A Fantastic Weekend

Hi everyone!  I feel like I haven't posted in forever...hmm...eleven days.  That is pretty long for me!  I've been keeping quite busy with work and my social life (aka Mr. Biz), so this lil' blog has fallen by the wayside.  But no longer!  No, today I am diving back into the blogging scene with a recap of my awesome weekend. 

My main squeeze, Mr. Biz, is a super responsible guy and he works really hard to be that responsible.  Therefore, he ends up working pretty much every Saturday until 6PM.  I'm cool with that, but this weekend he took Saturday off and we spent the whole day together.  It was such a treat to be able to spend so much time with him.  We went down to Atlanta to pick up his stuff for the Georgia Marathon and stopped at Le Madeline's in Duluth for lunch on the way back.  The food was pretty good, but I was unimpressed with the service.  I overheard a waiter being very rude behind a customer's back, and that really bothered me.  I might go there again, but it wouldn't be a destination I would seek out.  After that we ran around town and did some window shopping (aka, we looked at expensive things but didn't buy any of it, haha).  We ended the day with a little coffee date (we loooove coffee and have spent hundreds of dollars at Starbucks over the course of our relationship). 

Our Sunday started at 5:40AM, when I met Mr. Biz and we drove down to Atlanta again.  He ran the Publix Georgia Marathon and I went with him to cheer him on.  He did an aweome job (even though it was freakishly hot), and savored the few hours of reading I got to enjoy while he running around the city.  I read the book The Peach Keeper by Sarah Addison Allen--a very enjoyable book.  I picked up another one of her eBooks from my local library and started it last night.  Hopefully I'll write about that book in another post. 

A shot of random runners and the home stretch.

So anyways, after he finished the race, we drove over to Old Fourth Ward to go to Highland Bakery.  It was packed, but the food was well worth the wait.  We enjoyed the atmosphere and the friendly people.  I just reviewed it on yelp, so you can read the my thoughts on it over there.  After our super filling, delicious lunch we spent a few hours visiting with Mr. Biz's grandmother, and then headed home for a delicious and nutritious dinner of doughnuts.  Yes, we ate doughnuts for dinner.  We are crazy.  ;]

My meal: cilantro corn pancakes.  Yum!

Mr. Biz's meal: peanut butter french toast.  Double yum.

All in all, it was a wonderful weekend.  I'm constantly amazed at how wonderful it can be to do the little mundane things of life with someone dear to you.  Jack Johnson even has a song about stuff being better together. 

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend, as well.  Today is my youngest sister's 18th birthday. WHAT?!?  When did she grow up?  It's crazy.  In my mind I guess she's still a little kid.  Also, if she's 18 that means I must be getting freakishly old.  ;] 
 

New Polish: Sonic Bloom

Happy Saturday, everyone!  I hope you are enjoying this beautiful day as much as I am enjoying mine. 

I wanted to stop by for a few minutes today to show off my *new* polish: Sonic Bloom by Sally Hansen.  It's a pretty sure thing that I'm obsessed with the insta-dry polish they sell.  All of the colors cover so well and they really do dry quickly.  I'm all for an at-home manicure that lasts less than 3 hours, thankyouverymuch. 

Anyways, I had planned to buy an OPI color that I saw on Fashion Polish, but Target didn't have it (boo).  So I brought this baby home and wasted no time getting it on my nails.  :]  Please don't judge by the quality of my at-home manicure...I feel that most nails look better from a distance, anyways. 

I'm loving the intense red/fuchsia of this color.  It's definitely putting me in a spring break kinda mood!  I guess now I can officially start my countdown...t-18 days!  :]



P.S.- If you must know, the OPI colors I am drooling over are "Gouda Gouda Two Shoes" and "Dutch Ya' Just Love OPI?".  THEY ARE FANTASTIC.  Ebay, here I come!

Song of the Week

It's been a while since I've done song of the week, so I think it's time again.  This is a somewhat older song, but I didn't get into it until recently.  Mr. Biz actually gets the credit, I think.  He says that it is one of his running anthems--I see how that fits.  On Sunday I was sweeping the stairs and this song became my sweeping anthem.  It definitely gets me pumped up and ready kick some cleaning butt.  :]

Without any further ado, enjoy my pick for song of the week.  Let's go the distance, ya'll.

Artist: Cake
Song: The Distance

Leap Year Meditation by Seth Godin

Once in four years, just once, perhaps we could:

Forgive, forget, relax, care, stand out, speak up, contribute, embrace, create, make a ruckus, give credit, skip, smile, speak truth and refuse to compromise--more than we usually do. Pick just one or two and start there.

Hey, it's just one day.

Careful, though, it might become a habit.

-Seth Godin

Happy leap day!  I hope you all get a visit from leap day William.  ;]

Recently...Eating and Travel

Wow, it sure has been a while!  I haven't been around the casa much, so I haven't taken much time to write on here.  I've been a little more intentional about keeping up with the teaching blog, but I don't want this one to fall by the wayside.  It is so great to be able to look back and remember what was going on my life at random times.  But anyways...

