Life Lately: As told through my Iphone

I've been wanting to post something new for quite a while now, but as you can see, I haven't done so. Of course, this means lots of things have backlogged in my mind, and I wasn't even sure where to start. So I decided the easiest thing to do was take a look at my Iphone and see where it says I have been the past few weeks  months. Here's a look at my life lately, according to my Iphone records:

Sometimes, I run into quite a few interesting things on our winding, country road. One day, I came across a few horses taking a stroll in my lane. (Just last week, I encountered a cow in my lane. Thank goodness my car and these animals didn't decide to meet.)

Got my new Erin Condren planner! Love these!

Almost hit a Christmas tree that was in my lane on that country road... went back to drag it off the road, and someone beat me to it. I had to take a picture to prove it literally was a Christmas tree.

Between dodging Christmas trees, cows, and horses, I get to see pretty sunrises/sunsets as well :)

Got a beautiful delivery of flowers at work from my mom to celebrate a new job/office. My business cards happened to come the same day!

Added a little chrome to the Terrain thanks to the boyfriend.. gotta have my sparkle :)

Helped host a bridal shower for my sweet friend Erin -- two weeks from today, she'll be waking up a married woman!

I have woken up to quite a few beautiful mornings. I may not like living so far from town all the time, but it sure can be beautiful to have this as your front yard.

Got this sweet picture from my love. This particular Dove wrapper has hung on his bulletin board since we were in college -- always a nice reminder :)

Drove many mornings to work in the snow. At least it was pretty! (Don't tell anyone how many pics I take while driving this road, please.)

Got a Valentine's Day surprise in the mail from the boyfriend.

And some beautiful flowers!

Celebrated the opening of the new Harp's in my hometown. This probably isn't a big deal to anyone who doesn't live here, but trust me, it's kind of a big deal.

Started decorating my new office. Still a long way to go, but at least we got a few things in there!

There's no place like Northwest Arkansas. Such a lovely place to live.

Celebrated Mom's birthday weekend in Branson shopping.

Where we each splurged and got a new Coach purse!

Woke up to yet another beautiful snowy day, and spent it working in Reynolds Razorback Stadium

But it was clear the next day!

FINALLY decided on and purchased new Asics running shoes.

And most recently, spent a fun weekend celebrating Erin and her girls' weekend at the horse races in Hot Springs! Such a fun experience -- can't wait to go back again soon!

That's life lately -- I'm really going to try to stay on top of this blogging thing again!
Happy Sunday!

 

Happy New Year!

I can't believe it's already 2013! (Side note: I realize January is now almost over, but this post has been sitting in my drafts for about a month now -- 2013 has been crazy busy already --so, read or skip this, I don't care, I wasn't prepared to just delete it :)

 Here's a look back at some of the highlights of my 2012...

In January, I made my first big, big girl purchase when I bought a car for myself. It was a 2008 Lincoln MKx, and I loved it!

Kody and I also got to go see the Razorbacks play KState in the 2012 Cotton Bowl. It was our second time to go to a bowl game together, and it was fun to celebrate a win! (Side note, KState fans are the nicest -- so glad they had such a good season this year!)

February wasn't too exciting as far as I remember, but it did bring me an Erin Condren planner for Valentine's Day. Thanks, boyfriend :) I received my new one for this year already--I love them!

March brought my last spring break as a student. Our fun "Emily, Party of Six" group (inside joke) planned a last minute vacation to Gulf Shores. I always have a great time with this group, and I look forward to many more vacations with them :)

In April, Kody and I celebrated his 24th birthday and our 4th anniversary together. I gave him a bow that I had kept secret (along with a lot of help from our friends/family) for over four months! I also made these tasty golf cupcakes that turned out pretty well.

Kody and I also attended his "Cadaver Ball" at UAMS in April. Despite the name of the event, it was a good time. 

In May, I started this blog. I celebrated getting my Master's degree in Higher Education from the University of Arkansas, and we spent a fun weekend on the lake for Memorial Day with great friends!

June was FULL of weddings and wedding showers. You can check those out here, here, and here. It was also spent getting ready for July...

July was BY FAR the best month of 2012! We spent the entire month in Paris (and about a week in London by the time we left). We had the most amazing time, saw so many awesome things, ate great food, shopped, learned a lot, and immersed ourselves in the Parisian lifestyle. I celebrated my 24th birthday in London complete with a trip to Harry Potter Studios (best. day. ever.) Just check out all of my July (and some of August) posts to see all of the awesomeness. I'm ready for another trip! As an added bonus, Kody got me my very first pair of diamond earrings for my birthday :)

August brought two more weddings that were both beautiful for beautiful friends!

