Fun day at the station

 I get to meet some pretty cool people with my job. Yesterday I got to meet Brian McCann (if you're not a Braves fan he's our catcher) which was pretty awesome. He is a super nice guy and indulged us with autographs and lots of pictures! Mike and I are huuggee Braves fans and I wish he could've been there.

Long time gone...

Wow I took quite a hiatus from blogging, but really I'm okay with that. This summer was really crazy and so far the fall has been as well. Here are some some happenings...

• I started my new (old) job in May back at the radio station I worked at in college and I absolutely love it- not that I ever thought that I wouldn't.
• We moved to Atlanta and I now drive 1.8 miles to work- as opposed to the 23 I was driving. Never thought I would love living in the city, but I do!
• Mike started school at Georgia Tech and well I would like to say he enjoys it, but it's insanely hard so not sure if that counts as fun. But having a football team is definitely fun!
• We're both really busy which has been an adjustment, but its working out and we make time to have fun.
• We now live in a town house, which has its pros and cons. Its old so it was/is interesting at times, but we have a great outdoor space (rare in the city) and we live next door to this girl so you can't ask for a better neighbor. She lets me use her dryer (until we get one, hopefully Wednesday) and she gives Mike extra cake pops- and he truly appreciates her for that :)
• The fun part about living in a town house is that it actually feels more like a home and I can do some fun decorating. Slow progress, but it gives me something to do while Mike is studying.

I guess that's it for now. Thursday I'm having girls night with girls from work and we're all making recipes from Pinterest, crafting and watching Bridesmaids. Can't wait! I'll be back with my recipe and crafting plans!

Oh, and of course Happy Halloween!

Weekend recap

I have no pictures from this weekend, how sad. I really need to get better about that!

Friday night we house/dog sat for our friends that just moved here. We tried out a delicious Greek place for dinner and as if we weren't already obsessed, we definitely are now. So good! And then of course, thanks to HBO Go, we watched most of season 7 of Entourage. Saturday evening we went over to this awesome chick's house with some other friends and ate delicious food, drank yummy sangria and had a fabulous time! Sunday we headed to church and then to my sister and bro-in-laws house to celebrate our awesome Mama! Always a good time with the family and my sister's crazy dog Baxter, but he is super cute...

 

What a mess!

Three exciting things:

1. Vicky graduated  from TCU on Saturday, so proud! :)

2. My friend Torie got engaged on Friday, yayyy!

3. This is my last week at my current job. I accepted a job at the radio station I interned/worked for in college and I'm super excited to start! 

Happy Easter

Hope everyone had a wonderful Easter! I had Good Friday off which was nice because work has been so crazy busy lately (even if there was a little work drama I had to deal with). It was also nice to have time to reflect on the sacrifice of our Lord and Savior. I was able to get a good work out in and a little alone time while I got a pedicure! Last night we made some delicious fish tacos and I completely forgot to take pics because we devoured them so fast!

Today we started off our day celebrating at church with my parents. Then we headed up to Mike's grandpa's to hang out with his family. It was fun watching the little kids hunting eggs and counting all of their money. I brought my camera and completely forgot to get it out!

I also put together a little Easter basket for Mike and I haha! I slacked on getting candy (not that we need it) so M got...

(My sister had this at her house and Mike loved it)

And the Easter bunny brought me this cute dress:

Just 3 more weeks until we head to the beach!! Ahh can't wait!

Happenings

Long time, no blog. My bad.

The most exciting thing going on around here is that Mike was accepted to Georgia Tech! He will start in the Fall and I'm so proud of him.

Celebration beer and pizza :)

We went to our first Braves game of the season. We carpooled with this girl and her hubby- we had an impromptu tailgate, too bad I didn't take a picture haha! Unfortunately they lost to the Phillies-yuck! But we still had a good time.

My hubby is so cute :)

Sunday Mike worked so I went to church, layed out for a little, and went to see Julie and this precious little boy.

Look how tiny! He is still only like 6.5lbs and soo sweet.

Ughh I could have held him forever!

We also found out that our friends are moving back to Atlanta next month and I am so excited! I can't wait to have my running partner back! (It's only been since high school haha!)

