One Year in the Making

We are celebrating our first anniversary today. Wow, I think the year has simply flown by. It is somewhat strange that we woke up to a cold rain this morning, and very similar to our wedding day. So, just for the sake of recording a few memories, here are a few things that we've done this year.

1. Just a few days after we returned from our honeymoon in Park City, Utah, we celebrated our first Christmas & New Year's in our own home (I guess we can't count buying the house, since technically that happened before we said "I DO"). Christmas was pretty toned down for us since we had just celebrated our wedding. While others were unloading Christmas gifts, we spent the holidays opening and sorting through wedding gifts. We had a blast spending all the giftcards we got when we returned the duplicates and extras. And I started the writing the thank-you notes.
2. We spent our first Valentine's Weekend in Savannah, GA where Ryan was happy to learn you can order a beer to-go from nearly any restaurant or bar and walk down the street drinking it. Unfortunately, we came home to a broken heat pump. Our first major mishap as homeowners and newlyweds, and 1 very cold night. Good fortune had it that our heat pump was still under warranty and we only had to pay for labor.
3. Got in a major car accident (not our fault!) and had to spend the money we were saving for Ryan's new car to replace my Honda we hoped would run for several more years.
4. Shopped and put a deposit down on our first puppy. That didn't work out, so we chose to wait for another litter and had to wait several more months.
5. Ryan started a new position at work. Although it may not be the ultimate answer, this change was an answer to prayer that we had been hoping for for many months. This put a damper on our summer vacation plans, but we definitely knew it was for the best.
6. We watched excitedly as our college alma mater, the University of South Carolina Gamecocks won the NCAA national baseball championship.
7. Just as the college world series wrapped up, our nephew Cooper was born. He is the first child in either of our immediate families. He was a few weeks early and had to spend a little extra time in the hospital at first, but hasn't let that slow him down. He is so precious and we have enjoyed watching him grown in the last 5 months.
8. In August, we finally brought home our puppy Beaufort. Life has been a whirlwind since then. I never imagined how much work goes into raising and training a puppy. Our entire house had to be "puppy-proofed", and even still, this smart little booger finds ways to get into trouble.
9. The week after we brought home the puppy, Ryan had to go to training for 3 straight weeks. This was our first time being apart for an extended period of time and I found a new respect for people who live apart from their loved ones. Luckily, I was quite busy taking care of our furry-four-legged child while he was away. Ryan got to spend 2 weekends with my uncle exploring the Washington, DC area. He has never been before and loved seeing all the sites in our nation's capitol.
10. Throughout the year, we have celebrated with several friends at their weddings and engagements, the exciting news of babies on the way and baby arrivals, even just recently the news of a long-awaited wait list spot for friends in the process of adopting sweet children from Ethiopia. We changed churches, helped start up a supper club group that meets monthly, made some new friends, made great memories and we have truly enjoyed every moment.

We are celebrating the great year we've had and looking forward with goals in mind of what we want our next year to look like. We are so thankful that God has blessed us with so much this year. I can't wait to share the many moments of our lives together and see what the next year holds.

Happy Anniversary to us!

Leslie

S-L-A-C-K-E-R

Well, I've got a ton of partial posts written in my head. Almost daily, I think about something to write, but never actually type it out. Or, I do type it out in my email, and never copy & paste it here on the blog. BUT, I avow to do better. You can give me a smack on the hand next month when I've only posted once, AGAIN. I'm going to TRY really hard not to be such a SLACKER.

However, there are some pretty note-worthy events coming up during the next month, so perhaps I'll make it a point to have something to say. DECEMBER 2010 will FINALLY be here in less than 6 hours.

Not to worry, we are SO ready for the holiday season. We just celebrated our first Thanksgiving as a married couple, and it was awesome! For the first time in the last 6 years, we ate only ONE Thanksgiving meal. The whole time we were dating, we celebrated by eating both Thanksgiving LUNCH and DINNER. One of the only pitfalls of living in the same town with both sets of family is the GIANT amount of food there is to consume on holidays. (I know, some would not consider that a pitfall at all). Needless to say, given there was only one meal to eat, I made the most of it and ate myself silly leading to a WAY early bedtime.

