LAC Birthday!

All credit to this idea goes to my friend Erika B. It was on her most well-written blog where I saw her idea of writing blog posts about friends on their birthdays.

Today is my dear friend Laura.Anne's birthday! Per mentioned, I saw this idea done elsewhere, and I thought that it was great. I also thought a trip down memory lane, and a special blog post would be an excellent way to share some birthday love!

Where it all began....

My friendship with Laura.Anne began back when we were both sophomores in college, getting ready to go on our first mission trip to Ghana, West Africa. Yup, our first mission trip was to Africa. Why start local? On our trip I had so much fun hanging out with this sweet individual, and it was also here we began to notice "life-similarities." For instance, going to Africa for trip #1, Polish last names, Catholic backgrounds, and the same major of CHFD (amongst others).


How very thankful I am that we had the same major! We had major friendship time while going through the academic rigors of CHFD. One of my favorite memories from college was during our senior year and us having a 5:00-8:00 p.m. class with a, well, "unique individual" for an instructor. I don't even remember what the course was called. The monotony of this class was broken up through chatting through our computers, trying desperately to not laugh out loud because of said-chatting, and ending with going out to dinner after class. And sometimes dinner was just a piece of cake (literally), if the past three hours had been awful enough to warrant it.


My friend graduated a semester before me, and went back to her hometown. Accordingly, I made my first visits to Columbus, Georgia. My amazing friend purchased a home (less than a year out of college!) that is one of the brightest and cutest I've ever visited. She adopted two dogs, one of whom I've met, and the other I'm waiting to. I love visiting her; I'm really past due for a visit!


Oh, yeah. VERY important. She also got ENGAGED to this fine fellow and will be marrying him in September 2010. Yeah! And get ready for project 365's posts on September 24-25, which will be full of bridesmaid-fun and celebrating at their wedding!


She also visits me up in Athens, GA, where I'm still currently at. Mandatory elements of visits include visiting Helix and other fine downtown shopping locations and embracing Athens cuisine (which we're both huge fans of).


I'm so thankful for such a wonderful, precious friend!

Day 35

Real Simple, and Country Living. My favorite periodicals. After I finish reading an issue (usually twice) it gets "organized." I rip out recipes that I want to try, design ideas that I think are beautiful, tips that I find helpful, and anything else that catches my eye and organize them into a (rather larger) binder. I'm pretty behind on it right now (I have a lot of back issues to sort through), but I am excited about what the finish product will be.

Day 34

FunFebruary brings about theme nights on Wednesday, and this week's theme was "Bluegrass." I LOVE theme nights. I really like the excuse to dress-up. The biggest leap for me were the pigtails (I got my plaid shirt last year at the Gap and it's one of my faves so I'm not considering it a costume item). I didn't have a lot of time to get ready before Wesley because of a prior obligation, and it was definitely difficult trying to make decent looking ponytails in a hurry. In the pic are the women who are in the same group discipleship as me, that is led by Lindsay (end on R). I LOVE them! Group DT is definitely one of my top five favorite things about working at the Wesley Foundation.

Day 33

Barberitoes. I still remember my first experience there, and not being all that impressed. Five years later, and it's a different story. I don't think I've ever frequented a restaurant as much as I frequent this one--I go every Sunday after church, and usually once more during the week. True, when I go to much I'll suddenly develop an extreme aversion to it (that passes after a couple weeks). And occasionally when the stray green pepper makes it ways into my dish it's bad news. But other than that, no complaints here!

Day 32

I had a lot of things where I could have taken a picture at on the 31st...Barbs post church, a wedding shower, community group...oh well.

Day 32. Back to work. Macs are pretty popular there.

Day 30

January 30 was my lovely roommates birthday! In true birthday bracket style there was a pre-celebration, a day-of celebration, a post-day celebration, and there is still a celebration yet to come (which will probably be the source for the pic of the day). On the eve of her birthday I met her at the Suarez home to play the game Rummikub. I confess that when this game was first described to me I thought that it sounded, well...boring. Since playing though, I have to say that I could easily get obsessed. It was SO much fun! I highly recommend it!

Day 29

It's good to be home. Technically I got back to Athens on Thursday afternoon, but the day was kind of a blur between meetings, getting brake pads, and feeling so tired. Friday, I was on a quest to get back on my "routine"--work, gym, and of course, cook. I made a variation of Mary's vegetable soup and it is definitely one of my favorite things I've ever made. I really enjoyed making vegetable soup because I hate canned vegetable soups and almost anyone else's (except for Mary's, who inspired me to make this). The reason why being, that while vegetables are one of my favorite things, I'm really particular about how they are prepared. Tomatoes...one of my faves raw, one of my hates when cooked. DZ vegetable soup solution...puree the can of tomatoes. Check. Green beans...have hated for years (texture issue). Solution...french cut. Flavor plus no horrible texture. Check.