A Day with Barry

By some miracle, Barry and I both got a Friday off together. Of course we pounced on that knowledge and made plans to go to garden centers. I was on the hunt for a weeping cherry tree for my Mom(which turned out to be way past my budget, so I got her a ton of succulents instead), and Barry just loaded up on lovely succulents to decorate her apartment. We had such a good time exploring and picking out plants! I hope this miracle of girl's days end up happening more often!

McDonald's bathroom selfies!

She loves this little cactus, hehe!

My favorite place to be!

Such a tall guy!!

I love him.

 Oh and it just happened to be Earth Day when we went! Fancy that.

Galentines Day

 For Galentines day(before you try and correct my spelling go watch Parks and Rec then report back to me), I invited my girls out. Sadly everyone had to work except Kendra, but that didn’t stop us from having a blast-blast!! We went to Chloe’s Asian Gourmet and had some delicious sushi and took lots of silly snapchat videos. Normally it takes a couple of rolls to fill me up, but that coconut shrimp really gets me there, it’s all I need. But of course we still got mochi for desert!

Carriage Hill Farm

Since the weather was so nice on Groundhog's day, Joe and I decided to go on a hike and of course brought Steve! We hiked some slightly muddy trails around the lake and then decided to go and check out the farm. After making kissy noises at the sheep for a few minutes, a goat led them all over to us. They were all so cute, the goat loved being scratched behind the antlers and one of the sheep figured out how to scratch his bum on the fence which was hilarious. There were also some friendly chickens in a coop, some turkeys, and horses that were too busy eating hay to hang out with us. It was a pretty great trip!

Two dorks on da farm.

Goat selfie!

Budz

Slumber Party

I always insist on photobooth pics!

Its hard to get any group of friends together, but I still manage to wrangle all my high school besties into one place every once in a while. With a month or more notice, we were all able to request off work and everyone came to spend the night with me. It was a lot like our old slumber parties, except a little calmer and with booze, haha. We went out to dinner at Christopher’s and got ice cream at Coldstone, then came home and gossiped away into the night until we realized it was nearing 7am. I had so much fun catching up with these hilarious and sweet ladies, I can’t wait to do it again. I’m hoping for next month on the 13th for ‘Galentines day’ ;)

Rachel and Kendra

Lyzzy and I

All of us!

Christmas 2015

Lynne came up from Tennessee to do some shopping with me!

Oh Christmas Steve, Oh Christmas Steve!!!

The antlers pull his face skin back a bit, haha!

Charmin anxiously awaiting present opening.

I got a TV!!

Blurry but cute Charmin and I.

I am forever convincing him he's a lap dog.

Mom being cute, and Dad opening a photo frame I got him.

I’m thankful my wonderful supportive family and friends who were there to make it an awesome holiday season. I’m just going to dump all my photos of the time period off here now and caption them. I hope you all had lovely holidays too :)

366 Project - Week 1

I started a 365 project on a whim with the start of the new year, which I think will actually be a 366 because it’s a leap year right? Nothing fancy, just a push to make sure I use my camera’s more often and try to stay creative and look at life from all angles to find beauty everywhere. This is what I captured on the first week of 2016!

1/366 - Dinner at Taqueria Mixteca with Sophie!

2/366 - Night out at the movies with friends.

3/366 - Reading this magazine Sophie got me after work.

4/366 - Dinner with sweet Barry after work.

5/366 - Family dinner for Dad's Birthday

6/366 - I got a hyacinth bulb from kroger in a jar of water for $2.50 and it's already bloomed. It makes my room smell heavenly, and it feels like Spring is just around the corner.

7/366 - My new Rifle Paper co Agenda arrived!

26 times around the sun

Honestly, my 26th birthday was something I kind of dreaded. For some reason I had it in my head that no one would remember it was my birthday since I didn’t have Facebook to send out that helpful reminder anymore. My Mom had surgery on her shoulder two days before so I couldn’t hang out with her like I normally did. Plus it meant I was halfway through my twenties and I thought the older you got the less people would care.
Boy, was I wrong!
Silly me, I forgot I am surrounded by lots of wonderful people who love me just as much as I love them! Everyone came together to make me feel super special and loved and I ended up having one of the best birthdays I’ve ever had.
I worked that morning and my regulars gave me extra tips to show love. Barry, my coworker helpfully announced to everyone it was my birthday which I appreciated because I don’t really want to toot my horn about my birthday, but I do want to feel like the center of the universe haha. Anne, my boss(I mean these people are also my good friends, but I for some reason want to announce I work with them first haha so you know how I know them) showed up to relieve me from my shift with the most beautiful flowers and chocolate!
I went home to let Steve out for a bit, then Sophie showed up and we went out to dinner at one of my favorite restaurants, Christopher’s. We decided to get bloody Mary’s to celebrate, and had a delicious meal. My sandwich was on the house their treat, and Sophie treated me to extras. Then we went to the mall and tried on makeup at Sephora :)
Finally I met back up with Anne and Barry at a restaurant in the Oregon District called Corner Kitchen. Anne treated me to poutine(friggin delicious) and a pear drink, and Barry alerted the Staff it was my birthday and they brought me fried dough with berries and chocolate dipping sauce with a candle in it and the whole restaurant sang Happy Birthday to me! I don’t think that’s ever happened to me, and I felt so special. It was such a treat!
I also got loving phone calls, video chats, and messages, from family and friends who couldn’t be with me but wanted to let me wish me happy birthday. I want everyone to know I am so grateful you’re all in my life and I love you all so much! Thank you for making my 26th birthday so amazing!!