Feeling the LOVE...

Last weekend was a weekend I had been looking forward to for quite some time...BACHELORETTE WEEKEND!  I was kept in the dark with all of the planning that was happening so I was incredibly excited to get to spend some time with all of my friend.  As many of you know,  Atlanta got hit by a second winter storm that week, so of course, we spent another couple of days at home.  After a day or two about stressing about the weather, Atlanta felt like cooperating and it warmed up on Thursday and melted all of the snow and ice away! The snow was beautiful while it lasted and I enjoyed getting to spend some extra time with Joe around!

Now this is how you work from home :)

Friday came and I got some work done, waiting for the afternoon to arrive so that everyone came to town!  I got an incredibly sad phone call from one of my bridesmaids, Sarah Anderson, letting me know her flight had been canceled and after spending 5 hours at the airport trying to find a way out, there was no hope!  It was so sad to not get to see her, but if anyone could have figured out a way down here, it would have been her!  Unfortunately, with all her efforts and tears, she still wasn't able to make the trip.  Everyone else hit the road in the afternoon after the roads had cleared, and it was finally time to begin the festivities with dinner!  Before I go through the weekend, I must say a very special thank you to my wonderful sister who put in a whole lot of time and effort planning the weekend, along with a lot of help from my best friend Courtney.  I know that she would have given anything in the world to be there with us, but with a 5 month old baby, it just wasn't possible.  She is the one that knows me the best and she put on an absolutely perfect weekend, even if she was celebrating it from afar!

Dinner started with a walk down the street to a restaurant called Genkie, a sushi place in Buckhead.  Joe and I had walked past it so many times and I had heard it was great, but had never made the trip.  The food was amazing, and it was such a special valentines day meal!  After dinner we headed to our place to hang out a bit before heading to Ivy.  This was a low key night for us because I knew that we had a fun filled day ahead of us.  Ivy was absolutely crazy on Valentines Day, especially with single guys.  We did get pretty flowers from a random person though! We had so much fun dancing and enjoying each others company, and headed home after we were sufficiently tired from the dance floor and our feet were killing us!

As expected, a lot of the girls woke up early with no alarm clock, so we headed outdoors for some exercise.  After a good walk with Courtney, she and some of the girls started making a fabulous brunch.  It was absolutely amazing.  They made a breakfast casserole, fruit, bagels, mimosas, and so much more.  After brunch we had a shower which was so much fun.  I got so many useful things and I cannot wait to put them to great use :)  After the shower we all got ready then headed to Sips and Strokes to get our painting on.  For those of you that don't know, this is a painting place where you bring your own food and wine, then follow an instructor as they lead you through a painting.  We had two options to paint, a piano type painting, and martini glasses.  I opted for the martini glasses with a twist, so that if it turned out good I could hang in at the bar!  We had so much fun painting, getting marriage advice from the whole class, drinking wine, eating desert, and simply enjoying each other's company.  After that, we headed home to start getting ready for the evening.  It takes quite some time for the big group of girls to get ready, but we were right on time for dinner reservations!

Time to Paint!

Break Time

Final Product...Yellow to Match the Bar

Everyone's turned out great!

We headed to dinner at Twist, and enjoyed a great meal.  After that, we left for another full night of dancing.  They had gotten a table with bottle service at Cosmo Lava which was so cool!  I had never done that before so we had so much fun having our own roped off area.  Cosmo Lava put on a scavenger hunt for me to do so that you can explore all of the different bars that they have.  It was a lovely evening wearing mustaches, sipping on drinks and shots, dancing the night away, and handing out stickers! I must say we had a blast with stickers that were labeled with "six pack" "bar fly" "sexy smile"  "player" etc...and handing them out to guys at the bar.  Some were happy with what they got...while others couldn't help but laugh.  Everyone was such a good sport and we had such a great time.  After getting home we made sure to get a "twerking" lesson in private from Katie before heading to bed.

