[Almost] A Designer

Engagement Story

2011-10-27T10:01:00.000-05:00

Warning: This post is very long and filled with pictures.

I flew to DC on Friday, August 12th, and checked in to the hotel in Alexandria. Then I went to the Crate and Barrel outlet, and got several fun things. After that I read in my room, admired my Crate and Barrel purchases and went to bed. Shawn arrived at midnight.

I had convinced myself that Shawn would propose if he brought flowers. When

he walked in I noticed right away that he didn't have flowers, so I was

doubting a little if he would propose or not.

The next morning we had breakfast and then walked around to some of the

shops on King St, including Restoration Hardware (love that store!).

Photo Credit

We left around 11:30 and drove to Paris, VA.

We stayed at The Ashby Inn and our room was amazing! It felt like we were staying with really wealthy

relatives. It felt very welcoming and homey. The back wall of the room had

huge windows and door with a beautiful view of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The door led out onto a deck outside the room, where there were two Adirondack chairs.

Main building

Our room was located in the school house building, pictured above

The view from our room

After we admired the room, Shawn suggested we go hiking, which made me wonder if he was going to propose there.

We hiked in Sky Meadows Park for about 5-10 minutes, and then it started pouring rain! The rain was even coming down sideways. It was kinda painful actually, it felt like needles were hitting my legs. We got soaked and ran back to the car. When we got back to our room, we put our clothes in the bathtub and lounged around in bathrobes that were in the room.

There was a bottle of sparkling wine and chocolates waiting in the room when we got there, which were included in our package. We sat in the wing back chairs in front of the fireplace, drinking wine, and talked for hours. I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to propose, but it didn't happen then.

Later, we changed clothes and got ready for dinner at the Inn. The food was amazing! I got fish and Shawn got pork shoulder, and we had peaches and shortcake for dessert.

The next morning we went to the first winery, which was set up on a hill. We had a great view of the mountains and vineyards from the tasting room. We tried about 4 wines there and some cheese. While we were sitting there, Shawn suggested we go hiking again, which made me think that he must really

want to propose while hiking.

View from the winery

Interior of Delaplane Cellars

Sidenote: I have this cream colored Loft dress that I really wanted to be wearing while he proposed. I call it my Engagement dress. I was pretty convinced that he was going to propose that day, so that's the dress I was wearing.

Shawn went back to the room and changed, but I didn't because I wanted to be wearing my Engagement dress when he proposed. So I ended up going hiking in a dress. Unfortunately my shoes were still wet from the day before, and hiking with wet shoes is very uncomfortable. I was really having a hard time. There were tons of spider webs, and I had blisters from my wet shoes. We seemed to be hiking for an extremely long time, and I was convinced that we were on one of the 4 miles hiking trails. I made Shawn look up the trail on his phone, and thankfully we were on the 1 mile trail.

The entrance to the hiking trails

Shawn kept off-roading and darting into the woods (I was assuming he was trying to find a proposal spot), and eventually he motioned for me to join him in the woods. I thought, "This is it! I can survive the hiking for a little while longer if it means getting engaged." Shawn put his arm around me and said that we were at the end of the trail. I didn't believe him, and we just stood there in the woods for a few minutes. The longer we stood there, the more irritated I got because he wasn't proposing! Then he said something about seeing if we were actually at the end of the trail, and it turns out we weren't. By this time, I was getting a little mad because he hadn't proposed and I was hot and sweaty and having difficulty walking because of the blisters on my feet.

Eventually we made it to the end of the trail. Shawn changed his clothes, and I changd my shoes, and on we continued to the next wineries.

The next winery was really small and crowded. We tried about 8 wines there and received complimentary wine glasses. The last winery was a little bigger and was dog and baby friendly. I thought it was odd that children in strollers were at a wine tasting.

Three Fox Vineyards

Barrel Oak Vineyards

View from the parking lot of Barrel Oak

I told Shawn that I couldn't drink anymore wine without eating anything. I couldn't keep my eyes open! Shawn said he didn't want to order any food at the winery and suggested we go to Middleburg, which is a cute little town with a bustling main street.

We walked around main street, got some ice cream, and went to expensive shops. I thought that would have been a nice time to propose, but it didn't happen then either!

Later, we went back to our room to shower and get ready for dinner. Shawn asked me what I was going to wear to dinner, and I thought to myself, "My white Engagement dress I've been wearing all day, while waiting for you to propose!" But I said out loud that I was going to wear the dress I'd been wearing earlier. Shawn replied, "I thought you might want to wear something nicer for dinner." So I went and changed my clothes into a purple dress (I brought a back-up Engagement dress, just in case) and then I walked outside onto the deck where Shawn was standing looking at the mountains. Shawn told me, "You look beautiful, but you would look even prettier with this ring." He pulled out a ring box and said a bunch of nice things about how much he loved me and loved being around me, then he got down on one knee and proposed." I said yes, and started giggling uncontrollably, maybe from the excitement of being engaged or possibly from all the wine I had consumed...

The porch where Shawn proposed

The ring!

The entire weekend was so romantic and I'm so excited to be engaged!

Yay!

2011-08-24T20:19:00.000-05:00

I'm engaged!

Mooresville

2011-06-16T05:00:00.001-05:00

In May my mom and I toured the town of Mooresville, AL. From their website, "The entire town is on the National Register of Historic Places, and is one of Alabama's most important and intact villages. The Mooresville Post Office has been operating from the same building since 1840, the oldest continually operating post office building in the state of Alabama and one of the oldest in the country.

"The circa 1821 Stagecoach Tavern is the oldest public frame building in the state of Alabama. Our two churches, the circa 1839 Brick Church and the circa 1854 Church of Christ, are among the few remaining examples of 19th century church buildings in the state."

"Two presidents have ties to Mooresville: Andrew Johnson was once an apprentice tailor and James Garfield preached at the Church of Christ. Mooresville is not a “museum town.” It is a living, thriving town, much the same size it was when it was incorporated in 1818, while maintaining its historical integrity. As such, it provides visitors a unique opportunity to show how average citizens live with, protect and cherish the historical context and maintain an often-lost sense of small town community, as well as showcasing the buildings used by the early citizens of Alabama."

The 19th Alabama Civilian re-enactors demonstrated life in a camp set-up.

The homes and gardens were beautiful.

Artisans demonstrated 19th century trades.

Lace making

Disne Day 3: Animal Kingdom

2011-06-09T05:00:00.001-05:00

Our last day at Disney was spent at Animal Kingdom, which we all seemed to enjoy the most. Our favorite ride was Expedition Everest, which we rode 2x. Here's how we spent our time at Animal Kingdom:

Expedition Everest
Maharajah Jungle Trek
Kilimanjaro
Dinosaur
The Lion King
It's Touch to be a Bug

I loved the themeing of Animal Kingdom!

Our favorite ride!

Jungle Trek

on our way to Safari

thanks to Megan's wheelchair we got to skip the line at Safari. We had Fastpasses, but we skipped that line too.

after the safari, we went to The Lion King show, which was AMAZING! We got to skip the line (again), go in first and sit in the front row.

The last thing was did was It's Tough to be a Bug, and then we had lunch at the Animal Kingdom Lodge's Sanaa restaurant. After lunch we headed back to our hotel for some much needed rest. That evening we ate dinner at Stephanie's restaurant The Flying Fish.

I didn't think I would enjoy Disney World, but I ended up really having fun!

Disney Day 2: Epcot

2011-06-08T05:00:00.010-05:00

After a busy morning at Hollywood Studios, we spent the rest of the day at Epcot. We went to Mission Space, and Megan, Stephanie, and Amed went to Soarin' while I watched IllumiNations. We spent most of our time at Epcot wandering around the countries and looking at the great architecture.

We tried 7 sodas from around the world. My favorite was Germany.

Mission Space, which gave me a horrible migraine.

gift shop in Mission Space, we got Megan a wheelchair since we were doing so much walking and Megan's leg wasn't fully charged.

Mexico

Norway

China

Stephanie and I with Mulan

drinking around the world

Germany

train set in Germany

Rapunzel's tower in Germany

Italy, I loved the architecture here

Japan

Morocco

France, we ate dinner at Les Chef

Sleeping Beauty

The Flower and Garden show was going on while we were at Epcot

Disney Day 2: Hollywood Studios

2011-06-07T05:00:00.002-05:00

On our second day at Disney World we went to Hollywood Studios and Epcot. I took so many pictures that I'm going to break up day 2 into two posts. At Hollywood Studios we did the following attractions:

The Voyage of the Little Mermaid

Beauty and the Beast

lunch at Mama Melrose's

then we split up and I went on the Studio Backlot Tour, The Great Movie Ride, Journey into Narnia, and Walt Disney: One Man's Dream

Megan, Stephanie, and Amed went to the Extreme Stunt Show, Tower of Terror, and Rock 'n' Roller coaster

we parked at The Boardwalk Resort and took the ferry to Hollywood Studios. The Flying Fish in the picture above is where Stephanie works.

