Green grass

Alright, I'll get my apologies out of the way at the beginning here. Sorry for not posting in forever. Life has been a little bit crazy pants and I've been having issues with blogger. My laptop is currently serving as our TV and I can't, for the life of me, figure out how to post pictures to blogger from the iPad. If anyone has any suggestions, I'd appreciate them!

Anyway, like I said, a lot of stuff has been going on lately. I have some fun pictures to share but they will have to wait until another post. Today I wanted to share a song lyric I heard on the radio today that I really loved. I couldn't even tell you who the artist was and I probably should have looked it up before posting this to give the artist due credit, but I'm lazy and I didn't. Here is the lyric:

"The grass is always greener on the other side. No, the grass is greenest where you water it."

This quote really resonated with me and I think it's because envy has always been something I've struggled with. When times get tough I tend to compare my life to other peoples lives and play the dangerous "what if" game. That game never ends well. I think that these are great words to remember. Success and happiness take a lot of time, nurturing, attention, and cultivating. Don't be envious of others, work hard with the tools God gave you and enjoy your green grass!

Hello World

After a week of packing and moving and ignoring the rest of the world, I'm finally connected to the internet at the new house. I'll tell you what. It felt pretty good not really having internet or TV for a week but I'm glad to be able to catch up on what's been going on in the world. I spent almost an hour on buzzfeed this morning. I know, I'm really into the hard-hitting news these days. 

Anyway, after a bit of a u-haul disaster, moving went pretty well. Boxes are slowly being unpacked and it's really starting to look like a home. 

I'll get around to posting some pictures soon. Until then, Have a happy Thursday!

Friday the 13th*

*I wrote this post on Friday but for some reason it's wouldn't load and I haven't really had time to mess with it until now. Sorry for the delay!

Is it a bad omen that we are closing on the house on Friday the 13th? 

I sure hope not! I'm so stinking excited about moving back to Auburn and being a homeowner! Here is a picture of mine and Clay's sweet, little house. 

Packing stinks but we'll be loading up the U-Haul on Saturday and heading back to the plains and I couldn't be more excited!

Crafty

With all of the free time I've found myself with lately, I've been crafting up a storm. 

My first project started when I wanted to make something to put on the big, empty wall in the new kitchen. At first I wanted to paint pictures of fruits and veggies. Then painting turned it to cross stitch, which turned out to be WAY too time consuming. So I ended up painting my own kitchen prints based off some I saw on the internet. Here is the finished product, unframed, and not on the walls. I got some ridiculously cheep ($1.99!) frames at IKEA this weekend!

From the left they say: "everything taste better with butter", "Made with love", "Eat well, Laugh often, Love always", "Everyone loves to be kneaded", and "Live with zest". I'm pretty happy with how they turned out! 

I also taught myself how to crochet, via Youtube, and have been working on lots of projects. I made a bowtie collar for Reggie, my friend Emily's new puppy, Wally, and my sister's roommate's dog. Here's Reggie looking very dapper. 

And a bonus! This is my sister's roommate's dog, Griffin. He looks like an ewok! 

My final project was a granny square blanket. I only made 35 squares so it's a pretty small blanket but I think it turned out great! Here is a link to the video I used to make it.

Blast from the past: 2009-2011

As promised, here is the second sampling from the pictures I found on my old computer. (I'm stopping at 2011 because that's when I started this blog to document all of my lovely pictures!)

2009: My study abroad group. This was such a fantastic group of people. I was so blessed to have such a great group that I'm still friends with!

Spring break 2010: A great shot of Dawn and me from our wonderful Caribbean cruise

2009: Clay's graduation!

2009: exhausted after driving ALL the way through Texas. It's a big state...

2009: Another shot from my study abroad trip. I had sweet Karen as the most excellent travel companion after our program was finished. Here we are relaxing on the Greek Island, Poros. I want to go back so badly!

Halloween 2009: Hannah and Miley. The greatest duo of all time!

2009: I got this little dude! So happy we found each other. He's pretty much the best ever.

2010: Graduating with two of my favorites! Yay!

Spring Break 2010: Our extended family took a trip to Italy to see my dad. We had a blast! It was also exhausting. Evidence of this can be seen in this picture where we are squatting in the Vatican. We're pretty classy. 

Spring Break 2010: Pops and I took a day trip along the Amalfi coast. It was spectacular!

2011: I'll leave you all where I started this blog. War Eagle!

Summer TV

Summer is here! Not officially, but when you live in Alabama, summer comes around mid April so I've been enjoying summer for a while now.

With summer comes the end of all of my regular prime time shows and the beginning of some really great summer television. Here's what I'm watching this summer!

So You Think You Can Dance

I've probably talked about how much I love this show before but I'll talk about it again. It's really a fantastic reality show. The level of talent doesn't compare to anything else on TV. All of the contestants have been dancing their whole lives and are just a joy to watch. In addition to showcasing wonderful talent, this show also introduces mainstream America to new styles of dance and gives up-and-coming choreographers the chance to showcase their work. It's a win-win-win situation! You don't have to be a dancer to enjoy this show. You just have to appreciate hard work and top notch artistry. Just take a look at these videos and try not to love it.

