weekend in savannah

D's birthday was last week 

and we celebrated by 

spending the weekend in Savannah. 

We had SO much fun 

and ate way too much! 

Friday: We ate at Chipotle! 

If you have read my blog for any length of time, 

you know Chipotle is my favorite restaurant. 

D is such a good sport about letting me eat here 

every single time we go anywhere that 

has a Chipotle in a 30 mile radius. 

Then we just relaxed at the hotel. 

Saturday: Was our busy day! 

We ate lunch at Molly McPherson's Scottish Pub ... 

D's favorite place to go in Savannah.  

D had the Scottish combo 

(Scotch egg, Guinness battered onion rings, & a meat pie) 

and the fish and chips. 

I had the shepherd's pie. 

Everything was delicious! 

Molly McPherson's

Then we walked around City Market and downtown Savannah. 

City Market

City Hall

We stopped in Lulu's Chocolate Bar for afternoon coffee and dessert. 

Lulu's is one of my absolute favorite places in Savannah 

and D had never been. 

It is now one of his favs as well! 

So much so, that we stopped by here on Sunday too. 

First stop at Lulu's
{white chocolate chip cheesecake & dark chocolate salted caramel almond cake}

After Lulu's we walked around some more, wasting time until our 

Savannah Walks Ghost Tour. 

If you ever visit Savannah, you have to do one of the ghost tours. 

There are a million different tours you can take, 

but we always prefer the walking ones. 

D and I had a great time on the tour. 

Our guide was very knowledgeable and kept it entertaining. 

Ghost tour

After the tour, we walked back to City Market 

and ate pizza at Vinnie Van Go Go's. 

We walked for 7 hours Saturday. 

I swear my hips were hurting Sunday morning. 

At least we walked off most of the calories we ingested!

Sunday: Was a lazy day. 

We ate lunch at Five Guys Burger & Fries. 

D had planned on eating at another pub for lunch, 

but they were closed on Sundays. 

We both decided a burger & fries sounded great 

after all the stuff we ate Saturday. 

Then we walked around downtown some more 

and stopped by the cemetery in the daytime.

   

Stopped by Lulu's again. 

Second Lulu's stop.
{Big chocolate chip cookie & chocolate espresso creme brulee}

Doing what bloggers do! 

D snapped this one of me! 

Lulu's has the BEST coffee! 

Then walked down River Street. 

Love this guy! 

River Street

We ended our Savannah weekend 

with Coldstone ice cream! 

I love living so close to Savannah. 

It really is a great city, 

with a ton of history. 

I need three-day weekends more often! 

I know, I know ... it's Tuesday! 

morning music

One of my favorite things is a 

long, hot shower. 

So much so, that I have to put a time limit 

on my showers on workdays. 

'Cause it is a little ridiculous to take a 

30 minute shower every morning before work! 

I time my morning showers with music. 

I am usually done after the first two songs, 

but I allow myself a four song time limit; 

for those especially sluggish mornings. 

I have a specific playlist that acts as my time clock. 

This playlist does change occasionally when the mood strikes. 

But I thought it would be fun to share 

the songs on my current 

morning playlist. 

Of course, the YouTube versions are a bit longer 

than the album versions. 

There are more songs on the playlist 

that I listen to while getting ready, 

but these are the first five. 

What are some of your favorite songs right now?

2013 holiday season

I had an absolutely fabulous holiday season! 

Christmas was great. 

New Year was great. 

And all the time between was great. 

Are you getting the gist?! 

I think I need to use "great" at least one more time in this post! ;)

One of the perks of working at a university 

is the 2 week vacation at Christmas! 

Of course, getting paid for no work is already a perk. 

But this was D and I's first Christmas season together. 

Our 8 month anniversary was on Christmas day! 

We spent the entire week 

between Christmas and New Year's Day together. 

I was a little worried that we would get sick of each other 

or that one of us would get tired of the other, 

but I worried for no reason. 

It was actually super relaxing. 