Stephanie, Megan, and Amed waiting on the ferry

Amed, Megan, me, and Stephanie waiting on Beauty and the Beast

Streets of America: San Fransisco

Streets of America: New York

Studio Backlot Tour

Backlot Tour

Scene from The Wizard of Oz on The Great Movie ride

Disney World: Graduation & Magic Kingdom

2011-06-06T05:00:00.000-05:00

My youngest sister Stephanie went to Disney World for the semester, as part of the college internship program. Since she was able to get us free tickets, we went to Disney World in May to celebrate Megan's birthday. In the morning on our first day in Orlando, we went to Stephanie's graduation from the internship program and went to Magic Kingdom afterwards

Megan, Stephanie, Amed (Megan's friend), and me at Stephanie's graduation.

Stephanie with her graduation certificate.

After graduation we headed over to Magic Kingdom. We had a busy day there and went on a lot of rides:

Teacups
Mickey's PhilharMagic
It's a Small World
Space Mountain
Pirates of the Caribbean
Big Thunder Mountain
Splash Mountain
The Haunted Mansion

Main Street

Sisters!

Teacups

Mickey's PhilharMagic

It's a Small World

gift shop of Pirates of the Caribbean, Megan showing off her pirate hook and pirate leg

Haunted Mansion

after our busy day we took the ferry to the Grand Floridian and ate at Citricos

Photoshop CS5

2011-06-02T05:00:00.001-05:00

In college I had Photoshop CS3, but I no longer have the software. When I got my new computer for Christmas, I was not able to put Photoshop on it. It's been hard for me to blog without having edited photos.

I finally purchased Photoshop CS5 and I love it! My youngest sister Stephanie asked what I do for fun, and I told her that I like to edit my photos. I love CS5, and I've been spending practically all my free time using it.

image found here

The clone stamp is one of my favorite Photoshop tool (notice the missing people in the "after" picture?). My love for photoshop is far cry from this post I wrote in college about my frustration with Photoshop.

Washington DC

2011-05-31T06:00:00.001-05:00

In April I flew in to Baltimore, then took the MARC to Union Station in Washington DC.

I love the ceiling of Union Station

Christopher Columbus statue in front of Union Station

Exterior of Union Station

Shawn met me at Union Station and we took a Trolley Tour, which was a great way to see all the monuments.

Navy Memorial

Jefferson Memorial

Washington Monument

National Archives, we didn't have enough time to go inside.

Capitol

After the trolley tour, we walked around the grounds of the Capitol.

After walking around the Capitol, we got back on the trolley to go to the Lincoln Monument.

Next we walked to the White House.

(photo credit)

The next day we went to the National Museum of American History. It was so incredibly inspiring to see the flag that inspired the Star Spangled Banner.

We ate lunch at Gordon Biersch

(photo credit)

After lunch we went to the National Museum of Natural History. We both loved this museum.

For dinner we went to Bibiana's and met my aunt there, who was also vacationing in DC the same time we were.

(photo credit)

Our last day in DC we went to the National Gallery of Art, and then I flew back home.

Velcro

2011-05-26T06:00:00.003-05:00

Megan makes having a prosthetic look very natural, and sometimes I forget that she has trouble with a few things that I take for granted. I've never worried about walking out of my flip-flops (that's what my toes are for), but for Megan it's a problem. She decided that putting velcro on her foot would solve this problem, and I helped her apply the velcro to her foot and shoe.

(Her foot is so dirty because she's borrowing it. The foot she has doesn't have a split toe, so she can't wear flip-flops with it.)

Success!

Colonial Williamsburg

2011-05-24T06:00:00.002-05:00

As I mentioned in this post, Shawn and I went to Williamsburg in February. I wanted to post more pictures about this trip before I posted about my more recent trips. We went President's Day weekend, and we were so blessed to have beautiful weather!

Sheep at Peyton Randolph House

Peyton Randolph House. This house wasn't open but the property was beautiful.

St George Tucker House

weapons storage at the Magazine

Apothecary

Coffee House

The Capitol

Cabinetmaker (what we call a furniture maker). This was my favorite building.

Inside the cabinetmaker

Governor's Palace

The Milliner

Bruton Parish Church, George Washington attended services here. The church is still conducting services today.

Governor's Palace

weapons on the wall of the entry in the Governor's Palace, a show of power

gardens of the Palace

vegetable gardens

cheese shop in Merchant's Square. Our favorite was the white cheese on the left. Unfortunately, we can't remember what it's called.

My mom's 50th

2011-05-19T06:00:00.002-05:00

A few days before the tornadoes came through, we celebrated my mom's 50th birthday. Prior to her birthday, I had asked her what she wanted to do, and she requested a party on our patio. She gave me a list of friends, and we did a potluck dinner. Megan and I grilled delicious lime-honey glazed chicken. I also made spinach dip and broccoli slaw.

I think it's safe to say that my mom had a great time!

Alabama Tornados

2011-05-17T05:00:00.001-05:00

On April 27th, 28 tornadoes came through my county. Thankfully my family and our house is safe. The storms came through on Wednesday and we lost power that afternoon. We were out of power for a week and I was out of work for three days.

Day 1 no power. This newspaper was writing on a laptop, powered by a generator, printed in Birmingham, and driven back to Huntsville, and delivered to customers.

Many grocery stores were open with limited stock. My mom bought 7 bags of ice to try to save as much food as possible.

I used the camping stove to make oatmeal.

We set some water outside to warm it up

Day 2 newspaper

This picture in the newspaper shows the fatalities across the state.

Day 3 newspaper

I'm not a huge fan of roughing it (my sister Megan was having a great time), so on Saturday my mom and I drove to Mississippi to stay with friends.

My mom cleaning out the fridge before we left.

Driving to Mississippi

We left Alabama on Saturday and came back on Monday. The power wasn't back yet, but I had to be back at work (the office had two generators the size of 18 wheelers). It was rough to be out of power, but I'm thankful that was the only difficulty we had.

Recap

2011-04-04T07:22:00.002-05:00

You may think that due to my lack of posts, nothing has been going on with me. That's not true at all! I got a new computer for Christmas and I don't have Photoshop anymore. The thought of putting unedited pictures on my blog does not appeal to me. I was going to get Photoshop this month, but due to the possible government shutdown, I'm not going to buy anything unnecessary.

Here's what's been going on:

In January we experienced record snowfall

At the end of January, I received an award for my first office design project!

In January/February my sister Megan went to France for the para-snowboard World Cup in France (after only snowboarding for 14 days!). She got 4th place overall.

In February Shawn and I went to Williamsburg.

In March I won 1st place in a pie baking contest at work for Pi Day (I work with a lot of engineers).

(Photo source)

What's in store for April? Hopefully I will be going to work every single day and not missing a paycheck. I have my fingers crossed that everyone comes to a decision and I (and thousands of other government workers) still get to go to work after April 8th. On a lighter note, I'm flying to DC on the 15th to spend some time with Shawn.

Savannah Part 2

2011-01-11T06:09:00.001-06:00

On New Year's Eve, we went to Tybee Island to see the lighthouse.

View from the top of the lighthouse.

The light in the lighthouse.

Climbing down 178 stairs.

Also on the property, was a renovation of the 1st Assistant Lightkeeper cottage.

Next, we walked to the beach. It was pretty chilly so we didn't stay long.

After driving back to Savannah, we took a hearse ghost tour. We found out on the tour that we ate at all the haunted restaurants (Sixpence Pub, The Pink House, and the Pirate's House) without realizing they were haunted.

One of my favorite spots was Candler Hospital, the yellow fever hospital. There were so many people dying that doctors feared the people of Savannah would panic and leave the city if they knew how many people were dying (sometimes 200 in one day!). To hide the true number of deaths, tunnels were built underneath the hospital to bury the dead.

Shawn and I standing in front of Candler.

Another haunted house, two girls were murdered here either by Jack the Ripper or a copy-cat murderer. Many people who take pictures of this house, end up seeing images of young girls in the windows.

A couple days after our trip, Shawn drove to his new duty station in Virginia. I'm hoping to visit him there in February.

Savannah Part 1

2011-01-10T07:51:00.006-06:00

The day after Christmas, I drove to Mississippi to pick Shawn (he was visiting his family) and we went to Savannah. It was a long, long drive and my GPS failed me. Janice (my GPS) wanted us to take back country roads for 150 miles, and then she said there weren't any roads going to Savannah. I think I need to buy a new Janice, a different brand this time.

The first thing we did in Savannah was go on a Food Tour, which included 7 different places. First we went to The Distillery. We ate a burger and fries, and Shawn tried a beer and I ordered their pear cider. It was one of our favorite stops on the tour, and we ended up going back later for dinner.

We went to a delicious bakery

We went to a local market and tried some of their tomato sandwiches.

We went to a barbeque place.

My favorite place we went was Savannah Bee Company. They had about ten different types of honey to try. My favorite was tupelo honey, and I bought a huge bottle of it.

