Friday never felt so good.

My sister in love said it best, sometimes I just don't have enough brain power for a long blog post. She said that on a Monday, yet I'm saying it on a Friday. Regardless, I'm sleepy, and a list format blog post is what you're getting today, folks. Here's a little look into my week!

-Free Redbox...and ice cream. I never say no to dessert.

-Finally using that crock pot again. Spent Thursday night prepping and loved every second.

-Girls night with a little lady who feels like a sister {bonus points for those that realize thats in our DIY mirror}.

-This hilarious picture had me dying in the late hours of the night one evening. #truth

-We got some extremely good news yesterday about one of our favorite little girls! Her health is significantly improving {long story short - she has a hole in her heart that looks to be healing on its own}...this is Nora's little sister, Charlotte. Is she not the cutest?!

We get to babysit them next week for an evening and we literally can't wait. If that last picture doesn't send you into your weekend smiling...you may be a crazy person. Enjoy, friends!

Wednesday night adventures

I can't tell you how many awesome things happened this week... but probably the highlight? Doing our first HUGE Jungle Jim's grocery-shopping trip together. We go there all the time for odds and ends and on random Friday nights, but have never done a full trip. It was awesome...and we didn't spend nearly as much as we thought we would! Before that though, we went to a cute little local diner that we'd never been too for some grub.

{Funny story}...right when I got home Caleb said he'd cook up some pork chops. He used an old cast iron skillet my grandma gave me (its amazing) and a bunch of random seasonings. Well, the chops were abnormally thick, like...it was weird. Then he starts complaining about how the fan above the stove doesn't actually suck in any smoke and just blows air around. All of a sudden, like clockwork, there goes our fire alarm... SERIOUSLY?! It took us about 5 minutes to get it to turn off...and he said "Forget this, we're going out.".... I've never loved you more, babe. Just kidding, but this gal does love weeknight dinner dates. So anyway, we ended up at a cute diner, then grocery shopping for about 2 hours. It was the perfect Wednesday night.

Pretty much everyone needs a Jungle Jim's in their town. It truly makes grocery shopping more fun. It's seriously an adventure, every time we go in!

I'm also really excited to say we bought a TON of food for a meal plan I've been working on! I plan on taking full advantage of my crock pot in the next couple weeks!

Smile, friends!!! It's almost the weekend!

From drab to fab! {a fun project}

 Caleb saw a really cool color of spray paint while we were out last weekend and told me we should get it...I say, sure why not?! We had no idea what we were going to do that evening and we quickly decided it should be a DIY night-in! So, we bought ourselves some canvas' and paint, then stopped by a cute consignment shop and Caleb found a really neat mirror (he's got a good eye!)...there was no price tag on it and I assumed it would be nearly $50. Turns out, it was $17. You bet we snagged that beauty up and decided THAT'S what we would use the spray paint for. So we made a quick trip to Michael's for painters tape, etc...and had ourselves a ball all evening.

We obviously didn't want to get spray paint on the mirror, so we had to get the tape up underneath the framing, and cover the entire mirror. Luckily, that didn't take too long and we were able to put a few coats on within an hour.

It turned out so, so amazing. We're really excited about it. Ignore the awful two toned lighting that came through on my camera -- but the mirror is awesome, huge, and we LOVE the color!

By the time we got this finished, it was pretty late...so we know we're looking a bit rough, but we couldn't help but snag a mirror picture ;) #cliche

We really want to try and make this tiny space of ours FEEL like home in the next coming months, and I'm excited for the challenge. Have you ever done a DIY that was surprisingly simple? I'd love to hear about it!!

Our thrifty weekend.

Friday night was so fun. I went to a ladies night/dinner party with some friends and had a blast. It's always good to spend time with those you don't get to see often....and we had such a fun time catching up, that the only picture I got was of the delicious cupcakes! Whoops! ;)

Saturday, Caleb and I had NO plans. I won't ever get sick of saying that! We slept in, watched entirely too much American Ninja Warrior, and hit some random stores to see where the day would take us. We went to one of our favorite little hidden gems; The Peppermint Pig. It's a tiny, adorable thrift shop. They have pet adoptions on Saturday's, enough old school records to last you 10 years, random little trinkets, and everything in between. I scored this adorable jewelry dish for 75 cents!

