Girls Weekend Catch Up

Has it really been a month since I posted? The last month has just flown by! I finished up year number four teaching first grade. (yay!) It was a great school year but I was also thrilled to see summer break come! I have about a week and a half break between the end of the school year and the start of teaching summer reading camp so I have been soaking up every minute of this little mini vacation). My past month involved visiting moms Holden Beach house, a girls weekend, a family reunion and celebrating Fathers day!

Even though we had girls weekend several weekends ago, it was so much fun I have to make sure to recap it! I spent the weekend at Holden beach with my mom and sister, best friend Ashley and moms best friend and daughter. Us six girls have been through it all together so it's always fun to have a little get away together! Friday night everyone arrived and we relaxed on the porch, opened some good wine and played a new game called The Game of Things (it was SO much fun!). Saturday we enjoyed a nice breakfast outside before heading to the beach for the day. 

Mom had no idea that we had a little surprise up our sleeve for Saturday night! She had just celebrated her birthday so we rented out a private pontoon boat to have  a sunset cruise. It was definitely the highlight of the weekend. We had absolutely perfect weather, a beautiful view, and plenty of delicious food and champagne. 

Of course the weekend wouldn't have been complete without some personalized cups and wine glasses! I'm already counting down the days until we can all get together again. Weekends like that are good for the soul! 

Summer "go to" foods

Summer is the perfect time to start eating all the right things- fruits, vegetables, lean meats. Farmers markets and produce stands are everywhere and fruit likes strawberries are at their prime. For me it's always been fairly easy to choose healthy foods in the summer. With the oh so hot air and constant opportunities to put on a bikini eating light just seems natural. I will admit being out of school has been tough to get back into a routine with my meals. I make MUCH better food choices when I plan ahead and have somewhat of a routine to follow. I am finally finding my groove and am constantly resorting to my "go to" meals. These are meals that when in doubt I resort to because they are easy and always yummy! 

Buffalo Chicken Salad 
I try to eat grilled chicken often since it is a lean meat, but sometimes that gets old. Right when I was getting in a boring grilled chicken slump a friend of mine suggested adding buffalo sauce. Since then I have been hooked! Buffalo chicken salad and buffalo chicken lettuce wraps are my favorites. (I just use lettuce, celery, a little bit of chopped onion if I have it on hand, and shredded carrots. Mix that with ranch dressing and add your buffalo chicken on top. I sometimes put rice at the bottom of the salad too.)  

before I baked it 

Roasted Squash and Zucchini 
This is probably the best vegetable combination ever. Summer squash and zucchini just go together like Pb&j. I rarely eat one without the other. I actually am making my second batch for the week right now! Lightly coat your pan with olive oil, lay down your sliced vegetables, lightly spray another coat of oil on top, sprinkle salt, pepper and parmesan cheese. Bake 30-45 minutes and wah lah.. deliciousness! 

Sweet Potatoes and Grilled Chicken 
Self explanatory- add grilled chicken and half a sweet potato to your vegetables and you have a balanced lean meal! I eat this for lunch most days and just swap out the vegetables. 

Tomato sandwich 
This is the meal that screams summer the most to me. I good old tomato sandwich. Top it off with a peach and a landshark- heaven. Normally I just go with simple mayo, tomato and a little salt but I did add turkey to this particular one.

Strawberries and Banana Snacks 
I have been incorporating strawberries or bananas into pretty much all of my snacks. My favorites are vanilla greek yogurt with strawberry slices, vanilla protein shake with strawberry slices, strawberries dipped in peanut butter/chocolate and bananas with peanut butter. All healthy choices and so good! I could honestly eat just the strawberries by their self but everything else adds protein.  

What are some of your favorite summer "go to" meals? I need to branch out and try some new things! 

Summer Bucketlist

It's officially June and I will be out of school next week for summer break. It's time that I start thinking about all of the things I would like to do this summer! After two months of non stop events every weekend I want this summer to be very relaxed and keep my obligations to a minimum. There are a few very small things though that are totally doable without feeling overloaded. 

1. Find a new church
This one is SO important to me!! Since I will be moving to a new area I really want to take the summer to try out church's in the area. I can't wait to find a new church to call home. 

2. Pelicans Game
I used to love going to Greensboro Grasshopper games but now that I will be living at the beach I'd love to make it to a Pelicans baseball game! I'm actually not a huge baseball fan but the atmosphere is so fun! 

3. Shag Lessons 
I want J and I to enroll in shag dance lessons. I know the basics but over the many college bar dancing 
sessions I'm pretty sure my technique has become sloppy. Shag dancing is probably one of my favorite things to do at an event with beach music. (I know this is a Carolina's thing...) 

4. Music on Main
With all those new dance skills we need a place to practice right? There are free concerts offered every weekend on Main St of N Myrtle. I want to take advantage of this for sure! 

5. Visit Southport 
I will be living less than an hour from Southport, NC. After watching Safe Haven I have been dying to visit this quaint little town!! I really want to make a day trip there this summer! Fun fact: Justin met Josh Duhamel during the filming of Safe Haven at a local bar.  

6. Take advantage of fresh fruits and veggies 
I pretty much live off of tomato sandwiches and cantaloupe in the summertime. I want to take advantage of the produce stands and farmers markets around when I make my fruit and vegetable purchases. 

Nothing crazy, but a few very important things to me! What's on your summer bucket list?

Orange Beach Update

Oh my word .. Who knew you could blog from your phone? I should have known there was an app for blogging because there is one for everything else!  

Mom and I made it to Orange Beach LATE Saturday night/Sunday morning. The drive took forever but we broke it up by stopping to do a little shopping, coffee breaks and listening to Gone Girl on audio book. The past two days have been so nice down here. I'm in love with the area!! We are staying on the canal across from a marina which means we can watch the huge boats go by as they enter. So far we have spent our time relaxing, shopping, eating and heading to happy hour. No complaints here! 

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Summer Jewelery

I will unfortunately be spending this entire day studying for my last two final exams. This is no fun, at all. This girl is so over school. I keep telling myself however that the end of classes means summer is almost here. Now that we can finally put away our winter accessories such as scarves we can pull out some fun summer jewelery! This year I have been obsessing over all things that scream colorful and tropical. Here are some of my favorites:

These have been on my wish list for quite

 some time! I just love these gold starfish earrings!

I just purchased these crab earrings and love them! They add

a fun touch to a simple dress. (ps. I have them on in my beach music post!)

Colorful bangles?! Yes please!

I can already picture this necklace with a white top. Love! 

My favorite colors right now are turquoise and coral.

Any jewelery in these colors is sure to be a hit with me!

What do you like to accessorize with in the summer?

Have a wonderful day!

Take Me Here

The 6:45am alarm clock was tough to say the least this morning! After two diet cokes and some pinterest browsing I think I am awake and ready for the day. I am very excited about this day because it is the start of the last full week of classes before exams! Luckily I do not think my exam schedule will be tough this year so if I can just make it through this week I can move on to other lovely things! After exams this is what I want more than anything:

Please take me here.

I will read a hundred books and take a thousand naps

speechless