you know how sometimes you just have one of those perfect days? today was one of those days. i went shopping for italy with mom this morning, and then had lunch with mrs. sharon and virginia at a cute little sandwich shop in raleigh. it was so great to catch up, they're basically my other mom and sister. the weather is what was the cherry on top of making this day so great. it was a gorgeous north carolina day, it's so green here, even moreso than georgia and i loove it. the wind knew exactly how strong to blow to balance the bright sunshine, it felt amazing. then i had a wonderful dinner with three of my high school best friends and we ran by the broughton lacrosse game. would've been more perfect if they had won, but it was close. i got to talk to all the sweet parents who i've missed, they love it when you're back from college. then we went back to a friend's house, drank some wine, chatted and caught up until jack came to get me. i'm always happy after i've been with jack for the night. it's what i like to call the "beyond happy felling." i'm about to fall asleep in my new striped night gown, my fan is on high- i love when i can sleep with my fan on high- and i'm nested in my bed with 7 amazing pillows and my fluffy duvet. goodnight moon.

a couple of us have taken over the chapter room to cram for our tests tomorrow. as the night goes on we have become more easily distracted. i had to break for my favorite study snack: peanut butter toast, ah heaven. i went to open the jar of peanut butter (our toaster is extremely horribly slow) and it was brand new! never been touched perfection. flat across the top. what a great feeling that is! being the first one to dip your spoon into a jar of goodness. it's so fresh and almost crisp when you open the jar to find it untouched. nothing better than spreading creamy peanut butter (sometimes i enjoy crunchy too), from a brand new jar, across a warm piece of whole wheat bread. pure, utter perfection if you ask me.

"but seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well."

-matthew 6:33

"so many nights

i just dream of the ocean

god i wish i was sailing again."

gosh i want to be everything about her right now.

missy used to do handstands in the den, an annoying amount of them i might add. she could walk on her hands forever. my parents finally got sick of it and banned handstands in the den, but put her in gymnastics class. this girl looks a lot prettier than missy doing a handstand. doesn't she look great?

"i believe in fairy tales and dreamer's dreams like bedsheet sails and i believe in peter pan and miracles anything i can to get by. and fireflies." -faith hill

paper plates

wonderful does not even describe the weekend we had in charleston! the weather was great, although a little breezy we still got to play on the beach. the first house is where the formal chairs and so older boys stayed. it was referred to as the "chateau de science," don't ask i don't understand these boys sometimes. it was beautiful! this is where everyone went at night for parties. the music was always on and people were always dancing. everything inside was brand new, it looked like it came out of a magazine. they had a great view of the sound and a pretty dock where they caught crabs. on the back porch connected to the kitchen was a pool and hot tub. the blue house i where we stayed. it was on the beach and had two porches, everyone came to our house during the day so we could hang out on the beach. i loved having so many people in and out all the time. we made yummy breakfast in the mornings, and for late night haha. and of course jack and i brought back quesadillas with nacho cheese doritos in the them (if you haven't tried this i highly recommend it). it was nice hanging out in our big kitchen/den area with everyone.

this is ladder golf, the game of choice for the weekend. the boys just loved this game, it was pretty intense. i tried to play, this was a huge failure, i made like one or two on the thing. usually you play to 21, we played to 11 haha whoopsies. the boys were also very entertained by the tennis ball. we also played one game of bocci and jack and i won! two of mine were the closest once, i was so proud of myself. hanging out on the beach was great. on saturday we laid out at the pool in order to escape the desert like winds.

meet abby and katie. they dated two of the boys in our house. i had such a fun time hanging out with them! the other girl suneha wore a yellow dress and we all looked so great together. check out the windblown hair haha. all the pictures look really funny because it was extremely breezy. but i love how beachy this is. makes me so excited for summertime!

me and jack hanging out at the formal house on saturday. we had such a great time together! it was great to be able to spend a chill weekend together at the beach. i love being with his friends, i think they are so great. i can't help but always laugh when i am around them. relationships are never perfect, but i've learned you make the best of everything and enjoy the small stuff. we have so much fun together. i always love dancing with him. and he always knows how to make me smile, it's nice to have someone that wants what's best for you.

this is the girls in our dinner group before we went out in downtown charleston on friday night. this is the back porch of the formal chairs' house. beautiful huh? we had late reservations so we went into charleston early and walked around on king st./market st. we were all kinda tired so walking around for an hour and a half probably wasn't the best idea ever. but it was nice to see downtown, every store we passed i wanted to go in and buy everything, thank goodness they were closed. hopefully i can go back soon and explore charleston in the daytime. the restaurant we ate at was great! jack and i had an entire thing of the most amazing crab dip and then we both got shrimp, mine had really good potatoes and vegetables. we were all in a much better mood after dinner, and were ready to fall asleep on the cab ride home.

all and all this was an awesome weekend! we had a little flaw with the actual formal dance haha but it's ok because everyone made the best of it and it ended up being one of my favorite nights. i just loved the entire group of people that were there. everyone just wanted to have a great time and we did. everyone was so friendly and welcoming, it was great to just hang out with such nice people. i'm happy to say i came home to athens with lots of new friends! great wine, great people, great weather, great dancing, great everything! it's safe to say all of my expectations were exceeded. thanks for a great weekend charleston!

