Jen's Journal

Happy Easter!

2011-04-26T14:52:00.001-04:00

Love,
Breck and Sloane

Blog Design Giveaway

2011-04-07T21:03:00.002-04:00

So, turns out having to make the blog private made me a bad blogger again. I just lost any desire to post after that for some reason. I am really going to try to get back into it. I just love being able to look back at posts and it is such a great way for out of town family to keep up with what is going on. I finally felt ok with making it public again, so here goes nothing!

I have entered to win a free blog design over at Dave and Britt plus one! I am hoping to win and that will re-energize my blogging ;-) Click here to enter the giveaway too!

Casey County Apple Festival

2010-09-26T20:22:00.004-04:00

This weekend Emily and I headed to Casey county Kentucky for the apple festival! I really do not know that I was fully prepared for all the interesting things I was going to see ;) Emily is from Campbellsville which is about 45 minutes away from Casey county, so she is friends with a lot of people that are from there. We went down to stay at her parents house Friday night and got up Saturday morning to head to the festival.

It was HOT during the day on Saturday. Thankfully our friend Ben was helping out at a booth and we were able to sit under a tent anytime we weren't walking around.

Emily and I at the booth.

I took this picture early on in the day and it doesn't do the amount of people justice. It was crazy! I just kept asking where all these people came from. If you look down the street a little in this picture, you can get a better idea of how crowded it was. There were times when we couldn't even get through the crowd. Take a closer look and you can even see some of Casey countys high fashion. ;)

The apple festival is the home to the worlds largest apple pie! I was so excited to see this thing. This big red box is the oven that it bakes in.

And here it is! As you can see, at this point they were already tearing into it and serving it to the crowd. According to the apple festival website, the pie contains 45 bushels of apples, 300 pounds of pastry, 150 pounds of sugar, 15 pounds of butter, 2.5 pounds of cinnamon, 1.5 pounds of salt and 75 pounds of cornstarch. They bake it at 350 degrees for 12 hours...nuts!

Doug "Sparky" and Emily

Emily and I

Me and Adam

The original plan was to stay for a few hours, but we ended up staying until 11pm that night! We were there for 11 hours total! I did have a great time, but it sure did make me appreciate Lexington :-) Lets just say there are some interesting people that live in Casey county Kentucky!

Have a great week!

Going Private

2010-09-26T16:10:00.001-04:00

Hello all! If you follow me on twitter you probably already know that I am switching the blog to private for a little while due to some crazy things happening. I will probably blog a little about that at some point. I opened it up today so this post would feed to whoever reads the blog on google reader. If you want to continue reading, just shoot me an email at jenniferbcochran@aol.com and I will add you. If I do not know you, please give a link to your blog or some other way to identify you and I will be more than happy to put you on the list :) Hate that I have to do this, but for right now it is really necessary.

I have also made my twitter private for a bit. The only way you will be able to see my tweets is if you get on twitter and request to be a follower. You can do that at www.twitter.com/jennifercochran.

Hopefully I will feel safe to open back up the blog soon! Until then, send me an email :)

I'm working on a new post today, so stay tuned for that.

Wordless Wednedsay

2010-09-08T12:56:00.001-04:00

Birthdays and Beth Moore

2010-08-24T23:16:00.006-04:00

The weekend before last (August 13-14) was crazy, but a good crazy! Friday night I went down to Rupp Arena with some ladies for a Living Proof Live event with Beth Moore! It was incredible to say the least! I kept thinking about how cool it was to be worshiping the Lord with 11,000 other women in an arena that typically worships basketball. It was sobering, and I loved it. Friday night one of my best friends was having her 25th birthday party in downtown Lexington's piano bar, the Penguin. Despite knowing that I had to be up around 6am on Saturday morning I decided to meet her at the Penguin to celebrate! I had such a fun time and was glad that I decided to go. Every time I was about to call it a night, my friend Emily would look at me and say "stay Jen, you are only young once!" I ended up getting home around 3:30am. I am tired just thinking about it.

Britt and me

Emily and me

The next morning I got up at 6am and headed back down to Rupp for day 2 of the Living Proof Live Event. I can say without hesitation that it was worth the lack of sleep! Day 2 was even better than the first night because she tied the whole lesson together. I love the part in a lesson that it all clicks and comes together to make sense, it's my aha moment!

After the last session, a group of us got the opportunity to go backstage and have a small meet and greet with Beth! Oh my word I was so excited. It was completely unexpected! I have always said that if I could meet 2 people it would be Paula Deen and Beth Moore. I need to pinch myself that both dreams came true in the same year.

I am in the back row to the left of Beth :) Can you spot a tired girl in the last row?! Thats me!

Photo credit, Rich Kalonick

Here is a video that Rich put together of the pictures he took from the event! I loved watching it and thought I would share.

LPL Lexington KY from Rich Kalonick on Vimeo.

PS- Be sure to scroll down if you missed my last post. My cousin started a blog and I think you should read it ;)

New Blog!

2010-08-24T23:03:00.004-04:00

Moi, Markey and Kristin (my sister)

My cousin Markey has started a blog! She has such a witty sense of humor and her posts are hysterical. She also blogged a few times about the National Gene Test Fund which is the charity that her sister started after finding out she had the braca1 gene. Hop on over to her blog to hear some funny stories and learn about a charity that really means a lot to our family. Be sure to click her "all about" section, it's amazing and perfectly sums her up!

Click HERE :)

Watch out Lexington!

2010-08-18T22:01:00.003-04:00

Look who's coming to town...

My Aunt Cathy and Grandmere will be here Saturday night! They both read the blog so I thought I would give them a little shout out. I am sure I will have all sorts of funny things to post from their trip.

I thought I would share this video of Grandmere that I recorded on a trip to Florida in January. When we were little we used to play the Babysitters Club Game with her. They have a section that is just like charades and I have such great memories of dressing up and acting all the crazy things out. Grandmere would even bring props with her! So we got out the game in January just for fun and she performed a few things for us. Sorry about the shaky camera work, but I was laughing so hard. I hope she doesn't kill me for posting this :) Enjoy!

NYC Recap Day 4 & 5

2010-08-16T20:01:00.005-04:00

I lumped day 4 & 5 together because I got light on picture taking by then. :) Sunday was Dana and Sunny's last day so we got up and they spent the morning packing up all of their things. We left the apartment and tried to get in a few last minute stops before they had to head home. We started off by lunch at S'mac. I LOVE S'mac! It is a macaroni and cheese restaurant in the east village and I always make it a point to go when I am in NYC. They have a list of choices but you can also assemble your own. Emily had her macaroni with rosemary and chicken, yum! I opted for the classic 4 cheese. It is really good, fast and cheap relative to most spots in the city.

Sunny and Dana at S'mac

After S'mac we headed uptown a bit to see Central Park. It goes without saying that this is a must do if you are in NYC. We took the subway to about the middle section of the park and came up on the Jackie Onassis reservoir, so beautiful!

Me, Emily and Sunny in front of the reservoir.

We spent about an hour walking the part and probably didn't even get 10% of it covered! You cannot really grasp how big it actually is. You almost forget you are in the middle of such a huge city. The great lawn is located pretty centrally in the park and it always full of people.

After the park we went over to Serendipity 3 to get a frozen hot chocolate! The wait was about an hour long so we walked a block over to check out their Williams Sonoma! You can't keep us away for long :)

Their store was 2 stories! It made our store seem so little.

Sunny checking out their oil tasting bar.

One of Dana's jobs in our store is to check expiration dates and discount any food that is getting ready to expire. I about died when I looked over and she was checking their expiration dates! So funny! I am happy to report that none of the food that we looked at had expired.

Emily with all the yummy cake mixes and baking supplies.

After Williams we headed back to Serendipity and got seated for our dessert! And as usual, it did not disappoint!

Sunny got a sundae that had a ton of fruit and even a slice of lemon pie at the bottom. It was fabulous!

Dana and I both got the famous frozen hot chocolate!

Emily got a sundae that had pecans, fudge and caramel all over it. There was also a piece of pecan pie at the bottom. Oh my gosh, it was good!

After Serendipity it was time to send Dana and Sunny to the airport. We were sad to see them go :( After they left, Emily and I spent some time just relaxing around the apartment. Later that evening we headed down to Tribecca together to buy a gift card for our gracious host, John. I had talked to him earlier in the week and he told me that one of his favorite places to eat is MEGU. So we went there to buy him a gift card. Well, I am adding MEGU to my list of places to check out. We sat in the bar area while we were waiting on our gift card and it had the coolest atmosphere. I am looking forward to actually eating there next time I am in NYC.

After we got the gift card, we headed back over to the meatpacking district to have dinner at Dos Caminos. My cousin Missy had recommended it so we decided to check it out. We got the homemade guacamole (yum!) and chicken tacos. I really enjoyed the meal, but I have determined that I am not a fancy mexican girl. I like the hole in the wall places over the nice places when it comes to mexican. After dinner we headed back to the apartment and hit the sack! We were exhausted!

The next morning we woke up and our first order of business was to get all of John's sheets and towels to the laundry mat. I just couldn't stand the thought of him coming home to a bunch of laundry to do, which is pretty much the only reason we stayed until Monday. The laundry mat was an experience in and of itself! We had both never used a laundry mat so we had to ask how to put the detergent in the machine. Pitiful, I know! But in our defense, these were commercial washers and looked nothing like the washers I have at home.

This is the only picture I have of the day and it just makes me laugh. I'm sure we looked a little out of place :)

After we got everything washed, we headed back to the apartment, took showers and headed to the airport. We were able to catch a direct flight back to Lexington and got home around 8:30 that night. It was the best birthday I have ever had and I am so thankful that I got to spend it with 3 ladies that I really do love!

NYC Recap Day 3

2010-08-15T15:50:00.008-04:00

Day 3 we slept in a little later seeing as we were up so late the night before. We managed to get out the door around lunchtime and headed down to Greenwich Village.

When we got to the village they were having a huge street fair! There was a ton of food, clothing and jewelry. It was a lot of fun despite the crazy heat!

We also stopped at grabbed lunch in the village. Emily and Sunny went and ate at a bakery while Dana and I went to get a hotdog at Gray's Papaya. I had always heard about this hotdog place and really wanted to check it out. Unfortunately it really wasn't that great :( Sad, but I was happy to see what all the hype was about

Emily and Sunny at lunch.

After lunch we walked over to Perry Street to see the townhouse used in Sex and the City. This was the exact place they filmed all the exterior shots of Carries apartment, pretty cool!

Me, Emily and Sunny outside the apartment.

Of course any trip to Greenwich village would not be complete without a Magnolia Bakery cupcake!

Me and Emily waiting in line at Magnolia.

After the cupcake we walked back over to the street fair so we could buy some things. I ended up with some new earrings and a new ring for a grand total of $8! Score! Cute and cheap jewelry is my friend.

Sunny and Emily

Me and Emily (and I am wearing my new earrings!)

After the day in the village we walked over to Bobby Flay's restaurant, MESA grill, for an early dinner. It was good, but not great. My pork had really good flavor but was cold when it got to the table. I will say that the goat cheese appetizer was fabulous! Again, this is one of those places that I am glad I went, but wouldn't necessarily feel the need to go to again. I didn't take one single picture from dinner, whoops! I think at this point my little camera needed a break :)

We got back to the apartment after dinner and then it was time for the 80's prom! Fair warning, there are a lot of pictures coming up, so if big crimped hair and hot pink is offensive to you, turn away now!

Dana let Emily do her hair. Em had to stop a few times and bend over because she was laughing so hard that she thought she was going to pee her pants!

Dana and me walking to the prom. I borrowed my dress from one of my high school teachers and it was perfect! Sunny brought a conair hair crimper straight from the 80's, hilarious!

Sunny and Emily

Emily and me

The 80's prom is an interactive show. So the cast is dressed up as either high schoolers or teachers and actually dance and participate with you! This is Emily with the nerd from school. He carried around that rubix cube all night!

Here is the principal and teacher making announcements. These 2 stayed in character the whole time! He wore those binoculars around his neck and would stand on stage looking through them. He would even break up dancing if it got too crazy.

If you grew up in the 80's-early 90's you will recognize this guy! Screech was the special guest at the prom and I was dying laughing. He was the nerd on my all time favorite tv show growing up, Saved by the Bell.

The prom was a blast and I am so glad we did it!

After the prom we were all hungry (notice the trend of eating! Ha, we ate a ton!) so we went back and washed off as much makeup as we could, changed and then went up to Times Square. We ate at Juniors Cheesecake. It was really good and moderately priced. They even brought me a sundae for my birthday treat. This is definitely not fine dining, but if you are in the city and want a good burger with a good dessert, then I would recommend trying it out.

Me and Sunny at Juniors.

Emily and Dana at Juniors

By this point it was almost 2am and I really don't think my feet could have held out any longer, so we went back to the apartment to get a good nights sleep.

