Playing Catch Up

Hello all! I'm playing a vicious game of catch-up on the blog.  I haven't been around these parts in far too long.  My life has just been so very busy and I am so thankful for everything that has been going on in the last two months.  There are some new followers around here so welcome ladies! Happy to have you here. I promise to actually be someone who posts again!

So here's the scoop of the last few weeks (ok months...)
-My job is going wonderfully. I get to do fun things every day and I love it so much. But it has been very busy. I feel like my mind is constantly thinking about work stuff. I had a dream last night and a colleague was in scooping dog poop.  Can you say interference of work thoughts?

-Church has been a constant game of meetings and opportunities. I joined a women's Bible study on Thursday evenings and that has been so enriching.  Getting to be surrounded by wisdom from so many women of different generations truly fills my heart. God has provided an amazing topic, Decision-Making in Faith, at the most opportune time and placed wonderful women to guide me through the conversations. 

-Speaking of big decisions, Aaron and I broke up last month. It came up at Bible study the week before and so the ladies knew about it and prayed for me and I just felt that it was the right decision. And it was a mutual decision that we both are completely confident in. I truly feel like a new person now. I know it was the absolute right decision for my life and I'm now back on the market for friendship and a relationship eventually.

-My best friend moved into my apartment building! It has been the greatest blessing that I never could have predicted. Walking between apartments, grabbing things that she forgot to pack that I have, making and eating dinners together, walking to market-it's been a wonderful week.

So I guess you could say it has been a busy, life-changing few weeks. Blogging has been in the back in my mind, but I have been reading and keeping up with your fabulous lives.  Babies and marriages and fun! Thank you for the beautiful community that you provide to me. <3

 

Stepping Into Spring Swap

Why hello there! Remember me...the girl who blogs, except for the past two months apparently.  Oops. February and March were truly crazy months with work and church.  I am so thankful for so many things that happened during those two months, but that's not what this post is about.  This post is about getting mail and how much I love it. 

Seriously, I love getting mail. Once you get to a certain age, the mail just contains bills, paperwork, junk, occasionally magazines, birthday/Christmas cards, and once in awhile, a package! Those are the best days. Which is why I signed up for the Stepping into Spring swap! The theme is flip flops & nail polish.

I was paired up with Casey at Everyday Adventures!  She is so sweet and I loved getting to know her.  Check out her blog to see what I sent her.


She sent me a wonderful box...take a look!

Love the first look in the box!

Strawberry banana rings...yum!

Going with the flip flop theme, she gave me this awesome water bottle, with a curly straw & dome lid!

Inside the water bottle, she added these little guys. So excited to make some lemonade!

Two pink nail files

Coral nail polish...

 ...and bubblegum pink. I put this on this week and it's such a happy color!

And finally a pink candle to bring all of the yummy smells of spring inside!

 

Overall, I LOVED my box and was so excited to see all of the sweet things that Casey included!

 

February Cara Box

So for the month of February, I participated in a fabulous swap! Kaitlyn has a monthly exchange called the Cara Box.  Each month has a different theme and this month's theme was #ClubSexy. Kaitlyn got the idea for the theme from a date night she planned for her husband. Read more about the idea here.

Kaitlyn paired all the bloggers up within their states with the hopes that you could actually meet up with your buddy.  Unfortunately, schedules didn't work out for me to meet up with Courtney, who I had or with Sarah, who had me.  But I am hoping to meet up with these lovely ladies at some point when things are a bit less crazy. 

I had the sweet Courtney and I loved getting to know her through some emails. Check out her blog to see what I sent her.  She seriously is sweet as can be.

Sarah had me and it was great getting to know her too.  And our "hometowns" are all of 20 minutes apart.  Small world! The day my box arrived, I had a long, stressful day and the box on my doorstep turned that around.  I told Sarah that my ideal date would be going to get Mexican with Aaron. Then I would want to come home and do a puzzle/watch a movie with him. Then after he'd left, I'd curl up with a magazine and watch reruns of my favorite shows :)

Here's what my box looked like when I peeked inside:

Do you see what I see? A puppy! Sarah said she read on my blog that I wanted a puppy and thought this would be a good start. :) Sweetest idea ever!

