Friday, August 30, 2013

Getting Excited


Hello Lovelies!

Well it's an exciting week for sure!! I feel like besides graduation I have waited all summer for this week!! 2 exciting things are happening!!

1. The start of football season!
I keep telling Will if he will put a ring on it then I'll break down and buy one of these yard flags!! ;)  In all seriousness though I love the next four months and one of the main reasons is because there is weekly excitement with football!! Unfortunately, I am only going to one USC game this season and definitely not getting to go see the Tigers play either! :( Here are a couple of throw back pics from past seasons! :)
Shout out to the lovely ladies in these pics! Lisa (left) is getting married this weekend & Heather (practically my sister) is a nurse in NC. I haven't seen either in a few months! Miss them both!

There are certainly some cute gameday outfits this year! Here are a few of my favorites that I've seen online!
Clemson Chevron Gameday Skirt
Skirt from Cocobella Boutique in Greenville
Dress from WISH Boutique in Columbia


Ok, the 2nd exciting thing this week would be... OUR TRIP TO NASHVILLE!!
Pretty excited to spend a few days in my favorite city with my favorite person!! A few things we have planned are:
-Backstage Tour of the Opry
-Backstage Tour of the Ryman
-Nashville Shores Waterpark
-Shakespeare in Centennial Park
-Country Music Hall of Fame to see Carrie, Reba and Nashville the show exhibits! 
-Bar hopping
-Pub crawling
-Having an awesome time!
There will be lots of picture taking and a long detailed blog post upon my return!

Be lovely,

MG

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Lately



Hello Lovelies!

Just wanted to update on life lately...
It's Wednesday and I've got the mid-week slumps! It feels like tomorrow should be Friday and not Thursday. Loooong week & it's just been "off." Craziness at work and home. Ready for a low-key weekend. Ha who am I kidding, I'm sure I will fill it with the never ending to do list!

Last Saturday I ended up going to Greenville to see my gma for her 84th birthday. We went out to lunch/brunch to a place near falls park that was a Parisian cafe. I had the best french toast of my life!
Me & the Birthday Lady!

After eating we walked around downtown Greenville for a bit in the drizzly rain! If it doesn't stop raining soon I'm seriously going to consider it a sign from God to build an ark. At the very least I'm going to invest in a pair of rain boots. As I type this there is a black cloud looming that I'm sure will bust as soon as I leave.

I was overly lazy on Sunday, which I guess was needed. I also went to the book store and picked up "Orange is the New Black" by Piper Kerman. I CAN'T PUT IT DOWN!! I watched the series on Netflix in three days last week. While the show is a bit risque, the book is a very true and compelling memoir of Kerman's experience in federal prison. The series is a stretched adaptation of the book. Nonetheless I can't wait for season 2. 

This weekend I need to spend time creating an itinerary for our trip to Nashville in a week. I'm so excited to visit my favorite city with my favorite person! I just don't want to plan it, I want to just do what I want to do when I want to when I get there, but you can't really do that on a trip. Restaurants require reservations and since it's a holiday weekend we will definitely need them. So I guess I will nail down a few of those details this weekend & possibly start packing! 2 free checked bags on Southwest means I can really back some choices! :)

Have a lovely rest of the week! 

-MG

Monday, August 12, 2013

Weekend Wrap Up

This weekend seemed to be a whirlwind! It was my first weekend fancy free from anything school related, which was nice, but it was filled with some of the other things that have taken a back seat since being in school!


Friday
Of course my weekend didn't start until 5 and then Will and I went to his best friend's birthday party at Cowboy which is a Brazilian steakhouse. It is quite the dining experience! These guys walk around with cooked meat on a big skewer and ask if you'd like to try it. I tried like 6 or 7 different kinds of meat, Parmesan pork tenderloin, the house meat, bacon wrapped filet, etc. & even some grilled pineapple which was delish!  They also had THE BEST mushrooms I have ever eaten! Seriously. 
This was the whole group! The birthday boy is in the middle with the teal shirt on!

After dinner we went over to my parents to tell our Oklahoma friends that feel like family bye! They had to leave bright and early (like 5am) to catch their flight and selfishly I wasn't getting up for that! ;) I miss them already! We always have a little too much fun and spend a little too much $$ when they come! Since we didn't know there were coming until like a month before graduation I wasn't able to take off the whole week to spend with them so I missed out on going to the beach with them and my mom! Bummer of the summer right there! But I'm so glad they were able to help celebrate my graduation! :)

Saturday
I spent Saturday doing two things that desperately needed attention! My car & my kitchen! I took my car to have the tires balanced and rotated (a year after I got them, oops!) and then took it to the car wash AND vacuumed it out! CRAZY Stuff! But it looks so good now! It took nearly two hours for them to service my tires so I walked 2 blocks to the library to hang out in the cool air and comfy seating! Well worth it! Caught up on some magazines.... 

...and learned Amanda Bynes has gone coo-coo!