Next up...day 4!

NYC Recap Day 2

2010-08-13T10:45:00.007-04:00

We all got up on Friday morning, took showers and hit the town. Since I was one of the only girls that had ever been to NYC, I turned into the tour guide for the weekend, which I loved! So I mapped out our route for the day and off we went!

Emily and me on the subway.

Sunny and Dana on the subway.

We got off the subway in Soho and spent a little time looking at all of the neat shops. Then we made our way down to the little Italy/China town area. We spotted a cute little restaurant just outside little Italy called the Village Tart and decided it looked like a great place to grab lunch. It was so quaint and perfect. We all got something different, which is always fun if you want to share your plates.

Me and Sunny at lunch.

Emily and Dana at lunch (typical Dana, avoiding the camera).

After lunch we spent some time exploring little Italy/China town and then took the subway all the way downtown to the battery. We had every intention of taking the ferry out to see the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island but the line was so long that we decided it wasn't worth the long wait. It seriously would have been a few hours out of our day, and we just didn't have the time. So we settled for the view from the shore. You can barely see the statue in this picture, it is poking out of the top of Sunny's head. We were sad that we didn't get to go see it, but all agreed that the view from the shore would have to suffice.

Next up we got back on the subway and started making our way to Times Square. We had to be in line at the TKTS booth (the 50% off ticket booth) by 3:00. We took a little bit of a detour and stopped at Grand Central Station. This is a must see if you are in NYC, it is absolutely beautiful! I am kicking myself that I didn't get better pictures of it. I did however manage to snap a picture of this wall. It was made up entirely of post it notes! You can read more about the wall here.

Dana, me and Sunny in Grand Central.

After Grand Central we started walking over to Times Square. We took a roundabout way to get there in order to walk by Rockefeller Center. We even stopped by some souvenir shops. Sunny and Emily are modeling their finds.

Dana and I stood in line at the ticket booth and let Emily and Sunny explore Times Square, since they had never been to the city. It took about an hour to get through the line, but the wait was worth it as we got 50% off tickets to see Promises, Promises later that evening!

After Times Square we headed uptown a bit to go by Dylan's Candy Bar. Wow, if you love candy, then this is your spot! I didn't get many pictures of the inside, but even the wallpaper has candy on it. It really does look like something out of Willy Wonka. I had a chocolate dipped pretzel from this fountain, yum!

After Dylan's we decided to go over to Tao for an early dinner. We had made reservations for later that evening, but didn't think we would have time to get ready and then make it to the show on time, so we moved up the reservation. Tao was incredible! By far my favorite meal from the trip. I would highly recommend it if you are looking for a great dinner in the city.

All the ladies at dinner.

After dinner we went back to the apartment, got ready and then headed to the show!

Sunny and Emily in the taxi en route to the show. We splurged on a taxi because we were running a tad late (not surprising thinking about 4 girls getting ready in one bathroom).

I was always in the front of the taxi because I was the only one with any clue where we were going :)

Sunny, me and Emily outside the show.

Sunny, Dana and me outside the show.

We LOVED the show! It was great for a group of girls. We laughed our tails off! One of my friends that goes to NYC a lot suggested that we go to the stage doors during the bows if we wanted to meet Sean Hayes and Kristin Chenoweth. I thought it sounded like fun so we left during the bows and ended up being one of the first people outside the stage door. I am so glad we left a little early because the minute the show ended the line filled up!

Emily and me waiting for Sean and Kristin!

Kristin Chenoweth! (also, no clue why my text changed color here??)

Sean Hayes! As you can see, we were up close and personal with them! They were both super friendly and signed our playbills.

The view of Times Square from the theater.

After the show we were all a little hungry since we had dinner around 5:30. So we walked over to the Ellen's Stardust Diner on broadway. I would highly recommend doing this! The waiters would walk around singing and the food was great too! This was the perfect after show snack spot.

Me and Sunny at the diner.

After the diner we were ready to hit the town! A friend that used to live in NYC emailed me and told me to check out the Hotel Gansevoort rooftop bar. So we went down to the meatpacking district to see what it was all about.

This was the view from the top, incredible!

Sunny, me and Emily at the rooftop bar.

Sunny and Emily

Dana (classic, eyes closed) and me.

We ended up staying there until almost 4:30am when they closed! I don't think I have ever had that much fun at a bar, and I wasn't even drinking! We danced the whole time and just kept looking out over the city. So so fun! Check it out if you are in NYC and want a fun bar to go to!

Next up...day 3!

NYC Recap Day 1

2010-08-10T16:30:00.003-04:00

I am safe and sound back in Lexington after a whirlwind weekend in NYC. There is no way to give the trip justice in a blog post, it was so incredible. We really did get to do everything we had planned and all 4 got along so well. It couldn't have gone any better! I started to do one huge blog post about the whole trip but it was too overwhelming, so I decided to break it up by day. Here goes nothing...

Emily and I flew up together on Thursday afternoon. We were flying on buddy passes, which is code for cheap tickets but you have to fly standby. The other 2 girls were flying out of Cinci late Thursday night, but we decided it was best if we left early just in case we couldn't get on a flight.

This was a common sight throughout the weekend, me on my laptop checking flights. Emily took this after we had arrived in Detroit. Thankfully we got on both of our flights without any problems. We arrived into the city around 3:30 Thursday afternoon.

I was so happy to be in NYC and have all of our luggage! This may not seem like a big deal, but when you are flying standby, getting to your destination in a reasonable amount of time WITH luggage is a real victory!

It worked out well that we got into the city a few hours before the other girls because it gave us time to set up for their arrival. One of my good friends lives in NYC and was going to be in Haiti on a mission trip the weekend we were there. He graciously let us stay at his apartment! It is only one bedroom though, so we used a queen sized air mattress in his living room to give us all a space to sleep. So Em and I got the bed set up, sheets on, and even walked to the KMart down the road to get some extra pillows. The other girls arrived at 9:30 and we walked a few blocks to a little italian place called Cucina di Pesce.

Sunny and me at dinner. We were all so sleepy by this point but decided that given the short amount of time we would be in the city, we needed to really get out and enjoy every minute.

Dana, Sunny, me and Emily at dinner. The food was good, but I didn't think it was the best italian I had ever had or anything. The real reason I chose to eat there was someone had told me how great their garden was to sit and eat in. Well, we got there and the garden was closed, bummer! I think the real appeal to the restaurant was the garden, so I was disappointed. I do not think it would be on the top of my list to go eat at again.

After dinner we thought it would be fun to ride the subway up to Times Square. Em was obviously excited to be in Times Square for the first time!

Only in NYC can you get your picture taken with Batman at 1am on a Thursday night.

Em getting rescued!

Sunny, me and Emily in the middle of Times Square.

We were walking around and noticed there were filming some sort of movie/music video. I asked the police officer and found out that it was Justin Timberlake filming!! We were so excited! Emily took this picture and if you look closely you can see him in the back next to the white screen (the microphone is hanging over him). It was really neat to see!

At this point it was almost 2am and we were all exhausted! We headed back to the apartment and crashed.

Next up...day 2!

New York, New York

2010-08-03T20:53:00.004-04:00

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I have mentioned it a few times on twitter and maybe even on some recent blog posts, but I wanted to share about my upcoming trip to NYC! It all started 3 weeks ago when I was out with my friend Emily and we were talking about how she has never been to New York City! We started talking about how much fun it would be to go over my birthday weekend but both never really thought the trip would actually come to fruition. We kept discussing the possibility and after a few days decided that we really wanted to try and make the trip happen! We are both young and single and decided that this is one of the only times in our lives when we can just pick up and fly to NYC for a weekend. We mentioned the trip to some of our coworkers and now there are 2 other girls that are flying up for the weekend too! So much fun! Out of the 4 of us, 2 have been to the city but 2 have not, so I have been trying to come up with a list of must do things. I thought I would share about my favorite NYC spots and even about some that I will be checking out for the first time on this trip.

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Hands down, my favorite sweet treat in New York is the frozen hot chocolate from Serendipity III. Oh my word it is sooooo good. Whenever someone asks me where I like to go in New York, this is always on my list. I will say that I have eaten lunch here a few times and have never really been too impressed by the food, but the dessert is always heavenly. I have a feeling this is going to be a great cool down treat one afternoon.

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When I was little my family went to New York and I remember taking the ferry over to Ellis Island. However, I don't really remember actually going to the island that the Statue of Liberty sits on. One of the girls that has never been to NYC mentioned that she would really like to take the ferry over and see the statue. I think it will be a really neat experience. On top of that, I have heard the view of the city from the ferry is so pretty, and at $12 it is a great bargain (relative to other NYC attractions).

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Of course if I am going to be in NYC I have to see a show! We are going on this trip on a major budget, so we plan on getting our show tickets at the TKTS booth in times square. Are you familiar with the booth? The box offices bring over any leftover tickets and then the sell them on the day of the performance at the TKTS booth. They are often discounted up to 50%! The catch is that you don't know what shows they are going to have until you get to the booth window. You can however look at their website and it gives you a list of shows that have been at the booth over the past few weeks. So if a show is consistently there, you can pretty much bet you will be able to get discounted tickets. The only show that they never really have is Wicked, which comes as no surprise because it is so popular and always sells out. I have been researching the shows and think Promises, Promises looks really cute! It is a musical comedy and has 2 HUGE names in it, Kristin Chenoweth and Sean Hayes. I have my fingers crossed that we will be able to get some inexpensive seats!

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Another great sweet stop is the Magnolia Bakery! I first learned about the bakery on an episode of Sex and the City where 2 of the girls got a cupcake and sat outside the bakery to eat it. I swear that it is the best cupcake you will ever put in your mouth! My mouth is watering just looking at the picture. I also really like to stop by Crumbs bakery and grab a cupcake there too!

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THIS is probably what I am most excited about! If you know me well, you know that I love to dance and I love 80's music. I swear if you don't like to dance to some good 80's music then something is seriously wrong with you. I kid, I kid, but I really do love it! So it is the perfect spot to spend the actual day of my birthday. The Awesome 80's Prom is an interactive off broadway show that you get dressed up in full 80's gear for! I actually have a prom dress from the 80's that I borrowed from one of my high school teachers to wear. I am also equipped with turquoise eye shadow, hot pink lipstick, huge earrings and of course jelly bracelets. You go to the show to dance and interact with the cast. The cast is complete with the captain of the football team, principal, math teacher, foreign exchange student, etc... I will be sure to take plenty of pictures, I have a sneaking suspicion they will be entertaining :)

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Times Square is always a spot that I look forward to taking a first time NYC visitor. It is one of those things that you always see on tv, so it is crazy to see it in person! I think it is hard to understand how it is set up and how big it is when you just see it on tv. This picture is actually outdated because they have now blocked it off to all car traffic and made it primarily pedestrian. It gives it a really neat feeling with everyone walking around. This is also where the TKTS booth is located, so we will be spending lots of time there!

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And a blog post about NYC would not be complete without mentioning Central Park. It is almost a surreal feeling when you get to the park because you have spent your whole day surrounded by skyscrapers and traffic. Getting to the park is a welcomed quiet time. You almost forget you and in the center of bustling city.

So that is my list of hotspots! Of course we will be eating some great food and visiting of the unique little neighborhoods. I would love to be able to blog about this trip the same way I did for the Savannah trip, but it all depends on how much time I have. Rest assured though, I will take plenty of pictures and will blog about it when I get home.

Blog Makeover

2010-08-01T23:32:00.002-04:00

The design girl is giving away another blog makeover! I would LOVE to win it! Check it out here.

4th Annual Birthday Celebration!

2010-08-01T13:00:00.006-04:00

I think I am going to go ahead and deem this year to be the best birthday celebration to date! We had the best time. Maria and I both are always overwhelmed at how many people come out to celebrate with us. We are so incredibly blessed to have so many wonderful friends.

As usual, the crew headed to Atomic Cafe for the celebration. We have had the party at Atomic every year and it is always perfect. It is just nice to be able to eat dinner and then dance to a live band all in one location. We usually are able to reserve a large table inside, but this year we had so many people that they would not let us reserve a table. It actually ended up working out perfectly because Maria and I arrived early enough to pull together a ton of tables on the patio. The weather was cooler with low humidity, so the patio ended up being perfect for our large (and loud, ha!) group.

The birthday girls! Can I just stop and say how much I love Maria? We both almost get giddy right around birthday time because we love celebrating together! She is incredible and I am proud to call her one of my best friends.

Maria and her cute hubby Mark.

Kristin and Lee even made it out! This was their first night away from the babies and I think they had a great time. Lee's parents graciously watched Sloane and Breck so KT and LT could enjoy a night out.

Brittany White and yours truly.

Brittany and her husband Seth

The dads! Doug and Briggs. I just love this picture, they both look so happy :) We love that our families also come to celebrate with us!

