Ideal Day in My Life

Today was my last full day to myself before I start my nanny job on Monday. I have gotten used to sleeping in, working out, eating lunch late and then crafting in the afternoons till Stuart gets home, and then cooking dinner or going out with him. I treated my self to my favorite drink at Starbucks on my way home today :)
I got my first gel manicure! I usually bite my nails every day, but since I quit Clear Channel, I haven't bitten then at all. I have kept them painted every day, but they were getting so thin and breaking that I felt like it was time to get a manicure so I could keep them. I love getting one nail on each hand different than the others, so I decided on one red glittery nail for Valentines day coming up.

While I was in there I started up a conversation with the woman beside me. She noticed my ring and we started talking about the wedding. She introduced to me to her daughter sitting in the chair beside her who is a freshman at Wofford. Of course my next question was, "Are you in a sorority?". When the young girl shook her head and the words, "Yes Zeta", came out of her mouth, I knew it was love!! Her mom got excited real quick and said that she was a Zeta while she was in college too!!
I seriously never get tired of meeting other Zeta girls! Those 4 years in college meant so much to me, and I love to encourage girls to get everything they can out of their years in Zeta as well. There have been so many doors opened to me because of my Zeta sisters, and I would not be the young woman that I am today with out everything that I learned from Zeta. I truly believe that I am so lucky to be a member of such a wonderful organization full of beautiful woman and life long friends.
Meeting this mother and daughter duo today really made me how much I want to have a daughter to share that special bond with some day. I want her to follow in my legacy of not only being a Zeta Tau Alpha sister, but holding positions and knowing what being a leader her chapter feels like!

ZLAM

Snow Day & Bros

One of the perks of working at Clear Channel Media was that I got to meet some famous musicians! Danielle Bradbery was one of the past winner's of NBC's hit show The Voice. She was my first star I got to meet while working there, and you can bet I was so excited to meet her! I didn't think that she was very nice in person though. She was very quiet and just seemed like she was there to sing and get out. Her mom on the other hand was sweet as could be! Danielle had turned 17 the day before she came to our Greenville studio to preform, so I kinda felt for her. I mean I was still an awkward child at 17. I could not have imagined becoming a country music star overnight like she did!!

One of the other bands that I was lucky enough to hear was Brothers Osborne. I had never heard of them, but still thought that it was a good idea to get away from my desk and go listen to some pretty cool music. Well I ended up loving them! They signed some pictures for us afterward, and gave us a cd. That cd lived in Stu's car for quit a while and is often our choice of music for our many road trips :) 
My favorite song by them is Stay A Little Longer, but other favs are 21 Summer, RUM (for sure Summer 14's hit song), Arms of Fire, & Let's Go There. 

When I heard that they were going to be playing as WSSL's Acoustic Jam last night, I knew we had to go! I had invited a few friends up to go with us, but unfortunately yesterday & today turned into snow days so they weren't able to make it. 

It started snowing in Greenville around 3 and the concert was going to start at 7:30. Most people were getting off work early and going home to snuggle around a fire to keep warm. Well not us! Stu, Taylor and myself were headed to Chuey's to eat dinner before we headed to The Blind Horse for the show. 
A few other friends that I met up here joined us as well, and I got to mingle with some of my ex coworkers while listening to everyone play! Along with Brothers Osborne, Danielle Bradbery, Scotty McCreery, John Pardi and Leah Turner also played. 
I was excited to get to talk to them after the show and get a quick picture with them before they left :)

Happy 73rd Birthday Papa!

I wish Heaven had an address so we could send our loved ones cards. I wouldn't say that Papa was a huge fan of getting cards, but I think he would have enjoyed opening some up today so he knew that we were thinking about him. The picture below is Papa after his surprise party we threw for him for his 70th birthday!

He was in one of my dreams last night, so I was a little shocked when I woke up this morning and realized it was January 29th, his birthday.
I called Ma this afternoon and talked to her for an hour. She read me what she wrote in her journal for today... "We got snow! Wow! Today is my husbands 73rd birthday. What a wonderful birthday present for him. He was such a hard working, talented and artistic man. Thank you for blessing our family with such a wonderful man in our lives" 
These weren't her exact words, but it's what I got out of her reading it to me since my eyes had filled with tears and I was trying to hold back my sniffles.

