When in Rome

Hooray! It's Tuesday!

Most of last week was spent on the road, which really wasn't all that bad. Not bad at all considering it began with a little of this:

...and this:

...at my parents' house for Easter.

I absolutely LOVE going home. And freshly boiled crawfish isn't too shabby either :)


A couple of days later, it was time to hit the road again en route to Tupelo, where I was looking forward to attending the Public Relations Association's annual state conference.

The whole 3-day event was Elvis-themed, which I was pretty pumped about. I mean, who doesn't love a little Elvis?

The conference was really nice - we were able to hear from the VP of Marketing for GRACELAND (can you IMAGINE?), which, let's face it, was the main reason I wanted to go.

Plus, we were treated to two performances by the talented Memphis Jones.

If you're ever around Memphis and get a chance to hear him, I HIGHLY recommend doing so. He was hilarious in addition to being a being a crazy great performer.

Once the conference wrapped on Friday, I figured I'd make a quick pit stop by the Elvis birthplace since my hotel was only a mile away from it. I originally thought I'd just pop in, grab something fun for my grandmother (who's a huge fan of The King, by the way), and be back on the road within 30 minutes or so.

Ohhhhh was I wrong. This place was GREAT. I left a little over TWO HOURS later. Oops =)

First up, Elvis's HOUSE!

If I understood correctly, the house and museum is still on the original property! In the late 1950's, Elvis (already a superstar) visited his hometown for a benefit concert and wanted to see his childhood home. When he saw it was for sale, he convinced the city to purchase the land and turn it into a park for children.

The house has since been restored to its original condition. It's just a two-room house that Elvis's dad built himself on a $180 loan from his employer.

Elvis was born in this room. This VERY ROOM!

Kitchen:

And a few years back, the museum had his childhood church building moved to the property, and restored it to its original look and feel.

The museum did a short presentation about the church, and I MAY OR MAY NOT have hummed along to a hymn or two.

Then there was the "Elvis at 13" statue...

And so, so many other things. I was blown away. I couldn't take pictures inside of the museum, but there were so many original photos and memorabilia from Elvis's heyday on display, as well as other things that he gifted to his friends and family, which were donated to the museum.

It was way more than I thought it would be, and I'm so glad I had a few extra minutes (or hours :) ) to spare. Something I would highly recommend if you ever find yourself near the Tupelo area.

There were people there from Iowa, Nebraska, Wisconsin (maybe?), and more. But I was easily the youngest person there by a good 30-35 years. YES!

And that's definitely NOT an older gentleman posing in front of an outhouse replica in the right corner. No, not at all.

:)

Happy trails, friends!

Girl Weekend

Living with a boy definitely has its advantages.


Something on the top shelf? He's got it.

Heavy box to lift into the closet? Easy.

Sixteen bags of groceries to take up to our third floor apartment? Nooooooo problem.


Hubs is no doubt my best friend. And living with him is great. But one of my FIRST and longest best friends was (and still is!) my cousin Kayla. We've been talking for months about her coming up for a weekend stay, and this weekend IT TOTALLY HAPPENED.

Girl time is oh-so-good for the soul, my peeps. I assure you this.

Hubs had to work late on Friday, and by the time Kayla got to the apartment, I was just finishing up supper. So we put on comfy clothes, ate chicken and dumplings (down South we just call it "dumplins"), and chatted the evening away.

The Hubs got home and we all talked and talked some more.

Until around 11:30 that night when we decided it was high time to BAKE SOME CUPCAKES.

Clearly, the passionate love for cupcakes DOES IN FACT run in our family.

They were oh-so-delicious.

Saturday morning we slept late and ate cupcakes AGAIN before heading to a late breakfast at our FAVORITE BREAKFAST PLACE EVER.

(outside of Cracker Barrel, I mean. Because Homegirl loves her CB.)

You guessed it! I do love the Broken Egg with all of my whole little heart!

The weather was even in the 60s again so we could eat on the patio!

Many a beignet, omelet, and potato were consumed, but not before we could have our annual struggle to take the perfect picture!

Regardless, the girl can't take a bad picture. Seriously though, isn't she gorgeous???

We spent the rest of the day shopping - because Kayla is my ultimate shopping buddy, and then Saturday night my friend Christy and her husband came over for dinner. But because I'm lame I neglected to take any and all photos so please forgive me and enjoy this photo of Miniature Goat that I want kind of badly!!!

Blog writer FAIL.

Then Sunday we all went to church, came home to our PJs, and consumed EVEN MORE CUPCAKES while watching Father of the Bride.

