Sunday Happenings

Happy Sunday!

It's been beautiful weather in Atlanta this weekend and we've tried to be outdoors as much as possible soaking in the glimpses we've had of spring being around the corner.

Friday morning, Houston said he wanted us to both look forward to a date night on the patio when we got home from work! So we both came straight home from work and we sat our on our porch and shared some cheese and crackers and Banshee Pinot Noir wine that was really good.

I recently discovered this amazing playlist on Spotify called "Coffee Table Jazz" and we turned the playlist on and enjoyed a wonderful, relaxing night at home. I highly recommend it!

Houston cooked us some yummy steaks on the grill and we caught up on some of our TV shows and called it an early night!

I woke up early yesterday morning for my final Pure Barre training and I'll officially start working the front desk at the studio next month, I'm so excited! Sat out on the porch in the afternoon soaking up some Vitamin D and grabbed dinner with some of our friends at 1KEPT.

We have a pretty relaxing Sunday planned with brunch at Red Pepper and church tonight at 5:00.

Here are a few Sunday Happenings for you lately...

We have a nephew on the way!!
What I'm most excited to share is that we have a little nephew on the way!! My sister Betsy and her husband Michael told us over Christmas that they were expecting their first and two weeks ago I was able to fly home to Orlando for the Gender Reveal Party and found out it's a baby boy!!

I thought it was the perfect way for them to announce the gender - both Betsy and Michael are big golfers and they found a golf ball on Etsy that would explode pink or blue when they hit it!

Our family is overjoyed and already love this unborn baby boy so much - we just can't wait to meet him! Open to any and all auntie advice :)

Below are a few pictures from the Reveal Party:

 

Healthy Recipe Inspiration

I found this article on Facebook, this woman lost 100 pounds in the last year and shares some of her favorite go-to, healthy meals. Here's a link to the BuzzFeed article.

The Smoked Salmon Cucumber Rolls and Brussel Sprouts and Sweet Potato Noodle Bowl 

look amazing and actually doable!!

5k for Atlanta Mission
Last weekend we had the opportunity to run in a 5K to support Atlanta Mission which is one of our very favorite organizations in Atlanta supporting homelessness. We love the mission they stand for and all the great things they do for our city and homeless community.

Now I'm not much of a runner any more, so the 5K was certainly challenging for me but I was impressed we ran more than I was expecting. Some friends of ours were able to join us and we had so much fun running through downtown Atlanta together.

 

J.Crew + NB Workout Clothes

One of my favorite bloggers, Carly from The College Prepster recently shared that J.Crew teamed up with New Balance on some adorable workout clothes. So many cute fitness clothes I want to try now!!

They have the cutest pink crops that I want here.

Hope you have an awesome week and we have more of this spring-like weather!

xox, A

Sunday Happenings

We're enjoying a nice and relaxing weekend catching up with friends and doing some brunching!
Met some friends for brunch yesterday morning at South City Kitchen, one of our faves. And went to Tree House for brunch this morning with my friend Heather.
Snuck in a few Pure Barre classes and catching up on a little work this afternoon.

Something I think I want to try this year for my "Sunday Happenings" posts is to focus on a few specific topics to focus on such as: 

fitness, funny, food, faith, family and photography (perhaps a photo of the week?).

I can't promise I'll always stick to these topics but thought it might be a fun idea!

Fitness

A new year often comes with goals about health.
And I'm hoping to keep up my commitment to Pure Barre in 2017. It's something I've really enjoyed not only seeing the results but it just makes me feel better overall.

Be on the lookout for some tips for your first PB class I'll be sharing on the blog soon!

Funny
Have you seen these pictures of poor George W trying to put on a poncho during last week's inauguration? I lost it watching this hilarious video where the whole scene unfolded.

Faith

Been jamming out to this on the way to work each morning. Absolutely love this worship song!
Our church does a worship evening every so often and it's always incredible. There was one we went to last year that they handed out a North Point CD called HEAR and it's amazing.

Here is one of my favorites!

Photography
I am terrible at keeping any sort of plant alive. My sweet mother-in-law bought us an orchid several months ago for our home and I was pleased to find out it requires a little water about once a week to stay alive, thought I could handle that.

