Betcha My Weekend was More Fun Than Yours #SIKE

Hahaha, that'a  joke and a half. This weekend was completely non stop packing up the apartment. Boxes upon boxes everywhere. Guess who keeps having a twitch every time they walk into new room because of the clutter? Yup that would be me.

Friday night I had to run some errands after work and the got to cooking a delicious spaghetti sauce for dinner that night. I had gone to the gym during lunch so set to work on picking my FINAL outfits for our European trip. I got the suitcase to close once and then repacked and whomp whomp, too full. Still making progress and I hope to document it all for you guys.

We also packed away the dishes and glassware so a coffee mug filled in for my wine glass #duh!

Le Husband and I were up until 1am packing up everything we could in the kitchen and finally went to bed when we could barely keep our eyes open. There was no rest for the weary as I was up super early to head down south to visit my bestest and her lil ones since we didn't have much time to catch up at my party. It was a fun morning of coffee, pancakes, lil kids laughing and best friend talk. We've been besties since fourth grade and even though we are in such different stages of life [her with three lil ones and one on the way and me with just a lil ol husband ;)] we've never been far apart and are always there for each other.

High School Seniors = Baby Faces

I came home, grabbed a snack and then it was back to packing up the living room. Le Husband was at lunch with a baseball coach and I was able to really get after it and packed up a ton of boxes. Sportyspice came over and leant a helping hand and it was fun having silly sissy time while we worked.

There was a quick lil nap on the couch and then it was off to the grocery store for the LAST GROCERY RUN in the apartment, CRAZY! Don't' worry, we made sure to get alll the essentials.

We were both exhausted so it was dinner out and my meal was so good. Too good to get a picture even, I was so hungry. Dinner gave us a pep in our step and we were up until midnight again taking care of business. There may have been a few shots of whiskey taken while packing…maybe!

Sunday morning showed up way too quickly and I had to snooze the alarm for late church. It was a wonderful service and the message was something I really needed to hear. I had a lil moment of sadness and had to walk out the sanctuary as I realized I only had one more service left before we move. But, that's a post for another day.

When church was over I dropped Le Husband off at the Uhaul and went back to meet the famjam for our big run to the storage unit. Randomly we decided we wanted to move all the BIG items [couches, love seat, beds, mattresses, dressers, buffet, island and chest of drawers] out today instead of next weekend. TOTALLY the right move but we didn't have everything situated the way I had planned so it was a bit of debacle in the beginning. Once we all found the groove the afternoon flew by and all of a sudden everything was in the storage unit and it was time to treat everyone to dinner. We headed to a favorite burger place and HOUSED some food. I stupidly had only eaten 400 calories all day so I was famished. The burger and tots were delicious and the Nutella milkshake was amazing.

I'm so grateful for my family, they are such troopers and are always there to lend a hand when asked. IT would have taken us forever to do it ourselves and I'm so thankful I get to call some of the best people in the world my family.

The rest of Sunday was spent, you guessed it, packing. Insane we are out of here in less than seven days and a week from today we are leaving for our European trip. Where did the time go?

I hope you had a great weekend and I wish you the bestest week! < 3

My Favorite Month But the Worst Day of the Year

Morning and happy Friday ladies. I hope your week wasn't too painful and you have some fun weekend plans. You know mine will be filled with boxes, packing tape, computers for research and hopefully a few fun times with friends and family.

Normally Fridays are fun posts recounting good times of the week. However, this Friday is one of those where a post like that would be a fat out lie of my mental state. April 8th has become a tough day for me and I just couldn't phone in a regular post. So, I'm sharing what I posted last year since my heart and head is heavy once again.

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April is one of the best months of the year, in my opinion. Spring officially makes an appearance with warm weather, flowers start to bloom, trees start sprouting new life, Easter usually happens [depending on the year], sweaters are put away for sleeveless tops, outdoor workouts resume and oh yeah, it's my BIRTHDAY MONTH! I'm a self proclaimed birthdayaholic [not just for myself, I love celebrating my friend's birthdays too] so April is birthday month, full of sparkles, glitter, drinks and special eats. I LOVE SPRING! I LOVE BIRTHDAYS! I LOVE APRIL!

But, six years ago April lost some of it's luster. Unfairly pneumonia started an unexpected chain of events that stole a beautiful soul from this earth. My mother's mom, Mo, fell sick and within less than a week she was gone. The unexpectedness, the DNR [whole other post], the choice I made to wait until the weekend to head down to Tennessee [will regret missing that time for the rest of my life], have all made dealing with her death extremely hard. We had seen her that summer and had planned to see her the next summer just like we did every year. Our yearly Tennessee trip to the lake was a week of fun in the sun and family time with our grandparents and aunt, uncle and cousin. Sometimes there was a bit of family discord, but all in all it was a wonderful week of good food, family and sunshine.

