Julie and Juila: An inspiration

This is something my 16 year old self would never believe I am saying now. I love to cook. There is something special about food. About sharing a meal together. Jesus did it with his disciples, the early church did it and today it is one of the main social activities we do. It's such an odd thing really..it's one of the grossest things we do, but that doesn't change the fact that there is something to eating with one another. And we might as well eat well right? :)

 I love the process of cooking, it's soothing. I love the smells and the sounds. I love the outcome. I love making a presentation out of the plate and that first bite. It makes it so much better when you have someone to cook for. When they enjoy it and let you know. I don't even mind the clean up.

I am sitting in my bed watching Juile and Julia and really really realizing how much I love it. I want to be able to make those delicious looking things and throw amazing dinner parties.

I guess you just take it one recipe at a time. But I do believe that while I have more time than I may ever have again in my life I will devote more of it to cooking new things and mastering the meals I already love.

Trying new recipes and finding new meals I love is such a fun adventure. So, if any of you have any amazing recipes that you love I would love to know them and give them a try! So send them my way!!

All of this cooking will have to start tomorrow though. It's time for bed. I will go and dream of fancy meals and wonderful wine around a table with friends.

Funk

I read a post similar to the one I am about to post over at I Love You To the  Moon. Funny, I was planning on blogging about this earlier today and then read her post. Anyway..let's get on with it.

I have had one of those weeks. You know the ones. I have been in such a funk, and I know exactly why, but knowing why doesn't always make it easier to get out of it. I have been a grey cloud and have cried at random times for no reason and I have slept horribly and eaten poorly and haven't exercised.I have beat myself up about it, which has made everything worse.
But you know what?
It's ok.
It's ok to have a bad day .
It's ok to not be perfect with my workouts or my diet.
It's ok to cry ( but if you randomly start crying around your boyfriend be sure to inform him that it wasn't his fault....)
It is not ok, however to beat myself up or to dwell on those feelings. So I choose to let them go. To take a deep breath and close my eyes and count my blessings and be so thankful for the life I have. It's pretty impossible to be sad when you are being thankful.
And if that doesn't work...
I will remember that MY MOMMA is coming to visit me tomorrow for the weekend! That is reason enough for that funk to get to gettin.

one year later

A year. 365 days.
Amazing things can happen in that amount of time.
You can meet someone
Become friends, best friends
Have heart ache and tears and frustration
Let go of your fears and take a chance
Fall in love. More in love than you thought possible
Learn someone. And have them learn you.
Discover what it means that "relationships are work"
Have someone to plan the future with, to hold you when another door closes and the tears come
To have them say "We're in this together"
All of these things you never imagined would be happening to you just one short year ago.
It makes your mind wonder, "what new gift will I come across today, or tomorrow?"
 or
"what gift have I already come across but don't realize it yet?" 

Life is such an adventure. And I am so thankful I have someone to come along for the ride. 

Happy Times

Things that made me happy lately:

A favorite summer drink   

New fun hair 

Some frozen yogurt and free music in the park 

Grilling out with my man after he was gone all weekend  

A dress that makes me feel pretty 

Happy tunes 

A nice long bubble bath 

An afternoon by the pool 

Beach Trip 2012

PHOTO HEAVY!! 

This last weekend at the beach was perfect. It was exactly what we both needed. Our little house was walking distance from the beach. We spent our days on the beach and our nights grilling and watching Psych and drinking wine. It was wonderful.

CRAZY STORY:

We did get off to a pretty rough start though. The trip there was already making both of us edgy, we were exhausted and just ready to get there. There are no interstates that take you from Nashville to Panama City Beach so we had to take back highways almost the entire way. We were driving through Alabama, almost to the Florida state line and we came up on a little town. The speed limit went from 55 to 35 pretty quickly, and Steve started slowing down. We saw a cop up ahead, and immediately I had a bad feeling. There was a truck in front of us that was clearly going way faster than we were, but the cop pulled out behind us and turned on his lights. We pulled over and he came to the window, asked for Steve's license and insurance and said he was probably going to let us go soon. Then he asked Steve to get out of the car and go talk with him back in-between the two cars. This made both of us pretty nervous. The cop asked Steve if there were any drugs, or weapons or alcohol in the car. Steve said no but the cop didn't believe him. Steve was already nervous and the cop had sunglasses on so Steve apparently kept looking around and the cop said that was a sure sign he was lying. He was convinced we had drugs or weapons in the car. He told Steve that he had two options. He could tell him what we had in the car and we could be out of there in 20 minutes or he could call his partner down with the drug dogs and they could search the car and if they found anything we would both be going to jail. Steve was in shock, he couldn't believe that this cop didn't believe him. The cop then said he had another option. He could come talk to me and see if I had the same story. He came up to my window, and asked me the same thing, if there was anything in the car and if there was I needed to tell him right now because if he found something we would go to jail. I of course said there was nothing and he said that was good enough for him and he let us go. Steve was so shaken up and I kind of was too. Of all people, we couldn't believe that had happened to us. I'm not even sure what weed smells like. That is definitely one of the most memorable road trips I have ever been on. 

Anyway, here are lots of pictures, mostly of the beach and sunsets, of our weekend:

 

 See more after the break 

Back to Reality

Well we are back from our little vacation in Florida and back to real life. It's been a rough one to come back from but we are slowly transitioning back into our lives here in Nashville. I'll blog about the trip soon, with pics and a pretty entertaining story. Until then, have a great day loves!

The beach is calling

Are you ready for another trip announcement? They seem to happen a lot around here, and I am SO OK with that. Tomorrow me and my main squeeze ( if you follow me on Twitter you will know that this is now the second time I have called Steve my "main squeeze" I have no idea what that is about. It just felt right, so I went with it.) are headed to Florida for a long weekend of sun and fun and sand and waves and lazing around. It comes at a perfect time. Things have just been crazy over here and a weekend away together will be just what we need. Just a chance to relax and hang out with each other. My friend Amy's parents have a house two blocks from the beach in Panama City and have SO graciously offered it to us for FREE for the weekend. FREE! It's a total blessing and has made this trip possible for us. I can not thank them enough. So, all that to say tomorrow will start a wonderful weekend at the ocean, my favorite place and I am stoked.