Monthly Archives: July 2011

July 21, 2011 · 6:47 pm

Four Things and What I’ve Been Up to This Week

I saw this on Hannah’s blog today and I thought it was such a cute idea and I wanted to try it too!

Four Jobs I’ve Had in My Life

1. Ice Cream Scooper- my first job. I was 16, and I wound up getting fired haha. In my defense, I was running high school cross country, had asked for a weekend off months in advance for a race weekend trip, was told I could have it off, then he gave a girl who started work after me the weekend off instead. I picked XC. Oh well haha.

2. Starbucks Coffee (baristas then shift supervisor)- I started working at Starbucks the summer before I started college and left a week before I started graduate school. Best job ever. Now don’t get me wrong, some things were a massive pain and I felt like I was babysitting adults, but I loved this job. Awesome pay. great hours, and I loved the people I worked with.

3. Undergraduate Researcher- I worked for one year as an undergraduate researcher. I looked at the effects of fluorocarbons (like Teflon) and their effects on pulmonary lung membranes. I got to play with liquid nitrogen, which was cool. I wish I took more advantage of this job though and presented at a conference or tried to get co-authored in a paper.

4. Graduate Research Assistant-the worst paying job of your life will be grad school. Sure, I get a stipend, but the amount I work makes my hourly rate about…$2 an hour? Maybe $3 on a good week. But I have to say, best decision of my life was to come to grad school. I am a way better engineer, I think on my own more, I will have publications by the time I leave, and I met my Zach here

Like I said…grad school sucks, but it has made my life better in lots of ways.

Four Movies I Would Watch Over and Over

1. Sex and the City (the first movie)

2. Sweet Home Alabama

3. Anchorman (kills me everytime)

4. Legally Blonde (no judgement)

Four Places I’ve Lived

Like Hannah, I don’t want to share all my life’s details publicly ( haha ), so I’ll do 2 places I’ve lived and 2 places I would like to live

1. Starkville, Mississippi- I moved here for grad school at Mississippi State. Aside from the lack of Target, Ann Taylor Loft, J Crew, TJ Maxx, and any type of craft store, I like it here a lot. I love State. Oh and the beach. Not being by the beach sucks.

2. The always fabulous Jacksonville Beach, Florida- Home is where your heart is. And part of mine will always be in Northeast Florida, no matter where I live in my life.

3. Savannah, Georgia- Zach and I are REALLY hoping that this is the next place we move to. We’ve heard awesome things about it and it seems to have lots of opportunities for chem e’s. If anyone in the Savannah area wants to offer us jobs, by all means we are on our way!

We are going here Labor Day weekend to check out the place.

4. Key West, Florida- My favorite place of all time. I’ll live there as a beach bum engineer. Are there beach engineers?

Four TV Shows I Love to Watch

1. My favorite- Sex and the City. Who could not love this show

2. Weeds- Little boxes on the hillside little boxes made of ticky tacky…

3. Law and Order: SVU- I love this show.

4. Cooking shows like Chopped and Challenge

Four Places I Have Been on Vacation

1. Cozumel, Mexico- I don’t love Mexico, but I do love kayaking in their oceans

2. Key West, Florida- Obvi.

3. Grand Cayman, Bahamas- Went here on a cruise with my 2 friends, Amanda and Brianna. The water is awesome but the enormous stingrays are freaky.

4. Charleston, SC- Zach and I just spent a weekend here and we loved it. Will definitely be re-visiting in the future.

I would love to see y’alls responses if you decide to fill out these questions so let me know!

This week…hmm…I’ve been running in the morning as usual. This morning it poured with about a mile left…Zoe is a princess and is not a fan of rain, but she got over this quickly. She did not get over the rushing water into the drainage on the side of the road though and janked me around them. I felt like she was pulling me the whole time! Baby steps for my furry baby.

I hope my shoes are dry by tomorrow morning!

I’ve also been working in the lab, also as usual, reacting some films, same story, different day.

Tonight we are going out with the other grad students in our lab group to celebrate my and Zach’s birthdays. We usually all take out the birthday person for their birthday, and since Zach and my birthdays are 2 days apart, we are combining. I guess I can share with him

Hope you all have been having a good week! Almost Friday!!