I sit here right now with tears running down my cheeks as I type this up. There isn't a day that goes by that I don't think of him somewhere or some how. Papa appears in my dreams often, and I always wonder if it's just my mind or if it is really him. There are so many times that I catch myself thinking that Papa can change my oil when I get home this weekend or fix a necklace that I broke, and then reality sinks in.
I am so thankful to have had 23 years to spend with him and so many pictures that I can look back to remember him by!

Papa, if you're reading this, I hope you had a wonderful day! Please continue to remind Ma that you are still taking care of her and looking out for her. Thank you for giving her the strength to know she is not alone. I love you Papa!

Cheesy Pasta & Sausage Casserole

I just mentioned what I cooked for dinner tonight in my last post, but I didn't include the recipe. It was so easy and turned out delicious!!! Stuart and I both went back for seconds and there is still probably half of it left. I found the recipe on Pinterest earlier today and happened to have bought some turkey sausage last week. You can use any kind of sausage though!


Ingredients: Sausage link 13 oz, 1/4 cup onion, 2 cloves garlic, pasta, 1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese, 2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese, 1 jar spaghetti sauce

Cook pasta noodles per directions on box. Drain, rinse and set aside. I used 3 cups shell noodles. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly spray your casserole dish with Pam and set to the side. Cut your sausage into 1/2 inch slices. Heat a skillet pan on medium-high heat. Add a teaspoon of olive oil to the skillet and then add in your sausage. Add in your onion and garlic while stirring frequently until the sausage begins to brown. Remove from heat and put in a large bowl. Combine cooked pasta to sausage, along with the spaghetti sauce, cheddar cheese and 1 cup of mozzarella cheese. Stir it all together. 

Pour it into your casserole dish and then cover it with tin foil. Bake at 350 for 25 mins. Remove the foil and put the rest of the mozzarella cheese on top and put back in the oven for 10 mins. 

Happy Eating :) 

Hopeless Roommate to Domesticated Housewife

You can’t tell me that this doesn’t look delicious!! And I actually made it myself J … Now I know you’re probably taking back that delicious thought or either wondering what neighbor of mine I paid to make it for me!

 When I was in college, I was always the roommate that mooched off everyone else’s dinner. Barnes, Courtney and Carter cooked a lot, and I was always coming in and making a plate for myself after not helping do any of the work. Carter was usually the healthy one that cooked more than anyone else, while I was the one that was always stocked with any flavor of Ramen Noodles.

Or how about that night that I was actually helping Bri cook dinner and stove blew up on us?! All the power in the house went out and we thought the stove was going to burn the house down, so we did what any other young girl would do… Call 911 duh! By the time the fire department got there, we were fine and had gotten the power back on. They were nice enough to get a picture with us before they left!

I have always been the bake, not the cook! I had no idea what to do with an uncooked chicken and I sure wasn’t going to the one touching it! Like Ewwwww! Now I am learning to get my hands dirty with all kinds of food J I have become a master at a few different casseroles, and love love love the chicken that comes in the can. Yes, I know the real chicken breast would be better, but hey, I am still learning!

Tonight’s dinner is a Cheesy Pasta and Sausage Casserole thanks to Pinterst. Since I am home during the day when Stu gets home, I have been trying to have dinner planned. Little by little I am becoming a domesticated housewife! (well soon to be wife)

All this got me thinking about the great times that I had with my roommates in college so I pulled out some old pictures J I lived with Barnes, Courtney and Carter my junior year, and Carter, Bri and Angela my senior year! I realize now that those are some of the sweet times and memories that I took for granted. It didn’t hit me till I was moving home after graduation, that I wouldn’t have my girlfriends as roommates again! Carter and Angela were both planning their weddings, Bri had a semester left of school and I was moving back in with my mom. Having these girls as roommates never made a day dull. Someone was always playing pranks, or catching each other doing silly stuff. We shared so many laughs and quite a few tears, but after everything, I love them more! 

