boots

my family and i recently lost our beloved dog, boots! we miss her dearly! she gave us a wonderful 14 years! she was our princess dog, as shown here in one of my favorite pictures... princess boo on her thrown of blankets!

will you pass the salt and pepper!?!

i've always been a strong believer that it's the little things in life that are important...

it all started a couple of years ago, my mom, mamaw, and myself were shopping in a little antique shop in this cute little town south of where we live. we saw this booth full of random old salt and pepper shakers. it was hilarious to see what all had been created into the shakers, funny little pieces, holiday themes, creepy looking animals, etc. my family and i joked, since mamaw collects bells and mom collects precious moments, that i should start collecting salt and pepper shakers. no purchases were made that day, since we mainly just joked about it. but after we left that little shop, the idea stuck in my head, so i mentioned that maybe it would be fun to collect salt and pepper shakers... and so i started doing just that.

i thought it'd be fun to share my collection with you, as i think, just in the short time i've been collecting, i've acquired some pretty unique pieces! and yes... these are all salt and pepper shakers! some of them have little trays or little animals holding the actual shakers, but in some way, shape, or form salt and pepper could be sprinkled from all of them :)










































































i've only just started my collection, but already, i have some great pieces! i can't wait to see what more years of collecting will bring!

no song to go with this one... but a good summer reading recommendation!

i'm pretty picky about the books i chose to read... i love books that i can fall into, escape into the world of the characters, a book that allows me to picture the book's events in a movie reel running through my head!

i just finished reading "the death and life of charlie st. cloud." a story i scoffed at when i saw the previews in the theaters, laughing that "oh geez another nicholas sparks book/movie". i know that may offend some, as mr. sparks is a very popular author amongst the female population for his romantic love stories and tearful endings. i was pleasantly surprised to find out that charlie st. cloud was not a sparks novel, rather a story highly recommended by barnes and noble, their claims that author (ben sherwood) captured the mystery of that place between life and death.

curled up with my new e-reader, i dived into the story of charlie st. cloud... each page i turned (or clicked as it were on my nook) reigned me in to this story that i was praying would end the way i wanted it to!

i love losing myself briefly in the words of an author, finding myself tuned out to the noises and things going on around me. this 213 page book by ben sherwood did just that, it stole me away into the world of charlie st. cloud and tess carroll! i won't spoil the ending... but i can tell you that it captured me, granted i had the images of zac efron and amanda crew in my head as i read through their characters story, but i had that movie-like reel running through my head as i breezed through the pages.


this weekend i'll get to experience the actual movie reel... the movie of charlie st. cloud and i'm excited about it. but now that i finished reading that book, i want to move onto the next book that captures me... the twilight saga always does that for me, as did all the harry potter books, but i've read them several times. i loved mr. sherwood's tale. now i want more. i want a new book. any suggestions as i search for the next adventure into the electronic pages of a book? i've been searching barnes and noble's website for just the right book, but i have yet to find it... don't worry though, i'm still looking :)

my worst habit. but my best quality.

i've always been super close to my mom's parents. i was and still am a mamaw and papaw's girl! in a recent visit to their house, my papaw slipped me a tiny cut out from the newspaper, saying "you know that i notice these little things, i cut this out for you. i think you'll find it fits you... thought you could keep it, i don't want my baby getting hurt anymore."

the clipping reads "my worst habit is: trusting people too fast. my best quality is: i understand what others do not; i see people from a different perspective." when i read it, the truthfulness of that little statement hit me, reminding me how true it is... yet, given all the hurt i've experienced through that trust, i don't think i'd want to change anything. as, without that hurt, i wouldn't be who i am. i wouldn't have the people in my life that i do.

this past summer, i again found myself tangled in a bit of drama, that despite my best efforts to avoid, still found me. again, i ended up disappointed and a little hurt... granted it wasn't the first time i ended up getting hurt by "friends," it hurt in someways nonetheless.

