Wednesday, November 26, 2014

Short week = fun week

Matthew has been working on a project that was a pretty big deal. He worked on it most of last week and all weekend also while working on two other big projects. All of them were due this past Monday. Poor thing has been hit hard with school work right here at the very end. He graduates in 17 days y'all, 17 days!
I had asked Matthew a couple of weeks ago that if he was able to finish his project in time if he would like to help me decorate my apartment for Christmas. I may or may not have told him that I would make sausage balls, too. So he definitely agreed ;)
 
Sunday night he told me if he finishes his project in time then he wants to go see the new Hunger Game movie. Date night on a Monday night? I'LL TAKE IT!
He finished early Monday afternoon and we were able to make the 4:30 showing of Mocking Jay part 1. We only go to the movies between 4:00-5:30 since the tickets are cheaper ;) We really just can't justify paying full price lol. We had planned on coming back to my apartment and making the sausage balls but we realized we wouldn't be able to eat until later because it's a pretty long movie + we still had to make them. So we went to Sam's after.
Most people would probably think that we are crazy for going to Sam's on our date night but we honestly love their pizza and love that it's so cheap. AND it is right by the movie theater ;)
 
We got back to my apartment and I started decorating. I mentioned to Matthew that I wish I had a fireplace in my apartment (I have probably said that a thousand times since I moved out lol). One of the things I really miss about living at home is my fireplace and mantel!! I love having the fire going when it's cold outside and I love decorating the mantel, I just grew up with one so it's weird not having it. I love the look of it, the sound of it and obviously the heat it puts off.
Well, I was digging decorations out of a box and started hearing the sound of a fire. I turned around and saw this on my TV. Matthew found some option on my TV that has a fake fire. It seriously sounds like a fire and every couple of minutes "someone" adds more logs to keep it going. I may have teared up a little bit lol. He is SO thoughtful!

 I don't have many decorations nor do I want to buy any so I usually just work with what I have for now. It's plenty for my little one bedroom apartment :)
I bought this 6ft tree last year on sale at Target and love it.
A lot of my decorations are from my parents and my mema. They buy new decorations and I get the old decorations. Really, it's a win-win situation in my book ;)
 
 Here's my living room! Please ignore the ugly stepper by the couch. It's the only place it will fit in my apt lol. I am wanting to make something to add to that closet door and I need to find my tree skirt at home and bring it back up with me.

My end tables are decorated with all things from the Target dollar section from last year.
It was cheap, small and perfect for my apartment :)
and yes, I know that picture is sideways, I have to print out a new one to put in there. That one is working for now though lol.


Last night Matthew had a guys night with his dad and brother. They went to a hockey game in Nashville. From what I heard it was a pretty good game! I stayed in Cookeville because I have to work today. So I did what any girl would do. I had some ME time. It was great.
After I got off work yesterday I went to TJ Maxx and found my Christmas cards and a cute sweater to wear for Thanksgiving. After that I headed to my apt for the night. I got into the most comfiest clothes and cleaned a little, made dinner and caught up on my show. I absolutely LOVE the show Revenge but haven't been able to watch any of this season. One of my friends let me borrow her Hulu account so I could catch up on it. So from about 5:00 yesterday afternoon to about 11:30 last night I watched Revenge. I caught up and finally know what's going on!
While I watched Revenge I worked on my Christmas cards!! I always wait until the last minute to send them out and then they get there late so I am determined to get them sent out on December 1st this year!
At 3:30 today I am homeward bound! So so excited to be home until Sunday. We get Thursday and Friday off and I am so grateful for that.

Monday, November 24, 2014

SOC formal

I was able to get off at lunch on Friday so I would have time to get ready and not rush. So of course I celebrated with a large lemonade from Chick-fil-A. That stuff is INCREDIBLE. I could drink it for every meal
 
I curled my hair that morning before work just in case I wasn't able to get off early so all I had to do was touch it up and re-do my makeup. Matthew picked me up at my apartment and Ethan met us over there as well and we headed to the church to meet up with everyone else. We ended up having to drive separately since we had so many people going, but it worked out because all three of us were going to Murfreesboro after.
We stopped at Demos in Lebanon and had to wait a little bit so they could clear our a whole room for us. Demos chicken and rice soup...so delicious!! I ordered the fettuccine but next time I will be ordering the endless soup and salad for sure!
 
