Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Memorial Day Weekend

Words can't truly show my appreciation for the brave men and women that choose to willingly fight and give the ultimate sacrifice to protect our country. So I just wanted to take a moment to honor and remember those that have fallen, those that continue to fight and their families for their service.

With Memorial Weekend kicked off, I think we can agree that Summer is here. Jeremy and I started the weekend off right in true summer fashion with dinner at Moe's BBQ in downtown Matthews. We sat under the cool and crisp summer night and enjoyed our BBQ, fried corn on the cob and sweet cornbread. We continued our grand eating streak by lunching it the next day at Mint Hill Madness, a local festival celebrating the founding of the town held every Memorial Day. We stumbled across a food truck that featured rib plates that we couldn't pass up. We grubbed, walked around a bit and headed home to rest up for some strawberry picking later that day.

I'm not the biggest fan of strawberries but when there is any chance to spend time with my nephew, I'm in! We had a blast visiting Wise Acres, a local farm that grows organic strawberries in the spring. Unfortunately, we visited the farm pretty late in the strawberry season. Even though the strawberries were sparse, I was told they were surprisingly tasty despite their small size. I'll take their word for it as I happily sipped on my frozen strawberry lemonade slushy.





This melts my heart.




He did the head in his hand all by himself. What a cutie!

The next day was spent with more family as we loaded up the car (with an awesome bag I designed for Food Lion) and headed to a cookout. It's always a good time at the Singleton's as we stuffed our faces once again while Jeremy serenaded us with his guitar playing skills.







Love these two so much!


What better way to end the weekend than seeing The Amazing Spider-Man 2? It has been on our to-do list for weeks now and we finally got around to seeing one of our many favorite Marvel movies. It was the perfect ending to the weekend.

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Thursday, May 15, 2014

Firsts

I've had this blog pending for a good two weeks now. It's time for me to stop procrastinating and get on with it! It's funny how no matter how old you get, your "firsts" never seem to stop running out. I'm always happy to try or learn something new. Here are a few "firsts" I've tried lately.

GREEN THUMB. 
I am, by no means, a gardener. I've never planted flowers nor have I ever owned a plant of any sort. This all changed when my parents bought too many tomato plants to plant for themselves this year. They offered one to me and I took it hesitantly telling them not to be mad at me if I killed it. Jeremy and I took the plant home and lazily left it inside for a few days. We then realized we could put it in a large pot we had stored away, moving the plant inside to outside. There was one problem. The leftover soil we had from previous years only filled up 3/4 of the pot. We made a note to get some soil the next day. A week went by and we still hadn't bought soil but we did get some heavy rain. The poor plant drowned and we thought, for sure, that we had killed it. I got advice from my gardening friends and they said to simply place it in a cup and re-plant it later. Another week went by and I finally bought some soil and a tomato cage. I re-palnted the plant and within 4 hours, he already looked happy. Yes, he. I decided this plant is a boy. I find myself checking on the thing every day. It's kind of sad. I just don't want the thing to die! I'll keep you guys updated and hopefully we'll have tomatoes later this summer!

epic tomato plant FAIL.



BASEBALL IN THE CITY.
Charlotte finally brought Knights baseball home to Charlotte. After years and years of traveling to Fort Mill, South Carolina to attend baseball games, baseball is now in the Queen City's back yard. Jeremy and I stepped into the stadium for the first time as we joined friends for a spectacular view. We were amazed at how close we were to the dugout and even more amazed at the view of the buildings surrounding us. We can't wait to go again! Oh, and just for you, here's a throwback picture of one of the many Knights games I attended while growing up. This one made it into the Charlotte Observer! I'm pretty sure this was around 1997. We were screaming for pizza...I don't think the old man next to us appreciated it :)



A LITTLE BIT COUNTRY.
Growing up, I despised country music. I had no desire for it, whatsoever. However, over the years, my heart has softened a little (maybe a lot) for the story-telling twang thanks to artists like The Civil Wars, The Lumineers and Luke Bryan. I've also gotten sucked into the t.v. show, Nashville,  so that may have something to do with my change of heart as well.  ANYWAYS. The whole point of this was to tell you guys that I attended my first country concert with my dear friend, Elyse! It was a show put on by 5 country artists (Sara Evans, the Swon Brothers, Jon Pardi, Eric Paslay and American Young) with proceeds to benefit the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. Each artist took the stage together, sitting side be side, rotating singing songs acoustically. It was a fun and inspiring night and I know this most likely won't be my last country show. Who knows who I'll see next! Luke Bryan, anyone?



BEAR CLAW.
The second season of The Mindy Project has sadly drawn to a close. Mindy often has a bear claw in hand and references them at LEAST every other show. Later that week, I was eating lunch at Panera and I happened to have a free treat on my rewards card. My eyes caught sight of a bear claw and there was no turning back. I later devoured the entire thing and it was everything I hoped and dreamed. Thanks, Mindy, for opening my eyes to the world of Bear Claws.



#Mindian (signature growl)

And there we have it. After weeks of procrastinating, I finally cranked out a few of my firsts to share with you. I hope you enjoyed!