Well I think I remember about once a month to actually put some water in the vase. I made a comment last night that I was shocked it was still alive, and Houston admitted that he's been watering it once a week for me which I thought was the absolute cutest.

I had to take a picture of our beautiful orchid that is only alive because my sweet husband waters it for me because I never remember! Isn't he the best??

Happy Sunday, friends!

xox, A

2016 Favorite Atlanta Restaurants

One of my favorite bloggers, Luisa from Peaches to Pearls, is here in Atlanta and she recently posted her favorite restaurants from 2016 and I thought that was a fun idea!

A few of Luisa's top choices have definitely made their way onto our list this past year, especially her #1 choice of Colletta at Avalon in Alpharetta - AH-mazing. Also Bartaco and Smokebelly BBQ would be on our list of top Atlanta restaurants.

Here are our favorite Atlanta restaurants of 2016:

1KEPT
Hands down our favorite restaurant this year has been 1KEPT. If we've had friends or family in town, it's our go-to dinner option. It was tough to find the first time we went
(you park behind the building off of Peachtree)
and is around the corner from us so it's also a great date night spot for us.

We love the atmosphere and the food is tough to beat!

They have some delicious cocktails or sometimes we'll bring a bottle of wine to share.
A lot of Atlanta restaurants will let you bring your own wine and just charge you a corkage fee
(we typically call ahead to be sure it's okay) and typically saves us money on our bill.

As far as appetizers, a few of our favorites include the pimento cheese board, deviled eggs, meatballs and black truffle popcorn. Their flatbreads are also easy to share for an appetizer.

Houston and I used to play rock, paper, scissors for who got to order the Chicken Schnitzel for dinner and whoever lost would just eat the other's chicken. So we gave up, and now we both just order it.
Seriously you won't regret ordering it!
Don't get me wrong they have other amazing dishes, but I'm yet to find one I'd rather order over the chicken.

We typically don't order dessert when we're out, but we had an awesome waiter there one night who earned our trust quickly with his recommendations and he talked us into the pecan pie, and I think we've gotten it every time since.

So there are our top 10 for 2016. What are some of your favorites we should try?
xox, A

Christmas Cookie Exchange

This year, I hosted my second annual Christmas Cookie Exchange.

For 25 years, my mom hosted her own cookie exchange for friends and she has passed the tradition along to me! 

My mom and sister Betsy flew up from Orlando to come to the party which was so special to me to have them here with me.

I used Postable to mail out invitations for the party making it super easy!

(Also used Postable to send our Christmas cards this year)

I asked friends to bring 3 dozen cookies to share. I made homemade Nutmeg Cookie Logs which are a family staple for us at Christmas. They certainly take some time to make but are SO worth it!

It was also helpful to have ladies bring some food to help me, which was a lesson I learned last time.

I had some Christmas music playing in the background from a Spotify playlist I created. When ladies arrived, I had them sign the guestbook (I'm hoping to keep the guest list going each year), then we mingled in the kitchen for a while. My sister helped me make 

a simple and delicious Champagne cocktail which I shared the recipe on the blog last week. 

Then we took our food and sat in the living room while I read the Christmas story out of the Bible in Luke Chapter 2. I enjoy getting to read it at the Cookie Exchange with friends, I rarely get to hear it myself except during church on Christmas Eve so I loved sharing it.

Here are a few pictures from our fun night together!

So special to have my mom and sister Betsy fly up from Orlando just for the Cookie Exchange

Champagne cocktail recipe here

I love hosting and enjoyed having such special friends over!!

xox, A

30 Before 30

I recently turned 25 and I think it's time to retire my "25 before 25" list 

and work on some new goals for the next 5 years!

I blogged a few months ago with some goals for the 2016 calendar year,
but this goes beyond just this calendar year!