Mo suffered a stroke when I was younger and she started suffering from Alzheimer's when I was in college. There had been falls in the past and we knew an assisted living home might become a possibility because our grandfather T-Bone wouldn't be able to care for her as she needed. We knew she was getting older and that more patience would be needed during visits. However, the patience was never needed because too soon she left us to be home with the Lord.

I miss her. EVERYDAY.I.MISS.HER! But, April hits me hard. It's no longer just a happy sparkly month. It's a month that brings sadness, anger and tears. April brings back the pain of that weekend, the sadness of a funeral and the memories of so many people coming to honor my grandmother. She was an amazing lady. One who always had a smile, had a heart of gold and just loved to be around family. I can close my eyes and see her waving goodbye to us as we drove away from their home. I can still hear her voice say "Hey there, doll".
 

I still grieve that she wasn't able to be here for my wedding. I've written about it before, but her being gone kept it from being the perfect day. She would have loved the excitement. She would have loved the party and the cupcakes. I'm sure she would have had her South Carolina opinion about something [peeled tomatoes, straight hair parted down the center], but she would have danced on the dance floor and told me I was her beautiful doll. She would have walked own the aisle so proudly and hugged me and Le Husband a million times. She never got to meet the man of my dreams or witness me become a wife. She will never see her great-grand children and she will never be able to pass down advice on being a mother. Those moments have been stripped away forever and I can't help but cry as I type.

I honored her at my wedding with a picture on our wedding cake table. She loved cake and ice cream and I knew I wanted her picture where all could witness her beautiful face. I find myself looking back to these photos every time I scroll through wedding pictures. It's the little piece of her I keep in my heart from that day.

Wasn't she gorgeous? I get my small stature from her and my petite lil frame. I wish I had taken the time to cook with her more. I wanted to learn her butter bean, potato salad and ham recipe. Mama B will teach me, I know, but I wish I had spent time in the kitchen with Mo. She loved to cook. That's how she showed love, by cooking dinner for us every night when we visited. She wasn't as athletic as she once was, due to a midlife surgery, so she couldn't participate in some of the fun on the lake. But she brought us dinner every night and it was delicious.

 

We lost my great aunt, Mo's sister in 2013 and it happened to be the same week we had to say good-bye to Mo. It was so hard and it ripped open a scab I thought was closed for good.  The anger came back. The hurt came back. And my faith felt tested once again. To be honest it feels tested every April 8th. She's not here anymore and I regret all of the things I didn't say to her and the moments I brushed off because I would get frustrated. I lost so much and it was all my fault. But, there is nothing I can do about it now. All I can do is honor her memory and remember all the joy she brought to my life. 

Dearest Mo, I hope you know that you are missed so greatly. I hope you are proud of the woman your doll baby has become. I hope you are proud of how much I love to be in the kitchen and how much I love to cook. I hope when you look down on us you smile at Le Husband. He's a great guy, even if he isn't southern ;)! I know you and Aunt Rah-Rah are keeping people well fed up in heaven and I'm happy that the two of you are together. We all wish you could still be with us, but we know it was time for you to go home. Please know how much we love you and how often you are still thought about. I'll always pick the vegetables from the back because of you. I love you to the moon and back! < 3 your doll!

***To those reading that have lost a parent, please know I grieve for you. Losing my grandmother hurts me so badly, but I can't imagine the suffering faced when losing a parent. Please know I'm praying for you and send you a big hug***

Wishing you a wonderfull weekend, friends < 3

Confessing What's New With Me

I confess...

|| it took all of my self control not to stare down the girl in the gym locker room who LEGIT checked herself out six times. In two different mirrors. I get making sure you look fresh walking into the gym, but six times, you planning on getting married tonight honey?

|| on Tuesday during my sports conditioning class I purposefully positioned myself next to one of the fitter guys in the class to push myself. I needed the extra challenge because my attitude was not the greatest heading into class and I wanted to concentrate on JUST fitness. I'm happy to report I did pretty awesome and saw him checking my form when I kept pace with him. #girlsarejustasgoodballa #sprintsarethebest #thanksfortheextrahustle

|| I feel like I have seniorities at work right now. Like suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuriously I don't want to do anything. I've completed a few documents for the new person but ugh, so tedious and blah. Thank goodness I have access to blogs and youtube.#needthedistractionbreak

|| my tribe rocks. I love them dearly and am so blessed to have them in my life. Husbands are awesome but sometimes you just need your girl tribe to GET YOU when things get frustrating and UGH emotions.

