Happy Fall, Y'all!

As the saying goes, "I'm so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers." This October was one for the books! I am so happy to be back in the hills of WV during this beautiful season. The fall foliage here is unlike anything I've ever seen. We are lucky to live in such a beautiful state! Just look at some of the views from a recent hike Ty and I took on The Carriage Trail. The weather was perfect! I only wish there was a little more red/orange on the trees.

It seems like my posts are becoming a monthly occurrence. I keep saying I will try to blog more, but it is hard to find the time! You all will be happy to know I have been sticking to my goal of eating better (sort of LOL). I did a really good job at prepping meals for about two weeks, and then I fell off the wagon. I was drinking about 3 cherry cokes a day and eating sour gummy worms like they were going out of style. I watched a movie on Netflix called Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead.. y'all, OMG! That evening after the movie I headed over to Kroger to get fresh fruits and veggies for my NutriBullet juices LOL 

Here are some of the things I cooked at home for us to eat on during the week:

This might have been one of my favorites. I just baked some chicken breast and green peppers with fajita seasoning and added it to a frozen bag of Mexican rice and veggies. It was just as good heated up as when I first made it! I'm not trying to follow any kind of diet or anything. I just want to eat a little less fast food.

All packed up and ready to go!

This homemade chicken noodle soup was another yummy meal I made that Ty and I ate on for a few days. 

I've been working a lot lately including weekends. A couple weeks ago I had the weekend off and decided to cook us a good southern supper. We had pinto beans, corn bread, mac and cheese, and kraut and kielbasa. This is one of my most favorite meals!

Besides working, event planning has been taking up a lot of my time. I was so honored to be asked by the dean of the school of pharmacy to plan an alumni event. When I was at school at MUSOP, I planned many socials for the students, so I think that is why they asked me to help with this. I spent a lot of time prepping and planning, but it was so worth it! The whole day was wonderful, and I loved getting to see some of my teachers and classmates. 

This vase was given to the school by the Blenko Glass Company. It made the perfect centerpiece for the skybox event! I knew I wanted to have an arrangement on the table, but I didn't want to go over budget. I went to Kroger and found different flowers in shades of green and white, and I put this arrangement together myself.

Gift bags were taking over our home office. Poor Tyler had to deal with my stuff all over the place for weeks.

Each gift bag had these adorable green and white cupcakes made by Cakes By Appointment. They also made our wedding cake, which was delicious! Petra always does a great job!

The view from the skybox. It would've been a perfect day if the Herd would have won!

Of course, the grand finale of October is Halloween. I worked on Halloween Day, and Tyler was out of town most of the weekend. My sweet momma came to visit me while he was out of town. We had a great girl's day!! Because we live in an apartment, we didn't have any trick or treaters. I did however get a picture of the most adorable trick or treater: our baby Bo. 

Mimi and Scruffy before heading out to eat at Fujiyama. 

Halloween at work. I loved everyone's costumes!

Our precious boy.. I told Tay we need to draw those eyebrows on every day LOL Cutest thing ever!

Chunky girl helped mom and dad carve a kitty pumpkin. (She loves me I swear LOL)

He will kill me for posting this. She loves him so much!

Yesterday I packed up all of my pumpkin table linens and changed them out for some Thanksgiving glitz. I don't have all of my holiday decor since it is put up in our storage unit. A few weeks ago we went to get our winter coats out of the building, and we found our Christmas ornaments! I brought those home with me, but we couldn't get to our tree. I guess that means we will be getting a live tree this year!

Notice Scruffy girl in the bottom of this picture. She always has to be front and center!

I got this gold beaded table runner and placemats at Kohl's last year after Christmas. They were on major sale, so I scooped them up! They will match my gold rimmed Spode Christmas dishes too!

I hope everyone had a fun and safe Halloween! I am already prepping for the next holiday. I am chomping at the bits for Christmas, but I am going to celebrate Thanksgiving first. We usually wait until after Thanksgiving to put our tree up, and we watch Christmas Vacation while we set everything up. It is a little tradition that Ty and I have done every year since we met. 

