Happy Thanksgiving!

I would like to wish everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving! Remember to be thankful not just today, but everyday.

 

I am thankful for you all!

source 

 

 

Also, Happy Hanukkah for anyone celebrating the first night of the festival of lights!

 

source

 

 

I am thankful for....

In honor of Thanksgiving, I decided to list out a few things I am thankful for. Not only thankful for

today, or this week, but thankful for all the time-everyday.

 

one :: I am thankful for my beautiful, loving, sometimes crazy family. My parents, brother, aunts, uncles

 and cousins are a huge part of my life. We always know how to make each other laugh or cry. We

 always find ways to pick on each other (mostly it’s a gang up on one person for the day) but no matter

 what is going on in our busy lives, we always have each other. We can always round the troops and get

 together for anything. I am truly thankful for these people and I couldn’t ask for anyone better.

 

 

two :: My angel baby puppy muffin. She is my life. I am so thankful that past events in my life, events

that I couldn’t understand needed to happen for a reason or else I wouldn’t have her and wouldn't get

to spend my days snuggling with my puppy every day. She is happy no matter what her day was like and

I think we can all learn a little something from our pets. No matter how rough or tough our days are at

the end of the night, we need to be a little overly excited to see the one’s you love, even if you just saw

them this morning. Life’s too short to be upset all the time!

 

 

three :: The boy. He truly knows how to light up my life. I am so blessed to have him by my side. I am

thankful for all the moments we have together, whether it is spending our weekends running around,

going on our spontaneous adventures or seeing each other for 10 minutes after a long days work, I love

him and I am thankful to call him mine.

 

 

four :: My health. So many people take for granted being healthy, being able to stand up, to run, to see,

to feel, to breathe. As the famous saying goes, "you don’t know what you’ve got ‘till it’s gone", I am so

appreciative that I am healthy. I could always be improving this working out more BUT I am thankful

that I have the ability to know I can work out and therefore I am thankful.

 

 

five :: My job. I am thankful that I have a place to go every day to spread my wings, learn something

new and teach something new to someone else. Yes, I understand it is WORK, however, I am so

fortunate that I have a great job at such a young age when so many people do not. I am thankful I can

provide for myself, and eventually a family. I am thankful that I can lend a helping hand when disaster

strikes or a charity is standing outside the supermarket. I am thankful for my job being fun and

interesting and much more than just a job.

 

 

six :: I am thankful, that there are still so many kind hearted people in the world. Sometimes, it is so

hard to see the good all around us when there is so much evil going on - when the news only focuses on

the bad, the negative and the disasters occurring all around us. I am thankful for those who continue to

show kindness and continue to be the greater good. It is so true folks; there is still a lot of good in the

world. We just need to focus on it a little more it rather than the bad and maybe it will shine through.

Maybe it will shine brighter than the bad and the evil.

 

 

seven :: I am thankful for all of you. I started my blog as a new adventure for myself. A new beginning,

a way to express myself, meet new people and see where the blogging world can take me. I am so

thankful that in only a month I have met some pretty great people. I have learned so many interesting

things about make-up, running, eating better, new recipes, funny stories, you name it!!  I have received

love, kind words, and thoughtful notes. I never would have imagined my blog would become what it is

so far and I just want you, anyone reading, to know that I am thankful for you.

 

I could probably go on and on, but this post is getting pray-tay wordy! Be thankful, be kind and enjoy

your holiday weekend!

 

source

 

 

Small Business Saturday - Shop Small

source

 

In preparation for the crazy week ahead, I decided to take a different turn on a shopping/fashion post!

Surprisingly, A LOT of people don't know what Small Business Saturday is.

So I decided, I am here to help explain :)

 

SMS was started a few years back by American Express. It is always the Saturday after Black Friday and it is a way for consumers to support small business owners. Too many times we get so wrapped up in the big retailer sales, lining up at 3:30am and now getting in even earlier and hustling on Thanksgiving night (HATE THIS) that we forget how important it is to shop smaller, help our economy in a different way, support the other guys and take a step back from the hustle and bustle of the malls.

 

 

If you have an American Express Card you can register your card here

and earn a $10 statement credit when you make a purchase of $10 or more at a qualifying small business location on Nov 30. Once you register you can search near your location for participating small business locations.

 

 

Even if you don't have a card, you can still look-up locations andshops around your area and participant in such an amazing program! If you are a small business owner, you are more than welcome to register your business and be added to list!

 

 

As a small business owner myself, and a HUGE supporter of small, hometown/mom and pop shops I think this is such a great way to support smaller businesses and show our appreciation for homemade, crafted, hard working businesses. Like I said, all too often we are so wrapped up in the big retailer sales and mumbo-jumbo, but it is also fun to find some other great things while doing something great at the same time.

