Lauren Elizabeth's Excellent Adventures

What I Made: The Christmas Edition

2012-02-03T05:43:00.003-05:00

Remember that epic WIMM I promised with all of the things that I made for Christmas? Well here it is y'all! It might be February and it might not be a Monday, but regardless, y'all should be excited!
Of course there are a few things that I forgot to take pictures of, but I remembered most of them. Below each picture is a link to the tutorial/inspiration that I used (though I did modify bits here and there). So without further ado...

some of Bennet's presents

Inspiration from SanctusStitches esty shop

Little additions to some gifts

Bird tutorial from Stephanie Lynn. Packaging designed by me!

(If you're interested let me know and I might put together a little tutorial for the packaging)

Koozies for Daddy, D'Daddy, Clay, and Uncle Barrett

I did the tutorial for these a while back!

I made two of these wreaths for Memommy and Aunt Nancy.

Inspiration from Two Junk Chix

A tiled map of Germany for Daddy.

Each time I've been to Europe, Daddy has put up a map in the living room and documented where all I have been. Since this map was going to be up for a while, for Mama's sake, I thought he needed one that was actually somewhat pretty.

I didn't think to take pictures of the steps, but again, if you're interested let me know and I can put together a tutorial (though it will be sans photos).

Some ornaments for the iron tree I got Mama and Daddy.

Inspiration from BowerPower

Mine and Bennet's present for his Mama and Daddy.

While we were still in Texas (and it was warm outside) I painted the canvas red and taped off the word family then let him go to town.

Then I peeled off the tape and stuck it in a frame! This is really a 'what Bennet made'.

Inspiration from Baby Blackbird

Mama's wreath (and the bane of my existence for about a week)

Tutorial from Stephanie Lynn

A sign for Mama and Daddy.

Tutorial from The Handmade Home

This one wasn't a gift per say, but Daddy saw it on Pinterest and I thought that it would be easy enough to make so I cranked it out once I got home!

Inspiration from RunningOnTheWall etsy shop

I also made a different wreath for Mrs. Kathy (which I forgot to take a picture of) and I made some Scrabble tile coasters for Aunt Judy (which I also forgot to take pictures of).

And that, my friends, is how you do Christmas on a budget!
Granted the frames cost a bit, but they were 50% off at Hobby Lobby, so even those were pretty reasonable! I did use the pipe insulation trick (which I can't seem to find the link for at the moment) for all the wreaths and it worked like a charm. I used brown packing paper from the dollar store to wrap most of them, and then used some twine I had as ribbon. I made the gift tags from the dictionary that I used for the birds and the rolled flower wreath which I got at Goodwill for $1.

brown paper packages tied up with string

My rule... It's okay to be cheap when you can still make it classy.

Luckily, my family was extremely understanding of the fact that I no longer earn a big girl paycheck, so they at least acted like my handmade Christmas presents were acceptable.

Thank you family!

New Year's Resolutions and A Face Lift

2012-01-24T06:22:00.001-05:00

Has it really been a month since I posted last?! What a slacker I've been!! My only excuse is that life has been sehr exciting this last month and I just haven't quite been able to put that excitement into words, yet. That and there is the fact that I usually spend 2 hours of my day on a train... That tends to eat up a lot of time.

I have started to blog about New Year’s resolutions a couple of times, but time always seems to get away from me. Looking back, I'm pretty proud of how many of last year's I actually accomplished.

Let the kids do their own projects (CHECK)

Have at least 2 projects advance from region (CHECK)
Have kids make it to nationals (CHECK)
Spend more time with my friends and family and less with folks in the 11-14 age range. (CHECK)
Run more, Enter races, Be competitive (well.. oops..)
Lose 20 (10 counts right?!)

Move locations, Change jobs (HUGE CHECK!)

I am really glad I have that list on here to look back on, so I am going to put this year’s up as well. Better late than never, right? Ironically enough, I’ve already fallen short on number 1, but I’m not going to beat myself up about it..

Blog more.

Eat more whole foods and less processed crap.

Learn German.

Write more letters, thank you notes, emails, etc to the folks back home.

Run.

Find time to create.

Learn something new every day.

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On a completely unrelated topic, do y’all like the blogs new look?* I’m pretty pleased, but I am still tweaking things here and there. For one who considers herself pretty html-illiterate, I was so freaking proud that I figured out how to make the buttons over there on the side!

*Please note that the only acceptable answers to this question is ‘Yes!’ or ‘It looks like God himself designed it.’ If you don't like it, you probably just shouldn't respond.. just being honest.

Frohe Weihnachten

2011-12-24T18:04:00.003-05:00

Gratefulness

2011-12-15T08:32:00.002-05:00

Have you seen the new Jimmy Kimmel challenge video yet? Its similar to his Halloween challenge which was funny all though the children were bratty. However in my opinion, the results of this one were much, MUCH more disturbing. (Except I do love the kids at time marker 1:40.. they're funny.)

What is happening?! When did Christmas become just about presents (or only good presents)?

I have seen lots of folks posting about embracing a 4 gift rule for their kids.

a la

L.O.V.E. it! Granted I don't have kids, yet. However, when I do.. this blog post will be here waiting for me as a reminder of WHY this is a good idea! Christmas is about celebrating the birth of our Lord, not about getting every single one of the 50 items on your wish list. Its about giving to others (as God gave Jesus to the world), not about receiving.

A Not-So-Brief Update on Life in Germany

2011-12-14T05:55:00.000-05:00

I have now been here 2 weeks. In that two weeks time, we have kind of just been camping in the house because all of the furniture was still being shipped, but alas.. it has arrived! I have a bed!! After two weeks sleeping on an air mattress, I seriously don’t think I have ever appreciated a bed more! While there are still boxes everywhere, it is beginning to feel more like home. I am so appreciative that I was able to spend time with them in Texas so that their furniture is familiar enough to make me feel that way!

These two weeks have certainly had their times of frustration and home sickness, but there have also been lots of times of joy. Lets start with the frustrations so that we can end on a positive note! If you don’t want to hear about the negatives just skip the next four points…

Its frustrating that I have to have someone to communicate for me. While I know some German, I don’t know enough. My language classes started last week, and I am slowly seeing some improvement at least in my understanding.

My credit and debit cards aren’t accepted here. UGH!! I hate dealing in cash. It makes me nervous to have that much cash on me. I currently don’t have access to all the money I saved for this year. We have been working on getting me a bank account, but since I don’t have my visa yet (I’ve applied but it takes 4-5 weeks for processing), the banks can’t give me an account.

Its frustrating that my mobility is limited to where the s-bahn and u-bahn goes. I will eventually be able to drive, but we haven’t really had time for me to practice yet. I am pretty intimidated by driving here, but my frustration with how not driving would limit my mobility is soon going to be enough to get me over that fear.

Its frustrating that I don’t have a set schedule/routine. No one is a fault in this and I know that Mareike wants a set schedule just as much as I do, but it is going to take time for her to build her client base and start to have routine in her workload. I understand that and I’m flexible, but that doesn’t make it any less frustrating.

Now onto the joys! I am grateful…

when I understand a conversation that is being held in German.

for Christmas Markets

when Dooley makes Bennet laugh and smile.

for Bennet.

for Dooley.

for the walk that Dooley and I take most days. We are pretty far out in the country and there is a dirt road that leads all the way into Maisach (the next town).

that I have been able to meet folks that speak English so that I can at least have a social life before I learn German. I have met a group of non-competitive runners that go on runs and then just spend time socializing. I went on a run with them last Friday and am going down to Innsbruck with them this weekend for a run!

that I have found an english speaking Methodist church with a very international congregation that I think I will learn a lot from.

for the peace in the unknown that the Lord has placed on my heart. If you had told me a couple years ago that I would be okay with the fact that I don’t really have a plan for what is next, I would have called you a liar. I am definitely searching and seeking, but I am very much trying to do this through God. I feel as though its God’s will that I am here, so I am trying to be open and let Him use me where I am needed here.

for technology that allows me to see and speak to my parents daily. No, its not the same as being able to pick up the phone whenever I’d like, but it helps the homesickness a bit.

for AthensChurch podcasts. They make my train rides enjoyable and a good use of time. I encourage each and every one of you reading this to go listen to Parts 1 and 2 of the Be Rich series. You will be so glad that you did!! I just finished the Game Plan and the Be Rich series. In my search for what is next the fact that the Be Rich series so closely relates to what I’ve been feeling in my heart for a while now, I think I have my answer. Now to see how God’s will will manifest itself…

Well my dears, that is all for now. My regular blogging might be a bit spotty for a bit, but I promise to keep you updates with my adventures—which, granted, might just be my ramblings about walking my dog in cold weather and 15 month old boys, but there you have it.

I'm Here!

2011-11-30T12:09:00.000-05:00

Next time I take a break from blogging, I promise I will give y'all more of a warning. I have spent the last couple weeks making my way back to Georgia and spending some much needed time with my family!

I got to make a trip to Athens and get my hair done at my favorite place. I got to go to the movies with my folks. I got to go to Youth Assembly and hang out with some of my Y-Club favorites. I got to see my absolute favorites because they are awesome and came to Atlanta to meet me. I got to see all my aunts and family. I got to give all my Christmas presents (and get a bunch!). I got to hike.

It was awesome!

On Monday, we packed up all of my stuff and Dooley and I got on the plane. We got here early Tuesday morning sleep deprived and cold, but other than that things went very smoothly. The Little Man ~~loves~~ adores Dooley though I do still have to hold Dooley when she is around him because she is ~~nuts~~ a little excited. Dooley is adjusting. I think she is still trying to figure out where she is and why Mama and Daddy aren't here. She gets really excited when she sees Stefan, Mareike, or Little Man, so for the most part I'm just keeping her in my room. The road we live on dead ends into a field but there is a little dirt road that continues for a good long ways, so we have been taking walks down it.

SO. MANY. SMELLS.

Our yard is also fenced in so she can be out there without the leash and get to run which is exciting for her.

Yesterday we registered me with the village and today I had a meeting with the folks about my work visa--so I'm legal. =D I also have my phone all set up! My number is 01145 176 9984 7580. It is free for me if you call me, but I have no idea how much it will cost for you.. sorry!

In terms of the house, it is really nice. Very modern and sleek. My room is on the floor with the rest of the family's bedrooms, but my bathroom is down one level. I have a HUGE bath tub which is SO exciting because I didn't think that I was going to have one at all! All of our furniture is still making its way over, so we are all sleeping on air mattresses and sitting and eating on furniture that Stefan's family brought over for us! I got all my stuff unpacked today and we found a shelving unit down in the basement that I put together (all by myself!!) so I have everything organized on that for the time being. Thankfully all the stuff I sent with the air freight made it safe and sound so I have all my jackets and sweaters which I need because its HELLA COLD! Its not below freezing yet, but its getting there.

We won't have internet until next Monday at the soonest, so my blogging is going to be limited to our trips to McDonalds (barf). I promise I will be back on track with my blogging once we actually have internet!

Tschus!

Why Wednesday Didn't Happen + TILT

2011-11-03T18:39:00.000-04:00

I'm obviously just pretending yesterday didn't exist so that I don't have to post about German. I have actually fired up Rosetta Stone this past week, but I am completely, totally overwhelmed with it right now.. So I really just don't want to talk about it. There for.. Wednesday just didn't happen. On to happier things...

This video... Made. My. Day.

As did this one...

I just finished this book. AMAZING. Head over to her website to learn more!

I'm currently obsessing over these doggy products. This and that.

Hulu is so bad for me. I don't need a new show or two...

That's all for this week.. As usual, I'm linking up with Kelly over at You, Me, and the Deep Blue Sea

Weekend Update

2011-11-01T11:03:00.000-04:00

Oh the joys of moving. Just a warning, this one will be a rambling mess..

All last week, I worked on organizing all my stuff and dividing it up into the going home group and the going to Germany group. The military will pay for Mareike and Stefan to have 500lbs of air freight, which will arrive in like 2-3 weeks, and then they can also ship stuff, which will arrive in about 6 weeks. Thankfully they offered for me to put my stuff in with theirs to get it over there—though I have no idea how it will be making it back. I also had to inventory everything that was going and assign values to it. Not going to lie... my OCD kind of loved it and the whole process was actually pretty fun.

Saturday morning Mareike and Stefan were having a yard sale to sell the stuff that they didn’t want to take with them and the electrical appliances that wouldn’t work over there. Even though all their signs said that the sale started at 8am, that didn’t stop someone from showing up at 6:30 and waking up Little Man… uh uh not cool. The yard sale went pretty well and pretty much everything sold! After that Mareike headed to the hair salon and Stefan and Bennet went to his friend’s garage to work on the chump car so that means that I had the house to myself to watch Dawgs kill the Gators!

There is little in the world that is better than beating Florida. I was a little nervous early in the game and extremely frustrated with Blair Walsh, but we pulled it out!! Thankfully Florida was as penalty happy as we usually are.

photo via Megan Wright

That night Mareike and Stefan had their Farewell Dinner with the German community, so I was watching Little Man. After dinner and getting ready for bed, he and I curled up on the couch with some apple juice and cider, respectively, and watched a little bit of Hocus Pocus. That is why people have kids I’m pretty sure—the cuddle time.

Sunday we packed up the cars and moved our stuff into our temporary on-base housing. It feels like we are at camp. The bathrooms make you want to wear shower shoes, and the house smells like damp. BUT there is a bed, kitchen, TV, and we now have internet, so I’m not complaining!

WIMM: The Halloween Edition

2011-10-31T14:58:00.001-04:00

Happy Halloween!!

I'm blogging from Starbucks because our lovely new on-base housing does not have internet.

How. Will. I. Survive? Lots of trips to Starbucks that's how.. Anywho..

As promised here is a rockin' WIMM featuring some awesome halloween crafts!!