Ignore my horrific nails!

We had ourselves a date-night in with a bunch of paint, some canvas, and lots of creativity. Both of ours turned out to be epic failures so we literally threw them out, ha! BUT we're going to have paint night 2.0 soon, so don't fret ;) BUT we did do a "DIY" that was extremely successful (post on that to come!)... and we're so excited about it! Can't wait to show you guys!!

Sunday consisted of teaching the little ones at church...our church is having a secret project and asking our members to all take a selfie and hashtag it with #connectselfie (our church is called Connect Christian Church), so Caleb had the brilliant idea to take one with the kids that morning! See if you can spot me in the back...I know, I kind of blend in.

After church we had way too much chips & salsa...watched two movies, and more HGTV was watched. It's becoming a problem ;) hope your weekend was awesome!!

mexican food + family = magical

Last night was so good for my soul. I had some of my favorite people over. Everyone brought a "dish" and we celebrated my grandpa's birthday. He's such a great guy and its awesome when we are able to all get together! Even better when Mexican food is involved... & oh my word you guys, my favorite chips in the world were on sale yesterday, so you know I and to snag a bag (or two).

We played around with my new Polaroid. It was a crack up hearing my little cousin tell my uncle "how cool these were!" and my uncles response? "Dude, you don't even know!", haha! It's so neat that Polaroids used to be the "main source" for taking photos. I think its cool that I'll have these little snapshots to keep forever.

Yes, my grandpa is wearing an "Air Jordan" shirt, and YES we didn't have real candles so we made him blow out a 3-wick candle juuuust in front of his cake ;) we keep it classy.

I challenge you this next month to spend a little extra time with those you love, especially your grandparents. I know I'm one of the lucky ones, my grandparents live within a few miles, but still. Making these plans is such a blast and spending extra time with family is something I'll never regret. I hope you guys have a fun filled weekend planned! Enjoy! ;)

Extra hugs today!

I got a scary phone call yesterday at work. My brother asked if I had a few minutes to talk and sounded pretty serious... he never does this, so of course I was a little worried. Thankfully everything, and everyone, was okay...but he got in a car accident while leaving school. Someone driving on the main road was going nearly 50mph in a school zone and hit him on his front drivers side as he left the parking lot. They both, somehow, walked away without a scratch.

Even though he was alright, this overwhelming feeling came over me for the rest of the afternoon... I can't imagine if that wreck had gone another way. It just made me want to squeeze ALL my loved ones at once and tell them all how much I love them! Fortunately tonight, we happened to be having everyone over to finally celebrate my grandpa's birthday and the timing couldn't be more perfect. I'm excited to make dinner -- we're having a huge taco bar, with homemade guac, chips + salsa, and spanish rice! That's my kinda night!

Spending time with my family is so important, and I'm really lucky to be so close with them.

I'm just thankful its a day closer to Friday! Have a great Thursday!

I didn't get a long weekend, but...

...yesterday was so slow at work, so the day was so easy! Half the office took a vacation day to extend their weekend, so the few of us that were there just took it easy! I did some grocery shopping on my lunch break, and tried to resist all the donuts in the break room.

Like I said on my instagram yesterday, I'm the first to admit that Caleb and I haven't put God as our first priority every single day of our marriage. It's so easy to get caught up in the everyday stresses of life and forget to pray together, and really TALK together about important, deep topics. So when he showed up while I cooked dinner (aka- boiling all beef hot dogs) with this sweet surprise, I was so excited. We said we'd start it soon, but little did I know that same night we would read 41 pages of it together. By the end of it, I was already feeling insanely challenged in our marriage. It forced us to talk about things we'd never really talked about before...and it kind of made me giddy. Having a "new" topic of conversation with my husband? I can't explain the happiness it brought me.