|| after an extremely stressful packing week I took last night off to hang with the sissys. Well, I took a load to the storage unit then went to yoga with them, ate dinner and had a glass of wine while watching some sports on television. It was a fabulous Wednesday night indeed. #sissys #antondas #wcw #lovethem

|| there was a quiet shout of joy when I hit a headstand in yoga last night. I took a class with the sissys and didn't think I was quite at their level to actually make a headstand, but y'all I DID IT and it ROCKED.

|| I'm dropping this beat and this beat[oh hey 97 release] all day eeeeeeeerrrrrday on youtube. I need music to focus and this helps me rock out my to do list both at work and while packing up the apartment. #shemovingherbody

|| this week I bit the bullet and bought Tieks. I'm super hopeful they will be just what I need for Europe and they better last forever at their crazy price. Any Tiek owners out there have any issues?

What's new? Hmmmmmmmm, let me think. SIKE! If you remember last month I shared our super fantastical HUGE NEWS about our European trip and our move and holy crap, here we are a month later and it's go time. Like serious go time. Like, staying up until midnight packing up boxes go time. And it is stressing me out like whoa.

Part of me wants to stop this post here because it seems as though the last few posts have been the same thing over and over. I don't want to sound like a broken record or even worse, ungrateful for our new adventure. We chose this and I understand it's not always going to be peaches and cream super easy packing time. Trust me, I know.

However, at the crux of it all this blog is almost a living journal so I want to remember these moments, the good and the bad. The good up with me? My tribe is so so good. They have shown up in droves to help and are just a text away whenever I need them. The bad up with me? My stress level and emotions. Yesterday on my drive to the storage unit I flat out lost it y'all. I'm talking BWD [bawling while driving] and shouting at other drivers because they were pissing me off. The enormity of our adventure fully hit me and the realization of how much still left to do caused a minor freak out. A few quick texts to the BOFF and my faith sister had me feeling a lot better and then everything really calmed down after yoga sissy time.

I know being stressed right now is normal, so I'm choosing to acknowledge the stress and fear but now letting it float away. Time to concentrate on the now and the good and what I can do. It might not always be with a smile but it will get done. With a bottle glass of wine on the side. :)

So yeah, the move and Europe…the two things up with me. What's up with you?

linking up with Jess for confessions and Kristin for whatsnewwithyou

&with  Natalie & Kristin

C U R R E N T L Y

Had to post this funny picture from the going away party. Center of attention, just how I like it! :)

making: lists on lists on lists. packing for Europe lists. packing up the apartment lists. LISTSEVERYWHERE!

wishlisting: ummm, a house? I guess? right now everything is do, do, do [haha, doodoo] so I don't have much time for wish listing. I guess I wish someone else would show up to pack up our apartment. and I wish for a magic portal to get to Europe because I would rather not fly.

cleaning: everywhere and everything. we move out in 11 days. ELEVEN! #somuchtodo

feeling: excited, scared, nervous, happy, stressed, sad, reminiscient, joyful...yup all the FEELS!

loving: my daily workouts and sweat sessions. seriously, they have been a god send with everything going on in life right now. I love only having to focus on the workout I'm doing and keeping up with the fast dude in my sports conditioning class. when I'm sweating my brain isn't turning and I always feel so much better leaving the gym.

posting: random stuff. I have a few post of feelings in draft and am trying to make sure I get good content out to y'all. in all honestly I feel like my blog has hit kind of a wall and interest is waning. trying to finish up some posts for when I'm away and figuring out what I want to do with guest posts and when I want to try and pop in with some adventures of our trip.

tasting: nothing. I mean, I'm eating but right now food is fuel and I've been horrible about making deliciously healthy meals. I have been tasty lots of bad for me food with all the celebrations going on, hoping to be tasting lots of salads in the coming days.

praying: everything gets done on time and everything comes together correctly. so many balls are in the air right now and I am so scared I'm going to drop a huge one causing the dominios to all fall down. oh and praying for save travels on all our flights [eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek] and for everything to run smoothly while we are in another country.

hoping: launch goes fantastically next Tuesday. I am super pumped about Release97 and can't wait to team teach with another fabulous instructor. the sissys, friends and Le Husband will be in attendance and I really want to crush it since it will be my last launch with this gym.

