A Whirlwind Weekend

Hey y'all,

So this weekend has been a bit of a whirlwind and I thought I would share a slice of my life. *beware of picture overload!

Friday was very busy at work but I was able to have a nice lunch out with friends during the middle of the day. After work I hit the road and made it to my parent's house in time to enjoy some yummy bbq ribs and chicken. The rest of the night was spent hanging out with my big bro, kDw, and catching some of TLC's Friday Bride Day. I mean, I don't have cable so I need to cram in my Say Yes to the Dress and I Found the Gown when I can. 

Saturday began at 5am. Yep, 5am on a Saturday since we had to hit the road by 6am for kDi's college graduation. We were out of the driveway on time and hit the McDonald's on the way. It had been so long since I enjoyed one of these.

We got to the PNC Arena a bit early so we had to wait in line for the doors to open but hey, we ended up with the perfect seats. The KID sister was one of 100 valedictorians, aka she graduated with a 4.0 GPA! Yep, she is a smarty pants which also meant she was seated at the front of the arena (sorry for the bad iPhone pics, I got the nicer camera later). 

Selfies before the ceremony!

Yep. Perfect seats. She also made it on the jumbotron due to her grad cap and the News and Observer had a picture as well!

via

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After the ceremony we grabbed a couple of pictures (and yes everyone was commenting and loving the cap!)

With the graduate! I am so proud of this KID!

Yes, her initials are KID and she is the kid sister ;)

The day continued with stopping by her apartment and packing her up. Then a quick lunch at Jersey Mike's commenced before we headed to Reynold's Coliseum for her departmental graduation. Again, we got there a bit early and found great seats. The only problem was that it was 3pm and there was no air conditioning. Luckily, the ceremony was pretty short. 

The NCSU College of Sciences Department of Biological Sciences graduates

SHE DID IT!
She crossed the stage and turned the tassel!

 After the ceremony we had hours to kill before our dinner reservation so we decided to take a picture break since kDi didn't take any senior photos. Here are some of my favorites including some pictures after the ceremony with the family and a few friends.

M and kDi went to Namibia together last summer!

 Outside of the Departmental Graudation

 All of us kids

 Candid pictures are the best. 

I mean, she is a Daddy's girl after all.

 All of the family. 

Myself, Mommy, kDi, Daddy, sDe, and kDw + photobomber

I think the wolf would be proud of her cap.

Then we were off to Brasa (a Brazilian steakhouse) for dinner but of course we took a few selfies in the car. SHE IS ALL DONE! GOODBYE STATE!

 She thinks NCSU is better than UNC.

 Yes the cheesecake was delicious. The entire meal was soooo good!

 This was the sunset on our ride back to our hometown.

Sunday was a lazy day after all of Saturday's adventures. We had a nice big brunch to celebrate the graduate and Mommy. The rest of the day was spent laying around the pool reading and watching some tv. Dinner was a yummy cookout with our family friends and neighbors and then we all watched Saving Mr. Banks.

Today, I had a dental appointment (yes my dentist is still in my hometown) and took the day off so I spent a bit of time with the graduate and my siblings before hitting the road back to the Triangle. 

I hope you all had a great weekend and congrats to all the graduates out there! I'll leave you with this last picture.

Thanksgiving Shenanigans

Hey y'all,

I am an awful blogger and I am so sad that I got too busy to finish the 30 days of thanks posts I was doing. I might end up writing out the rest of the 30 days of thanks posts since I still thought of something each day and have a post-it of thanks. Anywhoo, last week, work was kind of crazy so I figured we could start on Tuesday night for my Thanksgiving Shenanigans re-cap.

Tuesday night after work I finally added things to my walls! I have been living in this apartment since August but let a friend borrow my tools and finally got them back Monday night. 

 My hallway of Old Wells.

After finally getting my room to look like someone actually lives here, I had to get started cleaning and packing. So of course I turned on Pride & Prejudice (2005) and tried to prevent myself from overpacking.

Wednesday morning it was off to the office for a meeting all morning, yep the day before Thanksgiving when the students were home I was busy from 9am-12pm and then after lunch it was non-stop until I left. I was kind of sad we didn't get to go home early like last year but I had so much work to do so it was a-okay.

OOTD for work and driving home!
Jeans/Flats/Cardigan/Pearl Ring: Target
Scarf: Lilly Pulitzer
Cami:aeropostale
Watch: Anne Klein

After a nice long drive (which the rain held out for) it was time for pizza, kitten cuddles, and hanging out with the family. 

Thursday morning it was time to get up and watch the Macy's Thanksgiving's day parade as tradition goes. During the parade I was able to fit in a workout and begin getting ready for the day of eating. After making green bean casserole, my Dad making smoked turkey, stuffing, and my mom making pies we headed off to my best friend's house.

 Daddy and Mr. M carving the turkeys before dinner.

 Finally my bestie and I got a photo together! It has been years since we actually took pictures together. Whoops.