So here we go, here are 30 goals I hope to accomplish before I turn 30 on May 19. 2021:

1. Write a list of 30 goals and encourage others to do so (Please comment me a link to your own list!)

2. Read my Bible more, as well as faith-based devotionals

3. Start our own company

4. Attend a blogging conference

5. Send my mom flowers out of the blue

6. Learn calligraphy and use it!

7. Have a picnic with Houston in an Atlanta park

8. Get a puppy!!!! We just need to agree on a breed we like first... stay tuned!

9. Read 5 books cover to cover

10. Work at meal planning... so we stop making 5 trips to the grocery store each week ;)

11. Have friends over for a blind wine tasting

12. Successfully plant herbs (and keep them alive) in our backyard

13. Consistently workout and more importantly be content and happy with how I look

14. Get our porch updated and hang Edison lights outside

15. Run (and walk) a half marathon

16. Travel abroad with Houston

17. Cook a big meal and host a dinner party for friends

18. Watch a meteor shower

19. Go on a couples vacation

20. This is a stretch - learn to speak another language. Hopefully French! Oui oui

21. Then we should probably travel to France to use that French language ;)

22. Join Junior League of Atlanta

23. Spend time serving the homeless in Atlanta

24. Take a golf lesson. How proud will Houston be of me?!

25. Unplug for an entire weekend. I should do this at least once a year.

26. Invest in real sunglasses. No more $5 sunnies.

27. Get better at budgeting, especially when it comes to groceries

28. Become a Pure Barre instructor - I have fallen in love with Pure Barre and would love to teach classes if the opportunity is available!

29. With our recent interest of wine the last few years, go to Napa Valley with Houston

(Maybe for our 3rd wedding anniversary trip?? Yes please!)

30. Throw a huge birthday bash for Houston's and my 30th birthdays!

There it is! I'll keep you all posted on how my goals are coming along by posting to a separate page as well. You can find it at the top of my blog under the "30 Before 30" page.

Thank you Business Insider for some inspiration!

It's fun to think about where Houston's and my life will be five years from now. Where do you see yourself in five years? And what do you hope to accomplish?

xox, A

Sunday Happenings

It's been a great week!! I made it to 5 classes of Pure Barre since last Saturday this first week and was quite proud of myself for that! I can already tell I'm getting stronger and am excited to see results the longer I go.

I found out that I got a new job (same company) that I interviewed for and am really excited to start in two weeks! Houston and I went out to dinner to celebrate to a new restaurant we hadn't been to before called Antica Pasta and it was delicious! Our waiter suggested a glass of the Super Tuscan II Borro - Merlot, Cabernet 2011, Salvatore Ferragamo that was really good. For dinner, I ordered the bow tie pasta with crab meat. Houston ordered this amazing gnocchi pasta with meat sauce. Everything was delicious!

We had the best day Saturday just getting work done around the house and a cookout with friends from my Bible study and significant others. The weather has been beautiful and I'm happy the trees and flowers in our yard are starting to blossom. Here are a few Sunday Happenings from this week:

Little Girl and her pet duck
This adorable little girl Kylie is attached to her pet duck Snowflake and they go everywhere together. Snowflake even dressed up as Olaf from Frozen for Halloween. A special bond that cannot be broken. It's absolutely precious, see the video below of their sweet friendship.

Baylor basketball player interview
I've never been into March Madness college basketball but this interview was just too good not to share. A reporter asks what seems like a silly question to a basketball player who's just bummed he and his team are done for the year. Video linked here.

The Bachelor - WARNING: spoiler alerts if you haven't watched the finale yet!
Last Monday was the finale of Ben's season of The Bachelor. This USA Today article left me crying laughing. It's written by a guy who's never seen a full episode of The Bachelor before and it's his hilarious thoughts while watching the finale with his girlfriend. Seriously, if you watched this season of The Bachelor, you will love this.

Image from USA Today article

New Music
A few new songs I heard this week and liked:
1. Unkiss Me - Maroon 5: Heard during stretching at Pure Barre.
2. NO - Meghan Trainor: Heard on the radio.
3. Humble and Kind - Tim McGraw: My dad sent this song to our family this week and I love it, hope you enjoy it too!

I hope everyone has a great week!
xx, A

Sunday Happenings

This weekend has been absolutely gorgeous in Atlanta! We've finally made it to be consistently over 70 degrees during the day, so this Florida-girl is happy!

