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!

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

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

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

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

Refreshing!

Well that feels better!

Just gave the blog a face lift! :)

I feel like this design is super cliche of me b/c I'm so into teal, coral and chevron! But I definitely think it looks a bit better! Hopefully I will have a new button for you to grab in the next few days. I put one of my besties over at Grits & Giggles on it! I am SO not tech savvy enough to get that html code stuff to work. I have to admit in college I didn't do any of my own work for my computer science class. I had a nerdy friend who thought it was "fun," so I let him do it! :)

Anyways! I know it's been like a month or more since an update and not much is new except for that I'm in the less than 2 month range of graduating with my masters degree! Praise BE! Just busy working, doing school work and trying to have a life! Emphasis on TRYING!

The last weekend of May I traveled to New Braunfels, TX for work. I was attending one of our summer institutes for students on leadership! It was a great long weekend, and fun to experience TX since I've never been! I will say that everything really is bigger in TX, including my hair! My goodness! SC has humidity, but TX took it to a whole new level that my hair was totally NOT ok with! The first 2 days back home I had the best hair days ever, apparently it was thankful I brought it back to humidity it could handle! 

A couple of highlights since the last post:

I promised a few pics from our one year anniversary of togetherness photo shoot! So...

See I TOLD you I was a bit obsessed with coral and teal! Anyways, sorry Will looks non-american in these pictures. He squints when he smiles b/c he claims his cheeks push his eyes closed. Yea.. or he could just say the sun was bright. Which it was. At any rate I LOVE these pictures and my manager did a great job! I know that in years to come I will look back on our first year and cherish these pictures. I've had a few people comment that they looked like engagement pictures, and I agree, except they aren't. But it's like some kind of faux pas to take pics unless your engaged. Did I miss something? I mean, I want to have pictures to show my great grand children (hopefully I live that long) that that is what we looked when we were dating. Pictures are cheap and these were free so hey why not!?

In other news:
We spent the Saturday before Labor Day in Charleston. We just went for the day! I love that we can do that and escape from our small town for the day and then sleep in my own bed at night! While we were in Charleston we met up with my cousin who just finished her Sophomore year at College of Charleston. We hung out around the market, waterfront park and king street for the day. Lovely.

We have a few other exciting adventures ahead:

• My 27th Birthday- eek!
• My graduation! - yay!!
• VACATION to NASHVILLE, TN! 

YES! We are going, on an airplane no less, to my favorite place in the entire world!! So excited to experience it with the love of my life! He has never been so we will be doing super touristy things, ie. Grand Ole Opry, Country Music HOF, Ryman, Broadway, etc. CAN. NOT. WAIT.

I guess that is all of an update I have for now! This weekend we are going to see Superman (Will's fav) at The Big MO. It's a drive in movie theater about 45min from our town. I love the nostalgia of it, now let's hope there are no bugs! ;)

Spring Stories

Ok, so guess I'm not as "back" as I thought. I've been SUPER busy, and most of the time I don't feel like blogging after a long day at work. Not to mention I should work on school work some nights, but I normally don't! :)  I just can't look at a computer anymore!

I actually have more to tell through pictures than I do words... so here it goes! :)

So the first warm day in March, Will took me to the driving range. It was a Sunday afternoon and we had nothing else to do and it was just to pretty to stay in! We went to Goodwill where I got a 7 iron (whatever that means) for $1.00 and then met some friends at the driving range. I had NEVER hit a golf ball before far enough to go past a windmill in putt-putt. This was quite comical. At least I dressed the part! Will is just too much cuteness in his golf shoes and ball cap! :)

So about once a quarter Bekah comes for a visit! The occasion for a girls night usually revolves around a holiday. Bekah lives in Jersey now with her airforce hubby and cute as a button 2 year old! (Bekah is on the left!) Lynsey and I see each other frequently, we still live about 5 mintues from each other and get together to walk, workout, gossip.. whatever. It's always nice to see them and get some good food (this time Mexican) while we catch up! These are some of my longest and best friends. They get me through everything...

On March 22, William and I celebrated our one year anniversary! It really wasn't anything special. We both took the day off, we went to a movie (Admission), and then went to dinner at Fatz, where we had our first date! That night we came home and watched an episode of The Bible mini-series that we got into during the Easter season. Seriously, low-key! He did however get me some lovely goodies! Two pair of monogrammed earrings (which I don't have a pic of ) and some flowers for my office! Tulips! My favorite! We actually had a photo shoot done by my manager for our anniversary and maybe soon I will update you on those pics! They really turned out phenomenal!

So weekend before last we had a whirlwind weekend. We had something EVERY day/night! It was great! We started out that Friday night at my college watching a play, it was culture, and free.
I wore these bracelets!

