30 Day Blog Challenge

I think I've hit a bit of a rut in my blogging.  I feel like my day to day is relatively boring, and wouldn't want to read it if I were you guys.  To try to get out of this rut, I googled "30 day blog challenge."  Most of them were either really philosophical or really immature.  I found one that I still think is geared towards teenagers, but I'll try to morph the "relationship" questions into something more applicable to my life.  We'll see how it goes!  Here are the different topics for the days:

I'll start on June 1st and try to write every day.  Let me know if ya'll have any suggestions for changing out the relationshippy questions!  Hope your weeks are going well!

Potato Salad!

Hope everyone had a good 3-day weekend!  I certainly did!  For a cookout we had on Sunday I made some potato salad, for the first time ever!  This wasn't just ordinary potato salad though guys...this was Paula Dean's Texas County Potato Salad loaded with crunchy salty bacon.  And boy was it guuuuud!  You should make some!  Recipe here.

Special shout out to those who have and are now serving in the military.  It's because of them that I have the freedom to live in this great country, and eat potato salad. :)

Bun head.

Today I wore my hair like this:

Husband very rarely ever comments on my choice of hair styles.  Ponytail, not a word.  Curly, not a word.  Straight, not a word.  But buns...buns he is quite adamant about.  And I'm not talkin' about those cute little round things that make my departing such a treat.  I'm talking hair on top of the head because you didn't wash it that morning, buns.  He is quite vehement in his dislike of all things bun-like.  It doesn't matter the style, if it's all bunched together, he's opposed.  He says it's too severe and makes me look mean.  So I try to keep that in mind when I'm trying to tame my mane in the mornings, but this morning was just a bun sort of day.
I've always thought he was a little ridiculous in his views of the topknot, but today at work me and the guys were talking and someone made the comment "don't mess with Julie Anna, she's got a bun on her head."  I was like, what the heck?!  Apparently all males share this dislike of bunyular hairstyles (yes I did just make that word up.)
So on the way home from work today, I was traveling on my merry way, going about 30mph because of "traffic" when I see a State Trooper behind me.  Now let's just say, I have a bad track record with cops.  Every time I have gotten pulled over, I have tried a different method of weaseling my way out of a ticket.  I've tried crying, I've tried flirting, I've tried being angry, I've tried telling them I have a degree in Criminal Justice (trying to find common ground, you see). But nothing has ever worked!  (and no, I haven't gotten 4 tickets....close though).  So today, when I go to turn onto my road, I notice that the Trooper follows me.  And then it hits me, my brake light is out.  I've known this for a couple of weeks, but always forget to go get a new bulb, because hello, I don't ever see my brake light for it to remind me.  And if I do, I better call the cops 'cause somebody's done taken my truck! (This southern vernacular will become important in just a second)  Right after that realization, I see the lights in my rear view mirror.  And then another thought hits me.  Oh crap!  My hair is in a bun!  He's going to think I'm mean and give me a ticket just because my hair is in a bun!  So I thought about ripping the pins and rubber bands out and letting my hair down, a la herbal essence commercial lady, but then I was like well no, because then he'll think I'm just trying to use my feminine wiles to get out of a ticket!  Ahhh!  So I just plastered on a huge smile and when he came to my window, I somehow verbalized the most southern bell accent anyone has probably ever heard.  Trooper: "Ma'am your brake light is out"  Me: "Oh shoot, is it really?  Well my goodness, I guess I'm going to need to get that fixed aren't I"?  Worked like a charm.  Actually, he was really a nice guy, definitely the nicest Trooper I have met, and he didn't give me a ticket.  He didn't even take my license back to the car like they do to try to get your blood pressure really high.  He even pulled out and stopped traffic so I could get back on the road.  So there, men of the world!  The bun did work!  Or maybe sounding like I was straight off of Steel Magnolias did, never can tell. :)

Girls' trip part 2!

