Let's Catch Up

Have I mentioned it feels really good to be blogging again? Because it feels great. You'd think after taking a few months off from blogging I might have some huge life news to share but I really don't. Life has just been chugging along and although I don't have any huge developments to share, we've had a busy summer and I do have some life happenings to update you on.

I guess I should start with my latest injury. If you've been around for a while, you might know that I broke my finger a few years ago playing kickball. I know you're probably wondering how that's even possible, but I am proof that it is in fact, entirely possible to break your finger playing kickball. Well, in July I somehow managed to sustain an injury almost as embarrassing as that. I broke my big toe dancing at a wedding. It was the end of the night and shoes were off, music was playing and the dancefloor was covered in drinks that had been spilled throughout the evening. Before I go any further, I should add that I really hadn't had a whole lot to drink. Moving on--

Copperhead Road came on and well, I just love line dancing to that song. If you know this song, you know that the song gets faster and faster as it goes on and well, toward the end I kicked up my heels and slipped on the wet floor. My big toe broke my fall and I knew immediately it was not a good situation. I went to the doctor the next day and found out I had broken the bone in my big toe and I've been sporting this fashionable old lady surgical book ever since. The good news is I should be out of the boot soon and after a few months more, I should be cleared for running and whatnot again.

What else? Well, I was laid off from my job at the consulting firm in June. This was for the best as I was pretty unhappy there and feeling lost career-wise. Still, it wasn't ideal to be let go without much notice and I didn't want to be completely without a job. Thankfully, through a friend I landed a job as an assistant at an attorney's office here in Orlando. I can't say this is what I think I'm meant to be doing at this stage of my life, but I have a secure job where I make decent money and have great benefits. I am also working less than 10 minutes from home for once and it is really nice to have such a short commute.

Even though the summer is Jonathan's busiest time of year, we've still managed to sneak away for a few much needed weekend getaways. Toward the end of July, Jonathan surprised me with a last minute weekend away at our favorite Bed & Breakfast in St. Augustine. I was feeling a little overwhelmed with my broken toe and trying to settle into a new job, plus Jonathan had been working like crazy so his timing couldn't have been better. We stayed in the most perfect room, toured and had a few fancy drinks at the St. Augustine Distillery and enjoyed an awesome seafood dinner and perused the streets of St. Augustine. It was one of those weekends away where you don't realize how much you needed the quality time together until you get it. I'll never forget this trip!

Later in August, it was my turn to surprise Jonathan with a weekend of fun. I booked us a couples massage and a fancy room at the Waldorf Astoria for a night and managed to keep our destination a secret until we pulled up to the hotel. We live about 40 minutes from the hotel so it was nice to get away without having to make a big trip out of it. Jonathan's job takes a bit of a toll on him in the summers when he's working 6 days a week in the Florida heat. I wanted to treat him to a luxurious, relaxing weekend and it was just perfect!

Over the last several months, we've been working hard to save money and plan financially for our future. I have to admit that Jonathan has more of the financial mindset than I do and I'm so thankful for his dedication and interest in financial planning. With anything else, it is super important for us to be on the same page so within the last few months, our financial planning has really become a team effort. We started Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University and it has done amazing things for our relationship and our finances. For the first time in both of our lives, we are living off a very well-thought out budget and we're sticking to our plan to get where we want to be in a few years and even several years from now.

It's been a really cool way for us to connect and it feels good to be doing this together and holding each other accountable. We've moved to a cash envelope system for most of our expenses and it's been eye opening to change our habits when it comes to spending money on eating out, drinking, shopping and those other miscellaneous expenses you don't really think about. I'm pleasantly surprised by how pumped up I am about the whole thing but it really has been awesome for us as a couple.

Over the last few months, I've also become hooked on a new fitness routine. Jonathan met one of the owners of a fitness boot camp his business networking group and she offered a free trial for me to check it out. I was pretty hesitant due to the fact that I was hardcore against group fitness and I was kind of in a fitness rut in general. I wasn't thrilled but Jonathan told me I should at least give it a try.

I will say that I had no idea what I was in for. From what Jonathan told me, I knew it was a 30 minute group class led by a trainer but I really didn't have much else to go off of. I figured 30 minutes of anything couldn't be that bad.

I was wrong.