We had a friend's wedding Friday night at the Foundry at Puritan Mill which was absolutely stunning!! Great to see friends and the beautiful couple we've known since college.

Saturday, I went to Pure Barre in the morning and Houston went golfing to enjoy the beautiful weather. We had the BEST date night :) Since the weather was so nice, we had a glass of wine out on our porch (my first glass of rosé of the season we found at our neighborhood wine shop), then we grilled out and made steaks, corn and potatoes that were delicious! Then we finished season 4 of House of Cards. Have anyone else been watching?

I went to Pure Barre this morning and today, I might try to do some yard work and then we'll go to church then dinner with some friends.

Here's a few Sunday Happenings from this week!

Springing Forward
In case you missed it - our clocks sprung forward an hour last night! I absolutely LOVE daylight savings time. It really makes the days feel so much longer and I enjoy having more daylight after work to go for a walk in the neighborhood or just be outside on our porch.

Looking forward to the longer days ahead as we head into Spring and Summer. My Pure Barre class at 9:00 this morning was pretty empty, I think everyone was sleeping in a little!

Image from someecards.com

Herb Garden

I've really been wanting to plant a small herb garden so now that it's warming up, I'm hoping to plant some soon. I found this helpful article from Home Depot's Garden Club I'm going to use. I've never been very diligent at keeping up with plants, so maybe this will help me turn a new leaf.

Image from Home Depot Garden Club

Mini Donkeys

Houston sent me this Buzzfeed article this week about 20 Mini Donkeys for sale. You have to look at these pictures, they are the cutest things I've ever seen and I want one so bad to play with our future puppy!! I've already named our future mini donkey.

Image from Buzzfeed

New ice cream + coffee at Chick-Fil-A

Starting tomorrow, March 14th Chick-Fil-A will begin serving a new coffee with ice cream. I can't think of anything better, can you? Read more from AL.com here.

Nancy Reagan & Ronald Reagan's Love Affair

It's no secret the love affair that was between Nancy & Ronald Reagan. There was a beautiful love letter he wrote her one Christmas that was read at the former First Lady's funeral this week. The video from the service is posted on Fox 2 Now, here's a snippet of the letter below.

Fortunately, all these women in my life are you — fortunately for me that is, for there could be no life for me without you. Browning asked; “How do I love thee — let me count the ways?” For me there is no way to count. I love the whole gang of you — Mommie, first lady, the sentimental you, the fun you, and the peewee power house you. 

Merry Christmas you all — with all my love. 

Lucky me.

What a beautiful love they shared, over 50 years of marriage. I just love how you could see how much Ronald Reagan adored her.

Image from People.com

I hope everyone has a great week! Just wanted to say THANK YOU to everyone who reads my blog, as of yesterday the blog reached over 11,000 page views which is unbelievable to me! Thank you to those who read and let me know if you have any requests of things you'd like me to write about.

xx, A

PS - Who is watching the finale of the Bachelor tomorrow?? 🙋🏻 Do you think it will be Lauren B or JoJo? 

Stock the Bar Party & Sangria Recipe

Even though my new hubby is obviously my roommate now, I think my college roommate Juliann will always be referred to as "my roommate." Well my roommate is getting married at the end of the month (EEEEKKK!) and some of the other bridesmaids and I wanted to host a couples shower for them.

I found these adorable invitations on Etsy and we had the party last weekend at Houston's and my new apartment.

Houston was such an enormous help getting ready, running errands for me, going to the grocery store, the list goes on and on! And I couldn't have done it without my sweet mother-in-law, Kristin, Fallon and Whitney's help too.

I made this yummy sangria recipe I found online and would highly recommend it! (I was nervous about making sangria for the first time for a lot of people, but my friends at work reassured me that you can't mess it up!) 

RECIPE:
1/2 cup granulated sugar
One can of Sprite 
Add the juice of 3-4 limes.  You can heat your limes in the microwave for about 20 seconds to help them let go of their juice.
Stir.
Add your sweet, white wine. I used  Pinot Grigio and pour the entire bottle.
Stir some more.
I used a white grape/peach juice blend.  Any brand is fine, just get one with no sugar added / 100% juice. Add a cup of your juice.
Stir again.
Now it's time to add your fruit. I used fresh strawberries and canned peaches (because they were out of fresh ones) but you can use fresh, frozen, or canned fruits - whatever works best for you!

