Places To Go & Things To Do

I haven't shared a good "About Me" style post in a couple of months now, and my blog has definitely grown a lot since then. So today I've decided to give y'all a little more insight into my life! I've seen this in blog-land before, so I can't take credit for it, but I have no idea who came up with it to give them credit....Oh well. It's gonna be fun anyways :) So here's a reverse pyramid of getting-to-know-Halie facts.

10 Favorite Foods

Pizza - just about any toppings make me happy

Pasta - I like the 'short' noodles best, i.e. penne, rotini, bowtie, elbow...

Popcorn - at the movie theater is best

Buffalo Chicken Po'Boy -or anything buffalo!

Chicken Pot Pie - homemade by my Mama

Chocolate cake - or anything chocolate!

Chips & Salsa

Pretzels

Big juicy burgers from restaurants

Cupcakes

(Note: these are my favorite foods regardless of how healthy I'm trying to eat. I try to limit them, but I still love them anyways.)

For the record - Jeff & I split that and made it into 2 burgers. I didn't eat that whole thing...

9 Favorite Movies

The Sound of Music

Pitch Perfect

Pirates of the Caribbean

My Girl

How To Lose A Guy in Ten Days

The Little Mermaid

The Princess Bride

the Harry Potter series

The Holiday

(Note: I have sooo many favorites, narrowing it down to 9 was difficult!)

8 Favorite Musical Artists

The Civil Wars

Carrie Underwood

Gavin DeGraw

Rascal Flatts

Kelly Clarkson

The Band Perry

Lady Antebellum

Walk Off the Earth

(Note: Again, I have so many different ones, and they're constantly changing, but this is good for now...)

7 Things I Love Right Now

The sunshine

Avocado

My Polar Watch

Vine (find me! - HalieRenee88)

Bike Rides with Jeff

Learning how to play my ukulele

"The New Girl"

6 Places I'd Love To Visit

Italy - let's be honest - to eat my way all over the country

Switzerland

Cincinnati, Ohio - to visit Bridget!

Any tropical island (really, I'd take just about all of them)

California

Paris, France

5 Favorite Games

Catch Phrase

Pictionary

Quelf

Golf (the card game, not the ball & putter game)

Phase Ten

4 Things I'd Like To Do Again

Take a trip back to NYC

Go on another cruise

Take a cross-country road trip with my college girlfriends 

Go snorkeling in the Keys

(Seems like all the things I want to re-do are all travel-related!)

3 Things I'd Like To Do in 2013

Visit a new state

Ride my bike 500 miles total (Only 7 down...)

Read 24 books (So far, I'm only on number 6)

2 Facts About Me

I get really easily creeped out - random things give me the "heebie-jeebies" all. the. time.

I've never broken a bone or had surgery or had braces

1 Meaning Behind My Blog Name

It's just three of my very favorite things - that just all happen to start with the letter "P!" I also really just like alliterations wherever possible, so that's one reason I did it that way. And for those those haven't noticed, every single one of my blog post titles starts with a "P" as well! (Full story of when/why I started my blog HERE.)

And that does it for the about-me stuff!

This morning, I did day 2 of the 6 Week Six-Pack, and was able to keep up a tiny bit better. Not completely, but better. By the end of this thing, maybe I'll be able to stay with her the whole time!? I'm feeling pretty great though, and it was a good way to start off my day, despite the fact I did not want to wake up that early to do it. But I'm glad I did :)

I'm only working a half day at work, and then leaving at noon. Then, the Family & Child Sciences department (my sister's major) is hosting a reception for the graduates and their families, so we'll hit that up this afternoon. Then our whole family is having dinner together and finally heading to the Civic Center to watch my sister and my cousin both graduate from Florida State University! Yay!! Tomorrow, myself, my Mama and my Aunt Suzanne are going shopping in Jacksonville (mother-of-the-bride dress for my mom for Meg's wedding, and wedding dresses for me!). And then Sunday Jeff and I have planned a beach trip to St. George Island for the afternoon! Definitely looking forward to that. Hopefully the weather cooperates!