The Saturday after Thanksgiving, we bundled up for the chilly Carolina-Clemson rivalry game, in which our Gamecocks won! We're excited to watch them again next weekend against Auburn in the SEC championship game!

So, perhaps you can look forward to hearing more about our December activities, which include a vacation to the beach, our first anniversary, our second Christmas, my 26th birthday, and MUCH more. And, I promise some pictures soon of Christmas decorations. You might say I'm slightly obsessed. But in my mind, it's just right.

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

Lockslie

The first soup night

Last night as we sat down to dinner, my husband said, "It's the first soup night of the year!"

We were eating Taco Soup that I got from our supper swap, mostly out of necessity because it was the only thing I could heat up fast enough and serve and also get to bible study on time. BUT, the timing couldn't have been more perfect. We have been getting our first cold rain of the year which brought in cooler temperatures, making it feel just a little like fall.

I have no idea how long this cool weather will stay, but have no doubt we'll have another warm spell before winter sets in. Fall lasts only a few days in South Carolina, but we love it :)

I'm considering having soup again for "the second soup night" of the year, tonight.

Love,

Lockslie

Lasagna Casserole

Here is a recent recipe I got from our Supper Swap that has turned out to be a hit with everyone who has eaten it. Jennifer has already made it twice for supper swap since it got rave reviews the first time! I took a pan over to the Sweeten's (you'll have to email and ask to become a reader of this cute blog), shortly after their precious little girl was born. Kate asked for the recipe so she could share it with another new momma, so I figured I would put it out there to the blog world so everyone could have a taste! Hope you enjoy!

Lasagna Casserole

1 package egg noodles

1 jar spaghetti sauce

1 lbs ground beef

4 oz cream cheese

4 cups mozzarella cheese

1 c. sour cream

Directions:

Cook egg noodles. Brown beef, drain fat, add spaghetti sauce and simmer. Mix cream cheese and sour cream. In a 9x13 greased baking dish (or tin foil casserole pan), layer noodles, cream cheese mixture, mozzarella and beef two times. Cover with foil. (Recipe can be frozen at this point, to cook after frozen, thaw completely, then follow the directions below)

Bake at 350 degrees covered for 30 minutes. Uncovered and bake 5-10 minutes longer or until cheese on top is melted & bubbly.

Sorry I don't have a picture, but trust me, you want to try this!

Lockslie

Too Soon?

So, I officially finished all my wedding gift thank-you notes almost exactly before Emily Post's deadline of 3 months following our wedding (which would have been March 12). However, the gifts have kept on coming! I got a little lazy again and racked up a short little list of notes that needed to be written and I am happy to say, these are NOW also done. What a relief!

However, I'm starting to think it is probably about time to drag down those Christmas cards I bought on sale two Christmases (is that the correct plural for Christmas? is there a plural?) ago and get to work on writing & addressing them! WOW! I can hardly believe we are just 2 and a half short months away from Christmas!

Now, before you think I'm crazy buying my Christmas cards 2 years in advance...

3 Christmases ago, I sent out cards just from myself to some of my friends. It was fun because this was the first year most of my friends had moved away after college, and who doesn't like to receive mail at their first post-college address?

2 Christmases ago, we had just gotten engaged, and life was WAY crazy with wedding planning, not to mention attempting to finish up that last pesky year of Pharmacy school. I didn't send out any cards that year. But, I did have the foresight to think about the future when all the Christmas cards went on sale at the end of December.

1 Christmas ago, of course, since we got married December 12th, I used my thank-you notes as an opportunity to wish everyone a happy holiday, since I was too busy to send out Christmas cards.

I absolutely LOVE Christmas cards, especially those with pictures. There is just something about hearing from friends & family from both near and far during the holiday season. Yep, that's it, now that I've thought about it, I think I'll fix up some hot chocolate, pretend like it is cold outside, and start writing some Christmas cards. I might even put a Christmas DVD on. Watch out. I'm addicted to the Christmas feeling, and I'm looking forward to celebrating for several months this year - probably about mid-October until mid-January, in case you were wondering :) And yes, I plan to buy my Christmas cards for next year when they go on sale THIS December.