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July 18, 2011 · 1:07 am

Zoe’s First Birthday and Weekend Recap

I had a very good weekend! It was mostly relaxing, even though I feel like I did a lot!

Saturday Zach and I decided to take Zoe for a walk outside somewhere we hadn’t been before, since we had been away from her during vacation and her birthday was Sunday. We picked Lake Lowndes Park in Columbus, MS, which was about 25 minutes away.

Zoe and Zach at the start of the walk. The weather was slightly overcast and there was a breeze on the lake.

All ready to walk!

We picked out the nature trail, which we saw on the map was 3.5 miles.

Zoe and her momma walking

Zach tried to take a picture of us but when he said her name so she would look at him she just ran towards him. Oh well haha.

We wound up running a lot of the trail since it was so nice out (although humid…I was sweating like a stuck pig). We got to the end of the 3.5 miles and saw a sign that said Nature Trail Exit…too bad we were 2 miles from the car! We wound up trail running/walking for 5.5 miles, which was ok with me (it paid for the high-calorie supper I ate!)

My pink and green trail runners…love them

After we brought Zoe back to the apartment we got ready and went to Tuscaloosa for the evening. We ate Hooter’s wings for supper (I’m telling y’all…if you haven’t been…go. They are amazing. I know you’re thinking ugh Hooter’s….but I promise the wings…so worth it).

Then we went to TJ Maxx and Target before heading back home.

Sunday was Zoe’s first birthday!

I’m the only one who liked the party hat…Zach refused to partake in the party hat wearing and Zoe hated hers…she kept putting her head down

The best picture I could get

Then Zach and I gave her the birthday doggie cupcakes I made…judge away.

It was made out of flour, vanilla, carrots, an egg, and peanut butter. I put peanut butter as icing.

She was kind of confused by the birthday cupcake and us singing happy birthday to her and she kept looking around.

Zoe with her candle! (I swear Zach isn’t choking her haha…just trying to get her to look at me)

Her pink sparkly “1″ candle!

Next we gave Zoe her birthday gifts!

She cracked me up with the gifts part. She peaked in each bag as I opened it and sat right there beside me and looked at each gift. So funny!

A Kong!

Her new Gator friend!

(She isn’t much into stuffed animals so she doesn’t chew them up…just lays on them which is why we got her an alligator…if she chewed them I would have gotten something else…like a Seminole or something (haha!))

Girls love new accessories!

Playing with her daddy and hugging her new friend

Posing with her momma

Pretty Gator girl!

Zoe’s gifts!

After all the birthday activities we got lunch and lounged around for the most part watching movies.

I gave the 1 year old a bath!

Then bed time with her new buddy.

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July 15, 2011 · 7:24 pm

Vacation Part III: Charleston, SC

Friday after lunch we got in the car and headed towards Charleston, South Carolina where our friends Dan and Caitlin live! From the looks of this picture I bet you can guess what happened on our way up there…

Yup…traffic. We hit traffic in Jacksonville and also once we hit SC…there was a huge wreck on the highway. I make the worst mad faces. I’m always trying not to laugh and I wind up looking weird. I tell people it’s because I’m so sweet I always looks happy

haha

We finally made it to Charleston and met Dan, Caitlin, and two of Dan’s Air Force friends (another couple who were so nice!) at the Charleston Crab House which was so yummy. I got the stuffed tilapia which was stuffed with crab…it was so good! Zach got coconut shrimp which he really liked also.

Then we walked over to Rooftop, a rooftop bar (if you couldn’t guess from the name). It was so fun to catch up with Caitlin and chit chat while we had an amazing view of the city at night!

Zach and Dan. Boys are silly.

The steeple of St. Philip’s Church…it looked gorgeous with the moonlight

View of the city

Me on the rooftop!

Zach and I on the rooftop

I loved how Charleston had white Christmas lights everywhere at night…it was SO pretty and reminded me a lot of St. Augustine

The outside of the Rooftop

We stopped by the Southend Brewery but they were closed. I was able to sneak in a quick picture though!

Zach is being goofy…but the inside was so cool how you could see the fermenters and columns, etc.