I hope y'all have wonderful Friday's, and even better weekends! Enjoy your Cinco de Mayo!

Possibilities of When I Grow Up

When I grow up, there are many things I want to do, to be and to try. Some are totally realistic, some are just completely ridiculous dreams, that will probably never become a reality. And that's OK with me! Those things are just as fun and exciting to dream about too :) But there are definitely many things I want to do and be and see and experience that are completely attainable. Hopefully, if I'm lucky/determined/motivated enough, I can accomplish some of these! The Possibilities of When I Grow Up seem endless, but here are some that I'm more focused on...


When I grow up, I want to have a really cute house, with super cute decorations and knick-knacks and stuff.  And I want to be able to keep it relatively neat and tidy.

When I grow up, I want to own a DSLR camera, and know how to use it properly, and take really great pictures of all my family and friends.

When I grow up, I want to be able to visit all 50 states of the United States. 17 down, 33 to go. (Eh, I would be OK if I never made it to Alaska. I mean, it's just toooo cold there for this Florida girl.)

When I grow up, I want to pet a real live penguin.

When I grow up, I want to be a great mama and a great step-mom. (I'll officially be a step-mom in October!)

When I grow up, I want to be healthy, and maintain a semi-normal body weight and diet. (Is that too much to ask?!)

When I grow up, I want to get a decent paycheck. I mean, it's not only about money, but I'd just love to have a good amount of it, and not have to scrape the bottom of the barrel each month. And I'd also like to be able to afford fancy vacations like...

When I grow up, I want to go back to New York City again, and explore so much more. And see another Broadway play, or two or four. And find the bestest ever New York Cheesecake, and enjoy a slice, or two or four...

When I grow up, I would loooove to be able to travel to Europe someday. I'd like to be able to visit Paris, Switzerland, Ireland (for Jeff), and Italy (let's be honest, for the pizza and pasta we know I love!!)

When I grow up, I want to have a puppy of my very own! And love it and play with it and name it something really super cute and snuggle it and love it forever.

When I grow up, I want to host fabulous dinner parties for my group of friends, complete with all homemade food by yours truly, followed by fun games and lots of laughing.

When I grow up, I want to be a real runner. Like, run for more than just a mile or two, and actually like it. And maybe even experience this infamous "runner's high!?"

Mainly when I grow up though, I just want to enjoy my life! I want to be happy and healthy and still crazy in love with my wonderful husband, living with our adorable children, just having fun and creating a great life together. When I grow up, I want to love being a "grown-up" and all that goes along with it!

What do YOU want to do or be or try when you grow up?!

Purchases, Trips & Cooking - First Things First edition

Hello there ladies, on this slightly dreary Tuesday morning. It's cold and rainy here, and I'm super tired today. Not the best start to my day. But I just gotta suck it up and move on of course. I'm going to tell myself that today WILL be a good day, and then I'll make it a good day. Simple as that, right?! Anyways, today is week five of our First Things First link up with my girl Hallie at Life: Oceanside, so let's get this going! Shall we?! This weeks topics are:

First major purchase on your own, First trip out of the country, First thing I learned to cook

First major purchase of my own
My current laptop! My parents bought me one right before I went away to college in August 2006, and that baby got me through a lot during those four years. My mama got me a pretty, pink polka-dotted skin for her, and I named her Lucy the Laptop. (I like alliterations  remember?!) But then she started to wear down, and she definitely needed to be replaced. So in January 2011, I bought myself a new one! Seems weird that it was two years ago now, because I still consider it to be brand new sometimes. I went all out and got the best I could get (well, the best besides a Mac...) and upgraded her with all the bells and whistles I could afford. I couldn't bear to part with my original Lucy (she still sits in my room, unused in fact), and so my new one is also name Lucy as well!

