What I'm Loving Wednesday

Linking up with Miss Jamie for WILW :)


                                         

I am LOVING that I am grilling out this evening. Grilling chicken and I am baking a green bean casserole....and it is gonna be finger lickin good!

I am LOVING that I am traveling to my hometown in Eastern KY this weekend to spend the July 4th weekend with my family. I havent been home since Christmas! Crazyness...I am the gal who used to go home every other weekend. The good thing is that my parents are always traveling up to Lex to visit my brother and I. However, there is simply no place like home!  I am gonna lay by the pool and maybe go for a hike, and of course barbeque and eat my mama's country cooking.

I am LOVING that my BFF is almost 29 weeks preggo! I cant wait to meet baby Trigg this fall. Meet my very best bestie, Katrina. Look at her adorbale baby bump! Katrina and her husband, Will, are gonna be AMAZING parents. Katrina and her older sister, April, are just two weeks apart in their pregnancies. Both are gonna have little boys come September. I cant wait to meet their little bundles of joy.

Back in the spring, the lil baby bump was barely even there :)

Baby Trigg is gonna be one good lookin kiddo

I am LOVING the chocolate eclair cake I made yesterday. So easy and sooooo good. I am not loving that I cant keep my sticky fingers out of it.

I am LOVING this weather! Not a cloud in the sky in the bluegrass today.

I am LOVING my Urban Decay naked pallete. The colors are so pretty and stay on all day long. I am LOVING that it was actually in stock at Sephora.

I am LOVING the overnight oats recipe I stumbled upon over at Peanut Butter Runner! They are super easy and quick. A great go-to on those morning I have to leave the house for the hospital at 620am. They are a combination of oats, yogurt, and milk that you chill overnight. I have been adding lots of fresh fruit to mine and sugar-free jam for some sweetness. I am obsessed with fresh peaches and have been adding them to my new breakfast on the go. The recipe can be found at the link above.

I am LOVING the book Joyce Meyer's Battlefield of the Mind. It has been such a blessing.
I am LOVING that next week is a four day work week. Woot Woot!

I am LOVING all my followers and your sweet, sweet comments! 

Birthday Getaway :)

K Rex and I took a lil time away from work to celebrate my birthday and just have a small getaway. He planned us a trip up to Cincinnati. Cincy is special to us because we had one of our very first dates there and always sneak up there for good dinning and shopping on occasion. My brother came down and kept the doggies and we headed up I-75 ...destination Cincinnati Zoo early morning on my actual birthday.  The zoo was an epic fail due to the gloomy miserable, rainy, cold weather :( YUCK!!!

Rainy weather put a minor snag in our plans

We tried to wait it out...but the raindrops kept on coming

Not happy camper number one

Not happy camper number two

So, the rain slacked a little and I decided to be a trooper. We had a  target bag on hand that i used to keep my new do from getting soaked. We tried running into the zoo, but alas the rain would simply not stop and mr. lighting and mr. thunder decided to join in. Kev immediately had a solution for this girl....food and SHOPPING. We pigged out  had enough lunch for a small army at Maggianos, an Italian restaurant that makes my mouth water just thinking about it. Their gnocchi is the bomb diggity!!!! After lunch, I unbuttoned the top button to my jeggings, and set out for a little retail therapy. Kevin Rex is not a shopper at all, but he will painfully play along with me for a couple of hours. For my birthday he let me tear up the Chanel counter and I also just happened to go a little crazy pick up a few things at Sephora. Major SCORE! I am loving all my new makeup and girly products. I will post about my great finds later :)

After shopping, we went back to the hotel for a quick napsie. We woke up and got ready for dinner at the Cheesecake Factory. It was my only request for my birthday that we ate there. It may sound cheesy (no pun intended) but it is my favorite place to eat with in Cincy. We always make it a point to go there when we are in Cincy for whatever reason. The first time we went there it was very early on in our relationship. I remember sitting there at our lil booth sipping on a mojito and thinking "i am really into this guy." It was the first time we both really connected and I knew we could have something. It is our ritual to always have a mojito every time we go there. I love the little memories in the early stages of relationships.  (added 7.21.11 post breakup - i have wanted to delete this paragraph so many times, but i have decided this was real when i wrote it and although i may not feel this way now, it was my honest feelings at that point in my life. oh, to live and to learn. i want my blog to be REAL and thus i opted not to hit the delete button)
A couple photos before dinner...I desperately need a new camera and a tripod. Maybe Santa will hook a girl up.

