WEEKENDING

I'm going to back up to last week a little, first. Matthew was out of town again for work, so my sister came over and we went to The Grilled Cheeserie for dinner. It was AMAZING. I have been searching for that tomato soup recipe every since, seriously so good and nothing compared to a can of tomato soup! We also got their fresh squeezed lemonade and it just made the meal!

Thursday afternoon Reagan had a grooming appointment so after I dropped her off I decided to use a Starbucks gift card for an afternoon treat. I got an upside down iced caramel macchiato and a cake pop. Believe it or not, this was my first cake pop, ever! I got the cookie dough flavor and it was good.

Friday afternoon Matthew got home and we went to dinner at The Standard. Matthew's parents had a gift card to there that they were not going to be able to use before it expired, so they gave it to us and we went. It was a BEAUTIFUL place and the food was absolutely delicious. The restaurant is an old, charming home in downtown Nashville that they made into a restaurant. You can read all about the history of the home, here. It was a very nice dining experience!

Matthew went to the office on Saturday morning and I went grocery shopping and then back home to put together chili in the crock-pot for dinner. I did some laundry and cleaned up around the house a bit and took Reagan on a long walk. The weather was really warm and overcast and they were calling for a lot of rain for Saturday, so I wanted to get a long walk in before it hit. After Matthew left the office we went to his parents house for dinner. My in-law's are hosting dinner the 4th Saturday of every month at their house and we are excited about it! This month my MIL did soups + chili. She made beef stew and Tex-Mex cheesy chicken chowder, homemade pimento cheese sandwiches and cornbread. She also made a delicious chocolate pie! Matthew's uncle brought his beautiful golden doodle over and we were obsessed! He was so calm and well behaved and beautiful!! Matthew loved on him allllll night and kept trying to get Charlie to sit in his lap on the couch like Reagan does, ha!

Reagan wasn't so sure of Charlie at first, she's never been around a dog that bug, but she slowly warmed up to him. Can you spot Reagan?

Sunday we met Matthew's parents and brother for lunch at a local favorite Mexican restaurant for lunch and then headed home for a nap. A little later I went outside and did my nails while Reagan got some energy out. I always know when Reagan is ready to go back inside because she'll come get in my lap until we head back inside.

Sunday night I put an Aldi pizza in for dinner. I tried the Mexican style pizza and LOVED it. Have any of you ever tried a pizza from Aldi? Literally the best frozen pizza I have ever had. We have tried the classic, pepperoni and cheese pizza too and loved it as well. Definitely a big pizza that is reasonably priced!

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WEEKENDING

5 ON FRIDAY | 5 THINGS ABOUT ME

I was tagged on Instagram by Ashley to share 5 things about me so I thought I would share here, too!

This one is sadly very true. I have always dreamed of going one day, but the past year or two I have really wanted to go. I have a Pinterest board here of all things Disney and I've been watching a ton of Disney vloggers recently. The Disney World fever is pretty high right now. 

I was never 100% sure of what I wanted to do when I "grew up". I was always so jealous of those people who knew, without a doubt, what they wanted to do. Matthew came out of the womb knowing that he wanted to be an accountant and I love that, but I never felt that way about any career choice. Growing up I mostly wanted to be a teacher and at one point I thought nursing would be something that I was interested in, as I love helping and take care of people. That dream was very short lived as I quickly realized that the sight of blood made me pass out. 

This one is 100% accurate.

It doesn't matter how late I stay up, I am usually wide awake at 6:00am. If I do not have to get up and be somewhere, I usually lay there until around 7:00, but if I lay in the bed any later than 7:00 or 8:00 it makes me feel sluggish and bad all day and I usually end up with a horrible headache. So most of the time I am up and out of bed by 7:30am, at the latest. I feel like this will be good once babies are in the picture. 

Last one, I've mentioned it on here before, but Matthew and I played on the same coach pitch little league team.

Picture from 2010

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5 ON FRIDAY | 5 THINGS ABOUT ME

ITALIAN SAUSAGE AND POTATO SOUP | DINNER RECIPE

I made this last week on one of our snow days and ended up eating it for a few meals. 

So delicious, warm, and filling...aka the perfect meal for a cold night!

Ingredients:

- 5 cups of potatoes, diced

- 1lb of Italian Sausage

- 1 cup of celery 

- 1/2 cup of onion

- 32oz of chicken broth

- 2 cups of milk or heavy cream

- 1 cup of shredded cheese

- Bacon bits for garnishing

Directions:

- Brown Italian sausage and then drain

- In a soup pot, over medium to high hear, combine the potatoes, chicken broth, onions, and celery and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium and simmer for 20 minutes, or until the potatoes are tender.

- Use a slotted spoon to transfer the cooked sausage and onions to the soup pot. Add the milk and cheddar cheese, stirring until all ingredients are combined and warmed.

