2012: Year in Review

I feel like everyone says this during this time of the year, but I cannot believe another year is quickly coming to an end. We have had so many blessings this year and it was so exciting to look back through all of our pictures. I'm sure 2013 will have many exciting things in store for us but before we move on, here is a quick review of some of the most memorable times of 2012.  January:  Rang in the new year at a friends house!

Prepping of our lot began

February:  House was framed!

Signed up to sell Scentsy!!  March: 6th annual ski trip to Santa Fe, NM

(& a horrible, horrible haircut that will never ever happen again!) House was bricked

April: Lots of progress had been made on the house

Concert with friends

May: Closed on our house! Sadly, I can't find a picture from closing but here is one celebrating!

Brought home our new baby

Celebrated a friends wedding (p.s. please ignore my ghostly color...gross.)

Went to the Byron Nelson

June: Celebrated our 1st anniversary at the same restaurant we celebrated our engagement at.  Planted baby trees in our backyard

 July: Stood as a Matron of Honor in one of my best friend's wedding Hubs and I at the wedding

August: Had our 1st get together at our new house

September: Finally met Lia at a tailgate in CS 

Tailgated in Dallas for the SMU game

More tailgating

October: Must have been a laid back month. I don't have any pictures that really document anything other than our growing puppy!

November: Put up our first tree!

December: Enjoyed a fire while watching football in our backyard

Celebrated Christmas in Houston

Enjoyed (kinda) our 1st snow in our house

There you have it, our 2012 year in review! I am so exciting about 2013. I have a feeling big things are going to happen! Stay tuned to find out...!!! (Leave a comment if you posted a year in review on your blog, I love reading these kind of post!)

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December Goals

I have done a few posts in the past where I list my monthly goals and sometimes follow up and other times not. I found a fun link up that I am hoping will hold me more accountable in the month of December! Go check out the amazing blogs from the wonderful link up hostess, Meghan, Meghan, and Lori. This is my first time to participate in the "Go For The Goal" link up and I know yall are as anxious to read my goals as I am to post them so here ya go...

one. finish all of my Christmas shopping by Dec. 15th! I stress myself out every year and am determined to avoid last minute shopping.
two. walk/run with our crazy puppy at least 3 times per week. (This will benefit both of us! Me= Hope to lose a few pounds & Zieg= Release a ton of energy before bedtime!)
three. drink only 1 coke zero a day. I am an addict, I admit it. 
four. to go along with the goal above, drink MORE water. I do not drink enough and really think this will make me feel better everyday. 
five. lose 6 pounds. For those that know me IRL, this might sound like a silly goal but my pants are snug, my shirts are tight and I don't like the way my clothes are fitting lately!
six. keep up with laundry. My husband and I are horrible at this. We wait till everything is dirty and then spend an entire weekend doing laundry. 
seven. keep up with our budget. We have a good idea where our money goes every month but definitely have areas that we can cut back. (Note to self... stay out of Target!)
eight. post and stick to our meal plan each week. With the holidays upon us, we are busy and not home as much as I would like to be. 
nine. hang our dining room curtains and find curtains for our living room.
ten. post at least once or twice a week. Big goal, I know. 
What are your goals for the month of December? Link up with Meghan, Meghan, and Lori and check out everyone else's goals!

Meal Plan

Chris was out of town at our deal lease this weekend. Unfortunately, he did not get anything but sounds like he still had a good time. He comes home for a few days and then is headed out of town again. Me time is nice every now and then but I miss him when he's gone. Hunting season provides lots of time to myself and I am over it! This weekend was pretty low key. I spent a lot of time doing things around our house and will have a post revealing most of it later this week. Since Chris will be out of town most of the week/weekend, our meals are pretty simple. 
Sunday- Brown Sugar Glazed Pork Chops These have become an every other week meal in our house. They are so good and super easy! 

