Happy Thanksgiving! (Yes. I'm a day late.)

Well, thanksgiving this year w family + friends was a total success! The hubs and I had a perfect day seeing a lot of people we love dearly! As always though, time flies and the next thing you know, it's time to head home.  I definitely MISS the days when I could stop by my parents house every single day. I feel so incredibly fortunate that I have such awesome parents--parents that are healthy, happy and STILL married after 30 years.  My mom and dad are so fun to be around, and even my friends enjoy hanging out w/ them!  Also VERY thankfully, my husband loves my family so much that we get to see them on every holiday. (If you're married, you know what a big deal this is not to have to fight over the holidays!) 

This year, we celebrated Thanksgiving with my family, and also our sweet friends RJ & Emily, and THEIR family.  What an awesome time!!!  I'm thankful to have them in our lives, and thankful that our parents have buddied up too!  {It's really cute!}   I definitely foresee lots of get-togethers and celebrations in the future!!

Thanksgiving is always a day to reflect on and count your blessings.  Words cannot describe how fortunate and blessed I feel to have such amazing people in my life.  Great Family. Best Friends. Pretty-darn-close-to-perfect Hubby.  Sweet doggie-children.  This year has also been a blessing; Starting my own small business was once just a dream.  Now, six months in, I cannot believe the growth I've experienced!  I'm no longer stressed out, and LOVE MY JOB!  Jake's work-life has also been great!  He's been getting in lots of training lately and has been on days for the whole month of November!  He's been given wonderful opportunities at work, which makes me so happy/proud of him.  I'm always known his potential and how amazing he is, but it's great to see other people recognizing that too. Sigh. 

As far as jobs and finances go though - I'm truly just happy that we are afforded the luxury of HAVING and keeping a job.  We have a roof over our head; A beautiful home.  We have a love-filled marriage and stability.  We have all of life's necessities and then some.  These things serve as a reminder that we are LUCKY. VERY BLESSED. And forever THANKFUL! 

I wanted to share pics from turkey day, but only have time for ONE right now.  Here's a pic of me and my FAVE BABY EVER, Halley.  This is Emily + RJ's adorable daughter, and yes, she's been pictured on here before, and YES, I like to pretend like she's mine. :)  I'll post the rest of the pics SOONNNN!

Sweet Munchkin.

No time for blogging

At least not right now because I have a new obsession (addiction?) called...pinterest! I've told Jake at least two times per day how much I love it. I can't stop telling clients about it...and tweeting about it... Yup, it's love.

So... I'll blog when I'm not busy pinning or looking at everyone's boards!

Fall Cleaning

I had the day off today, and the hubs is @ worky, so what's a girl to do???  OH EM GEEE!  I deep cleaned like 5000 square feet of house today!  I know what you're thinking.. man, you're house must be gigantic!  Well, its not.  I had to make the rounds in each room like 3 times.  I'm sure I've told many of you how awesome our new floors are compared to the carpet we used to have.  I probably even bragged about how much easier they are to keep clean.  Well, this is true and false.  They don't hold all the dirt and nastyness of carpet, but they can definitely accumulate some filth!  Today I had to sweep them. then vacuum. then shopvac all the room edges + floorboards.  then mop.  then disinfect.  Serious cleaning, yo!  I even cleaned the ceiling fans for the first time ever! (ew, i know, i know.)(that was a b!tch for reals.)  I don't know if I've EVER deep cleaned the house this good!  I also did ALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL the laundry in the house, which wasn't so bad bc I did that a few weeks ago.  Our entire house is looking spiffy!  I also decided it's time to make some changes around here too.  What does this mean??  I'm ready to......decorate.  At least a little!  This is also in part due to my recent joining of Pinterst. aka my new obsessh! 

This is my TO DO list for the next month or two:

-Re-do the spare bathroom (hang new shower curtains)

-Get new living room furniture.

-Put accent chairs + table next to fireplace.

-Get new entertainment center that hides the tv.

-Get new tv.

-Put SOMETHING behind the couch: tapestry OR curtains

-Get window treatments for living room window

-Paint the dining room.  Or bathroom. OR SOME ROOM IN OUR HOUSE.

-Make Buddy's kennel look cute somehow & matchymatchy w/ our bedroom stuff.

-Get new throw pillows for the couch.

-Find a way to convert our dining room to a half-office.

