THE BAD HAIRCUT

Over the past few months Reagan has developed a habit of taking her paws and pushing the hair around her mouth into her mouth and chewing on it. So a couple of weeks ago when she had her next grooming appointment I asked our groomer to cut around her mouth shorter than we usually do. The groomer was on board with that and asked if we wanted it cut short like a poodle. I said, "sure, just cut it shorter than we usually do."  Side note: I was not a dog person before we adopted Reagan, so when they asked about grooming her like a poodle I had NO IDEA what that meant. No worries, I have about 42 pictures saved on my phone to show the groomer from now on to avoid anymore poodle haircuts. 
So here is a little before, obviously she looked like a shih poo

and here is the after...I dropped off my shih poo and picked up a poodle! 

They shaved her face and left her ears very full and floppy to ensure the poodle look was in full force.

I definitely was 100% shocked when I picked her up and may or may not have shed a few tears on my drive home...lol. Matthew was just as surprised, if not more, when he saw her for the first time, but reminded me that it's just hair and that it will grow back. 

I think our girl was a little stressed by her new look as well...

Thankfully, it is already starting to grow back out, but I doubt she'll need her face groomed the rest of the summer.

Of course she is still adorable no matter what she looks like but what a shock! 

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THE BAD HAIRCUT

WHITE CHOCOLATE CHIP STRAWBERRY COOKIE | DESSERT RECIPE

This has to be one of my absolute favorite cookie recipes. I love anything with white chocolate and when you mix that with strawberry flavor, it's even better! 

Ingredients:

1 cup butter (2 sticks)

1½ cups sugar

2 eggs

½ teaspoon vanilla

2½ cups flour

½ teaspoon salt

1 3.4-ounce strawberry jello pudding mix, dry

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/2 cup white chocolate chips

Directions: 1. Preheat oven to 350 and very lightly spray a baking sheet with cooking spray.
2. In a large bowl cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla and mix until smooth.
3. In another bowl combine flour, salt, strawberry pudding mix (dry) and baking soda. Whisk to combine. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and mix until all ingredients are incorporated. Gently stir in chocolate chips. Drop about 2 tablespoons of cookie dough onto prepared cookie sheet, spacing each about 2-3 inches apart (they will spread quite a bit). 
4. Bake 10-12 minutes. 

As you can see, this recipe made a big batch. Perfect for a get together or potlucks this summer!

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WHITE CHOCOLATE CHIP STRAWBERRY COOKIE | DESSERT RECIPE

WEEKEND RECAP

Friday night we ordered Chinese takeout, went on a walk with our girl, I baked my sister's birthday cake, and watched the Predators play. Sadly they lost, but they made up for it on Sunday afternoon!

Saturday morning Matthew went to Gimmie a 5 bright and early. For those of you that aren't local, Gimmie a 5 is a huge bargain hunt store. Basically they receive pallets of overstocked items from Amazon and they turn around and sell it. We like restock day because that's where you find the best items. On restock day everything is priced at $5, so no matter what you find, it's only $5. People have found GoPros, Ipads, cameras, etc. It's crazy, but really fun. What we like to do is go and find these high ticket items and only pay $5 for it but then turn around and sell them on eBay for around their retail price. Our best friends, Ethan and Rachel, got us started doing this- they go pretty often, and now that Matthew's busy season is over we're going to try and go more with them when we can. I went once or twice last year, but I plan on going more with Matthew this year. It's pretty fun and we sometimes find things for us that we like to keep lol.

While Matthew was at Gimmie Saturday morning I stayed home and did some things around the house and mowed the yard before I had to meet a friend and take some spring pictures of her and her daughter. It was a fun morning, but it was H-O-T. I think it got up to the mid 90's on Saturday. After pictures I rushed home and got started on the icing for my sister's birthday cake. It was my first time making a homemade cake with homemade icing (it only took 24 years lol). I was pleased with how her cake turned out and officially love The Pioneer Woman even more!