Rewind a couple days - our weekend was super low key. I had a sleepover with the ladies of the youth group and we sang our lungs out for hours, and they finally got me to watch Divergent. I was pleasantly surprised by it! Then the next afternoon, we celebrated our favorite 4 year old for her birthday party! I can't even express how much I love this little gal. Unfortunately, the party was so "busy", we didn't get our turn with her sweet little (nearly 3 month old) sister, Charlotte...so I guess that just means we have to go back soon for extra snuggles!! ;) 

I hope you guys all had a great weekend! Do anything fun?

End of week brain dump!

I had a consultation the other night, and it was via Google Hangout since the couple was in two different parts of the country. It wasn't until I saw myself on the computer screen that I realized how long my hair is getting! Say whaaat?! I'm normally a short-hair gal all the way, but the other day I took a look at my 25 before 25 list and saw that "donate my hair" was on it. Figured I may as well keep growing it, then!

I finally purchased a magnet board for our fridge. We've been talking about buying one since we got married, and I found one at Target for $1.50... WOO! I've decided to use it (besides for groceries) for encouraging bible verses for us to remember throughout our week.

We watched my glorious state of Ohio ring in a Championship on Monday night!!! & I got to use my Polaroid for the first time. #addicted. Caleb also may or may not have used his hard earned pay pal money to purchase us Championship tee's, ha!

Yesterday was a good day. I got to wear my adorable new necklace, wear lipstick (while still wearing khakis), and surprise a best friend. What a Thursday!

This has been my mom and I all week (she started a new job, yay)! She made some new friends... all they do is send silly pictures back and forth so I've been feeding her hilarious memes to help her out a bit...which means this has been us, all week.

...but NOTHING beats mail day yesterday. I told you a week or two ago that we paid off our smallest loan (my student account balance from my old college that I had to leave), and well, they finally sent my TRANSCRIPT!!!! :) This was a huge "accomplishment" for me. In no way, shape, or form can I manage time for school this year...but its exciting that my transcript is released and I can go back when the time is right!!!

I have overnight plans to hang with the ladies of the youth group tonight, a birthday party for our favorite 4 year old tomorrow, then a lot of relaxing the remainder of the weekend. I hope it goes by super slow! Enjoy it, friends!

Our omg-I-can't-stop smiling bridal shoot.

I've mentioned a few times, that Caleb and I were asked by some friends if we'd mind being photographed for a bridal shoot they had in mind. Um, free photos by amazing photographers? I'd have to be crazy to say no! I even got to get back in my dress! We knew we would have an amazing time, but what we didn't expect was to gain two amazing, genuine friends from this experience. I had met Reese + Renee before but Caleb hadn't, and the four of us had a blast all day like we were old friends.

We had no idea what to expect, as we're usually on the opposite side of the camera...but we had the best time, and the evening ended in happy, happy tears. I'll let the photos do most of the talking.

This cracked me up - I really did enjoy the pie, but for some reason, my face says the total opposite!

one of my absolute favorites!!

I love my silly man.

dance party!

This is one of my other favorites!

This is the moment I spoke about a few months ago. Reese + Renee asked us to wrap ourselves up in the blanket (it was COLD that evening), and to just be silent for a minute or two while we think about our favorite moments from our wedding day. Before they could even finish their sentence, I was already in tears. The sun was going down, it was insanely beautiful, and I was in the arms of the man I never thought I deserved. My emotions got the best of me, and I couldn't help myself. The floodgates were open. I know I'm getting sentimental, but if you know my story, you'd know that Caleb came into my life exactly when I needed him. He didn't judge me, he just accepted me and loved me for who I was. He came back into my life right as I was beginning my relationship with God and he's the best guy I could ever dreamt of, and I can truly say I'm one of the luckiest girls alive.

Words can't even begin to describe how much these photos mean to me. I knew the experience would be fun, but I didn't expect all the happy feelies that I'd get, and how much I'd learn.  We also didn't expect the friendship that blossomed from this experience, but we're so lucky to call the two of these some of our amazing friends, now. I can't thank them enough for these amazing photos we'll have for the rest of forever! Eek!

Have a great day!!!