After dinner and dessert we played some board games and then seven hours later we made it back home to hang out and I ended up watching a Christmas movie on Hulu while my family watched Monster's University. 

Friday meant yummy scrabbled eggs and bacon while we hung around the house and waited for my dad to get back from Raleigh so we could all go see Catching Fire. Yes, that is right, I saw Catching Fire three times in just over a week. Well, we did get approval to watch Catching Fire and headed to the theater after stopping by Barnes and Nobles so my baby sister and Dad could get Nook HDs for Christmas since they were on sale. My family enjoyed Catching Fire and we spent the rest of the night eating leftovers and yet again I watched a Christmas movie while my family watched some weird TV show from BBC America.

Saturday started with kitten cuddles, I mean who can resist this face:

 After my mom made Peach French toast it was time to go meet one of my best friends from High School, jHl, aka my twin. We planned to go see the new Disney movie Frozen but the theater and online had different times listed so we ended up going to see the Book Thief. I have yet to read the book but the movie was very interesting. We ran out to lunch and were able to catch up again. It is so great to see both of the girls I am still close with from high school in one weekend. That evening it was time for church and my favorite local restaurant. The night ended with some SYTTD, Christmas movies on Hallmark channel (do you see a pattern?) and left over desserts from Thanksgiving.

Sunday it was hard to get up and get going. My Mom and I headed to  the laundromat to wash my comforter since it needs an oversized washer. The laundromat was an adventure and I am glad my Mom was there too. After an hour there, it was a big lunch at home of Mac and Cheese with Ham, packing and driving back to my apartment. The rest of Sunday was spent unpacking, running to the grocery store and setting up the tree while the roomie, rHm was working. To say I am excited for Christmas is an understatement. 

I hope y'all had a wonderful Thanksgiving surrounded by great friends, family and food!

Happy Holidays, y'all!

Last Week's Shenanigans....

Hey y'all,

I HAVE A NEW LAPTOP! Yep, I am officially back to the blogging world and I am so excited to share with y'all about what has been going on. This past week has been chock full of lots of things and I would love to share everything. *warning: lots of photos ahead!

Last Friday my parent's were in town since they were amazing and when my little sister and I started to plan for a birthday celebration including Beauty & the Beast when it came to the Durham Performing Arts Center (DPAC) they asked if they could come and we said it was ok! So after work I ran home to get ready and wait for the family to arrive. We headed to the American Tobacco Road area for dinner and ended up at Tyler's Tap House. 

 yummy blue cheese chips to start.

herb chicken sandwich and garlic fries

After dinner we decided to take a stroll around the American Tobacco area before heading over and since my Mom had just gotten her iPhone that week so it was a chance to have an impromptu photo shoot and help her learn the settings on her phone.

with the birthday girl/baby sis

selfies with daddy

Then after our photo shoot outside we might have taken a ton of photos in the lobby before they opened the doors for seating.

And the photos continued inside as we waited for the show to start. I must say, thanks to my parent's for our amazing seats and a great night of broadway. The show was great and I might have been lip synching to all the songs since Beauty and the Beast is my favorite Disney movie. I mean, its kind of obvious that Belle is awesome and as a bookworm, who wouldn't want the library?

After that fun filled night you would think the weekend would calm down, but, I spent Saturday morning at Deb's Powderpuff Playoffs, it is the annual event held by PBX in honor of the former Faculty Advisor/current house mom who is a breast cancer survivor. 

The really old Powderpuff shirt I have.

One of the games: PBX vs Phi Mu

What was at stake. 

I mean who wouldn't want this trophy.

What was really great was my second little, mGk surprised me and showed up to the event. It was great to spend some time together and we even got a bib/little picture, our last before cFm found out her little (reveal is next Saturday).

It was a great event and I am so proud(as always) of my sisters putting on a wonderful philanthropy event. The money raised went to an organization that helped Deb in her time of treatment, Get Real and Heel.

Sunday was spent babysitting, cleaning, going on a date at the Duke Gardens and then unwinding with dinner before a Monday full of Chaos!

Monday was deadline day for work and then I left to grab my best friend, aMl, headed to Chick-fil-A and went to my small group before calling it a night. Tuesday was an exciting day for the bestie (I will reveal more later) and I was able to leave work a whole hour early due to dropping her off at the airport. As usual for our lives we promised to grab a picture while she was visiting but during those 24 hours I got a picture instead of the Dickey's BBQ we grabbed since she needed a BBQ fix before she was back to DC since they apparently can't make good BBQ (especially NC style though VA is a neighboring state). 

The rest of my week contained lots of Dayquil since I am battling a cold and then Thursday I did dress up for work for Zero Dark Thursday. 

And, eCs had a similar thought that morning since we were unintentionally twinning (yes people asked if we planned it since we are really good work friends).

Friday was employee appreciation day at Carolina so after free breakfast, lunch and a new water bottle I headed to BestBuy to purchase the laptop I am currently using. 

That was my week in a post, how was your's?

 Have you seen any Disney shows on stage?