By the end of class, I was in tears and in complete shock by how difficult the workout was. I was so not prepared for the intensity of the workout. Seriously at one point the trainer had us doing squats and lifting a tire in the air. I couldn't even pick up the tire by the time I got to that station. It was pretty pathetic.

I was so beside myself I couldn't even speak to Jonathan right after class - I was so mad at him for convincing me to try it and also a little mostly mad at myself for being so out of shape. I feel bad for taking it out on my sweet husband but in the heat of the moment, I could only blame him for bring this torture into my life!

Obviously it was all for the best because months later I am showing up at that same torture chamber workout facility at least 3x a week and I'm absolutely loving it. Each class is 30 minutes of high-intensity interval training (HIIT) led by an experienced trainer and my favorite part is that every class is different. It's a more intense workout than anything I would have done in the past. I'm talking burpees, pushups, jump squats, planks -- basically all things I would have said no thank you to in the past. Now you can see why I was in tears after that first class. I was only a few weeks in when I was already able to see changes in my body and a few months later, I haven't grown bored with the workouts -- each class pushes me and kicks my butt. It's a really good feeling to know I'm spending less time working out every day than I used to, but I'm seeing better overall results than anything I've tried before. The trainers have been great modifying the workouts to adapt to my injury over the last several weeks, too. I am seriously so glad Jonathan pushed me to give it a try and then after that first class, convinced me to go back there! 

I know that post was all over the place, but that kinda sums up the last few months of my life. I'm glad we're all caught up and if all goes as planned, I'll be back Friday with more randomness because I'm bringing back A Few Things on Friday. 

See you then!

Wedding Weekend in Cancun

I can't remember ever feeling so completely relaxed and happy after a vacation as I did when we returned home from spending 4 days in Cancun last Tuesday. The main reason for the trip was to be there for 3 days of Indian wedding festivities as one of my very best friends from college was getting married. I'm so so thankful we were able to make the trip for the wedding and the timing honestly couldn't have been better for us to get away for a few days and relax. With the hectic holiday season and stressful personal struggles over the past few months, I feel like we needed this getaway more than other vacations in the past. 

We stayed at the Moon Palace All Inclusive Resort and it was amazing. The food, drinks, service, rooms -- everything was great! I know not all inclusive resorts are as great as they sound, but this one absolutely is. 

Neither of us had been to an Indian wedding before and didn't really know what to expect aside from the fact that there were 3 days of events scheduled. First of all, these guys know how to throw a party. Every night was basically its own wedding reception - the decor, the music, the lights - every element was so elaborate. Not only was it a three-day celebration, but each night the party went until 5 a.m. 

Note: When I say the party went until 5 a.m., I do not mean we went until 5 a.m. I just can't hang like that and I am thoroughly impressed that the rest of the group could do that three nights in a row - especially the bride! Don't get me wrong - we had a blast! I just knew I'd never make it outside the next day to soak up some sunshine if we stayed out all night. I just don't recover that quickly.

Here's a photo of me and the beautiful bride! Monique, you were the most beautiful bride and I'm so thankful I finally got to meet your family and celebrate with all of you. I'm so happy for you and wish you loads of joy and happiness in your marriage!

When we weren't attending wedding events, we spent our time enjoying mimosas and breakfast in bed, lounging by the pool, visiting the spa for pedicures and just relaxing. I started and finished Amy Poehler's Yes Please while sipping margaritas by the pool and enjoyed every second of time with my handsome husband. It was glorious. 

I'm going to stop now and let the photos speak for themselves because I'm quickly convincing myself we need to go back as soon as possible. 

But seriously, can we go back now?

It's been a year and I'm finally posting about our honeymoon

I started slacking on Wedding Wednesday posts a long time ago and now it's been over a year since our wedding, so I never really got around to blogging about our honeymoon. Our trip to Cancun this weekend has me reminiscing and I thought now would be the perfect time for a honeymoon post.

We headed to Punta Cana early the morning after our wedding and enjoyed 5 days of beautiful weather, sun bathing, massages and total relaxation. It was everything we needed our honeymoon to be after months of wedding planning and such a perfect celebration with our family. With that being said, our trip had some ups and downs.

