Allie

This past Thursday was a very sad day, we had to put our golden retriever, Allie to sleep. Allie was 14 years old so her health had been slowly deteriorating this past year and late Wednesday night she had a stroke. We knew it was her time but it was still so hard.

I got Allie as a Christmas present in 6th grade and she stole all of our hearts immediately! She brought so much happiness to our little family and we needed her just as badly as she needed us. She was SUCH a good dog and was incredibly sweet, smart and obedient. She had so many tricks she had mastered and loved to show off. She was my first dog and if I ever get another one, my expectations will probably be very out of line because Allie was pretty perfect.

As I said, Allie was 14 years and 8 months old. She lived a long great life and was very loved and spoiled (she deserved it)! We could not have asked for a better dog and we loved her so very much. I will always cherish all of the happy memories we had with her and she will be very missed by many people.

Hayley's Baby Shower

I know this seems like a common theme at the beginning of all of my posts now but sorry it has been so long since i have posted, things have just been very busy lately! Good busy, but busy none the less. Anywho...

Two weekends ago I went to Spartanburg for Hayley's Baby Shower for baby Grace. It was a day filled with yummy food, funny shower games, cute onsies and best of all great company! :)

We will be meeting Grace before we know it! Hayley is due April 13 but Grace is expected to arrive a little early. Grace, please come anytime now- we are all awaiting your arrival and cannot wait to meet you!

Here are some of my favorite pictures from the shower.




Hayley, Grace and I





















Jay and Hayley opening Grace's gifts

Onsie decorating station 

Decorated Onsies

Even Matt did one :)

Vegas post to come later this week!

 

Atlanta

So I know my blog has been very boring recently but that is because I have been very boring. I feel like all I have been doing recently is work, work work. Which will probably be the story of my life at least until July, but thats ok....

This past weekend Matt and I went to Atlanta. We stayed with Courtney and Keith and celebrated Courts 26th Birthday. It was the first time weve really gotten to hang out with them since they got engaged in December and we had such a good time! 

On Sunday we went out to lunch with Matts sister Hayley and her husband Jay. We had not seen them since football season so it had been way too long. We went and looked at their new house (which I loved) and saw their new baby room (which I loved even more) which is ready and waiting for the arrival of Grace Austen! :) It was great to see them and we will get to see them again this weekend for Hayleys baby shower so I will be sure to post about that next week.



Here are some pics from the weekend...

Happy B-day Court!



Iced upon arrival



 

Yes we went to Medievel Times...

Charleston!

Sorry I have been on a hiatus. I have been incredibly busy but also boring (is that possible?) with nothing to post about until now...

Matt and I spent this past weekend in Charleston. I miss Charleston so much and always get antsy to go back there when I haven't been in awhile. We decided Valentines weekend would be the perfect time to go. We stayed at Meeting Street Inn which I LOVED! It was so convenient and a plus was that they have complimentary breakfast and happy hour with wine and cheese everyday. Our room was awesome with a great view of Meeting St and we could see Market Street from our window. 





We got there early Friday night and had dinner at...



It was delicious as usual. Coast Crab Soup is my absolute favorite! Than we went out to Brick, Squeeze and Wet Willies (haha!)
Saturday we woke up and headed to Mt Pleasant...



For lunch at Paiges Okra, they have the best southern food! From there we headed to Sullivans Island to walk on the beach for a little while. It was still chilly but the sun was out and the beach was beautiful which makes me super excited for Spring and even more excited for our family trip to IOP in June!



Then we went to the market to go shopping before going back to get ready for dinner. We decided to eat dinner at Poogans Porch, I had not been there in like 6 years but it was pretty good, and we had the peanut butter pie which was delicious! Poogans Porch is in an old house on Queen St (very Charleston) and I love the atmosphere there.




We went to Mad River then to meet Marshall and Chrissie at Social. We ended the night at Tsunami, it was a fun time.
 
Sunday I met Chelyse, (a high school friend of mine that I had not seen in awhile) and her bf at Toast for brunch and mimosas- it was good to catch up. 
 
Before we headed back to Charlotte we went to King St. which was blocked off for the day. It was a warm and beautiful day,, there were street vendors and  people walking their dogs everywhere. There was also a Wheres Waldo Pub Crawl that day so the Waldos were everywhere! I made a quick stop at Willie Jays, one of my favorite stores there and found a fun dress. Last, we grabbed some ice cream and just walked around for a little while before heading back to Charlotte. I had such an awesome time, it was a great weekend!

On Monday (Valentines Day) I got these beautiful roses delivered to my work and Matt and I had dinner at BLT steakhouse. It was the perfect Valentines Day (and weekend) with my Valentine!

I'm Excited About....

KATIE! First and foremost, one of my very best friends in the whole world is moving to Charlotte this weekend! Katie and Mitch will be moving here tomorrow and I am soooo excited!!!! Yay for more friends in Charlotte, I seriously can’t wait!


