Day #56-58: Raleighwood!

I spent the weekend in one of my favorite cities: Raleigh:) I mean who doesn't hold a special place in their heart for their college town. When I was driving through campus, I got really sad and it made me realize how much I miss college (note: I do NOT miss school at all, JUST college:)).
This weekend was special for a lot of reasons. It was my best friend's 30th birthday, I got to meet her daughter for the first time, a YaYa reunion, and it was also the NCSU tennis reunion. Hello emotions....
So Friday was spent meeting my new favorite person, Charlotte. She is the most cuddly, fun, sweet, beautiful little girl I have ever met:) Can you tell I love her so much already?
She has the BEST facial expressions ever:) She makes my heart smile. All of my favorite YaYas from college came in town as well...we went to an awesome dinner and just stayed up talking for hours. It was wonderful.

Saturday was spent celebrating the birth of my bestie Shae:) We went to lunch, went shopping, went to dinner, and out on the town. Granted, I felt really old being in a bar in a college town, but we can still rock it:) Demel made the trip with me with made it even better!

Sunday was the NCSU tennis reunion! And it was so awesome to see my old teammates and see the new facility. It was such an awesome blast from the past and we had such a good time catching up. Here is a pic of the new facility

Such a fun weekend:) I miss Raleigh, my friends, and baby Charlotte already!

Day #52-55: Photo Fail

I'm not going to lie. I absolutely forgot to take pictures all of last week. It was a rough week with work and I was so distracted that I absolutely forgot. I can give you a quick recap of my week:) Work, Work, Work. I should just post a picture of a bottle of wine because that is what happened after work, work, work. I promise I do have pictures of the weekend!!

Days #49-51: Colorful weekend

It is a sure sign that Spring is on the horizon when all you want to see is bright colors:) Or that you are about to go to Hawaii and you are in full-time summer mode! So I went shopping this weekend and sure enough, everything I bought was incredibly colorful:) I shouldn't complain because this has been the most mild winter EVER, but when can I start wearing everything bright? Is it too soon?

Oh and I went and got a mani/pedi with Kelsey this weekend...more bright colors! And I heard on the Today show today, yes I'm obsessed with the Today show, that the new color for Spring is neon...I think I'm on top of that:)

On I don't even want to post a picture from Friday because all I did was sleep...and fly back to KC. I left the hospital at 6am, went straight to the airport, was home by 1, slept until 6...went to bed at 8...lame. But a picture a day is a picture a day...so here is picture of where I spent my Friday...

Day # 48....

I kind of just want to leave this picture up and let everyone come up with their own ideas of why I was at a sketchy liquor store on the border near Juarez, Mexico....but I am safe and sound now, don't worry!:)
Birthday boy Tom, who we work work, had to work on a conversion on his birthday...terrible. So we decided to go buy him a bottle of Tequila for his birthday. Well we couldn't find a liquor store, so we asked the guys at Subway where the closest one was. They had no idea. So this lady told us about this amazing establishment. My inner debate was, do I stay in the car literally two blocks from Juarez, or go into this place. The guys made me go with them. So the one exciting thing I did today...risk my life;)

Day #47: Conversions = Sleep + Work

You literally sleep and work when you are on conversions...it is even worse when you work the night shift. I'm not even really sure what day it is (?) I think day #47 was Wednesday. Wednesday included of working from midnight to 7, eating breakfast, taking nyquil, sleeping until 4, running a few miles, and back to work...exciting huh? Here is a picture of the sun setting behind the mountains in El Paso. Yep, the desert does have some mountains:)

Day #46: Happy Valentine's Day to Me:)

I'm working night shift this week (boo!), so I spent the majority of the day trying to get on night shift mode...which included sleeping as much as possible. I slept in as late as I could, which was not very late...went to breakfast...took a three hour nap....watched Something Borrowed...a lot of Law and Order SVU...and ran. The highlight of my Valentine's Day was getting room service. I love room service. I always get excited when my hotel as a restaurant because I know I'm going to get awesome room service.