Monday- Crock Pot Roast
Tuesday- Hamburger Helper
Wednesday- Saturday- I am on my own and will eat whatever I have at home or whatever sounds good!
I don't like cooking for one and promise our next weeks meal plan to be amazing! What's on your menu for the week? 

Another Vacation & Meal Plan!

Hello Blog World!! 
I have missed writing but have done a good job about keeping up with your blogs! There have been so many announcements about weddings, babies, house buying, etc. & that is definitely not why I have been gone! I stopped blogging a few months ago because it became a chore and kinda stressful. I would think to myself that I haven't blogged in a few days but really wanted to. I was so (and still am) so busy with the happenings of every day life that I just couldn't keep up. I can't promise that this will be a frequent thing again but I do miss posting our meal plans, about our weekend, and other random life events. I will blog when I want to and definitely not let myself stress about it! 
Now that I babbled for a bit, here is our meal plan for the week!
Sunday- Brown Sugar Glazed Pork Chops YUM!! This was my second time to make these and they are so good and super easy to make! The only thing I recommend is to get pork chops on the thinner side. It really doesn't matter, but the thicker they are the longer they take to cook. Last night we had these with rice, salad, and bread!

Monday- Cheez-It Chicken Fingers I am looking for new, easy, weeknight meals! I have never made these but like all of the ingredients so I am hoping they are good! These come from one of my favorite food blogs and a place that I get a lot of my meal ideas from. 

Tuesday- I will pick up something on the way home. I have a leadership meeting to go to for work. 
Wednesday- This is our night to go out to eat!! We used to go to Texas Roadhouse every Wednesday but our last few visits have not been that great so we have moved our weekly date night to a mexican restaurant called Matt's. 
Thursday- Sausage Gravy Breakfast Bake

I hope everyone had a great start to their week! I am looking forward to having next week off and going home to visit with family!

Weekly Meal Plan

This weekend has been one of the best in a long time minus feeling a little sick. It was the first weekend after a full week of school and my birthday! All I wanted to do was relax and spend time with my husband & that is exactly what we did. Although I have a long birthday wish list, I am still trying to make up my mind about what I want. Yesterday, Chris smoked a brisket for a little over 10 hours and I think it was the best one he had ever made!! I was able to sleep in a little bit today (after feeding the dog, letting her play, and letting her go out 7 times). We have plans every weekend from now until the end of football/hunting season. Today was the second time this weekend that Chris woke up to go hunting. I'm sure he will be excited to show me his loot from the day when he gets home!
Meals this week are going to be very simple. We are having left overs and take out a couple night because the days will be so crazy!
Sunday-  Chris smoked a brisket and we had beans, macaroni, & potato salad with it! YUM!!

Monday-  Leftover brisket
Tuesday-  Oven Roasted Sausage, Potatoes, and Peppers

Wednesday-  Texas Roadhouse
Thursday- We will be leaving right after work on Friday so we have to pack and get everything together on Thursday. Dinner will most likely be something Pei Wei or Chipotle which of course I don't mind!
Friday- Saturday-  We will be in College Station for the first home football game. We have season tickets and a huge tailgate (that grows every year)! I can't wait for the first game and it will be even more exciting with College Game Day there!! 

Sunday Social

First off, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!!! I had all intentions of posting my birthday wish list last week but school got in the way. Last week was a crazy week! I was so busy during the day and when I came home all I wanted to do was relax on the couch. 
Today, I am linking up with Neely for the 13th week of Sunday Social. Today's topic is End of Summer Wrap Up!
1) What was your favorite trip/vacation/activity this summer?  Hmm, so much went on this summer that it is hard to just pick one but I definitely have to go with one of my best friends weddings! We celebrated her bachelorette party in New Orleans and then a few weeks later her and her husband were married in Irving!