Next we went to Paula Deen's restaurant, and I wasn't all that impressed. I thought the food was similar to Cracker Barrel. There wasn't anything special or different about it.

The next day we went on an architecture tour and spent several hours walking around the city.

Christmas

2011-01-06T06:38:00.001-06:00

Stephanie didn't come home for Christmas this year, so it was just Megan and me.
On Christmas Eve, Megan, my mom, and I went to vespers at church. After church we went home and had a great dinner! I made Cornish hens, and my mom made green bean casserole, squash casserole, and rolls.

After dinner, we exchanged gifts.

Early, early Christmas morning, I drove my mom to the airport. She flew up north to see Stephanie and my mom's family. When we left home, it started to snow!

And snowed and snowed! It was the most snow we had gotten in years. I texted Megan to wake her up and told her about the snow. She was so excited! When Megan was ready, I picked her up and drove to my dad's house.

It normally takes me 30 minutes to get to my dad's house, but in the snow it took an hour! Alabamians do not know how to drive in the snow, so there was lots of craziness. It was my first time driving in the snow, and I think I did pretty well. I'm so glad we took my huge SUV instead of Megan's little car. Along the way, we stopped at two farms and took some pictures of the snow.

When we got to my dad's house, we ate brunch and opened gifts. I got a laptop and Megan got internet TV.

After we opened gifts, my dad started baking lots of bread (he got a new bread machine), and Megan built a snowman. Holly tried to help.

The snow in the backyard.

Christmas was so fun, and the snow made it even better!

Christmas Tour of Homes

2011-01-05T06:18:00.007-06:00

I have so much to catch up on! I hadn't uploaded any pictures on my computer since November, so I have a lot of blogging to do including all my Christmas activities, a trip to Savannah, and my first interior design project being installed now!

In the middle of December, my mom and I went on the Christmas tour of homes in the downtown area. This tour occurs every year, but it always fell on the same weekend as my finals. I can't remember why we didn't go last year, but I think I was graduating.

After seeing all the beautiful homes, we headed to a church downtown that had a live nativity, hot chocolate, cookies, and handbells.

Decorating the tree

2010-12-01T09:03:00.000-06:00

One of our holiday traditions is that my sisters and I decorate the tree. When we were little, my mom would put up the tree, and we would get up early in the morning to decorate. I would play our Nat King Cole Christmas tape and boss my sisters around. When we got older, Megan would put up the tree and Stephanie would help her fluff the branches and put up the lights. I would put the ornaments on the tree.

Stephanie isn't coming home for the holidays (she didn't last year either), and it just isn't the same without her. Decorating the tree is more fun with both my sisters.

Notice we're both wearing tank tops - it's been pretty warm here!

Turkey Toss

2010-11-29T08:38:00.000-06:00

The Activities Board at work put together a turkey toss. I got back from a business trip just in time to participate in the toss, along with the other interior designers. It was so fun! Interior designers won first and third place (not me, I think I tossed about 2 feet).

These girls tied for third

My turkey didn't go very far. I was in last place.

Lauren won first place, which was a gift certificate.

Fabulous Fall Dinner Party

2010-11-26T08:14:00.001-06:00

After seeing this post on Leah Maria's blog, I was inspired to have a fall themed dinner party of my own. I invited a group of interior designers and everyone brought a dish.

The menu:
Autumn Punch
Tea and Cider WassailBacon Wrapped Dates
Butternut Squash Soup
Pumpkin Shaped Cheese Ball
Mikus' Salad
Chicken Puffs
Pumpkin Cake with Maple Frosting

We had so much fun, and I enjoyed sampling all the good food.

The Details

2010-11-02T09:44:00.004-05:00

This post is a little late, but as promised here are the details regarding Shawn and me.

In March I attended a wedding in Mississippi that was so terrible that I just couldn't blog about it (which I briefly mention in this post). The house I stayed in reminded me of something from Hoarding: Buried Alive.

We got done with all the wedding stuff around 10pm (I was a bridesmaid). I was EXHAUSTED, but I couldn't stay in that house another night. In my sleep deprived state, I told myself that it would take me 3 hours to drive home, but only an hour to drive to Jackson to surprise one of my friends on her birthday. So I started driving to Jackson. After driving an hour, I finally noticed the estimated arrival time on my GPS (her name is Janice). ARGH! I had another TWO HOURS left to drive.

I felt like I was going to fall asleep while driving, and I didn't know which of my friends would still be awake to talk to me on the phone. I decided to call Shawn. He talked to me for the remainder of my drive. When I was two exits away, I told him I could make it the rest of the way, but Shawn said he would stay on the phone until I turned off my car.

After that night, we didn't immediately pick up where we left off. I don't think we even talked on the phone much after that, but we texted every now and then.

In April I went back to Mississippi for another wedding. It was very different from the March wedding. No hoarders. No driving late at night.

While I was in Mississippi, Shawn's dad died. Shawn's family lives in Mississippi, so he flew home for the funeral. Shawn asked me to visit him since he knew I was close by for the wedding. I hadn't seen Shawn since we broke up, and I was pretty nervous. I didn't expect it to go well at all, but I was pleasantly surprised. We had fun. We joked and laughed, and Shawn's grandmother tried to ply me with mashed potatoes and banana pudding (she likes to feed people, even when they're not hungry).

When it was time for me to leave, Shawn invited me to visit him. I agreed, and flew to Chicago to see him a month later. I blogged about going to Chicago, I just didn't mention why I was going there.

Shawn professed his love and said he wanted to be in a relationship again, and I said, WOAH, not so fast. We need to spend more time together.

In July I saw him in Chicago again. I blogged about this trip also.

In September, we saw each other at the Mississippi Disney Wedding. And in October we went on a cruise.

Some of my friends told me that I was being ridiculous, and I should just make it official since I wasn't dating other people and didn't have any interest in dating other people. Shawn and I discussed this on the cruise and decided that we are officially back together.

Right now we're just taking things slow and enjoying each other's company whenever possible.

Hiking

2010-11-01T07:42:00.001-05:00

A week ago, I went hiking with my dad and sister Megan. We hiked 3.5 miles on a mostly flat trail. The first time Megan went hiking after her accident, she fell several times. She has improved a lot, and used hiking sticks for balance.

Before her accident, Megan and my dad hiked several sections of the Appalachian Trail. It was always Megan's dream to hike the entire AT after her college graduation. Megan told me how disappointing it is that she can't do that now. Even if she could hike the difficult, rocky areas (I'm sure she'll be able to one day!), her leg only stays charged for 3 days. She's hoping there will one day be a solar powered leg.

Here are more pictures from the hike.

Cruise: St Martin

2010-10-28T08:22:00.001-05:00

Our last port was St Martin, where we went on the Beach Rendezvous. I picked this excursion because I thought it would be relaxing. I enjoyed the beautiful beach, and it was relaxing, but I wish I had picked something more active like we had done at the other ports.

The view from my beach chair was beautiful!

After we left the beach, we went to the popular shopping area, and I bought myself a diamond pendant. The day before when we were in St Thomas, Shawn bought me a tanzanite ring, which I LOVE!

I took this picture of St Martin from the cruise ship.

Cruise review:
Prior to going on our cruise, I did tons of research. I read a lot of reviews that said the food was terrible, the excursions were overpriced, and that despite the cruise labeling themselves as "all inclusive" there is tons of additional stuff to pay for.

I thought the food was excellent! There was always something on the menu that I wanted to eat, and everything tasted incredible. Shawn and I pre-paid for everything, so we wouldn't be shocked by the bill at the end. Going with the ship's excursions was so easy because it didn't require any planning. We wanted to go on a cruise for a relaxing, worry-free vacation and that's exactly what we got!

Cruise: St Thomas

2010-10-27T08:45:00.000-05:00

Our second port was St Thomas, which was our favorite. I took these pictures from the cruise ship when we arrived

We went on another kayaking excursion. I enjoyed the St Thomas kayaking more than the kayaking in Cococay because it was longer and we had two excellent tour guides.

We went kayaking in a mangrove tree lagoon and stopped at a small environmentally protected island for a swim and hike.

After we parked our kayaks at the island, Shawn threw me in the water.

We checked out nature on the island and I held a sea creature (I don't remember what this is called).

We walked over to a rocky area called Red Point, climbed some rocks, and went swimming.

Here are some of my favorite pictures.

Cruise

2010-10-26T17:21:00.007-05:00

My cruise was so amazing! We went on Royal Caribbean's 7 night Eastern Caribbean cruise.

The ship left from Port Canaveral and the first stop was Royal Caribbean's private island, Cococay, Bahamas.

Shawn and I decided to go on the kayaking excursion. It was so fun! A shark swam right under our kayak! And our guide picked a starfish out of the water, and I kissed it on its eye for 10 years good luck! After kayaking we walked on the beach, then I got a bad migraine, so we went back to the ship.

