Spring has Sprung!

I think that Spring has finally made it's way to our lovely Northern Virginia neck of the woods! This weekend played out different from our plans but I think it might have been better than what we'd had planned - it was such a wonderful weekend!

Friday was a rainy day and the rain extended into Friday night. We did a low key date night on Friday night - we headed to Cracker Barrel to get dinner and then perused Lowe's imagining the things we want to do to our house in the coming months. 

 

I was so thrilled to be able to sleep in on Saturday - I mean, who are we kidding - I'm always thrilled to sleep in! The rain carried over into Saturday morning and so after coffee and breakfast, we did some work in our living room and kitchen (getting things organized now that we have a big dog bed and a Luna) and also taking a break around lunchtime to watch John Wick. 

The sun came out shortly after lunch and we got ourselves together and headed out for the afternoon! Our first stop was a local consignment store, where I found two dresses and my hubby found a pair of pants and a shirt - we happily purchased our deals and then headed down the street to Sugar Creek Snowy & Sweet to have ice cream! It's both dangerous and delightful that one of the best ice cream spots in the area is right around the corner from our house! 

Our next stop was the bowling alley - and y'all - I may have talked too much smack ahead of time. I didn't realize my husband was basically a bowling league member or something, he whooped me! He was bowling strikes and spares... meanwhile, it took me a while to find my rhythm and I was hitting the gutter! I finally got myself together by the third game and managed to stay ahead for most of the game, but my final frame killed me and my husband was triumphant! 

 

Our final stop (before we went to Wal-Mart... because it always seems like there is something needed at Wal-Mart) was Woodstock Brewhouse for an early dinner! This was our first time trying the Brewhouse but we will definitely be back - the food was great (look at my taco salad) and I had a really tasty Pineapple Cider, while Ryan had a pale ale called Carpetbagger. We chatted and planned and enjoyed our food and then headed to Wal-Mart to grab a few things, before heading back to our house and enjoying a fire in our fire pit!

 

Sunday was an absolutely beautiful day - the sky was blue, the sun was shining and there wasn't a cloud in the sky! We took advantage of the great weather and when church was over, we headed to the Third Battle of Winchester to enjoy the walking trails. This was Ryan's first visit - I think he really enjoyed it! I know Luna enjoyed it, look at her smile in the pictures! Also, please note the enormous snapping turtle that we saw - the water in the stream is so clear and the turtle was just under the water, hanging out!

When all was said and done - we got in three miles of walking along the trails, saw some lovely Spring blooms and plenty of wildlife (maybe those are Shire horses?) on our adventure. My Dad met us for the walk and he snapped the pictures of Ryan, Luna and I - which turned out so good! I'm so glad we were able to spend time outdoors and I am looking forward to more Spring and Summer adventures!

The weather was so wonderful on Sunday, so we ended up letting Luna live her best life and poke her head out of the windows in the breeze on the way home! We sat out in our backyard for a little bit reading, started getting ourselves ready for the work week (a shortened one for us) and preparing for our four day weekend trip to the Nashville area. 

I cannot believe this was the final weekend in March - where has the time gone? I feel like March only just started and now it's about to be in the rear view! Y'all enjoy each and every day!

The Friday Five

It's Friday and I haven't posted an edition of The Friday Five in a million years! You guys - life has been a little hectic lately, but Spring is here and time is flying by! I just wanted to share some things that have been happening in life lately for this edition! 

One. Financial Peace University - While not the best picture, this is a picture of goal accomplished for Ryan and I! We started Financial Peace University at the beginning of the year and on Monday, March 6th we graduated from the class! I'm sure many people have heard of Dave Ramsey and I know he's got a reputation that's hit or miss - but we found the class extremely beneficial!

We are in the process of paying off all of our debt and moving ourselves into a more stable financial situation - and while it has been challenging, it has also been very rewarding and I know it will continue to be rewarding! I can't wait to see how we are able to set ourselves up for a more stable and prosperous financial future! 

Two. Daisy Jones & the Six - Anyone been watching the show on Amazon Prime? I confess, I've devoured the show and only have one episode left to watch! I must admit that part of the intrigue is knowing that Riley Keogh (the actress playing Daisy Jones) is the granddaughter of Elvis Presley - it seems very - life imitating art, I suppose...

