Pitiful Guy & Precious Twins

Just as I suspected, my weekend was really chill and easy. Here's what happened...

Jeff had surgery on Friday night, so I spent the majority of my night in the OR waiting room, reading a really good book, and then in his recovery room. Then Saturday morning I went over to his house and played with the boys and watched some Spiderman cartoons, and packed the car, and then I rode with Jeff's mama

Pandemonium

Last Friday of the year, last Friday's Letters of the year, last full day of work for the year - holy moly! 2013 will be here in just a few more days! And I don't know about you, but I'm excited and ready for it. Oh, and that is a completely pointless title - I just couldn't think of anything that actually made any sense, so I just went with a random, fun word. So just go with it, OK?! :)

Dear

Presents, Puppies & Podiatry

BLOG FRIENDS! I feel like I've been away for sooo long. And I've really missed blogging!  A LOT has happened since I last wrote a post almost a week ago last Friday (although there was also a Christmas-themed scheduled post in there), so there's no way I can do a good old fashioned recap post. I am however going to attempt a quick catch-up of sorts, since there has definitely been some news to

Partridge in a Pear Tree

Happy Christmas Eve, my bloggy friends! I wasn't really sure what to write about for today, so I'm just going with a random list of some of my favorite parts about Christmas. In no particular order, here are some of my favorite things about Christmastime and this holiday season...

Christmas Carols. I actually really love all kinds of Christmas music, and have tons of CD's full of Christmas music

Parents, Presents & Letters

Dear Christmas Presents: I'm going to need y'all to just wrap yourselves. I've wrapped not even a single one of you, so I've got a lot to do before Tuesday. So for real here, can you just hop in a gift bag or get a hand from a friend to tape up some wrapping paper? Great.Thank you.

Dear Parents: You guys freaking got us a LIMO for family dinner last night! What an amazing surprise for our entire

Pursonal Belongings

I've wanted to do one of those "what's in your bag" kind of posts for a while. I actually have it written down on a list I keep of posts/things to do in the future, and for some reason just never got around to it, despite how simple it is to do! Well today I've finally decided to jump on it, because one of my bloggy friends, Ricci from A Beautiful Mess, was doing a link-up! So I decided I

Pilot, Venus, Ghiradelli and B&BW

A couple of months ago, I signed up to be a part of the Influenster team, and now I finally got my first VoxBox! Just so I don't confuse any of y'all who may not know what it is, this is directly off their website:

"Influenster is a free-to-join community of invited trendsetters who live to give opinions of products and experiences. Influenster creates links between brands and members to reward

Peppermint Mocha

If we were to sit down today for a coffee date, I'd start off saying, "Hi! How are you?! How are you doing this morning?!" I'd be pretty chipper and cheerful and we'd chat for a minute or two about easy things and maybe the weather, but then when you'd ask me how I'm doing, and then we'd probably get a little more serious.

I'd have to tell you that the past week has been a little rough, and that

Peppadews, Parties & Pippin

Guys, I'm not really feeling much like writing yet today. I think my brain isn't turned on quite yet this morning, due to the fact that I've had zero coffee. This is going to be an interesting day if I don't get some sort of caffeine pumping through these veins sometime soon. But now that I'm typing a little bit, my brain is waking up and you just might get a "real" blog post out of me. Well, a

Penguin Teapot & Friday's Letters

Dear Life: Why do you have to be so hard sometimes? I mean for real...I think I've dealt with enough in my life and I simply don't want it right now. Any of it. So back off, would ya? Because I could use a break right now.

Dear Family & Boyfriend: Thanks for being the bestest and for supporting me through all the craziness this week. You guys really have helped me feel better when I've needed it

Present for High School Graduation

I have just one more post from my walk down memory lane and all of my old high school pictures... For my graduation present, me and my Mama went on a cruise to the Bahamas, and had so much fun. It was just us two, and we got to do whatever we wanted. But mostly we just wanted to relax and take it easy. Which we certainly did. It was a great time, and I wish I could go back and do it all over

Plot Discussions

Jeff and I tend to watch a lot of movies. Each of us already had a love for movies before we started dating, and so it was always an easy go-to date idea in the beginning of our relationship, when we were still trying to figure each other out. We liked movie date nights because: it was easy to pick ones we would both like, it was generally a simple date to plan, and it was a good excuse to hold

Piccata & Perks

All I really want to do today is just share a couple of photos from last night, and brag about my sweet boy :) Last night he took me out for date night to celebrate 1 year and 4 months together, and also it's kind of our Christmas date too. He picked me up at my house after work, and took me to Georgio's. And oh man that place is delicious! I hadn't been there before, so that's new restaurant #4

Poinsettia, Sushi, Nail Art & More...

Hello there my lovely friends and readers! What's not so lovely is this stupid Monday morning. I'm super tired and I can't stop yawning, and I'm ready to bust out of this office, and it's only barely 11 a.m... Sooo, I've still got a quite a few more hours to make it through. I had an exhausting weekend being a part of the Singing Christmas Tree -- it was definitely good, but I'm glad it's over

Paper Snowflakes & More

Dear Boyfriend: Thanks so much for being excited about the activity calendar I made for us for this month, and being so great about participating in the things I planned for us! I had such a great time cutting out paper snowflakes with you the other night while we drank hot tea and watched a movie. It was such a lovely at-home date night :)




Dear Tallahassee: If you'd like to come hear me sing

Peak of High School

OK, this will  be the second-to-last one of these memory lane walks - with the final one next Thursday, with pictures of my graduation present! This is the seventh one, so if you missed the first six, check them out at the following links...


Cheerleading // Prom // Senior Girl Presentation // Senior Trip // New Year's Eve // Homecoming



The Peak of High School is definitely graduation - I

Pinteresting Choices

Today will be my first link up with Michelle from The Vintage Apple, for "Oh, How Pinteresting!" Today, and yesterday as well for that matter, I'm feeling completely inspired by delicious food and recipes!

I have about a bajillion food pins on my Pinterest, and it's sometimes overwhelming knowing which one I actually feel like making. For one thing, I don't even keep it all on one central food

Pot of Enchilada Soup

Hello there my bloggy friends! Today, I'm sharing with you a super duper easy soup recipe. I mean super easy people, so get ready to pull out your crock-pot, and reap yummy rewards, without much effort.

Slow-Cooker Chicken Enchilada Soup







Ingredients
1 can black beans (drained and rinsed)
1 can whole kernel corn
1 can diced tomatoes (I did the ones with green chiles for some extra pizzaz)

Perch From the Top

So first up, I got 11 new followers over the weekend, which I was seriously shocked about when I opened up Blogger this morning! What an unexpected excitement! So welcome to all of you who just joined the last few days, I'm so glad to have you here. Pull up a chair, get cozy and stay a while :)

Now, moving on to my usual weekend recap post!!

Friday
Lunch time sushi date with my sweet man, which

Parade, Penguins & Parties

Dear Penguins: Thanks for coming to my office and decorating for Christmas. I love seeing all of your cute faces, and you did such a great job! Feel free to invite a few more of your friends to come before the season is over. We always welcome more penguins around these parts.




Dear December: I'm so glad you'll be here tomorrow! I'm already in the Christmas spirit, but you really kick it off

Powderpuff Days

Here are a few pictures from homecoming week my senior year of high school. From dress-up days, to spirit day on Friday, and then a few from the football game with friends. Our tiny little Christian school didn't have a dance then, so that's really all there is. I did however get to go to a homecoming dance with a friend from church at another school, and that was a lot of fun!