Busy week, but what's new? Hope you're have a great week!

Babies!

This past weekend was super exciting! Two of my friends, Julie and Morgan, were pregnant with baby boys. They were actually due one day apart, but not until April. Amazingly they both gave birth on Saturday to the cutest little boys!

Julie and I have been best friends since we were in 5th grade. We've pretty much been through every major life event together and it's been a blast. At every milestone I think "how did we get here so fast?" and this weekend was no different. Weren't we just little silly girls in high school...? And now we're old enough to have children? Hah! Anyway, with out further ado here is 'J' :)

The best friends a girl could ask for :)

Julie sent me this pic yesterday and I just want to eat him up!

Morgan and I met when I interned at the radio station in college. I feel like I've known her forever! She already has one precious little boy and now she's really out numbered in her house haha! I haven't gotten to meet 'M' yet so I had to steal a pic from her :)

Can't wait to love on him!

Ahh so precious! These two will hold off my baby fever for awhile and I'm sure my husband is thankful!

Happy Birthday

To my awesome Mama!

Yep, she's turning 30 ;)

Love my mom... she's so much fun and always makes us laugh [even if we do tease her a lot].

Spring Break!

Well I wish I still had a week off from life every March! The hubs doesn't have class on Fridays so his spring break starts today- jealous! Although in true Georgia fashion its cold (50s) and raining for pretty much the next week, ha!

I started thinking about all the fun I've had during all my spring breaks. In high school my friend Alison's parents would take us to Destin every year. They are awesome and her dad would put up with 5 girls for the week! We would lay out on the beach and test the freezing cold weather and usually end up with some pretty horrible sun burns. One year I was so burnt I could barely move and ended up getting really sick one night- clearly I was 15 and dumb. I don't have any pictures on my computer from high school and even if I did, I'm not sure I am brave enough to post them haha!

So here are some pictures from spring break in college.

My freshman year a group of us drove to New Jersey [my sister and our old youth pastor lived up there and were planting a church] for the week.

The girls in Central Park.

My sophmore year I don't think I really went anywhere.

My junior year four of us went to Orange Beach and just got a cheap hotel and laid on the beach! We went to Jimmy Buffets sister's restaraunt called Lulus one night and with the t-shirts we bought we got fake tattoos- ha so rebellious!

Katie and I

Our senior year a group of us went to Hollywood, Fl... we found a condo, which ended up being a little sketchy. It was basically a retirement condo and supposedly the owners weren't supposed to rent out their condos for vacationers haha! But we made nice to all the people and they didn't mind us being there [minus the lady below us].

The last morning we were there the women invited us to do water aerobics with them and they kicked our butts! It was so hard and we were all really sore the next day!

We went to Miami one day and we were looking for Miami Ink, but found this little gem of a place...

Torie, Katie and I took back a little souvenir from here :)

Ahh, what I would give for a week on the beach right now. I could really use it after these past couple of weeks!

National Craft Month

Did you know that March is National Craft Month?! I didn't either until my weekly email from Joann told me :) So, gather up your coupons and get to crafting! I have a few ideas in mind, but if you have any fun ideas to share let me know!

Have fun crafting!

Valentine's Day Crafts

I made a few decorations to make our apartment pretty. Vicky over at Adventures in Domestication showed me this cute wreath and we both tried it out. It took much longer than I thought it would and trying to shape the hanger almost drove me crazy haha. Oh well it turned out pretty cute although its lost its shape some since it has been hanging for awhile.

One Saturday I was out running and ran by our dumpster and saw this frame laying there...

It didn't have a backing just some fabric stapled in. I knew immediately I could paint it and make it cute. I later found out its a custom size from Hobby Lobby and a really random size. I found this free printable and knew I had to use it. This is how it ended up...

I took out the yellow fabric (even though it was kind of cute, I didn't know where it had been- yuck!) and replaced it with some burlap that i had.

Now I need to find a spring wreath and some bright and fun decorations because I'm ready to craft!

Meal Planning [5]

I didn't skip planning for week 4- I just never got around to posting it. So here's week 5.

