Party Time!

so, kelly and jack bought a new house and this morning kelly picked me up and we ran over to check it out as the current owner was having an estate sale. we were just going to scope out their new digs and i walked away with this awesome new patio set for my backyard. i am so excited to have outdoor seating. great excuse to have a party soon. oh, and kelly's new house is awesome too...and super close to mine!

friendship

this weekend, my dear friend meredith, shared a blog post with me, written by emily rapp, that she had read about the power of female friendships. when she was describing the article to me, i was thinking about how amazingly blessed i am to have an unbelievable network of women in my life who surround me with love, uplift me, really listen and hear me, value me, and allow me to do the same for them. after reading this post and having a truly emotional reaction, i thought that i would blog about her individual passages and what they meant to me and how i agree with many of her ideas about friendship in our culture and what that means...then i realized that i could never do this article justice with my words because the author's are too powerful to explain.

please read. please share. please grab a tissue first :)

here is a little excerpt to entice you:
"Support, salvation, transformation, life: this is what women give to one another when they are true friends, soul friends, what the Irish call anam cara. It’s what the Wrinklies did for one another, what the French resistance fighters in Auschwitz did for one another, what women do for one another in real relationships with real consequences in real time, every day, what my friends do for me. We help one another other live and sometimes, we watch – and help – one another die. It happens in movies, sure, but it also happens every day, in real life – now, tomorrow, yesterday. It is transformative and transcendent. It is real. It is love."

crazy....and maybe a little stalkerish too

so, here is the story for those of you who haven't heard me tell it a million times...
leigh ann and i took a little vaca getaway last february and headed to hot springs, arkansas for a weekend. we swam in the hot springs, got awkwardly bathed by women at an old bathe house, ate, drank, relaxed,and became fascinated with an oddly beautiful group of people. i am going to try to write this post without making it sound like we are stalkers, but seriously, these people were amazingly maicured hipsters and we just knew they had to be famous. hot springs is a small place and so we ran into them many times throughout the day starting with them sitting next to us at lunch. we couldn't figure it out...wedding party? band? urban outfitters models? we dubbed this group of about 9 pretty people the romantics. we never got the courage to just walk up to one of them and ask who they were but i think that was for the best. we spent many an hour making up the story of their lives. it was fun.
fast forward 10 months to a concert that leigh, boy kelly and i went to to see a few local bands at the kessler theater. this is what we found:



the band seryn from denton...aka the romantics (well, half of them anyway. the others must be groupies and significant others)



i didn't believe it when leigh put the connection together but after doing a little internet research, we discovered it was true. apparently they were playing a show in hot springs that night...if we had only asked, we could have started our obsession with this band's music many months ago. this being said, i am so happy we we have found them because their talent is nuts. hope you enjoy.
we also got to see david ramirez at that concert and he did not disappoint. you should check it out.

so. much. fun.

sunday was my birthday and i had the greatest weekend. i keep thinking about all of the awesome moments and i loved every minute of it. the weekend started with my spontaneous day off on friday. even though i just had a day off on monday for new years, it was so great to have some time to decompress, put christmas decor away, and spend some time with my dear friend becca and her girls, macie and taylor. since i now work in an environment where i am unable to have lunch dates often, i don't get to see these girls as much as i would like. becca and i went to the arboretum and ate and walked and talked. perfect weather, lovely company.

friday night, cort surprised me with tickets to see kathy griffin. we love kathy. she is hilarious and nuts and has a stupid sense of humor that we can appreciate. she also surprised me though by inviting some of my favorite folks to go with us. we showed up at big shucks and there were leigh, boy kelly, robin, and my sweet sister, anna. we all loaded up in cort's car and went and laughed our arses off (especially to those great jokes about rick perry and michelle and marcus bachman).

saturday morning anna treated her and i to an hour of pampering at foot joy (amaaaazing),

then we had a delicious lunch here at the farmers market with some of our favorite friends and kid friends,

and ended the day at goodfriend with many a good friend :)
on the actual day of my birth, i enjoyed the yummiest brunch at a great new place with fantastic friends (my favorite birthday gifts were the many good snuggles i got from these bonner boys),
received a sweet delivery of cupcakes from jenn and sweet ellie grace,
and ended the day at the $1 movie with robin and boy kelly to see the new footloose (and then went home to practice old and new moves...shhh, don't tell anyone).