I also got to do a little Facebook chat catch up with my friend Kendall who is doing some mission work in Nepal for TWO YEARS! After having lunch with a mutual friend of ours on Friday and hearing a little bit about Kendall's experiences from her I was concerned! She goes "into the wild" and away from civilization for weeks at a time and her last stint was 7 weeks, and she lost 40lbs. Eesh! Well she is back to civilization, aka a place with internet, and we were able to chat for a few minutes! Please keep my friend in your prayers! I know this experience was what God called her to do, but as her friend I worry! :) You can follow her blog here.

After the car wash and sweating like a pig, because it actually stopped raining for once and decided to be the hot steamy Columbia summer that I know it to be, I went home and cleaned my kitchen. I didn't just CLEAN, I cleaned out, reorganized etc. It looks so much better and now if DHEC or the FDA drops by they won't close my kitchen. Not like I make anything in there but big messes and small fires anyways! ;)

Sunday
Yesterday we went to church where I was convicted not to give to Goodwill anymore because that doesn't bless anybody. So now all my items I had bagged for donation are going to have to find somewhere else to go to bless someone! I just want to give it all away with nothing in return! :) 

We went to a late lunch with some friends to Ruby Tuesday (one of our favs) and then just Will & I went to the mall! That gift card to Victoria's Secret from graduation was burning a hole in my pocket. I only spent half so far so that's pretty good! :) 

We ended the the day watching Grey's Anatomy! We've been watching it off and on all summer on Netflix trying to get Will caught up before season 10 starts! We're in the middle of season 7 right now... we better hurry!

On Tap This Week
  • Monday- CMA Fest Concert on ABC tonight! Since I went to the fest 2 years ago I don't miss "Country's Night to Rock" on tv! It's only going to get me more pumped for our trip in a couple weeks to my beloved city!! 
  • Tuesday- Dinner with a co-worker from my old job! My friendship with her is best thing that came from that! 
  • Wednesday- My second time back to choir practice and then Sunday I WILL actually sing in church! :)
  • Thursday- Bowling with co-workers after work!! I will probably look like an idiot, but it should be fun to socialize!
  • Friday- Babysitting my boys! The oldest starts first grade on Monday! Ahhh where did the time go!?!?
  • Saturday- more cleaning out, reorganizing and relaxing! & maybe persuading Will to tackle the jungle that has become my backyard! ;)
Be lovely!

-MG

Friday, August 9, 2013

I may now return to my regularly scheduled life...

I realize that for the greater part of the past year I have been MIA from the blog world. I have pretty much lost all my followers who aren't my friends in real life, and while I have continued to follow blogs I have just been completely burned out when it comes to writing my own. I've made several attempts to re-enter the blogging world but have failed. Well, I think, for real this time I'm BACK!

Last Sunday, the weight of graduate school was lifted when my dad placed my master's hood over my head! I did it! I received my Master of Arts in Organizational Change and Leadership! It has been a crazy busy year! There were days that seemed so long sitting in class from 9am-7pm (on the weekend no less) and there were days were I wanted to throw my laptop across the room because I couldn't write another word of a paper. It seemed like it would never end, and now that it has it doesn't seem like it was all that awful. Funny how the perspective changes once we've gotten to the other side of the obstacle.

I really do have to thank so many for being such a huge part of this accomplishment:
First of all my parents who stepped up and paid for it when I lost my job and wasn't being reimbursed for it. :/ That was a huge blow, but I'm so thankful they paid for it... in return I am now repaying my undergraduate student loans for the next 14,583 years. But I am truly thankful and grateful for parents who were able to support me in my effort to achieve this goal.

Second, Will. I can not thank this man enough for being my piece of sanity when I was going insane! He has really been my rock. He's the one that's been there (almost in the trenches with me) to say, "You've got this!" "You made an A on that surely you'll make an A on this!" "Don't throw your laptop, that's not going to help anything!" In all seriousness, I don't think I could have done this without his words of encouragement! On our first date, I was already accepted to the program and knew that when August came it was going to be peddle to the metal for a year. I told him then if he wasn't up for being in a relationship with someone who was working on their masters and would have to sacrifice time with him to accomplish this goal then he shouldn't pursue this! He agreed but made it clear that he was in it with me and for me. Thank you so much babe! It means so much that you had my back then and always will. I love you.

Next, the grandmothers. While they may think that they haven't provided much support they have in ways they will never know. I know that they have prayed for me, encouraged me and are proud that I have achieved this success. They continually tell me how far my education will take me, something neither of them was able to achieve. They have been at every graduation, high school, undergraduate and now graduate school and I'm so thankful they were here to attend this special day!

Finally, my cohort. This special group of people were complete strangers a year ago and are now friends. We are a "family" bonded over long assignments, crazy professors, presentations and long Saturday afternoons in class. We have learned so much about each other and from each other. We are now going our separate ways, I don't think I will forget any of them. While we were only in each others lives for a short time, I know that each has made an impact on my life and I hope I made an impact on theirs as well!
I absolutely love this picture! It reminds me of class pictures from elementary school!

Well now that this part of my life is over, I may now "return to my regularly scheduled life." That will include spending quality time with friends and family, hitting up the gym like woah, and more frequent blogging since my life will (hopefully) consist of more exciting things than papers and reading scholarly journal articles. 

Blessings!

-MG