Gossip Girl Bliss

Can't even post tonight... I am too busy watching THIS:

I have been waiting for the moment that Netflix took Season 3 off the wait list and it FINALLY happened! I love this show... the rich New Yorker high school drama. Love the fashion. Love the drama. LOVE it. Hahaha I'm such a tween when it comes to this kind of stuff. I gotta go- full night ahead of us watching episodes. We are going to try to limit ourselves to one a night until this weekend when we will go crazy.

xoxo (had to stick with the Gossip Girl theme)

Day 22

I'm exhausted today for some reason and my shins are killing me. I realized I have run 12 out of the last 14 days though and really need to give my little leggies a break tomorrow. Zumba at 4:30 anyone??

On a positive note... I taught Grammar and Math today and both the lessons went really well. The kids LOVED football math and I had fun with it too. I am teaching both subjects for the rest of the week and am excited to see how they go.

The photo of the day is just another picture of me.. are these getting boring? SORRY! Almost over!

Gotta love self-photos using the timer at 6:30 am =) haha

I gotta go because Bachelor Pad is on and I can't miss this high intensity tonight hahaha.

My loved ones

Day 21

"Pictures that make me think of my loved ones"

There are so many things that make me think of my loved ones. Songs, pictures, smells, etc. The MAIN thing though is the Holidays- mainly Thanksgiving and Christmas. Every memory of these holidays from my ENTIRE life are with my loved ones- my family.

Images courtesy of weheartit

Most of the memories take place at Mimi and Papa's house for Thanksgiving, our house with our family for Christmas Day, then back to Mimi's for another Christmas celebration.

The past couple of years we have swapped places a few times- venturing to Joy's for Thanksgiving or even our house last year. But the memories are the same. My family is my life.

Also the last couple of years we have had to do some planning in order to incorporate holidays with my family and the Ryans. We are SO lucky to have two amazing families that we get to share our time and celebrate with every year.

I look forward to the holidays every year- not just for the food and football games on Thanksgiving, or the delicious desserts and presents on Christmas- but for the times with my family that I will cherish forever.

If I could do it all again...

The theme of today is "Where I Want To Honeymoon"... funny they ask! If I could do our honeymoon over- I wouldn't change A THING. Literally. I am not just saying that because my sweet husband will probably read this =)

Everything about our honeymoon was just smooth sailin'. We made it to Atlanta in record time- had a nice dinner and stayed in a nice airport hotel. Flew straight into Cancun and rode with a private transfer to our resort, checked into our suite, chilled for a week, and flew straight home. How perfect is that?

I had the best time I have ever had in my life on my honeymoon. The Excellence Resort in Playa Mujeres, Mexico was bliss. We had the luxury of staying seven nights. There is nothing like relaxing with your new husband for 8 days. The only thing we had to worry about was what we wanted to eat, if we wanted to go to the pool or the beach, and what to wear to our elaborate dinners each night.

Here are some pictures:

Just arrived on the beautiful grounds...

One of the beautiful buildings... there were about twenty.

Our sweet bed =)

View from the bed on our balcony... pretty much amazing

Where we ate breakfast every morning... I wish this was real life.

Private beach... never more than about 10 people down there.

The bed on the beach that we spent a LOT of time on... so relaxing. I think they like beds here.

Awesome pool that looped around the whole resort

Best trip EVER!

If we were to get on a plane right now to go on vacation... I would like to go here:

Santorini, Greece

Or here:

Capri, Italy

Where would you go if you could hop on a plane right now and not worry about cost?

Bliss

"The piano is able to communicate the subtlest universal truths by means of wood, metal, and vibrating air" - Kenneth Miller

I wish I had a piano I could play outside like Miley did in her latest music video (beautiful song by the way). I would play all the time. One of the things I miss the most about our house in Pensacola is that our baby grand is still being stored there because we have NO room for it up here. I love that piano. I have a million memories on that thing... from tinkering around with my mom at ages 2 and 3 to being frustrated in my middle school years that my mom was STILL making me take lessons, to being 18 and playing from a huge bank of beautiful songs that I acquired over the years. My dream is to get one of those "keyboard pianos" that you can transpose the key of a song. This would be ideal for me with singing (because I change ALL the keys haha)

Have a happy Friday everyone. High school football starts tonight. GO WARRIORS!!!

