Roaring 30's Birthday Bash

Last night one of my dearest friends, Crazy Amy, had a themed birthday party "Roaring 30's" to be exact. She totally dressed the part as did quite a few. Digging in my closet only got me to the 50's with a high-waisted pencil skirt, fun blouse, fishnet pantyhose and heels...but I should get points for at least dressing up. The crowd consisted mostly of those that work with Amy but a few friends from church came as well. Here are some pictures from the evening(thanks to Patrick for capturing the night in film):

Birthday Girl - Crazy Amy

Katie, Amy and I all dressed up and roaring to party

Amy's friend Sims hosted the party at her home, poolside and it was a perfect night.

Birthday Party Group Picture

Not my ideal "vacay"

I guess this vacation was just another example of why it's good to not build up big expectations when planning a vacation that correlates with weather cooperation. I arrived in Pensacola on Friday and saw a beautiful sunset and that was pretty much all I saw of the sunshine (with the exception of a few cloudy covered sunrays on Tuesday). We had planned to spend pool time on Saturday but we had to change plans because it was completely overcast. Sunday was more of the same and then I headed to Panama City Beach just in time to arrive for Tropical Storm Anna. Monday was such a rainy day so I took full advantage and worked all day (at least I had this option so I could save my vacation days). Tuesday I woke up to sunshine so I took advantage and went for a run only to watch the cloud cover move off of the beach and then the sun was gone, yet again. I did actually take the day off on Tuesday and enjoyed some quiet time by the pool and read a book. Probably the most relaxing day of my trip! But with the weather forecast not looking promising, I decided to call it and headed back to Pensacola to work my way back to Nashville. I realized when i was driving away from PCB that I didn't get one picture of the beach so I pulled to the side of the road outside of Seaside, FL and snapped these photos. Another storm was coming in but it made these pictures look perfect.

I love how this picture is like the perfect beach-made aisle that leads you to the ocean...gorgeous

I guess there are always blessings in disguise like the fact that I was able to attend Seven22 (midweek service at my sister's church) and was incredibly blessed and refreshed by worship and the teaching. And I also got to spend some time catching up with Pensacola friends. I actually spent the entire day on Wednesday working in FL (how did I get sooo much work that needed to be done?!?) and then headed back to Nashville. It was a long drive and I got back later than I had hoped, but it saved me having to take time off and it was such a productive day. It all worked out for the best in the end!

Studio Time

Saturday afternoon, Amy and I drove out to the little town of Berrydale (and I mean little country town) to Bryan's Uncle & Aunts home because they have a shed turned studio out back and I got the opportunity to actually record a song. The whole recording process is something that's been in the top 10 of my "bucket" list and it was quite an experience. I was a bundle of emotions....excited, nervous, anxious, happy, frightened, delighted....I pretty much covered them all. It was such a fun experience and though I'll spare you having to suffer through listening to the finished product (you are always your worst critic, I know) and let you see some fun pictures instead:

Bryan was getting me all set up to sing (notice my frightened look)

I might not sound great but I have always loved to sing.

Once you are in a small confined space for a while....things get a little whacky.

Bryan worked his sound magic and made me sound so much better.
Mission Accomplished!

The Crab Trap

Here are pictures we took after eating at The Crab Trap. I puffy heart fresh FL seafood.

The restaurant was right next to Pensacola Bay.

Bryan and Amy = Bramy

It was a fun evening hanging out with Bramy :)

Vacay Time

Finally...I have survived the insane work schedule of this summer and am heading to the sunshine state for some much needed R&R.  I did a little bit of work stuff before heading out of town yesterday and made the drive to Pensacola to spend the weekend with my sister, Amy.  I arrived just in time to enjoy some fresh seafood.  We ate dinner at The Crab Trap in downtown Pensacola. It's a new place right down on Pensacola Bay and we had a great table with a beautiful picture window view of the bay.  I enjoyed a piece of grilled Amberjack, Corn on the Cob and Steamed Potatoes.  We took some pictures outside as the sun was setting but I haven't uploaded them yet (I'll post them later).  We came back to the house were Amy is house-sitting and killed a little time until meeting up with her roomie, Erin to see "The Time Traveler's Wife".  I read the book two summers ago and really didn't enjoy it for the simple fact that it was so hard to follow.  The movie itself was much better and thankfully, not as emotionally draining as I had expected!