And this is

Proper Place

Here is my next set of 25 random lists I'm writing before my 25th birthday. These two are my Favorite Albums & CD's and 5 Reasons to Stop NOT Cleaning My Room... And back HERE is the first two lists from a few weeks ago. I've had fun with this so far, and I'm looking forward to writing more of these lists in the next couple of months! Tomorrow marks exactly two months until my 25th birthday, by

Proud of My Cooking

Today I want to share a couple quick easy recipes that I made last week during my Thanksgiving break. Seriously people, these are so yummy, and so easy. Just the way I like things :) I won't lie about this, I'm Proud of My Cooking, and I highly recommend both of these recipes. So grab a pen and paper to make some notes, because you're going to want to give these guys a try...

First up, I made

Post-Thanksgiving Update

It feels like it's been forever since I've written a proper blog post, because Wednesday's post was a scheduled post with a yummy recipe, Thursday's post was scheduled too (and it was just a ton of pictures anyways), and then Friday I quickly wrote a few simple letters. So really, it's been about a week since I wrote a real post, and that just seems strange! And I missed it, and I'm glad to be "

Picasa Is Annoying Me

Dear Thanksgiving: You were delicious, and I thank you so much for providing such yummy things for my family and I to chow down on. Yum! (I'm too lazy to import and edit pictures right now, so I'll have to share some Thanksgiving pictures one day next week, maybe...see next letter...)



My sister Megan and I on Thanksgiving, with me still wearing my cute apron :)


Dear Blogger/Picasa Web Albums

Party Like It's 2005

Here's another installment of my walk down memory lane! This was our New Year's Eve celebration during our senior year of high school. We all went out to our friend Brian's house, and we just hung around the bonfire and enjoyed some Welch's sparkling grape juice at midnight :)

For past walks down memory lane, visit them here, here, here and here.



Click "Read More" to see all the pictures

Pumpkin Cupcakes

I've shared this post before on my friend Hallie's blog, but I'm posting it here today, since it's Thanksgiving week, and pumpkin cupcakes would be delicious during Thanksgiving :)

This is a recipe for homemade pumpkin cupcakes as well as homemade cream cheese frosting! This is Jeff's Granny's recipe, so it's a tried-and-true winner. And let me be really honest here -  both the cupcakes and the

Praise God From Whom All Blessings Flow

Good morning my bloggy friends! (Or afternoon/evening depending on when you actually read this...) Today I'd like to focus a little bit on Thanksgiving, since it is this very week after all! I just wanted to share a few things I am thankful for in my life, and then share a challenge at the end as well...



Photo found via Google images




The Bible tells us that we should give thanks in all

Palm Trees Wrapped in Christmas Lights

First up, let's talk about how cute my new layout and color scheme is. But more importantly, the cuteness of my header picture up there now! I am in love with it :) I think it's gonna stay for a while, but I'll probably change the pictures out occasionally as we go along!



And next, we can talk about today's installment of Mani Monday (which I haven't done in a while...), but this is my super

Pen & Paper

Remember my cute little notebook from last week that I bought just for blog doodling? Well, here's my next project with it! I have a list of 25 lists (who makes a list of lists I ask you? This crazy girl does...) that I'm going to doodle and write and make pretty, and share them with y'all up until I turn 25, in just a little over two months!

So, here's the list of lists... I won't be doing

Prizes Flooding My Mailbox

Dear Friday: Hooray!!! So glad you're here :) And after only 3 days of work this week? That's just great.






Dear St. Augustine: We're comin' for ya today after work, and we're so excited! Can't wait for the annual Nights of Lights festival tomorrow night! Haven't been back for it since I graduated, and I'm so glad I get to go back this year, and that Jeff gets to come too!



Dear Friends

Plane Ride Numero Uno

And here goes walk down memory lane numero quatro! These are fun for me, so I hope they are for y'all too, since I've done quite a few already! If you need to catch up you can find my past posts about cheerleading, prom and Jr/Sr, and senior girl presentation. Check those out too! :)



This was our senior trip out to Winter Park, Colorado. And guys, this was a BIG deal for me. Why? It was a

Potholing

This past Sunday, Jeff and I took a mini road trip over to Marianna, Florida, to check out another state park and do some exploring and have an adventure! We went to Florida Caverns State Park, and did the cave tour together! We didn't realize at first we were going to have to pay, but we ended up paying $8 a person, and it was totally worth it for the 45 minute underground tour of the cavern.

Pasta, Puppy & a State Park Weekend

Well, last Thursday and Friday were the worst days of whatever this sickness is, so I stayed home the whole time. I didn't shower or leave the house (except a quick doctor's visit) or eat hardly anything, and I was just pretty icky. I've felt pretty off the last five or so days, and my blogging seems a little labored right now, but I'm gonna just power through it anyways for a quick weekend

Postal Delivery

I love getting Postal Deliveries -- getting packages in the mail and opening up little gifts! It's just so much fun! Even if you paid for them yourself, it's still like receiving a present, and it just makes me so happy :) Well the other day, I got TWO packages in one day! One of which I ordered and paid for myself, and the other one was a free gift!




The first one (the one I paid for) was

Pitiful Sickie

Dear Random Sickness: You suck SO SO much. It's not a cold, it's not strep throat, I have no idea what it is... but you caused me to miss the Chris Tomlin concert last night, and now I can't go camping tonight with my Sunday school class. You make me angry!! Let's get outta here, OK? Because I really am a Pitiful Sickie :(

Dear Seminoles: Thanks for pulling ourselves together last night and

Presentation of Senior Girls

And here is number three of my walk down memory lane posts! My first memory lane post was all of my old cheerleading pictures, and then the second one was prom! So make sure you check those out too. :)



This is another thing that my school did, that I've never heard of with any other school. It's called Senior Girl Presentation. All the girls get fancied up, and each one literally gets "

Penmanship

I found an extremely lovely blogger and blog the other day -- Joelle from Something Charming. And I'm so glad I found her blog just in time to join in for her  "Write It Down, and Link It Up" challenge. It's simple - she wants to see our handwriting! It's something that is almost never included in our blogging world of computers, iPads and keyboards, but it's something that's so individual and so

Post 200 = Award for ME!

Oh hey there friends! Want to know what I'm doing for my 200th blog post?! I'm just chillin' over here, accepting my first blog award!! Hooray for accomplishing one of my goals for 25 Before 25 (200 posts & 10,000 views), because this post allows me to cross that off my list! And hooray for the award too, obviously :)

Sooo, actually the first time I was nominated was a few weeks ago by 

Partially Lazy Weekend

Friday
Went to a Thirty-One party, and ordered a cute little thermal tote lunch box (but not that pattern shown)
Ate some super yummy snacks/appetizers at that party and tried not to go overboard with it...
Hung out at my friend Lacey's house and watched part of a scary movie before heading home

Saturday
Went to one of my youth's cross-country race to cheer them on. Her team got 1st place,

Polls, Parties & More This Weekend

I'm really loving writing me some Friday Letters, so of course we're gonna go for it again this week as well...















Dear Fall Weather: Welcome to Florida! We're so glad you're here. Please feel free to make yourself comfortable and stay a while. We'd be so grateful if you did. Seriously.





Dear Weekend: We've got a lot of stuff planned for you, so get ready to be real busy. But at

Prom & Jr/Sr Banquet

So here's another installment in my walk down memory lane posts! In case you missed my last one, make sure to check it out for tons of pictures from my cheerleading days! 



So for 12 years, I went to a private, Christian school, from Kindergarten to Senior year. We did things a little differently there, especially concerning prom and the likes... The school put on a banquet for us, called

Pan-Roasted Chicken with Beans & Potatoes

Last night was another Pinterest recipe kind of night. I went over to Jeff's house, and made us this yummy meal! It was super easy, didn't include many ingredients, and tasted pretty good. (I will make changes next time, so look for those tips/suggestions at the end of the post...) So, HERE is the link to the original recipe from Real Simple, and I'm also going to lay it all on here too...

