FRIDAY NO. 15

T-7 hours until the weekend!

- Tuesday night after we got off of work we headed to Chattanooga. Matthew had his test the following morning at Erlanger. To say our experience at Erlanger was a disaster would be an understatement. I'll go more into detail about it next week. We meet with the neurologist this Thursday morning. 

- As soon as we got home Tuesday afternoon we realized our air wasn't working for the downstairs area. We were about to head to Chattanooga and there wasn't anything we could do about it right then anyways. We called Wednesday and the earliest they could fix it was Thursday afternoon. We were so glad that is was just the downstairs area. We got home late Wednesday night and it was 82 in our house!!! THANKFULLY we are still under our warranty so we just had to pay for the service fee. 

- If all goes as planned, this Sunday Matthew and I have decided to have a cooking day after church! We are going to make breakfast burritos, grill up some chicken, and I'm going to make a few pounds of meat! I'm really excited and more than ready to have our freezer STOCKED!

- We have also decided to start having small 'meetings' on Sundays. It sounds weird to call it 'meetings' lol but we're just going to sit down, without any distractions, and discuss any plans we have that week, budget, and goals! We're both really excited about this and think this will help out a lot! Do you have weekly 'meetings'? Anything else we should go over? 

-Wednesday was Administrative Professionals Day, and since I was off of work, my office surprise me on Thursday! I had no idea this was even a thing so I was definitely overwhelmed yesterday with all the sweet words and gifts!! My office had this beautiful arrangement sent to me

and they also gave me a card with two gift cards in it. So sweet and thoughtful.

My friend at work also gave me a rose bush to plant at our house! She knows I've been itching to plant something pretty and surprised me with this. 

I don't say it enough, but I really am thankful for where I work, and all the people I get to work with.

- I made a small thing of chicken salad last night and I was trying to hurry so I could go to bed after, so I wasn't really using my "clean as you go" motto that I always try to follow. So my kitchen ended up being a big ole mess. So here are some 'real life' snaps for you! 

- Saturday we are celebrating my sister's birthday, and I still can't believe she is 19!! I feel so old when I think about it lol because most of the time I still feel like we should be 19. It's so crazy!

Blog posts from this week:

Baked Chicken Parmesan - Dinner

Weekending 

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FRIDAY NO. 15

WEEKENDING

As soon as I hit 'publish' last Friday on my post telling about what we had planned for the weekend I got a text from my mom letting me know that they took my nanny to the ER because she was really sick. Funny how when we try to plan everything out, things come up and all your plans change. That's just how life goes sometimes, but the good news is that nanny is doing much better and should be going home this morning!! 

As soon as we got off on Friday we headed to the hospital that my nanny was at to check on her. She was in a lot of pain and pretty loopy from a small procedure they had just finished up. She was in critical care so visiting hours were almost over after we got there. We went with my dad and sisters to get dinner, my mom stayed there with her. Samantha and Macy (my two youngest sisters) were full or energy and excited to tell us all about their week at school lol. Matthew and I were all ears!

Saturday morning my dad had to work and my mom went to the hospital as soon as visiting hours started so Matthew and I decided to take Sam and Macy out for some fun, since they were too young to visit our nanny in critical care. My other sister, Mady, was hanging out with her friends all day. We surprised them and took them to Go USA fun park. We played a round of mini golf, did the batting cages and played a game inside.

The weather was perfect, and we soaked up as much time outside as we could! 

 After Go USA we had lunch at the girls favorite place, CiCi's Pizza...Matthew and I haven't been to a Cici's in almost a year. After lunch we headed to the hospital for a bit so we could check in on nanny and drop the girls off with my dad, since he was off by then. Nanny was doing a little bit better by Saturday afternoon, but not where they wanted her to be.

We had plans to go to a get together at one of our friend's house from church that afternoon, but with everything going on we decided to cancel our plans. We ended up eating a quick dinner and running a few small errands before calling it a night. Sunday was family day at church and we really enjoyed it! We had regular service, class, and then a catered lunch and a 1:00 pm service. We had time after lunch to run home and change, and I was able to get some cleaning and laundry done before the 1:00 service started. We LOVE living so close to church!! There were A LOT of activities planned for the afternoon that we got to choose from. We chose 'Open mic night' at a members farm and it was a lot of fun. The weather was great, we had good food, and enjoyed listening to everyone perform.

