Giveaway from "In this wonderful life"

Please check out Megan's blog here for a chance to win a $50 credit from SheShe Made! Pure cuteness!! She has lots of ideas for baby shower gifts or just cute outfits, etc. for your little one!

Orange & White Evening

On Saturday, I got to live every Vol fan's dream! My friend Donna invited me to go with her to Neyland Stadium for an "Orange & White Evening." It was too much fun! I felt like we were apart of the "important people" crowd all night!


First of all, we were allowed to park right beside Neyland Stadium. This is unheard of to me. Since I was a little kid, we have always parked at the Methodist church that is a forever long walk from the stadium, so that was very exciting!

We started out in the Wolf-Kaplan Center for registration, and then we immediately went to tour the locker room, or should I say, the Peyton Manning Locker Complex!

It was really neat to have the opportunity to tour the locker room. It was so nice!

 Love this sign! We wanted to get a picture of each of us slapping it as we walked out, but we were way too short! :o)

 Donna in front of the Maxims...a Tennessee tradition!

  This is the end zone where the players run out

 We were so excited about getting to stand on the field!

 The checkerboard!

 In Stokley Media Center: I just had to have my picture made in front of the backdrop we always see on TV!

 After the tour, we got free tickets to the Tennessee vs. Mississippi State b-ball game!

We ended up losing by 1 point. :o( It was a very sad game, but we had a wonderful time! It is definitely an experience I will never forget!

GO VOLS!

Show Us Your Life--Alma Maters

Today, Kelly's Korner is hosting Show Us Your Life--Alma Maters

I went to Belmont Univeristy in Nashville, TN, starting in 2004, & I graduated in August 2008.

Some of our famous alumni include, Brad Paisley, Trisha Yearwood, Josh Turner, Julie Roberts & Miss USA 2007 Rachel Smith, just to name a few. I'm sure there are many students there now who will soon be famous. The majority of students major in Music Business. When I went on my visit, I was the only student in my group not having that major!

I decided on Belmont because it was one of the only colleges in Tennessee that offered my major, Medical Imaging Technology. I also wanted to "go away" for college, but I didn't want to go to a big school. Belmont, at the time, was a Southern Baptist school, which I loved, and it was small. I really missed home though, especially when I first started. It took me a while (the entire first semester), but I learned to love Nashville. I LOVED the four years that I spent there, and I love going back to visit.

My freshman year, I met my friend for life, Katie, who actually lived about an hour away from my hometown. We hit it off immediately, and lived together on campus in an apartment for 3 years. We did lots of shopping, eating & concert-going during our 3 years together. She still lives in Nashville, but we still keep in touch, and I know we always will.

 We also loved celebrating holidays & were so much alike, yet so different!

My senior year, I only had one class at Belmont, and the rest of my classes/training were at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. This is where I definitely met some friends for life! There were 8 of us in my nuclear medicine tech. class, and we were all so close!

We traveled to Memphis together...

  and to St. Louis...

  I also met another best friend out of this group, Jessica Riley-Pearson. I don't know what I would done without her that year. We are like sisters, and I love her to death!

My 2 best friends, during all 4 years were these two, Emily & Adam. We studied together, ate countless lunches/suppers together, and laughed together so many nights. We were definitely the 3 Musketeers!



Belmont is such a great school. My classes never had more than 25 people, and we all became so close with each other and our professors. I am so blessed to have been able to go there.

GO BRUINS!!

Valentine's Day Weekend 2011

Last Thursday afternoon, I got off work early, and we headed to Pigeon Forge for the weekend. We planned the trip in January, and we were so looking forward to getting away for a few days, especially since it was Valentine's Day weekend. <3

It snowed a few inches on Wednesday night, and while most of the snow had melted at home, PF still had quite a bit. As we were driving to find the road to our cabin, I looked over to my right and said, "oh my, that road is still covered with snow!" Well, it just so happened that that road was the road to our cabin! We were a little scared at first, but we made it through the backwoods to our little hideaway on top of the mountain. The cabin was called "Serenity," and it was just that...

I loved the kitchen, especially the dishwasher, since we do not have one at home!

The living room

I loved the view of the snow covered mountains

I did not take very many pictures because to be honest, sometimes I get so caught up in taking pictures that I forget about the real reason we came on this trip...to relax & have fun!

Thursday night, after we checked in to the cabin, we headed back out to PF to eat at Huck Finn's. It is one of our favorite restaurants in PF. We stopped at a bookstore, rented The Bounty Hunter, and went to Kroger to pick up some groceries for breakfast for the next two mornings. We were so surprised that there weren't a lot of people in town. It was so nice not to be driving in bumper to bumper traffic!

