A Quick Catch Up: Long Time No Talk

May 16, 2017May 15, 2017 ~ Tasty Trials and Travels ~ 5 Comments

Hi friends!! I have missed you all in these past few weeks!! We officially have internet in our new house so expect to see me poppin in a little more regularly from now on! I still haven’t quite figured out a blogging schedule yet, but hopefully I will get into a grove these next couple weeks.

I need to take a minute to say Happy Belated Mother’s Day to all you fabulous momma’s and momma’s to be! My mom has spent the last two weeks getting our new house organized and furnishing it with all kinds of new stuff we needed. My mom event went shopping with us on mother’s day for our house. She is truly one of a kind. My mother-in-law visited us for a week (she left on Friday) and helped us get together a few rooms in our new house too. If it weren’t for my mom and MIL we would seriously be living out of boxes for at least the next 6 months. Mary and Cathy, we owe you our firstborn. 😉

See, here’s the proof that it took a village to get through these boxes…. this was probably 1/4 of them!

This is what our kitchen looked like during the move… I can’t even count the hours my mom spent measuring and cutting shelf liner to line all 253 shelves and drawers in our kitchen and bathrooms. 😉

I have to show you guys this picture for a couple of reasons. 1. I told you about how one of my dogs was putting my shoes on the bed while I was away when we were staying at my dad’s house… well I found the official culprit! My husband took our other dog, Riley, to work last week and Callie was home alone for the day. I came home to a few of my clothes (dirty workout clothes) pulled out of my hamper and strewn about on my bed along with a few of my shoes. I went looking for Callie and found one in the basement and when I went into the guest room, I found Callie along with my other running shoe right next to her. My husband keeps telling me to close our bedroom door when I leave, but I kinda think it is really funny to see what she has moved each day when I get home. 2. This is our old second guest bedroom set and we found a great deal for new sheets at Bed Bath and Beyond this weekend so we decided to give our guest bedroom a makeover.

Here is the new look! I am loving whites and grays and anything neutral for this new house.

We aren’t quite done organizing yet, but we did get our bedroom put together finally!

We may still need a couch or two, but don’t worry, my husband came home with a ping pong table the other day…. men… We went to Southeastern Salvage on Saturday and got 4 new rugs! I just love the color of this outdoor rug for our deck!

Since our new yard is fenced from the front to the back, we can now just let the dogs out and not worry about them. The other day I couldn’t find Riley and went looking for him and found him just lounging in the grass in the backyard. It is safe to say he is loving the new ~~house~~ yard.

I have lots more to show you guys, but I have to wrap up this post now. I talk to you all soon!! Thank you so much for sticking around through this crazy hectic time right now. I truly appreciate each and every one of you. 🙂

Questions:

Favorite place to shop?
Any trips coming up?
What is new in your life?

Dallas Part 2 … The Best Sendoff Ever!

March 24, 2017March 23, 2017 ~ Tasty Trials and Travels ~ 1 Comment

Happy Friday!!! Are you guys as ready for the weekend as I am? My husband and I have plans for sushi tonight and we have plans to go to a comedy show tomorrow night with some friends! I can’t wait!!

Onto part two of our amazing last weekend in Dallas…

Saturday night my sister and her boyfriend arranged to have a going away party for us at their place. We made mexican food for the party and it was a huge hit!

These boys can cook.

Little Otis helped set up for the party… 🙂

My sister spread out all of these pictures of us from our time in Dallas. It was so fun to look back on all of the great memories.

They continued to the mirror where she got crafty and highlighted our moved from Texas to Tennessee.

And then I turn around and see this!!!! How cute are these little treat bowls with funny going away quotes on Texas paper!?!?

Our delicious spread!!

My sister even had these cute cups and napkins.

And she made a Texas shaped cake!!! #besthostsever

Our sweet friend Shelby. I really am going to miss these two.

We just hung out all night and played games and chatted. Otis was over it by 11pm.

And as if that party and all the cute details wasn’t enough… my sister and her boyfriend got us a going away present of a bag filled with Texas stuff. I may have shed a tear or two.

I really am going to miss being in the same city as my sister. It went by wayyy too fast, but we already have our next visit with them planned so we will be looking forward to that! It is time to go get this busy day started with a workout and a big ole cup of coffee!!! Have a great Friday and enjoy your weekend!!!

Questions:

What do you have planned for this weekend?
Do you drink coffee? If so, how much per day?
When buying or renting a house, besides location, what is one of the most important things to you?

Back to Dallas to Say Goodbye Part 1

March 22, 2017March 21, 2017 ~ Tasty Trials and Travels ~ 3 Comments

Hi friends!!! I can’t believe it is already Wednesday! This week is just flying by for me… actually this year is flying by for me. I can’t believe it is almost April!! I would like time to just sloooow down for a bit. 😉 Last weekend we were in Dallas with the movers and spent the rest of the time with my sister and her boyfriend so I am excited to share some pictures with you all today. It was the perfect weekend sendoff to our amazing time in Dallas. I can’t believe it is already over… it feels like we were just moving there yesterday.

Oh… as for the second house we put an offer on last week that had multiple offers on it… well, we didn’t get it. So back on the hunt we go. We are feeling a lot less stressed now that we are all moved out of our Dallas house so it is time to be patient and wait for the right house to pop up here in Nashville. Until then we save our money and drive my dad nuts. 😉

My husband spent all of last week in Dallas and I flew down early Thursday morning after kissing my babies goodbye.

