This summer

I hope to do a few things:

1. Go berry picking.
We went blueberry picking in Newport last year and looooved having fresh berries.

2. Learn how to make jam and do some canning.
I've been wanting to do this for the last 2 summers and still haven't tried it.

3. Work on a sewing project. Maybe even learn how to quilt?
Quilting is intimidating to me. This is almost like conquering a fear for me.

4. Have more fresh flowers in vases.
Working on it! Planted some flowers already!

5. Make homemade ice cream.
We made vanilla last year, but I want to try a different flavor. Strawberry? Chocolate espresso?


6. Go through every closet and the basement: Clear out, clean, and organize.
This really needs to happen. Martha has great organizing ideas. Although some seem like just more work and even a little ridiculous. Keeping a pantry inventory. Really?


7. Have more lunch picnic dates on campus with Bryce.

8. Go to a flea market and/or auction.
Never been to one!

9. Get tubes from a tire place and go tubing down the river.

10. Rearrange the furniture in our bedroom.
I wish we had money to buy new furniture or decorate more. But sometimes rearranging can make you feel like you're in a new room. Even redecorating with things you already have, like moving something that's in another room.

11. Go on a multi-day canoe trip.
Bryce and I bought a canoe a couple years ago. We've never done a float trip (more than a day) together.

12. Go to the beach.
Check! My family is going to Ocean Isle for a week in August! Cannot wait!

13. Learn how to make the 5 minute artisan bread that my friends say is easy. I bet the book is good.
Bryce and I made bread a few times during our first year married, but haven't really had much luck since.


14. Pick a race to start training for.
I would like to run a race maybe in the late Fall. I guess this depends on how busy I'll be with classes. But I've been itching to get back into training for one! It's easier to be motivated to run if I'm working towards something. This is my go-to website for looking at race dates/locations. This is also a good website for finding races.

15. Paint something.
One of my dreams is to take an art class someday. But I want to just buy a canvas and try my hand at it. Water color may be fun. A blank canvas staring at you is also intimidating. Maybe I'll do a really small one like postcard size.
16. Go to Floyd on a Friday night.

17. Frame my undergraduate diploma. (It's been 4+ years. It's time.)

18. Go to the Chateau Morrisette for the Sunday buffet, tasting, and free live music.

19. Make pizza on the grill.

20. Relax.

I would also love to learn Photoshop. But it's not very practical since a) I don't have Photoshop, and b) It's not in the budget right now. I wonder if a public library would have it? Or computers on campus?

I was sitting at the Farmers Market today with Lindsay talking about all the things we want to do this summer. It seems like a pretty long list. Do you have any summer lists?

Church picnic

We went over the mountain and through the woods to a picnic in Newport at an incredible place for a church picnic last weekend. A really sweet couple from church owns a farm out there, with over 50 acres, a pond, a creek, chickens, cows, a huge garden, fields of hay, tractors, a barn, and a gorgeous cabin. They were going to keep the cabin as a guest house and build their house in a different area of the farm, but after they built the cabin with their bare hands, they were attached to it. So it became their home and they put an addition on it.


Just had to share some pictures of this little piece of paradise 25 minutes from Blacksburg.

It's the kind of place you feel that you can just sit on the hammock over looking the pond or the front porch swing, like time stops and you can just be.


If Bryce had the choice, we would live in a place like that the rest of our lives and love it. I'm starting to think I could be okay with that idea.


We all need more of that calmness and slowness today with less media, TV, and busy-ness.



Oh, and I NEVER saw myself as a farm or country type of girl. But southwest Virginia is changing me.

Date Night

Last weekend: We were in town. It was Friday night. We had no plans. Date night!

We tried out the new Mexican place in C-burg where Shakers used to be. I was thinking it would be like P.F. Changs: Chinese take out restaurant:: Gran Rodeo: typical Mexican restaurant. It turns out, it's pretty much your typical Mexican restaurant in a nicer space. Don't get me wrong, it was good food. Prices were reasonable and we got free chips, salsa, and this creamy mayo-based sauce. They have combo meals, too, so you can mix and match burrito, taco, enchilada, rice and beans, chile relleno, etc. The space is nice with a big center bar and it was crowded. We love Mexican and ate too much. I really liked Bryce's burrito with chicken, shrimp, and steak.


