Thursday, October 31, 2013

Happy Halloween!

Admiral was THRILLED about putting on a costume this morning, can you tell?



We are spending our Halloween night passing out candy to trick-or-treaters and eating pizza.  What are you doing for Halloween?

Wednesday, October 30, 2013

The Blogger's Digest (Link Up)

Hi everyone, welcome to another week of The Blogger's Digest!

The Blogger's Digest is a social blog hop to connect with other bloggers, share what you've been up to recently and link up your social media accounts!

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  1. Ericka from This Crazy Thing Called Life 
  2. Poekitten from Many Waters 
  3. Mary Leigh from Thrift for Today 
  4. Amanda from Happily Ever After 
  5. Nancy from My Little Criatura 
  6. Keren from Fabulous Farm Living 
  7. Shannon from Mamamusing 
If you are interested in co-hosting, please contact Jessica at piganddac {at} live {dot} com.
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  1. Easy DIY Halloween Ideas - Petite Raisin
  2. How To Take a Good Picture of Your Baby in a Pumpkin - Crafty Chelsea
  3. Bacon & Cheese Breakfast Biscuits - My Little Criatura
  4. Create a Vision Board - Young Mommy Memoirs
  5. The Best Stroller I Have Ever Owned - Young Texan Mama
Let's get this party started! 
  • Follow your host and co-hosts on at least one social media platform - we all follow back!
  • Submit a post from your blog.
  • Share your social media links {Bloglovin, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, & Instagram}
  • Connect with other bloggers and follow those who follow you!
  • If you "like" someone's Facebook page, leave them a message with the link to your page if you'd like a follow back, otherwise they won't be able to find your blog's page.
  • Link back to the blog hop in whatever way you feel most comfortable - the more people who join along, the better for all of us!
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Tuesday, October 29, 2013

The Scariest Thing

Since Halloween is coming up in a couple of days, I thought I’d do a fun post I saw on Ashley’s blog (Cup of Ash Tea) the other day.  It’s kind of a “get to you know” survey, but with a scary twist for Halloween.

Scariest real life experience?
I'm not sure what my scariest real life experience would be.  I guess I should be thankful that I can't think of one!  

Scariest paranormal experience?
I've never really had a paranormal experience.  Although, one night a couple months ago, my husband woke me up in the middle of the night and asked me if I had turned our living room light on.  I of course said, no and he swore he turned it off before he came to bed.  The light that was on was our ceiling fan light, which has a remote we use to turn it on and off.  He thinks it was a ghost (he watches too many ghost shows on TV) and I think it was just a short in the electrical or something like that, but who knows!

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Have you ever known anyone convicted of a violent crime?
Unfortunately, yes.

Are you afraid of the dark?
Not really.  If I was alone in the dark woods then I probably would be afraid of the dark.  But I’m not afraid to be at home in the dark.

Does your hometown have any scary stories or legends?
Actually, yes!  My hometown has a lighthouse (White River Light Station) that has been known to be haunted.  It even made the list of the Top 15 Haunted Houses on Coastal Living’s site.  You can read about it here.

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What is your favorite Urban Legend?
I don't have a "favorite" because I don't really like Urban Legends, but a scary one I remember hearing was about the kid that would hang is hand over his bed at night and his dog would lick it before he went to sleep...and then one night it wasn't the dog licking his hand, it was a person.  Scary.  I don't like it, I don't know why I shared it, but it was the first thing that popped in my head!

What is your scariest nightmare?
I used to always have a nightmare that my sister and I were in the car at the gas station, and while my mom was pumping gas, someone stole us.  I used to have it all the time when I was younger for some reason.  I don't have it any more, but it used to scare me!

What is your scariest experience?  Is it real life, paranormal, a nightmare, etc?

Monday, October 28, 2013

I Survived...

I survived my first 5k on Saturday!  I realize this is not a big deal to some people, but it was to me.  I'm not a runner by any means, and I've never done any type of race.  It was cold (45 degrees) and rainy when I got up on Saturday morning and I was worried about what the race would be like in that weather.  The race started at 9:00 a.m. and by about 8:15 a.m. the rain stopped!  It was still cold and windy, but it actually wasn't bad once we started running.



I only walked for about 20 seconds during the race, so I was really proud of myself for that!  My finish time was 33:36 and I finished 29th out of 49 women in my age group.  I really enjoyed running the race and I'm pretty sure I'll be signing up for another one in the spring!  Thank you all of your sweet words on here and Twitter over the weekend, it meant a lot :)

After the race on Saturday my friend Kristen came over and we went shopping and then hung out my house drinking wine and catching up.  I also used my new vacuum for the first time and I LOVED it!  I only used it real quick, but I'm hoping to try out all of the features soon so I can find out all that it can do.