For starters, I haven't always had the best luck with flying. I've been stranded in cities on my own more times than I liked to remember through no fault of my own. I get to the airport super early so I don't risk missing my flight and still, I've missed connecting flights due to weather issues, flight delays, left phalanges missing (Friends reference - sorry I had to) and God knows what else. Needless to say, it didn't shock me when we buckled into our seats to head to Charlotte (where we were catching our connecting flight to Punta Cana), passed out immediately due to sheer exhaustion and woke up two hours later having not moved from the runway. I knew immediately we missed our connecting flight and proceeded to fill Jonathan in on my bad flight karma. When we finally landed in Charlotte, we learned our connecting flight was long gone and we had 10 minutes to get across the airport to get a flight going back to Florida, then to Punta Cana. I'm just glad we made that flight or we would have spent the first night of our honeymoon in Charlotte. We left Orlando at 8 a.m. and made it to Punta Cana by oh, about midnight. 

Jonathan spent the second day of our honeymoon in bed with the stomach bug and as luck would have it, as we waited for the shuttle to take us to the airport for our trip home, the stomach bug made it's way to me just in time for a long day of travel home. It's safe to say hundreds of people in the Punta Cana airport and every single person on our flight witnessed watched me get sick that day and poor Jonathan - I was a wreck on our 3 hour flight and he was so great taking care of me.

Our honeymoon was great even with the ups and downs and I think our life together is the same. Even though in our marriage, we will go through ups and downs depending on what's happening in our life, it's still pretty amazing and we are incredibly blessed. It didn't take long at all for us to be able to laugh at the things that went wrong on our honeymoon and despite those things, we can still say it was an amazing trip. We just focus more on the couples massage, the walks on the beach and the pina coladas than we do the missed flights and illness. If we continue approaching life together this way, focusing on the good and being there for each other in the not-so-good, I truly believe we will be incredibly happy no matter the circumstance.

With all that being said, I'm obviously hoping for smooth travel and no illness for our trip to Cancun this weekend! 

Random Monday Thoughts

Every time I've sat down to blog in the last week, I've ended up messing with my blog design and in the process, I messed up my social media icons and can't figure out how to fix this. Before I drive myself crazy, I'm taking a step back and cranking out an actual post.

Because I just don't have it in me to actually finish writing one of the several posts in my drafts, I'm giving you a pretty random list of what's on my mind at the moment.

1. Friday nights are usually pretty laid back for us and especially after our first full week back to work after the holidays, we had no intentions of going out. Instead, we hit the bar in our house for champagne and a few games of darts. It's easily the coolest room in our house and we rarely use it when it's just the two of us at home. but the nights we hang out here just us are some of my favorites. Any bar where the drinks are always free and I don't have to wear a bra is always a good time to me.

2. We're kicking ass at our 2015 resolutions. Hey, I know we're only 11 days in and January 1-4 really didn't count because NYE and anniversary celebrations, but I'm still celebrating our success so far. I know I haven't shared my/our resolutions with you yet and I'll get to it, but I'll say we're off to a good start and that is absolutely worth celebrating!

3. We're heading to Cancun on Friday for my friend's wedding. It's an Indian wedding with 3 days of festivities scheduled and the rest of our time will be spent soaking up the sun and day drinking. It's going to be fantastic.

4. I've seen so posts raving about Yes Please by  Amy Poehler and now I'm thinking  just have to have it on my Kindle for our trip this weekend. If you've read it already, I want to know what you think!

5. I don't rave about beauty products very often but I decided to give Roden + Fields products a try. My mother is a consultant and she's been raving about these products for months and now I can see why! I wouldn't say acne is a huge issue for me, I breakout occasionally, but I feel like even when I get rid of acne, it never fully goes away. I'm using the Unblemish Treatment and I'm only 3 weeks in but can already tell a huge improvement! I'm breakout free and any post-acne scars I had are quickly diminishing. I usually avoid any skin care product that has more than one step, but the results have been totally worth spending a few extra minutes in the morning and/or at night on this. If you're curious, I would spend a few minutes on the site (https://ltucker6.myrandf.com/) and find out what treatment they recommend for you.

That's all I have for you today! I truly am working on some actual posts and hopefully I can carve out some time this week to finish those. I hope you all have a happy week!

Life Lately & Fall Fun

Hello friends and happy October! It's still pretty warm here in Orlando but that never stops me from getting psyched once fall rolls around. Some of my favorite baking occurs during the fall holidays and the weather at least gets to the point where walking to car couldn't possibly result in heat stroke. It's all good stuff, but this year, I'm even more excited because aside from baking my pants off and soaking in all the fun this time of year brings, we have some super fun things going on in the next few months.