Afterward, we went to Redbox and watched True Grit at home.


P.S. the actual movie "Date Night" with Tina Fey and Steve Carrell is funny. You should see it.

We had a spontaneous weekday afternoon date about a week ago. Golfing at The Hill course just down the street. It's really pretty watching the sunset up at the top where you can see campus and the mountains. And it IS called "The Hill", so if you don't get a cart, you get a workout.



I'm a beginner golfer. About 1 out of every 5-10 swings is a good swing for me. But I actually really like golfing and it just so happens that Bryce loves to golf. He was on the golf team at his high school.

New River cookout

What's not to love about summer? Cookouts by the river. Evening walks while it's still light out. Golfing. Beach. Eating outside at restaurants. Tank tops. Iced sweet tea. Garden. Grilling. Smoothies. Laying out. Vacations. Watermelon (the best fruit ever).




Oh, and Sonic slushies. The real fruit lemon berry slush is soo good. Has anyone tried the frozen strawberry lemonade from McDonald's yet?



Ok, I don't love the mosquitos in summer. But I love Skintastic OFF!. So much that I keep an extra in the car.

Dionne's Bachelorette Weekend

We celebrated this lovely lady's bachelorette-ness last weekend in Charlotte. The veil was one of my favorite parts of the weekend. It was the perfect cheap plastic bachelorette veil that was at such an awkward length that I would crack up almost every time I tried to talk to her.

Some friends could only come Friday, some Saturday, Meredith and I got to be there the whole time, yay for DP3!


She has a lot of sweet friends that love her and traveled to come celebrate with her. I loved getting to know them!



We went to some seriously good restaurants. On Friday, we went to Uptown (aka Downtown, and yes, I just found out that these were the same thing in Charlotte). We went to this fantastic Thai restaurant called Basil. I wish I could eat there every Friday night. I always forget how much I love Thai food.

Then we went out dancing at Dandelion Market. We got plenty of attention with her veil AND our list.

At my bachelorette party, we had a list of crazy/funny things that I had to do (but I had everyone do some). I found a very similar list and we all made Dionne do almost all of them. Just google "bachelorette scavenger hunt list" and plenty of ideas will come up. Meredith and I were the parents and eliminated a few that were semi-inappropriate. Some examples were: Kiss a bald man's head, Have a guy serenade you, Dance crazy by yourself on the dance floor, Get a piggyback ride from a stranger, Pretend like you are a dog checking another dog out by sniffing a guys bum...just to name a few. It was pretty hilarious.


This picture looks like Dionne was nervous or embarrassed about things on the list, but let's be honest, she loved the challenge.

On Saturday night, we went out to an Italian restaurant in Uptown called Coco Osteria. AWE-SOME! We all felt like we were in an outdoor European cafe.





After Coco Osteria, we headed over to Crave, a hip dessert-hookah-lounge-bar. I'm convinced that you can only find cool places like this in areas that have fancy names like Uptown.

So, we walked into Crave, and the fancy pants host tells us it's at least an hour wait unless we made reservations. We grudingly walk over to the bar where there is only 1 empty seat, and all 5 of us crowd around the chair. This is not a "stand around the bar" place, it was like a "sit in one of our fancy leather booths or on our couches" place. We felt awkward. We try to be cool, and pull out the list in the meantime hoping for a table to open up. We dare Dionne to do one that involves walking up to a few guys across the room. And alas, one of those guys was the owner!! He graciously leads us over to couches and let's us sit down. Immediately, a waiter brings water with cucumber in fancy glasses to all of us. Then Dionne does another dare to another guy, who then kindly offers us the rest of his hookah since him and his friends are heading out.

Hence, Dionne's face:



We were happily in shock of the list's benefits. So, we leaned back on our velveteen couch with the techno bumping, sipped our cucumber water, and ordered cupcakes.



Then we went back out dancing at Dandelion Market. I think I just finished catching up on sleep. Sometimes I feel like an "old married woman" and I'm not even 30 yet.