Weekend Look-Ahead

I am super pumped about the long weekend ahead! My office closes at noon on Friday and will be closed Monday in observance of Labor Day. Will and I have plans to travel up the road to Durham, NC. We will be visiting the precious Miller Family. I nannied for the family's four adorable children for just over a year. The two older boys were in pre-school and I stayed home with the infant twins. I love them with all of my heart. They moved from Columbia to Abilene, TX and then to Durham, NC. I am glad they are a bit closer now. I can't wait to spend the long weekend with them!



The twins: my flower girl and ring bearer

The Miller Family

Monday Meal Plan

For the second week in a row, Will and I stuck to our weekly meal plan. It has really helped us focus on our week, and in the process, save money. We definitely have cut back on eating out. I have been taking my lunch to work rather than going out to eat. This week is going to be a little bit difficult to plan. Will has meetings on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday nights. The only real night we have to plan for is Wednesday.

Monday: Will-meeting; Caroline-salad Will stayed home-Pork chops, mac and cheese, and green peas (from last weekend's meal idea that we didn't cook
Tuesday: Will-meeting; Caroline-sandwich
Wednesday: Homemade 3-Cheese Manicotti and salad
Thursday: Will-meeting; Caroline-takeout

We will be out of town this weekend, so we won't be able to plan ahead for meals. Hopefully next week Will will be home more, and we can plan some yummy dinners in!

Wow! Time flies...

When you are busy!! I can't believe it has been over a month since I last posted. We have been busy bees lately.
What all has happened since my last post...
I spent the last weekend in July at Edisto with my parents, my best friend and her parents, and some other friends of our parents. It was a wonderful relaxing weekend away. Will and some of the guys, including my best friend's husband, spent that weekend in Atlanta going to a Braves game. They had a great time, as well.

In other exciting news, Will and I are starting the process of of selling/renting our townhouse and buying a new-to-us single-family house with a yard. We have met with a realtor friend and a recommended mortgage company. We definitely have our work cut out for us getting everything in order to officially start the process. We are pretty sure that we are going to rent out our townhouse and buy a new home. Stay tuned for for more information in the coming months regarding house stuff. Needless to say with us trying to get everything in order, we have mandated a strict budget in our house/lives.

A couple of weeks ago, I volunteered at Mission 2011 at the Carolina Colliseum. This was a great experience. I look forward to helping out again next year. The next day, my family celebrated my youngest sister's graduation from the University of South Carolina! We are so proud of you and all of your accomplishments!

This past Saturday, Will and I, along with my parents and family friends walked in the William Wilson Memorial 5k. This event has been held the past two years in memory of William Wilson, a family friend. William passed away after being hit by a car while riding his bicycle on Devine St. We also got to spend time with my aunt, uncle, and cousin from Virginia on Sunday! We had a meal and evening together. Wish we got to see them more often!
Other than those few fun events, we have just been spending time with family and friends, and working of course!
Along with our budget, came the need to plan meals. Will and I have planned evening meals for the past two weeks. We sat down on Saturday or Sunday and plan our meals for the week. We look at what we already have at home in the fridge, freezer, and pantry. We then make our grocery list for the things we need. I find coupons for those items on my list. I use a variety of resources for collecting coupons: Southern Savers, the Sunday paper, and coupons.com are all great!

Week 1:
Saturday: Grilled chicken, sweet potato fries, and lima beans
Monday: Chicken alfredo and salad
Tuesday: Pork chops, rice, and green peas
Wednesday: Tacos (ground turkey)
Thursday: Turkey Burgers, crinkle fries, and grilled asparagus
(weekend nights will not be planned, we will just not slurge too much eating out)

Week 2:
Monday: Chicken tenders on Caesar salad
Tuesday: Caroline out/Will sandwich or leftovers
Wednesday: Chicken Cordon Bleu, mashed potatoes, and limas
Thursday: Pancakes/Waffles and Bacon/Sausage
Weekend Meal: Pork chops, mac and cheese, and corn

We have actually done really well sticking with our meal plans. I hope we can continue to do so. I think it helps to do our one weekly grocery shopping trip and have everything we need for the week. I hope we can keep up our good work and routine.
Hope ya'll have a good rest of the week!

Hey Friends...

Hey! I hope you all haven't missed me too much in the last week. Busy, busy! Our week days are filled with full work days, exercise (hopefully), cooking dinner (hopefully), and relaxing. They are really not that exciting and news worthy. Actually we did have a fun, impromptu date night last Tuesday night. We went and saw the movie "Bad Teacher". It was funny, but not the best funny movie I have ever seen. I'm glad we didn't pay full price. I had purchased a Living Social deal for Fandango for 2 movie tickets for $9. We would laugh at a scene then it would be several minutes/scenes later that we would laugh again. You know what I mean, it wasn't continually funny. None the less, it was terrible.
So, on to our much more interesting weekend:
Friday Night: Will and I went over to my parents for pre-dinner drinks, then out to dinner at Cantina 76, a great local upscale Mexican restaurant. We called it an early night and went home to watch our newest fascination on Netflix, How I Met Your Mother. I can't believe we never watched this fabulous show before. I think they are getting ready to be in their seventh season. We are half way through Season 1 and absolutely love it! I hope we can catch up in the next couple of months before the new season starts. If not, we will DVR it and watch it when we do get caught up.
Saturday was spent at the pool with my precious "babies". I spent a year nannying for a fabulous family and their 4 children. I spent my days taking care of the youngest two, twins! After they moved away, we kept in touch and remained close. The twins were the flower girl and ring bearer in our wedding. They are now 5 years old and still adorable! They came to spend the day with me while their parents dropped the older two boys off at summer camp. We had a fun day at Chick-Fil-A and the pool. Saturday night, Will and I attended the wedding of two of our friends. The ceremony was gorgeous and the reception was fabulous! We partied the night away at 701 Whaley and afterwards at Nightcaps.
Sunday...suppose to go to church with my family and the family of the twins (from Saturday). I texted my mom when my alarm went off and politely declined the church invitation. I went back to sleep. I woke up again at 11:30, because we had plans to go to my parents' for lunch after church. Needless to say I didn't feel so hot from all of the activities the night before. Hangover is an understatement for the way that I felt. It was like death warmed over. We got to parents' for lunch and I promptly laid down on the couch and didn't hardly move the whole time we were there. After a brief stay, we went home and I went right back to sleep until 4:30 that afternoon. At that point, I was feeling a little better. I could at least sit up and not feel dizzy and nauseous. I had a light dinner, watched a little TV, and went back to sleep for the night. I actually felt pretty good Monday morning. I was glad because I surely could not have gone to work the day before. What a night! I haven't felt that bad in a couple of years. I hope that won't happen again for a long time! We sure did have a good time though, it makes it almost worth it.

