What a Whirlwind Week!

First of all, I am so thankful for all of the comments and followers I have since I left for break! I can't believe I'm almost to 100 followers! WOW! I feel so out of the loop though because I wasn't able to read blogs these past couple of days! I had no internet access, and unfortunately I'm not cool enough yet for an iPad or iPhone ;)

My trip to PA was amazing! Unfortunately I didn't take many pictures...and by that, I mean I took some of the kittens but none of people! I'm sad I didn't get any of Steven and I or of his family, but I'm sure there will be plenty over winter break!

We did lots of relaxing, lots of eating and lots of movie watching! We also played Disney Trivial Pursuit...so much fun! Steven and I went to see Breaking Dawn. Have y'all seen it? I'm not a huge Twilight fan - I like the movies, but I don't freak out and cry and scream when anyone mentions it - but I did like this movie! Although I own the book, I didn't read it (oops) but still could follow everything. I could feel what was going to happen at the very end but it still startled me! Ha!

And, of course...the best news is that Virginia Tech beat UVA for the 8th year in a row and we're headed to the ACC Championship on Saturday!! H-O-K-I-E-S HOKIES!


Now, here are some *attention* things I must share!

Blog Award

Carolina on My Mind gave me the Liebster Blog Award! Thank you SO MUCH! It made my day to see this! Addison has such a cute blog and I always look forward to reading her posts! I wanna pass the award right back to her!

Since I recently gave this award to 5 followers, I'll just pick 2 today with less than 200 followers.

1. Peaches & Pearls
2. Coffee at Nordstrom

I love those blogs - y'all go check them out!

Giveaways

College Prep is having two giveaways that you won't want to miss!

• The first is from Knotty Monkey's college collection! Cutest earrings on the planet!
• The second is a cut-out monogrammed necklace from Marley Lilly! Adorable!

Coffee at Nordstrom (my blog award winner!) is giving away a Vera Bradley All Wrapped Up! By now you should know I lovvvve Vera, so I am super excited about this one!


Whew! Now the countdowns begin! Two and a half weeks to go and then it's goodbye fall semester!
Later I'll share my DIY projects, shopping lists, wishlists and birthday plans!

Happy Monday!
xoxo,

Top 5 Tuesday & a Blog Award

Happy Tuesday! I'll be linking up with Rachel for Top 5 Tuesday...this week's theme is Thanksgiving! YES!

Thanksgiving

1. Food

I think this is a lot of people's #1...

2. Traveling

Okay, so maybe this picture is exaggerated, but I feel like this is what 81 looks like on Thanksgiving weekend. Last year it took us almost 11 hours to get home!

3. Football

I love to watch me some football. Even if it isn't a team I particularly love or hate, I just like to watch! Family gathered around hootin' and hollerin'...it's fun. Virginia Tech is going to be playing UVA on Saturday though, so of course I'll be glued to the TV then! My Dad is a UVA fan, so this is a big game...plus it determines who goes to the ACC Championship! GO HOKIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

4. Dessert

When it comes to Thanksgiving, dessert almost has to be in it's own category. There are so many different desserts you can make! Pies, crumbs, cakes, tarts, etc. My favorite is probably apple pie - or of course pumpkin :)

5. Christmas shopping/Black Friday

A couple of years ago I braved the crowds with my mom, aunt and cousin - at TYSON'S!! Black Friday shoppers are kind of crazy. I'm not really in need of anything big, like a TV or phone, so I don't think I'll be waking up in the middle of the night to go fight with people for clothing and such. I'll stay home and shop online :) I do get jealous of all the deals, though!

What's your Top 5?

One of my favorite bloggers Maggie at Glitz & Grammar gave me the Liebster Award! Thank you so much, Maggie! I love knowing that people are reading and appreciating my blog. It means so much! If you aren't a follower of her blog - go NOW! You're truly missing out!

