It's the freakin weekend....

Baby I'm about to have me some fun!!!  Wow, what a difference in the college version of Fun for me and the 28 year old version....but either way, I love this song!

ENJOY!

And it's only Wednesday...

This week is dragging on...and it's only Wednesday!


We jumped right into our busy season last week and it has been none stop since.  I am typing this because I just needed a break.  Work has been crazy, I have about 6 BIG deadlines this week, plus seminars, plus I am watching my parents dog in addition to my little bundle of doggie joy.  Then to top it all off, I am taking 2.5 days off next week to go to Hilton Head for my best friend, Allison's wedding.  So I need to be thinking in terms of packing and getting ready for that--which includes a trip to the alteration place tonight because I got my bridesmaid dress Monday night and it did not fit correctly.  But then I was at work yesterday from 9am-9pm, arriving home closer to 10pm.  Then I had a meeting at 7:30 this morning, so after work today was my first free time to make it there during their business hours.  I am already ready to crash so I cannot imagine what  I will be like on Friday.   I also need to find some time to get a wedding gift for her and get my nails done before I leave Wednesday....and to spray tan or not?  That is the question.


In other more exciting news, my brother has been smoke-free for 1+ month, so we are celebrating tonight with taco salad and some friends!  Then it is looking like I will likely be making my way to bed on the early side of 10pm, rather than my usual bedtime!


So that is a nice little dose of pessimism for me to leave you with today! :)  Hope your week is going better than mine.


This needs to be my new mantra....

My weekend....

A little of this, a little of that and a LOT of Corbin :)

We went for a bike ride to the park....

Then some swinging ....

Then a cute face.

 Then some slide time....

Then home for an Easter Egg Hunt (yes it is 4 minutes, don't feel like you have to watch it all)...

Then on a rainy Sunday we stayed in and played with trains and fingerpaint....

And let's not forget about Stella....

All in all, I am super tired but love that cute little chutie face!

So excited...

TO SEE THIS CUTE LITTLE FACE....ALLLLLL WEEKEND LOOOOONG!!!

Cue trumpets sounding...

I have finished it!  All three books done in 13 days!!!  And I must say from everything I heard about The Hunger Game series, I was expecting great, good, mediocre.  What I felt like I got was great, great, and really good!  I happened to love all three books.  Do I think she rushed the ending in book three?  Yes, but I also feel like it worked out okay.  Do I feel like her writing type changes near the end of book three?  Yes, but I still loved it.  Did I love how it all ended?  You betcha!  I am now, more than ever, ready for the movie.  Unfortunately since I promised my friend, Kristi, I would see it with her and we are both out of town this weekend, I have to wait until March 31st to see it, but I can barely contain my excitement...I just hope i am not disappointed.


In other news, I started reading The Carrie Diaries this morning.  It is the life of Carrie Bradshaw, of Sex and the City fame, while she was in high school.  As a die-heart SATC fan, I am super excited about this book...but lets be honest, what book am I not super excited about?


Lest you begin to think I have given up the travel bug...let's do a little recap of my schedule...


Last weekend I was in Sandbridge, VA (a picture of the house we stayed at)

This weekend I will be in Norfolk, VA
First weekend in April I will be in Hilton Head, SC
2nd weekend in April I will be in NY
3rd weekend in April I will be in Williamsburg, VA
1st/2nd weekend in May, I will be in the Bahamas
Memorial Day will most likely be Lake Anna and that just gets us to the start of summer...so stay tuned, hopefully I will remember to take pictures of my next excursion. :)

To keep myself accountable...

In an effort to make sure I stay on track, I have been trying to find book recommendations and keep a running list of my next books to read.  As such, I am going to post those here so I can have a way to keep myself accountable.  So after I finish my current book, Mocking Jay, I will have finished 8 books this year...here is my next batch.

