If we Were on a Hot Coco Date....

 If we Were on a Hot Coco Date....

... I'd invite you over to my house so that we could use our new Keurig 2.0, because it's really cool and wayyyy cheaper than places like Starbucks. PS- I hate coffee/coffee shops. PSS- Bed Bath and Beyond came again and replaced our old Keurig with a 2.0 for free and we also got a $28 gift card. I love that store.

Lululemon Favorites & Care Tips

Unless you live under a rock I'm sure you've heard about Lululemon, the worlds most outrageously priced athletic wear. When I first discovered the brand I thought "who in the world can afford to spend that much money on workout clothes", but then I became a nanny. As a nanny my "uniform" was workout or lounge clothes. After a couple months I started to feel like I was still in college, not a mid-twenties married adult. Around that time my nanny family, so graciously, gifted me a mall gift card for Christmas and I knew exactly where I was going to spend it- Lululemon. I've been hooked ever since.

Some of my favorite Lululemon pieces:

1. Run Times Tank - My most recent purchase and the most supportive tank I've bought from Lululemon (& I'm rather large chested).
2. Wunder Under - Hands down the best leggings. The brushed (fleece lined) ones are God's gift to winter.
3. Speed Short 4-Way Stretch - Extremely flattering and comfortable shorts. I'm kicking myself for not snagging these up so that my tank and shorts would match ;)
4. Dance Studio Jacket - Love this waterproof jacket. Perfect for rainy days.

Like I said Lululemon isn't cheap so you want to take the best care possible of your pieces. Here's what I do and all of my pieces still look brand new-

1. I wash all of my Lululemon clothes separate in cold water and I only use gentle detergent.
2. Since I'm not a fan of the Ivory Snow scent I add a pinch of Downy Unstopables. This isn't a necessary step, but I enjoy it :)
3. I wash all of my tops in these wash bags from Bed Bath and Beyond. The bags prevent anything (zippers, ect) from snagging the fabric. These bags are awesome, because they're extremely large and they zip AND snap so there's no way it'll open up on it's own.
4. The most important thing is to NEVER put your Lululemon clothing in the dryer. Always hang dry.

So there you have my current favorite Lululemon pieces and how I care for mine.  Are you a fan of Lululemon or do their prices cause you to run away screaming? ;)

Our Time in the Military

With today being Veterans day I figured it'd be the perfect time to write about our time {mostly my husband's, but it was mine too darnit!} in the military, more specifically the Army. As of now Thomas has been a Veteran for two years, but let's back track to the beginning.

For those of you who don't know, we started dating while we were in high school- T was a Junior and I was a Sophomore. Talk of joining the military didn't happen until the spring after I had graduated, 2009. One day we were hanging out and he said he thought about joining, because college wasn't working out for him and he wasn't happy spending his days at Panera. Ten minutes later we were on a different subject and I didn't think about it again... until a few days later saying that he met up with a Recruiter and was moving forward with joining. At the time our relationship was a little rocky and I went into the whole thing thinking "if we're meant to be it'll work out and if not it'll be easier to get over him". That line of thinking really saved me. It took the pressure off and it made the time leading up to his ship out date a lot more enjoyable.

Here we are at the going away party.

Friday Five {Vol. 2}

TGIF! Even though this week has flown by I'm still looking forward to the weekend :) Today I get off work at 6:00, tomorrow at 5:00, and then I have Sunday off! I can't wait to watch football, get caught up on laundry, schedule a few posts, and deep clean the house. I want to enjoy the down time as much as possible, because I know it's only going to get crazier as the holidays get closer. Now onto my Friday Five...

Last week my sweet husband came home from school with a couple Laker goodies for me :) Who knew we'd be reppin' the same school one day.. I won't even lie- receiving this made me even more excited to start in January! It's starting to feel real.

Speaking of grad school I've started to slowly purchase items off my my checklist including a laminator, clip board/binder thingy, and a new planner! After three years I've decided to go a different route from the Erin Condren Life Planner and picked up a Sugar Paper planner at Target this week.

We had a day date Monday and it was a lot of fun! We had a few errands to run, got dinner at Applebee's where we get 30% off for Thomas being a Veteran, and then saw The Best of Me. Even though I read all of Nicholas Sparks' novels I could not and still don't remember any of that storyline! It was weird. The movie was ok, nothing spectacular and I'd recommend waiting for it to come to Redbox.

Do you guys know about Bed Bath and Beyond's amazing return policy?! If not, let me tell you... so we got a set of very expensive pots and pans for our wedding two years ago. The picture on the left is how they looked last week, after numerous attempts at scrubbing them. SO GROSS! I took three into BBB and they gave me brand new ones for FREE! They also informed me that you are not supposed to use any heat over medium on nonstick pans, because they'll burn the outside and crack the inside. Of course I ended up buying $45 worth of stuff while I was there, but who cares we got new pots for free!

Thomas sent me this picture while I was at work Sunday and I about died. Duke obviously takes the cold weather very seriously and is really excited! Fall/Winter are his favorite seasons :)

Linking up here

Halloween 2014

I know that everyone says it, but seriously where does the time go?! It seems like we moved to Grand Rapids just a couple weeks ago when it has actually been three months. I know that part of the issue is my erratic and all over the place work schedule, but the days just pass by in the blink of an eye. I'm constantly asking myself how the day is already over when I still have so much left to do. The house has suffered, this blog has suffered, and I just can't understand how people have time to do it all. Oh how I wish I could be one of them...

So lets back track to last weekend... Halloween. To be honest I've never been a fan of Halloween, more specifically the whole dressing up thing. In middle school and high school I took the easy route with football player/soccer player/ect. The last time I dressed up was in 2009 and I wore my MIL's cop costume, but this year Thomas was determined to dress up.

So Friday afternoon {yes the day of Halloween} we headed to Halloween USA in search of costumes. $100 later we walked out as Mario and Luigi {such a rip off!}....

 While the costumes were cute they 1) weren't worth the money 2) not practical for MI weather 3) a terrible idea

 It was pretty entertaining watching Thomas drink his beer through a straw, because his mustache was in the way!

Our friends drove in for the evening to "celebrate" with us and they blew our costumes out of the water! The were gnomes and their costumes were awesome! Homemade and very creative :)

Next year if we dress up again we'll be going that route- making our own costumes and that means planning in advanced, NOT waiting until the day of.

So how did we spend our evening? We started out at TGIFriday's for dinner where Karen and I had the most delicious Caramel Apple Martini! From there we headed to a local lounge that had live music and good drinks. Then it was time to pick up the rest of our group and head to a house party... and I'll never make that mistake again. I don't do well with college parties.. My poor husband thinks I'm such a party pooper. What a disaster and unfortunate way to spend our evening, but we did have fun with our friends once we made it back to our house and now we have a few funny memories!

Homemade costumes or store bought?

Anniversary Trip to Gatlinburg, TN | Day One

Oh hi, hello there. I have been working on this post for weeks now and I think it's time I finally hit publish. I mean this trip happened four months ago for Pete's sake!

So back in July Thomas and I headed down south to Gatlinburg, TN to celebrate our two year wedding anniversary. When deciding where we wanted to travel to we only had two requirements, that it was within driving distance and that it was relaxing. Gatlinburg definitely fit the bill!

We decided to hit the road in the middle of the night, leaving Michigan at 2:30am, which got us into Gatlinburg around 11am.

2am looks good on us don't you think?