My How Time Flies

I can't believe it has been over a week since I have posted, but somehow the time just seems to slip away from me ever so quickly! Last weekend was absolutely wonderful visiting with my whole family and Michael, who all happened to be in the area until Tuesday of this week! We spent time playing scrabble (unfortunately my fiance' is a teeny bit ahead of me in the wins to losses ratio), chatting by the fire, cooking and laughing as we lingered over delicious dinners (which included fresh vegetables we picked ourselves from an organic farm), golfing (we could not have been blessed with a prettier day), and lastly, taking our engagement pictures!! Though our time was limited because the boys had to be in the woods by a certain time to hunt, I think the pictures turned out quite lovely and it made me that much more excited to marry the love of my life! Here is a sneek peek below of our pictures that were taken on the farm we will wed at in May next year! Hope your weekend is full of candy, football and time spent with loved ones :)

Weekend Necessities!

Getting to ride sweet Bug with a friend of mine,



PLUS

Getting to hang out at this house with my wonderful family and fiance,






PLUS


Getting to sit (we have rocking chairs, so we will be rockin' away) out by a fire pit, enjoying this
40 degree weather

EQUALS

One extremely fun, relaxing fall weekend!

Bookworm Wednesday

Can I just say, getting a card, gift, or just an un-expected treat in the mail is just such a thrill! My mailbox is typically full of bills, credit card company mumbo jumbo, or coupons for the randomest items I have no use for, so when I get a sweet card or little trinket in the mail it is the highlight of my day!

The nice mail man hand delivered this little number to me today and I was one happy bookworm! I ordered this off Amazon, which has become my new route for buying books. I just really appreciate how I can buy a used, good condition, hard back book for $5 and pay $4 in shipping, which allows me to purchase the book for less than half the original price! I typically do ground shipping (unless I am in literary angst), which can take up to two weeks to come, but mine have always arrived in less than one week! Great customer service if you ask me!

Summer Rental, by Mary Kay Andrews is my book of choice at the moment! I know it isn't Summer and I know this isn't the most mind enhancing read, but hey, it's what my heart desires right now and that's that :) I feel as if all the books I have read recently have either been emotionally draining (I'm really sensitive to the characters I read about and feel their hurt/losses) or somewhat morbid and I'm in need of something cheery, light and fun! I have all of Mary Kay Andrews books thus far and I figured I should add this one to my shelf! She tends to write a lot about the South and love, which happen to be two of my most favorite things, so I'm sure I won't be disappointed!

Hope this Wednesday finds you joyful and happy!

Fall Necessities Continued...

I realized I left off a few fall necessities from Friday's list and wanted to share them with you!
This time of year I LOVE soups and roasts; basically anything warm, cozy and hearty! I also LOVE to use my crock pot! I can have this delicious meal preparing for me during the day while Im at work and then get to walk in the door to a scrumptious aroma of a dinner that is ready to be gobbled up by yours truly! If you have not yet heard of this web site, http://www.skinnycrockpot.com/, then I insist that you must! A good friend of mine recommended it to me and I have been a fan ever since! If you're like me and find it hard to stand on your feet after work and cook a meal, this is the remedy for that problem! Delicious meals that are healthy and basically cooked for you, makes me one happy, satisfied girl :)


This particular pork stew is a recipe I am trying out for dinner tonight! From the looks of it, I won't be disappointed!

Skinny BBQ Pork Stew
Recipe republished with permission from TheGraciousPantry.com.
(Makes approximately 3-1/2 quarts) Nutritional Content will vary depending on BBQ sauce used.
Ingredients
8 pork loin chops, cut into small chunks
3 cups chicken stock
1 onion, sautéed or caramelized in 2 tsp. olive oil
1 lb. fingerling potatoes, halved or whole
4 medium carrots, sliced
1 (16 oz.) jar healthy BBQ sauce (I used one called, "Bone Suckin' Sauce" for this recipe. OrganicVille is also good, or you can make your own.)
2 tbsp. onion powder
1 tbsp. garlic powder
Directions
Place all ingredients in a 5 quart (or larger) crock pot and cook on high for 4-6 hours, though some crock pots will need longer. Just be sure the pork is cooked.
When the pork reaches at least 165 degrees F on a meat thermometer and the potatoes are easily pierced with a fork or knife, it's done. Allow to cool and serve.
Google Recipe View Microformatting by ZipList Recipe Plugin
1.3
Copyright 2011 SkinnyCrockPot. All rights reserved.





I am obsessed with this candle! It is "Leaves" by Bath & Body and it is fantastic for this time of year! Your home will have this perfect, subtle, fall scent drifting through it like leaves on a fall day!


Loving this monogrammed jewelry! Simple, dainty, chicness (made up word??) all wrapped in to one little necklace! Just realized, this might not be realistic yet because do I get one now and have to change my monogram when I marry in the spring?? Oh dilemmas!

Fall Necessities

The sky is blue, the air is crisp, and I can see the changing leaves bustling about in the cool wind! Fall is knocking on this southern towns door and I couldn't be happier! I wanted to share with you a few of my favorite, fall necessities that spark me to celebrate and embrace this lovely season!


Of course pumpkins are a MUST this time of year! I hope the fiance and I can carve (or decorate) one of these orange beauties this weekend! Love the girly, cutesy flair this pumpkin displays :)


Essie has become my new favorite nail polish brand, and I won't lie, it's kind of because of the dainty white cap and feminine name! I'm so guilty of being a complete girly-girl! This specific color, hot cocoa, is what I am currently wearing on my nails. The light brown hue is perfect for this time of year because it's not too dark and drab, but a step away from all the bright shades of summer!