 

 

Please understand, I am not biased towards Black Friday shopping, but I think more people need to go out on Saturday and well...shop small!!

source

 

 

This post is not sponsored and is soley based on my opinions.

Weekend in Cell Phone Pictures

This weekend was a smorgasbord of events. We had nothing really planned this weekend, but ended up falling into plans and actually having a pretty great time!

 

On Friday night was spent under the lights! We headed down to our town football field to watch the Aviators play for a spot in the State Championship Game at Met Life Stadium Giants Stadium in December! (I have not broken the habit of calling it that...blame me?) Thankfully it was not cold Friday night. Thankfully times two that Luke's aunt and uncle had gotten there really early for a good seat, or any seat for that matter. I haven't been to our high school football games since my first year of college when I headed back for our Thanksgiving Day. Long time ago. Anyway, the game was PACKED! Packed is an understatement. There were so many people there from our little (mile/mile) town, plus people from the surrounding towns coming to support our team or just watch to see the outcome of the game!

 

This game was so much fun! The boys played great and it was so much to get excited for my hometown team and spend time with family! Here are a few shots of the orange and black!

 

 

 

Congrats Aviators! See you at the Stadium!!

 

Saturday we ventured up to NY to start on our Christmas Shopping at the Palisades Mall in Nyack. It's only about a 25 minute drive and they have some great stores! When we arrived it was a little chilly, but we were NOT expecting what we saw when we walked out. SNOW! It was such a surprise to see it snowing, and it was coming down pretty hard for a little while. Unfortunately, it stopped shortly after, but the cold decided to linger.

 

If its going to be 20 degrees at least let it snow right? Plain ol' cold is just no fun in my book!

At the mall we ended up purchasing this GEM. Haha! I die every time I look at this picture. We don't usually dress up this little mama, but when we saw this outfit we just couldn't resist. I mean come on?!! She is all ready to be Santa's Little Helper! Looking like a little man! Gahh!!

 

Speaking of the pet store, Luke thought it was hysterically coincidental how much our friend looked like the guinea pigs. Judge for yourself :)

 

After an obnoxious amount of laughs and WAY too much fun in the pet store (is that even possible to say?!) We headed to the movies to see the Catching Fire. I read the books about 3 years ago and I really liked them. So happy the movies are very similar to the books and I give this one 5 stars! GO see it now! :)

Sunday was spend keeping warm from the fridged weather that decided to linger on all weekend long and never leave us! Fireplace, candles, snuggles and Giants....does it get much better than that on a Sunday??

Yes, yes it does. A Giants win would have been much much better. Frustrating!



 

How was your weekend?! Hope it was warm and toasty!

Five on Friday!

So this week has been pretty crazy busy soo my 5 on Friday

is going to be a little recap of the busy week!

 

one :: Last weekend we celebrated the boy's birthday and I had to make sure

I posted a few pictures of this cutie that I love so dearly.

 

 

 

two :: Have I mentioned we have some of the BEST friends around? They are truly the

best and I the great times we all have together and all the memories I get to cherish with these

crazy people!

 

 

 

three :: As I said this week has been pretty crazy and work has been nothing short of that!

Surprisingly we had a ... well... surprise waiting for us in the cafeteria of our building.

An ARCADE!

Yes you read correctly. We got a free ticket for a prize at the ticket booth and we able to

play FREE arcade games for as long as our little hearts desired. Nothing better than an afternoon

mind break of Skee-ball and Pac-man!

  

 

four :: To continue to festivities occurring, to being the celebration of Shop Small Saturday,

work hosted a pep-rally, marching band and cheerleaders included, and turned our lobby into

Main Street with make shift little shops and vendors. They had music and gave away so many

goodies! It was really a fun time to just take a few minutes out of your day and laugh get

some cool things and just enjoy yourself! Truly LOVE my job!

 

How happy is that cheerleader?!! Who wouldn't be happy about Shop Small Saturday!

 

 

five :: Since we host Thanksgiving at our house every year, the madness has begun!

Making lists, checking them twice? Wait...wrong holiday!

But we have been thinking about all the things we need to pick up,

where we are going to fit everyone and hoping the days between fly by so we can eat some deliiiiiicious home cooking!

Hope you all have a fabulous weekend!! :)

 

Linking up for Five on Friday!!

Comment Fail

Sooo I had my first blogging fail this week and I am pretty embarrassed to admit it but it is necessary so I can laugh about it later..in a month.. or a year. Fool. So I have been commenting on all the adorable and funny blogs that I follow and I begin to wonder why I never receive any reply messages back. Granted some comments did not deem a reply but sometimes I had a question or two about what the post was related to. I understand that we all have lives outside of blogging and life gets busy BUT I know that comments are typically replied back to.

