Justin's best surprise ever!

Thursday the September 30th started out like any other Thursday. I went to the gym in the morning, had lunch with a friend, and did some stuff around the house. Around 5 that afternoon, Justin sent me a text telling me to look under a coaster in our office. When I first got the text, I thought it was Justin telling me he was on his way home from work. When I turned over the coaster I was surprised to find a QR code. I scanned the code and it took me here.

When I finished reading the poem I had the biggest smile on my face and picked up my keys and headed out the door. It took me a little while to find the second QR code, but when I did, knew I was on a fun scavenger hunt. During my fun outing Justin left me clues all over MC's campus as well as a few places around town. The places I went to find the clues are as follows, click on each link to view each clue:

Nelson

East Tower (Residence Hall)

Whittington (Residence Hall)

YogNFurit (yogurt place)

Olive Branch (gift shop)

Ratliff (Residence Hall)

Kugel (statue on campus)

The last clue lead me back home to check the mail box. When I opened the mail box I found Justin's iPod Touch with a Post-It note that said press play. This is the video is what the final clue. I encourage you to watch the video before scrolling down and reading the rest of the post.

The word surprised could not describe what I was feeling when I found out that Justin had planned a weekend trip to New York! If you know me, you know that I love NYC. I had less than 12 hours from the time I found out we were going to NYC to the time we had to get on the plane. Justin and I had ran around getting packed and getting everything ready before we left. Justin worked really hard to keep the trip a surprise. We had some plans already made but Justin had called everyone a told them of his surprise and told them we would not be able to keep our plans. He really thought of everything. It was awesome!!!

I don't think I slept the night before we left. I was excited and I kept thinking of things I needed to do and things I needed to pack.

Now on to NYC. Justin and I have been to NYC together 3 times, but each time we either stayed with friends who lived there or went with friends. To read more about our past trip click, here. The other two trips to NYC happened before I stated blogging so I don't have any posts to link to, sorry. When I found out that we would be going to NYC alone I was very excited. It has been a long time since Justin and I have been on a real vacation alone. I think it might have been our honeymoon almost 5 years ago.

We had a great time walking around NYC. We didn't do to many touristy things this time but here are some images of our trip. After checking into our hotel we went on the hunt for a place to eat lunch. One, of the many reasons we love NYC is the restaurant options. Living in Clinton you only have a few options when it comes to places to dine. NYC has 100's of options to choose from. When we are out of town Justin and I try to stay away from chain restaurants if at all possible. Its fun and it ensures that we try new places and different foods. This is my lunch at Le Pain Quotidien (This might be a chain...oops. I think it's a New York chain though.)

We sent a lot of time walking around Central Park, the Brooklyn Bridge, Union Square, Time Square, and the Upper East Side. Here are a few of our favorites pictures from the trip.

This is the 9/11 memorial. If you are in NYC you really need to make a stop here, just be sure you get your tickets before hand.

In our all trips to NYC we have never walked the Brooklyn Bridge to this time we made a point to do it. I am not sure if you can tell but there were a lot of people walking and biking on the bridge.

Time Square!!

A very delicious banana and hazelnut crepe from Max Brenners.

Views of the Jackie Onassis Reservoir in Central Park.

We had a great weekend and I am so grateful for a husband who would go through all the trouble of surprise me with a special weekend in my favorite city!

A High School Graduation

May was a month full of travel for us. The weekend after my brother's graduation we traveled to Atlanta to celebrate the high school graduation of a family friend. We arrived in Atlanta on Thursday afternoon. After spending some time reconnecting with the Fosters we headed out to dinner. There are many reason I love going to Atlanta and the Fosters are one of them. We are like family and it is never a dull moment when we are all together. I think another reason why I love spending time with them is because we are always doing fun girl stuff. When you grow up being the only girl you don't always get to spend your days going shopping and getting your nails done - which is what we did Friday. How could we allow Daly to graduate without having a morning of pampering with some manicures and pedicures? Sorry...I didn't get any pictures because the day was full of running errands.

Now on to the graduation. I have not thought about my high school graduation in 9 years. I guess I was just so excited to be done with high school. Don't get me wrong I have thought about my high school days many times over the last nine years, but I never really think back to my graduation day. However, during this graduation old memories came back to me of my own graduation. It was great to take a walk down memory lane. During the commencement, Daly gave a speech to honor her teachers, which she did a great job with. After the ceremony there was a reception. It was fun/weird watching all the seniors taking pictures together and talk about what they were going to do over the summer and where they would be attending college. Weird, because I seem like yesterday I was doing the same thing.

My camera was acting weird so forgive me for the pictures.


Saturday was a another great day. Most of the morning was spent getting ready for the graduation party Daly and two of her friends would have that night at the house. Well, in all honesty it was the guys that spent most of the morning getting things ready. The girls went around town looking for candles to put on the tables and other things for the party. After everything was ready Justin, Abe, Lindsay, and I decided it was time to head downtown to shop.This is off topic but I just have to say that I really miss the shopping in ATL. When we got back home everything was set up and the party was about to start. Everything about the party was great. I am so glad we were able to be there for Daly.


It was a wonderful weekend celebrating with Daly and her family. We are all so proud of her!! She will be following her mothers foot steps and will be attending Auburn in the fall. My parents are big Mississippi State fans so I am sure there will be some tailgating when State and Auburn play each other in September. I will be cheering for State that day.

Abe the Master

In May (I know I am still two months behind) I went to Louisville, KY to celebrate my brother's graduation from seminary. I had never been to Louisville but had heard what a great place it was. I was very excited to make the trip with my parents. It was a long 8 or 9 hour drive but when you can sleep in the backseat it does not make for a bad drive.

