasure...

Everyone loves looking at Halloween costumes right? Time to do a throwback of some of my favorite home made Halloween costumes from the last few years. Ready?

My grandma actually wore the dress I am wearing at one time!

Drew was hard core and ate his snacks out of a real turtle shell. And please tell me you know who Pippi Longstocking is!

My personal favorite couples costume idea! We had so much fun with this one!

One of my all time favorite Halloweens was with some of my girlfriends in college. We dressed up as the Sesame Street characters for a party and crafted our costumes ourselves. Can you find me?

This year the Mr. and I don't have plans to dress up, but when Halloween evening comes knocking we might just have a surprise in store. We shall see... (insert crazy, witch cackle here) Happy Halloween!

Kitchen updates...I have counter space!

A few weeks ago our very handy dandy friend Alex decided it was time to knock the wall out between our kitchen and dining room and I am forever thankful! Our house was built in the 60's when an open  layout and hardwood floors were just not in style. Our now hardwood floors were covered by shag carpet for too long and the layout of the house was very closed off. Whenever we had a large group of people over we would all end up spread out in different rooms or crammed in the kitchen by all the food...those days are over!

Before:

During: Thumbs up for that wall being gone. It makes our little house seem 10 times bigger!

We also took down that old school fan hanging behind us and added 4 can lights to upgrade the lighting

After: We took out our small kitchen table that we never used and upgraded to a nice sitting area.

Cabinets: Home Depot
Counter top: Custom made
Bar stools: Overstock.com

We still need to add handles to the cabinets and pendant lights above our new eating space, but I'd say this was a huge improvement! Now I just need some kitchen storage tips...what goes where? Any of you read any good articles or have any tips?? Send them my way!

Don't be a grumpster!

Drew and I are both teachers so on Friday nights we lay pretty low since we are both exhaaaausted. We usually order in, watch our current favorite show on Netflix and cuddle with the cats. Well last night we decided to be adventurous and go to Lowe's...that's right I told you it was adventurous. We went out to get some final things for our kitchen renovation and that was probably a mistake because shopping for hardware for your kitchen is not something you should do when you are both tired.

So 10 minutes and 2 aisles into Lowe's later, we started arguing because I wanted to ask a helpful Lowe's employee for advice and get the heck out of there and Drew wanted to take his time and figure it out himself. A typical male/female debate right? We were both frustrated until we realized it was pointless to be annoyed with each other over something so stupid so we made it funny. I said something like "wow we are both grumpsters tonight" and Drew said "well I'd rather be a grumpster with you than be a grumpster by myself."

 

grump·ster [gruhmp-stir] Adjective. Sullen or irritable over tiny, stupid things like picking out lights or hardware for your kitchen. Synonym: Oscar (the grouch)

Then we laughed, hugged and left Lowe's hand in hand. It is always hard to be patient when you are tired and grumpy, but sometimes you just have to get over yourself and choose to laugh about it and move on. Because being a grumpster by yourself is just not fun. And that is my Saturday morning wisdom.

Friday's Letters and a giveaway!

Dear Friday, I haven't needed one of you this badly in a while now. Between report cards and some crazy parents I am ready for a break! Dear Fall, I love everything about you. That's all. Dear Kitchen renovations, You are almost finished and I can't wait to show you off. Dear Alex (handy man friend), We are thankful you learned all your handy tricks so you could re-do our outdated kitchen. We paid you in chipotle, beer and skittles...I wish we could pay everyone that way. Dear new bar stools, I'm so glad I found you and ordered you. You look exactly like the ones from Sundance catalogue I fell in love with except that the price for 4 of you on Overstock.com was cheaper than one from Sundance. Score! Dear sweet as honey husband, I love you even though you got me hooked on the Walking Dead. How did you convince me to watch it anyway? I hate zombies and anything gory and now you have me waiting impatiently for the next episode (probably just so I can see if Glen stays alive for another episode or not.) What have you done to me??? Dear Blog friends, I'm so behind, but I can't wait to catch up with you this weekend. Emily over at Hope Squared is featuring this banner from my shop along with other very cool and very free things on her blog today. Enter below to win...that should cheer up your Friday right?

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The time Andy Grammer walked right in front of me...

Thursday night was the Q102 Bosom ball, a concert to raise money for breast cancer. My friend Bekah and I have gone several times and always have a great time. All the artists who come to the event do not get paid and are there to support breast cancer awareness, which is amazing.We have seen some amazing artists at this event in the past. Colbie Caillat, Parachute, Kris Allen and The Script to name a few and this year was no exception!

Tristan Prettyman came on first...my oh my was she good.

Then American Idol winner Phillip Phillips. He showed his gangster side and sang a few rap songs.

And Andy Grammer...my favorite of the night. He told us he lost his mom to breast cancer and sang a song that he wrote about lessons his mom taught him about how to treat women. It was very touching and made me want to buy every song he's ever written. He was absolutely amazing in concert! He got the crowd excited and involved and even came out into the crowd for one of his songs. He just happened to walk right in front of us singing...it was fantastic!

What a great event and all for twenty five bucks! We are already excited for next year.