Here goes part 2 of our girls trip to Hilton Head back in March: (part 1 here)
Saturday morning we woke up to the threat of rain.  We had a Groupon to all go horseback riding and were hoping and praying that the rain would hold off long enough for us to be able to go riding.  We were running a little bit late, because we had to go towards Savannah, but well called the stable and they were really nice and agreed to wait for us to get there before they started.  After a quick trip to the "complaint department" i.e. a redneck port-a-potty, we got in line to mount up.  They asked for the most experienced rider, and since I took lessons back in high school and had my own (gorgeous but ill behaved) horse for a while, I was volunteered for the horse needing an "experienced rider."  That usually happens to me, which means I get stuck with the temperamental horse who always likes to bite other horses in the butt.  This usually leads to an interesting battle of wits.   This horse also just so happened to be named Dash, which was slightly disconcerting, so I asked the guide why he was named that, to which she replied, "well he was named Buck but that made people nervous, so we renamed him Dash instead."  Uhhh, ok.  Still not giving me any clues to what I'm facing here lady!  I think she could tell I was a little hesitant to throw my leg over this horse's side (considering that the last time I did that I was bucked off).  So she quickly added, "Oh Buck came from his coloring (he was buckskin)."  Stilll didn't explain the whole Dash part.   Anyways, turns out Dash was a pretty chill horse that was a former barrel racer who just needed someone with "gentle legs" to stay off his sides.

Yes, I was the loser with a helmet on.  Ever since being thrown off and hitting my head, I always wear a helmet.  

So anyways we all got mounted up and were rearin' to go!  (Not literally though, that would have not gone over well for those not wearing a helmet.) Our trail ride commenced and lasted for about 45 minutes.  The stable was in a sort of industrial area around Savannah, so our trail included an interstate and a billboard.  Not quite what we were used to, but it was still very relaxing.  Allie's horse kept wanting to eat any and everything green, and my gentle souled sister was quite alright with that.  The guide behind her was all "kick him, ok kick him harder, ok you can really kick him harder than that."  Allie had such a regretful look after each kick, it was actually pretty funny.  Whereas my horse kept wanting to take off at every single move of my legs.  They weren't kidding about him having sensitive sides.  My mom's horse was a saint the entire time and just plodded along at a slow and steady pace.  I think he was 26 years old?  That's like 98 in horse years (I don't really know if it is, I didn't do the math).  Right as we were riding into the arena to dismount, it started sprinkling.  The rain held off for the perfect amount of time.  We were all quite happy aboutt that! 

Since we were in Savannah, we did the obligitory Riverstreet visit.  It had begun pouring by that point, and we were one umbrella short.  After a very awkward trip down some very tall and slippery steps replete with haggard homeless people transients in dark alleyways, with my sister and I practically hugging each other while walking under one umbrella, we were sufficiently soaked.  We looked sort of like Siamese mermaids, come to think of it.  The first umbrella we saw, my sister bought.  The umbrellas really didn't help that much though, between the deluge and the standing water on the cobblestones our pants' legs were soaked up to our knees. 

We quickly went in to Riverstreet Sweets to get us and our spouses some sweets, and then went to the Savannah Bee Company where I bought some honey that you eat with cheese.  I talked about it in this post.

 At this point we were all soaked and were kind of over the whole walking around in the rain thing.  So we traversed back to the car, by a different route, smartly.  We ate some delicious pasta salad that my mom made and asiago cheese bread (from Panera, of course) in the car on the way back to Hilton Head. Once in Hilton Head, we decided to go and paint some pottery!

 We've done this on several past vacations and always enjoy this creative little outlet that we rarely get to try our hand at.  I've always liked little figurines, so I painted these little animals to go in my terrariums.

 My mom and sister painted these beautiful mugs.  I'm always so jealous of their creativity!

 My mom's mug said Marmee (what my niece calls her)

 Allie's mug.  She did a tree for every season.  So pretty!

 We had a wonderful time painting our pottery.  It took a couple of hours and was so relaxing with the rain falling outside. 
After we completed our pottery, we headed back to the hotel to get dried off (our pants were still pretty soaked) and get ready to go out to dinner.

Me and Allie

 Me and mom

 Mom and Allie

 We debated if we should try another local joint like we had the night before, but we were disappointed with that experience, so we decided to go with a more fail proof plan.  Bonefish Grill!!! Yay!!!!  We got Bang Bang Shrimp (of course!) and me and Allie got fish tacos, while my mom got fish 'n chips.  It was all quite delicious!

Fish tacos!  Sorry it's so dark, the restaurant had some mood lighting going on.