This is the view from this families front yard....absolutely beautiful!!!

Also, while we were home I got to see my dad's peonies blooming. These are my favorite and he always saves me some each year!

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WEEKENDING

BAKED CHICKEN PARMESAN - DINNER

During the warmer months I like eating lighter dinners, and this one proved to be the perfect fit! I'm excited to make this one again, and soon.

Baked Chicken Parmesan
By Skinnytaste

Ingredients:

- 4 chicken breasts, sliced in half to make 8

- 3/4 cup of Italian breadcrumbs

- 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

- 2 Tbsp garlic powder (or more if desired)

- 3/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

- 2 Tbsp butter, melted

- 1 16 oz spaghetti noodles

- 2 Jars of spaghetti sauce (Matthew's favorite is Bertolli Five Cheese)

- Cooking spray

Directions:

- Preheat oven to 450. Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray and set to the side.

- Combine breadcrumbs, garlic powder, and parmesan cheese in a bowl. Melt the butter in another bowl. Brush the butter onto the chicken, and then dip into the breadcrumb mixture, make sure to coat both sides evenly. Place chicken on prepared baking sheet and repeat until all the chicken is coated.

- Lightly spray a little more cooking spray on top of chicken and then bake in the oven for 20 minutes. Turn chicken over and bake another 5 minutes.

- Remove from oven and add 1 Tbsp (or more if desired) of spaghetti sauce over each piece of chicken and then add 1 1/2 Tbsp of shredded mozzarella cheese. Bake 5 more minutes or until cheese is melted. 

- Place on a bed of noodles and serve immediately. 

I used whole wheat linguine noodles.

So simple and delicious! Make this soon and enjoy it on the patio before it gets too hot outside. This also makes really good leftovers for lunches the rest of the week.

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BAKED CHICKEN PARMESAN - DINNER

FRIDAY NO. 14

I mentioned on Tuesday that Matthew had his follow up appointment with the outpatient neurologist this past Saturday, and that he advised that some of the test readings were bad. So we had to have another one scheduled. I'll spare you the long and frustrating details, but long story short, we have and appointment scheduled for next week to have another Transcranial Doppler ultrasound done, and it's going to be in Chattanooga at Erlanger. The reason we have to travel to Chattanooga to have this ultrasound done is because they have to do a bubble study with it. There is only one place here in Nashville that does the ultrasound with the bubble study and unfortunately they don't fall under our insurance. Lucky for us though, Matthew's older brother lives in Chattanooga so we are going to stay with him! We are more than ready to have this ultrasound and test done so we can, hopefully, know what's going on! Please continue to pray!!

I tried a new recipe this past week, baked chicken parmesan, and we both really liked it! It made the best lunches this week too! I'll share the recipe next week.

The Predators have been slowly but surly breaking our hearts....last night they lost 4-1. I couldn't even stay awake for the whole game. but Matthew turned it off early since they were playing so poorly. I am following them on Snap Chat though and their snaps make me want to be downtown before the game so bad! So much excitement and fun activities going on.

I mentioned the other day about World Market's pineapple selection...well I looked on their website the other day and it was all on sale!!!!! Plus I found a 15% off coupon code!!!! Y'all I just could not pass up on the cuteness. I will be happily picking them up this weekend!

If this isn't just the cutest salt & pepper shaker than I don't know what is. They just scream summer time to me.

These adorable hand towels were sold out online, so I am crossing my fingers I can find them in store. 