First up is Little Man's treat bag. He is going to be a terrifyingly cute dragon tonight so I had to make an equally terrifyingly cute treat bag... I got some awesome inspiration from pinterest via DoveNestDesigns etsy shop. I would totally have made a tutorial for y'all, but as they really aren't all that expensive (and they aren't my brain child to share), I recommend y'all head on over and buy one! Here is the one I made..

My next idea also came from pinterest via Angela Sgro Design's blog. My aunts, parents, and grandparents have been so great about sending me mail (which I love!) while I've been out here. I wanted to send them a halloween card with a picture of the cutest little dragon that you ever did see. So here is my Frankenstein card...

And last but not least, is a brainchild completely of my own! I took the picture back summer before senior year of high school while Mama, Daddy and I were in the UK. The quote, obviously from Harry Potter, is a new one I discovered last week but it is now one of my favorites!! Enjoy!

That is all for this week! I hope y'all have lots of fun tonight, get lots of candy, and no tummy aches!

Things I Love Thursdays

2011-10-27T17:08:00.001-04:00

This Thursday I am linking up with Kelly over at You, Me, and the Deep Blue Sea again for her TILT series.

With Ga/Fl going down this weekend, I did try to include some gator hating in there.. enjoy! Here we go!

Brown paper packages tied up with strings.

A classic.

I would never actually keep up with this, but what a cool concept! It would be interesting to see how your answers change in 5 years.

My Josh Ritter Pandora station.

THESE shoes!! Plus the proceeds go help native american and aboriginal tribes.

Shoes for a good cause? I'll take a few pairs.. but specifically these.

HA HA HA HA! If you need a laugh just scroll through all of them!

and these prints...

Harry Potter perfection a la

also this... Thank you Rolling Stone and Photoshop.

a la

I would love that on a tank to work out in! When does it become inappropriate to wear my sorority t's? When I'm 30? When I have kids? I'd love to hear some opinions..

Wordy Wednesdays: The Cheater Edition

2011-10-27T00:02:00.001-04:00

I don't know if I've mentioned this or not, but before we move to Germany we have to pack up all the Greiler's stuff (sofa, cars, beds, etc) and ship it over there.. That also means that we have to make do without those things until we get to Germany. Since that is obviously impossible to do in the house we are currently in, we are moving on base into a furnished house that is set up for precisely these occasions. This is happening next Tuesday, so things are kind of crazy around here at the moment. I have yet to start packing because once I pack my craft stuff I won't be unpacking it until Germany, so I have been in a mad rush to finish Christmas (presents and wrapping). I have also been too inspired by stuff on Pinterest to let Halloween pass without any crafting at all, so I knocked out two Halloween projects in the last two days. (Next Monday's WIMM is going to ROCK!)

All that said, I haven't opened Rosetta Stone once in the past week. I KNOW... I really need to get on it. In less than 5 weeks, I will be getting a rude awakening as to how little I really know. Even more immediately, I am going to a Halloween party with a bunch of Germans on Monday and all I will be able to do is tell them that the table is made of plastic... not the most interesting conversation and they are likely to think I'm crazy. Ah! At least once my craft stuff is packed I won't really have anything to do but Rosetta Stone (...and Pinterest) so hopefully I will be able to buckle down and get on it. But without further ado or any more excuses here is my Wordy Wednesday based completely on things I knew before this week...

Word I’m loving right now:

Herbst

Word that makes me giggle:

langsam

Word that sounds gross:

Karotte

okay... maybe it doesn't sound gross, but it is gross...

Word that I can never pronounce properly:

Schlüssel

Word that is the same as English (except for pronunciation, of course):

Park

Word I want to learn more about its origins:

Schlüssel and Schüsseln

WHY are they so similar?!

Ridiculous things that Rosetta Stone thinks I need to know:

Der Tisch ist aus Plastik.

And here is a link to GoogleTranslate...

Go learn some German...maybe I will as well.

WIMM (on Tuesday)

2011-10-25T17:47:00.000-04:00

So sorry for my lack of bloggage yesterday... This weekend (and Monday) my life was been taken over by these...

Christmas presents are DONE, wrapped, and in the car ready to make their way home!

I also got around to finishing up this shirt which, I'll be honest, I will never wear..

and that's all I can show y'all..

Not going to lie, I crafted all weekend and its a little disappointing that this is all I get to show you, but just wait! After I give the presents y'all will have an AWESOME What I Made Monday!

Things I'm Currently Loving

2011-10-20T16:02:00.002-04:00

Today I'm linking up with one of my lovely littles, Kelly, at You, Me, and the Deep Blue Sea for her 'Things I Love Thursday'.

I'm loving this colder weather even though it came on pretty suddenly! On Monday I was laying out, yesterday we had to break out the fleeces! It smells, feels, and looks like fall!

That tall, soy, no whip, pumpkin spice latte I had yesterday... perfect fall drink.

These socks.

Andy Stanley's Listen and Learn series that I just finished and really having time to reflect on the message.

This nail polish. So much so that I might buy it and try painting my own nails (and then when I fail I'll go to the nail salon..)

These dog tags.

Petunia Pickle Bottom diaper bags... but I do NOT love the prices.

These prints.

a la

which makes me think of this other thing I'm loving...

and this video... seriously, its my childhood! It even has Ghostwriter on it!!

Wordy Wednesdays

2011-10-19T10:34:00.001-04:00

For anyone who has tried learning a second language, you know that there are certain words that just stick out to you. It could be that maybe they are ugly, silly, or just so hard to pronounce you never what to have to say them, but everyone has those words. In an effort to give me a kick me in the booty to actually practice my German more (because apparently the fact that I will be living there in 6 weeks isn't enough), I am starting a new series on the blog...

Each Wednesday I'll tell y'all about the fun (and not so fun) words I learned the previous week. So here we go!

Word I’m loving right now:

Zahnbürste

Word that makes me giggle:

schmutzig

Word that sounds gross:

Jacke

Word that I can never pronounce properly:

Entschuldigen

which is extremely unfortunate because it is kind of needed to be polite...

Word that is the same as English (except for pronunciation, of course):

Restaurant

and I can NEVER get the German pronunciation right...

Word I want to learn more about its origins:

Schmuck

Ridiculous things that Rosetta Stone thinks I need to know:

Die alte Frau unterrichtet Arabisch.

And here is a link to GoogleTranslate... Happy learning!

Fort Worth Zoo + The Deal of the Century

2011-10-18T10:32:00.001-04:00

This past weekend we headed down to Dallas. Mareike had to pick up the crates that they are using to ship their motorcycles early on Saturday morning, so we decided that staying overnight was probably the best bet. Once in Dallas on Friday night we made a shopping detour to Southlake. While she was exchanging something at NY&Co I decided to take a stroll through Anthro. There was nothing I needed per say, but I did want to check out their sale stuff. As I walked in there was a sign that all of their sale stuff was an additional 40% off the lowest marked sale price. Oh happy day!!

As I made my way back I saw that this coat that I spotted there a month ago (and fell completely in love with) was now on clearance.

While I did need a fashionable raincoat for Germany, this jacket's original $288 price tag is the only reason I didn't buy it the minute I saw it. It was now marked down to $150, but wait... take an additional 40% off of that, so it was $90. On top of all that, I still had $30 left on my gift card. I got this $288 jacket for $60!!

Super excited!

The next day, after Mareike got the crates, we went to the Montgomery Street Antique Mall where I may of may not have gotten some Christmas presents. Then it was off the the zoo.

Most people who know me know that I love animals and that I love, LOVE zoos. Yes it makes me a little sad that these animals aren't getting to live in their natural environment (and bad zoos that don't take care of their animals make me down right furious), but the Fort Worth Zoo was FABULOUS! Great habitats and the animals were really well taken care of. The Little Man loves most animals (except small yippy dogs) and, though he was super tired, was fascinated. He kept waving and saying hi to each animal we saw. He is such a cutie! Without further ado, here are the pictures!

Love was definitely in the air. We saw orangutans kissing under a sheet and some bears making out!

WIMM: Yummy Food

2011-10-17T12:34:00.000-04:00

I can't really show y'all the crafts I worked on this week because they are Christmas presents.. Clay, D'daddy, and Uncle Barrett--get excited! What I do want to show and share with y'all this week are some yummy recipes!

The first thing I made this week was Chicken Rollatini from SkinnyTaste. I made some angel hair pasta and a spinach salad to go with it and it was so tasty!

This next one I've made before, but its definitely worth making the blog. Baked Ziti from The Girl Who Ate Everything. There are so many different combos you can do. We are trying to empty out the pantry and fridge because we are moving on base in 2 weeks and we'd rather not have to move food. This is a great use-what-you-have recipe. For mine, I left off the meat and used ricotta cheese instead of provolone because that's what we had. Oh and I also used penne pasta instead of ziti, but whatevs.. I cut the recipe in half and Mareike and I still ate on it for a week!

Happy Monday!

Happy Birthday Mama

2011-10-14T09:29:00.001-04:00

Sorry for no blog yesterday! Yesterday was spent crafting, enjoying this beautiful weather, and researching ways to teach a round off. Tonight, we are off to Dallas for a fun filled weekend! Mareike has to pick up the crates that they need to ship their motorcycles in, so we are making a weekend out of the trip. We are going to do some shopping (anthropologie and the apple store), check out an antique mall in Fort Worth, and go to the zoo!

Before my weekend can start, however, I must take today to wish my beautiful mother happy birthday! Thank you so much for always encouraging me to follow my dreams, even when those dreams involve moving to another country. Thank you, and daddy, for being my safety net that I always know is there. Without y’all, I don’t think I could take the risks I take, do what I do, and dream what I dream.

Dooley Bug

2011-10-12T21:27:00.000-04:00

I sure am missing this girl...

I am SO glad that she gets to come to Germany with me. I seriously don't think I could go a year without her! Only 5 more weeks until I get to see her! I really think she is going to love Germany. There is going to be lots of snow when we first get there and I know she is going to have a blast running around in/eating it! I also can't wait for her to be able to join me and the Little Man on our daily walks.

All that being said, I am going to have to get her a new crate for the airplane ride over. The one that she has now is a collapsible one and for some reason they don't want the crate collapsing on the puppy during the flight... weird. Definitely something to keep in mind if have a big dog and you're buying a crate and you're planning on moving overseas.

If you're not planning on moving overseas and you think that a collapsible one might be a good idea for you and your puppy, please let me know! I'm actually selling two of her crates. Both are single door Midwest iCrates and both have been used. The smaller one is for dogs 25-40 lbs. She out grew that one in like 2 months. =D That one retails for like $40, but I'm selling it for $30 since its used. The big one is for dogs 70-90 lbs. It retails for about $70, but I'm selling it for $50. Both of the crates are currently in Bremen, Georgia, but I'd be happy to meet any of you Athens folks in Atlanta over Thanksgiving Break!

Here is a link so you can see what they look like.

Email, call, text, facebook, tweet, smoke signal me if you're interested!

Spiced Banana Scones

2011-10-11T12:16:00.000-04:00

Hey y'all! I have another recipe for you! I can't take all the credit for this one though. I was originally inspired by this recipe, but I decided to lighten it up a bit! I also left off the glaze, but I might use some of my leftover cream cheese filling from the Pumpkin Spice Bead on it. Yum!

In the end, my scones have about 200 calories each. Not necessarily the lightest breakfast, but definitely a nice treat! Here we go!

Spiced Banana Scones

yield: 8 scones

Ingredients

2 very ripe bananas

½ cup plain yogurt

3 tbsp honey

1 cup ap flour

1 cup ww flour

½ cup oats

2 tsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp nutmeg

½ tsp ground cloves

3 tbsp applesauce

3 tbsp pumpkin puree (not entirely necessary, just add more applesauce if you aren’t using it)

¼ cup crasins (optional)

1 tbsp slivered almonds (optional)

Instructions

Peel the bananas and mash them up. This should give you about a cup. Stir in the yogurt and honey then set aside.

In a medium bowl (or stand mixer), measure the flours, oats, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. Add your applesauce and pumpkin puree to the dry ingredients and work it in using a fork (or your fingers).

Add the banana-yogurt-honey mixture to the flour mixture. Mix it just enough to absorb all of the flour. The dough should be fairly wet. Mix in your crasins and almonds if you’re using them.

Line a dinner plate with a piece of wax paper and plop your dough on it. Spread it out until it is about an inch thick and cover with a piece of parchment paper. Freeze the dough for 30 minutes.

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.

Take your dough out of the freezer and flip it onto a baking sheet. Peel off the wax paper that is now on top. Cut it into 8 wedges. Bake it for 25 minutes. Take it out and really separate your wedges. Bake for an additional 10 minutes.

Happy baking!

What I Made Monday

2011-10-10T12:03:00.001-04:00

Hey there folks! Since I'm moving to Germany the weekend after Thanksgiving, my family and I are celebrating Christmas at Thanksgiving this year. However, it really dawned on me this week that that means I have just under 5 weeks to get all of my Christmas presents made! 5 WEEKS! That being said... just a heads up that WIMM is going to be pretty sparse these next 5 weeks, because I can't very well put up pictures of the presents that I'm making! I do promise though that after I give the gifts I'll post the pictures...and it will be the best WIMM EVER!! Totally worth waiting for, right? I think yes.

Anyway.. lets get onto the things I made this week that I can show you!

Banana Spice Scones!

The recipe is coming tomorrow!!

I made another piece of the quilt, but this is the cutest picture I have of it. He was sitting on the bed out of the frame of the picture, but when he realized I was taking a picture he flopped down on it!

and.... I changed out my calendar with the new JDC Monthly for October. Busy, busy!

and, for the sake of full disclosure, I want to show y'all the miserable failure of one of my projects this past week. This coming Friday is my mom's birthday so I was going to make this for her as a surprise.

obvs THAT didn't work out...

Sorry Mama!

Koozie Tutorial

2011-10-07T11:40:00.002-04:00

Remember the koozie I showed you here? Well today, I'm going to show y'all how to make one for yourself!