Progress Report

Yesterday marked three months left until my 25th birthday in January, so I just wanted to write a quick update post about my Pledge of 25 Before 25... So here's a quick Progress Report on where I stand with some of the goals in my list of things to accomplish before I turn a quarter of a century old...




Here's some of my biggest news so far, last night while I was sleeping, my little

Panhandle to South Florida

This weekend I went to Tampa with my amazing girlfriends, and obviously we had an awesome time!! I took the day off work on Friday, and started out the day at breakfast with Jeff. Then I went home, finished packing, and my friend Nicole (who lives in Pensacola) picked me up around 10:45 on her way through town. We got down to Tampa around 3:30, and were so excited to see our other friends who

Patch of Pumpkins

Last Friday night, Jeff and I went to the pumpkin patch for a quick date night activity before supper time. We didn't go last year for some silly reason, so I'm glad we got to go together this year! We planned it so we were there right around dusk/sunset, and it was so pretty then! Glad we worked it out that way :) Lots of pretty colors, and sun beams streaming through creating all sorts of

Pom-Pom Days

For some reason the other day, I ended up spending some time taking a walk down memory lane looking through some old pictures on my laptop. I decided I wanted to share some of course, so they'll come in waves over the next couple of weeks or so, grouped by activities, events or categories! 



This first one is some of my old cheerleading pictures! I didn't have my own digital camera then, so

PB & J Burger and Pitch Perfect

Last night we had another date night, because both of us are going out of town this weekend separately, so we needed to fit in some special time during the busy week. This time, it was my turn to plan the entire date, and I had fun getting to doing so :) I picked a restaurant I knew he wanted to try, his favorite dessert, and a movie that I figured both of us would enjoy. (Although I definitely

Pedaling All Over Town

Remember in yesterday's post when I said I would write a post specifically about our Alley Cat Bike Race from over the weekend? Well this is that post! I'm going to try to keep this pretty short and sweet (because I know I tend to talk too much), but really I can't promise anything...

First, let me explain what an Alley Cat is... it's kind of like The Amazing Race, but done on a bicycle. We have

Posh Spice, Pumpkin Patch & Pasta

Friday
Accidentally matched Jeff all day, without even knowing it...
Bought my first pair of cycling shorts (they have a padded booty!!) and they are amazing!
Went to the pumpkin patch with Jeff and took lots of pretty pictures, which I will share all of on another day
Then Jeff treated us to a nice dinner at Olive Garden, 'cause we had a gift card :)
We had salad & bread sticks, and shared an

Poison & Wine

Hello for the second time today my friends! I'm just so pumped right now, I absolutely had to write a blog post about why... Even though I hardly ever do two posts in one day, but who cares...



Photo found HERE


THE CIVIL WARS WILL BE PLAYING IN TALLAHASSEE!! They are seriously one of my favoritest bands, and I just love them so much. Their album has been listened to countless times since I

Potential to Prove Problematic

Dear Pay Day Friday: I'm so glad you're here! And you come bearing a Fall Luncheon at work today, which promises to be a delicious feast of yummies. (For which I made my Mama made chili!!)




Dear Blog: We've been doing so great lately! We're growing and making new friends, and it's so fun and exciting! Also, we're doing great towards our goals -- this is post #187 of the goal of 200, and at the

Paid My Debt

"Higher than the mountains that I face



Stronger than the power of the grave


Constant through the trial and the change

One thing remains, one things remains



Your love never fails, It never gives up, It never runs out on me



On and on and on and on it goes

It overwhelms and satisfies my soul

And I never ever have to be afraid

One thing remains



In death, in life, I'm confident

Preserving Memories

Remember a couple of weeks ago (like almost a month ago now actually...) when I went to St. Augustine to hang out with my bestest girlfriends? Well I was finally able to get a hold of Jenni's amazing photographs, and so I finally get to share them with you lovelies!



So, my friend Jenni and her awesome roomie/bestie, Alyssa, own their own photography business (Studio No. 9), so if you're in

Popeye's Pizza

Last night, Jeff and I went over to my friend Lacey's house for some dinner and games and hang out time. Lacey made up this pizza recipe about a year ago, and we make it what seems like once a month or so, because we just love it and it's so stinking good. So good in fact, I decided I needed to blog it so you lovelies can try it out! (Seems like I'm becoming quite the foodie blogger lately, huh?!

Puppets On Our Fingers

Happy Monday Morning all my bloggy friends and real life friends and family! I'm surprisingly chipper right now, even though I'm actually quite exhausted and also real hungry because I didn't eat breakfast today. But, I'm chipper because I had such a great weekend, it so still makes me happy!

I went down to Orlando for my friend Jenni's housewarming party! Three of our friends from St. Augustine

Porridge, & Other Stuff's

Friday's Letters -- Round 2 -- here we go!!

Dear Boyfriend: You are in Alabama camping and mountain bike riding for the whole weekend, and I really miss you already! Please have fun up there, but also please be safe! And try to come back home all in one piece, with only minor scrapes, bumps and bruises.

Dear I-10/I-75/I-4: Please don't be too crazy and congested with tons of traffic today as I

Presence

"Seek the Lord and His strength; seek his presence continually!" --1 Chronicles 16:11








Seek his presence continually.... sounds like kind of a hard thing to do right? It does to me at least. I mean sometimes I don't want to, or I don't know how, or I don't know where to begin... I think though, that the easiest way to seek his presence, is to spend time with him in prayer and reading his

Parmesan-Crusted Date Night

Last night my sweet boyfriend Jeff took me on a mystery date! He picked me up at my house, and when we got in the car, he told me, "We're going on a little trip!" How exciting! I love little surprise road trips! But who doesn't, am I right?! We sat in traffic for a tiny bit, and a chance to snap a quick picture of course :)



I apologize for the quality of the front-facing iPhone camera

Pinning My Workout

The last week or so of September, I really started thinking about my eating and exercise habits from the past couple of months. And it wasn't pretty. I was still being active and exercising at least once a week, but it's not like that one workout could make up for all the crap I was still eating. So things were getting a bit out of control. I then decided that this month was going to "Healthy

Pictures Galore

I hope y'all are in the mood for lots of pictures, and not a lot of reading. Because I have a ton of pictures from this weekend, and I don't feel like writing too much, so let's just jump straight to it, shall we?!

Friday night = dinner at Pepper's with some friends, followed by bowling, which was a blast, even if I came in dead last place... but what was weird was that we were the only ones

Popular Letters

A popular blog post and link-up every Friday in the blogosphere is always "Friday's Letters." A couple of the blogs I follow all participate in this, and I like reading them, I've just never done it myself... But I'm changing that today. So here goes my first round of Friday's Letters, hopefully I do this right :)

Dear Friday: Thank you for finally arriving, now I just really need you to speed

Provision

God's Provision is sometimes unexpected, and usually not the way we would have done things ourselves; but it is always the best option. Let's look at Abraham and when God told him he was going to have to sacrifice his only son, from Genesis 22...




So back in the day, Abraham and his wife Sarah had no children, and they were very sad. But let's fast forward to when God granted him and his wife

Pasta: Greek Style

Last night my Grandparents took my parents and I out to dinner. We went to a nice place up in Thomasville, Georgia, The Plaza Restaurant, and all had a lovely dinner together. All four of them got fried chicken meals for dinner, but I was trying to find a "healthier" option, so I went with pasta instead of fried food... does that count as "healthier?" Whatever, I don't care - because it was

Plateful of Yummy

Guys, I'm on a roll lately with recipes and cooking and what-not. Like for real, and I've been loving it! Last night Jeff's Mama was a bit under the weather, and so I volunteered to go over and cook for their family. I made a delicious meal, in fact a Plateful of Yummy, and so I of course wanted to share it with you lovely people!