The ship itself was very fun! It was incredibly large, and there was always something going on. We saw shows, movies, parades, and ate wonderful food.

I spend a lot of time reading and relaxing on the ship.

Shawn tried out the Flowrider, which is a surfing simulator.

Our dining room was located on the 5th deck, and we ate nearly every meal there. In addition to the dining room, there was a buffet restaurant, which I did not like because it was very crowded. Our first night on the ship, we ate at one of the specialty Italian restaurants, Portofino.

I loved eating on the 5th deck because we had such a great view.

We got the wine package and tried a different wine every night at dinner.

Tomorrow's post: our stop at St Thomas.

Cruise Sneak Peak

2010-10-25T08:29:00.002-05:00

I'm back from my amazing cruise, and I've finished editing all my photos. It was such a great trip, and I can't wait to tell you all about it! This picture was taking in the Bahamas.

I wanted to post all about my criuse today, but I was having lots of problems with Blogger. Hopefully, there will be more cruise pictures in tomorrow's post.

Year End

2010-10-18T07:17:00.000-05:00

The last day of our fiscal year at work was September 30th. August and September last year were brutal. I worked so many hours. I worked tons of overtime this year too, but thanks to all the new designers we've hired in the last four months, it hasn't been as bad as last year.

Last year on September 30th, everyone was frantic trying to get things finished up. But not this year. On September 30th there were only two projects left to finish up, just some little things, nothing major. We had work celebration lunch, and one of the Project Managers made colorful table centerpieces out of tissue paper. After lunch we had a drawing to see who would win the centerpieces. Nearly everyone at my table won, including me. I took some pictures of my co-workers and me goofing off with our centerpieces during our celebration day.

In case you were wondering

2010-10-13T07:12:00.001-05:00

...I'm not going on my cruise vacation alone.

I'm going with my ex-boyfriend Shawn, who isn't much of an ex anymore. More details to come...

Halloween

2010-10-11T06:50:00.001-05:00

My family never really participated in Halloween. One thing I do like about Halloween are Oreos. When I saw these orange Oreos at Target, I snatched them up. Orange Oreos just taste better. According to the packaging they also come with 5 boo-rific shapes, like witches.

Eating these orange, witch shaped Oreos gets me in a fall festival mood. Yum!

Vacation

2010-10-06T07:19:00.000-05:00

This month I am going on my first cruise! I'm so excited to have time off work. I'm going on a Royal Caribbean seven night cruise to the Bahamas, St Martin, and St Thomas.

Here are some things I've bought to get ready for the cruise:

Cover Up from Target:

Waterproof Mascara:

New Flip Flops:

Dress for formal night (it's long):

Dress for smart casual night (the website said that men should wear jackets and ties and women should wear dresses):

Vera Bradley Garment Bag:

Disney Wedding

2010-10-04T07:00:00.001-05:00

A couple weekends ago I went to a wedding. The wedding was at 3:00 in the afternoon (the hottest part of the day!) in Mississippi. I drove by a bank around noon and the temperature was 98F. I'm sure it got even hotter that day.

My first glimpse into this wedding was the invitation. The invitations definitely set the tone for the wedding. The invitations had an embossed Beauty and the Beast on the cover.

As I already mentioned, the ceremony was outside. In the heat. There were only 100 chairs underneath a covered pavilion, and over 150 were expected to attend the wedding. I got there early to get a seat. After sitting and melting for about 30 minutes, the ushers announced that the wedding would start an hour late because the groom forgot the rings.

Something always seems to go wrong at wedding, and delaying the wedding turned out to be a blessing. The wedding location was in the middle of nowhere, and many people got lost and showed up well past 3:00 (the original start time).

The wedding theme was Disney and the colors were brown and pink. I think that the dresses looked great on the bridesmaid, but hot pink is not a good look for men.

The reception was indoors (yay for air conditioning). The tables had Disney centerpieces, and there were large Disney statues scattered throughout the room.

Liz (left) got married 6 months ago, and I was a bridesmaid in her wedding. Kim (center) was also a bridesmaid.

My ex-boyfriend, Shawn, was one of the groomsmen.

The bride and groom's first dance was to Aladdin's A Whole New World.

The cake had Mickey and Minnie toppers.

The bride's engagement ring is a diamond solitaire, and the groom custom designed the wedding band. The wedding band had two diamonds with a little space in between. When you put the rings together, they formed Mickey's head.

The bride and groom went to Disney World on their honeymoon.

Return to Chicago

2010-09-29T07:14:00.002-05:00

Work has been pretty overwhelming and busy. Extremely busy. I've been working overtime everyday plus Saturdays. I was feeling pretty worn down, so I told my boss that I was burnt out and needed two days off. I spent my two days plus weekend in Chicago.

I did lots of tourist things in Chicago. First, I went on the Grey Line Chicago Grand bus tour. It was four hours and drove through North and South Chicago. We even saw the spot where the Obamas had their first kiss. We had two stretching breaks. The first was at Lincoln Park.

The second stretching spot was at Adler Planetarium.

After the bus tour I went to the Shedd Aquarium.

The next day, I headed to Lincoln Park Zoo and stopped at Farm-in-the-Zoo.

I'm being "birthed" out of an egg.

I weigh one calf.

After the farm exhibit, I saw all the standard zoo animals.

My favorite animal is the giraffe.

The view from the zoo.

The next day I headed home. Thankfully, this trip was relaxing, and I was able to jump back into work.

Apron

2010-09-27T07:04:00.003-05:00

One of the other interior designer at work, Faeh, hosted a sewing class at her house. The instructor and her daughter, plus three interior designers met at Faeh's house and sewed the night away.

I don't think the pattern was supposed to take very long to sew, but I sewed something wrong twice. It took me a while, but eventually I finished. I love the fabric I picked!

The aprons we made are reversible.

The next day we wore our aprons to work. And yes, I coordinated my outfit to match my apron.

My First Auction

2010-09-22T07:24:00.001-05:00

Our secretary at work loves going to auctions, and after she found out that I had never been to an auction she invited me along.

The auction was in Scant, AL, in a concrete warehouse with hot pink walls. Interesting color scheme. There were a couple things I wanted to bid on, but I got cold feet. Everything goes so fast, and I got nervous! There was a set of four parsons chairs that ended up selling for $40. I'm still kicking myself for not bidding.

It was a pretty fun experience, and next time I go I won't get cold feet.

New shoes

2010-09-20T07:13:00.001-05:00

Work bought me new shoes. What do you think? Pretty stylish, I know.

Photo is taken with the Retro Camera app.

These may look like hiking boots, but they are actually steel toe boots. I needed them to go to a job site. I also needed safety goggles, hard hat and safety vest. Here I am in all my gear.

Our interior design group:

It was a hot, hot day, made even worse with the jeans and boots. I could never be a construction worker!

New Bed

2010-09-18T16:46:00.003-05:00

When I first saw the Seville Tufted Headboard on Target's website, i fell in love. It was perfect-the diamond tufting, the color, the fabric, everything was wonderful. But I wasn't ready to spent that kind of money on a new headboard and new mattresses.

So I waited.

During the summer I saw commercials for a store in Arab, AL (pronouced A-rab with a southern accent, not pronounced like the country) called Catalog Returns. My mom and I went on a Saturday, and THERE IT WAS! The Seville headboard, but it wasn't just the headboard, it was the headboard connected to a metal bedframe. Best of all it was cheaper than Target's Just-The-Headboard-Price. Of course I bought it. It looks wonderful in my room!

I got the green shams at Anthropology, the green quilt, and green decorative pillow at Kmart.

Chicago

2010-07-02T07:57:00.001-05:00

I had a great opportunity to go to Chicago on Memorial Weekend, and it was so amazing! I crammed as much sight seeing into one weekend as possible!

I spent a lot of time wandering around Millenium Park:

Then I went to the Art Institute:

The Art Institute was not my favorite art museum. I thought the Boston museum was much better. It was so hard to get around the Art Institute, very maze-like. ~~Sometimes~~ I know I'm overly critical of buildings/finishes/space planning since I'm a designer, but I overheard other people talking about how poorly the museum was laid out, so it wasn't just me. I stumbled upon the furniture exhibit by accident. I was trying to find the Photography exhibit, and ended up here instead:

The furniture exhibit almost made me cry. It was so amazing to see these modern classics!

Garden behind the Art Institute:

I wandered around the city for a while trying to find this, Buckingham Fountain:

I spent nearly the entire day at the Field Museum:

I wanted to go to the aquarium, which was right next door, but the line was out the door and down the stairs. So I walked along the river instead.

View from the John Hancock Observatory:

Navy Pier. Not my favorite place, way too touristy for me.

The last thing I did in Chicago was go on an architecture river cruise. Here are some pictures I took:

White water rafting

2010-06-30T07:20:00.003-05:00

Note: I meant to post this one before I posted about my birthday. Whoops!

For Father's Day weekend/my birthday weekend, we went white water rafting on the Nantahala River in North Carolina. We've been going rafting for the past ten plus years, and we even have our own raft.