Monday: My birthday- we got BBQ and ate at home and watched the end of season 8 of 24

Tuesday: Chicken and Mozzarella ravioli with sundried tomato alfredo sauce, asparagus

Wednesday: Pot roast, mashed potatoes, asparagus

Thursday: Leftovers

Friday: Chicken squares

When I make crockpot meals I usually get up a little earlier to get it together. However, this morning, I ran out of time and didn't have time to start the pot roast so I emailed Mike directions and he did it for me. It was delish! He did a great job :) And for Valentines Day he made filet with a marsala sauce, fresh green beans and yummy breaad. He also bought me a nice bottle of wine :) Love him!

Time to start planning next weeks meals!

My early birthday present!

Mike told me Thursday I was getting my birthday present early-on Friday. (My birthday is tomorrow, Monday) He gets really excited about surprises and couldn't wait to give it to me. I came home from work to find this beauty of a package...

Apparently we didn't have enough wrapping paper haha! Inside this box was my hand weights, a blanket and some other random things to throw the weight of it off. Then there was a smaller box wrapped in the pretty Tiffany blue paper. And insde that was this:

It's so pretty and I love it! We have a desktop computer, but the husband is usually on it doing homework or something else. So now I have my very own and I will definitely be blogging a lot more! My husband is the best!

Also Friday night, we celebrated with my family. We headed over to my parents for burgers and a bonfire. It was a lot of fun, but unfortunately I was so excited about my computer I forgot my camera ha! My sister took a few pics so I'll have to get them from her.

Overall, fabulous weekend! Now off to meal plan !

Random thoughts

I'm bored and my brain isn't functioning enough to formulate a real post so here are my thoughts in bullets:

• We got a light dusting of snow last night. Glad that's all it was- I'm over winter.
• I'm kind of obsessed with The Office right now. Mike and I have been watching it instant on Netflix every night. Love it.
• I saw bathing suits out at Target yesterday...yikes!
• Speaking of bathing suits, I've been doing a lot of ab exercises and my stomach has been soo sore! Clearly out.of.shape.
• We have friends coming to stay with us this weekend and I'm super excited! However, the switch on our vacuum is broken and I can't vacuum before they come! [and I'm sure they couldn't care less, but I care]
• I made a few Valentine's decorations and they took way more work that I anticipated, but I'll take some pics and post later.
• Girls Night next week- really excited! It's been awhile.
• I turn 25 in ten days... yuck.
• I love my husband. A lot. He keeps me laughing a majority of the time.

That is all, have a great Thursday!

Meal Planning [3]

I'm such a slacker in the posting department, but I did meal plan on Sunday for this week.

Monday: Fajitas and rice

Tuesday: Meatball Subs, tots, and carrots

Wednesday: Chicken Tacos

Thursday: Leftovers

Friday: Calzones

Saturday: On the Border - yumm

Sunday: ?

I didn't plan for this weekend because we have friends coming in town, but we already decided we're eating at On the Border, ha!

Meal Planning [2]

Second week of meal planning!

Monday: PW's Cajun Chicken Pasta

Tuesday: Mexican Meatloaf, mashed potatoes, salad

Wednesday: Grilled Chicken Salad

Thursday: Leftovers

Friday: Thai Coconut Chicken Soup [ we had this at a wedding this weekend and it was soo good!]

Saturday: Leftovers

Sunday: We usually eat out for lunch after church, which usually takes care of dinner as well

While at the Grand Canyon at the beginning of the month, we stopped in one of the little stores and I found a rack of cook books that were all Southwest cooking. Yum! So my souvenir was this one:

I've been trying a recipe from the book each week. Last weeks was Spicy Chicken Joes and they turned out pretty darn good, so I thought I'd share the recipe.