First trip out of the country

For my high school graduation present, my Mama and I went on a cruise to the Bahamas! We went on Royal Caribbean, to their little private island and to Nassau. It was so much fun with just the two of us, and it was an amazing present for graduation. We went shopping and played bingo, and took a random scrapbook class on the boat one day. We went swimming, a lot, we went to fun shows and games and watched karaoke. We did as much as we could, and enjoyed every minute of that cruise! You can see a whole ton of pictures from it back HERE when I did my Throwback Thursdays to all-things-high school a while back, and here is a collage of just a few :)

First thing I learned to cook

I'm actually not too sure on this one, but I'm going to go with something like pasta salad. And here are a few reasons why I think that: 1.) My mama makes excellent pasta salad, and it's one of my favorite things she makes. 2.) It's one of the easiest things to make. Even for a silly teenager like I was! 3.) Hello, it's pasta. And in case you're wondering, here's a quick 'recipe' for the way me and my Mama make our yummy pasta salad.

Boil 'short' pasta of your choice. We like using tri-colored rotini. (That's the 3 colors of spiral noodles)

Dice up veggies: red & green bell pepper, vidalia onion, black or green olives...

I also add in a can of chick peas (garbanzo beans), and sometimes some pepperoni or cheese cubes. Depends how I'm feeling that day...

Then toss it all together with the pasta, in about half a bottle of Creamy Poppy seed salad dressing and add some salt and pepper to your liking.

What's great about this 'recipe,' is that you can change it up and make it however you really like it. You can add in different or new veggies and things, or make it super plain and simple with just noodles and dressing. Other veggie options could be: yellow banana peppers, cucumber, grape tomatoes, broccoli or corn. And you can add in whatever seasonings or spices  you like! Basically, it can be a kitchen-sink kind of pasta salad, but I guarantee it'll be delicious!

So now, go write your own post on this week's topics, and then come back here to link up with me and Hallie!  And if you'd like to prepare for next week, the topics are:
1. First broken heart
2. First thing you do when you wake up in the morning
3. First high school dance or prom (talk about date, dress, whatever, and share pictures too!)

And share this on Twitter to spread the word, and make sure to put our button on your post as well please!

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Places I Want to Visit

My extremely simple sketch of Italy -
made cheesier by adding the colors of their flag...

Switzerland

Greece

Italy

Ireland

Turks & Caicos Islands

1. SWITZERLAND. I want to go to Switzerland because that's where my ancestors are supposed to have been from. I would love to see some of the beautiful countryside, and imagine what life might have been like a few hundred years ago for my very distant relatives.

2. GREECE. Greece - duh - who wouldn't want to travel there? It's beautiful, and the cities and homes and architecture is so different than what we're used to here in the states. And Greek food is very yummy.

3. ITALY. Pasta is my favorite food. (We should all know that by now though right?!) And what better place to sample the best pasta, but in Italy? It's also a beautiful country, with an old history, that I would love to learn about and experience.

4. IRELAND. I'm sure most of us have all seen "P.S. I Love You," right? It's set in an incredibly gorgeous country - Ireland. Also, my boyfriend's ancestors are from Ireland, so I'm sure one day he would love to go check out his roots as well. (He's even got the red-ish hair and tons of cute freckles to prove it.) 

5. TURKS & CAICOS ISLANDS. Really, there are tons of islands and tropical locations that I would be perfectly happy with visiting. I just picked some beautiful ones that aren't too far from home. The Turks & Caicos Islands are absolutely stunning, and I could only dream to spend a couple of weeks basking in the sunshine, swimming in the crystal blue waters.

In addition to the places listed above, some of the other locations I would like to visit include (but are not limited to): Paris, California, Brazil, Fiji, South Africa, Germany, India, Alaska, Hawaii, New York City (for yet another time) and I'm sure there are more I've forgotten.

There are many places all over the world that I've dreamed of one day visiting, or drooled over the sheer beauty of  in pictures. I know that I probably won't ever be able to actually see them all, but a girl needs to dream of pretty things and beautiful places.