Mad Men

Okay, so this seasons started in mid-March and season finally is this Sunday, so I'm not sure this really counts as a summer show, but oh well! I'm going to count it as a summer show. You can catch up on on-demand or online and it's a pretty short season at only 13 episodes. Mad Men is the highest quality show in TV right now and has been for the last 5 years. It feels like your watching a movie because the production value is so high and the commitment to the period it's made in is wonderful. Also, the character development is captivating and moving (Joan and Peggy (pictured above) are my favorites this season!). I highly recommend catching up on this show! I'm pretty sure the first 3 seasons are on Netflix instant streaming. 

The Pitch

The Pitch is a reality show that follows several different advertising agencies as they compete for the business of major corporations such as Waste Management, Subway, and Popchips. It's a fascinating look into the strategic and creative processes involved in creating ad campaigns. However, the main reason why I like to watch it is because I'm a huge management nerd and am fascinated by how strange the organization culture is in the different ad firms. I know, I'm weird.

and finally... 

Storage Wars

I know I've reviewed Storage Wars on this blog before so I'll keep this brief. Storage Wars is a really fun 30 min watch mainly because the people who participate in this show are all nut jobs and make for great reality television. I also love seeing what kind of goodies people leave in storage lockers and then completely forget about. Below is a picture of Barry. He's my favorite buyer. He's this insanely rich and eccentric retired California farmer who has more money than sense. He is a collector and most of the really valuable things he finds in lockers he keeps for himself. He also almost dies from being hit by falling junk in every episode. It's entertaining. (so much for keeping this thing short!)

That's what I'm watching this summer! I hope I've steered you in the right direction if you looking to watch something other than sitcom reruns this summer! What are you watching this summer? Do you have any good suggestions for me since Mad Men and The Pitch are ending soon?

Blast from the past: 2004-2008

As promised, here are some photo that I found while going through pictures on my computer. They make me smile! 

The Fam at my cousin's wedding in 2004. It's hard to believe they've been married for 7 years and have two wonderful children!

Sweet Bernie as a little kitten. So precious!

AHS majorettes in Hawaii in 2005. What a fun trip!

Prom 2005. I like how into the fish faces Emma was.

Terrible Tiger Eyes capes. Yikes!

Sitting in my door room on move-in day freshman year

Bahaha. Em is going to kill me for putting this up! :)

Hardy's reunion in 2006. I'm so glad we took this picture.

When car tagging was cool...

My amazing pregame line in 2006. Definitely a group of winners!

A typical Clay moment from 2007. We both had such long hair!

I love this lady!

A snapshot from the first ever Merry Little Christmas Party. I'm so glad we did this, Caitlyn.

Spring break 2007 cruise! "I've got the grrrrrapefruit!!!!"

My favorite travel buddy and I at the bean. We need to start planning our next adventure!

My bestie and the greatest tailgater ever. This was my first game as a student.

My 2008 Valley girls at competition. They won best in class. No big deal.

I absolutely love this picture because it reminds me of how insanely busy and crazy that whole weekend was! Sofy, you are such a wonderful hostess!

That was fun!

Fear not, years 2009 to present are coming soon!

This might just be the cutest thing ever...

Be sure to watch her face in the top right corner. Priceless. 

Cruisin'

Howdy Y'all! I'm back from sailing the great ocean blue and have fun pictures to share with you. 

Our cruise left out of New Orleans on Monday afternoon. We got to Nola a few hours early and decided to hit up the Cafe Du Monde for some delicious beignets! 

 

Yum!

Day 1 was a fun day at sea so Clay and I just laid out of the deck soaking up the sun and watched our fellow cruises compete in a variety of embarrassing competitions.  

 

The wind was making my hat look crazy. Clay's face was making him look crazy...

Our first port was Progresso, Mexico. It's a new port-of-call and really the only thing to do there is a tour of Mayan ruins. We didn't go to the ruins and instead opted for lunch on the beach. Well...the beach wasn't the most pleasant experience so we ended up eating on the boat and enjoyed a nice day reading under an umbrella. 

This is how clay felt about our "lunch" on the beach

Fun drinks on the ship make everything better! This one was actually created by one of the cruisers in a mixology contest

Our next port was Cozumel. Clay and I have both been to Cozumel several times so we decided to go on a different kind of excursion. We did a Mexican cooking class and it was fantastic! We made pan seared fish, shrimp sopas, and fried plantains with chocolate tequila sauce. Yum! Our chef was great, there was an open bar, and we had a group of crazy middle-aged Australian women in our group. It was a blast! We look 109 pictures (don't worry I wont put all of them up!). 

Chef hats make everything better

Our beautiful Plantains!

I'm concentrating on splitting our veggies evenly.

Skrimpz

This was chef Oscar. I think his expression sums up his personality pretty well

My beautiful Shrimp creation! Decorating the plates was my favorite part

Clay and I with our chefs

Enjoying the fruits of our labor

 

Our final day was another day at sea. We enjoyed the sun, good food, and good company. 

One of the few nice pictures we have of the two of us. Traveling with just two people makes picture taking difficult

Our cute puppy towel animal. I pretended like it was Reggie.

This is a shot of the love and marriage game show. This older couple on the left were the cutest/funniest people ever. When asked what holiday J.O. (the man) would use to describe his love life. J.O. replied "Memorial day because we pay our respects to the dead." Hilarious.

This was our table at dinner every night. We meet some wonderful and hilarious people!

Yay for graduation vacation! 

P.S. I've been organizing all of my pictures (going back to 2005!) so be on the look out for a fabulous blast from the past post!