Spicy Chicken Joes:

2-3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

2 Yellow onions, chopped

4-5 cloves of garlic, chopped

olive oil

1- 8oz can tomato paste

1- 16oz can tomato sauce

2- chipotles in adobo sauce, seeded and chopped [not nearly spicey enough for us- if you're not into spicy start with one pepper]

1 tablespoon worchestershire sauce

1 tablespoon ground cumin

1/2 cup packed brown sugar [ I would take this down to 1/4 cup, it was a little too sweet]

1/2 teaspoon seasoning salt

Rolls

Cilantro for garnish if you like

Heat oil in pan. Brown chicken, onions and garlic [I drained off the water that the onions and chicken produced]. In separate bowl mix next 7 ingredients. Place chicken/onion/garlic mixture in crock pot and pour the sauce mixture over it. Cook on low for 5-6 hours or until chicken is cooked through. Shred chicken with forks and serve on rolls of your choice. Garnish with cilantro [Mike had cheese on his] and PLEASE serve with tator tots :)

I heart clearance

Especially Old Navy clearance. Not because I'm obsessed with their clothes (it's usually hit or miss for me), but because their clearance racks are insanely cheap. The other day I got an email saying their clearance was marked down even more so during lunch I headed over to the store. Yeah, the clearance was an extra 50% off. Score! And it was the first day of the sale so they had a lot and in every size. So here is what I picked up.

Dress = $4

 Dress = $4 (looked a little frumpy on so I added a belt, adorable)

Tank = $1.99

Tank = $.98

I also got a pair of dark skinny jeans for $7!

My total was $20. I figured there was no way the husband could be mad for me spending money on clothes when I got such a great deal :) I was right.

Now I'm ready for Spring so I can wear everything haha! But it is going to be in the 60s this weekend! Praise the Lord! [I.hate.winter.]

Score any good deals lately?

Bruschetta Salad

While we were in Arizona we ate like kings [and queens]. Leah is a great cook and we probably gained 5lbs that week, but that's what vacation is for right? One night she made this salad and it's delish! It's all her, so I can't take credit. I didn't take pictures and this recipe isn't exact because really you just throw it all together. I just grabbed pictures from google for people who are visual learners :)

Bruschetta Salad:

Grape tomatoes cut in half - about a cup

Fresh Mozzerella cubed, about the same size as the tomatoes - 1/2 cup or more if you really like cheese :)

Fresh basil chopped - about 4 or 5 leaves

One or two cloves of garlic chopped - depending on how much you like garlic

Half cup or so of croutons - I used texas toast croutons

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

Mix all ingredients together and let sit for a few minutes to let all the flavors mix, but not too long so that the croutons get soggy, blech! There ya go- it's super easy and so good!

Sisters

This past weekend my sister Heather and her husband Dustin were in town from California. We haven't since them since May so it was really fun to have them around. I have another sister, Ashley who is the oldest, then Heather and I'm the baby. My sisters are the best! We get along so well and always have the best time acting crazy together while our husbands stand off to the side and give us weird looks. Holidays are always a little crazy when we're all together and I think we make our Mama nervous haha! At least my poor Dad now has some guys around to escape the madness with. I love having sisters!

Ashley's wedding 2006

 My wedding 2008

Heather's wedding 2009 [with my mom]

[my poor parents paid for 3 weddings in 3 years]

Ash gave us this necklace this weekend and I love it, so true!

Meal Planning [1]

Keeping with my goals for 2011, I figured I'd just post my meal plan for the week on here to keep myself accountable and so I can remember what I cook from week to week.

Monday: Burgers and bruschetta salad [so good and easy! I'll post the recipe soon]
Tuesday:Spicy Chicken Joes [from my new slow cooker cookbook] and tator tots. "Give me some of your tots!"
Wednesday: Tilapia, balsamic thyme roasted tomatoes and mushrooms, and brown rice
Thursday: We're going out to dinner with our small group
Friday: leftovers
Saturday: We have a wedding to go to
Sunday: leftovers or something random we have

My grocery list was so short this week, it was nice. I try to meal plan around food we already have so I didn't need to buy a lot this week. Happy eating :)

2011

Somehow January has flown by, but really when does time not fly? I've been thinking about some goals [not so much resolutions] for 2011 so I figured I'd throw 'em out there and maybe that will help keep me accountable. I don't usually do this, but lately I have been thinking a lot about how fast my twenties are going and I don't want to look back and think "what did do with that time?". You could say I'm having a little quarter life crisis- I turn 25 in a month from tomorrow eek! Haha. I know, I know that's still very young, but that also means I'm closing in on 30! Anyway here are a few goals for the next year...

