Weekend Recap

**This post was meant to go up last week, but between sudden sickness and last minute prep for friend's bachelorette party life just got in the way! Hope you enjoy anyway**

I actually did something this past weekend besides work so I figured I would share! On Saturday my fellow beauty obsessed friend Jordan ventured out to the mall with me so we could experience Columbia's newest store....

**not our actual store. we were too excited to take an actual picture**

Yes. Yes. South Carolina has FINALLY gotten a Sephora!! I have anxiously anticipated this opening ever since I saw the sign go up in the mall. I even applied for a job there (which is still kind of a TBA situation...story possibly at a later date). It's definitely one of the bigger Sephora stores I have ever been too (bigger than the one in Charlotte & Atlanta's Perimeter Mall) so when we first walked in we were a tad overwhelmed. But after 2 hours (yes. 2 hours. Jordan is probably the only one that would spend that much time in ANY store with me), 2 foundation applications (on Jordan), and probably walking 20 times all around the store, here is what I ended up with...

• Sephora 2012 Sun Safety Kit (no longer available online, which is why I was VERY excited to see it in the store!)
• Dior Hydra Life BB Creme
• Sephora Collection Pro Concealer Airbrush #57 

We're already planning a second trip back tomorrow after I get off work because Jordan has to exchange the foundation she bought...plus I want to get a brush to better apply the BB creme and an eyeshadow palette that will be easy to travel with! 

After Sephora and a quick trip to Victoria's Secret to grab a bachelorette gift, I raced back home to get read for a night out with the family. For some reason my mom decided we were going to celebrate Father's Day the night before this year instead of the actual day. Once I got ready I met the family for a quick dinner at blue, which is a tapas bar & cocktail lounge downtown.

blue is somewhere I catch myself frequenting on a Saturday, but it is almost always after 10pm and NEVER for the food if ya know what I mean. I read the few reviews online and heard the food was mediocre, but since mom had bought a groupon we figured we would give it a shot. BIG MISTAKE. We told the waitress we were on a certain time frame & had a play to make later that night, but did that speed up the service?? NO MA'AM! They didn't have the first entree my brother ordered and then we waited 30 MINUTES for my wedge salad...because the lettuce had yet to arrive at the restaurant! Thankfully the groupon took care of our entire tab so we ran across the street to grab our tickets and catch a play.

Trustus Theater is a local theater company in Columbia and for as long as I've lived here (and most recently literally across the street) I've never seen a production. They did their version of the Broadway play Avenue Q and let me tell you it did not disappoint! What makes it unique is that over half of the cast is actually puppets a la Sesame Street. There are definitely some adult themes and politically incorrect humor, but our entire family enjoyed it. I highly recommend it!!

Father's day was pretty low key in our house. I got to sleep in and once all the family was home we cooked a meal on the grill and gave dad a couple gifts. My dad is a very low key no muss no fuss kinda guy so it was the perfect day for him. 

Sorry this post was majorly late. I'm not gonna lie posting may be a tad sporadic for the next 2 weeks or so until I get through my friend's wedding and family vacation. But I will be doing my best to document everything so I can have lots of blog material when I come back!!

xoxo

Natalie

Day in Athens

This past Saturday Dad and I made the trip down to Athens to see the Gamecocks take on the Georgia Bulldogs. Dad got his undergraduate degree at UGA and his masters at USC so I've always harped him about going down to Athens and "reliving his college days." Needless to say the whole time we were down there all he could say was that it looked almost NOTHING like he remembered and the trees were much bigger than he remembered (to which I promptly told him that the trees had 30 years to grow! They don't stay the same size!)

Lemme just say though...Athens is NOT an easy town to get around!! If you've every been to Williams-Brice stadium, you know it's not on USC's campus, but about a mile down the road by our fairgrounds. Therefore, there is PLENTY of parking and you don't have to be afraid if you car is gonna get towed or not. So needless to say, after the parking/traffic situation, we were MORE than ready to get into the stadium and mix ourselves a little cocktail (hey Dad wanted to relive the good ole days, I was only happy to oblige!)