SUCH A GREAT WEEKEND! i had a fantastic time and am blessed to have so many friends/family to celebrate with. thank you my loves for making my birthday so wonderful~

oh, and happy birthday to this cute guy who is my birthday twin. i am sure he was celebrating in a casino or a burger king :)

picture found here

giving thanks

when my alarm went off this morning my first fleeting thought was a glimpse of sadness that i was not waking up next to my sister in my mom and dad's house to the awesome smells of the beginnings of a thanksgiving dinner. i gave myself a minute to miss cooking with my mama (crumbling cornbread, mashing potatos, mixing many pitchers of sugar and tea, going over "the list" every five minutes to ensure we don't forget a dish), goofing around with my cousins who are much older than we act when we are together, grumbling when my mom makes us go around the table and report what we are thankful for (even though we secretly love it), playing dominos, dozing in front of the tv covered in a fur blanket, and scanning dozens of newspaper ads and going back and forth on how early we will get up to shop tomorrow. this is my first thanksgiving away from my family.

then that minute was up and i am putting the sadness on the back burner. i have way more to be thankful for than to be sad about. here are just a few of those things:

- while i don't particularly want to be getting ready to go to work right now, i am so thankful that i have a job to go to and that i really enjoy going (when it isn't a holiday :))
- i am thankful that i have awesome friends who have invited me to their home after work to eat and be together (and that cort's mom makes dressing that tastes exactly like my mom's!)
- i am thankful that i am gonig to the hospital to work and for no other reason.
- i am thankful that my aggies are going to play tonight and hopefully kick t.u.'s ass one last time.
- i am thankful for all of the preggo's in my life (oddly there are 8) that are having super healthy pregnancies and will have super awesome children next spring and summer (starting with my neice due january 16th!!).
- i am thankful that i was able to get ready in 15 minutes this morning because i have the option of wearing scrubs when i don't want to put on the professional get-up.
- i am thankful that i do get to go home for christmas and have the above experience with the fam (and that my sister is going to text me updates of anything that i am missing today).

while this list could go on and on, i do have to get to work and hopefully bring some thanksgiving cheer to my patients who are having to spend the holiday in the hospital. i hope that you all have a lovely day with ones you love...i know i plan to. HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

its gonna be a good week

first i get to go see these guys on thursday:

then i get to see these guys on friday (and i really really hope they play this song):

and then i get to see these guys on saturday:


very excited!

yummy

i have been on pinterest for quite some time just pinning away and had not made one recipe that i found on there until a couple of weeks ago. started with a pasta dish that was pretty good but then last week made this in my crock pot and just had to share.

Source: pearls-handcuffs-happyhour.blogspot.com via Marcy on Pinterest

may seem a little weird with the hashbrowns and all but this soup tastes like my favorite baked potato soup at central market. especially with sour cream, cheese, and some bacon pieces garnishing it. highly reccommend this recipe, especially if you are like me and like a non-chunky soup. delish!

tomorrow i am doing this crock pot recipe and really hope these sandwiches are as good as they look in the photo.

Source: bakingbites.com via Marcy on Pinterest

currently on the stove is my mom's super yummy taco soup recipe to take for lunch this week and i am also baking this interesting concoction:

Source: sweet-verbena.blogspot.com via Marcy on Pinterest

hopefully it tastes as good as it seems that it should!

i am certainly not adventurous or well-practiced at cooking but am trying to branch out. really trying to be better about it and think that i am off to a good start (especially since i have discovered the super easy convenience of the crock pot!)