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!

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!

Mind the Gap

Happy July party people!!!

We are creeping up on the Fourth - and I have to say I'm ridiculously pumped. And caffeinated!

Yes, definitely caffeinated. Mmmm coffee.

Well! I started my new job last week and so far, so good. I pretty much dropped all technology on my trip to Georgia the week before (more on that later!), and I'm still trying to find my groove with this new schedule. Sure, I can blog when I get home, but the weather has been so beautiful lately I have little desire to open up a computer screen when I get home in the afternoons.


Aaah summer  :)


So anyway! After leaving my last job, it was vacation time and I hit the sunny skies to head to Georgia to visit my friend Jessica from college. Jess and her husband James are expecting their first bebe' in few (short!) months - so we soaked up all the girl time we could for 3 and a half days!

I've said it before, but there's just something about re-connecting with longtime friends and having some serious girl time. We had the best time.

But of course, how could we NOT when we were coming home to these sweet faces every night?

It's okay -- you can say it. Awwwww....

#PupsOfSocialMedia


As soon as my plane landed, Jessica and James whisked me off for a full day of exploring Savannah. I must have said "wow" a thousand times that day -- everything was just incredible. The buildings, the history, the FOOD -- so many interesting things have happened/are happening there. I'll absolutely be back!

Lunch was on Tybee Island, where we ordered a GIANT platter of delicious seafood -- crab legs, crawfish, shrimp, potatoes, corn...the works -- and enjoyed it along with THIS VIEW:

...which was later followed by an incredible dinner in Savannah that considered of a pizza slice BIGGER THAN MY HEAD (see fork for reference):

Surprisingly, I don't have a ton of pictures from the trip. But then again, I rarely took out my phone in hopes of enjoying a technology hiatus. And let me tell you, it was a successful trip, in part because of that.

Even considering the fact that I woke up at 3:20 that morning to catch an early flight and consequently fell asleep on a late-afternoon trolley tour in Savannah. Oh it was lovely. Our driver had stopped the trolley and we were admiring this great, historic building with such a great story (so I'm told) and BAM. Sleepiness hit me and there I was - head hanging out the window, mouth wide open - ASLEEP...right in the middle of Savannah's historic district.

I'm the epitome of grace, I tell you this.

Thankfully, Jess was a dear sweet friend and elbowed me before too many people walking by could get a good laugh.

Thanks Jess! ;)

While James got up early and went to work on Tuesday, Jess and I took a girls' trip over to a nearby island to picnic at a state park and grab some beach time. We had THE BEST day -- since it was the middle of the week, the beach wasn't crowded and we were able to just explore to our heart's desire! We spent the entire day there and loved every minute of it:

By Thursday I was back in The City and on Friday morning I drove to my college town to meet two MORE college friends (it feels like ages since I've seen them!) for brunch. Fancy, that we are.

See? I told ya we were fancy :)

When was the last time you reconnected with friends or family?

Work Trippin'

Hellooooo, hello!

Checking in from life on the road via work. I've been getting my PROFESSIONAL on for the past couple of days - speaking at a meeting of PR pros and then doing some alumni work in my college town. It's been busy, but honestly? I'm really loving it.

Apparently I was explaining something VERY SERIOUS that required me to do that awkward twisty-stance. But it's a fun picture nonetheless!

This morning I was able to talk to an 8am class of  sleepy college students and, despite the fact that all they wanted was to get across the street to Starbucks, they had some great questions and seemed pretty interested in the presentation (SCORE!).

I've got one more event to work while I'm here then I'm headed back to The City...but not before I stop at one of my FAVORITE places down here to get coffee!!!

I'm telling you, this city has some of the best food around. Ohhh, how I loooooove it.

Welp! I've got to run around and check out of my hotel before this next event, but I'll be back soon with the recipe for THIS DELICIOUSNESS...

Think warm, creamy, cheesy goodness with chunks of chicken on the inside. I'm hungry already!


MY OH MY. GIVE ME MORE.

Hasta luego!

Birmingham Recap

A little over a week ago The Fiance' and I trekked to Birmingham for one of my closest friends' wedding. It was such a nice little getaway from the craziness of The City, and since it was my first time to visit there, it was a fun little adventure.

I won't mention the other "adventure" we had due to a defective GPS...and I also won't mention the "fun" we had by being late for the wedding! ;) I will say, though, that God is good, and I am SO THANKFUL for churches with balconies that allow late comers to discretely sneak in! ;)

We met up with my friend Nicole from high school, who brought her husband along. We all sat in the balcony together and had a grand ol' time watching the ceremony from afar:

 Note the ninja pics.

...and Nicole's hand.

Afterward we headed to the most beautiful country club for a reception filled with dinner and dancing. The Fiance' and I danced the night away and happily ate lots of delicious cake :) #score

Fast forward to Sunday morning - my first trip to The Cheesecake Factory! We met Nicole and her hubs for brunch - classy right?

THIS was the view on the patio - so pretty!!!!!

...and THIS is what I ordered!

Grilled chicken with spinach and mushrooms with a side of fluffy egg whites and tomatoes.

YUM.

Also ordered was a nice slice of Red Velvet Cheesecake, but that may or may not have disappeared too quickly to have a picture taken!

Oh - and the view FROM the patio? Gorgeous. Simply gorgeous.

I never realized how beautiful Birmingham is - hopefully next time we'll have a little more time to explore and even more time with sweet friends! Here's to a great week and happy times!