free time

Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Adam and I have really not gone "out" in quite awhile, but for some reason the past few weekends have been like we're in college again. Of course, I've taken so many pictures and not updated my blog - so now I've got a lot to update on. (And by a lot, I really mean nothing worth actually reading/looking at.)

It was a big couple weeks for our high school best friends. First up, Alysa! She is getting her Masters in Family Counseling (deep stuff, huh?) and had a brief break between classes starting back up, so she convinced us to go out with her in Buckhead (aka - our college stomping ground). I have to admit, I used to be there every weekend (sometimes Friday and Saturday... barf) during college breaks and when I first graduated. Since I'm now getting so old and frail, it takes me a little longer to bounce back between trips. I was due!


I've already lost track of where I am. Whatever. Adam built me THIS as a surprise!! It's for our guest bedroom and I found one on Pinterest I lovedddd, and he built it. High five to me for marrying a handyman! Now we just have to paint it.


The next weekend, Dominica found out she passed the ridiculously hard test to become a Court Reporter! She's taken it a few times and was really starting to get bummed out, but she DID IT! Clearly, we had to go out and celebrate. This time we chose to keep it local at the Marietta Square (literally 1 mile from our house).

We started out classy at the Marietta Wine Market (of course), and then things went downhill quickly...



Headed over to Hemingway's for a couple more drinks and some apps...

Picked up some Little Ceasar's pizza and more booze for the patio...

And ended the night at the sketchiest bar - Mulligan's.

It was so worth it. Going out is so much more fun when you're celebrating!

However, the fact that Adam and I had nursery duty at church the next morning was not so fun. Is that some sort of double sin? Luckily, my husband is the Child Whisperer.


I don't even remember what day it was - but we also had a pool party with Kelly, Vann and Jason at some point! And that was fun!

Ok - done with that update. On to the next!

Conference of Leaders

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

As I mentioned in my last post, we were out until 3am at Dallas and Chad's wedding and my alarm went off at 5am. Well, that's because I had to get my butt up and drive all the way to the airport to head to Share Our Strength's annual Conference of Leaders. Our flight landed in DC at 10am and the first session started at 11am (it was somewhere between my uncomfortable, drool-filled nap on the plane and the cab ride that I was regretting the whole 'staying up until 3am because I'm young and fun' idea.) Once I got rolling (sans coffee) I got a second wind... then a third and a fourth. Next thing I know we're all at the bar with our chefs and it's 1am. How did I get here?

One of our awesome Taste of the Nation partners in Florida, Panache, won the Local Business Partner Award!


We brought along some of our top partners, chefs and volunteers from Atlanta and Florida to join in on the fun! Here's our Atlanta crew toasting the trip.


It's always fun to hang out with our chefs and meet new ones from across the country, too.



Some of our amazing Florida No Kid Hungry chefs ready to hear from famed restaurateur, Danny Meyer.

We kicked off Monday morning with Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsak. Amazing.

To be honest, I had heard some horror stories about Conference - that it was super exhausting and the Awards Dinner was 4-5 hours long. Well, after living through my first one I have to say that all the rumors were beyond false. I seriously loved every second of it and didn't want it to end! (I also heard from my colleagues that this year was the best, yet. Probably something to do with the Awards Dinner only lasting 2.5 hours and it only being two days, rather than four.) I can't even begin to describe how refreshing it is to be surrounded by 600 people who are also passionate about ending childhood hunger for two straight days (three including our All Staff Conference). This is the one time a year we bring together our colleagues, partners, volunteers, chefs and overall No Kid Hungry champions and just re-energize for the cause. Now our team is bursting with ideas and newly motivated to get back to our desks and work even harder.

What can I say? I drank the kool aid.

Love my culinary events team!

P.S. Perfect timing. Today is my one year anniversary with Share Our Strength!! I am beyond grateful for this amazing opportunity to work in such a fun environment while also working towards ending childhood hunger in America. I cannot complain.

Sage Wedding

Friday, June 7, 2013

This past weekend, Adam was a groomsman in one of our close friends' weddings. Adam and Chad played baseball together at North Georgia, and I would hang out with their group when I went to visit. I have always loved both Dallas and Chad, and we were both so excited to celebrate them finally getting married (they've been dating for 9 years!).

It was a pretty eventful weekend, to say the least. On Friday, we met one of Adam's friends so they could head to rehearsal up in Gainesville, as I was heading to the Atlanta Food and Wine Festival for work (isn't my job so terrible?!). This massive pipe was kicked up from a truck in front of us and came right at us. I just closed my eyes and tensed up (rule #1 of what not to do when you're about to get hit), so it's a good thing Adam drove. Thank GOD the pipe hit my bumper and hood rather than coming through the windshield. We then swerved all over the road and luckily didn't kill anyone... including us. My immediate thought was "I thought that was going to crush my windshield!" while Adam was under the impression that we just barely missed death - he thought it was going to come through the windshield and kill us both. Thank you Jesus that the only thing hurt was my car - and only vanity issues, nothing that would affect it driving.


After that interesting start to the weekend, I headed down to Atlanta for the festival. I'm guessing that because it was Friday afternoon is the reason it wasn't very crowded. It was GLORIOUS. I hate lines and there were none! Tons of delicious food and wine (hence the name... get it?!). The only thing I didn't like was how the festival was separated out by protein - one whole line of tables was pork, one was BBQ, etc. I would have rather seen them separated.

Enjoying the day with Ashley and Kim

Love Chef Timon and everything he does for No Kid Hungry!

And while I could have gone home and to bed after that, it was time for me to make the hour trek up to Gainesville for Dallas and Chad's rehearsal dinner. I love rehearsal dinners - there's always just so much love in the room.

I didn't know any of the girls besides the wedding party, so I decided to go home Friday night while Adam spent the night so he could do groomsman-y things with the guys on Saturday. The next time I saw him was at the wedding where he just looked so handsome in his suit!


LOVED their program



MARRIED!


The wedding was gorgeous and the reception was so fun! Their original reception venue closed down three weeks prior to the wedding, so it was a mad rush finding a new place. (I think I would have just thrown my hands up and said "No wedding" if that was me!) The new place, Cottrell Circle C Ranch, was so amazing I can't even imagine what the original place was like!



Love these boys

Favorite groom!


Troy was a groomsman in our wedding, too! Love him.

Bromance.

My new instant best friend. Whitney was too much fun!!

Even though I had to be up at 5am to head to the airport (oh,yeah) I was somehow coerced into going to the bars with the bride and groom after the wedding. Yep, I got in at 3am and my alarm went off at 5am to head to the airport - that was fun!



In the end, it was so worth it! You can sleep when you're dead, right? Congrats to Challas!


 
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