Things that make me happy!

It is about that time again to recount a list of things that make me happy

(let's cap it at just 20 today)!

1. Impromptu Dinner Parties
2. Friends Re-runs
3. Random flowers from friends:

Thanks CJ!

4. Cooking!
5. Having a good week on weight watchers!
6. Weekends!
7. Crafts
8. Being Creative
9. Quality Time with the nephew:

Bunny Time

Just catching up on Old Episodes of Yo Gabba Gabba!

10. Clothes
11. New songs from the Band Perry:

12. Time to relax
13. Volunteering
14. Pretty much anything Pink!
15. Valentine's Day
16. My Friends :)
17. Pinterest
18. Party Planning!
19. Traveling!
20. Target!

Stop Hunger Now

This weekend my church participated in a Stop Hunger Now event where we packaged meals to go to schools in Haiti.  The church is temporarily transformed into multiple meal packaging stations where high protein dehydrated meals are packaged for use at a later time.  Our crew manned the weighing/sealing team. So once the meals were in their bag, we would double check the weight and seal them to be boxed up for distribution.  It was great fun.  Lila, Patrick, CJ, Kristi, Mike, Jessica, and myself were all a part, in addition to about another 200+ volunteers on the morning shift.  In just about 3 hours, we were able to get 80,000 meals packaged (the afternoon shift did about 60,000).

It was great fun and a great opportunity to be part of something bigger than ourselves.  Afterward, of course, we all did our part to end local hunger by grabbing lunch together (only a joke, please know, I don't actually think we are going hunger by any means) at the local Mexican joint.  It was great to spend some time with friends and be in community with each other!

SEAL TEAM: CJ and Lila sporting the browns and hair nets!

WEIGH TEAM: Patrick and myself sporting our green!

THE SEALER!

Lila creeping around

How have you been giving of your time and funds lately?

Snow Days

Now that I am an adult and have to still continue to work and drive in the snow, I do not appreciate or enjoy snow days.  But I guess if I could stay instead and not be forced to venture out, I could love them a lot more.  After leaving work early on Friday because the roads were horrible (my normal 20 minute commute took 45 minutes), I headed over to CJ's house.  I figured if I was going to be holed up inside, I should do it with company.  So we relaxed for a bit, caught up on Downton Abbey from the week before and then I made her get snow clothes on to go out and make snow angels!

CJ was very cold!

Making a snow angel!

Our two angels!

CJ making a snow angel!

After a frolic through the snow, we came in, got warmed up and started thinking about dinner.  Since we were pretty much already in our PJ's, we thought breakfast for dinner would be appropriate.  Our friend, Elizabeth, came down to join us.  We had eggs, bacon, and CJ and I whipped up these cinnamon rolls from scratch! 

All in all, it was a fun snow day, you just wont find me wishing for too many of them!

Snow White inspired Nails

I was at my mom's house last night and was flipping through her magazine and I came across the most amazing nails ever:

Oh my goodness, SNOW WHITE THEMED NAILS...does it get any better than that?  I think not!

The Big Apple

New York City 2013:

It all started with a birthday, Erica's 30th birthday to be exact.  A little planning, a little fun, 4 girls and there you have it--a full weekend in New York City!

Sara and I started the weekend as we left Richmond Friday night and drove up to the DC area to spend the night with Erica.  We grabbed dinner and got in bed relatively early.  

Saturday morning, we left at 7:30 to go catch the Megabus from DC to NYC, after about 5 hours on the bus, we had arrived.  We meet up with Amanda at our hotel, stored our luggage and got right to it.  For lunch, we headed over to Katz's Deli (home of the famous scene in When Harry Met Sally)

They give out tickets to place your order so we grabbed a seat, placed our order and went to town being tourists!  We got our lunches--we eat spilt meals and ordered extra pickles (homemade--YUM) and enjoyed taking in the scene.

After lunch, we went directly across the street where the girls all got some gelato, which they claimed was amazing.  I resisted the urge, since I had just started counting points on Weight Watchers!

We walked a fair bit after lunch, hitting up Erica's cousin's house, then through Chinatown and Little Italy into SoHo for some shopping.  After hitting up quite a few stores, we finally headed back to the hotel to officially check in and get ready for dinner.  In true New York Style, we hit up John's Pizza--this adorable Pizza joint inside an old Church--it is the largest Pizzeria in country!  And the Pizza was good too (although my picture does not do it justice).

One thing I love about New York is the architecture everyone:

Sunday Morning, we were up early again to get showered, dressed, and enjoy breakfast before venturing out to the 9/11 memorial.  It was really impressive to see.  They have these two reflective pools (this picture does not even begin to capture it), in the footprints of where the two towers stood.  Etched around the side of the pools are the names of all the victims.  Each pool is an acre in size and they are the largest man-made waterfalls in America (see told you the picture could not capture it all).  It was pretty profound.