SIDE NOTE: There are now 50 of you lovely people! I remember just

Pinstagram of September

Disclaimer - this was "scheduled" to automatically post on Saturday afternoon at 12:30 p.m., but for whatever reason I appear to not know how to actually do such "scheduling." So this was supposed to be the end-cap to September, but since I'm sometimes blogging inadequate, we'll just throw this out as the second post for the day because there are some pictures in here I didn't want to be left "

Plum Polish, Pinterest Recipes & More!

Guys. It's OCTOBER! That kind of snuck up on us and came out of nowhere! Am I right?! At least I ended the month of September with a pretty great weekend. :) So here's a few of the things that made up my weekend.... although it seems like the only things I took pictures of was food, so that kind of stinks :( But I assure you - I did actually do more than just eat all weekend, even though that's

Packages of Books

Alright firstly, I want you to go check out the blog Mary in Marriedland, because she has been doing a series called "City in 5 Photos," and today my photos are featured! Yay! It's so weird and also so cool seeing my photos on someone else's blog. Mary is also a pretty cool gal, and I think you'll probably like her too :) And second, now onto our regularly scheduled broadcast...
-----------------

Proclaim

Again, music spoke to me last night during youth. There's just something about praise and worship music that can get my attention and make me focus in on God just a little bit more than normal. Even if it's only for a few minutes before I get distracted by an out-of-control sixth-grade boy... The power-ballad style of praise and worship is probably my favorite, and last night it was the following

Peculiar

I'm feeling a little random and scatterbrained this afternoon, so what you get is just a string of Peculiar thoughts floating around in this crazy brain of mine...

++Tonight after church I am going shopping for my Mama's birthday present, since her birthday is on Saturday. I'm pretty positive I know what I'm getting her, but since she reads this here blog, I'll have to keep it a secret and

Picking Out Thrifty Treasures

This past weekend I spent an amazing weekend of fun with my favorite girls. Check it out HERE if you missed the post yesterday :) And while I was there, we did the teensiest amount of garage sale thrifting. We wanted to do way more, but couldn't find anymore on the island before lunch-time. I always love thrifting and garage sales, but it's definitely way better and way more fun with lovely

Perks of Having the Bestest Friends

I have the best friends. Did you know that? It seems impossible for you to not know, because I mention it all the time. But it's only because it's an absolute fact. I'm serious.

This past weekend was spent in St. Augustine with my favorites, and we had a great time. Here's a run down, with a few pictures at the end, of some of the fun things we did, as well as some of the Perks of Having the

Pal-in' Around

At this very moment you're reading this, I could be doing any number of random things. For instance, I could be: at the beach, riding my bike, playing games, shopping downtown, eating a snack, crafting, farmer's/flea market shopping, getting some coffee, watching a movie, holding hands, laughing my face off, singing at the top of my lungs, painting my nails, taking a million pictures, or goodness

Pepperoni Pizza Pasta Casserole

First of all, let's talk real quick about my new background/layout. Tomorrow is the first "official" day of fall (although Florida weather will choose to ignore that until probably Halloween or so...), so I intended to make my background something fall-ish inspired, or at least some fall colors. But then I found this purple polka-dotted beauty, and knew I had to do it. I mean those colors are

Plus, God's On Our Side

"Our God is Greater,

Our God is Stronger,

God you are higher than any other.

Our God is Healer,

Awesome in Power,

Our God, our God."





Does music speak to you the way it does to me? I absolutely love worship songs and getting to worship our God. There's something about praise and worship music that just makes my heart happy and reflective and ready to hear from the Holy Spirit. Last

Pâtisserie

Here is a silly and random post that makes up the silly adventures of most of my silly life...

Today Jeff rode his bike into work, so I picked him up from his office for lunch. I had bought one of those fancy huge coupon books from one of my youth, so we used one of them at a little place called Tally's Grille in Market Square. We both got burgers on rye bread, which was so different and quite

Perpetual Organizer

I am absolutely a Perpetual Organizer. I get serious joy out of organizing, straightening, and rearranging. Only slightly OCD right?! But for real. There's something calming, stress-relieving and therapeutic about simple organizing and streamlining, to make my life just feel a little bit better! This past weekend I did some major cleaning in my room, and it feels so much better. I tend to keep my

Pumpkin Cupcakes, Purple Flowers & a Pretzel Bagel

Here's a quick weekend recap (including a tiny bit from Thursday night as well), in list form since that's easier, followed by a ton of relevant pictures to my list as well as some not-so-relevant ones as well. Ready...GO!


+Went on another "run" around my neighborhood, and did pretty well

+Took some nature photos during the walking portions of my run

+Friday morning Mama treated me to

Painted Chevrons & Mint Polka Dots

Below are TWO nail designs from this last week. Figured it would be fun to show two completely different designs all in the same post! Hope you enjoy :)

This is my second attempt with my nail tip sticker guides. I think the first time I tried them it worked out a little better, but I still like these as well! If you're interested, the instructional steps for these are the same as my first

Perry Como Love Songs

I usually try to stay away from the super sappy lovey dovey posts, because I know not everyone wants to read all of that. But occasionally it just has to happen, and this is one of those times. I just don't want to forget this night and this experience, and since this is my own digital journal, I've got to write it all down.

Jeff and I went on a date night to Marie Livingston's Steakhouse, which

People Need Love

"A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." --John 13:34-35








We all know about the 10 Commandments, right? They're "simple" things like: honor the Sabbath, don't lie, don't steal, do not commit adultery, do not murder,

Peasy Pinterest Recipe

I made a Pinterest recipe for my family! And it was so Easy Peasy. It's so great to actually use a few of the couple thousand pins on my boards. Yeah - I have almost 3,000 pins right now on my 36 boards. Slightly out of control? Maybe. Definitely necessary? Oh absolutely.

So I made Oven Baked Chicken Fajitas, with cheesy skillet corn and Spanish rice. And since I'm too lazy to copy down the

Packed Full of Fun

Rock the Universe, well - Rocks. Duh. The weekend is always Packed Full of Fun. It's a non-stop weekend full of fun and crazy and TONS of people, and concerts and eating and roller coasters. And I love it.

We get to go to both Islands of Adventure and Universal Studios and it's a blast. This is the 8th year I've gone to Rock the Universe! And I'm still not tired of it yet. Its such an awesome

Pasta Paradise

During lunch the other day, Jeff and I watched part of an extremely mouth-watering show on the Travel Network, called Pasta Paradise. Holy moly - talk about torturous! Seeing all the yummiest looking pastas, and I'm just over here eating a turkey sandwich on a hot dog bun because we didn't have enough bread, and some BBQ Fritos. Oh the torture...



So even though I've never been to any of these

Praiseworthy

Hey guys, guess what? I'm starting a "series." A lot of "popular" bloggers have certain days that they do certain things. One that I follow does "5 Fave Friday," another one that I actually participate in is "Mani Monday." Well, I will be doing my own, and it will be "Thoughtful Thursdays." I don't always post deep, meaningful things, but I want to do it more often. So every Thursday I'll be

Pigskin, Popcorn & Portraits

I really don't feel  quite like doing a big long post with a ton of writing and words, so I'll do a quick one to sum up my long Labor Day weekend.

Friday night = impromptu date night at TGI Friday's (shared a meal to save room for popcorn of course) and seeing "Moonrise Kingdom." Overall, we both enjoyed the movie, but it's certainly not for everyone. But I really like those artsy/indie films!

