Favorites from January

Happy Friday y'all! 

Today I am linking up with Andrea to share some of my favorites from this month :) 

First up my favorite flowers..

Last weekend I celebrated quite possibly my favorite birthday yet with these flowers. #25rosesfor25years :)

My Favorite Recipe

Something really really interesting happened this month...

I cooked!! Without having the fire department come over :) Here's to hoping my furture husband and I won't starve to death. #justcallmepauladeen

Although I don't think it was sufficient enough to check it off my bucket list.  However, if you know me, or have read this blog for a little while, you know how big of a deal that is considering I almost always burn toast! It was so simple with minimal clean up. You can find the actual recipe here. 

The Husband's Secret by Liane Moriarty.

I had been hearing so much about this book over the past few months so I decided to give it a try. I'm not gonna lie, it took me a while to get into this book. It started off slow if you ask me. But all of my friends kept talking about it and it had such great reviews, I kept telling myself not to give up on it. I'm so glad I didn't. This book was really good. I can't wait to read her other novels.

Dance Moms

A new season recently started and I am still obsessed with Abby! She's cray and a hot mess and I love it! 

My new TV obsession:

I loveee this new show on Lifetime! It's my new favorite show. Its kind of like Jeopardy with little kids and they are super smart. Like IQ's in the top 0.1 percentile type of smart. One of them is 10 years old and already in college. Each week, they get asked a series of questions from various topics such as the human body. Who ever gets the most right gets to move on to the next round.

And I am so happy TGIT is back!

Here I am channeling my inner Meridith Grey :)

Eeek! 

#iheartshondarhimes

#shondaisagenius

My {Surprise} 25th Birthday!

This past weekend I turned 25 and it was one for the books! Seriously. It may have been my favorite birthdays yet! 

I wasn't sure how I'd feel on the actual day I turned 25. The expectations I had for myself up until this point were completely different from reality haha. It's sort of like the mentality of thinking being 30 is old  until you get close to it then you think...mmm yea not so much ;). This weekend came and went and it was such a blur! I am so happy I managed to snap a few pictures so I can remember everything that happened.

 Friday the sun was finally out (after an entire week of gloom) and it was actually a little warm. I got a little studying done then headed out for ice cream with my mom.

I usually get the same thing when we go out for ice cream; Usually chocolate everything but on this day I decided to get the combo called the 'birthday cake remix' and it was all sorts of delish! 

Saturday was my actual birthday and everyone was acting super weird. It wasn't until about 3:00 that afternoon that I realized that I hadn't seen my mom since about noon and that I hadn't spoken to Keith (who was coming from out of town) since about 11 am. They were practically ignoring me. I knew we'd all had dinner reservations at 5:00 that evening so I thought I'd just see everyone that night.

So what did I do to pass the time?

I took selfies...

And went to Starbucks of course

I then took a picture of my phone symbolizing the day...Me and my poor phone were besties on this particular day haha

When I finally got a chance to check in with my mom, she confirmed that we'd be meeting at Olive Garden (one of my favorite restaurants) at 5. Keith and I were a little late so my mom all of a sudden calls and says, she wanted to go to Yamato's, a Japanese restaurant close to Olive Garden. She said she was already there and couldn't change her seat. 

I was mad.

 I can't even lie. 

On the way I was thinking of all the bratty/snotty things I would say about looking forward to Italian cuisine for weeks and how could my mom all of sudden change her mind to something completely different.

 Once Keith and I finally got there, I turned the corner, prepared with my mouth full of these thoughts, and all of my family and friends greet me with smiles and hugs. I just about died. It takes a lot to surprise me. 

ALOT. 

After the fact, I realized I totally should have known. My mom had been dropping hints by asking me the names and phone numbers of some of my friends hahaha. It must have been sleep deprivation from school already starting to set in, because I totally did not catch on.