We've got a weekend trip to Boston coming up to celebrate my aunt's super special wedding day and as a bonus, we'll be up there for Halloween and get to take our niece and nephews trick-or-treating. We've got another wedding here in Orlando just after that and a weekend cruise in November that we've been talking about taking for months! I'm already thinking about all the Thanksgiving baking I can do this year and celebrating our first Christmas as husband and wife won't be far behind. As of today, we're also officially booked to travel to Cancun in January to celebrate with one of my very best friends from college as she gets married. To make all of this even better, we'll have newborn babies in our lives to love on as a good friend of mine is welcoming a baby boy to the world and Jonathan's cousin is due with a baby girl around the same time. This gives me an actual purpose for being in the baby section at Target, so I'm obviously beyond thrilled.

Carving pumpkins is also on my to do list and I want to make sure we spend more time outside since it will be a little nicer out! We may even dress up for Halloween and I rarely plan ahead enough to do that!

We have so much to look forward to. I got overly excited about all of it today after booking our Cancun trip and picked up beers on my way home to celebrate. Beers on a Wednesday night - that is how we get down around here these days when we're feeling crazy.

I can't complain about life right now though, life is good lately. Here's a few snapshots of what we've been up to:

We adopted another cat. Yes, another cat. The girl who used to hate cats now owns two. Who could have predicted this madness? This one is such a sweetheart and it's pretty often I wake up in the middle of the night and she is snuggled up right next to my chest. No more cats though, really this time.

My parents came to visit last month to celebrate my dad's birthday and we had a blast! Group selfies are fun no matter who you are.

Nothing exciting was happening here, but this photo makes me my heart happy. It was actually a Monday night after a stressful day a few weeks ago and this photo sums up how sweet it is to end every day with this man by my side.

We took a spontaneous trip to the beach a few Sundays ago and wondered why we don't do that more often. It's a short drive for us and we both enjoy days like this so much, but for some reason we get in a rut of feeling like we have to plan these kinds of things in advance. It felt so good to get up and go after church on a Sunday and enjoy the sunshine for a few hours.

We've become True American fanatics. What's True American? If you watch New Girl (and if you don't, you should because it's amazing), it's the drinking game they created. Basically, you chug a ton of beer and move around your home (or in our case, a friend's home) by climbing on furniture and pretending the floor is molten lava but they've actually created legit rules for the game that we kinda sorta follow. You can see those here if you want to join in on the fun. It's really a serious game for mature individuals if you can't tell...

Last weekend was full of celebrations. After the most perfect Friday night date night with Jonathan at one of our favorite spots, I attended my good friend, Lindsay's baby shower. Lindsay started out as a co-worker and has become such a close friend of mine. She helped me so much with my wedding planning and even though we don't work together, I'm so glad our friendship is still so strong. I can't wait to meet her sweet baby boy when he arrives in just a few weeks!

I also celebrated a friend's bridal shower over the weekend. Erin and I were roommates a few years ago and even though we don't see each other nearly as often as we used to, I'm so glad to have her in my life. She's getting married in just a little over a month and I can't wait.

Life has been full of so many fun memories lately and I can't wait for all the fun things to come in the next months! Hopefully I can get to a point where I'm back to weekend recaps instead of random photo dumps of what's been going on in our lives. 

What fun activities do you have planned for Fall?

A Few Things on Friday

Hello and happy Friday! It's been quite a week! My birthday dinner on Monday evening was so much fun! For a sort of last minute decision, I was thrilled so many of our friends and family were able to join us. I've been feeling more grateful than ever for the network of caring and supportive people we've been blessed with! This week has been busy and a little overwhelming...in all the best ways, of course. A few things on this Friday...

