3.31.2011

Basketball and Magazines

Watching the Alabama game the other night brought me back to my ol' bookkeeping years... good times good times :)

Bama will be playing in the finals of the NIT tonight... while I am being lectured at in my favorite class... THIS CLASS IS TORCHER. PERIOD. Ask my friend.
She will back me up on this statement.

Anyways, on a random note, wanted to share some of my favorite magazines for this month...

Thanks to my friend for sharing this one with me!


I LOVE this channel so of course their magazine doesn't disappoint!


One of my ALL time favorites.. I was brought to the light on this one on my Cali trip last year.


I hope Bama wins tonight and I hope my class is quick and painless (6-9pm, I am going to try to be positive here and think this painless situation is possible).

ROLL TIDE!

Laugh a lot...


3.29.2011

Birthday Girl

I had a great birthday! Thanks to everyone who made it a special day :)

I turned the big 2-3!

I started the day off with a great breakfast... in my NYC bowl given to me by my best friend!

Quinoa, hemp milk, bananas, and apple. OH and a big cup of coffee!
After breakfast I got ready for class... to find out another classmate turned 21 today, another 22, and me 23 :) 

Birthday cake for 2 weather nerds :)

Who said you can't have birthday parties in class in college... as a graduate student?
Went to work and my AMAZING boss surprised me with a Gigi's cupcake with sprinkles!


Birthday Surprise... so good!

Came home and did some house stuff and caught 15 minutes of Gilmore Girls... the moment when I hear the theme song, everything is right in the world just for a short time haha! 
I love that show!
Then after that blissful moment I headed to workout... where everyone welcomed me with birthday wishes! And 2 of my good girlfriends there took me out to eat after CrossFit class to...

Chicken Kabob Plate with a piece of their chocolate cake!
And then that sweet boy walked in after working the longest day at work with a big smile on his face and a cupcake in hand.... topped with candle and singing Happy Birthday to me :)



A little weather report... it will be rainy off and on all week. Make sure to have rain gear on hand... but look forward to a sunny weekend :)

And now this 23 year old has to get some shut eye. I am a whole year older now after all ;)

Laugh a lot! 
And have a Wonderful Wednesday... 
I hope it will be a WOOHOO Wednesday for us all! 
Filled with encouragement and productivity :)





3.28.2011

Arizona to Atlanta

I got an iPhone! I am very excited... it is way better than my ol' Blackberry!

With Verizon!

So wanted to share the amazingness of an app called...
INSTAGRAM

Super cool application... you can put filters on pictures you take! 
For my Arizona trip I carried my "big girl camera," 
but for this past weekend to Atlanta I used Instagram!

By the way, my traveling shoes...
 ...are officially put up for a weekend or two... or three!
I love traveling, but I am ready for a weekend here at my apartment where I can clean slowly and get some school work caught up (well try to get ahead a little bit).

Wanted to say thanks for the great hospitality shown by the Johnsons! Check out their blog there... they just bought their first home :) 

Here are some snaps (by Instagram) from over the weekend:

Breakfast at Mountain Biscuit

Ham and Egg biscuit with some black coffee!

And some Biscuit Syrup drizzled on top!

We went antique shopping. And I found so many adorable pieces!

A random beautiful flower in the yard


The BIG Chicken and its moving beak!
With some stormy clouds in the background.

Strawberry Chicken Salad from Star Light Cafe in downtown  Marietta, GA.

Fish tacos from Paradise/South of the Border

Margarita while listening to 2 great singers!

Meet Mr. Jake Johnson. Cutie :)

And the reason why we came... David got his certification!
I have brought back a traveling bug I think... 
Within the month of March, 
David and I have been from coast to coast (Arizona to Georgia)! 

I started feeling bad last night and now feel like I have the crud... 
BUT
Tomorrow is my birthday... woopwoop! 
I told my sister it just doesn't seem like tomorrow is my birthday... but it is haha Mom promised its March 29th!

I hope everyone has a terrific Tuesday and is VERY productive :)

Laugh A LOT, 



3.23.2011

Red High Heels

I said good-bye to my red high heels...


