Life lately

Well, it's been a couple of fun-filled weeks since I last did a "life lately" post. It started with the big special event, Taste of Triumph that benefits Triumph Services, which is the non-profit whose junior board I serve on. It's always great spending time with the Martucci's, but since Joy has such a giving heart, I was truly excited for her to see more of what Triumph is all about. It was a great night with great friends, and most importantly, Triumph pretty much met their fundraising goals for the night!

Things didn't slow down much from there (as per usual). That following weekend J and I attended a surprise party for one of our friends and then the next morning I crawled out of bed early to do my first ever solo trail run at Red Mountain Park. I couldn't believe I actually found my way out of the park and also avoided a fall—huge success! Then that afternoon I went climbing at Moss Rock with Beth and a couple of guys from the gym. I was pretty stoked to make this big move at Lost Roof. Too bad I didn't finish the problem and "send." Oh well, it'll be a project I guess!

The following weekend's highlight was a Friendsgiving dinner at the Little's house with some friends of mine and J's from church. Since these are technically more J's friends than mine, I felt honored to be invited to this special occasion. The food was incredible, conversation was awesome and of course Bonnie's decor was gorgeous. It was such a great night.

Then this past weekend, I hosted the Bham Framgiving that we called "Fiesta Gracias" since we were having Mexican food instead of a traditional turkey day feast. Sadly Cassidy made it out the door before we thought to take a pic - sorry Cass! Anyhow, it was also a great night filled with food, fun and games (literally). I love these people and just don't get to see them enough these days.

The rest of my time has been spent catching up with friends over dinner and coffee and even seeing a couple of movies with J (btw, I totally recommend Gravity. It is intense, but you have to see it. It's so beautiful). One of the movies I actually dragged him to (instead of him dragging me). It was a two-part climbing film at the Reel Rock Film Fest, which was followed with a late night dinner with Beth, Phil and Justin. Good times!

Oh and J and I also got to see Carolina Story perform at the Red Cat when they came into town last week. Turns out they were also filming for a PBS show and everything was decorated and lit beautifully. And of course Ben and Emily sounded great and I'm loving their new songs. It was so good to be able to catch up and hang out with them after the show, too. Hoping to get up to Nashville at some point and hang with them on their turf sometime soon.

Whew! Well, I think that covers it! Hopefully next time I won't wait so long to update and you don't have to hear quite as many details. Hope yall have had a great couple of weeks too!

Life lately

I feel like I always say this, but it's been another busy couple of weeks. It seems like all of my social activities for the junior board I serve on has fallen in the month of July. Crazy how that happens, but we had a baseball game at the begining of the month and then a 5k run a couple of weeks ago, followed by a mix & minlge event with the governing board of Triumph–all of which were good times!

We also had a shower filled weekend a couple of weeks ago. Nicole's lingerie shower was Friday night and I loved this cute gift her sister put together with all types of lingerie—adorable. Then the next night was the couples shower at my house that I helped several of our other friends host. We had a retro theme with good food and fun games. Everything turned out fantastic and we all had a great time.

Last Tuesday J & I had date night at Bettola since he'd never been and I rarely go. Of course I couldn't branch out from my "usual" and ordered a pizza, even though he got pasta and I was eating a pizza by myself. I had leftovers for two days, which was pretty awesome.

This past weekend we went to the Alabama Outdoors party on the porch Friday night, followed by a Barons game with some friends of ours. It was the first time I'd ever sat out on the lawn at the stadium. And while it's a lot harder for me to follow the game in that area, it's definitely still a good time. Especially when the weather is nice!

Then Saturday I did my usual workout routine, followed by a hair appointment and then I made my first trip to the "new" Nordstrom Rack in town. I took Jill so we could find a dress for her upcoming high school reunion. We somehow made a great find with the very first dress she tried on, but you know us girls. We still ran around town just to "be sure" we had the perfect dress. Turns out we had it right the first time :)

Later that night, J & I had dinner with Luke, a friend of his that was in town for the weekend, and Luke's sister's family who actually live here in Bham. I am loving getting to meet all of his friends lately. I just wish they lived closer so we could hangout more often!

Sunday after church, J & I hit up the showing of To Kill a Mockingbird at the Alabama Theater with Joy and Justin. Such a great movie and I never get tired of going to the Alabama. It's just so beautiful and the organ that comes up from below the stage is always a great highlight.

Pretty soon we'll be in wedding mode for Nicole & Torry's upcoming nuptials. Excited about celebrating them and getting to see friends framily come back in town again...stay tuned for the fun!

Life lately

Apparently the name of the game lately has been working out and eating. Oh wait. Who am I kidding? That is always the name of the game. So yeah, clearly things haven't been too different.

But what was different was that I finally took advantage of the free (yes, free!) aerobics classes at Railroad Park recently. Joy and I went to yoga one Thursday evening, while Ashley and I opted to get "crunk" on a Monday night. Both were enjoyable, but the Crunk class was definitely harder. I was a sweaty girl afterward and I probably definitely looked ridiculous while trying to do these dance moves, but it was fun.

