best husband, ever!

Sunday, July 29, 2012

Adam asked me to title this blog post "BEST HUSBAND, EVER" and I happily obliged. He spoiled me beyond belief for my birthday this year!!

My official birthday was Thursday (the big 2-4!). My fabulous new employer let me work from home and only work a half day! So we met up with my mom, brother, aunt and cousins for lunch at Guston's Grill. Nothing fancy, since we'll be doing my family birthday sometime later - my dad was in San Francisco swimming the Alcatraz Sharkfest to raise money for Alzheimer's Georgia Chapter (he finished in 47 minutes this year!). Then we spent some time at the pool before heading home to get ready for the Lassiter Baseball Coaches' cookout.Yes, you read that correctly - I sacrificed my birthday night to attend a coaches' cookout!  However, the food and the company was great so it could have been much worse. :)




Adam made me a DELICIOUS birthday dinner on Wednesday instead. Holy amazingness - flank steak, asparagus, baked potatoes, my favorite wine - Kim Crawford Sauvignon Blanc, and surprise cupcakes! YUM.


And look how artsy my handsome hubs is? I am a sucker for homemade gifts and I luckily strategically married a handyman. He got the idea from Pinterest, specifically here, and we'll fill out the rest of it together.


I received two guest passes to the High Museum for my birthday last year and Adam and I were finally able to use them on Friday (I got the day off work!). Neither of us had ever been, and it was pretty awesome! I loved the photography exhibit and now I really want the guy's book - Up and Down Peachtree, Photographs of Atlanta.

View of Midtown from the High.


Ok y'all, have you ever been to Antico Pizza? It's constantly written up as the best pizza place in Atlanta, and I've been dying to take Adam! The guy loves cheese and pizza. We went after the High and it definitely lived up to the reviews! Someone recommended the San Gennaro, so we went with that. YUM.


SATURDAY... oh, Saturday. We started the day by hiking up Kennesaw Mountain with Ruthie. I'd never gone up the mountain before and it was quite the feat.




Needless to say, once we made it down all I wanted to do was go home and lay down in the A/C. Instead, Adam decided he needed new flip flops from Target, and then he needed to get gas at Costco, and then he needed to go the LONG way home. Did I mention we were in the truck with NO A/C! I was about to lose it and was getting super annoyed. Then we stopped at the grocery store up the street because he needed to get something else - UGH.

When he got in the car, he handed me a blindfold and told me I had to put it on. At this point I obviously knew something was going on. I knew he had been planning something for Saturday night, but it was only 1pm at this point. Then I started to get annoyed again because I was sweaty and disgusting in my workout clothes and was not looking to waltz around in that outfit. We drove back to the house (he didn't even try to throw me off with a wrong turn or anything - which I appreciated. Remember, no A/C).

He walked me up the driveway, and SURPRISE!!!!!



Thanks to Madi for these pictures capturing my SURPRISE! The first thing I did when Adam proposed was throw my hands up to my face - I guess that's my go-to look.





He and one of my very best friends, Dominica, had been planning this surprise party the whole time!!! And here's the best part...


Holy cow - seriously the BEST birthday, ever!! Side note: turns out TuTus are waterproof!


Playing Flip Cup Olympics!


Friends from North Carolina, South Carolina and Florida all made the trek to surprise me!













Taking the last plunge of the night with the hubs! 





We even got Ruthie to go down the slide once! Once she figured it out, she loved the pool!


Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU to world's best family and friends for being a part of this epic day! I love you all!

mashup

Monday, July 23, 2012

How are people constantly thinking of blog titles? I am quickly running out of them - clearly. Mashup? Whatever.

Last week was the Taste of the Nation Miami event in...you guessed it - Miami! It was held at the gorgeous Turnberry Isle and I was lucky enough to get to stay there, too. I didn't take too many pictures of the event, but here's the terrible view from my room. Rough life, huh? If you'd like to see more pictures of the actual event, check out the Facebook page.