Turkey Avocado Club with Sweet Potato Fries....Happy Valentine's Day to me! <3

Recovery Weekend and First Snow....

Days #42-45....
So I spent the weekend catching up with friends and recovering from my trip de Alaska..it was a much needed recovery weekend...
Friday night I went to Bo-lings (favorite Chinese restaurant in KC) with Becky and our friend Mitch..then we were crazing and went home and watched Dateline..I know, so exciting;) But I love me some Dateline....
Saturday was spent brunching with Jenn, cleaning, unpacking, catching up on life, I ran 5 miles, then finally got to see my long lost friend Erin:) We went to sushi (with Jenn too!) and another exciting ending of the night by watching yet some more TV:)
I went to Church with some friends on Sunday, did my taxes, went to see Safe House (really good!) and then made Paula Dean's Mac and Cheese (yummy!) and watched the Grammy's....okay I actually did a lot this weekend....!!! But it was nice to be home for at least 3 days in a row...and then it snowed. The first snow on February 13th, isn't so bad though right?!? Enjoy some pics from the weekend!:) I flew to El Paso tonight, and I'm sure everyone knows it is not the safest city to be in, so I will not be venturing out much.. so get ready for some excilerating pictures of my hotel room:)

Becks and I at Bo-lings...



Jenn, Demel, and I at Sushi....


Our cute little neighborhood...it was too pretty not to take a picture of:)


Our backyard...the first snow...

Day #34-41: Superbowl and Alaska:)

I'm bacccccckkkkkkk. I apologize, I didn't mean to go a whole week without blogging, but once I tell you about my week, I think you'll understand:) I'm going to do a whole week in one blog! It's going to be a long one....

Day #34: Not Lame:)
I decided to not be lame and actually go out with some friends on Friday, February 3rd. We went to Zocalo, a new place on the plaza, and they have amazing drinks! Here is a picture of me and Becks! One of us is tan and one of us is not:) Super fun night...glad I'm officially not lame;)

Day #35: KU vs. MU
Anyone who lives in Big12 world knows how big this rivarly is! Our friends had a watch party and Jenn decided to bring a homemade KU pie in the midst of a room full of MU fans:) Brave girl! I tried to take a picture of the watch party, but everytime I tried people jumped up and the pictures were terrible. So here is a picture of the pie!


Day #36: Superbowl Sunday!

Baby Nora is here:) We had planned to have a Superbowl Party/Baby Shower for our friends Ashley and Josh, but sweet Baby Nora made a surprise appearance and came a week early! But what a beautiful little girl! She was so chill and hung out all Sunday with everyone! Enjoy a picture of me, Becky, Kelsey and sweet baby Nora!

Day #37-40: Alaskan Adventure!
So about 6 weeks ago, I found out I got a new client....in Bethel, Alaska. Yeah, I had never heard of it either. Then I googled it and then I got scared. Here I was going to the middle of nowhere Alaska, in the Yukon, basically in the Arctic Circle in February...awesome. I knew it was going to be adventure and an adventure it was. About 20 Cerner consultants left on Monday, February 6th to start our trek to the Yukon. We left around 7 am CST and arrived to our hotel around 9 pm AKST (midnight CST)...a 19 hour journey. Bethel, Alaska is the most interesting place I have ever been. There is one paved road, no stoplights, one hotel, a few restaurants...there are really no words. I almost feel like it the Yukon is the forgotten place in America. Granted it is freezing, the ground is permafrost, everything is built on stilts since you can't dig into the ground...I mean even the gas tanks at the one gas station is above ground. Everything is ridiculously expensive, every plane brings a ton of cargo from Anchorage, I mean I can go on and on and on. I'm so glad I got to experience this, but I just pray I will never have to live in a place like that. Enjoy a few of the pictures. It was hard to take pictures since the sun was only up from about 11 am to 6pm (when we were in the hospital)...

The mountains outside of the Anchorage airport! I absolutely love Anchorage (I DO think I can live here:))

The "Welcome to Bethel" sign...as you can see, I'm not completely wrapped up in hats, gloves scarves...it was actually above zero (in the 30s) for the first time in two and half months...we were incredibly lucky!

