I have completely neglected my little blog....shame on me.  I've missed it though!  We've had a super long winter that unfortunately is STILL going on, so I've been fighting a major case of self-diagnosed seasonal depression (okay, not really - I mean...most days I feel like packing Hadley and myself up and driving as far South as I can while letting out a string of cuss words for the state of Wisconsin. Some might call that seasonal depression, I call it normal, ha!)

We've mostly been staying really busy with our home renovation projects.  One of them is 75% done - we just need to finish off a few things indoors, like flooring and countertops, then paint and fix up the outside and we'll be all done and ready to list.  The other house has been the big time-sucker.  Basically, we bought this beautiful little Victorian that had all these wonderful things, like lots of bedrooms and room for a playroom and big windows and character and a GARAGE and for about a month or so we were set on selling it.  Then we slowly started realizing....it would be perfect for us.  When we bought it that thought certainly crossed our mind but as Brad started working on it we came to the realization that we will probably never find another home in the near future that will suit our needs for a growing family (NOT GROWING JUST YET, ha) at the amazing price we paid that offers all the things we need AND want in a home.  The garage is even big enough for a wood-working shop!  So after some prayer and thought we decided we couldn't pass it up and are now fixing it up for ourselves.  Maybe one of these days if I can find some motivation I'll do a post on what we've done :)

Otherwise....there's really not much else.  I have recently jumped on board with a friend's photography business and will be assisting her with weddings this summer, as well as other sessions as needed.  I bought my first "fancy" camera - a Canon 60D - used on eBay and it's been a ton of fun learning how to use it a little better.  I've also sharpened my skills on Photoshop, which has actually been addicting for me!  It's so amazing to see an image go from basic, boring to beautiful with a few small adjustments.

I'm still loving, loving, loving my time at home with Hadley.  It's gotten a little tougher these days with Brad putting in lots of long hours but we've been able to get a way a few times to my hometown, or on a weekend trip with my best friend and her family.  The hardest part has been that we've literally been stuck indoors for almost exactly five months now without an indoor play area to take her, or even a mall to let her run around.  Believe me when I say, I have many conversations with Brad begging him to move us South (and that is not a joke).

Hopefully I can jump back on board with updating!  Just checking in for right now...can't put too much pressure on myself, ha ;)

Lately

My favorite kind of post, the bullets....

• Babies!!!  No, not for me :)  Yet, ha.  Anyway, I recently started watching a girlfriend's 2 month old twice a week, and let me tell ya...you forget how things go after a while!  The first day I kept thinking, how much should she be sleeping? Is she eating enough?  Etc.  She's a super sweet and easy baby, and SO TINY!  She's just now moving up to size 1 diapers, which is crazy!  And as for the obvious, it does have me thinking about our timeline with #2.  I have many thoughts on it that I'm sure most of you don't care about, but suffice it to say that I'm still not ready.

• Vacation!!! This next month Brad and I are taking a little trip down to our favorite of favorite places, Tennessee!  We're dropping Hadley off with my family and heading down to Nashville for a few days and then over to Gatlinburg for a couple days.  I'm seriously counting the days and maaaaybe hoping and praying that when we're there Brad will want to just pack and move to their fine state.

• So, fitness.  I've finally found a "groove" (cheesy, yes?) that works for me.  I'm going to the gym most days, sometimes at 6:30am and sometimes at 7pm, but I'm getting there!  For many years my MO was to go to the gym, run on the treadmill for 30 minutes and then do a few of the machines.  I grew tired of that really quick this time around and ended up meeting with the trainer at our gym.  For $25 he put together a complete weight routine for me, discussed the best cardio options and worked out my fitness goals with me.  It was well worth the money and now I feel like I have a new motivation for going.  As far as cardio, I've started doing HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) on the treadmill and I seriously love it.  It's not following any kind of method, I just basically do a short walking warm up, then run for 3 minutes at a fast pace (like 7.3-8mph) and walk at a slower pace, like 3.8.  It's a great workout, goes by super quickly and the best part about it is that it encourages a post-workout calorie burn, unlike just getting on the treadmill and running for 30 minutes.

• This could be a post all in itself, but we're in the middle of a new career venture for Brad and it's been really, really exciting - he's "flipping" houses!  We recently bought a foreclosure up the street from us and he's doing the work to renovate it.  He's got such a great eye for design and the best part is that he's able to do the work himself.  The house we bought is pretty cute already and I literally can't wait to see what it will look like when all is said and done.  We're going to be keeping a blog to track the progress so when I get that set up I'll make sure to post it here.  (Btw, he's not leaving construction!  He's still doing that here and there, just adding something new for himself into the mix.)

• I've got a new and exciting venture coming up myself which I'll share about later down the road since it hasn't started quite yet....but as part of it I've been spending a lot of time playing around in Photoshop and seriously, I'm obsessed.  I literally don't have a clue what I'm doing but I'm having fun!  I designed these little recipe cards yesterday, which has now got my wheels turning about what else I can design - 

Alright, I've got a 17 month old scaling my chair which means "pay attention to me" - better go :)  Happy Sunday!

