Thursday, April 29, 2010

What Happens at the Winery...Stays at the Winery

Today I took my last final of graduate school and have completed all didactic course work (bring on graduation in December!) and to celebrate a great group of us girls went out to a local winery for the afternoon, and had a blast.

We started with some wine tasting in the loft.

We wandered around the market and the grounds to the lake and fed the Koi ducks who completely trumped the Koi

 We had some fun on the dock!

We were then attacked by the ducks, Sarah tried to shake her booty to throw them off...didn't work

To top off our afternoon we visited one of our professors who, believe it or not, has goats...lots of goats. We had wine and cheese at her house and enjoyed her great views and the goats. At one point one hopped up on the table to try and get some crackers.

All in all an amazing afternoon with some great girls and a lovely way to top of the semester!

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Reunited....and it feels SO good

This post is uber late, but had to share. Last Saturday, April 17, was the infamous Thunder Over Louisville, to kick of all the Derby festivities. I hadn't been to "Thunder" since I was a kid and had no plans of attending this one, that is until one of my most favorite people invited me to go with her and her brother and his wife and some of their friends. So, of course, I jumped at the opportunity because I rarely ever get to see her and probably won't see her again until the fall (darn schedule conflicts and busy lives).

KB and I enjoying the great weather, yummy food and good company!

Luckily for us, KB and her crew got there early in the morning to claim a spot and set up shop! We had a great view of the great lawn and there were TONS of people. It's always fun to people watch and make games out of it.

Just a glimpse of the crowd and the bridge!

So despite some mishaps with finding the chow wagon (definition: a fenced corral with lots of good carnival food and booze), how we missed it, I'll never know, and the crowds, we had a great time and it was so good to catch up.

Love these goofballs!

Monday, April 26, 2010

A different take on Evolution and Creationism?

On Friday night, Stephen and I celebrated my last day of classes (EVER!!) as a graduate student by seeing a show at Comedy Caravan, a local comedy club, and then hitting up 60 West, a martini bar, for some yummy drinks and late night appetizers.

One of the comedians told a joke that still has Stephen and I talking and laughing about it, so I thought I'd share:

There's proof that dinosaurs coexisted with humans. When God told Noah to build an ark, obviously no one had ever heard of the word. Noah didn't know what an ark was and so for the longest time couldn't do what God had commanded, that is until a dinosaur came to the rescue. The dinosaur said, "Noah, 'ark' is another word for 'boat.'" Noah was so relieved and thanked the dinosaur. Do you know what the dinosaur's name was?.... Thesaurus! Hahahahahahahaha- OK so I know I probably didn't get it across but if you can imagine, it was hilarious!

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Where Oh Where...

So... one of my good friends got engaged at right about the same time as I did and because of the proximity of our engagements we've been swapping resources and ideas. We both have booked the same photographer, All Angles. Included in our package is an engagment session as I'm super excited about taking engagement pictures as I am obsessed with pictures, scrapbooking, you name it, I love it! But I have a huge dilemma coming up. My friend is already talking with the photographer about when and where she is planning to have her engagement pics taken. I'm so torn because I'm not sure when would be the best time of the year to book it and what types of settings I want.

So these are the ideas I'm playing with:

I L-O-V-E the fall season, I was born in Novemeber, our wedding is going to be in October and the outdoors is sooo beautiful.


I also love the country/rustic/outdoor/farm-ish look as well. I really like black 4 post fences and in the proper setting I think they could make a beautiful backdrop.


I also like the playfulness associated with playgrounds. I think it would be really neat to incorporate a tree swing. It would add fun and simplicity.


Ok, I know this is kinda weird, but I know of a friend who had his and his fiance's engagement pictures taken at a train trestle. This particular train trestle is literally a few miles from my house and I think it's a really neat idea. And no, we wouldn't be walking ON the trestle-that's just dangerous. But the supports come down to a road and a field that passes underneath where we would take the pics. The trestle is very rusty and surrounded by trees, I think it would be a cool element in the pics.


I'm also toying with the idea of taking pics at waterfront park and subsequently in the downtown area. I feel like it's a little cliche but the pics that I've seen are so gorgeous it might just be worth it!

Any suggestions? What do you think?

Monday, April 12, 2010

...Had me a Blast

Ok, so it's not really summer, but "spring lovin" doesn't have the same vibe, regardless, Stephen and I had a blast outside with the beautiful weather. We spent Saturday afternoon in Cherokee park enjoying the oodles of people and families out.


All the people walking dogs brough up the ever-long conversation we have been having about the kinds of dogs we are going to get--that is, when we get to that point in our life. We're definitely thinking two dogs (so they won't be lonely) and right now our top picks are
  • Chocolate Lab
  • Australian Shepherd
  • Siberian Husky 
Any suggestions?

Thursday, April 8, 2010

Root, Root, Root for cute MLB Gear!