Corn fritters for appetizers...so yummy

We finished our meal with caramel apple cheesecake and peanut butter with Reese's cup cheesecake. We were stuffed!!!!

We got a photo snapped after dinner...and of course had to to have a to-go baggie.

The next day we decided to take the Zoo on for round 2. The weatherman was much more cooperative and we had GORGEOUS weather.

Hello SUNSHINE!

Two thumbs up for the awesome weather for our adventure to the zoo.

I ADORE animals and I was like a little kid wondering around the zoo. Here are a couple of the pics we snapped during the day.

This Gorilla, Jomo, was huge...like literally 8 foot tall.

The Polar Bears were one of our favorite attractions. We got to watch an actual feeding and they were quite the entertaining little fellers.

I loved my birthday and I am so blessed to be surrounded by so much love from family and friends. It was a great birthday indeed.

Happy Anniversary !

Happy Anniversary to my parents that is! 33 years ago yesterday my parents were married and continue to set an example of what a marriage should like for me and my brother. I can honestly say that I believe my parents are soul mates and each other's best friends. They have set the mold for what I want my marriage to be like. My brother and I are the people we are today because of the loving, nurturing, and supportive environment they provided us. They are the greatest role models and I am so lucky to have an amazing relationship with both of them.

Mom and Dad met at Cumberland College 30 some odd years ago. My dad was the big basketball star on campus and my precious lil mama was a majorette. Her and dad were best friends for quite some time, completely platonic. That soon all changed and after dating a mere 6 months they were married...and 33 years later... still in love. Check out the old wedding photos I found. Gotta love the blue tux my dad is sporting.

They are just as adorable now as they were then. My dad is a staggering 6 foot 9 inch giant and my little petite mom is barely 5 foot 4. She hardly comes under his armpit when she is flat footed.

This photo is still in my parents house today. I adore it!

 Now the photo below doesn't do their height difference justice. My mom is known for wearing 4 inch heels. That is definitely where I get my love for heals, wedges, and stilettos. If only we had the same size shoe...(i would have began rading the cloest at an early age) because this woman knows good shoe style :). 

My dad is the biggest kid at heart.

This weekend they moved my brother into his very first apartment....tear...he is growing up so fast and it breaks big sis' heart. Since they were in town, we of course had to celebrate their anniversary. On friday night I took the four of us out to a nice dinner to celebrate.  It was the first time just the four of us had been out to dinner in a long time. We had such a good night of just enjoying each other's company.

After dinner we went to my favorite place for desserts in Lexington...ORANGE LEAF..for frozen yogurt. DELISH!

I tear up just thinking about how important the 3 of them are to me and the impact they have on me from day to day. If I have said it once, I will say it a million more times, but my life is better everyday because they are a part of it. My mama is a true angel and has raised us to know there is nothing more important in life than family. My dad has taught me no matter what the circumstances are, my brother and I are always welcomed to "come back home." They also taught us that they will be beside of us through every inch of life cheering us on. Back in our little hometown, people often approach my parents and tell them what great kids they have raised, but the truth is this...it is really the GREAT parents my brother and I have that makes us the lucky and blessed ones. I love them so much and I thank God above everyday for blessing me with such an incredible sense of family. Mom and Dad if you are reading this - I love you and I thank you so much for all the sacrifices you have made for me, the memories you have given me, and the hard lessons you taught me. Thank you for the support, love, affection, and devotion you continue to shower me with. And thank you most of all for the Christian home I grew up with that has gave me the tools to conquer anything in this world.

On a recent trip to Vegas with some friends, we began talking about what my "then significant other" and I loved so much about each other. We were only allowed to name one thing. His immediate answer was...I have ALWAYS loved her sense of family. It melted my lil heart, not because he said it, but that someone recgonizes how important family is to me. It was one of the greatest compliments i have ever received (regardless if it came from a boyfriend or not).

With the three of these people on my side....I can do anything. Love you guys more than anything!

Happy Saturday Everyone!