Definitely let it sit for a few hours, I even made ours the night before so the flavors could soak in!

I'll post some party pictures soon!

xox,
A

Meal Budgeting

One of my favorite classes this semester has been Food Prep 101! This is one of my only "fun" classes I've taken at school (meaning it wasn't required for my major or minor) and I've loved learning some life skills by taking this class.

Our final project is due the last week of class and we are required to come up with a week's worth of meals (dinners require recipes) in which we cannot spend more than $78 for the entire week on the 21 meals.

I know this will require some time, but I'm really looking forward to this assignment. It won't be long until I'm on my own and needing to budget like this for healthy meals and I think I will actually use it once I have created the meal plan.

I have a few resources I've already planned on using (which I wanted to share with you) and was curious if any of you had suggestions for meals I should make that are quick and inexpensive to make, or other resources you'd recommend I use!?

• mappingyourfuture.org - our teacher gave us this website to use to create our budget which gave us the $78 per month to spend on groceries
• My Plate Super Tracker - our teacher also gave us this one, to analyze our foods at the end of the 7 days and it tells us if we are reaching our goals for grains, vegetables, fruits, dairy, protein, oils, etc.
• The Everygirl Blog - 10 Vegetarian Meals for Less than $50
• The Everygirl Blog - 10 Grilled Meals for Less than $50
• The Everygirl Blog - 10 Entrée Salads for Less than $50
• The Everygirl Blog - Ten Meals for Less than $50
• Eating Well - 5 Ingredient Dinners for Less than $50 - recipe for Black Bean Quesadillas ($5.81)
• ThirtyAWeek.wordpress.com - Great website that helps give ideas for cheap meals and how to make meals for less than $30 a week
• Better Home & Garden - Dinner Meals Under $3
• One website recommended: $25 a week for seasonal fruits, vegetables and grains and the rest on your meats for the week
• Another blog suggested: soups and stir fries for cheap meals.

I would love any and all suggestions you have for saving money on groceries and meal recipes!

Thanks,

A

Spring Break Cruisin'

It is hard to believe that I haven't posted in a month! I guess life gets busy senior year and the whole "trying to find a job" (and a place to live) has temporarily distracted me...

But, I just got back from one of my greatest weeks of college and senior memories I've experienced. I had the privilege of going on my first cruise ever, with a group of friends for my senior spring break! We took the 7-day Royal Caribbean Navigator of the Sea ship to Cozumel, the Grand Cayman Islands and Jamaica and it was so much fun and relaxing!

We even had a list of things we weren't allowed to talk about, including: school, graduating, homework, plans after graduation, jobs and basically anything that could potentially stress us out! So wonderful to just relax and shut our phones off for 7 days! (Although thankfully I could get a few texts and FaceTimes in with Houston and my family via wifi!)

I wanted to share a few pictures with you from this week and give some tips for traveling!

The photo below was us girls before Formal Night in the dining room.

Our first stop on our cruise was to Cozumel, Mexico. We found this awesome excursion to Nachi Cocom, a private beach that cost us $50 for the entire day with a beach chair, umbrella, lunch and beverages included. I would highly recommend it to anyone traveling to Cozumel!

Here is one of my only group photos with all of us - Whitney, me, Kristin, Courtney, Maddie, Kate, Juliann, Jaime, Scott, Cam, Daniel and Austin

Adios Cozumel!

 After dinner one night, missing Maddie!

Juliann, Daniel and I took an excursion in Grand Cayman to swim with stingrays, pet dolphins and a private Tiki Beach for $109. Definitely worth it for a once in a lifetime experience! They also took care of your transportation to and from the ship and the 3 different locations of activities.

I got to kiss Galileo, our dolphin!

 Fancy night with my girls:)

 Had such a fun week with this group! Thank you for the unforgettable memories and putting up with my 600 pictures I took:)

Being my first cruise, I didn't know what to expect but I loved it and thought it was such a fun way to travel! Royal Caribbean was a wonderful cruise line and the rooms were great and food was delicious! 

