Weekend Recap: 5k's and Shopping for Chili with Cash Only

Hi Hello. Welcome back. How was your weekend?

Mike and I had a very lovely weekend that sadly we did not do a great job of photographing. 

Friday was all about kicking back and relaxing to a few of our FAVORITE shows: Master Chef Jr. and Shark Tank. I Looooooooooove Shark Tank. Kind of wish these were on a different night though. I'd like to not have anything encouraging me to stay in on a Friday. Though staying in ended up being a good thing because Saturday morning was race day!

I never mentioned it on here because I really didn't want to put any extra pressure on myself to train extra hard, but now that it's over I'm more than happy to tell you all about it. Originally we had a goal of completing it under 30 minutes. After not training as much as we had hoped and with the weird semi-cold I've been dragging around for over a week now, I was more than happy to cross the finish line at the 35 minute mark.

Mike and I both had a lot of fun on the day of the race and on our runs leading up to it. We made the decision in September to cancel our basically unused gym membership and to instead make an effort to get out off the house more. When we originally made the decision, I pictured "out of the house" meaning long walks in the park, casual tennis matches, or even a random trip to the indoor climbing gym. I think we were both surprised by how well the jogs around our hood fit into our schedule, and we've both agreed to keep it up best we can through the winter and into the spring.

Saturday night we met up with some of Mike's classmates to tailgate for the Homecoming game. Mike and I didn't get tickets, and by the time we were packing up to head home the sun had started setting and it was really cooling off. Back home we went to the coziness of our living room for more Netflix on marathon mode.

Sunday had only one item on the to do list: grocery shopping. It was also our first grocery run using cash-only. I think it might have been my only time EVER paying for groceries using cash. I've never been a cash person. So far 2 thumbs-up. We came out spending way less that I expected, were able to stock up on much needed essentials, AND still had money left for quick runs in the next couple weeks. Self five!

I don't usually find myself on this side of the peninsula

One of the meals we stocked up for was a big ol' batch of Socie Chili (Mike and Allie style). Mike loves making chili, and the weather was perfect for it. We also got to break in our new slow cooker...so fancy.  In addition to the picture above, I filmed Mike, cooking show-style, just for fun. We watched the clips this morning and were both very concerned about how our voices really sound. I might try monkey-ing around on iMovie to see what I can do with it. As much fun as these posts and pictures are, there's something about a video that really captures a moment.

Happy Monday! Here's to a great week and chili for lunch!

Weekend Recap: Costume Reveal! and The Best Party tour

Welcome back to the work week. Blerg.

Did anyone else just witness a much too quick weekend? Getting out of bed this morning was rough. The hot shower got me moving, but then when we opened the door to take Luke for his morning walk...rainy rainy grossness. Yuck! Talk about wanting to just turn around and curl up in bed. It's definitely a jealous of the lazy puppies napping through the rain sort of day. Oh well...on with the recap!

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Do you have Netflix??? If so, go home and watch ParaNorman. Mike and I watched it on Friday to kick-off our Halloween festivities, and it seriously rocked. The plot was entertaining and the movie itself was beautifully filmed in stop-motion. Loved it. Seriously go watch it! 

Saturday was a day of errand running for me. Mike had an all day class at Children's Hospital so I was on my own. Yoga pants on, list made, dog walked, and out the door at 8:45. I was on a mission. 

The green and pink was a happy coincidence.

I got home in time to finish up some last minute touches on our costumes, then got to work on the cash-only envelopes. I think they turned out really great:

Fun paper can make anything exciting.

Saturday night was the party. After nom-ing down some delicious BBQ pizza we donned our costumes and got in a nice photo session before we had to leave for Kier's. 

COSTUMES!!

Ah yes, the rare Socie Cacti in all its glory. This was one of the most comfy costumes I've worn in a long time (I guess that's a perk of being an old married lady on Halloween). The process for putting it together was pretty cheap and easy and didn't require any sewing! We also had a lot of fun posing for people who were trying to figure out what we were. 

The party itself was awesome. After having gone to Kier's party last Halloween we knew we were in for a treat. When it comes to Halloween decorations, Kier does not mess around. Let me show you:

Watch out for that disemboweled body...

Hey look it's the Great Pumpkin...

Also notice the bonfire and heat lamp...nice

Can't complain about your hangover, you've been warned...

Showed up stag? Don't worry. This creepy clown will be happy to dance with you...

It lit up and shook if you made a loud noise  by it

Not in the mood to dance? Why not play some beer pong OUTSIDE! Tent and black-lights included...

Kier nailed it right down to the creepy details.

Scariest decoration of the night: this random carousel toy sitting by itself in the corner. Spoooky.

Ok, the clown is probably creepier.

After all the excitement on Saturday, this is what our Sunday looked like:

Oh so cozy...wish I where back there now 

Happy Monday! Hope you have something cozy waiting for you at the end of the day!

Friday Forecast: Frozen Jacks

FRIDAY!!!!

So it's pretty cold down here in Hotlanta. I'm starting to worry that last winter was warmer than normal. Now I know I've got a good amount of Midwest readers who are probably thinking, "Buck up buttercup!" But really guys, we've got a feels like 36 F going right now. That's chilly and you know it!

Perhaps the weather is preparing us for a move back to the Midwest, same as it did during the HOT HOT summer before we moved down here...Only time will tell on that one.

In the meantime, I've got my space heater cozy-ing up my cube and a delicious mug of Peacan Pumpkin oatmeal from TJ's waiting to be devoured. 

Here's our Weekend To Do's

1.) Finish up our costumes. The party is Saturday night so we've got time. I've got some cutting, tying, and gluing to finish up, but that's it. I'll be sure to post pictures of the completed costumes on Monday. In the mean time, here are some clues to help you keep guessing:

              - We are not an animal or person

              - We can be found in the US

              - We are not very hug-able

Any new guesses??

They look so sad...at least they have each other.

2.) Carving our Plumpykins! Our poor plumpies have been freezing their stems off in their per-Jack state. I've given up on the idea of carving them outside in the fresh fall air and come to terms with the fact that in this chilliness our Jacks won't be the only thing frozen by the time we are done.

3.) Bank Run!! Ok it's not really that exciting, but I've finally found time on a Saturday to head over to the bank and get my name changed on the account. Mike and I have also been talking about different ways to budget and track our spending (more below). So opening up a savings account will also be part of the run.

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4.) Now that the crazy wedding spending is over, it seems like a good time to re-evaluate our monthly spending habits. I recently read a few blogs about cash-only envelope systems and I'm thinking it could work for us. If you're interested in what this method entails, this blog does a good job covering the basics. It also has a link to envelope patterns that cane be printed out on scrapbook paper to make the envelopes extra fun. Sounds like a great project for my silhouette! And that my friends is called a Win/Win :)

And last but not least....

5.) Allegiant!! I really don't know how I've managed to hold off on this til the weekend. I think it's been a mix a busy-ness at work and projects at home. I think I might try to cross off my other more pressing to-do's first, but I can't guarantee that I won't change my mind over lunch today. 

Happy Halloween Weekend! Have fun celebrating!