i can't say that i've had this horrible life. that i've been hurt by all these people. blahblahblah. but, i can say that i've been hurt by people i've trusted, too quickly, given my heart to people who didn't deserve it. i'd like to say i've learned from those "mistakes" and that i don't trust people as quickly; but honestly, i can't say that everything was a mistake. i am a strong believer in that you learn from your experiences, good or bad. you grow into a stronger person having been through what you've been through. i've tried to be guarded, tried to avoid letting people in too quickly, but that never works for me. maybe i'm too trusting... but i guess for me that's ok. because i like to think that people wouldn't hurt others, disappoint, or take advantage. i like to try to see some good in a person and maybe that ends with me getting hurt... but giving someone a chance to prove themselves otherwise is something i can't not do for whatever reason. i guess because that is me. that's who i am. and while sometimes it hurts, i don't think that'll i'll ever change in that way. in some weird way, i almost want to thank those that hurt me, because of them i've grown more than i ever would having not met. i thank them for helping me realize how blessed i really am when i have people in my life that truly love and care for me unconditionally.

"happiness" by the fray. probably one of my favorite songs of all time. it speaks to me. i've cried to it. i've found a bit of irony in it. i listen to is sometimes as a comfort. a song i've gone to in moments of that disappointment or hurt after having trusted or given someone too much credit.

i ask that you not read this with pity. because i am in no way unhappy. yes, i've been hurt, disappointed, taken advantage of... but who hasn't in some way/shape/form/etc. my life is filled with wonderful people, who love me for who i am. family, friends, people that i cherish and thank God for every day... because, after all that i have experienced, i have been blessed with the people who won't cause tears or heartache.

happy reading to me :)

so i know it's been a really long time since my last post... but i'm ready to get back into the blog grooooooove after the crazy busy that was the last few weeks!

yesterday marked the beginning of a whole new world of reading for me! i got the Nook, Barnes and Noble's version of the e-reader (similar to the Kindle)! now i can carry up to 1500 books with me wherever i go... i'm not sure i'll ever own 1500 books, but you never know!

i'm pretty excited about my new reading adventures, as i have no excuse not to get reading on my list i posted a while back. and now that it'll be so easy (and cheaper, e-books are a lot cheaper than regular books in stores in most cases) to get to reading whenever and wherever i go, please share any good books you've read recently, or not so recently :)

well... i'm off to my nook, escaping into world of some of my favorite fictional characters!

"be here now" with a lil photography

for a while now, i've enjoyed taking photographs of various places and things...
i've been blessed to have traveled to a few places that have yielded themselves to beautiful photographs! i wanted to share some of my favorites, as i know that i find a certain fascination exploring other people's work.

(in terms of my song connection for this post... i couldn't find something that i felt fit in with my taking pictures, so i am going with something that's just a feel good while you listen song. who do i turn to for this? ray lamontagne with "be here now")

from a botanical garden in dayton, ohio...












































taken in vegas!





































a few more from austraila































down in miami...





























a recent trip to baltimore




























i hope you have enjoyed taking a peek at a few of my favorite photographs. right now i am just using a simple digital camera, but i hope down the road i'll own a much nicer camera that will allow for true photography! thanks for indulging in a little piece of me, as i feel that in a photos, you can find a little bit of the person who took it :)

your love is my drug + rude boy = successful wedding weekend!

just recently i had the absolute honor of being in my cousin's wedding! he is one of two cousin's on my mom's side of the family, so being a part of his wedding was amazing, something i won't forget! he recently graduated from the naval academy and will be traveling a lot, going to grad school, and then serving our country... being a part of his wedding weekend was definitely a great way to send him off!

the wedding was in baltimore/annapolis, which meant a 10hr drive each way. the bridal party included 12 attendants, which means 12 girls, all different ages, from different places (New Jersey, Colorado, and Kentucky), some who know the bride, some who know the groom. all in all, it was kind of intimidating going in to such a weekend where you really only know a couple of people, yet you are expected to come together to be a big part of such an important event.