These are completely customizable according to what you're liking at the moment! I made this one pretty masculine because it is for a guy, but... if I were to make another for me, I'd probably be using some chevron fabric. Just sayin'...

Anyway, here is what you'll need:

an old koozie (for sizing)

1/4 yd of your chosen fabric

1/4 yd of the double sided fusible web (found in the fabric section at hobby lobby)

8x10 sheet of felt

1 pkg of snaps

snap tool (what are those called anyway?)

pen or sharpie

scissors

iron

sewing machine (or just needle and thread if you want to do it by hand)

needle

First thing you will need to do is lay out your old koozie on the fabric and trace. This will give you the size of your new koozie! Trace and cut.

Lay fabric on your felt. Trace and cut.

Put your fabric off to the side for a bit, because we are just going to be working with the felt and the fusible web. Cut off a piece of the fusible web that is a little bit bigger than your felt.

Iron your fusible web to the felt. Start in the middle and work your way towards the sides. Make sure there aren't bubbles. Iron for about 30 seconds. Make sure you are ironing on the paper side of the fusible web.

In hindsight, I would have put a piece of parchment paper underneath my felt so that the adhesive wouldn't have melted onto my towel.. Oh well..

Trim off the extra and use your scissors to score the paper.

Then peel the paper off. The adhesive will have adhered to the felt and this side of the felt will definitely feel a little rubbery.

Now I'm going to apologize because I don't have picutres of this next step. I just forgot to take them! Oops!

Next you are going to grab your fabric and lay it pretty side down on your ironing board (or towel in my case). Layer your felt on top making sure that the adhesive side is the side that is touching your fabric (meaning the the felt side is facing you). Then you are going to iron it for 30 seconds, starting in the middle and working your way out. This will adhere the felt to your fabric.

Trim off any areas where they don't match up exactly and make sure that you like the shape.

Next we are going to quilt a bit! I went with straight vertical lines, but you can do anything you want! Just make sure the you tie it off on the ends (or back stitch) so that your stitch doesn't come out!

After you got your quilting done, its time to put on the snaps. I don't have any magic instructions for this part. This was the first time I've put snaps on like this so I just followed the instructions on the package! The only thing that I will say is to make sure that everything is lined up when you close it. Also, make sure that it will fit around whatever you are wanting to to fit around.

After your snaps are on, stitch around the outside of the whole thing and you can be done!

unless.... you want to add some embellishments!

I chose some sturdy red fabric and stamped the words 'glory, glory' on it. Then I placed it on the koozie where I wanted it (centered) and then stitched around it.

Obviously, I didn't want strings sticking out the front of the koozie, so I threaded both strings on a needle and pushed them through to the back.

Then I tied them off with the strings that were on the back and trimmed. I did the same thing with the strings from when I stitched around the whole koozie, so that the front looked nice and clean!

And there you have it! You're ready for a great Saturday of tailgating!!

Glory, glory to ole Georgia!

Go Dawgs!!

Pumpkin Spice Bread with Cream Cheese Filling

2011-10-05T10:00:00.001-04:00

Since it is officially fall, I thought I'd share a recipe with y'all! I'm so incredibly proud of this one because I made it up ALL BY MYSELF!

I love the Pumpkin Cream Cheese muffins at Starbucks that pop up around this time of the year, but they are SO BAD for you, 420 calories per muffin!!! Add 210 for a tall, soy, no whip Pumpkin Spice Latte (can you tell I've ordered that a bit?) and you are looking at TOO MANY CALORIES for breakfast!

So, I made up my own version. However, instead of a muffin, I made a loaf because I like those better and you can get a few more servings out of it.

Pumpkin Spice Bread with Cream Cheese Filling

yield: 1 loaf (about 15 slices)

calories: 150 per slice

For the filling:

4 oz. reduced fat cream cheese (the block kind)

1/4 cup powdered sugar
big pinch of cinnamon

big pinch of nutmeg

For the bread:

¾ cup honey

1/3 cup apple sauce

2 eggs

½ can pumpkin puree

1 cup whole wheat flour

¾ cup AP flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

½ tsp baking powder

¾ tsp nutmeg

¾ tsp cinnamon

For the topping:

¼ cup pumpkin seeds

1 tsp honey

big pinch of cinnamon

big pinch of nutmeg

Mix the cream cheese, powdered sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg together until it is smooth. Put it in a bowl and cover it with saran wrap. Put the bowl in the freezer for a couple of hours.

**Just wanted to note that for my batch I used pumpkin spice cream cheese because I found it at Aldi. That's why mine is orange. Your's should be white-ish, unless you can score the pumpkin spice stuff too! Delish!**

Preheat the oven to 325. In a medium sized bowl, mix together your honey, apple sauce, eggs, and pumpkin puree. Add your dry ingredients to in sifter and sift into your wet ingredients. Stir until its well combined and there are no lumps (no one likes lumps).

In a small bowl, toss the pumpkin seeds with honey, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

Spray a bread pan with some non-stick cooking spray. Add half of your batter to the pan. Break the filling out of the freezer and spoon dollops of the cream cheese along the center of your pan making sure to leave room on either end. The cream cheese shouldn't touch the pan. Then cover it with the rest of the batter. Sprinkle your pumpkin seeds evenly on top. Bake for 45 minutes. Then, using aluminum foil, tent the loaf and bake for an additional 15 minutes.

I haven't tried this, but if you wanted to make these in muffin form as opposed to loaf form, here is what I would suggest. Line your muffin tin with cupcake liners and spray them with non-stick cooking spray. Fill each cup 1/2 way full with the batter. Spoon a dollop of the cream cheese mixture in the center of each pushing it into the batter. Then cover it with batter the remaining batter. Sprinkle the seeds on top and bake for 20-25 min (I'm not 100% on the time since I haven't tried them..). If you make 12 muffins, they will be about 190 calories each.

Happy Baking!!

Most Spur-of-the-Moment Trip Ever

2011-10-04T13:20:00.000-04:00

Hi internet people!! I'm super pumped that I get to tell you about my weekend today! This might possibly be the most random thing I've ever done, BUT it was entirely worth every penny of it! Stefan was leaving on Saturday to go to Germany for three weeks, so on Wednesday night Mareike and Stefan said that I cold have Friday off because Stefan wasn't flying that day and he wanted to take Bennet to the air picnic on base. So, I decided I was going to New Orleans for the weekend! I got a plane ticket, booked a hotel, and started packing!

I headed out of WF early Friday morning and, after a quick stop at Anthro in Dallas, I got to the airport. I've got to say.. after having grown up flying out of Atlanta, every other airport is a piece of cake! It took like 5 seconds to get through security (despite the guy in front of me pushing a huge binder with his foot through the line and loudly talking on the phone complaining about how long it was taking...really?). I convinced my friend Britt (who lives in Baton Rouge) to come pick me up from the airport in NOLA by offering him a place to sleep for the night on my couch.

I stayed at the Queen and Crescent.
Its the building with the HUGE Zatarains ad on it.

We spent most of Friday just walking around the French Quarter and checked out the French Market. After a huge meal at Bubba Gump's and a quick nap on my part, we hit up Harrah's! While I am NOT a gambler (I'm a terrible loser and incredibly cheap... not a good combo for gambling), I had a GREAT first real casino experience (I don't count the cruise ship...Sorry Mama and Daddy!) watching Britt play. He played roulette and blackjack. He lost some and won some but ultimately ended up breaking even. I think I could handle that..

The next day we were legit tourists and hit up Cafe du Monde for breakfast. Nothing starts your day better than fried dough and powdered sugar! After breakfast we went to the Insectarium which was thoroughly disgusting yet, oddly enjoyable and informative! We did not get to eat bugs though. Bummer!

After the Insectarium, we started searching for a place to watch the Georgia game. Since the LSU/Kentucky game was on at the same time it was definitely a challenge, but we found one!

After the game, I convinced Britt to go look at houses in the Garden District. I figured I looked at bugs, he could look at houses! We took the street car up to the Garden District and just walked around. I took an embarrassing number of pictures. Notice a trend?

After that we had dinner at Luke, another John Besh restaurant (I ate at Domenica on my last trip). I had the duck and and Aperol Sour! It was out of this world! I am definitely a John Besh fan!

After dinner Britt headed back to Baton Rouge and I met up with my friend Zach from study aboard and his friend Brie. We went to Pat O's and just hung out on the patio. I had maybe half of a hurricane before I passed it off to Zach to finish. I am well aware that I am a super light weight. We had a great time chatting, catching up, and talking about all of the exciting things happening in our lives!

The next morning, I hit up one of the community coffee shops and had the most delicious spinach and feta croissant on my way to the National WWII Museum. It says to allow 2-3 hours to see it, but I easily could have stayed for 5. The man that designed the landing craft that they used for D-Day was from New Orleans so the museum focused heavily on D-Day. They also had a few good exhibits about the home front and a bit about the Russian/German front too.

For those that don't know, I am fascinated with WWII history. I don't know what that says about me, but ever since elementary school, I have wanted to know everything I could know about it. I think it started when my Aunt Judy gave me the Diary of Anne Frank in 4th grade. My favorite American Girl was always Molly. I was the only 5th grader that chose to go to the Holocaust museum on Washington/Williamsburg. I remember arguing with one of my middle school social studies teachers because she said that they didn't bomb London and I knew that was wrong. During study abroad, I got to take a WWII history class and it might have been my favorite class I had in college. I think it is because it was truly a WORLD war. Whether you were in America, Asia, Europe, or Africa, everyone was affected by this one ~~lunatic~~ man. I still have a hard time wrapping my head around it. I also see it as one of the best parts of American history in terms of patriotism. The way the American people joined together for the war effort is amazing to me!

After the museum, it was time for me to head to the airport and go home. It was quite a whirlwind of a trip but definitely worth it! I had such a good time catching up with Britt and Zach not to mention getting to see so much cool history. I'm well aware I'm a nerd. I blame Megan.

WIMM: The Scattered Edition

2011-10-03T21:29:00.000-04:00

Since I seemed to have develop a killer case of the craft ADD this past week...

this What I Made Monday is not going to be in chronological order, because honestly, I can't remember what I made when.

I decided to try my hand at this tutorial a la Sweet Verbena. This is the shirt I made! Its super comfy but not the most flattering article of clothing I own. Oh well!

I also started working on this tutorial from P.S. I Made That. I have it all done except the ruffles. Though before I could get started on that I had to dye the fabric. I found a XL long sleeve white t-shirt on sale for $1.50 at Hobby Lobby, so Little Man and I picked that up and headed over to the RIT dyes. I went with a gray because I'm well.. me. This was my first experience dying fabric, if you don't count tie dye, and I think it was a success. Be looking for the finished product next week!

Our dying situation...

And last but not least..

KOOZIE!!!

Get excited.. the tutorial is coming after I get this situation under control...

SeaWorld San Antonio

2011-09-28T12:22:00.000-04:00

After our fun filled Saturday of shopping, on Sunday we went to SeaWorld! We saw a few very cool shows and Bennet got to play in the little mini fountains! I feel like the pictures kind of speak for themselves, so without further ado...

It's a Steal

2011-09-27T15:01:00.000-04:00

This past weekend we were heading down to San Antonio for Stefan's ChumpCar race. Basically he and his team of guys had to find a car for under $500, fix it up, and race it. Stefan spent hours last week over there working on the car. However, as we were heading down on Friday, Stefan got a call from one of his teammates who told him that the car wouldn't even start. At that point we were already in Austin, already had a hotel, and Mareike and I had some serious shopping plans, we were going.

About 45 min from San Antonio is San Marcos. San Marcos has one of the top three outlet malls in the country. We spent 9 hours there Saturday and STILL didn't go to all the stores. There was a Pottery Barn outlet, a Restoration Hardware outlet, Columbia outlet, J Crew outlet, Tory Burch outlet, Kate Spade outlet, I could go on.. In my book, heaven is a little bit like that.. only everything is free and has better food. Lets talk about some of the deals I got!

Banana Republic
Original Price: $50 My Price: $25

J. Crew Sweater and Long Sleeve T Shirt
Sweater Original Price: $60 My Price: $20
T-Shirt Original Price: $50 My Price: $15

J.Crew Scarf
Original Price: $40 My Price: $15

I also got some tanks (for layering) from Gap for about $7 each and a great, black long sleeve athletic top for about $10.

I'm saving the best for last though.. and I'm bummed that I don't have a picture, BUT deal of the day. $30 patterned shorts from NY&Co for $4.50!!!!!!

#winning

WIMM + My First Tutorial

2011-09-26T16:21:00.001-04:00

Today’s WIMM just consists of just one thing AND it is my first tutorial! Since it is my first, please bear with me. There are a few things that in hind sight I wish I had done (and I’ll point them out to you as we come to them) Also, for the sake of full disclosure, I must admit that I haven’t exactly tried this new painted mat out yet. Therefore this is more of a ‘How to Paint Chevron Stripes’ tutorial than it is a ‘How to Paint Your Yoga Mat and It Still be Functional’ tutorial. Also, I painted my stripes over the original ugliness, but I took the pictures for the tutorial on the other (blank side) of the mat so you could see it better.

Let’s get started shall we?

Here is my sad first attempt to personalize the mat.

Fail.

First thing I did was measure the mat. Mine was 24in wide and about 60 inches long. I wanted my stripes to go horizontally so the first thing I did was draw my vertical lines. These are the points where the tips of the zig zag will be. I drew a line every 4 inches across the mat. Make sure you use a marker or a sharpie. I originally used a pen and it scored the mat. It also didn't cover well so you can still kind of see a grid on the final project. Oh well.. I'm not perfect.

Anyways.. continue those lines down the whole mat. Then measure 4.5 inches down the mat and continue that line across the whole mat.

Then all you have to do is connect the lines!

Do that across the whole mat. And you will get this! (and then my Sharpie died...)

