Our Sweet Gift

Excited to share our sweet news that we're expecting Baby P in February! 

We are in love with our baby already and cannot wait to see our family grow in the new year. I finished my first trimester and have been incredibly blessed with a great pregnancy. Over the past couple of weeks, it's been a joy to share our news with family and friends and celebrate this tiny life.

More baby posts coming soon!

Summer Days

These summer days have flown by. While I'm looking forward to fall, I cannot believe it's already September. 

July and August were jam packed with family, friends, food, and fun for us. Every minute we weren't at work or doing house projects (which I still need to post about), we were finding fun in Raleigh and DC. 

After my sister finished her summer job, she came and stayed with us for a week. We devoured tasty food truck food, celebrated her birthday, and road tripped to Baltimore for a cousins' weekend. 

 In August, we spent a weekend in Baltimore seeing Justin & Laura, the newlyweds, and enjoying a cousins' weekend. It was so great to be back at some of our favorite spots with some of our favorite people.

Laura and Justin are so sweet, kind, and thoughtful. Weeks before seeing them, Laura posted about making macaroons, and I made a comment about having them during the Baltimore weekend. I never expected she would actually make them, but she did! Just for me. They were incredibly delicious.

One of our absolute favorite Baltimore spots is Woodberry Kitchen. Somehow the Chef got us brunch reservations, so we got to see and taste the best Baltimore brunch.

Another one of our Baltimore favorites is Mama's on the Half Shell. All of the cousins' and Justin and Laura went out for dinner. I stuffed myself with crab soup, crab dip, and crab cakes. Nothing is better than Maryland crabs.

...And Elisabeth tasted her first oyster!

One of the best summer afternoon activities this year, has been visiting local coffee shops for a coffee and treat. Plus, I heart latte designs.

Dinner and dessert with nurses always does my heart good. And Bittersweet in downtown Raleigh has the tastiest bites: like this salty carmel corn ice cream sandwich.

To round out the summer, we enjoyed a Labor Day weekend in DC enjoying some of our DC favorites, seeing friends, family, and attending wedding of one of the Chef's high school friends. It was a gorgeous outside ceremony and reception in their backyard despite the thunderstorm that made 150 guests run from the tent to their house. It was a beautiful night filled with laughter, and the Chef seeing old friends.

And there you have it.

Summer days might be fading, but I'll be ready for some cooler weather, pumpkin everything, and decorating our house for a new season.

Lights, Beers, & Sushi

I feel old saying it, but we had another fun, productive weekend, but this time it was with family!

My brother came into town, and we had the best time with him. With their house purchases, he's learned how to fix and replace just about everything. So for our house, he replaced five light fixtures and new locks!

We're quickly replacing everything in our house piece by piece. I took a bunch of photos before the projects, so I'll do a house post soon on our progress.

After all of the hard work on Saturday, we headed to Durham for flights of beer, sandwiches, and arcade games at Fullsteam.

Saturday night for supper, we indulged in my brother's Raleigh favorite: The Cowfish. I love going with him because he likes to order a random assortment and share it all together. It was also the first time my mom has gone, and I think she enjoyed it too.

Sunday morning, the guys replaced a hideous gold light fixture with a fan and worked on the locks. It feels great checking things off my house list. My brother is the best, and I'm so thankful he's willing to come and spend his weekend working on our house for us. I love my family!

Hope you have a happy Monday and a great start to the week!

the little things

Some weeks it's just the little things that make life sweet.

Monday started off great because I was put on-call and didn't end up having to go into work at all. Happy Monday to me!

Instead of working, I enjoyed an early morning lake walk with Aida and the Chef before he headed to work. I have always been a night owl, but lately, I've really been learning to love how great it feels to get up early and enjoy the entire day. Especially, when it starts with a brisk morning walk.

I have a favorite coffee spot, Sola and love getting to spend a little or long time there either by myself or with friends. I went by myself this week, and it took a while for my drink to come, so when it did they gave me a dozen hot mini-donuts. I'll take free mini-donuts any day! 

At work this week, I was talking with a co-worker about where he buys his produce, and he reminded me about the Raleigh farmers' market. I decided to go again (I haven't been in forever) and absolutely loved it. I definitely want to start shopping local more. Plus, I got all these fresh foods for less than $20! Local, fresh, and reasonable...win, win.