Picture Every Hour

This past Saturday we took a quick trip over to Jacksonville for the day. I had a Groupon I needed to use before it expired, so we decided to make a full day out of it with beach, shopping, yummy food and fun-filled adventure. Here is a picture (each one has been Instagram-ed of course) from every hour of our trip - with a brief description :)

Also, if you missed my last blog post, Jeff made the cutest little video of our day using iMovie. It's very precious. Check it out here.

8-9am. Breakfast on our way out of town.

9-10am. Quick rest stop.

10-11am. The driver's gotta stay alert - with a ton of caffeine.

11-12noon. We like holding hands in the car :)

12noon-1pm. Shopping at some cute little stores.

1-2pm. Put our names on the list at this very busy local hot spot.

1-2pm. Had brunch at a nice little local hot spot.

2-3pm. Walked on the beach, even tho it was cold and crazy windy.

3-4pm. Shopping at the St. John's Town Center!
Side note: those sunglasses were the only thing I bought. He picked
them out for me, because he just got some aviators too,
so he wanted us to match. :)

4-5pm. Shopping still. Drooling over pretty perfumes in Sephora.

5-6pm. Looking at eye shadow now :)

6-7pm. Yummy dinner at MiMi's at the Town Center.

7-9pm. Driving home. (Not a lot to work with in the dark...)

9-10pm. Finally turning off of I-10, he dropped me at home, then he left!

Produced by Jeff Pullen

We took a quick trip to Jacksonville, and my super awesome boyfriend made this super sweet video. Then he edited HTML code for me to upload it to Blogger. He's the bestest :)



P.S. - A picture post will come in a day or so once I get it all put together!

Pleased as Punch

I was seriously blessed with some awesome friends while at Flagler. The group of guys and girls that I was a part of was truly amazing, and I am so thankful that God put each and every one of them in my life. I have formed life-long friendships with some wonderful girls, and I love them all so much!

Since it's been a while since we've seen each other, some of us are planning a quick & simple weekend get-a-way at the ever so quaint, in-the-middle-of-basically-nowhere little Inn in Steinhatchee, Fl - Steinhatchee River Inn. We will buy some groceries and bring an extra air mattress, and things will be glorious.

I literally can only barely contain my excitement at work as we've been texting and messaging and confirming dates and places and prices all morning. At one point, I was literally smiling super huge and bouncing in my chair like a crazy woman.If anyone would have walked past my cubby - it could have been super embarrassing. 

Our fabulous weekend is not until the very last weekend of this month - so it's still very far away. For the next 28 days I will have something awesome to look forward to though. I CAN'T WAIT! It's going to be the jam. For real. I am Pleased as Punch that this is all coming together, and actually going to work out for everyone!

These are some pictures of our previous awesome weekends together over the last year or so.
And these are the awesome 5 girls I will spend the weekend with!

Love to you all! Can't wait to see the 5 of you for girls' weekend!
P.S. - we're open to including more if you're interested... :)

Party for My Mama

So even though I know I said I was going to start the list postings in October, I am getting a head start on it because I probably won't have time to it tomorrow. (Also, I don't have a scanner set up at my own house to do this from...)

I realize my bike drawings are a bit elementary, but I'm ok with that. And I figured yall would be too :) Maybe for the next post I'll attempt to make it a little cuter and a little more creative. But for now, this is what we got...

Love yall. Have a good weekend!

Pandora Comedy is Good for Road Trips

Labor Day weekend was super fun and amazing. Instead of sharing every tiny detail though like I usually do, I'll just try to hit the high notes...