CHARLESTON! Matt and I decided that it was time for a visit to Charleston so we were going to go down for Valentines Day weekend, I am so excited, I can hardly wait!!!


TONIGHTS TV line up…Thursday is my new favorite TV night for sure: The office, Parks and Recreation, Jersey Shore and The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills? Yes Please! Matt will not even complain because he likes 3/4 of the shows (even though he will claim to not like Jersey Shore but I know he secretly does). I know I might be a loser for saying this but… I can’t wait!


VEGAS! Last April at a work event I won 2 free nights at the Wynn Encore in Vegas. The nights expire at the end of April and the next few months are going to be super busy for me at work so we really weren’t sure when we were even going to get to use the free nights. Matt pretty much refused to accept this defeat so we started looking for tickets. We found some decent ones the second weekend in March so were going! We decided to make a long weekend out of it, we will leave Wednesday after work returning on the red eye Monday morning then head straight to work (yesh!) Sooo excited, Vegas-here we come!


CHARLOTTE RESTAURANT WEEK! This is currently going on right now and we have already gotten 2 awesome dinners out of it: Flemmings and The Melting Pot….yum!!! I love Charlotte Restaurant week: good restaurants, good deals, great food! We may hit up one more place this weekend before the deal is over, well see….

Our yummy dessert at Melting Pot.....

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Things I Am Obsessed With Right Now

Sooo…I decided to copy Megan and Brittney and write some things I am currently obsessed with in no particular order:


Hot Chocolate and Oreos

This started when the snow came…and has since continued. I like to make the small Keurig cup of Hot Chocolate and dip 3 Oreos in it. Weird? Maybe. Delicious? For sure…

Punjammies
http://www.punjammies.com/

I got these as a Christmas Gift and decided to get myself a pair as well. They are made in India at an after-care facility by women who have been rescued or have escaped from a life in forced prostitution (The International Princess Project). They are super cute and comfy and best of all the proceeds go towards a really good cause.


Real Housewives of Beverly Hills

Ok, it must be said that I love most of the Real Housewives series (except Atlanta and DC). BUT this one takes the cake. It is so much better than the others (sorry New York)! Kyle is definitely my favorite…I am so sad that tomorrow is the season finale. However, I cannot wait to see the reunion show!



Shellac Manicures

Whether it is OPI No Chip Manicure or CNDC I love them both! I am obsessed with this new manicure. I always hate getting a manicure that chips/comes off 2-3 days later and I hate fake nails because of how damaged it makes my real nails. To me this is a perfect combo. My friend Courtney told me about this last summer and I’m not sure why I waited so long to try it. My manicure lasts at least 2 weeks (sometimes 3) with this. Even at 3 weeks the polish is still perfectly in place but by then there’s been too much growth so the jig is up! French is the best option as the growth is not as obvious. It’s about $10-$15 more expensive than a regular manicure but totally worth it. Plus it’s your real nails so you can still cut them and while its on the polish makes your nails stronger and less prone to break. The only down side is that they do not have as many color options.


Citizen Avedon Skinnies

My friend Katie recommended them to me and I got the black pair, they are so cute and comfortable! I liked them so much I got another pair in indigo (on sale now at piperlime.com!)


This website

http://www.joshhosler.biz/numberoneinhistory/selectmonth.htm

This tells you what the #1 song was on the day you were born. Mine is We Are The World by USA for Africa. Matt’s is Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go by Wham!


Nuggets and Chick-Fil--A Sauce

I have majorly been craving this combo lately!



The Bachelor



I’m always glued to every season of the Bachelor/Bachelorette and this one is no different. I definitely like Brad again and I love Emily from Charlotte. Not just because she’s from Charlotte but because she’s so sweet! I love to make predictions of who will win. I would say Emily but I’m not sure she is that into him. So for now my prediction of who will end up in the top 3 is: Emily, Ashley (Nanny from NY) and Chantel O. But who knows....

I can think of lots more but I will save them for another post!

Until Next Time....

The Penguin

Within the first couple of weeks I moved to Charlotte I saw The Penguin featured in the "Best of Charlotte" Magazine. Since then I had heard so many good things about it. I had been telling Matt forever that I wanted to go there so we finally made a trip there this past Saturday. Immediately when we got there the manager gave me a free hat, score! The place was packed and there was a 30-40 minute wait and we had to wait outside.  They had live music in the parking lot, haha and there was also a photographer there taking pictures for some reason...

30 minutes later we were seated and started off with the fried pickles, yum...they were so good!

Then we both got burgers and fries; Matt got the double chili burger (it was a monster!) and I got a single cheeseburger they were delicious! When we were getting our check the waitress mentioned that if we bought a penguin T shirt for $10 we can get free fried pickles any time we came back (and wore the Tshirt) in 2011. We thought, what the heck, so I got one. We definitely felt like regulars by the time we left...

Me in all my Penguin gear!

I hope you all had a great weekend!