The movers spent all day boxing up our belongings on Thursday and then a good portion of Friday loading up the moving truck with everything. They were thrilled with our 4-story home. 😉 After a long day on Thursday, we headed over to see my sister’s new apartment. We grabbed a quick dinner at a new restaurant called Pok. We took it to go and were so amazed at how good the food was. My sister has been raving about this place and she was not exaggerating. I would go broke if I lived near this place. 😉 I got the tuna/mango bowl and my mouth is watering just thinking about it now!!

We got in some sweet cuddles with little Otis. He looks so serious in this picture. 🙂

Now look at him in this picture… can you spot his tongue? 😉 LOL so funny.

After dinner my sister and I worked on putting her new bookshelf together… that was fun. 😉

After the movers were finished on Friday afternoon we cleaned up the house and say goodbye for the last time. This was my favorite house we have had so far and I really will miss it. It was just so perfect for us and brings back so many good memories. I hope the new owners love it as much as we did.

We quickly ran a few errands and then headed to my sister’s apartment where we spent the rest of the weekend. Friday night we headed to Malai Kitchen, a thai restaurant that my sister and her boyfriend have been wanting to try.

We got a few appetizers to start including edamame and crab dip. Yum!

I got the red curry cod with stir fried veggies and rice. It was the best cod I have ever had!! My husband got some fancy type of ribs and loved them too.

After dinner we headed back to their apartment to work on putting together their two new desks for their new apartment. My sister is in law school and her boyfriend is in grad school for his MBA…. so they needed two desks. 🙂 My sister and I got both of them put together by Saturday morning and were pretty proud of our work. 🙂

The boys were conveniently out shopping for a grill all morning. 😉

My sister and I ran on a nearby trail on Saturday and Sunday. It has been a long time since I have gone on a run outside due to colder weather in Nashville and my treadmill being in Dallas. (PS I can’t wait to get it back out!! I have missed it, but also enjoyed the break on my joints.) My favorite running buddy!

Saturday afternoon I enjoyed a big salad for lunch out on the patio… with a side of Otis, my doggie nephew.

I will pick up here tomorrow as this post is getting a little long and I am ready for some dinner. (I wrote this last night.:)) Have a wonderful day!!!

Questions:

How was your weekend?
What did you have for dinner last night?
Anyone have a birthday in April?

Exciting News and A Thanksgiving Week Recap Part 1!

November 29, 2016 ~ Tasty Trials and Travels ~ 6 Comments

Hi guys! I hope you all had an amazing Thanksgiving and had some time to relax and eat yummy food with loved ones. We sure did. I actually just got back to Dallas yesterday afternoon so I am slowly getting back into the swing of things. I made the 10 hour car ride with the 3 pups and boy was it a long one!

Before I start recapping last week in Nashville with my family, I have some very exciting news to share! If you follow me on Facebook or Instagram, you may have seen my announcement this afternoon. We are officially moving to Nashville, TN in early 2017! We are so excited!!! As I have mentioned before, our long term plan was to hopefully end up in Nashville one day, but this day came a lot sooner than we expected. We had been anticipating a move early next year (for my husband’s career), but we were fully expecting to end up in a different state. In mid October, my husband was presented with an opportunity to move to Nashville and we were both in shock! We started getting excited, but realistically we didn’t think it would really end up happening. Fast forward a couple weeks… and it is official! We are not expecting this move to be permanent, but we are happy to take what time we can get to live near friends and family in Nashville. The one downside is leaving my sister, her boyfriend, and their pup in Dallas. I get teared up just thinking about it. It has been so so so nice getting to spend so much time with them these last two years.

So I hope that helps explain my sporadic blogging these last few weeks… life has been a little hectic. 😉 This also explains my mom deep cleaning our house and my mother-in-law visiting (she helped us paint a lot of our house). Thank the lord for our mommas! We don’t have an exact moving date yet as we will wait for our house to sell in Dallas (in 2017) and then start really looking in Nashville. I will be sure to update you guys along the way!!

Let’s rewind back to a week ago at 4am. This was my view as we began our 10 hour car ride from Dallas to Nashville. The pups were very curious why we woke them up so early.

We arrived early afternoon and my dad and I took the pups to the park for a long walk. We all needed to move after that car ride! At least Riley was looking at the camera…

After our walk we headed to a new-to-me restaurant called Wild Iris. We ran into my dad’s friends and grabbed a drink at the bar with them before sitting down for dinner.

I got the salmon and I can’t even explain how good it was. It came with this kale pesto and a bunch of roasted veggies. Mmmm mmm mmm!

Tuesday morning I headed to the grocery store bright and early to shop for Thanksgiving dinner and avoid the crowds before picking up my husband at the airport. He had to work that day, but later on we headed to the park for another walk with the doggies.

Then we met up with my favorite french fry loving little brother and dad for a quick dinner.

The dogs made themselves right at home. 🙂

Wednesday was spent baking and lounging around before heading to dinner and the Predators (hockey) game!!

How hilarious is my brother’s face in this picture? The guy next to us told him, “Someday soon you will like that!” 😉 We love this boy so much!!

My husband went to grab a drink and came back and said to my brother, “The cameraman wants you to dance for him!!” (Side note: my little brother LOVES to get on the Jumbo-tron at the games so he was SO excited!) They ran up the stairs and waited for the whistle to blow.

The cutest!!!

Thursday morning, Jacob and I woke up super early to get ready for the annual Boulevard Bolt (Thanksgiving Day 5 mile race). We sported our Santa hats for the race too. 🙂