What's c u r r e n t l y going on with you?

linking up here, here and here. 

Talk {Back} to Me Tuesday

Morning, friends. I hope you're doing well. If you couldn't tell yesterday, I'm a bit behind on life right now. The weekend was so wonderful but so busy and work was all kinds of ridiculous on Monday. I almost went dark today, but didn't want to leave y'all hanging without a lil note of explanation. 

I thought that TODAY y'all could do the talking for or to me. Today is your chance to ask me anything in the comments and I promise to do my best to answer them truthfully [unless they are a bit too personal, haha]. I'll either pull the answer together before our vacation or use it as a post while I'm away. 

Before I leave, I want to leave a lil inspiration for your day. Make it a great one, loves :)!

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Good-Bye To Yoooooouuuuu {Weekend in Review}

Oh my land, what a weekend. I don't think we could have packed anything else into that past few days if we had tried. Here we are in April and the month of our trip and it all feels so surreal. Each day is another small small step forward to our destination.

I had hoped Friday would be an easy day to get ahead for Saturday but the work gods were not in my favor. It was small fire after small fire after HUGE ISSUE and I felt so behind when I left work an hour later than planned. Both Le Husband and I had rough days and we decided homemade pizza was just the ticket. It was quite delicious and gave me a bit of pep in my step to finish up the party prep before passing out for the night.

Saturday I slept in a bit and then hit the ground running. There was packing up of bins, finishing up party food prep at the apartment, another purge, no food eaten and then it was off to my parents house. They were such champs letting me host the party at their home on such short notice and it ended up being the best thing in the word. The weather held out and everyone pulled together to get everything whipped up before the guests started to arrive.

I was almost a complete blogger fail before and during the party because I took two pictures. Luckily my sissys, mostly BABYSPICE, snapped some pictures for me to share. Even though this was an informal and thrown together quickly party I still tried to go all out on the snacks. We had lots of chips and dip, veggie tray, hummus, cooked to order burgers with fixins, brats, cuban chicken, broccoli slaw, chicken tenders, macaroni and cheese, tater tots, cookies, cheesecake bites and of course cupcakes. I mentioned the cupcakes I wanted to make here and randomly they were peanut butter which was NOT what I was expecting. I decided to bake regular chocolate cupcakes and then made the icing sans peanut butter. Pretty sure they were fabulous because none were left with at the end of the night. I snatched one of the last ones, heehee!

Sportypsice was so sweet and picked up some beautiful flowers for decor and Babyspice snapped these lovely pictures. They added just the perfect touch to the party. #lovemesomeflowers #smalltouchesmakeallthedifference 

Our first order of business Satruday afternoon when I showed up to help set up was to pop the champs. It was a day of celebration and I wanted to share a bottle with my best gals. There were five bottles still left and we went through them ALL plus one brought as a gift. You could say the champagne sangria was a hit, haha. #loveourdinosaurglasses

The original recipe I chose ended up being kind of a dud, so I was in quite a panic Friday night trying to come up with a plan B. Can I grateful I am for mr google? He brought me to this recipe and after a lil tweaking [added different fruits and some grapefruit juice with the orange juice]. Yum, I want another glass right now. 

While the food was wonderful, the true star of the party was all the love felt by those who came to send us off into the sunset. I was completely floored by the turn out of our friends from all our different groups [over 40+ people] and so thankful the weather held up. We had our kickball friends, my work friends, soccer friends, family friends, neighbor friends and few friends I've known for 20+ years. I wish I had been able to spend more time with everyone but it's always hard make the rounds when your the hostess. I will be forever grateful to Babyspice for being the photographer and making sure I got a picture taken with everyone in attendance. Yup, she installed a 'you can't leave without a picture rule' and it was quite fabulous. Surprisingly I held it all together and didn't blubber at all. I had one or two moments where I teetered on the edge of bawling but managed to hold it all together. #keepittogetherman

The party started at 5pm and the last guest left around 11pm and we still had a little clean up to do. It was an exaushting day of being on our feet however it was oh so worth it. I am incredibly blessed to have this life and SO THANKFUL for my wonderful family. We threw this all together in seven days and they were all rockstars helping out any way possible. Hugs were very long and tight at the end of the night as the realization of the coming months arose but again, we were all able to keep the tears at bay. I couldn't ask for a better family and am so grateful for them. #bradybunchforlife

My heart is so full!