I hope y'all enjoyed this October roundup. Until next time.. Take care y'all! 

September Celebrations

Hey y'all! SHEW! I'm sitting here going through pictures to compose this blog post, and I realized we have done so many things since my last post. I have been working like a mad woman lately and haven't had time to blog. I finally have a couple days off to get my life together. I woke up this morning, enjoyed breakfast and a coffee, and then cleaned my house. There are few things I enjoy more than relaxing in a clean house. I know Tyler will also be glad that I have a day off because that means he will be getting a home cooked meal tonight. Here is a quick and easy dinner idea that we will be trying tonight: add green beans and chicken breasts to a dish, drizzle with a stick of melted butter and a teaspoon of Lawry's salt, then sprinkle dry Italian seasoning over everything; bake on 350 degrees for an hour, covered. We will be trying this with a side of potatoes for dinner tonight. Needless to say, today has been a good day! 

Scruffy has had a good day too! She loves sitting outside in the sun LOL

Tyler and I both have hectic work schedules, so we try to make the time we do get to spend together count. A few weekends ago we ventured to The Capitol Market in downtown Charleston. I have been there before with my mom and sister, but it was Tyler's first time going. They had tons of fall decorations out, and I loved every bit of it! After picking up some goodies from the market, we had lunch at a locally owned restaurant called Lola's. Tyler got a steak and jalapeño pizza, and I got a ham and pineapple pizza. It was SO good! We loved getting to hang out together and have a more relaxed weekend. It seems we are always traveling and running all over the place. We needed some time to be together and just stay home!

We have spent most of September celebrating milestones and achievements. Toward the beginning of the month we celebrated a very special little boy's second birthday. He is so stinkin' cute! We had a great time eating and talking at the party, and watching Chase open his gifts was so fun! I remember going to the hospital the day after he was born, and it has been so amazing getting to watch him grow up into an adventurous, loving little boy. 

We also celebrated the wedding of two of our dear friends, Ryann and Matt. I met Ryann in pharmacy school, and our husbands met after we started hanging out. Come to find out, both Tyler and Matt had many of the same friends. We always love getting to hang out with them! Their wedding was absolutely perfect! Ryann made the most beautiful bride. She is one of the nicest people I know! Weddings are always a time for celebration, but my heart was so happy to see two of the sweetest people that were made for each other get married. We wish them a lifetime of happiness!

Probably one of the biggest celebrations of the month was Tyler getting sworn in to the WV Bar. I AM SO PROUD OF HIM! He can now practice in WV and KY. He has made many sacrifices for me to move back to my home state to be near my family. Lord knows I love that man more than anything. I admire all of his hard work and dedication, and I was beaming with pride when they announced all of his many accomplishments to the court before he was sworn in. 

Ray was also sworn in to the WV Bar. I never would have dreamed that we would be where we are today when Ray, Ashton, and I were gallivanting on Marshall's campus many years ago! 

Love my family more than anything! I guess I didn't get the memo to wear pink LOL

I couldn't do a "September Celebrations" post without including Marshall football. I had a blast this past weekend in Huntington with all of my friends and family. I started out the day by attending a meeting at my sorority house. I am so excited to be a part of the housing board for Alpha Xi! Ashton and I attended the meeting together and then ran around town trying to find an outfit for the game. We were "striping the Joan," and of course I didn't have a single white Marshall shirt. My friend Lauren's family has a tailgate spot where we all hang out before the game. It was so much fun getting to spend time with everyone! We had so much food, and at one point, there was almost 50 people at the tailgate! This weekend was much needed!

