H54F 8/9

1. I spent my weekend at the farm and it really just doesn't get much more beautiful than this. Crazy to think this is just 20 minutes from the city. I'm thankful to get to spend 2 more weekends out there this month! This whole farm sitting thing is a pretty sweet deal!

2. Wednesday night I was on my own for dinner. As usual, I grabbed some sushi from my favorite little sushi place near our house. For whatever reason I felt compelled to eat it in my bed while watching some trashy tv. Who does that? Me, that's who. And it was glorious. 

3. We have this little storm trooper guy who has just been getting moved around the house for the last year or so. For Christmas he even ended up in the tree. This is probably one of my favorite places he's been recently. He was also head first in an empty wine bottle a little while ago. I have no idea how this started, but I kinda hope it continues for a long time. We're getting pretty creative with him these days!

4. James was kind enough to inform me this week that we had some bananas getting old and some extra carrots. He followed that up by emailing me a recipe for banana carrot muffins. Isn't he thoughtful? Anyway, I made them last night and they were actually quite delicious. The best part? The only bad thing in them is 3/4 C sugar. No oil, butter, or milk. Delicious & nutritious!

5. I couldn't not include Winnie. She was just so precious laying on her bed with all her favorite toys. She likes to gather them all up and night, it's too cute. And better than what she does during the day which is to make sure they're evenly distributed throughout the entire house!

Linking up with Lauren as always!

Five Big Things!

Hi Five - it's Friday again! It's so nice that Friday decides to come every week. This has been a long week - James has been working til almost midnight every night and I've been working long days, too. If I did a 'real' H54F post this week it would be really boring, so instead of 5 fun things that happened this week I'll do 5 things I'm looking forward to.

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1. Portland. My brother, SIL and nephew moved to Portland in January and I haven't seen them since then. We are heading out there in September just in time for his 2nd birthday and I cannot wait - I probably think about it every day! 

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2. On our way home from Portland we're stopping in Golden, CO for a few days for this little thing called my best friend's wedding! My college roommate is getting married!! We will all be staying at an inn together and I am so excited to be with all my girls again. 

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3. Born and Raised Tour! Right before we leave on our big trip out west we'll be seeing John Mayer & Phillip Phillips in concert! I loved PP from his audition on Idol and saw him in concert when he did his college tour this spring and he was phenomenal live. I'm excited to see him again with John Mayer.

4. Farmsitting. I'm headed back out to the farm for two weekends in August and can't wait. Winnie's excited too, she just doesn't know about it yet. Can't wait to see how big the baby chickens have gotten! Plus, Winnie has a blast and sleeps for days and I get paid so really, everyone wins. 

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5. Fall TV - specifically Homeland. Can. Not. Wait. I'm obsessed with this show. Probably to a fault. It's the sole reason I have Showtime. Luckily when I signed up for our new cable the guy just threw Showtime in when I said I wanted it only for this show. 

Linking up with Lauren Elizabeth as always. And Feeling Good Friday for the first time!

High Five for Friday!

H54F this week is hard for me. It hasn't been a particularly bad week, there just hasn't been anything particularly good about it either. It just been... a week. I'm glad its over though as I'm definitely looking forward to this weekend!

1. We've started house hunting again. Our lease is up this fall, and for multiple reasons we don't want to renew. I LOVE house hunting - or the idea of it, at least. The actual act of it can be rather frustrating. We're not sure yet it we will rent again or buy, so we've been in contact with a realtor friend to let us know where to even get started if buying is an option. We'd be first time home owners so we literally have NO idea of what's entailed in even LOOKING for a house to buy. Either way, it gives me more of an excuse to sit on the couch and browse houses online so, I'm content ;) 

2. Had some serious FaceTime with this cutie this weekend (see more about that and other festivities from last weekend here). I've probably looked back at these pictures and the video of him saying everyone's names a hundred times this week. At least. 

3. Winnie wanted to show off her favorite trick. You can tell how much she loves it by the joyous expression on her face. And yes, those balls are deflated - she catches them so hard they always end up caving in on one side. She still loves them though, which is good because those danged things are way too expensive to replace all the time. $12.00 for two rubber balls? No thank you.

4. There's no real reason for this to be in here except that Annabelle doesn't want to be left out. I didn't have to go to work until 9 most mornings this week so I got plenty of morning snuggle time with her. It's really the only time I like her. All other times, Winnie is my clear favorite. That's probably bad to say, I'm sure PETA will come after me, but if you knew Annabelle you'd understand. Let's just say her cuteness is just a cover. She's actually a very bad little dog!

5. These bad boys. I have a bad obsession with snickers ice cream bars, but never want to eat a whole one so when James came home from the store with these I was super excited. They're not as good as the snickers, but still delicious and the perfect size. Now begins the hunt for the mini snickers ice cream bars...

As always, linking up with Lauren Elizabeth. Hope everyone had a great week and has an even better weekend!

H54F

It's Friday again! As always, I'm linking up with Lauren.

