Memorial Weekend in NY!

Hi everyone!!

What a great Memorial weekend in NY. I got back home last night and have been taking it easy today before life resumes tomorrow, ha!!

The family wedding was beautiful...





And NYC Saturday was AMAZING!!!!!!

Time Square


Central Park


I took over 100 pictures this weekend and so more to come, haha!!!

Hope everyone had an awesome weekend.

I'll be back :)

I know, I know... Such a tease aren't I??? HA!

NY bound!

Hey ya’ll! I’m going to be scarce around the blog for the rest of the week.

I’m heading out of town tomorrow!!



Our family is going to Long Island, New York, for a wedding and will be there for Memorial Weekend!! So excited. It will be a nice little getaway.

Not only excited about the wedding but we’re taking a day trip into NYC on Saturday!!!



I absolutely love that place. It’s only for a day but I’ll take it, ha!!!

It will be a quick but great weekend! Enjoy your long weekend (at least I hope all of ya’ll are getting a long weekend).

Talk to you soon and will be back with lots of pictures!! :)

Couldn't have said it better myself!

I had nothing to go on today that would be blog worthy.

Then enters my Mother.

She has something she’d like to share with you.

Email conversation we had this morning.

HAHA!

From: Lauren Kelly
Sent: Tuesday, May 25, 2010 8:52 AM
To: Rowland, Mary
Subject:

Seriously, didn’t it hurt to watch the Bachelorette last night??? What did you think??

From: Rowland, Mary
Sent: Tuesday, May 25, 2010 8:59 AM
To: Lauren Kelly
Subject: RE:

They were the ugliest, dumbest guys I’ve ever seen!

Perfectly said. What’s the saying, Mom is always right??? :)

Thoughts???

A weekend gone too soon!!

So Friday night after I left work I headed straight to Wal-Mart to food shop. I had the urge to cook and bake.. (a rarity people)...

It helps that I have had some blogger inspiration.

Thanks to Jennifer and Jenna, I made this and this.

Enchiladas


Cupcakes in a jar


Much to my surprise the enchiladas came out pretty good... and the cupcakes in a jar, out of this world. The presentation wasn't nearly as cute as Jenna's, but pretty good for my first attempt.. It's fairly easy, but in my case when you accidently pick up 32 oz mason jars..... Yeah, didn't have nearly the amount of ingredients I would need to fill the jars. So made multiple trips to the store. Stressful, but fun!!

This pretty much sums up my Saturday! (and yes, do have a suit on, it's strapless and you can't tell by the picture really, ha!)



Went over to my parents house and hung out by the pool and had dinner with them and watched Sweet November.



Have you ever seen this movie?? WOW, you definitely need a tissue but it was pretty good. It was a wonderful Saturday!!!

Then Sunday was pretty much a day full of nothing... The productiveness = 0, haha! Did all of you catch the Lost finale?



I watched the first part with the cast interviews and didn't catch the finale. I haven't watched one episode of the show and want to get caught up on all the seasons. So bummed I missed out on this TV phenomenon. Were you Lost lovers happy with the finale?

I did watch the Brooks & Dunn special "The last rodeo"...



They really did pave the way for country music. And there was a great lineup and it was a wonderful tribute to them!!

Oh, and one more thing....



Have ya'll signed up to get the free spicy chicken sandwich at Chick-Fil-A? I just did this morning and can't wait!!! Go here to get yours.

Hope ya'll had a great weekend!

Grace

Thank you so so much for your sweet encouragement on my post yesterday! It’s a beginning and you have to start somewhere right? It’s great to have the accountability in the blog community. Figured if I put it out there, then the follow thru would be easier.

I’ll be honest, I have a daily devotional book but I’m pretty bad about it. I just happened to pull it out this morning and this is the scripture the devotional was based on..

“But the Lord said to Samuel, Look not on his appearance or at the height of the stature, for I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees; for man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart. 1 Samuel 16:7

It went on to say that God would rather have someone with a sweet, wonderful heart toward Him, who makes mistakes, than somebody with a slick performance, who is rotten inside.

That’s a lot to digest.

God has given us the grace to make mistakes. After all, he knew we’d make them anyway.

Think about that.

There’s grace when in my instance we know we haven’t been taking care of our bodies properly.

There’s grace when we’re caught in the struggle of addiction.

There’s grace when we don’t treat somebody right.