Plans

Alright - I'm practically Super Woman most of the time when making plans for myself and family/friends/boyfriend. But you know what's really strange this weekend? I. HAVE. NONE. Not one single concrete plan for this long weekend. (Except of course church on Sunday morning, duh.) And you know what else? It's pretty liberating! There are a few things that might fall into place, but I'm just kind of

Producing Perseverance

Last night at youth, our interim youth pastor had some great things to say. I grabbed a 3x5 note card and started scribbling down some notes because I knew not only did I want to remember those things, but I knew I wanted to blog about it.

Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.

Proper Recognition

GUYS! I missed my 2 year Blogiversary and didn't even realize it. I knew a few weeks ago that it was coming up, but then it just slipped on by without the Proper Recognition it deserved. So here it is...


I have officially been blogging for 2 years now! 

(plus 18 days). My first little post was on August 11, 2010, after the convincing of some of my best friends during our epic road trip that

Polka Dot Perfume

Do y'all remember my little post about the things I "collect" and some of my obsessions? Well, one of them is most assuredly perfume. And yesterday I ran across a new one I think I need for my collection. My aunt and I were just walking through Dillards (because we are like those elderly people who walk laps in the mall during our lunch break), when she spotted this cute little gem, and pointed

Pictionary, Publix & Polish

Do I say often enough how much fun the weekends are? It's not that I don't do fun things during the week, because usually I do. It's just something about those weekend hours that seem more special, more fun, more relaxing, more exciting, and so many other things. 



During the week, I usually have a million things to do, and not enough time to do it all in. But on the weekend, there's some

Pinstagram Lately

Made cupcakes & toppers for family dinner night,
in honor of Sister's senior year of college!




Loving the Salon Professional nail polish brand. I got 3 new ones :)




Grandmother made 4 pies for our big, birthday family dinner night




Trying to get the hang of the "arm party" trend...




Publix Deli makes some amazing Boar's Head subs for lunch.




Some editing in Camera + and a cute

Playing with Paint

Extreme Paint Night #4 was a success!! This happened last Wednesday, and was sooo much fun, just like it always is. If you'd like, you can check out another post from Paint Night 2010 HERE. And I thought I did a post from last year's event too, but now I can't find it, so I guess maybe not... :(

Anyways, this is the fourth or fifth time we've done this now (I actually can't remember anymore...),

Promotion Day, Polka Dots & Po'Boys

Once again, my weekend did not disappoint. I wish I could have more of them actually! But then again, who wouldn't wish for more weekends and fun time with family, friends and loved ones??



The weekend started off with our 1 year anniversary date on Friday night! We tried out a new restaurant, and it was incredible. (This is 1 of 6 new restaurants for my 25 Before 25 list!) We went to 101

Paired Together

I have now *officially* been dating my wonderful boyfriend for a full year now. We became real "boyfriend/girlfriend" on August 10, 2011, and it's been a great year since then. Last Friday, we "celebrated" our first year anniversary of dating. Well, we didn't really get to celebrate because I was out of town and the boys were still here with him, so we just exchanged sweet, mushy texts all day,

Praying This Daily

This is just  preview of what's still to come from my Global Leadership Summit conference post, but I wanted to share this one quick thing...

At the very end of the conference, all 160,000 participants around the globe signed cards as a commitment to pray a prayer daily, for the next 30 days. What an amazing thing that so many people, all over the world, are all praying the exact same thing

Pizzazz'd My Pledge

I finally got my little list of 25 Before 25 lookin' all cute and pretty, and it's on display in my bathroom! It was a very simple project too. One "professional" photo mat, an 11x14 piece of poster board for some stability, my list, and a pretty piece of scrapbook paper. I knew I was going to put it in my bathroom, so I chose colors that would match/compliment that color scheme. I cut the

Pollo, Shrimp, Beef & Lobster

This past weekend, I went with my parents, aunt, uncle and cousin over to Jacksonville for a leadership conference, along with another man from our church as well. I will be sharing all about the conference later this week (it was amazing and it deserves some well-thought-through time and writing), but for now I just want to share all the crazy amounts of delicious food we consumed in the three

Peppermint Nails??

Well, I was actually attempting to do cheetah or leopard print nails (the nail/blog world tends to combine and/or confuse the two), but this was the first time I've tried this kind of pattern, and it's not so easy. I looked up a couple of tutorials online, and the directions all seemed fairly simple to follow. (They went something like this: paint base coat, dot each nail, draw half C's on each

Pledge

Ya know what I just realized? In a little less than six months (July 29th would have marked exactly six months away), I will be a quarter of a century old. Whoa! Twenty-five sounds so grown up and adult-like, don't you think? In honor of this upcoming momentous birthday occasion, I've created a "25-Before-25" list of all the things I'd like to accomplish before then.

Now I have just slightly

Pocketful of Sunshine

Remember all those things I was looking forward to from this past weekend? Well they certainly didn't disappoint, and I had an excellent couple of days. Here's my recap...

On Saturday, I went to St. George Island State Park with Jeff, his cute twins, his Mama, and his Granny. We packed a cooler full of yummy food, fruit, juice boxes and sodas, along with a bag of chips and snacks. We also

Point by Point

Here's a quick list of a few of the things I'm looking forward to this weekend, broken down Point by Point....

Going with my wonderful boyfriend Jeff to take his cute boys to see Madagascar 3 tonight down at the cheap theater, complete with dinner at McDonald's followed by a large popcorn to all share. 
Probably going to the beach tomorrow - hooray!! I do love the beach :) However, if we don't

Polka Dot Rainbow

Another attempt at nail art! I made a simple little polka dot rainbow on the tips of my nails! :) This one wasn't difficult, so it doesn't require any explanations or much wordiness. (Also, the original pin came from HERE, and she has a simple tutorial on her blog if you really  need explanation.) But I think it's super cute and I'm loving it. I got the idea off Pinterest, so that's another pin

Peaches = Summertime

All of the pictures below are from Instagram, because I love Instagram - DUH. And they were all from the past 4 or 5 days. I had a great weekend and here's a few of the things that made it great:

Watching the Opening Ceremonies of the Olympics with Jeff and his family, while eating that amazing cobbler with the freshest Georgia peaches.
Lazily tubing the Bear Paw Creek/Chipola River with my

Penguins Laugh Too

My sweet friend Jenni thought of me when she saw this the other day, and posted it on my Facebook wall. And it is just the cutest little thing. It starts out kinda squeaky, but then it just get's precious. It made me laugh and coo and get all silly and giggly, and I loved it. Check it out...





I don't think I realized that penguins can laugh like people do, but apparently they can! And

Polka Dot Nails, Round 2

Painted my nails again last night! And attempt number two with my new nail art dotting pen thingy-majiggies went pretty good again. (HERE is my first polka dot attempt, but not with the new majiggies). I'm still only attempting some very basic designs and things, but I'm sure in no time I'll be ready to tackle something a little more complex and interesting... but for now, it was just a quick,

Poolga

I found this fun new website for anyone with an Apple product. I personally have an iPhone (which I may or may not be completely obsessed with...), and I'm loving this site so far. It's called Poolga.

They have awesome artists who have designed their art specifically for these great products. You can download each picture in different formats, depending on which device you have, i.e. iPhone

Punishing Penn State

So last fall, I wrote a post about all the CRAP going on within the Penn State football team. It was disgusting. And guess what? It's still disgusting, and it just makes me so angry!

I will only summarize what's happened this week (partly because you don't really care about all the details, but partly because I don't even know them all myself.) THIS article however on the Sports Illustrated

Prime Time with Friends

Have I said recently how much I love and adore my girlfriends from St. Augustine? I don't think I have said much about them since our girls weekend, but they're always on my mind and in my heart. They are literally some of my favorite people, and I love when I get to have random visits with them!