The crazy part about the whole thing was that my mom and Keith had known about it for weeks. WEEKS.  And neither of them had let on. I know its a surprise, but I thought one of them would have let it slip, considering I'm around one or both of them at all times....but nope. They were both as tight lipped as ever.

I was double fisting on the deserts. (Because, why not)  The sherbert was from the restaurant and the cupcakes were some my mom decided to have baked. :)

There were so many people there and I couldn't get pictures with everyone :(. But this was one of my favs :) : My god-brother Lee, me and Keith :) I love those two so much !

I love my mama! 

On Sunday Keith and I decided to take advantage of the gorgeous weather. But not without taking a pit-stop to Starbucks of course 

That night we went to a restaurant called Michaels on the Alley. Neither of us had ever been there so we had no idea what to expect. ( I will say I was not expecting for it to be on an actual alley. Like legitimately tucked away).

It was so elegant..and super dark inside. This candle was pretty much our only light haha. 

And some of the drinks were named in tribute to one of my favorite authors! I love Ernest Hemingway :) 

25 roses for 25 years!

Thank you to everyone who sent happy birthday wished via the sweet calls, text messages, comments on social media and emails. This birthday was the perfect start to my mid/soon to be late twenties. I am so thankful to my amazing family and friends! 

Tips and Tricks for Organization

Today I am linking up with Andrea to share my tips and tricks for Organization!

School days are hard sometimes and life can but b.u.s.y! Being organized helps the day goes by that much smoother and easier :).

I love making lists. Each time I check something off, I feel so much more accomplished. Whenever I have something big coming up such as finals or a vacay, I turn into a list making crazy person hahaha.

Last month I shared my tips and tricks for surviving finals  and on Saturday I shared my list of things I'd like to get accomplished in the next few years. (Because everyone's life needs a road map haha). 

This is my desk on any given day. I can't wait to see other ways to be more organized  and keep up with life's busy-ness :)

25!

 
I'm 25 today. Eeek! I really can't believe that. I know that's not old. But still. Its a quarter century. Jeez!

Maybe it's because I still get carded every single place we go. 

Maybe it's because I still call to talk to my mom at least 4 times a day. 

Maybe it's because I still watch the Disney channel and eat pizza for breakfast.

Or maybe it's because I looked like this when I was 20...

 And now I look like this

Don't I look the same? {Actually, I don't think I do but so many people thing otherwise} Graceful aging perhaps?

Whatever it is, I am so happy and blessed to get to go on this crazy journey called life with some ahh-mazing people. I'm so thankful for my health and wonderful support system.  I also get to share this day with some pretty neat folks! On this day, and everyday I wish for prosperity and wisdom and to make the most of each day and this season. I know I will look back on this time in my life and think, this was the best time of my life. I hope things don't change too much in this next year but with the changes that do come I hope to take them in stride with poise and confidence.

Who knows what this year will bring. Whatever it is, I'm ready!

Here's to being a quarter of a century old! To check my bucket list of things I'd like to get to before turning 30, click here.
XO

Mid month Confessions

Today I am so excited to be linking up with two of my favorite bloggers to confess some of my most recent epic fails challenging moments.

I recently starting reading E's blog, and instantly fell in love. And as you may recall, I stalked read  Heather's blog for a while before starting my own :).  Both of these girls are seriously awesome so be sure to check out their lists too!

• I spent a good 30 minutes making my coffee the other morning only to leave it on top of my car and silently ugly cry when I saw it falling down my rear windshield 

•  I have a fatal attraction to football. Well actually all sports but especially football. And by fatal attraction I mean, 'scream at the television about penalties and touch downs' type of attraction. I may or may not have thrown several objects at the TV this past weekend. ;) 

• I usually take vitamins every day. A regular one a day, every day and then if I need a little pick me up, or if I've had a super busy day I'll take a b12 and I don't have time to make tea but still need my brain to settle down, I'll take a melatonin vitamin...the other night I took a b12 instead of melatonin. Needless to say, it was a long night.

