Some Good Reads

Well it's been almost a solid year since I got lost in a book.  (It's probably just a coincidence that this occured just a week before meeting a particular guy, right??)  And when I say lost, I mean can't-put-it-down-must-read-it-all-in-one-sitting, lost.  In college, this used to be a typical occurrence for me. Now, not so much.  I've realized, though, that reading was often my form of escape from the real world.  There are worse things, I suppose!

For example, the Summer of 2009, after college when I had a degree and no job, I read 20 books.  Not kidding.  Twenty.  And that was in between looking for jobs, which at one point, my mom looked at me and said, "I think you've done enough applying.  You should take a break."  Most of my friends were not in town, either, so I had a ton of free time.  Too much, probably.  Let's just say it was a challenging summer.

Since this past December, I've slowly incorporated books back into my world, and let me just say it feels nice.  I didn't cut reading out completely--I will always be a reader, but now I read a ton of blogs.  It fits my life right now.  I can read a blog post in two minutes and move on.  Plus, people fascinate me.  Why not read what they're willing to write?  And I've learned about all kinds of topics from decorating, budgeting, cooking, and new books, to name a few.  I've been exposed to Haiti and Africa, places that weren't even on my radar very long ago.  (And I've also learned that you can't believe everything you read.)

My parents have both moved on to the world of the iPad, which left a Kindle sitting all alone.  Poor thing.  My Dad offered to upload it with some books, and he even added this one for me...

And as opposed as I am to "clicking" my way through a book, (I'd much prefer to hold the real thing in my hands), I'm enjoying the compact Kindle and its contents.  The Pioneer Woman began writing the story of her and Marlboro Man's romance on her blog.  {Click here to read the story.}  Readers loved it so much that she kept writing and put it into a book.  Rumor has it there might be a movie coming soon with Reese Witherspoon as the main character.  Last Sunday, it was number three on the New York Times' best seller list.  That's sayin' something.  That, and the fact that I can't put it down.  I read it during my lunch breaks and any extra time that I have. 

Next on my list, thanks to blogworld, is this book...

To fight a season where getting out of bed was nearly impossible, author Ann Voskamp began writing a list of one thousand things she was thankful for.  Unsurprisingly, it changed her life and spurred this book.  I've been mustering up the courage to read it (it kind of frightens me...in a good way). 

And lastly, just to round things out and add one more thing I've learned from a blog, I thought I'd share this post for those "Looking for Thicker Skin" from Amanda Moore. I definitely could use more of that in my life.   

Rock Climbing: then & now

Yes, I said rock climbing.  If you know me at all, this probably surprises you.  I was, after all, the tennis manager in high school.  {That's how I got my P.E. credit, thankyouverymuch.}

Prior to beginning my Running Adventures with Adam, we went on a date rock climbing at a local place around here with a bunch of people from church.  It was quite fun, and I had a good time.  Last night was the first time we'd been back in quite a while, so I needed a little refresher with all the "On belay...Belay On...Climbing...Climb On" jargon.

It got me thinking about the first time we were there almost a year ago and how some things are the same and some things are a whole lot different.

Then {March 2010}

• I was in Memphis at a Lady Bears basketball game when I got the Facebook message from Adam asking me if I'd be interested in rock climbing.  (He didn't have my number yet.  Ha.)  After only a little encouragement from my college roomies, I said, "Sure!  No problem."  Naturally, my first question to the girls was about my outfit.  I dragged them to Target and we bought a cute shirt to wear with my workout capris and some little CZ diamond studs.  (Because those are essential when rock climbing...)
• We met up at the rock climbing place, and he rumbled into the parking lot in his sleek black GTO.  Even though we'd been writing messages back and forth for a little while, this was only the second time we'd hung out, so I was a bit nervous but a lot excited.   
• Adam patiently explained the whole how-to-belay process and trusted me enough to climb up walls using the rope that was in my hands (and thankfully some very strong caribiners).  We climbed for about an hour and a half, and I was blown away by his patience and his encouragement along the way.  
• We went to Pei Wei afterwards and sat and talked for another hour at least.  I remember laughing a lot, and he laughed at things I said.  I was thrilled that he thought I was funny!  He asked if he could call me sometime, and we made plans for lunch later that week before I left for Easter.
• My arms felt like they were about to fall off the next day.  I could barely type at work.  Seriously.  How embarrassing!  That was all about to change, though, because at our lunch later that week was when Adam told me he'd run with me.  And so it began...