Last Friday, Kaley happened to be passing through town, so I took off the whole day to hang out with

Polishing My Nails

I'm really into this whole "nail art" craze right now. Like, a whole lot. And I'm having so much fun with all the different options and things you can do! Sometimes they can be extremely elaborate, but sometimes it can be as simple as putting glitter on only one nail per hand. And then you're done. And it's still so stinking cute!

Check out these 4th of July nails I was rockin' for Independence

Panama City Beach

Hi there, and welcome back! Who likes my new background image and colors? Because I'm a bit obsessed with it. I'm loving the birds, the doodles and all the blues! So cute. And I'm glad to be back to blogging, even though I'm sure it will be crazy catching up with everything. Upcoming posts might include: TML 2012, hanging with some of my favorite girls from Flagler recently, my 30-day shred

"Poor" by Earthly Measures

Tomorrow, bright and early in the morning, we will be leaving for our annual youth mission trip to Miami. This will actually be my 7th time working with this organization - Touching Miami with Love. They are an incredible and diverse organization that provides aid to kids and families in Overtown, which is one of (if not THE) poorest neighborhoods in the entire country.



They offer different

Pasketti Squash

Um hello?! Where has Spaghetti Pasketti Squash been hiding all my pasta-loving-life?? This stuff is amazing. And healthy. And simple and yummy. And I would seriously like to know why no one has introduced it to me before.

Actually, my lovely friend Kaley told me about it back during our awesome girls' weekend in the beginning of April. We had all been talking about diets and healthiness and food

Playing Catch-Up

 Life is always crazy busy. Duh. We all know that right? I wish that my blog wasn't one of the things that got neglected though. Unfortunately it is, and that's OK, as long as I return to it when I can! So, I'm Playing Catch-Up today, and here are a few random things that have happened since my last real blog update...

Jeff and I went to pick up his sweet little boys, and they will now be

Profiling The BBN

A little over a week ago I joined a new community - the Better Blogger Network. And so far I'm loving it. It's a place for blogging peeps to join together and share information and support. There is a lovely group of ladies running the site that offer tips, suggestions, advice and other helpful info about blogging and everything that comes along with it. You can join groups and chime in on

PicMonkey

So, in stalking around Pinterest and a couple of random blogs this morning, I've found a new photo editing website. I used to like Picasa's "Picnik," but they kind of did away with it, and so I haven't been able to whiten teeth or thinnify photos or brighten the colors in a few months. But PicMonkey is even better than just those few things.

I've just barely begun playing around with it a little

Pinsanity

I can tell already - there is going to be some Pinsanity going on in our future. Remember how yesterday I said that I'm sure wedding boards would pop up on Pinterest? Well, it's happened already... This morning I got this email.




Of course. It only took a day and look what's happened. But honestly, it's fine with me because I'm probably at the 80% excitement level of wedding stuff, compared to

Proposal For My Sister

I'm sure most of you have heard by now via Facebook & Instagram (if you haven't, we're clearly not Facebook friends), but...MY BABY SISTER IS ENGAGED!!




Last night, her dear, sweet boyfriend fiance proposed to her after dating for 6 1/2 years.

He surprised her by showing up at her work (The Growing Room), and getting down on one knee right as she was locking up. He had arranged a couple of

Petrified of Running

This is going to come as a shock to pretty much all of you...

I’m kind of considering starting a Couch to 5K program. 
I am NOT a runner. I have NEVER been a runner. Back when I was a cheerleader, I ran half a mile every day for five years, and I never got used to it or enjoyed it even a little bit. I pretty much hated every second of it. And then those times we had to run for extra conditioning

Pretzels & Pringles on Memorial Day

Who doesn't love a good three-day weekend? This girl definitely does. I mean really - they never disappoint. Whether you relax all weekend or pack it jam full of fun stuff, it's a good time either way. And then after a three-day weekend, it's all made even better with a shorter, four-day work week!

Last weekend was definitely a fully packed three days, and I enjoyed every second of it. Friday

Passes to the Water Park

A couple of months ago, my sweet boyfriend made a nice little video of a day trip we took to Jacksonville. Now it was my turn to make a cute video of a fun day Jeff and I had! We have annual passes to Wild Adventures (which includes passes to the water park and all the concerts), and so last Saturday we went to the water park - Splash Island - for the first time. We had some nice time in the sun,

Paisley Phone Cover

I've been really jonesin' for a new iPhone case lately. Partly because mine is a little worn and broken in a couple of places, but mostly because I'm just ready for a change for my pretty little iPhone. So I did some looking around, and found that Urban Outfitters has some really, really cute ones. I have no idea if they're good quality or not (for some reason I'm thinkin' NO), but I've made a

Pomp & Circumstance

I've been absent from my little corner of the blog world lately, and I'm starting to miss it already. I've just been super busy getting stuff ready for our Senior Recognition Sunday at church this upcoming Sunday. I've been making a PowerPoint slideshow of pictures of 13 seniors who we will recognize this Sunday. They've included some cute little baby pictures, all the way up to their formal

Passionate Mama

Happy Mother's Day! This day is so fun spent with family and most especially honoring what a wonderful Mama I've been blessed with. To celebrate this day of recognizing our mother's, I have a special post straight from my favoritest mother - my very own Mama. She is such an awesome lady, and I hope I can one day be as good of a mother as she was and still is to me. She is such a Passionate Mama,

Partial to the Weekends

It's almost the weekend!! And obviously I'm a little bit looking forward to that, because I'm a little bit Partial to the Weekends. Not because I always have the best weekend ever planned, but simply because it means I get two full days of "me time," in whatever form it might appear, where I don't have to be at work, and I don't have to indoors if I don't want to be...

Tonight's me time begins

Pile Up the Joy

Some of the best things in life are often the smallest, most seemingly ordinary things. And sadly we don’t take the time to recognize those things or thank those special people in our lives.  Even “silly” things are sometimes instrumental in cheering me up or changing my attitude. And all the "regular" people in my life make me so happy. It’s so much nicer when I can actually recognize those

Periodically Updated

I love periodically updating the template of my blog. I don't do it very often, but when I do, I make sure everything is just right, and then leave it for a long time.I pick out a new background image, then spend a good amount of time matching up the fonts and border colors and link colors, until it all looks so pretty, and I'm always quite proud of the changes.

This time, I went for some bright

Pining For Summertime

Summertime is almost here! The summer months are definitely loved by this girl, and they bring so many happy things: swimming, watermelon, sunshine, tan skin, long days, exciting nights, a more relaxed feeling, beach days, river tubing, popsicles, and so much more. But another one of the reasons I love summer, is for all the fun activities that I get to do with my youth group!

We call the whole

Pinstagram Weekend Photo Dump

Since my last few posts have been very wordy, we're going for a less-is-more theme with mainly photos. Here are some of the moments I loved from this past weekend, all portrayed through Instagram.

I love the weekends. I love Instagram. I love combining the two...



Got donuts and coffee as a treat for the boyfriend Saturday morning.



Jeff's birthday wish was to see "The Avengers" in IMAX 3D.

Pleasurable, It Was Not

Last Thursday, I had my wisdom teeth removed. (Hence only one other post in the last 16 days). What's funny is that when I was younger, I was told that I wouldn't have any wisdom teeth, mainly because my mouth was too small to get any. So imagine my surprise when visiting the dentist in February with pain complaints, they told me I had four of those bad boys. Awesome. And they were impacted, and

Pink, Blue & Polka Dot Bookmarks

Since I'm at home recovering from my wisdom teeth removal surgery, I had some time on my hands, but had to keep my productivity at a low, easy-going level. So, I made some super simple, super cute bookmarks for myself and some of my family members.

