Weekend Things, and 6 months to go!

Happy Monday!

This weekend was lovely. Tom and I celebrated 6 months till our wedding day on Friday night at Olive Garden. And we saw Age of Adaline, which we both really enjoyed! Definitely a feel-good romantic movie, with some made-up science thrown in. It was fun.

I can't believe we have hit the 6-month mark to our wedding. We started out at 25 months! Yikes. And the to-do list just keeps growing.

One thing on that list is to keep growing my hair. It isn't easy; I usually chop my hair up past my shoulders once a year. But my mother is a hair stylist who happens to love long hair, and she wants more hair to work with for our wedding day, so there you have it. No chopping allowed until November.

Saturday night we made this chicken which was delicious. We've been doing lots of cooking to prepare for living on our own, and so far, everything we've made has been a hit!

And then I made these cupcakes again. Almond cherry. They are ADDICTING. I made 24 of them and six people polished off all of them by the next day.

Yesterday Tom and I took a walk in the woods to find some large branches to make an arch for our wedding. We drew plans all over the driveway in chalk, which was fun, but not as fun as hopscotch.

Hooray for warmer weather!

A nesting weekend, and finding the path.

Happy Monday, friends!

This is the first Monday in weeks that I woke up feeling energized and ready to tackle the week. I am slowly working toward a lot of MAJOR goals for myself and I can't wait to see how everything unfolds. After a couple rough weeks, this is refreshing.

I have been wanting to pick up freelance writing side hustles for awhile now to help supplement our wedding/student loan payments, but for the most part, all I was doing was planning. Now I have an actual goal in mind and things are starting to happen!

Speaking of planning...we spent this weekend doing some shopping for our puppy! We're just about set. We picked up some bowls, a collar and leash, a puppy bed and a brush. Only three more weeks!

We also spent this weekend doing a little apartment prep, mostly gathering supplies we will need and checking to see what we have already.

I'm so excited to decorate our new place. I haven't had the chance to do much decorating outside my room, so I have no clue if I'm any good at it. Tom has good taste, so that helps.

Yesterday I made my favorite homemade laundry detergent, this turmeric chai tea (perfect for the rainy day we had), greek pasta salad for lunches this week and these amazing strawberry muffins.

Mmm....definitely having those for breakfast this morning.

TWO exciting announcements!!

So it's been a whole month since I posted here. *Womp* I have been out enjoying the sunny weather, doing some side work and just living life.

(Random blurry Easter brunch photo to prove I am still alive.)

But I have two very exciting announcements to make up for it!

So the first thing...

We are getting a PUPPY!!

In May, we will be puppy parents to this little Boxer girl, and we are SO excited. We have been researching dog breeds and puppy training for about two years now, so we were finally ready to contact breeders. We went back and forth on breeder dogs and shelter dogs, but because she will be our first dog together, we wanted to know the dog's whole history and exact breed.

We thought we would wait much longer to get a dog. At least a year, until after our honeymoon. But because we live at home with Tom's parents (and his friend Jake) there will be lots of people coming and going to help socialize her and let her out when we are at work.

So now we are working on picking up everything she needs, choosing a name, etc. And it is so much fun!

Back to that timing thing...like I said, it's convenient because we live with Tom's parents. But as of the beginning of July, after living in their basement for two years, we will have our own place!

We will be about a minute from Tom's job, so he can let the puppy out at work. They are very dog-friendly apartments, and the lady who showed us around told us the people who live below her have two boxers of their own. 

Anyway, that is my quick update for today. Lots of exciting things! And plenty of lists to be made, errands to run, payments to make, etc. Oh, and then there is that wedding thing we are doing.

Happy Thursday!