We also saw the survivor tree, this tree sustained damage during the 9/11 attacks but managed to survive the attacks, It was found under the piles of rubble and now stands at the memorial.

After the memorial, we took the metro to Harold's Square and went to the 10 floor Macy's store.  It is actually only 9 floors, but then there is a bottom level with a cafe and stuff, so that makes 10!  I couldn't resist taking a picture of the old wooden escalator while we were there.  Erica and Amanda did some shopping, Sara and I hung out in the cafe, then proceeded to at least make an appearance on every single floor (just to say we had!)

After Macy's we hit the streets for some more walking and shopping and made our way to the Flatiron building, where we popped in at Eataly and then grabbed lunch at a cute little Deli where we ate at the counter :)

My HUGE sandwich--obviously could not finish this sucker!

More architecture pictures:

After lunch, we decided we would head over to The Natural History Museum.  I mentioned that it would be fun to walk THROUGH Central Park to get there (Note: Do NOT ever listen to my silly requests again!)  Walk through Central Park we did, this took a lot longer than little Laura anticipated and we were all quite tired by the time we arrived at the Museum.  We got our tickets and proceeded to check it out:

Dinosaurs!

Mammoth!

More Dinos!

Obviously there are Buffalo in NYC!

After the Museum, we were all worn out.  So we went back to the hotel for about an hour before dinner to change and rest a little bit.  Then it was off to dinner and this cute TINY restaurant in the East Village called The Brindle Room--it was super cute and yummy--a great way to end our trip to NYC!  

Back at the hotel!

On the bus ride home

Needless to say we packed a lot into a few days, I came home tired but full of fun memories!

Happy 30th Birthday, Erica!

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow....

...but not anymore, kay?  I think the one time a year thing is great.  I can enjoy it, it can melt, and I can be on my merry way!  Richmond got some snow last night, and it was pretty!  Since we were going to be holed up anyway, CJ came over to 'weather' (haha pun intended) out the snow with me.  We had fun watching TV and chatting over dinner and watching the snow fall!  It was pretty, I must admit!  But I am glad the sun is FINALLY out today and I am excited about the warmer, dry temperatures, especially as I head up to NYC tomorrow!  And just in case you thought I was off of pictures since my last TWO post have not had any.....here are a few to 'wet' (hehehe) your appetite.

About 8-9pm last night when it was still falling!

Morning commute--see it is melting already...LOVE IT!

All in all, we decided we got about 3-5 inches (I think it was on the higher end cause there was a lot of dense ice falling too).

The weekend in review

Maybe my New Year's Resolution should have been to update my blog, as I have fallen behind.  The combination of work and life both being busy, means I have not had a moment to catch my breath and write.  But alas, here is my weekend update, just a few days late!

Friday night, I left work and headed to the Southside, my mom and I had made a shopping/sleepover date.  Since my little Brutus is currently living with her, I like to stop by from time to time to check in.  Also, I was in the market for walking/flat boots and she had a 30% off coupon at Kohl's.  We grabbed a quick dinner and started on our shopping excursion.  I was in luck, Kohl's had a ton of boots and most were on sale!  I found a few pair I like, but the ones I settled on were Black flat boots and super warm and comfortable, they were also...wait for it...only $25 after the 30% discount, so that within my budget and actually at the low end, so it was nice!  I was also able to grab a cute decorative silver owl (on sale for about $5), so look for that next time you come visit me!  After hitting up a few more stores, we went home and went to bed!  

Saturday morning, I was up by 8 and we had a leisurely time getting ready before heading out to Lake Anna.  My parents have a house out there that they are putting on the market come Spring, so we went down to do some cleaning out of the place.  4 giant trash bags to goodwill, 1 giant trash bag to the dump, and a backseat full of stuff we wanted to bring back to Richmond and we were on our way back home, but not before we grabbed lunch and hit up Peebles in Lousia!

Saturday night, my friend, Aubrey, was having a party at her house.  My good friend, Anna, and I decided we would meet up for a quick bev beforehand.  So we headed to a local bar with our twin bangs and downed a few cocktails before heading over to Aubrey's fashionably late.  It was a great time, Anna and I had both agreed that we wanted to leave at 10:30 but in true 'us' fashion, we stayed until at least 11:30.  We met some fun people and got to catch up with some old friends.  It was great!

Sunday morning, I was off to church and then I came home and did a few chores around the house (went to Kroger, cooked meals for the week, cleaned up a bit, did some laundry) and was finally able to RELAX for a solid two hours before youth group---IT WAS FABULOUS!

After youth group, I of course, scurried home to watch Downton Abbey.  What will this coming weekend hold?  Who knows, as I am going to New York City with 4 friends from college.  It will be a great time of fun and exploring!  Stay tuned....