Mom and Kristin

This was my attempt to get a picture of the whole table. It is a little fuzzy, but you get the idea. We took up the entire length of the patio. I don't even think I sat down for more than 5 minutes to eat my food, I was having more fun socializing with everyone!

Mom, Mary and Michelle (Mama Fink)

Paul and Seth

Patrick and Sherry

Ami and Brittney

Sherry, yours truly and Kerry. I have mentioned Kerry several times on the blog (she was my small group leader in high school turned one of my best friends). I was so happy she came! She and Sherry are twins (as if you couldn't tell, ha!)

Sisters

Me, Ami and Brittany

Kat and me

Anna and Tara

My dad with Seth and Paul

I didn't end up getting into bed until past 3am! Oh my, I am sleepy today, but it was so worth it. Thank you to everyone that came out to celebrate. I really cannot think of a better way to celebrate with all my friends. The countdown is already on to next year!

The Children's Museum

2010-07-30T19:50:00.006-04:00

The Monday after Sloane was born, mom and I took Breck to the Explorium (Children's Museum) downtown Lexington. It was Breck's first trip so it was really fun to watch him run from exhibit to exhibit. I think he had a great time, but it was almost a little too much for him to take in. He only had the attention span for about 5 seconds at each place, so needless to say, mom and I were exhausted by the end of our little trip!

One of the first exhibits that he ran to was the cave. You got to put on a hard hat and crawl through it. My mom is a trooper and got right in there with him.

They also had an entire exhibit about the Kentucky river. Breck loved playing in the river boat.

Riding the tractor at the farm exhibit.

I thought for sure that he would want to play in the water tubs for a long time, but I was wrong! He played for about 2 minutes and then was on to the next spot. He went through that museum like a whirling dervish!

Playing on the computer...for about 2 seconds.

This was probably the one spot that he actually stayed in for over 2 minutes! He loved the spaceship, mainly because it had about 3,000 buttons that he could push!

They have an entire room dedicated to bubbles! The bubble room was always my favorite as a child and I just knew Breck would love it. Well, he thought it was great, but only because he could put his entire arm into the bubble solution to "wash" his hands. Ha! Silly boy.

After the museum we took Breck to chickfila for lunch. I managed to snap this cute picture of "Go" and Breck.

We had a great trip to the museum, but I am betting that in a year or so, Breck would be able to appreciate it a lot more. I think he was so overstimulated that he didn't know where to go first. But it was a nice little outing and I am glad we took him!

I'll be back soon with some more pictures of sweet Sloane. She is absolutely perfect! Have a great weekend!

Testing 1,2,3

2010-07-24T23:47:00.001-04:00

This is my first blog post from my phone! I have been meaning to download an application that will let me do this and I finally got around to it tonight. Should be fun!
Things are good around here. I decided to go to NYC for my birthday weekend so I have been working non stop to save up some extra money. I do have lots of pictures to share from my camera but my battery charger is missing at the moment. I'm going to order another one and then I will get a few posts up.
For now I will leave you with 2 sweet pictures of miss Sloane taking a nap on me this week. If you follow me on Twitter you have probably already seen these but it's too sweet not to blog.
Be back soon with more pictures and details about the upcoming girls trip to NYC!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

More Sloane...

2010-07-11T21:09:00.004-04:00

Kristin took this picture today after her bath. Isn't she so sweet?

Tonight we took Breck out to dinner and then headed back to the hospital to visit with Sloane some more. This picture is from the first time Breck actually held his new sister. He did great with her! He even gave her a kiss without us prompting him :)

I didn't take a ton of pictures from tonight's visit, but I did get my camera out to take some video. I figured some of the out of town family would love to actually "see" her. The first part of the video is when Breck was holding her and the second part of the video is when Kristin unwrapped her from her swaddle for the first time. One thing is for sure, we are all smitten over this little girl.

*I still have not been able to figure out why my blog cuts off the right side of youtube videos (it does it no matter what size video I import), it obviously has something to do with the formatting of my blog, but I am not tech savvy enough to figure it out ;) So if you are having trouble seeing the whole thing, just click on it and watch directly on youtube*

We are taking Breck to the Lexington Children's Museum tomorrow, so I am sure I will have lots of cute pictures to share later this week.

Sloane Annabeall Tatem...

2010-07-11T16:14:00.005-04:00

is here!

And this Aunt J happens to think she is just perfect.

Kristin went in this morning at 6am to be induced. When she got to the hospital, she found out that she was already having contractions. We kept in touch with her all morning, and about 12, she gave us the heads up that Sloane should be making her debut sometime before 1:30. I drove on over to the hospital and spent some time with Kristin and Lee before all of the action started. The nurse actually came in right after I got there and said that Kristin was fully dilated and ready to push! I went on to the waiting room and 15 minutes later, Kristin and Lee welcomed Sloane into the world. Kristin only had to push two times and she was here! So thankful for an easy and short labor. Here are some pictures from the day.

Lee and me

Kristin before the action started. She had Sloane probably 20 minutes after this picture was taken. She was so calm!

She is a little peanut! 6lbs 4oz, and has a head full of dark hair!

Mommy and Sloane

This is probably the best face picture I have. I am going to go back to the hospital tonight and hope to get a better one of her after a bath.

Proud daddy and Sloane.

Breck did so great meeting her! He was very gentle and when she started to cry, he immediately searched the room to find her a paci. He is going to be such a great big brother!

A very proud Aunt J and Sloane. I am already so in love.

Kristin is officially a mommy of 2!

The new Tatem family!

I will be back later with more pictures! We are so blessed to have a healthy baby and mommy!

Guess What?????

2010-07-11T00:33:00.002-04:00

My sister is having a baby TODAY!

My sweet niece will born on July 11. 2010. Sounds like a great birthday to me! I have my camera charged up and will be sure to take plenty of pictures of her when she arrives. Stay tuned...

ps- isn't my sister the cutest pregnant person you have ever seen?

The Flag Cake Tutorial

2010-07-10T00:06:00.004-04:00

In the 4th of July post I showed a picture of a cake that I made for the holiday. I was really happy with the way it came out, so I thought I would share how I did it. I got the idea and instructions from this blog. This is the first time I had ever made this cake, and it was really a learning experience. I have made notes throughout the instructions about what did and didn't work for me. I think this is one of those cakes that I can really improve on over time. And just as a warning, it was really tough to type these out in a clear way. But there is a nifty diagram at the end that I think will help, so be sure to read all the way through it.

{photo courtesy of Mama Fink}

You will need:

-2 boxes of white cake mix (and whatever eggs, oil, water, etc... you need to bake them)

-Frosting of choice (I used white, but you could use whatever color you want really. I just liked the idea of using white because I knew I was going to cover the outside with fruit)

-Food coloring (red and blue)

-Blueberries and strawberries (this is completely optional. In fact, the blog I found the cake on did not have any decorations on the outside. I just thought the fruit was cute, but it's completely up to you as to how you decorate it)

Ok, here is the first thing that I messed up on a bit. The original instructions say to divide your prepared cake batter it into 5 equal bowls and I really wish I had done it the way they said to. In the end, you need to have enough red batter to bake 2 round cake pans, enough of the white batter to bake 2 round cake pans and enough of the blue batter to bake 1 round cake pan. I just divided into 3 bowls and tried to make sure the red and white batter bowls had more than the blue. Well, that was dumb, it's just hard to eye that accurately. Once I started filling my cake pans, I realized I had way to much blue and not nearly enough white. I ended up having to buy another box of cake mix to add to the white batter. So, moral of the story is to actually divide it into 5 equal bowls before you use the food coloring. That will ensure you have enough of each color :)

Oh, and just fyi- you can use as much food coloring as you want to get to your own desired color. I used the entire bottle of the red and about 1/2 of the blue bottle, but it's really dependent on what colors you want for your cake.

Once your red and white cakes come out of the oven and cool off, slice them in half. This will yield 4 layers of red and 4 layers of white.

This picture is one cake that has been divided into 2 layers.

You will actually only be using 2 full layers of each color for the cake. With the other layers, take a bowl that is smaller than the cake by about 2 inches and cut a red circle and a white circle.

Use the same bowl to cut a circle out of the blue layer. *Important: the blue layer stays a full layer, you do not cut it in half*

Now its time to layer your cake. This picture below is from the original recipe blog and they opted to start with a white layer at the bottom. I started with a red layer because that it what the flag really starts with, but it's up to you.

So, you have a red (1/2 cake) layer, white (1/2 cake) layer, red (1/2 cake) layer, white (1/2 cake) layer, then put the blue ring on and put your cut our red and white circles inside of it. I added icing between every layer. This is what it should look like, mine obviously ended with a white layer peeking out of the blue.

{photo source}

After I iced the outside I put my berries on in a star pattern. And when you cut it open...voila!

I didn't tell anyone what was inside the cake and just let it be a surprise. It was really fun cutting it open! White boxed cake mixes tend to be really fluffy and not dense which made it hard to make it a really clean looking cake. I think pound cake would work better with this recipe as it is dense and wont crumble when you cut it. Just something I was thinking about for next time.

Here is the nifty diagram I was talking about earlier. It is REALLY helpful in understanding the whole process. Like I said, the only difference was that I started on a red layer and ended on a white.

Good luck! Let me know if you try it.

{photo source}

One other note...you do end up with an extra 1/2 layer of red, 1/2 layer of white and some of the cutting from the blue layer. You can use those to make cake balls or just toss them. I ended up just tossing them, but they would really be perfect for cake balls.

Happy baking!

Happy 4th of July!

2010-07-04T23:59:00.008-04:00

Happy 4th of July! I hope you have had a fun and relaxing day.

First off, if you follow me on twitter or facebook, you know that I got stung by a wasp a few days ago when I was trying to hang 4th of July decorations. Ugh! Turns out, they like to make nests under the rail on our front porch and I made them really angry. They were flying at me before I even realized I had invaded their home. Anywho, I got a sting on my arm and pouted around about it for the rest of the afternoon. After buying some wasp spray, my dad eradicated the area of all stinging insects and I went back out to finish decorating the porch. I am so happy with the results so I thought I would share. I also wrapped white twinkle lights, but you obviously can't see those. It looks really pretty at night.

This morning we all got up and took a bike ride to Seaside for the annual 4th of July parade. I have been in Watercolor for the past few 4th's but have never made it to the parade, which is completely crazy. It was a great time. We got a spot right on the sidewalk and in the shade. I even ran into Seleta and her dog Pippi, which was an added bonus. You have got to check out her blog. It is full of great interior design goodies and absolutely hysterical insights into her world as a mommy of 4 children and a dog! I often find myself laughing out loud at her posts. Hop on over and check it out.

The men waiting for the parade to start. Mike, Seth and Dad.

The ladies waiting for the parade to start. Mom, yours truly, Brittany and Michelle.

Seriously, how cute is this post office?

I took over 20 pictures of parade floats. Ha! Looking back, I probably went a little overboard on float pictures :) Here are some of my favorites.

There was a fire truck...

There were boats...

There was dancing...

There were floats of all kinds! Including this next one, who easily won the competition in my book. This float had a group of ladies on it all wearing sequined patriotic dresses. There was also one man wearing a flag vest, very nice ;) They stopped the float right in front of the judges and performed a great dance routine to the song bugle boy. It was a hoot! The crowd was going wild. The ladies were dancing and the one man had a baton and was doing a routine of his own in front of them. I took some video and will try to edit it together and post it. They were great!

After the parade we walked over to the Great Southern Cafe and had breakfast.

Britt and me at breakfast.

After breakfast, we rode our bikes home and packed up for the beach! We spent the afternoon on the beach and in the ocean. Also, shout out to Brittany here... she has always been afraid of going out into the ocean, and today she went out with us and had a great time! I was so proud. Yay for overcoming fears!

Seth and Dad took the kayaks out for a little spin. They were so funny out there together. Today was a red flag day so the waves were pretty big at times. I think they only capsized one time each, ha!

After the beach we came home, cleaned up and got ready for dinner. Dad has really gotten good at using his smoker and he smoked us a pork butt for sandwiches. Oh my word, it was YUM! We had pulled pork sandwiches, corn on the cob, cole slaw, baked beans and potato salad. It was the perfect 4th of July meal.

After dinner, we went back up to Seaside for a concert and fireworks. Unfortunately, it started to rain and they had to cancel the concert. Bummer. We ended up going to Bud and Alleys which turned out to be perfect.

Me and Britt in Seaside

Britt and Seth.

Michelle and Mom. Aren't they cute in their matching shirts?! hehe, that was not actually planned, but it was funny ;-)

Mom and me.

This is quite the pair! Dad and Mike.

The family, minus Kristin, Lee and Breck.

Mike, Michelle and Brittany.