in certain situations, i find it difficult to fit in. being from a different state that most of the bridesmaids, being from the groom's side of the family, and being a few years older than some of the girls... i thought, hmmm this weekend could be interesting. i would have never thought it would have taken kesha and rihanna to bring us together... but ultimately, on the party bus while heading to the chapel, it was serenades of "your love is my drug" and teaching the lyrics of "rude boy" that did it! that's what it took for the bridesmaids to really bond! haha! it's amazing what letting loose, if even just a little, will gain you... new experiences, new friends, and great pictures!

most weddings bring two families together... this wedding did more than just that, it helped create friendships! ones that i hope last, despite the distance! friendships that could allow for many new fun experiences... trips to different cities, new things to try, new songs to serenade and dance to, and more pictures to capture! i am so thankful that i had the honor to be a part of my cousin's wedding, he was such a handsome groom and my new "cousin-in-law" was absolutely gorgeous! i was given a bonus in gaining new friends from this wedding weekend!

strawberry wine

i had a first the other night... my first wine tasting! some friends from school invited me to a new "club" they started, lovingly known as the "rockstars wine club!"

each time the club meets there will be a theme, for instance the first meeting's theme was "7 dollar bottles of wine." everyone brings a bottle of wine to meet the theme and we enjoy to our little hearts' content!

up until this first meeting, i hadn't found a wine that i really liked... i can't say that anymore! here are the wines we tried and my opinions haha :) wines tasted:

1. Wild Vines Frutezia Passion Blend... sooooooooo tasty :) my favorite fo sho! (it had strawberries on the label and after discussing it with the girls about blogging, deana carter's "strawberry wine" was the winner for this post's title!)

2. Beringer California Collection 2009 California Moscato... ehh it was ok!

3. Sutter Home Moscato California 2009 (2 bottles)... again, not sure if i can say i'm a moscato fan!

4. Chateau de Pique Pardieck Winery Chardonel Indiana... had "great legs" and wasn't too bad!

5. Cycles Gladiator California 2005 Dry Rose... GROSS! weird buttery finish that i was proud i picked up on, but ew!

not only did we taste some yummy wines... we had some great quotes to go along with our night:

"I like the descriptions"
"We can have a skyped wine meeting while I'm away"
"Chardonel . . . It's like Chardonnay's black sister"
"Your glass has the best legs"
"It has a naked lady on it!"
"Look at your legs"
"Does that one have a buttery finish?"
"I feel that you're more full-bodied"
"Naked women riding bicycles . . . Perfect!"
"Pour it all up in there"
"Like . . . my dream job, that I would never go in to"
"You've gotta move. Your legs spread is in the picture"
"Well, in that case, next time might be strip wine club"

wow, what a great night! fun times with fun girls! our next meeting will be held poolside with a theme of "picnic wines," and i can't wait!!! sun, wine, and great friends! i think i could become a wino ;)

put me in coach... i'm ready to play!

oh oh oh i love love love this time of year! it's college softball tournament time babyyy :D so obviously a song of choice would be "put me in coach"

every year my family and i sit down together and get sucked into the wonderful world of women's college softball! we all pick a team (sometimes the same; sometimes not, which of course makes for interesting game watching!) and cheer for them throughout the tourney. in the past it's been arizona, texas, and tennessee... but this year i'm hoping for an SEC win (it'd be the first time ever)... so ROLL TIDE ROLL for the 2010 women's college softball world series!

despite having never played softball myself, i've fallen in love with this sport! i am definitely a girl who loves to learn anything and everything about new and different sports. and while i'm still learning a lot, there are a few things i truly love watching. #1 the pitch... oh man from a PT nerd perspective, it's amazing to watch! and #2 slap hitting just amazes me... those girls get down that first base line in just a bit over 2 second which is just ridiculous!

summertime to me means hot hot sun, laying out by the pool, relaxing with a good book, and watching softball on tv! couldn't get much better! and this summer... i don't have school to distract me from watching ;)

go bama!

