weekender: the beginning of wrestling season

hi beautiful loves! 

This is the time of year where our weekends are less weekend-y and more weekish which is fun and exhausting at the same time!

Friday night started with the first of two days of wrestling! It was my first time meeting Tripp's team and I must confess...I couldn't love them more! They are some sweet and funny dudes (+ one girl which I am all team #Iamwomanheremeroar). This best picture I could get of Tripp that night!

They got done wrestling at 12:am on Friday night, only to be back at 8am the next morning...#colormepooped

{snapchat: lindsaymclovin}

We got done after lunch time went and grabbed a pizza so we could eat and pass out for a nap! Woke up 4 hours later to finally watch The Wiz which was AMAZING, y'all. I LOVED ITTT! 

Favorite Part: SANG NEYO, SANG!

Sunday, we skipped morning church from exhaustion...squeezed in a run then the good thing about the church we are visiting now is that they have a night option so we were able to still attend a service (yay for night church!).

then finally...it's us!

yay! happy monday to y'all! linking up with Biana!

catching up!

happy holidays friends!

We are smack dab in the middle of holiday [oh and wrestling] season here in the Otis house and I have some catching up to do! I had planned on being back Monday but we had a pretty busy weekend which meant recuperating yesterday [ya know, cleaning, grocery shopping, etc].

First off, I didn't shop at all! I unfortunately don't even know of any sales going on currently but I do have some cute pictures to share!

I started my holiday week with the GRAND decision to put oil pulling in my life on Wednesday and when my 15 minutes were up and spit the oil into a cup, HALF of my back tooth went with it. Yup, lets start the holiday with a broke tooth y'all! So this resulted in a dentist appointment not being able to be scheduled till this past Saturday.

A little more on Oil Pulling: I am not sure really if it helps with teeth health, whiter teeth, prettier skin or not, especially since I'm not exactly the poster child on all it has done for me [y'all remember the broken tooth right?!] but I continued doing it since Wednesday so 6 days in and the dentist couldn't believe that I had ZERO pain from the broke tooth and I have noticed whiter teeth so it's not enough for me to give up just yet. Stay tuned... 

[snapchat: lindsaymclovin]

 

Thanksgiving day was spent with my mom's parents and her brother which is always entertaining! I made my first ham and it turned out edible [shocking]! [cherishing this scarf given to me for my birthday]

Then Thanksgiving night was spent with Tripp's family which included these nuggets and 3 adults trying to put a gingerbread house together...[how many adults does it take?! the answer: a bunch]

Friday night we had a date night! We like to try new places and we tried a mexican restaurant called Little Donkey...not a favorite for us. The drinks 4 out of 5 stars [I got a sparkling margarita]. The food was 2 out of 5. The atmosphere was 5 out of 5, cute little place.

Since we weren't full after dinner, we decided to go next door to Steel City Pops! I got the divinity [holiday] pop and Tripp got the Maple Bacon pop. I was in HEAVEN!

Speaking of sweets, during the off period I tried making a Caramel Pudding Cake and it didn't turn out too shabby! I didn't have ice cream so I stuck some marshmallows on top!

Speaking of CAKE...We started the couch to 5k program on Thanksgiving day...don't ask...it involved seeing some thanksgiving pictures that were not flattering at all and I am so happy to say that I have ran 3 out of the past 5 days!

I've been working on my gallery wall and I put a few more touches up yesterday! What else do I need?!

Thennnn...we ended the weekend babysitting these two nuggets and turning our house into a big fort because that's what cool Aunt and Uncles do!

I've missed y'all! Breaks over for a few more weeks! Let's talk all things Christmas!!

weekender || the one with mom's 60th party

happy Monday loves! 

This weekend was BUSY, y'all. My mom turns 60 on November 29th and since that's all uber close to Thanksgiving, I found this weekend to be best to throw her a dinner to celebrate turning 60 and fabulous with her girlfriends. I do have a lot of fun planning and throwing parties so it was fun, the not-so fun part was that Tripp also had a wrestling tournament this week so my help was unavailable. I have to say that mom and her sweet ladies seemed to have a good time though and that's LITERALLY all I wanted for mom's milestone birthday!