Friday, we woke up & I fixed pancakes & bacon, and John T. made eggs (I cannot cook eggs for the life of me). We then headed to do some shopping. We stopped at a little roadside shop called Moonshine Ridge and bought some homemade salsa, pickles & watermelon taffy (random, I know). We then made our way to the the outlet mall. We hit up Timberland (where we met Bruce Pearl's father-in-law), Adidas, Champion, Old Navy, and a few other stores. One of my V-day gifts from JT was an ON gift card, so I took advantage of that...got lots of new spring clothes & shoes! After shopping at the outlet mall, we went to a new little shopping center in the middle of PF & decided to come back and go to the movies there after supper. We then headed down the parkway & ate at Mama's Farmhouse. Oh my...it was amazing! It is a restaurant that serves you family style. There are no menus, they just bring you 3 meats, lots of sides & biscuits + cornbread! My kind of restaurant!

After eating at Mama's, we went to see Just Go With It. It was hilarious...probably the funniest movie I have seen in a while! We then made another quick trip to Kroger for some chips (to go with the salsa we bought that morning) & rented another movie, Takers. We headed back to the cabin to settle in for the night.

Saturday morning, we woke up & I made cinnamon rolls & bacon. It was so good! We stayed in for a little while to watch Takers because we fell asleep watching it Friday night! We headed out a little later to go to the Gap at the outlet mall because I had a BOGO free coupon! Sweet! :o) I got two sweaters & John T. bought a few things from Adidas. The mall was packed on Saturday, so we didn't stay very long. I was so glad we got most of our shopping done on Friday.

We then ate "lupper" at Longhorn Streakhouse. We had a gift card that JT's granny gave us for V-day, so we used it. I got a steak & baked potato, and it was so good! We did lots of good eating the whole weekend! Afterwards, we went to our favorite candy store, Smoky Mountain Candy Makers to get some fudge (my absolute favorite fudge place), rocky road bark & more watermelon taffy for John T.

After getting our sweet fix, we rented yet another movie, Buried & then we drove into Townsend & drove the scenic loop around Cades Cove. This was John T.'s first time in CC, but I had been there many, many times growing up. We saw lots of deer & a few coyotes. The moutains were beautiful! I love the old cabins & churches that pop up all over Cades Cove.



We came back home on Sunday morning. It was a fabulous, long, weekend...one that I know I will never forget! I worked late on Monday, and we just did not want to fight the crowds in Knoxville, so we came to my mom & dad's and had supper with them. My mom made roast, mashed potatoes, corn & cornbread. It was all delicious! We had a great night with them. :o)

The rest of our week has been pretty quiet. We are watching the VOLS vs. GAMECOCKS game tonight at my mom & dad's. Go BiG oRaNgE!!

I hope everyone has a great rest of the week!

Fabulous Weekend

This past week, nothing too excited happened. We both worked all week, but I did have Thursday off, so we went to Wal-Mart & ate at Cracker Barrel.

Friday night, after I got off work, we went back to Wal-Mart to get some groceries, picked up a pizza and came home to watch Conviction. It was a really good movie!

This week's highlight: Saturday morning, we left the house around 9:30 and headed west to Pleasant View to visit my best friend, Brittany, her husband, Daniel, & their new baby boy, Easton. He was born on January 21st, and I have been dying to meet him!

 I got to feed him a bottle, and afterwards, he fell asleep. He is so so so precious!

 John T. holding baby Easton

 Me, my BFF & Easton

We stayed with them for a few hours, and then we headed back home. We stopped in Cookeville on the way back and ate at Red Lobster (I <3 gift cards!). It was so good!

We went to church this morning and just hung out this afternoon. Now, we are watching the Super Bowl, and I am about to have a bowl of Moose Tracks ice cream. :o)

We have another busy week of work ahead of us. I hope everyone has a wonderful week!

Organization

With every new year, I always want to improve my organization skills. I found this really cool blog called iheart organizing, and I have learned some very helpful tips from reading.

I don't wear a lot of jewelry, but I have a few pieces that I wear every day. I always find myself just putting my jewelry on my dresser or leaving it on the coffee table, and I have wanted to find a good, cute way to organize what I have.

Jen, from iheart organizing, had a picture of this egg crate with her jewelry in it, and I just knew I had to have it! I ordered it here from Anthropologie. It comes in white & this robin egg blue. The blue matches our master bathroom perfectly. I am super excited that my jewelry now has a home! :o)

Another thing I have been struggling with is my filing system. For two years now, I have been using an accordion file for most paperwork & a file box for random things. While I love the file box, the accordion file was not big enough for all of our paperwork! I found the idea for this kind of file box & folders from iheart organizing as well. Oh.my.goodness, I LOVE it! I can fit twice as much in the box as I could the accordion file, and it is so much easier to find something when I need it. The file box came from Wal-Mart, as well as the hanging folders & regular folders.



Happy 25th Birthday, John T.!

Last night, we celebrated John T.'s 25th birthday! I ordered a chicken nugget tray from Chick Fil-A & a cookie cake, and we invited his family & my mom & dad to join us.

 What was left of the nuggets...they were a big hit! :o)

 After we ate & JT opened his presents, we played the Wii.

 After everyone left, we rode the Ranger around the yard because we still had quiet a bit of snow!

 Happy 25th Birthday, babe! I hope you had a great day!



We went out to eat at Outback tonight & saw Country Strong. The food was amazing & so was the movie! I love when JT is off on the weekends!