-Make a crafty side table.

-Get rid of bookshelf/turn it into storage for the garage.

THE END.  Wow, that's kind of a lot.  Maybe it will take longer than I thought.  I'll keep yall posted if I'm able to cross ANY off the list.  Well, I'm off to make the luckiest-hubby-in-the-world a yummy dinner!  I'm trying to show him what life would be like if I was a stay-at-home-wife.  HAA yeah right!  :)

Skinny Time is Now.

Operation: Get F-ING Hot for New Years is in FULL EFFECT people!  No more bs-ing and eating bad-for-me food!  For the last two weeks, Jake has been working days {with no end in sight!!} which means lots of dining out together. (uhh, try every. freaking. MEAL!)  That combined with NO time to grocery shop means I've been packing on the lbs!  Or at least it feels like it anyway... and can hoohoos get fat, because I'm pretty sure mine JUST might be.  Ew.  For the next two weeks I'm doing my "cereal diet".  This means you eat cereal at every meal and consume a max of 900 calories a day.  Cereal is so tasty that it's mega easy to eat 24/7 - The downside is that by day 3 {today} you will be starvin' like marvin'.  Seriously. I'm hungry as hell and my stomach is talking non-stop. feeeeeed meeeee. This kind of diet is only meant for a short term weight loss, so after two weeks I'll start incorporating real food again, hallelujah, amen!  On the 28th I start my next fitness bootcamp, and I'm super excited to be getting my booty kicked again!  I loveee me some bootcamps!  Well.. love/hate.  Whatever.  I'm just on a MISSION, PEOPLE!  I still need to find my NYE dress though. Looking for lots of sequins, sparkle, glitter, blingity bling!  I want to look like a giant {skinny} shiny disco ball!     

Feeling All Brand New!

True Love.

Well howdy there folks!  If you notice a lil extra country twang its because my hubs and I just got back from our weekend vacay to the middle of NOWHERE!!!!  It was totally beautiful, relaxing, FUN and just plain ole' cool!  This particular trip to Bluff Dale, Texas has been planned for some time..two years, I believe!  But after this weekend, we decided it absolutely MUST be an annual trip.

We arrived Friday night and realized after driving for like an HOUR in the middle of nowhere, that we prrrrrobably should've brought more then just alcohol with.  Whoopsies.. We figured out pretty quickly that there wasn't going to be any restaurants within a 40 mile-windey-unpaved-very DARK-road-radius.  So after we arrived to our adorable cabin, we checked out the view, got all settled in, and then turned around to venture back out for a grocery store!  We ended up in Stephenville, and our friends showed us where they first met (awww) and we had dinner/drinks @ one of their old stomping grounds.  After dinner we bought a ton of groceries and headed "home."  We spent the next 3+ hours drinkin' in the hottub, under the stars and playing cards... pretty awesome right?!  Saturday we cooked breakfast together and headed into Granbury to do some shopping on the square!  We had a great time browsing and checking the town out.  After lunch we ended up all four getting Pedis together.  No BS, this was the best pedi of my freaking life.  It lasted for an hour and 45 minutes and they used the hot stones and OH EM GEEE my feet were feelin the love boyyyy!  Saturday night we had a beauuuuutiful sunset and lots of visits from the ranch dog, Roscoe.  We grilled out and played a million rounds of bullshit, SPOONS and catchphrase.  This night also ended with hours in the hottub!  The weekend was full of laughs, peace/quiet and a total disconnect from the real word.  No internet, or phone service, just good times with great friends!!!  We caught a glimpse of lots of 'wildlife' -- a HUGE pig, llamas, deer, horses, goats... you know, all the ranchy stuff! (thats RANCH-Y not to be confused with raunchy.)  I am a sucker for beautiful scenic views, especially during the fall.  I'm sad the weekend passed so quickly, but definitely looking forward to next year.  Here's just a few pics from the weekend, enjoyyyy! 

The gang + Roscoe!

Charming, isnt he?

Montanas!

