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Monday, April 29, 2013

Menu Monday!

It's been a while since I've linked up with Rachel, so here ya go....


Most recently, last night I made these:


They were delish! Travis especially enjoyed them...

We had them with this:

Considering I don't like coleslaw at all, this was really good! The fact that there is no mayo (its a vinegar base) def helps!!!


These were pretty good; I thought the honey peanut sauce was clutch, Trav did not like it. We ate it with my FAV Asian Slaw, which I may or may not have been making at least once a week recently. I'm kind of obsessed with it.


This recipe came with a lot of extra sauces to make, so I cheated and bought store bought guac. Sorry. I also used ground beef instead of ground chicken because it was half the price and my grocery bill is already ridiculous! But all things considered, these were pretty good!!

We ate these with a Fiesta Bean Salad...

...which could possibly give that Asian Slaw some competition for my current fav salad!


I made this to see if I liked gnocchi before we go to Italy (2 MONTHS!)...but I was honestly not the biggest fan of this. Probably because I hate asparagus...oops. I think I would like gnocchi with another vegetable?


This has been circulating Pinterest as the "man-pleasing chicken" and trust me, it did not disappoint. Someone was licking his plate. 

We ate it with:

These were also amazing and incredibly easy to make!


You know me and my sun-dried tomatoes! This was pretty delicious, but it took longer than I thought it would...if you tell me 30 minutes, I want to eat in 30 minutes!!!

That's all I have for now!! Have a great week!

*Charlotte teachers....4 more MONDAYS!!!!! We can do it!!! :)

Sunday, April 28, 2013

New Bling and a Puppy Partaayyy

I could have used about 190384 more hours of this weekend! Even with the rain/crappy weather, I was pretty busy!

Unfortunately, I couldn't run at all this weekend....because, guess what?! My knee is hurting again! AHGDHLKD!!!! I'm going to see my mom's guy in a few weeks, so hopefully he'll fix me and I'll be running again in no time!

But what I did do this weekend....

Well, first Diamonds Direct was having their big sale this weekend!

{and why yes, I did lean out of the car in the rain to take this pic!}

Since my engagement ring and wedding band are from there, I decided Travis needed to go during the sale to get me an anniversary band! He made me come with him, but I'm actually glad I did...the ring that was said to be the exact same as my wedding band actually looked a little bit thicker to me (and the salesperson)! Because I am borderline OCD/seriously picky, I couldn't live with two different sized rings. So they are going to ship it to the jewelry designer, where they are going to match the wedding band exactly for a "custom" anniversary band! Thanks Diamonds Direct! So if you see me in the next 6 weeks with just my engagement ring, you now know why!

After that excursion, it was time for Miss Dame's first birthday party!!! 
Dame would be Kathryn's dog, in case you didn't know.


Here is the birthday girl! Complete with birthday sash.
Sorry I couldn't get a better pic....dogs are super hard to photograph!

Do y'all remember that crazy bridal shower Kathryn threw for me?
Girlfriend needs to become a serious party planner, because she pulled out all the stops again for her puppy.

{ok, well I helped...I made that sign!}


This is what Kathryn and I did while we were in Charleston the night before our crazy race...we made a Pinterest board for this party and started planning! HA! We are SOO cool! 



Dame loved her dog cake!!!!

She even shared some with her brother, Guinness, also...


She also made some new friends! 
This is Smoke...he is a rescue and was absolutely precious!!!

Kathryn with both of her children.... 

I bought Dame a new elephant, since that is was her favorite toy. 
I think she likes the new one! :)


Yay! Happy Birthday, Dame!!! 


Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Wedding Wednesday {Engagement Pics}

Sorry to be so MIA! 
I'm totes not planning on only blogging on Wednesdays, but life has been a little hectic lately! And also boring....i.e. spending 3 hours and a small fortune at Sherwin Williams this weekend, but that's a whole other post in itself!

{my life right now....these paint chips make me about want to hurl at the moment!}

Anyways...next on my Wedding Wednesday train of fun, it would make the most sense to talk about what to do once you get engaged, but that's not really fun (but if you are interested, there are great articles here and here)...so I'm skipping ahead to talk about engagement pictures! Which is wayyyy more interesting, in my opinion. 


{Oh HI! That's us....sorry I'm not sorry!}

Have you seen this post on Buzzfeed?! Please refer to as what not to do for engagement pics...these are all revolting and I hope none of these people paid their photographers.

My favorite?!

Yikes....Okay, so moving on to the good ones. Hopefully, you've found a great photographer (which I'll also give you some tips for one of these Wednesdays) and a super cute outfit (or two) picked out. If not, I am def not a stylist, so click here for all of that info!

Your location is key! Pick somewhere 1. pretty, 2. unique, and 3. personal. We went to Chapel Hill, since Travis is from there and, didn't know if you happened to notice, but the boy is oh so slightly obsessed with the Tarheels. Kind of a no-brainer.

Cute ideas for locations:

-the Old Well at the University of North Carolina
{the whole campus works, too! I guess I'm biased}

-or I guess, any college campus is pretty gorge, and personable, if its where you went! (Unless it's Ohio State. Sorry Dana.)

-the beach

-or just a lake
(love the dock, reminds me of a Nicholas Sparks book/movie!)

-anywhere with pretty white lights

a fun graphic wall in the city
Ummm...heyyyy Nick and Andrea! (yes, I know them!) They're getting married next week!