After dinner, we shopped in a few stores and then headed right down the street to the Fresh Market.  They have the most delicious desserts!  We each picked out a different dessert and ended up with: a double fudge brownie, an eclair, and a slice of carrot cake.  The lady in front of us in line was totally judging us.  She looked unhealthily skinny, and quite unhappy and was buying a giant wad of some leafy green.  It sort of made me sad for her.  She can have her clean colon and bored tastebuds, I'll enjoy my fattening dessert (in moderation, of course)!
On the way back to the hotel, we crossed over another bridge, and while I was attempting to control the rising panic, my mother and sister decided to start discussing the gigantic manatees that were probably floating around like giant water cows in the ocean right below us.  My mom then just randomly yelled "Manatees!  They'll suck your brains out!!!"  Tha heck?  Where in the world did that come from?!  It gave us quite a laugh and definitely helped me to ignore my fear of bridges at that moment.
After that we somehow got on the topic of evolution and survival of the fittest and had a pretty good discussion going when my sister decided to add to the hilarity of that car ride by confiding in my mother and I that she thought, up until about a year ago, that baby animals were only born in spring.  Like, it was physically impossible for them to be born any other time of the year.  My mom and I were both like um, "why did you think that."  And she was all, "I have no idea!"  It was pretty funny.  (Sorry Allie, for outing you on the interwebs (: )
Once we got to the hotel, we chowed down on our desserts.  We were either still so full from dinner or the lettuce lady in line had placed a curse on us, so that I don't think any of us could finish our desserts.  We all were about to bust we were so full.  Allie tuned us in to the Animal Planet and we started watching a show about puppies.  Very fitting, after our conversation in the car.  A commercial came on for a show called "Too Cute" that was just about baby animals and my mom was all "that's ridiculous, who would watch a show like that?"  Me and Allie just kind of looked at each other, and Allie eventually said, "Mom, what do you think we're watching right now?"  That show was what we had been "awwww"ing over for the past hour!  We are the people who would watch that show!!!  We had some good laughs about that as well! 

An example of the cute puppies that would be on that show.  Always wanted one of these!

Photo cred here. Have no idea whose blog this is but this popped up when I googled corgi puppy.

The next morning we woke up and headed back towards Georgia.  It was a pretty uneventful day, just a couple of Sonic tots thrown in with some more good conversation.  We were all pretty sad to see the weekend come to a close.  We had such a great time!  We each probably gained about 10 pounds, had several laughs, and made some wonderful memories.  Thanks mom for such a great girls trip, I think this should become an annual thing! 

25 for 25!

Well, I know that this is a little late, considering that my birthday was a month ago, but I wanted to make a "to do list" for my 25th year of life.  These are 25 things that I would like to do before I turn 25!

1. Send out 25 cards: I'm really bad at sending out cards to people, but always enjoy it so much when I receive a card in the mail from someone.  For money's sake, I will count birthday and special occasion cards, even if they are hand delivered.
        1. Mom for Mother's Day
        2. Nannie for Mother's Day
        3. Mom-June
        4. Nannie-June

        5. Allie-June
        6. Emma-July
        7. Allie-July
        8.  Nannie-July
        9.  Emma-October

2. Call family members at least once a week: I hate talking on the phone, but I know it's important to have contact with my family, especially now that I live farther away.

3.  Remember people's birthdays: I've always been bad at remembering birthdays, and I really have no excuse.  Facebook tells me every day when someone's birthday is!

4.  Run 366 miles: This should be interesting.  That averages out to 1 mile a day, obviously (since it's a leap year).  Right now it's a little tough to get in 7 miles a week, because I normally don't do longer than 3.2 miles at a time.  But once I get past running just 3 miles when I run, this should be easier.  At the moment I have ran 21 miles since my birthday, so I am currently 11 miles behind schedule.  :(  Got to kick my butt in gear!

After my first 5k, somehow smiling

5.  Run a 10K: In helping with the 366 miles in a year, I want to train to run a 10K around February/March of next year.  It will be the farthest I have ever run, and will keep me striving towards something.  I've noticed that my motivation to run sort of dwindles when I don't have a race hanging over my head.  I've been scouring the rungeorgia.com website to try to find a 10k to put on the calendar for around that time to hopefully keep me motivated.

6.  Run a mile in under 8 minutes: This may not seem fast to most people, but I have always hated running, and have never been very good at it.  I haven't run an 8 minute mile since high school. 

7.  Finish a 5k, sub 30:XX: For the three 5ks that I have run, this was my goal.  Always at least a few minutes off, so not there yet, but hope to be by fall. 

8.  Lose weight: This is a big one for me.  I don't really care so much about the amount of pounds lost, but definitely want to be more toned/in a smaller size.  I would like to be the same weight I was at my wedding two years ago.  