The airport in Bethel....no words:)

We had 9 hour layover in Anchorage, so we went out to explore a little bit and found these amazing ice sculptures...so fun!

Day #33: Greys Date:)

I love Thursdays, well when Grey's is new! Scottie and I decided to order Chinese and watch Grey's Anatomy...and Tosh.0 from the night before! Can I just tell you that I have a crush on Tosh? Is that weird? I hope not:)
Anyways, Sadie was super cuddly and I'm not going to lie. I loved it. I love cuddly little puppies. As soon as I got my camera, she climbed on top of me, probably trying to eat the camera, since she eats anything anyways. So enjoy a picture of Sadie for day #33.

Day #32: First Day of February and New Hair:)

I went and got my hair did after work today! Can I just tell you how much I love getting my hair done? I love my hair girl, I drink wine, read magazines, and just chill for two hours while she does her thing. I know some people are really particular about their hair, and maybe I just have an awesome girl, but I always just let her do her thing. She knows I like it darker rather than lighter, and I like my hair long, but other than that...I just tell her to do her thing. Here is my "newer" hair:

I really like it:)

Day #31: Enchilida Cassorolle

Agenda for the day: run, work, grocery store, dinner, Nyquil. Boring. Seriously, I was even bored with my life today, but I guess you need a little bit of boring every now and again. I think I mentioned I haven't been feeling awesome as of late, and since I'm going to Alaska next week (hello, NOT BORING!), I figured I should try and get better quick. And there are a bunch of people coming in town for the super bowl, so busy, busy weekend ahead, my end all...I finally took some Nyquil and was asleep at 8:30. Heaven. But before that, I did make enchilida cassorole from Cooking Light and it was actually really good! Becky and Scottie came up and we had a mini-family dinner minus Johnnie.
I wanted to take a picture of the before, but I forgot...oops! Enjoy! OH and we made it all the way through January without snow?? What in the world....here's to hoping February is the same!

Day #30: Celebration at Sol

Some of our really good friends and neighbors, Adam and Kelsey, are moving to Nashville in June! Although, selfishly I'm sad, I'm really excited for them as they start their new adventure! A bunch of us gathered at Sol Cantina (one of our favorite Mexican places in KC--their chicken nachos are amazing!) to celebrate!
Jer wanted to have this blog debut-so here you go Jer-Bear:)

Day #29: Photo Fail

I officially have failed for the first time. I took a picture, but my memory card wasn't in...so no picture. But I can tell you what the picture was:)
I woke up in a funk, not really sure why. I really like to be alone, but sometimes when I'm alone too much...I get in a funk. I think that is what happened. I was just kind of angry, and I'm not an angry person, so I went through a cleaning rampage. I cleaned blinds, baseboards, dusted, laundry, the whole nine yards. I had "clean sheet" night, which is my favorite:) So I took a picture of my newly, cleaned room...clean sheets and all. So I apologize, no picture.
I also ran with Kelsey, went to Church with Anna and Jeremy, and participated in Burger Wars at Tannin. And no lie, Tannin has an excellent burger if anyone is interested!! And back to the grind....:(

Day #28: Spa Day

Ahhhh, a weekend at home. It is amazing. I have been gone for the past few weeks, so I planned to spend the weekend pampering myself. I started on Friday night with dinner with friends. Saturday morning, I went to breakfast with Anna and Jenn again. Why not end "Date Night" with breakfast in the morning;) We went to this cute place called Urban Table. I LOVED it!! They bring your checks in these cute little books:)

AND they had mini-waffles with all different types of syrup...yum:) Anna and I then went to get chemical peels and we got some good skin tips! I have a massage this afternoon! And then I'm going to spend the night, hopefully on my couch, relaxing. I love weekends at home!

Day #27: Date Night

On Friday, I went to dinner with two of my best friends Anna and Jenn:) We went to an awesome place called Trezo Vino! After a long week in the office, it was the perfect way to end the week; dinner and drinks with two of my favorite ladies. We were hoping to go to the cupcake place across the street, but it was closed. We were sad.

