Unannounced hiatus

Suprise! I'm back!

I decided to go on an unannounced hiatus during the time of Kyle's family needs. His grandfather passed away and we were very busy during that time. Right after that we went to Florida and though Kyle came back last Sunday my mom and I stayed until this past Saturday! I missed my furbabies and hubs like crazy but I got some much needed r&r! Being a stay at home wife it would seem like I never had much to do, however I think I work more now than I did before. Even if I'm not physically doing something my mind is constantly at work over what needs to be done, what I want to get done, and what seems too impossible to do. A full weeks worth of not doing anything but picking up after myself and the hardest decision I had to make was what to do for dinner was exactly what I needed. I thoroughly enjoyed hanging out with my mom as well, it's been long overdue.

My parents both went down to FL on August 13th and then my sister, nephew, husband, and I arrived on the 21st around 2AM. On the 24th my dad, sister, nephew, and Kyle all left. Jacob, my nephew, got to see the ocean for the first time and with him having an obsession with sharks you can only imagine his excitement. With all his knowledge of sharks and how they attack he didn't even want to put his toes in the water, he about had a stroke when I was waist deep.

Needless to say we spent most of our time at the pool meeting new friends.


















xoxo Haley

Road trip essentials

As our road trip to Florida with my family is less than two weeks away, what better time to make a packing list!



When packing you cannot forget the essentials for the road! My essentials:

One. Snacks.
I don't know what it is about roadtrips but I find it necessary to have plenty of munchies! Just when you think you've packed enough snacks, pack a few more...you'll thank me later.

Two. Blanket.
A road trip cannot be complete without a power nap in which calls for a blanket...and pillow!

Three. Tunes.
I'm sure many will agree that a road trip is not a road trip without a mixed tape. It's essential to have throwback tunes, Britney Spears or Backstreet boys anyone? You may want to consider headphones as well, who knows when you'll have a grumpy passenger that makes you turn your stereo down.

Four. Camera.
I find it highly important to capture your roadtrip adventure. You know, sneak a shot of the backseat passengers all passed out leaning on one another...you don't wanna miss that one for the scrapbook!

Five. Travel Apps.
Why? Because you may just need to know where the closest Starbucks is in order to refuel your energy, or you may need to know where the closest rest stop is to release yourself.

Now you're all set for your next road trip! What's your must haves when on the road?

xoxo Haley

Our Story Part 3: Engaged

If you haven't read the previous posts on how we met or when we dated you can find those here:
We Met
We Dated

September 9, 2012 Kyle and I were headed to the first Tennessee Titans home game of the season vs the New England Patriots. It started out as a normal day and this game, unlike most, we made good time on the road so we could tailgate. As we neared the exit to the stadium we ran into the game day traffic. I could tell Kyle was starting to getting antsy as there was no ease or gracefulness to his gas and break peddle. Several times I thought we were going to rear end the car in front of us or be rear ended. Naturally I start nagging due to the anxiety attack that was about to take over me head on.

Finally we got to the game. Before we got out Kyle asked, "can we have a serious conversation?" With this I knew I was about to be lectured on "don't drink too much", "behave yourself", etc.

Me, "no because I know what you're going to say"
Kyle, "oh do you now?"
Me (in a mimicking voice) "don't drink too much...behave..."
Kyle, "well that's not exactly it but yeah that too..."
Me, "okay proceed..."
Kyle, "you know this was this same place we had our first date so I thought this would be the best place to ask you, will you marry me?"



Out of no where I look down and see him holding this shiny diamond ring, all I could think was "when did he get this out of his pocket?"

Of course I said yes and in the midst of the "oh my gosh", "how long have you been planning this", "are you sure" etc. I finally stopped in my ohh's and aww's and looked at him and asked,

"Wait...did you ask for my dads permission?"
Kyle, "of course!"

I then proceeded with the ooh's and aww's. I called my mom and told her and she was overwhelmed with happiness. She told me she knew he was going to ask because Kyle had come over to her house and with his face white as a ghost asked if he could speak to my dad alone.

I called and told my sister and after we got off the phone I realized oh my gosh, it's her birthday and I didn't even wish her to have a happy one...she still jokes with me about that.

Later in the stadium we told all of our friends that sit in our section and everyone was so happy for us. One of my friends and I headed out to the concessions and while standing there none other than the real Hayden Penettierre walked past us. My friend yelled out "Hayden!" And she turned around and walked over to us. I practically word vomited "I just got engaged today!!!" and with that she grabbed my hand and told me I had a killer rock and ohh'd and awed over it and then she went on her way.