What? It's too soon? Too bad... I've already begun humming Christmas carols!

Lockslie

Labor Day Weekend

We've been quite busy for the last few weeks, but this weekend has been especially nice so far (and thanks to labor day, it still isn't over yet!) So... to recap what I consider the first weekend of fall (a great, but entirely too short season if you define it by the weather here in Columbia)....here's some things we did....

CAROLINA FOOTBALL kicked off Thursday night... there's just nothing like sitting in the stadium when 2001 plays and the players run out onto the field for the first time of the year! Gotta love football season. Here's the view of the sunset from our seats in the stadium.... it was such great weather once the sun went down

Since the game was Thursday night, Ryan and I both took the day off Friday... we spent the first bit of the morning playing with Beaufort at the Riverwalk. Our little furball LOVES to run around in the grass, chasing tennis balls, and meeting other dogs! Hopefully the riverwalk will become one of his favorite spots to walk and play! This is a picture of him today after he wore himself out visiting friends!
I spent most of the rest of Friday hanging out with my sister and my nephew Cooper, who celebrated his 2 month birthday this week. I can hardly believe how big he is getting already! He is growing so fast, and soon enough we'll be running to keep up with him. Also, his mom joined the blogging world and didn't inform me for several months. You can go visit them at the link above to see some extra precious pics of him :)

We've been watching tons of football, hanging out with family, and spending lots of quality time on the couch, too! Fall has arrived and we're relishing in this long weekend since our Saturdays will be filled with football and weekends will pass by much more quickly for the next several months.

Hope your labor day weekend was as relaxing and wonderful as ours!

Love,

Lockslie

Introducing.....

For a long time now, we've been wanting to get a dog. I would probably say we've been talking about it for several years! We always came up with a reason why it wasn't a good time for us yet.... too expensive, living in two different houses, traveling too much, too busy with other things in our life. I think my husband was starting to lose hope that it would ever happen!

At long last, our new puppy, Beaufort, will be coming home this Tuesday! We are BEYOND excited to add him to our family and can't wait for him to be here with us. In fact, two weeks ago when we went to pick him out of the litter, we wanted to bring him home immediately.

Here's his very first pic...

I'm sure his cute little face will be filling up this blog in no time flat as he grows up. He's a Goldendoodle (mix between a Golden Retriever & Standard Poodle) which we are told are some of the smartest and most loving dogs. This is good because we have a lot to learn about training him and starting out with good habits! Any suggestions for us first time dog owners?

Lockslie

FINALLY....

We FINALLY have a new computer which I love. This is a crazy busy weekend for us (maybe because it is the first weekend we have been home in a whole month), but I promise new blog posts soon! There is MUCH to write about as our summer has been jam packed with fun stuff. Can't wait to tell you more about it!

Lockslie

Did I say I was back?

Perhaps I spoke too soon.... computer is still a little messed up and we are in the market for a new one, so it might be few and far between for posts... but I promised to tell y'all about something cool I did.... so here it is!

So every now and then, something comes your way that is both fun and makes your life easier. This month, I had the opportunity to join in a "Supper Swap" with some girls from my office. Here's how it works....

You pick a day/time/place to meet up. We met in the back of a Wal-mart parking lot on a Sunday evening. Each person in the group picks a freezable/storable meal to make. Then, depending on the number of people in the swap (it's 4 in our case), you make a dish for each family. So, you have a dish of your own to keep, 3 to give away, and you get 1 dish from each other person!

I ended up with 4 fantastic meals, and only had to buy the ingredients and prepare one! It may seem like a lot of work, but since I made enough of the same meal for 4 families, I was able to buy the ingredients in bulk, thus saving money. Also, the time I spent to make 4 of the same recipe was much less than it would take for me to make 4 different recipes.