Then Sarah did the coolest thing ever.  She had three packages wrapped in tissue paper.  One was for "Before the Date" then "During the Date" then "After the Date."

Here's the Before the Date package...

Pedicure set-sparkly!

Pink nail polish

Gorgeous earrings-I'm wearing them today!



 

Here's the During package...(for after the Mexican of course)

Um yum. Mini delight cakes.

 



And finally After the Date...

What a perfect way to end a date!

Hot chocolate packets

Snuggly socks

People magazine (and I LOVE Robin so this is going to be a great read)

 

THANK YOU to Kaitlyn for hosting this awesome swap.  THANK YOU to Courtney for a new friendship.  THANK YOU to Sarah for my super duper special box!

 

Sunday Social-Memories

So I think I've done the Social Sunday Link-Up one other time, but this week's was a must.  Because it is time to take it back...to the days of middle & high school.  Yes, there will be pictures. And it will be embarassing!



1. Biggest Middle school fashion mistake: So in 7th grade, I grew my bangs out for the first time in my whole life.  And when it was slow going, I would twist my bang into two little twists and pin them up with BUTTERFLY CLIPS. Yes, I did. I also had glasses & braces at the same time.

2. Who were your best friends in hs? My best friends for most of high school for the following people:

Amanda, Kim, Sam, Krystie, and myself- we became friends through band and were in most of the same classes together.

Andrew (obviously the boy in this picture) was one of my best friends since middle school (that's his girlfriend Kayleen with us in the picture)

And then there's Terri who I was friends with throughout most of high school as well. (This was from Junior Prom)

3. What was a typical weekend like for you in hs? I was in the marching band so Friday nights we were at the football games and Saturday we had competitions.  So basically, I was a slave to the band through the fall and then in the spring, I did indoor drumline or jazz band so I was always busy. :)

4. Did you have any boyfriends/girlfriends?

10th grade-TJ

 

12th grade- Mike

 

5. Did you have any secret codes with your friends? Spill your secrets! I'm sure we did.  We loved AIM, writing notes, and I'm sure there were codes.  There definitely codes for talking about people who we thought were attractive. 

6. If you could relive one day/moment/experience from middle school or high school, what would it be? Easy peasy- Thanksgiving Day football game, my senior year.

Every year, our football team plays our rivals, Quakertown.  Senior year, I was the drum major and the weather was beautiful (normally it snowed!).  My whole family came, with pom-poms, and embarassed the heck out of me.  But we played the whole time, enjoyed one last performance, and watched the last football game of my high school years.  It was my favorite moment of high school. 

In the process of trying to find other pictures (and I know they exist, but not digitally) I pulled up my old XANGA!  Did anyone have one?  It was totally early, old-school blogging.  And mine was awful. I was whiny and annoying.  I can't believe people commented on that stuff.  I'm glad I never deleted it so I can reminisce about the disaster that it was.  But whoa-I hope that never resurfaces!

And since I didn't have any of the really awkward photos from middle school, here's a doozy from high school.  Yup-I'm a glutton for embarassment.

You're welcome.

Valentine's Day Recap-a whole week late

So don't mind me, I'm just here writing about Valentine's Day a whole week after the holiday. But ya know, it's been a really busy week between work, church, and sleeping to do it all again the next day. So here we are. Judge away.

I love Valentine's Day. I haven't always. Yes, now that I'm happy and in a relationship I do love it.  But I also love it because I see the value of decorating for Valentine's to make my heart and my home happy! And Target definitely helped me out this year with garland and picture frames and lots of happy things.

As for the day of love and kisses, I had a great day at work.  It turns out that Sight & Sound is teeming with love every day and that becomes even more apparent on Valentines Day.  I had little hearts and gifts on my desk throughout the day and it was truly a beautiful day at my awesome job.

I ran to Target after work to pick up some last minute supplies for Aaron & my date night!