well it was a sad day yesterday... bama lost! i'm still not quite over it as silly as that is haha! that team was just so fun to watch. i'm still at a loss as to who to cheer for now... as my heart was pretty set on the crimson tide to roll on into oklahoma city and win!

so this year was not a good year for the teams i liked... every single team i cheered for lost! i started with my favorite alabama, after their loss, decided i could cheer for tennessee and washington. they both ended up losing. so in a last ditch effort i cheered for arizona, who lost to ucla in 2 games. hopefully next year will be a better year for anyone i cheer for... either that or i just need to start cheering for the team i hope to lose :)

where the story ends

for the last 2.5 yrs i've been responsible for studying and reading from textbooks.
now i want to be responsible for enjoying books that i picked out myself (although that'll have to be coupled with studying for state board exams along the way).

i'm giving the fray a little (actually a lot, they melt my heart no matter my mood) love. "where the story ends" is cheesy considering my post is about books, but at the same time i'm still writing my story, so i find it quite appropriate, who knows where my story will ultimately find its end. i'm finishing up my school career with three 8-week clinicals before graduating with a doctorate in physical therapy. the past 2 years have been a story in themselves, yet i know that come 2011, i'll be putting a whole new ink to a whole new type of paper.

so... books to read before i graduate (december 15th, 2010), in no particular order:

1. Vampire Diaries (yes... i finally gave into the world of vampires; i've started this series and need to finish it; books 3 and 4 to go)... and finishing that series may lead me back to the Twilight Saga (Edward in all his glittering-ness!)
   
2. The Red Tent (read it before, but it's worthy enough to be re-read)
3. The Secret Life of Bees (i've seen and loved the movie; heard the book was amazing!)
4. The Kite Runner

this is a running list... a changeable list. i'd love for anyone to share recommendations, must reads, classics, feel-goods, anything that strikes your fancy! :)

what's been going on?

hm hm hm amos lee! there are moments when that man's voice just strikes a chord in me... and it seems that in the summer, he speaks the most to me! "what's been going on" something we ask each other all the time.. it's such a simple question, yet can spark so many different reactions and emotions!

over the summer i really feel like these four words can set the stage for amazing conversations and great insight into the people you may have already thought you knew.

as long as i've been in school, and believe me it's been long enough haha, there has always been something i've disliked about summers... and that's not being around all of my friends! you get so used to being able to talk to everyone for 8 hours, 5 days a week. when summer rolls around, that's limited by distance, by vacations, by general lack of communication. but why... why is it that it's so easy for us to just let relationship fall because we aren't in school or at work? we just become dependent on facebook or word of mouth from mutual friends to know of what's been going on in each other's lives.

i miss knowing what's up in my friends' lives... i guess it's a good introduction to life after we graduate. i know there will be people i won't lose touch with; those friends who's weddings i'll attend, i'll be there as we build our families, etc. but the ones i do lose touch with... that, in so many ways, breaks my heart because at one time, those people were once close friends! distance. settling down in different cities. even living in the same city, only minutes away, but living different lives. all of these are just excuses that lend themselves to us losing touch and not truly knowing what's been going on.

i challenge you. i challenge myself. i am at such an early stage in this... yet i can already see how easy it is, can be, maybe even will be to lose touch with amazing people. so do as much as you can to avoid losing touch. if you've lost touch with those friends, make efforts to check back in. all it takes is asking "what's been going on..."

where does the good go?

ahhh what music does for the soul! thus far, i've sent shout outs to the weepies with my blog title, beyonce's "ego" made an appearance in my last entry, and now i'm crediting tegan and sarah with this one. i've always found that music speaks to me... that regardless of my mood, i find some song that really hits home.