Saturday afternoon we loaded the cake up and headed to my parents house for my sister's birthday party. She loved the cake and had a great birthday.

Sunday morning we woke up bright and early and went to Gimmie again before church, with Ethan and Rachel. You have to get to Gimmie a 5 early and stand in line so we were around 58th in line, woo hoo! After about an hour there we headed back to the house to change for church.

Sunday afternoon we watched the Predators play (and win!) and then decided to go through all of our guest bedroom closets and PURGE. We have two big full bins for our neighborhood yard sale this weekend, a few trash piles, and a few donate piles. It was great and definitely needed. We are hoping to clean out the garage this week.

Sunday night after dinner Matthew was watching more hockey and Reagan and I curled up on the couch and I watched a few episodes of The Pioneer Woman on my iPad. The perfect way to end the weekend!

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WEEKEND RECAP

WEEKEND RECAP: MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND 2016

I can't thank you all enough for the support and prayers in response to my post on Friday regarding my cousin. We are all still very much in shock and truthfully, reality just hasn't set in yet. His funeral was on Sunday, and we are all still grieving in our own ways. Please continue to pray for his parents and siblings. One of the hardest parts of all of this was watching them.

We had planned on making a trip to Johnson City over Memorial Day weekend to visit my BIL & SIL. Back in January we took a trip to Johnson City to see them and got to catch a glimpse of where they live and go to school, and then they came home over spring break back in March, so a trip to see them was overdue! With everything that had happened we questioned whether we should go or not. I was very hesitant to leave our family, but my parents encouraged us to go. It was good to get away and to get our minds off of everything, and to be with family. My office lets us leave early the day before a holiday (Friday in this case) so the holiday weekend started a bit early for me. I met Matthew at LensCrafters and we picked him out some reading glasses...

I mean seriously. I'm ALL heart eyes over here.

After that we loaded up and all met up in Cookeville for dinner at one of our favorites, El Tap. We made it to Johnson City pretty late Friday night and crashed as soon as we got settled. However, before we went to bed my BIL, Nathan, did inform us of a list he has made out of everything he wanted to do with us while we were there.

Saturday morning we made a stop at Chick-fil-A before diving into our list of things to do. We got another tour of ETSU, where he and his wife, Jenny, are PT students at. This time we were able to see inside the buildings and see where they spend most of their days learning away. ETSU's campus is GORGEOUS and I am beyond excited to see it in the fall. 

 The mountain views were pretty incredible. They live about 45 minutes from Asheville, North Carolina. When we go back up there to visit in the fall we are thinking about driving over to Asheville for the day. 

We got a grand tour of downtown Jonesborough, Tennessee, which is Tennessee's oldest town. Saw some REALLY nice houses mansions, stopped by a Bargin Hunt store, did an Escape game, and ate some really good food. We ate lunch at The Label, and it was absolutely delicious. 

Their menu is handed out on a wooden clipboard. Neat little touch!

After lunch we had plans for an Escape game. This was mine and Matthew's first time to do one. Sadly we did not "escape" before the time was up, but we were close!

We went back to their apartment and rested for a bit while the boys played Xbox and then headed out to a late dinner at their favorite mexican restaurant. After dinner we all watched an episode of HIMYM and then called it a night. 

Sunday, Matthew and I headed home that morning to make it to the funeral. As expected, Sunday was a rough day.

Monday, we woke early and got started on our to-do list. We made a trip to Home Depot to pick up some tools and then came back home and I started painting our kitchen. 

Sadly, this trip to HD we used the rest of our wedding/birthday/Christmas Home Depot gift cards. 

After some painting we made a trip to Lowe's to pick up some wood....for our farmhouse table Matthew is going to build for our dining room! I am so excited about this.

We went back home and I did more painting and then we got ready and headed out to my parents house for a Memorial Day cookout. A really dark picture, but I loved the Snap chat filter.