Then Jenn came over and we watched Dateline. Yep, we are officially old. It was one of my favorite Friday nights in awhile: dinner, wine, dateline, and bed.

Day #26: Tennis anyone?

So I played tennis tonight with my friend Sam and had so much fun:) It has been like 6 years since I REALLY had fun playing tennis. I think my burn-out my officially be over. Oh, and I have been terrible of remember to take my camera places, so sorry, I just took a picture of the tennis racket in the parking lot:) But it at least represents what I did!



After tennis..Scottie, Johnnie, and I ate dinner whoppers and spaghetti...nice right? And don't worry, I only ate half of a whopper:) Still on the healthy kick! We watched the Ides of March. It was pretty good. Not the best movie, but it kept us entertained. I would recommend a $1 redbox rental:) Happy Friday everyone!!

Day #26: Homemade Soup

So tonight I made potato and cheese soup from scratch:) It was my first attempt..it wasn't bad. It wasn't great, but it wasn't bad. It probably wasn't great because it was from CookingLight.com. We are in full healthy mode at 999 Penn, so it is only healthy eating for the next 6 weeks...so tonight...it was eh:) But at least we didn't eat a lot of cals;)

It was also day #2 of half-marathon training...oh and I still can't move from my "awesome" (please note the sarcasm) class on Monday. But I did manage to crank out 2.5 miles in under 25 minutes...so not bad. I'm going to see how much I can train while running about a 10ish minute mile....so wish me luck!

Day #24: Sush anyone?

Tonight I went to happy hour at Ra Sushi with my friends Anna, Jeremy, and Beth. I forgot my camera in the car, bad me, I took a picture with Beth's camera, but I thought this one from google would work too:)

I love Ra. And the happy hour sushi rolls are amazing:) In other news, I had a client in town today, so it was kind of nice to get away from my cube...oh and I started half-marathon training with my friend Kelsey!

Day #23: Back to the Grind

Today was the first day back in the office in two weeks...and I came back to a nice surprise. My co-worker Janet is known for being super crafty and she makes me things all the time (yes, I know I'm incredibly spoiled). She made me this cute scarf/necklace made out of a t-shirt and I love it! We added the broche for a little bling (no I didn't get the broche).

Other than that, today was pretty normal, although I did go to a new class at the gym tonight and can barely walk. So tomorrow is going to be awesome;) But it's 6 weeks from today that we leave for Hawaii! So no skipping the workouts!

Day #22: The Help

So I flew back from the ATL today, and rented The Help on my IPAD. SO GOOD! I highly recommend it! It made me laugh and cry. I read the book this summer and the movie was not quite as good, but still excellent:) Other than that, I had a good day:) Ate breakfast with my parents, watched Church online, flew back to KC, family dinner with Becks, Johnnie, and Scottie, then finished watching The Help....

Day #20 and #21

My trip to ATL has been awesome so far! I worked from home yesterday while my Mom made my breakfast and did my laundry (rough life I know;)) and then we went to my brother's new house last night and ordered pizza and just hung out.


We wanted to take pictures outside, but it was pouring down rain, so the pictures of us in the door is as close as we got:)
Saturday morning, we went to my best friend from high school's baby shower. My mom hosted it and it was wonderful to get to hang out with my high school friends. Enjoy some pictures from the shower:)

Day #17, 18, and 19: I think I love Louisiana

So, I'm not lying. I really think I might love Louisiana. Although, this week sucked work wise, I made it a point to actually emerse myself in Louisiana as much as I could-and I think I love it.

