Memories

This past weekend I went through some old boxes from my parents' house. It was so weird to go through all of my high school memories, and some even older than that! These boxes were filled with old notes from friends, hilarious journals from middle school, sewing projects, and photos. I also came across about a billion ticket stubs to various movies, concerts, and high school musicals. Don't ask me why I saved all of them, but it was fun going through and seeing all the different movies I saw in theaters. Teenagers see SO many movies it's ridiculous! Take a peek at some of the things I found.

Notes written in class and passed in the hallways to my friends,

all kept in a priceless homemade memory box from a good friend

Yearbooks! I have yet to leaf through these.

My now 10-year-old doggy as a 1-year-old pup

A matching mother-daughter picture. Love this so much!

Of course a good amount of things had to be tossed...

(yes, I used to cross-stitch. maybe I'll show you some of my lovely finished projects another time)

 But there are some things I would never, ever, ever throw away.

Like this decorative rack, hand-painted by my grandmother for my nursery.

She passed away when I was 5, and I love that I have this keepsake from her.

It makes me want to name my daughter Laura just so I can put it up in her nursery.

Things like this make me cherish the memories that made me who I am today. They make me thankful for the full life that I have lived, all due to my parents, siblings, friends, and experiences that influenced me so much. These things also make me thankful for where I am today. One day I will look back on my 20s, fondly I hope, and think of these times as "the past." What will I remember? What will I not remember? I'm realizing that what I do every day is me adding pages to my story. So every day really counts. Because pages add up to chapters, and chapters compile the book. I hope one day I'm proud of the way I'm living right now. Mostly, I hope I remember. At least the good things anyway.

Weekend!

I feel like I've finally gotten back in the swing of things after our cruise. I've been so much more productive this week and more motivated to get organized (note: this does not mean that I am organized). Nevertheless, I am always as ready for the weekend as the next person! I am SO glad Friday is here. And here are 5 things for me to be happy about.

1. Last weekend we went to Charlotte for some fun time with my in-laws. Included: a candy-themed birthday party for my niece and nephew (complete with moon bounce!), unintentional outfit matching, baby time, and hanging with the cutest dog ever, Snickers. Seriously, she curled up at the foot of our bed as we went to sleep, and we woke up to her curled up right in between us by our heads. Too. cute.

2. Our search for a new place to live is nearing its end. We are  t h i s  close to choosing this one neighborhood we really like. I know that anywhere we choose there is going to be something I don't like about it, but I'm still scared to bite the bullet on the chance that something better will come along later. Praying for contentment and assurance in whatever decision we make!

3. Spending time with friends really is a highlight of my week. And lucky me, I got to do that 3 times this week, weekends not included!

4. Thankful for my sweetie! He's another highlight. He really is the best!

5. Last night I painted my nails Essie's "Sand Tropez" taupe. I'm liking the neutral so far!

P.S. A nail-painting tip: if you get some around the edges of your skin while painting, don't pull out the nail polish remover to get it off. I always mess up at least one of my nails when I do this. Wait until the next time you're in the shower or washing dishes and the water makes it come right off your skin! Way easier!



This weekend we are headed up to VA to see my baby sister graduate HIGH SCHOOL! I can't believe it. She still seems so young in my eyes! I am SO proud of her! Looking forward to spending some time with the family as well as seeing high school friends. Happy weekend everybody!


linking up again with Lauren for High 5 For Friday!

New look!

Last night I did some tweaking and now the blog has a whole new look! So far I'm loving the color scheme and the whole thing feels so much brighter. I'm still updating some things, so let me know what you think.

Happy Wednesday!

Dear Husband

Thank you for telling me I look beautiful when I leave for work in the morning. I know you genuinely mean it every time and it truly makes my day.

I'm proud of you for working so hard lately. I know you don't love everything about your job but you care about doing it well and you are so good at what you do. It makes me so happy to see you reach your goals and succeed!

Thank you for apologizing first and loving me even when I'm not so loving. You remind me that we are on the same team, and I'm thankful for that.

All this to say that I love you & you're the best husband ever!

Caribbean Cruise

I have been meaning to post about our cruise all week and I'm finally just now getting around to it. Basically we have a bajillion photos and it took me awhile to get them organized. That, and getting back into the swing of things has been, shall we say, difficult. Vacations are great, but for some reason when I return home I lose all interest in doing routine grown-up things like unpacking, laundry, working, cleaning the house, going to bed on time, etc etc etc. It just all the sudden all seems so hard to manage! I'm sure we've all been there. Anywho... let's talk cruise!

The stops on this cruise were the reason we chose it. When we looked at the route we were SO excited about the places we could travel to! The second thing that made our trip amazing were the people we went with: Matt and Heather. We both went to college with Matt and let me tell you, we had so much fun with this pair! Michael and Matt were so goofy the entire time, making up funny hypothetical situations and how they would play out, and also running around jumping off of things wherever we went. It provided for some good entertainment and my ab muscles probably are more toned now than before the trip.

Some of our favorite parts:

- viewing the landscape of all of Miami and South Beach as we set sail

- Heather and me laying on rafts in the Bahamas water while the boys went off to find barracudas

- Magen's Bay in St. Thomas

- double-dating for dinner every night - SO fun, and truly hilarious at times!
- seeing the shows and gambling losing money at the casino

- ziplining in San Juan and enjoying the gorgeous city

- touching a sand shark while snorkeling in Turks & Caicos!

Get ready for a photo explosion... I will try to keep it down to the highlights, but I'm not making any promises!

You can see from the pictures that while the ship was awesome, the things we enjoyed the most were the places we got to see and the people we were with. It was such a fantastic vacation and I'm so glad we got to go!

I'm back!

We are home from our vacation! We had SUCH a wonderful time, and I figured I'd finally share with you where we actually were all last week. We went on a...

and it was fantastic! I feel a little overwhelmed after returning home... laundry, bills, & work, but of course there are some good things like catching up with family, friends, and all of your lovely blogs! By the end of our cruise I almost thought we had just moved there and the ship was our new home. Our vacation was that amazing. I began thinking, "Do I really have to go back to work again?" Though it's always nice to come home and enjoy my cozy bed and the internet.

Stay tuned because I will be sharing more details later this week about the places we got to tour, as well as our amazing ship, lady Liberty!