Not just any pair... 
my first pair of red high heels...


I bought them in Dallas, TX. I bought them, felt like everything was right in the world, and with the red high heels in hand I boarded a plane for my first plane ride. Yes, I traveled in them, I was in love. And when I got back I started college. These were my first pair of "big girl" heels. Full of beauty and PAIN, but I felt it was necessary to start college.

Speaking of my first time on a plane... I was by myself and all excited in a new outfit. Felt like I could conquer the world, because I had red high heels on. I sat beside these two sweet men who coached me through the first plane take off of my life. They gave me some bubble gum so my ears wouldn't bother me. By this point, the brainwashing wore off (you know what I am talking about when we sell ourselves the shoes with "these shoes aren't that painful"), we landed and I found out my plane was about to take off. I had to RUN through the airport in these beautiful babies. 
Needless to say I was the LAST person to board and sat down, buckled in, rolled the jeans up, and pulled out my flip-flops to slip on. AHH relief... after feeling came back in my feet and lower legs. 

I am getting to the point now where I know I will or won't wear certain things in my closets. Saturday I pulled everything out and had a little in-house shopping spree, I highly suggest it to all females (free clothes right?). I only kept basics and what I would feel comfortable in wearing now and what is "my style." I took the items that didn't "yell Courtney" and sold them at Plato's Closet and got some cash. I haven't even considered wearing these red high heels for a good 3 years now, so I called my best friend and told her I was about to turn them over to someone else, and to make sure I wasn't making a "crazy decision." She agreed and promised we would find me another pair of red high heels and I would love them even more :)

I am off to chill and memorize some verses with my favorite 5-6th grade girls!



Have a great Wednesday... 
WOOHOO Wednesday for me... I successfully "weeded" out the closets and well into my thesis work :)
Laugh a lot today/tonight!


P.S. Wanted to mention the passing of Elizabeth Taylor... Other than Cleopatra, my memory of her is from my Mamaw Margaret who has always smelt of White Diamonds (always bought by my grandpa).

My favorite picture taken over Christmas... Papaw givin' Mamaw a smooch







3.22.2011

Spring is in the air

Happy SPRING! 

I have Spring Fever... and after Spring Break it just took on a whole new level!

Here are some shots from the farm when I visited over the break...


So here is a quick story... 
my 1st grade teacher, Ms. Helms, knows me as the Spring Fever child. 
My mom worked in the office back in the day, and I had overheard her talking to some people about having a case of "Spring Fever." I obviously had never heard of such a sickness, and decided that's what was wrong with me. So I am so "sick" for a couple days, and my teacher finally asks me what is wrong... 
well I told her I had a bad case of "Spring Fever!"
Yes I thought it was a real sickness, haha, and I decided that was what I had when in fact I probably was just having a little allergy/sinus problem.
So moral of the story-- if you work with kids (school, babysitting, church, etc.) and they state they have "Spring Fever" let them know that they will recover... around June, when it will transfer to Summer Fever :)



Vernal Equinox! 
Yah! This is when "Spring Fever" really hits me hard... school work starts to be not so interesting and not so important as compared to going for a run outside or laying on a blanket at the river....

So you may ask, what exactly does this "Vernal Equinox" mean? Although I am no Ms. Frizzle
 (I LOVE THAT SHOW)
here's the deal in a nutshell...
Vernal means "center of sun crossing the celestial equator" and Equinox means "equal day/night" (check this out for more information)

Have you seen some of the BEAUTIFUL sunsets we have been having? Here is one I captured on the farm...



I must get back to school work now but wanted to say HEY and remind you to LAUGH and I had to share the SPRING FEVER story of course :)








3.16.2011

Days 3 and 4 in Arizona

We are officially back in Alabama.... 
after 3 delays and almost missing our flight (trust me the 1st delay was a blessing) we are back to the real world!

Arizona was great! We just couldn't have asked for a better trip!

So what did we do on days 3 and 4... what did we not do?!

Day 3...