Bud and Alleys is a restaurant and bar that sits right on the ocean. It almost worked out better that the concert in Seaside got cancelled, because we ended up getting an amazing table at Bud and Alleys. They were literally firing off the firework show on the beach right in front of us. It was the perfect spot to see them!

Despite the rain, it turned out to be such a fun day!

I'll be back soon with a post on how I made this cake... Have a happy Monday!

Rags to Riches

2010-07-03T23:56:00.004-04:00

Today was our first real beach day! We got into Watercolor Wednesday night but the weather has been stinky and we have been busy running errands getting ready for the Finks to arrive. We were so excited to wake up to great weather this morning. It was beautiful and sunny so we drove the Jeep outonto Grayton to watch the Rags to Riches Regatta. Click on the link for more info. It was SO neat! Apparently they used to do it every year, but took a break up until last year when they brought it back. I am so glad they started doing it again because I think it will be a fun 4th of July week tradition.

We got out to the beach around 11, right as they were lining up the boats.

There were 18 boats in the race. (I don't know if that is the official number, but that is the number I heard, so I am going with that) :-)

Mom and me waiting for the race to start!

My dad kept saying he was going to learn how to captain one of these boats and race next year. ;) One thing is for sure, he couldn't pay me to get on one of those with him! Ha, I love my dad, but I don't know if I would trust him in a situation like that!

The boats took off and started the race. This picture was taken right as they had gotten off Grayton beach. The course was 3 loops in the ocean, marked by buoys. It took around 3 hours for them to complete! Some boats capsized and came back early, but the majority of them finished the entire race!

The whole time I was thinking about how Breck would really love this! He is at home, seeing as Kristin is due with Sloane any day now. I can't wait until next year when we can show him!

Darley Picnic

2010-06-28T23:00:00.007-04:00

One of my favorite events of the summer has got to be the Darley Farms picnic! Maria's mom works for Darley and every year they host a picnic for all of their employees. It is over the top! Full of food, drinks, a rock wall, inflatables, music, etc... So much fun!

This year Mark (Maria's husband) had to work so he couldn't make it and of course Emily is in Colorado growing a baby so she was also absent. I got to be Maria's date for the evening :)

These two lovely people are Maria's parents, Laurette and Doug. I adore them! I mentioned it a few weeks ago in another post, but Doug recently has a nasty battle with pneumonia and we are so thankful that he is feeling back to normal! He was even recently released to go back to work. Such an answered prayer! They are both so special to me and I am so blessed to have them in my life.

The ever lovely Maria and me enjoying dinner. I think this is probably the only picture that you can see the beautiful lake that the picnic is next to. It is on a beautiful horse farm in Versailles.

This was the view from our seats. We arrived a little late, so by the time we sat down to dinner (and I took this picture) the majority of the people were done eating and up doing all of the activities. That explains all of those vacant seats.

It is no secret that our friend Emily (the one growing a baby in Colorado) LOVES snow cones. I mean, the girl really really loves a grape snow cone. In fact, at the Darley picnic a few summers ago, I lost track of how many she ate. It was so funny. She even thought about having a snow cone machine at her wedding! So these next two pictures are in honor of Emily, who we both miss so stinking bad!

Maria getting the snow cone!

Doug enjoying his snow cone. He really got into it! ;)

The "family" all together.

This is a great time to also mention something else...Maria's brother, Daniel, is getting ready to go on a mission trip for 11 months all around the world. He leaves for his trip on Saturday. We are all going to miss him so much, but I know God is going to do incredible things through this year. I can't wait to hear the stories! If you would like to read more about his trip and get updates throughout the next year, be sure to check out his blog here.

*On a completely vain and random note: yes, I am wearing the same dress I had on at the fathers day dinner. Ha! I guess thats a bloggy faux pas. I just didn't even think about it. So pardon the repetition. You can now go back to your regularly scheduled blogging.

Fathers Day

2010-06-27T23:21:00.005-04:00

We had our fathers day celebration dinner on Monday night. It was a perfect night for swimming and just hanging out with one another. We had fried chicken, mac and cheese, baked beans, cole slaw, biscuits, and carrot cake! Yum!

Of course Breck was there and cute as ever! He went straight for the diving board and spent the majority of the night swimming. He is truly a water baby!

Kristin, Dut (my grandmother) and baby T

Mom and me

Sweet little Mary Keene (I think that hairbow is bigger than she is, I love it!)

Kristin and me

The cute little Hutchinson family. Bert, Markey and baby Wakefield.

"Mo-ise" (Louise) and Wakefield

Dad and Breck. They spent so much time swimming together. My dad has the best time swimming with him :)

Dad, Mary Keene and Mary Keene's hairbow

Bert, Mom and Kristin watching all the swimmers

Wakefield and his Aunt Missy

"Mo" (Morrie), Wakefield and Bert

It was a fun night celebrating all the fathers in our family!

The Diving Board

2010-06-21T22:47:00.003-04:00

Last Thursday afternoon the fam got together at the pool to swim with Breck for a while. He has really learned how to use his floaties lately and in turn has gotten pretty brave in the water! One of his new tricks this summer is going off the diving board!

Breck and Aunt J

He started off mastering the smaller diving board.

This particular afternoon Kristin asked if he wanted to go off the larger board and he said yes!

Going...

Gone!

My family gives me a hard time for always having my camera on and filming, but I am so glad that I had it with me this particular day. I got some really cute footage of him jumping off the board. I edited the two videos together, so be sure to watch the whole thing. The first part is him jumping off the small dive and the second part is him going off the larger dive for the first time. As you can see by the video, he was a tad reluctant when he got to the end of that big board. But after he jumped off the first words out of his mouth were "again, again". Haha, he loved it! Enjoy the video!

Also, happy first day of summer!!

Happy Fathers Day!

2010-06-20T15:58:00.004-04:00

Happy father's day Dad! I love you!

{photo credit}

I can't remember if I posted this video last year, but I am going to post it again just in case. I am a huge fan of Steven Curtis Chapman and his wife Mary Beth. I really started to follow their family's journey about 3 years ago after the unexpected passing of their daughter Maria. Ever since then I started reading their blogs and trying to keep up on things. Around May of last year they started asking for people to send in pictures of dad's with their children. All we knew was that they were going to put together some sort of video slideshow for father's day. I submitted my picture and really didn't expect for it even to be in the video, especially after they had to cut off submissions because they had gotten so many. Well, the video came out last year and sure enough, we made it! I was so excited. Here is the video. Pay attention to around the 1 minute mark.

side note here- I think it has to do with my blog formatting, but every time I post a youtube video on here, it cuts off the entire right side of the video. It even does it if I make the video smaller. So, if you have trouble, just double click on the video and you can view it on youtube.

Bryan, Erika and Brady Carter are a family in our church who also unexpectedly lost their daughter a few years ago. Bryan and Erika actually used to babysit me when I was little. The Carter family started the Natalie Wynn Carter Foundation in their daughter's memory after her death. They recently have partnered with Show Hope (the Chapman's foundation) to build a playground at Maria's Big House of Hope orphanage in China. You can read more about their efforts by clicking here.

Last Vacation Post!

2010-06-19T00:26:00.005-04:00

We spent one of the last days of vacation enjoying the Watercolor beach club together. Kristin bought Breck these floaties and he was really starting to get the hang of swimming with them on. He is such a water bug! In fact, my next blog post is all about him jumping off the high diving board at Greenbrier this week! I'll try to get that up tomorrow (and I have video).

Breck and me in the pool together. Yes, I am wearing a Paula Deen hat. This shouldn't come as a shock if you have followed my blog for any amount of time. :)

G daddy and Breck. I am cracking up at his face in this picture. Apparently he needed to have his sunglasses on.

After the beach club, we came back to rest up and then headed to dinner. Mom reads a lot online about the best restaurants/events going on down there and had heard about a new mexican restaurant to try out.

Lee and mom

Mom and dad

Me, Kristin and Baby T

We discovered on vacation that Breck really loves puzzles. They would keep him entertained for a long time, so needless to say, we always had a puzzle handy! G daddy was helping Breck work his puzzle after dinner. They love each other so much!

So, 2 weeks after I got home from vacation, I am finally finished blogging about it. Better late than never I suppose.

I'm trying out posting larger pictures on the blog, do you like the bigger pictures?

Also, I have really been wanting to hire someone to give my blog a makeover, but couldn't justify paying someone around $75 to do it. So, I bought one of the digital scrapbook kits today (on sale for $3!) and am attempting to learn enough about html codes to make it over myself. Stay tuned for that, should be interesting ;)

Have a great weekend!

Water Bug

2010-06-15T23:28:00.001-04:00

The Dinner Train

2010-06-14T00:29:00.004-04:00

I am still trying to get through all my vacation pictures. I only have a few more pictures, so I will probably end up doing at least one more vacation post.

My dad actually had to fly back to Lexington for a day to go to an important meeting. He left on Thursday and was back by Friday night. We had originally planned on all going to dinner together on Friday night after dad got back, but his flight got delayed so we ended up heading to Pier Park for the night without him. We were sad that dad wasn't with us, but had a great time!

We tried to go to Jimmy Buffets Margaritavil le for dinner, but it was packed. We decided to go next door to the Back Porch instead.

I really love this picture of Breck. I don't know why, but I think he looks so cute. But then again, I always think he looks cute! Ha, thats why I am his aunt. :)

Mom and me at dinner. We were actually on the rooftop deck and had a great view of the gulf.

The cute little Tatem family.

After dinner we took Breck on a train ride around Pier Park. He LOVED it! We told him during dinner that we would be going for a ride on the "choo-choo" and that is all he could think and talk about.

Boarding the train

Aunt J and "Go" on the train. Mom had always said that she wanted Breck to name her. Well, he apparently decided that "Go" would be a great choice and that is what he calls her. It's actually really funny to hear him say it. We have no idea where he got the name, but it seems to be sticking around.

Breck and Kristin

Doesn't Lee look thrilled? Ha! Lee decided not to ride the train, so he just sat off to the side and watched.

Breck was waving to people that we passed. So funny.

When we were waiting for our train ride we saw these huge trampolines. You put on a harness type thing and it would allow you to jump really high. We saw a little boy that looked to be about Breck's age get on it and love it, so we decided to see if Breck wanted to do it too. Sure enough, he shook his head yes and we decided to let him try it. I will be honest, I thought he would freak out, especially when they started to put the harness on him.

Getting ready to jump..

This next picture cracks me up! It pretty much sums up what he thought about it. Despite my worries, he did not freak out at all when they put the harness on! Kristin had told him what to expect and I think that helped. The whole time he just had this blank stare on his face, even when he started jumping. He did smile a few times, but for the most part, he just had a funny look. I don't think he loved it, but I also don't think that he hated it. I do have some video of it but the camera is moving up and down so much that it almost makes you sick to watch.

I think his favorite part was after they took off the harness. He immediately started jumping on the trampoline, and loved it!

We had a fun night and at this point I was just happy to be feeling better and finally spending time with my family!

Have a happy Monday.

Playgrounds and Fountains

2010-06-10T16:37:00.002-04:00

One night before dinner we decided to take Breck over to Camp Watercolor to play on the playground and in the fountains. Camp Watercolor is where all of the kids activities are done and is really cute. They have a great playground and some really fun fountains that kids can play in.

He immediately went for the ladder. He got some help from his G-daddy.

Going across the bridge.

Mom & Kristin

Kristin & me

This picture is a little blurry and completely off center, but I couldn't resist sharing it. This is at the end of the slide and my buddy has such a big smile on his face.

After the playground we took him over to the fountains. He had all of his clothes on, but we didn't care. He was happy as a clam running around. At one point he stopped, looked down at himself and said "I'm wet"...ha! Yes, he got a little wet :)

These fountains each shoot water out at different times. He would run to one fountain just as it was turning off, then to another. There were a few times he would be looking down into a fountain right as it shot water out. He thought it was great!

Dad & me

I took this picture as we were walking back to the car. Ha! He obviously couldn't get back in the car in soaking wet clothes, so why not just take them off! Ahhh, to be a toddler :)

I've got a couple more vacation post's coming! Stay tuned.

I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream!

2010-06-10T11:36:00.003-04:00

Fair warning: I got a little picture happy here and had a hard time narrowing them down. So I didn't.

One afternoon when we were out on the front porch the ice cream man drove by! Mom, Kristin and Lee took Breck down to the truck and let him pick out a little treat. He chose the Dora ice cream bar, which is not surprising considering he LOVES Dora!

When he first got back on the porch, Kristin took off his shirt so it wouldn't get too messy. He was so proud!

It didn't take long to realize he would probably get his pants messy too...so off they came!

Look at his belly. Hysterical. The boy has no shame.

This is my favorite picture. He is too cute. Also, take note of Kristin's cute baby belly in the background. I am so excited to meet my niece in a few short weeks!

He ate the entire thing! He was one happy boy!

The end.

Beach Days and Low Country Boil!