Back in August I posted about a couple that we have many mutual friends with, and asked for prayers for them. Well he is home but they still have a long, long road to recovery. His wife, Hayley, has started a blog. She has only posted twice but each post has had me tears after a few sentences in. Here is her blog: Hayley Waldron and here is her first post: Life As We Knew It  and her second post: "I'm here. I'm awake." Her first post she is explaining everything that has happened and where they are now, but her second post literally stopped me in my tracks. They thought her husband, Harrison, was in a "comatose, vegetative and minimally conscious states", but he told them he remembered a conversation he heard THE DAY AFTER HIS ATV ACCIDENT. Everyone was praying for him to "wake up" but he was awake the whole time. She writes all about it in her second post and it absolutely broke my heart and filled me with so much joy, all at the same time. We have been praying without ceasing for this couple, their family and the doctors since back in August, and will continue to do so. After reading her last post I can't help but think, what a mighty God we serve!

This weekend we have a lot going on! We are hanging out with our families and I am hoping my dad and I can make a stop by one of our favorite nurseries, Martins, and see what all they have. Growing up, my dad would always go to Martin's to get new flowers for the upcoming spring/summer and I always LOVED going with him. So I am hoping we get a chance to stop in this weekend! Saturday night we are having a cookout at one of our friend's house from church, and Sunday is family day at our church. There are a ton of activities to do after services, and I think most of our class is going to a member's farm for a cookout and an open mic night! 

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FRIDAY NO. 14

-LISTS-

If you have been around here for any length of time then you know I'm an avid list maker. So I think it goes without saying how exciting these were to make. The other night Matthew and I finally sat down and made two lists out. We have been talking about doing this forever, and we finally remembered to write it all down. I guess you could call them bucket lists, since it's a long list and we don't have a timeline or deadline on them. These are just places we want to cross off over time. We have talked about making out a list of goals and places we want to visit before we have kids one day, but we haven't gotten to that list yet.

The first list is on restaurants that we want to try. Some are in Nashville and some are in our town we live in now. I'm sure we'll find more that we want to add to this list, but I am excited to cross some of these off this summer. There are all kinds of restaurants on that list. Some are small burger joints, some are popular tourist places, and some are the higher end steakhouses. A lot of places we won't even go to this year or probably even next year, but like I said, there are no deadlines for these lists. 

The second list is our travel list. We divided it up into day trips and weekend trips. We both got really exited looking things up for these lists, and there are a ton of places we want to go and see over time. One thing we didn't add to this list are bigger vacations. Places that you can't really visit in just weekend, so we'll work on that list soon! It's exciting to think about and I get even more excited when I think about traveling to these places with Matthew. He really is the best friend I've ever had, and I love adventuring to new places with him.

So here are our lists...so far. I'm excited to cross things off and add more places as time goes on!

I found a lot of great idea on Pinterest, and you can see all those on my 'Travel' board and my 'Tennessee' board.

Follow Shelby 's board TRAVEL on Pinterest.
Follow Shelby 's board TENNESSEE on Pinterest.

Are there any places we should add to this list? Send any and all suggestions our way!

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-LISTS-

#THECOATSHOME : LIVING ROOM IDEAS

I thought this would be a fun little series to do with our new home. I'll post about what ideas we have for most rooms and then post an update once we've finished that room! As with my one bedroom apartment (#sKaapartment) and then mine and Matthew's first apartment together (#coatsapartment), our home has a hashtag. I do this so I can see all of my posts in one place, and because they are fun. So if you would like to follow along with any posts on social media about our new home you can search the #TheCoatsHome :)

We have gone back and forth on what we want our living room to look like. We have always known that we wanted built-ins, but we have changed our mind a few times on the fireplace. I think we have both finally decided that we want to do shiplap (haaaay Joanna Gaines) on the fireplace with built-ins on each side.

 Below is our living room now:

And here is what we have in mind!

All pictures can be found here, here and here is their family room reveal. 

We have watched their diy built-ins video a lot and each time we love it even more! Our original plan was to do built-ins and stone veneer on the fireplace, but then we saw those picture and fell in love with the shiplap. Matthew was the one who actually suggested the shiplap first, I was a little surprised!

I think the white shiplap and built-ins will help make our living room even brighter! It's a big room, which we love, but there are only windows on one wall, so it kind of limits the amount of natural light we have in there. The left side of our living room is very bare right now, but our plan is to purchase a sectional, (to match our two couches on the right side of the room) another end table, and possibly a coffee table. We also want to take that ceiling fan out and add in some recessed lighting.