1. Run a marathon

I have wanted to run a marathon since my senior year of high school when I ran cross country and my first half. And then I got lazy. I ran on and off through college and the same since. I ran a half in October 2009, but then had surgery again a few months after that. I got back in to working out and running a little and then this fall got mono. What the heck?! So I'm done with the excuses and I'm gonna do it. I think I need to register for a race so I have more motivation ha!

2. Meal plan: this works out great when I actually do it. It saves us money and me a lot time. I work full-time and my commute is at least an hour so when I get home it's nice to know that I already have everything to make dinner. Plus, I don't have the excuse of "I don't feel like cooking I'll just pick something up" which saves us money.

3. Send out birthday cards [on time]: I love sending out cards, but I'm so bad at it! And I've already failed at January, so I need to get in gear for the rest of the year. Vicky [Adventures in Domestication] has the same goal so we can help keep each other on track :)

4. Read more: I love to read, but I never do anymore. I don't really know why- I guess it's easier to veg out watching tv? Also with this, I want to be more diligent in reading my Bible. Currently I am reading Crazy Love - our small group is going through this book and it's really good.

I'm going to read HP7 again first, but I need book suggestions please!

5. Get and stay organized: All of my goals lead to one thing- organization. I need to use my time better in the evenings and on the weekends to get all of this done. Maybe I need a planner? I still have my planner from my senior year of college and sometimes I look at it to remind myself when I think I'm busy, I will probably not have that much on my plate until I have kids haha! I had 5 classes, I was a resident assistant [full-time, all the time with crazy college kids for 3 yrs], I interned/worked for a radio station [office hours plus events at night or on the weekends], I served at a restaurant, and I had a fiancé stationed on the other side of the world [14 hours ahead of my time]. Oh and I started planning our wedding.

Needless to say I think I can handle of all this :) Better get started!

Vacation

Thankfully the 'winter storm' here in Georgia is allowing me to work from home again today so I actually have time to post.

Back in the fall we decided to meet up with some friends over the winter break. These are friends that Mike was stationed with Okinawa and we hadn't seen them in a year or two. One of the couples lives in Arizona and we decided to head there since it would probably be the warmest [compared to Georgia, Ohio, and Albuquerque]. We left two days after Christmas and we spent a week there. Much to our surprise we got about 10 inches of snow dumped on us the 2nd day we were there [3 weeks prior it was in the 70s and 80s]. Joy. Oh well, it was pretty and probably the most snow we'd ever seen. We played in it some and attempted to sled with a card board box haha! Here are a few pics:

Nice view from their driveway

We hung around the house mostly and played games, ate delish food and relaxed. We had plans of camping a few days while we were there but decided we liked the warm house instead. We ventured into town on New Years Eve [they live in a pretty small town]. It was -1 degree. Yeah... We found a bar/saloon and they had a live band so that was pretty fun.

NYE: Mike and I

NYE: Luis, Mike, Keith, Cody and I. [Luis' wife Leah did not venture out with us that night]

The one thing we were all determined to do was go see the Grand Canyon. Leah and I had been before, but we hadn't seen it with snow. So at the end of the week we all piled in a car and made the drive up there. It was less than a 2 hour drive so not bad! We took a ton of pics and it was beautiful with snow. It was still freezing that day, but it didn't stop us from driving to a bunch of different look out points to find amazing views.

The boys. I mean men.

Us. [First time I've ever seen my husband with facial hair haha]

The snow was about a foot deep where we were standing.

Another thing we all wanted to do was go shooting. I am the only was who isn't a Marine so you can understand their love of guns. Leah's dad has quite the arsenal so we were able to borrow a few from him. Mike brought his Glock and Leah has an SKS [? A huge rifle]. In Arizona you can pretty much shoot wherever as long as its federal property, which is apparently almost every where. We drove out of town a few miles and pulled off the road and there were places that were already set up and used for target shooting. Once again it was freezing, but we all had a lot of fun.

We had a great trip even though the weather wasn't what we expected haha. Now we're back in Atlanta and we get hit with more snow/ice... oh well. [I'm ready for spring!]