For the next line, measure 4.5 inches down from your last horizontal line and continue that line across the mat.

Then, on the 1st, 3rd, and 5th vertical lines (the 'up' lines), measure a 1/2 inch down from the top line and make a hash mark.

Then connect your hash mark and the bottom line!

Do that across the mat and you will have your second line!

Continue that process down the mat, or canvas, or whatever you are drawing the stripes on.

Once you have all your lines drawn, its time to break out the paint. I just used acrylics because they are pretty flexible. I tried to keep my coats pretty thin to avoid peeling later, but thick enough to cover and to get down in the ridges of my mat. At this point its just coloring inside the lines!

YOUR LINES DON'T HAVE TO BE PERFECT!

Just do your best! There are definitely spots that I had to go back and touch up but that's super easy!

Tada!

There you have it! Easy chevron stripes on a yoga mat that may or may not still be functional.. We shall find out later this week! It is isn't--eh, there is always the other side. At least now that it is pretty when I get tired of yoga (which, lets face it, with my track record is probably going to be sooner rather than later...), I will have a cute new rug!

Fail

2011-09-21T17:17:00.000-04:00

Well.. my original plan for this blog was going to be my first tutorial! I was going to show y'all how I personalized my yoga mat. However, said yoga mat looks horrendous. I used a new stamp that is a paisley pattern and I didn't quite use it in the most aesthetically pleasing way. Note to self: use paisley stamp in a diagonal.. not vert and horizontal. So, instead of looking cute, it looks like I think I'm a little princess who wants personalized stuff but is crap at it. Therefore.. I will be redoing it and posting the tute tomorrow.

Today you get this.

His version of peek-a-boo

...and you get a rambling list of things I am loving right now.

I just discovered HauteLook.

Check out my new watch! Yea, that's a $75 watch that I got for $30!

These rain boots. The ones I currently have are the $5 ones from Wal-Mart that I decorated. I feel like the German winter might call for something a little more substantial. I tried on the purple version at TJ Maxx yesterday and they are oh so comfy but I'm not a purple fan. These are PERFECT but I can't seem to find them in my size. =(

If only the world were really this safe.

New favorite book.

What I Made Monday

2011-09-19T10:03:00.000-04:00

On Monday, I worked on the quilt a bit. I am taking cutting the extra fabric at a slow pace so I doing get overwhelmed. Before I left for Texas, I spent an ENTIRE DAY cutting out the pieces I already had only to figure out I really needed about double that. Needless to say I was a bit discouraged and REALLY not looking forward to more cutting. So I’m taking it slow. But that’s not all I did that day…I also made dinner! Here is my Spin Art Pasta! I found the recipe on Pinterest a la. I’ve made it with penne (as you can see) but I’ve also made it to put on orzo. I’m pretty sure you could put that sauce on anything and it would be delicious!

Tuesday, I got a little fabric cutting done during nap time.

Wednesday, I finished a couple more rows for the quilt. It’s really cool seeing the design begin to develop. 4 rows down… 15 more to go!

On Thursday, I made Little Man a koozie (a la) for his MooTubes (aka GoGurt). That boy loves some yogurt so this week we tried them out to see if he could do it himself. He can! For the most part… I’m not saying we didn’t end up with yogurt everywhere, but he seems to get the concept.

I’m kind of cheating for Friday. Friday was a bit crazy. I had my first yoga class, so I was out all morning. When I got back Little Man had had like a 30 min nap and some yogurt so he definitely wasn’t going to nap/eat at our normal time. We walked, we ate, we fell asleep at the table, we screamed for a solid 15 min when I put him in the crib (I’m telling you NO creativity can happen when a baby is screaming..), we gave in and got him up, we ate the rest of our lunch, we played, we played, we played… The boy WOULD NOT go to sleep.

Worth it? I think so...

Therefore, no real creativity happened that day, BUT I did try a new braid that I have been wanting to try. I was so excited for my class! I seriously felt like it was the first day of school and of course I wanted to make a good impression! So I rocked the braid. It was a hit—I got compliments!! =)

Saturday, Mareike and I visited the Hob Lob. I was on the charm aisle getting something for Sunday’s project when I spotted a pretty pair of charms that were 50% off. They didn’t really serve the purpose for the other project BUT they would make great earrings! So for $1.25, I scooped them up! I already had the earring things so for $1.25 and about a minute of work, I had a brand new pair of earrings!

That afternoon while I was watching football/pinning I saw this tute for a rosette bracelet. This is the kind of jewelry I'd see in a store and love but wouldn't buy because I couldn't convince myself that I'd actually wear it. BUT I figured if I made it out of the scraps from my quilt it was basically free and then I could see if I would actually wear it or not! It was also a great project to do while watching football! I changed mine a bit from the tutorial. I actually just forgot to put the felt on the bottom, but it seems fine without it. I also added a snap closure because I knew that there was no way I was going to be able to tie a pretty bow with one hand. I had a bit of the yellow fab left over so I just tied a pretty bow and put it on the opposite side of the snap to hide the ugly stitches.

Sunday, I set to work on this tutorial from one of my new favorite DIY blog finds, Sweet Verbena! I always have like 15 pens, pencils, highlighters, etc in my purse at any given time and while I try to keep them organized in the little pouches they tend to fall out. This case was the perfect solution although it would also be fabulous for make up brushes, hiding those feminine items that are always floating around in the purse, etc. So cute and relatively easy! This was my first foray into actually 'quilting' something and it was super easy! SO without further ado... here is my pencil case!

Yoga!

2011-09-17T13:08:00.000-04:00

One word for today…sore! It is the good kind of sore though—not the “I can’t move, I might die” kind of sore. It’s just sore enough to let me know that I worked some new muscles! I will definitely be going back. Since I know that I will be going back, I went ahead a bought my own mat. I’m not a germ-a-phobe or anything, but there is something about sharing mats that just screams staph infection to me.. just saying. I went with the cheapest option at Academy which was this beaut for $10.

Not too shabby. It was this or a pukey pink color so I opted for this. Of course its my plan to personalize it a bit but I haven’t decided what to do yet. I’ve seen a few tutes about making rugs out of yoga mats but then it kind of seems to not serve the purpose of being a yoga mat anymore (the traction is kind of gone).

It seems the yoga community isn’t really into DIY personalization of their mats.. eh.. I shall figure it out. I’m thinking about just using my acrylics and not covering the whole thing (leave some green) so that I still get some traction. Acrylics are pretty flexible so it will roll up well—at least for a few weeks before it starts peeling off. =) I really want to either stamp a design or do a chevron pattern and then put a big monogram in the middle! I’m thinking about using a navy for the pattern and then either a white or brown for the monogram. Thoughts?

I'll Take One in Each Color

2011-09-15T12:43:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was quite busy! Bennet and I went down to the base so that I could get my visitors pass.

I'm also really loving my To Do list in the background..

Now that I’m slightly more official I can go on base to take him to the doctor if need be, or I can go to the gym! The gym on base is FREE and they have FREE classes! Thank you U.S. Military! I will be hitting up my first class tomorrow morning—YOGA! We shall see how it goes!

After our visit to the base, we were going to go to the park, BUT it started to rain. What’s a girl to do? We went to the mall instead. Bennet is fascinated by people so anywhere there are people he is happy! While at the mall, I got the best deal ever! These shirts…

for

That's right! So I bought it in every color they had my size! Perfect with some skinny jeans and a cardigan! I’m really excited about wearing that goldish/orange one with my burlap Toms! I got 3 shirts and a water bottle for $7!

Daily Dose of Cute

2011-09-13T11:50:00.000-04:00

I don't have much to write about today, but I do have some cute pictures! Here is what we've been up to..

P.S. The thing around his neck isn't a fashion statement.. its a drool cloth. Molars can be a pain!

What I Made Monday

2011-09-12T10:26:00.000-04:00

I have a goal for this next year. I want to create something every day. This doesn’t mean that I finish whatever I’m working on, just that I work on it. Realistically, with travelling I know that it probably won’t happen every day on the weekends, but I am going to try. So, I am starting a new series on the blog.

Tuesday I worked on my quilt. I was inspired by this quilt (and in turn this quilt) that I found on Pinterest which led me to the wonderful world that is Anna Maria Horner’s blog. It is incredibly funny, real, and full of great sewing ideas! I printed off the template but decided that I like the look of the horizontal zig zags more than the vertical, so I did a little bit of math and rotated the design. I WISH I had the eye for combining all those colors, prints, stripes, and dots like she does, however, if this quilt is going in my room, you know it is going to be neutral.

Wednesday I broke down and joined Jones Design Company Monthly. What can I say? I’m a sucker for print goods! I saw this idea on Pinterest and decided that that a dry erase calendar was exactly what I needed for my new desk area. Little Man and I went to Kinkos and printed off the calendars. Then, while we were at Wal-Mart getting Mr. Coffee, I picked up some frames for $2.50 each!

Thursday I realized I calculated the number of triangles I needed for each row wrong. I thought I only needed 8 but alas I need 15. This ordinarily wouldn’t be a problem, but I was working with scraps at this point, so it looked like I was going to have to make a trip to Hobby Lobby. Darn! (Where is that sarcasm font?) I will say that this was a sad, sad day, because this was the day that I realized my gray and white stripy fabric was on its last leg.

This has been my go to fabric since I bought it my Junior year of college for a Toga social. It was a $1 a yard and I’m kicking myself for not buying the whole bolt! While it will still made an appearance in the quilt, it will now be joined by some grayish/black and cream ticking (which I love as well, but we just don’t have the history).

the new fabrics are on the bottom

what I have so far..

Friday, I FINALLY finished this plaque. Originally it was painted navy and yellow and said something about forget prince charming southern boys are better (or something like that). I decided that I kind of hated the colors so I painted over it with gray and brown and then stamped a damask-ish design on it in off white. And so it has sat, in that state, for over a year. I’ve been pinning a bunch of quotes always having that plaque in the back of my mind. There were a few that I loved very, very much so I just put them all in a hat and chose randomly. Here were the top contenders:

“Every day may not be good, but there is something good in every day.”

‘Life begins at the end of your comfort zone”

“Make this moment count”

“You can never cross the ocean unless you have the courage to lose sight of the shore.”

And the winner:

“She took a leap and built her wings on the way down”

When I first saw this I was like, ‘Oh, so we are celebrating being unprepared?!’ but the more I thought about it the more I liked it. It isn’t talking about being unprepared, it’s talking about taking chances even if you don’t feel like you’re ready. There are some things that we are never ready for—like moving to another country, leaving your family. Like it says in Ecclesiastes 11.4: ‘If you wait for the perfect conditions, you’ll never get anything done.’ It is also a good reminder that it is okay to figure things out as I go. When I’m stressed or in a stressful situation, I have the tendency to try and regain a bit of control by over thinking and over planning. No one wants life to be that rigid. I sure don’t. While it was hard for me at the time, study abroad really helped me chill out in terms of HAVING to have a plan all the time. I’m hoping that this au pair experience has the same effect.

Saturday, I made myself some coasters. They’re nothing epic, but they are nice neutrals that will work with my quilt once I get it finished.

Where Were You?

2011-09-11T22:42:00.000-04:00

10 years ago, I was 13. I was sitting in Ms. Hjertstrom’s class when Emily Vinson came back to school from an orthodontist appointment. She told us that a plane had hit the World Trade Center. I didn’t believe her. It was so inconceivable to me, that I just didn’t believe it. A few hours later school was over and I made my way to Ms. Cain’s room for cheerleading practice. That was when I saw it on TV. Needless to say I don’t think we practiced. We just sat there and watched.

I don’t think that as a middle schooler I could really understand what all had just happened. It was too overwhelming to process. Even now, 10 years later, it’s still hard to process. It’s weird to me that Al Quaeda and Osama bin Laden weren’t always a part of our lives. It’s hard for me to remember a time when we were not at war.

I thought that the ceremonies held today were beautifully handled and incredibly respectful to the families that lost loved ones that day. My prayers are with those families. My prayers are with the families that have lost loved ones in the war. And my prayers are with the men and women that are currently serving our country. Thank you for your sacrifices.

Mr. Coffee... The Other Man in My Life

2011-09-10T09:35:00.001-04:00

Sorry for the lack of blogging yesterday. Little man had a rather fussy day. He has been a bit constipated (read: hadn’t pooped since Monday) BUT his little body worked through it and had not one, not two, but THREE big poops! These are the things you get excited about with a 1 year old and the stuff that y’all get to read about =)

My plan for yesterday was to talk about my ~~dependency on~~ love of coffee. You see, I’m a ‘don’t even talk to me before I have my first sip of coffee’ person. Once I was running late for school and didn’t have time to make any coffee. I guess I was being rather impatient with my first period class because one of my favorite little girls came up and asked if she could go get me a cup of coffee. True story—and I did let her. Anyway, I digress. When I got here Monday, they were showing me around the kitchen and pointed out that they didn’t have a regular coffee maker, just an overwhelmingly complicated espresso machine. Of course they said they’d show me how to use it but then we got busy doing other stuff. I woke up Tueday and realized that I didn’t have a way to make coffee, but it was okay because I had a DC in the fridge. Generally, if I can’t get coffee, Diet Coke is my next best option. So I have my daily dose of caffeine, all is right with the world, and I go about my day. Completely forgot to ask how to use the espresso maker that night.

Then came Wednesday. I woke up Wednesday with no means of making coffee OR a DC. How did I let that happen?! So I stumble through my morning, having my first homesick/call Mama balling spell since I actually got here (Sunday so doesn’t count). That’s when I decided that I just needed a coffee maker so I could just have regular coffee and my yummy, yummy sugar free vanilla caramel non-dairy creamer. So after spending a good 30 min trying to figure out how the heck I was supposed to put this car seat in my car (note to Pilot owners—the posts for the latch system are BEHIND your middle row of seats), we head out to the wonderful world of Wal-Mart. (Don’t worry. I do still hate Wal-Mart but I couldn’t pass up an opportunity for such alliteration.) This was my first trip to the circus that is Wal-Mart with a small child. You know what I learned?

