Gregory Vineyards

Phil, Lukas, Lauren and I travelled to Angier yesterday to go to Gregory Vineyards where they make muscadine wines. I don't know why but I love the sound of muscadine and scuppernong... They just sound so fun to say. 

I have been here several times once with Hay and once with Phil but it never seems to disappoint. The wines are a little but sweeter because of the muscadine grape but I love sweet wines and I ended up leaving with quite a few bottles to try at home. My favorites were the love-a- Rita which is a slushie shown above and the Bald Eagle which was a dry white wine.

Angier is quite a drive from Durham but I loved the tour which talked about the differences in grape types in North Carolina and sampling the wine. Hay and I went there in the summer when the vines were blooming but unfortunately in February the vines are not as pretty. I definitely would love to go back in the summer. The vineyard and tasting rooms are beautiful. Definitely worthy a try and it is locally owned with great deals and events happening all the time.

Website: http://www.gregoryvineyards.com

Erin's Birthday Party!

Erin celebrated her birthday on Friday. You can barely see Erin in between Hay and I. Nice photobomb. Hayleigh and I ate dinner together and began watching She's All That a 2000 classic movie when Phil came to pick us up to take us bowling. Normally I rarely can do anything in a Friday night but I am so glad that I went. Erin is one of the coolest people I know... She's quite amazing! (I feel like this statement needs more exclamation points) We went to AMF bowling in Cary and glow bowled the night away. After we went to Erin and Adam's house to eat deliciously homemade carrot cake. I don't even like carrot cake but I ate almost half of Phil's piece. Erin is also one of the best cooks I have ever met. It was a great night filled with bestie time, friend time, dancing, laughs, and singing Good Riddance in the car ride home. Lovely way to kick off a weekend!

Food Truck Rodeo

I am a huge fan of food trucks. One of my first jobs as a teenager was working for a company that had the first food truck in our small town in Maine. This past weekend Caty and Justin invited us to go to the Food Truck Rodeo in Durham. I was so excited that I barely ate anything all morning so that I could save my points up for something off of a truck. When we got there it was packed! Caty finally found a spot and my anxiety began to creep up but I was still so excited that I just kept going. We walked or squeezed our way through the whole event looking at where the longest lines were and which ones sounded good to us. Phil found a truck that had falafel tots at it so of course we had to try that. They were delicious and had tzatiki sauce with them which is actually quite good on WW points. 

After that starter, Phil and I ventured around again trying to find a short line to get a meal from. At one point Phil was behind me and asking me why I wasn't moving but there literally was no place to walk. It was so stressful for me who rarely does crowds especially to this caliber but I made it to a shorter line at Bandido's. Hay has told me many times that she and her sister Whitney used to go to Bandido's all the time so I have asked her lots of times to go but we always settle on La Cocina. I figured why not try it and see if I liked it. I ordered a burrito and Phil ordered nachos. The burrito was eh but the nachos were of course delicious. Hard to go wrong with cheese smothered things except of course on my points. Needless to say I didn't need to eat dinner that night so I only went over my points a little bit. Yay! 

I don't know if I would go back to the food truck rodeo but it definitely was worthy try. One thing down that I have always wanted to try.

Have you ever been to a food truck rodeo? What did you think? Where did you go?

Training Run

Caty and I ventured on a run/walk this weekend. We walked over 5 miles together and I did a few on my own for a total of 7 miles. Yay! It was great to go outside and walk and talk. :)

I am looking forward to getting back to running with Galloway this weekend... I am hoping that the temperatures warm up for me to run in. I haven't been to fond of the 15 degree mornings with wind. Yucky. 

New Year's 2014

Phil and I had a few friends over for New Years and I made specialty drinks. They were pretty amazing. I bought two North Carolina alcohols: Top of the Hill and Mystic. TOPO is distilled in Chapel Hill. Phil an I went a few weeks ago to their tour. Their gin is amazing. It doesn't taste like pine trees. Yay! And, the whiskey from Mystic is distilled in the one and only Durham. Both very good products. I had such a great time with friends and celebrating the beginning of the year.