First of all, let me apologize, the internet at the hotel was terrible and I tried to blog, I really did, but it was taking forever, so I gave up. So tonight is going to be a 3-in-1 deal:)

Day #17 (Tuesday) was actually the worst of the week. It rained all day and Sadie and I sat in the this room for 11 hours straight:

Yep, pretty awesome, huh? There are some Mardi Gras decorations to try and liven it up a bit;)

Day #18 (Wednesday) was MUCH better. The sun was out. It was 65 degrees. And we got to go out for lunch. Sometimes leaving in the middle of the day just makes the day so much better. A group of 6 of us had to get out before we threw our computers out the window, so we walked to this awesome diner down the street. Now, I love me some diner food and this place was amazing. It happened to be next door to this awesome art gallery: http://www.georgerodrigue.com/rodrigue/index2.htm . You might notice the theme: blue dogs; the restaurant I went to last week is based off of George Rodrigue's art, hence the name Blue Dog Cafe. And I think I could have spent hours in this gallery, which is a LOT for me considering I can't spent 20 minutes in the Nelson-Atkins, but this art drew me in. Here are two of my favorites:


The red one was HUGE. I hope to one day have a wall big enough to put a painting this large one. The second was my natural favorite. I'm a sucker for anything showing American pride:) The very nice man running the gallery told me that this painting was painted to raise money after 9/11 and sold out in 3 weeks. The artist donated all proceeds to the Red Cross (1.2 million dollars). I was sold. One day, I want to buy one of these paintings, but I think I need to make a little bit more money first:)

Day #19 (Thursday) was food day! So they have this traditional cake called King Cake in Louisiana, I think they have it other places too, but this was the first I've heard of it. It is a traditional cake that is made from the Epiphany (January 6th) through Fat Tuesday. And there is a little plastic baby hidden in the cake. The tradition states that the baby represents the baby Jesus and who ever gets that piece has good luck. Now, whoever gets the baby has to buy the next King cake. You can read up on King Cake here:) Let me tell you how good this cake was. I think ate an entire months intake of sugar in one piece, and it was worth it.

So on my trip, I also ate alligator, corn and crab bisque, crab-stuffed gulf shrimp, and had some local strawberry beer. Seriously, I would move to Louisiana just for the food. Who wants to go to New Orleans with me???

On a side note: I flew to Atlanta this weekend to spend time with my family and go to my best friend's baby shower:) Get ready for a lot of pictures;) Till next time...XoXo

Day #16: Lafayette, Louisiana

I don't really have anything clever to say tonight, nor do I have an awesome picture. Today, I went to work for the majority of the day, then flew to Lafayette tonight. The flights were much less eventful than last week (thank goodness!) and I got to fly with my friend Sadie. Since my day was incredibly boring, here is a picture of my home this week.

I'm kind of a crazy and unpack everything like I'm at home:) Also, can I just say that having Friends on Nick at Nite makes me feel old, but I kind of love it because I always have something to watch at night. Who cares if I have seen every episode 100 times:)

Day #15: Sunday, Busy Day....

So Sunday, was yet another busy, busy day. I need a weekend of NOTHING, but I don't think that is going to happen for awhile! I got up and went to Church (again, another amazing service) with Jenni, Anna, and Jeremy:) I then went to the plaza to attempt to find a dress for a baby shower I have this weekend, but I didn't want to try anything on, so I gave up. Just was not in the mood to shop, which is pretty much unheard of for me, but at least I saved some money:)
When I got home I really had to get organized. I packed for 6 days in a carry-on size bag..pretty rockstar if I say so myself. I needed to pack 3 days of work clothes, clothes for a baby shower, a week's worth of gym clothes, plus EVERYTHING else. I refuse to check a bag going to Lafayette, LA...half of the bags on our plane got lost last week..so not happening to this girl.
I did get to watch some TV and attempt to clean off my DVR and then I went to birthday dinner with my friend Per (see previous blog post). We both have lost our "groupon" buddies, so we decided that we are going to start using our groupons together:) We attempted to go to a Brazilian steakhouse, but when we got there it was a 2 hour wait (on a Sunday!), so we went to Bonefish Grill instead and YUM. I had never been there and heard so much about the Bang Bang Shrimp. It lived up to it's reputation. Oh and I ended the night with the Parker's Margarita...I mean I had too. Happy Birthday to us!