A) Everyone doesn’t think that Little Man’s babbling is as cute as I do especially when he hits that octave only dogs can hear.

B) Never go into a store without some toy to distract him with. My sunglasses were the casualty of that mistake.

C) Apparently I do look old enough to have a 1 year old. I will be wearing my ring on the left hand from here on out just so people don’t think I’m a heathen.

But let me tell you, that cup of coffee Thursday morning was so worth it. It might have been the best I’ve ever had. Oh the difference a cup of coffee can make.

I was in such a good mood and it was such a beautiful breezy day that we went to the park and took a 2 hour walk!

The first Little Man was ready to go!

My Move to Texas

2011-09-08T09:51:00.000-04:00

The Sunday after the ~~wreck of a~~ game, Mama, Daddy, and I packed up my car and I headed out.

I made it all the way to Tuscaloosa before I started crying… though the jury is still out on whether it was from me missing them or from being around so many Bama fans. Once I had a good cry and lunch, I got back on the road. The drive was wet... very wet. It rained the whole time!! It was a long 8 hour drive, but I did get to ~~watch~~ listen to lots of movies! Sunday night I stopped in Shreveport. Britt (you read about him here) was in town so we went out to dinner and then he made sure I got into my hotel without getting snatched!

On Monday, I just had 5 more hours to go, most of which were in Texas. With the exception of my GPS freezing in Dallas it was a relatively uneventful drive. The weather was BEAUTIFUL and made me so ready for fall!

Once I got there, Stefan made some cappuccinos and we all visited for a bit. After the break Stefan helped me unload my car and then I got to unpacking. Let me tell you, it’s a heck of a lot easier unpacking stuff rather than having to design a whole house/apartment. While I love the latter, since this is so temporary, it was nice not to have to put a whole lot of work into it! Without further ado, here is my room!

and for your daily dose of cute..

Party Cupcakes!

2011-09-06T12:58:00.002-04:00

Hi guys! I have now officially moved to Wichita Falls, Texas to begin my Au Pair job! We will be here for a couple months and then we will all be moving to Germany. I will have pictures of the house, the family, and Bennet soon, but not today! Today I thought I'd share some recipes with y'all!

On Saturday (the day before I left for Texas), I went to Atlanta for the UGA/Boise St ~~spanking~~ game. Of course I couldn't go to a tailgate empty handed so I headed over to trusty ol' Pinterest to see if I could get inspired. Inspired I got and decided to make an assortment of alcoholic cupcakes. I made Irish Car Bombs and Strawberry Margarita cupcakes from recipes I found on Pinterest. Based off the recipe for the Strawberry Margarita cupcakes, I made up recipes for a Spiked Raspberry Lemonade cupcake and a Hurricane cupcake. All were a success except the spiked lemonade. It was a bit bland and spongy for my taste, but I was very pleased with the Hurricane! Here are the links to the recipes for the Irish Car Bomb and the Strawberry Margarita. Of course I forgot to take pictures, but here is the Hurricane cupcake recipe! Keep in mind I was making an assortment so this is just for making 8 cupcakes (3 for each tailgate and 2 to ~~eat right away~~ taste to make sure they weren't awful.

Hurricane Cupcakes
yield 8

Ingredients:

Cake:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
¼ tsp of salt
¼ cup, 2 tbsp unsalted butter, at room temperature
2/3 cup sugar
1 1/3 of an egg, at room temperature
2/3 orange, zested and juiced
¼ tsp of vanilla extract
¼ cup, 2 tbsp buttermilk

Hurricane Puree:
2 oz of hurricane mix
Zest of 1/3 of a orange
2 tbsp
2 tsp of sugar

1 tbsp cornstarch

Frosting:
¼ cup, 2 tbsp shortening
¼ cup, 2 tbsp un-salted butter, slightly chilled
1 1/3 cup powdered sugar
1 tbsp rum
1 tbsp puree

Instructions:
For the cupcakes
Preheat the oven to 325˚ F.

In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt; stir with a fork to blend. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter and sugar on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, 3-5 minutes.

Blend in the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.

Beat in the zest, juice and vanilla.

With the mixer on low speed, mix in the dry ingredients in three additions alternating with the buttermilk, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients. Beat each addition just until incorporated.

Divide the batter between the prepared cupcake liners, filling each about ¾ full. Bake 20-24 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool in the pan 5-10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely

For the filling:

Add all of the ingredients to a food processor. Mix and then set aside.

Using a small paring knife, cut a cone out of the top of each cupcake. Remove the cut-out cake and spoon a tablespoon of the puree into each cupcake. Replace the top part of the cone, cutting the tip to leave room for the filling.

For the frosting:
In a large mixing bowl, cream together the shortening and butter on high until well mixed and fluffy.

Add the powdered sugar one cup at a time alternating with a tablespoon at a time of the puree. Mix until the frosting is thick and creamy, like the consistency of ice cream. Spread or pipe on cupcakes.

Top with a cherry and enjoy!

Jill, me, and Ashley perfecting the lean while waiting on MARTA.

The Perfect Bread Recipe

2011-09-02T18:03:00.001-04:00

...well perfect if you love Honey Wheat! This is my dad's homemade bread recipe. It is pretty much my favorite bread in the world so I though I'd share the recipe with y'all!

Whole Wheat Honey Bread

yield: 1 loaf

Ingredients:

1 pack of Fleshmanns Active Yeast

1 tsp sugar

1/4 cup water (between 100-110 degrees F)

4 cups of whole wheat flour

1 1/4 tsp salt

1/4 cup flax seeds

1/2 cup honey

1 cup unsweetened applesauce

Instructions:

Proof the yeast according to the package and let sit for about 10 minutes or until it doubles in size. You will use the sugar and the water in this step.

In a large bowl, combine the whole wheat flour, flax seeds, and salt.

When the yeast is finished proofing, add it to the flour mixture.

Whisk honey and applesauce until combined in a 2 cup liquid measuring cup and microwave until lukewarm.
Add to flour mixture.

Stir all ingredients together until it starts to form a ball. At this point, transfer it to a plastic pastry mat.

Knead dough for about 6-8 minutes. The dough should be smooth and elastic. Form it into the shape of a loaf.

Spray all sides of loaf pan and place your loaf in there to rise. Cover with a towel and let rise for 2-3 hours (or until it is a couple inches above the pan).

Preheat the oven to 350. Bake for 23 minutes. Then, using aluminum foil, tent the loaf and bake for an additional 23 minutes.

Remove, cool, and enjoy!

I enjoy mine toasted with a little butter and honey. =)

Adventures in Crafting

2011-08-31T13:53:00.001-04:00

Now that y'all are caught up on my travleling, I can talk about all my craft projects this summer! While it isn't an adventure per say, its something that I love doing. I am considering embarking on a self imposed crafting adventure/challenge when I get to Germany, but we shall see! Pretty much all of theses projects were inspired by something I saw/pinned on Pinterest. If you don't know about Pinterest yet its probably because we haven't talked much.. I'm kind of obsessed with it and I literally tell everyone about it! So if you don't know about it, click on that little link up there and go explore!

(I'm prefacing these projects with the fact that my pictures are horrible when compared with the pictures from my inspiration.. I should really get better at photography...)

My most recent project was to make some artwork for my parents bedroom. This was my inspiration...

a la

and this is what I made for Mama and Daddy's room.

Here are some of the other projects I have been working on...

Inspiration is on top. Mine's on bottom.
I made this for Mama's office area.

a la

Inspiration on left. Mine is on the right.
Yes, you did just see this in my post about Meg's apt!

a la

I also made these for Meg's apartment, but I completely forgot to take a picture! Maybe she will take one and send it to me (hint hint!)...

a la

I made this for the Greiler's when we went out to Texas to visit them!

Bennet's 1st birthday was on the 26th, so these are this is what I made for the occasion!

That is all for now! My current adventure is packing because I'm moving to Texas in FOUR DAYS!

Nashville and Megan's Apartment

2011-08-29T14:40:00.001-04:00

Y’all are almost caught up! Only 2 more adventures to update before I can move onto life lately! There is light at the end of the tunnel!

At the beginning of August, I took Memommy and D’Daddy up to Nashville for a little mini vacation. We stayed at the Opryland Hotel which is, in my opinion, one of the coolest hotels! While we were up there I took them to the Country Music Hall of Fame and they went to the Grand Ol Opry. All in all it was a good time!

That next weekend Megan and Jonathan were moving into their new apartment so I ~~coerced them into letting me~~ volunteered to help decorate it! Megan had bought some furniture and some new bedding, but other than that our budget was virtually non-existent so the challenge was to decorate a whole apartment on about $50 and what we had. Challenging, but FUN! Here is what we came up with!

Kitchen

Living Area

Curtains and valance were made from a $10 sheet from Wal-Mart! I also painted the art on either side of that great clock that Meg had!

Art work opposite the couch wall.

I painted these pieces on either side of the dandelion picture too.

Megan's room before

Megan's room after!

We used the painted wall paper tutorial found here but we blew the template up to 18x24 and went with a single line. The bedding is from Target.

Great Craigslist find! $30 for this dresser.

Which I turned into this dresser a la here!
This is opposite the bed..

Bark shelving

The letters (50 cents each at Hobby Lobby) are wrapped with fuzzy gray yarn.

Prints via pinterest here and here, frames were $2 at Wal-Mart.

The bark is from the woods. God made it, I just turned it into a shelf.

Ruffle Curtains

I made these out of a $10 sheet from Wal-Mart and some scraps of blue fabric.

Ruffle Pillow

Can you tell we like ruffles? I used this tutorial, that same blue fabric from the curtains, and a fabulous linen that matches the bedding!

My first adventure in upholstery.

I recovered Megan's desk chair with the same blue fabric. The fabric that was there was neutral and pretty but Roo (her cat) had pretty much destroyed it. We are hoping that this fabric will hold up a little better!

What do y'all think?!

YTC: “Is aquaculture an option?”

2011-08-20T21:57:00.000-04:00

About a week after I got back from California, I headed back to Athens to pick up some kids to take to YTC.

At the beginning of last school year, Mr. Boggs okayed me starting a Y-Club for the next school year (this one). When I resigned, I made sure that I could still start one if I found someone to sponsor it. Luckily I ~~coerced~~ found a willing sponsor so MCMS could have one. However, the new sponsor wasn’t going to be able to take the kiddos to YTC, so since I was going to be there anyway, I volunteered to take the kids. Not only was I taking kids to the conference, I also had CAS responsibilities! Not going to lie.. I was a little worried about how I was going to balance it all, but it worked out beautifully.

My girls made friends quite quickly and they were much more interested in hanging out with them rather than me. Perf! I ended up teaching the Secretary class and the Leadership Academy classes. Josh and I (lets be real, mostly Josh) also ended up being the NE Bedlam Ball coaches. If I couldn’t play then getting to coach was second best! I think that the weekend is best described with pictures so here it goes!

At the 'Rave'

After participating in one of the games

My Leadership Academy class

Taylor planking

My little zebra girl athletes!

NE Bedlam Ball is serious business..

CONA kids and our Purity Balls

NLC 2011: Day 6 and 7—Awards, Huntington Beach, and Home

2011-08-19T17:45:00.000-04:00

Sorry for the blog hiatus.. I was off having more adventures!

The last day of our trip was quite busy! That morning we had the Award Ceremony to attend. My girls did GREAT! The way scoring works with FCCLA is a score 0-69.9 is Bronze, 70-89.9 is Silver, and 90-100 is Gold.

Chapter Service got Gold!

Focus on Children got Silver!

Life Event Planning got Gold!

I was so proud of all my girls!

After the Award Ceremony we changed into our beach stuff and headed to Huntington Beach! We grabbed some lunch once we got there and found ourselves a spot on the beach. Huntington Beach was really cool! There were lots of surfers and they were even setting up for the World Cup of Surfing that was going to be held there in a couple of weeks. The water was freezing (again) but that didn’t stop our girls, or me! There were some great waves for jumping!

Afterwards we went back to the hotel, got cleaned up, and took the party bus back to LAX to catch the red eye back to Atlanta.

I will admit—I did tear up on our way back to the school. It was a great trip but, despite how exciting my new adventures will be, I will miss my girls!

NLC 2011: Day 4 and 5—Disneyland and California Adventure

2011-08-11T23:52:00.000-04:00

After a good night sleep we headed off to one of the happiest places on earth—DISNEYLAND! I am unashamed to admit that, even at 23, I love Disney! They really know how to create magic!

The Focus on Children group was competing that day, so Mama took them to compete and afterwards they came to the park! We rode some famous rides, met some famous characters, and had lots of fun! I also learned how to do the fishtail brad from a cool Romanian woman while waiting in line for Space Mountain. That kept us occupied for a while!

Around dinner time we left the park and went to eat at Bubba Gump! Bubba Gump is kind of a tradition for my family. If we are in a town where there is one, we must go eat there and get a glass. The first one we ever went to was in Maui when I was in middle school. We stayed there for hours because it was July 4^th and we had a great view of the fireworks! We also collect glasses from each one. So far, I think we have Maui, Chicago, New York, Orlando, Charleston, Daytona Beach, and now Anaheim! Not only did we get a glass, BUT our waiter was also in the Suite Life movie! My girls were SO EXCITED!!

After dinner we went back to the park, rode some more rides, and saw the fireworks!

The next day got off to a rocky start for me. The Life Event Planning girls were competing that day and I had to decorate their cake. For those that don’t know about the project, we planned a wedding. Lots of people do that for this event, so we needed to do something to make us stand out. We made a dress that we put on my American Girl doll, made an example invitation, and made a bouquet. For region and state competition, we also made a cake; however, that was impossible for Nationals. What we did instead was order a cake from the local bakery and picked it up when we got there. We had them just put a crumb coat layer of buttercream on it because I was going to make the fondant to cover it. Making fondant in a hotel room? No problem, right? Wrong! After a minor breakdown on my part (though I’m blaming the exhaustion), I just sprinkled the white frosting with our gold flakes, put a ribbon around it, and put our topper on it. Done is better than perfect—I have to remember that sometimes!