2010-06-04T23:54:00.007-04:00

Hello! I am going to try and start blogging some of my 300+ vacation photos, ha! Since I was so sick from Monday-Thursday, I don't have a ton of pictures from those days, but I did manage to get some good ones before I got sick, and even a few when I wasn't feeling so great.

Sunday was our first full day here and we spent the day at the beach! We have all been telling Breck about going to the beach for months, I am sure he was wondering when we were going to quit talking about it and actually take him!

Before we left the house, Breck was sitting in the front seat of the Jeep making sure things were working correctly ;) He looked so cute sitting up there!

Believe it or not, right when we pulled onto the beachit started to thunder. What a bummer. We can ride bikes to the beach in Watercolor, or drive our jeep onto Grayton beach. We usually end up on Grayton because we can drive all of our stuff right to a spot. We ended up driving back home and waiting out the storm. Thankfully it cleared up and we headed back out later in the afternoon.

Here is Breck when we got to the beach (the first time). He was sitting in the back of the Jeep while we decided if we should stay or go home. He was all suited up in his beach gear and looked too cute!

When we came back in the afternoon the sun was shining and this boy was ready to get in a boat! Last year mom and dad bought 2 kayaks to use in the lake or ocean. Breck is constantly talking about the "boats" so he was thrilled when they took it off the top of the Jeep and let him sit in it. I think he would have been content to sit in it all day! He looked so funny just sitting there.

After we got all of our gear unloaded and set up, Granddady decided to take Breck on a boat ride. The boy was in heaven! And Breck was having fun too ;) haha. Seriously though, my dad was loving it!

After the boat ride Breck played with some of his toys in the sand. This was the first day and he was still a little reluctant to get in the water and really play. Thankfully he got over that after a few days and now loves to play in the water!

Breck and his granddaddy playing in the sand

After the beach, Lee and Dad informed us that THEY wanted to be in charge of cooking dinner. Off to the grocery they went! They came back with a full bag of oysters, shrimp and live crawfish. Looks like we were in for a low country boil!

I love this next picture, it's makes me laugh every time. This is Lee watching a youtube video learning how to shuck an oyster. He watched the video and was able to successfully shuck all the oysters using a screwdriver.

The 2 chefs!

They were going to grill the oysters as part of the appetizer portion of our meal. Mom had bought Paula Deen's brothers cookbook while we were in Savannah and they used his recipie for chargrilled oysters.

Here is dad at the stove making the garlic butter sauce for the oysters.

On the grill...

Ta da! The final result. I was not brave enough to actually try them. I am not a seafood eater, but I think they were pleased with the way they turned out.

Next came the crawfish boil! They had crawfish, andouille sausage, shrimp, corn, potatoes and seasoning in the pot.

Once again, our 2 chefs

And there you have it! They even put it out on newspaper, just like in the movies :) ha! Once again, I was not brave enough to partake. And given how sick I was over the next few days, I am happy I did not decide to try it!

Here are 2 videos I posted on facebook that have me laughing out loud. The first is a video of my dad trying to hold one of the live crawfish. He was going to take it inside and scare mom with it. You can see for yourself what happens when he picks it up...

The second video is when Dad and Lee put the shrimp and crawfish down into the pot.

It was such a fun day! Little did I know that it would be one of my only full days of vacation before the great stomach flu hit :) I'll be back soon with more pictures. Including Breck's first visit to the ice cream truck!

The Past Few Days...

2010-06-04T00:53:00.002-04:00

I hate that I have not been able to update the blog with any vacation photos, but I do have a good excuse. Monday afternoon my stomach started to really bother me. I actually ended up coming in from the beach early that day because I just didn't feel quite right. Turns out, I made the right decision to come in because the minute I got to the house I got very sick. I couldn't keep down any food all day Tuesday or Wednesday. Wednesday we decided to go to a doctor to see if he could at least give me something to help the nausea. At this point I was not keeping down anything and was becoming very dehydrated. The doctor thought it could be my appendix but gave me 2 antibiotics that he hoped would stop the infection before it got bad enough for surgery. He also gave me a shot of phenegren to help the nausea. After the doctors appointment I came back to the house and slept so hard (thanks to the phenegren) but got sick again right when I woke up. I was so bummed! This morning I woke up and we decided that if I got sick one more time, then we would head to the ER. At this point I was showing every sign of appendicitis and we were worried about a possible rupture. Well, sure enough I got sick tonight around 8 and we decided to go on in to the hospital. They gave me morphine for the pain and some zofran for the nausea. I was feeling good! Ha! The doctor also suspected appendicitis but ordered a cat scan to confirm. Well, we got the results about 30 minutes later and it was NOT my appendix! We are so happy! He thinks I just have a very bad viral stomach flu. Also, the antibiotics that the doctor gave me yesterday are known to make people nauseated. Not a good combination!

I am back at the house and in bed now and hopefully rounding the corner on this whole thing. I remember telling my mom on Tuesday morning that I had never been so sick! I am praying that not taking the antibiotics, in addition to a bland diet will get me back on track. It has been a real bummer being so sick on vacation. I have missed out on so much, so I am hoping I will wake up in the morning and feel good as new!

So, that explains the lack of blogging. I have taken lots of pictures though, and will have a post up soon. For now, I am just going to focus on eating crackers and drinking clear liquids ;)

We have arrived!

2010-05-29T23:01:00.004-04:00

As of tonight, the whole family is in Watercolor! We are so happy to be here together celebrating mom and dad's 30th wedding anniversary and enjoying a vacation before the new baby comes.

I left Lexington on Friday afternoon and drove to Owensboro to visit my college roomate, Lynsie, and her family. I adore the Wilson/Williams family and it was so fun to visit with them. Robert and Lynsie have a 14 month old little girl named Emmie Kate and she is absolutely precious! Talk about personality! She was so sweet and fun.

Emmie Kate playing in her tunnel.

Look at those cheeks! She has the sweetest little smile.

I am so excited because they are actually headed to the panhandle on vacation next Saturday, so I will get to see them again sometime next weekend. I don't get to see them nearly enough, so twice in a week is a real treat!

I was in Owensboro overnight and got on the road to Watercolor this morning. When I got here I immediately jumped in the shower and headed to Seaside for a concert. One of my favorite artists, Dave Barnes, just happened to be playing a concert in Seaside tonight. I have really been looking forward it it. I look SO tired in these pictures, I think driving a 10 hour trip alone made me delirious by the time I arrived :) But walking in the door and seeing my little buddy made me so happy. He was excited to see me too!

Breck and Aunt J

I have posted about this before, but Breck really LOVES to dance! Mom and dad bought him a glow stick and he was even using it as a drum stick. So stinking cute!

I managed to get some good video of the little dancer. He was loving it!

Kristin, Lee and Breck

Dad and Breck (he is holding the glow stick I was just talking about)

My cute little momma and me.

I LOVE this next picture. I just think it is really sweet. Apparently Breck has really started to love doing puzzles. Kristin bought him a new one tonight in Seaside and he took it over to dad to work with him. Breck sure does love his Grandaddy!

Here is the view of the stage from our seats. He played for about an hour and a half to a filled up amphitheater. We were so thankful that the rain held off. It was such a perfect night!

Ok, I am off to bed. I can barely keep my eyes open! I probably will not post every day like I did on the Savannah trip. But I will try and check in every couple of days. Have a great Memorial day!

It's Ladies Night!

2010-05-28T02:46:00.003-04:00

I have had such a fun 2 days! Last night I went with Kerry to see the midnight showing of Sex and the City 2. I got hooked on the tv series a few years ago and now love the movies! I thought the 2nd one was good, but I didn't like it quite as much as the first one. Either way, I laughed a lot and am glad I went!

Tonight I met up with the girls at Thursday Night Live. Emily is home for the week and I LOVED seeing her! I miss her so much, and it was an added bonus to see her cute little belly! She is pregnant with a baby girl (Amelia) and this is likely the last time I will see her sweet belly before Amelia arrives in September. So needless to say, I did a lot of belly rubbing tonight :) It is so fun that my friends are starting to have babies! I love it!

Me and Emily

Maria, Emily and baby Amelia (look at that bump!)

We left Thursday Night Live a little early tonight because it looked like a storm was rolling in. We decided to go to Joe Bolognas for dinner. Yum! It is some of the best pizza in Lexington. In addition to their pizza, they have these huge and delicious breadsticks with garlic butter. They only cost $1.97 and they are ridiculously tasty. Maria had not eaten anything since 10:45 that morning, so she immediately ordered a monster breadstick. Of course it would be rude for her to eat alone, so we all ordered one too. They did not disappoint!

Maria and her ~~loaf of bread~~ breadstick.

Ami also joined us for Thursday Night Live and dinner! It was a mini BLC reunion (we missed you Mary and Jineanne!)

Ami and Maria

Me and Emily at Joe B's

After dinner we met up with some of my Williams Sonoma coworkers and saw Sex and the City 2. Yes, I saw it two nights in a row! Ha!

It was such a great girls night out!

Oh, and one more thing...This is a PSA brought to you by Jen:

The garment bag is officially the easiest and fastest way to pack for a vacation. I bought a cute one at the Pomegranate sale a few weeks back (and naturally had a huge hot pink monogram put on it). So tonight when I came home to pack for Watercolor, I literally just went through my closet and grabbed 9 dresses (for 9 days of vacation) and I was pretty much packed! I threw one pair of shorts, a tshirt, bathing suit and pj's into a duffel and I am good to go. I think it took me all of 10 minutes to pack because I didn't have to get everything off the hangers and fold them. Not to mention trying to fit everything into my bags. Ha, just thought I would share. :)

Have a great long weekend! I will try to post Saturday night after I get into Watercolor!

Wonderbar Update #2

2010-05-25T23:56:00.004-04:00

I added a thing to my blog that you can see what town people are in when they click on your blog. It also tells me if they used google to reach the blog and what they typed in to get to me! I just added it a few weeks ago but it has been really interesting to see where my readers are from and what they searching for. So, over the past 2 weeks the majority of the people have gotten to the blog by searching for the Paula Deen event OR searching for something related to the wonderbar. Some people have just typed in "wonderbar" but other people have typed in "wonderbar healing crisis". Either way, I have gotten a lot of hits related to the wonderbar, so I thought I would give a short little update! I am on week 4 on using it. I have used it every day without fail, and am really LOVING it! They say you cannot fully see the results of the bar until you have used it for at least 6 weeks so I am not going to post any pictures yet. I want to be sure my skin is completely through the healing crisis before I post them. I am so happy with the way things are looking so far. My pores are smaller, the redness is fading and my skin gets smoother and softer every day. I am still having some little breakouts on my chin, and I am sure some of that is hormonal, but I really feel like I am almost completely through the healing crisis! Yay! I went into using the bar a little skepitcal, but I figured I didn't have anything to lose. I don't ever remember my skin looking the way it does now, I am so thrilled! I may or may not post the before and after pictures on the blog. The before picture is without makeup and in natural light and I just dont know that I want it floating around the internet. To be honest, I was nearly in tears the day we took it. My skin looked horrible! If you would like to see the before and after pictures email me and I will send them out when I get through the 6 weeks.

My mom is also still using the bar and is a believer as well! She actually ordered us both the larger sized bar last week.

One other thing I want to mention...in the literature you recieve with the wonderbar it indicated that it can also be used to treat other skin conditions. A few weeks ago I developed a type of eczema on my finger. I researched and found that this particular type of eczema is brought on by stress, go figure! I started putting wonderbar on it at night and within a week it was gone! I wish I had taken before and after pictures of it but I really didn't even think about it. Moral of the story, there are a lot of healing things in that tiny bar!

So there you have it! So far so good! I have a sneaking suspicion that I will be a wonderbar user for life.

Feel free to send me an email or comment if you have any questions. And if you are just getting started, don't get discouraged! Consistency is the key. I am so glad I stuck with it through the healing crisis. You will be so happy if you keep using it!

Another Paula Deen Post...

2010-05-25T12:47:00.002-04:00

I promise I will eventually quit posting things about the Paula dinner, but she posted this video on facebook today and I just had to share. Here is a little glimpse into our night...

Paula Deen Bethesda Event from Paula Deen on Vimeo.

Monday, Monday

2010-05-24T23:51:00.007-04:00

Today has been a good Monday! I spent the day at home and worked on laundry and trying to think about packing for the Florida trip next week.

I don't know if I have ever mentioned it on the blog, but I love church softball! Crossroads men's softball team plays on Monday nights during the summer against other local churches and I love going out to watch. I have several friends that play on the team and there is usually a good sized crowd that comes out to watch. And on top of that, the team is really good!