There’s grace when our priorities are out of wack.

There’s grace in every marriage.

There’s grace with that particular co-worker that’s hard to deal with.

There’s grace with the person that puts on that mask each day to cover up what’s really going on inside.

There’s grace even when we feel so undeserving and that we’ve screwed up too many times.

God has an endless supply of grace.

But above all else, God just wants your heart.

Where is your heart at today? And I point the question right back at me as well.

Grace can be defined as the freely given, unmerited favor and love of God.

I don’t know about you, but I’ll take that. And in return God will have my heart!

7:41am....Time to be vulnerable here!

What significance does 7:41am have you might ask?

At 7:41am this morning I drank my last soda!

For as long as I can remember soda has been my thing, as bad as it is for you, I’ve always loved it and have never been able to kick the habit. I’ve gone maybe a week without it and would fall right back into the trap.

I mentioned on the blog before where I was going to give it up, but obviously I have not.

Allow me to be vulnerable with you here.

I have ALWAYS struggled with my weight. Not in a huge way or anything but I have never ever felt comfortable in my own skin. I’m trying really really hard to remedy that because it’s not a good place to be.

I realize I am never going to be popsicle thin… my body is just never going to bless me in such a way. I’ve always been the one to have to work at maintaining and keeping the weight off. Granted I’m only 25 years old but my metabolism is just not the same and your body just changes, no getting around that.

I’m just going to come right out and say that I’ve probably gained about 10 pounds or more just in the last few months alone. I’m not happy about it. I want to make a change and the change starts with me.

I have horrible horrible eating habits. I’ll be honest. I put any food in my mouth without thinking twice. Doesn’t help I love food and appreciate all its goodness to the fullest, LOL. But I’ve come to realize that it’s become an emotional attachment for me. This is really scaring me. When I’m stressed and feeling all sorts of other emotions I go to food. When I’m sitting on the couch watching TV I have food in my hands.

Has anyone else struggled in this sort of way before?

My diet has got to change, the fast food has got to stop. So first I am eliminating soda out of the equation and drinking more water and I’m thinking I’ll see a huge difference in just this alone. Has anyone else found this to be true?

I’m not comfortable in my pants anymore and that does a number on your confidence. A lot of stuff is not fitting the same and I’ve been in denial and just overlooking the obvious. I have gained weight. I refuse to throw any of them away though because I desperately want to be able to be comfortable in them again.

And bathing suits.. Don’t even want to think about that. Makes me cringe. When I posted my Mother’s Day post where we were all out on the boat, I didn’t even post the picture where you could see me in my bathing suit.

So I look back on how I got to this point and can’t beat myself up about this. But all I can do is move forward and make a change. A change in my lifestyle. A change in the way I view myself. I want to take better care of this temple God has given me.

So I ask, what has helped you in this struggle as I’m sure I’m not alone in this? I can almost guarantee I am not.

Back off robbers and tendonitis!

Seriously, the only title I could come up with, ha!

Okay…..

I have to rewind to last night! I wish ya’ll could have walked into my house with me last night. Actually, wish I could have videotaped it for you. As you know, the power went off at my house yesterday morning and I had to leave before it came back on.

So I get home from school last night close to 10pm… and I walk in the house and my bedroom light is on, the bathroom light is on, the TV is blaring, and when I get ready in the morning like to listen to the radio (as the TV is going) and that was blaring as well. I’m a good mutli-tasker like that.

What can you gather from this?

I love to conserve energy!

NOT! HA!

I couldn’t help but just bust out laughing. There was no robbery taking place at my house yesterday because the house was pumping (or so they would have thought).

Today was a crazy morning. I had to take my dog to the vet. He loathes the vet and was clinging to me as if his life depended on it. And then I had to run after I dropped him off to the orthopedic doctor for an appt. So I feel your pain little buddy, ha!

And with that said. Let me share with you.



No, I’m not dying…. But yes these are all appointment card reminders for doctor’s appointments coming up. Praise the Lord for insurance is all I gotta say. What do people do without it? If it’s not one thing, it’s another, but In the midst of all the doctor’s appointments I have to count my blessings.

Turns out I have tendonitis in my arm. I sound all doctor like don’t I? HA! It’s inflammation of the tendon so I have to sign up for physical therapy 3 x a week for probably 4 weeks. Hopefully based on my progress I won’t have to do it that long, but if I have to, I will.

