Moving...

I'm trying out WordPress for a little while. You can find me here.

If I don't like it, I'll come back. Let me know if you're not a fan.

Painting My Passions...

So, a couple of years ago, a hugely talented artist caught my attention. While I LOVE to paint, I'm not a big follower of art. I like it for the most part, but I've never really downright loved any particular artist's work before... until Steve.

Steve Penley's paintings are the expression of my passions, in every which way. From the oil paints, to the bursts of color, to the realistic subjects painted in a colorful, almost animated way... he paints exactly like I would if I were a more skilled artist. On top of that, he paints everything I love: flowers, history, Chick-fil-A, Coke, the Georgia Bulldogs... it's unbelievable.

Doesn't all of this just make you happy?




Now if I could just get him to paint Disney characters, my life would be complete. ;)

FREEDOM!!!

Ok, so soooo many things to be thankful for, but the one that I am THE MOST thankful for right now is the fact that Joel and I finished up with the chiropractor last week!!!!!

What does this mean? Well, if you haven't followed my blog before now, it means that we don't have to be spending three of our precious weeknights in a doctors office, getting our bones adjusted and having our backs squeezed, kneeded and basically beaten to get the knots out. Do I sound dramatic? ...Good. It was awful.

But now that we're finished, I feel like I have a new lease on life!! The difficulties of each day seem so diminished. If things go wrong, it doesn't matter because, at the end of the day, I won't have had to be in that droopy place for two hours.

I feel like I could conquer the world. Like I should have "Eye of the Tiger" somehow playing in the background all day long.

In other thankful news:
-I got to have breakfast with Lindsey last week! It was a wonderful mid-week refresher and we definitely need to do it more!
-I saw another long-lost Chick-fil-A intern and dear friend, Sara, in Athens when we went up two weekends ago... I should have gotten a picture!
-On that note, many of my dearest friends and I got to spend the weekend before last in Athens, enjoying the cycling excitement of Twilight, the birthday festivities of Katie, Scott and Kayleigh, and the matrimonial celebration of Zack and Lauren Anne. Did I mention it was gorgeous the whole time??
-Also, during said weekend, I got to be a judge for the Creative Consultants initial presentations. Creative Consultants is the Public Relations Student Society of America's (PRSSA) student-run PR firm. I would hire several of those students in a second... if only I were in charge of hiring.
-I was able to see my sweet, sweet friend Lauren on Friday night. She's moving back to Atlanta, which is a whole other blog post worth of thankfulness!!!
-On top of all of this, the sun is out longer, the weather is warmer and the trees are in full bloom... all of this is enough to keep me in a heavenly mood until October!
-Finally, I am not planning a wedding, but I have a friend who is, and in looking for fun ideas for her, I stumbled across Snippet and Ink... it is the most addictive blog I have ever read! Girls, be warned. :)

The 3/50 Project

There is a ton to be thankful for and I will hopefully get to post all about them tonight, but for now, check this out:

The 3/50 Project... a way to "save the brick and mortars our nation is built on." Do it! You'll be doing your part to make someone very happy and thankful that day, and eventually, make lots more people very thankful!

(I will figure out a way to fix the formatting on this later, but you can see the whole image at the bottom of my blog.)

iTunes Movie Rentals

Can I just tell you? Here I am, on a business trip. I want to watch a movie, but nothing really great is on HBO. So I think about renting one on the movie channel. Well ladies and gentlemen, those movies are now $13.00!!!!

What am I to do? I feel hopeless, like my whole night will be a little less awesome because I can't do what I really want to do.

Enter Joel's amazing idea.

iTunes Movie Rentals!!!

That's right $3-$5 rentals of ANY movie you can think of!! It's genius! You can even buy a movie for less than the movie channel is offering.

...Now, what movie do I choose...

Birthday Parties, Wedding Showers and Bachelorette Parties, Oh My!

So my life has been dominated by work, birthdays, wedding showers and bachelorette parties lately. Can I tell you how awesome it is to be surrounded by your best friends weekend after weekend? It's pretty amazing. Here are a few of my favorite pics of the last few times we've hung out:

Chiro-Free

So, each week, Joel and I are required to go to the chiropractor three times. We're normally out of town on the weekends, so they're out. That leaves four days available to go. Meaning, I get one day a week where I don't have to be at the doctor until 7 p.m.

Well, tonight was that night this week. And it was marvelous. Joel and I went to the mall for a quick second and then to eat and I was still back at my house by 8 p.m. That's unheard of these days!!

It was simply marvelous. Marvelous.

Dinner and a Movie

Is there anything better, really?

Joel, Mom and I went to dinner at Figo last night in the Highlands and then to see Sunshine Cleaning with Katie. And it was blissfully happy. I highly recommend both Figo and the movie... and the company wasn't too bad either. :)

Slowly but Surely....