Megan, my dad, me, and Holly went rafting. Megan invited one of her friends, and my dad invited some friends too.

Megan can't take her leg in the water, so she got a piggy back ride

Holly loves rafting!

My 23rd birthday

2010-06-28T19:39:00.003-05:00

My birthday was on June 19th, while I was in North Carolina. We didn't really celebrate that weekend, so I had a birthday celebration WEEK!!

On Friday the 18th, two summer interns decorated my cubicle in green streamers (green is my favorite color). They also gave me green dish towels and a green oven mitt. Our secretary made me a strawberry cake! Yum!

On Monday 14 co-workers and I went out for my birthday lunch. We went to a sushi place. One of my co-workers reserved one of those special rooms where you can eat on the floor. So fun!

Monday night, my mom cooked my birthday dinner and made me strawberry cake.

My mom gave me Rachael Ray casserole dishes, and my sisters gave me green spatulas.

On Tuesday I went to a local restaurant with a friend. The restaurant won The Best Dessert in town award for their peanut butter truffle. It was SO good!

Wednesday night, I had dinner with my sister, my dad, and my step-mom at PF Chang's. My dad gave me a KitchenAid food processor!

2nd Business Trip

2010-06-28T18:59:00.004-05:00

My second trip was to Orlando at the beginning of May. I was waiting to post pictures because I was hoping to get copies of photos that my co-workers took, but I'm still waiting for those pictures...

I was SO thankful to go on this trip because I got to go with my favorite co-workers!

We stayed at a great hotel - The Westin on International Drive.

We spent a lot of time laying by the pool.

We also went shopping at the outlet malls, saw Cirque du Soleil (amazing!), had an incredible dinner at Downtown Disney and went to Universal.

It probably doesn't sound like it, but we were primarily there for work. In the mornings and early afternoons, we attended the GSA Expo and were able to meets many furniture vendors. I learned so much and had a great time in Orlando!

Spring Pilgrimage of Homes

2010-06-14T08:33:00.001-05:00

I love going on house tours. When I was away at college, the two yearly house tours fell during my finals week, one in the spring and one in the winter. One things I really enjoy about being back home is going on these house tours with my mom. The Spring Pilgrimage this year was in Olde Towne.

We weren't supposed to take pictures inside the homes, but I loved this teenage girl's room:

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Future Apartment Finds

2010-06-11T18:18:00.002-05:00

I currently live at home with my mom, but I plan on getting my own place before next year. I've slowly been buying a few furniture pieces when I find good deals.

At work we have an email version of a bulletin board. People sell all kinds of things: dogs, houses, treadmills, and furniture (my favorite). Last month I was signed up to take an upholstery class, and I needed an inexpensive furniture piece to use for class. This is what I found on our electronic bulletin board:

I know, it's pretty hideous, but perfect for my purpose. Most importantly it only cost $20! Unfortunatly, my upholstery class was cancelled, but I still plan on reupholstering the chair. This is the fabric I chose:

I also found this green fabric, which I plan on using for window treatments:

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First TDY: San Antonio

2010-06-10T17:59:00.001-05:00

At work there are five junior designers, and we all started a year ago. My boss decided a couple months ago to give us each a special project (read: a project that requires more work). My special project was for the Air Force (we primarily do Army projects). The great thing about this project was that it required travel! So in April I went on my very first TDY, and I got to go to San Antonio. I was pretty excited, and thankfully I was able to do a little sightseeing.

The Alamo:

Riverwalk:

I head a rumor that I might be able to go back after the furniture is installed, and I hope this is one rumor that comes true!

Blogging

2010-06-09T19:45:00.004-05:00

For several months my life got pretty boring, and I didn't feel like anything to blog about. Then, things got interesting again, but I had blog fear. Fran has encouraged me to be a "fearless blogger", but I held back because I was worried about who reads my blog. I have a hilarious wedding story that I started blogging about, but it would be awful if the bride or any of her friends read my blog. So I just didn't blog at all.

I'm trying to turn over a new blog leaf. Next post: my first TDY (or business trip).

Megan's Fundraiser

2010-03-31T08:25:00.005-05:00

I blogged in January about my sister Megan's snowboarding trip. While snowboarding in Utah, she met another amputee who had an XT9 leg.

The XT9 is an energy storing knee, and it is for high activity levels. I think it was love at first sight. Megan really wanted it. Unfortunately, insurance only pays for one leg, so getting this XT9 leg would be pretty expensive.

Thankfully Megan has some pretty amazing friends. AMAZING!! Her roommate's parents decided to host a fundraiser. Some sore of motorcycle/poker run thing. All the money raised went directly to Fourroux Prosthetics.

The day of the poker run, $3,000 was raised!! And even more was sent to Fourroux later! All sorts of people sent money. Even one of my mom's high school boyfriends. How weird is that?!

The fundraiser was a huge success! On March 12, 2009, Megan had her accident. What a difference a year makes!

Apartment Ideas: Living Room

2010-01-27T09:50:00.001-06:00

Currently I am living at home, but I think that this is the year that I should move out. I'm really excited about decorating my own place, and I've been doing lots of brainstorming.

Here's my inspriration pic from February's issue of House Beautiful:

Using the photo as a starting point, here are my picks for my dream apartment living room:

Ikea Ektorp Sofa $399

Ballard Designs Lawson Chair:
Ikat Medallion Fabric

Arden Green Fabric

Apple Velvet Fabric

Not Really Affordable For Me Right Now:
Ballard Designs Durham Coffee Table $349
Durham End Table $249

More Affordable but Still Similar Option:
Target Wall Street Coffee Table $159

Another Not Affordable Option:
Pottery Barn Hyde Turned Leg Coffee Table $399

Cheaper Version, Requires Work:
Target Unfinished Coffee Table $219

I really like this too:
Target Carnation Coffee Table $159
Carnation End Table $99

Accessories
Pottery Barn Pillow:

Target Pillow:

Pier 1 Pillow:

Pottery Barn Lamp:

What will Megan do next?

2010-01-20T21:00:00.001-06:00

For the first time since Megan's accident, she went snowboarding and skiing in Park City. She loved snowboarding! Skiing was very difficult and frustrating for her, so she just stuck with snowboarding. She had a blast!

Nashville

2010-01-18T21:27:00.001-06:00

The day after Christmas, Adam and I went to Nashville for the day. We ate lunch at the Rainforest Cafe.

After lunch we went to Ice! which is a building filled with huge ice sculptures.

Next we went to the Opryland Hotel and saw the Christmas decorations.

In the evening we saw the Rockettes! I've wanted to see the Rockettes for years, and it was as spectacular as I had imagined.

Catching Up

2010-01-17T20:44:00.004-06:00

November Stuff:
1. Rode a Horse!! Horses are scary. And tall. And really high off the ground. My stepmom has two horses (Ya-Ya and Cleo) and I've never ridden them. I didn't even touch them until a couple months ago. When one of my co-workers found out that I have horses in the backyard, she told me that I just had to ride them. So I did. I only went about 6 feet, but I rode a horse. I did it!

2. Went on a date! Best. First. Date. Ever!

3. Experienced Alabama snow!

December Stuff
1. Graduated!

2. Graduation Present:

3. Graduation flowers from Adam (the guy I went on a date with in November):

4. Christmas.

Florence

2009-11-05T08:16:00.000-06:00

A couple weeks ago my mom and I went to Florence, AL. Florence is home to the only Frank Lloyd Wright house in Alabama. The house was built for the Rosenbaum family in 1939.

We also went to Pope Tavern, which was once a stagecoach stop, tavern and inn, and Civil War hospital.

Our last stop in Florence was the ruins of the Forks of Cypress. The Greek Revival plantation was built in 1820. When Union troops invaded the area, the plantation was used as a camp base. In 1966 the plantation was struck by lightning, and the only thing that remains are the columns.

Cemetery Stroll

2009-11-03T08:17:00.000-06:00

There are many Huntsvillians buried in Maple Hill Cemetery. A couple weeks ago the Huntsville Pilgrimage Association hosted a cemetery stroll. People dressed up in period clothing and told stories of the people buried in the cemetery.

Tallulah Bankhead was an actress during the 1930's and 1940's. Her mother is buried in Maple Hill.

Mollie Teal was a popular "Madam" who donated her establishment to be used as a hospital.

Lily Flagg was a Jersey milk cow that won the blue ribbon at the 1892 World Fair in Chicago. Her owner was so proud that he honored his cow with a party in 1892.

LeRoy Pope (left) was the "Father of Huntsville." John Williams Walker (right) was Pope's lawyer and President of the convention that framed the Alabama Constitution in 1819.

Halloween

2009-11-01T19:46:00.005-06:00

For Halloween my mom and I went to the Viduta Festival. When the community of Monte Sano Mountain was founded, it was called Viduta. The festival included a history of the community, tour of the area, silent auction, and hay ride.