A sneak peek...

Into our bedroom! Don't get too excited guys, it's just a picture of our room for the photo challenge =)

Here is a shot of the whole bed, etc. before we got our new pillows and window sill decor =)

Close up with all the new(est) stuff

My favorite part of the room... the blue and green hydrangea accents.

I love our room because it is very simple, very peaceful, very us. I love the white because it is very light and open feeling. Pottery Barn never lets me down!

I am so tired from this week. I have GOT to start getting in bed earlier but I just really don't see it happening. Blahhh that's how I feel right now. Off to watch Project Runway and Jersey Shore babyyy! =)

On your video phooone

Couldn't resist the Beyonce lyric since the photo challenge today is supposed to be a picture of my cell phone. I meannnn who really cares? Some of these topics are LAME.

Here it is... plain and simple Verizon EnV Touch:

Boringgg! So anyway... today was a very stressful meeting on campus about our internship, classes, and what is required of us this semester. I was on campus from 8:30 am- 7:30 pm. YUCK. I left more confused than I was when I went (I think everyone did). I basically decided that I can stress out and worry about all the requirements (that no one seems to be consistent with) or I can enjoy this experience for what it is about... the kids. I am there to be with the kids, learn from the kids, teach the kids, etc. If I have to write 300 lesson plans in order to get a good "grade" on this experience, that is just sad. But I'll do it with a smile on my face. That is all I'm going to say.

When I got home I was craving sweets (stress does that to me) and I was so sad I didn't save one of THESE that I made for Maw for her birthday last night:

Homemade Cookies N Cream cupcakes

Topped with the most delicious homemade Cookies N Cream icing I have EVER put in my mouth.

I literally did not even eat a cupcake because I was so full from the batter and icing that I ate while cooking. Here is the recipe courtesy of "How Sweet It Is" blog:

Cookies and Cream Cupcakes

inspired by 500 Cupcakes

makes 12 cupcakes

1/2 cup butter

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 1/2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 cup milk

10 Oreo cookies

Preheat oven to 350.

Cream butter, sugar, and eggs together until fluffy. Add vanilla.

Combine dry ingredients in a bowl. Add half of the dry ingredients, mixing until just combined. Add the milk. Once mixed, add remaining dry ingredients. Crush the Oreos and add them into the batter.

Pour into cupcake tins and bake for 20-25 mins at 350. Let cool, then frost.

Cookies and Cream Frosting

2 sticks butter, softened

1 1/2 – 2 lbs powdered sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

1-2 tablespoons milk

10 Oreo cookies

Mix butter and powdered sugar together, adding sugar gradually to the mix. Add vanilla. Mix in milk, adding more if needed. Continue to add milk and sugar until it reaches the desired consistency. Crush Oreos and fold them into the frosting.

Try them... you won't regret it. Goodnight!

Dream car?!

Day 16

"My Dream Car"

Funny that this is the picture challenge today when this has been a topic in our house recently. Not necessarily my DREAM car... but definitely thinking I will be getting a new car as soon as I get a job (hopefully in January). For those of you who don't know- I have had the same precious car since I turned 16. It's a 1995 Lexus GS300 and has been AMAZING... until we got married and had to start paying for things ourselves. OF COURSE that would be the first time it had to go to the shop. I have been saying for years that I'm going to get a new car as soon as I get my first teaching job and have wrestled between the idea of Accords, Maximas, Altimas, Muranos, Camrys, etc. Something along those lines. As of lately my thoughts have been set on an Accord. So guys... here is my "realistic" dream car:

Now for a little fun on the "unrealistic" front...