I love every book I've read that's written by Taylor Jenkins Reid (The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and Malibu Rising to be precise) but I'd never really had much interest in Daisy Jones. However, after starting the show, I asked my friend Danielle if I could borrow her copy and I read it in just four days! So what I'm saying is both the show and the book are great!

Three. Jelly Bean Fiend - Tis' the season for jelly beans and I'm enjoying them so very much! I joked earlier this week that it seems like I forget jelly beans exist unless it's March and April, then I eat them daily and once those two months pass - I'm done for the year! 

I've been keeping my candy jar on my desk stocked with all sorts of bright little jewel-toned beans and I must confess I think my favorite jelly beans are the classic Easter offering: Brach's Jelly Bird Eggs! They are just perfection for me, but I also love Welch's Jelly Beans and Jolly Rancher Jelly Beans! Does anyone else have a favorite treat that they only eat at a certain time of the year or is this just me?

Four. Weekend Plans - The weekends always fly by and I don't have a lot planned for this one. My hubby and I are going on a date tonight and then I plan to attempt to sleep in on Saturday morning! It's supposed to be raining this evening and most of the day tomorrow - so I suppose any activities we decide to do on Saturday will have to be indoor activities! Spring Cleaning anyone?

Sunday looks like it is going to be a beautiful day - so I think we are planning to take Luna with us to church and then head to the Third Battle of Winchester trails to enjoy some time outside in the Spring sunshine! I'm sure it will feel like the weekend is passing in a blink - but I only have to work three days next week, so there's that consolation! 

Five. More Luna Pictures - Y'all know I had to share more pictures of this stinker! She has already destroyed her little mint green dog toy... just ripped his guts right out and moved on with her life. Stuffing was strewn on the rug but Luna seemed pleased with herself! What a mess she is!

She's headed to the vet on Monday and it will be good to get her all checked out and make sure she is doing as well as she should be for a feisty, ten-year old pup.

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I hope y'all have a wonderful weekend and I will plan to do that myself!

Wag Wednesday

It's the return of my Wednesday post filled with all the puppy love! I altered the nickname just a wee bit, since it's Watson Wednesday no longer - but will be starring our Luna girl! We miss our Watson but we are so happy to have Luna bring some of that joy that only a furry family member can bring, back into our lives! 

Luna is settling in really well - she is honestly so well-behaved! She knows her commands and responds to them, she is housebroken and isn't too much of a barker! She does well sleeping in her bed (or on our couch) at night and it all around just the sweetest girl! 

The Last Weekend of Winter

The final weekend of Winter was a doozy - don't doubt that for a minute! A doozy in a good way; if such a thing exists, but a doozy none the less! Ya'll - we got a dog. But that was on Saturday and before Saturday, there was Friday.

Friday evening our church held a Potluck Dinner - which felt like such a blast from the past to me! The church(es) I grew up in always had potlucks and while there is always a little concern about not knowing what people's kitchens look like... I figure you ask God to bless it and move on down the line, ha-ha! Ryan and I both commented that watching the kids run around while adults visited and there was homemade food - it reminded us of when we were young and in church. 

 

Saturday was a beautiful day but don't let the sunshine fool you - it was a very chilly day too! Ryan and I did our best to sleep in and then did some routine errands - groceries and a run to Lowe's for investigative purposes (a shed and planting to come). And then we had an appointment at 1:00 to meet a lovely little Pitt Bull mix pup at Seven Bends State Park. 

Luna showed up on Facebook; she was removed from her home (along with some furry siblings) because her elderly owner couldn't care for her so well anymore. She is about ten years old and as you see - a Pitt Bull mix - and so while her siblings were snapped up, no one really wanted her. Ryan and I discussed it and figured we could offer the little lady a home (Ryan has had numerous Pitts over the years) and so we went and met her on Saturday afternoon!

 

Obviously we were pretty taken in with her - because we chose to go ahead and adopt her, so we are a family of three once again! We have been pretty blown away with how well behaved she is; it's obvious her previous owner spent a good amount of time training her and she follows commands extremely well. She is perfectly house-trained, doesn't bark much at all, doesn't beg for food and when we walk - she either walks alongside us or slightly ahead of us - but she doesn't pull on the leash! 