Part of the tour was the chimney of the Hotel Monte Sano. Hotel Monte Sano opened in 1887 and was a popular resort for wealthy families. It closed in 1900 due to a reclining economy. All that's left is the chimney.

Along the tour route is the Bark House, which is currently under construction. The exterior of the house is bark. The interior is very impressive and includes a reclaimed mantel as a kitchen island and a tree trunk which is being used as a pedestal sink.

Monte Sano Mountain is very pretty this time of year, and I took a few photos.

Fall Fabulous

2009-10-27T07:30:00.001-05:00

(I wrote this post two weeks ago and forgot to publish)

Fall has finally reached Alabama, and I liked to share some lovely photos that I've found recently.

I made Pumpkin Pasta several weeks ago, and I'd like to try more fall recipes, like these:
Ginger-Pumpkin Soup

Pumpkin Seed Pesto

I love these fall floral displays and bridal bouquets (all found at Martha Stewart):

This fall I'd like to visit:
The MAiZE

Tate's Farm

Botanical Garden's Scarecrow Trail

I especially love fall because that means Christmas is coming. Go to Ashley's blog to listen to some lovely Christmas music!

Happy New Year

2009-10-01T09:04:00.001-05:00

Some of you celebrate the new year in January, I celebrate in October.

September 30th was the last day of fiscal year 2009. The beginning of the new year means no more overtime or working on Saturdays. I finally get my Saturdays back! I'm so excited!

This year is especially excited because....drum roll please....

I WAS OFFERED A JOB!!!! I'll be working at the same place where I am now, except I will now be a permanent employee!

I'm incredibly excited, and I can't wait to see what's in store for this year.

Inspiration

2009-09-30T10:25:00.007-05:00

Every week I get ASID's Eye on Design delivered to my email. This week's newsletter was full of inspirational photos!

Green Roofed High School
Students in Revin, France will be attending this new high school soon. The high school is built into a hill and the roof is covered in gorgeous vegetation. Check out these renderings:

Church Turned Bookstore

This Dominican Church is located in Maastricht, the capital of the Dutch province of Limburg. The church was constructed in 1294, but hasn't been used as a church since 1794, when Napoleon invaded Maastricht. The building has been used as a warehouse, bicycle storage and now a bookstore.

New Sustainable Countertop

ECO by Cosentino is made of 75% recycled content. Materials used includes porcelain, mirrors, glass, and corn. The countertops are non-porous and doesn't require sealers (don't even get me started on how much I dislike granite), and it is resistant to staining and scratching.

Chattanooga Day Trip

2009-09-28T09:00:00.001-05:00

On Labor Day, my mom and I took a quick trip to Chattanooga, TN.

Our first stop was the Chattanooga Choo Choo. From their website: "In 1905 Southern Railway purchased the property (which used to be a hotel). The depot grew to serve nearly 50 passenger trains a day. Passenger train traffic slowed to a near halt in the 1960's with the dominance of auto and air travel. Railway activity was replaced by these faster modes of transportation. Almost 61 years after the opening, the grand old building was closed to the public when the last train stopped on August 11, 1970. Doors and windows were boarded up, and Southern Railway vacated the entire building.

Terminal Station was saved from the wrecking ball by a group of local businessmen who were inspired by the theme of the "Chattanooga Choo Choo." They invested $4 million before its new grand opening on April 11, 1973, and the beautiful Terminal Station once again opened its doors to welcome visitors to Chattanooga - this time as a unique vacation complex. With its listing on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974, the Chattanooga Choo Choo is considered one of the city's first historic preservation projects."

Next, we headed to the Bluff View Art District. "Bluff View Art District is a historic neighborhood filled with restaurants, a coffee house, art gallery, historic Bed & Breakfast, and plenty of gardens, plazas and courtyards where you can relax and rejuvenate. The neighborhood, which stretches over 1.5 city blocks, sets high atop stone cliffs that plunge into the river below. From this bluff-top location, you will have breathtaking views of the Tennessee River, as well as downtown Chattanooga and the Walnut Street Bridge, a position which earned early residents of the area the nickname 'cliff dwellers.'"

The Hunter Museum of Art is within walking distance of the Bluff View District.

The Mansion

Following the death of George Thomas Hunter, the nephew of the man who founded the world’s first Coca-Cola bottling company, his mansion was donated to form an Art Museum.

The Waterfront

Across from the museum is a walking bridge that goes across the Tennessee River.

Meggie Lou

2009-09-25T13:27:00.001-05:00

To my lovely sissie pooh, Meggie Lou,

It's been six months since your accident. I know you've been feeling discouraged lately, but I want you to know what an amazing woman you are!!

You spent weeks in ICU, a month in the hospital, couldn't talk for days and days, had to eat jello and popsicles, if you could even eat at all. Through it all you kept such a great attitude. When you found out that the doctors couldn't save your leg and it had to be amputated, YOU were comforting US. You wrote, "It's going to be ok. I'll be the cool girl with one leg."

And you HAVE! You are the cool girl with peace signs on your leg. You were able to walk in record time. You went from walking with crutches, to a cane, to nothing at all in about two weeks!! You've seen all those people at the Prosthesis Place who can barely walk after having their prosthetic for years.

And here you are going to Six Flags and Warped Tour, which require tons of walking. You've even ridden a horse, climbed a tree, and gone white water rafting with only one leg!

I know that you've been feeling discouraged because you made tons of progress in the beginning, and things seem to have slowed down now. But six months from now, you're going to look back and see all the improvements you've made. I know your improvements seem to be slow. Or seem to not be happening at all, but this is normal. Right now you may have trouble recognizing your progress, but in six months you'll look back and realize how far you've come.

Your gait is getting better, and will continue to improve with all the work your doing in PT. You are doing GREAT!! Don't get discouraged.

I am SO, SO proud of you!! I feel lucky to have you as my sister. I love you very much.

Love,
Becky
Ray Ray
or just Rebecca

Niagara or Bust!

2009-09-25T08:17:00.005-05:00

Back in May I blogged about my little sister's graduation, and in August she left for college. She decided to go far, far away to Niagara University (on the US side of Niagara Falls).

At first she said she wasn't going home again until December 2010, but her license has expired so she'll probably be coming home in March to get it renewed. Megan and I plan on visiting her at school sometime. We were thinking Christmas, but we haven't planned anything yet.

It was very sad to watch her leave. I kept hugging her and saying, "You can't leave!" These pictures were taken the day she left.

Update on goals

2009-09-23T11:46:00.003-05:00

I feel like a haven't blogged in a hunded million years!!

Work is crazy busy. The end of this fiscal year is September 30, and that day cannot get here fast enough!! I've been working tons of overtime and weekends. I will be so glad to have my Saturdays back. I'm in the process of redoing my bedroom, so I'll be posting about that soon.

I posted about my August goals a while ago and here's how I did:

My August goals:
1. Create a spreadsheet to track my budget
Accomplished!! And it is amazing!!

2. Start cooking once a week
Accomplished!

3. Open a retirement savings account
My original plan was to put money in a savings account, which I did, but my dad suggested an IRA instead. I just opened up a Roth IRA a few weeks ago. I'm pretty proud of myself. I read an article recently that said only 11% of women in their 20's have any retirement savings.

4. Visit a new church
Accomplished...sort of. I've been to my dad's church before, but had never attended the College and Career Sunday School class. Last Sunday, I attended Sunday School there for the first time and met some nice people.

5. Update my portfolio and resume
Resume-accomplished, Portfolio-almost finished, just have to add text

I did pretty well on my goals! My current goals are:
1. Take vitamins every day. I just started this week.
2. Stay within or close to my budget
3. Start ab workouts

Google Office

2009-08-28T07:57:00.001-05:00

Last week I added photos of some of interior design projects on a sidebar. I realized that I never talked about my last school project, Google Office Building. Before I started this project, I thought it would be pretty boring. Office buildings don't exactly scream exciting. Much to my surprise, this project was my favorite one.

What made this project exciting was that this was a Google office building. Have you seen any photos are their spaces?!! It's amazing! Google offices are colorful and fun.

Other than their colorful spaces, the Google Culture is incredibly interesting. I'm sure that if many other company's followed Google's example, employee productivity would be much higher. Here's a description from their Corporate Information website:

Local flavor, from a mural in Buenos Aires to ski gondolas in Zurich, expressing each office's unique location and personality.

Bicycles for efficient travel between meetings, dogs, lava lamps, and massage chairs.

Googlers sharing cubes, yurts, and huddle rooms (few single offices!) with three or four team members.

Laptops in every employee's hand (or bike basket), for mobile coding and note-taking.

Foozball, pool tables, volleyball courts, assorted video games, pianos, ping pong tables, lap pools, gyms that include yoga and dance classes.

Grassroots employee organizations of all kinds, such as meditation classes, film clubs, wine tasting groups, and salsa dance clubs.

Healthy lunches and dinners for all staff at a wide variety of cafés, and outdoor seating for sunshine brainstorming.

