Valentines Day...

Our schedule is a little abnormal right now with my hubby going through the agency training, SO we celebrated Valentines day a few days early! We went to a nice steak dinner with a gift card from Christmas! Dalton and Linds were able to join us, too! It was lovely... Taylor ordered this amazing Bananas Foster dessert with berries- amazing just like my valentine ;)(BTW, my frugal friends will appreciate that my shirt was a little navy dress thing from TJmaxx on clearance for 5$!! and a black long sleeved target shirt from the clearance rack, too!)

Started orientation today! So far I really like it- everyone seems super nice! and I am in the ICU float pool so that should be interesting!

Looking forward to spending my Valentines Day with this little guy :)

Tryin the Bbq round these parts...

Last night we went to a new BBQ place in Newport News called Smoke. I cant wait for my fam to visit and try this. Instead of bread, when you sit down they bring a bowl of sweet popcorn- SO GOOD...
We tried of course the fried pickles appetizer and also the "smoke boats" which were potato skins with bbq inside too. They were amazing and I could easily get those for my meal. This kinda place has the different kinds of bbq sauce on the table- Love that!

I got pulled smoked chicken sandwhich and Taylor got brisket sandwhich...
Lewis fam, youll love this place- Next time I want to try the BLT wrap or the BBQ salad- both looked so good...
Hopefully Ill have some more fun places weve found real soon, but for now, Taylor is hard at work so there has not been much "extracurricular" activities ;) Love you family!!!

Pintrest-ing

Since I have some time now that our house is completely sold and closed on, I am finally getting back into the kitchen again! I am excited to learn some new recipes. In the next couple weeks, I am working a lot of days in a row, so I wanted some meals that I could heat up at work as well as for dinner for the family!

I have a whole list of meals that I am looking forward to making... but for now, this is what I have done for today...

For lunch, I made Ham and cheese sliders and tomato soup(my sissy is not feeling well, so I knew exactly what to make- her favorite meal! I made extra to take to work because theyre really good leftover too)

(Just canned tomato soup- boring but so comforting)

Tonight were having BBQ chicken in the crock pot- The recipe calls for Sweet Baby Ray's bbq sauce with other ingredients and since my hubby loves that kind of bbq sauce, I wanted to try this out. Sometimes I feel like I cant do things in the crockpot as well as like just on the grill but I really hope this works. Slow cooker recipes are so convenient!

Im making these potatos to go with the chicken....

and green beans, which are my favorite- I just boiled them with a boulian cube like one of our family friend's taught me and I think their delish.

These little beauties are for dessert- Smores bars. Of course this pic is from pintrest but I hope mine taste as good as these look because my certainly done LOOK as good as those :) Well see!

Last night, I really wanted some theraputic baking :) I found this cool recipe for Pumpkin Bread that has a layer of sweetened cream cheese swirled in the center... It was easier than I thought it would be, too! Of course, this was found on Pintrest :)

Got to talk to Grandpa on Facetime!

All in a days work....

Ok well it was quite a long day, but everythings in the truck and headed to Va. It was such a nasty day with the rain, and since the doors were open, we sat in front of the fire and ate panera... comfort food:) it's all packed, moved, and cleaned. Looking forward to setting up house again soon!

Moving Day is Here...

Emptying out the house... yesterday the movers packed all our things and today we're already ready for the movers to come put boxes and furniture on the moving truck.

Taylor and I did get a breakfast date in during all this which was such a treat! We went to MiMi's Cafe- it was delicious!!!! But, they are still not serving the Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins, which is always my underlying motivation for going there- the waitress said they will very soon, Sarah.

I have thought so many times, these are the prettiest thing in my house right now. Beatiful roses from a friend at work. Everytime I see them I'm encouraged. I know that having a house in boxes is not a huge deal, but right now my home is missing its "home-y-ness" and theres not much style or warmth to it, so these roses remind me of how much God loves me and how He always provides and can make something ugh into something beautiful.

New Adventures in 2012!

Most of our close friends know that we're beginning a new adventure this year! Its been underway for several months, but January we will be in the full swing! Many prayers and blessings have been a part of this process and Taylor and I are so thankful for the support of our friends and family.

I am overwhelmed with how God loves us so much as to have a plan for our lives. He has been so faithful in the small and not so small parts of this move. I am excited for what He has planned for my husband and I and we have complete peace with these decisions He has lead us to.

For the first three years of our marriage we were blessed to live near my family and have a beautiful little home where God taught me the beginnings of how to be a wife, home-maker, couponer, cook, and nurse. God placed so many sweet friends in our lives during this time, many of which taught me so much about these things (Natalie and Kristi). We were also blessed to be a part of a wonderful church and even awesome, southern-cookin neighbors! I was even able to work with my Sissy (also an ICU nurse in Trauma) at the same hospital! How unreal? I feel so unworthy of these blessings. I never want to stray from what God has planned for us. Its the great support from our wonderful families that encourages us through this change.