While Abe was in school he worked at a hotel and was able to get us a room here. It is a very nice hotel downtown. Abe scored us a room on the concierge floor in the Gatsby suite. The room was nice but what I loved the best about the room was the shoe shining box. I had never seen one before and thought it was amazing. I just wish I had shoes that needed shining. This is the view of the box from inside the room.

When we arrived it was dinner time so we went to a place my mom had read about in the Southern Living Magazine. I can't remember the name but it was a real treat. It is a very eclectic place that has a fun gift shop. You know me, I love any kind of shop. While waiting for our table we had a great time trying on hats and looking around the shop.


This is a view of the inside of the restaurant. I have to stay that this image does not do this place justice. Another thing that set this place apart was the fact that they had toys at the table for you to play with while you waited on your food. Not just that game with the golf tees like at Cracker Barrel but real toys, like toy horses, a "seek and find" game, crayons, and a few other things.
When we finished dinner we took some time to have a fun photo op with the outdoor decorations. There was a lot more stuff outside that I just did not take pictures of but it was just as eclectic as the inside.

After dinner we walked around part of the city and wasted time until we had made room for dessert. We finally made our way to the Pie Kitchen. As I am writing this, my mouth is watering just thinking back to my experience. I wish Clinton or even the Metro Jackson area had a good dessert place that had more than ice cream or yogurt. I had a delicious piece of apple pie and a scoop of peanut butter ice cream. It was so good!!

The graduation was at 10:00 in the morning so we arrived in time to get good seats and did some people watching while we waited for the ceremony to start. The weather was great until 10:00 when the ceremony started. That is when the sun came out from behind the clouds and fried us. Other than the sun it was a great experience. It was all worth it to watch Abe graduate with a Master of Divinity form Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.



Later that afternoon Lindsay and my mom put together a cookout at a great park on the Ohio River to celebrate. We had steaks cooked by my dad along with chips, potato salad, broccoli salad as well as some other things that I can't remember. The highlight of the night was the great cupcakes that Lindsay had made. They not only tasted great but looked great too. Here a few shots of the food table and some of people that came to the party.





It was a great trip! I am glad that I was able to make the trip to see Abe and Lindsay. Now I only have to drive and hour and a half since they moved to Louisiana two weeks after this weekend. Since they have moved we have made many trips to each other houses.

Welcome to the Beach

In May we took a beach trip to Gulf Shores with a few of our friends to have a farewell weekend for our friends who moved to Australia. We borrowed my parents car so we could all be together and loaded all our stuff in the car and drove five and a half hours playing games and doing anything we could to make the time go by.

When we got there it was late and we all were really excited to see what the condo would be like. We booked this particular condo, site unseen. It was wonderful! We had three nice bedrooms each with its own bathroom. I didn't get any pictures of the inside of the condo but take my word for it, it was really nice and we had lots of space.

On our first real day at the beach some of us didn't use a high enough SPF and, well...we got burned. We laid out until later afternoon. It was great just sitting on the beach. The guys laid out some, but got antsy and played football and frisbee.


A beach trip is not complete without a foot in the sand picture. What is funny about this picture is that we are all wearing the same color nail polish.

After taking all the sun we could for one day we when back to the condo and got ready to going shopping and for dinner. You can kinda tell that we are a little red but this picture does not show how really burned we all were.


After dinner we went to a souvenir store to look at getting a boogie board. While we were there Justin and I had a great time trying on hats.

The second day was also a blast. I didn't spend as much time on the beach because I was burned, but I did use a better sunscreen the second time around. Justin had a big scare in the water while he was boogie boarding. If you see him you should ask him about it. All I have to say is that I am so glad I didn't know what was going on. After lunch some of us took naps while others went back out to the beach. Before heading out that night we decided to try and take some pictures on the beach. It was a bust because of the wind. I am not sure we were able to get one good pictures. Here are some of our attempts.

The same thing about this picture is that all of them look just like this. Mine and Jessica's hair are blowing in our faces. Somehow Heather was able to keep her hair out of the way.
We spent out last night playing putt-putt and eating at LuLu's and went and got ice cream for dessert. Also this was Sunday night so when we got back to the condo we turned on the TV to watch Obama tell the world the Bin Laden was dead. I know that has nothing to do with anything but it was something that made the last night a little more memorable (in an odd way).

We had a great time and are very grateful for the time we were able to spend with our wonderful friends!

Dreaming of Paris

When Justin and I signed up for the mission trip to Paris I didn't now what to expect. I was completely blown away by the whole experience, to read about the mission work we did click here.

This post will be about the beauty of Paris and some fun pictures that our group took throughout the week. I am going to let the pics tell the story. I might have to make this two different post because we took a lot of pictures. I will do my best to include everything but not make it too long.

At the airport playing Banana Grams

Sacre Coeur

View of Eiffel Tower from the top of Sacre Coeur

The most delicious cookies you will ever put into your mouth.

Arc De Triomphe

In the Louvre

The Louvre

The Seine River

Notre Dame Cathedral

In the Notre Dame Cathedral

Notre Dame Cathedral at night

Eating more delicious pastries

Eiffel Tower

Eiffel Tower

Eating the best Nutella and Banana crepe!!

Top of the Eiffel Tower

Shamrock shakes: Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream with Sprite

More crepes!!

There are many more pictures that I could not include for that fact that this would be the longest post ever. We had a great time in Paris and hope you enjoy looking at the pictures too.