We got recommendations on places to go, things to eat, and what places to hike from the people at SCNM (Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine... David's future school possibly). 

**Side note: the only "bad" thing, and it didn't affect us too much because we didn't stay in the room hardly any, was that we were put in a smoking room at the hotel. 
I guess that is what we get for purchasing the cheapest package on CheapTickets... even though I requested a NON-smoking room. 
Anyways, wasn't that big of an issue (they brought in some ozone machine, which was supposed to take the smell away, righhttttttt).... 
the point is, we were gone pretty much every day and just used the room for about 10 hours or less per day (including sleep time and getting ready). We would wake up and hurry to get ready and dart out of there! 
Hahah it was a race to see how fast we could get up and out of there and how long we could stay away from the room!

Okay back to day 3 happenings...

So we got up and headed out pretty early Sunday. We went to a darling place, D'Lish. It is a breakfast/lunch/coffee cafe and SOO cool! 

Go inside or grab-n-go!
Quinoa with Almond Milk, seasonal fruit, granola, and maple syrup for me! 
California Club for David! Protein packed!
We then headed north to make our way to Sedona!

WARNING...
A lot of pictures are below! I think they tell the story of Day 3 better than me :)

To summarize the pictures below in one long run on sentence with lots of semi-colons:

We drove north about an hour and a half from Scottsdale;
We stopped along the way for an adventure down to this cool stream we saw from the road;
We crossed a fence (David jumped the fence- failure would lead to a crash in the cactus, I was concerned, but he is cactus sticker free, whew);
We crawled on our hands and knees under thorny bushes and well it was an adventure;
Then we hopped back in the car and headed to Sedona;
Stopped at an art show;
Arrived in Sedona;
We got lunch at Wildflower Bread Company then found a bench with a view and ate and admired the landscape; 
Walked around Sedona talking to locals;
Went to the Chapel of the Holy Cross; 
Hike/rock climb to the vortex at Cathedral Rock;
Drove to a vineyard and enjoyed a flight of Arizona wines; 
Decided to head more north to Flagstaff;
Took the scenic drive where we went from having visions of John Wayne and cactus to tall trees and snow and elk;
Drove on Route 66 through downtown Flagstaff; 
Experienced no civilization for about 100+ miles; 
Had to eat at Sonic or a casino... and from the looks of Sonic we chose the casino;
Lost $10 (my sister is the lucky one with this sort of stuff) in a slot machine and left (first time in a casino though so we had to go for it... I know big spenders); 
Got lost on our way back because I was delirious, hum yeah, sorry again David :) 
Arrived back at our smokey room and crashed!

Our Ride. 
David jumps the fence. 
If he jumps too far, he would land on this. 
Adventure down to the stream. Looked way closer from the road.
I turn around and he is balancing on a rock in this fast moving stream, haha! 
Art Show 
Sedona, AZ
Our view for lunch. 
It was hard not to touch these. They look so pretty but know how to poke a poke! 
I thought the top of the rock looked like Mario and Luigi. 
Beautiful.
And the other side of the beautiful cross. 
The door to go in. I like how it reflects the background.
The climb/hike/rock climb... aka our WOD (workout of the day)
Possibly my favorite picture during the trip. The sky, sun, rocks, landscape, all of it!  
Sweet man took our picture after we made it all the way to the vortex! 
Had to check out an Arizona winery!
Another pit-stop along the road- beautiful river running through the rocks! 
And we get 30 degrees cooler, snow on the mountains, and trees! Who would've thought? 
The sky was gorgeous! 
And snow covered mountain in the distance.
Route 66
As far north as we got- Flagstaff, AZ 
A shocking way to end day 3-- hey it was that or a Sonic.
And Day 4 we ate at D'Lish again- drove around ASU's campus- went to Crossfit Southwest- stocked up on snacks at good ol' CVS and bought me some bandaids (I was not so graceful on this trip haha)- ate at Pita Jungle (sooooo good)-- and made our way back to Alabama.

Flower in the gardens at SCNM!
I think the warm-sunny weather followed us back :)



Laugh a lot today!