The College Years - James Madison University

Happy Thursday! Today I wanted to talk about something that is very near and dear to my heart. It’s not really a thing, but it’s a place. The best place on earth actually, James Madison University. This is where I spent the best four years of my life. I graduated from JMU in 2009 and have nothing but amazing memories to look back on now. Not only is it one of the top schools in the state of Virginia, but it’s also one of the funnest and friendliest places around. I know I’m completely biased, but who isn’t when it comes to their alma mater? JMU has it all. It's nestled right in the middle of the Shenandoah Valley in the small town of Harrisonburg and it’s just two hours from Washington DC. Let’s see, how much do I love JMU? Let me count the ways :)

The people. If you ever meet anyone who went/goes/has visited JMU they will most likely say “Oh I love it there!” or “Oh you’re going to love it there!” It’s one of those places that always makes you feel positive. Although it has a pretty big student body, 18,000 and growing, it has the ability to feel intimate. Because Harrisonburg is a small town the majority of it’s population is JMU students, which makes it really feel like a community.

The parties. I feel like that’s all I have to say, but I’ll go on :) JMU has an unwritten rule that everyone abides by, we don’t charge fellow party goers for alcohol. For example, at some colleges when you show up at a party you have to pay $5 for a cup that you can then fill with alcohol. Yuck right?! Well not at JMU, if you’re hosting then you’re buying. But you know that when you go to someone else’s house the next night you aren’t paying there. I think this adds to the community feeling, you feel like you’re going to a friend’s house to hang out, not a random strangers!

The professors. Amazing, what can I say?! I never had a professor that I considered lazy, rude or incompetent. They are the best of the best and they made learning a fun experience. They were also friendly and relatable, I couldn’t tell you a favorite because there were so many!

The campus. Stunning. I consider it the prettiest campus I have ever seen. The infamous quad makes it look like a college, meaning it’s what you always picture in your head when you think of college. The quad houses all of the first built buildings on campus, including Wilson Hall, the first ever. And on a nice day you’ll find it packed with students sunbathing, playing frisbee, playing guitar, taking a nap, catching up with friends, studying, eating lunch…really anything and everything. It’s a walking friendly campus, where you can walk to any building from anywhere if you wanted to.

I hope you enjoyed the pictures I posted, I know most of them are from football games, but that’s just because we had so much fun tailgating at them! And pictures below show one of our favorite traditions, at football games after we score a touch down we throw purple and gold streamers all through the stadium :) I also put a professional picture below that, just to give you a better look!

Here is really neat picture, in 2008 JMU celebrated its centennial. The originial university opened its doors in 1908. The university celebrated by having seniors stand on the quad and hold purple and gold card stock while a small airplane flew over and took this picture, pretty cool huh?! If you look closely :) my friends and I were holding gold signs at the top of the number "1"

Skydiving!

Happy Hump Day! I hope you’re having a great week! We sure are! Miss Lily has been so incredible and we grow to love her more and more everyday!

Today I wanted to talk about something that I did a few years back that honestly changed my life! I decided to go sky diving for the very first time! It was a really last minute decision, one Saturday I decided to do it and the following week it was done! I know it’s cliché when people say “it changes your life.” But it really does, and it’s also so hard to convey. There’s just this sort of balance that you feel, like you’re perfectly balanced in the world. You feel at peace and so damn blessed to be back on the earth. It was one of the best experiences I have ever been through. Like Tim McGraw says “someday  I hope you get the chance, to live like you were dying.” Here are two pictures from my awesome adventure. I did a tandem jump at 14,000 feet at West Point Skydiving in southern Virginia. They are a great big sky diving family and made the experience so much more enjoyable! :)

Lily Love & Books To Read!

Happy Tuesday!

Well it’s day three of having baby Lily around and we are so happy and blessed! She is such a joy and at the current moment I just can’t think or talk about anything else!  Here is a picture I took of us last night while we were watching The Bachelorette!

I did do something exciting today however, I purchased three new books to read! I love to read, I love getting lost in stories and relating to the characters. I was on Buzzfeed, an amazing site with hilarious stories and different list compilations, t’s a great cheerer upper kind of website! Anyway, they had a list of the top 14 books you need to read before they hit the big screen. I perused the article and decided on the three below. I love reading books before seeing them on the big screen, especially when they’re already getting great reviews! They each sound incredible and I think I will enjoy getting through each one :) Here are the books I bought today on Amazon, because I got two of them used I only spent $25..shipping was free because I spent that $25! I included the descriptions posted on Buzzfeed as well. I didn’t Wikipedia them because I was afraid it’d give away the ending, but here are the snippets I got!