Coffe is ALWAYS a necessity in my life, no matter the time of year, but I especially enjoy sipping on a pumpkin spice latte this time of year! It's my absolute favorite!

Hope your weekend is full of fall fun, pumpkin carving and a warm, scrumptious treat!

Tailgates, Country Music, and a Wedding Cake

I'm Back! Last Wednesday, I loaded up my car and took a mini vacay to see my fiance, catch a concert, and visit with my family for a bit! It was such a great time, but those 5 days sure did fly by!

The Luke Bryan Farm Tour concert was a rootin', tootin', hollerin' good time! We tailgated, sang some good ol country songs, and danced the night away. We did have a few, "minor altercations" with some extremely rude, selfish people who tried to get ahead of us once the music started. No one in our little group was putting up with that because we had patiently waited in our spot to hear Luke; we all started to grit our teeth and get fairly heated. My fiance is amazing and stood up for all of us by giving this speech to an obnoxious group of girls, "Listen, this is country music and we are in the south. People respect each other here, so you need to stop being rude and pushing your way to the front. Show etiquette. Now watch the concert." Eveyone within hearing distance proceeded to clap and cheer and those pathetic girls turned around, walking away with their tails between their legs :) Luke was amazing in person!!





This is us tailgating before the concert!

Wanted to leave you with a pic of the type of cake I want! I know we have plenty of time to work on this part of the wedding, but due to the fact that sweets are a necessity in my life, I've already been looking around for the type of cake I want! I decided I want something very sweet, simple, elegant and personalized (anywhere I can incorporate a monogram I will)!!



Isn't this perfect!! Happy Thursday! It's almost the weekend, which means my fiance comes home :) Yay!

Bookworm Wednesday

I have no explanation for not reading this incredible book before now, but I am so thankful a friend of mine lent it to me when we swapped books! To say I loved this book is an understatement, and it just might be one of my new favorites! I took advantage of our ideal weather (at the moment) here in the southeast and devoured this book one Sunday afternoon! I could NOT put this gem down and as I read, I continuously wrote down page numbers of quotes that I wanted to share with you; I ended up having two whole pages of quotes!! Im sure most of you have heard of this book or read it (because apparently I live under a literary rock), but if perhaps you have not had the privilege of reading Tuesdays With Morrie, then I insist that you MUST! So as not to spoil anything, I will just inform you that this is a story of hope, encouragement, and un-selfish love. The fact that this is a true story just blows my mind and it is a testimony worth every second of your time! There need to be some more "Morrie's" in this world.

I'll leave you with some of my favorite quotes and I promise I will try to limit them :)

"Love wins. Love always wins."

"The culture we have does not make people feel good about themselves. And you have to be strong enough to say if the culture doesn't work, don't buy it."

"So many people walk around with a meaningless life. They seem half asleep, even when they are busy doing things they think are important. This is because they are chasing the wrong things. The way you get meaning in your life is to devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to what gives you purpose and meaning."

"The most important thing in life is to learn how to give out love, and to let it come in. Love is the only rational act."

"Everyone knows they are going to die, but nobody believes it. If we did, we would do things differently."

"Love is so supremely important. Love each other or perish. Without love, we are birds with broken wings."

"You can't substitute material things for love or for gentleness or for tenderness or for a sense of comradeship."

"Giving to other people is what makes me feel alive. When I give my time, when I can make someone smile after they were feeling sad, it's as close to healthy as I ever feel."

Ok that was a lot, but I could have put up a million more and this is just a tiny glimpse into the kind of man Morrie was. So many great words we could learn from!

Oh Happy Day!

There are a number of reasons why I am filled with happiness and joy at the moment, so I figured I'd fill you in!

For starters, one of my brothers (that's him pictured above) decided to take a spur of the moment trip to visit me yesterday! My family is super, super close and I have an amazing relationship with both of my brothers. They are younger than me, but both have exceeded me in height by at least a foot, making me the shortest member of our family. That's ok though, I've come to terms with being a lil shrimp :) The one that visited yesterday is closest to me in age and he is a college soccer player; that being said, he has an extremely busy schedule in the fall with practices and games, so it was a sweet treat for him to take time out of his crazy schedule, allowing us to be able to spend some brother/sister time together! We hit up our local pizza place (this has become a tradition when he visits) and enjoyed the fall night air as we sat outside, savoring each delicious bite of that yummy pizza! We concluded the night with some fro yo, no surprise there, and it may or may not have been my 3rd night in a row of having that indulgence :)

Secondly, what could make you more happy than finding a recipe that includes pumpkin AND nutella??? So delicious I can't even stand it!!

http://www.phemomenon.com/self-frosting-pumpkin-nutella-muffins/

Lastly, I get to see my fiance tomorrow for 5 whole days!!!! Within those 5 days, we will partake in visiting my family, playing some golf, sipping coffee on the porch and enjoying this gorgeous fall weather, shooting our engagement pics (sooooo excited), and tailgating on a farm before taking in a Luke Bryan concert!!!! What could be more fun??

Everyone tells my fiance that he looks like Luke, so I decided to put pics of them up next to each other and see what ya'll think! I can see the resemblance, and I guess it's a good thing they do, because I sorta, kinda, maybe just a teeeeeny tinnnnnyyyy bit think that Luke is a pretty good lookin' gentleman ;)