1. I was back out at the farm this past weekend. I went out there one evening after meeting up with my fam for dinner and realized I was just wearing sandals so I slipped on my super stylish rain boots from Target. I secretly love them and want a million more pairs of fun rain boots. 

2. This just made me laugh. It's a horrible picture that you can't really see, but this balloon is from James' bday in May and its been sitting in our dining room ever since. The other night Winnie just came walking into the living room with it & plopped it down on her bed. For some reason I found it hilarious. But, I pretty much think anything Winnie does is hilarious... and perfect. Maybe I'm biased. 

3. Saw this movie for a steal at Food Lion. I was *almost* tempted to spend the $4.99 and pop it in for entertainment's sake. Instead I didn't and know I'll probably always wonder why the (mega)shark is eating a plane. Or really, why the shark and octopus are fighting in the first place. And how on earth someone could/would actually make a movie about it.

4. We went on a mid-week date to the NC Seafood Restaurant at the Farmer's Market. O.M.G. If you live here, you need to go. I got the popcorn shrimp & James got the flounder. Both were excellent and enough food to feed a small army. And the hush puppies... oh dear.

5. This pretty much sums up where I am in life right now. This year is my 'golden' birthday - I'll turn 28 on the 28th and I'm having a little bit of anxiety about officially crossing over into my late twenties. Ick.

And here's a bonus:

Winnie helped me fill water troughs... by climbing in them. In case you haven't figured it out I'm crazy about this dog and no week is complete without way too many pictures of her doing her happy, dumb retriever things. 

The weather here is supposed to be awful this weekend. Thanks, tropical storm. I don't mind though because I'm on call all day Saturday and working until 1pm Sunday. I'm planning to catch up on the 1 billion loads of laundry I have and then bake something gluten free for a coworker's birthday. 

Hope you have a great (& hopefully more exciting!) weekend! :)

High Five For Friday!

H54F

This week has been long and exhausting. It wasn't a 4 day week for me as I worked a long 12+ hour holiday shift on Monday so I am very excited that Friday is finally here!

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1. I had to work on Memorial Day so I brought this cake in because if you have to work on a holiday you should at least get to eat cake while you're working! Get the recipe here. You'll love it, promise.

2. I rediscovered this gem of a picture when my little sister posted it on Facebook. She's not actually even in it because it was before she was born. As you can see, there's plenty of us. Including triplet brothers. Growing up was definitely interesting. But mainly, check out my older sister's awesome perm. 

3. Baby chickens! I was farm sitting over Memorial Day weekend and there were 14 adorable baby chickens. I'm heading out there again this weekend. Can't wait to see how big they've gotten! See more pictures from my weekend on the farm with Winnie here.

4. These were 2 of the 6 horses at the farm. 

5. It's been an exhausting week. When I come home from work Annabelle and I have been doing a lot of this lately. Can't say I hate it.

**Once again, linking up with Lauren this week.

High Five for Friday!

This week has mostly just consisted of long days at work so it hasn't been the most exciting, but here are some of my top 5 moments. They aren't too exciting, but I guess there are weeks like that every now and then. Once again I'm linking up with Lauren this week.

1. Stopped by to take care of a friend's horses one morning. This is Taylor. He was hungry.

2. James & Winnie came out to "help" me. Clearly they were working very hard. Such good helpers.

3. Speaking of Winnie, she got her summer hair cut! We shave her every summer and it makes her look SO different. Her long hair just gets too hot, she's much more comfortable shaved. And I think it makes her look like a puppy all over again. Plus, she's much easier to keep clean! :)

4. We had a family dinner at my parents house while my nieces were in town. These are 2 of my mom's dogs. They are the definition of mutts. Pretty darn adorable mutts. The one in the front has legs that never stopped growing. The one in the back has legs that never grew.

5. Little dog rode in my new car for the first time. I put her in the way back. She's used to riding shotgun so she wasn't pleased with her demotion. Surprisingly she stayed back there the whole time.

So that was the highlights of my long week. One more work day left before the weekend! Hopefully its a 3-day weekend (or longer) for most of you! I'm farm sitting this weekend and working Memorial Day, but the weather should be beautiful so I'm definitely looking forward to that!

How was your week? 

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Speaking of Memorial Day weekend, if you love to shop there's TONS of sales going on this weekend. I posted about some of my favorite stores in this post last night. I'll be busy all weekend and probably won't get to hit the stores so get out there & do some shopping damage for me ;)

High Five for Friday!

Week 2!

1. This picture just makes me laugh. 

2. Just got re-addicted (is that a word?) to these chips. 

3. I made the best sourdough french toast for brinner. Blog post coming soon.

4. Downtown Raleigh Foodtruck rodeo. So much deliciousness & beautiful weather all in one day.  My idea of perfection!

5. Chocolate brownies with chocolate chips topped with a chocolate glaze. Amazing. Blog post on these babies also coming soon.

As I close out my second week of blogging I would like to just say thanks so much for all the support and comments. I really appreciate it!