What’s Up Wednesday - October 2018

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Happy Halloween, y’all!  We have been getting festive all week and we’re so excited that Halloween is finally here!  We have lots on the agenda today including two class parties and trick-or-treating, and I’m going to try to squeeze in some early voting today if I can as well.  :o)

What We’re Eating This Week

Mon – Beef and Parmesan Pasta with Zucchini

Tue – Fall carnival food trucks!

Wed – Pizza before trick-or-treating

Thu – Fettuccine Alfredo, chicken, and Broccoli (we eat lots of brocc because it's basically the only green veggie our kids will actually eat!)

Fri – Out

Sat – FRIENDSGIVING!!

Sun – Sunday dinner at Momma and Daddy’s

What I’m Reminiscing About

This time of year I can’t help but reminisce about Halloweens past.  Check out this post here to see all of our old costumes!

What I’m Loving

My new organizational system for 2019!!  I am extremely Type A so I have a planner as well as lists galore, and I have finally figured out how to make them all work efficiently together.  Turns out all I needed was a DAILY Simplified Planner, a clipfolio (I have this one that's sold out, but there are many other cute options on Amazon), and some plastic sheet protectors.  I’ve never been able to find a planner that works well for me, and I think it’s because I’ve never tried a daily planner before.  I’m hoping to have a post about this soon, so stay tuned…

And if you’re interested in one of the daily versions of the Simplified Planner for 2019, you better grab one soon!  Four of the covers are completely sold out which means that there are only two covers left.  They do not restock, so if you don’t get one now, you won’t be able to get one until they release their August – July versions next May.

What We’ve Been Up To

October has been an entire month of fall goodness with a lot of other stuff in between – we went on our annual mountain trip (recaps here, here, here, and here), we rode out Hurricane Michael with a couple of days off at home, we had our inaugural Hocus Pocus movie night, we’ve watched a ton of college football, we went to Rock Ranch with our friends, we carved pumpkins, we met our new beautiful niece, we watched a Halloween movie on the back porch, Olivia and I went on a field trip to the pumpkin patch, Jacob and I went on a field trip to the park for a picnic lunch, Jacob had his first quarter awards ceremony, Olivia had her first awards ceremony ever, B and I went on a date night to see Lyle Lovett and Robert Earl Keen, Jacob wrapped up his third soccer season, and we took our fall family photos.  It has been busy and oh so wonderful!

What I’m Dreading

It’s always a good month when you have nothing to dread, but unfortunately I have something on my calendar that I’m officially dreading.  Remember how I mentioned that my allergist thinks that I have reflux?  Well, I saw a gastroenterologist on Monday and he thinks I have reflux, too, but he wants to do an endoscopy to confirm it.  Doctors and hospitals and medical stuff don’t typically make me nervous, but I do NOT like being put to sleep and they’ll have to do just that for the endoscopy.  Dun dun DUN!!  Haha.  I’ve only been under anesthesia once in my entire life and it was before I had kids, so this time I’m a little nervous. 

I swear I didn’t worry about half of the things I worry about now before I had kids, but now that I know I have two babies at home who need me I’m always hesitant to do anything remotely risky.  I know that people go under anesthesia every day without complications, and I’m sure everything will go well, but y’all know I’m a worrier and I always let it get the best of me.  Anyway, that day is November 28, so please say a little prayer for me that day if you will.  :o)

What I’m Working On

I’m always up to my elbows in projects and I’m still slowly crossing things off of my Master To-Do list as well: 

