Meet the Shaneyfelts

Six Months Down and Thousands More to Go

Yesterday marked six months of marriage, and as cliche as it sounds, it really still feels like yesterday.  Time flies when you’re married to your best friend and having the time of your life.  Three months into our marriage I blogged about a few lessons I had learned.  Those lessons still apply today–I probably need more grace than ever, I am learning to let go of things, and I really married the best, most easy-going guy ever!  I am so thankful that God allowed me to marry exactly who I needed.  He knew I needed someone to keep me on time, explain math concepts to me, and keep me laughing.  God knew Dustin needed someone to show him how wonderful it is to live in a clean house 🙂

On our honeymoon touring Savannah

 

On a golf date where I was the best caddy ever

 

Starbucks when it first felt like fall!

 

Nothing better than Starbucks white hot chocolate, Hobby Lobby, and our first Christmas!

 

Going to doctor’s appointments together

 

Weddings/birthdays together

 

We loved starting new Christmas traditions tougher at the Galaxy of Lights!  And yay for random date nights!

 

Christmas at our church

 

🙂

 

Our first Christmas together!!

 

Christmas 2014 at my mom’s

 

Playing with his new Christmas present!
Dustin,  I have enjoyed every single day that we’ve been married!  You exude Christ’s love for the church and I am so thankful for you!  I love you!   xo, little Shaneyfelt

My Christmas Present from My Mom

This past Christmas instead of giving my sister and I each material gifts, my mom gave us a road trip to anywhere.  I used mine yesterday with a day trip to Tennessee!
 
I have always loved seeing how things are made.  I’ve done a few tours and always watched shows on TV explaining processes of how certain things are made.  One of the places I have always wanted to tour is the Jack Daniels Distillery.  So yesterday Mom and I headed to Lynchburg, Tennessee, to tour the distillery and make a few other stops.
 
This is before we headed into the museum to sign up for a tour.  The great thing about this place is that the tours are FREE!! (Unless you wanted to do the taste-testing tour, and we didn’t care anything about that.)  Our tour lasted a little over an hour.
 
Here we are with “Jack on the Rocks.”  This is right outside the underground spring that the distillery uses for their whiskey.  I thought it was so neat that they have been using this same spring since Jack Daniels first came to Tennessee to make his whiskey.  Our tour guide says it give the whiskey a sweeter taste because of the minerals.  I’ll just take her word for that.
 
This is inside the museum.  See the barrel on the right?  We learned about the whole process of how they make those barrels and that they use a new barrel every time they make a new batch.  Apparently the oak barrels play into the taste, too.
 
This is a small barrel house on the property that we were able to tour.  They have about 80 more six story barrel houses!  Our tour guide said that they aren’t insulated or climate controlled and that they just let nature do its thing.  The barrels of whiskey sit in that house four to six years–depending on where they are located.
 
This is the hardware store downtown, and if you can see, it only has Jack Daniels merchandise.  This is what I noticed about Lynchburg–it caters to tourists and bikers.  
 
Me and Jack 
I got a few comments on my bag yesterday when I posted this picture.  You can find it here.
 
My gorgeous Mom!
 
After the tour, we went to eat at Miss Mary Bobo’s.  She used to own a boarding house and would house inspectors who came to check out the distillery along with businessmen and teachers.  The distillery bought the house in the 1980s and turned it into a restaurant.  We ate at the 1 o’clock seating.  It’s interesting because you eat at a table of 12 and everyone passes dishes around to each other.  They had fried chicken, meatloaf, mac and cheese, fried okra, pintos, apples soaked in whiskey, sweet relish, cornbread, and fudge pie.  I don’t eat any of that type of food anymore so I felt sick after, but it was good!
 
Then we drove into Fayetteville to visit Sirs Fabric.  If you need fabric from somewhere, this is the place to go!  It is definitely worth the drive.  The picture below doesn’t even show a third of the store–it’s huge!!  Part of my Christmas from my mom is that she is going to help me recover my dining room chairs since Dustin and I bought it off of Craigslist.  I had been searching all over looking for fabric, but since I needed about four yards, I wasn’t about to pay $25.00/yard at Hancock or some place like that.  The fabric at Sirs is very inexpensive!!!  I ended up finding some for $5.99/yard and it was 25% off!  We racked up!  I’ll do a post of a before and after when my chairs get done.
Mom and I had such a great day and I loved that she gave us road trips as her present to us.  I’m already trying to think of what I want to do for my next Christmas present!!

Weekend Recap

Friday:
 
This is the surprise I wrote about in my last post!!  (Sorry for those of you who thought I was pregnant!  I got a few texts about that and didn’t realize people might think that.  Don’t worry….it’ll be a while!)
Rachel found this Friday night!  I got an email around Thanksgiving asking for permission to print a wedding photo that my photographer had submitted to a magazine.  You better believe I gave permission!  The magazine was published this month!
 
Page 49!!
And so I got a few.
 
Dustin and I also went and watched American Sniper late Friday night with a bunch of friends.  It was really good and eye-opening.  It made me really thankful for our military and the families that they leave behind.  I think this movie did a really good job of showing how hard deployments are on wives and children.  After the movie was over, not one person in a theater of 400 said a word as we walked out into the lobby.  I don’t even know how to describe the emotion in the air.  No one felt like it would be right to talk after.
 
Saturday:
 
Dustin left around 2:30 AM to go to south Alabama to hunt this weekend, so I decided to head out shopping.  (But not at 2:30…more like 10)  I had some leftover Christmas money and gift cards that needed to be put to good use 😉
 
I really needed a new pair of boots.  I have a pair of Guess boots that I’ve worn for five years now and they are getting worn out.  I also have a pair of Frye boots but they look like cowboy boots so I wear them occasionally.   Here’s what I ended up getting:
These Nine West boots were on sale, and they’re actually cheeper online than they were in store.
And then I splurged…
I bought another pair of Frye’s (and don’t say anything when you see me wearing these everyday…) My mom always says that Frye boots are investment pieces that will last a very long time.  I listened to her this time 🙂  But seriously, these can be worn with almost everything I own and are so comfortable that I could stand and teach in them all day long.  I’m in love.
 
Then I bought a…
bundt cake pan from Williams-Sonoma!  
I found a recipe from Mix and Match Mama (love her blog) and it looked super easy and tasty.  I tested it out Saturday night and I think it turned out great!
Late Saturday night, I headed to my dad’s house to watch the fights.  Deontay Wilder, a guy from Tuscaloosa, was going to fight for the world heavyweight championship.  He was fighting the current champion, Bermane Stiverne from Haiti.  I was brought up watching boxing so I love it.  I predicted a knock-out by Wilder in round 4 because he was five inches taller and had a 4-5 inch longer arm reach than Stiverne.  What I didn’t expect (and probably no one else did too) was for the fight to go all 12 rounds.  
Deontay is on the right.  The state of Alabama has another championship to add!
 
Sunday:
 
I had the worse crick in my neck and shoulder yesterday that I could barely get out of bed.  Here’s to hoping I recover fast because