I let it go for a week, then another week, and another but I still continued to comment on the cute outfits, funny posts and mouth watering receipes I couldn't wait to try. HOW the heck can NOT ONE person reply back to me?!! Am I an outcast in the blog world? I know I'm fairly new to this whole adventure so maybe I am doing something wrong? Maybe there is some unspoken code about writing comments on other blogger posts?! What the heck was I doing wrong?!

I was about to quit! Shut this baby down! Stop reading blogs and expand on my online shopping addiction to ease the rejection of it all. And then, some little inkling of a memory came back to me that I CHANGED MY EMAIL ADDRESS FOR THE BLOG!!!!  Are you kidding me Courtney?! How in the world did you manage to forget that you changed the email address and have been neglecting to check any possible emails you may be receiving.

Well low and behold I checked that email address and would you look at that, I had an entire inbox filled with reply comments back from all they amazing ladies I have commented in the last few weeks. Again, FOOL.

Sooo if you have responded back to any of my comments and I have not responded back I APOLOGIZE!!! I had no idea you had responded back to my comments and was just floating on through blog life with no idea what was going on around me.

Apologies! Apologies!

Hope I didn't make anyone mad or insulted. I promise to be ontop of my game now!

Taste of Tuesday: Stony Hill Inn

This past weekend we celebrated the boy's birthday... allll weeeekend looong! Hey, he deserves it more than anyone plus I LOVE celebrating birthdays. Mine lasts for about a week.. or more...not ashamed of it! Anyway, we dined out and drank our hearts out all weekend but on Saturday we headed to The Stony Hill Inn.
 

source

 

This restaurant is sitting atop a hill a few minutes from our house and it's one of those places you drive past for years and always say you're going to head in to check it out but never get the chance. Well, birthday celebrations call for special occasions so we got all dolled up and headed there for dinner with friends. If you live in Northern New Jersey or visit family or are just in the area you have to eat here. It used to be an "Inn" back in the day and it was converted into a restaurant and same banquet hall. It is so quant with little private rooms for dining with fireplaces and it just has a cozy atmosphere, especially around the holidays. To say the food is to die for is an understatement! Everything we ordered was over the top delicious and everyone was pretty statisfied!

 

I failed to take pictures.. SORRY food was just too good to stop for the camera, but you can check out their website here.

 

 

source

 

source

 

source

 

Linking up with Taste of Tuesday!


 

Happy Birthday!!

 

 

I would love to wish

my beautiful,

funny, strong,

kind hearted,

loving boyfriend

the happiest birthday today!!

 

No one makes me smile

like this guy does

and no one deserves to have all their wishes come true

more than him!

 

Happy Birthday My Love!

Here's to another year...

 

of being older than me :-)

 

 

 

Five on Friday!

one :: This weekend is my love's birthday weekend! We have plenty of things planned and I am soo excited to celebrate him!

 

two :: Speaking of...we are going out tonight and tomorrow! Tonight we are headed to a new restaurant and I have heard nothing but great things! Tomorrow we are going to a restaurant I frequent with the fam but the boo hasn't been there yet. It's a little fancy pants so we are all excited to get dressed up! Nothing but the best for this guy!


three :: I believe it is WAY TOO COLD for November. I mean I feel like I've been bundled up for far too long and it's only the 15th! Get it together mother nature!

four :: I am afraid I have taken my online shopping problem...... OKAY addiction to a whole new level. Embarrassing, just a little but Christmas is only 6 weeks away and I swore I wouldn't wait till last minute to panic to run around for presents. Plus I am finding some great deals so that is a positive right? Right?!

five :: Well since these wonderful 5 things all seem to relate in some way lets keep that going. As this last Friday topic relates to Christmas and cold weather, I need to get this out I LOVE FALL! Don't get me wrong I love Christmas and singing and cookies and presents and everything Christmas has to offer BUT it is a tit bit ridiculous that Christmas stuff have been out since the day after Halloween. I mean November needs love too! Thanksgiving must not be forgotten in all this holiday madness. I refuse to make it feel like the Cinderella step-child of holidays! So I will continue to drink my pumpkin coffee and admire fallish decorations because Thanksgiving is a pretty important holiday and life is too short to rush through yet another month.

: source :

Can I get an Amen?!

Linking up for Five on Friday! 

Loving...