1. I wrapped up the fall carnival planning earlier this week at the kids’ school so that is one thing I can cross off my list!
2. You may remember that I cleaned out every single inch of my office back at the beginning of the year?  Well, there were several piles of things that I knew I needed to get rid of, but didn’t know exactly what to do with them, so I just piled them up on the floor in my office until I could make some decisions.  Well, the kids were home all summer with me so I put all of those projects on hold, so they’ve now been sitting on my floor for ohhhh, six months?  As you can imagine, I’m pretty sick of looking at them.  One of the things I needed to address was the hundreds of old movie posters that I had saved from when I worked at the movie theater.  At first I just couldn’t bring myself to get rid of any of them, because I was so worried they would end up being worth something one day, but after staring at them for months on my floor I finally got the courage to be ruthless.  I went through every single one of them, checked them on eBay to make sure they weren’t worth any money, and then I recycled the ones that weren’t.  I only kept my very favorites (Titanic, The Notebook, Romeo + Juliet, American Pie, She’s All That, etc.) and a few that are selling for some decent money.  I ended up recycling hundreds of posters and tubes and now instead of 20 poster tubes cluttering up my closet, I only have five.  :o)  YASSSS!
3. Another pile on my office floor was my old photo albums of physical pictures taken with film.  I had already tossed all of my old physical pictures that were taken with digital cameras, but I still had to figure out what to do with all of the physical pictures that had been taken with the old-school film.  I had already scanned all of those old-school film pictures so there are digital copies on my computer, but since the quality isn’t super great on a scan, I decided to keep all of the physical pictures as well.  Since I decided to keep them, I got them organized in chronological order in new, sturdier albums, I got them labeled, and they are now organized in four albums on my bookshelf in my office.  #Winning
4. I got my bookshelf in my office rainbowtized!  I’m aware that’s not a real word, but just go with it.  ;o)  I’m a very OCD person, so my books have always been alphabetized by author’s last name and title, but I saw a bookshelf in rainbow order on Pinterest and I fell in love so I decided I wanted to do the same thing.  I was worried my Type A personality wouldn’t allow me to keep it that way, but I fell head over heels for it and I don’t think I can go back to alphabetizing again!
5. I’m still setting up my new planner/organizing method for 2019.  It’s getting close to being done and I’m super excited for January so I can start using it. 
6. I finished organizing my Music folder on my computer!!  When I decluttered my office I ripped and got rid of all of my old CDs (probably between 400 and 500 of them!), so I had a folder on my computer containing a couple thousand songs that need to be named appropriately, added to my main music file on my computer, added to my iTunes library, and synced to the already thousands of songs on my phone.  It was a HUGE job but it is DONE!  The only thing I need to do is go back and reformat a few of the songs that didn’t format correctly the first time.    
7. I’m still organizing the rest of the files on my computer (one of the items on my Master To-Do List).  There are over 20,000 files (excluding music and pictures) to go through, so this is taking FOR-EH-VURRRR. 
8. Preparing for the upcoming holiday season!  EEK!
9. Prepping some blog posts for Thanksgiving and Christmas break.  I’m trying to get ahead so I don’t have to spend too much time on the computer when the kids are out of school.  I just want to be able to be present and love on them as much as I can without worrying about blogging.

BEFORE

AFTER

What I’m Excited About

All of the joy and light that November and December bring!  I am one of those people, who start celebrating Christmas on November 1, so first thing tomorrow morning you can find me fa la la la la-ing until the end of the year!   The Christmas season is truly my favorite season of the entire year… it brings me so much joy!  So I figure, why not extend the Christmas cheer just a wee bit longer?  Otherwise it flies by too fast!  And yes, we celebrate Thanksgiving, of course… the two have always been intertwined to me and that’s the way I like it.  I promise we don’t let Thanksgiving get lost in the Christmas shuffle.  :o)

What I’m Watching/Reading

Watching – Our Netflix bingeing is officially on hiatus for all of the fall TV.  We are watching all of our old faves like Big Bang Theory, This is Us, Modern Fam, and Shark Tank, and we’ve also added two new ones to our list this season – Manifest and A Million Little Things.  Manifest has definitely held my attention and I feel pretty invested now that I’ve gotten to know the characters a little more, but A Million Little Things… OH MY GOODNESS, I AM OBSESSED.  This is my favorite new show in a long time!  I told B the other night I think I might end up liking it even more than This is Us.  Blasphemy, I know, but man, is it good!!

Reading – I finally finished When Life Gives You Lululemons and I thought it was really cute!  Definitely worth the read!  This time of year my reading typically slows tremendously or comes to a screeching halt altogether because I’m so busy.  However, my girl, Brandi, just published her very first book a couple of months ago and I couldn’t wait to get started!  I’m about a quarter of the way into it and I’m hooked, y’all!  She definitely has a way of drawing you in so that you want to keep reading, and the character development is truly wonderful.  I’ll update y’all when I’m done and let you know what I think!  Until then, you can grab your own copy right here on Amazon!