Our first view of Sanford Stadium and the back of the scoreboard

Full view of the stadium our way up the stairs

First time back at his Alma Mater in 30 years!!

My first visit to another SEC stadium!

As you can see our seats were pretty awesome! Yea we were in the 600-section, BUT we were on the 50 yard line and surrounded by fellow Gamecock fans!

View of the campus

Halfta say Sanford's scoreboard is really nice! 

Hopefully when ours is updated it'll be similar to this

(Notice the final score!)

All the Georgia fans leaving early when they thought it was over.

It was easily the CRAZIEST game, let alone 4th quarter I have EVER seen!

Field after we WON!

Carolina flag waving in all its glory!!

Sea of people going across the bridge after the game

Sea of people to the left. 20 minutes after the game is over.

So the game ended at 8:15. We hung out in the stadium till around 8:30 then began making our way down and out towards our car. Since the parking was SO atrocious, we FINALLY got to our car around 9:15. THEN we sat in MORE traffic with the non-working traffic lights. Fortunately, the route we chose took us through sorority row so we at least had some nice scenery. 

Sorry for the major blurriness but this was the Kappa Kappa Gamma house! 

So glad I got to see it. 

Gamma Phi Beta 

Apologies for another bad pic but this is the Chi Omega house.

My dad got super excited when he saw this because all throughout college he was the Chi O house boy!! He said the house looks exactly the same as he remembered and was just stunned it was still the same house!

Another pic of Chi O. 

Once we turned off sorority row we thought we were home free, but O NOOO!!! There was even MORE traffic! We FINALLY made it out of athens around 10:30pm...TWO HOURS after the game ended!! 

Overall it was an AWESOME weekend!! I got to spend an entire day with my dad watching the Gamecock on a beautiful Saturday. What more could a girl ask for???

What I did this weekend

Met the parentals for breakfast here...

...did more damage at the sale here...

...went to dinner here...

...to watch some of this...

(Gamecock victory! game 2 tonight!)

And of course a typical weekend would not be complete without some studying here and there.

What did you do this weekend??

Happy Mother's Day!

My momma is without a doubt my best friend. From a very young age my mom and I have had a close relationship. (Yes, I am that girl who tended to hang out more with her mom than her friends) As I get older, I realize that friends, some who I thought would forever have my back, can let you down, but your mom will ALWAYS be there, not matter what. I've done some good things, and I've done some pretty dumb things, and for each and every one my mom has been there (and dad too, but that post comes next month!).

I can talk to my mom about pretty much anything, whether its trying to decide what to do with my life, the latest thing I shouldn't have bought, or my obsession with SVU. She may not understand my lazy tendencies, the fact that i can never be on time, or my procrastinating ways (in all fairness, i get these traits from my dad haha), but she loves me just the same.

Hope all the mothers out there had a wonderful day. I hope you felt special, treasured, and loved. Us kids may not say it enough, but we love yall and are so thankful for all the sacrifices you have made to make sure we had the most out of life.

I LOVE YOU MOM!

Holiday Weekend Recap

I hope everyone had a good Fourth of July! This was the first time in the last couple years that I wasn't working on the actual fourth, and I enjoyed every minute of it!

Friday: Friday was my first day off in a while so I chose to sleep in! And it was glorious haha That afternoon I went with my parents to see Toy Story 3 and it did not disappoint! I will always and forever be a Disney baby, and Toy Story 3 captured everything that a Disney movie should be. Fun, playful, heartwarming, comedy, and for the entire family. I had heard on twitter that it was making people cry, so of course I was shedding some tears. I definitely recommend it to anyone with children or who grew up with Disney and Toy Story 1 & 2.

Later that night my dad and I decided to go hit some tennis balls. This summer we've been part of a mixed doubles league since I decided to get back into playing tennis again. I haven't really played since high school!