 Angela took the picture of me the day we were moving out. I surprised everyone with my star wars mattress! Barnes and Courtney were always putting a rubber band around the faucet; I was usually the one that found it! Angela also caught me making Tipsy kill a spider on my ceiling one night :) All things that I am glad we were able to capture with a photo!



This was Barnes graduation party in May of 2011, and her birthday dinner in January of 2012! The pictures below are from our Zeta Chapters ten year reunion with alumnae, and also from Steeple Chase in March of 2011!

This was our Zeta snow day in January 2011. Angela had spent the night with me that night and ended up staying for 3 nights because of the snow! Other girls walked from their houses close by and we all sat in our den doing wasteful things like deleting people on facebook!!!

Barnes won a free trip to Charleston with VIP status in a club there!! 

This was us at Zeta's Mother Daughter Tea in 2010, and at a ZTA PJ party on campus in December of 2011.







A memorable night at Tipsy McStumbles where we hung out for every Thirsty Thursday. Pretty sure the final count was us 0, Tipsy's 12!
This is one of my favorite pictures of us! It was at Smalley's wedding in September of 2012.

I can't believe this was our last night out together in Aiken! It the weekend before we all moved out of our house that Carter and I had shared for 2 years! 

Stu had a cookout with some friends before Steeple Chase 2012 the girls and I joined!

That is the 4 of us at our last Steeple Chase together before we all graduated. Barnes got engaged at this one, and I think I cried more than she did!! 

Back to the Future

One of Stuart's favorite movies is Back to the Future. He always make fun of me for being a 90's kid and never seeing these movies before. When I found the Trilogy at Best Buy a few weeks ago, I couldn't resist buying it for him. I told him that he would have to wait till Valentines day to get it, but when he gave me my new MK wallet yesterday, I figured I should give him his movies too. He cooked dinner last night and we sat down to watch the first Back to the Future.
Well I loved it! At first I was not too into it, but 15 mins in, I was hooked :) I am usually not a fan of science type movies, but I thought these were great! And the fact that Stu sat here like a little kid watching them was so funny. Stu sat in one of the big chairs and watched it since Tipsy and I were sharing the couch. I painted my nails during the movie too. Once the first movie went off, I was all giddy and ready to watch them all. So we put in the second and then watched the third today.

I think the first one was my favorite, although I really liked the second one because of what Steven Spielberg thought that 2015 was going to be like! 

I found it funny that everyone was going to dress like the Jetsons and have cars that flew! The Hover Board was pretty incredible, but I doubt even my kids will have anything like it within 20 years from now! 

The was supposed to be this really cool Black & Decker Hydrator and Pizza Hut came in a package. He was right about books though… realizing that they all wouldn’t be paperback and would be digital. They also used the word butthead a lot during the movie, and I am pretty sure I am one of the only people that used that word anymore!

Banana Nutella Crepe

We decided last night that we would go to New Spring Church this afternoon, so we got up this morning and cooked breakfast! ... I say cooked, but I just whipped up some Banana & Nutella crepes. Stuart isn't a fan of chocolate, so I just made one for myself.

I threw butter in a frying pan with the tortilla shell and got it nice and toasty! I then pasted some cocoa almond spread (Trader Joe's brand of Nutella) over the entire shell. After I cut the bananas and put them on top, I sprinkled some cinnamon sugar and powered sugar on top for my sweet tooth :) 

Yummy!!

And I finally made a signature for all my post :) 

ImAlwaysTipsy

I think I have taken the term crazy cat lady to a new level... 

I made Tipsy an Instagram!!! 

You can follow her at ImAlwaysTipsy

Since I quit my job at Clear Channel two weeks ago, I have had a lot of time to spend with my cat... No all these pictures were not taken in the past two weeks, but these are just some of my favorites! 

She looks scared for a reason... she was about to go get neutered!

 She isn't a huge fan of car rides, but usually behaves pretty good. She lays in my lap most of the ride, but prefers to stand up and meow at cars next to us if we were stopped somewhere.