And don't forget about all of your cute little props, so you can put these pretty little pictures on your Save the Dates!

{ughhhh totally wish we had done this!}


{this might be my favorite. EVER.}



Ok, so now that I want to have another photo shoot with my husband.....(he prob doesn't though!)

Cheers to it being {almost} Friday-eve!!!

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Wedding Wednesday {Back in Action}

Let me start on kind of a sad note about the Boston Marathon. SOOOO sad!!! As a runner, I can only imagine finishing a marathon, which is awful enough, and then have to deal with all of that chaos.


But on a much lighter note, Wedding Wednesdays have returned!!!! In case you missed it, my BFF Natalie got engaged this past weekend, and well, it gives me a great excuse to bring back my love for weddings to this blog! 


In case you're bored, you can look through all of my past Wedding Wednesday posts from my own wedding by clicking here!

So, we're starting off with the one thing that kicks off all the crazy wedding planning...the proposal!

I realize that probably no boys read this blog (except my dad...hi Dad!), but if you are single, please pass these tips along to your boyfriend (current or future) for-what I think-makes a successful proposal:

1. Make it a surprise
2. Ask for parents' blessing
3. Don't do anything embarrassing (i.e.: NO jumbo-tron)
4. Have a gorgeous ring ready
5. Get a picture of it happening

#5 might not be for everyone...but I love a good proposal picture...




Ohhhh...and these crazies....

You can read all about Travis' proposal (he followed all 5 of my rules!) here!

I would also suggest waiting to share the news with everyone immediately! It makes it more fun to enjoy your engagement with just the two of you before your phones start blowing up!!! :)

And what would a proposal be with out some bling bling?!?! 
Thanks Pinterest for inspiring my ring envy.....





Do you have a fun proposal story???

That's all I've got till next week!!

Sunday, April 14, 2013

A Very Eventful Saturday

Yesterday was quite a whirlwind!!!!

You may recall how last week, Kathryn and I did the Cooper River Bridge Run with the Kenyans. Then we decided, hey that was so much fun, let's do another 10k a week later!
So we signed up for this race around Southpark. 


We thought it would be relatively flat (well, flatter than that stupid bridge!) and also, Kathryn is becoming addicted to running races because she enjoys the free t-shirts, haha.

Ok, so we show up for this race and, unlike last time, only had to stand out in the cold for 20 minutes (thank you, Travis, for dropping us off!). I made Kathryn start in the front with me, which she later did not appreciate (sorry girl)! When the gun went off, I took off running down the first hill super fast--my first mile was like 6:08! Yikes, Mindy. Let's slow down a little bit? I noticed that I was near the front of the pack and there were only a few other girls ahead of me! Then we started to have more uphills and I started getting slower. The half marathoners split from us around the 3 mile mark, and I realized those girls who were ahead of me were running the half marathon and not the 10k! How they can run 13.1 miles at a sub 6:30 minute pace is beyond me. I crossed the 5k split at like 19:something and realized there were nooooo other girls in front of me! I was winning!!! I was running in between these two guys like a little running sandwich, and they really helped push me to keep up with them! Then around mile 4, I saw this girl coming up behind me. She eventually passed me and I tried to stay with her as long as I could, but I was dying. The last hill (the one I had sprinted down the first mile) just about killed me and she got further and further ahead. OMG....let me tell you about that last hill. I was having horrible flashbacks to the Bridge Run. It was that bad. I almost puked! I finally saw  the finish line and crossed it at 41:07! So about 30 seconds faster than last week! Which was great considering how tired my body felt the entire race (I guess that's what happens when you decide to run two 10k's in a week)! The girl who beat me (only by like 8 seconds....I didn't realize I was that close to her) came up to say good job, which was really nice. While I was waiting for Kathryn, the two guys I had been running with came up to me to tell me good job also. My favorite part was one of the guys said he had recognized me from the gym and knew I ran fast because he had seen me on the treadmill! Ha! I'm famous!

Kathryn finished 4 MINUTES faster than last week....that girl is a rock star, I tell you! 


So once we had both finished, we were freezing (again, no space blankets....come on race people, what is up with that?!) but I had to wait around because we thought I may have won an award! Luckily, I live right by Southpark, so we went to my house super fast, grabbed sweatshirts and came back to the race so I could get my prize!

While I am waiting to see what the deal was, I get this text...

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ohhhhhh just my best friend, and lover of this blog, getting engaged!!!! When they announced that the race results would be revealed in 10 minutes, I quick called Natalie to freak out say congrats!!!! I am sooooooo excited for her and can't wait to be her matron of honor (already freaking out about the speech though)!

Then they announced the results....I got second place out of all the women (16th overall) and first in my age group! They gave out cash prizes for the top three male and female finishers, which means I won $150!!!! Pretty sweet.

{me with my cash money!}

Ok, so after placing second in a race where I was super tired and didn't even know how I was going to pull myself together to finish and THEN my best friend getting engaged, the rest of the weekend was pretty low key. I spent it stretching, icing, going through my old wedding stuff and pinning ideas to my newest Pinterest board, Nataleee's Getting Married. I am totally loving this NEW PROJECT!!! And yes, in case you were wondering, I AM bringing back Wedding Wednesdays for this occasion!! I've already listed about 40 wedding related topics to write about, so get excited!!! 
Congrats Natalie and Brian!!!!!