Then I had to plan the wedding...


xoxo Haley

Fruit Salad

Finding a good summertime side item that Kyle will actually eat is hard to come by. He's not big into vegetables unless it's sweet potatoes so dinner time come summertime is normally a one-pot-meal. My grandmother use to always make this amazing fruit salad and, to be completely honest, I totally forgot all about it. For Kyle's birthday party, yep the big 3-0, my mom decided to bring the fruit salad dish which only reunited me with my love for fruit salad. With my new found intolerances it's going to be quite some time before I can have it again, and when it's time I won't be able to use the regular "fruit cocktail" due to my severe peach intolerance. So meanwhile, before I have to go on a 9 week clean out, I decided I would try to enjoy the fruity goodness in all it's glory. Saturday we went to T's house, Kyle's best friend, and his girlfriend made dinner and I brought...you guessed it... fruit salad. It was actually the first time I had ever made it and once I did I realized it was just too easy and too yummy not to share, with my mom's permission of course! Without further adieu:

Unfortunately my lighting source was not willing to work with me for this picture.

Ingredients:

8oz Cool Whip (thawed)

1oz box of  sugar free vanilla jello pudding

15oz can of fruit cocktail* (in light syrup); drained

10.5oz can of mandarin oranges; drained

8oz can of pineapple tidbits** don't drain, you need the juice!



Directions:

Mix together pudding, mandarin oranges, fruit cocktail, and pineapple. If you want to put an embellishment on top be sure to place 4-5 mandarin orange slices to the side. Once fruit and pudding is stirred up fold in your cool whip and mix. Once it's good and mixed together smooth out the surface and place your mandarin oranges on top.



*the grocery was out of just regular ol' fruit cocktail so I used extra cherry mixed fruit instead-basically the same thing with...extra cherries

**the grocery was actually out of the tidbits at the time that I made this so I just substituted it with crushed.



As always, let me know if you try it out and what you think!


this post was a part of Mama Kat's Writer Workshop

10 Ways to Cool Off

It's that time of the year where we forget how cold the winter was and start heavily complaining about the harsh heat and sunburns. Never fear, I am here to tell you ten ways to cool down during these heated summer months.

Let's start by stating the obvious, shall we?

[one]

stay inside, duh

That's right. Beat the heat and go kick your feet up. Not quite ideal for me because I rather be outdoors during the summer because it's much easier to enjoy the beauty God created in the summer rather than everything that is dead in the winter. 

[two]

invest in this

This little jewel is what gets me through my days of gardening. It's a cooling towel, I purchased the Enduracool from Lowes, and it doesn't matter if you put hot or cold water on it... just give it a few snaps and BAM, it's cold. Kyle obviously has more than one of these for long days of mowing.

[three]

peppermint essential oil

Caution: please do not drink. Grab yourself a spray bottle, add some water, put a couple of drops of oil in it, and spray yourself! My mom and dad swear by this remedy. 

[four]

shower thyself

...with cold water! Kyle likes to take steamy showers regardless of the temperature outside. I, however, am prone to turning it icy cold and enjoying the sting on my skin after a long day of outdoor play.

[five]

spray yo'self before you burn yo'self

It's obviously a given that if you are playing outside one may want to apply sunscreen. However! This Sport CoolZone sunscreen by Banana Boat is quite delightful. It not only smells better than most sunscreens but it also is extremely cooling. Why not kill two birds with one stone? 

[six]

ice ice baby!

Sure, you can suck on an ice cube or two, but why not add a little flavor with some ice pops! Kyle keeps them in stock at home and on the job. 

[seven]

take a dip

 That's right, my friend. Put on your skimpies and take the plunge. A sure way to cool off...and get a little wet.
[eight]

hydration

 Drink yourself some water, friend. I love a nice cold glass of water when I have sweat rolling down my face. If you get a wild hair, cut up some lemon and cucumber and infuse your water. I absolutely love the refreshing taste of cucumber lemon water. Best part ladies: it helps with bloating... you're welcome.
[nine]

i-scream-you-scream

Treat yourself to some ice cream! ...or a fudge pop...or a yogurt pop... or whatever cold guilty pleasure that tickles your fancy!

[ten]

Make yourself a smoothie. Don't know how? No excuse, there's Pinterest for that, or Google.

Don't forget! Please apply deodorant, even if you have to have someone apply it for you. 

(This picture was taken on my wedding day, hence the dress and veil. I couldn't get the deodorant on without getting it on my dress so my sister kindly lend a hand.)

This post was inspired by the one and only Mama Kat and is a part of her Writer's Workshop. 

Fourth of July weekend

I know this post is coming a little late, however I haven't been feeling the greatest lately and I've had a thousand+one things going on. So! Happy Fourth of July!



We spent the fourth camping with my inlaws. We headed to Paris, Tn late Friday afternoon with the pups and put the boat in the water around 8pm to watch the firework display on the Paris Landing Bridge. After being on the water for a bit we decided to call it a night so we could try to pull off the water before everyone made it to the ramp, unfortunately we weren't the only one with this plan.