Gorgeous building for a bar! We learned later on that it used to be a cotton warehouse and had ocean-front offices on the top floor before it became a bar.

We went to an Irish pub and then Dan, Caitlin, and their friends ate HUGE pieces of pizza before we went back to Dan and Caitlin’s house at THREE THIRTY am! If you know me, you know I go to bed at like…midnight. Maybe one on a weekend. I am a morning person not a late night person so it was crazy for me to be up so late! I had a lot of fun though and enjoyed seeing Charleston at night.

Saturday morning when I could finally get the crack-of-noon risers up and ready, Zach, Caitlin and I went to Isle of Palms! We had a yummy lunch on the deck of Banana Cabana and then walked out on the beach. It was rainy when we first got there, but stopped raining shortly after, even though the sky was overcast most of the day.

This guy washed up just a few feet away from where we were collecting shells! Yuck…creatures.

Caitlin and me! Pardon the squinty eyes/wet hair look haha

Zach and me!

After the beach we went to a few of the beach shops, then stopped by Whole Foods to pick up a few things (including Caitlin’s birthday cake!) on our way back to the house. There isn’t a Whole Foods near us in MS so I was thrilled to be able to get some blueberry scones (AMAZING) from the bakery and Zach liked picking out a few of the local beers to try (not so amazing haha)

We had to travel back to the house in a huge rainstorm (gotta love the South in the summer!) but once we made it back, we got ready and ate yummy barbeque for supper, and then hung out at Dan and Caitlin’s and talked. We called it an early night on Saturday night! We were wiped.

Sunday was Caitlin’s birthday! Zach and I got up and got ready and went to a few stores while Dan and Caitlin got ready and also went to a few stores and had lunch (since Dan just got back from deployment and they have had visitors the past week I figured they might want some Dan and Caitlin time on her birthday). We went to World Market, which I love to pieces, PetSmart (for some Zoe birthday gifts), Target, and the best store of them all-Palmetto Moon.

If y’all are ever in Summerville, SC…you HAVE to go to Palmetto Moon. I fell in LOVE with this store. They have everything from South Carolina gifts, to Southern gifts, to Clemson, USC, The Citadel…all sorts of stuff. I think I’ll do a whole post on what I got there!

We ate lunch at a little place called the Sweetgrass Cafe which was cute and the perfect lunch, then met back up with Dan and Caitlin so we could have some birthday cake!

Happy Birthday Caitlin!!

She had picked out a chocolate and peanut butter cake and it was so delicious!

After hanging out a while longer, Zach and I got packed up and headed to Charleston.

We wished Dan and Caitlin could have come but they had to get ready for work on Monday.

First, Zach and I went to Battery Park. It was SO PRETTY. It had cannons, monuments, a gorgeous gazebo, a park, shaded by mossy oaks and palm trees, surrounded by antebellum homes and colorful houses, all on the water! Easily one of my favorite places I saw in Charleston.

Me with the water

Zach with one of the cannons

One of the monuments in the park.

Some of the pretty colorful houses we saw.

After a little while at the Battery, we drove down by the water into the city, parked, and walked around looking at all the pretty houses/buildings and Charleston charm.

I loved this little side street with its palm trees, lantern style street lights, yellow building and cobblestone.

I love cobblestone streets! They remind me of places I love like St. Augustine, Newport, and Boston.

And I also loved my yellow bow sandals…happy birthday to me! haha

Walking towards Waterfront Park

There were these unique maps of Charleston that looked like they were made of copper because of the blue/green color.

The infamous pineapple fountain…I love that Charleston picked a pineapple since it’s the symbol of Southern Hospitality!

Zach and I at Waterfront Park

After leaving Waterfront Park, we walked to the same pizza place with the huge slices and ate some for supper…

They were so yummy, inexpensive, and HUGE!

Then we walked to Southend Brewery and had some dessert while we waited for our ghost tour to start.

We love going on these ghost tours (judge away) because it’s a fun way to learn the history of the city you’re visiting. And Charleston is so pretty at night!

This is the same church I took a picture of the first night, just much closer!