Me and Maria

Darlene and Laurette (Maria's mom)

Constance and Tara

Maria's husband Mark is our pitcher. Here he is up to bat! He hit an in the park home run on this one :)

The man, they myth, the legend...Doug Durick. Doug is Maria's dad and holds a very special place in my heart. He is probably one of the kindest and Godly men you will ever meet. Doug is the coach of the team and had a rocky start to the season when he came down with a nasty case of pneumonia that landed him in the hospital. It was very scary for all of us to see him so sick. Needless to say, he missed the first few games. I am happy to report that Doug is on the mend and has been able to come to the games lately! Tonight he was even doing a little 3rd base coaching. We are all so thankful he is getting back to his normal, hysterical, loving, caring and wonderful self!

After the game I sent Kristin a text message and asked if I could stop by and see Breck. I went over there to spend some time with my buddy. He is so funny! I got out my camera and quickly discovered that he was open to some picture taking if you showed him the picture on the camera screen after you took it. I kept putting the camera away and he would get it out of my bag, hand it to me and say "cheese".

We are all going to the beach next week to celebrate Mom and Dads wedding anniversary. Kristin went to Target today and bought Breck a new hat and sunglasses for the beach. I asked him to go find his new hat and he went right into the kitchen to put it on. So stinking cute!

After Kristin's I stopped by to see Kerry. When I pulled up I found her outside with a bag of mulch working on her garden. I was pretty impressed with her flowers! I took this picture as sort of a before photo. Bets are on as to how long she can keep all the flowers alive. I will take the after photo at the end of the summer. Should be interesting!

Here she is working the leopard print and watering the flowers with trusty miracle grow.

Earlier tonight I sent Kerry a text that said "are you going to watch the bachelorette?" she promptly responded with "NO. you don't reward the quitter, abc." She sounded serious! I immediately called her and said that I was wanting to come over and watch the show with her. She went on to explain that she was NOT going to watch this season, blah, blah, blah. I knew that if I went over there she would be sucked right in. Turns out, I was right! We watched the 2 hour premier together and I think it's safe to say that she will be watching the whole season. You just can't pass up good trashy tv! We laughed until we cried at times and both agreed that so far none of the men are impressive. Do you have a favorite?

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I am looking forward to the rest of the week...going to see Sex & the City 2, EMILY COMES HOME, blc trip to Thursday Night Live, going to Owensboro to see Lynsie and then heading to the beach!

Show Us Your Life- Hometown

2010-05-21T01:09:00.008-04:00

Today over at Kelly's Korner show us your life Friday, everyone is blogging about their hometown and what makes it so special!

I live in Lexington, KY the horse capital of the world! It is a beautiful city and I really do love living here. As much as I love the beach, I would never want to live there because I would miss having all 4 seasons. Living in Lexington we get a true spring, summer, fall and winter. Fall is my favorite season in Kentucky, you just can't beat it. The crisp temps, the beautiful trees and UK football! It's the best!

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This is a picture of our downtown. The downtown Lexington corporation is in the process of really sprucing up the downtown in preparation for the World Equestrian Games that are coming later this year. I am loving all the improvements! They are repaving roads, adding some really neat outdoor spaces and just doing some much needed maintenance.

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I also love that Lexington has Keeneland! It is so much fun to get dressed up and go to the races for the spring and fall meets. Keeneland is absolutely beautiful. They actually filmed the movie Seabiscuit there.

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Lexington's downtown is a great spot to get out and walk around too. We have lots of cute restaurants to eat at and some funky little shops. If you dont want to walk you can swing by and pick up a yellow bike. The yellow bike program was started in 2007 and is the coolest idea! You pay a $10 one time fee and get access to the yellow bikes that are located in various spots downtown. You unlock the bike, take it for a spin (up to 3 hours) and just return it to the location you picked it up at. How cool is that?!

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Ahhh, triangle park sits right in the heart of downtown and is a great spot to sit and people watch on a summer night. And although I'm pretty sure you arent supposed to play in the fountains, it's almost like a Lexington rite of passage. If you grew up in Lexington, odds are you played in the fountains at some point.

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Lexington is also the location of the Henry Clay Estate. I wont sit here and pretend I am a huge history buff, but I did want to add this because I think its pretty neat. The estate also sits in the middle of a really neat part of town called Chevy Chase. The neighborhood boasts beautiful historic homes on tree lined streets that are within walking distance to a grocery, ice cream shop and restaurants. Chevy Chase is also home to Christ the King church that holds one of my favorite fall events, Oktoberfest!

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Oh yes, and did I mention we have a castle? The story goes that the castle was built about 25 years ago by a man named Rex Martin. Apparently Rex was building the castle for his wife but they divorced before it was completed. The castle actually caught on fire several years ago but was purchased and restored recently. It can now be rented out for wedding receptions. Talk about a fairy tail wedding!

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There is no way I could do a post on Lexington without talking about the University of Kentucky and more specifically, UK sports! If you grew up in Lexington the blue is in your blood! My family always had tickets to basketball and football games so they started me young! I look forward to the first football game of the season every year. The SEC take their sports VERY seriously. There is not much better on a sunny October day then heading down to Commonwealth stadium to tailgate and watch those Cats! Ok, I need to quit talking about this, I don't want to wish my summer away.

It is also fun that UK is here because it makes Lexington a college town. There are a lot of fun bars to go to downtown and they are always filled with students. I rarely go out anymore, but when I do, you can bet that I will run into people I know. That's what makes it fun!

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I saved the best reason for last! I love Lexington because all these people also live here. I don't ever see myself leaving because I would have such a hard time being away from my family. I want to watch Breck grow up and can't imagine only seeing him a few times a year. And on top of that, I have such an amazing circle of friendships here. I love that the majority of the people I love live in this city. I am proud to call it home.

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Thursday Night Live & Happy Anniversary

2010-05-20T22:06:00.004-04:00

One of my favorite things about summer in Lexington is Thursday Night Live. I found out about it last year and love it! It is a free concert in Cheapside Park every Thursday night from May-October. There are great bands, a ton of food vendors and even a little tent selling wine. What more could you ask for? :) Kristin, Lee and Breck met us down there and we had a great time!

I brought Tallulah with me! She was so funny. I think at first she was scared to death, but by the end of the night I think she had warmed up to the idea of being there.

Me and my sweet Breck. Oh how I love that boy! I cannot wait to spend an entire week with him in Florida. He started saying my name within the past few months. I knew I wanted to be called Aunt J and Breck has mastered the J part of my name. Although I am pretty sure I heard him add the word Aunt in front of the J the other night. I am going to try to get it on video soon.

Breck, Mom, Kristin and baby girl Tatem in her belly :)

Kristin and Lee. Today is there 4 year anniversary! 4 years ago tonight we were all dancing up a storm on the dance floor in Watercolor!

Mom, Kristin and Lee

I took some video of Breck tonight and thought I would share. He is quite the little dancer and his grandaddy is showing him how to keep a beat in the second video. Enjoy!

On another note, I just had to share this. Do you remember in this post about the Savannah trip when I mentioned that a couple got engaged at the dinner? Well, the girl that got engaged came across my blog this week! I love how blogging seems to make the world a little bit smaller :) Anywho, she commented on my last post and we both have a mutual ~~obsession~~ love for Paula Deen. So fun! Check out her blog, it's super cute!

Bethesda Event News Report

2010-05-19T14:04:00.004-04:00

Paula posted this link on facebook to a news report about the benefit dinner. There is also some video footage of the evening so I thought I would share!

{Click Here}

Things are good around here. I am headed to Watercolor next Friday with the fam! We are all going to celebrate mom and dads anniversary. I will try to blog a lot on the trip :)

Have a great week!

The Best Day

2010-05-18T01:10:00.006-04:00

I have always loved this song by Taylor Swift and thought it would be perfect to use for a slideshow of our mother daughter trip. I wanted to have all the pictures in one place. Enjoy!

The Best Day from Jennifer Cochran on Vimeo.

A Southern Spring Evening With Paula Deen & Savannah Day #4

2010-05-16T21:49:00.012-04:00

Sorry this post is up a day late. We got back from the party late last night and I was so tired. Warning in advance, this is a long post!

Saturday was by far my favorite day of the entire trip. Of course I was excited about the dinner at Paula's, but we also did a lot of other fun things!

We started off the day by renting one of the babies!

We had a blast! It was so much easier to see downtown on this, rather than try to drive or walk in 80 degree temps plus humidity. They were brave enough to let me drive, and I am proud to say we all returned in one piece! Our first stop was a pub for lunch. The food was great and you couldn't beat the location. We were on a quaint little tree lined street and it was just perfect!

I loved this phone booth outside the pub :-)

After lunch we rode our little car over to Forsyth Park to look around. Forsyth is probably one of the most popular spots in the historic district, and for good reason. It is so beautiful! If you look close in this first picture, you can see white chairs that were set up for a wedding. Talk about a dream wedding! Not to mention the perfect weather.

Brittany has been my best friend since the 6th grade and I really do consider myself an honorary member of the Fink family. I love Michelle and call her my "mama Fink" so we thought it would be cute to take a picture of the 3 of us together. It's Michelle with her 2nd and 5th daughter :) The joke is that when I get into a serious relationship, my boyfriend will have to not only ask my dad for my hand in marriage, but he will also have to ask Mike Fink. I am blessed by their friendship!

After Forsyth we headed over to Polk's produce market. I first learned about Polk's when I was in Savannah 2 summers ago and took the Paula Deen tour. When Paula was first starting her business and didn't have very much money at all, she would go to Polk's in the morning to pick up her fresh produce and then would pay them at the end of the day.

Britt, mom and me outside of Polk's.

After Polk's we stopped into the Cupcake Emporium for a cupcake! We initially thought that we would go in and get one cupcake to split 4 ways. Ha! That is laughable. We walked in and saw all those yummy cupcakes lined up in the case and each decided that we didn't want to share.

Britt with her chocolate cupcake with chocolate frosting.

I got a chocolate cupcake with a raspberry creme frosting.

After we had our cupcakes we returned our little scooter/car and drove out to Bonaventure Cemetery. We had heard several people throughout the weekend talk about how beautiful it is, so we thought we should drive out and see it. This is also where they filmed the movie Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. What made the cemetery pretty were those big live oaks with the spanish moss. It really was neat to see!

After the cemetery we drove out to the Bethesda Home for the Boys. Bethesda is Paula's favorite charity and all the proceeds from the dinner were going to Bethesda.

This is the entrance to Bethesda. It is gorgeous!

Bethesda is also where Paula and Michael got married.

We were lucky that the door to the Whitefield Chapel was open and we were able to go inside. It is really the perfect wedding chapel, and it's easy to see why Paula chose it. It is simplistic and quaint.

Britt and me up in the balcony

After Bethesda it was time to go back to the hotel and get ready for the BIG night! Obviously they didnt want (or have the room for) 200+ cars to park at Paula's home, so they had 2 pickup locations and shuttled people via trolleys out to the island.

Michelle and mom on the trolley.

Britt and me on the trolley. I was just trying not to hyperventilate at this point! I was beyond excited!

Paula and Michael recently moved into a new home, but this is the home that she still does all her filming in and is the one that is on tv. I was excited that the dinner was at the house because it is the one that I see on her cooking shows.

This is the front of the house.

Fun fact, the couple that is walking in front of us got engaged at the party. Paula called them up on the porch in front of everyone and he proposed to her. It was so wonderfully romantic!

This was the point that I really started to feel like I was in a dream. The party was out back, but we got to walk through the house and see the kitchen! I was shaking with excitement. It really did feel surreal to be standing behind that stove. And to be honest, I still don't know that it has set in that it really DID happen.

I look like a deer in headlights in this picture. I think my body was in shock.

My mom was having "house envy" and saying it was the most beautiful home she has ever seen. I would have to agree with her! This is a picture of the back.

Britt and me enjoying our mimosas complete with a strawberry garnish.

I was so excited to meet Brandon Branch! Brandon is Paula's assistant amongst other things. He is also decorator and party planner extraordinaire! I follow him on twitter and he was tweeting all week about setting up and decorating for the party. He really did an amazing job. The centerpieces were made out of cauliflower and asparagus! So neat!

This picture was taken when Paula first made her entrance. She came out onto the back porch to greet everyone and present Bethesda with a check for $100,000. Wow! I kept telling my mom that the dinner was really a win win situation for everyone. We got to have an amazing night, I got to meet someone I admire so immensely and a great charity got a huge check!

This is Uncle Bubba, Paula's brother! He was so nice and personable. He owns Uncle Bubba's Oyster House, who catered the event. The food was great!

This is a picture from Paula's dock, looking back at the house. This picture doesn't even begin to capture the atmosphere. There was a band playing great music, perfect weather, perfect lighting and perfect company. I was in heaven! I know I keep saying this, but it really didn't even feel real.

The 4 of us sitting by the water. Look at that view!

Meet Michael Groover! Michael is Paula's husband and is an absolute riot! He is so funny. I read his book a few months ago when Maria gave it to me for Christmas. It was wonderful and his sense of humor is all throughout the book.