On Sunday Kevin, myself, and Admiral got ready and we went and had some fall pictures taken.  The girl that did our wedding photos took these and I can't wait to see how they turned out!  I'll be sure to share them once I get them back.

Happy Monday!




Sami's Shenanigans

Friday, October 25, 2013

5 on Friday

TGIF!  Time for another fun 5 on Friday link up!

ONE.  Tomorrow is my first 5K race!  It's supposed to be cold (high in the 40s) and rainy, so I'm not looking forward to the weather, but I am excited about my first race.


TWO.  Besides the race, we don't really have any set plans this weekend and I am soooo looking forward to that.  If it doesn't rain, we need to do a leaf pickup in our yard again.  I also plan on cleaning/organizing in our house this weekend.

THREE.  Speaking of organizing, do you follow Jen's I Heart Organizing blog?  If not you need to.  I'm obsessed with every single post she writes.  It totally motivates me to get my house organized.  And she organizes with style and functionality.  Check out her blog here.

FOUR.  Next Thursday is Halloween and we don't have pumpkins yet!  I think that will be on our list for this weekend...getting pumpkins and carving them.  We aren't going to any Halloween parties, but we will be passing out candy to all of the trick-or-treaters on Halloween night (that reminds me, I need to buy lots of candy).  What are you doing for Halloween?

Our pumpkins from last year...mine is the skull and Kevin's is the batman symbol.
FIVE.  I made Chicken Tacquitos for dinner the other night (see pin below for link to recipe) and they turned out pretty good.   I made them a little differently than the recipe, but they still turned yummy!  They were super easy, so try them. Warning: some oil did splash up and hit my eye lid when I was frying them, which was painful...so just be careful when you do that part ;)



Hope you have a great weekend!!

Thursday, October 24, 2013

Tennessee Trip Recap

Last week I went to Tennessee to visit my sister (Ashley).  She's been living in Tennessee for a little over a year now and she is a Kindergarten teacher there.  My parents were planning on going down to visit, so I decided to tag along.  

It was a long, ten hour drive to get there, but we made it there Tuesday night.  We were tired from the drive, so we just hung out at Ashley's apartment on Tuesday night.  I played with her dog, Lambert.  He is a 6 month old Great Pyrenees and he is a giant.  This boy is 65 lbs and only 6 months old.  And he is a total sweet heart.


It was raining on Wednesday, so we drove around the the town she lives in and saw the school where she teaches and some other places.  Then we stopped at a Flea Market to pass some time.  There were a few things I liked, but I didn't end up buying anything.


We went to lunch at a place called Cheddar's and I had the BEST fish tacos I've ever had.  They were delicious.


My sister made dinner for us on Wednesday night and we hung out at her apartment and watched the Tigers baseball game.

Thursday was Nashville day!  Nashville is about 40 minutes from where my sister lives, so we spent a day there checking everything out.  We started at the Grand Ole Opry House.  I definitely recommend taking the guided tour there, totally worth the $19 per person.  It was a great tour and so fun to see "behind the scenes."









Rey (sister's boyfriend), Ashley (sister), Dad, Mom, and Me
After the Grand Ole Opry, we headed to downtown Nashville for lunch then headed to the Country Music Hall of Fame.  We got there just before 4:00 p.m. and it closed at 5:00 p.m. (I don't understand why it closed so early on a weeknight, but whatever).  So we had to make it a fairly quick trip.  It was fun to see all of the history and neat items they had, but I wasn't overly impressed.  I'm really glad we went, but I liked the Grand Ole Opry House better.












After the Country Music Hall of Fame, we headed to some of the bars on Broadway for some drinks and live music.  I LOVED the live music at the bars.  I could have stayed there all night!  We went to Legends, The Second Fiddle, and The Stage.  The band at The Second Fiddle was my favorite.



Friday was our last day in Tennesse.  My mom, sister (and Lambert), and I got up and went to Dunbar Cave so I could run.  They have trails/paths there, and I wanted to get a run in at least once while we were gone since I'm running my first 5K on Saturday.  We started walking toward the trail and I see this sign:


WHAT?!?  I was not thrilled about all of the snakes that I might see during my run on the trail, so I stuck to the paved path area and didn't see any snakes, thankfully.  I enjoyed a little relaxation time Friday afternoon with Lambert...

On the couch with me.
On the chair with my dad.
Friday night we ordered pizza for dinner and then headed out to some local bars.  We played pool, darts, sang karokee, drank $1.50 PBRs, and had too many Fireball shots.  It was a good way to end our trip to Tennesse.


Saturday morning my parents and I packed up and we started our 10 hour drive back to Michigan.  I had a great time and was happy to spend some time with my sister, but I was also glad to be back home and sleep in my own bed.

Have you ever been to Tennessee?  What were some of your favorite things you did while you were there?