Weekending: birthday celebration for EJ!

Yesterday we celebrated my niece's 2nd birthday. Have I mentioned how much I love this little diva?? People reading my blog probably think she is my child... nope, just my niece that I'm obsessed with. And she lives right beside me so I get to see her eeeevery single day!

So birthday girl woke up from nap a tad bit grumpy [see pic below]. I begged her to let me take a picture of her Minnie birthday outfit and this is the best I could get. My sister had a ridiculous birthday party for Ella James' 1st birthday so decided to keep it small and simple this year. There was family, toys, a bouncy house, and cake. The birthday girl loved her minnie cake but was only eating the fondant off, ew. I tried to get her to dig in, but apparently she's too prissy to get messy these days. After cake she tore into her presents, getting lots of Minnie and Frozen, her two favorites.

It was such a fun time for us to celebrate this sweet girl. I cannot believe she is [almost] two! Makes me so excited to have kids one day and watch them become best friends.

Giving her cake a "hug"... ohhhh kids

Attempts at a family picture... EJ wanted none of it

 I love these people! So thankful to live right beside my sister and get to watch my niece grow up

Five on Friday: Birthday edition!

Happy Friday!! My birthday is 3 weeks from today so I decided to post on what I have been birthday-lusting over:

[1]

A new pair of boots. I may or may not have a slight obsession with Frye boots. Yes, they are ridiculously expensive, but worth every penny. They are super nice leather and stay in great shape for many years. I'm wanting either gray/taupe or black this year. I would be thrilled with any of these 3 pairs!

[2]
New additions to my make-up bag. I don't like to try new products, and I'm not big into make-up, so when my sister-in-law convinced me to try Bobbi Brown, I loved and hated her at the same time. My face loved her, but my wallet hated her. This make-up is SO great, but I rarely splurge on new colors because of the price. I have been dying to try the gel eyeliner and add some new blush colors to my winter make-up collection.

[3]

Kendra scott earrings. I don't wear earrings much, I'm more of a necklace girl, but earrings are coming back into style big time. I splurged on Kendra Scott hot pink earrings a few weeks ago to wear to a wedding, and got SO many compliments on them. I would love to add another pair to my wardrobe, either a neutral to wear with everyday outfits or another funky fun color.

[4]

Tory Burch flats. Duh. I wear the soles off my TB flats, literally. I am leaning towards the cream because the soles are starting to peel off my other pair of brown TB flats that I've had for about 4 years. How fun are the leopard print flats?! I love them but have a hard time spending so much money on a pair of shoes that you can't wear with everything.

[5]

Stella and Dot engravable bar necklace. I am dying for one with our anniversary on it. So cute!

celebrate!

Last night we celebrated one of my classmate's birthdays. A few weeks ago her husband contacted us wanting to plan something special for her. You see, he is a marine currently stationed in Arizona and wanted to surprise her with something special since he couldn't be there to celebrate with her. So, he told us he had hired chefs to come to her apartment and cook us dinner. Girl time, wine, yummy dinner, birthday surprise... sounds good to me!

I have to admit, I was a little hesitant about the idea of random chefs coming to cook a meal in an apartment. However, they surpassed my expectations BIG TIME! The chefs were teachers at the culinary school in Raleigh so they traveled all the way to Greenville just to cook for us. And boy did they know what they were doing! It was so fun to watch them cook. They brought EVERYTHING from plates to utensils to pots and pans to all the cooking ingredients. Aaaaand they cleaned up after!

My friend had no idea about this surprise! We were all at her apartment when she got home and the look on her face was priceless! Her first words were: "Why are there men in my kitchen??" Hilarious. Once she got over the fact of the random men cooking dinner for us, she was blown away.

