Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Khloe Turns One!



This past Saturday, we celebrated sweet Evan and her adorable baby girl, Khloe, turning one! It seems like just yesterday we were baby sitting and asking what types of snacks could she have. Boy how time flies!
The party was at this cute little gym in Columbia and was so much fun!
It was so hard to get a picture of this one! She was on.the.move! And when did she start walking?!

 I mean seriously, how cute its this little place?! Everything was a miniature version of the real thing!


For the birthday girl :)  




Singing happy birthday :) 

Yay! Cake!

Love these sweet girls! (l-r Randi, Evan, and Kayla) I am so thank for God finally allowing our paths to cross. 


 It was so great to get to fellowship and celebrate our sweet Khloe! (However, It was bitter sweet because it means a new school year is approaching quickly) Happy birthday sweet girl! Here's to many more!



Monday, July 14, 2014

Summer Reading 2014

I love to read. It makes me happy. I have been reading and writing since I can remember and it has always been my passion. One of the reasons I started this blog was so that I could have an outlet to write down my thoughts and document the special moments and people in my life. While at Clemson, I quickly realized I wouldn't make it if I didn't have a chance to read or write. There was one point in my college career that I seriously thought about being a teacher. I decided I would teach English, and not ever have to look at a derivative or find the inverse of anything and Keith would be the math-whizzy engineer.  Life would be grand and Keith and I would live happily ever after. But God had other plans for me. Alas, I decided to pick English as my minor and Biology as my major. The best of
both worlds :)

This summer I have been reading various novels, I usually try to read 2 per week. My ideal novel has a mixture of suspense + romance + a little mystery.

Favorite Reads/Authors:
Toni Morrison
I love novels by Toni Morrison because they make you think. At the end of each one of her novels I find myself thinking for days about whether or not she meant one thing or another. I can recall analyzing The Bluest Eye for weeks in one of my English Literature courses haha.
Anything by Ann Brashares
Jane Eyre-Charlotte Bronte-
Its really not as bad as most people think! I would defenently recommend reading it.
The Brave-Nicholas Evans
 This novel, as do many of his other novels, has everything. Suspense, romance, loss, you name it it has it.

The Great Gatsby-F. Scott Fitzgerald

Poems by Robert Frost

Poems Emily Dickenson
(I was not a fan of Emily Dickenson when I first began reading her poems, but then I to know here story and her poems started making so much more sense)
To Kill A Mockingbird
I have begin to notice this novel popping up on a lot of reading lists for children as young as elementary school ages. When we were forced to read this in middle school I was dreading it! My teacher said it would be a ‘deep’ novel so I had a ‘deep sadness’ going into to it and coming out of it ha! Then I read it again in high school, and it started to make a little more sense. Once I read it in college, I begin to relate to Scout and the meaning really began to drive home. This has since become one of my favorite novels to read over and over again. It is somewhat like the lesson that keeps on teaching.

What I’ve read this summer:
The Help:
This is my favorite book of all time. I read it every.single.summer. And I watch the movie every year at Christmas. I’m not sure why. There is absolutely nothing in the novel that remotely suggests Christmas time :)
The Hunger Games:
These are novels that I was kind of ‘eh’ about reading. Netflix started streaming the first movie a few months ago  and after watching I knew I wanted to get my hands on the book since they usually tell the real story. And they did.

Novels By Elin Hilderbrand
This is a new author that I had never heard of before this summer. She is a New York Times Best Seller though and an amazing writer. I would defently recommend
The Island
Silver Girl

On my list to read this summer:
The Castaways- Elin Hilderbrand
Eat Pray Love-Elizabeth Gilbert
Water for Elephants-Sara Gruen


Nineteen Minutes-Jodi Picoult
What Alice Forgot-Liane Moriarty
Life in Motion- Misty Copeland
The Antelope in the Living Room-Melanie Shamkle


There is seriously nothing better than I good book in my opinion. Even just a good read can make all the difference in a good day and a great day :)
Today I am linking up with Tiffany and Chelsee



Thursday, July 10, 2014

Movie Review: Transformers: Age of Extinction

Disclaimer: If you or anyone you know is going to see this movie, be sure to go earlier in the day OR to Starbucks for a Venti Macchiato :)  
Last weekend, Keith and I went to see...
Transformers!
Don't get me wrong, we actually do see a lot of chick flicks too! Way more than I care to admit. But for any guy who willingly watches hours of Desperate Housewives reruns and who keeps up with the latest episode of Scandal and Dance Moms deserves a little man movie time if you ask me. Its all about compromise :) Now I can't say this movie was so great and mind-blowing. but I can say that it was okay and loooonnnggg! But very action-y towards the middle/end. This was the first movie of the series that did not feature Shia Lebeouf which I was pretty bummed about; but it was still directed by Micheal Bay who is a certified genius in his own rite. 
The story line centered around a single father and mechanic, Cade Yeager,  (Mark Wahlber) who was pretty much just trying to make it.  His daugter Tessa (Nicole Peltz, is a senior in high school who cannot wait to leave from under her dad's roof. Cade uses the money of a friend to buy an old run down truck in an attempt to fix it and potentially get a a cash reward. But we all know what happens with the best-laid plans. This truck turns out to be the leader of the Autobots, Optimus Prime (Peter Cullen).
Pros: 
  • The ultimate pro was the transforming! #duh. I love it when they cars actually turn into real walking/talking beings
  • There was the perfect balance of action and romance {Go see it! You'll see it kind of turns into The Notebook all the way at one point :) }
  • I loved it that they writers stuck to the original plot and story line of Transformers that we know and love.


Cons:
  • I've said it once and I'll say it again: This movie was looonngg! We went in at 4:00 and got out exactly at 7:00. We toyed with the idea of going to a later show, but the actual running time of the movie is about 2 hours and 40 minutes...factor in the previews and you have the Titanic all over again. 
  • There were a lot of references to the third movie. I was somewhat lost in the beginning because of these references and to be honest, I can't exactly remember what happen in the third movie. 

If you're into action movies like we are, then you'll love this movie. The 3D feature is the best thing since popcorn if you ask me and the film makers definitely took this feature and used it to their advantage. :)
My rating: 4 out of 5 stars