I don't know why, but I think this picture of Michael and Michelle is so funny. They look like best buddies!

We found an open table on the back porch, this was another one of those "is this really happening??" moments.

When we first arrived to the house, they gave us a ticket with a group letter on it. Paula was inside and when they called your group letter, you could go in and get your picture taken with her in the kitchen. They had a professional photographer there taking all the pictures and will mail us our pictures in the next few weeks. I will be sure to post it when it arrives. I just hope it's a good one, because when I first walked up there I did get a little teary. I got to hug her and was overwhelmed. If you have ever read her story then you would probably agree that Paula is one of the most inspirational people you will ever hear about. Her story of overcoming tragedy and taking control of her own life is incredible. She is such a role model for me! I kept saying that I would move to Savannah in a heartbeat if I could just work for her ;-) And on top of her persevering spirit that got her to where she is today, I love that she hasn't forgotten her roots. She is so kind and loving. A lot of people in her situation could let the success go to their heads. So the fact that she has remained grounded makes her that much more inspirational. I strongly recommend reading her memoir, I promise you will not be disappointed!

I took this picture of Jamie and Bobby while I was in line waiting to get my picture with Paula. I did get a picture with them, but it is on Britt's camera because mine died right after I took this picture. I will upload it and the picture with Paula when I get ahold of them.

Words cannot begin to sum up what an amazing time I had. I am BEYOND blessed to have had the opportunity to attend an event like this. It was absolutely a dream come true.

And not only the Paula Deen event, but just spending the weekend in Savannah with 3 of the most important people in my life. I am so blessed to have a mom who loves me like she does, a best friend that I could call day or night and a Mama Fink that considers me a daughter.

Goodnight from Lexington

"I've got some advil back in the hearse"...Savannah Day 3

2010-05-14T22:37:00.006-04:00

We had a great relaxing day here today! Today was our beach day and we spent all afternoon on Tybee Island. We ate lunch on the island at a place called Spanky's. The food was great and this is a picture of the view from our table. You can't beat that!

This was our view all afternoon. It was an absolutely perfect day for the beach, 80 and sunny!

After the beach we headed back to the hotel and got ready for dinner. I read on several websites about how great the Old Pink House restaurant is, so I called last week and was able to get a 7:30 reservation for dinner. We took these next 2 pictures while we were waiting for our table to be ready.

We all decided to get a fun drink with dinner. Mom got a cosmopolitan, Britt got a peach martini, Michelle got an espresso martini and I got a chocolate martini. Yum! We all really enjoyed them.

After dinner we got in an old hearse and took a ghost tour around the historic district. While I didn't really find it particularly spooky, we still had a great time! At one point we were inside the Pirate House learning about all the haunted history and Britt leaned over and asked if any of us had a Tylenol. None of us had one but our tour driver overheard the conversation and promptly said "I've got some advil back in the hearse." Oh my word, we all laughed so hard. It's just one of those phrases you just don't hear everyday!

Britt, Mom and Michelle waiting for the tour to start.

Britt and me on the tour.

This next picture is by far my favorite picture so far from this trip. The way the hearse was setup was a little strange. Michelle, Mom and Britt's seats all faced the front and my seat faced the side. As you can see, my legs were in full view through that window! I didn't even think about at first but I was getting some interesting gestures from guys that would walk past our hearse on the street. Thankfully I always cross my legs :) The funny part was when the driver took this picture and I wasn't really thinking about how my legs would look. We all got the biggest kick (pun intended) out of how they are in full view in the picture.

So that was our day! This post is much shorter than yesterday because we spend most all day sitting on the beach :) Tomorrow is the BIG day and I can hardly wait! I will have a full update up tomorrow night.

Goodnight from Savannah

Savannah Day 2

2010-05-13T22:16:00.020-04:00

We had another great day in Savannah! We started off the morning late as we all really wanted to sleep in. We had a reservation at the Lady & Sons today at 12:30 so we decided to walk around downtown before we had lunch. I took this picture from the front door of our hotel. The building on the opposite corner with the red and white stripped awning is the Lady & Sons! I think I mentioned yesterday how close we are to it, but I wanted to take a picture to prove it. :)

We roamed around the Paula Deen store for a bit. They had a huge table full of all her cookbooks and she had signed every one of them.

After we moseyed around the store we still had some time before our reservation, so we walked over to City Market. It is a really neat open air market with lots of restaurants and little shops.

We also walked by the original Lady & Sons, located just down the street from where the restaurant sits now. I posted a short video below that shows a condensed version of Paula Deen's story. It is a great video and also shows video footage of what this building looked like when the Lady & Sons was there. I strongly recommend watching the video if you don't know much about Paula Deen's story. It is a great way to learn about her beginnings.

The Bag Lady's Story from Paula Deen on Vimeo.

We went back to the restaurant a little early and to our pleasant surprise, they were able to seat us early. We were seated on the 3rd floor. Here we are with our cheddar garlic biscuits and hoecakes (pan fried cornbread). Yum!

All 4 of us got the southern buffet, which is what the restaurant is known for. It was great!

They all joked that I was the host of the trip because I had researched a ton before we came down. I always like to research the best restaurants and places to see when I go to a new place, so it seemed fitting to take a picture in front of the host sign.

After lunch we went on a mission to find an electric car or scooter to ride around the historic district on. I had read that it was the best way to see downtown, as driving your car can get tricky with parking and such. Sadly, when we pulled up to the scooter rental company, we learned that they were no longer in business. This picture was taken just outside the rental place on Bay street. So pretty!

Britt and me on Bay street.

After we realized that the scooter was going to be a no go, we headed back to City Market and decided to do a guided carriage ride tour. We had about a 30 minute wait before the tour began, so we found a candy store and enjoyed a coke.

Michelle, Britt and Mom waiting for the carriage.

My cute little momma.

And here they are! Their names are Murphy and Shay.

The 4 of us on the carriage ride

Savannah has got to be one of the pretties cities in the county. I took a ton of pictures of the city, but here are 2 of my favorites.

After our carriage ride we headed back to the hotel for a while to play games and enjoy a glass of wine. We played one of my favorite games that Kerry had introduced to me in Florida a few months ago. It is called Pit and involved trading cards with your opponents and ultimately trying to secure 9 of the same card. The result is lots of yelling and laughing. I turned on my camera and filmed a round. So funny.

We also played 3 intense games of SkipBo. I won't tell you who won all 3 games (*cough**cough**me). We walked over to City Market and had dinner at Belfords. We thought the food was good, but were less than enthused about the service. We probably wouldn't go back.

Michelle and Britt waiting to eat outside Belfords.

We had a great day! Tomorrow is our beach day on Tybee Island!

Goodnight from Savannah

Savannah Day 1

2010-05-12T22:24:00.012-04:00

We made it to Savannah about 7:00 tonight. It took us right around 8 hours to make the trip. I was thrilled when we pulled up to our hotel. It is located in a beautiful part of the historic district and you can see Paula Deen's restaurant from the front of the hotel. So perfect! It is also about a 2 minute walk to river street and a 1 minute walk to the City Market. I am so happy! We reserved it on hotwire and really hit the jackpot. Not only is the location great, but the hotel itself is amazing. It is very modern, but I really like the feel of it. If you are planning a visit to Savannah I would strongly recommend checking out Avia. We are very happy so far!

After we got into our rooms and freshened up, we decided to walk down to river street and grab some dinner.

We ended up at a place called Tubby's Tank House. We were able to sit outside and enjoy a great view of the river and some live music. The food was great and the company wasn't so bad either ;)

Britt, Michelle and Mom waiting outside Tubbys

We took this picture of our toes for Mike (Britt's dad) because he was making fun of us all going to get pedicures before the trip. He was confused because he was certain that Paula Deen wouldn't care what our toes look like, hehe.

After dinner we came back to our hotel and decided to check out the terrace. It has a great firepit and pool. It was so nice! I have a feeling we will find ourselves up there a lot at night.

Mom and me by the firepit.

Goodnight from Savannah.

A little of this, a little of that

2010-05-11T23:38:00.004-04:00

Next time I need to buy something special for Maria, this is what I will give her :) If you know her well, you will appreciate this!

I'm leaving for Savannah in the morning for the dinner at Paula Deen's house. I am so excited I don't know if I will be able to sleep! I am going to try and take lots of pictures to blog.

Also, I'm LOVING the wonderbar. I am at the end of the healing crisis and my skin looks better and better each day.

Ok, off to finish packing. Have a good rest of the week!

Arm Dancer

2010-05-05T12:23:00.001-04:00

Pony Tail Holder Snatcher

2010-05-05T12:22:00.002-04:00

Wonderbar Update

2010-05-05T11:24:00.001-04:00

I am not going to post an update everyday, but I did feel like giving a small update today. I am officially on day 10 and feel like I am really on the down side of the healing crisis. My skin is starting to look better. It's by no means perfect, but today is the first day I have looked in the mirror and thought it looked a tad better. Still a ways to go, but I am seeing improvement. I am so excited!

The Wonderbar

2010-05-05T00:23:00.005-04:00

Have you heard of this? I first heard of the wonderbar on Erika Powell of Urban Grace Interiors Blog, and was instantly intrigued. It is supposed to be a cure all for any skin issues you may have. Here is an excerpt from their website...

"The WONDERBAR is an all-in-one skin care product (toner, cleanser, exfoliate) that is affordable and simple to use.

It is a total detox for the skin and addresses issues such as wrinkles, brown spots, large pores, acne, eczema, psoriasis, dryness, and oiliness. Men can even use it for razor burn and ingrown hairs."

It is made of type of clay that works to balance the Ph in your skin and promises clear and radiant skin. Sounds way to good to be true! But leave it up to my mom to also see Erika's blog and decide that we should try it. I had also been thinking about ordering a bar, but I don't know that I would have ever actually gotten around to doing it on my own.

Our bars arrived last week and I was cracking up at the size of them. It was literally no bigger than a hotel soap! It comes with a detailed letter explaining how to properly use the bar, which is to lather it in your hands, apply to your face, let sit for 3-5 minutes and then rinse off. This process is to be done twice a day. If done properly, our hotel size bar should last around 3 months. There is only one catch to the whole thing, and it is called the healing crisis. Sounds pretty dramatic, using the word crisis and all. The letter that came with the bar, as well as the website, both explain that the bar draws out all the toxins from in your skin, and in the process causes you to break out, dry up, etc... So you can pretty much expect to get worse before you get better. If you know me well, you know I have always had problem skin. It has been a real issue for me for as long as I can remember! So I reasoned that the short term pain of the healing crisis would be worth it in the end, if the bar does what it promises.

I am on day 9 of using my wonderbar and can say with confidence that I have entered the healing crisis and man oh man, it is not fun! My skin hasn't looked this bad since middle school, and it is extremely dry. But in the interest of full disclosure, my mom has only experienced the healing crisis every so slightly. She has had maybe one or two pimples pop up, nothing in comparison to mine. I suppose I just have more toxins in my skin? I have been researching and based on reviews, I am thinking I will be experiencing this for at least another week. It is so discouraging right now, but I have my fingers crossed that it will really work! I took a picture of my skin the other day so I would know where I started. Hopefully in a few months I will have the after picture to put next to it. :) Stay tuned!

If you are interested in reading more, check out the wonderbar's website here.

The Design Girl

2010-05-04T23:24:00.002-04:00

Hey everyone! I am determined to get serious about this whole blogging thing. I love looking back and seeing old posts with photos, it's like my own digital scrapbook. And as an added bonus, I love that out of town family can keep up with what is going on in my life. One thing that I have really been wanting to do is get a custom blog makeover. For some reason, I feel like having a personalized blog layout would help me be a better blogger, ha ;) Who knows, but it's worth a shot!

Anywho, I have been looking at The Design Girls layouts for quite some time and have always thought about having her design one for me. I fell in love with her layouts after seeing the ones she had created for Kelly's Korner, which is one of my FAVORITE blogs to read! So I am thrilled that she is giving a blog makeover away! Head on over to her website to enter!

{click here to enter}

Slow Cooker Chicken Tortilla Soup

2010-05-02T15:13:00.006-04:00

This is one of my favorite crock pot recipes so I thought I would share it! Kerry had made it for me several times and I finally learned how to do it myself. It is so easy and always turns out great!

You will need:

1 can of cream of chicken soup

1 can of cream of mushroom soup

1 can of cream of celery soup

1 can of cheddar cheese soup

1 cup of salsa (you can use whatever kind you like, and I always add a tad more than a cup)

1/2 can of green chilies

2-3 frozen chicken breasts (more or less depending on how much chicken you like)

I always just mix all of my ingredients right in my crockpot (minus the chicken). It makes it easy and you don't have to clean up an extra bowl. Once I have mixed everything together, I put in my frozen chicken and use a fork to push them down into the mixture, making sure that they are covered.