Since it's only me and the hubby, each of these meals makes for great leftovers, or a great night to have over family or friends since we have plenty to share. I'm joining in the swap once each month which will give us about 1 pre-made meal a week. This works great for nights when I know we'll be busy -- and the other girls in the swap say it makes cooking with children around MUCH easier, too. The other benefit for me is exposure to recipes that I've never made before and might shy away from on my own. If we cook it and like it, I'll get the recipe and make it again some time!

I encourage you to get together with some friends and have a supper swap of your own... you won't regret it, PROMISE!

Hopefully more posts coming again sometime soon...
Lockslie :)

I'm ba-ack...

Wow, I was all gung-ho when I started this blog and I've been a total SLACKER for over a month now. The main reason I haven't updated is due to my sweet dell laptop that is SLOWLY dying. It's time for a new computer, but I'm a giant penny pincher, so I've got to just bite the bullet. We're considering the mac book. I've always been a total PC girl, so bring on the encouragement to make the switch!

We'll be attending 3 weddings this month (our friend & my college suitemate/housemate Elizabeth, my cousin Emily, and our friend and Locks' college housemate, Paul - who we fondly refer to as TheDon). With our wedding just 5 short months ago, we are SO excited for all of them to get married. It has been such an amazing time in our lives and we can't wait to share with them in the beginnings of their marriages. I'm hoping we will have lots of pictures to share when we get back from each one.

The summer is my absolute favorite season, after a beach trip last weekend for Elizabeth's bachelorette celebration, I'm all geared up for the wonderful season of beaching, baseball, grilling, swimming, and sun bathing! There's even more exciting stuff happening this summer in our family, too! In July, we'll be adding a puppy to our family, and my sister and her husband will be welcoming a new baby boy!

I think that's enough updates on our plans.... hopefully in the next few days, I'll write a little bit about something really cool I got to be a part of this month and am planning to do the rest of the summer.... is the suspense killing you? Too bad, you'll just have to wait!

Love,
Lockslie

Easter Weekend

This weekend we have a LOT of things going on, but the most important is celebrating Easter, the resurrection of our Lord and Savior, who died that we might have eternal life. What an awesome time to reflect on this wonderful gift. What a mighty and powerful and loving God we serve. We'll be celebrating the day by going to church and then having a big Easter lunch with my family.


Happy Easter!
Love,
Lockslie

Have you missed me? Well, I bet all 4 of you who read this maybe have missed me. Where have I been? Well, remember my last post about thank you notes? THEY ARE DONE! I met the deadline of 3 months except for a few stragglers for which I had to find addresses. All my free moments for the last few weeks were filled with thank-you-note-writing. Wow, what a relief! Now, I can get back to real life without that long list hanging over my head!

This past weekend marks our 3rd month of married life, and my husband celebrated with a new haircut. If you didn't already know this, the whole reason I got the name LOCKSLIE is because of my husband. Have you ever called someone by a nickname so long that you don't even remember their real name? Well, that's what it's like with LOCKS. That's what all his friends (and his friends' parents) call him. The minister even called us Locks & Lockslie during our wedding ceremony. As one friend once told him, "Even your mother will call you Locks." That is, until he got a new haircut. Now some are jokingly referring to him as BUZZ instead. He hates the new name, but is loving the new haircut. I'm adjusting to it slowly.

We are excited about the next few months as the weather warms up, we are looking forward to lots of cooking out, baseball, time at the beach, and there might be one of these in our near future, too! (a goldendoodle puppy!)

Precious, right? Hopefully we'll be getting a puppy sometime during the summer months. So right now I promised to get to work on remembering to put away my shoes (so they won't get chewed) and finishing up a few things around the house.

So needless to say, spring has sprung, and we have some projects to get done inside the house (painting, finishing the daunting task of unpacking and finding a place for all our wedding gifts) and outside the house (painting the trim, painting the shed we built last fall, planting flower beds, and fighting the never-ending war of the weeds!) Can you envision my "honey-do" list growing? Spring has always been a favorite season for me, and after this long cold winter, I couldn't be more ready for it!

What are you doing this Spring?

Love,
Lockslie

A new week....