Sunday morning came too early and we jumped right into the swing of things. It was church, home to pack up more boxes and the car, a fun pedicure with the ladies before another stop at the storage unit. Let me tell you HOW much my feet appreciated the massage, heaven sent I tell you. The company was quite wonderful too. #pinkforsummer

I made it back home and just fell onto the couch in our mess of an apartment. The days are beginning to feel the same, so much work done but so little reward shown in the home. I know every step counts but I'm started to get anxious it all won't get done without multiple sleepless nights. Neither Le Husband or I wanted to cook so we headed out to our favorite Mexican joint for a delicious but predictable dinner of fajitas and margs. 

After dinner we came home and went right back to packing up and finishing up our trip plans. It seems that Germany is not going to work out so it's on to northern Italy [we think]. I also laid out most of what I want to pack for the trip and am HOPING to get it finalized this week. Did I mention I was trying to make it in a carry on? No, well yeah, we are gonna try. Which reminds me, it's time to get off here and finish up some more stuff. Can I get a PTL for no more 6am class? I don't think I'd make it tomorrow if I had to teach, I am so wiped out mentally and physically.

OH, before I go, one more good piece of news…I GET TO KEEP MY JOB FOR TWO WEEKS AFTER THE TRIP!!!!! WOOOOOFREAKINGHOOOOOOO! I am so thankful everything ended up working out the way I envisioned and I am SO GRATEFUL my boss ended up working with our schedule. Our moving date has changed to June but that is okay, I am 100% thrilled with the extra few pay checks. THANK YOU ALL for your prayers and good vibes, I so appreciate them.

Hope you have a FABULOUS Monday! <3 p="">
Linking up with these ladies

Once Sentence A Day and APRIL FOOLS!

Good morning, ladies. I am struggling this week with the late nights and busy bee days. I didn't get home for dinner until 8:45p last night so putting together a Friday post was not happening. Thankfully I have this post to share today on the first of the month, woohoo! It's fun to look back on each day in sentence form, thanks to Rebecca for this idea.

1. So freaking happy for my first day off from the gym in eight days.

2. I hope my car estimate isn't more than I expect.

3. Holy cow my big reveal post goes live today!

4. UGH, so mad our delayed flight made us miss picking up our nephew from school.

5. Kids.are.too.much.work! #butohsodarlingadorablewhentheysleep

6. Thank goodness our flight was short and smooth.

7. 5am is soooooooooooooooooooooooooo early!

8.WOW, it feels so good to run and win in sports conditioning class.

9. I am so going to miss the city life when we move because walking to a trendy restaurant with Le Husband to dinner tonight was sooooooooo wonderful and fantastical. #iateonepointthreepoundsofshortrib

10. How in the world am I going to pack for our trip, pack my soccer bag for Sunday, pack my bag for Monday's class, pack my bag for the gym on Friday and prep lunch all before 10pm?

11. Dear travel gods, please be good to us.

12. What a beautiful day for hiking and watching baseball. #lovespring

13. I am truly sad about playing my last indoor soccer game at the Sportsplex. #ontobiggerthings

14. Good gravy, DST makes 5am come a lot faster than normal.

15. Mahi-Mahi might be one of my favorite fish for dinner.

16. EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK, I HATE THE SOUND OF THE DRILL AT THE DENTIST!

17. So happy we finally had our sissy meet up at dinner.

18. Oh my gosh, I miss going out with the girls and dancing to awesome music. #tobeyoungagain

19. Did not eat enough food today, nope I did not.

20. Holy week begins today, Hosanna in the HIGHEST!

21. Egad, 5am will never stop feel too early.

22. Incredibly mad I missed my sports conditioning class, but so glad I reached a new high squatting and received a compliment on my pullups. #betterthan60percentofthemen

23. I love catching up with the sissys, friends while drinking sangria.

24. Felt like doodoo while teaching but Le Husband said I rocked it. #heneverliesthankgoodness

25. Today's Friday...but Sunday's coming.

26. Why in the world did I NOT check the weather before biking into DC? #popsciclepartyoftwo

27. Christ is Risen, He is Risen indeed.

28. Last 6am BODYPUMP class, so many mixed feelings. #nomoreearlymornings

29. Need.more.sleep...late night storage runs are killing me.

30. Feeling fresh after getting my hair did.

31. Tomorrow is April which means BIRTHDAY and VACATION MONTH is HEEEERRREE!!!

I also thought I'd share some funnies since today is April Fools. If you get tricked I hope it's done kindly and isn't anything awful. I'm sharing only pranks I myself would find funny. #bekindtoyourfriends #heeheehaahaa

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Hope you have a GREAT day and fabulous weekend! < 3