A Few Thoughts from This Week

• To be honest, doing 28 Random Acts of Kindness to celebrate my 28th birthday this week has proved a little easier said than done. I've done a few here and there, but I have a long way to go this weekend if I want to reach my goal. Again, if any of you have suggestions, I'd love to hear your ideas!
• Work has been challenging and exciting lately. It's taken me a few months to get settled in and it's still a work in progress, but I'm feeling more comfortable lately and I'm pretty happy about that. There is an exciting work-related development in the works, too and I can't wait to fill you in that when it's official!
• I've reached a point in my adult life where I genuinely look forward to a free Saturday so I can give our house a good cleaning. Life seems to get so hectic during the week and we always seem to have fun stuff planned for the weekend. Unfortunately, this means our little home gets neglected and I start to feel like it's out of control. This Saturday morning is all about regaining some control over our lives. #adulthood
• I've had this on my mind after reading a post yesterday on the topic of religion and while it was well written and I completely respect her opinion, it's been on my mind ever since. The writer was commenting on how she doesn't believe God has anyone's life planned out for them, that anything happens because of him or that their destiny is out of their control. I respect her opinion and her choice to were about it and the whole post was actually interesting to read despite the fact that I don't share her views, but this specific comment stuck with me all day. See, I think there is a disconnect here. She kinda paints a picture and brings up an image I think a lot of nonbelievers have of a lazy individual sitting back thinking God is going to give them what they want whether they put in the effort or not. I can't speak for all Christians, obviously, but I'm certainly not sitting back making zero effort in my life saying that God will give me this or give me that or not working my ass off trying to accomplish things because God will make sure I reach my goals. When I pray to God, I'm not praying for him to take care of it all, although I do have faith that on his time, he will provide the answers in some form. When I say that I have faith and trust in God's timing and his grace, I'm not leaving it all up to him to provide for me. On the contrary, when I pray to God, I'm praying for his guidance to help me find my way through, I'm praying to him for his love to bring me strength, patience or peace through whatever I'm facing or to give others guidance, strength, patience or peace through their trials. I do this all knowing that his timing is always right and that he will provide in his way. Having faith in God doesn't mean we are standing by waiting for him to put the pieces into place for us, it just means we are relying on his wisdom to guide us through and that it's his will and his timing we can trust in.

I didn't mean to go on a rant, but hey, this is what's on my mind at the moment. I hope you can understand where I'm coming from. What are your thoughts on this?

A Few Snapshots of Our Weekend in St. Augustine

Our Bed & Breakfast! I can't say enough about how wonderful this was. If you're ever planning a visit to St. Augustine, I highly recommend this place. The service was phenomenal and the rooms were super cozy!

Our first night in we went out for a few drinks and were craving a late night snack. This place was just about to close down and they invited us in and made us each an individual slice of pizza (not even something they offer on the menu). I can't get over how kind these people were to us for absolutely no reason other than "we looked like a really nice couple." 

A Few Plans for This Weekend

• Get my butt to the bank and change my last name on our bank accounts and whatnot
• Clean our house for goodness sake
• Knock out a bunch of wedding thank you cards
• Get myself a pedicure while my hubby works on Saturday (this was his sweet suggestion and after some convincing, I just can't say no)

What's on your mind this week? What are you up to this weekend?

Corn Hole, Crab Cakes & Cherry Blossoms

Happy Monday! We had an absolute blast in Maryland over the weekend. We went up for one of Jonathan's good friends' wedding reception. They had a private ceremony with just family and invited everyone to a casual barbecue reception. The weather was gorgeous and we spent the weekend with such a fun group.

It was perfect. So perfect that I don't even know how to tell you about it without just inundating you with the photographic proof. So here you go :)

This was the view from our hotel room.We got in super late Friday night and went right to bed. I was ecstatic to see this view when I opened the curtains on Saturday morning and saw this.

Benefits of a casual wedding reception absolutely include wearing flip flops and playing outside and I certainly didn't hate it.

Our men all told us "it's casual...just wear jeans," but I'm glad us ladies all decided we just don't operate that way. Casual dresses were a great choice.

On Sunday, Jonathan and I made the hour drive to D.C. just so we could see the cherry blossoms. Neither of us had been before and we didn't have nearly enough time to see everything, but we made it by the White House and wandered around a bit before heading to the airport.

 Jonathan has been working like crazy and life has been hectic so I couldn't have asked for a better weekend away with him. It made my heart so happy to see him relaxed and taking a break from work. On this Monday morning, I'm left feeling thankful for the good friends in our lives and this current season of our lives. We are so absolutely blessed and I am constantly reminded of that.

This week is all about prepping for the big Easter brunch we're hosting. I have lots of crafting, cleaning and baking to do and I can't wait to see how everything comes together on Sunday.

How was your weekend?