Tomorrow's plan is to sleep in a little, go to the gym and workout (glad I'll be able to get in a run) and then lounge poolside after.  In the evening, we are going to drive out to Jay and spend some time with Bryan in his studio.  I am so excited about getting the opportunity to actually sing/record in a studio.  This is something that is on my "bucket list".  As much as I have always loved music and singing, I have always longed for the chance to record in a studio.  I'm sure it will be an experience to blog about! Sunday will be church and hopefully meet up with some friends and then I'm driving over to Panama City Beach to meet up with my aunt Tammy and cousin Tiffany.  This is our annual "girls" trip and we have a condo for the week.  So excited that I can hardly stand it.

YEAH FOR VACAY!

Kitchen Kraziness

I'll admit it....whenever i step into a kitchen it's nothing but craziness.  I use the sink and manage to get water everywhere...anytime I have to get into flour/sugar or any other substance similar in nature, it's on every counter top appliance and sometimes even ends up in my hair (don't ask).  Sharing this knowledge you would ask "why" would I ever think that I could possibly manage multi-tasking when it comes to the kitchen.  Perhaps I have disillusioned myself into believing that because I am such a good multi-tasker with work that this would be the same case in other areas of my life. Clearly, I have fooled myself.

Last night I was talking to a friend on my way home from the gym.  I hadn't been able to connect with her in a while so I wanted to know what was going in her life.  I was also starving and knew that the window to make dinner was quickly coming to an end so I knew what I needed to do.  Talk on the phone WHILE making dinner.  If I stuck with my usual post-gym dinner of a bowl of cereal then all would have been fine. However, I decided that I would make pancakes.  I know it's crazy but I grew up in a family where you had breakfast for dinner almost every other week so pancakes sounded like the perfect option for dinner.  Thanks to my friend Ruthann, I have found a great whole wheat mix from Trader Joe's that makes delicious pancakes.  Yet, I am no family of four so I have to take their pancake recipe and halve all the ingredients.  So I halve the ingredients (or at least i thought I had) and continue on with my phone conversation to my friend.  I mix the eggs, whole wheat mix, milk and oil and whip it good.  My skillet is heated and ready to go and my mix appears to be thoroughly beat into submission.  I end the phone conversation with my friend because at least I have some sense to not attempt to cook while talking on the phone but it was too late. I pour my pancake batter into the skillet and notice quickly that it's rather liquidity.  I am perplexed at this but it still seems to be cooking up. The pancake flip was rather tricky as it wasn't cooking correctly but I still managed to get 5 pancakes out of this mix.  It wasn't until I took a bit that I quickly began to put together the puzzle of my pancake debacle.  With the strong taste of egg in my first bit, I quickly realized that while talking on the phone I had halved all the ingredients EXCEPT the eggs.  It tasted more like eggy-toast than a pancake but with a little syrup it wasn't that bad.  I only ate two and threw out the rest.

I learned my lesson!  So when I mustered up enough courage to enter the kitchen tonight to make Zucchini Bread I knew what had to be done....I left my phone up in my room :)

Weekend O' Birthday Fun

What a great weekend I had back in Indiana. It was such a nice break to be able to get out of town and spend such quality time with my family. I pray that I never take my family for granted...they are such a blessing and a joy! Here's a little recap:

• Had dinner with my mom and dad at Hacienda (my favorite local Mexican restaurant)
• Enjoyed Starbucks and wandered around Barnes & Noble with my mom after yummy dinner.
• Went to bed by 10 pm so that I could actually wake up at 5:30 am to run in Evansville Half Marathon 5k training race with my daddy-o.
• Completed 5k race with an "unofficial" time of 31:45...not too shabby.
• Spent about 5 hours with my mom shopping (my mom has a little ritual of shopping by herself for her birthday but was kind enough to let me tag along).
• Visited with my grandma on Saturday afternoon while waiting for my mom to grill delicious steaks for dinner.
• Scarfed down delicious steaks for dinner and then rushed to meet Tiffany to watch the new movie "Julie & Julia".
• Was in bed again by 10 pm because of exhausting day spent with family.
• Barely woke up in time (almost 12 hours of sleep, really?) to make it to church with my sister Holly.
• Over indulged in Sunday birthday celebration lunch with my family and grandparents at Sirloin Stockade (think buffet on drugs).
• Suffered death by birthday cake and ice cream...resulting in an hour "food coma" nap on my parents couch.
• Still recovering from said food coma, I managed to drag all my belongings to my car and drive back to Nashville.