1.  The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
Here’s why: "A terminally ill girl unexpectedly falls in love despite her inevitable fate." Classic tear jerker read.  It’s not the first of its kind, but it had great reviews and I’m looking forward to reading it!

2. Serena by Ron Rash

Here’s why: "A thrilling tale that follows newlyweds George and Serena Pemberton on their journey to create a timer empire and ruthlessly kill all who fall out of favor. Serena finds out some unfortunate information and then crap hits the fan." I have to admit, because Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper are starring in it is the real reason here…but the movie is already getting lots of great buzz so I can’t wait to dive in!

3. If I Stay by Gayle Forman

Here’s why: "A 17-year old girl slips into a coma after a bad accident. She has an out-of-body experience, she watches as friends and family visit and then needs to choose to live a difficult life or die peacefully." The minute I read this tiny short description I got chills, this one sounds amazing and I think I’m going to tackle it first. Can you imagine?! Ahhhh, I can’t wait!

I’ll definitely give some reviews as I finish each one, but if you want to read along with me that’d be fun too! :)

Oh and if you want to waste some time, here is the link to the full article!

http://www.buzzfeed.com/ariellecalderon/books-to-read-before-they-hit-the-big-screen

The Puppy Life!

Happy Monday everyone! I hope you had as great of a weekend as I did!! I have BIG news to share with you today…Mr. Tan Lines and I adopted a puppy on Saturday! The Lost Dog & Cat Rescue Foundation hosted an adoption fair at a nearby PetSmart and we just happened to be attending. There were so many different litters of puppies and kittens, it was quite overwhelming. As we made our way to the back we saw the three different litters of puppies. Mr. Tan Lines was immediately drawn to a beautiful 8 week old black baby lab mix. He picked her up and we held her for the next 15 minutes talking to her foster dad and getting her story. Her mom who they believed to be pure Labrador lived in West Virginia and not in the very best conditions. She had 5 puppies and a neighbor contacted the local humane society when they noticed the puppies were kept outside 24/7 with very little food and water (a HUGE hug to this person :) Lost Dog rescued all of the puppies, including the mom, which is one of the reasons they are one of my favorite rescue societies!! They weren’t sure about her dad, but they guessed that she could be a hound/pitt mix. Funnily enough we’ve had her name picked our since our very early dating days, Mr. Tan Lines always expressed wanting a black lab and that we’d name her Lily one day, well that day came and we couldn’t be any happier! Here is Mr. Tan Lines right after we'd adopted her and then me with her right after we got home!

Mr. Tan Lines and I then decided to fill out an application form and go ahead and speak with an interview representative about adopting our sweet girl. We felt like anxious parents waiting for our names to be called, but after almost two hours it was finally our turn! We met with the Lost Dog rep and she went through various tips and facts that we needed to know. We discussed training methods, our finances, reasons why we wanted to be pet parents, living conditions, etc., very thorough which we loved. She also took us through our girls medical records, indicating all of the shots and things she’d had done. Lost Dog does not adopt out dogs that are not spayed/neutered, so our sweet girl was ready to go! We filled out the final paperwork and then she was ours! We then spent the next hour getting everything we needed for her homecoming, which was pretty much everything! We got her a big comfy bed, food, toys, treats, a crate, training pads, all sorts of house sprays, leashes, puppy shampoo, food bowls ahh the list goes on and on!  Here she is on her new, super comfy bed!

FINALLY it was time for Miss Lily to go home! We loaded up the car and rode off into our new adventure. We discovered right away that she is not a fan of car rides, but being that she is so young, it’s probably just a phase, we hope! Her first exploration of the house went great, she was excited and very curious and she took to our home much better than expected. And now, 48 hours later we are so in love with everything she does! She is playful and a huge lap dog, she is always jumping up to get you to pick her up and then when I sit down to play with her she just wants to jump on my lap! I am a huge softie when it comes to training, so I’m pretty sure she already knows she’s the boss of me! Here she is sunbathing in the backyard for the first time and then below that is Mr. Tan Lines taking her on her first walk! 

