Here Lately......

Happy Tuesday everybody. It's been a pretty busy past week and a half-- but I'll have to say I actually got to relax this past weekend and have some fun with the hubby. I worked pretty long (aka 13 hour) days on Thursday and Friday, so by the time Friday night got here I was ready to have some fun. First of all-- I decided to bake. Yeah, me. Dumb idea, I know. I saw this really pretty cake online with the recipe attached to it, so I decided to give it a try. I knew it was gonna take longer than normal cakes, but I had no idea--three hours later--that it would of taken that long. So here it is....my masterpiece....my RAINBOW CAKE...and it tasted pretty good too!

Friday night, our college and career group at church went up to Flat Top Mountain to our friend Jonny's house and had a cookout/bonfire/it was too cold so we watched a movie instead. :) We had a great turn out and had a really good time up there with all of our friends. We watched a movie while the boys grilled out hamburgers and hot dogs (What men!), and then enjoyed all sorts of chocolate desserts that Jonny's mom had worked so hard to make. It was a really fun night just to relax, laugh, and have fun with friends.

Well, speaking of Jonny, Duane had me freaking out all week because he was planning on driving Jonny's car that weekend at the dirt track. By this point, I'm used to Duane racing, but the difference is, Jonny's car is a much bigger class. Bigger motor, bigger car, faster race with more people. Not so much. I wasn't excited at all. So I can't say that when it ended up being a rainy cold Saturday and the races got cancelled, I wasn't a little relieved- on the inside only of course. But in honor of him not being able to go racing, here's a picture of us the weekend before at the race track...just for him :)

Saturday was a REALLY fun day for us. I had to get up and teach Body Pump, but Duane (lucky dog) had his first Saturday off in a few weeks, so he slept in until about 11:30. Well, I got home and we got dressed and headed to lunch. It was the first time in several weeks that we actually dressed up and went out on a date. I was SO excited. Plus it was chilly, and I had on a really cute coat and my new Jessica Simpson heels :) Anyway, Duane took me to Genghis Grill, which is a really cool restaurant we just found in downtown Chattanooga and then after that to Coldstone for some ice cream. What a sweet husband! Then, we decided to go to the convention center for a flea market-ish, liquidation type sale they were having. We had heard it announced on the radio and we decided to go check it out. Well......needless to say they had car stereo equipment for realllllllllly discounted prices.....SO Duane and I both have systems in our vehicles now. Haha. The Lord has really blessed us here in the past few weeks, and we've both been working really long hours, so we decided to spend a little on ourselves. Here's my husband that day in heaven:

Anyway, we started the night off with Duane and Jamie working on getting everything installed in his truck, and me cooking a lovely dinner, carving a pumpkin, and buying halloween costumes for our girls. Haha. I LOVE fall, and since Saturday had been such a fun day and I had actually gotten to spend time with my husband in the chilly weather, I was really in the fall spirit. I lit my pumpkin spice candles, and sat down to carving while there was spaghetti and garlic bread cooking up in the kitchen. Now, needless to say after you see the picture, I had NEVER carved a pumpkin before. EVER. So I googled "how to carve a pumpkin" and this is what I got....

Haha! Oh well-- it was the best I could do! Well, then I decided to have a fitting for the girls and make sure the costumes I had bought them fit. First it was Daisy. She's gonna be an angel, of course, and when I put hers on, she started running around trying to figure out what the heck that thing was...this was the best I could do for a pic (check out the halo..haha):

Then it was Trixie's turn. Now, keep in mind Trixie has been dressed up many times before. This was not her first day on the job. So when I proceeded to get her "princess" costume on (so fitting for her) she just sat down and stared at me like, "Really mom? Again?" Haha..check it out:

And don't worry there'll be more pictures to come when Halloween gets here!
Well, we wrapped up the night by enjoying dinner there at the house with a few friends and snuggling up close and watching a movie. We had a really fun, well needed, relaxing weekend. It was a great start to my favorite season! This is my favorite picture of the weekend-- look at my sweet family:)

Happy Fall everybody!