I made pasta and garlic bread for dinner. I intended to cut out the bread in heart shapes but my cookie cutter was too big so I used toothpicks that had hearts on them in the bread to spice it up.  I bought those cute glasses and straws with mustaches and lips on them for our meal. It was a really fun way to spruce up our dinner. I had "Je T'aime" plates from Target (previous trip) and Valentine's napkins from last year. It was just a lovey dinner <3

See-awesome straws.  Totally makes drinking (sparking juice) more fun!

After dinner, we exchanged gifts.  Aaron got me lovely flowers & a Hershey bar. The man knows the way to my heart. He also wrote me the funniest handwritten card, complete with hand-drawn pictures of our relationship which were so funny I was crying.

We then walked a few blocks down from my apartment to paint pottery together. There was a special for Valentine's Day of 1/2 off the sitting fee so that was pretty cool.  We each painted two things-here's a peek at mine.

And here's my boyfriend painting his pottery.  I'm going to pick up the finished pieces tomorrow. 

We ended the night with this gem of a picture...

Yup

Truth be Told, I'm a Lion

I'm linking up with this great one-day only link-up put on by several ladies! You should do it too!
Ever played the game "2 Truths & a Lie?"I have played it in so many situations (usually involving Orientation Leaders and church meetings). I typically use the same three but I'm going to try to get a little creative for no real reason (since y'all haven't heard my other answers) other than I feel like it! And it's only three things...

1) I've been recognized because my face is on a billboard in the mall.

2) I rode on a float in a parade at Disney World.

3) I own 6 pairs of TOMS shoes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You ready for the answers....

1. This is true. Several people have said to me, "Hey-aren't you the girl from the mall?" I'm on an ad for the seminary that is in town that I have worked with in the past.  The picture is ancient and I don't even look very simlar to that picture but yes, it has happened.

 

A picture of me with me exists, but I can't find it!

 

2. It's a lie. I've danced in a pseudo-parade at Disney and I've played in a parade when I was little and they invited kids up to dance, but I've never ridden on a float. I get motion sick, so it's probably not the best idea for me, but it would probably be the coolest thing ever!

3. It's true-6 pairs (and probably counting).  This one was a little lame but I was out of ideas. I was trying to think of something fun and funny and after 15 minutes, I gave up.  Yes, I own 6 pairs of TOMS, 2 TOMS t-shirts, a TOMS necklace, and Blake Mycoskie's book. I'm obsessed and I'm ok with it because it means that 8 kids got shoes that they needed. I am more than ok with that.

{Here's the black ones in action, but the gray ones are my favorites}

 

How'd you do? Did you figure out the lie?

Babbling about the Super Bowl

All you {single} ladies, did you watch the Super Bowl?! Here's my highlights from the evening:

I started with pizza (Papa John's-the best!).

Then I blogged/pinterest-ed while the game was on. But I paid enough attention to watch the Ravens kill it in the first half.

Then Beyonce came on and boy did she rock the house. First of all, can I have her legs? Second of all, can I be that fierce? She was awesome. I loved the Destiny's Child reunion-that was perfect.

Then the lights went out. I'm not going to lie-I wasn't paying that close attention and all of a sudden, I look up and no one is talking. I was confused. Did I miss something? Why is it dark? Why is the camera focused on the dark stands? Oh wait-the stands are dark. Uh-oh! Unfortunately that whole thing last way too long and I just couldn't stay up to finish watching.

I did continue my evening with the Ravens & 49ers with chocolate covered strawberries.  Yes, I like to do it right!

So let's weigh in on the commercials because really, that is why I was watching!

 

Best Commercial Overall

This commercial made me cry. I love the message behind this whole commercial. Seriously-watch and weep.

Best Funny Commercial

This is hysterical. I love it.

 

Best Uplifting Commercial

 

Thank you Oprah for using your great voice to narrate this. And thank you Jeep for the fabulous message!

 

Any favorites on your end? Do you agree with my picks?

 

My favorite moment of the whole game- being able to talk football with one of the guys at work today.  Yup-shining moment!