The Shafferland Shuffle

* Last Sunday, we woke up in our hotel room in Fort Wayne, looking ahead to the last day of our anniversary getaway. We had a leisurely day that included a visit to a coffee shop, and a trip to the Christmas tree farm to pick out our tree, which we named Firby. It was a great, fun day! {And when we came home, we not only had luggage and a naked Christmas tree, but we started ripping apart our house to rearrange some rooms. Because why not?}

* I devoted all of Monday to unpacking from our trip, doing massive amounts of laundry, and arranging the living room so at least one room was complete and put together. And while I edited pictures, someone decided out of the blue that my lap is her new favorite place to be. No idea why she suddenly loves me, but I'll take it!

* Tuesday was December 1, so we pulled out my Advent book and started reading it again; I love that tradition I get to share with Ryan! Speaking of Ryan, though he was officially sicker than a dog {how sick is that, anyway?} with a cold, he volunteered to ring Salvation Arm bells with his boss. Isn't he the cutest bell ringer? And that night, you know, just for funsies, we moved a couch up the stairs. That was interesting!! {Don't miss Ryan at the top of the picture, right under the 12!

* Wednesday was our anniversary {YAY!!!} and Ryan took the day off work to spend it with me! We got to rest and do a little shopping, and we had our pictures taken before going out to dinner. We watched our wedding video while we ate cupcakes and just had such a lovely day remembering THE lovely day of our wedding!

* Thursday morning I got to do my devos by the light of the Christmas tree, which was lovely in every way. Ryan and I had put the lights and ornaments on it the day before, but it still needed some finishing up, so I worked hard on that - and on decorating the rest of the house that day. I'll give you a better view of all that later, but here's a sneak peek. I went low-key this year, but I like how it turned out!

* Friday I decorated the outside of our house {also low-key this year} and we hung up our mistletoe {YAY!}. That night, after Ryan got home from work, we went to his mom's house to pick up a dining room table he'd had in storage for something like a decade or more. Much more on this to come, but basically our table was just too small, so now we have one {for free!} that was certainly MUCH larger.

 * Yesterday Ryan worked, so I sent a little tree with him for his office. No ornaments, just a tree with lights. {Didn't want him to lose his man card ENTIRELY by having a fully decorated tree.} And last night, we went to our brother-in-law's 40th {surprise} birthday party, which was really a lot of fun! I took pictures all night and am always happiest when I have a job and a purpose, so it was a great time. Ryan's sister rocked it with the preparation!

Anniversary Celebrations Part 3

Last Sunday was our last day of our little anniversary getaway, and we had so much fun!

We decided to make it a leisurely morning and just stay at the hotel until the last possible moment. It was so nice to NOT rush around. That is what vacation is all about, right??

Our first order of business was to visit a coffee shop, because this outing actually doubled as our Allen County tour, but I'm going to do a separate post on that, so I'll wait to show you that part later.

Our NEXT order of business was to visit a Christmas tree farm to get this year's tree! I found one on the North side of Fort Wayne called St. Joe Christmas Tree Farm, and it was charming!

It was busier than any tree farm we'd been to yet, but maybe that's because we have always gone on a weekday before. Anyway, they were so nice, and this sign just cracked me up!

I did think it was really great that you could bring your pets! {We didn't have Braeya with us. Rudolph probably would reject her anyway.}

We went in search of the perfect tree...I thought maybe this one?

Ryan thought maybe this one:

So we went with his choice!

We thought it was safer if he did the cutting and I did the photography.

And then he had to just go and show off.

Shout out to my five pound free weights!!!

{Yes, he really carried it like that all the way from the lot up to the front.}

We got him all tied up and ready to go...and we named him Firby!

We love our Firby!!

Before we came home, we took another gift card and went out for lunch:

There was a Colts game underway at that time, so lunch looked a lot like this:

That just cracks me right up.

It was delicious, that lunch! Even if I was a TV widow. {I LOVE YOU, RYAN!!!!!}

And it was a perfect end to the time away. We so enjoyed our getaway, but I promise I have more stories to come!! :) Come back!!!!

Anniversary Celebrations Part 2

Okay, now we can get back to our anniversary trip!

Like I told you Monday, Ryan and I went up to Fort Wayne this past weekend to celebrate our anniversary, but we didn't get to leave until after he got home from work Friday night. So Saturday morning we got up and had our free hotel breakfast {we love Hampton breakfasts} before our shopping extravaganza.

Yes. We did our Christmas shopping on our anniversary trip and actually had fun doing it!! Of course, what's a little shopping without a little goofing off?

{I thought this would make a good purse.}

We stopped for lunch at Panda Express. Ever been there? We hadn't, but we really liked it. We read our fortunes in our cookies at the end, and I cracked up when Ryan showed me the pictures he took of me. Doesn't it look like the lady behind me is just praying I get the best fortune ever?

After doing a little more shopping, we stopped for a mid-afternoon snack at DeBrand's. If you're not from here, you're missing out. It's just that simple. AMAZING chocolate, and we just happened to have a gift card, so we felt it only responsible to make good use of it.

Yeah. It was as good as it looked. And maybe even better. {If you're wondering, it was mocha gelato in a milk chocolate dish, with caramel and chocolate syrup and pecans.}

A couple of cups of coffee later, we were back to the shopping!