Now {February 2011}

• Yesterday, I only stressed slightly about what to wear because it's gotten cold again.  And no, I did not put earrings in this time...but I did fix my hair.  What can I say?  Some things never change!
• We met up at the rock climbing place again.  This time, I wasn't nervous to see Adam, but it was nice to see him after a long day at work.  And last night, he rumbled in with his new truck.  (And yes, I think it's quite cool.)
• Again, Adam explained the climbing/belay process again, reminding me of what I'd forgotten.  (Which was pretty much everything.)  And still, he was patient and encouraging.  This time there was a whole lot more of us giving each other a hard time, but just as much laughter, and I even got hugs this time around.  ;-)
• We headed to Panera Bread afterwards, and instead of "getting to know you" conversations, there were still good chats, but with a lot more depth to them.  {No nerves.  It was wonderful.} 
• Thankfully, my arms don't feel like they're about to fall off today.  Amazing what running and working out will do!   

Monday Letters

{Sunday lunch with la familia @ Chili's}

Dear Troy, having you home this weekend has been so much fun.  Yesterday sitting around with Mom and Dad helping you craft your resume will always be a funny and sweet memory.  I'm so excited about the opportunities you'll have in some snazzy summer internship.  Dear church friends, it's always nice to come back to visit.  I love it when we can catch up & it's as if time never passed.  I think this spot will always feel like home.  Dear AMP, I'm excited about our new project.  Hopefully our adventures to Home Depot will not resemble last night's dream I had where the store turned into Willy Wonka's chocolate factory maze.  And here's to more Springtime runs, bike rides and impromptu dance parties.  Dear Barnes & Noble, I love getting lost between the bookshelves...even if "everyone" is reading on iPads and Kindles now.  I don't think that will ever get old.  SMoo, I treasure our conversations.  Thanks for being such an insightful friend.  I so glad you're here!  Dear weekend, come again soon, ok??

Deep Ellum Music

Troy is home!  We are enjoying having him here for the weekend.  {He gets President's Day off, lucky duck!}  After a bunch of us went out to a fun dinner at El Fenix, we headed over to hear Troy play at the Prophet Bar in Deep Ellum.  It was fun to see him in the same setting as many times before but without his band.  He did about a 40 minute acoustic show--it was great.

Adam was singing one of Troy's songs the rest of the night, so I guess it's catchy!  

(I mean, I think it is, but I'm biased.  Ha.)

The weather is beautiful today, and it's been this way almost all week.  I think everyone is just soaking it up after spending most of February cooped up inside!  Hope you're getting to enjoy it, too.  

"The Merediths"

My dad and I share many similarities, starting with our middle names. I really love my name. Has someone ever asked you what you'd rather have as a name? I can never answer, because I like mine, Shay Meredith, just the way it is.  Not only do we share middle names, I found some old photos of my Dad this week at my parents' house, and was shocked at the similarity of these poses. Uncanny, I think! {This is me on the left and my Dad on the right.}

 

My dad's dad, "Pops" (his first name is Meredith!) has been in the hospital this week getting a pacemaker. (Valentine's week irony, I suppose.) I post often about my Mom's side of the family because I see them a lot (and love it), but not much about this smaller (but equally sigificant) side of my fam. Pops has been on my mind a lot this past week and thankfully is doing better after his surgery. We've had so many close friends praying for him and even visiting him this week in Virginia, and for that we are so touched and very grateful.

How We Didn't Celebrate V-Day

Here's the story of Valentine's Day 2011...

Originally AMP and I weren't going to really celebrate Valentine's Day. When we saw a commercial for it a few weeks ago, we looked at each other and laughed, and said simlutaneously, "Let's just not do this holiday."

We'd just finished celebrating his birthday, and before that we celebrated Christmas at the Symphony, with my family, and even before that, Christmas with his family in Iowa. Not to mention my birthday was in November as well. Needless to say, we've done our fair share of celebrating in the last four months.

So here I am, thinking that Adam and I are just going to hang out like we usually do (which typically involves running, cooking, working on a project, or running errands--just being together), and I get this text:

So I know something might be up. And as I walk out to my car after work, I see these on my windshield:

{I have to say that Adam continually impresses me with his use of markers and construction paper. This is not his first creation for me.}

So now I'm thinking, "Well, shoot. This is totally against the 'Not Celebrating Valentine's' thing, but I'm liking it. A lot." So I head home, where Adam's waiting in his car, and I walk up to this:

At this point, I have zero words. Zero.

{Please note the use of construction paper again}

Next I learn that he's brought all these groceries, and he's going to teach me how to make his famous lasagna. He's made it for me once before, but I wasn't around to see him put it all together. I'd been wanting to learn, and it was a lot of fun. It takes a while to make and a while to bake, but we just jammed out to music, and it gave me an opportunity to get my words back. {Seriously, I couldn't complete a sentence for about an hour! I really just wasn't expecting this.}

Somewhere in between all the cooking, I see a bag on the mantle. I ask if I should open it now or later. "Now," he says. So I open it, and it's a 3 x 3 square box with a jewelry store name on it. Inside is a beautiful silver bracelet with an engraved heart! {It says, "My Shay Bear." Indeed.}

I wore it the rest of the evening and again today. Every time I look at it I just smile. :-)

We sat down to a delicious dinner of lasagna, garlic & Parmesan bread and salad. Yum.