I would gladly take one of these:

Or even one of these:

K thanks =)

Anyway, I baked some delicious "cookies and cream" cupcakes (all from scratch =) for Maw tonight and am so full from eating batter and icing that I must go lay down and watch Bachelor Pad we recorded last night. Goodnight!!!

Weekend Recap

Day 15

Another picture of me... how boring =)

Today was a great day in the classroom followed by an afternoon of preparing for Parent Night tonight! Everything went great... we have some great kids being raised by some great parents =)

I didn't really talk much about what we were doing this past weekend during the weekend blog posts but we really had a pretty laid back and enjoyable time. Friday we went to dinner and just hung out. Finally had some quality hubby and wife time. Saturday we finally got out of the house around 3. We had a little gym sesh and then came home to get ready to head to the famous Gadsden Mall (not). We took some photo booth pics and enjoyed a delicious grilled chicken sandwich at Chic-Fila. The highlight of the evening was the 2 hours we spent reading magazines in Books A Million. Sunday we went to Birmingham with Pat's family to celebrate this beautiful lady's birthday at P.F Changs:

We always have a great time when we are all together, especially when gourmet chinese food and this birthday cake are involved:

It was seriously the biggest and most delicious cake! Put it this way... there was enough for 7 of us to have a decent sized slice =)

Great day with these people! I love them! Happy Birthday Maw =)

We finished off the evening with a nice workout and a yard soccer session... we are pretty good! haha. How was everybody else's weekend?

My favorite teacher...

I have been thinking about this post all day.

My favorite teachers... very easy to answer:

Jesus

anddd these people

taught me everything I know! I am so thankful to have such amazing parents that taught me the things I needed to know in order to grow into the person I am today. They could not have known how to teach me without the guidance of Jesus Christ. Thanks Mom and Dad for being the best teachers in the world. You are constantly teaching me things every day whether you know it or not!

Friends...

The theme of today's photo challenge is "A picture of my friends". I have been in so many places (two different high schools in Pensacola, Auburn University, Jacksonville State University, etc.) that I have so many different groups of friends! I decided to put a few different pictures.

My best friend in the whole world, Miley. Bachelorette partyyy :

Will always love this girl, Abby... best friends since 8th grade:

So much fun with these two:

Now I have to take a moment to pay tribute to the best guy friend in the world... Mr. Aaron Christine:

Such a great friend... I have known all three of the above mentioned since middle school! Crazy huh? What's this "You never keep in touch with your high school friends" nonsense?!

Next we have my other best Pcola girls... I didn't go to high school with these girls but we are close and have a blast together. I spend a lot of time with them when I am in town:

Me, Amanda and Carly:

Me and Amanda:

Me and Shannon:

Amanda and Shannon helping out at my wedding:

Then I have my Auburn girls... Natalie, Whitney, Julie and Megan came to my shower. Will love these girls foreverrr:

Gotta love my best JSU friend, Ariel. She is the best!

And my other JSU girls...

Then I have this guy... who is the best friend a girl could possibly ask for. So thankful I get to spend the rest of my life with him:

Working on this blog tonight has shown me.. I truly am blessed. A friend is someone who believes in you even when you don't! Thank the Lord for my amazing friends.

(Disclaimer: I did not include any of my family members on this friend post because they are on a "whole nother" level!! =)

Friday Friday Fridayyy!

My favorite food LITERALLY changes everyday. It depends on the time, day, mood, etc. Today it was bbq pork salad (which I forgot to take a picture of) and... fried pickles with ranch!! Definitely a southern thing =) From someone who loves food- picking favorites is nearly impossible. All that to say- my favorite food today was the fried pickles we ordered at Uncle Sam's.

Uhhh how greasy and delicious do THOSE look?!

Here are some of my favorite pics from today at school:

Favorite Auburn girlies for "orange day"

Haaaha- they are jump roping for their science unit on the human body. This picture cracks me up because they are all doing something different!

How precious is she?!

Favorite line of the day:

"Mrs. Ryan, you date nine year olds?" - K.I, 9 years old =)

Off to watch Dexter with the hubs =) Happy weekend!!