We were going to go out for a nice sit-down dinner, but we were tired, so we switched gears and decided to drive through the Festival of Lights at Franke park before getting a pizza and going back to the hotel to eat dinner.

The lights were SUCH FUN!! Very different from the lights here at home. We really enjoyed driving through.

{The WBCL light display.}

After our highly nutritious pizza dinner, we visited the pool and hot tub, but eventually it was overrun with kids and we decided the easiest way to dodge cannonballs was to just go back to our room. LOL!!!

Anniversary Celebrations Part 1

Well, three years ago today, I got up and drove to Fort Wayne to co-host Mid-Morning, and then I drove home immediately after the show so I could get in a car with Ryan and begin the long, long, long, long {you get the idea} trek to Florida for a little event we liked to call OUR WEDDING!

It was indeed a long trip, made interesting by an overnight nap at a rest stop {that I thought would land us on Dateline as the story of the tragic lovebirds slain at a rest stop} and a three hour traffic jam a mere ten minutes from our exit.

That was three years ago.

This past weekend, we began our anniversary celebration, which was relatively low-key in comparison with years past, but no less fun or memorable for the two of us.

Ryan's time off at work is scarce, and between the long vacation we just took in October and the days he needed to save to actually have Thanksgiving and Christmas, he just didn't have time for a long getaway. And you know what? That was okay.

So we decided to keep the celebration close to home this year and just head to Fort Wayne for the weekend. He worked all day Friday, and while he was gone, I planned and packed and worked to get everything ready to go.

He came home in the cold and rain, with an early onset of dusk, thanks to the nasty weather, and we piled in the car to get some coffee fuel and get on our way.

We checked into our hotel, unloaded our car, and headed straight out for dinner. The goal of our weekend was to eat from as many gift cards as possible, so Red Robin was first up on the list. Ryan was excited to find games on the little table kiosk.

I was excited to find food.

Red Robin is in the mall, so after we ate, we walked around for a while to burn off the burgers. Well. Until we found Dairy Queen and Ryan decided he needed a little something sweet...

We stayed until the mall closed, and then we went back to our hotel to rest. It had kind of been a long day!

PS - Can I tell you how much nicer THIS is than leaning up against a door at a rest stop???

The Shafferland Shuffle

I fear the Shaffers have been shuffled! What a week! Thankfully much less happened in the world of things breaking down, but much more happened in the land of busyness!

* Last Sunday  morning, our church handed out little study books to go along with the sermon series, and I was excited because I got to help write them! I was grateful to be included and it was exciting to see the finished product in print! That afternoon I had a massive cookie baking party: dozens of chocolate chip cookies to keep us fueled throughout the week. And that night? We took a walk through campus and got to see from a distance the candlelight service all 16 athletic teams had together to dedicate their seasons to the Lord.

* Monday, since our office was still all torn up, I worked from the floor of the living room: an unusual, but kind of fun vantage point! That night I spiced up our lives by dropping my keys down our garbage disposal, and then after Ryan saved the day by fishing them out, he continued his work on our ceiling - and I think he looks pretty handsome here. Don't you??

* Tuesday morning, I met my friend Kathy for coffee, and we caught up from many months of not being able to talk more than a "hey!" at church. Loved that! Ryan sent me this picture from work. He and his co-worker, Chanteal, won the work cornhole tournament last spring and now there's an official board for the tournament progression! Pretty cool! That night, as some of you may already know, our beautiful new coffee pot just up and died. It was fine on Monday...dead on Tuesday. So...Starbucks to the rescue!!

* Wednesday morning I found this one sitting on my purchases. I guess she likes to shop too! I took a field trip to Fort Wayne that day...stopped by the station to see all my friends {took me an hour and a half to get through to see everyone} and then I had a dentist appointment. Good and bad news there, but we can talk about that another time. Ryan painted our ceiling that night...so close to being done with that project!!

* Thursday, I left home when Ryan did so I could spend the day in Greentown prepping for our sale. I actually had to wait on his step-dad to arrive with a key, so I hung out in my car reading a novel and trying not to creep out the neighbors. :) All day long I sorted and stacked and organized and took pictures and made signs - WHEW! {It was actually almost 10 pm by the time we got home from getting everything ready!!} I also stopped by a friend's house to pick up a catalog...doesn't she have a gorgeous porch view?

* Friday was the first day of our sale, and it was crazy busy. The town sale was technically just Saturday, but we did a Friday and a Saturday, and I'm so glad we did. I have so many tales for you - just wait! Our moms came to help, and they were life-savers. We appreciated them! We had a GREAT first day - sold a BUNCH of stuff and got to see old friends we'd not seen in years. {Benefits of returning to your hometown.} But were we ever pooped and burned to a crisp by the end of the day!

 * We wrapped up our sale on Saturday, and though it was a LONG two days of very hard work, it was also a great result, and we were thankful. Our moms were back for more fun, and we had a few down times when we were able to laugh and tell stories and just enjoy the day. Though the entire weekend had been forecast as great weather, we did have a few sprinkles on Saturday - but nothing a little time under an umbrella couldn't fix!! When the day was done, we cleaned up the leftovers and came home to collapse from our very tired, angry feet!