I flew back on Friday evening and had to get ready for a busy, busy weekend! Saturday morning, Dominica graduated from Brown College of Court Reporting, so Adam and I went to cheer her on.


Erik, Dominica, Me and Adam


So proud of my graduate!


After the ceremony, we had a delish celebratory brunch at Vinings Inn.


That night, the celebrations continued and we all headed to Ormsby's in Midtown. If you haven't been, I highly recommend it! It's basically a theme park for adults. They have bocce ball, skee ball, shuffleboard, pool, darts, etc.






On Sunday afternoon, I went to the Attack of the Killer Tomato Festival with my fabulous Director - Allison. A serious perk of the job, we get to go to fun food events to see what other folks in Atlanta are up to.

Santa in July? Why not?


And to kick off my birthday week, look what fun message I got from Wells Fargo when I went to the bank yesterday?? NICELY PLAYED.


Training in DC

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

I spent the last week up in DC training for my new job! Well, technically I've been here a month so it's not exactly new. I think I would have had a nervous breakdown if I had been sent up there without having an event or anything under my belt - it was much easier to comprehend everything since I was able to put it in context. Anyway, the week was awesome and it was so great to meet more of the Share Our Strength team.

I figured out the best time to go to the White House - during rush hour! On Monday we didn't have to be at the office until 11am, so I went exploring in the morning. Everyone was power walking/biking/etc. to their job and I was just standing there snapping pictures. Don't mind me!


I was so happy to meet up with one of my favorite childhood friends from Texas - Lauren. We haven't seen each other in probably 10 years! She's a nurse at Walter Reed, so we were able to grab dinner one night.


One night I went walking down to Georgetown. Holy cow, it was so cute! I definitely want to go back to visit. (Disclaimer: I don't {think} I have a cupcake addiction, however I am addicted to how cute cupcake shops tend to be.) Here's Sprinkles Cupcakes.


And here's Georgetown Cupcake - they have a show on TLC. I actually tweeted this picture and said something along the lines of "I walked all the way to Georgetown Cupcake and they were closed!" They replied saying this was just their lab for the show, and that the bakery was one block over. HELLO, maybe you should put a sign on your door saying that. Because I just went to Sprinkles and got one of their cupcakes instead.


Seriously, Georgetown is so cute.


On Friday afternoon, I took the train up to Baltimore to spend the night with Frances and Tom - and Lindsay came down (over? up?) from Philly!

Frances and Tom just moved into this new condo about a year ago and it was my first time seeing the place. Look at these amazing views!

Inner Harbor


 Orioles and Ravens stadiums


Adam surprised me with a new wedding ring! SIKE! This is Frances' insane set.


Uncle Tom's hot dates


We went to a yummy dinner at Kali's Court. If you're ever in the area, I highly recommend it. After dinner, Lindsay and I went out in the Federal Hill area and were up to our normal shenanigans.




I had to wake up Saturday morning and fly back to Atlanta for another work event - what a week! Needless to say, I slept for a solid 12 hours on Saturday night.

I'll leave you with this little gem. Someone had this bib made for Mitchell for his birthday. Love it!



heavy heart

Monday, July 9, 2012

This past Saturday, on Mitchell's 19th birthday, some of his friends got in a terrible car accident. His very close friend, Ryan, was driving and didn't survive the crash. He was pronounced brain dead and his family pulled the plug on Sunday morning. There was no alcohol involved. As far as they know, Ryan hit a slippery spot and lost control of the car. A 100% accident.

The two passengers were Adam's baseball players. Chris is currently in stable condition in the hospital, but they won't know the extent of his brain injuries until the swelling goes down in a few days. His family has started a blog detailing his progress here. And Tyler was able to walk away with merely a concussion.

There were a fair share of deaths when I was in high school, but I don't really remember them affecting me. Maybe because when you're in high school and it happens, you still think you're invincible. You still think that it could never happen to you. Because, you know, in high school we knew everything and it was so annoying when our parents gave us any type of advice. Like they would know?