She has her bride to be on :)

The Whole Group!  Even Roxie :)

Dinner :)

Mustache :) :) :)

Dancing the Night Away

The morning came quick, and before we knew it, it was brunch time!  We headed to brunch at Sun in my Belly and I literally cannot wait to go back!  The brunch was amazing and there were so many options that it was almost impossible to pick one option!  After brunch it was time for goodbyes and I was so sad to see everyone go.  I had so much fun celebrating the weekend of LOVE with all of my closest friends, both old and new.  I couldn't have asked for a better party and honestly don't think I would have planned anything as perfect by myself!  I cannot wait to have all of these girls together again in just a couple months for the wedding!

Brunch :)

The weekend was over before I knew it and it was time for another week of travel.  This past week was spent in the north east, starting in Rochester, then Vermont, and ending in Boston.  It was a VERY successful week and I am so excited how the meetings turned out.  It has been a fun journey learning my position and the wonderful world of sales.  This week showed me that maybe I have learned something in the last year that I have had this position.

After getting home Friday, it was such a beautiful day, so I enjoyed working on the rooftop for the remainder of the day.  Friday night was our first date night of the year (if you can't tell we lead busy lives), and Joe and I headed to Horseradish Grill which is about a mile down the street from us.  We had planned a lot of date nights but they always seemed to be ruined by ice, delayed flights, etc.  The restaurant is southern cooking with a twist and it was absolutely amazing.  Joe got venison meatloaf which was amazing and I got a rack of lamb.  We also got some fried green tomatoes because who doesn't love some good southern comfort food!  The food was amazing and we thought we were going to explode from eating so much!  After we got home we laid down in bed and realized we were in for the night, so we enjoyed some wine and each others company. 

Saturday was filled with tennis and boot camp class and our (yes I qualify because I played two matches) mixed doubles team made it to the ALTA championship!  It was such a fun match to watch and I cannot wait to see what the outcome is two weeks from now.  After tennis we headed to dinner and then headed to a new bar in Buckhead, Big Sky.  It was the grand opening so we had to check it out!  It is such a cool bar that is very open on the top floor so it will be amazing to go to in the summer.  It was such a beautiful night that it was a perfect night for the grand opening.  We called it an early night and headed home at midnight because we were exhausted after a fun day outside.  Sunday started in the morning with tennis since we knew the courts would be full later in the day.  After tennis we had breakfast then headed to the rooftop to get some sun and some work done.  After a couple hours up there, we headed to Joe's parent's house to spend some time with them, eat dinner, then head to church.  It was a relaxing weekend and Joe and I enjoyed spending some time together as I hit the road for another full week on the road.  This week I head to Detriot, Cedar Rapids, and Chicago, so I cannot wait to see my friends up in Chicago!  Happy Week Everyone :)

Winter Wonderland...

It has been quite some time since I wrote a blog post, and in the past week I have had quite a few people comment that I am slacking on my blogging.  I must say, they are very right about that!  The past couple weeks have been eventful, calm, and hectic all at the same time.

The past couple weekends have been calmer than normal, but seemed to fly by.  As most of you know, Joe is very into ALTA and plays men's league every season.  This year, he joined a mixed league, which I had been going to watch.  After a couple matches, somehow I got talked into signing up for the team because they were low on girls and didn't want to scratch lines.  After signing up, I started getting worried since I had no knowledge about tennis.  I didn't know how to keep score, where to stand, etc, but I was willing to take on the challenge.  A couple of weekends ago, I played my first match which got cut short.  Three weekends ago, I got to play another match and actually played a full one!   I had the lovely opportunity to play with a friend from college, Chris, which made me a bit more comfortable.  He had hit with me a couple times and helped me learn the basic skills of tennis.  We got off to a fun start, learning where to stand and how to work with each other, and ended up winning the first set in a tie breaker!  The next set we ended up winning by far, so I can officially say I played and won a full match (with a whole lot of help from Chris!).