Wow, it's been a whirlwind the last few days around here. I took my second tennis lesson Saturday morning (yet another new hobby I'm picking up -- more on that some other time), raked up a whole bunch of leaves, and planted the daylillies my grandmother gave me last year. Sunday after church and some mexican food & siesta-ing, we finished raking & bagging most of the leaves in an attempt to start getting our yard ready for spring.

I LOVE spring and I am so excited to see what we can accomplish around our yard this year (we have LOTS of big ideas, especially for the back yard) and hopefully I'll tell you all about our progress once we get started. This weekend was our first touch of warm weather -- (funny, seeing as it SNOWED last weekend) and I am LOVING it! I'm hoping that this is just the boost I need to get back on track after this cold has had me down for a while!

Saturday night I went shopping using the lessons I learned at Southern Savers' Extreme Couponing 101 class and was able to save about $1/3 of the money that we usually spend on groceries. As I collect more coupons and get better at planning out both shopping and menus, I hope I'll be able to spend about $1/2 the money. I also had what I would consider a super successful trip to CVS, and I can already tell I'm going to be addicted to getting things for free there. I think Jenny from Southern Savers' said it best, "It's like CVS is its own country, and they don't take American dollars, just paper CVS currency. The whole store is FREE!"

So this week, we've got some good stuff on the menu
Sunday - Breakfast for Dinner *grits, eggs, sausage, toast*
Monday - Chick-fil-A (free sandwiches with your church bulletin!)
Tuesday - Soup & Sandwiches
Wednesday - Birthday Dinner out to celebrate my husband's 26th year on earth!
Thursday - New York Strips & Baked Potatoes
Friday - Sunday School Social
Saturday - Family Birthday Cook-out -- Chicken Wings & other goodness

I'm also looking forward to getting back on the work-out wagon this week, might have to back up a few weeks on the running plan to catch myself up to speed again!

Hope you have a great week!
Lockslie

The Lady Quote - First Edition

In college, of all places, a new found freedom often makes girls forget some of the manners they've been taught. Independence, self-sufficiency, and feminism are preached by all types of media -- professors, books and magazines, television, music.... etc ... you get the picture. It is a time if your life where you're redefining yourself and learning who you want to become. It is a time where you have MORE than your fair share of voices pushing and pulling you in various directions and you decide that being a lady isn't really a priority.

So, you might be wondering what "The Lady Quote" has to do with any of this.... and I won't hold you in suspense any longer! In my college sorority, there was a tradition we called "The Lady Book" where a sister would share quotes from a book about being a lady. I suppose this was a subtle way of reminding the girls in our chapter that we had a certain image to uphold, but it was always fun to hear what the weekly quote would be, and learn every one's opinions --- there would always be someone who had something to say!

I'm hoping to do something similar to that here with "The Lady Quote"... just share some simple quotes I find about being a lady, let you know where I found them, what I think about them, and give you a chance to say how you feel as well. And, I'll be the first to tell you that I have a lot to learn in this department, seeing as I flat out refused to take part in our local cotillion classes when I was in middle school, and my mom is constantly reminding me of the "proper" way to handle certain situations. I've learned a lot in the last year or so and hope to learn some more as I write each edition of "The Lady Quote".

Without further ado, I give you the first edition of "The Lady Quote", inspired by my recent quest to write Thank You notes for all our many wedding gifts.

"A lady is prompt in writing thank-you notes -- within ten days of receiving a gift if at all possible. Writing a note lets the giver know in a tangible way just how grateful she is for his or her generosity. The extra effort to write a thank-you note speaks volumes about a lady's courtesy."

How to Be a Lady - A contemporary guide to common courtesy

by Candace Simpson-Giles

I was quick to write all my thank-yous after our wedding showers, but it has been quite a daunting task to complete the wedding gift thank-yous. So if you're out there reading and you haven't gotten yours yet, don't worry, it's still on its way! I definitely have NOT made the 10 day deadline, but I'm hoping to beat Emily Post's 3-month deadline. (Speaking of, how many of you have heard the rumor that you should have a whole year?? I only recently learned about the 3-month rule, and that means time is QUICKLY catching up with me!) Of course, I still believe in the better-late-than-never rule, so if I fail to make the deadline, I'll keep plugging along until they're all done. The most important part to me is making sure the notes are heartfelt and meaningful. As soon as I start to feel like I'm not personalizing what I'm writing, I give it up and save it for another day. Hopefully some day REALLY soon I'll be able to post that I've completed them all! I can't wait!