Pray for my dog. Pray for me.

Such is another day in my life :)

The highs and lows of the weekend!

Ya’ll know about my Saturday, but here are some other things I enjoyed from the weekend.

I had sushi twice this weekend. Yes, twice. I love it that much.

Went to the grocery store just for this.


And I have consumed all of this by myself.


I had a craving for brownies and the brownie aroma in my house…Oh my goodness, no words could describe.

There was a double feature of Sweet Home Alabama on TV this weekend.


I can never get enough of that movie.

My favorite quote from the movie.

What you wanna be married to me for anyhow?
So I can kiss you anytime I want.

And I seriously don’t know what I would do without SoapNet to give me my dose of:







There was a downfall to the weekend though. My poor doggy has been not feeling well and he decided to display that all over my house and that’s what I woke up to Sunday morning. NOT FUN!! Going to call the vet. But I did end my Sunday with a wonderful church service. It was awesome. We had a singing group from the University of Mobile Alabama visiting our church and to say they were amazing would be an understatement. I was totally blessed by the whole service.

And then another downfall was I missed the Miss USA pageant :(



Why did they have to televise it so doggone early? I made it just in time to see her crowned. Congrats Michigan! :)

And then here we are at Monday. It’s been an interesting start to the day. The power went out at my house. Luckily it was after I had gotten a shower. But had to come to work a little early to finish my hair and get my face on.



It was interesting drive to work being that it seemed all the traffic lights were out in the city.

And ya’ll, just for the heck of it I just have to show you the wallpaper in our bathroom here. Ummmmm, just a tad bit outdated. We have been begging them to change it.



Wow, so this post was pretty much all over the place! Have a GREAT Monday!

Saturday with Aunt Lulu!

Earlier last week I called my sister-in-law to see if I could steal my niece for the day on Saturday and spend some time with her. It's so important to me to develop that relationship with her and have the one-on-one time. Especially now that she has a sister on the way and it will be even more important when Miss McKenzie Grace makes her arrival in August.

So this morning I picked her up real early



and we headed to the local park so she could play on the playground. It is a beautiful day today and we had a blast. I hadn't spent much time at the park in years and this brought back so many memories because I used to play on this playground so much when I was little.

Enjoy the pictures...

















Views of the park.





Then after the park I told the munchkin I would make a little detour for her...



and let her pick out a couple of toys.

I'll take 100 of these in my cart please :)


Choices, Choices, Choices...


Pleased with one of her selections!


Then we came back to the house and hung out and watched the movie Snow Dogs and played with her new toys and here she is showing off some more cuteness...





My Grandma also came over during this time because I knew she would want to see her and so I gave her a call and she joined us for a little while. We went and grabbed a bit to eat.



Funny story... She was really wanting McDonald's and call her spoiled (or me a good Aunt, haha) but I went and picked her up a happy meal and then we took it to Sonny's and she ate it there while we ate Sonny's BBQ!

After spending a majority of the day with her I am pretty certain that 4 year olds have PMS, haha!!! Her mood changes from minute to minute, more like second to second. First she's hot, then she's cold.... figure it out girl, haha!!!

But I love her so so much. Lulu is her name for me and melts my heart when she says it. As you can see there were no pics taken of myself and my Grandma. The camera was pointed elsewhere, LOL! I know this is niece overload here but she makes being an Aunt one of the greatest joys of my life.

Reason # 973549504858 why men have it easier!

Hope this post isn’t too much information, but you know this is the life of ALL women and most of my readers I would assume are all women. So let’s just pretend we’re all gathered together having a round table discussion and a little bit of chit-chat.

It’s happens every year. The dreaded yearly. And my yearly came today (man how that year flies) so this is all fresh in my mind. Aren’t ya’ll lucky!

You get there and then you have to fill out a gazillion papers as if you didn’t just do this last year and they don’t have it on file.

Then your name is called and the first stop is to the restroom where you have to tinkle on command. Don’t you just love that? No pressure or anything. I always am so worried that I just won’t be able to do this, ha. Anyone else have this issue?

Then comes the blood pressure check where I immediately warn the nurse that my blood pressure is going to be high because it’s just a doctor thing and to take no offense. Afterall, I have the white coat syndrome. If you don’t know what that is, google it. You just might find you have it yourself.