After that got taken care of (at like 8am), the rest of us went to the other Disney park, California Adventure. The Life Event girls met up with us a bit later. Again, we rode some fun rides and met a very fun character!

That afternoon we were supposed to leave the park early to go to the official closing ceremony and then have a formal dinner at the Cheesecake Factory. We made it to the Cheesecake Factory…Disney is just too much fun!

NLC 2011: Day 3—Knott’s Berry Farm

2011-08-08T22:44:00.000-04:00

The next day was the first day of competition and my Chapter Service girls were scheduled to compete that day. Since her daughter was competing, Shona (one of our chaperones) volunteered to take the girls to do that. Mama and our other chaperone, Paula, were also occupied that day judging. Each school has to provide 1 judge for every 3 kids you bring so I was SUPER grateful that they ~~were suckered into~~ so willingly volunteered! I’m not a good judge. I am totally a Simon.

While everyone of competing and judging, I took the rest of the kids to Knotts Berry Farm (yea, like the jelly). It’s actually not a farm—it’s an amusement park quite similar to Six Flags. The kids had a great time and so did I! The best ride of the day was definitely The Accelerator. So much fun! The girls that competed caught up with us after they got finished and still got a few rides in before we had to head back to change for the opening session.

Opening session was crazy! 3,000 middle and high schoolers piled into this huge arena. It felt like we were there for a concert! It was a great session full of skits and a fantastic keynote speaker, Chef Jeff from the Chef Jeff Project on Food Network! His story is a great one of overcoming circumstances and poor decisions. After the session we went to our State Meeting and then hit our beds!

NLC 2011: Day 2--LA Tour

2011-08-07T23:49:00.002-04:00

The next day we woke up bright and early to meet the bus for our tour of Los Angeles. This was the only tour that we were doing through FCCLA so I was kind of anxious. Being the control freak I am, I really wanted a schedule of the tour. I wanted to know where we were stopping and what all we would get to see, but alas, I got nothin’.

As our tour began our tour guide introduced himself. Despite not remembering his name, I do know that he was an older gentleman (I’m guessing mid to late sixties) who really loved, and knew a lot about, the arts and music (classical, NOT modern). I also know what he didn't know about—anything that middle schoolers and high schoolers would find remotely interesting. Our bus driver on the other hand was awesome! He was in his late twenties or early thirties and was very knowledgeable about the celebrities that my kids cared about—you know, the important ones like Beyonce and Linsday Lohan.

To be honest, I kind of tuned out the tour guide. I had never heard of most of the people he mentioned. Not only did the kids not care about the stuff he was talking about, but I didn’t either. I did listen to the driver though. The first place of interest that he pointed out was Lindsay Lohan’s home/previous home.

LA Women's Correctional Facility

Told you he was good. After we got into LA, we went to the Chinese Theater, saw all the hand prints, and the stars on the walk of fame. Then we walked through the little shopping area past the Kodak Theater (where they hold the Academy Awards) to a place where we would have been able to see the Hollywood sign if it hadn’t been ridiculously cloudy that day. We took pictures regardless because if you zoom in a lot you can kind of see it.

Obvio my favorite ones there!

If you zoom in its there!

After that we got back on the bus and drove through Beverly Hills and saw Rodeo Dr. A few of the kids were real disappointed that they didn’t get to get off the bus on Rodeo, but I explained that the cheapest thing on that street was probably over a hundred dollars and they shut up. I, on the other hand, remained disappointed. I completely get them not wanting a bus load of kids walking around there, but come on... the adults have money! Oh well.. c’est la vie!

After our driving tour we went to Universal to have lunch at Hard Rock Café which we were pleasantly surprised was already paid for! That totally made up for having to eat fries instead of my usual salad! Life’s tough..

After lunch we loaded back up and went to the Disney Concert Hall. The tour guide talked a lot about the different shows and performances they have, but as you probably realized by now I tuned him out. Instead, I took lots of pictures of my girls!

That was followed by a driving tour of the Mission District which I’m sad to say I slept through (the sleep deprivation was too much for me at this point). From what Mama told me, it’s probably best that I did or else I most likely would have made him stop the bus so that my girls could go work a soup kitchen line or something.

We made it back in time to change and go to all our official FCCLA meetings that night!

NLC 2011: Day 1--Airplanes, Newport Beach, and Rainforest Cafe

2011-08-06T11:29:00.001-04:00

I got back to Athens around 1pm on July 8^th. I washed clothes, repacked, ate dinner, and went to bed at 7pm. Why? Because I had to wake up at 2:30am to go to… CALIFORNIA! ~~Because I’m insane~~, right after I got back from CONA (aka sleep deprivation conference), I was taking my FCCLA babies to National Leadership Conference in Anaheim, California! I will admit that while I got ~~zero~~ very little sleep at CONA, the conference was not at all stressful for me seeing as how I wasn’t the main one in charge (Thanks Randell and Jeremy!).

NLC was a horse of a different color. Don’t get me wrong, I was very excited about it, but it had seriously been the main stressor in my life since April. Fundraising for this conference began at the beginning of the school year. I worked extremely hard to make sure that our club had raised enough funds for us to be able to significantly contribute to each kids trip to nationals, and I thought we had succeeded! That is until EIGHT of my kids made it to nationals! I was thrilled, but freaking out at the same time. I seriously only thought that three, six at the most, would make it! That $3,000 wasn’t going to stretch as far as I wanted it to! However, with a lot of supportive parents and a successful letter writing campaign, all of the kids were able to go!

So there I was, a 23 year old, who had planned a trip for 8 kids and 4 chaperones to California for a week. Sure I could have just used the travel agency, but they were more expensive and we wouldn’t have been able to do half the stuff we did. I will say that in the end ~~the ten years it took off my life~~ all the added stress was worth it. Seeing my babies experiencing things for the first time was awesome! For most of them it was their first airplane ride, first time to Disney, first time to put their toes in the freezing Pacific Ocean, first time to see Russell Brand, the list goes on! As a person who is all about the value of experiences, this was all the reward I needed!

As I said earlier, that day started extremely early! We met the bus at the middle school and rode to the airport. After getting all the kid’s bags checked and we got them through security, I could finally relax. We grabbed some Starbucks and got on the plane.

4 hours later we were ‘hopping off the plane and LAX’ (heard that song a lot)… After we grabbed our luggage our party bus arrived! My kids were going to ride in style…

We got to the hotel, changed into our beach clothes, and headed to Newport Beach. We grabbed lunch at this great local place and had a picnic on the beach! As previously stated, the water was FREEZING, but that didn’t stop most of my kids from playing in it! One of the other chaperones and I took the kids that weren’t ~~braving hypothermia~~ insane on a bike ride down to Balboa. We saw some amazing houses!

When we got back from the beach we got cleaned up and ~~I got us incredibly lost~~ trekked for over 30 minutes to Downtown Disney where we waited for a millennia on a table. We finally got a table and food (and some of the kids got a nap)! After our journey to get to DT Disney we decided that it was well worth the money to just take a taxi back. The taxi ride took all of 5 minutes. *fist. head.*

Everyone was out before their heads hit the pillow!

I'm Full of BS!

2011-08-06T01:30:00.002-04:00

Blue Ridge Spirit that is…

As soon as I get caught up I get behind again! Oh well.. that’s how life goes sometimes! Never fear faithful readers (where is that sarcasm font when you need it?), I shall get you caught up with my adventures! The first one we shall tackle is…

CONA
a.k.a.
‘Conference on National Affairs’
a.k.a.
‘The Hella Awesome, Best Week Ever, Conference that the YMCA Youth in Government holds every summer at the Blue Ridge Assembly in North Carolina’

(I hope you read that last bit really fast… Its more funny that way…)

CONA is the conference that I went to every summer while in high school. Since I am still involved in Y-Club through College Alumni Staff~~, and because I’m awesome~~, I was invited to go back as an advisor this year.

Truth be told, CONA quite a nerd fest. It is basically a national mock congress. Students write proposals, present them, debate them, and try to get them passed. It is also one of the most inspiring places in the world for me. CONA is held the same week each year—July 4^th week. Since I went there every summer, I don’t really have any deep rooted family traditions for July 4^th. It wasn’t until this year that I realized that CONA is my July 4^th tradition. CONA—A place where students from around the country come together and propose their ideas to try and fix our nation’s problems. A place where 500+ kids, despite political ideologies and religious beliefs, join hands and sing God Bless America. What could be more patriotic than that?

(Please don’t say fireworks. I hate fireworks--they go boom!)

I feel like this is realization is extremely timely and significant for me. I am about to move to another country. My 'gypsy soul' (thanks Zac Brown) wants to see the world and experience different cultures, but I feel as though I could very easily lose sight of my American patriotism. I don’t mean my annoying American abroad, ‘I must eat McDonalds and drink Coke,’ patriotism, but simply a love and devotion to my country. These are the kind of revelations that this view will cause..

Eureka! I found it!

And just on the off chance that my CONA kids are reading this.. We will have to play some Purity Ball at YA after we have a discussion about aquaculture. Taylor, keep that swan a swimming! I love and will miss y’all terribly!

“Y’all Can Go To…

2011-07-08T19:35:00.001-04:00

hell, I’m going to Texas” Davy Crocket

I saw this on a coffee cup and I REALLY want it on a koozie.. Just saying, keep an eye out!

Mama and I went out to Texas to meet my AuPair family. Talk about a nerve racking situation. Imagine meeting your employer only after you’ve gotten the job! Plus these are the folks that I will be living with for the next 15 months. I think that everyone seriously and sincerely wanted to get along!

Thank goodness we hit it off! Mareike and Stefan are great and very genuine! Their dynamics seem to be very similar to my mom and dads, so something I’m comfortable with. They are very easy to talk to and seem as sincerely interested in making this a great experience for me as I am for them.

As for Bennet… I’m in love! He is the sweetest, most laid back, easy going baby I’ve ever met! And I get to take care of him for my job?! How did I get this lucky?! I’m so excited that I will get to see him grow and see that personality develop even more!

Mama and I flew into Dallas/Fort Worth. They picked us up at the airport and we went to the Dallas Arboretum where we had a lovely picnic lunch with lots of German food and the best potato salad I’ve ever had! After that we walked around a bit, but it was hot and Bennet was sweating a lot so we called it a day!

The Greilers live in Wichita Falls, TX which is about 2 hours north of DFW. Since we were only there for like 36 hours instead of spending all that time driving we all stayed in down town Fort Worth.

(I must share this.. I used my reward night from hotels.com so we stayed at the Hilton for $30!! I love getting a good deal!)

We all got cleaned up and met up for dinner. We went to a Brazilian steakhouse, which I had never been to. It is basically a really high class buffet. You pay a certain amount and you help yourself to the ridiculous salad bar (orzo pasta salad, sundried tomatoes, 5 different tyes of cheese including grilled mozzarella and parmesan carved out of a big wheel) and lobster bisque (yes please!). Then at your table you flip a little card over and these guys with big ol skewers of meat come by and carve you a piece. I had the top sirloin, garlic pork, and bacon wrapped filet mingon (the best). SO tasty! Mama and I even splurged and got key lime pie! I took that opportunity to give presents. Bennet is turning one in August and they will be in Germany so I wanted to go ahead and give him his birthday presents. I got him some connecting toys and I made him a shirt to wear on his 1^st! Let me just say, its hard to find shorts for little boys that aren’t cargo shorts (its like they are trying to make little GDIs) but I did it! I also made Mareike and Stefan a plaque for their house with their last name on it. It’s how I show that I like someone.. I make things =)

After dinner, the Greilers headed back because it was Bennet’s bedtime. Mama and I walked around the downtown area a bit more and then headed back ourselves. It had been a long day! The next morning we met up with them for breakfast in the Hilton Honors lounge. We stayed up there for a good 2 hours just talking and playing with Bennet. While at breakfast the Greiler’s asked if we were by chance interested in going to a Rangers game because they had 4 free tickets. Um, do wookchucks chuck wood? Heck yes I want to go to a baseball game! After breakfast we went over to the stockyards (the old part of Fort Worth) and we saw a cattle drive! Then we grabbed a quick bite and headed to the game. They lost but it was still a great game. I always enjoy rooting against the Mets. We had to leave the game a bit early to make our flight (which in the end ended up being delayed for a few hours because of the rain in Atlanta, but no one knew until we were already on the plane).

All in all, while we weren’t out there for long, we did a lot and got to spend a good amount of time together. All that anxiety about would we like each other is GONE and I’m more excited about my new adventure than ever!

Back to Reality

2011-07-08T09:49:00.000-04:00

The last sea day was spent much like the first (minus the mixology contest). I had finished both of the books I had brought to read (The Host and the first book in the Hunger Games series—both of which I highly recommend) so on my way up to Serenity I stopped at the ships library and got the book about Christian the Lion. I had seen the YouTube video of the reunion so I was interested in reading the story about how they raised a lion in a London furniture store! It turned out to be the perfect, uplifiting book for our last day!