*Lady Lockslie*

So, it's been a while...

Well, it's officially been two weeks since my head cold began, and so I've been slacking off in a lot of areas of life since then. The first thing to go was exercising/running. If you've ever had a case of sinusitis like I have been battling, you know it is nearly impossible to get through everyday activities, much less run or do pilates, anything that requires balance, deep breathing, or quick movements.

Second to go was the menu planning/cooking. Each day it got easier and easier for me to say, "why don't you just pick us something up". This was a little more difficult once my husband caught the awful illness, too. It just really seemed backwards to me to spend time cooking meals I could barely taste, much less finish. Chick-fil-A got a lot of business from us this week.

At the end of the week though, we both started feeling better, just in time for the biggest snowfall in our town since I was born. Wow, was it fun to see the excitement in my husband's eyes as he watched his first "big snow" at home ever.... (he spent the first half of his life in Florida, and we haven't seen snow like that since his family moved here). The snow reminded us both of our recent honeymoon trip to Park City, Utah where there was TONS of snow. We snuggled in for a warm night and watched as the snow piled up in our back yard. Of course, Saturday morning the snow quickly melted away as the sun came up, but not before a couple of snowballs were thrown.

We went on our first mini-vacation Saturday & Sunday to Savannah, GA. It was by mere coincidence that this happened to fall on Valentine's day, too! We explored the city on foot, checking out the historical sites and even visited the bench where the famous bus stop scenes from Forest Gump were filmed. We searched out some local restaurants, ate some wonderful food, and relaxed a lot! Savannah is a really beautiful and eclectic town, and we enjoyed walking through the historic squares. We especially loved the incredible live oaks and grassy areas preserved all around town.

We came back to Columbia on Monday and celebrated Valentine's by going out to a movie, doing a little shopping, and dinner. Here's hoping that we'll get back on track with everything the rest of this week!

So that's the latest.... hope everything is well with y'all :)

Lockslie

neglect

major blogging, cooking, exercising neglect....

major everything neglect due to this awful cold-turned-sinus & ear infection.....

I'll be back to healthy hopefully again soon, and then I'll let you know the latest!

love,
lockslie

Another month rolls around...

After the best weekend so far of 2010, another month is rolling around! February will hopefully be another great month... meal planning has been pretty successful in January and I'm having fun! Learning to make some new things, perfecting some old favorites, and of course, expanding my menus to include more veggies are some of my goals for this month.

We had our friends Elizabeth & Mike stay with us this weekend, so we filled ourselves up with lots of restaurant goodies, including the old faithful Starbucks and my new favorite, the Cupcake store! Since we treated ourselves all weekend, we decided to start incorporating a few more healthy things into our menu this week. Here's what we're eating, with links to where you can find a recipe to make it yourself! I don't know how people came up with new recipes before the internet --- I guess that's where cookbooks come in to play!

Sunday - Tomato Tortellini Soup & Creamy Corn Muffins
Monday - Monday – Chicken Croissants with Cream Sauce & Broccoli -- I'm adding a can of Rotel Tomatoes & Green Chilie's to this recipe for a little extra kick
Tuesday – Date Night Out!
Wednesday – Turkey Teriyaki Meatballs, Vegetables & Rice
Thursday – Grilled Pork Chops, Corn & Collard Greens
Friday – Beer Battered *Chicken* Tacos w/ Tomato/Avocado Salsa -- I'm using *Chicken* instead of fish for this recipe
Saturday - TBA

In other news this week....I can hardly believe that this is the beginning of Week#5 of half-marathon training with Jenny. We have both resolved to do better this week! Afterall, there are only 11 weeks left until she runs in the half-marathon! We're scheduled to run a total of 12-14 miles this week, and I am determined to ACTUALLY give it my all and complete at least 12 of them. I'll let you know how it goes!