A couple of weekends ago I went with J to Mississippi to see/meet some of his friends. It was a super good time, but unfortch the only pic I was able to get was the one he took of the Bell Tower at Ole Miss—which is his alma mater. I wish we had made it to Oxford earlier on Saturday so I could've seen campus in the daylight. But we did at least get there in time to drive around town and visit Rowan Oak, William Faulkner's home, before sundown. Our next priority was obviously food so we headed directly to the square and ate at Boure, which was pretty good stuff. This meant the campus walking tour had to be taken at night, but it was still a nice experience to walk around and hear his and Hannah's stories about the good ole college days.

This past holiday weekend was kind of insanely busy with visiting both of our families on the actual  Fourth of July. We ate more than our fair share of bbq, hamburgers, hotdogs and homemade ice cream. (Ok, maybe that was just me!) Friday was spent mostly with my mom as we shopped and got a few projects done around the house and then my dad came in that afternoon. I left them to hang with some of the girls from the climbing gym and we ended up grabbing food from the Off the Hook food truck...love their shrimp po boy..it's delish!

Saturday was a busy workout/errand/chore day followed by an evening Barons game in my company's suite with J and my officemate Leslie and her family. Then Sunday afternoon I went back to Regions Field for another Barons game, but this time the Triumph Services junior board was hosting a special event for the participants of Triumph. We ended up getting upgraded to a rather large suite and it was such a good time, even though the Barons ended up (barely) losing. Follow that with a "see ya later" dinner to Kyle at Slice (the 'wing and a prayer' pizza just might be my fav) and it was one exhausting, but fun filled weekend.

Life lately

 

One of the most fun things I have done recently is to finally make it to a Birmingham Barons baseball game. I mean, I watched construction of the new stadium as it was being built. Then I heard people talk about how amazing it was. Then a month or so later, I actually attend a game. It was everything I wanted it to be. The weather couldn't have been more perfect and I was mesmorized by how cool Birmingham looked. Oh and the Barons won plus it was 50 cent hotdog night! See, best night ever.

That week I also volunteered at the Triumph Services annual "friendraiser" art show which is an event that allows the community to come into the Triumph offices and hear more about the services they provide. It's a really fun event and I was blown away by all the talent that we have in Birmingham who also were giving back to their community by allowing a portion of their proceeds to be donated to Triumph. 

There have also been a few things to celebrate including Mother's Day and Ashley's birthday. I went home of course to see mom and then naturally the icing on that cake is to also get to spend time with my niece and nephew. It's unbelievable how big they are both getting. I mean I am holding Cade and his feet are dangling somewhere around my shins. Crazy. I also made another trip back home to see Cade's last teeball game. 

Ashley wanted to keep her bday low key so I went with her and Nick to the farmer's market at Pepper Place that Saturday and then we all went to dinner at Davenport's Pizza the next week. So good to finally spend some time with framily again. These days that seems to be few and far between! 

This past weekend was pretty chill and I even managed to score some one-on-one time with Amy when we went to a local dance company's performance. I wanted to see my friend Sara from church perform with Sanspointe and Amy just loves dance, so she was game. It was a very cool and intimate performance. Certaintly not something you see or experience everyday in Bham! 

Shopping for a good cause: Stella & Dot jewelry

Some of you may already know this, but April is Autism Awareness month. What you definitely don't know, is that I serve on a junior board for a local non-profit organization called Triumph Services.

Triumph is a fantastic organization that helps individuals with developmental disabilities to live independently. This means helping them find and keep jobs, balance their checkbooks, find a place to live, establish and maximize friendships and relationships, and the list goes on and on. A large percentage of these individuals that Triumph serves include those with Autism.

During the month of April, Triumph has been involved with several events to increase awareness about Autism, but my favorite thing the junior board was a part of was a Stella & Dot trunk show hosted by our junior board president, Amelia, this past Sunday.

Stella & Dot not only has some super cute pieces of jewelry, but they also pick five items during the month of April and donate 20% of sales on those items to the HollyRod Foundation, which is an organization that offers help and hope to those with Autism and Parkinson's Disease.

Amelia was lucky enough to have a sweet friend, Maggie, who is a stylist for Stella & Dot and she offered to give 10% of all sales (part of her commission!) from the trunk sale directly to Triumph.

So while I realize that yes, April is technically almost over, there are still a few days left to participate in this trunk show online. You can click here to shop and pick either from the five items directly associated with HollyRod or pick anything and 10% of that sale will go to Triumph.

I've already picked a few of my favorite items above, but I am sure you will find many more pieces that you will love. Just be sure to shop in Maggie's trunk sale by the end of the month. I mean, you know you still need a Mother's Day gift, so really this is perfect timing. And it's a gift that truly will keep on giving.