Drove to Charlotte, North Carolina with Jeff all day Friday

Went to IKEA - amazing! My first trip there, and it was the bomb
Stayed my first night with some of Jeff's family in Charlotte on an air mattress

Picked up Gabe and Ryan early Saturday and drove to Hinton, West Virginia

Spent time with all sorts of Jeff's family and friends for two days

Played at a park right next to a dam

Went to a little water fall on the New River in West Virginia

Ate entirely too much yummy food
I slept on an air mattress for a few too many days - while Jeff and the boys shared a full-size bed down the hall

Listened to comedy on Pandora - awesome for road trips, and so freaking funny

Drank a lot of coffee/caffeine/energy drinks

Had so much fun playing with those precious little boys :)

Took the boys back early Monday morning - sad times

Drove back to Tally super slow with stops along the way for Jeff to show me around his old stomping grounds

Had an amazingly fun weekend with my boyfriend and his super cute kids :)

And here's a collage of mostly the boys, but a few other ones too. They're just so stinking photogenic, so it's hard to take photos of much else when they're around! ;)

Pullen Family Singers

**Apparently I'm incapable of summarizing my fun, so this is another long post...**

This past weekend Jeff and I took a trip over to Orange Park/St. Augustine for a crazy busy, but crazy fun, weekend. Unfortunately, Grandpa Pullen passed away the previous week, so on Saturday, they had a giant get together for the family memorial service to honor their Dad/Uncle/Grandpa/Brother/Great-Grandpa. So we made the trip too!

We took off work Friday to drive over, and spent some time with his family in Orange Park on Friday afternoon. They were all super nice, and we had a good time hanging out with them. Then we headed on down to St. Augustine to spend the evening with my friends! We met Cally, Dani and Jeannine at their house, and then went to dinner at The Back 40 Urban Cafe, one of my favorites. And it was absolutely delish. We stopped by Red Box on our way home to rent "It's Kind of A Funny Story," and we spent the rest of the evening enjoying movie rest time. Then we all went our separate ways to our own little beds!

Saturday morning we woke up and went to breakfast at the oh-so-yummy Sea Oats Caffe on the island. We both had coffee and ONE chocolate chip pancake each. Why only one each you ask? Because these are seriously the biggest pancakes you've ever seen. In your life. They are the size of the plate, and about 1/2" thick! Super huge. And super delicious. We stopped by the dollar store for some fancy sunglasses for me after I broke my others, and a quick look into a bike shop next door. Then we headed back up to Orange Park for the memorial service.

It was again a great time spent with his family, and I really enjoyed meeting all of the Pullen's. The memorial was very touching, and I even teared up a little, even though I had never even met Grandpa Pullen. A few of them sang a few special songs, and the rest of the family joined in. And let me tell you - those Pullens can sing. We were all just sitting around the living room, and they sounded like a choir singing in 4-part harmony! It was like they were the von Trapp Family Singers from the Sound of Music or something! (Which by the way, the title up there is a word play from the movie...)

After the service, we had some lunch and put on our bathing suits for some pool time with the family! There were tons of kids, and it was fun to play in the pool with them! And actually, Jeff was acting like a little kid himself doing all sorts of tricks and dives and jumps and just having fun splashing everyone! We spent some more time chatting with family, and catching up with those he doesn't get to see very often, and had a good time.

Once everyone started heading out to go home, we packed up too and drove back down to St. Aug. I took the fastest shower ever, and was ready just in time to go to Mango Mango's with the whole group for dinner! It was so yummy, and we were very full. We went back to the girls' house, and enjoyed a fun game of 3 Round Charades! That game always makes me laugh so much, and this time was no different. Super fun and super funny.

Sunday morning, Cally made us pancakes for breakfast, and they were so yummy. Jeff and I got dressed, and drove to Crescent Beach to meet his brother Greg's family. We went on a short ferry ride to Fort Matanzas and got to spend some time exploring the little fort. Then we ate lunch back in St. Aug Beach at Sunset Grill, and went to the beach for a bit. Jeff and I then packed up all our stuff, changed clothes, and went downtown to explore St. George Street, ate yummy dinner at Cruiser's Grill, and got some "gourmet popsicles" from The Hyppo with my Groupon!

On our way home, we stopped to see Greg and his family again at their hotel, and then were finally on the road back to Tally. We listened to comedians on Pandora all the way home, and laughed like crazy at all the funny things. We finally got back late, and were both super exhausted.