"last night" update

here's an update to my post about the "man screaming" outside my window (check under March). guess i was wrong, it really was an animal. mom and dad heard the noise again the other week and a "four legged creature" walked out of the woods behind our house. dad just sent me an email entitled: "here's your buddy", picture hearing this noise (but a little more human like) at two in the morning outside of your window. freaky huh?

puppies for sale

this picture was just posted on my sister's facebook wall of her and a friend laying in our front yard three years ago. and in their arms are the most precious little bundles of joy. i wish i could make it bigger so you could see their sweet scrunchie little faces. my junior year in high school, we had nine of these running around our garage/backyard. 5 black, 4 yellow. belle was such a proud mother. we bread her with a very handsome yellow lab named huck, they liked each other a lot! all members of the american kennel club, they made some beautiful little babies. dad thought it would be so neat to film these pups being born, so everyone who bought a puppy also got a tape of them coming into the world... interesting, but totally like my dad. i remember dad waking me up and asking if i wanted to come meet the 8 new members of the family (at this time there were only 8). i wanted to burst into tears i was so ecstatic! belle had been in labor all night, she was exhausted (and still had another waiting to come). puppies are funny little things when they're first born and we couldn't touch them for awhile which was the hardest part. we would sit out there for hours watching them squirm around, they couldn't even open their eyes yet. watching these little ones grow was such a great experience. once they got big enough, we moved them to a kennel in the backyard, talk about poop. all puppies do is eat and poop, and bark, well try to bark at least. but it's so great! everyday after school i would run back to play with them and let them chew on my hands, or crawl all over me in the yard, or just curl up in my lap. each time we sold one a little piece of my heart broke. miss belle was so sad to watch her babies leave her, although i'm sure a little relieved, 9 kids is a lot to handle. the runt, a little black girl, was the last to leave. she was my favorite and i begged dad to let us keep her. she has a great home with one of my dad's client's now, her name is lila and they send us pictures of her, she's grown up to be quite the beautiful young lady. i cannot wait to get a puppy of my own! and then she can have lots of puppies for me to play with. if there's one thing that can make anyone smile, it's a tiny, scrunchie little puppy looking at you straight in the eye and wagging it's tail. they make my heart melt.

charleston

this weekend i'm going to chi psi (from chapel hill) formal in charleston! i could not be more excited, it's going to be the best long weekend. i've never been to charleston and am just giddy thinking about how great it's going to be! we're staying in houses on the beach, although i'm not expecting them to look quite like this, but they're housing six couples so they won't be tiny.

i can't wait to lay out on the beautiful beaches. i've been working on my tan recently. it's never as good as you want it to be at this point in the game but hopefully i at least won't get burned and look like a lobster. my dress is royal blue and i'm absolutely in love with it, could not be more excited about wearing it. it's one of those that you never want to take off, you just wear it all night. i'll probably be prancing around in it for a while. and to top off the greatness of the dress, i get to wear it on a boat all night. boats, pretty dresses, the sea, friends i love gosh it doesn't get much better. i hope to be drinking yummy wine. one more day and i'll be hitting the road. gotta pack lots and lots of cute clothes, because you HAVE to look cute in charleston. i have high expectations and i'm certain they will be exceeded.

"I love people who make me laugh. I honestly think it's the thing I like most, to laugh. It cures a multitude of ills. It's probably the most important thing in a person."

--Audrey Hepburn

promises

dove dark chocolates are one of my favorite things in this world. not only because they are so yummy, but because on the inside of each wrapper is a dove "promise message." i was first introduced to them junior year when my cross country coach brought us each a heart shaped chocolate at practice on valentines day. it is so great opening a small piece of delicious chocolate, and getting to not only enjoy it's taste but the happy little not posted on the inside. i've placed some of my favorites inside my quote book and have a whole bag full that have yet to make it there...

• dare to love completely
• do all things with love (this is posted on my mirror)
• smile before bed, you'll sleep better (i think it's true)
• send a love letter this week
• hey, why not?
• flirting is mandatory
• sing along with the elevator music
• happiness is the experience of living every minute with love, grace and gratitude
• give of yourself to someone who needs you
• find little ways to make everyday a holiday!!
• open your eyes to the love around you
• think of someone who makes you smile
• in chaos there lies opportunity
• love cures people, both the ones who give and the ones who receive
• the most enjoyable experiences are often free
• close out the world for just a moment
• wink at someone driving past today
• it's never too late for a fresh start
• be the first to hit the dance floor
• it's okay to live without a "big picture" in mind
• end each day with a lovely thought (i love the word lovely)
• curl up in the sun and take a cat nap
• too much a of good thing is wonderful
• engage, embrace, enjoy
• spoil yourself today
• give a little love today
• believe in and act on your dreams
• make whatever you do count
• put your feet up and unwind
• be playful with your love
• feel the grass beneath your bare toes
• take time to dream
• seize the day
• smile when you want to, cry when you need to, laugh whenever possible!

drown me in love.

come on get higher is just one of those songs that always gets me. it takes me back to senior year of high school. it's such a sexy song. and i think matt nathanson is awesome!

here's the first time he ever played it, he's hilarious:

here's what it sounds like now, ahh amazing:

and here's sugarland singing it. i have a girl crush on jennifer nettles:

my savior.

"mercy's found a way for me, hope is here as i am free, Jesus you are all i need i'm clinging to the cross. what a savior what a story you were crucified and now you are alive. so amazing, such a mystery you were crucified and now you are ALIVE."

"when before the throne i stand in him complete Jesus died my soul to save, my lips shall so repeat, Jesus paid it all, all to him i owe. sin had left a crimson stain, he washed it white as snow... oh praise the one who paid my debt and raises life up from up from the dead!"