Weekend Recap

We enjoyed yet another wonderful summer weekend! The weekend consisted mostly of eating and spending time with family.

Friday night: Dinner at Pawley's Front Porch with Will's family...yum! Will is trying to achieve greatness and get a knife on the wall with his name on it. In order to reach this goal, he must eat every burger on the menu (12, I think). He has eaten 4 over the last few months.

Saturday: We got an early start on Saturday morning with a yummy Chick-fil-a breakfast. The plan was for us to help Will's brother Andy's fiance move from her apartment to a rental house. This endeavor took until the early afternoon. We had a late lunch from Zaxby's. I love their Caesar salad! After lunch and some rest, I went to our neigborhood pool for some exercise and sunning. We had a quiet evening in watching the race and eating some yummy homemade chocolate/peanut butter chip pancakes!

Sunday: We got up early and headed to our favorite breakfast place, Bruches, before church. After church, we headed to check the Mast General Store which has recently opened in Columbia. They have a some really neat stuff! Next, we headed towards the Publix to do our weekly grocery shopping. On the way, we stopped at on of our new favorite spots, Yummilicious, for a fun lunch! We then enjoyed more afternoon pool time! We concluded the evening by having dinner at our fav pizza place, Pizza Joint. Oh,  what fun, summer days!

Happy Birthday America!

I hope you all had a wonderful 4th of July weekend!! Will and I had a fabulous time with friends and family. We started off the weekend on Friday night by going to dinner at the Village Idiot, one of our fav pizza places in town. Great food and beer, even better prices!!



On Saturday, we spent the day relaxing and tiding up the house. We went over to our dear friends' house that evening to watch the race. I will admit to being a Kevin Harvick fan. I know he doesn't always win, that's ok with me, as long as he finishes ahead of Jimmie Johnson!

Kevin Harvick is sponsored by Budweiser- what says "I love America" more than Budweiser!

Sunday was another day spent with family and friends at the home of dear family friends. We spent the afternoon poolside enjoying each others' company and a huge feast! The menu included: BBQ pork, ribs, chicken wings, rice, hash, potato salad, fruit salad, green beans, corn on the cob, and desserts galore!
We rounded out the weekend by spending more time with more friends at their house. The have recently gotten a pool and invited all of us over to celebrate America!! After we left there, we went out to the Lexington County Peach Festival in Gilbert. This was a first for me. Great peaches and people watching!

We ended the evening of the 4th by watching the NBC Macy's Fireworks special. It was a great show- amazing fireworks!! I can only image how much that cost to put on. I guess it's kinda sad that we never saw any real fireworks over the weekend, but we sure did hear them from our house every night.
I do love long weekends...except the going back to work part!

Back to the grind

First off, Will's birthday bash was a huge success! We had a great time celebrating with family and friends!

Table-Scape

Me and the Birthday Boy

Beer Pong Table- built by Will, his brother, and his dad. Painted by me, Will, and his brother and sister. The floating beer pong table idea was replaced by this creation.

After the party was all said and done, we headed to Edisto! We had a wonderful vacation with my family. The weather was HOT, but a great time was had by all!! We relaxed alot, we ate alot, and enjoyed each other's company. It was so nice not to have anything particular to do. I read 3 books and soaked up some rays! We went for late afternoon boat rides in the creek and walks on the beach.

Lazy Beach Pup

Boat Ride

Photo Op before Dinner at the Old Post Office

We got home from the beach on Friday afternoon. We spent the day acclimating ourselves back into reality. Vacation sure does suck the life out of you. I am glad we had the whole weekend to recoup before going back to work today. Saturday night we celebrating my good friend Blair's birthday at one of our new favorite restaurants, The Pizza Joint. We had a fabulous time with friends, as always! On Sunday, we got up for church and spent the rest of the day relaxing.
Oh, I did finally make it back to the gym Saturday morning- it kicked my butt! Will and I did some water exercises/aerobics yesterday- that is a great workout! I will definitely be taking advantage of our neighborhood pool for exercising! I have heard that 20 minutes of walking in the pool equals 40 minutes of walking on land. That works for me! You can definitely feel the resistance walking in the pool.
So, it's back to the grind this week before the long 4th of July weekend! We will be celebrating with dear family friends at their pool.  For now, I'm just working for the weekend!!