I also got to make a trip to St. Louis with my dear friend/college roomie, Heather, to see our other college roomie/friend, Monica. I miss seeing these two so much!

September was pretty quiet, but we did spend another fun Labor Day weekend on the lake with wonderful friends! Also, my trusty first car finally went out on us, so my mom purchased a new car! (New car #2 for us in 2012.) Mom was entered in a drawing and won Razorback tickets that we used later that month which was a lot of fun (despite the loss). Kody, Kent and I also had a fun weekend in Little Rock watching the Hogs play! We all love football season!

October was full of fun! The two main events were UAFS' Alumni Weekend and Madeline and Maxx's beautiful wedding. Both events were a lot of fun, and it was great to catch up with old friends and make new ones on both occasions.

I also got to enjoy spending time with these sweet girls - love my lovely nieces so much :)

November started out pretty rough. On the seventh, I was in my very first car accident. Don't want to rehash it, but here's my pretty car afterwards :(

Three days after this wreck, I helped host a baby shower for my dear friend, Hannah.

After a lot of stressful car shopping (not fun), I finally decided on this brand new car. My very first brand new car, and our family's third car purchase of the year (and hopefully last for a very long time).

December was spent being thankful, spending lots of time with family and friends, and oh yeah, starting a new job! Hence, this post has been sitting unpublished for almost a month.

It was a crazy and fun, sometimes crazy fun, 2012, and I'm excited to see what 2013 has in store!

New Job!

I am happy to officially announce that as of next Monday, I will begin a new job at the University of Arkansas. I've worked in the Department of Industrial Engineering for many years in different capacities, but this is the first job where I will actually be using my Master's in Higher Ed. And I get to stay VERY close to home because I'll be working as a Project Manager in Operations Management -- which happens to be housed within INEG.

I am so, so grateful for everything that the INEG department has done for me over the years because without the wonderful people there, I would not be where I am today. I am so excited to start this new role in OMGT, and as it is a brand new position in the largest grad program at the U of A, it will be an interesting adventure I am sure :)

Happy Tuesday!

50% Emily(ee)

The weekend before last some of my very best friends got together for the first time in what felt like FOREVER. I met each of these girls in college. Once again, I can not thank God enough for putting Delta Gamma in my life. I've had the best experiences, learned the most lessons, and met the best people from this wonderful organization.

We all met in Greenbrier at Emily (KP)'s house. We've been trying to do this for TWO AND A HALF YEARS! It was the first time in so long where 50% of the group that got together was named Emily(ee) - which is guaranteed to be an interesting time. I've missed all these girls so much, we had so much fun, and Emily is always the best hostess! The only sad part was the girls we were missing because they weren't able to make it.

Love these sweet girls so much.
Laura, Brooke, Emily, myself, Meredith, and Emilee

 These were fun pictures to take with the table as our photographer :)

Side note: I saw this beautiful sunset on my way home one night last week. I love a Northwest Arkansas sunset.

I'm so thankful for such a wonderful group of friends!

Zoe in Wonderland

About a month ago, I got to help host a baby shower for one of my oldest friends, Hannah. I was so happy to host her bridal shower back in June as well as be a part of her big day. In November, I helped her sister throw a fun "Zoe in Wonderland" themed shower. We went with this theme because Hannah will be doing baby Zoe's room in an Alice in Wonderland theme. Think teacups and pretty things, not creepy mad hatter and evil queens :)

So a tea party it was! Somewhat luckily for us, it turned very cold and very rainy the day of the shower, so I think everyone was grateful for a hot drink when they arrived.

The invitations!

Selection of hot drinks --teas, hot apple cider, and hot chocolate 

"Drink Me!" water bottle labels I made

Cute cake that Sarah got!

 Mini sandwhiches

A rattle pumpkin cheese ball -- notice the white bunny graham crackers mixed in there. I have to give credit to Kody for finding those while we were shopping for the shower food. His help was much appreciated as I had wrecked a few days before the shower!

 Food table

More yummy treats and a fun white bunny I found!

Teacups and roses on every table

 Banner for Ms. Zoe (cricuts are the best machines ever!)

Wreath I made for Zoe -- this will go to the hospital with them if there's enough time :)

Gift table before everyone got there

 Balloons -- they didn't make it outside long due to the torrential downpour that day

 Hannah and myself!

Hannah and her sister Sarah

 Hannah and Will opening gifts!

 About to be a family of three!

Congrats Hannah and Will! I can't WAIT to meet baby Zoe!