The past two nights have been long ones, she immediately cries when we put her in her crate, we have to place her in her bed, lay with her and then move her into the crate once she’s asleep. I told ya she was the boss! :) She wakes up 3-4 times crying and we take her outside to use the bathroom, then repeat the process again and again. Compared to some of the stories told by her foster dad and other members of the Lost Dog foundation, I think we have been very lucky so far!

Although it has and will be quite a bit of work and money, there is just nothing that beats the happiness a dog can bring into your life. It’s only been two days and she is the biggest part of our lives now, we feel like the proudest parents in the world. We cannot wait to take this journey with her, and watch her grow and get to have so many fun experiences with her :)

I also wanted to mention that Lost Dog & Cat Rescue has a restaurant you can dine at and donate to! They are the founding members of the foundation; I put a link below to both the restaurant and foundation page if you wanted to take a look! We have eaten at the restaurant and it was delicious! Definitely check it out if you can get there!!

http://www.lostdogrescue.org/

http://lostdogcafe.com/about-us/

It's a smile, it's a kiss, it's a sip of wine, it's Summertime!

Yay! Happy Friday everyone! And happy Summer Solstice day!! Today at noon, if you glanced up the sun was at the highest point it’s ever going to get all year, pretty cool!! It’s a beautiful day here in Northern Virginia! I sprinkled some pictures below from past Summers, if you haven't already guessed it's my favorite time of year! This first one was taken in South Beach, Miami Florida in 2010.

I hope everyone had a great week, I know I did! I hope you all have some fun plans! We are relaxing and cleaning up this weekend, next weekend we are hosting our 2nd Annual CrabFest party and we are super excited! Because it’s so beautiful out I think tonight we’ll head to an outdoor restaurant and enjoy some drinks under the Summer sun! Tomorrow night we are watching the Chernobyl Diaries and I am pretty excited, it looks good and scary, I will report back with a review next week! This next one was taken in Ocean City, Maryland while celebrating my 24th birthday!

 

I wanted to leave you with two fun facts for the weekend, tomorrow is National Chocolate Éclair Day, so do yourselves a favor and enjoy a beautiful and delicious chocolate éclair!! :) Sunday is National PINK day, I can’t wait to deck myself all out in pink, yay! Here is a picture from 2006 in Key Biscayne, Florida :)

 

I also wanted to note that Sunday is National Take Your Dog to Work Day, but it varies so that it falls on a weekday, I’ll have to send my boss a note today and see what he thinks! Here is picture of me while I was in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina at Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville restaurant :)

 

I’ve been dancing at my desk all morning listening to my ipod, I can’t wait to get my weekend started! The top five songs playing on my ipod at the moment are:

1.       Drink in my hand – Eric Church

2.       The way you make me feel  - Michael Jackson

3.       Love Story – Taylor Swift

4.       Could you be loved – Bob Marley

5.       It Girl – Jason Derulo

Here is picture of me and one of my bestie's from June 2007 on the Chesapeake River, we were at Aquapalooza, the huge annual boat festival!

 

Have a great weekend everyone! :)

Movie Reviews - Get the Popcorn Ready!

Today I wanted to do a few movie reviews, I have to preface this by saying that I am a huge scary movie buff and I’m an even bigger cheesy movie buff. For example, some of my favorite movies are the world-is-ending disaster movie types, like: Armageddon, Independence Day, The Day After Tomorrow and Dawn of the Dead, just to name a few. We’ve watched quite a few new movies in the past months and I watched what might be one of the worst movies I have ever seen, “Killing Them Softly” starring yours truly, Brad Pitt. It was a terrible, boring movie and I’m still upset I lost that hour and a half of my life!

Anyway, so this past weekend we watched “Mama.” Starring a bunch of people I’ve never heard of and basically it’s about two little girls that get lost and end up in the woods for five years, when they are rescued they keep saying they had a “mama” who is really a ghost, a ghost woman who just wants to raise the girls like animals and be a mom. Yea I know, really weird.  The previews definitely made this movie out to be 10x better then it was, we pretty much laughed and rolled our eyes the entire time. On a scale of just how much wine you might want to have handy if you decide to sit through this I’d suggest at least a bottle. Terrible, just terrible!