Parts one AND two, mind you.

Do we know how to party or WHAT.

But in all seriousness, this weekend was just oh-so-lovely and warms my heart to its very core.

I've said it before, but there's just something about being around family that just makes everything okay. We got to hang out, catch up, talk about all sorts of stuff like girls do, and just be together.

So this post really doesn't serve much of a purpose other than to reiterate my belief that best friends, famliy, and cupcakes make everything a-okay. Hope your week is getting good at this point, friends :)

Happy Wednesday!

Coffee Buzz

I'm experiencing THE BEST kind of coffee buzz possible right now at this very moment. I'm productive, energetic, happy, excited, and focused --- for about 30 seconds at a time.

Oddly enough? I've gotten A LOT done.

I can't help it. My attention span is so crazy short right now that the 45ish seconds I've spent on this blog post (so far) is the longest I've focused on anything in the last hour or so. But 30 seconds here and 30 seconds there keep me focused and FOCUSED HARD on the task at hand, so it helps me get things done quickly and, somehow, efficiently.

I'm PRETTY SURE this is due to the fact that I drank about 3/4 of a cup this morning, as opposed to the usual 1/2 a cup my system can tolerate.

I have so much to share! So here is an abbreviated list of a few awesome things from the week.

More to come later!



HOME.
This weekend Hubs and I threw a few things in our bags and hit the road to visit my parents for a WHOLE, ENTIRE weekend. If you're a middle child like me you realize that this meant I had their complete attention for TWO FULL DAYS, and you also realize that this means it was basically Heaven.

Not to mention there was homemade apple pie involved. And that just takes everything else up a notch. Is there anything better than coming home to your childhood home and, upon getting hugs (and did I mention COMPLETE attention?) from your parents, the sweet aroma of your favorite pie is calling your name?

I didn't think so.

Not to mention there were sweet puppy kisses from this ball of cuteness.

PAUL'S PASTRY.

My hometown has the best food EVER. So serious. Fresh seafood delivered daily, an awesome mix of homestyle-Cajun cooking, and a fantastic (and cheap) Mexican restaurant that you have to visit at some point in your life. But best of all is our bakery. Paul's Pastry has been around for years and years. What started out as a little blue wooden building on the side of the highway has grown into a giant of a bakery that smells like the way I imagine Heaven will smell.

Basically every time we make a fly-by trip through my hometown, we HAVE to make a stop at Paul's. Everything in that place is as beautiful as it is delicious. Just look at those magnolia cupcakes. Icing for DAYS. And those are THE BEST sugar cookies on this earth. There's nothing like it at all.

ADVENTURES.

I have a beautiful, sweet, hilarious cousin who doubles as one of my best friends. We were born a mere six months apart, so we've had some wild and crazy, exaggerated-storytelling-inducing adventures together through the years. So it was nothing unusual when we spontaneously decided to hit up the Moon Pie parade this past weekend to kick off our Mardi Gras season.

Let me make it clear, though, that was a clean, family-friendly parade in a nearby community that favors Moon Pies over beads. It was only 15 minutes long, made up of some local bands and kids in costumes, but we had THE BEST time. Not to mention that within that 15-minute time frame, we racked up on nearly 80 pies.

My mom and Hubs came along, too! The laughter was unstoppable that night and my heart was so filled and happy!

Plus, MOON PIES.

KING CAKES.
Speaking of Mardi Gras --- King Cake Season has ARRIVED!
Paul's has THE BEST (have I mentioned this?) and we stocked up appropriately.

SKILLZ.
I took a cookie decorating class this week! For the first time, I was able to decorate (somewhat successfully) with royal icing and it was loads of fun! Royal icing is HARD, people. And I mean "hard" as in "difficult," because it's actually quite soupy. Regardless, stay tuned for more cookies because I am ALL ABOUT IT now.

If we're being honest here, though...there was one rather unfortunate-looking cookie that didn't quite make it into this picture and somehow ended up in my belly instead.

THE SHOCK.

#sorryImnotsorry


HAPPY THURSDAY PARTY PEOPLE!

Walking (and RUNNING!) in Memphis

PEOPLE! This weekend = WHOA!

So much fun. So much soreness. So much happy. I love it.

BUT FIRST! And more importantly!!!!

THE ROYALS ARE IN AMERICA!

source

PLEASE tell me I'm not the only one who has refreshed the Google feed 300 times today waiting for updates is excited about this!

All we know so far is that they are staying in New York City, Kate was perfection wearing a purple coat, and Wills is hanging out at the White House whilst Kate is doing crafts in Harlem.