9.  Give more of my time and money to help others: This seems kind of vague, but I want to be more involved in my community and church, whether that is monetary or just time spent helping.

10. Make 5 recipes from Mastering the Art of French Cooking: My mom gave me this cookbook two Christmases ago, and I have only made one recipe so far, Beouf Bourguignon...which was quite ambitious of me.  It was delicious, just time consuming!

11.  Make 5 recipes from the Joy of Cooking:  This is the book that inspired Julia Child to write her cookbooks, so it would be neat to make some recipes that she made when starting her cooking journey.  My mom gave me a vintage copy of this cookbook for this past Christmas.  

12.  Attend 5 concerts: Concerts are always a good thing to do with Husband since he loves music so much.  Already got 1 under our belts!
       1. Punch Brothers

13.  Read 2 books a month:  This should be pretty easy.  I'd like to extend that to being 1 fiction, and 1 nonfiction book per month.

       So far:
       1. Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children-fiction
       2.  Let's Pretend This Never Happened-nonfiction
       3.  The American Heiress-fiction
       4.  Mrs. Kennedy and Me-nonfiction
       5.  The Dovekeepers-fiction
       6.  Unbroken-nonfiction
       7.  The Poisonwood Bible-fiction

14.  Read through at least the New Testament:  I've tried to do this several years, but have never actually finished it in a year.  I would definitely like to accomplish this one. 

15.  Read the Count of Monte Cristo:  I have owned this book for about 7 years and have started it about 3 times.  It's just so intimidatingly huge.  But I love the movie, and love the storyline.  I am determined that by age 25, I will conquer this book!  All 1,462 pages of it.

 16.  Create a family tree:  This would be a fun project to do with my parents and grandparents and I think would be a good way to help preserve my family's history.

17.  Learn to sew: My mom always tried to teach me how growing up, but I always resisted her efforts...much to my current chagrin.  Hopefully she'll give me another try.  I'd be fine with just knowing the basics.

18.  Watch 25 new-to-me movies: Husband and I really like watching movies, so this should be pretty easy!

19.  Re-learn French:  This seems so vague, but after studying French for 5 years, I was in the very beginning stages of being fluent.  Since my last semester of it a couple of years ago, I haven't really sharpened that skill anymore.  There is a little shop in the next town over that has some French speaking women that work there, but I have only had the guts to go in there and talk to them once.  They could definitely help me get back to where I was, just need to suck it up and go talk to them.

Me in high school with my French teacher, Mme Wells.  Awesome teacher! 

20.  Take 500 new pictures: I've had a nice DSLR for years, and took tons of pictures to begin with.  I've sort of hit a wall with picture taking, and want to get back in the habit of taking pictures. 

21.  Go to Wakulla Springs: Husband and I have been planning this for a while, and hopefully we'll get to go this summer.

22.  Go to 3 parades: I usually resist parades, but once I'm there I always enjoy them.  I'm sure one of those will be the annual Cairo Christmas parade.

2011 Cairo Christmas parade

23.  Go on vacation to a city I've never been: For the sake of our budget, this doesn't have to be another country or even another state.  Just a city I've never been.  Darrien trip!

24.  Paint my toenails a different color each month: This was my sister's contribution, and I love this idea.  Some of these might just have to be pedi trips with said sister. :)

25.  Write 200 blog posts: Self explanatory, 15 down, 185 to go!

Mother's Day 2012

Last weekend I was able to spend time with all of my family for Mother's Day.  On Saturday we had a shower for my cousin Lauren, who is getting married in a couple of weeks. 

From left to right: My sister Allie, me, cousin Lindsey, and cousin Lauren

Sunday I got to see my Aunt Kimberly, Uncle Tim, and cousins Jake and Holden.  We all ate lunch together with my parents and grandparents.  

Left to right: Me, cousin Holden, niece Emma, cousin Jake, my sister Allie

It was great to see so much of my family in one weekend, some of which I hadn't seen in a year.  I've been blessed with such a wonderful mother who loves my sister and me more than we'll ever understand.  Hope all of the mothers out there had a good Mother's Day!

Pomp and Circumstance

Tonight are the graduation ceremonies for the high school where Husband teaches.  So he got to dress up in his little robe and look all professional.  I think he looks pretty handsome. :)

We weren't quite certain what was going on with this tail thing in the back...

Ya'll got good plans for the weekend?  Mine involves yard work, cleaning the house, and more yardwork.  And I'm sure plenty of sleeping somewhere in there too. :)  Happy Friday!