A few things I forgot and would be sure to bring/not bring next time would be:

-We only needed 1 blow dryer for the 4 of us girls, I could have left mine at home
-1 straighter was plenty
-I don't need to bring my own beach towels, they have plenty on the ship (thankfully Juliann gave me a heads up on that one!)
-I would have brought another pair of cute shoes for dinners, probably wedges
-I also would have brought tennis shoes and workout clothes, with all of that constant eating I would have enjoyed a few workouts at the gym!
-The excursions can be pricey but really worth it! Just be sure to budget money for them when planning your trip!


Have you taken a cruise before? What would be some advice you would give to someone who is a new cruiser?

Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

Valentine's Day means a lot of different things to different people - some people like to call it Single Awareness Day, some people in relationships don't even like the holiday, and others like myself are hopeless romantics and love holidays in general so single or taken I've always loved this day! (But I've gotta admit, having the most wonderful guy as your Valentine has made these past three so wonderful and I look forward to many more together!)

From growing up, Mom used to dye all our breakfast food pink! (I will totally do this as a wife and mom one day!) Complete with pink milk, cinnamon rolls with pink icing and strawberries! She has given me a love for holidays because she has always made them so special for us!

Valentine's Day in the Boyd household circa 1996. 

(You can see the pink milk in Betsy's cup!)

So here are a few Valentine's Day suggestions for you, for either a girl's night or date night!

-Girl's Night - One of my favorite blogs, The Everygirl posted these cute ideas for a fun girl's night Valentine party! Including ideas for decor, drinks, food and don't forget about dessert!

-Date Night - Last year for Valentine's Day, my parents had a progressive dinner around the house for Valentine's Day and I thought this was such a precious and fun idea! It was such a hit, they did it again this year! My parents have been married for 32 1/2 years and I admire them so much. They have such a biblically-based marriage filled with love, fun, and 3 (pretty cool, if you ask me!) kids. They had appetizers out on the dock, then dinner at the kitchen table, and my mom's famous chocolate cake, heart-shaped of course, at the high-top counter in the kitchen. So cute:) Dad brought mom beautiful flowers and they exchanged their Valentine's Day cards. Sounds like a pretty awesome date if you ask me!

Last year, Houston drove all the way from Atlanta on a Wednesday night and surprised me at my apartment by knocking on the door! I could NOT believe it! We picked up dinner and had a candlelight dinner together and just relaxed and watched a movie - one of our very favorite things to do!

Here are some of my favorite pictures of Houston and I these past 2 1/2 years! The bottom, center one is from when he surprised me last year on Valentine's Day! You can still tell my eyes are puffy from tears of joy and surprise!!

And I just got a phone call that I have a "Valentine's present waiting for me at the apartment office!" Eeeek he's just the sweetest! Can't wait to see what it is:) My family, Houston, and his parents are all coming in town this weekend for Samford's infamous Step Sing weekend and I can't wait to all be together!

No matter your opinion of Valentine's Day, I hope it's special! Let me know if you have any other great ideas for this fun holiday!

xoxo,
A

Fitness Update:
Went to pure barre 3 times last week and 3 times this week so far! Woohoo! Just gotta start working on my food habits a little better!

Yummy Green Smoothie

 

My Aunt Lori told me about a yummy (and healthy!) green smoothie that I mentioned on an earlier post and I had a request for the recipe so I thought I'd post it for you all!

It's very simple and only requires a few ingredients:

Ice

1/2 banana

Handful of kale

Handful of spinach

1 cup pear juice

Honey (optional for you hardcore health nuts, but I can't stand the taste without it!)

It's all about your personal preference and I just play with the amounts depending on what I think tastes best. If you try it, let me know what you think:)

-A

Gettin' Ready for Spring Break!

I know what you're thinking... 2 posts in 1 day?? Don't worry this probably won't happen very often.

