Wal-Mart vs. Harris Teeter

Let me start off by saying how much I love Harris Teeter (our local supermarket). They always are super nice in any store you go in, they always have fresh, non-expired food and drink, and is always clean. We shop there every Sunday, coupons in hand because they double all manufacturer coupons.

But let me tell yall - we went to Wal-Mart last week, spent an hour and got everything SO much cheaper. Not just a few pennies cheaper, like half price. WHOA! I need to get with the program, at least every other week!

Shopping at Wal-Mart does come with a price to pay - it is dirty, Kevin forbids me to go there alone (especially at night), I don't buy produce or meat there (so I still have to go to the Teeter), and it takes forever to check out beacuse speed is not their number one task. But I can deal with all that for half the price!

Do you shop at Wal-Mart? Have you seen your bill dramatically decrease?

Engineering at the Bar

On Friday night we went to Dandelion Market which is at the bottom of our building. It's a pretty cool spot with good beer, no cover, decent music and normal people. One of those neighborhood places, you know what I mean. Upstairs, they have this huge picnic table, I'd say it is at least 12'-15' long. It's massive and is in the middle of the whole room. We've been there numerous times before and they have never removed it after the dinner crowd, even when it is crowded. Well on Friday, they did. And it was SO cool. I took lots of pictures on my phone of the process but here is the gist (because let's be honest, you don't care as much as my Dad and I do). We are the engineering geeks around here!

Here they are attaching the cables to the table (they have already put the benches up on the table): And here it is as they use a pulley system to hoist it into the ceiling.

How cool is that?! Maybe you had to be there. Ha! Sorry, just thought I'd be a dork and share!

Crowder's Mountain

Neither of us had ever hiked Crowder's Mountain before so we did that this weekend. It was really fun. I'm definitely not the outdoors type despite many years of girl scouts but we had a good lil workout cut out for us. We did the "strenuous" trail called Rocktop which, yes, was full of climbing up rocks. I kept wanting to get on top of the rocks in the below picture and it made Kevin soooo nervous. He kept telling me to get down. Ha!
This is from the same spot - you can see uptown Charlotte. Our building is the second from left!

One more, just for good measure! Kevin had a good time too I think. He is good at all the outdoor stuff (minus the directions, right?! ;)). He knows all that boy scout ish in case we got lost. We met a bunch of folks on the way up and back. It was fun and the perfect day for it!

Hope yall enjoyed your weekend!

Lilly Dress

I got the strapless version of this "Sidra Blue Icing" Lilly Pulitzer dress yesterday at Belk (they have a HUGE Lilly section in this Belk flagship store) because I thought it would be super cute for a wedding or rehearsal dinner this spring/summer and it was on sale! But I would rather the one below because I think it is more flattering on (they had a smaller size that I slipped on). SO, I'm on the hunt for this dress at a good deal. Does anyone know any Lilly shops that have this on sale? Does anyone have any big plans for this weekend? Carolina Cup is tomorrow but I'm not going this year off since the Charleston bridge run is the same weekend (my friend Lauren who typically organizes our Carolina Cup bus is running that). Yall have fun if you're heading down that way!

Amelia

Meet my niece and goddaughter, Amelia! How prescious is she?!

She loves to get into everything! Ha!
Amelia lives in Atlanta with my cousins Laura and Carl. You may remember meeting them here when we went to visit them last August.

I think she looks just like her Mommy in this one! :)

She has grown up so much since August. I wish we had a lil plane we could come visit yall for the day without driving 8 hours roundtrip!

Thank you Laura for letting me share how cute Amelia is with my friends! ;)

Where in the World Wednesday - Floyd, VA

Today is Where in the World Wednesday over at Jessica's Classy in Philadelphia! Today I'm in Floyd, VA, a quaint little town in southwest Virginia.

It all started out last Memorial Day weekend when Kevin said, "Be ready by 3:30pm on Friday with a bag of casual clothes packed." He wouldn't tell me where we were going for the night. We started up I-77 from Charlotte and I was convinced we were going to Asheville, NC to see the Biltmore. Well, we kept going past I-40 so I knew that was out of the question. We ended up in Floyd, VA after many back roads and no cell phone reception (which made me nervous!).