I think this hit me so hard because I keep thinking that it could have so easily been Mitchell in that car. They just graduated high school in May and have their whole life in front of them. Sadly, Ryan's was cut drastically short. I didn't really know him, other than making him pose for a picture with me a prom, but from what I've heard he was always making people laugh and just loved life. He would have loved college. It's just such a harsh reminder that life really is so short and can be taken from you in the blink of an eye. We are not guaranteed anything. And in these circumstances, although it's hard to comprehend, even this tragedy is part of His plan. 

Please pray for the Aschenbach family as they mourn the loss of their sweet kid, Ryan. Pray for Chris to have the strength to pull through his injuries and lead a full life. Pray that his doctors and nurses make the right decisions in the most crucial times. Pray for peace for the Heitzman family as they watch their son lie in the hospital bed without a definite prognosis. Pray that Tyler feels no guilt for walking away unscathed. Pray for the entire Lassiter Nation as they mourn the loss of a close friend, student, teammate. 

"Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted." - Matthew 5:4

Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue!

Thursday, July 5, 2012

Let me start by saying it should be ILLEGAL to work the day after the Fourth of July. I'm so tired I think I'm  going cross-eyed. I kept trying to tell myself "You never remember the nights you went to bed early" last night (or something like that, I'm too tired to actually remember it). Going to bed at 2am on a school night? Who do I think I am?! HOWEVER, it was a fabulous day and night!

Per usual, we kicked it off with some pool time. Adam was finishing up a baseball tournament, so he couldn't make it for the pool party, sad day.


How amazing is my shirt? I found it here on Pinterest. 


A couple weeks back I asked my parents if I could have a few people over to their house for the Fourth since you can see so many fireworks from their back deck. Being the giving people they are, they agreed. And then they decided to invite a couple, and then another couple, and then my aunt...one thing led to another and the day before the Fourth it turned out they were having their own little shindig, too. Oh, and Mitchell had people over. Shockingly, it wasn't too hectic. I love to just grill out and have a few drinks with friends - another reason I love summer time!




My fun friend and sorority sister, Whittney, is living in Atlanta for the summer (and hopefully longer!), so she joined us for the day.



Y'all. This is serious. I made so many fun treats for the Fourth of July, and it was so fun! As we all know, I'm not too great in the kitchen, but it's really just because I don't enjoy being in the kitchen. Maybe it's because part of my new title is 'Culinary Events', but I spent a good 2 hours in the kitchen on Monday prepping for the party! And I had fun.

For instance, I made the fun jello shots seen in the picture below! Instead of pouring them into cups, I poured them into limes (Thank you Sarah for the genius idea). The trickiest part was cutting the limes in half and scooping out the insides. The first couple were a disaster - I was sweating, my arms were sore and I was getting super annoyed. BUT I kept trying different ways and finally found out what worked best for me! I have to admit, it was nice not having Adam hovering over me telling me how to do it - it was actually fun to figure it out myself! So obviously, these were quite the labor of love.


I also made this fun punch, which I named 'Red, White and Booze'. Appropriate, right? I saw a picture of the fruit on Pinterest, and just kind of winged it from there. Here's what I did...

1 package of fresh strawberries
1 package of fresh blueberries
1 pineapple (Again, I had to figure out how to cut a pineapple by myself, and was so proud of myself!) I cut the pineapple into thin slices and then used a star cookie cutter to make it patriotic.
Then I poured in some a lot of vodka and let it soak for two days.
About an hour before the party, I poured in 1 liter of Diet Gingerale and 2 cans of Sprite.
TA DA! It was delish, and the fruit had quite the kick.



Finally, I made potatoes. They didn't really look like this picture, but they got rave reviews! I got the recipe here (again, courtesy of Pinterest!) and it was so ridiculously easy.


I am so proud of myself and I got so many compliments for being such a good little hostess - I clearly fooled them all.

Overall, it was just such a fun day! I hope everyone had a great day celebrating with family and friends! And I hope everyone else is suffering through work like me.


 
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