Cook on high for around 4 hours (it is probably done in around 3 hours, but I usually leave mine in for about 4). When it is done, take 2 forks and use them to shred the chicken up. It sounds daunting but is really easy to do. The chicken is so tender it actually falls apart.

Voila! You have yummy, easy soup! I top mine with sour cream, fresh squeezed lime, and broken tortilla chips!

I promise you will not be disappointed! And on a side note, I loathe mushrooms and celery and was so worried that the taste of the soups would come through. I promise they do not! You would never know that is what is in it. I made this for my parents last night and they also thought it was delish. Also, this makes a great dip if you are having a party and want an easy crock pot dip.

Enjoy!

*ps- I was having issues with blogger when I was writing this post. So pardon the offset pictures and the large spaces :)

Spring Flowers

2010-04-23T01:22:00.003-04:00

Every spring my cousin Markey and I head out to Keeneland together to plant pansies in the planters at the Keene family cemetery. We try to do it a few days before the spring meet starts. It has become a fun tradition! For those of you who don't know, my Aunt Cissy passed away in 2006 from ovarian cancer and is buried at the cemetery. Her family was the Keene family that initially bought the land that Keeneland now sits on. This year Markey's little boy (Wakefield) got to tag along. It was the first time that I had gotten to meet him. Truth be told, I just held him while Markey did the planting :) We had a great time!

You are Good

2010-04-23T01:06:00.003-04:00

This has been a rotten week all around for me. It seems like there is just so much pain and suffering going on around me, not to mention some personal trials over the past few days. My prayers over the past week have been for peace. Peace for myself, and peace for the people in my life that are struggling or suffering in any way. Do you ever have weeks like that? Where you feel like things are falling apart? It's been a rough one! When I was online tonight I came across this song and have had it on repeat ever since, so I thought I would share it with all 5 of you that read my blog ;) It is such a reminder to me that in the midst of the happy times, God is good. And in the midst of the bad times and trials, God is good.

Breck and the Easter Bunny

2010-04-19T00:28:00.001-04:00

Have you seen this??

2010-03-16T01:58:00.003-04:00

Well, what are you waiting for? Go!

A Pit In My Stomach...

2010-03-16T01:44:00.006-04:00

I am here all week...

Which is obviously amazing! However, I have had a pit in my stomach all day today. If you read my blog with any regularity, you know Emily and Chris. Emily and I have been friends for over 20 years and I love and value her so much. She and Chris got married last summer and I was honored to be a part of their special day. It almost hurts me to write this, but right now, Chris is on his way to Iraq to serve our country. I am so thankful for his sacrifice, but the thought of E in Colorado (where they are stationed) without him is absolutely making me sick. Please join me in praying for his safety while he is over there. I will also be praying for Emily to have complete and total peace while he is there. I can't imagine what she must be feeling. The good news is that Emily is flying to Watercolor on Wednesday to spend some time at the beach. I am so happy that she will be down here and pray that being around close friends will help her cope with all that is going on.

Oh, and did I mention she is pregnant? I am also praying for this little peanut that I already adore. I am Breck's Aunt J, but will also be an aunt to this sweet baby!

Baby Hurst,

I love you and can't wait to hold you and spoil you! You have amazing parents.

Love,

Aunt J

Chris will be able to come home for a short time when the baby is born, which I am so thankful for! Please keep this family in your prayers over the next year!

A Southern Spring Evening with Paula Deen

2010-03-04T14:44:00.004-05:00

Hello blog friends! I am alive and well. I am back from a very extended "blogcation"! I don't even have a really good excuse, I have just been a lazy blogger. I got inspired today and changed my blog background, which has in turn inspired me to blog a little.

I have some big news! Well, it's big news to me :) Back in October, my mom, Brittany White and Michelle Fink all planned a big girls trip to Chigaco to go see Oprah. We were so excited about it as Britt is one of my best friends and our moms are also best friends. We had been trying to come up with a girls trip for months and were looking forward to heading to the windy city. Unfortunately, my grandfather fell extremely ill right around that time and my mom was unable to go on the trip. I was crushed. After that disappointment, we started searching for another girls trip that we could go on.

If you know me at all, you know my love for Paula Deen! I am on her email list and received an email saying that Paula would be having a benefit dinner at her home in Savannah! You would pay a price per ticket and get to have dinner at her home, meet her family, etc... WOW! I mentioned it to my mom and we decided that would be the perfect makeup girls trip! I called Michelle to see what she thought and the next thing you know, we have 4 tickets to have dinner at Paula's home! The dinner is May 15th and I am already counting down. We plan to stay for an extended weekend to explore Savannah, go to the beach and of course eat lots of good food.

This is a picture of the outside of Paula's house. I cannot wait to see it up close and personal in May!

As disappointing as it was that mom could not go to Chicago, I am thrilled that this Savannah trip is going to work out! I bought the perfect Lilly dress off ebay to wear to the dinner. I will post a picture when I get it in the mail.

Show Us Your Life- Fall Decorations

2009-11-02T03:49:00.009-05:00

I have been following Kelly Stamps blog since this summer. My friend Kerry recommended it and I LOVE it! Every Friday she has a new "show us your life" post with a different topic. Bloggers are supposed to create a post and share pictures about the weeks particular topic. She started this originally with "show us your house" and people would post pictures of their homes. Each week she has over 200 bloggers that link with their pictures. So fun! This past week was all about fall decorations. Fall is my favorite season and I always put out some decorations so I thought I would share. I realize most of you could care less about my fall decorations ;) So this is mainly for my Aunt and Grandmere who I know would love to see them (shout out to Aunt Cathy and Grandmere!). You can check out Kelly's great blog by clicking HERE.

This is on my front stoop. I found the "It's fall y'all" sign on sale a few years ago and fell in love! I always buy a big pot of mums and stick it right down the middle.

This picture really didn't show the color well, but this is an orange berry garland that I found in a cute little shop in Georgetown last year. I just put it around my chandelier in my kitchen.

Black pumpkin cat. This is my ode to Emily!

Leaf wreath on front door.

Ceramic pumpkin filled with carmel. Lesson learned, I should NOT keep a candy jar in my house. I eat way too many caramels a day! :)

These little pumpkins are made from twigs and have white twinkle lights inside. I think I found them at Target.

We have had some beautiful Kentucky fall weather the past few days. It makes me think of what heaven must be like. So beautiful! Hope your fall is blessed!

I'm Back...

2009-10-26T00:30:00.003-04:00

I plan on writing a detailed blog post about my time in Chicago. But in the meantime here is a little sneak peak of our time in the windy city. It lived up to it's name with the terrible rainy and windy weather! We managed to have a great time though ;)

I'm Going to See OPRAH!

2009-09-29T01:49:00.004-04:00

Hello faithful blog readers, all 3 of you ;) Big news around here, I am going to Chicago to see Oprah at the end of October! My friend Kerry told me about the ticket lottery (she won tickets for September and got to go too). So my mom, Michelle (moms best friend), Brittney (one of my best friends, and Michelle's daughter) and myself all put our names in the ticket lottery. Low and behold, Brittney actually got tickets! The rest of us got polite emails telling us our names had not been selected :) You get 4 tickets, so the 4 of us are headed to Chicago. Our show tapes on October 22. We are headed up on the 21st and plan to come home on the 24th. Mom also is treating us all to a performance of Jersey Boys while we are there. It is supposed to be one of the best shows on Broadway right now, and she got us great seats. I have never been to Chicago, so I am looking forward to doing some shopping and eating at great restaurants. Any must see places we have to go?? Let the countdown begin!

Emily's Goodbye

2009-09-07T16:00:00.002-04:00

Emily and Chris moved to Virginia this past weekend to begin their new army life adventure. They will be gone for the next 5 years. After Virginia, they will head to Colorado for a few years. I will definitely be visiting them.

Emily is such a special friend to me. We have known each other for over 2o years, and I love her so much. Needless to say, a lot of tears were shed last weekend when I said goodbye. However, knowing that she is with Chris makes things so much better. I love him so much and know without a doubt that he will take care of her.

Maria, Emily and myself are a trio and we miss her so much already. Maria and I both talked about how a piece of us is missing now. I made this video to celebrate our friendship. I love these ladies so much!

Emily's Goodbye from Jennifer Cochran on Vimeo.

Birthday Celebrations 2009

2009-09-07T15:52:00.007-04:00

On August 8th, the crew all headed down to Atomic Cafe for the annual birthday celebration! Maria's birthday is on August 1st, and mine is on August 7th, so we always celebrate together. It has become the tradition to have dinner inside at Atomic and then head outside to the patio for dancing to the live band. This year we had over 30 people show up to celebrate. We are so blessed to be surrounded by such an amazing group of friends! Here are some pictures (of course, stolen from Maria. I really need to get a camera that works!)

Brittney, Erica and Brittany enjoying dinner

Maria (bday girl #1) and Emily

The birthday girls outside on the patio

Mark (Maria's husband), Clint (a good friend and coworker of Maria) and yours truly

Cheers to being 24!

Eyelashes

2009-09-05T23:07:00.004-04:00

This little guy has his Aunt J wrapped around his sweet little finger. And I wouldn't have it any other way!

For more cuteness, check out my sisters blog!

A little inspiration...

2009-09-05T23:00:00.006-04:00

A friend posted this video on facebook and I had tears streaming when I was watching it. Talk about putting life into perspective. Our God is so good, ALL the time.

Things are moving right along around here, just still super busy. Drove up to Cinci today for the first UK football game. This is by far my favorite time of year. Fall in Kentucky, it doesn't get any better than that.

Enjoy the video :)

You may have to click on the video, for some reason when I put it on the blog, it doesn't show the whole screen?

hmmmm??

2009-08-07T00:59:00.003-04:00

For some reason my last post completely messed up as far as the formatting is concerned (or at least it looks strange on my computer). I don't quite know what happened and don't quite want to fix it, so accept my apologies if it looks funky or is hard to read :)

Playing catch up...

2009-08-07T00:47:00.004-04:00

This is the email I received today from my sweet Grandmere.

"...I watch your Blog - almost daily!  You are either too busy, or nothing is going on in your life!..."

She has prompted me to get back into my blogging. I am pretty sure that the only people that read my blog is family from out of town, but they like to know what is going on in my life :) I just crawled into bed for the night so I'm not going to begin the catch up quite yet, but I am going to make a list of things I need to begin to blog. I'm hoping it will be a to-do list of sorts and inspire me to blog my summer bit by bit. I know it will end up being a few months behind, but I love the thought of looking back on my blog in several years and being able to see pictures and memories of different things. It's like my digital scrapbook, so try to bear with me while I play catch up.

Consider this the upcoming events of Jen's Journal :) Drumroll please... (these are listed in no particular order and may or may not be posted in this order, fyi)

- Emily's wedding

- Boat trip with the girls

- Mom's birthday

- 4th of July

- The annual bday celebration for myself and Maria (this is happening Saturday night!)

I have had a WONDERFUL but very busy summer! I am so blessed to be surrounded by such amazing friends. I can't wait to blog about it all and catch you up!

Happy 4th of July from Jen and Paula!

2009-07-04T02:26:00.001-04:00

Happy 4th of July! When I was trying to find a picture to put on here I happened to come across this video from one of my most favorite people! Paula wanted to wish you a happy 4th too...

Hard Workers!

2009-06-28T18:26:00.003-04:00

Even on vacation, Dad and Breck find some spare time to get some work done. Dad is selling insurance while Breck is learning his colors, both are of equal importance.

I'm in Watercolor all week with the fam...life is GOOD!

Happy Birthday Aunt Cathy!

2009-06-26T22:28:00.002-04:00

Miss and love you very much!

Run On Over...

2009-06-23T12:41:00.004-04:00

And check out my sisters blog! You can find it right here.

Hurry over, Breck is already on his way!

Emily's Bachelorrette Party

2009-06-22T18:16:00.008-04:00

I am a good month behind on my blogging, so here is my first attempt to catch up. We all headed up to Cincinnati on April 24th for Emily's Bachelorette Party! We had such a fun night. Emily had no idea where we were going so we blindfolded her on the drive up. Once we arrived in Cinci, we revealed to E that we had tickets to the Reds game, and if you know Emily at all, you know she LOVES the Reds :) After the game we went out to the Hofbrauhaus and another bar that had a live band. Most of the girls stayed the night in Cincinnati, but I ended up driving home at 3am. I had to be at church early the next morning to do Serve the City with my 6th grade small group. I was so tired the next day, but it was so worth it! Here are a few pictures stolen from Maria, enjoy!

The bride to be sporting her Reds hat complete with a veil!

Myself, Brittney, MJ and Maria on the shuttle to the game

All the girls with Mr. Redlegs

The 3 lovely bridesmaids, Maria, Erica and yours truly

PS- A very special thanks to Maria for planning the whole thing! It was so fun!