Snack rooms packed with various snacks and drinks to keep Googlers going throughout the day.

The Google Office that we designed has six floors. This was a group project and each person worked on one floor. I designed the sixth floor. Our team decided that each floor would have a different accent color, pulling inspiration from the Google logo. Unfortunately, the Google logo doesn't have six colors, so we had to add a few. We pulled colors out of a hat, and my accent color was purple. Here are some highlights from the cubicle area.

Purple paint for the accent wall.

Sondra Alexander Ostrich wallcovering.

Steelcase's new systems furniture c:scape

Task chairs for the cubicles. Steelcase's Think Chair.

The back of the chair has purple mesh fabric.

Here's a perspective drawing of the cubicle space. Notice the Google homepage on the computers.

I did the drawing in SketchUp, a Google software product.

Overtime Wish List

2009-08-22T07:27:00.001-05:00

1. Kate Spade Westbury Drawstring Opus. I went to the Kate Spade store last week and fell in love with the bag. They also have one in aqua, which is half off right now. It's not on sale on the website, but it is in the store.

2. Kate Spade Coney Island Stevie. I didn't see this one at the store. It's new, so maybe they'll get it in soon.

3. White Gold Peridot Necklace. I've been looking at this necklace for several months at Zales, and now Overstock has the exact same necklace for half off!

4. Vintage Emerald Ring. This would make an excellent graduation present.

5. Coach Ali Signature Hobo. Love it!

6. Grape Cluster Pearl Pendant. I love pearls!

Busy

2009-08-21T07:23:00.004-05:00

The end of the fiscal year is coming up soon-September 30. That means I've been busy, busy! We have lots of furniture to award by September 30. The work just keeps on coming. Yesterday I worked from 7am-6pm. That was one long day! (I got a lot done, see photo above.) We've also been strongly encouraged to work on Saturdays. Yuck! But at least I'm getting lots of overtime!

Painting Class

2009-08-19T10:59:00.006-05:00

I want to thank everyone for leaving sweet, encouraging comments regarding my breakup. Breaking up was incredibly difficult, but I'm starting to heal and get excited about the future. I've read some articles about how to recover from a breakup and everything I've read has said to try new things.

I've been trying several new things as part of my August goals. I've been learning to cook, developing a budget, setting up savings accounts, and working out. I'm working on improving myself to become a better person. But all that self improvement has made me yearn to do something fun.

Ever since reading about a painting class that Ashley took, I've been trying to find something similar where I live. After searching online, I found My Spirited Art. I begged Megan to take the Contemporary Landscape class. We had a blast!

The painting teacher had a mural of the Five Elements of Design in the studio. I told her that she was missing the element, color. She didn't believe me and said that "hue" not "color" was the correct element. I didn't argue with her, but my Basic Design professor drilled the Elements into me, and I will never, ever forget them. The next day, I got an email from the teacher saying that I was right about the elements of design, she was wrong and that I deserved a free painting class! I can't wait to take another fun class!

I Heart Wednesdays

2009-08-12T00:14:00.001-05:00

Most people like Wednesdays because the work week is halfway over. I like Wednesdays because it's free food day at Arby's!! I love eating out, but it's just not very practical now I'm on a budget. I don't want to blow my August goals before the month is even halfway through, but free food definitely fits in my budget!

I love their curly fries! My co-workers and I go to Arby's every week. We like to see who has the biggest curly fries. It's been me the past two weeks.

Today's special was the Chicken Club Sandwich. Yum!

Arby's will be having free food until the end of this month. I don't want August to end!
Aug. 5 - Free Regular Roast Beef with any drink purchase
Aug. 12 - Free Roast Chicken Club with any drink purchase
Aug. 19 - Free FruiTea with any sandwich purchase
Aug. 26 - Free Regular Beef 'n Cheddar with any drink purchase

2009-08-11T10:49:00.001-05:00

When I was doing research for my Art Gallery project, I found Harmonic Environments indoor waterfalls. Since the Art Gallery project had no budget, I knew this was my chance to get creative.

Harmonic Environments is a designers dream because their waterfalls can be customized to match anything. Plus, waterfalls are so relaxing! I would love to have one in my house.

Diapers and Photos

2009-08-10T08:02:00.006-05:00

This weekend I went to a friend's baby shower, who I've known since 1st grade. One of the games we played at the shower was making a diaper out of toilet paper. We were groups of three, and one person was the baby and the other two group members had to put the diaper on the baby. Meaghan judged who had the best diaper, and my team won!

Isn't the toilet paper diaper a great look for me?

Meaghan (in the middle) with her family. Meaghan is having a girl, and she's naming her Madelyn Claire.

After the shower, my friend Samara and I went on a photo shoot in historic New Market. I think they turned out great and now I have tons of photos of myself with short hair. Here are some of my favorites.

Treetop Office

2009-08-07T14:32:00.001-05:00

Sure beats working in a cubicle.
Article and photo can be found at Inhabitats website

Cooking

2009-08-07T08:52:00.000-05:00

Cooking has always terrified me. Especially the part about touching meat. It's slimy and gross!

A couple weeks ago my mom and sister Stephanie went to upstate New York for a week so that Stephanie could go to college orientation. Megan and I stayed at home and had to fend for ourselves. I was pretty worried about what we would eat, since I have a fear of cooking. However, I'm even more afraid of starving, than cooking.

I did some research online and decided that Rachael Ray's 10 dollar meals sounded do-able. I sent some recipes to Megan, and she picked Honey Mustard Chicken and Mushroom and Pea Chicken.

I was extremely proud of myself that I managed to 1) touch meat without freaking out 2) cook something all by myself 3) cook something edible!! I realized that this cooking stuff wasn't so bad after all.

One of my goals for August is to cook once a week. Yesterday I cooked Mango Coconut Chicken for dinner. My entire family loved it! It tasted SO good too! The recipe suggests making it black beans, but I made it with rice and green beans.

If anyone has easy meals for beginners send those recipes my way.

Photos from rachaelraymag.com

Goals and Changes

2009-08-06T08:46:00.002-05:00

These past few months have been full of changes. I finished school, moved back home, started my internship, and broke up with Shawn. Now that I'm in a new life chapter, I wanted to work on improving some areas of my life.

My goals for the month of July were to
1. Pay off my credit card.
2. Start a budget.
3. Start saving
4. Start working out.

I'm proud to say that I accomplished all my goals for July! I've learned my lesson about credit cards. My dad has been giving me some great tips. I understand credit better now, and I hope to avoid credit debt in the future. Now that I've paid off that card, I plan on getting a credit card through my credit union, which has a much better interest rate than my current card.

I started a budget and quickly realized that it wasn't realistic. After some reworking, I believe I have a workable budget. I did exceed my budget, but I was expecting that in my first month. I wrote down everything I spent in July and have a much better idea of where my money goes. Hopefully I'll do better in August.

I opened some new savings accounts. One for my future apartment needs, one for my future wedding, and an emergency account. Since I'm living at home, I have very few expenses. Now that I've paid off my credit card, I hope to start saving about 70 percent of my paycheck each month.

I bought three workout DVDs. I tried out Yoga for Weight Loss, which I thought was a waste of time, Pilates for beginners and Jillian's No More Trouble Zones. Jillian's workout was the hardest, but that just means that it's working. I also started going for bike rides, which I really enjoy. I now go into work at 7am. I hate getting up early, so this a huge deal for me. The reason I started going to work early is to get off earlier, so I have more time to work out.

My August goals are:
1. Create a spreadsheet to track my budget
2. Start cooking once a week
3. Open a retirement savings account
4. Visit a new church
5. Update my portfolio and resume

I hope my August goals are just as successful as my July goals!

CAD inspired fabric

2009-08-05T10:14:00.004-05:00

I'm loving this new fabric that was revealed during this summer's NeoCon.

Architex's new line called Where's Walter. The pattern was inspired by floorplans as you would see them in CAD.

I wish I could have my office chair upholstered in this fabric. It's so designery. Nothing says interior designer like having a floor plan on your chair, or even using one as a pillow!

The Break-Up

2009-08-04T08:18:00.003-05:00

On Friday, after nearly four years of dating, Shawn and I broke up.

Warning: this post is extremely long. I've tried to trim it down, but this is the best I can do.

The last time we saw each other was in May when we went to Boston. I really enjoyed being in Boston and I loved all the things we did, but I didn't enjoy Boston with Shawn. We only see each other twice a year, and I always hate leaving and wish I could spend more time with him. This trip was different. When it was time for me to leave Boston and go back home, I was more than ready.

I felt criticized a lot during the trip. One evening we were trying to find a restaurant. We didn't have a map because Shawn said it was a waste of money. We were wandering around lost for about an hour. I was trying really hard not to be the nagging girlfriend, so I tried not to say much. But it was getting late, I was really hungry, and we were walking around lost for an hour in Boston. Eventually I suggested that we go someplace else to eat because I didn't think we would be able to find the restaurant. For the next hour that we were lost, Shawn told me that I never try hard enough and I give up too easily. I can understand that Shawn was frustrated too and that's why he lashed out at me. But I felt criticized and attacked more than once during the trip.