Like I said, I haven't been at my house much.  Mr. Biz and I have been all over the world (ok, maybe just the southeast) doing all sorts of fun things.  Don't be jealous.  ;]

 

We went to Birmingham to visit some of our best friends and for Mr. Biz to run the Mercedes-Benz half-marathon (I was only a spectator/cheerleader).  On Saturday we hung out with two of my besties, Clint & Brynn, and then that evening we spent some time with Biz's best friend Jonathan and his girlfriend.  The next morning we left around 6:20 for the marathon and I did my best not to freeze to death (a large non-fat mocha from McD's helped that cause).   He did a great job on the marathon; I love cheering him across the finish line.  Then we had a much deserved brunch at Another Broken Egg Cafe.  Deeeeelicious!  There is a location in Atlanta, so I'm sure we'll visit there again soon!  We both highly recommend it.

The next weekend was an EPIC four day weekend.  Yes, you read that correctly: we had Friday and Monday off of school.  We decided that we needed to live it up while we had time away from work.  Mainly, we decided to go to Steak and Shake at 2:00AM for their happy hour milkshakes.  Did you know that their happy hour is from 2-4AM and PM?  Well, now you do!  We figured what better way to stay young than to go out when all of those crazy college kids are out.  Actually, we were surprised that there were so many people there...come to find out, the bar next door closes at 2, so everyone migrates to Steak and Shake for some milkshakes and burgers.  That also explains the inebriated state of many of the patrons.  We overheard some very interesting conversations.  All in all, it was quite the experience and a fun, atypical thing for us to do.

That Sunday Mr. Biz ran the Locomotive Half-Marathon in Kennesaw, so we took the opportunity to go check out Big Pie in the Sky.  Adam (our favorite TV personality of Man v. Food fame) did the carnivore challenge there and the pizza looked amazing.  We decided to go with our favorite and try their version of a white pizza.  INSANELY GOOD.  There were huge chunks of garlic all over it.  I don't think the picture does it much justice, but we got their smallest size which was still 16" across.  And our plates were pizza trays.  Epic.  If you have a reason to go to Kennesaw you should definitely check it out.

If you can't tell, our goal in life is to become real foodies...which is why we try to find unique and fun places to eat in each city we visit.  Just last night we learned about some places in Athens that we are going to visit.  Over the past couple weeks we also enjoyed some sinful cheesecake from The Cheesecake Factory and got some really good Thai food from a place near Mr. Biz's work.  I never realized how fun it was to try out new places all the time!

This is a very long post, and if you made it to the end, props to you!  I'll probably keep updating ya'll on the places we eat at, and there is a "Good Eats" page currently being edited.  I'll let ya'll know when it goes live.

Happy Sunday!

Pancakes, Winter, Broken Hearts, and New Tunes

Hey, all!

I feel like I've been abandoning my little blog over the past couple of weeks.  I've just been concentrating on getting my new blog up and running.  Good news: I'm up to six followers!  Haha, doesn't sound like much, but I'm pumped.  :]

A few random thoughts for this Saturday morning...

On Thursday Mr. Biz and I made whole wheat banana pancakes and they turned out pretty well, if I do say so!  We didn't have nutmeg and we added a bit more milk (about 3/4 cup).  When it says the mix will be dry, that's really true!  We were both a bit flummoxed because we're used to runny pancake mix.  In the end it all turned out, though.  We enjoyed our pancakes with fake-sausage (aka "soysage"), random berries (of the straw, blue, black, and rasp varieties), and butter/maple syrup (only on mine).  Quite a yummy dinner!

Source: How Sweet Treats

The temperatures this past week have hovered around in the 60's and I AM LOVING IT.  I have never been much of a fan of winter (it's dark and way too cold), so this mild beginning to February has been awesome.  February is normally such a dreary month.  Here's to hoping this year is different.  I think we deserve this little taste of spring, since our spring all too quickly becomes a scorching hot summer.

Have you ever prayed for God to break your heart about something?  I have prayed that before and last night God answered my prayer.  I work with some of the sweetest kiddos around, but I know what most of their futures are.  They live in a very poor area with a lot of gang activity and such, so while they are innocents for now, they won't be for long.  My heart just aches for these children.  My goal as a teacher is to show them so much love and acceptance with the hope that one day they will make choices that will keep them on the right track. 

One last thought: I am currently listening to the album Kaleidoscope Heart by Sara Bareilles.  This next week I am going to delve into some new music on my computer: Elton John, Frank Sinatra, the Gin Blossoms, Harry Connick Jr., and possibly some Jack Johnson (in honor of my college roommate, SJ).  New music is the best!

Happy Saturday, everyone!  :]

Song of the Week

My pick this week comes to us via one of the best TV shows ever. 

COMMUNITY.
Notably, the episode "Paradigms of Human Memory," aka the flashback episode.  They do an Annie/Jeff montage with this song...and then take it to new, creepy/awesome heights at the end.  But I won't tell you about that part...you'll just have to watch.  :]

Obviously, the song has been stuck in my head all week.  Sara Bareilles has an insane voice and mean piano skills.  Anyone who knows me well can tell you that, as a rule, I don't like female vocalists.  So the fact that I purchased her album, Kaleidoscope Heart, shows that she really is fantastic. 

Without any further ado, enjoy my pick for Song of the Week: Gravity (do yourself a favor and watch her super cool video, too).

Artist: Sara Bareilles
Song: Gravity