i think this will be my "thing." so from now on, regardless of subject matter, watch out for a song lyric or title... this should be fun! a way to find new music and discover old :) i've gone back and linked the song titles in my past posts and will continue to do so in future posts, in case you've never heard the song or haven't in a while. so look, listen, and hopefully enjoy :)

where does the good go? well i followed it to austraila and man, did i find greatness! i wanted to share with you, the good i found in the land down under! i traveled with my physical therapy program to perth, australia (west coast) for an educational exchange; and while i learned a lot, don't worry, i played a bit too!

we cruised out on the ocean!


downtown perth

perth at night

the cutest puffer fish... such a flirt too!

a kangaroo, notice her joey! she ate right out of my hand... amazing experience!

sleepy koala

traveling half way around the world... an experience that can never be put into words. all i know is that i found where some of the good goes.

i walk like this 'cause i can back it up

back in high school i was an athlete... playing soccer and exercising to the point that it never mattered what i ate. i didn't play college sports, so my body experienced some changes. those changes never really bothered me much, until something clicked during my junior year.

always a perfectionist and over-achiever, college brought about stress as well. in needing something to control when things seemed crazy, i found comfort in controlling food and exercise. i began running twice a day on less than 1000 calories; a routine that would ultimately result in my weighing 110 pounds and a very distorted body image.

it took a scary night, my mom making me weigh myself in front of her, and a hug from an amazing friend to come to terms with a serious need for change. i attended counseling at school initially; this really taught me how to better cope with stress, with the addition of realizing how important it was for me (in my own words) to "get my shit together"... i was nearing entry into a graduate program for a doctorate in physical therapy, yet i was not taking care of my self and my body. i questioned myself in my being able to honestly talk to and treat my future patients, when i wasn't even taking proper care of myself.

time has been a huge help in my bettering myself. having a family who supports you no matter how scary or uncertain things can be is essential. my friends have been great; they have been there to provide the occasional, but sometimes necessary hugs or words of affirmation. they have helped me build healthy eating and exercise habits.

i can't say my road has been smooth in recovering from such a distorted view of myself and my body, but i can say that i'm making it.

lately i found such a inspiration and a motivation through working out to jillian micheals. some physical therapist friends introduced me to her workout dvds after i had some problems with shin splints (physical therapists/physical therapist students are the worst patients; i should have rested more between runs, but didn't). jillian pretty much rocks my world... in just 20 minutes ("30 day shred" dvd) she kills my arms, abs, and legs. one of my favorite things about jillian is that she promotes an overall healthy lifestyle, with both healthy food choices and exercises. jillian is believable... she's battled her own weight issues and she's kicked its ass (pardon me)! knowing that about her makes it hard to just give up on her workouts; for me it's motivating, for me it's something that pushes me to live better.

right now i'm flying high... my mind is in a great place! my body is getting there (jillian is no liar when she says she gets results)! one of my favorite workout songs right now is beyonce's "ego"... "i walk like this 'cause i can back it up" speaks to me in many ways (and not necessarily the ways beyonce probably intended ha!) :) but i've been there. done that. i'm not going back down the roads i've traveled (at least not the bumpy ones). so yeah... i walk like this 'cause i can back it up... and you know, maybe i can back it up a little like beyonce. my legs are pretty rocking these days ;)

i don't know if sharing this will ever hit home for anyone; for me, sharing pieces of my story gives me an outlet to continue moving forward. maybe all you get out of this is a new workout song in beyonce's "ego" or a new inspiration to tackle jillian and her "30 day shred"... regardless i hope i gave you something in reading this.

and so it begins...

blogging is something i never thought i'd try, i was never much of a journal or diary girl growing up. but i have been inspired... inspired by a wonderful friend of mine who recently started blogging. in reading her blog, something inside of me screamed "try it." and so i am.

i don't know where i'll go with this, i could go so many places. i tend to be one who is led strongly by her heart... so, "as the word spins madly on" join me wherever my heart leads. maybe something i say along the way will strike you, maybe not. either way, i hope that this blog can be an outlet of sorts. one of exploration into all that life holds. sometimes i think we miss out on so much in this world, so i'm ready to open my eyes and ears and mind even wider...