 We had assortment of cupcakes and coffee mocha punch [which is so delish by the way]!

Chili- Moms favorite..like she can literally eat it everyday

Then a small potato bar which I wish I had leftovers because it was quite yummy!

My mom and Grandmother! 60 and 87 never looked so good!

Love seeing her happy and she got the sweetest gifts!

Mom, Grandmother and her sweet friends!!

Okay, so I could just share that part of my weekend with y'all, I call that the GOOD part but I like being honest and real on here so it wasn't all parties and good food. I've missed my brother like crazy this week, it comes in waves but this week they were more frequent and rougher. I don't know if it's because I was planning something for my mom or because it's getting closer to the holidays but I miss that dude so bad. I often thought while planning the party this weekend how even if my brother was here, he wouldn't be helping ha. I mean I'm the daughter and that's my job so I would just be complaining how he wasn't helping but I would much rather be complaining about him rather than missing him. People who haven't had a loss like that just don't understand so I didn't want to talk about it this week with the people around me. Being a sibling that's lost a sibling, I am also not a fan of sharing with my family how I feel. I know they experienced the loss when Micah died too but they had different relationships [son, grandson, nephew] and I don't want to bring up sadness if they are having a good week. It can be frustrating to try and get them to understand my pain being Micah's sister. I feel protective over our relationship because he was my only brother and I was his only sister. I get irritable when people try to relate their relationship with him to mine, I don't know if that's just me or if that is apart of grief. I just spent the week being very internal, I don't know whether that was good or not but that's what happened. I started this blog to talk about grief so I just wanted to share that even a year and half later, waves hit and they stay around longer than a day but I'm determined that we're gonna make it, y'all!

here is a little Monday motivation for you:

happy Monday! It's officially Thanksgiving week and my only work day whoooohoo! Linking up with Biana, as usual!

weekender+winter bucket list.

hi lovely friends!

So happy to get to start my week with y'all! Can't wait to began reading about what all y'all had going on this weekend, you can tell I had a good weekend by the lack of pictures and it's true...this weekend was fantastic!! Linking up with Biana!


Here's what I do have:

Friday night, Tripp and I went to dinner with one of the first coach couples we ever made back in the day and had a BLAST! I know it looks like I had the worst time in this picture hah, also just got that shirt at Target on Friday with some birthday gift cards.

These socks make me happy! #beastmode

 After the great Friday, we desperately needed to grocery shop which means a Sam's Club visit and stopping by our fav, MOES!

After grocery shopping, we did some things around the house and then NAPPED..this is Tripp approving of how I hung a picture, right babe?!

 

 One of my favorite ladies stayed with us Friday night and got me this adorable print work!  

 

Then Sunday we went to church with our godchild and heard a great message! 

Bucket List:

Woke up this morning with it the 50s so I'm feeling all wintery and I love it so I finished my Fall List {for the most part} and figured out what plans I had for the winter...what are some on y'alls list?! First let's recap the Fall::

 

1. Decorate our porch- CHECK! Happy with our door hanger and got a few mums which are already dying because I literally have a black thumb but they are cute for the moment. 

2. Have A Bonfire- No Check. Time got away from me and it totally slipped my mind honestly!
3. Trick or Treating- CHECK! It poured rain but we got in about 2 roads of houses before then with our neice and nephew..shared our night here. 
4.Watch Hocus Pocus- Half Check. Everytime we cut on a halloween movie in October, we would pass out. Call it old age, but we fell asleep twice watching hocus pocus!
5. Enjoy Lindsaypalooza- CHECK! I sure enough did! It felt good to just be excited about it this year since last year was so hard all around!
6. Order an Apple Cider Spice from Starbucks- CHECK! I did not regret it one BIT! Delish!
7. Go on a picnic- No check. The weather this Fall was either super hot or super rainy so let's blame it on that.
8. Work on my Fall wardrobe- Got some cute new pieces for my birthday to add, especially a felt hat which is my favorite!
9. Go Out For A Football Game- CHECK! We did even better, we WENT to the football game. Tripp's team lost {Alabama} but it was fun to go to one together for the first time!
10. Go To Bass Pro Shop- We took a night and went there the weekend before my birthday and had so much fun just walking around that place! It really feels like you're in another world when you are really just a short drive away from home.