Supplies:
Scrapbook paper scraps
Scissors
Glue stick
White paper
Laminating machine (or simply some clear masking tape if you're not as fancy as me

Polka Dot Nails

Remember my list of goals for April I posted at the end of March? Well I'm just truckin' along on those, and making good progress so far. (Yes there are officially only seven of them, but one of those includes my giant spring cleaning to-do list, so it's quite a lot of stuff/goals for just one month...)

Yesterday I tried some "nail art" for the first time on my very own. And I really liked the

Pants Are Fitting Looser

Alright, well it seems that I may have had my lack-of-weight-loss-breakdown on Monday and Tuesday unnecessarily. Everyone kept mentioning stuff about the scale I used and the time of day I weighed, and blah blah blah. I knew those things mattered - but I just didn't realize that apparently it mattered that much.

Yesterday on my lunch break, I went to Bed, Bath and Beyond to buy myself my

Preowned Novels

Last Saturday, my Mama and I went on a nice little shopping trip and lunch date. At the very end of our time together, I decided on a whim I felt like doing some book shopping. There is a Goodwill bookstore about a mile from our house, so we stopped there before going home. And I was quite glad we did!

The store itself is not very big, but it's very clean, neat, tidy and organized. All books are

Painful Weigh-In

So I accomplished one of my goals for April - I went for two whole weeks on a no-carb diet. Decent accomplishment. I didn't cheat the whole time I was on it, and I was proud of that. Yesterday I was feeling pretty good about the diet and the past two weeks (April 16 was day 14 of the diet), that is until I stepped on the scale.

I did not lose one. single. pound. WHAT?! Two entire weeks of no

Purposefully Busy

Mondays are not fun. Pretty much ever. But you know what's almost always fun? Weekends. And this past weekend certainly delivered in the fun department. I didn't take nearly enough pictures to document the greatness, and that makes me sad, so I hope you will at least enjoy the few I have from Wild Adventures later in the post. So, moving on to the details and descriptions and a slightly lengthy

Portraits Circa 2007

Yesterday's post was all about things from many, many years ago from my childhood. Today, we're still taking a walk down memory lane, but I thought I'd fast forward to the college years. So instead of memories from when I was 5 years old, here are some from just 5 years ago...



5 years ago I...


:: turned 19 a few months ago (and goodness that sounds so young now!) ::




Emily and I at my

Peachy Memories

The following things hold many of my Childhood Memories...

1. LITTLE GOLDEN BOOKS. I have literally NO IDEA how many of these my sister and I have, but I know it's gotta be close to a gajillion. I could have included these in my collections post, because we definitely have enough to be considered a whole collection. They're just so cute and easy to read, and I really do love the vintage feel of

Past Favorites (Blog Post #100!!)

ATTENTION FRIENDS AND FAMILY! THIS IS MY 100th BLOG POST!! 



And I'm super pumped about it! I don't think it takes most bloggers a little over a year and a half to reach this point, but I took a long hiatus for about 5 months, and before then I just wasn't very consistent. Whatever - doesn't really matter. Because what does matter is I've finally made it! 100 posts seems like a lot. And I

Parthenon Inspired

So for those that aren't aware, we have Family Dinner Night every Monday night at my house. My Mama always makes delicious food, and a lot of times she works in a very creative theme. Some of our past themes have been: Cuban, Dr. Seuss, Spring Has Sprung, Build-Your-Own Burger Bar, Mexican, Spooktacular, WHOP (Walker's House of Pancakes - get it, like IHOP?!), Gratefulness, and a couple birthday

Peaceful Easter

Yesterday was quite a lovely Easter Sunday. My family and I all got coffee from Dunkin Donuts on our way to church, then spent a couple lovely hours in Sunday school and then "big church." Every Easter, our church family always brings fresh flowers to decorate the cross on our front lawn, and it always looks so beautiful!







And with the pretty flowers, everyone always takes beautiful

Perfume & Other Collections

I have little collections of the following happy things:

PENGUINS. Duh. They are just the cutest little things! For a long time I couldn't figure out where my obsession came from with these furry little waddlers, but recently I've been able to pin-point it. I believe it started from that old chipmunk movie when they go on a balloon race competing against the Chipettes - "The Chipmunk Adventure."

Petty Crime

Welp, I've committed a petty crime - apparently. Yesterday I spent about an hour making a cute little video from our girls' weekend from the slip-n-slide videos I took. I did some editing, made things look nice, added in some slide transitions and everything. Then at the end I added in "Brighter Than the Sun" by Colbie Caillat as background music. Apparently this is a no-no.

I uploaded it to

Perpect Weekend

You may think that you have the best group of girlfriends in the world. But you don't. That's because I do.

This past weekend, seven of us girls met up at Kaley's farm house in Monticello for an awesomely wonderful time together. I hadn't seen Nicole since her wedding in December 2010, or Kaley since our New Year's weekend at the farm of that same month. So we were all due for some much-needed

Pale Skin Needs To Go

April is here!! Whoa. I know everyone always says cliche things about how time fast flies, but it really does. I have no deep, insightful comment or remark about why that is, or why I do or don't like it - all I know is that it's true. Time can be so super speedy sometimes. So here's to another month!



Goals for April:

1. Finish my crazy huge spring cleaning list

2. Attempt some cute, simple

Professional Chef in Training

The other night I made dinner for Jeff and I at his house. The last time I attempted this, I nearly smoked us out of the house by trying to pan fry breaded chicken in the wrong kind of oil, at a temperature that was too hot...it was not a good thing. The chicken was burnt, it took forever, I almost ruined a stainless steel pan, and it was a tricky night.... Luckily for both of us though, this

Popcorn Tin Face Lift

As a part of my spring cleaning rampage, I have been working on a ton of random projects. This one I did the other night over at Jeff's house, and I absolutely LOVE how it turned out. It was super simple, incredibly cheap (felt like it was free since I already had all the stuff on hand) and since it's functional, it makes my life easier. 


Materials: scrapbook paper, scissors, Mod Podge, foam

Put A Spring In Your Step

This cute image below is from a lovely little blog I follow. She's kicking off a two week project called "Put A Spring In Your Step" and dedicating blog posts for the next two weeks to mood boosters, cheeriness and uplifting spirits. She's also using it to link bloggers together, and so you can add your own link to her post. (Check out the end of her post to see the one I added, as well as other

Project: Easter Garden

The Project - create a tiny Easter Garden, depicting an empty tomb! So cute, but very meaningful.



Pinspiration for our "Spring has Sprung" project. :)


My Aunt Q and I work together at Dept. of Corrections. One of our co-workers found this on Pinterest, made it herself, and then showed it to my Aunt. Then she and her family made one for themselves, and two more to give away as gifts. She

Pool Season

 Here in Florida, Spring just barely peeks out at us, then very speedily sprints away to other, more welcoming parts of the country. Spring officially began on March 20, but I'm pretty sure we've already moved past that. We're well on our way to full-blown summertime at this point. It's currently 82 degrees right now, with a high of 84. Tomorrow's high is 86. Get what I mean about our

Play Time Needs to Hurry

This time next weekend, I don't know exactly what I'll be doing, but I know who I'll be doing it with - and that's way more important. Next weekend is GIRLS' WEEKEND! We are meeting up in Moniticello, FL (change of location from previous plans), to enjoy a fun and relaxing weekend at Kaley's farmhouse.