We did not make a lot of plans and just really enjoyed doing nothing most days. 

The weekend before Christmas, D and I 

went to my hometown and did Christmas with my family there. 

Then on Christmas Eve, 

I exchanged presents with my best friends 

and then went to D's extended family Christmas. 

Just a sampling of presents ...
I got a Keurig!!

Christmas morning we went to D's parents' house to open presents 

and then just lounged around in our pajamas the rest of the day. 

The week between Christmas and New Year was my favorite. 

We sat around the fire one night 

and roasted marshmallows, made s'mores, and drank coffee. 

D's fire pit

S'mores!

Mmmmm ... Coffee! 

We went hunting that Saturday. 

Neither D nor I killed anything but we still had fun. 

In the woods, waiting on the deer

Then Monday, we went up to Augusta. 

We walked along the Savannah River, donated blood, 

and ended the day with some Coldstone ice cream. 

Meet D! 

Random river walk shots

More river walk shots ...
I must have a thing for pathways

Donating blood

Reward for donating blood!

New Year's Eve we had a big fire at D's parents' house. 

Around midnight, we all set his parents' Christmas tree on fire. 

That will definitely make you more cautious 

about Christmas trees. 

That thing went up in a second and it was a huge flame. 

I was helping D put it on the fire, so I did not get a single picture. 

The New Year fire before the Christmas tree 

It was so hard going back to work on the 2nd. 

I still have not fully recovered! 

I am definitely looking forward to more weeks like that one! 

I hope y'all had a GREAT holiday season! :)

quick update

I know things have been pretty silent in my 

little corner of the web. 

Life has just been crazy lately and I have neglected the blog. 

There have been a few big changes happen this year. 

The biggest being... I have been dating a guy for 5 months now. 

This relationship has been a complete surprise for me. 

I was always the girl completely content to be single. 

I honestly never thought I would be any good in a relationship. 

And it is starting to get to the point where I could not imagine my life without this guy. 

{Good Grief! I sound like a school girl.} 

It is just crazy for me to wrap my mind around still. 

We are both taking things slowly and, lucky for me, he seems to understand that I need to be cautious and over think every step of this relationship. 

It is definitely okay to feel sorry for him. ;)

On the weight loss front, I have FINALLY reached my goal weight. 

I am actually 5 pounds below my goal weight. 

Which means that since I have started my "get healthy" journey, 

I have lost a total of 80 pounds! 

WooHoo!

I have not calculated the total inches lost, 

but just this year, so far, I have lost a total of 35 inches overall. 

It is definitely going to be different just trying to maintain where I am currently. 

I am still not "skinny," but I am healthy. 

And that was, and continues to be, my main goal. 

Besides I like cake too much to be too skinny! 

So, for any of you who still visit this corner of the web, 

what has been going on in your life recently? 

I would love to catch up with y'all! 

running update

It has been a while since I updated y'all on how running is going. 

Well, it has been a while since I update y'all on anything! 

But let's stick to running for now. 

Saturday I completed my third 5k since I started running last year. 

And I finished in my best time yet! 

I finished 10 minutes faster than my last race! 

I cannot adequately express how good it felt to cross that finish line seeing that time on the clock. 

The elements could have contributed to the faster time Saturday. 

It was FLOODING and cold! 

All of my extremities were numb by the end of the race. 

I am still not the greatest "runner" in the world. 

I would definitely fit better into the jogger category. 

And I still cannot run the entire 3.2 miles straight. 

But my walking "breaks" are getting shorter and shorter!

Progress! 

I do not do these races to compete with other people. 

I just want to finish better than I did the last race. 

I may have set the bar a little too high with this one though!

My next 5k is coming up in 2 short weeks on March 9th 

and my sister wants to do another one on March 30th. 

I have not completely committed to the March 30th one though. 

That would be three 5ks in a little over a months time. 

However, she will probably convince me to do it. 

I am a sucker for the, 

"but I do not want to race by myself" argument. 

The things we do for family!