We spent the rest of the weekend relaxing at the camper and on the water. Saturday night the owner of Hidden Creek, the camp ground we were staying at, put on a firework show. Hands down possibly one of the best I've seen. After the show we all hung out and drank beer, which you can see in the pictures above my MIL and her friend were having a little too much fun. They wrapped eachother in caution tape while my MIL proceeded to ride my five year old niece's bike. Much laughter was involved and I thought a time or two I may just wet my pants from uncontrollable laughter.

xoxo Haley

Fourth of July wreath

Last Friday I wrote a post about my front door refresh. I mentioned that now my Fourth of July wreath actually stands out against the black rather than the hideous orangy-red.



You can see the door really does not do my wreath any justice. However now with a black door my wreath pops!



All hail the Fourth of July wreath. On a side note, the wreath wasn't the only thing effected by the hideous door. Last year we planted a crepe myrtle and as much as I wanted a pink one because the blooms are so gorgeous I ended up planting a white one because of the clash of red and pink. Yes, I may have been the only one to have taken note on such but it mattered to me.

Though this is probably the easiest wreath I've ever made it's one of my favorites possibly due to the simplicity.



Just cut the tulle to the length that you want it. Note that the shorter the length the fluffier it looks. My first attempt to a tulle wreath I wanted to make the tulle huge and fluffy like a tutu but unfortunately the tulle ended up falling over and looking a hot mess. Try to get all of your tulle pieces the same length but if it's a smidge off, it's not that big of a deal.


To attach the tulle simply make it into a U-shape and loop it around your foam wreath base. Normally I just try to get all of my tulle on and then I will position it and fluff it.

I did five pieces of white tulle then five red until the wreath was a full as I wanted it to be. Walmart carries foam sparkly letters for cheap so that's what I used to cut the corner on having to paint a wooden letter or even add sparkles. I just attached it with hot glue once I had all of my tulle situated.

Wah-lah! Now you have a cheap and easy Fourth of July wreath that you can use for Memorial Day, Labor Day, and whenever you feel like letting your USA pride shine on your front door! I recently came up with an idea for a wreath base for multiple holidays so once I buy the stuff for it I will make a more I depth tutorial on how to make it.

Have a safe and happy Fourth of July!

This post was inspired by Mama Kat's Writer's Workshop.
xoxo Haley

Summer reading

This week has been filled with rain but yesterday the summer showers held off while I went to help my dad with a catering in the concession trailer, which was a first for me.

Just recently my dad started doing concession trailer events. I thought I would never like anything more than regular caterings but with one concession trailer event under my belt it definitely wins out. For those who do not know much about catering events, I'll explain: the difference between a catering event and a concession trailer event is when you're catering the event coordinator normally pays in advance for whatever food we serve. We then set up a buffet style line and serve the plates for you, free of charge due to costs paid in advance. A concession trailer event consists normally of an event coordinator contacting us to bring out the trailer and food is made to order in which you pay for what you order. That's the short and skinny of it anyway.



After the event was over and everything was unloaded I headed to Books-A-Million on a quest to purchase The Stripper Diaries by Trisha Paytas. Unfortunately they didn't have it in stock so I set out to find an untraditional love story. I ended up coming by three: Taking Chances by Molly McAdams, One Tiny Lie by K.A. Tucker, and A Summer Affair by Elin Hilderbrand. I wanted to be reasonable and I finally narrowed it down to two in my shopping cart. Unfortunately One Tiny Lie didn't make the cut this time.

A Summer Affair was never in question as a purchase. It sparked my attention immediately thus meaning it will be the first of the two I read.

What are you reading this summer?
xoxo Haley

House refresh

The past two days I have been hard at it around the house. For months the ugly red door and shutters have been getting on my nerves. It wasn't just that it was red but it was that it was more orangy-red and it was hideous. At first the color wasn't bad when we bought the house but overtime the evening sun did it's damage to make it unbearable. It's kind of hard to see in the above picture which was a picture taken for the house listing.


Our brick has hints of black so there was never a large debate on what color to paint because I immediately knew I wanted to emphasize on the black. I also knew it would give such a refreshing look.





I am beyond happy with the way it turned out. The previous home owners painted the shutters without removing them from the house making the removal process 10x harder than it should have been. They painted over the screws and the screws were stripped out so we ended up having to remove half of the screws with pliers.


Once everything was dry I cringed at the thought of putting the old brassy hardware back on the door. I had Kyle just put the dead bolt on long enough for me to run to Lowes to grab new door hardware which ended up in me replacing all of the exterior door knobs.


I am so happy with how everything turned out and even more happy that now my Fourth of July wreath stands out. You'll get to see it in a later post!
xoxo Haley

Pretty little addiction

It's been a rainy summer day over here with dark clouds and heart jumping thunder. I completely went balls to the walls last week with house chores so today I just relaxed. What? A dark house, frightened dogs, and the sound of rain on the windows is the perfect equation for snuggling up on the couch and catching up with a few guilty pleasures.