Now, we look toward the next step which will be involve us moving to Southeastern Virginia. Taylor will be working in Hampton, and I accepted a position at a hospital in Newport News. Taylor's family lives in this area as well which is such a blessing!

I have so much to learn but I know that "He's still workin on me" as my husband sang when he was a little boy. This change will come with some difficult days as with any transition, but I am excited for this oppurtunity.

I will definately attempt to blog more often because I want to keep intouch and updated on whats going on with my peeps now in Arkansas, Virginia, AND North Carolina!

OH and I will definately trying out some Pintrest finds in our new home! FUN!!

Its so funny to look back at our little home when it was first being built...It reminds me of how much can change in 3 years!

"The Lord will guide you continually and satisfy your soul in drought and strengthen your bones; You shall be like a watered garden and like a spring of water, whose waters do not fall." Isaiah 58:11

HT Super Doubles

Harris Teeter Super Doubles!

Got some great deals- especially on baking goods like brown sugar, XXX sugar, and evaporated milk- great for holiday baking. Got some Dawn dish soap and Wolf Gang Puck's tomato basil sauce for FREE. Also got loaf of bread for 20 cents. Everything was stuff I will actually USE... I cant go through all the trouble of couponing/planning/organizing just to buy stuff I dont need.

58$ worth of stuff - 41$ coupon/store sales savings = 16$ out of pocket.

Apples in Ashville

We had been wanting to drive up to the mountains and it finally worked out! Our friends, Paul and Candace invited us to join them and we had a ball! We left real early in the morning and stopped for coffee and breakfast on the way up :)Then headed to Hendersonville- Sky Top Apple Orchard was so cute and such a great idea by Candace. The apples were really good but the best part was just walkin around and laughing.

This picture is totally the best self timer pic ever! haha we laughed about having to run into place...

Candace has been such a blessing to me to have here in Charlotte. Shes a great, Godly influence and is in Nursing school, too! So thats something cool we have in common- as well as having crazy fun husbands... (PS.. Taylor and I agree she looks to us so much like Courtney Stewart :)









YES, this is a motocyclist with a BIRD on the handle bars- he even drove away with the bird on the handlbars and it was totally real. He also has a helmet with attached videa camera?!

This was our waitress (I was not trying to get a pic of her, but a pic of the neat looking restaurant) at the place where we ate lunch! There were lots of places I want to eat at in downtown Ashville.

Just like in Boone, they had a Mass General Store- I loved trying to figure out this crazy camera that I'm terrible at... But it was fun!

While walking around downtown Ashville, we spotted a chocolate store!

Our trip to Alabama!

Taylora and I got the awesome oppurtunity to take a trip to Alabama just the two of us this past weekend! It was a blast and what made it so great was we were able to stop along the way to see friends and family- that made the driving seem super quick and broke up the trip really nicely.
Thankfully, I did not end up wearing this shirt to the game... hmm would not have been good considering we lost. Badly.

Taylors favorite place to stop in Gaffney, SC was the Clock Restaurant. Its tons of fried junk :) As you can tell, not my fav but it wasnt bad...

Next up was ATL. We stayed with close friends, the DeLaneys! We stayed up late chatting and then got up really early to head into Tuscaloosa...

Ready to head out in our razorback gear...

Got to the Wards apartment on campus early to see friends then headed out to the stadium to walk around and hope to catch the Hogs arriving at the game. It was so nice to see friends we had not seen in a while!

We did end up getting there just in time to watch the Arkansas team arrive- This was probably Taylors favorite part of the whole day! It was so exciting! I had never seen so many Razorbacks fans at an away game before. Our cheerleaders and band were playing as they drove up. Woo Pig Sooie!






After a not-so-great game by the Razorbacks, we headed out to our hotel in ATL. We talked all the way there about how much fun it was to be there even though we lost.

I was so surprised at the destruction still very visible by the Tuscaloosa tornados recently.

The next morning, we slept in and got our coffee and hit the road! We headed on to see our grandparents!

Right outside Atlanta, Taylor's grandparents, Granny and Papa Massey had a huge lunch waiting and it was delicious. Shes the best cook...

In Simpsonville, we got to visit with My grandma Lewis... It was so nice and relaxing catchin up!


Seeing family is such a blessing and I look forward to seeing them all again soon! We headed home to Charlotte, which was a quick 90 mins...

I cherish every minute with my man in the car, at the game, or visiting friends and family. He makes me laugh non-stop and I just adore him. So thankful God gave me a studly husband who has a great sense of humor :)