 Now on to the new Winter List::

 1. Christmas Church Service- We missed out on attending a candle light service last Christmas since we were out of town and it's the one thing I really missed! 

2. See a Christmas Movie- The beautiful Alabama Theater in Birmingham always shows like 2 weeks straight of Christmas movies and it's a pretty popular event. We have plans to go this year with some friends to see "It's A Wonderful Life" and I couldn't be more excited! 

3. Christmas Lights- I either want to go to Oak Mountain Festival of Lights or Palisades Park to see the lights, either way I need to see a BUNCH of lights! 

4. Buy Each Other Gifts- We haven't done this in like 2 years due to getting married then going on a trip last year so I'm excited to actually buy Tripp gifts and open them together!

5. Wrestling Tournaments- Now I get that y'all totally won't get this one but it just doesn't say holiday season till we fit in as many wrestling tournaments as possible in late November and December. Over the past 5 years, I've gotten so used to wrestling season being a huge part of our Winter that it wouldn't feel right without it!

6. "Sweetheart" Christmas- I read about where this couple opens gifts on the night of the 25th when all of the craziness, busyness is over just to have something to look forward to and come home and relax with your boo and some gifts! 

7. Give Back- I want to either pick a kid off of the Angel Christmas tree around town or serve at a homeless shelter this winter. If y'all know of any other giving back ideas for the holidays please let me know! 

8. Cook Thanksgiving Dinner- We are having my mom's side of the family over for Thanksgiving lunch and going to Tripp's family for Thanksgiving dinner so lots of food will be made and I should be very nervous...stay tuned y'all!

9. Date Night Somewhere New- I love cozy restaurants so I want to try a new one this holiday season! 

10. Get Christmas Onesies- Tripp and I don't have kids because honestly, we are just two big kids and we really want Christmas onesies to wear that week ha! 

What do you guys have on your list?! I'm always needing new ideas!

weekending.

hi little loves! 

Was it just me or was y'alls week/weekend crazy busy and exhausting?! Waking up with a headache was definitely not how I intended on starting my Monday but nevertheless, here we are!

Catching y'all up on our lives and linking up with Biana!

So we went and saw The Intern for my birthday I know I mentioned several times on here wanting to go and see it and y'all I LOVED it. Even my husband did. It was just a happy movie and sometimes you need to see that and Robert DeNiro is such a gentleman in it. 

Then we had a little birthday get together at my Grandparents house and it was just nice to literally have all my favorite people in one room for my birthday. My g'parents house holds such good memories for me and is literally one of the calmest places I know. 

 my favorite guy!

 my mom took this picture because somehow I always end up in the middle of their bed since I was teeny tiny. Photo Evidence Below::::

& back to now:

my favorite couple!

PRESENTS!

Uncle Al waiting for them most important part: the cake to be cut!

Tripp's Nanny has the same birthday so we celebrated her! {ps. I finally got Tripp on snapchat}

 Tripp was pretty close to dressing like a woman for halloween but he quickly decided he can't handle the shoe pain ha!

 Trick or Treating with the in-laws.

 This is my sister-in-law's family included Jaxon's little girlfriend.

 Jaxon was spiderman.

 Willow was Cleopatra and was thrilled to get to wear makeup! Homegirl can put lipstick on better than me!

Ended the night early because it POURED after the kids had trick or treated at about 3 roads.
Yesterday we spent some quality time with the godchild so like I said, BUSY!

Today starts my second favorite sports season {1st is the Crossfit Games}, WRESTLING season! Be prepared to be hearing alot of wrestling and coach wife talk from now until February...then we switch gears into soccer....whew! 

Glad to spend my Monday midday with y'all!