They check my temp, good to go. Then there’s the finger prick to test my iron. I have to turn my head as they try to squeeze all the blood from my poor finger to fill the tiny tube. Oh, I kid, wasn’t that bad!

Then there’s the dreaded walk to the exam room where you are then instructed to strip down into a paper gown and told the doctor will be in shortly. And in those short few minutes the room suddenly gets a little bit colder. Could be the paper gown, you think?

Then you hear the knock on the door and the doctor walks in. Time for the examination. No number two pencils involved, although at that precise moment you sincerely wish it were that type of examination.

Exam proceeds. Will leave it at that.

Light years later (at least it feels that way) the non-number two pencil exam ends. You’re told to get dressed and then meet the doctor back in the office. You get dressed and then the room all the sudden warms back up again. Note to all of you, clothes warm the body, who knew?

You meet the doctor back in the office with a smile on their face and you’re left pondering and just thinking that it takes a truly special person to have this job! I mean truly special!

You bid your goodbyes until next year when you can have this lovely meet-up again!

Oh, yes…. men certainly have it so much easier! In what other ways do you think men have it easier? Thoughts?

Exactly one month from today...

Exactly one month from today I will be turning 26. All the more closer to 30, yikes!

Ya’ll, this girl had no clue what the years would hold for her.



In this picture I am graduating preschool feeling accomplished because I could now recite all my A, B, C’s… and maybe even say them backwards, who knows.

The years would come and go and then the next time I would find myself in a cap and gown again would be sitting at my high school graduation feeling accomplished becauseI had survived my last four years of school and would now find myself in the adult world. Looking back I simply wonder if I could do things over, if I would have taken the time to enjoy those years in all its fullness, because the years ahead would fly by soon enough. During that time you want to have all of life’s questions figured out, you wanted independence and you wanted to figure things out on your own. And the ironic thing is I’m still depending on other’s to help me figure things out sometimes, and learning that there’s a part of that, that will never leave us.

Before graduation I had everything figured out. But things didn’t go as planned and never did take the traditional college route. So I found myself a couple of years after getting out of high school wondering who I am, what am I supposed to be doing…. Desperately trying to find my calling and place in this world and the crazy thing is I’m STILL trying to figure that out!

So here I am now moving over to the edge of my late 20’s at a receptionist job I’ve been at for almost 7 years and not content with. Struggling to get myself through school so I can make a career for myself , I’m husbandless, kidless, and don’t have a house of my own. And you know what, that’s alright.

And most days I’m okay with this, but other days, not so much! This post isn’t so much a post about a pity party, but one of reflection. Hope a year from now I can look back on this and see how much life has changed. Granted, I still feel I’m struggling in areas that I was last year or even the year before, but God deals with everything in his own timing.

I look back at the picture of the little girl with her hand over her heart at her preschool graduation and realize that learning those A, B, C’s weren’t so bad after all. Beats high school algebra!

Mother's Day pictures and MD gift!

Mother’s day was absolutely perfect. We went to a place called Crystal River and just spent time relaxing out on the boat and enjoying the sunshine and soaking it in and the water was a nice refresher when it got too hot, but most of all my Mom just had a day where she got to relax and enjoy her day. Of course snacked on tons of food and cooked out. We had room to do all this because my brother has a big pontoon boat. Awesome for days like this!!

My Granny (My Mom’s Mom) came with us.


Took our furry friends with us, ha! This is my brother’s dog!


My brother, the boat navigator!


My niece catching a fish (as you can see it’s a fake fish tied to the end of the pole, ha).


This is my future home on the river, just sayin!!!


Just floating around!


My brother and SIL (with her pregnant belly) :)


My momma and her hubby!


Dogs playing in the water!


Looks like we weren’t the only ones who had the idea of boating!!


Mother and daughter!


Yeah, pretty much could live this life forever, haha!


All the mother’s. My SIL with her mom and my mom with her mom!


This picture is pretty neat because it's 4 generations!!!


And finally me with my sweet niece!!!


What I'm most excited about is the Mother's Day gift we all chipped in on for my mom. Next month my mom and I will be taking a Friday off and going here...



We get to swim with the dolphins. From what I heard it's not like any other park and they treat you like VIP and have always wanted to swim with these wonderful creatures! Seriously, I should have worked at Sea World, ha! We're so excited and should be a really fun day!!

Hope ya'll had a wonderful weekend!!!