Media, you are FAILING me.

Stay tuned for more updates.

But moving on!

----

MEMPHIS.

What can I say?

Despite this being my worst race time in all my days, we really did have a great time. We knew ahead of time that we would likely have to take some walking breaks, due to a few injuries over the past month or so - but overall it was a fantastic race!

The course was really nice - between mile 4 and 5 it lead us through the St. Jude campus -- where some of the patients (all kids) and their families lined the sidewalk to cheer us on. The weather was really chilly, so usually there would have been more, but I have to admit I was fighting tears the entire time. I saw one teenage boy smiling and cheering for everyone while hooked to the IV beside him -- and almost lost it right there. These kids and their families are so brave, and I'm so thankful that St. Jude exists to give them the special care that they need.

What really slowed us down was, somewhere around mile 5, my knee started hurting. I've never had problems with my knees, so it was really weird when I started noticing the soreness.

Well --- what started out as soreness grew to somewhat of a strong pain as we progressed. I can typically push through, but this was a little more than soreness. It eventually eased (sort of) enough where I could power walk without too much pain, so Hubs backed off to a jog while I power walked the miles away!

In the end - I'm so glad we finished! Hubs jogged and I hobbled across the finish line, where they had members of the military presenting us with medals.

First the kids, then the soldiers? My emotions were CRAZY.

After stocking up on the water, gatorade, and snacks from the race sponsors, we hobbled across the street to The Peabody Hotel to meet our running team for some post-race recovery and laughs :)

Coffee and cookies, anyone? The weather was cold and windy all morning, and this tasted AMAZING.

Plus - check out the tree in the lobby! Hubs said it was somewhere between 20-30 feet tall!

If you ever find yourself in Memphis, I would HIGHLY recommend you at least visit The Peabody. It's such a beautiful place, especially at Christmas :)

We spent the rest of the day soaking, icing, sleeping, and trying to rest the soreness away - none of which I have pictures from because we party WAY TOO HARD for that kind of nonsense ;)

...and then that night we ate some awesomely authentic Memphis BBQ at the shadiest little BBQ place EVER in this world. Complete with bars on the window and everything!

The food, however, was a totally different story and pretty much BLEW OUR MINDS at how great it tasted.

All in all, great weekend with great people in a great place for an even GREATER cause. Thankfully my knee is all kinds of better, and I'm hoping we are able to do this race again next year.

First on my list, though, is Nashville in the Spring. Fingers crossed!

Stay tuned for more crazy. Happy Monday yo!

Weekend WHAAAAAT

People. This weekend = WHOA.

It was electric. And WONDERFUL.

Saturday started BRIGHT (read: dark) and EARLY for Hubs and I so we could get to the best race around:

I seriously look forward to this race EVERY SINGLE YEAR. It's a beautiful course (albeit, HILLY), and the atmosphere is always so positive and upbeat.



Plus, there's a retired military man at the end waiting to give you a hot cup of red beans and rice straight from his GIANT cauldron:

LEGIT.

Red beans & rice make an epic breakfast-slash-post race meal on a cold day. I cannot talk about this race ENOUGH!

Not to mention -- need I say it? -- CAKE!



There was CAKE at the end! DELICIOUS half-chocolate, half-yellow cake! Be still my ever-loving HEART.

BONUS POINTS: This was Hubs' first 12K -- and he ROCKED it.

((I believe this was somewhere around mile 4. Still smiling!))

 

 

Saturday was off to a pretty amazing start. Fast forward to a few hours later, and we're hobbling around our apartment (hills = sore hips, quads, toes, EVERYTHING) while watching a Hallmark movie. I'm addicted. I'll be the first to admit it.


All the Hallmark Christmas Movie lovers say YEAAAAAHHH!!!

 

So here we are, Hubs propped up in our recliner, me on the couch - and we start talking about the Mississippi State game that was scheduled for Saturday night, and how fun it would be to go to a game one day. Seeing as how I've never been to a State game (or any SEC game), this sounds like a GRAND idea and decided THIS HAD TO HAPPEN TODAY.

So around 1pm, we decided "WHY NOT" and jumped (read: rolled/crawled) into the car and headed to Starkville. (We HAD to finish that Hallmark movie, after all)



 



Quite possibly the most spontaneous thing we've ever done.

And off we went to see the Bulldogs. Well, the Lord smiled on us that night because we were able to find some pretty nice seats as soon as we arrived. AND my insane fear of heights gave me only a medium-sized panic attack (as opposed to paralyzed fear) as we were climbing the steps.