Like I said before, the weekend was crazy busy, but it was also definitely crazy fun. I enjoyed meeting all of Jeff's family and getting to know them a little bit. And of course I loved spending time with all my amazing friends back in St. Auggie!

Cally, Dani, Jeannine, Jenni, Katie, Christina, Josh, Zach, Steven - you guys are way cool, and I'm glad I got to spend some time with yall, even it wasn't very much! But don't worry, we'll be back again soon, and it will be even more awesome! I Love yall so much, glad you're my friends. :)

Pumped for the Weekend

I just want to say how excited I am to be going to St. Augustine this weekend! I miss my friends dearly, and I can't wait to see them. Also, I'll be bringing along the boyfriend for them to meet, so that will be fun too. :) Jeff and I both took off work, and we're leave tomorrow morning. Currently, I have about two and a half hours of work left, and I feel like I can hardly make it through the last few hours of the day due to my excitement!

A few things I'm looking forward to, even though I know there won't be enough time for all of it: Mango Mango's, the beach, friends, laughing, stories, Cafe 11, playing games, friends, popsicles from The Hyppo, visiting Flagler, showing Jeff around my old town, friends, and FUN!

LOVE, and see yall soon!

Packed Schedule

My life is crazy busy right now. But I love it. I have so many fun, awesome, lovely things happening, and I am so blessed and so grateful that God has given me all these things! A lot has happened in just the one week since my last update, and I intend on sharing quite a bit of it. So, warning: this post will be long. :)

(last) MONDAY

Work. Lunch with Jeff. Work. Shopping with Jeff...

Monday night is always family dinner night at home. And last Monday we celebrated my Dad's birthday because my parents were out of town on his actual birthday. My family of five were there, plus Jeff and Bo, for a night of family fun. We all ate dinner together, talked for a little while in the living room, and then moved back to the dining room for a game of Quelf! It was so funny and hilarious, and we had a blast all playing together!

TUESDAY

Work. Lunch with Jeff. Work. Zumba. Bible study. Movie rest time at Jeff's house.

WEDNESDAY

First I went to work at DOC. Then I had lunch with Jeffrey, then I went out to church for my office hours for the youth. I worked on a ton of Sunday school stuff for Promotion Sunday, as well as some other administrative work. Then I had a wonderful phone call with my dear old friend Kaley to catch up on our lives! Then I took a shopping trip to Walmart to buy the supplies for Super Duper Messy Night! The event turned out great, and we had a lot of fun. And of course, we got super duper messy. A few of the things involved: baked beans, chocolate syrup, spaghetti sauce, hot dogs, flour, pancake syrup, whipped cream, baby food and squeeze cheese...yummy. And then we lucked out. It was Water Night for the children's activities, and when they were done, we got to go play on their giant blow up water slides as well! So much fun, and so super messy.

Then after Messy Night, I raced home to shower, and go meet Jeff at his house. We stopped to get some snacks and drinks to stuff in my purse, and then headed to see Captain America in 3D. And I must say, it was a pretty awesome movie. Very much looking forward to The Avengers next summer!

THURSDAY

Work. Lunch at home (Jeff had to take his car to get serviced). Work. Home to change clothes. Pick up Jeff from his office. Dinner at Sonny's with group of awesome friends. Game night at Sara's where we played Phase 10 - with partners. Which was both fun and funny. However, I lost big time, so that wasn't super fun...

FRIDAY

Work. Lunch with Jeff at 1 Fresh Stir Fry. (This was my first time trying this delicious place, and I loved it! I will definitely be returning this one.) Work. Triple date night out with me and Jeff, Megan and Bo, and Mama and Papa! We went to a new seafood place in town, High Tide, to see if it was any good. And it was! Service was good, food was yummy and price wasn't bad. We ordered an appetizer, and the manager brought it out pretty quick. Then there was some

confusion, and our waitress brought us another one, because she didn't realize we already had it! They let us keep both :) And, Mama had found 20% off coupons, and printed one for each couple. Awesome. It was a fun date with lots of stories and laughing. Then Jeff and I went to the cheap theater to see a late night movie after dinner, and that was fun too.