Day #14: Happy Birthday Per

Day #14 was a really productive. I paid all my bills, worked on my budget, booked a trip to Hawaii, bought a new laptop bag, went for a run outside (in January!!), went to one of my favorite little restaurants in KC called Potpie, went to celebrate with my friend Per's birthday, then met up with some friends until like midnight. I'm exhausted just reading this. No wonder I'm tired:) Enjoy a picture of Per and I from his party. The them was hipsters and shipsters(pirates)....

Day #13: Blanncccc

Tonight we went to Blanc Burger for dinner. One of my favorite, local, burger places in KC. We had to wait over an hour, but it was well worth it. While we waited....it was picture time:)

Me, Scottie, and Becky waiting at the bar at Blanc. Other than that, my day was booorrringgg. Meetings all day:( But Blanc was the perfect way to end the day!

Day #12: Happy Birthday Ginny Rae:)

Today is one of my very best friend Ginny Rae Alley McCullough's birthday!

Okay, so that is not her full name..she got rid of Rae when she got married, but I will always know her as Ginny Rae:) This pic was obviously not taken today, but a little over two years ago from her bridal luncheon. Ginny and I met through our other best friend Shae at NCSU and we were instant best friends. We sat through endless baseball games together and my college experience definitely would not be the same without her! G-Rae-I love you very much and hope you had the best birthday ever!

Day #11: Blue Dog Cafe

I finally got to venture out of the "Mardi Gras" conference room (it is not very Mardi Gras AT ALL) and go to one of the "famous" restaurants of Lafayette, Louisiana; the Blue Dog Cafe.

And man, it was good! So worth it:) I got a flouder stuffed with crab, that had etoufee covering the top. I should have taken a picture of it, because it was pretty too! But I was too hungry and forgot:) If anyone ever comes to Lafayette, I highly recommend it! I just found out I might have to come back here next week too, lucky me, so I might have to go again:) it was that good!

Day #10: Work, Work, and more Work

So today was by far the most boring day of the year. Granted we are only on day #10, but I'm really struggling on what I can even write today. Here is what I did:

Wake up, run in the hotel gym, get ready for work, eat breakfast, work for 11 hours, eat dinner in the hotel lounge, more work, and that's it. Exciting huh? Well the only time I really saw daylight was my walk across the street to the lovely strip mall for lunch, where they had a Tropical Smoothie Cafe. And no lie, it was actually pretty good. So today, my picture is of Tropical Smoothie Cafe. Enjoy;)



On a side note, to reward myself on an 11+ hour work day, I started REALLY looking at flights to Hawaii in March for Lori's birthday! Yay for fun vacation with my favorites!

Day #9: Travel Nightmare

Today was a travel nightmare. Well, it officially started on Friday when I had to book a last minute trip to Lafayette, LA..I'll spare everyone the details:) But I woke up at 4:30, left my house at 5:30, made it to Houston by 10 am. Then sat, sat, and sat some more for 6 hours, while terrible thunderstorms haulted all planes in and out of Houston. All I have to say is thank goodness for my IPAD and Netflix. They were a lifesaver! Also, to make today a little bit better, once we got to the hotel at 6:45, I finally got to take advantage of my new Gold status with Hilton-free appetizers/dinner for this girl in an upgraded room:) Thank you Hilton. You made this terrible, rainy, miserable, boring day a little bit better! It's the little things....

Day #8: Resurrection Downtown

Happy Sunday Friends! My church opened a downtown campus a little over a year ago and moved into a new, bigger building a few weeks ago:) This Sunday was the first time I have gotten to go and it was amazing! I met Anna and Jeremy this morning and really enjoyed the sermon. Our pastor started a series on Love, Sex, and Marriage...and it was really awesome, even for a single girl like me:)

Here are is a picture of the new building

and me and Anna in front of Church thanks to our awesome photographer:)

I ended the night with one last dinner with Lori:( We went over to Jenn's and ate lasagna and Jenn suprised us with a Red Velvet Cake, our favorite with snowflakes of course:)


I'm off to Lafayette, Louisiana tomorrow...just in time for a Championship game:) Only I'm going for work...but I'll try and post a few pics from my trip!