Who wouldn't want to snuggle up with that little fur ball? It takes a lot for me to really get "into" a tv show. I have my regular obsessions like reruns of Smallville and drooling over Jax in Sons of Anarchy but really I would've never even got into those if it weren't for Kyle. A couple months ago we started a free trial, which is now a monthly billing, of Netflix. After posting on Facebook asking for a suggestion on what series to start I randomly chose one from the multiple suggestions thinking it would be a one hit wonder and not suck me in. I am almost ashamed to even admit it...


Yes, Pretty Little Liars. One show. That is all it took for me to become completely obsessed and finish a whole season in just a matter of days. After realizing my fix could only last so long without running out of episodes I put on the brakes. Here I am all caught up, as of today. I may start going into convulsions having to wait a full week between episodes. I may even have a panic attack when this season is over and I have to wait for the next season to come out.

As I'm writing this post on my front porch I notice the woman across the street has four inch, give or take, wedges on that she clearly cannot walk in. Random, but who am it to judge...I just confessed to having an unhealthy addiction to a teen drama television series.

What's your guilty pleasure in terms of a television show?
xoxo Haley

Repurposed Chandelier

Yesterday morning I had to get a move on things cause Koby had an appointment with the groomers on the other side of town. Unlike most appointments it was only an appointment for Koby, not Sophie, because with his poodle blood comes poodle maintenance.


I'm pretty sure he's smiling here. His ears were a little messed up from the air vents blowing on him but he was definitely feeling sassy.

Since I was on that side of town I decided to stop by Habitat for Humanity's Restore. If you have a H4H in your town but not a H4H Restore seriously contact them and ask them to put one in your town. If enough interest is shown they may do it! It's like a Goodwill (thrift store) but it's more for house stuff. When people remodel homes or have excess tile, carpeting, etc it all comes here. Anyways since I'm not getting paid to brag about their amazingness and I could go on and on about my love for this place, I'll move on to the subject at hand.



I've been trying to tone down my thrifting lately because I've been needing to have a garage sale of stuff I no longer use/need/want and I want to clean out not pile up. So though I passed up some incredibly cheap floating shelves I did, however, purchase a hideous gold chandelier. Which I seriously need to get better about taking before and after pictures.


I first removed the glass sconces and removed the light bulb attachment so I could have more room for soil. I then placed the sconces back and added a pinch of dirt.




I then added a shake or two of Osmocote, which you can purchase online, Walmart, or Lowes. I swear by this stuff because it feeds your plants for 4 months and it always makes plants grow wonderfully.

I then planted my asparagus ferns and finished them off with soil. Lowes had actually put a ton of their ferns on clearance for only $1.00 making this project, not including soil or food, only $15.00!! I am so happy with the way it turned out.

Have you repurposed something for your garden?
xoxo Haley

Handing out free smiles

It's that time again for Mama Kat's Writer's Workshop! After arguing with myself on which prompt I really wanted to take on this week I finally slimmed it down to:
List 7 things you'd rather be doing this summer.

Though I could go on and on about how I really rather be spending more time with my husband and doing all sorts of random vacations which I kind of um...have... my number one thing I wanted to do this summer isn't going to make it on this summers playlist. Really my whole list of seven stems from this one.



one
I have always wanted to take a missions trip since I was much younger and I opened my church's weekly bulletin and saw a list of all the mission trips that were available for sign up that summer. It ranged from South America locations to Central America locations and even locations in the States. The only opportunites I was apart of was church camp and vacation bible school, which I'm still grateful for. I thought my opportunity to help save the world was long lost for me being that I moved away and I didn't find any more opportunites.


Then I met my small group from church which has a wonderful couple who have visited Honduras several times. Hope restored. After long talks within the group we decided we would be taking a trip however it fell short this summer and won't be happening until later this year or next.


two
Instead of sitting here drinking my coffee on my new outdoor couch with my feet propped up on an ottoman and writing this blog post I rather be spreading hope.


three
I rather be learning and leading. Learning about lives that are much less fortunate than mine. Leading these lives to Christ and to know there will always be someone there for them.


four
I rather be sharing the love of my Heavenly Father. Sharing the good news of His son that was sent here to die for our sins so that we could have an everlasting life.


five
I rather be helping orphanages with everyday chores to help take the load off. I rather be cooking and cleaning for someone else that needs the help.


six
I rather be handing out free smiles to those who have not genuinely smiled in days, weeks, and even months.


seven
I rather be taking all that I have experienced on my missions trip to be more grateful for everything I have been blessed with.

What would you rather be doing this summer?

xoxo Haley

*all images provided via google images