And as you know, I'm usually not the biggest cook in our house. I usually do really simple meals but this week, I was a little bold and tried these Chicken n' Biscuits, and while it took a while it was delicious and so worth it. 

I have been trying to live life to the fullest, trying not to worry, and enjoying the little things.

I hope you have a great weekend. I'm excited to have this weekend off and enjoy some family time!

Weekending

Happy Monday! 

I wanted to thank those of you who sent me such sweet comments about my blogging return! I really appreciate your kind words. 

I hope you had a great weekend and are ready to face a new week. We had a great weekend staying in town. Unintentionally, we've ended up having a busy summer, so it was nice to have only a few plans for the weekend. 

Friday, I spent the afternoon with Emily lounging poolside soaking up some rays. I love conversations with Emily because she has a huge, tender heart for the unreached, orphaned, and lost. I'm always encouraged and challenged after being with her. 

 That night, we got to spend the evening with our friends, Allison and Jarod. We had the perfect summer meal at their place of burgers, corn, pasta salad, and banana pudding. Not only are they so much fun to be around, but they are such genuine and kind friends. 

Ever since going to Joule Coffee with a nurse friend, I've been dying to go again. So, I told the chef we had to go for brunch on Saturday. I devoured the "Hangover grits," and the chef loved the eggs benedict. I would definitely go again any weekend. 

For the rest of the weekend, the Chef had a list of little projects to get done around the house: the joys of homeownership. No but really, it was nice to get things accomplished. While he worked on the yard, I cleaned out and reorganized the attic and both of our guest room closets. It feels so great to be cleaned and organized again.

Recently, we changed churches to a smaller one and have wanted to give it a good try and become more involved. We decided to take the first step and sign up to serve, so this week, we were greeters. We really enjoyed it and loved meeting new people.

All in all, it was a great relaxing, productive weekend. Hope you have a great day back to work!

New Beginnings

Hello!

  

It's been incredibly too long of a writing hiatus. It was something that I wasn't planning but just needed for myself. 

We've had some big life changes, life has been rushing forward, which I'm sure it is for most people, and this little space has been neglected. 

If you follow me on IG (aileenpp), you know back in March we closed on our first house!

It's been an exciting, whirlwind of a time settling in with lots of purchases: some expected and some not so expected. Read: in the first four months we've replaced the water heater and our whole HVAC system with two new AC units. 

There have already been great memories made in our little house: celebrating Easter, my birthday, dinner parties, and friends and family staying with us. 

Through everything going on and taking a little blogging break, I've learned more about myself, my marriage, friendships, and what I want out of this space. While I was gone, I attended a fabulous blogging workshop and learned how I want to move forward with this little blog.

I've learned that I'm too hard on myself with growing this blog and constantly comparing it to other blogs. I needed to step away to see this. At the workshop, I realized that in order to grow quickly I need to have something to "teach" readers. Honestly, I don't have that something, nor do I want to. I love lifestyle blogs and that's what I want for mine. This is my space, and I want it for me and my family. 

So, I'm going to share about our life even though it might not be glamorous or thrilling all the time. But this is me, and this is us. And I'm glad to be back! 

the sniffles

and hacking and the green snot. 

Ok, you get the idea. It's been that kind of a weekend into week. The Chef came home on Thursday night not feeling the best and then Friday I came down with whatever he had. Through the weekend we've been nursing each other back to health. 

I started to get excited yesterday afternoon, getting some energy back and rocking out some chores in my pjs. Then last night, I fell apart again. Hacking, coughing, and if you were to suction me you'd get green. Appetizing, I know. 

Thank you so much for all of you who have texted, called, and left IG comments wishing me to get better and if I need anything. I really appreciate it. 

In other news, we're continuing our house search. I love our apartment and wish we could stay here forever, but I'm also anxious to have a real home.

This past weekend, we put an offer in on a home, but unfortunately we didn't get it. It was a cute house in a great location and apparently others thought so too. 

So, we're back at it. If you think of it, we would love prayer that we choose the best house and home for our little family. 

Cheers (holding up my DayQuil)! 

Remember to constantly wash your hands with all the grossness going around.