A Non-Boring Thanksgiving {2015}

Hello everyone! 

Long time no blog posts. We all know I fail a bit when it comes to consistency on here. It is not intentional because I really enjoy blogging, but life gets in the way (a lot) and I know you all understand how that goes. 

Ash says, "If I fits I ships!"

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Mine was definitely unforgettable. It started better than expected, as in we did not hit any traffic at all on Wednesday and we left not long before rush hour! We did get slightly congested at one point, but I couldn't complain considering I figured I would be sitting on the highway for ever. 

Thanksgiving day was spent with my family and all the animals. We ate, watched football, and ate some more!

Friday Nick and I headed to his parents house to have a second Thanksgiving. I ate some more, watched more football, ate again, and then Nick and I went to Tanglewood to see all the lights! Christmas lights/Christmas music is pretty much a dream come true for me.

So many lights! This is just the beginning.

On Saturday Nick and I got up and set out to Pilot Mountain to hike. It was a beautiful 70 degree day and we hiked forever. Definitely my fault as I thought Nick had given up to early and I decided that that was totally unacceptable...Well about 3 or 4 miles later I was regretting my optimistic attitude about forging on. Long story short we made it! 

I am likely trying to say, "Do you hate me for making you walk an extra hour?"

Look at those smiles! This was only about halfway into our journey...

Later that afternoon/evening my sister was taken to the ER for possible appendicitis. She refused to let me take a picture of us in the hospital but I did go to visit her on Sunday and she unfortunately had to stay until at least Monday if not Tuesday. Doesn't seem to be appendicitis but we're not quite sure what is going on with her. Definitely not how anyone envisioned their Thanksgiving ending, but thankfully Caitlin is alright and hopefully she will be released soon!

How was your Thanksgiving? Was it eventful, relaxing, hectic, all of the above?

White Bean Chicken Chili

Happy hump day!

If you haven't already figured it out, I'm a big fan of chili. I like the traditional chili as well as white bean chili. I found my new favorite 'traditional' chili recipe here. Blending one can of beans made an incredible difference in the taste - and when I say incredible I mean great taste! 

We all know chili goes well with these cooler nights and beautiful fall sunrises.

On Sunday I was itching to make a white bean chicken chili so A) I had dinner for Sunday night and B) I had lunch for the work week. 

Not only was I blown away when I tried it Sunday night but, dare I say, I think it tasted even better on Monday when I had it for lunch!

Here is the original recipe. I used all the ingredients that the recipe called for and only made a few slight changes.

I used 2 cans of cannellini beans and I chopped up half a white onion and two gloves of garlic and placed them in the bottom of the crockpot and then placed the chicken on top. 

On Sunday I used monterrey pepper jack cheese but for lunch on Monday I used cheddar cheese and honestly, it tasted equally good with either cheese.

This is definitely going to become a staple in my household!

Do you think you'll give it a try?

Oysters, Food, and Trees - Oh My!

This weekend ended up being an extremely relaxing one. I was originally going to be at a horse show but since Remi decided to injure himself, we missed out. 

As much as that bums me out, it is okay because next weekend is going to be quite busy and having nothing to do this weekend was actually really nice! 

Friday night consisted of beer and Mexican food because, as optimistic as I was about Friday, it started off not so good. I had to go onto campus (which is a pain because parking is nonexistent and I thought I solved all the problems by parking in my friends driveway since she was at a horse show) in order to get recommendations and I had to go visit the office of the registar - see I HAD a plan to kill all 3 birds with one stone and then I would finally have some peace restored to my life. Well...I power walked/sprinted to my first teacher meeting and she wasn't there. Yep, she wrote down the wrong day and thought we were meeting after the weekend on Monday. Needless to say this was very upsetting- especially since she e-mailed to clear the confusion but still hasn't e-mailed me back about rescheduling. Thankfully my second meeting, with another teacher, was successful and the office of the registar couldn't give me the answer I really wanted but at least I now know what's going on. 

So yea, that was my Friday.

Saturday was a good day. I got my butt kicked by zumba, ran all the errands I had to run, and then Nick and I went to have oysters at his place with his room mates and some friends. It was dark and my hands were freezing but it was a good night that consisted of a fire and beer - and oysters, but I don't like them. The only thing that could have made it better was s'mores. Maybe next time ;)

And guess what else exciting thing happened on Saturday? A tree. Yes, I now have a baby tree in my front yard. Apparently the community did a plant a tree day (and I'm so bummed that I missed it and didn't plant my own tree because that would have been awesome) so when I woke up there was a baby tree in my yard. 

Sunday was all about laziness, food, and football. Seriously lazy. 

Ash and I enjoyed some morning snuggles

Nick and I literally left the house once for the span of, maybe, 20 minutes just to get Starbucks and Bojangles

Our wild Sunday adventure to get food since I neglected to buy breakfast food even though I went to the grocery store the day before.

While I may have forgotten the breakfast food, I did buy food to try out a new chili recipe (coming soon!) and it was so incredibly good. 

White bean chicken chili.

The only downfall to the weekend was my time spent studying and remembering how much I dislike word problems.