Hope you're having a great day!

Lockslie

10 great things to do on a rainy saturday

It's cold & rainy outside... my LEAST favorite weather combination. BUT, there are a few benefits to a day like this

1. Sleeping in... (well, remember that sleeping in is all relative, so sleeping until 7:30 is great if you normally wake up at 5:30)
2. Eating HOT breakfast food, drinking HOT chocolate (or coffee if that's your preference), making HOT soup or chili .... anything HOT to warm you up.... and thinking about what to make for dinner this week
3. Speaking of sleeping... napping is also a great option for a day like today (something about the quiet pitter-patter of the rain on the roof just lulls me away)
4. A day off from running (well, this has actually turned into a week off)... perhaps I'll head to the gym and do a few miles on the treadmill if I get really motivated
5. A great time to catch up on hours of DVR'd television
6. A PERFECT time to snuggle up with a great novel that's been sitting on your bedside table, read the first chapter in our new bible study book for this week, and catch
7. Time to rejoice that you cleaned the house yesterday so you can relax knowing that it's already been done (something that RARELY happens to me... I'm always cleaning on Saturdays!)
8. Writing a new blog post, reading everyone else's newest blog posts, resolving to do better and update my blog with something interesting to read... and hopefully soon, some pictures!
9. Speaking of pictures, it's a great day to go through all my pics from Brooke Turner Photography and start to figure out which ones to pick for our wedding album. (And, speaking of the wedding, perhaps I ought to spend some part of my rainy saturday putting a dent in my thank-you note list!)
10. Most of all, just finding lots of ways to spend my time on a day when I would normally sit around and complain about the weather.

So, there's lots of great things to do on this rainy Saturday, and I'm really looking forward to it! How do you spend rainy days??

Lockslie

Just keep running....

So this is week #3 of my training with Jenny. Week #2 was a success, I cut out only half a mile during one of the short runs and made up for it another day that week. This week we have two 3.5 mile runs and one 5-mile run. Of course, our plan includes REST days (love!), strength/stretching, and cross-training. Somehow, I find myself looking forward to the non-running days better than the running days.

But, when I'm out running and I see the REAL runners just breezing by me on their seemingly easy jog, I'm inspired to just keep running. Hopefully, if I just keep running, I'll look more like them in the near future!

Speaking of inspiration, I love running with music playing on my ipod....however, my workout/running playlist hasn't been updated in almost 2 years! If I have a good rhythm to run with, it is so much easier for me to forget everything and just keep running. What tunes are you running to??

Stay tuned this week for the first edition of "The Lady Quote"!

Happy Wednesday :)
Lockslie

menu un-planning

It seems like the hardest thing about menu planning is the unexpected things that pop up. Really, the hardest part (for me) about planning ANYTHING is the unexpected. My type A personality loves the plan, and hates changing it, but I'm learning when plans fall through, you have to un-plan them!

The great thing about un-planning your menu is it usually involves something fun with family & friends. This week our menu went all off schedule toward the end of the week, but we got to hang out with my family to celebrate dad's birthday and hit the USC vs. Vandy basketball game with Leigh & Gray. The other great thing about un-planning is the food you bought stretches a little farther into the next week (see tonight's meal below).

I think the key to menu planning is to realize that ALL plans are tentative, ALL plans could change in the blink of an eye, depending on how the day goes. So sometimes meals have to be re-arranged, and it's good to have meals in your weekly menu that the ingredients don't go bad if you don't use them right away.

So, what we're planning to eat this week....

Sunday - Red Wine Marinated Steaks & Sweet potatoes (our un-plan from last night)
Monday - Chicken Pasta w/ Tomato Sauce
Tuesday - date night!
Wednesday - Cheese Grits, Bacon & Eggs - Breakfast for Dinner
Thursday - Pot Roast
Friday - Sunday School Karaoke & Pizza Party

My take-away lesson for this week is to be FLEXIBLE! This may seem obvious to everyone else, but us Type A personality's have to hear this lesson over-and-over-and-over again.