•  I have mixed feelings about turning 25 on Saturday. A part of me is pumped! The other part of me is a little sad. Part of me feels like this....

via

but for the most part I feel like this....

I'm trying to embrace the whole 'older but wiser' thing. Who came up with that anyway?

• I tend to have frequent, full out jam sessions in my car. Especially when I know it's going to be a long day. I love them. But its especially awkward when the person on the side walk catches you and T. Swift jamming out to 1989 at 7:30 am. #dontjudgeme

Birthday Boy

Yesterday was our first days back to school and work. I'm exhausted after such a fun weekend which is not a good sign since it's only Tuesday haha. Here's a recap of what we did. 

On Wednesday night, I went to a traditional New Year's Eve church service with my family. I love bringing in the New Year in one of my favorite places. 

Then we kicked off the weekend at a bar in downtown Charleston called Republic.

It was so gorg inside! 

 

My cousin Amber lives in Charleston and our cousin Brandon was visiting. I love these two so much. Life makes it super hard for us to hang out more often. booo!

On Saturday Keith and I went to grab a bite to eat at one of our favorite restaruants.

Quick selfie with the handsome birthday boy

Yummy entrees

That my friends is mac and cheese with lobster and shrimp. Talk about a surf and turf. I decided to order broccoli to balance out the 13,000 calories I'm sure were in the mac and cheese ;) 

Funny story behind this picture: While Keith was parking the car, I ran in to 'get a pager'. But in all actuality, I knew there wouldn't really be a super long wait, I just wanted to get in to tell the hostess that Keith's birthday was the next day and to ask if they could please, please be sure to bring him a cake.  The hostess could really care less. She was too focused on my last name being the same name as the street the restaurant was located on... Rivers Avenue. She wanted to know if I was related to the people who founded the road and sold the land to all the restaurants on the road etc. (insert my dumbfounded look here) before telling me that it was up to me to tell our waitress that it was Keith's birthday and that I needed them to bring him a surprise cake. #awesome. Thankfully, Keith and I both get carded every where we go so our sweet waitress, Stephanie noticed his birthday stamp on his license and brought him a little sweet surprise after all. :)

This guy

And it came with two spoons! Win win :)

That night we went to a local grille bring in Keith's actual birthday.

The handsome birthday boy.

I love him :) 

The first weekend of 2015 has come and gone and it was a blast!  This was the perfect way to bring in the New Year and celebrate celebrate one of my favorite people with some of my favorite people! 

Chirstmas 2014

I get this is a tad backwards but I wanted to be sure to document our Christmas festivities from this past year.
If I could describe my mom's personality in one word, I'd say she'd fit right in with these fine folks...

 

That's right, she'd totally be a who! 

 

Actually, I'm sure if you look really close you could probably see her standing somewhere in this picture;) She has always made the Christmas season so magical and special for our entire family which makes me appreciate her even more.  Every year we go to a Christmas tree farm to pick out and cut down our tree this year was no exception. We went on a Sunday, and decided to stop for pancakes right after church, before going to get the tree.

This place has the BEST pancakes. Seriously. This summer when we went, I got peach pancakes, this time around I decided to try Strawberry Belgium waffles and they were as awesome as they look. 

After heading home to change and rest, we headed out to get the tree.

We have been coming to the same Christmas tree farm since I was 3 years old and it still looks the same

We walked around the farm for a long time before finally finding a tree. My mom only likes to get the red Cedar trees and they didnt have many this year  so we finally settled for this one

This was one of the smallest trees we have ever gotten. We nicknamed him 'Charlie'. Here I am cutting it down :)

Each year, my mom and I host our entire family over for Christmas dinner. I look forward to this time especially because my mom and I get to bond over one of the things we love most...food! 

On Christmas morning, Santa came!  Yep, we still leave cookies and milk for him :)

 Cub's stocking on Christmas morning filled with goodies he must have been good this year :)

Here are a few pictures after all the madness was over.

I absolutely love Christmas and all the lights and magic and family that comes along with it.