Then, a few weeks ago we watched “Sinister” starring Ethan Hawke and then some other people I’ve never heard of. Now this was actually a really good, scary movie. The ending was kind of stupid, which is why I think the movie technically “bombed” but the plot, the twists and the scary parts were all awesome. I covered my eyes at least three or four times and screamed out loud twice. If you’re looking for something to keep you up at night definitely bring this little treasure out, you won’t regret it. I’d say one to two glasses of vino is all you’ll need for company.  Eeee just looking at the movie poster gives me chills!

And then, a few weeks before that I had watched “Knowing” with good old Nicolas Cage. This one was truly a disappointment, it was one of those movies that keeps you on your toes the whole time and then the ending happens and your left staring at the screen with your mouth wide open thinking “Why, Why, WHY did it end like that?” I had real chills throughout this movie, but I would not recommend it simply because the ending made me want to scream at anyone in sight. If you’re ever bored, I guess I would say go ahead and endure, but don’t say I didn’t warn you! One bottle of wine recommended here.

So what moves would I recommend? I have way too many favorites to list, or to recommend, so I narrowed it down to my favorite top ten movies. Believe me; it was hard to get down to a list of ten!! If you’re ever in the mood for a good movie night, pick any one of these and you’ll be set. As for wine, I’d say as many glasses as you’d like, these movies rock and you’re gonna love them! So, in no particular order:

1.       The Dark Knight

2.       The Italian Job

3.       A Beautiful Mind

4.       A Time to Kill

5.       The Little Mermaid

6.       Dirty Dancing

7.       The First Wives Club

8.       Forest Gump

9.       Father of the Bride

10.     The Perfect Storm

I know this list seems all over the place and that’s because it is, but I guess it just depends what you’re in the mood for, do you want to cry, do you want to laugh, do you want to really cry, do you want to be on the edge of your seat etc. Either way, I don’t think any of the movies I listed will disappoint you!

It's A Baby Shower!

And it’s Thursday everyone! We’re so close to Friday I can almost taste it! We are supposed to experience an intense number of thunderstorms today, but so far we just had a brief but heavy five minute downpour. Hopefully the storms stay away! :)

So this past Saturday we did something really fun, one of my friends is pregnant and hosted her Buns in the Oven Baby-Q. She didn’t want to do a formal shower with just girls and all of the games, so it was more of a big barbeque and group hang out! She and her husband made hot dogs and burgers for everyone and there were tons of sides like pasta salad and macaroni salad, it was all so delicious! I brought the much requested meatballs, I put my recipe below! Here is a picture of all the girls at the barbecue.

I usually just buy a big bag of pre-cooked frozen meatballs, I alternate between brands so whatever you like go ahead and get! I have also done the same recipe with turkey meatballs and they came out equally as good! I also make these in the crock pot which makes it one of the easiest things to make!

First I pour as many meatballs as will fit into the crock pot, ours is small, but with the frozen balls I’d say it’s probably around 8 1/2 cups.

Then I add the following:

1 1/2 – 2 cups of your favorite bbq sauce

1 cup chili sauce

2 cups grape jelly

And guess what, that’s it!! It’s so easy and they are a huge crowd pleaser every time. I usually cook them on high for 5-6 hours and then turn it down to low once the party starts. Enjoy!

I also brought one game for us to play, after everyone had arrived all of the girls headed downstairs to open gifts. Then I brought out my game, it was really easy to make and it’s been a hit at three different baby showers so far! I used inDesign to create the pages but you could do it in Word or PowerPoint too, or even handwrite them! I then Googled “crazy celebrity baby names” and trust me—tons of them come up! Then I picked the names based on the celebrities, it’s best to use ones that guests will be familiar with and able to guess. Then on the front side I wrote the babies name, for example “Apple.” Then on the back I wrote the answer “Gwyneth Paltrow” and then under that a few hints about who the answer is, so I listed “Starred in Great Expectations & The Perfect Murder.” So, the point of the game is for the guests to guess the celebrity parent of the baby. It really gets a laugh because there are some pretty wild baby names out there! I think I made about 30 and then the guest with the most correct answers gets a prize! Super fun and easy! Here are some fun pictures from the shower :) Mr. Tan Lines and I purchased the mini golf set at Dick's Sporting Goods, it was perfect because her husband is an avid golfer!

Great American Bus Trip 2013

Happy Wednesday everyone!