This past weekend also marked 6 years of being with Matthew. We started dating May 29, 2010. I can't believe it has been SIX years, but they have been an absolute dream. On our four year anniversary I recapped our dating years. You can read about year one, year two, year three, and year four. I recapped our 5th year anniversary here. 

Memorial Day 2015

Memorial Day 2013

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WEEKEND RECAP: MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND 2016

I CONFESS V

I confess....our house was already wired for an alarm system when we moved in, but we just started having it monitored and paying for the service, and I am not used to it yet. At all. I set the alarm off last week and frantically called Matthew 1,780 times while he was at the chiropractor. Of course our security company called Matthew and told him the burglary alarm was going off, to which he responded, "that would be my wife." There have also been plenty of times where I opened the door early in the morning, usually checking on my plants lol, and that sets the alarm off. I've gotten the look from Matthew quite often here lately.

I confess...I have been talking in my sleep a lot recently and it's completely freaking Matthew out. The other night he said I was talking about string cheese in my sleep. LOL.

I confess...during the talent show my sister was in I teared up at almost every performance just thinking about how proud their parents must be. Then a whole 2nd grade class performed together and at the end they took their parents a can of Coke with "love" on the side of it and I lost it.

I confess...I like taking pictures of meals that I cook in case I want to post about it on here. I usually make Matthew wait before he can start eating (#instagramhusband) until I have made the perfect picture. To which I get a sigh, eye roll, and that smirky grin of his (I secretly love this smirky grin of his, don't tell him that though.) So I've gotten to where I won't tell him dinner is ready until after I have made all my pictures that I want to take. Boom. Problem solved.
Note: This isn't every meal, most meals, but not every meal. ;) 


I confess....the week before a holiday weekend always seems to be the longest week. It's not just me, I think everyone at the office has been dragging all week, too.


I confess...we started stripping wallpaper the other day. It took me about 45 minutes to strip ALL of the wallpaper in the kitchen and then I went into the dining room where Matthew was working. This took almost an hour and I was in tears by the end (#dramatic). We were using a steamer, but as you can see, it's not helping much. Any suggestions? Or better yet, anyone want to come over and strip the wallpaper in our dining room for us? I'll pay you with food.

I confess....my office chair delivered yesterday and it looks incredible. Matthew was SO excited to put it together for me and started late last night getting my office all set up for me. He is the sweetest. 

If you're following me on snapchat (shelbycoats) then you will see Matthew got my computer all set up! We still have some work to do with hiding the cords, and I still have to paint that room, but it's coming along.

I Confess I

I Confess II

I Confess III

I Confess IV

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I CONFESS V

WEEKENDING

Our weekend was so good and of course, went by too quickly! We were able to get a lot done and relax a bit....the perfect combination!

Friday I picked up the groceries on my way home from work. I made philly cheesesteak sandwiches and we were able to enjoy dinner on the patio since it hasn't been very hot lately.

Patio dinners = some of my favorite!

and yes, I leave for the beach in less than a month...my diet is going real well ;) 

Saturday started out slow for us. Lounging around, watching TV, and eating our favorite breakfast, again. I had some laundry going and cleaned a good bit. I always feel SO much better when our house is clean. I decided it was time to clean our new comforter! We got it back in January or February, I can't remember, but it's white with some navy detailing in it. I knew I would need to wash it every few months to keep it that way and so far it hasn't been that bad, thankfully! I washed it on a delicate cycle and then let it air dry over out stairway all day. When we went to bed it was perfectly clean and dry! 

We finally got motivated to get out Saturday and went to look at furniture. If you follow me on snapchat then you have been able to see a few snaps from the past few weeks of us in and out of furniture stores. We finally decided on some furniture, and we bit the bullet. We lucked up and were able to get the Memorial day sale, too! We had been looking at a consignment furniture store close to our house that sells Ashley's Furniture pieces at a huge discount. They didn't have everything on the floor so we decided to go to Ashley's Furniture to see it all in person.