They have the cutest downtown and on Friday nights everyone comes out and plays their guitar and sings along. It is so neat. We went to dinner at Oddfellas Cantina which I highly recommend if you're in the area.
Afterwards, the big event in town is to go to the Country Store and do/watch some flat-footing. It is their way of dancing to bluegrass music. We had a big time watching them!

And we stayed at this bed and breakfast which I know is a terrible picture but it was my first time every staying in one. Needless to say, I don't expect to be going back to this one EVER. We didn't have our own bathroom - GROSS! I didn't take a shower (since we were only gone one night) and minimized my time in there. Kevin heard about that for awhile but to his credit, he thought we would have our own since the website lead him to believe we did. At least we'll always remember it!

The next day he took us to Chateau Morrisette for my first winery tour. It was so fun! We tasted lots of wine too! Of course we picked up a few bottles and have had them on special occasions.

Hope you've enjoyed a lil small town visit today! Thank you for stopping by!

Good Deed

One of my sweet co-workers told me yesterday she had a surprise for me. In she walked with a Steinmart bag holding this pair of mint green Vineyard Vines pants. How fun are they?! She saw them and had gotten herself a pair and I marveled over the story - she got them for $5. Then she was at another Steinmart this past weekend and they had one pair left, my size, for $5. FIVE dollars! Vineyard Vines pants marked down from $135!!! She obviously got them for me and I can't wait to break them out in the next couple weeks. They are perfect for spring!
Have you or anyone you known done a good deed like this? I think it is so fun surprising people with things and wish I did it more often!

Avenue hang out and Bridal Shower

Kevin and I had a hot date on Friday night! We made appetizer rounds in uptown Charlotte - first Flemings then Chima. Both have really good and cheap happy hours so we visited both!
Then Avenue had set up an "Avenue Epicentre night." For my new followers - Kevin and I both live (separately!) in a high rise condo building called Avenue (and yes, it is how we met!). Epicentre is a large complex two blocks away that has restaurants, bars, movie theatre, bowling alley....all that good stuff. Avenue set up a VIP thing for us over there at one of the bars. We had our own little area in the bar which was nice. Of course I had to organize a picture of the whole group of neighbors!
My friends Meg and Jen. They are presch!
This is a couple who we've known from the building but just not real well. They are so sweet! Let me tell yall - she and I have the same first and middle names and Kevin and he have the same first and middle names. How weird is that?!!!
I'll save the other pictures for a day when I need to make fun of Kevin. ;)

Saturday afternoon I drove up to Winston-Salem for a bridal shower for Kelly (2nd from right with ruffle shirt). It was such a gorgeous shower at one of the other bridesmaid's houses. Her house was so pretty. It was older and has so much character. I love houses like that. Anyway, Kelly really racked up again! Her wedding is getting so close!!! Only 4 weeks away!

PS - thanks for yall's help on the jeans thing. I'm going to check out your suggestions this week!

Jeans

Yall I need some new jeans. Majorly. I've put off buying them for over a year now and have been on a no spending spree since November but this morning was the end all. You know those mornings when you dread the outfit that you picked out for yourself the night before? Yeah, that was how it was this morning! What are your favorite jeans?

Just so you know, I typically always wear Citizens but I'm SO OVER them sitting so low on my waist. I have one pair I like now and that is because they are really soft and come up high in the back. They are definitely "going out" jeans and I'd sort of like a pair that I could wear to work on Fridays and wear out at night. Is this even possible?! Do yall have any suggestions - Citizens or other brands?! I'm open to everything at this point! Thank you in advance!

St. Patty's Celebrations

Hope you all had a fun day yesterday! We had a good time celebrating! I made Kevin a goofy little card and picked up some Guinness for him on my way home. He was excited!
We went out with Wendy and Josh to Ri Ra to meet up with some other friends and neighbors. Wendy is 36 weeks now - look at that cute tummy! The boys thought it would be funny to put beer next to the baby!