A Must: Porch Rockin'

November

So yeah, November is going to be realllllllllllllllllllllllllllyyyyyy exciting and busy for the Sample fam.  First, the obvious: DUH, Black Friday! (bet you thought I was going to say Thanksgiving, huh?!)  Jake and I L-O-V-E Black Friday, and have been participating every year since we've been together.  I love the rush of getting up at 3 am and finding some kick-ass deals!  The last two years we go w/o anything on our 'must have' list so we usually and up with stuff we didn't really NEED, but none-the-less, the deals are entirely TOO good to pass up.  Can't wait to blog about all the cheapy stuff we pick up this year! I'm hoping for a big fancy camera! :)  And maybe a new TV for our living room... (is it just me or are 42" tvs the new 27"??) 

Next on the list... THANKSGIVING!  I seriously cannot wait to see our family and friends!  And I love me some turkey!  Mmmm.. and more than anything I absolutely love spending time w/ the people that I unfortunately don't get to see enough of!

Next up:  Our camping trip!  Maybe I shouldn't call it camping, considering we're staying in a cabin..??  This trip has been planned for going on TWO YEARS so I hope it doesn't fall through.  Should be a total blast!  I'm definitely ready to have some fun and take a break from everyday life -- Gotta love some outdoorsy stuff in the beautiful fall weather! 

Our family is hoping for some change in the next year and it hinges on this oneeeeeeee little(potentially big) thing happening THIS MONTH!  I won't elaborate a whole lot yet, but will definitely blog about it when/if everything happens the way we hope.  So be on the lookout in December or January for an update!  We're just keeping our fingers crossed and hoping for the best!

Yup, I have a feeling November is going to fly by.  I hope everyone has an amazing Thanksgiving ~ Be thankful for all of life's blessings!!! 

When a Married Woman Gets Hit On.

Let's be honest here... if you're married...or single...or old...or fugly.... or WHAT THE F EVER, it feels pretty dang awesome being hit on.  Isn't it totally flattering??? I'll answer that for you: Hell to the YES! For me, getting hit on is getting further and fewer between (okay, more like never) which is a little (okay, a lot) depressing.  During my glory days (ages 15-pretending-to-be-18 through about 22) I got hit on like everywhere and ALL the time.  I'm not trying to sound cocky, I'm just sayin'.  I was either smokin' hot or super easy looking, but whatever it was, it was definitely working!  Just this week, I was shopping at Express and a sales clerk came over to tell me I was the most beautiful girl that had been in that day, and he just wanted to say thank you for coming in.  I thought that was SO NICE that this guy went out of his way to approach me, ESPECIALLY considering some women would roll their eyes and be like 'uhh..ew, get away from me weirdo'  {which may or may not have been how I responded in my younger days when I didn't realize the value of a compliment.}  Maybe it was a realllllllllllly slow day at Express and maybe this man was totally lieing and he thought his compliment would make me spend an assload of money on shit I would regret buying 20 minutes later, but STILL.  It was nice and made my day, true or not.  I couldn't wait to tweet about it, tell ALL MY FRIENDS, the hubs, and every person who would listen.  [Sorry that this is the 17th time a lot of you have heard this story, but DANG, can't a girl be flattered and enjoy the moment for a few days?? Geez.]  Don't get me wrong folks, my husband throws compliments my way alll the time, but it's nice to hear something from a total stranger sometimes.  Husbands HAVE to say it, strangers don't.  Just last night my husband said "You have the body of Jessica Simpson."  and I said "Uhh.. she's like mega-pregnant?!!?"  and he said "I know..."  - See my husband is a total sweetheart and always knows just what to say to make a girl feel good.

Now, the only time being hit on is a horrifying experience that makes your self-esteem plummet to rock bottom is when the man hitting on you is really freaking unfortunate looking. [AKA pedophile glasses, crooked teeth and bad body odor.]  It's super embarrassing because it either means this man thinks he's in your league, or worse...he IS in your league.  Yeah, not a good situation.  This particular sitation has also happened to me, and I questioned my clothes, makeup, hair, choice in hangout and LIFE for like a week after.  Dang boys, if a girl is too hot for you, you betta recognize! (pronounced 'recunize' with 3 fingers snapping mid-air in a Z). Now.. don't get me wrong, we still want a compliment, we just don't want to get the vibe that you think you'd have a shot in hell.  Just say: "I think you're the most beautiful girl in here, but you are SOOOOOOOOOOOO out of my league."  In fact, you should say this even if you are way out of OUR league, it's just good etiquette and it makes us feel better.  Bottom line: White lies are OKAY if they are to boost a girls confidence. End of story.

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