Jason Aldean! And other randomness

This Friday night I'm going to my first concert in a loooong time to see Jason Aldean, and I.am.excited!  I love my country music, and he's always been one of my favorites.  I saw him in concert about 3 years ago when he was opening for Brooks & Dunn on their farewell tour, and it was so good.  I'm going with a girlfriend of mine and we got AWESOME floor seats, which thrills me even more.  I'm a total stand-up-and-dance-the-whole-time kind of girl, and when I saw him with B&D we were in a section where everyone was literally sitting the ENTIRE time, like they were at a funeral.  It was weird and awkward and made me seriously grouchy cause who wants to be the one person standing up and dancing and singing??  Not me.  So anyway, this time should be a lot better.

On a side note, can we just compare these pictures of him?

I told Brad recently that he looks as though he's living HARD out on the road.  The man just looks haggard and....flat eyed?  I don't know.  All I know is I love his music - old stuff is the very best - and am counting the days til I see him live.

I'm also trying to figure out what to wear.  What does one wear to a country concert (besides the obvious, boots?!?)  I could talk all about how I feel like I've lost any sense of style I once had and thus hate figuring out what to wear for things...but that's another post for another day.  Anyway, for a long time I've wanted some booties that were a little more casual than the heeled ones I have, and lookie what I found at Target this last weekend for TEN DOLLAS!!!

It's the Kodi boot from Target, found here.  I wouldn't have paid full price for these cause I'm not super crazy about the big heel, but I figure for $10 that they're worth it!  Plus, you always need a little bit of extra height at a concert :)

Sooo...I'm thinking skinnies, these boots and some kind of shirt...?!?

Well, moving on from that...I've been begging Brad to build me a little vanity for our gigantic bedroom, and he got it done this last week!

It ended up being a little larger than I was expecting, but beggars aren't choosers when it comes to free, custom built furniture :)  We still need some hardware on it and to hang the mirror (that may get painted, not quite sure yet?).  And I need to figure out a little lamp or light source for it, but that will be tough cause the nearest outlet is pretty far away...headaches of an old home.

Once I get this done we'll just have to get a mirror for the large stand-up frame that Brad built recently and maybe some runners for either side of our bed and then we'll be done decorating in our room!  It's nice to finally have it feel home-y.  It only took a year, ha.

Hey 2014

I'm not much for resolutions or even goals for a new year, but this year I've decided to just face it all - the things that scare me, the things that are hard, the uncertainties and insecurities.  I want to look those things - the big and the little - in the eye and choose to see the good and see the truth.  It might sound strange so to give an example, I've had a small insecurity about a friendship recently, and instead of letting things go haywire in my mind or become bitter/cynical towards them, I found the root of the problem - that I'm worried I'm not good enough, or not as good of a mom as her, just that there's things lacking in ME - and claimed every truth I know against that: I'm accepted as a daughter of the King and that's the only security I will ever need, and I can love this friend fully because I have that freedom.  It actually really helped my attitude.  Now to just apply that to every other little crazy thought in my brain :)

The other area I'm committing to is that of my health/fitness.  I'm kind of in a tough place cause I'm really hoping we get pregnant this year (though we're not yet ready), and I struggle with the idea of being fit and pregnant, ha.  With Hadley I gained a TON of weight - and though I'd like to look back and think about how it was all water weight, or I just couldn't help it....I really could, and the bottom line is I gave myself license to eat whatever the heck I wanted.  Hence the 60lb weight gain.

So this year, I've been trying to eat cleaner but I'm still indulging in some of my bad habits, like French Vanilla coffee creamer (as much as I want....I just cannot ration that stuff.  I won't drink my coffee then, and it's just not worth it to me to give that up) and the occasional Diet Coke.  And of course, my wine :)  I've been back at the gym, running on that dreadmill and getting more into the weight machines.  I don't have a goal of weight loss, per se, just to drop a pants size so I'm truly back to my pre-pregnancy size.

Here's been some of my meals -

Top to Bottom:
Black Bean Dip & Low Carb Tortillas cut into chips and baked

Scrambled eggs, spinach and sweet potatoes w/ Sriracha

Skinnytaste's Sugar Snap Pea, Chicken and Carrot stir fry

PB2 Banana Protein smoothie

Fat Free Greek Yogurt w/ Kashi Go Lean, dried berries and a drizzle of agave

The tough thing for me is that I'm a Southern girl at heart and will always love foods like mac and cheese, biscuits and gravy, BUTTER, full fat mayo/yogurt/sour cream/etc, but the bottom line is that I just can't eat it the way I want to.  I can already tell that my metabolism is slower than it was a few years ago so I recognize that in order to maintain a healthy weight I need to learn good eating habits now.  

Well, I'm off to pick up my house for the 15th time today.  That's one of the drawbacks of having a tiny house - it can feel messy within minutes when you don't have a playroom or office!  Happy weekend!