Liebster means "favorite" or "dearest" in German.  This award, which originated in Germany, recognizes up and coming bloggers!  In accepting this award, I agree to:

• Thank the person who gave me the award and link back to their blog
• Copy and paste the award to my blog
• Reveal the 5 blogs I have chosen to award and let them know by commenting on their blogs
• Pay it forward to 5 blogs

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I am so thankful for these 5 blogs that I have chosen to pass the award onto: (p.s. it was super hard to choose 5! I love all of my blogs!)

1. Loving Life and Lilly

2. Life's a Beach

3. Moments with Mere

4. Just Rainbows and Butterflies

5. I do have a real job...I swear...

Go show those blogs some love!

xoxo,

Weekend Recap & Blog Award

Today I can sum up my feelings in about two words: happy + exhausted. Not bad, right?

Here's a little bit about my weekend up in Pennsylvania!

FRIDAY

• Drove to D.C. with Momma. I absolutely love D.C. and I miss going there for visits. We've already planned our next trip there for my birthday!
• Hopped on the Megabus and headed to Philly with a pit stop in Baltimore. I definitely recommend the Megabus for a cheap alternative to driving somewhere. It goes to a lot of major cities, and as long as you have someone there to pick you up, it's great!
• Scoped out the Lehigh Valley Mall - picked out some Phillies gear and spent lots of time looking at all the new Vera :) Poor SB...however, I did make him laugh because he said something about Vera Bradley would be the death of him and clear out his bank account and I responded with..."There are outlets :)"
• Dinner at Red Robin! (yummmmmmmmm)

SATURDAY

• Homework time while SB played baseball
• Shopping trip at The Promenade Shops (an outdoors mall) - we got some big deals at Old Navy. BOGO 75% off! Mix n match throughout the store. I love having a super smart boyfriend because he thought to go through the line with the expensive items first to get more of a deal...he's so sneaky...but where's the fun unless you can cheat the system? Haha, whoops! Don't tell!
• Lunch at The Pita Pit and ice cream at Maggie Moo's
• We went to see The Lion King...again...:) He hadn't seen it yet in the theater, so that was our excuse! But of course I wasn't complaining...
• Went home and watched some of the Jeff Dunham special...he is hilarious! I've never watched it before. If you haven't heard of him, he's a ventriloquist and he's really good.
• Took a late night run to the Shiny Place :) (the diner) Grilled cheese...pierogies...omelet...carrot cake...heaven.

SUNDAY

• This time I went to watch the baseball game (brown v. white) since SB was going to be closing for the brown team. I brought him some good luck and he threw really well! Even though it was a scrimmage against his own team, I still get nervous watching him pitch! Ha! I love it though, and I'm very proud of him.
• Headed back to Philly to catch the bus (which was running 30 min late...urg) back to D.C.

All-in-all I had a wonderful weekend...the only bad part - it ended too soon! But those couple days were better than nothing <3

via pinterest

I want to thank the Jane Austen Prepster for giving me The Versatile Blogger award!

Rule #1: Thank the person who gave you the award. See above :)

Rule #2: Share seven facts about yourself.
1. I took five tests in two days and it was terrible. SO GLAD to be done :)
2. As much as my dentist tells me to, there is no way I'm giving up Coca Cola and sweet tea.
3. For the past hour I've had my headphones in, but no music playing...#distracted
4. Two things that I really wish we had in Blacksburg were: Friendly's and Forever 21.
5. I desperately wish I had curly hair and perfect vision.
6. I love football. Plain and simple.
7. I have toe nail polish on 365 days a year. I think my toes are ugly without polish!

Rule #3: Pass the award on to 15 bloggers that you recently (or not so recently) discovered:

Simply Me...

Just Peachy

In the Life of Emily

Carolina On My Mind

Choose To Be Happy

My Aiken Heart

The Beginner Housewife

Eclectically E

Glitz & Grammar

Southern Bliss

Notes She Wrote

Life Of A Charleston Wife

Everyday Ashley

La Mia Bella Vita

the CAT's meow

Whew! Congrats and thank you again :)

Rainy Days and a Blog Award!