My handsome date :)
We headed to Opryland hotel after and made a huge group picture on the grand staircase and then we all split up and make our own pictures and got to walk around to see the lights.
some of the SOC guys

 
The lighting in there was terrible as always. We did have some made on a nice camera. These are all made from our phone. When I get the group picture and ones from the camera I will share!
The Christmas lights there are always so so pretty! And there are a ton of them!
 

Friday, November 21, 2014

F R I D A Y

Is finally here! I have been counting down the days until THIS Friday would get here!
I mentioned the other day about SOC formal, and it's tonight!! I am SO excited!
I was always a little disappointed that I only got to dress up for some formal event in high school once. Most of my friends went to multiple proms and multiple formals. I absolutely LOVED getting dressed up for prom my senior year and making pictures. When I found out we were having a formal this year I was super excited and was on the look out for a cute dress!
A couple of weeks ago I found my dress at a local consignment dress shop back home.
The price was GREAT for what I was getting AND they will buy it back for the same price. HOLLA!
 
We are leaving this afternoon and heading to dinner and then to Nashville. We are going to look at the lights at Opryland hotel and make pictures.
Have I mentioned how excited I am?
Dressing up and making pictures with my good lookin man and some of my closest friends?! Seriously, what more could a girl want?! ;)
I get off from work at 3:30 and we are leaving at 4:30 so I have asked to take off a little early, praying we are slow enough that I can!!
 
Make sure to follow along on my Instagram to see pictures tonight!

Thursday, November 20, 2014

Thrifty Thursday

Every Thursday we do what we like to call Thrifty Thursday. I look forward to it all day while I'm at work and everyone else loves it, too!
 
Thrifty Thursday...
It's where a big group of us from the SOC get together and go shopping/looking/eating.
 
Our first stop is Essex.
If you don't have an Essex's it's a bargain store. They basically have everything there. A lot of there stuff is name brand just at a much cheaper price. They put dates on all their products and the longer it's there the cheaper it becomes ;)
{Source}
Sometimes we find things at a great price and sometimes we just don't see a thing. I personally enjoy looking at their furniture and homegoods. They also have clothes! A few of the guys that go with us have found great items at great prices and then sold them on Ebay for their original price.
 
Our next stop is none other than Goodwill.
We usually don't stay there too long becuase it does have a pretty bad smell in there, but a few people have been able to find some pretty cool things! The Goodwill in Cookeville is pretty big and usually has a lot of furniture. I love looking at the furniture, it's where my desk came from! I also like looking at their antique plates and picture frames.
And sometimes we try on old dress over our clothes, becasue why not?!
Look at those sleeves ;)
Our last stop is Sam's Club.
If you don't have a Sam's Club in your area, then it's similar to Costco or BJ's, I believe. We don't go there to shop necessarily. We go there to EAT! Matthew and I can both eat there (with a drink) for around $8.00! We both get the pizza combo (2 pieces of pizza and a large drink) The only bad thing about their food...it's awful for us! Not healthy AT ALL. We know that but once a week isn't too bad (right??) and who wants to miss out on thrifty Thursday and CHEAP food with some of their closest friends?! Not to mention that pizza is delicious. The people there actually recognize us now because we come in once a week lol. Sometimes, depending on the time, we walk around Sam's to see what they have...we usually just go to the furniture section and all the guys sit on the couches while us girls browse the store or we just try out all the furniture :) 
 
So that's what Thrifty Thursday is! We've had anywhere from 5-10 people go with us on Thursdays. It's a lot of fun. Today is our last one before Thanksgiving break and then after that we only have 2 left this semester. I'm hoping we do this next semester, too!

Tuesday, November 18, 2014

Caramel Apple Spice

One of my favorite drinks from Starbucks is their Caramel Apple Spice. I'm not a big coffee drinker and I hardly go there because of the prices. I discovered this drink there last year around Christmas and decided to try it and it was GREAT. It's also cheaper than their coffee drinks ;)
Although it is cheaper it's still more than I want to spend on a drink. I have found many recipes on Pinterest for this drink but never tried any until last night. I decided I would try THIS recipe since it looked pretty simple. I also had bought a gallon of  "apple cider" at the store to try hoping it would taste somewhat similar...it didn't. It was just plain apple juice lol. So I still had this huge thing of apple cider apple juice in my refrigerator and I didn't want to waste it. This recipe calls for six cups of apple juice so it did the trick!
 
Not going to lie, it tastes pretty close to Starbucks!! The lady who found or created this recipe is a genius!!
 