9. The Carrie Diaries

10. There are No Children Here

11. Sarah's Key

12. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

13. The Girl who Played with Fire

14. The Girl who Kicked the Hornet's Nest

15. Mountain beyond Mountains

16. A good and perfect Gift

17. The Horse Boy

18. The Magicians

19. What Alice Forgot

20. Unbroken

21. The Reservoir

Since I am borrowing or checking these out from the library, the order is bound to change, but I tried to space series books out throughout.

Feel free to give me your best recommendations :)

7 down, 19 more to go...

So my report so far...
1. Five Love Languages
2. Sisterhood Everlasting
3. The Holocaust Diaries
4. Private #1 Suspect
5. The Fixer Upper
6. The Hunger Games
7. Catching Fire (book 2)


I am about 25% of the way through Mockingjay (book 3) in the Hunger Game series....I am optimistic that I will be done with this one by Tuesday!!!  Not to worry, I have a list of about 10 more books in line after this one.


Happy Weekend and Happy Reading!

A little bit of this, a little bit of that....

So this week has been filled with all kinds of things, obviously reading has been up there.  In addition to that, I have started the process of pickle making....

I finally finished all the "steps" last night.  There are 4 days of boiling stuff to put on the cucumbers....
Day 1--just boiling water
Day 2--Boiling water and pickle salt
Day 3--Boiling Water and Alum
Day 4--Boiling Cider Vinegar and pickling spices

Now they just get to soak for 3 days then they will get coated with sugar and jarred (I am making sweet pickles, obviously).  Thus there is a strong cider vinegar smell wafting through my house last night and this morning...makes for an interesting wake up scent.

In other news, the weather outside has been GORGEOUS this week and I have been soaking in as much outside time as possible, all the while sporting my spring dresses and sandals...I LOVE IT!  Tomorrow I leave for a weekend away in Virginia Beach, with this great weather, it should be a BLAST and I cannot wait to relax a little and fellowship with friends.

What have you been doing this week to enjoy the weather?

Love/hate relationship

It is rare that I have a love/hate relationship with books, but it does happen.  I feel this way with The Hunger Games.  I finished the first book and could not put it down but I finished the book feeling unfulfilled.  Sad for the characters in a way because I knew there was no way they could be happy.  Well I started book two, Catching Fire, and this only confirms my feeling, I will finish this entire series, but I know it cant end with a pretty little pink bow all tied up in a nice package.  So sad!  Some books don't have happy endings, shoot life does not always end happily, but I feel like books are such a nice escape for the everyday world of sadness, fighting, sickness.  Anyway, I think it is obvious the book is filled with passion and desire, so I have no doubt I will finish the series.  But I have definitely struggled with how these books can finish with me still loving them....only time will tell!

So close...

I am about 85% of the way through The Hunger Games, and gosh its good!  I will update more later, but obviously I did not get it done by Saturday!

Back in the saddle (book 5 of 26)

Okay Okay, so almost a month with no reading and I come back with force!  As I mentioned I started reading "The Fixer Upper" by Mary Kay Andrews on Sunday.  The book was an easy read but still fell into the 657 (I think) page category, but I finished it last night and managed to start another book then....the long awaited (for me, anyway) Hunger Games.  I had the first one on my kindle but did not want to start until I knew I could go right onto book #2 and #3, I have heard they are addicting.  So I have a friend bringing me book 2 and 3 on Sunday, thus, I needed to start concurring book 1.  So far so good, I am 20% into the book on my kindle and hope to have it finished sometime tomorrow!


So what to report...I love love love "The Fixer Upper", thanks Erica for the recommendation :)  And so far, I am loving The Hunger Games.  I actually went to see a movie last night and one of the previews was for the Hunger Games movie, so now I am that much more excited to get it done before March 23rd!!!  Stay Tuned.