This hotel is haunted by Civil War soldiers

This graveyard is the site where one of the most famous “ghost” pictures has ever been taken. A man captured a picture of a woman carrying a basket.

There is a woman who gave birth to a stillborn son. Since he was stillborn, the church wouldn’t allow him a baptism or to be given a name. The woman died a couple days later from childbirth complications (and grief). Despite the family’s wishes, mother and son were not buried together because the baby wasn’t baptized. He was buried next to his mother in a sweetgrass basket. The woman in the picture is the mother carrying a sweetgrass basket on the day of her son’s birth. Sweet and creepy at the same time.

Creepy haunted alley. One of the ghost’s name’s was Ashley!

See any orbs?

After the tour was over, we stopped by Waterfront Park on the way back to the car, then headed back to Mississippi overnight!

We got back about 9 AM Monday morning, slept, then went and picked up sweet Zoe!

We had such a great trip and I loved having a week away from lab and research! So grateful to be able to visit the beach and family and friends!

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July 13, 2011 · 8:57 pm

Vacation Part II: Jacksonville, St. Augustine and Zach’s Birthday!

So Wednesday morning we woke up, packed, ate lunch and hit the road to JACKSONVILLE BEACH! My beach!

We met my mom, grandmother, and cousin for supper at Bahama Breeze in the Town Center.

This place is AWESOME and then we got frozen yogurt for dessert!

My Florida boy in his new Gator shirt I got him for his birthday

July 6 is the day in between my and Zach’s birthday so we called it Zashapalooza, which we celebrated by staying in and watching TV! Haha we were so tired and wanted to enjoy Zach’s birthday so we just layed low Wednesday night.

Thursday morning we woke up bright and early and headed to Jax Beach, where I ran 4 miles with my mom and Zach did a little work so it would be all finished up and not hanging over his head! Then we got ready and headed to the Anheuser-Busch brewery for a tour!

Zach at the brewery

Trying the different beers. They let each person have 2 full bottles! I had maybe 3/4 of one of my bottles haha so I just gave the rest of it to Zach and let him have my second one.

We really enjoyed the tour because we’re engineers so we are familiar with the processes and also because Zach loves beer haha.

Clydesdales are enormous!

Then we headed to St. Augustine!

We ate a yummy birthday dinner at Scarlett O’Hara’s and then walked around for a little while before our ghost tour started.

Zach with the Bridge of Lions in the background

More of our self-photoshoot. We were passing time by taking pictures of ourselves with everything haha

Zach in front of a pretty palm tree

Me in front of the pretty palm tree

Practicing our ghost tour faces

View of the fort…St. Augustine is just so beautiful to me even after 24 years!

The fort

Postcard quality? Haha

We went on a fun ghost tour for about an hour and a half. It wasn’t scary per se, but I did enjoy the stories of a place I’ve spent a lot of my life in

See any orbs? Ghosts? Creepy.

Then we headed back up to the beaches and hit up Lynch’s (my all time Jax Beach favorite…I like the trivia haha) and then Fionn MacCool’s Irish Pub.

Zach had a great birthday and I was so glad I got to spend it with him!

Friday morning Zach, me, and my mom went on a quick run and picked up a bunch of shells.

Aww haha

I thought this picture was cool Zach took of me while I was walking to cool down. Instagram made it cooler

Run run!

We got ready to leave, pacled up our stuff and went to a few stores in Jax that I love…Beall’s, Home Goods, and the town center.

I totally take pictures of things in stores that I love and want to make!

We finished our errands with a great lunch at Salt Life Seafood Shack before hitting the road to our next destination…

To be continued!!

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July 12, 2011 · 7:43 pm

Vacation Part I: Destin, FL! Beach and my Birthday!

I have been counting down to a week off from lab/grad school/working for…like 3 months now? I had SUCH a great vacation and I hope you all enjoy my recaps as much as I enjoy sharing them with you!

The first part of our vacation was 3.5ish days in Destin, FL.

Zach’s best friend Scott (college roommates) is in the military and back in the US on his month off between deployments! Scott had been in Starkville staying with us for the week before the trip so he followed us down to Destin! We left Friday night (July 1) and drove down to Jackson, MS to leave sweet Zoe with Zach’s grandparents for the week. Saturday morning we got in the car and headed on down to Destin!