AMP was quite proud--as he should be! I ended up with two dozen roses, dinner, a bracelet and a stuffed animal that the jewelry store threw in that says, "I'm Ape for you." It made us laugh. We're not really sure what that means...

I'm all for not celebrating more often! Suffice it to say that I felt incredibly special. Since I thought we weren't celebrating, I got Adam a humongous card (literally two feet tall) that was pretty funny. At least I bought a card! :-)

My alarm went off at 4:50 a.m this morning to get Downtown for a Kickoff Breakfast, and after my very exciting day, I was in bed before 10 last night! I'm still smiling from yesterday and probably will be for a good long while.

And that's the story of how we didn't celebrate Valentine's Day in 2011.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Week in Review

Hope you had a lovely weekend. Mine was quite relaxing, and I loved it. Just a few pics from this week. We celebrated Claire's birthday last Saturday night down in Deep Ellum at Twisted Root Burger Co. It was a lot of fun, and she was quite thrilled to have so many of her favorite people in one place. We sang and she blew out a candle that turned out to be a sparkler, so it re-lit three times. Kind of like a trick candle, I guess!

Her actual b-day was on Friday, and I woke up with her at 5:45 a.m. to make cinnamon rolls for breakfast. Did you know it's still dark then? Who knew. And she gets up that early every.single.morning. Makes me tired just thinking about it. We celebrated over breakfast with presents, and then I sent her off to school. I felt like such a mom! It was a fun morning.

Thursday after work, I stopped by the station to see Adam. It's always fun to step into his world and just hang out with him. He rode the engine that day, which means that the chance of him getting called out is slim, versus riding the ambulance. {Sometimes when I drop by, it's only about 5 minutes before he has to head out! But that's the name of the game.} We played ping-pong out where the Engine and Rescue hang out in the big garage. I got to show off my mad skillz, and it was quite fun. {Shockingly, I can actually play ping-pong. We had a table growing up, so I guess that's where I learned it...}

I took this iPhone pic of Adam in the Engine and edited it using my new App, ColorSplash. It's $.99 and you can make a photo black and white and then pick the parts that you want to have in color. I thought it was kinda fun.

Well, it looks like this week will be snow-free and warmer, which will be much enjoyed! Hope your weekend was good, too!

Inspiration Folder Peek 2

A few Saturdays ago, SMoo and I ventured out for lunch and some consignment store browsing.  I bought my purple couch there when Claire and I moved to our a-p-t a while ago, and I like to frequent it every so often.  We stayed in there for a good hour and a half, just looking around.  It was lovely.  I bought a few little things and so did SMoo.  Then, we headed over to HomeGoods {Like TJMaxx & Ross, except for, well...home goods.} Not to worry, I did not purchase all (or any) of these things, but this is just stuff that caught my eye.  Enjoy!

{one} I still have half a mind to call up the shop and ask them if this chair is still there.  By now, it would have gone down in price big time.  The fabric and nail-head details had me at hello.  Mom pointed out that it doesn't really go with the purple couch.  (But who says I can't recover that, right?) 

{two} Noritaki china.  They had several complete (or almost complete) sets of dishes.  This reminded me of my grandmother's that my mom has now.  It's simple and silver, and I like it.  

{three} This cute little bench has a lid that lifts up for storage.  I could see it in an entryway or a mud room.  

{four} At this point, I began to notice that painted furniture was all over the place.  This buffet table was really cool looking.  

{five} Now we're headed to HomeGoods.  I love that these pillows look like they stepped right out of a Pottery Barn catalogue.  I went back to check on them yesterday, and I have no bright ideas on how to use them yet.  But I'm still thinking.  

{six} More painted furniture.  I thought this was a sweet little side table.  It would totally go with the bedding I have right now.

{seven} Doesn't this buffet table look similar to the one above it?  Not quite as ornate, but I did like the painted doors and drawers. 

{eight}  See?  I told you painted furniture was in. 

{nine} This piece had crackled paint and looked very Pottery Barn to me, too. 

This made for a fun Saturday, and it let my mind be creative.  Here's to more of that!   

Snow Day 4 hit with actual snow!  We got 5-6 inches here, and it was beautiful.  Adam knows much better how to drive in the ice and snow, and we went over to my Aunt Laura's house just for a change of pace.  {My 4 Wheel Drive was quite useful this week!}

My mom was over there, too, so we just got to see more people!  AMP loves projects.  It worked out great, because Laura's front porch was completely frozen and snowed over and was quite hard to walk on.  He worked super-hard to clear a walkway, which was a huge help.