The whole disembarking process went really quickly so we were on the road a lot earlier that expected. Mama and Daddy were dropping me off in Warner Robins on the way back because that night it was Kelly’s wedding. Since we had so much time to kill we decided to make a detour and have lunch on River Street in Savannah. After my delicious crab cake, we went to the candy kitchen (because you can’t go to Savannah without getting a praline…it’s a crime) and the peanut shop which had Paula Deen’s AMAZING salt mix that makes green beans taste PERFECT! It’s the little things in life.. =)

We eventually made our way to Warner Robins and Mama and Daddy dropped me at Katelyn’s house so I could get ready and meet up with the rest of the group. Kelly’s wedding was gorgeous. It’s the first Catholic wedding I’ve been to where they did a full mass. It was good to see that I remember a good bit of what to say from my Catholic days =) I loved her flowers and all the little burlap touches she incorporated! The reception was at the Terminal in downtown Macon. It was a great airy space that used to be a train station. They had a few tables set up, but most of the seating was on the benches that people would have sat on while waiting for trains. They had a great live band and a super fun photo booth! They had a two different favors for their guests—a candy bar and koozies!! Best part.. I FINALLY got wedding cake! Key Lime Cake to be specific. I was one happy girl! After their send-off we all went back to Katelyn’s and kept the party going. Until 6 am.. This DD was SO TIRED, but it was worth it to get to hang out with my friends! I sure am going to miss them!

Me, Michele, and Ashley

Costa Maya: I still got it!

2011-07-07T09:58:00.001-04:00

Got what you might ask? The ability to take some killer pictures while riding a bike.

Y’all might remember from my study abroad days, but a bike tour is my favorite way to see a place. Before Costa Maya was a cruise port, it was just a little fishing village. The port area has built up, but along the coast its very cute and more authentic.

We biked along the coast for about 20 min where we got some clear bottom kayaks and paddled out into the ocean. Difficulty wise it was a lot easier than our ~~potentially deadly activities~~ adventure in Veiques where we paddled into a thunder storm, but it was more difficult than paddling the Broad.

We swam for a bit and then paddled back. We got to lay out and dry off on the beach for a while and then we biked back. It was a great excursion for our last day at a port. Relaxing but still required a bit of physical exertion. The port area at Costa Maya is basically a big swimming pool with chairs, restaurants, shopping, and a dolphin enclosure surrounding it. We ate upstairs at one of the restaurants where we have a great view of all the goings on. After that Mama and I got in the pool for a bit and witnessed some raunchy middle schoolers have a dance off (those parents should be ashamed!). Then we called it a day because we were all in desperate need of a shower!

Belize It!

2011-07-06T20:05:00.000-04:00

The next morning we were in Belize. Belize has a barrier reef (2^nd largest in the world!) so our cruise ship couldn’t dock at the port. We had to tender instead.. (i.e. get on smaller boats and take them to the dock) Since we were doing an excursion we got priority tendering so we didn’t have to wait too awful long.

Once we got to Belize City we met up with our excursion and got on a big bus that would take us through the city and out to the jungle. We had a fabulous tour guide whose Cajun accent was a bit hard to understand at times but its okay... She knew each hurricane that hit Belize, when it hit and what category it was. She also sang for us. Here are some pictures from the city. There is definitely a lot of poverty, but, according to our guide, their unemployment rate is really low and most people are employed by the tourism industry. Glad we could help!

After a long, LONG very bumpy ride we made it to our destination. They outfitted us with helmets and harnesses and off we hiked into the jungle. We got to the mouth of the cave and it was for lack of a better word EPIC! It was so big it made people look like midgets. Along the way our guide told us about the history of the cave and how the Mayans used it for different ceremonies because it was believed to be the entrance to hell. We made our way into the cave and began our decent. Most of the time we just hiked but at times we had to crawl and repel! Along with repelling we got to zip line twice (a first for me!) and we had to walk across two rope bridges.

We did eventually make it out of the cave (without anyone getting sacrificed) and made our way back to the bus. The bus took us to a lunch area where we had kabobs with a tortilla and beans. We also got to try cashew wine (their version of whiskey)…strong but sweet. I liked it. After lunch they took us back to the port and we made it back to the ship just in time for one of the last tenders!

SCUBA duba doo!

2011-07-05T14:29:00.002-04:00

I apologize for the incredibly cheesy title.. I was trying to come up with a good pirate joke for you, but you got this.

Our next port was Roatan, Honduras. This island’s history is what inspired the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. Its where the real Port Royal is, but I didn’t see that… I saw fish!

I have always wanted to scuba dive. I loved the idea of really being down there with the sea creatures and being able to stay down there for a while. I’ve snorkeled a lot and done snuba (where you have the regulator in your mouth but its connected to the tanks that are floating on top of the water) but I was ready for the next step! How hard could it be, right? WRONG!

We rode in a van over to the Anthony Key Resort (a destination dive resort) where we went to a classroom to learn how to dive. After our Canadian instructor sped through the instructions they put us on the boat and took us to a shallow patch of water next to the dolphins to test our skills. That is when we got our dive leader, Joe from Mississippi. He was a bit easier to understand. Before you know it we were in the water getting ready to dive! To be completely honest, I didn’t have any problems. I thought the whole thing was a fantastic experience! I didn’t have any problems equalizing or controlling my breathing while down there (thanks synchro!). My parents were a different story. There had a really hard time equalizing so their ears hurt the whole time. They are just now starting to hear normally again. Despite their issues, we were able to see a bunch of extremely colorful coral, lots of conch shells, some star fish, and a HUGE eel! HUGE!!

I loved it! I know that mama and daddy won’t be diving again, but I’m seriously considering getting certified!

Dinner that night.
(I'm putting this one on because Daddy deserves it..)
=D

Wasting Away Again in Margaritaville

2011-07-05T00:06:00.000-04:00

When we awoke the next day we were docked in Cozumel, Mexico. A lot of my friends that had cruised before told me that they never really did excursions, but since it was my families first time cruising and we love organized trips we did excursions at each port. We had a list of things we wanted to do on vacation so we tried to pick excursions that combined those things.

In Cozumel we were participating in the Amazing Cozumel Race. Most of y’all know I ~~would give anything to be on~~, ~~obsessed with~~, kinda like the show Amazing Race, so this was super fun for me and my dad. My mom isn’t quite as competitive as us but she had a great time as well. They taxied us to the downtown area where we got our first clue and we were off! I can’t remember the exact order of things but these are some of the things that we did at some point:

We went to the Cozumel History Museum and did a scavenger hunt to find our next clue.

Dad got a henna tattoo that was our next clue.

We snorkeled to find out the name of the sunken ship which would lead us to our next clue.

We had to play a round of putt putt to get our next clue.

We ran by a school when the kids were getting out. (This had nothing to do with the race.. it was just precious and so authentic!)

The race ended at a little restaurant that was basically a pavilion with a kitchen. We ended up coming in 5^th but the time difference between the top 5 teams was pretty close! Whatever, I got guacamole and a free pina colada—I was happy!

After the award ceremony we made our way to Margaritaville (on the suggestions of Katelyn Heck—thanks Katelyn!) They had a bunch of inflatable out on the water including…A TRAMPOLINE!! I was so excited!! My cover up was off and I was on the trampoline in less than 5 min. After that we climbed a few of the other things but then showered off and Mama and I split a big slice of Key Lime Pie…delicious!

I got to jump on a trampoline!!

Mom on top of the slide you had to climb up.

Back on the ship for dinner.

I’m On a Boat

2011-07-04T00:05:00.002-04:00

Just a disclaimer: This was my first cruise, so for all you seasoned cruisers out there please pardon my gushing about things that quite ordinary in the cruising world!

Since it is like an 8 hour drive to Port Canaveral, we headed down there on Friday. For everyone that is thinking about taking a cruise that leaves from Port Canaveral, stay that the Four Points Sheraton. Its right by Ron Jons, has a Starbucks in the lobby, and you can park your car there for the week for only $35! Saturday (after our Starbucks) we made our way to the ship.

That ship was HUGE!! We were on the Carnival Dream which I’m told is the largest in their fleet. It holds around 5,000 people—we were on a boat with a small town!! The ship’s décor was a bit too Vegas for my taste but it certainly was sparkly! While waiting for our luggage to be delivered we made our way to the lido deck and the restaurant up there. After a delicious meal we explored the ship a bit and went to our room. It was a small space but designed quite efficiently! We also had a lovely little cove balcony which was a great place to read!

Let me just go ahead and make the blanket statement that the food ROCKED! I was beyond stuffed at all times just because I wanted to try everything! I had escargot, lobster, seafood pasta, filet mingon, lobster bisque (a new favorite food), and sushi just to name a few. This is also the first time in my life where I have had a serious dessert every night. They also had frozen yogurt 24 hours a day. I believe heaven will be a little bit like a cruise… only you won’t gain weight. Our waiter, Juan from Honduras, was fantastic! If we didn’t clean our plate he was always very concerned that we didn’t like it and would try to get us to order something else! No Juan.. we were just stuffed.

That first day at sea, I was selected to mix a cocktail that I had submitted a recipe for on the lido deck in front of everyone. It was a little nerve racking but so much fun! I made Ocean Water which tastes just like Ocean Water from Sonic! For those of you that I know want to try it here is the recipe from yours truly.

Ocean Water
Coconut Rum (a lot or a little depending on how strong you want it)
Triple Sec
Pineapple Juice
Sprite
Blue Curacco (just until it’s the right color blue)

We spent the rest of the day in the Serenity area (the adult only area) reading on their big comfy chairs.

Perfection.

My Mother is Always Right.. Most of the Time

2011-07-03T00:35:00.000-04:00

That next weekend was Jamie’s wedding, but before the wedding I had to go to a planning session for YTC (Youth Training Conference for those non-Y Clubbers out there). I’m on College Alumni Staff for Y-Club and was psyched that I was able to help plan. The conference is going to be AMAZING!

My friend Sandy was also going se we decided to ride together despite my mom’s warnings that I might be pushed for time. The planning session was is Macon and I had timed it out so that when the planning session was over at 11 I could make it home by 1 to drop Sandy off and then make it to Jamie’s wedding by 4 (It started at 5). Well the traffic gods were not shining on us that day. First issue was that we left Macon about 30 minutes later than expected. Then while we were no more than 20 min down the road we hit ~~a parking lot~~ traffic. By the time traffic finally cleared up I knew that my mother was right…there was no way I was going to be able to go home, drop Sandy, and make it to Chota Falls even by 5. Thank goodness my wonderful mother was there to save the day! She met us in Atlanta, delivered my dress for the wedding, and took Sandy home—all without an “I told you so”. My mother is an angel.

I changed in the bathroom at Target at Atlantic Station and did my hair in the bathroom at a Zaxby’s somewhere in Habersham County. I made it to Jamie’s wedding with time to kill. Chota Falls is BEAUTIFUL as was Jamie. I don’t throw this around lightly but in my opinion, it was about as close to a perfect wedding as you can get! Maybe it’s just because I love the couple so much! The reception was ridiculous! Great food, beautiful cake (though I’m still bitter about the fact that I ~~was too busy dancing and forgot~~ didn’t get any!) and really fun DJ. They had all these props for the photo booth (that bless her heart didn’t show up), so instead we just all wore them while we were dancing. Crazy good time!

Love you Jamie and Jeff! I hope Baltimore is great!

The next day was Susie’s shower. I made it home in time to change and make it to that one! =) Susie and I cheered together forever! She and her fiancé, Corey, are pretty much the sweetest couple ever! Susie has picked my favorite color scheme for the wedding (yellow and blue) which she says isn’t because Corey went to Tech, but I’m not so sure. Just kidding.. those are great colors! She got a ton of great gifts. Her china is beautiful yellow fiesta ware with a blue and white toile patterned salad plate on top. I may or may not be stealing that idea in 10 years when I get married. I made them a plaque with their last name (Coats) on it that I of course forgot to take a picture of! It was a great shower except that I ~~forgot to~~ didn’t get cake there either.

All in all it was a great, love filled weekend! I love wedding season! Next time, the cruise...

Moving Out and Redecorating

2011-07-02T02:01:00.004-04:00

I’m bad at this.. I’ll get y’all caught up at some point. Promise.

After we survived the New Orleans trip (our concerns were not dying of alcohol poisoning or sketchies.. they were flash floods and the apocalypse), I came back to finish out post planning. The lovely team that I work with hosted a goodbye breakfast for me and the other guy on our team that is retiring. They are all truly special people that I am going to miss dearly. I couldn’t have asked for a better group of people to work with!

At the end of the week Mama and Daddy came to move me out of my classroom and the apartment. Usually I get to a point when I’m designing or decorating when I say to myself was it really that bad before? I couldn’t I have just left it? It took me about 12 hours to put my classroom together and about the same amount of time to pack it all up. However, looking at the before and after really made it worth it for me. I am so glad that I was able to personalize the space for the short period of time that I was there. It felt like home. I was comfy, the kids were comfy, and they learned better because of that—or at least that’s what I’m telling myself.

It was the same for my apartment. I’m kicking myself for not getting many before and after shots, but when you’re in the zone its hard to remember to stop and take pictures. New goal.. take more pictures of my work. I don’t think I’ve explained the decorating of my apartment so let me take this opportunity to do so. When Megan and I lived in the house, Meg kinda gave me free reign for the design. I chose a beachy nautical look that really looked great with the hardwoods and white trim, but it was a bit more grown up looking. When we decided to move into the apartment, Megan requested that we incorporate some brighter colors that would make the place a little more lively. I was happy to oblige because while I loved our ‘beach house’ it was a little.. blah.

Our apartment came furnished with some lovely pleather couches, metal and glass tables, scuffed desks, and white, WHITE walls. We decided when we did the walk through that we definitely wanted to used my furniture instead of theirs, so my sweet, sweet parents hauled all the furniture from Betsy to the Exchange and hauled the Exchange’s furniture back to our house. That in itself made our place more unique. In the common area (we will call it the living/dining/kitchen/laundry area) we painted two walls teal and one wall yellow. I got a new cover for the futon and made a bunch of new pillows to incorporate our new, brighter, color scheme. In the end I would say that our apt still looked beachy, but a brighter beach house for sure.

