Instagram Recap

Sorry for the radio silence around here. Work ( + everything happening in Boston) was making me super grumpy this week and my mom always said, "If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all."

But it's the weekend and that makes me very happy! 

I did get to have a little fun on Monday of this week (<-- officially the end of busy season, booya!)

Our office has 8 tickets to the Greenville Drive games and they give them away to all the employees in a lottery. Sarah happened to win tickets for Monday night, so she and I, plus our roomies, made a night of it by stopping by Liberty Tap Room for dinner beforehand.

I don't hate Monday nights that involve soft pretzels and queso, Goose Island 312 brews, front row seats (first baseball game of the year!), free popcorn, and best friends.

If I could just repeat every Monday night, life would be golden!

Linking up with Sara Elizabeth

GVL --> DFW

I'm having a hard time facing the reality that I'm not in Texas anymore.

Ryan and I had a great, relaxing trip visiting with his family, seeing the city, and eating some great food, because it's always about the food. I should've taken more pictures, but don't worry, I'll share all the details!

Friday

Our plane left Greenville suuuuper early, before the sun came up. But that meant we got to Dallas at 8 am and had a whole day ahead of us! Ryan's mom made us breakfast (and now, I must have this egg poacher), we hung around the house for a bit, and then headed downtown Dallas to meet up with Tyler for lunch! We tried out Bowery's, a new hot dog joint and were pretty impressed. Tyler took us on a tour of his office (which had a pretty awesome view), then we headed back to the house.  A little afternoon shopping with Ryan's mom and brother, then it was time for margaritas at the country club! Ryan's stepsister Laurel, whom I got to meet in March, joined us for dinner at a local Mexican restaurant. Give this girl steak nachos and tequila shots and you know she's happy! A few of Ryan's high school friends came over to the house after dinner. We had been up since 3 am and I was fading real quick. I feel asleep on a lounge chair by the pool before midnight! Such a party pooper.

Saturday

We woke up late morning and just had to have Whataburger (again). Unfortunately, Ryan's allergies showed up with a vengeance just in time for this trip, and he didn't feel so great. He took an all afternoon nap while I read by the pool. He recovered long enough for us to catch the Rangers game! His friend works in the ticket office and hooked us up with awesome seats! We met up with a friend from Clemson and another of Ryan's high school friends, and had a great time! The Rangers won with a walk-off hit in the bottom of the 9th! We went out to a bar in Fort Worth afterwards. Ideal Saturday in my book!

Sunday

This was a bit of a tourist-y day. We went to a diner that Ryan grew up eating in. It turned out that Sunday was their last day in that location, so some of the menu items were $1.68 - the original price the day the restaurant opened!! How cool is that? We then went to the Sixth Floor Musuem in the Texas School Book Depository where they found Lee Harvey Oswald's rifle when JFK was shot. I'm obsessed in love with the Kennedy family, so I was really glad Ryan took me to the museum, and he had never been either! Back at the house, I left for my four miler, then we had a cookout at the house! Ryan's grandmother, Laurel, Chris, and two nephews came over to hang out by the pool and have dinner. I had such a great time playing with the kids and it was such a relaxing evening. I love low-key family get-togethers, even other people's families!

Monday

I was glad we had an extra day to decompress and wind down before hopping on a plane again. We had lunch (Texas BBQ) with Ryan's mom and stepdad, and then Ryan took me on a tour of Coppell where he grew up! It was so much fun to drive around..we saw his old houses, his elementary, middle, and high schools, where he played ball growing up, etc. I loved taking a trip down memory lane with him, since that was way before we met! He also drove me around SMU, where his dad and stepsisters went to college. 

Unfortunately, it was time for the trip to end. Surprisingly, Ryan's dad and stepmom happened to be in Dallas for work, so we got to have dinner with them before we went to the airport. We had dinner at Pappas Bros. Steakhouse, and I swear to you, it was the most amazing steak I've ever had. It just melted in your mouth. The lettuce wedge and lobster mac and cheese didn't hurt either. I would walk back to Dallas to eat here again. 

Goodbye Dallas! Don't worry, I'll definitely be back!

Weekend Update ~ Home Sweet Greenville

Ahh, Sunday! It may be one of my favorite days of the week. In college, I used to spend all day Sunday studying and catching up on homework neglected since my last class on Thursday afternoon. Then Sunday nights were dedicated to sorority Exec meetings and then chapter.

Sundays in the real world are much more relaxing. I stayed in bed till almost noon, just drinking coffee, watching Friends, and reading blogs/the news/Twitter.

I'll rewind to Friday night, which we spent at the Drive game. Our firm has 2 sets of 4 tickets, that the employees can have in a ticket lottery. I had tickets a few weeks ago, but switched with Lauren because we were already going to the game with Ryan's company. The seats are awesome and the Drive won! Yay! They have a fireworks show every Friday night, and I was actually really impressed with the show. They must've spent several thousand dollars - I felt like a kid again on 4th of July!

Ryan, Lauren, Trent, and I went to Liberty Tap Room after the game and had a few beers and appetizers, with an appearance from our favorite waiter. Our waitress sat down for a little while, too!

Ryan and I had a debate going during the game as to who was better at Scrabble. We had agreed to have a face-off when we got home. Well, we didn't leave Liberty until about 1:30 am, and we recruited Lauren and Trent to play with us too. Nothing like a little late night, slighty tipsy game of Scrabble.

Ryan kicked our butts. So I guess that debate is settled...