 Well Matthew, being the negotiator that he is, went back and forth with the sales rep there and ended up getting them to PRICE MATCH the consignment store prices, plus get the insurance on all of the furniture knocked in half, and FREE shipping. LOVE that negotiating man of mine! We also get the furniture A LOT sooner than the consignment store and they will come in and set it all up for us. As a matter of fact the furniture will be here NEXT Tuesday (sorry for all the caps, we are just way too excited about this!) which works out perfect because our summer soiree will be the following weekend...perfect timing! I'll share pictures once we have everything set up. We are taking Matthew's twin bed from his college apartment and putting it in my office. We are slowly but surely filling up our home, and we are so excited! Here is a small peak at the guest bedroom furniture:

Sunday we went to church with Matthew's parents and then to lunch. We hung out with them for most of the afternoon. Matthew helped his dad hang up some stuff on the wall in their living room and it ended up looking so good! Sadly, I didn't get a picture of any of it.

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WEEKENDING

FRIDAY NO. 18

Matthew had to work out of town at the beginning of the week, so my sister came and stayed with me a couple of nights. She's on summer break and doesn't have to be at work some days until 1:00...so jealous. So Monday I got this snap from her...

In response, I sent her this meme...

 #sisterlylove

Monday night I went to my younger sisters softball game....in the cold and rain. There is a covering over the bleachers but the misty rain was coming down sideways..lovely. My sweet dad held the umbrella over us most of the game lol.

Seriously it has felt like early spring all week with the exception of yesterday, it FINALLY warmed up a bit and the sun came out (!!!!!)

In an attempt to make plans for a cookout coming up I text my two best friends and asked if they were planning on going to an even in our hometown but didn't get a response...for 15 HOURS. Literally drove me up the wall lol. So after a couple of hours of sending them the first text I sent this meme (I spend too much time looking up memes.)

I finally got a response 15 hours later and then my best friend shamed my lack of patience on good ole social media...too funny, Kat, not. ;)

Speaking of cookout...Matthew and I are hosting our 1st annual 'Summer Soiree' soon. I am so excited and have been looking up the cutest ideas on Pinterest all week. We thought it would be a good way to kick off summer in a couple of weeks with all of our friends! I'll be sharing more about it next week, but for now, here is a sneak peak of the top half of the invitations I made this week...

I noticed the umbrellas at our neighborhood pool were put up this week, and then yesterday we got the email....our pool is opening up NEXT weekend!!!!

All other 'Friday No.' posts can be found here. Have a great weekend! :)

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FRIDAY NO. 18

SUMMER BUCKET LIST

As mentioned the other day, Matthew and I made out our summer bucket list. It's warming up (kind of, seriously it has felt like spring all week), things at work are slowing down for the both of us, and we have some free weekends on the calendar (thank goodness!!!!) This is my favorite time of the year, and now I'm just waiting on the pool in our neighborhood to open up ;)

One thing that I left off of our list that I should have probably put on there is house projects. I have a feeling a lot of our free weekends this summer will go to projects around the house, and I am not complaining one bit. We are more than ready to get started on them!!

What's on your summer bucket list?

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SUMMER BUCKET LIST

THE MARRIAGE DIARIES VOL. 10

10 whole months we have been husband and wife. 10 whole months of living together and being #foreverroommates. 10 whole months, and it just keeps getting better.

Matthew is the kind of husband I only dreamed of having. I am so grateful for a husband who can lead me and love me so well. I am overwhelmed daily at how The Lord has worked in our lives, and I pray that this is only the beginning. I know I always say this, but it's so true, time is flying by. I mean we are TWO months away from our one year anniversary. How crazy is that?!?! I want to make the most of our days together, just the two of us. Because one day, there will be babies and lots of responsibilities that move in and it won't be just the two of us. I want to pursue my husband not only today, but everyday, because I'll never get these days back. Time is fleeting!