That pretty much sums up my weekend at home. Here are a couple pictures for your viewing pleasure:

I have the most beautiful niece in the world (ok...I'm a little bias)

Happy 57th to my mom (August 9th) and Happy 84th to my grandpa (August 11th)
The birthday father and daughter
Me and my sweet grandparents.

BonVoyage

That is for my boss and her husband who have once again set sail around The World. This week did not disappoint with being extremely busy and sometimes completely insane BUT once again I was able to push through and survive! What better timing than to head back to Indiana for a little family time. I don't think there will be too much "down" time while home this weekend but it's still nice to get away from the recent busy-ness.

Tonight I'll just be vegging with my parents and Elaysha (Holly is working tonight). Tomorrow will start early with my dad and I running the 5k YMCA Half Marathon Training race. I am hoping that my weeks of consistent running and exercise will be evident and would love a decent time. Luckily this court is flat and I've actually ran it several times. And to brag for just a second, I got my fastest 5k time on this course 2 years ago. But TRUST ME...that will not be the case tomorrow. After running, I'm going to spend the better part of the day shopping with my mom. Her birthday is on Sunday the 9th and she wants to shop! Go ahead, twist my arm :) Sunday will be birthday celebration day because it will be my mom's actual birthday AND my grandpa's birthday is on the 11th so Sunday we will be celebrating their birthdays. FUN TIMES!

Hope to have some fun pics to post after this weekend.

Cravings for Singleness

My friend Heather forwarded me an email update from a blog called Flying Solo which fit perfectly into some of our lunchtime discussion. Here is just an excerpt that encouraged me the most.

He knows the relationships we crave. He also knows how intricately He made us and the person who can fit into that perfectly. If we can trust Him with other things why do we have so much trouble trusting Him to bring us the person He designed for us? He looked at Adam and had no trouble realizing he shouldn’t be alone. And out of Adam’s rib he made Eve. Why in the world would we doubt that first, he doesn’t want us to be alone, (unless you know for a fact you’re called to singleness) or that he couldn’t stop the world, take out a rib if necessary and bring to us the companion He created. It’s not a prayer for the weak. It is a prayer for the one who desires to remove the distraction, and trust the Creator of the Universe to know us well enough and love us deeply enough to bring His woman or His man to us in His perfect time.

Fighting something...I suppose.

Well I woke up on Friday completely exhausted, scratchy throat and just not well. I had suspected that perhaps the fatigue was a warning sign that I was trying to fight off something. I was hoping for a shorter work day but to no avail. It was after 6pm for I headed home and I did nothing other than rest and watch the last disc of "Mad Men" Season 2. I am now current in my viewing of Mad Men and can't wait for Season 3 to begin on August 16th. I got a good night's sleep so I proceeded with my plan to do my usual 1 hour spin class on Saturday morning. Perhaps I didn't feel as good as i felt because about 15 mins. in to class I was toast. I dug deep and somehow pushed through the hour class but when it was over, I was light headed and spent. I took a nice long shower at the Y and tried to regain my strength. I went out to the pool and took about a 30 minute nap and then ate some lunch but just didn't feel good so I headed home. I basically just rested the rest of the afternoon and evening at home.
Sunday I felt much better so I made it to church in the morning, had lunch with Crazy Amy at the Sonic (love the Sonic especially when the weather is nice enough to sit outside and eat), stopped by the new Sephora in Franklin where my friend Tammy is the store manager and indulged in some beauty products thanks to a gift card I had from my birthday, talked to my family in IN and then got in a 4 mile run before heading home. Since I seemed to have hit a plethora of energy, I did laundry, cleaned up my room and made a trip to recyclable drop. That probably explains why I had such a good night's sleep OR perhaps it's because heaven only knows this week is going to be INSANE.