currently || december

listening || All things Christmas!! The radio station doesn't change from the 24 hour Christmas music station. I have been loving the Brett Eldredge Christmas album along with the new Pentatonix Christmas album. Both have been on repeat in our house these last few weeks and will be playing throughout the month.

decorating || I feel like this is an obvious thing, but our house is starting to feel like Christmas more and more each day. We got the outside lights hung up right after Thanksgiving, and we got our tree up and decorated this past weekend. All that's left to do is wrap the presents and wait for Santa!

reading || I honestly haven't been reading much this holiday season because I have been watching Christmas movies pretty much every night, but I have gotten back in to my "adult" coloring books by Johanna Basford. I find that while they are supposed to be relaxing, I get anxious about the colors matching correctly and looking good in the final design. Sometimes it's hard to think outside the box and make a owl purple.

ordering || All things wedding! Just last week I ordered our save the dates from Basic Invite and a return address stamp from Etsy. Hopefully everything arrives in the next few days so I can send out save the dates before the end of the year. It might start looking like Santa's workshop towards the end of the month.

wearing || This month I go or my first wedding dress "try on" appointment. I am kind of excited to try on dresses because I'm not sure what style looks the best or fits the best and this appointment will help make some decisions. I don't think I will buy at this appointment-because that's just not me, but I am excited to hang out, eat some food, and try on pretty dresses.

chicken enchilada soup/chili

This is the EASIEST- and cheapest-Mexican inspired recipe I have ever made. Everything comes in a can and you just dump it in the crock-pot, and serve it eight hours later. HOW SIMPLE!!!!! 

Ingredients:

1 package (20 oz) boneless skinless chicken thighs, cut into 1-inch pieces

1 can (15.2 oz) whole kernel sweet corn, drained, rinsed

1 can (15 oz) Progresso™ black beans, drained, rinsed 

1 can (10 oz) Old El Paso™ mild enchilada sauce

2 tablespoons Old El Paso™ taco seasoning mix (from 1-oz package)

2 cups shredded Colby-Monterey Jack cheese blend (8 oz)

4 cups tortilla chips

Chopped green onions and sour cream, if desired

Directions:

1. Spray 4-quart slow cooker with cooking spray.

2. In slow cooker, mix chicken, corn, beans, enchilada sauce and taco seasoning mix.

3. Cover and cook on Low heat setting 8 hours or High heat setting 4 hours.

4. Stir in 1 cup of the cheese.

5. Top with green onions and sour cream. Top with remaining cheese; serve with tortilla chips.

currently || november

planning || We are planning to have our friends over for Thanksgiving this month. This will be the first time we have hosted a lot of people in our house since we finally have furniture in the dining room. I am excited to cook and host people in our new home! Now I need to learn how to cook a Thanksgiving turkey-thanks Youtube!

enjoying || All the feelings that come with the holiday season. The next few months are my absolute favorite time of the year. Hockey is in full swing, the holidays are right around the corner, family and friends are getting together, and everything feels so cozy. My goal is to savor every little bit of the holiday season this year and not let it go by too fast without enjoying it.

reading || I just finished two books over the last month and they were excellent. The Hopefuls by Jennifer Close tells the story of a young couple who moves to Washington D.C. to work for the Obama administration. One of them gets a but power hungry and wants to move up in the political world no matter the cost. It's a great read that covers the ins and outs of politics, lies, and marriage. The second book I finished was called In Twenty Years: A Novel by Allison Winn Scotch. It tells a story of six friends from college-but 20 years down the road. A tragedy brings them all together, but secrets are spilled and lives are changed forever. After twenty years the remaining five of them get together again at their old college house for the weekend and the drama unfolds. Both are excellent reads!

watching || Technically it's almost over...but I have been watching the World Series games-duh. I honestly want both teams to win so I have been enjoying all the games. Once baseball is over I can devote all of my time watching hockey! Since the Capitals had a week long road trip out west, the games have been starting past my bed time and it's hard to stay up and watch the whole thing. Hopefully daylight savings next week will  help that.

designing || I have been checking out and designing some save the dates and wedding invitations. I know that the invitations won't go out for a while, but I need to get save the dates out the door somewhat soon. I find that most of the stationary websites don't have exactly what I'm looking for. Gold foiled invitations are "in" and I'm not a huge fan of them so it's getting hard to find ones that aren't foiled in some way. I am still on the hunt for ones that I am in love with.

currently || october

cooking || Everything in the crock-pot recently. I have been loving the ease of using the crock-pot, and that you can throw all the ingredients in and have dinner ready when I come home from work. I have already made a chicken and sausage gumbo-type dish, and I ma trying a baked ziti in the crock-pot this week. If both turn out okay I will put up the recipes somewhere on the page.

smelling || ALL THINGS CINNAMON! I am in love with the Fall for this exact reason. I currently have a cinnamon and clove melting in the Scentsy and burning Crisp Morning Air by Yankee Candle. On the weekend I love to wake up and immediately light the candle and let the house fill with the lovely scent of Fall.

traveling || We are headed of for our annual Griswald family vacation later this month to Nashville. We got an AirBnB on the river and plan on seeing the city for a few days. Hopefully the weather is nice and we can make a stop in the Great Smoky Mountains and check out the awesome Fall foliage on the way there. Stay tuned-I'm sure there will be a post and photos to follow.