On Sunday, I went back to my home town to visit my great aunts. I hadn't seen them in forever, so I really enjoyed the time I spent with them. Taylor and I took the baby to meet them. They always tell the best stories! We had lots of laughs. Baby Bo enjoyed an ice cream at Nannie's house. I didn't get any pictures (which I regret), but that just means we were really making the most of our time. We sat around and talked for hours. Aunt Berthie gave Taylor and me some pots and pans, and Nannie sent us home with canned hot kraut, peppers, and apple butter. She also shared how she cans everything. I cannot wait to try it out myself! Of course, I'll have to wait until the almanac says it is okay to do so!

I feel like I always say this at the end of my posts, but I PROMISE I am going to try to blog more frequently. It is so hard to find the time to do it, but I enjoy it so much. For any of you wondering how the "meal prep" went, it didn't. LOL We are still eating out more than cooking in. I have even started enjoying a nutritious dinner of lunchables while working the evening shift. LOL If any of y'all have any easy, beginners meal prep tips or recipes, SEND THEM MY WAY! Until next time.. Take care y'all! 

Fall is in the Air

Hey y'all! It is almost the start of my favorite time of the year! I absolutely love the fall season. The leaves change to beautiful shades of orange, yellow, and red, and the stores start carrying pumpkin flavored EVERYTHING. One of my most favorite things about fall is decorating. Unfortunately, most of my seasonal decorations are in our storage unit, so this year I am keeping it simple. I have my table set with a fall theme, and I have Bath and Body Works pumpkin cupcake candles burning constantly. That is about as fall as it is getting in the Adkins' household this year! I would love to purchase some mums to put on our balcony, but I don't have much luck with them. They are supposed to be nearly indestructible, yet the ones I had last year looked like I took a blow torch to them by the end of September LOL oops! 

This is the kitchen table Ty's mom gave us when she moved. We love it! She also gave me this table cloth to put on it, and it matched my fall placemats my mom got for me perfectly! Initially, these placemats were being used at my mom's house, and one day I walked in and mentioned how much I loved them. The next time I saw my mom she gave them to me! I was tickled to death!

Normally I would put a centerpiece in the middle of the table and have my fall dishes set up, but they are all in storage right now. If you saw how unorganized our storage unit is, you would understand why I would rather just leave them in there!

These caramel apple suckers are the best! I love putting these and candy corn in this pumpkin candy dish!

As I mentioned in my last post, Tyler and I wanted to start eating at home more often. He worked an entire week out of the Lexington office, so I made myself some chicken and carrots to take to work for the week while he was out of town. 

The chicken was so easy to make! I let it thaw, and then I sprinkled both sides with this rotisserie chicken seasoning. I let it bake in the oven for about 25 minutes, and then it was ready to eat! I love these crispy red peppers by Fresh Gourmet. I put some of these on top of the chicken when I was ready to eat it for a little extra flavor. They also make the crispy onions that are delicious as well!

These carrots are lightly sauced and can be found in the frozen section. I just heat them up in the microwave, and they're ready in about ten minutes. So simple!

All packed up to eat for dinner while I'm at work. 

I also made a new dish that I had never done before: ravioli. Tyler and I love pasta, and this dish was no exception. The ravioli noodles are frozen and are stuffed with cheese and spinach.

I had some frozen spinach that I thawed out and added to the dish.

You start out by coating the bottom of the casserole dish with a little pasta sauce. Then you start layering: ravioli, sauce, spinach, cheese, ravioli, sauce, spinach, cheese. 

I made a little garlic and cheese bread to go with it, and it was so good! We loved it!

After Tyler worked all week in Lexington, he got some exciting news! He found out he passed the WV bar exam!! I drove to Lexington that weekend, so we could celebrate with his family! We had a great weekend with them, and we got to enjoy some of our favorite things to do while we lived there. Here is the church we attended while living in Lexington. This church is probably what I miss most about living there. After church, we stopped by one of our favorite local restaurants, Josie's. I got the grilled pimento cheese sandwich. IT IS DELICIOUS! 

Clearly, Tyler was not amused by all my pictures LOL

We had a great time visiting Lex, but we were both excited to get back home to see our little Scruffy girl! Until next time.. Take care y'all!