Sweet Southern Pearl

      Since today is my birthday (woohoo), I'm looking back on my birthday ten years ago.   It feels weird saying "ten years ago." I'm getting old.   Anyway, on my 14th birthday, I woke up and put on a pink, green, and burgundy striped turtleneck, jeans, brown Skechers, and a lime green bead bracelet.  Before I left for school, I watched some of Princess Diaries with Ashley and my mom gave me one of my birthday presents - a stuffed "Marie" (from Aristocats) from the Disney store.  Its collar said "October" and it had a pink stone around its neck.   At Southwest Middle School, we had some kind of testing that day, so it was a chill day - the day before report cards.  I remember watching a movie about Vietnam in Mr. Hairston's language arts class and wanting to go to Asia.  I ate lunch with my friends.  Lunch time was the best.  We had sooo much fun laughing til we cried every single day at the simplest thing...

Picking pumpkins with Zach is so much fun!   We both like to act like kids. I just LOVE this time of year.   I love how the pictures turn out with the orange pumpkins against the amazing blue sky. COMPLEMENTARY COLORS.   I love having free weekdays so that we can do stuff like this. We picked two awesome pumpkins to carve.   I love the Farmer's Market and seeing everything that's been harvested. I love the air and the colors and the laughter and Zach and fall.           eBa 

I've just felt kinda lonely lately.  And it's dumb.  Because I'm surrounded by lots of wonderful people. But that's just how it is.  I'm kinda going through a rough patch right now, and I think for some reason everything seems a lot worse than it really is.  In any case, I've been feeling down, due to some things that are going on right now.  Nothing too terrible, just things.  Just life.  Life is hard sometimes.  Life is hard a lot of the time.  That's just how life is. So anyway, I was gonna go to my church this morning like usual, but instead I asked Zach last night at like 11:30 if I could go to church with him and his family.  So that's what I did.  I went to Sunday school at my church, and then rode with Zach to his church. God had a plan.  He knew how I've been feeling and heard my prayers.  It gives me chills to think about how amazing it all turned out.  This morning Zach's pastor had planned to spea...

  Just to highlight some of the fun things I've done in the past week, I'll start with Thursday.   Last Thursday I had to work but class was cancelled, so I got home early and went to see Pitch Perfect with Rebecca and Sarah in the afternoon.  I'm used to going to movies at night, so an afternoon movie was a nice change.  Pitch Perfect was hilarious and the company was great!   Afterward, we ate at Chili's and had some much needed (for me at least) girl talk. After dinner, I went and got my sister and we headed to Party City to try on costumes for my party.  I tried on almost all of the Disney princess costumes and the ones I really wanted didn't fit right :/ But Ashley really liked the ones she tried on and had to decide between Hello Kitty and Superwoman.  It was a whole lot of fun - I love going to Party City at Halloween and looking at all the costumes - I've always loved to dress up and Halloween is the best excuse to.  It w...

"I wanna wake up in the city that never sleeps..."      FIRST TIME IN NEW YORK CITY - Two years ago yesterday and today!   My first visit to NYC was amazing.  It was very cheap, too.  Zach and I rode the Sky Bus (?) "China Bus" from Greensboro to NYC for $40.  Sounds sketchy (and it was - verrry sketchy), but it was so worth it! We went to stay with Chanelle because she was in college at New York University.    When we got there, we couldn't even catch a cab (Southern tourists-typical).  I had to call Chanelle and she told us how to be aggressive and flag one down.  Once we got in a cab (finally) and got to Chanelle's, we went out and spent the next two days touring NYC with the best tour guide ever - Chanelle! I got to see EVERYTHING I had always wanted to see since I was a little kid because Chanelle had been a great BFF and made an itenerary before we got there.  I had told her what all I wanted to see....

I've gotten some little, cute things over the past few weeks.  I just love finding great deals, and after spending a little too much money (UGH) on stuff lately, it's nice to find little things that don't cost much.  The little things in life are what make us happiest, after all ( even though the BEST things are completely FREE !)     Anyway, I got this adorable jack-o-lantern rug for my bathroom for $2.50 at Target...     And Belk's had a great sale, so my sister and I got Kim Rogers watches - BUY ONE GET ONE FREE! They look expensive, but we got both for $30. I got a white one and Ashley got rose gold.    This morning, my friend Shannon showed me these REALLY cool indie/vintage/trash-to-treasure stores in downtown Kernersville, and I found these amazing guitar pick earrings I just had to have for $9.  And best of all, yesterday at Barnes & Noble, I found this awesome bookmark.  I was feeling down, and it i...

  The Friday before last (I'm SO behind), Ashley, Mama, Granny, and I went to the Farmer's Market to get pumpkins! Before we picked our pumpkins though, we ate at the Moose Cafe at the Farmer's Market (where I used to work for a couple years), and the food was tasty as always! We got 10% off our meal for wearing pink for breast cancer awareness too.  Can't beat that.   We had so much fun walking around and looking at everything afterward. We got pumpkins, gourds, yellow and white mums, and some corn. It was so special and fun! I loved the colors and the company.   Going to the Market every year to get pumpkins was a tradition that me and my grandma kinda had before she passed away - that was our thing.  So of course I think of her every time I go now, and it makes me kinda sad. But I'm SO grateful that I still have special people to go with!                   eBa