I was just talking to Houston earlier today and told him that I really wanted to be more dedicated to healthier eating habits and workouts this semester. I want to have a healthier lifestyle and be more comfortable in my skin. He is amazing and tells me everyday that I am beautiful and is always so incredibly encouraging in my efforts to be healthy (when I try), but I am not thrilled with how I look and he is the BEST person to help me because he is so knowledgeable about health and fitness! So he told me that if I wanted him to, he would help me come up with a plan for my diet and fitness schedule! If you can't tell... I'm one very lucky gal:)

So after that great talk with Houston, my sweet friend Jaime had some of us girls over tonight to catch up now that we are all back in town (we start our final semester of college this Monday! Where has the time gone??) We were talking about how we all want to be in good shape for our Spring Break cruise, and decided we are all going to join our local Pure Barre, at least until Spring Break in March!!

Above is a video to help explain what a PB class looks like.


I am so excited because I love PB! It's so much fun and I love the workout, and I am also much more likely to go if I have a friend with me (social butterfly, right here).

PB really helps me to tone up, but I get faster results for my stomach if I'm running. So what I've decided to do is do my cardio on Tuesdays and Thursdays (I don't have class on TTh this semester - hallelujah!) and then I can go to PB classes with my girlfriends whenever they're free!

Now I'm posting about this so I can have a little more accountability. I'm not sure how many people actually read this (besides my sweet family and supportive friends), but this way I feel like I'm posting it out there for the world to see and I (hopefully) will be more diligent with my healthy living!

We (Juliann, Jaime, Courtney, Kristin and myself) are going to start our memberships this weekend at PB and I am so excited to get back! I haven't been in "Pure Barre shape," as I like to call it, in awhile so it might take me a few weeks! But here we go:)

Last thing --- Have y'all heard of this phone app called GroupMe?? I'm obsessed. My friends just showed it to me tonight and it operates how text messaging should on the iPhone (sorry Apple)! It's similar to WhatsApp if you've had that, but you can turn on a setting where you can receive them as text messages if you want, and you can also turn notifications off and/or take yourself out of the group message if you want to stop getting buzzed every 5 seconds... GENIUS! I love group texting, but sometimes it can drive me crazy if I'm out of town and can't hang out with my friends trying to make plans in the group text or my family loves to group message but sometimes I'm in the middle of things and can't respond, so this gives you the option to turn on the notifications! A highly recommend it!

Okay, sleep time! I have a business meeting in the morning! Eek:) I'll keep you posted on my newest entrepreneurship idea as it evolves!

-A

Fitness Update:
Juliann and I went to the gym at school today and I did:
10 minutes on the elliptical
10 mins sprint/walking on the treadmill
4 planks 30 seconds each
each side plank 30 seconds each
2 sets of 10 squats
2 sets of 10 lunges
3 sets of 30 rep "back dancing" (as PB calls it)
and 20 reps captain's chair leg raises

My Love Languages

So I thought I would help my readers get to know me a little bit by listing just a few of the many things and people I love:

I LOVE...

my Heavenly Father and Savior, Jesus Christ

my parents, and siblings Betsy and Michael

my boyfriend, Houston

my incredible friends God has blessed me with throughout my 21 years

creating things - whether it is my newest entrepreneurial idea, crafts or food, I love to create!

the sunshine (with that also comes laying out)

long talks with my best friend and roommate, Juliann and discussing our newest life plans

the beach and the lake (still undecided as to which I prefer)

traveling (I hope to go abroad again soon!!)

watching college football

Paris

polka dots

Lilly Pulitzer

sparklers

walks on the beach

cooking & baking

Penguins, only second to my favorite animal... Dogs!

tomato and mozzarella salads

green smoothies - my Aunt Lori just got me hooked! I'll write you the recipe soon!

New York City

@CuteEmergency - if you don't follow them on Twitter, you need to! It can brighten ANY day!

Taylor Swift's music (my INCREDIBLE boyfriend is taking me to see her in ATL in April!!!! Best boyfriend ever... YES!)

my mom's chocolate cake

the color yellow

driving with the windows down and blaring music (preferably with friends in the car with me)

monograms

Pintrest
seersucker

J.Crew

Atlanta (my future home --- EEEK!)

What are some of your favorite things?? Your favorite city? Food? Place to shop? Or thing to do?

And if you like any of these things too and want me to elaborate, let me know and I can dedicate a post to some of the things listed above!

xoxo,

A