Ok, no more big statements like, "I'm going to update every day, without fail." I am learning to give myself a little grace and realize that there are some days I'm not going to be able to do all 100 things that I say I can do.

I'm learning, slowly but surely, how to put a little balance back in my life. Since January, trying to find that balance between my faith, my work life, my home life, my family, my friends, my boyfriend, my lawyer (car accident), my health, my blog and my me time has been quite a difficult challenge for me. As one who is a people-pleaser and over-achiever, I have been trying to be 100% to all of those buckets of my life. Unfortunately, there are only 24 hours in a day and, as hard as it is for me to admit, I just can't do everything.

You have no idea how long it took me to come to that conclusion. Silly, I know.

In conclusion though, I love my blog. When I get to write about the things I'm thankful for, my whole outlook on life improves. This is something I don't want to fall by the way-side... but it has because I am technically not letting anyone down if I don't write. So, since it's important to me, I'm going to do my best to keep up with it a little better. I can't promise I'll post every day, but I will do my best to keep more regular updates on the amazing things in my life.

So, thank you to all of you who have encouraged me to keep on blogging. And thank you for your patience with me as I learn how to give myself a little grace. :)

Now, back to what I'm thankful for today: Posse Lunch!!

At work, there is a group of us young people who like to get together most days for lunch. I don't normally get to eat with them, but I got to today and it was so refreshing! It is such a sweet group of friends and we all truly care about one another - a rare blessing in the workplace. A few of them, like Christen , Kelly, Laura and Lindsey (even though she technically doesn't work here anymore), have blogs of their own that you should check out! I am so thankful for each and every one of them and their constant words of encouragement and optimistic outlook. They're the best!

Bye-Bye Lindsey!

Today was Lindsey's last day at work. :( While I couldn't honestly say I'm thankful she's leaving, I can twist it around and say I'm thankful that she is going to be sharing her knowledge with some lucky middle school girls in Birmingham or Charlotte.

I am so proud to be able to call Lindsey my friend. As I've already alluded to in her birthday blog, Lindsey is a strong woman of God and an incredible role model. I have no doubt that God is going to do amazing things with her life!

Thank you for always being an amazing friend, Lindsey. Good luck with this new phase of life!

Get Well Goodie Bags

As a pick-me-up after the wreck, Katie assembled a Get Well Goodie Bag for me and placed it in my room so I saw it when I got home Tuesday night. In said bag, she compiled a grouping of some of my favorite things: Vogue magazine (with Blake Lively from Gossip Girl on the cover), hair products, Pellegrino, Cheezits and Funfetti icing (she couldn't find the Rainbow Chip kind)! She had also written a hilarious poem and gotten me four Gerber daisies... my favorite!!!

The poem went a little something like this:
I'm so sorry that you bumped your head.
At least you got to lay in bed.
Hopefully our favorite snack from the Golden Days
will help you rest your woes away.
There's something in your bag that bubbles
to help you with all your troubles.
And if you ever get to wash your hair*,
there's something inside to give it extra care.
I hope you have time to read
before you get back on that steed.
And, last, something to make you smile...
even though they'll be dead in a while.
I love you forever!
Feel better!
(*I was not able to wash my hair for 24 hours after I left the emergency room because the glue that was holding my gash together could get messed up. I usually wash my hair when not in this situation.)

It's About Time.......

Let me begin with a formal apology. I made a commitment to post to this blog every day for a year and I have now successfully skipped two months of blogging. Believe it or not, this was not caused by fault of my own... well not completely.

A few days after my last blog post, my roommates and I were robbed by some sleezy Atlanta creep walking the streets of Briarcliff. Luckily, we weren't robbed by this guy. :( But, the jerk that robbed us stole all of our laptops, which didn't get me in the mood to be blogging right away. Then, by the time I decided to start up again, we lost our internet for a month. Therefore, the only other option would have been to blog at work, which I just don't feel comfortable with. No worries though, I am now using my work computer and it connects to the wireless network in my house pretty well. So we should be back up and running.

SOOOO, to get back to business. What am I thankful for today? None other than life itself.

Sunday morning, I was driving Joel and I up North Druid Hills and as we were going through the intersection with Buford Highway, a drunk driver plowed through the very very red light going 40 mph and we T-boned him going 40 mph. We were extremely blessed to walk away from the accident at all, considering the impact of the crash. But we realized we were even more fortunate because if Joel hadn't yelled out "Watch out!" at the last minute, I never would have tapped my brakes and the guy would have hit my driver's side.

Now, we serve a Sovereign God and there is no point in playing the "what if" game, but in this situation it's pretty obvious what an alternative scenario could have been.

So, because of all of this, I'd just like to take this moment to say that I am thankful for life and all that God has blessed me with. This whole situation has re-inspired me to commit to this blog project because I truly have an immeasurable amount of things to be thankful for. :)