SATURDAY

Slept in. Did laundry. Watched half of a movie. Showered. Went out to the church to do some youth work. Walmart. Target. Lunch with Jeff and his mama at their house. Target with them for SS supplies. Then Jeff and I did an array of fun activities/errands: Best Buy, Belk, Payless, Claire's, test rode new bicycles, visited two other bike shops, Bell's, dinner at Pepper's, Publix, movie rest time at home. We made some good purchases, and had a lot of fun hanging out all day! I like my boyfriend a lot, he makes me happy :)

SUNDAY

Church. Missions Sunday/Promotion Sunday (TONS of youth at Sunday School!! YAY!). Sunday School. Hung at Newk's with college group. Home to change clothes and pack. Jeff's house. Lunch with him. Mini-road trip to St. George Island for a day at the beach!

We explored a few small towns and fun things on the way down there, and just took our time driving. Once there we set up our chairs and umbrellas and watched the waves for a bit. Then we built a pretty awesome sandcastle for a while - complete with moat and grotto. After we were too hot to stand it anymore, we got in the jellyfish infested waters (there was a purple flag flying), to cool down for a few minutes. We then got out and moved our chairs into the tide, and relaxed for a bit longer while the sun was still up. We rinsed off, changed clothes, and headed out. We took some cool pictures of course of the setting sun, and took our time driving back. We stopped in Panacea and ate at a super casual, southern-style seafood place for dinner, Coastal Restaurant. We came home and were exhausted, but of course had a bit of movie rest time before I headed home.

TODAY

Work. Lunch with Jeff. Work. (Blog). Cook. Family dinner night. Fun. :)

UPCOMING

Looking forward to whatever craziness the rest of this week may bring! And then I'm super pumped and looking foward to this weekend because Jeff and I will be going over to St. Augustine for some fun with my amazing friends! I can't wait to see yall, it's gonna be so awesome! Love to everyone :)

Procrastination Trumps Productivity

So, I should be doing something a lot more productive than just making a new blog post. But, my dear friend Dani, specifically requested a new blog post a few days ago, so I figured I would oblige her, and write a little something! :)

This past weekend was a blast, and I wish every weekend could be so good and could provide so much fun. Friday night started out with date night with my sweet boyfriend, Jeff. We went to an old Tallahassee favorite, Jim & Milt's, for some casual, delicious BBQ. We both got the Yankee sandwich (combo of chopped beef and pork) but he got fried corn-on-the-cob and I got french fries, and then we shared our sides. It was so yummy. And then we watched "Love & Other Drugs" which turned out to be a great, really funny movie. Definitely recommend this one.

Saturday morning I was lucky and I got to sleep in, thankfully! Then Jeff came over and we spent the afternoon lounging around the house watching movies. Saturday night Jeff and I went up to Wild Adventures for the Skillet concert - which was so amazing!! We got there early enough to ride 3 of the roller coasters, and then we met up with Robert and Jacob for concert time! It was such a great, fun night!

Sunday morning was the usual of Contemporary Worship Service followed by Sunday school. Then for lunch the whole family went over to my Grandparent's house to celebrate both my Papa's and my Aunt Q's birthdays. We had good food, lot's of laughs, and a fun time.

Then Sunday afternoon Jeff and I took a quick trip down to St. George Island. We walked down the beach and watched the beautiful sunset. (Romantic, right?!) We picked up a few really awesome looking shells, took some good pictures, and Jeff terrorized a couple crabs trying to get some good video :)

Then we had dinner at The Blue Parrot (where both of our orders weren't cooked completely but they were extremely nice about bringing us new ones!), and enjoyed the nice weather. Then we sat on the beach for a little while under the bright full moon before heading back to Tally.