Yesterday was definitely one of the rainiest days I've seen in a while. I guess I gotta share a little secret with y'all...yesterday, my mom and I drove up in D.C. My Aunt from OH and my big brother from Norfolk were going to come to the area to spend the weekend, so we made it a family affair! However, I decided to catch the megabus from D.C. to Philly and now I'm spending the weekend with my baseball boy! I haven't seen him since we brought him to move-in which was 4 weeks ago!

Anyway, it rained almost the whole way up to D.C., then as we were driving around the city it was muggy, foggy and gray. As I was waiting in line for the bus, it was pouring...thankfully Momma let me borrow her umbrella, but my poor rainbows got SOAKED.

It rained the whole way up to Philly and then all evening as SB and I attempted to go to the mall & dinner. We kind of just faced it and got really soaked. I, of course, only brought flip flops (whoops) so I might be making a pit stop at the shoe store if it keeps up today!

Wish I had had this outfit instead!

Rainy or not, I'm so glad to be up here. Wednesday/Thursday were very stressful days, with a chaotic day at work & four tests - including my eval tour, which I PASSED! I'm an official Ambassador now.
Anyway, I was definitely ready for a little break and to get out of Blacksburg.



I cannot believe this, but I was awarded the iDig Your Blog Award by one of my favorite blogs Turtles and Pearls!!

Thank the person who gave you the award:

Thank you SO MUCH for this award, Turtles and Pearls! It means so much to me that you are following my blog, and I always look forward to new posts on your blog as well! We seem to have a lot in common, especially our love for our college football teams!

Everyone go check out her blog for some fun posts and great fashion advice :)

Share three random facts about yourself:

1. Yesterday, I think I was more excited to see The Disney Store than any other store in the mall.

2. One of the most important things on my bucket list is to visit each state. So far I've been to 18/50! I don't include where I've only been in an airport...after all, I never technically step foot on the ground.

3. If I had three wishes, they would be: that Maple Ridge would let their residents have pets, for a fridge full of Red Bulls and to have naturally curly hair.

I think those were random enough, huh!?

Pass the award onto five others:

1. Emily @ Live, Laugh, and Shop

2. Ashley @ Everyday Ashley

3. Meggan @ Lila Grace

4. Mere @ Moments with Mere

5. Eclectically E

Go check out their blogs!

Have a great weekend everyone :)

xoxo,

One Lovely Blog

Today I received the One Lovely Blog award from Shelby at Sweet Confessions ! It means a lot to me that other people are reading what I write and looking at all the silly, random pictures I post and appreciating them! Thanks Shelby for the award and the support :) Who knew blogging could be so fun!

Here are some fun pictures I took the past couple of days:

 

 Our field trip this week was to the Motor Mile Speedway. The kids had a blast (mostly because they had a pretty awesome playground) but unfortunately there weren't any drivers and the kids weren't allowed down on the track! That was a bummer but it made Ms. Sarah add "Attend race" to her bucket list for sure.

I learned I can pick one color on my camera for it to separate from black and white. Cool or weird?? I think it's pretty cool!

SB got in to pitch.

Color effects + Action shot...

Jessi & I went to Panera today (which for us is no shocker...we live there) and I got a frozen strawberry lemonade. Holy smokes, it was delicious! Then, after finishing some painting, we got The Switch from Redbox and then ordered Olive Garden To Go! ... wowzers, I will be needing to hit up Jazzercise for sure next week but it was so delicious! I've never ordered it to-go before...definitely worth it.

My items from Vera Bradley came in the mail yesterday. Perfect timing, if you ask me. I got this beach towel in Blue Lagoon for when I spend my one, precious day on the shore next Thursday:

I also got this hard eyeglass case in Make Me Blush for my new glasses that, coincidentally, were also ready to be picked up yesterday!

*Those are not my glasses. Similar though!

Pretty excited! Mom also got a coin purse in Simply Violet to hold all of her various cards!

I hope y'all have a wonderful weekend :) I'm getting to the second coat of paint tomorrow & then heading down to SB's game in North Carolina!
xoxo