My room was kind of an experiment. My color schemes have gone from green and orange to incorporating yellow to incorporating navy and trying to fade out the green, to yellow and grey. Only one problem… my bedspread that cost bank is green and orange. Don’t get me wrong.. I love my bedspread but its kind of limiting. I’ve gotten to the point where I do what I want with the rest of the room and then throw in a few little green and orange accessories in other places to tie it in.. Oh well, next time I’ll go for ~~this one~~ a cheaper, neutral one. I painted two walls yellow. On one of these walls I stenciled a damask pattern in grey. L. O. V. E. Well worth the time it took! There was a little nook for my desk so we painted that wall grey and my dad made a whitewashed shelving unit to go above my desk. It was perfect!

However, all good things must come to an end. That weekend we painted over all our walls and moved out all my furniture and moved the Exchange’s furniture back in. My apartment now looks like every other apt in the complex. It’s a little sad, but it makes all the hard work that went into making it a home worth it. THAT is why I decorate!

Bringing it all home, however, was a challenge in itself. We had to merge two households worth of furniture into one. It seemed like a perfect time to redo my bedroom (which hadn’t really been changed since middle school—man I wish I had before pictures!) so that we could incorporate some of my furniture from the apartment. Here are the after pictures.

And because I"m proud of this too, my bathroom (sorry I didn't close the toilet. Gross..)

My Ikea chandys for $30 each!

and just to make you smile...

Dooley loves 'her' new room!

I haven’t had time to do any stenciling yet but I would love to do some gray stenciling on one of the khaki walls. My desk chair is the chair that I got at TJ Maxx for $50. Daddy fixed the leg and it’s good as new (and super comfortable I might add!)

That is all for my room redo.. Next time I’ll talk about YTC Planning, Jamie’s wedding, and why you should always listen to your mother.

NOLA 2011

2011-06-22T11:37:00.003-04:00

This last month has certainly been full of adventures--adventures that I need to update you, my nonexistent readers, on! I expect that it is going to take a few posts to get all caught up, so make sure to check back regularly!

As expected my last week of school was emotional, but we all survived it. I think I handled it better because I had Jamie’s bachelorette party to look forward to! (Big ol’ sorry to everyone at school who thought I was going to the actual wedding…) It was bachelorette weekend in New Orleans!!

Thursday night I headed to Norcross. Jamie and I did some shopping and then taste tested some of the options for the signature cocktails for the wedding. I still say that the Moscow Mule would have been a hit! The next morning we were ready to GO! We loaded up the car, picked up Laura Smith, and then…got rear ended by a transfer truck. Everyone was okay but it definitely caused us to get a later start than expected. After we got all that cleared up, we made it to Jill’s and got on the road.

8 hours later…

We arrived in New Orleans, changed quickly, and made our dinner reservations at Jaques-Imo’s. Yummy jambalaya and mashed sweet potatoe!! Jill (MoH of the year!) also gave us presents! She ordered t-shirts for the weekend and got us super cute buttons! James also got a lovely veil to wear for the weekend (which I maintain got her more beads than if she had actually shown well.. you know what..)

After dinner we headed to Bourbon. That first night we just walked through because we were going to a bar past Bourbon called DBA where a local swing band was playing. The last (and first) time I went to New Orleans was on a mission trip freshmen year of high school.. very different kind of trip. Bourbon St was ridiculous…like Amsterdam, but I wasn’t expecting it!

The next day we went to ‘the fly,’ which is a grassy park kind of area by the Mississippi River, to lay out. We had stopped at a gas station to get po boys and had ourselves a little picnic out there. However, it was super hot, so we didn’t last too long! We went back to the house to get cleaned up and ready for dinner. That night we went to dinner at Domenica (the John Besh restaurant at the Roosevelt Hotel). Very fancy and posh, but relaxed at the same time. I got squid ink pasta with crab meat and a lemon butter sauce. Out of this world!!

After dinner we headed to Pat O’Breins Piano Bar. What a good time!!! Best part of the whole trip. We requested the Georgia fight song (that got more than a few boos from the LSU fans in the room), Family Traditions, and Wagon Wheel.

In line for Pat O's.. Jamie, Laura, and Jill copying the picture behind them.

After Pat O’s we went to a few more places to dance and then we somehow ended up at a bar that had a bull. Oh my. That was when I knew that the night needed to start wrapping itself up.

Jamie on the bull!

Ashley's turn on the bull.

While everyone slept it off the next morning, I met up with Britt to have some coffee and catch up. For those of y’all that don’t know, Britt was my first boyfriend way back in high school. We met through Y-Club and even though we lived 3 hours apart we dated for about a year or so. It was a great first relationship, but we lost touch so it was great to get to catch up! After that everyone was STILL asleep so I went to Café du Monde and got beignets for the sleepy heads! What a great end to a great trip!

Busy, Busy

2011-05-15T12:22:00.000-04:00

What a busy week its been! The problem with blogging is that half the time I don't feel like I have anything going on that is worth blogging about, but then when I do have stuff going on, I don't have time to blog about it! This past week was the latter.

5.9

I knew that it was going to be a long day in MadCo so I woke up early and went to the BodyPump class at BodyPlex. Ow! So. Much. Pain. After school, we had the first day of cheerleading try-outs. Even though I'm not coming back next year, part of my cheer coach duties include holding try-outs. I taught them some Bremen cheers substituting 'devils' and 'blue' for 'Mustangs' and 'red'. After practice I stuck around for 8th grade honors night. What a special 8th grade class we have this year!? I love those kids!

5.10

Another day of cheer practice. That night my FCCLA kids were recognized at the school board meeting. After that I want over to the HS for their FCCLA award banquet and I got to see my favorites that I took to Nationals last year! Love them! It was a late night but worth it!

5.11

I took a mental health half day off of work (honestly, not having to deal with those 7th graders would be good for anyone's mental health!) and went kayaking with Megan, Jonathan and his roommates, and some people Meg met in class. As always, kayaking the Broad was a good time. It took us FOREVER to get down though--there were some people in our group acting a fool!

5.12

Megan came to school with me! She taught my 6th graders how to do sign language and talked to my 8th graders about how to get into a good college and how to succeed in college. Apparently Meg's and expert.. lol.. After school were the actual cheer try-outs. I'm so happy that so many of my FCCLA babies tried out and made the squad!

5.13

UGA graduation. Ashley, Kelly, Chelsea, and Jill all graduated (and Jamie graduated from nursing school!) I wasn't emotional at my own graduation probably because I knew that not much was changing.. I was still living with Meg, still in Athens with all my friends. Sure I was starting a new job, and that was a transition, but I still had all my friends around! This graduation was emotional. We (including me) are all going our separate ways. Chelsea is getting married, Ashley is moving back to Canton, Jill is going back to Norcross, Jamie is getting married and moving to Maryland, Kelly is getting married and moving to Florida, Katelyn has another semester left in Athens, and I'm moving to Germany! Its the end of all of our college experiences. These girls are truly some of the best friends I've ever had, and I'm really going to miss getting to see them whenever! BUT, as Mama put it, its not like we are never going to see each other--it will just mean more when we do. It does help a little knowing that we will be reunited for lots of weddings this summer--lets be real.. next weekend!

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I'm ready for next week to be pretty emotional as well. Lots of lasts. Throughout all of this though, I haven't really had second thoughts about Germany which tells me that I know its right. Its what I'm supposed to be doing at this point in my life. I know that I will miss everyone (friends, family, students) terribly, but I have to live my life according to His plan. I remind myself that this (just like my MadCo job) is a God thing.

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

Jeremiah 29.11

Glucklich Mutter's Tag

2011-05-08T19:53:00.001-04:00

...which (with known typos because I can't figure out how to make an umlaut on my keyboard) means Happy Mother's Day!! I promise I will write more when my life is more exciting.. This blog is supposed to be about my personal adventures and well.. there haven't been many recently.. =) There has been LOTS going on in the world that I should probs write about so that when I'm old and randomly find this blog again I can remember when..

4.27 Tuscaloosa, other parts of Alabama, and north Georgia were destroyed by a tornado...

This is just one of the heartbreaking images I've seen. It used to be the Krispy Kreme. What a force of nature a tornado is?! Its wind, just wind, that can turn someone's life upside down. My prayers have definitely been with everyone that was impacted by the storm. I am extremely lucky that it bypassed Bremen and Athens! My roommates and I tried to come up with a game plan if we needed to go somewhere. We live on the 2nd floor (top floor) of our apt. building. Pretty much every room has and exterior wall. We decided that my closet would be our best, but thank goodness we didn't have to resort to that. It would have been me (human), Dooley (dog), Jenna (human), Emmett (dog), Megan (human), Jonathan (human), and Roo (cat) in my tiny, tiny closet. I don't think that would have worked out very well. Athens did have a tornado warning. Megan woke me up and let me know. What I meant to say was to let me know if we needed to get in my closet, but what I said (in my half asleep stupor) was "Let me know when it gets here!". I guess I would have heard the train..

4.28 The next day was my birthday. We celebrated my 21st +2 birthday with a nice low key dinner at the Royal Peasant, an English Pub at Five Points in Athens ( you know, to prepare ourselves for the next day's festivities) and dessert at Yoforia!

4.29 William and Kate got married!

We celebrated by waking up at 5am to watch it. I made blueberry and lime scones and Megan and I watched it until I absolutely HAD to go to work. Once at work I pulled it up on Media Cast and my 1st period watched it! (psh... Its in our standards)

Her dress was breathtaking. Simple enough to suit her, fabulous lace embellishments and SO classic.

Everything looked perfect! Those trees in the Abbey were amazing! Genius!

And that cake. Oh. my. gosh.

4.30 I went to Ms Gray, (or rather) Mrs. Ferguson's, wedding reception up in Dahlonega. So pretty! The venue was in downtown Dahlonega. It had beautiful whitewashed walls, natural wood floors and went perfectly with her beachy theme. She and her husband had gotten married a few weeks before in Aruba, so they were having their reception so that everyone could celebrate their marriage with them! The food was fabulous! A wonderful spinach salad with tomatoes and cranberries, rolls, green beans, chicken, cheesy tortellini, and (my fave) shrimp and grits! The cakes were tasty as well! The wedding cake was yellow cake with each layer having a different fruit filling and a butter cream frosting. The groom's cake (while extremely ugly because of the giant Tennessee T on it =P ) was Mrs. Nave's recipe for blueberry cake with cream cheese icing. Yum!

5.1 Megan woke me up at 11:30pm to tell me that Obama was about to make a speech.. Something big had happened. So I get up.. and you know what..

They got Osama.

For all those people who have written that they will not rejoice in someone losing their life, I have a lot of respect for you, but I'm sorry... my first reaction was joy. That man has taken thousands, and thousands of lives. He wanted you and me dead because we are Christians, Americans, whatever.. I think that the world is a better place without him.

5.4 I got on the scale. I hadn't weighed in about a month, I'm gonna be honest.. I wasn't too happy. Ironically enough, the Groupon that day was for unlimited access to Bodyplex gym and their classes for a month for only $19. It was a sign.. I got it.

5.5 Cinco de Mayo!! and my 1st day at Bodyplex. I ran a mile, went to the Ab Attack class and then went to Zumba! Then I came home and made fish tacos for my lovely roommates who were super stressed out about finals.

5.6 I went to the cycle class at Bodyplex. This was my first cycle class and I think I could get used to it! My butt is still really sore from the seat but other than that I loved it!

And that brings us up to the weekend! I went to Bremen for Mothers Day. Saturday I went shopping in Carrollton with Mama and Memommy. We ate at 302 South Street which I would give two thumbs DOWN if you are trying to eat healthy (I'm sure its super tasty if you don't care! There is bacon on everything!) After that we went to TJ Maxx. Now, I've never been a Maxxinista, but this trip sold me! Most that know me know that I have a few weaknesses. Damask and the colors grey and yellow would be two of those weaknesses.. I found a beautiful chair that was upholstered in an amazing textured yellow and grey damask pattern fabric. MUST HAVE. It was originally $225. The TJ Maxx price was $130. The chair had a broken leg (which I, or my dad, could easily fix) so it was marked down further to $65. After a little negotiation, I got it for $50!!! Pictures to come once its fixed and in its place!

And that brings us pretty much up-to-date.

An Extreme Emotional Roller Coaster...

2011-04-24T10:56:00.000-04:00

...is exactly what this last month has been. We have gone from the lowest of lows to extreme highs.

I haven't written because I knew that the next time I wrote it was going to have to be about Tyler. I didn't (and still don't) have the words to talk about the absolute tragedy that everyone at Madison County has had to cope with. On April 8th we lost one of the most kind, funny, cool kid I've had the pleasure of teaching and knowing. Tyler was a great athlete, student, and club member. He didn't care that it might not be cool for a boy to be an awesome sewer--he could whip up a pillowcase dress in no time (with perfect stitches I might add).. He also didn't care that it might not be cool for a boy to be active in FCCLA--he made it cool. He was all about some UGA so I used to give him a hard time asking him what frat he was going to be in. Tyler Fortson Moon WAS a TFM. I'll miss you kid!

But life has to go on. We all had to find a 'new normal'. That next weekend we had State Leadership Meeting and State STAR Event Competition. The kids were fabulous! 3 of our 4 groups advanced to Nationals!!!

All my girls with the Falcons mascot

Life Event Planning girls with their visuals

Focus on Children girls in their costumes

All my girls and me before the Gala
(why yes, I did teach them the sorority squat)

My kids at Gnat's Landing on Friday night

Now time to figure out how we are going to raise the additional $4,800 we need to take EIGHT kids to Nationals! Anaheim here we come!!

New Products!

2011-03-30T15:31:00.000-04:00

Two posts in one day?! It must be Spring Break!

New Products for the Shop!!

The Chelsea Headband... Only $8!!

The Nancy Hair Pin... Only $5!!

Inspiration

2011-03-30T12:17:00.001-04:00

Oh Lord.. It's happened again! My newest obsession...

So inspiring! I literally just spent two and a half hours looking at the blog. Get ready for some new products in the shop like poms, luggage tags, and scarves!