We plan on laughing, playing games, maybe cooking a little, definitely eating some good things

Peeta Vanilla

Today is finally Friday! It has felt like a seriously long week. Don't know exactly why - but it has definitely seemed to drag on and on forever. I think it's because it's high school spring break around here, and so my schedule has been off, and I haven't known what to do about it! But thankfully, the week has come to an end. And it's about time.



Photo borrowed from Pinterest, originally from

Perfect Spots

These are the places that make me the happiest (in no particular order). They are a combination of peaceful, relaxing, energizing, fun, loving or hilarious. All of them make me feel a little bit, and sometimes a lot better, about my life and myself and I need them all for different reasons. 



1. St. Augustine

2. Panera Bread





3. Movie Theater



4. New York City



5. Books-A-Million

Partitions Will Be Needed

Sadly, I have to move away from my beloved little cute cubby at work. I'm not moving very far away - just down the hall - but I will no longer have my cute little private space all to myself. I am going to be moving closer to the lady who I work for as her assistant though, so that part will be good.



My current cubby. Pics taken last fall - hence the pumpkins! Things look even a bit cuter now

Pages Worth Reading

I love books and reading. And I have a whole Pinterest board that will prove it. Just in case anyone is wondering about some of the books I have read, I've made a quick list of top the 10 books (or series of books) that I loved/really liked, that I would definitely recommend. These are not necessarily in order of greatness, so check them all out randomly...


1. The Circle Series by Ted Dekker ("

President Snow Would Not Approve

The Hunger Games may be a teen-fiction book - but let me tell you something - teens are not the only ones who are interested in this series. And I for one, am a big fan. Not a "huge" fan, as I will not be one of the crazy people going to the midnight premiere on Thursday night, but I do plan on seeing it at some point soon after.

In the mean time however, I'm sporting my Mockingjay pin as an

Puppy Love

I may be a little biased because she's my little puppy, but I think sh'es just the cutest thing in the world!

Mollie is a Pekapoo, which is a Pekingese and a Poodle mix. She is almost 10 years old now, but she's still just as spunky and playful and loving as she's always been. She's started to get gray fur around her chest, mouth and snout, but it just makes her even cuter! We love this tiny

Parks Are Nice For Reading

Sometimes I draw good, sometimes bad.  This camera a bit of both...




Here's a quick list of:
"Fun Things To Do By Myself" 



Read outside at a park

Watch re-runs of "Say Yes to the Dress" through OnDemand

Go to a store and try on clothes, even if I don't buy anything

Nap (although this hardly ever happens)

Take way too many photos of random things/stuff around my house or town

Hang

Premiere As A Movie Critic

I'm thinking about becoming a professional movie critic...I love movies, and my opinion on them must be worth millions, so ya know - it's the next logical step in my career. ;) Here's a few quick reviews of some of the movies we've watched recently, in case anyone is interested in checking out some new movies...

1. Drive - starring Ryan Gosling - is kind of a slow starter, but then gets pretty 

Pet Peeves, and more...

These posts are sometimes easy to fill out, and sometimes fun for the blogger, and I hope sometimes interesting for y'all to read... :)
Here are the ABC's of ME!

Age: 24
Bedsize: Queen
Chores I Hate: Folding and hanging clean laundry
Dogs: 2 pups - Mollie (a peka-poo) and Squirt (a beagle mix)
Essential Start to Day: I love me some bold, strong Keurig coffee
Favorite Color: Teal/Turquoise -

Pastel Polish

Lately I've been seeing a lot of nail polish that I've been envying. Mint green, baby blue, lilac, glitter gold, pale yellow...I've seen these out in real life, on movies and around the blogosphere - and I really wanted some too.

Last night after dinner with my dear friend Amanda, I stopped at Walgreens to treat myself to some new polish. I knew I definitely wanted to find this mint green color,

Practice Smoothie Making

We have been trying to eat healthier lately, so usually we just eat a Cliff bar for lunch, and maybe some yogurt or fruit for an afternoon snack. Both yesterday and today, Jeff and I went to his house for lunch. Inspired by a new blender they just got - we decided to be creative. We made smoothies! (Using our Costco fruit we still have from our fruit-shopping trip last week.)

We may be a little

Places I Want to Visit

My extremely simple sketch of Italy -
made cheesier by adding the colors of their flag...


Switzerland

Greece

Italy

Ireland

Turks & Caicos Islands



1. SWITZERLAND. I want to go to Switzerland because that's where my ancestors are supposed to have been from. I would love to see some of the beautiful countryside, and imagine what life might have been like a few hundred years ago for my

Picture Every Hour

This past Saturday we took a quick trip over to Jacksonville for the day. I had a Groupon I needed to use before it expired, so we decided to make a full day out of it with beach, shopping, yummy food and fun-filled adventure. Here is a picture (each one has been Instagram-ed of course) from every hour of our trip - with a brief description :)



Also, if you missed my last blog post, Jeff made

Produced by Jeff Pullen

We took a quick trip to Jacksonville, and my super awesome boyfriend made this super sweet video. Then he edited HTML code for me to upload it to Blogger. He's the bestest :)





P.S. - A picture post will come in a day or so once I get it all put together!

Potter, Princess Bride & Pirates Top the List

I have previously tried to do "List Posts," but couldn't do it very consistently...so I'm not going to try anymore. I'm just going to post them randomly whenever I think about it, or feel like making a little doodle. The doodles are definitely not my strong suit, but I'm trying, and I'm not that worried about it, and it's fun anyways, so who cares! Not this girl. 


So for the return of my List

Planning To...

Currently: Looking forward to lunch at Panera with my friend Sara
Drinking: water from my FSU tumbler my sister gave me - but it's almost gone now, so I need to take a trip down to the water fountain again soon.
Taking A Break From: answering an endless amount of emails about inmates and prisons
Working On: Summer activities for my youth group - this is my favorite thing to plan for the youth! :)

Pears & Popcorn

Sometimes the most simple date nights are the ones that make me the happiest. They are so easy and casual and we laugh and have a good time. These are the nights that show me that relationships don't have to be hard work - it's just about living through simple things together, finding how to make it fun, and loving each other through everything.

Last night was one of those nights. All we did was

Power Walking at Work

In an effort to make myself more active and just get a tiny bit more exercise into my daily routine - today I started Power Walking at Work.

I brought in my old tennis shoes to work, and I will permanently leave them under my desk every day. Working at the state, we get two 15-minute breaks a day - and I plan to walk every day during those breaks. I will lace up my tennie-pumps (as my Mom,

Pleased as Punch

I was seriously blessed with some awesome friends while at Flagler. The group of guys and girls that I was a part of was truly amazing, and I am so thankful that God put each and every one of them in my life. I have formed life-long friendships with some wonderful girls, and I love them all so much!



Since it's been a while since we've seen each other, some of us are planning a quick & simple

Product Trial

Lately, I've been noticing (through pictures and things) that my teeth aren't quite as white as I thought they were. Maybe they went through a phase where I was actually using really awesome toothpaste and so they shone a little brighter before. But no longer. So, after seeing a pretty convincing TV commercial - I shelled out twice as much money for some fancy toothpaste.




Usually I buy some

Plumped Up Again

I just happened to look back at some of the posts with the most hits - my most popular post was "Pounds Are Gone" from just a little over a year ago. But here's the sad news that really hit me hard. This is no longer an accurate post. Yes, at the time I had reached my goal weight I set in January 2011. And it was a glorious thing. But now unfortunately, I've fallen off my healthy wagon, and I've

Preparation Pays Off

This past weekend, we had Disciple Now Weekend for my youth at church. It was truly an incredible weekend. I completely planned the entire event by myself for the first time, (well at least 95% of it was by myself). I planned the same event last year, but Duncan was still around - and apparently he did way more work last year than I even realized. So many teeny-tiny details had to be thought