Saturday: Saturday morning my dad and I got up early and went and played a practice doubles match. I wasn't too keen on getting up early on a Saturday, but it did give me a chance to work on my tan! With me working pretty much full time all summer, I am not NEARLY as dark as I would like to be, so anytime I'm gonna be on the tennis court during the day I make sure I'm not just wearing a tshirt! Did that one day and ended up with a VERY noticeable tshirt tan!

After we finished playing we went home to relax and wait for my grandparents to arrive, who were driving down to visit for a weekend. Once they arrived we spent the rest of the afternoon/evening eating delicious barbeque mom made and being lazy.

Sunday: Happy 4th of July!!! After sleeping in, we said goodbye to my grandparents. Never fear though, our house wasn't empty for long! My cousin, his wife, and baby girl were on the lake and stopped by for a little while so we could visit since it had been FOREVER since we had all seen each other! Unfortunately I am awful about remembering to take pictures so I don't have any from this weekend! But Bella Grace just turned 9 months old and is at that age where she is just too cute! We had to keep our dog outside on the screen porch so she wouldn't push her down. And Bella Grade just loved her! She just sat by the glass door and laughed and laughed looking at Glacier! Here's a pic of our baby:

Monday was spent up in Charlotte to go get a car my parents purchased for my baby brother and driving it back down. Today was unfortunately back to the real world :( I had my shortest shift at work this week then was able to grab dinner at Miyos with two of my girlfriends. All this working has made me a very unsociable girl!! I was so glad I was able to catch up and hear all the latest gossip.

Well until next time! I KNOW I am behind on the 3o day blog challenge, but I figured I didn't have to do 3o days in a row, just 30 days! I promise to get back to it, but right now I have to be back at work at 8am tomorrow :(

Well ****

Just when I think that life may be slowing down and reaching a calm....

...life laughs at me for being so silly and slaps me in the face.

**sorry for 2 downer posts in a row, hopefully things will be looking up soon and i can be back to my regularly scheduled (hah) blogging.

My Life in a Nutshell

What I've been doing instead of blogging...

• put apartment on the market only to end up trading apartments with neighbor across the hall
• somehow passing Organic Chemistry I and II in summer school
• FINALLY finding a diet that works for me....25 pounds skinnier!
• finding new clothes in my closet that now fit, and realizing that some of my favorite items are too big to even take in :(
• adjusting from living with a roommate who had her boyfriend over 24/7 to living by myself (LOVE IT!!)
• family vacation to Chicago
• experiencing southern sorority recruitment for the first time (INTENSE!!!)
• getting adjusted to 5 new classes for the fall semester
• actually doing halfway decent on my first tests! Maybe I've finally figured out how to study ;)
• experienced some AWESOME Carolina football!!!! GO COCKS!!!!
• major shopping trip to Myrtle Beach to get new SMALLER clothes!!
• got my little sister for Kappa! LOVE (pictures of us and gifts to come!)

In other words, I've been a little busy! No excuse I know, but I really want to get this blog started up if only to have a record of these crazy college days!! If I have any readers left, thanks for being the most patient people EVER!

Happy Mother's Day.

Happy Mother's Day!!!

I Love my Parents!!!

My parents surprised me yesturday after FINALLY getting my license with a brand new car!!

I had test driven the new Hyundai Tucson a couple months ago and absolutely LOVED it, but they kept telling me I had to wait until August or September for a new car. So yesturday my mom & I went tanning @ my uncle's house and we were chatting outside and all of a sudden he opens his garage and my dad drives out my car! Its royal blue just like the pic with black trim. They even put a big red bow on it like they have in thos Lexus commercials! But they even put a Carolina Girls license tag on the front and a USC Gamecocks license frame on the back. AND even better, my mom gave me an Ipod adapter for it too!! It caught me as a total surprise and couldnt ask for better parents!!!