Here are Wendy, Josh, Kevin and I at Ri Ra's. Ri Ra had a fire last May and just recently reopened. It was one of our favorite places to go for a good draft beer so we are glad it is back open! I got to see a few other friends while we were there - Dani, Amber and Katie H. - one of my sorority sisters. It's always good to see people you haven't seen in awhile.

Then we went to Dandelion to see Tara and Emily on our way home! It was great to catch up with them!

Kev and I. Yes, I was a sweaty mess and look gross but whatever!

Kevin has today off (that smart boy took off the day after St. Patty's to recover) and gets to sleep in. I'm at work suffering from lack of sleep! Ahh, at least tomorrow is Friday!

Shake your Shamrock!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

What are you doing to celebrate today/tonight?

Sunrise and Clean House

Yesterday morning I woke up to this outside my window. This picture doesn't do it justice. It was so pretty.Last night we went down to Kevin's parents for dinner and so I could watch his Dad be the Chairman of their local planning board (geeky that I was interested, I know, but I go to lots of those for work). We got back and walked in and Kevin had dusted and vacuumed my whole place (while he was home sick from work). How sweet of him! I was trying to figure out the best spot for a picture and if you look closely you can see the vacuum marks - ha! THANK YOU KEVIN - you're SO thoughtful. He did it because he knows it stresses me out to come home late on a "school night" and have a messy house.

St. Patty's and Birthdays

We had a fun weekend! Friday we hung around the house and played cards and watched TV. Saturday we got up and went downstairs to watch the St. Patty's Day parade then I went to a baby shower for Wendy with a friend from our building.

Late afternoon, I met up with Kevin and friends for the 10th annual pub crawl (which is the largest in the world). We didn't actually register but we of course had to visit Stool Pigeons, our stomping ground. Then we went out to Rob's birthday party which is a couple miles from uptown. Lindsey and Rob hosted the party at their cute home (and yes Rob had received the work out headband for his bday - ha)! Here they are...

The hostest with the mostess pouring the most amazing sweet tart shots. YUM! Thanks Linds!

Ha, this picture cracks me up! Someone was either slightly drinky or was trying to be creative. The high school guys - Brad, Dan, Rob, Joe, Kev

After Rob and Lindsey's, we had to go to another birthday party in the Dilworth area for one of Kevin's old work buddies. We rolled in there about midnight via cab! They thought we were crazy but we were glad to make it.

We ended up back at Stool Pigeons at about 1:30am (which we shouldn't have done) and saw Ash!

Joe (Kevin's bro), me, Kevin, Ash:

Needless to say, yesterday we recovered. Went out and ran a couple errands but mostly layed low. Hope yall had a fun weekend. Ugh, now it's Monday!

Miss Anna Kate

As you read this, I'm traveling for work but I just HAD to leave you all with these pictures of my perfect niece. Look how adorable Anna Kate is. Thank you Emily for the pictures!

Tulips and Trader Joe's

Don't you just LOVE tulips? They are a sign that spring is almost here and they brighten up any room. They are my favorite.
We went over to Trader Joe's last weekend to pick up some things and they had almost an entire wall of just tulips. I was in heaven and couldn't decide which color to get! Maybe this weekend I will get some more. They are $4.99 so not too bad!

I love Trader Joe's and I'm not all about eating organic stuff and living the "green" life. Don't get me wrong, that stuff must be great, I'm just not into it. But I still love Trader Joe's. They have good deals on so many things - their produce, fruits, cheeses, wine, flowers. It is hard not to find something you want. It is one of those places you go in for two things and walk out with ten. Their marketing people are super smart too because they make it fun to shop there and read all the labels for everything. Oh, what us as consumers fall for!!

So what is your favorite spring flower?!

Josh's Birthday

Last night we went to our favorite neighborhood hangout/restaurant/hole in the wall (Alexander Michaels) to celebrate Josh's birthday! All of our neighbors met down in the lobby and walked over together. It was a blast hanging out with everyone as usual. Here is the birthday boy: The group!
Good times, as always and a fun break to the otherwise busy week!