Lord willing, we have a lot of fun things planned for this summer that we'll get to do, a lot of projects, and a lot of excitement to look forward to. This is a fun season of life for us, and we are enjoying each new day as they come, together. We are dreaming about house projects, binge watching our favorite shows, exploring back roads, listening to our favorite songs in the morning as we get ready for our day, and just enjoying each other's company. I hope I never forget these sweet memories we are making together.

May the way I look at you, the way I speak with you, and the way I treat you reflect the truth that I have loved you since forever.

Here's to 10 months of the sweetest devotion and to Lord willing, forever. 

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THE MARRIAGE DIARIES VOL. 10

BEEFY-CHILI MAC - DINNER RECIPE

This recipe is so easy and we had plenty of leftovers for lunches the rest of the week. The best part about it is that you can change it up according to what you like or don't like. 

Beefy-chili Mac

Adapted from Mix and Match Mama

Ingredients 

- 1 lb of elbow noodles

- 1 lb of ground beef

- 2 (6 oz) cans of tomato paste

- 1 (8 oz) can of tomato sauce 

- 1 cup of shredded sharp cheddar cheese, halved. 

- 2 - 1-2 Tablespoon of chili powder

- 1/2 teaspoon of cumin

- 1 Tablespoon of parsley

- 1 teaspoon of garlic powder

- Salt & pepper, to taste

Directions

- Preheat oven to 350

- In a large pot, cook noddles al dente and then drain.

- Meanwhile in another skillet brown your meat and then drain.

- Once meat and noodles are done mix the meat in with the noodles. Then mix in all of the other ingredients listed above. Only mix in half of the shredded cheese. 

- Once everything is mixed together well in the skillet, add to a 9 x 13 baking dish and top with remaining shredded cheese.

- Bake in the oven at 350 for 20-25 minutes. 

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BEEFY-CHILI MAC - DINNER RECIPE

WEEKENDING

Friday night we grabbed a quick dinner and then headed to Target to pick up our new planters. After that we went to Lowe's to get stuff to fill them!! Just getting #TheCoatsHome ready for summer...one plant at a time! 

Saturday we woke up and I made one of our favorites, sausage roll ups! We had a slow start to our Saturday, eating breakfast and watching a few episodes of How I Met Your Mother and then we got up and got to work around the house...

Trimming all of our bushes out front, pulling weeds and putting the planters together! If you look at the bottom left of this picture you can see a small peak at them! I can't wait to share them with you soon. Matthew cut down one of the bushes in the right of this picture and we plan on taking the second one out this coming weekend.

I also cleaned out my office. We put the rest of our unpacked totes in there as well as other stuff we hadn't gotten a chance to put up yet, and it ended up being a huge mess. I haven't had much time to work on that room until this weekend so that was very high on my priority list this past weekend. Here is the 'before' picture...it's bad.

I forgot to take and 'after' picture, but just know EVERYTHING is gone out of that room, except my beautiful desk!! I'm so excited to have it clean and looking like a real room now! I can't wait to get in there and decorate!

Late Saturday afternoon we went over to my aunt and uncle's house for my cousin's graduation party. It was fun to see everyone, and as always, there was a ton of delicious food! The weather this weekend has been very mild...almost chilly. We had the windows open all day Saturday and Sunday and it was great!

Sunday after church we ran to Lowe's to pick up painting supplies...because we got a FIVE gallon bucket of paint. We are so excited to start painting our house. We decided to go with Agreeable Gray by Sherwin Williams for the whole house. It's a beautiful neutral color and we are very excited! The color on the wall in the picture below is a darker beige. I'll update soon on everything after we get it all painted!

We ended up making 3 Lowe's trips this weekend!

Sunday night for dinner I made meatball subs...SO good but SO messy!

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WEEKENDING