Please feel free to chuckle when I tell you that an 80-year-old woman fared better than I did with the heights and sent her husband to help me. It was a sight :)

But let me tell you. The atmosphere was electric, and it was SUCH a great experience. The team played SO WELL, energy filled the stadium, and there were COWBELLS galore. GALORE.

Plus, I mean --- that score? Epic.*

I even got a new shirt out of the deal :)

 



We arrived home at 1am, worn out, sore, but oh-so-elated. I absolutely love weekends like this - so busy, but fun and memorable. Here's to many more spontaneous weekends in the future!

Happy Monday Party People!



*State won over Vanderbilt 51-0.

#HailState :)

 

 



The Tacos that Changed My Life

This is a story about the most AHHH-mazing tacos I've ever shoved in my face.

This is ALSO a story that could be alternately titled, "The Shadiest Little Taco Stand EVER."

...but I didn't want this post to have a negative connotation.


But let's continue :)


A few weeks back, when Hubs and I were hanging out in Folly Beach, we scheduled a kayak trip around the marsh at sunset.

It was glorious. We listened to the oysters "pop", saw a couple of jellyfish (eeesh), and watched some dolphins start feeding just a few feet from us.

Our tour guide, Kate, was the best. She guided us on our first trip last year, and we couldn't help but request her again. She's a local so we knew we could count on her to give us some not-so-touristy tips for the area.

And oh, did she deliver. She was the one that suggested we hike to the Morris Island Lighthouse not far from where we were staying, and THEN gave us a heads-up on a little-known taco shack around the corner whose tacos {serious quote:} "CHANGED. MY. LIFE, DUDE!!!!"

{Kate is everything you'd expect from an outdoorsy, life-loving, energetic surfer girl.}

Now, if you know Hubs and I, it really doesn't take much to convince us to try some kind of new food. We love to explore and try weird things and then gauge on a scale of 1 to 10 how sick we feel afterward.

I may be kidding on that last part.

We barely loaded our kayaks before Hubs looked at me and said, "We've GOT to try these tacos."

So off we went. The place was a few blocks off of the main strip, but still very much walking distance from our hotel. The lighting was not great (we passed it up at first), and it was right across the street from a very....questionable looking grocery-slash-convenience store.

In other words, it was one of the shadiest looking places I've ever seen.

At first.

The door was blocked by some junk old furniture, and the one window of the place was closed. There were lights on inside, but we didn't see any people. The small crowd (read: 8 people) on the patio (read: at the tiny bar) was the only indication that this place was, in fact, open.

Since I'm being honest, I must tell you that we actually walked away at this point. We were a little freaked out by the small gathering outside of the creepy grocery-slash-convenience store and the lack of lighting for the next walking mile or so that suddenly we weren't so hungry anymore.

But yet, we were. So very, very hungry. And if these tacos really changed our dear Kate's life ---- well then, we had no choice but to try it. For Kate's sake, of course ;)

So back we went. We approached the bar and chatted with the surfer guy that was working and found out there were three things on his menu: chicken tacos, pork tacos, and shark tacos.

Yep. SHARK tacos.

As in JAWS, if you weren't paying attention.

I went with two pork, Hubs opted for one of each.

As for drinks? Two options.

Beer, and water from "that jug in the back," as I lovingly deemed it.

It was QUITE entertaining. So here we are. hanging out with the 8 other customers, waiting for our tacos and jug water and wondering just what we were about to experience.

And let me tell you...Kate was right.

These really were the best tacos with which I have ever stuffed my pie hole.

EVER, people.

Apparently, surfer dude (who turns out, was/is the owner) marinates and cooks the meat alllll daaaay lonnng with all sorts of dreamy seasonings and APPLES. APPLES! It gives the meat a nice sweet flavor unlike any other I've had. We even had little apple slices on top!

I even tried the Mister's shark taco, and it was actually really good! Just like a regular white fish taco - only AWESOME.

This was NOT a fancy place - but we LOVED it, and we loved how NOT crowded it was. Fun fact: half of the people that were there were actually part of the band that started playing once we got our food. It turned out to be a great, laid back atmosphere (no crowds!) with excellent food that was perfect right after a two-hour kayaking trip.

I'm pretty sure these tacos really did change my life.

Looooooovvvvvvve.

With that said, if you ever find yourself in the Folly Beach area, go for a kayak tour of the marsh (ask for Kate!) and then hit up Chico Feo (pronounced: cheee - koh fayy-ohh). You won't regret it!

Unless you hit up that shady grocery-slash-convenience store across the road. Then I can't make any guarantees for your enjoyment.

Happy Friday party people!