2) Favorite outfit look of the summer/clothing item? I spent a lot of my summer in a bathing suit! Definitely my favorite outfit for summer!
3) What is one thing you wish you had gotten to do this summer?  Relax?? I am a school teacher and did a lot of stuff school related throughout the summer. I have a really hard time turning off my brain during the summer. I taught summer school the first half, taught 3-4 inservice sessions offered through the district and then helped interview for a few different positions towards the end of the summer. I enjoyed most of it but wished I had taken time to sit at home and do nothing!!
4) Favorite Song of the Summer? I'm sure this will get a good laugh out of people and I didn't just sit around and listen to this song, but it had a good beat and reminds me of my childhood...

5) Favorite movie/tv show of the summer: Hands down, The Bachelorette! I absolutely love and am obsessed with this show! Also love Emily so it was that much better!
I can't believe summer is over... It is bittersweet! I love having time off but have to keep myself busy!
Enjoy the rest of your long weekend!

Weekly Meal Plan

I survived my first day of school!! I feel like that is a big accomplishment considering how tired I was. I tried to go to bed early last night but I was nervous, anxious, and excited to meet my new first graders. I will do a whole post on teaching and what exactly it is I teach!!
I could do a weekend recap but it would be extremely boring for everyone!! All we did was relax and spend time together before the craziness of school started. 
I normally have my meal plans typed up and ready to go for Monday but I was lazy this weekend and didn't get around to it. I planned to make one of my favorite meals tonight, stir fry, but my husband just got home and said if you are tired, we can just eat leftovers. WHAT@?!?@? I almost fell in the floor! If anyone knows my husband in real life, he does not eat leftovers more than one time. Needless to say, I am excited and am re-vamping our meal plan for the week!!
Sunday- Chris smoked a pork shoulder Saturday night and we had a TON leftover! We had pulled pork sandwiches with macaroni & beans. 
Monday-  We were going to have stir fry but are now having more leftover pork. 
Tuesday-  Stir Fry ( I have posted this recipe before and it is amazing, healthy, and so so good!)
Wednesday-  Texas Roadhouse
Thursday-  Pork Chops in the Crockpot
Friday-  Hamburger Helper!! 
Anyone want to come over and eat this week lol??? Not my best week, but I promise it will get better!! 

Sunday Social

Hope everyone enjoyed their weekend! Today is officially my last day of summer. I have mixed feelings about starting school again but will save that for a whole other post. I am linking up with Neely for the 12th week of Sunday Social. The theme for today's questions is all about the internet!

1. What is the first website you log on to each day? 

I look at Gmail, Facebook, Twitter all before getting out of bed! 

2. Give us some funny websites you visit that we need to know about

Hmm... I can't really think of any at the moment. 

3. Pinterest or Facebook? Why? 

This is a hard one!! I like to stalk my friends on FB but I love to find new recipes, clothes, ideas on pinterest. So I have to save I like them both the same!

4. Twitter or Instagram? Why? 

Definitely Twitter! I can see read all of the tweets and see most of the pictures that I would see on Instagram.

5. Favorite youtube video...post it!

6. Biggest online pet peeve? People being fake! I blog to keep it real. Of course people aren't going to say oh I am having a shitty day, let me blog about it but the truth is posted on my blog as much as I see appropriate! 

WILW & Oh, How Pinteresting

So glad that I have time to link up with Jamie for What I'm Loving Wednesday & Michelle for Oh, How Pinteresting!!

I'm loving that a few of our friends came over Saturday night! We have been trying to get everyone together for awhile now and it finally happened!! Perfect way to end my summer!

I'm loving that Ziegen is done with her puppy shots. Here she is at the last appointment, hoping that she was going to be done soon. Next up... getting her spayed...

I'm loving Scenty's September warmer of the month! I am slightly obsessed and may or may not be warming my first (& new favorite fall scent). You can check them all out on my Scentsy website which is here. 

I'm loving my new hair gel. If you have been reading my blog for awhile, you know that they discontinued the hair gel that I had been using for forever!!

I'm loving this table that a friend of mine's husband made. It is similar to one that you can get from Pottery Barn. 

I'm loving these pins...

I'm loving my husband!!