Scott is ridiculously entertaining in the car. He had a solo dance party the entire time.

It typically takes about 5 hours to get to Destin from Starkville/Jackson. Traffic however caused this 5 hour ride to become a 10 hour ride. (I told the boys we should have left at like 6 am but they wouldn’t listen to me).

Our mad traffic faces.

By the time we got to Destin, it was almost 9 pm instead of our anticipated arrival time of 4 pm. We met my parents and sister who were also in Destin at McGuire’s Irish Pub for supper and a few drinks before calling it a night.

Parents.

My sister and I at McGuires

Zach and Scott

Zach and me!

Sunday morning (which was Scott’s 25th birthday!) Zach and I woke up pretty early to take a run/walk on the beach! Destin’s beaches are a little hard to run on because the sand is so soft and there is a big slope down to the water but we made the best of it!

I also had gotten the WORST sore throat at the end of the week before we went to Destin. It seemed to have gotten better by the time we got there but Sunday morning I woke up and had almost no voice! I sounded like a boy!

Run run!

After running we went to meet my parents and sister for breakfast then Chelsea and I went shopping in the outlets while Zach did a little work in the hotel room before the beach (grad students LOVE when their advisors send them work the day before a trip).

After the outlets we headed out to the beach for the afternoon then ate an early supper with my parents, who were headed back to Jax that night. We told the waiter it was Scott’s birthday and they made him sing Happy Birthday TO HIMSELF!

“Happy Birthday to Me!”

I would have died of embarrassment!

Zach, me and Dupree (haha)

After supper we went into a few stores then went to Hooter’s (Scott picked) to celebrate his birthday!

I have no idea how I managed to eat wings after eating supper but I did! The boys also had a few drinks and then we went to the hotel, changed, and hung out for the rest of the night!

Monday was the fourth of July! Zach did a little work in the morning but we spent most of the day on the beach! This day I had NO voice AT ALL! It was awful! But I’m sure the boys enjoyed the peace and quiet! Haha!

After the beach we got ready and took a few pictures on the beach before heading to eat.

My Fourth of July outfit! I got this one-shouldered red dress from Vestique, and I put a gold belt, gold sandals, gold and pearl necklace (long necklace but I wrapped twice to make it shorter) and gold and sparkly starfish earrings!

Scott and Zach with the sparklers

Zach and I…I had him wear blue so we would be red and blue and festive!

The three of us!

We then went to eat at Hooters (again I know….but the wings were so good and I didn’t really have any voice to protest! LOL)

After supper we changed and took the sparklers and beach chairs out to the beach to watch the fireworks and relax!

Fourth of July was SUCH a great time! I really enjoyed spending all day at the beach and the fireworks and sparklers at night!

Tuesday (July 5) was my 24th birthday!

(This vacation we celebrated FOUR birthdays!)

Zach and I got up and went for a walk on the beach and collected tons of seashells! I LOVE seashells and I have them all over the apartment as decorations!

After the beach we went and ate birthday cake frozen yogurt for breakfast!

Birthday girl!

Happy birfday to me!

Then we went and woke Scott up and went to eat lunch at Panera Bread! There isn’t any P-Bread in Starkville so I picked there

Then we went to a few outlets and then to the BEACH!

Destin is just so pretty!

We took this blow up raft out to the sand bar to look for sand dollars

and we found nineteen! It was such an awesome birthday gift from the ocean!

After the beach we got ready and went to PF Changs for my birthday dinner! I love PF Changs!

Zach and my birthday outfits

I don’t really drink alcohol but I did have one birthday drink called the Pink Bellini! I know I’ve mentioned it before and if you go to PF Changs I highly recommend it!

After supper we went to The Melting Pot for birthday fondue dessert!

I LOVE this place! Zach and I went in March last time we were in Destin and I enjoyed so much I knew exactly what I wanted for dessert on my birthday!

After dessert we changed, packed up the beach chairs, and went back out to the beach to talk and hang out! Scott is really funny and I always get a kick out of him and of course I love Zach to pieces! I had such an awesome 24th birthday!