Two weeks ago I was supposed to travel to Seattle, but Atlanta weather had a different plan.  As most people know, Atlanta got hit by the snowpocalypse.  I was incredibly lucky to be working from home Tuesday, so I did not have to do much on my end.  Joe got the flip side of the experience.  He had left around noon to go to Birmingham, and 6 hours later, made it ALL the way to Six Flags.  After finally getting to an exit with his boss, they turned around.  Although they made it back to midtown fairly quickly (relatively speaking) Joe still wanted to make it to our house.  He hit the road, and got stuck about a mile away for an hour.  After continuing to stand still, he finally put the car in park and made it home, just before 11!  What a trip to make it to Six Flags and back!  I canceled my trip to Seattle (the flight only went out 12 hours late!) so we were safe and sound at home the following day.

The SNOW has started :)

Never seen a Dog love snow more than her...you can't get her to come inside!

We enjoyed the warm weather the following weekend, and I attended my first boot camp class since i had gone regularly in Chicago with a friend or mine.  I must say, my body HURT the next day and I am pretty sure I haven't been that sore since Christmas training in college.  We will see if I make it back :)

At the end of the week we had Nicole and Kristina over for dinner and knocked out some wedding planning.  They are both friends of Joe's from high school and are both very talented.  Kristina is quite the crafty girl so we asked if she was willing to make our centerpieces and flowers for the wedding to keep our costs down.  She is so creative and I cannot wait to see what the final product looks like!  Nicole went to pastry school and was recently working in Europe.  We are so lucky that she is back for a couple months, and she is so kind to make our cake for us.  We have picked absolutely amazing flavors and a beautiful design so I can't wait to see what the final product looks like.  We are so blessed to have so many amazingly talented people in our lives so that we can not only keep the cost of our wedding down, but we can truly have a unique look to our wedding.  It is all coming together so quick! We even sent the invitations out a week ago!

This past week Joe hit the road Monday to go to Birmingham (second attempt) and I had a slumber party!  Kellie Ann and I had a wonderful night on Monday, watching the Bachelor, sipping wine, and eating home made ice cream (who cares about the wedding diet!).  It was so nice having her around in the evenings because I hate having the whole big house to myself!  Sometimes you just need a little girl time, and we definitely had a blast enjoying each others company.

Wednesday I headed to Seattle (second attempt!) and made it!  After calls on Wednesday, I headed downtown to grab some dinner (early because I can't switch time zones well) and was pleasantly surprised to find a parade going on!  I didn't stay long (it was freezing and I was not dressed appropriately) but it was so cool to see at least a portion of it!  The week flew by and before I knew it I was headed back to Atlanta!

Seahawks Stadium after they won the Super Bowl this past Weekend!

Perks of waking up at 4...you see the sun rise :)  View from my hotel!

This weekend was a busy weekend filled with SCUBA class!  To get certified, you have to do an online class which Joe and I had completed, pool dives, and 4 open water dives.  This weekend we did our pool dives to learn the general skills.  I forgot how dry your skin gets after being in a pool for 5 hours!  We had so much fun learning to dive, float, sink, etc.  I must brag and say I lapped Joe on our 200 yd. swim (he kept up with me for a 100 of it then died!) so I guess I still have some swimming skill :)  I also felt quite accomplished when I could still climb the rope they had tied from the roof into the pool.  This is not a SCUBA skill you need, but at Divers Supply in Marietta where we were doing our class, they also do some fire fighter training so it was fun to see if I could still do it.  After two full days of pool skills, we are confident to head to Florida in a couple weeks to do our 4 open water dives and complete our certification!  I am now worn out, and ready for bed.

This week I get to work from home before hitting the road for another two weeks.  BUT before I hit the road, it is BACHELORETTE WEEKEND!!!!  I cannot wait to have all of my wonderful friends in town (some will be dearly missed) to celebrate with me. And now, off to shower number two so that I can stop smelling like chlorine sometime soon :)