The Best of 2011

Since one of my goals for 2012 is to get better at knowing how to use my camera, I decided to review my photos from 2011.

There were some (ok...a lot) of bad ones.  A few others that weren't bad.  Then there are these, which in my opinion could actually be placed in a frame to display.

Almost all of these were taken after the birth of my shiny 50mm 1.4 lens.  The only one that wasn't was the first one.  It was taken about 2 weeks prior. 

 I'm actually only including it because my husband is actually smiling for the camera, which is a rare occurrence.  You are more likely to get Swine Flu than get him to ham it up for the camera.

Without further adieu....

Big Rock 2011.  These 2 have been friends for almost 20 years.

Lauren on her big sister's birthday and just one day shy of 6 months old.  This was also moments after opening the box containing my new lens.  In love already!

 

Lauren 9 months old playing in the bathtub.

 

A sunset wedding captured of the deck of Breakwater Restaurant in Hatteras, NC. 

11 months old playing in the front yard.

My debut as a sideline photographer using this lens. Thanks to a good friend for trusting me with it for the day.

 It was a good time but also really humbling.  I truly admire those guys/girls who do this day in and day out because it is truly challenging.  My goal for the day was get a few good shots and not get run over by one of these guys.  Much harder than I originally imagined.

Lauren's only other girl cousin at her 1st birthday party.

Lauren showing off at her 1st birthday party. 

Lauren and Tonka on Halloween.  This picture is hands down my favorite photo of the year!

One of Lauren's cousins who used to love being in front of the camera.  Now, not so much.

His brother with Lauren.  He loves Lauren.  Absolutely.Loves.Her.  I love this picture of them together.

Christmas morning 2011.  This pretty much sums up her personality.  Happy and curious all the time.

Finally, the day we went to see Santa this year.  The picture with Santa wasn't bad but also not one of my favorites. 

This picture is probably my 2nd favorite for the year.

There you have it, the year in review through photos.

Welcome Home Coach!

What a proud moment to be a Pirate! Can't wait until football season.

P.S. This image is borrowed from another loyal Pirate fan :)

The End of an Era

Goodbye Skippy! It would have been a bit easier to swallow if you were not taking off for a school I absolutely despise but good luck none the less.

Here's to next year! Go Pirates!

Ringing in the New Year!

Last year for the Liberty Bowl we did Memphis for NYE. This year we changed it up a bit and did Nashville instead. As I told some friends today, I'm pretty sure I'm high on Nashville.

It was simply amazing! Husband and I agree it may have been one of the best NYE experiences EVER.

Did you read that? EVER!

Sadly, I do not have a lot of wonderful pictures. I was just too busy partying. It was a blast!

Broadway

Hard Rock


Cool building downtown


The temperature at 7 am on Saturday as we left for Memphis. It was cold!

Guy in a purple gorilla suit. At least he was warm.........

The scoreboard as I choose to remember it :)

To Tide You Over........

Until I have time to sort through my pictures from our trip to Nashville/Memphis for NYE and the ECU bowl game (and no I don't want to talk about it just in case you were wondering).

I've been making this chili for a few months now. It has been one of my favorite finds from my Southern Living cookbook circa 2007.

Meaty Black Bean Chili

Prep: 10 min., Cook: 20 min.
Yield: Makes 8 servings
Ingredients

3 (15-oz.) cans black beans
1 large sweet onion, chopped
1 pound ground round
4 teaspoons chili powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 (14-oz.) can low-sodium fat-free chicken broth
2 (14.5-oz.) cans petite diced tomatoes with jalapeños

Toppings: sour cream, shredded Cheddar cheese, lime wedges, sliced jalapeño peppers, chopped fresh cilantro, chopped tomatoes, corn chips

Preparation
1. Rinse and drain 2 cans black beans. (Do not drain third can.)
2. Sauté chopped onion and ground round in a large Dutch oven over medium heat 10 minutes or until meat is no longer pink. Stir in chili powder and next 3 ingredients; sauté 1 minute. Stir in drained and undrained beans, chicken broth, and diced tomatoes. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat; cover, reduce heat to low, and simmer 10 minutes. Serve chili with desired toppings.

This stuff is good! I throw in a few extra jalapenos for good measure and I'm all set. Enjoy!

A Few of My Favorite Ornaments

As a follow up to my ornament exchange post I thought I'd share some of my favorite ornaments from past years as well as this year.

This ornament and another one below are from a collection of three that a very dear friend gave me this year. I'm so in love with them. Christmas just isn't going to be the same this year without my dear grandfather. Papa we miss you!

The reason I like to do ornament exchanges is because each year when I put up my tree each ornament reminds me of different times of my life.


or significant others such as Tonka :)


and Megan Grace.


Or Steve.
Our wedding in St. Thomas


The year we MADE ornaments. I'm not sure I'll ever do that again but I do have a few cute ones to show for my hard work.

And this is my prize from this years party!

This one I'm pretty sure is from my first party.
This ornament and the one below are from a collection of three that a very dear friend gave me this year. I'm so in love with them.

Another ornament to remember Megan Grace.


Jackson Hole. One of our favorite places.