So my report so far...
1. Five Love Languages
2. Sisterhood Everlasting
3. The Holocaust Diaries
4. Private #1 Suspect
5. The Fixer Upper


Next Up....
6. The Hunger Games
7. Catching Fire (book 2)
8. Mocking Jay (book 3)
9. The Carrie Diaries
10. The girl with the Dragon Tattoo
11. The girl who played with Fire
12. The Girl who kicked the Hornet's Nest


I still need to finish The Purpose Driven Life, I am not 100% interested in it, but I like it enough to finish it...so hopefully that will fall in somewhere along the way.


This weekend will be somewhat low-key, which is nice, although I do have a few things on the agenda.  Tonight is Happy Hour, dinner, and Shopping with my dear friend, Anna, at our favorite place Plaza Azteca.  We plan to get Jumbo Margs and walk our buzz off at the shops nearby.  Yes, we are pathetic but we love it! 


Tomorrow, I hope to finish up some scrap-booking in the AM, then I am having dinner at my friend, Brian's house.  He is a fantastic cook, so it should be super fun!  


Then Sunday, the normal church routine and hopefully some playtime outside since it will be close to 70!!!


What are you up to this weekend?

Slacking

So it would appear that I have not written much about books lately....that is because I have been slacking on the reading.  But I am back with vengeance.  I started "The Fixer Upper" on Sunday and I am already about a quarter of the way through.  Then next up is the "Hunger Game" series before the movie comes out in late March.  So stay tuned for more posts soon (hopefully).  


But don't you worry, I have been filling my time just the same.  I have really really been trying to make an effort at leaving ONE night free a week to be home and be in solitude, and well lately, that has NOT been happening.  This week's schedule looks something like this:


Monday--bible study with the girls
Tuesday--dinner with a friend, cocktail party with other people from my Young Professional's Group
Wednesday--dinner with my brother, then a leadership meeting 
Thursday--dinner and movie with mom and Gracia
Friday--happy hour and dinner with my friend Anna, then hitting the dance club!
Saturday--dinner and cocktails with a small group of friends
Sunday--church and youth group.
Monday--back to Bible study again
Tuesday---wait for it, wait for it....Ahhhhh, I have the night off and it is sure as heck staying that way.  My friend Anna and I are committing to keep Tuesdays free going forward to spend some time in solitude.  No TV, no computer, no plans....just spending time thinking about our friends, family, and country and spending concentrated time praying for each and every person in our life!  I am beyond excited about this and I think the much needed respite will be good for me and her!

School Closed?

So today we got less than an inch of snow and temperatures were above freezing when they decided to close the schools in Chesterfield County....seems like someone high up needed an extra long weekend to me....


A view of what constitutes a "Snow Day" in C-County :)

5 states in 5 days: Summary!

Well we survived and we did not even rip each other's heads off!


Just so we had proof of the 5 states, I attempted to get photos at each state line....ummm that was somewhat of a fail.  But for your viewing pleasure....


North Carolina....

South Carolina (note they are changing the sign as we pass by....this one we fully missed on the way down, it was about 4am when we went by, so the picture was taken on the ride home)....

Georgia....

Since we drove through the night, we were able to stop for Breakfast at our friend, Mary's house.  She made us YUMMY waffles.  Mary was in our small group, but has recently moved to Jacksonville where her husband is stationed with the Navy...here is us at about 9am, after driving for about 10 hours (please ignore my super greasy hair)....

Looks like we fell asleep when coming into Florida, either that or we were just so freakin excited to get there, but I snapped this picture when we rolled right into Vero Beach...

On the way back, we decided it was best to spilt up the ride a little bit, so we left Florida and drove to Tybee Island where my mom was staying for the week and spent the night there, then got up early Tuesday and left for the last leg home.  Here is the Tybee Island Lighthouse:

And here is CJ super excited to be driving home...

A little jaunt through downtown Savannah (LOVE THIS PLACE)....

Pedro says "Goodbye" as we leave South Carolina...

And Finally we arrive home in good Old VA (I swear I got a picture, it just is not transferring from my phone for some odd reason).

There you have it...I am a little more sun tanned, a little bit more Disney-fied and another notch on the adventure bed.  It was a fantastic time!