Wow how this week has flown by! I hope you all had a great weekend, I know I did! :) This weekend we had our annual bus trip down to a National’s game and once again it didn’t disappoint! Every year our friend Clark rents a huge charter bus and 40+ of us pile on for a fun day at the ballpark. The game is usually on a Friday night, however this year the festivities took place on Sunday afternoon. We met at our favorite local watering hole where we were given a delicious brunch and all you can drink options. The bus arrived around 11:30 and we departed at noon for the 1 o’clock game. The drive is about 30-45 minutes from where we live, depending on the traffic, but the time flies by when there are so many people around and everyone is having such a great time! Here is a picture of Mr. Tan Lines and I on the bus!

It was a beautiful day for a baseball game, the weather was perfect and everyone had such a great time. Best of all, the Nat’s won 7-2! Here are pictures of us from the restaurant and game :)

This past Friday Mr. Tan Lines and I also decided to try somewhere new to eat for our Friday night date night! The night started out wonderful with two beautiful bouquets of pink and red roses :)

Then we headed to Joe’s Crab Shack. I had only been there once before and Mr. Tan Lines had never been so we were both very excited. We each ordered a steam pot that came with king crab legs, snow crab legs, shrimp, corn on the cob and sausage. We also ordered a side of hush puppies and french fries; needless to say, we had plenty of food! It was a great time chatting and crackin’ away at the crabs, being from Alabama Mr. Tan Lines is used to shrimp and crawfish, so I had to give him a few pointers on how best to get to all that yummy crab meat! All in all if you’re craving crabs and a fun atmosphere I would definitely recommend this place. It is a little on the pricey side, but crabs aren’t really cheap at many restaurants anyway. It also seems like a fun place to have a birthday dinner, I think there were five or six birthday parties there that night! We both left stuffed and feeling like we definitely got our money’s worth! Here are some pics from our date :)

Will You Accept This Rose?

Happy Thursday everyone!

I am so excited that tomorrow is Friday! We have a really fun weekend coming up and I can’t wait for all of the fun we are going to have! Hopefully Tropical Storm Andrea doesn’t put a rainy damper on anything :) Here is where I'm expected to hit this weekend! #imakeitrain

I just wanted to talk about what’s on my mind at the moment; and I was just reading an article about the new season of The Bachelorette. I am such a huge fan of this show, I don’t know what it is, but every season it just gets me hooked! This season is no exception, Des is a great bachelorette and the guys have shown that it’s going to be another great boy-drama filled season. Every Monday night Mr. Tan Lines and I sit down and enjoy dinner while watching the show. Mr. Tan Lines is such a good sport about it, he’d rather be watching just about anything else, but he knows how excited I get so he happily sits down and watches with me. Here is Des in on one of the promotional posters for the show.

I don’t think I have any favorites yet, Des went on two one on one dates this past week and I thought both guys were so great! I could picture both of them at the finish line; I can’t imagine how hard this is going to be at the end! It’s so entertaining on two fronts, you come to really like Des and you want her to find a good man; and on the other you just have to laugh at the man tears and drama that these guys cause for each other. Isn’t she so cute!? I can’t wait to see how this will end.

Today I also wanted to share another one of my own creation recipes. I’m sure there is recipe for something like this out there, however I just kind of threw a bunch of things together and the end result was AMAZING! I only made this once and now that we are on a health kick until the wedding I’ll have to wait for a chilly fall day to make this again!

I used our crock pot to cook this, I prepared it all the night before and left it in the fridge, then before leaving for work the next morning we turned it on high.

I bought roughly 2 pounds of a beef roast. I trimmed the fat then cut it into 1-inch cubes. Then into my crock pot I added:

My chopped up beef

1 medium-large white onion, chopped

3 cups beef broth (low sodium)

3 large russet potatoes chopped into large cubes (similar to size of meat)

3 large carrots, peeled and cut into 2 inch pieces

1 can of cream of mushroom soup (low-sodium if you can find it)

1 tbsp Adobe all-purpose seasoning

1 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

One tip I did which I don’t know if it helped, but it’s what I did so I’ll share it with you. When putting my ingredients into the crock pot I did it in layers. I layered it just enough to cover the bottom and each layer after that. I started with the chopped onions, covered the bottom then added my meat. Covered the onions with meat then added the potatoes. So on and then I added 4 tbsp of the cream of mushroom, 1 cup of the broth and I broke the dry ingredients into 3 portions so I could layer them as well. I just wanted to make sure that everything was covered with all the yummy goodness I was putting into it. Probably not necessary but just thought I would share :)