I cannot believe that we are pretty much halfway through November already! What the heck is happening to 2013! It is literally blowing past me and I can't seem to keep up! Although I am still keepin' on with some fabulous fall wear, I find some days are already a bit chillier then others, especially in the morning but I can't seem to get used to the idea of winter clothes! Here are a few things I am LOVING right now that I think will be the perfect transition from fall to winter.

 

 

 

one :: Chunky Sweaters! This sweater I found at  H&M Online and I am so loving it! For some reason this year I am loving the chunkiness! I can't seem to pull my eyes away from the cozy warmth of a big sweater! Definately going to add to this collection.

two :: AlexanderMcQueen Sunnies! I spotted these at the mall last week and the desire to own them is unimaginable! I try not to spend too much on sunglasses because I find it too easy to lose them, break them or drop them a continuous amount of times. However, I always make sure I have one good pair and these just won me over. Come on with those gold studs!

three :: Black Plaid Shirt. I have seen these all over lately and I think it is a perfect piece to go with just about anything. I plan on pairing it under a sweater for a cozy work look, or with jeans and some boots on the weekend.

four :: Palmer'sSwivel Stick! Oh My Lanta! This baby..is my baby. I have been using this stick since high school and I have to say it is the only chapstick I own. I have gotten a few strange looks and the follow-up question whether I was using a glue stick, BUT it is amazing! Plus it lasts long and you will never lose it!

 

Linking up with Sarah at Tucker Up!

 

 

Motivation Monday...on a Tuesday!

 

 

A Week and A Half Later....

To say the last week was busy is an understatement! Thankfully, this past weekend was a breath of fresh, quiet air and relaxation along with a whole bunch of nothing is exactly what I did!

I debated recapping some events, but I knew I couldn't pass up sharing our pretty awesome Halloween Costumes! So we were trying to keep it cheap, fun and epic this year, so we decided on

Wayne's World! Excellent!

 

  

On Halloween, we decided to head into the city to watch/try to get into the parade. I have mentioned the boy is obsessed with Halloween right? I thought so, hence why we had to make several attempts to get ourselves into the parade. Unfortunately, fortunately that didn't happen. We did in fact have a pretty great time with some pretty great friends!

 

  

These rock star buddies of ours surprised us with these out of control costumes and we were hysterical laughing most of the night just looking at how ridiculous we all looked! Don't you just love nights of continuous laughter...for no apparent reason...just a good time!

 

Such a spoiled Rock Star...couldn't even figure out the subway system!

 

Those pants though!! I DIE!!!

Some creepster in the street

 

Due to our failed attempt to get into the parade..we ended up at a random bar (of course) because drinks are always a necessity. For a random dive bar, we had one of the best times! Always works out that way don't ya think? Spontaneity is my favorite!

As if the laughter didn't kill us now, we ran into our twins! Haha! Out of all the places to stop, we stopped at this random bar and ran into another Wayne & Garth!

(Ignore my drunk, blinded, squinty eyes)



 

They looked pretty amazing and it was so much fun to hang out with these ladies for a little while! We were reciting lines to the movie and just doing weird things - hey it's Halloween! I do have to admit though, we ended up on the dance floor and it is EXTREMELY awkward dancing in guys clothing. Just didn't feel right at all! Just another good laugh for the books!

 

Being a dork and acting like a rock star groupie!

And we had all had enough of the wings for the night!

 

That Saturday, November 2, the fam, the boy and I all headed down to Delaware to visit more familia and to get a firsthand look at Punkin' Chunkin'. I am a city girl, I LOVE everything about the country however I have never heard of such a thing. YouTube it people...please. It is this crazed all weekend event where people come from all over…for years… and it’s on TV.

 

 

 

The drive down was pretty amazing. The trees were all sorts of colors and changing ever so quickly, we were lucky to have a little time to just drive past and take it all in before the winter takes over.

 

 

 

 

I told you, this is no joke. Apparently people come from all over the country to set up their cannons and catapults to chuck their pumpkins as far as they can. It was an interesting event to attend, but I think that I would much rather watch it on TV, with a beer :)

After all the excitement....we headed back to my cousins house to have our own event! We drank delicious beer, played lots of corn hole and got to spend time with my Delaware cousins that we don't get to see that often. This was the best part of the day, because my aunt, who rarely never drinks, decided to get a little wastey face and place corn hole with us.

For a first timer she was pretty dang good, and VERY excited! Hahaa!

Delaware is INFESTED with these furry little guys.

Cute little Zippy dyed green for Halloween!

 

Aside from all that excitement, last week at work was busy busy and coming home late and running errand, Dr. appointments etc kept me even more busy. This past weekend I did JACK! Not complaining at all and I love every second! Finally, we had a weekend of nothing and I could not have spent it any other way than on the couch cuddled up with my puppy boo!