Starbucks

First off, I hate coffee....that is unless Kevin makes it with some flavored creamer. Otherwise, gross. While most people have to start their morning with it, I go without it and have been for my whole life. But let me tell yall, I do love going to Starbucks in the winter time and having a cup of their hot apple cider. A couple months ago, my friend Kelly and I met there to catch up. It was so relaxing sitting in there and sipping on a warm drink when it was arctic outside. Yall know what I mean? So what is your favorite Starbucks summertime drink?

Birthdays and Bridal Shower

Friday night, Kimmy (I've called her this for almost 10 years) and I had planned a mini double date for our boys. We had pizza at my house and then were supposed to be going to Victory Lane which are fast go-karts. We ended up going bowling instead and had a great time despite being exhausted from the week! Ha! We were yawning in between strikes! ;) Jeff's birthday was on Saturday so he had an extra special time with the pitchers of beer being served!!!
They both got up and ran a 5k the next morning - good job you guys!

Saturday afternoon, I went to Courtney's bridal shower. It was gorgeous! I bet there were almost 40 ladies there. Courtney was one of my sorority sisters at school and I swear, she has the most friends of anyone I know - what a compliment to have that many friends - means you're a pretty special person!

Saturday night we had another birthday party at Avenue. We celebrated Mike's "tres dos" birthday. His fiance had made him a shirt with tres dos on the back. Of course we ended up at Stoolies for the end of the night. Kevin's brother came into town from Waxhaw while Britney was in Atlanta for her sister's bachelorette party! We missed her!

Sunday, Kevin and I cooked breakfast then I taught him how to play lacrosse. We only played catch but he picked it up so easily. Then we went on a long walk and came back to grill some dinner and get ready for the week.

Happy Monday friends!

Owning A Home and an Eye Opening Experience

This morning at about 1am, I was reminded of why I live in a 800 square foot condo instead of a real house.

It was freezing in my place! I got up to turn the heat up and looked at the thermostat and nothing was on the screen. I pressed the temperature buttons, nothing happened. Oh boy....I thought....here is my first experience of something breaking and I actually have to PAY to fix it. AHH. I checked the circuit breaker, it was fine. I tried to pull the cover off at my Dad's suggestion, couldn't get it to come off.

Got to work and mentioned it to a couple of the guys. They said we could go there during lunch and they would check it out. So nice of them. Let's hope it is something minor like flipping a switch so I don't have to pay for someone to come out!
On another note, we went out to a bar called Phil's last night with some of Kevin's old work friends. One of the girls is a teacher and was about to leave so she could go grade papers. I said, "girl, pull those papers out, let's knock them out together." So we sat in the bar, grading vocabulary papers. We probably each did 100 or 150. It took awhile but I thought it was so fun (maybe it was because my mom was a teacher for so long?).

But let me tell yall - she works at an elementary school in a crummy part of uptown Charlotte where poverty is way too common. It was SO sad how poorly these students did. Out of 150 papers, I'd say about 10 got A's, maybe 15. I asked her why it was like this and she told me that most of her students don't have parents or families around to help them. They come to school to eat (because that's the only place they can get food) and they try to do school work. Some are in foster care and their parents are in jail. Can you imagine? It just made me feel so lucky to have had awesome parents and a home to go to each night. This was one of those eye opening experiences that just shocked me. I wish I had more of these because it truly shows us how blessed we are.

Concert for Hope

I really don't want to make anyone jealous but the concert that I talked about on Tuesday was SO awesome! :) Darius was amazing, Rodney was so country (he talked about shooting deer and letting his little boy have some of the meat), Kellie was hilarious and Jason Michael was great. Darius sung a few of his songs from Learn to Live and also broke out some Hootie!
Rodney Atkins... Kev, me, Kim, Jeff
At the beginning of the concert, which benefitted St. Jude's Hospital, they had a little girl come out that had been treated and cured there. It was very touching.

Then all the singers came out with one of their guitar players and all sat on stage the entire time. From left to right, Rodney, Darius, Kellie, Jason Michael. This picture shoes Rodney and Darius (2nd from right).

They were all up there drinking coronas, taking some tequila shots and having a big time. It was good to see them relaxed and enjoying some down time. In this picture, you can see Kellie in the middle and Jason Michael on the far right.

We were so happy to get tickets to this good cause! Over $200,000 was raised for St. Jude's!