Back to the story, we eventually found the restaurant. We were both angry and not talking to each other. There was an old man sitting next to us, and as he got up to leave he said, "I don't know how serious your problems are, but I hope you can work it out. My wife is in the hospital across the street, dying." I started crying silently over my food. Once we got back to the hotel, I went to the hotel bar and called Melissa, my college roommate and best friend, crying. I'm not much of a drinker, so Melissa knew that something was seriously wrong since I was sitting in a bar, crying.

Once I got back home, we didn't talk to each other much. Phone talking has always been an issue in our relationship. Shawn doesn't like talking on the phone and considers it my responsibility to call him if I want to talk. He rarely calls me. This doesn't work so well in a long distance relationship. All we have is talking on the phone. I was starting to feel resentful and frustrated that Shawn didn't call me. It made me feel unwanted and unappreciated. Call me a needy girl, but it's extremely important for me to hear from my boyfriend once a day. (Sidenote: Shawn has been working from 8-4:30. He definitely has the time to call me once a day.) I decided that I wasn't going to call him anymore and see how long it took him to call me. Juvenile, yes, but I wanted to know that I was important to him. I wanted to know that he thought about me throughout the day. And that's what a phone call says to me.

We went for 11 days without talking, texting, or emailing. When something happens in my day, Shawn is the first person I want to tell. I guess Shawn just didn't think about me for 11 days, which of course made me feel like crap.

Those communication problems alone would cause any relationship to have problems. When I was in Mississippi this past weekend, I explained to my friends what had been going on and outlined reasons to break up.

Really important reasons:
1. Lack of trust. I don't want to go into a lot of personal details, but I've been having trust issues with Shawn.
2. Lack of communication
3. Due to reason #1 and #2 my friends and family don't approve of our relationship. My family is important to me and I want them to like the person I end up marrying.

Slightly less important reasons:
1. I've been feeling like Shawn has been leading me on about wanting to get married. We've talked about marriage a lot. Shawn would tell me that he could see us getting engaged around this date/time. And it wouldn't happen. Then he would come up with a new date/time. It still wouldn't happen. I started to realize that I was pushing too hard for marriage. I decided to take the marriage talks off the table. That's when I wrote this post and then this one back in January. Once I stopped talking about getting married, so did Shawn.
2. This is going to sound petty and immature, but Shawn's Christmas gift to me really hurt my feelings. He gave me a bracelet. The problem being that I NEVER wear bracelets. I just don't like them. Having stuff hanging off my wrist is really annoying. I wanted a Skagen watch for Christmas (which my dad later gave me for my birthday). I found it half off on Amazon and sent Shawn the link. He gave me a bracelet instead. I tried to talk to him about it. I tried to be nice. I didn't even utter the words, "How could you not know after 3 1/2 years of dating that I hate bracelets!!" I was thinking that, but I didn't say it. All I said is that I would have liked the watch better. That conversations completely blew up in my face. Shawn spent about an hour telling me how spoiled I am and I don't appreciate anything he does. The real issue here isn't that he bought me a bracelet, but that I wasn't able to talk to him about it without feeling attacked.
3. We argue about money. We're only dating, and I don't even want to think about what it would be like if we got married! Shawn frequently tells me that I spend all his money. This really hurts my feeling because we see each other twice a year! I've been a poor college student and all I can afford are the plane tickets to visit him. And paying for that usually took all my money. I know that meals and activities aren't cheap, but it's twice a year and I think I should be worth it. Whenever he says that it makes me feel like I'm not worth spending money on.

I realized that I just couldn't see myself spending the rest of my life with him. I didn't want to give up after 4 years together, but I knew that nothing was going to change, so I broke up with him. I love him very much, and I thought I would spend the rest of my life with him. Before we broke up I wrote down a long list of things I like about Shawn. That list is much longer than the six break up reasons I listed above, but those six reasons are huge issues. It was very, very hard. I've cried a lot, but I know I made the right decision.

If you've managed to read through this long post, please leave a comment. I could use some encouragement.

Internship Presentation

2009-08-03T09:55:00.004-05:00

This past weekend I went back to Mississippi to give my internship presentation. I probably have the most boring interior design job that exists, but somehow I made it sound really interesting. After my presentation the other students told me how fun and interesting my job sounds and that I found the perfect internship for me.

I tried to make my presentation interesting by telling funny stories, like how confusing Army-acronym language was at first, and how difficult military time was to get used to. I also put tons of funny pictures in the presentation, including this one of me sleeping under my cubicle and using a floor plan as a pillow.

I may have a boring job, but I like it anyway. I love every single aspect of interior design. Now that I'm in the real world I am a 100% certain that I picked the right career. I always saw myself working at an architecture firm and later becoming a sales rep. Those jobs sounds interesting and I would be able to do a variety of different things.

At my current job I do the same thing every day. I write huge documents describing furniture. It may be boring, but I love interior design so much that I even enjoy the boring work! This isn't what I considered my dream job, but this experience has taught me how much I love systems furniture (cubicles) and I love working for the government.

Everyone listening to my presentation laughed at the funny stories and seemed to enjoy it. At the risk of sounding bragadocious, I think my presentation was the best out of the interior design students. As of 10 am central time, I completed my 400 hour internship requirement. Internship #1 is now complete and I'm moving on to internship #2. Due to the economy, I'll be doing internship #2 at the same place where I am now. I'll be staying here until December and hopefully some permanent positions will become available after that.

Check back tomorrow, I have a huge update. Facebook friends, your questions will be answered.

Rebecca: 0, Jillian: 1

2009-07-23T14:35:00.004-05:00

As I've mentioned before, I'd had to do a bajillion of training for my internship. My favorites so far have been How to Spot a Spy and the What To Do If a Terrorist Tries to Break Into Your Hotel Room training. Those are the Rebecca titles, not the Army titles for the training.

I learned one very important lesson from these trainings: I am a complete and total wimp. Actually, I knew that before the training. I'm not the type of person who gets in a motorcycle accident, gets her leg amputated, and immediately starts saving for a new motorcycle. No, siree

What I learned from terrorist training is that I would never survive a terrorist hotel break-in, and it doesn't help that I don't even remember what the training said to do. Since I'm pretty screwed if a terrorist attacks me in order to figure out what furniture the Army is ordering, I decided to start small and let the terrorists have this round.

The training got my brain athinkin' about what I would do if a janitor wrestled me to the ground to steal my CaC card, hack into my computer, and find out what desks Ft So-and-so is getting. (I have quite the imagination.) I realized that I probably wouldn't survive an attack from the overweight janitors anymore than I would survive a terrorist attack.

That's when I got the great idea to start working out. Not only is working out good for you, but I could learn how to defend myself against the janitors.

Step One: research and buy a workout DVD. After reading tons of reviews I decided to go with Jillian's No More Touble Zones

Step Two: get up the nerve to play the dvd and do the workout.

Step Three: borrow Megan's wheelchair because I'm unable to walk the next day.

I'm telling you, the workout was HARD! And I only did half the DVD! I might have to put my Defeat The Janitors Plan on hold...

Show me the money

2009-07-14T09:30:00.001-05:00

The Army's fiscal year runs from October to September. As of July, we are now in the 4th quarter.

What does this mean for me? The furniture orders are poring in because different garrisons are trying to spend all their money before the end of the year. This means long hours, but most importantly - OVERTIME!!

Overtime is amazing! I love getting paid extra. How did I ever survive without overtime? How did I ever survive without a government job?

I love my job and the money, and I really, really, REALLY hope that I get offered a permanent job!

Megan Walks!

2009-07-13T10:29:00.001-05:00

Back in March, my sister Megan was in a motorcycle accident. She ended up getting her leg amputated at the end of that month. After her 4 week stay in the hospital, she was able to go home. She used a wheelchair and walker for a bit. But walkers are "for grandmas" and using a wheelchair makes her "feel like a crippled person." So Megan worked hard at therapy, and learned to walk with one leg using crutches.

She's been waiting several months for her residual limb (which she named Aiden) to heal enough to get her prosthetic. Last Wednesday, the wait was finally over! Megan couldn't decide which leg to get, so she tried two out. On Wednesday she tried the Plie and on Thursday she tried the C-Leg. They're both microprocessor leg. Here's an easy to understand explanation from a prosthetic newsletter, "In real time the decision-making chip signals the swing-phase control to react so the limb will be ready for heel strike at the appropriate instant and place. Then at heel strike, the microprocessor signals the knee to restrict flexion until late stance phase, providing needed stability for full weightbearing,then gradually allows flexion in preparation for toe-off. Smart knees can further detect danger of falling or slipping and react to keep the knee from contributing to a fall."

Showing off her personalized socket-the part that her thigh goes in to.

She spent hours and hours getting her leg adjusted.

So, so happy!