Then we tried to build a snowman, but The Iowan told me that the snow wasn't wet enough to roll.  I said, "Wait, you can actually roll snow??"  I had no idea--I thought that was only on movies with Charlie Brown or something.  :-)

  

 

I'd planned about a month ago to babysit the boys on Friday night.  I didn't feel comfortable driving about 30 minutes on the highway, so Adam volunteered to drive me over and help me keep them.  {Such a huge help and a treat!}  

We got to the door, three little heads popped up at the window.  They were bouncing up and down with huge smiles on their faces.  They weren't smiling at me, which is fine, because they were so excited to see Adam!  

In the three and a half hours before they went to bed, we played Candy Land, ate pizza, watched The Wiggles, and they were just bouncing off the walls, climbing all over Adam.   Finally I asked them if they had a big puzzle or something.  Graham brought down that huge number and letter puzzle, pictured above.  They all worked together to build it, and then Adam and I hid the letters and numbers all over the downstairs.  It was a HUGE HIT!!  Later, I was reading with Graham and then went up to see what everyone else was doing, and Adam and Knox were playing Sorry! and then Tinker Toys.  {Can you see they have the attention span of a gnat?!}  

The boys went to bed a little before 9.  I told them that if they got out of bed, they wouldn't have their dessert the next day.  It worked, because they stayed put!  Adam and I sat down and just looked at each other and reveled in the silence.  It was great--three boys are quite loud.  Then we played Rock Band until Jack and April got home.  I sang vocals and Adam totally rocked the guitar, which is much harder than I thought it would be!  

It was so nice to have Adam around helping me with the boys, and I know they loved having him there.   Today, the sun is shining finally and melting all this slush.  

Thank goodness!   

Happy Weekending, my friends!

Whoopie Pies and Other Snow Day Entertainment

Snow Day 2 was even better than the first one.  Claire made Whoopie Pies from a mix a student gave her for Christmas.  {To.Die.For.Delicious.}  We ventured out down the road for a trip to Sonic Happy Hour and then stopped by my aunt & uncles's house for a bit.  I didn't mind driving around, but it's just slow goin' around here, and you never know what other people are going to do out on the road.

We had some rice milk in our fridge from a gluten-free friend that came over earlier this week.  Claire thought she'd give it a try.  For a girl who doesn't like milk to begin with, we're not sure why she tried it in the first place.  Silly girl.

Adam pulled up right as we got back from our Sonic/Aunt Laura excursion and became our chauffeur for the rest of the evening and proceeded to entertain us. We ate dinner at a little local restaurant, thankfully still open!  Then we went to the grocery store for cinnamon rolls and a bottle of wine--two good things to have for another snow day, and finished up by playing a game of Bananagrams all together.   We've become the three musketeers lately!

Nothing's melting, the (non-rice) milk has gone sour and the store was out last night, too, but we're still smiling and working from home all bundled up and thankful for heaters and no power outages.  Here's to Day Three!

Ice, Fire & Dynamite

We've had the TV on a lot around here the last 48 hours, glued to the weather station and then moving on to other shows.  Parenthood still is at the top of my list of favorite shows, and it's really the only thing I've liked so far.  However, Biggest Loser is pretty cool, if you think about how people are really making a lifestyle change in the way they lose all that weight.  Kinda neat to watch.  

I've found a new group that I really like, thanks to Annie's blog.  Drew Holcomb and the Neighbors' new album comes out next week, and I can't wait.  I'd never heard of them until last night, but they are touring with Marc Broussard and Ben Rector.  This video of their song "Fire and Dynamite" makes me happy.  Check 'em out on iTunes.

We're on Day 2 of being snowed  iced in, and it's just peachy.  I'm thankful I went to the grocery store on Monday after work, because otherwise who knows what we would've scrounged up to eat around here.  Claire is well-stocked on Lean Cuisines, but I'm not so sure about those frozen lunchables.  :-)  I'm working from home and spend the majority of yesterday in my jammers, but after a workout today at our apartment gym, Claire and I decided to at least look presentable.  It's a nice feeling, even when you're not really seeing much of anyone! 

SMoo ended up driving over for our Turkey Chili dinner last night, and once she arrived (quite frazzled), she announced, "That was probably the stupidest thing I've done in a long time."  She lives just about a mile from us, but the road between us was basically a sheet of ice.  She ended up staying the night, and we stayed up 'til midnight and had a little slumber party.  She stayed well into the morning, and we all had breakfast and hung out together.  It was like we all lived together!  So fun.

Who knows what the roads will look like tomorrow--it's not getting any warmer here, so I'm not sure about the ice.  I think it's fine on all the major roadways (from what I can tell on the news), but it's the little side streets that are still sheets of ice.  We shall see...

Hope you're staying warm and have power on this chilly day!