What I’m Listening To

Cozy music is king right now in our house so I’m still on an old standards and jazz kick (Ella Fitzgerald, Steve Tyrell, Frank Sinatra, and Tony Bennett) in the evening while I cook. 

And while the kids have been away at school I’ve been listening to a lot of 90s R&B, too.  In addition to old standards reminding me of fall, 90s R&B also reminds me of fall.  Why, you ask?  Well, one of my favorite falls ever was fall 1998 when my best friend and I started working at the movie theater together.  She didn’t drive yet so we rode together everywhere in my car.  Our music of choice was ALWAYS 90s R&B and some rap (think 112, Tyrese, Silk, Dru Hill, Jay-Z, Brandy, Montell Jordan, Monica, and Jagged Edge) and that music always takes me back to one of my favorite falls ever!

I’m a big playlist person (the “mix tape” of the new era) so I have different playlists for every occasion and memory in my phone.  And my Fall 1998 playlist is one of my favorites of all of them!

But starting tomorrow…

CHRISTMAS MUSIC ALL DAY ERRY DAY!

One very sad thing to add, though…

We have a local radio station that plays nonstop Christmas music starting the first week of November all the way through Christmas.  They’ve been doing this since 2001.  They originally started it to bring a little bit of extra cheer during the dark time after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, but everyone loved it so much that it has stuck throughout the years.  Well, after 17 years of doing this, and after decades of being on air, that radio station moved to another frequency, changed their name, and changed their format.  Therefore… no nonstop Christmas music in our city anymore!  Y’all!!  I’m SO CRUSHED about this. 

My whole family has always looked forward to this and we’re all so sad that it’s not going to happen this year.  All of my old coworkers know how much I loved it because I listened to it at the office nonstop, so several of them have already texted me and asked me what in the world I’m going to do this year since it’s gone.  Lol.  They know me so well!

But anyway, it’s a bummer.  I guess I’ll have to download all of the old songs that they used to play that I don’t already have and make my own.  It surely won’t be the same not hearing their Christmas promos and commercials in between songs, though. 

Y’all know I don’t like change!  Lol.

What I’m Wearing

Jeans.  Scarves.  Boots.  Leggings.  Sweaters.  Repeat. 

Amen.

Oh, and some fun fall tops!  

It's Fall, Y'all / Pumpkin

What I’m Doing This Weekend

FRIENDSGIVING, Y’ALL!!!!  Remember how I added that to my Fall Bucket List and I was worried that we wouldn’t be able to make it happen because we’re all so busy?  Well, it’s happening and it’s happening this weekend!  I am so, SO excited, y’all. 

I’m hosting so I’m going to be doing my first ham (AKA probably buying one from Honey Baked Ham because I’m too scared to do my own) and a couple of sides, and then all of my girlfriends are each bringing sides, desserts, etc.  All of the hubbies, the kids, and my girlfriends will be piling into our house and it’s going to be so much fun. 

The weather is supposed to be absolute perfection so we’re going to have the Georgia game on the TV outside, a bouncy house for the kids, and lots and lots of wine and beer for all of the adults.  I’m so happy I could just burst!

What I’m Looking Forward To Next Month

Seeing Ed Sheeran in concert again, going to two Georgia games, Christmas music, Thanksgiving, decorating our home for Christmas, and every single tradition and magical thing that these last two months of the year bring!

What Else Is New

Olivia has a checkup on her thyroid nodule next week so we’d all appreciate your prayers, specifically that the nodule hasn’t grown in size.  I do not want them to have to operate, and the only way to avoid that is for this thing to stop growing.  From looking at the outside of her neck, it doesn’t appear to have gotten any larger in size, but there’s no way for us to know for sure until we see the ultrasound at her appointment.  Your prayers really mean a lot to us.

Happy Halloween, ladies!  Enjoy the day!

*Linking up with Jessi's Design and Going the Distance for What's Hap-"Pinning" Wednesday and Mix and Match Mama for What's Up Wednesday.