Hope everyone had a wonderful celebration!

Crossroads

A few weeks ago, I had to make a tough decision about my second job. Now that I am living in Durham it was a struggle for me to be motivated to drive all the way to Raleigh to do my second job for three hours a day, five days a week. After teaching all day, I would be exhausted so I wasn't able to give it my all and I was driving 100 miles a day. Yikies! After weighing the lord and cons, I decided to just commit to one job and make time in my life for other things like working out more and spending more time with my friends. It has certainly been an adjustment to have more time on my hands but I am looking forward to seeing all of the awesome things I can do with my new free time! 

<3

Moving Day for the Murphy's

Phil and I helped Whitney and Jimmy move...well, I should say Phil helped way more than me. I took a ton of photos of the beautiful Miss Lydia. My friends are having babies all around me and it is a blessing to spend time with them and share in the beginning of their lives. I can't wait to see Lydia and Addy grow up and see all my friends build their families. 

Lydia kept on wanting to be switched from me to Phil. Evidentially it is a big compliment to Phil that she even wants to be held because Jimmy is the only one that she likes to hold her. She has quite a good grip and pulled on Phil's lip and beard. Thankfully, I wasn't wearing any jewelry!

A chunk full of beard!

And then, the cuteness continues....

Unfortunately, I don't have any photos of Addy but will post some soon!

A Time for a Little Gratitude...

Thanksgiving is the time to be grateful for all the small things in our lives. 

Phil bought me this flower the other day just because (aww...he is awesome!)

"The best things in life are not things."

First and foremost, my family who has always support me through the silly and often stupid decisions that I made throughout my teenage/young adult life. They have always been there for me and I will always be grateful to the support family provides. 

The great state of North Carolina: it may be odd to be thankful for a state but this state has provided me with a happier life since moving away from Maine where I suffered from seasonally affective disorder. I have also found my passion for teaching here.

My Friends: This would thankfully take a long time of all the awesome people I have in my life but those people know who they are... I remark that they are awesome because of course they are. Each person has uniquely helped me through hard times and great times and we all share amazing memories. 

My Relationships: Old and new because they have taught me to learn from my mistakes and who I deserve to have in my life. I am grateful to have so many relationships that are meaningful that it would be difficult not to thank them.

My Students: They are awesome! If it weren't for my students the job would certainly not be worth it. They teach me patience, make me laugh, teach me things and allow me to open their mind to new things.

There are so many things to be grateful for and I hope that I continously live in the abundance of all the awesome things (people) in my life.

<3

Cute as a Button

I would really like to know where that saying came from but this young lady is the cutest thing I have ever seen. I take about 30 photos of her whenever I see her. I can only imagine how many I will take of my one children. 

She is precious! She loves when I take out the camera it's like she is used to me having a camera out when she is there. :)

Gratitude

Photos of some of my favorite things! :) 

As the weather begins to cool down and we enter into my favorite season Fall I am continuously in awe of all of the amazing things I have to be grateful for. I am incredibly blessed to care for some many people. I have two jobs that enjoy. I have students that are interesting and engaging. I have supportive friends who are funny and encouraging. I have a partner who is warm, friendly and kind. 

Couldn't ask for more. <3

What are you grateful for today?

Labor Day

I hope everyone has a wonderful Labor Day! I have posted some photos of one of my labor of loves: my garden. I have been able to enjoy many delicious jalapeño peppers, banana peppers and red peppers from this little apartment garden. I will be enjoying my day with lots of friends. Hope everyone enjoys their celebrations today!

Baby Z's Shower

Hay and I's gift for Baby Z. I wish I had snapped a few pictures of the rest of the gifts. 

A few weeks ago, Hayleigh and I threw a shower for Emily who is expecting a little girl in October. Hayleigh and I had been thinking of ideas ever since we saw the sonogram picture so it was great to see all of our ideas come to life. We had a great day and great help from Hayleigh's sister Whit and her mom who helped with the food. The food was delicious! I have a few pictures of it but definitely doesn't do the pizza bread any service. A huge shout out to Hay who hosted the event at her house. She has such a nice townhouse; it was perfect place to have an event!