All-in-all it was a great weekend. And I'm already looking forward to more fun this upcoming weekend. But first, I have a small cold that I need to get rid of. So let's hope and pray that it goes away before Friday - cuz I'm ready to have some more fun! :)

Love to you all ♥

Picture Collage for Previous Post

Po'Boy on the Beach

It's been waaayyy too long since I've posted on this here bloggy-blog. But it's because my precious computer was sick. My dear friend Jeff got it up and running for me again, and now she's as good as new again, if not better! Thanks Jeff! :)

This is just a quick post and collage from my 4th of July pictures at St. George Island. Hopefully not that my computer is back, I'll get back into the habbit of blogging regularly again - I always forget how much I actually enjoy doing this!

So on July 4, after a visit with my Granddaddy for his birthday, Jeff and I went on a short road trip late in the afternoon and got there just in time for a delicious dinner at the Blue Parrot - right on the beach. We shared a shrimp po'boy, fries and onion rings, and I had a delicious mango-flavored drink. We sat outside on the deck and the weather was perfect. Not too hot, no humidity, nice breeze. After dinner we walked down to the beach, and parked ourselves in some squishy sand.

The fireworks were pretty incredible, and we could see them all up and down the beach. On our drive home, we continued to see more fireworks about every 10 minutes or so, so we ended up having an extremely long fireworks show all night long! It was pretty awesome. The whole day was pretty awesome :) Friends from St. Augustine/Flagler - I love and miss you all. Friends/family from Tallahassee - I don't miss you but I do love you! :) Happy Wednesday yall.

**For some reason the picture won't upload, so I'll do that later!**

"Princess and the Passenger"

This past weekend, I drove down to Orlando on Saturday morning, straight to Jenni's house (well after a few wrong turns of course...), for a wonderful evening of fun. Her Mama bought us Chicago style hot dogs for lunch, which were quite delicious, and we had some coffee to perk us up for a late night, accompanied by some delicious cupcakes I brought from Lucy & Leo's Cupcakery. We dressed cute but comfy, and headed to Tampa for the Rascal Flatts concert!

Our directions were perfect, and there was no traffic, so we were there 2 hours and 15 minutes early. Oops. OH well, because we had a ton of fun filling that time with our goofiness. Some lady knocked on our car window and gave us rediculous stickers, which Jenni was super excited about.Then we headed over and waited in line for a while. We saw a sign that said Kellie Pickler would not be performing due to illness, and I was quite OK with this, because that just meant more stage time for Rascal Flatts, which I was already dreaming about anyways!

Once inside, we got the most perfect lawn seats, spread out our blanket, took off our shoes, and marvelled at how well this was all going so far. We had a great view of the stage, and were not jealous at all of the regular seats. We were so comfy, had a ton of space, and had our own cooler and card games! Perpect.

We took a TON of silly pictures of ourselves, and had a TON of fun doing so. Here's an example:Then the concert started! Chris Young was the opener, and I had never heard of him. But I actually knew a few of his songs, I just didn't realize it at first. And he was quite good. I enjoyed him a lot more than I thought I would, so that was a pleasant surprise.

And then my beloved Rascal Flatts came on! This is their 10th Anniversary tour, so they are celebrating all ten years of their music! And to do so, they sang a few songs from each of their albums, from oldest to the most recent, and they were so awesome! I loved every minute of the show, and when it was "done," I didn't want to leave because I knew there just had to be more. And I was right. They came back out again, and sang some more great music. After an amazing night of great singing, laughing, pictures, and fun, we went to a nearby steakhouse for some line-dancing. It was quite spontaneous, but ended up being real fun! And, it was a nice way to wrap up our country-themed evening.

Side note: Rascal Flatts was the first concert I ever went to, when I was 13! So it was great to get to see them again for their 10th anniversary tour! Such great fun. Oh, and the title of this post is from one of my favorite songs of theirs, "Secret Smile." (Not a good video, but you can at least listen.)