For the past 2 years I've watched Stephen drool over his beloved team...the Yanks. So instead of trying to fight it this season, I have fully embraced baseball season and the Yankees. So, like any good female fan, I went looking for some cute Yankee gear to start donning when we go out to bars and the like to watch games (heaven forbid we may even make it to a game). Here's what I've come across and absolutely love!

I'm digging this iPhone cover!
 
I really like this top from Victoria's Secret, just not a big fan of the rhinestone embellishments

I do, however, love, love, love this V-neck from Nike. I think this is the one I'm gonna go with!

And perhaps a little something for the man ;)

Any sports fans out there? Which teams? How do you spend game night with your man and/or best gals?

Don't you Hate it When...

...You can't save a lost pup :(

I was driving home today and came across this pitifully, sad looking dog standing in the middle of the street. I stopped my car and hopped out, palm down, kneeling, trying to get the little guy to head my way because I could see that he a collar on. He didn't run but wouldn't really come to me.

I started walking away, so I got in my car and followed him until he stopped, I hopped out again and approached him, this time he came right over and let me pet him, I looked at his tags to see if he was from around here. The tags said he was from TN!! I immediately went back to my car to get my cell phone to try and call the owners but when I got back to him, we wouldn't come near me. I tried to get his attention, but he wondered into the woods...

But then I think about what I would've done had I got a hold of his owners...in TN?!? Or if I hadn't, I know I wouldn't have left the dog-oh too much to think about.

Geez, I hate that, poor guy. Anyone else have similar stories, or ones that ended with good news?

Monday, April 5, 2010

Give Me More, Give Me More!

I'm writing to share that a fellow blogger is having a giveaway currently on her blog. Bluegrass Love is giving away a $25 gift certificate to Sephora! Who couldn't use some great beauty products!

Also Social Studies Momma is hosting a giveaway for some great kitchenware. Be sure to check it out!

Sunday, April 4, 2010

Hoppy Easter Readers!

Stephen and I started Easter Sunday at his parent's house with tons of friends and good company for a delicious Easter breakfast/brunch. I love catching up with his family friends because I feel so close with them. And it's always fun when they bring up wedding planning stuff!! We enjoyed delicious ham, an egg casserole topped with asparagus (yummy!), a beautiful fruit salad, a Paula Dean inspired french toast casserole (in the words of Stephen's brother, "Diabetes, anyone?") and a yummy strawberry, shortcake and blueberry trifle!! Absolutely delish!

Stephen in his gorgeous sweater and button-up shirt (that he picked out all on his own!)

After spending the morning with Stephen's family, we made our way to my aunt's house for my Easter celebrations with my side of the family for a late lunch. We have lots of little ones running around so we spent a lot of time hiding and hunting the not-so-coveted Easter eggs (apparently hiding 200 eggs for 9 children isn't a great idea, who would've thought kids would get tired of hunting eggs?)We still had a great time. My aunt has a trampolene and we definelty take advantage of that whenever we are over there!
Meet my brother, Garrett, he and I dominated that trampolene...well that is until our younger cousin came out and um, shall we say kicked our butts doing flips and crazy dancer moves we could only dream about...such a great afternoon.

After all the Easter festivities, Stphen and I retreated back to his place and played catch for a while so we could enjoy the beautiful weather.

We topped off the night with a pitcher of margaritas and some yummy mexican food to watch the opening game of baseball season: Stephens favorite, the Yankees against, dun dun dun the Red Sox (boooooooo). It was a great Sunday and I couldn't have asked for anything more!

Get Thee to a Farmer's Market

Since Mr. Chicken Butt has subscribed to NetFlix, we find ourselves constantly watching movies from genres we otherwise probably never would've picked up at Blockbuster and those that you probably wouldn't be able to find at a RedBox. Our latest find: Food Inc.



I've never come across information that's made me want to change what I eat and where I get the food I eat. This film is a must-see documentary depicting how the meat industry mostly (but also food in general) is run in America and how its affecting us, the food we eat, the farmer's that grow it and the planet we are living on. Honestly guys, it's not one of those docs that's far left wing propoganda (I can't stand those either)-heck, they even promote Wal-Mart (crazy, I know but you'll have to watch to figure out how that fits in).

After Stephen and I watched the film we took a long walk in the middle of the night and discussed everything we had seen and how we wanted to change where we got our food. We're excited about farmer's markets, buying beef in large quantities from local cattle farmers, possibly planting our own garden, and baking a lot of the things we can't grow, rather than wasting money and using unneccessary packaging. I think this film is great to watch because it's not an end all be all, doom and gloom kinda flick, instead it tells you what's wrong with the system and how you can operate within it and still make good choices that potentially could make a difference, even if just a local one.

Thursday, April 1, 2010

Bye bye glasses!

Today, after about a month of waiting, I finally had the LASIKs surgery on both of my eyes so I could end the 5 month streak of wearing glasses!! I'm still getting used to not having to spend the extra time in the morning and at night to a) take out and clean contacts or to b) put my glasses back on in the middle of the night when I'm just getting up for a second. It's still kinda freakish, what technology can do! I'm so happy and so blessed! Can't wait to begin experiencing life again without the glasses!