Here is the other side of our living room, (awful picture quality) and what we want to do with it!

That is a lot of furniture, I know, we are saving, but this is our dream....a home for hosting! We want to be able to host family, friends, and even strangers if the need arises. We want others to feel comfortable in our home and have enough space to accommodate them. 

Here is the first picture with what we want!

I'm so excited to have the built-ins and can't wait to style them.

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#THECOATSHOME : LIVING ROOM IDEAS

LIFE LATELY

- I got my post in last Thursday but wasn't able to get my Friday post in. I mentioned on Thursday that my FIL was having surgery that day. Matthew and I took off from work that Thursday and Friday so that we could be there with his parents. I'm thrilled to say that the surgery could not have gone better...exact words from his doctor, and that he was actually able to come home late Sunday afternoon. So thankful everything went well and that he is recovering well!!

- Saturday morning we had Matthew's follow up appointment with an out patient neurologist. We were so glad they had Saturday appointments available. We were the first ones there so we were able to see the neurologist very quickly. Long story short, he thinks some of the tests/ultrasounds that Matthew had taken while he was in the hospital were bad readings....especially the one of his heart. So he wants Matthew to have a Transcranial Doppler ultrasound done. This is to check and see if there is a hole in his heart. Please keep him in your prayers as we figure out what is going on!

- Matthew's oldest brother came in for the weekend to see his dad and stayed with us. We left the hospital early on Saturday afternoon so his parents could get some rest and we all went back to our house and napped and then woke up and ordered pizza. We had a lazy night watching HIMYM and they played Xbox some. 

- On Sunday we picked up Matthew's parents dog, Murphy, from his mawmaw's house to take back home since his dad was being discharged that day. Murphy rode in our laps the whole way and loved looking out the window. Of course this snap chat filter was appropriate! 

- Matthew and I have been having some serious "steps competition" since we got our FitBits. It's so fun and I love that they are motivating us to be more active. Hello 7 flights of stairs at work!!!!

- My best friend's grandmother passed away the other night, so we are headed back home after work this afternoon for a few hours for her funeral.

- We made a quick stop in World Market the other day and I came across this pineapple display. Matthew had to quickly drag me away so I wouldn't start picking everything up to buy....seriously, so many cute things. Perfect for summer!! You can find some of those cute items here.

- Yesterday marked 9 months that we have been married. If we would have had a honeymoon baby it would have been born around this time of this month. LOL.

- This past Sunday and Monday was my grandfathers birthdays. My something old at our wedding was old pictures of my grandfathers. Since they couldn't be there this was the next best thing! I'd give anything for one more night of sitting in the carport listening to whippoorwills or sitting on papa's lap sharing an apple and ginger ale, but I'm thankful for the time I got with them and all the memories that we made as I was growing up. Happy birthday to both of my grandfathers.

And that's about it! The weather has been so nice, high 70's to low 80's with a light breeze...my favorite kind of weather! 

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LIFE LATELY

I CONFESS III

I confess....this is a really late post! Matthew's dad is having surgery today, so we took off of work to be here at the hospital with his parents.

I confess....I am writing this post on my tablet....which I've never done before. Excuse any typos ;)

I confess....we are watching How I Met Your Mother...again. We love that show too much lol. Lily and Marshall are our favorites!

I confess....we are under 80 days until our girls trip to HHI, and these are my exact thoughts...

I confess....I just checked the weather for the next 15 days, and the lowest it's supposed to get (during the day) is 71!! Thank The Lord for warmer weather!!

I confess....since Matthew's health scare a few weeks ago I have had even more respect for nurses. They have a tough job, and there is no way I could ever do everything that they do!

I confess...Home Goods has been KILLIN' me with these blue and white vases recently. They get all the heart eyes.

I confess....I found my bridal photo album on my laptop the other night and got all emotional over my dress, again, and now I'm trying to think of a reason why I could wear my favorite dress again. Any suggestions? Taco Tuesday next week? Just kidding ;)

Happy Friday eve!!

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I CONFESS III