 

 

She settled in very quickly at our house and made herself right at home - we did have to rearrange some furniture to make room for her giant bed, but otherwise all is well and she seems to be perfectly at ease! While she did cry and bark a little bit her first night, after Ryan talked to her she settled right down and so far, hasn't had any other issues. We tell her "night night Luna" and that's that. 

 

 

After all the excitement of adding a dog to the family - including going to PetCo, introducing her to my parents in person and Ryan's Mom via text message, and getting her settled in - we ended up getting take-out for dinner on Saturday night, enjoying a fire in our fire pit and watching a movie on Saturday night! 

Sunday was a COLD day - I feel like Winter was fighting back since Sunday was the last day of Winter! We'd planned to join a hiking group after church for a hike but the wind was near constant and made it feel like it was in the 20's outside - so we just headed home with Luna and spent the afternoon doing things around the house! 

We took Luna on a nice walk on Sunday afternoon/early evening and we learned that she is perhaps a little intimidated by farm animals, ha-ha! She didn't want me to get close to the sheep across the street from our house and let me know about it! After we almost froze on our walk, we headed back home to get warm and relax on Sunday evening before calling it a weekend! 

Can y'all believe we have a dog again? I guess this means I'll have to start posting on Wednesdays about all sorts of pup things! 

Well. It Snowed.

As you might have guessed from the title - it snowed this weekend - but that wasn't until Sunday afternoon, so I suppose I'm getting ahead of myself. As usual. Another wonderful weekend is in the books and I am already looking forward to the next one - weekends are just the best!

Friday - as soon as I left work, I headed to the George Washington Hotel with my Mom for a long overdue massage. The massage itself was really wonderful - even if we did have to move rooms mid-massage - that's a tale for another day! Once we finished our massages, we spent some time in the hot tub and then had quite the voyage to my house and finally were able to have dinner at Spring House Tavern around 8:30. Thank goodness - I was starving! 

 

I must confess that I was asleep before 10:30 on Friday night - waking up at 5:15 during the week will make you worn out by the time Friday evening arrives, ha-ha! That also means that sleeping late for me on Saturday might mean I sleep till 7 AM, which was what happened on Saturday - but thankfully we (my Mom and I) just sat around the house taking things slow for a little while! Our first stop on Saturday morning was Flour and Water for a spectacular breakfast - and it did not disappoint! 

I have to confess that I've never once had anything at Flour and Water that hasn't been incredible - and Saturday morning was no exception. I had the Mint Chip Cold Brew and Banana Bread Pancakes; my Mom got the Pain Suisse and we grabbed the Homemade Pop Tart of the month - Blueberry! We didn't actually eat the pop tart while we were at breakfast because we were stuffed, but we saved it for an afternoon snack and it was divine! 

Following our fabulous breakfast and a quick stop at my house to put some Amazon packages in the house - we were off to do some shopping! I needed a dress for my husband's upcoming graduation and we wanted to explore some Spring open houses at some of our favorite spots! And you might look at these pictures and think that it was a lovely Spring day (and it was) but it was only about 40 degrees and incredibly windy - eek! Appearances can be deceiving but I must say - it was still a lovely day, until around 3:30...

We had a little snack break at my parent's house and then headed to my Mom's neighbor/our friend's house for a Noonday Event - it was nice to catch up with some people, learn more about some wonderful Noonday items and even get a chance to hold a hamster! Did your Saturday include a hamster? Mine did and for the brief moments I got to hold it, it was great! Rest assured - the kiddo it belonged to seemed concerned that I might not be able to properly handle the little fella, so I relinquished the wee fuzzball back to his mom. 

The evening was rounded out with dinner and music at Box Office Brewery - a friend is a lead singer in a band and they were performing on Saturday night. My husband arrived back from the men's conference he'd been at (with my Dad) and joined us all (there was a whole table of us) before we headed home and both crashed! Sunday was a gray day with a weather forecast that portended snow - which came to fruition shortly after noon - when huge snowflakes started falling from the sky and continued for the rest of the afternoon. As you can see - Ryand and I were thrilled.

 

We used our Sunday afternoon to do some things around our house, get ready for the week ahead and just spend some time chilling. It snowed on and off all afternoon but nothing ever really stuck... however this morning it would seem that it snowed some more overnight, as the trees and fields were lightly dusted with powdery white stuff. It was a good weekend - but I'm fine if we see no more snow until at least November.