How was your weekend?

Fantastic Friday

Hey guys, how's it going?

I am sure everyone is happy that it is Friday! I know I am.

So what has been going on in my life lately? Find out below.

Linking up with Amanda

1// 

The good news is that Remi is going to be a-okay. The bad news...I can't ride him for two weeks. Thankfully week one is coming to a close so I only have to survive one more week of not riding my horse but considering the stress/frustration that I keep running into thanks to nursing schools...I really need my horse back.

2//

Speaking of nursing schools...applying to all different schools literally makes me feel like this:

Why can't people just do their job and respond to e-mails/phone calls?! I have questions people and I need YOUR help since your e-mail or phone number is listed as the contact to my questions. Okay, rant over.

3//

So today you get another picture of Remington because today/this weekend is our one year together! Well big nugget we have come a long way in a year: I went from not liking you/partially being afraid that I was going to become airborne every time I rode you to loving you and completely trusting you. Can't wait to see what we accomplish next year.

4//

Funnies:

When Nick asks what I want for dinner..

How I felt after stepping up my workout routine this week...

How I feel studying for yet another pre-entrance test for nursing school...

5//

So I may or may not be slightly obsessed with Same Old Love by Selena Gomez. Listen below!

p.s. Sephora's VIB sale is today! I contained myself and only went after one item, which slightly broke my heart because, hello 20% off makeup/fragrance, but it also made me feel somewhat good that I still have some self control in life.

Other makeup junkies...what all did you go after?

Crest 3D Whitestrips Professional Effects - Review

Sorry it has taken me so long to get around to this. Between being out of town and frantically applying to every nursing school possible - not really, but it feels like it - I have been neglecting the blog.

I was going to update you about my weekend since we had an unfortunate event happen at the horse show but I know I kept saying I would write a review on the whitening strips so I decided to do that instead.

First of all, I would like to say that the box of whitestrips was purchased by myself. I decided to purchase them because, while my teeth aren't bad, I wanted my teeth to be whiter. Plus the reviews for these were great and the before and after pictures suckered me in - so I gave it a go! 

What you get: 20 pouches - 40 strips.

How it works: You wear the strips for 30 minutes everyday for 20 days. In other reviews people noted that they experienced some sensitivity and would take a day or two off before using the strips again.

I experienced minimal sensitivity and think I only skipped one day.

Results: 

Before

After

Overall Thoughts: The nice thing about the whole process is that it is easy. You apply the strips for 30 minutes once a day for 20 days and you obtain a whiter smile. I do like the convenience of the whitestrips! Overall, I wasn't blown away by my results. I can notice a bit of a difference in my two pictures (I also took them in different lighting, which I just realized and that probably was't the best), but in person I really do not notice much of a difference when I smile. 

Do I think they were a fail? No, I think there is a bit of a difference but compared to the before and after pictures I had seen posted all over the internet, I was kinda bummed that mine didn't look that different. Considering the price and the convenience I would probably give it a go again. 

What do you think? Is there a method that you use to whiten your teeth that you feels works well? Comment down below!

I will be back Friday with my weekly updates and favorites!

A Busy Halloween Weekend

Halloween has come and gone and we have hit November. Buckle your seat belts ladies and gentlemen because I am now all aboard the Christmas train. Don't worry I won't bombard you with Christmas upon Christmas stuff because I am crazed with nursing school applications.

But just know that before long...I will start hinting at Christmas ideas, makeup, decorations, etc. 

Anyway, back to Halloween 2015 weekend! I was crazed last week - hence I didn't get my Friday post up. On Friday I drove to a clinic about 2 hours away to watch Remi learn more about being a mature show horse. He thought it was more fun to goof around but he did learn some valuable lessons. I spent all day out of town. It was totally worth it but I was tired and had to be out of town again on Saturday. 

Saturday I went to meet my mom and sister to have our hair done. I had a lot of fun spending time with them but I frantically ran home because I was so far behind on the Halloween shenanigans. I had to go get candy and decorate the pumpkin. I planned on doing the chalkboard spray paint pumpkin with the writing...but since I ran out of time I did a backwards pumpkin instead!

Then I proceeded to 'dress up' the dogs...

They have been demoted to decorative collars since they think their outfits are toys and proceed to chew on them.

Ash sporting his Halloween 'outfit.' Boone has the same one but he refused to stick around for a picture.

Since mine are no fun in the dressing up department, I saw this adorable picture on Facebook and definitely need to come up with something clever for the dogs next year.

After handing out candy to the few trick-or-treaters that stopped by, and having a precious 1 year old confuse trick-or-treating and give me all of her candy, Nick, Boone, and I snuggled on the couch and were completely lazy the rest of the night. 

Sunday was a day of laziness and catching up with errands, chores, etc. 

I did make a new dish for dinner and it was so good!

Chicken Parmesan Bake:

Definitely try this out!

So that was my super exciting Halloween weekend. How was yours?

I will be out of town for a horse show at the end of the week so I, once again, probably won't have a Friday post up but on Wednesday I am going to tell you my experience with Crest Professional Effects White Strips. Next week I am going to bring you my October favorites!