- Garnish with shredded cheese and bacon bits.

My MIL introduced me to these containers and I am obsessed! Matthew isn't a fan of this soup, so I put the leftovers in individual containers to freezer for future meals. 

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ITALIAN SAUSAGE AND POTATO SOUP | DINNER RECIPE

MY WORD FOR 2018

I have never picked a word for the year before, but I decided to do that this year. I started thinking about this at the end of 2017 and honestly it didn't take me very long at all. 

So without further ado, my word for 2018 is.......

Why I picked this word: I feel like 2017 was a blur of a year, it wasn't a bad year by any means, but I feel like the second half of 2017 was a blur. A lot of good things happened and a lot of fun memories were made, that we are so thankful for, but there were times where I got really overwhelmed. I usually tend to have an optimistic personality, I can always find the positive in a difficult situation, but there were times where I let things get in the way. I am very grateful and love my new role at work, but it was a HUGE change and challenge at first. Most days it left me feeling defeated and by time I got home I was WORN out. I was putting all of my time and energy into work that I let all other areas of my life go. I am so incredibly thankful for Matthew, and how he didn't hesitate at all to pick up my slack during that time. Thankfully things started getting better towards the end of the year and I finally feel like I can do it, which I am so thankful for, because I truly love my job and the people I get to work alongside everyday! I know that it was just a season and that there will be more seasons like that, and I hope that in the future I can handle those seasons a little better if I am intentional with all aspects of my life. Also, my husband is an absolute rock star, just saying!

What I want to be intentional about: E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G. EVERYTHING. E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G. But seriously, everything. My faith. My marriage. My relationship with my family and friends. Our finances. Giving. My health. My career. My time. I want to be intentional about it all.. Am I using my time to scroll on social media or am I investing into my marriage? Am I helping do my part with our finances or am I leaving it all up to Matthew? Am I going into the office ready to work or am I running late and forgetting something? Am I taking the time to prepare meals for the week for us or are we just grabbing fast food during the day for a quick lunch?

How I plan on being intentional: 

- Praying about my decisions, even the smaller ones, because sometimes those smaller decisions play a part in the bigger decisions.

- Planning ahead...finances, meal prep, time management, family events, dinners with friends, birthdays and anniversaries, etc.

- Making the time for the important things that matter most to us.

- Saying no to things that don't matter to us.

So there you have it, my word for the year. Here's to being intentional in 2018!

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MY WORD FOR 2018

5 ON FRIDAY!

It never fails, we always get snow after Christmas. I am still hopeful for a white Christmas one day though! We had our second snow of 2018 this past week, and it was definitely more than I expected. I ended up working from home on Tuesday and Wednesday- so grateful for that option! Reagan definitely enjoyed me working from home. She laid here all day while I worked.

They cancelled church Wednesday night and schools have been out all week and are out today as well- jealous of all my teacher friends right now! I was going a little stir crazy by Wednesday afternoon so I took Reagan on a walk, a very short walk because it was COLD.

I pulled myself together and put makeup and real clothes on yesterday and went into the office, and struggled getting our of our neighborhood. We have two hills in our neighborhood and the last one got me. I ended up sliding down it backwards at least twice before I was able to make it over, and it's not even a big hill, but it was definitely a solid sheet of ice! 

A couple of more snow pictures because I am obsessed.

When she first went out in the snow on Tuesday morning she stood around on the patio with one paw up at all times lol.

 I'm crazy, but look at those paw prints!!! Too cute.

 I think I heard that we ended up getting 3 inches of snow!

I made a delicious soup that I'll share next week, and some whole wheat waffles. I made two batches of the waffles so I could freeze the extras for a quick and easy breakfast over the next couple of weeks!

Matthew and I are obsessed with the show Parenthood. We watched it soon after we got married and recently just restarted it. I am currently swooning over this sign, it's the theme song from Parenthood and I just love the words.

(via)

Matthew has been out of town all week for work so I am counting down the minutes until he gets home this afternoon!!!!! 

Also, yesterday marked 2.5 years of being Matthew's wife. 

The sweetest title I've ever know. LOVE that husband of mine, so incredibly much. 

Happy weekend, friends!

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5 ON FRIDAY!

#THECOATSHOME: POWDER ROOM MAKEOVER

I am finally getting a chance to share our powder room makeover. I posted our powder room inspiration here, and we ended up going with one of the wallpapers from that post. I am so happy with how it turned out, but I would be completely remiss not to give all credit to my dad for this project. My dad did the wallpaper and it looks amazing. I tried to do it myself, because how hard can it be, right? Joke was on me, for sure. Not only was it difficult, but our powder room is incredibly small, as most are. 

I fell in love with this wallpaper and knew it had to go somewhere in our home. I thought it would be perfect for our powder room, since it's a smaller room and thought this would make it pop.