Self explanatory but it still makes me think of the person who gave it to me.

I had this one made for myself. The other side has my name and Class of 2004 painted on it.


Another homemade ornament.


And another.


This one has my name on it and I think it is an old one from when I was a child.

A very cute ornament from a couple of past coworkers.


An ornament to comemorate my first (And only so far) half marathon.

Back to Back!!!

Last year I posted this post. The end result of our trip to the Liberty Bowl was not exactly what I had hoped but.......

I'm THRILLED to say we are going back for Round 2 Pirate style :) The ECU Pirates are BACK to BACK Conference USA Champions!!!

Memphis (via Nashville) here we come. Bring it Razorbacks....We Are the Pirates of ECU!!!

It's My Birthday Month!

October has always been my favorite month of the year. What better month can you ask for than one that includes my birthday, Halloween, ECU Football, Fall, and Pumpkin Spice Lattes?

Here's to hoping I can keep this month an enjoyable one and just try to remember that Megan Grace will be celebrating with me from above.

Love you Megan Grace! Mommy misses you!

Stepping Out

Not stepping out as in out of the blogosphere but stepping out of my comfort zone. The "firsts" in our lives are sometimes hard. In my case, the majority of the time my worry over them is almost always worse than the actual task itself once it is done.

LAMG (Life After Megan Grace) has been no different. I've tackled the return to work, JL, ECU football, and basically life in general. It really has not been overly difficult and I'm glad to have just faced everything head on instead of letting it sit there while I worried about it. In the long run, it has just been easier to go ahead and get it over with instead of letting it loom.

Each of these tasks has come with an emotional piece of the puzzle no doubt. Last weekend as I stood among 43k other screaming fans at the football game I'd catch myself crying. Not bawling just teary about the fact that our daughter was not physically there. It was hard. I've made no secret about that to anyone who has asked about our trip to the game (and even a few who didn't ask).

What was harder were the voices in my head who recounted for me the conversations where people doubted my seriousness when I shared that although my due date was August 2nd and the first game was September 5th I fully intended on taking MG to the game. I love football especially ECU football. I'd dreamed of taking MG with us to games no matter how young she was. I wanted to share my love for ECU and football with her. Sadly, I never got that chance once she was born.

Those people who doubted me will always haunt me. Still I attended the game, cheered ECU to a win (barely), and plan to do it again each weekend this year. In the future, I hope to share that with any other children we may have. I'm pretty sure no one will doubt me next time.

Of all of the "firsts" since MG left us here on Earth this one was the hardest to tackle. My love for our daughter along with my passion for football made for an emotional day but I did it and for that I am proud.

Lots of Things

There are lots of thoughts swirling around in my head but since none of them are really lending themselves to a well thought out blog post I'll do bullet points for now:

• I'm back at work as of this past Friday. So far, so good. It is good to have a job to come back to with so many others out of work. For this I am thankful!
• This past weekend I hung out at the pool with some family and had a great time! Pictures to come :)
• Yesterday I shopped for clothes and ended up in tears. There are 20 pounds still attached to me that do not appear to be going away in the near future :(
• Football season is just around the corner. Go Pirates!
• The new Junior League year is also upon us. My placement this year is very exciting. More about that to come also :)

Soon I will be back to my regularly scheduled blogging as my life returns to "normal". Writing is something I love to do I just have not had the time to sit down and put thoughts together. In the meantime, if you are reading my blog let's play a game my friend Stacy recently played.

Leave a comment telling me:

1) How you found my blog?

2) A question you have for me.

3) Your favorite nutritious recipe or weight loss secret

In a few days I will answer the questions you have asked :) How's that for fun since my blog has been rather lame lately?

New Years Eve, Memphis, Beale Street, and the Pirates

12 hours out and back but off to Memphis and the Liberty Bowl we went. It was a fun trip overall even though our Pirates failed to close the deal and bring home the Liberty Bowl trophy. We lost to Kentucky 25-16. First half...fun. Second half...nightmare.

On the way out we stopped in Knoxville for a quick visit to UT's campus where we very sneakily broke into the UT stadium to catch a glimpse. Ok, so maybe the fence was unlocked but who knew?

We then stopped in Nashville but those pics on are Ashlee's camera. We did what I like to call "drive bys" of all the big tourist attractions such as Opryland Hotel, The Grand Ole Opry, LP Stadium, and Broadway. We would stop outside and take pics because everything and I mean everything on our trip was $25.

Then it was on to Memphis, TN or Arkansas since that is where we stayed. We also visited Mississippi while we were there but lo and behold Mississippi doesn't have a welcome to Mississippi sign. Oh well!

Below are just a few of the pics from the trip. I wish I had taken more but once again we were busy and it just flew by.



The ECU band playing before the game at the Liberty Bowl.

Pirate Pride at the Liberty Bowl parade.

This one is pretty self explanatory





Pirates in the street



Elvis's footprints ;)

Memphis's finest

The ducks at The Peabody

The big ole' Mississippi River

I'm not sure exactly how many times we saw this sign but it was a lot.

Ooooh Peyton!

Coming into Knoxville

The big ball in Knoxville