watching || I am in LOVE with some new shows on both ABC and NBC in the prime-time hours. I don't usually get to watch them live, so I catch up the following day or on the weekend. If you are looking for a few good shows check out This is Us on Tuesday nights, Designated Survivor on Wednesday nights, and Speechless on Wednesday nights. Each show is completely and totally different from the other so it creates a nice balance in my TV watching, which is usually just Bones, CSI, and Grey's Anatomy. 

buying || Trying to buy NOTHING. I am trying to save as much money as possible for the holiday season and the wedding fund. I am keeping a running list of Christmas gifts I need to buy and who I need to buy them for.

weekend in pittsburgh

Over the weekend Cam and I made the trip to Pittsburgh to visit a friend, explore the city, and go to a baseball game. We left on Friday after work and came home early Sunday morning, so we only had one full day to explore. I wish we were there a little longer, but I know I will be back to explore more. 

We started the morning by eating brunch at a place called Deluca's and it was DELICIOUS. The meal kept me full for the full day of walking around the city. After brunch we headed straight to the Duquesne Incline to avoid all the crowds, and I'm glad we did, because when we left the line was across the bridge. I had been on the incline before, but it's always fun to go to the top of Mount Washington and see the city skyline-along with the million dollar houses on Grandview Ave. 

After the incline we headed down to the strip district to walk around and see some local shops and markets. We ran into a petting zoo in the middle of town and got to hang out with some cuties for a minutes. After walking around I worked up and appetite and decided to stop in at Peace, Love, and Little Donuts. HOLY COW, these donuts are to die for. They are miniature sized cake donuts, with a ton of creative flavors like Samoa, Boston Cream Pie, Oreo Cheesecake, and Apple Pie. I wish I had ordered a dozen to take home-also secretly hoping they ship places so I can have them at my wedding. 

After a fun filled day of walking, snackign, and shopping we ended our night at PNC Park. Once you step foot in the ball park you realize why it's always in the "Top 10 Baseball Parks to Visit." The stadium is STUNNING and it offers amazing views of the city skyline. To top of the entire trip, the Nationals ended up winning the NL East title after they finished playing the Pirates-WOO!!

Can't wait to go back and see more of what the city has to offer!!

currently || september

wearing || A brand new shiny accessory.....an engagement ring!!! Cam proposed at the end of August so I have only been "rock"ing the ring for about a week, but it goes with everything. He picked out such a great ring and I couldn't be happier to be spending my life with him.

planning || If you read the first thing on the list you can probably guess what I am planning.....a wedding. I ordered an Erin Condren planner the weekend after I got engaged and I can't wait to get planning in that thing. We have a venue visit this coming weekend so fingers crossed that we enjoy the place and can get the ball rolling.

traveling || Cam and I are planning a trip to Pittsburgh to visit a friend and go to a Pirates baseball game. I am always excited to go to a new stadium and that will help me check off things on my 30X30 list. I 'm not sure what else we will do while we are there, but I'm sure it will involve being touristy and eating lots of good food.

watching || Even though I am not the biggest football fan-I prefer to wait for hockey season-our house will constantly have the TV tuned to something football from hereon out. College football starts this weekend, and the NFL season starts next week. I am looking forward to college football more than professional football,but since we only have one TV with cable in our house I will be forced to watch football. Here's to a great season!!

tracking || I have recently started using My Fitness Pal to track food intake. I have only bee doing it about a week, but my goal is to try and do it for a few months and see if there is any progress on the scale. We will see how it goes. I have been trying so hard t=not to snack on sweets and candy, but it is so difficult when you work in an office where people bring in donuts and other baked treats.

hershey park-anniversary weekend

This post is quite overdue....like two months late.Whoops. But better late than never right?!?

Cam and I took an anniversary trip to Hershey, PA in June. I know it's not quite a glamorous trip, but it's close to our house and we don't have to use up a ton of vacation time from work to go for a long weekend. 

We stayed at the Hershey Lodge, which I normally wouldn't do, but it got us late entry to the park the day before our printed ticket date and they had a shuttle that took you from the front door of the hotel to the front door of the park. That might not sound like much, but after a full day walking around in the park the last thing you want to do is walk ALL THE WAY to your car in the huge parking lot. It was a nice convenience to have and I would do it again if I went back for the weekend. 

There is a zoo connected to the amusement park, so we spent the morning at the zoo while most of the animals were still awake. I love the zoo at Hershey Park even though it's small and only showcases animals of North America. It's a great zoo with a lot of information and they educate the visitors about the animals so everyone can learn something new.

The day after the amusement park, Cam and I decided to stay for a Hershey Bears playoff hockey game. The Bears are and AHL team based in Hershey, and they feed into the Washington Capitals. The game didn't start until 7:00 pm so Cam and I had a whole day to explore the town. We visited the Hershey Museum and the Hershey Gardens-which we had complimentary tickets to from our hotel stay! We loved the gardens and the museum was so interactive and kid friendly. We even got to taste six different hot chocolates from around the world.

Even though the Bear's lost that night and would eventually go on to lose the Calder Cup, Cam and I had a blast on the long weekend trip to Hershey, PA. It was a nice weekend to get away and have some fun at the amusement park!  Happy Anniversary!