Adventures of a Saturday!

This past Saturday, Phil and I decided to go to Duke Gardens and to the Durham Farmer's Market. The gardens were really nice and since it was slightly drizzly there was only a few people walking. We walked about 1.4 miles which definitely was not a lot but we did work up an appetite for the donut muffins.

The donut muffins from this stand called Savory is awesome. I bought a chocolate one which was really rich. I love chocolate but I was definitely thirsty when I was done. At the Farmer's Market there is also a few food trucks which are my favorite. We bought tator tots with comeback sauce for the Foster's truck. Then we picked up a slice of pizza from Pie Pushers which had an asparagus pizza with feta and mozzarella. They were both delicious choices! The asparagus is a great idea for pizza and the tots were awesome! Phil and I debated for a good 10 minutes about what the comeback sauce was and when we went to buy a drink another person asked what it was and Phil and I were off by a lot. But, oh well it was a lot of fun.

I also ran into one of my students which was a blast to see him. I am looking forward to going back and seeing my students!

Later we went to the Chatham Hill Winery to meet up with a few people (Hay, Beth, Adam, Lukas). We enjoyed the tour and learned a lot about the wine making process. Everyone but myself and Lukas (Phil's friend) enjoyed the dry wine tasting. I decided to try the sweet wines. Afterwards we split a bottle of Pinot Grigio and were able to catch up. Hay and I shared some funny stories about teaching. It was great just to sit and talk.

This was my last weekend before school gets started again and I am certainly ready to go back but it is always nice to share fun times with great people. I feel truly blessed! Much love!

Thrifting and new finds...

"Books may well be the only true magic." -Alice Huffman

This past weekend, I went thrifting for the first time ever and I scored some really awesome finds. I bought all books. I would have loved to pick up more but I feel like books are such a better investment. We started at Goodwill in Morrisville and I found:

The Blind Side by Michael Lewis (I own the movie and thought it might be a great read)

Everyone worth Knowing by Lauren Weisberger (She wrote the Devil Wears Prada which I read quite a few years ago and loved it!)

He's Just Not Into You by Greg Behrendt and Liz Tuccillo (I also have this movie and my friend Beth says this is a must read)

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle (I lent this book to a friend almost two years ago and miss having a copy) 

At the goodwill store, Dave and Phil decided it would be a genius idea to throw a thrift store themed party where all of the guests have to purchase their clothes at a thrift store. Dave and Phil had two great outfits of paisley working and Phil found me the most hideous pants I have ever seen. Even other shoppers thought they were hilariously hideous. :)

The second stop was Dorcas Mission store. Their books were 75 cents for hardcover! Yay! I bought:

The Five People you meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom (Tuesdays with Morrie was a wonderful book and I have heard great things about this book)

I Don't Know How She Does It by Allison Pearson (Just picked it up; no particular reason)

The Lovely Bones by Alice Seabold (I have never seen this movie but it is on my list and I always love to read a book before a movie)

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott (A classic!)

My Horizontal Life by Chelsea Handler (this will probably be my first read; she is hilarious)

I also picked up a copy of Fight Club which I have always loved. I bought my brother a copy a few years ago and have wanted to buy it ever since.

The last stop was at an antique store near Dave's house in Raleigh. This had lots of cute finds and I almost was in tears with the beautiful collection of Nancy Drew books; the exact same as what I read from the Waterboro Public Library when I was a kid. These books were slightly more expensive but in excellent condition. I purchased:

Babar by Jean de Brunhoff (I watched Babar almost every day when I was a child)

Nancy Drew: The Secret of the Old Clock by Carolyn Keene (the first book in the series)

Teacher Man by Frank McCourt (This sounded really interesting especially with all of the difficulties facing teachers nowadays)

All in all a successful day! Definitely an interesting way to spend a Saturday. I really enjoyed just looking at all the things people have no need for anymore. I would definitely go again.