Here is her recipe:
  • 6 C apple cider (or apple juice)
  • 4 T caramel syrup (the ice cream topping, but not the magic shell kind)
  • 2-3 cinnamon sticks (or 2 t ground cinnamon)
  • 5-7 whole cloves (1/2 t ground cloves)

  • The dark pieces are the cloves.
    Mix all the ingredients together in the crock-pot and stir the caramel syrup in well so it doesn't stay at the bottom. Leave it in to crock-pot for 4 hours on low.
    Easiest recipe ever!
     
    I put it in the refrigerator after it was finished and then warmed some up this morning and brought to work to sip on this morning!
     
    This is what I woke up to this morning...our little bit of snow. The schools were actually out and I laughed until I saw the roads. I am assuming the city wasn't expecting snow becuase they didn't treat the roads last night like they usually do so they were pretty icy this morning, and I'm sure the back roads were even worse. Better safe than sorry, I suppose!
     
    Happy Tuesday! Hope y'all are staying warm!!

    Monday, November 17, 2014

    Weekend recap: Sunsets and bridesmaid dress shopping

    I had to go home this past Friday night to get my bridesmaid dress sized and ordered for my best friends wedding next fall. I love our hour drives to and from home with Matthew. We talk about anything and everything. And most of the time it's without any interruptions, we don't get cell service most of the way ;) We also get to enjoy theses views. I probably have about 50 pictures on my phone of sunsets, they just keep getting better and better!
    Kathleen had a $20 off coupon for all of us to use on the bridesmaid dresses...score! After that we went to one of our favorite pizza places in town, Sir Pizza. Seriously the best and we ended up talking for so long we were the last ones there! It's always so good to just catch up with your best friends over good food ;)
    Saturday was busy and I didn't stop until that night. I went to my sisters basketball practice for a little bit and then headed down to Nashville to pick up my contacts at my eye doctor. Then ran a few errands back in town. We were having girls and guys night with the SOC that night so we had to head back to Cookeville that afternoon.
    Again with the sunsets...I just can't stop!!
    The girls night theme was spa night and the guys were having a video game tournament.
    It was a lot of fun and very relaxing for us girls! I picked up some face masks at the store and made a lip scrub. I cut up come cucumbers as well ;) we watched Safe Haven and had pizza.
     
    The guys had a pretty intense night of basketball and football tournaments/playoffs I heard...
     
    Sunday it rained ALL day long. A group of us went to lunch together after church and then after that I was out. I took a long nap and it was GREAT. The perfect weather for a Sunday nap after church. Seriously, those are my favorite. After church last night I cleaned my apartment some and washed my sheets. There is nothing better than climbing into bed with clean and warm sheets fresh out of the dryer. I was out like a baby last night!
     
    There is talk of some snow showers today, it is very cold and windy. I am missing the fall weather. I feel like we went straight from summer to winter. I am hoping and praying for good weather this Friday! We are having our first ever SOC formal! I have been counting down the days for this! I got my dress a couple of weeks ago at a consignment dress shop back home! It was a great price AND they will buy it back for the same price! The lady told me they had just gotten the dress in that week, so I was pretty darn excited! I have never worn this color (with a formal type dress) and I have been trying to decide on makeup options that I want to do! I'm just working with what I have but of course Pinterest is helping ;)

    Tuesday, November 11, 2014

    Celebrating and a road trip

    We were finally able to make it to Dollywood this past weekend. I am so glad we decided not to go the previous weekend when all the snow came. They had their Christmas decorations up and everything was just perfect looking, The weather wasn't too bad, I wore my jacket most of the time and had a couple of layers on but it's still better than a snow storm!
    We went with Matthew's two brothers and Nathan's girlfriend, Jenny.
    Seriously, so much fun!
     
    Here are some of the tons and tons of decorations...


     




     
    We were able to ride the train and I loved the views! They played Christmas music the whole time...it was fantastic :)

     




    

     
    and more pictures



    For lunch we all decided on pizza. Seriously this thing was HUGE. I couldn't even eat it all but it was really good!
     
     
     
     I told Matthew we would celebrate big when he passed all four parts of the CPA exam. He thought that meant going to dinner at Chili's but I know how much he loves roller coaster so Dollywood was really a no-brainer ;) It was a great trip and I loved celebrating him all day.
     
    Also, it was a huge plus that I didn't throw up this time ;) You can read about that embarrassing story here. HA!