Dinner Plans

Looking for a way to spice up dinner? Try this.

Caribou Coffe

One of my favorite coffee shops is Caribou Coffee. Right now, they're promoting their Wild Cooler drinks. Yum!

Wanna know how to get a free one? Become their fan on Facebook. Once on their page, click on the "Wild It Up" tab. You have to "wild up" one of your facebook photos. Here's some inspiration for you:





Watch out! It's addicting, though.

Anyways, once you finish your picture, you just print it out and at the bottom is a coupon for a free med wild cooler drink OR a brownie! Do it quick because it expires July 24. Oh, and you can only do one coupon per facebook account.

Here's some pics from my visit with my sis and her crew:

Movie in the Park

We had a very last minute Sisterchick get together last night which probably accounted for why only 3 of us could meet, but it was fun nevertheless!

We met at this cool place for a free movie in the park. The featured movie last night was Confessions of a Shopaholic. A very cute, lighthearted movie.

The screen and teeny tiny park. You can see that we didn't have the very best view. Should've gotten there earlier.



Mandy


Kristen


Half of the chicks


About half way through the movie when our backs were aching, we started envying these weird looking pillows our neighbors had that we had previously made fun of!


Funny story of the night:
As we were waiting for the movie to start, an Atlantic Station worker tripped on a cord and pulled it out of the plug. He laughed, all of us around him laughed. It was funny. One of those "Gee, I hope no one saw that" type thing. Of course we all did. He was cool about it.

Fast forward to the middle of the movie. A lady gets up to go to the bathroom (I assume) and trips on the same cord pulling it out of the plug, but this time it controlled the movie! The whole screen went black. Sound stopped. You could tell she wanted to crawl into a hole and die! There must have been 500-700 people there. She plugged it back in and then ran away. They had to start the movie over and fast forward to where we were.

All in all a good time!

Now & Then

I've talked a little bit (ok a LOT!) about how my parents have sold their house and moved into a new one, but my sister did a better recap than me.

Well, they're all moved in. It feels weird knowing that I can't go back to the house I grew up in. The house that I never needed an invitation to and could just walk in and go as I please. It belongs to someone else now. That's a weird feeling! Before we left, though, I snapped some pictures (with my sister's help) of some of the special features of the old house and what those same features look like in the new house.

OLD

NEW


OLD

NEW


OLD

NEW


OLD

NEW


OLD

NEW


OLD (kitchen tile that my brother put up)

NEW


OLD (kind of a weird picture, but its the underside of the mantle. I like it because you can see all the holes from where all the stockings were hung every Christmas)

NEW


Can't wait to for all the new memories that will be made in this house!

Top Ten Tuesday

I know I've been going on and on about my parent's new house, but it's been a major change in our lives! So my top ten list for today is...

TOP TEN THINGS I LOVE ABOUT MY PARENT'S NEW HOUSE:

1. I don't know what they're called, but they have these little windows above the doorways and entries.


2. Wrap around porch. Need I say more?


3. Kitchen island. It's a great shape to move around and it's got an outlet on it too!


4. Downstairs bathroom. Well...just look at that cool sink!


5. Living room ceiling. Just cool.


6. No this isn't a ghost homicide. It's where the POOL is going to go! And they said it should be ready in about 35 business days!! Wow!


7. Entry way to back yard. Just adds a richness to the house.


8. Playground. Yes, I've found myself a few times on the swing! But I like it because it gives "Aunt Staci" a break!


9. Stove/Oven. It's a lot bigger than mom's old oven, so it'll be nice on holidays when we're all trying to heat up our dishes. And the little door on the left is a separate little oven!


10. Kitchen floor. I just love this slate!

Update

I know you've all been sitting on the edge of your seat wanting to know if I've done any of my summer projects.

Well, faithful followers, wait no more! Look at what I've been up to:
I finished the jewelry organizer! I LOVE it! It's great! SO easy to make and really holds a lot of stuff!



Organize files? Check! A whole box of junk down to 2 accordion folders.

Pressure wash my house? I've got the guy lined up and he's supposed to come out this week!

Get on a budget? YES!! I can't believe that I've actually stuck with this! There's still lots of tweaking that needs to be done, but basically I save my receipts and take the money out of one of the categories I've created. I like knowing where my money's going!

Blog more...working on it.

Oh, and just for fun...my new boudior!


This chandelier was actually my grandmother's but it was in my parent's old house. They were just going to leave it, but I grabbed it to put in my closet. I love it! It's so fun going in my closet now!

Something God Showed Me

In church yesterday, I heard a verse that I've heard and read a hundred times before. But for some reason, it jumped out at me in a new way.

Psalm 37:4 (NIV)

Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart.

It was almost as if God added another little phrase to it. Maybe just for my benefit. But this is the way it stuck out to me:

Delight yourself in the LORD [where you are right now] and he will give you the desires of your heart.

If I want the "desires of my heart", I have to take delight in where I am right now. It just hit me like a ton of bricks.

Oh God, please help me not to live for the future, but to delight in where You have me right now. Show me what You want me to learn. Use me how You want. It's not always easy to delight in my phase of life right now, but when that doubt and disappointment come, fill me with Your joy!

Memories

I've been helping my parents move all this week. (More to come on that later) It's kind of been a week long process and we're still not done yet! Just kind of doing a little bit at a time.

In the process of packing up, dad found a box in the attic of old checks. Going all the way back to 1988! Dad was happy because this gave him a great excuse to use his shredder. He's a shredder-aholic. So nothing brought him greater pleasure than to sit with his shredder and 29 years worth of checks. I don't know how long he had been doing it but I finished up today.

It was a fun trip down memory lane! I saw a check that my mom had given to me to buy my friend a birthday gift. I could tell because it was in my handwriting. I vividly remember she gave me a set amount and I couldn't go over. I did! Oops! She wasn't happy with me! I also saw checks that were written for my senior pictures and the SAT. It was also fun to see where the checks were written to. Any of you Georgia folks remember these places??:








None of these places are around anymore (to my knowledge) and to be honest I had completely forgotten about them until I was shredding those checks. It's so funny because back then, I totally remember going to those stores. There wasn't anything else. It never crossed my mind that one day they would be a forgotten memory!