And then we ate sushi. Which is apparently something I like now! I don't eat seafood, but raw fish is my style... can't explain it! Other than if it weren't for Will I would have never have tried it!

That Saturday we went to the University of South Carolina spring game! With the perks of Will's job we got to enjoy it from the club level, in a box shaded from sun and crowd! Food was included! Best way to take in a game by far, wish we had that luxury during regular season games!

After the game we decided to bite the bullet and go buy...

A GRILL!!! 

I could not be more excited to have a grill this spring/summer! Our first meal was filet's. Yea we went all out! But they were SOOOOOO good! I can even work it myself, so when Will isn't there and I want a grilled turkey burger, I can make that happen! 

 

On Sunday of that weekend we went to see one of our favorites... Chris Young! For FREE actually! Thanks to my  new job perks! He sang "our song" which is, She's Got this Thing About Her. It was so sweet to hear our song live... I might have shed a small tear! 

That was Sunday and on Monday Will surprised me with tickets to see this lady on Wednesday!

It was AMAZING!!! She is always amazing, but sharing my love's first Carrie concert experience was great!! We had great seats to the side of the stage! I actually got to see her walk backstage before the concert! Hunter Hayes is currently touring with her and honestly I wished I could have packed his little cuteness in a box and taken him home! He is precious! Anyways! It was a great date night and a wonderful surprise! We are so blessed to be able to afford to go to events and still pay the bills! My life wouldn't be the same if I wasn't able to attend live music!

I think you are now up to date! & so am I! I sometimes forget that why is blog is so I can remember and look back on fun times. I have pictures on Facebook and my phone, but sometimes it helps to make this a living scrapbook of memories in my life. These are definitely moments I don't want to forget, ever.

For now have a lovely day ladies!
-MG

I'm Back... I Think!

Is anyone still out there?? Hello? Hello? Can you hear me now?

I know, I know.. I've been gone for almost a year. Life got busy, what can I say? I guess a man walked into my life and my blog walked out! I was so busy trying to be in a relationship I didn't have time to blog about the relationship! Here's what has been going on with me in the past year!

> Boyfriend
> Graduate School
> New Job

Yea, I guess that's like a total life overhaul in the past year! :) Let me elaborate!

First, the love life is amazing! I am so lucky and blessed to have such a wonderful, loving, caring man in my life. Sometimes I pinch myself to make sure it's real! We have been dating a little over a year now and everyday is full of laughs and making memories. I honestly don't know how I could have handled the changes I have had in my life without him standing beside me. He is my rock. He knows me, he wants what is best for me and he puts my needs and wants above his own. We have been through a lot in just our short time as a couple, ie. job changes (for the better), parental disapproval (my parents), and just learning how to live and learn as young professionals (budgets!).
I know that we are soul-mates... there are so many a-ha moments where I know that God made him for me! It's crazy to think he pursued me, and for four years I let him not be a part of my life because I was with someone else. It is simply a testament that God's timing is perfect.

Second new adventure has been graduate school. And let me just say this... I'm nearly nine months in and I'm over it! Obviously this must be why God allows women to only carry children for the same amount of time, because after 9 months, you really are over it! I have learned a lot, met some great people and it has put me in a new place in my life academically and professionally. For that I am thankful, but I'm tired of constantly thinking I should be doing school work instead of off having fun doing something else! August 4, 2013 at 2pm can't come fast enough!!

Finally, I have a new job!! I kicked that corporate crap to the curb. Or rather it kicked me. But nonetheless I am loving life in my new job. I'm working for a nonprofit that acts as match.com between colleges/universities and the entertainment industry. I am in the education/volunteer management area and so I am working with our foundation which provides scholarships and working with our over 300 volunteers across the country! LOVE IT!

Somethings that haven't changed and probably never will:

>Still loving Lilly Pulitzer. May she rest in peace! So sad to hear of her passing last week, but I'm sure heaven just got a little brighter!

> Still obsessed with country music. Headed to a Chris Young concert this weekend. I really just can't get enough. Will & I are thinking about going to Nashville over Labor Day weekend! Hope we can! He's never been, I really need him to experience it!

> Still fat. Yep. I'm back to the weight I was after college. In a year I have put on 20lbs ish, but since the beginning of April I have really started watching what I'm eating. Haven't lost but about a pound, been working out 3-4 days a week, but I think my PCOS is what is keeping me from loosing weight. I need to do some research to see if there are alternatives to drugs to help with that because the metformin is kicking my stomach! :/

So that's what's new and not new in my world! Please comment if you are still following and up to reading what I post.. otherwise I might just go back on my blogger hiatus. Have a fabulous weekend!

If I do another post, it will be about 2 new boutiques that have surfaced in my town! Got some cute cute pinterest-esk dresses! :)