Saturday was spent by the pool. We recruited a big group (all coworkers minus Ryan) to hang out at Ryan's apartment pool. There were a lot of young people out and some people watching.

The ducks from the pond made their way inside the gate, and couldn't resist going for a swim. Watching them hop out of the pool was quite entertaining. Cute duckies!

I headed home to shower, then we were off to dinner to celebrate birthdays for two of Ryan's coworkers. We went to Sassafras, one of my favorite restaurants in Greenville. I had the special, swordfish with peach mango salsa served over grits. 

I've never had a bad meal there, and this one was no different! I always like to order meals in restaurants that I wouldn't typically cook for myself. I haven't done too much cooking with fish yet, but maybe I can come up with some fresh fish recipes for summer!

It was great company! I was just so tired from the late night on Friday that I was ready to go home before midnight! 

Happy Birthday Andrew and Gina!

After I got out of bed Sunday, I worked on a little craft project. As an accountant, creativity isn't really my strong suit. The last time I was "crafty" was when I was making presents for my little. ZTA had a tradition of giving the girls teal aluminum buckets filled with presents on the day before Big/Little Reveal. That was quite an undertaking for this not-so-artsy girl. But I think they turned out alright - here's some throwback pictures!

Anyway, back to my craft project. I have been meaning to display my jewelry instead of keeping it hidden in my jewelry box. I have so many earrings that I never wear because I just don't think of them when I'm rushing out the door in the morning. So now that they're on display, hopefully I'll switch it up more often! Also, these cute little earrings from Anthropologie have been purchased by my sister in California and will be given to me once we're reunited in AZ next week. I really wish they would hurry up on the construction of the Anthro downtown Greenville. It will be bad for my wallet, though!

Ta da! I'm so glad they're all on display in my closet now!

I made a last-minute trip to the mall to pick up a few things for my trip next week to Arizona! The dress section of Banana always gets me! Here are my finds:

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I saw the first dress, a knit mini-stripe, on one of Ryan's coworkers at a Drive game. I was instantly loving it - it looked so comfy! She told me she got it at Banana when I complemented her on it. I waited several weeks before going to try it on myself. I'm thinking I'll wear it on the plane next weekend!

I've been looking for a new maxi dress. They're so comfortable - it's like wearing pajamas. This one was flattering and had a little more interest with the pattern than my other solid one. Bonus, it has pockets! This will be making it in the suitcase as well!

The last dress happened to be the only one left on the sale rack! I love finding a good deal. I plan on wearing it with a skinny belt and gold sandals. Ryan said this one was his favorite of the 3!

After my shopping trip, I went to the Fresh Market to buy dinner's ingredients. Fresh Market is by far my favorite grocery store (although it's pricey). I only go to buy dinner on special occassions, but I could spend hours in there. I cooked a yummy, indulgent steak dinner - I'll be posting the recipes tomorrow! 

I went on an afternoon run on the Swamp Rabbit Trail. It was pretty hot today and I really wished I had a hat to shade my face from the sun. But overall, a solid run! About as consistent as I can get!

Hope everyone had a great, relaxing weekend, too!

Weekend Update ~ Beer Festival

I always get a little bummed when Sunday night rolls around. It means the end of another great weekend. This one was equally fun and relaxing. I hate to see it end!

Friday night, Lauren and I went to our End of Busy Season party at one of our shareholder's house. It's always fun to hang out with our co-workers outside of the office. The house was beautiful, too! I could've definitely moved in.

After the party, I met my parents for the last few innings of the Drive game. My dad had gotten box seats through work, so I didn't want to miss an opportunity to see my parents and the end of the game. I was only there for about an hour, and the Drive lost, but it was still fun!

There's an apartment building with sweeping balconies that overlooks the stadium. I've always thought to myself how cool it would be to live in a condo there and I wondered what they looked like inside. Ryan texted me to tell me that one of his coworker's lived in an apartment there and to come join them out on the balcony. I jumped at the opportunity! The apartment did not disappoint! I was casually asking them when I could move in, too!

A view from the balcony overlooking the stadium

We lingered as long as possible before heading home. We had to rest up for the Beer Festival! We had lunch at Mellow Mushroom before heading over to the Bi-Lo Center. They decided to move the festival inside because of the chance of rain forecasted. It never actually ended up raining, so it would've been cool to stay outside, but that's okay! The festival was so fun! We made stops at pretty much every station, sampling beers as we went. Most of the breweries were familiar, but we got to try a few new brews for the summer as well. I'm already looking forward to going back next year! 

Abita Beer Garden! (they unfortunately didn't have Strawberry Lager) 

Our mini 2 oz. sampler mugs

So many people!

Reading the map proved to be a challenge

We ate dinner at a mexican restaurant downtown and called it an early night by watching the Braves game at home. While waiting for a cab, I managed to catch an amazing photo of the sunset!

Ryan and I are now enjoying a lazy Sunday at his place. The weather was so crazy today, with some rain (and rainbows!). I took some pictures from Ryan's huge loft windows. 

Awesome rain cloud

Double rainbow! 

Water tower/blue sky after the storm

We also managed to cross three movies (3 movies in one day! It has to be a record!) off my list today! We watched Office Space, Reservoir Dogs, and The Breakfast Club. I had seen Office Space a really long time ago but I enjoyed the new ones as well. Yay for making my movie list a little smaller.

Hope y'all enjoyed your weekend as much as I did!