Hope you all have had a great weekend and if you have the luck of having the day off tomorrow for MLK, Jr. Day, enjoy that too!

Lockslie

Monday, Monday..

Mondays are hard, aren't they? Luckily, my husband followed through with my plea to make me get out of bed for my morning workout today by leaving my phone alarm on the dresser and letting it ring and ring and ring while he got in the shower. Needless to say, pretty shortly thereafter, I was up and out of the bed to shut that awful noise off! I find that if I get up and get my Monday started with a workout, the whole week gets off to a better start! I'm happy now, that there isn't another Monday for 6 more days :)

So, I guess you're here to hear THE LATEST, right?

Well, first of all, this is the beginning of week #2 of my friend Jenny's half-marathon training. SO, why is that so significant for me? Well, I've decided that I will train with her by following her same training plan (we live in different cities, so we can't actually run together). I've been in and out of running for the last few years, and one of my goals for 2010 was to get back into it again. I joined a little late, so I only ran 6 of the total 12 miles for week #1, but the good news is, I made it through the entire "long run" of 4 miles on Saturday. I'll let you know how week #2 pans out after Saturday. My ultimate goal is to incorporate more long-distance-ish runs into my workouts. Once I've built up some endurance through this 16-week plan, we'll see where it goes from there.

The other new thing in my life is menu planning. I tried menu planning for an entire month in June 2009, before life got crazy with wedding planning, and it was a total success. I saved money and time and had lots of yummy leftovers for lunch (therefore, saved more money!) If you know anything about me, you know I LOVE to save money, so this is one key to my motivation. Another key is to share more meals at home with my husband where we can spend time one-on-one with each other without the distractions that eating out often brings. I'm trying new recipes left and right, and also, cheating a little bit off my friend Leigh, who is an amazing cook, and is also implementing menu planning more this year. Another related goal is to get my kitchen stocked up with staple items so I can whip up meals/snacks/etc on the fly whenever the planning falls through.....What are some of your go-to items in the kitchen??

Our menu this week:
Sunday - Three Cheese Beef Stuffed Shells (from Leigh's recipe blog... yummy)
Monday - Chili (a perfect dish for this CRAZY cold weather) - I was nervous about using half ground beef & half venison this time, but it turned out great!
Tuesday - Date Night!
Wednesday - Girls' night with Leigh!
Thursday - Pork Chops, Baked Sweet Potatoes, Black-Eyed Peas
Friday - Aloha Chicken & Rice
Saturday - TBA

You'll notice my menus are MAJORLY lacking in vegetables. My main go-to vegetable is a salad, because I have always been VERY picky when it comes to cooked veggies. My husband loves vegetables and is the complete opposite of me on the pickiness-spectrum, so I'm looking for suggestions. Can you help me out???

Lockslie

Hello (Blog) World....

Let's start first and foremost with a confession....

If you asked me a year ago about blogging, I would have said everyone who was obsessed with reading and/or writing on blogs was a little bit crazy! However, since that time, I've become one of those girls who follows MANY blogs on a daily basis, and checks in on others every couple of weeks.

That being said, I often find myself with something to say and no outlet for which to express it! Granted, there is Facebook or even Twitter, but I enjoy reading blogs so much now, I thought it would be pretty cool to have my own. I have absolutely no computer knowledge, so you'll probably notice that my setup remains basic for a LONG time until I get more experienced. Luckily, I have a few friends with pretty successful blogs, so hopefully they'll give me some pointers, advice, and help.(Hint, Hint).

I'm sure you'll learn more about me if you keep coming back, but probably for now it's just friends reading, so you already know who I am and what I'm about, so I'll save all those lovely details for later posts. I hope you'll visit back to hear "the latest" which will probably include a little bit of my experiences as a new wife, what i'm reading/learning/memorizing in scripture, my latest interests (currently running, menu planning, couponing, house decorating), a recurrent post called "The Lady Quote" (more on this soon), and just anything else I determine worthy of sharing with the world at any given time.

Hope to see you back again soon!
Lockslie