Here is the before - what it looked like when we moved in. Tan paint, textured wallpaper on the bottom half with a tropical border in the middle- connecting the paint and wallpaper. It wasn't completely awful, but it wasn't something I would have loved to have in our home forever.

There was also a plastic paper towel holder on the wall behind the toilet (you can see the holes in the wall below) when we moved in...not sure why they chose that location, but we took the paper towel holder down the weekend we moved in.

And the after!!!! We ended up picking up this mirror  at Bed, Bath and Beyond and love it. 

 Also, can I just say that it was pretty difficult to take pictures of such a small area!

I love the way it turned out! Wallpaper can make such huge difference. In the future, we plan on hanging a few shelves on the back wall, above the toilet, and adding a couple of prints on them.

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#THECOATSHOME: POWDER ROOM MAKEOVER

POTATO WEDGE FRIES

I had extra potatoes leftover a couple of weeks ago, so I decided to make some potato wedge "fries". I remember my mom making these when I was younger and I haven't had homemade ones since I was a kid, we called them potato wedge fries. They were just as good as I remember, and really easy to make!

Ingredients:

- 4 or 5 small/medium potatoes

- 1 Tablespoon of garlic powder

- 1 Tablespoon of onion powder

- 1 teaspoon of parsley

- 1 teaspoon of Italian seasoning 

- 1 teaspoon of salt

- 1 teaspoon of pepper

- drizzle of olive oil

Directions:

- Wash potatoes and then slice them. I slice them thinly because we like them crunchy!

- Mix all ingredients in a large bowl

- Pour onto a baking pan and bake at 400 for 25-30 minutes.

- Salt lightly as soon as they come out of the oven, if desired.

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POTATO WEDGE FRIES

FIRST SNOW OF 2018

We had our first snow of 2018 over the weekend! It actually started later Friday afternoon and went through the night off and on. We didn't get much, just about half an inch or so, but it shut schools down and freaked everyone out, of course.

I laughed as I was walking to my car on Thursday afternoon because it was literally almost 70 and they had already salted the walkways and put this sign up in preparation for the snow/ice that was coming the following day. 

 

We did not leave our house at all on Friday and Saturday and it was SO nice and much needed before Matthew's busy season starts up. We lounged around Saturday, binge watched Parenthood (we've started it over because it's just that good!!), laundry, meal prepped for the week, cleaned a little, and I made our favorite soup for lunch. We had talked about going to see a movie on Saturday afternoon, but we were both just enjoying being around the house that we decided against it. We have tickets for a movie, so I'm sure we'll go soon!

My parents got me this neat little gadget for the kitchen and I am OBSESSED. I have been wanting something like this, but never found anything in a set like this. It also all fits in the container for simple storage. 

Sunday we finally got out of the house and went to church and out to lunch with some friends after. There was definitely still ice on our driveway because we kept slipping while trying to get in the car to go, it was hilarious, but thankfully we didn't fall, ha!

They are calling for more snow on Tuesday, so I am crossing my finger it does!

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FIRST SNOW OF 2018

5 ON FRIDAY

Happy Friday! It's my first Friday post of 2018, and it is a "snow day" for us...well kind of. We haven't gotten any snow yet, just freezing rain and we're both working from home. So not really a snow day at all haha. We are both very thankful that we have the opportunity to work from home on days like this though, definitely a blessing, and I love spending the day with Matthew, even if we are both working.

- Since it was so cold all day, I mostly worked from the couch. Most of the time when I work from home it's at a desk, but today, was on the couch with Reagan!

- I am wanting to purchase the Hemnes 8-drawer dresser for my home office. I have read so many great reviews on it and I LOVE the way it looks! I would definitely want to add new pulls to the drawers, probably something gold to match the decor in my office.

- A friend that I work with gave me a bath bomb for Christmas and my parents put one in my stocking as well. Every since then I have been OBSESSED! I want alllll the bath bombs, ha! I have been looking up different recipes and I think I want to try and make them on my own. I also think that would be a fun gift to give to some family and friends this year. I found this bath bomb mold on Amazon and I'm looking forward to making them on my own soon.

- VLOGGERS. I have also been watching a ton of different vloggers lately. I love setting my iPad up while folding laundry/cooking/cleaning and listening/watching different vloggers on YouTube. Do you have any favorite vloggers that I should add to my list?

- We are going to the beach with my family this summer and I am so excited!! My family has always gone to Destin, FL, but we are looking into a few other locations to change it up a bit this year. We have it narrowed down to three places: Orange Beach, AL, Tybee Island, GA, or good ole Destin, FL. If you have ever been to Orange Beach or Tybee Island let me know if you liked it or not! With all this cold weather I am so ready to be on the beach!

Have a great weekend!!

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5 ON FRIDAY