Source: fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net via ae on Pinterest

playing catch up

Since my unintended blog break,

Not much has changed in my life.

Still, I thought I would write an update post.

My big news is that

I finally found a job!
Hallelujah!
{insert a choir of angels here}

Source: gocomics.com via liz on Pinterest

I am still underemployed;

but I am super thankful!
I know a lot of people are hurting in the job department right now.

It is my first "grown up" job.

I have benefits, a retirement plan, paid sick/vacation days,

and all that good stuff.


Oh, and I have my very own office!!
Please ignore the mess in these pictures.
I did not feel like putting everything in place
just for these quickly taken pics.

I am waiting on the maintenance people to come
and hang all of my frames on my office walls
{that is what is in those boxes}
and then I will have to post pics
of my completely decorated office!


My roommates and I took a trip to
Universal Studios & Islands of Adventure.

 

The highlight of the trip was
The Wizarding World of Harry Potter!
It was just AMAZING!

 

If you are planning on going,
the early admission is totally worth the price.
We got into WWOHP an hour before the park opened.
My roommates and I actually rode one of the rides by ourselves.
I mean we were seriously the only 3 people on the ride!
How cool is that?!
To put that in perspective,
we went back at the end of the day,
because one of my friends wanted to go through
Hogwarts Castle again.
It was wall-to-wall people.
And the lines for all of the rides
were 3+ hours long.
Yeah, we did not go through the castle again.

I also
loved, loved, loved
Seusslanding!
If you have read my blog for any length of time
you know I am slightly obsessed with Dr. Seuss.
So, I naturally loved Seusslanding.

This part of the park is obviously geared more for children,
but I loved the architecture & decor.
They even had shrubbery shaped into various Seuss characters.
Just awesomesauce!
 

The roommates and I had a caricature drawn of the 3 of us.
The guy who drew it was super nice & funny!
I joked that he was going to make me look
like a chipmunk & of course, he did.
But it was a fun souvenir to have from the trip.
It now hangs in a place of honor in our living room!

I received a sewing machine for Christmas
and have been {slowly} teaching myself to sew. 
I have completed lots of throw pillows.
I have the sewing square things down pat!

I am also working on my very 1st quilt. 
It is a queen-size quilt.
Now that I am getting into it
I realize that starting out with a queen size
might have been a bad idea.
But "go big or go home" right?!
It took my roommates & I 5 hours to lay out the pattern.
They have threatened me with
bodily harm if I do not finish this quilt.

Whew!
This post was longer than I thought it would be.
If you made it all the way through
You Are a Trooper!
So, that's is what has been happening in my life lately.

Anything new & exciting happening in your life?

and we're off

I am keeping everyone who was affected by 

the earthquakes & tsunamis in my prayers!

I encourage y'all to donate to relief organizations

but please research and make sure your money

is actually going to the relief effort. 

------------------------------------------------------------------------

I am officially on my road trip!

Hopefully, we will be almost through Atlanta

by the time this posts. 

I really hope we miss morning rush hour.

{really want to avoid this}

I just wanted to write a quick post to let

y'all know that I will be having a few

guest bloggers next week.

I am excited to read their posts!

I really appreciate y'all filling in for me. 

You ladies are pretty awesome :)

I promise to take lots of pics to share when I get back.

Have a great week!

And please show my guest bloggers lots of love.

{click on pics for source}

coming home

As I mentioned in my last post, 

we will be coming home from our road trip

using a different route. 

We want to hit as many places as possible on this trip!

This route is ≈ 26 hours or 1,557 miles. 
We are just going to take our time getting back home.
And we are planning on making more stops.

Here is our coming home route:

We are going through the following major cities:

Amarillo, TX

Fort Worth, TX

Dallas, TX

Shreveport, LA

Baton Rouge, LA

New Orleans, LA

Mobile, AL

Montgomery, AL

Columbus, GA

Again, please let me know of any places

you think we should stop along the way.


Where has been your favorite place to travel?
{Pics 1, 2, 3, 4 , 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10}