Dinner was to die for. Here was our menu:

Appetizer: Roasted garlic artichoke spread, portobello mushroom, roasted tomatoes, feta cheese, finished with tomato vodka cream sauce, green and black olive foccacia bread point

Salad: green italian romaine creamy italian caesar salad with italian salami, cucumbers, pickled red onions and light citrus glaze, crispy parmesan bits

Main course: Braised beef short rib off the bone in a light demi glaze served over creamy sundried tomato risotto, carrot puree, alongside a stuffed pasta shell with broccolini spinach, shrimp and ricotta cheeses

Dessert: Light macerated fresh fruit in a sweet amaretto liquor served over basil ice cream

It was such a fun night! It was my first time experiencing in-home chefs and boy if I was a millionaire I think I would have a live-in chef ;) This would be the perfect thing to do for a bachelorette party or a fun night in with friends!

Weekending!

This weekend was such a great one. After finishing a week full of exams, I met my friend to get pedis. In the middle of our pedis, mom texted me, "Y'all come over, I have a bottle of champagne waiting." My favorite words. Ok, fiiiiine, I will come over and drink champagne ;) 

After champagne and porch sitting in the amazing fall weather, we met our hubs at Chipotle which just opened. I was excited to see what all the hype was about. My burrito was yummy but I still don't think I would prefer it over Moe's. I don't like that fact that you have to pay for chips, and I wasn't crazy about their salsa. Sorry! #loyalmoescustomer

Saturday we woke up bright and early and were off to our 3rd wedding of October. We stopped half-way at our favorite mall in Chapel Hill for lunch at the spot of our first date. And we stocked up on Christmas decorations from Pottery Barn and Crate and Barrel. We were soo excited! G asked if we could go ahead and decorate for Christmas yesterday. As much as I wanted to say yes, I decided it at least needs to be November before we do that! What can we say, we loooove Christmas!

The wedding was at Alamance Country Club in Burlington, NC and it was sooo gorg. The groom was one of G's former UNC baseball teammates so it was SO great to see all the guys and their pretty women. Whenever they are all together it's sure to be a good time. The groom is from Chicago so they had authentic Chicago deep-dish pizza flown in the day of the wedding. It was so amazing, my mouth is still watering. They also had an awesome band and the dance floor was packed the whole night.

UNC baseball boys

The world's best wedding photographer!! I love her!

 Our college friend Matt Harvey who pitches for the NY Mets. You HAVE to watch this hilarious video of him on Jimmy Fallon last season.

Such a fun weekend celebrating our friends Cydney and Colin! Back to a week full of books. Happy Monday lovelies!

Food for thought

I have been contemplating whether or not to post this... but it is constantly on my mind, so here goes nothing.

Right after I got married, I immediately began hearing the question, "When are y'all going to have kids?" Don't get me wrong, I have asked people the same thing plenty of times. However, in the last few years my eyes have been opened to how common infertility is. When I was younger, I never once considered the fact that me and my future husband may struggle to have children, or may not be able to have children at all. I have always foolishly had my life carefully planned out [as God laughs at me and shakes his head]. "After I graduate I will find my dream job, wait ___ years then get pregnant..." [enter perfectly thought-out life timeline here]. As I have grown up and have friends/relatives entering this exciting phase of their lives, I have sadly realized that infertility is reality for many couples.

My sweet, healthy, 24-year-old friend is currently struggling with this nightmare. At such a young age with no health problems, you would never assume that you would have trouble getting pregnant. However, this is what she is facing daily. Talking to her about her doctor's appointments and medicines makes my heart hurt for her and for all the other ladies out there desperately wanting a baby.

It seems so unfair. We have teenagers getting pregnant by accident yet older women try for years and years unsuccessfully. Life is not fair sometimes. I pray nightly for all these women and selfishly for my own future whenever we decide the timing is right to have kids. Knowing people personally that are struggling with this has made me more aware of how lightly this question is thrown around. I no longer ask women "when are you going to have a baby?" because they could be in the middle of this infertility nightmare.

This medical issue is one of the many reasons I am so passionate about medicine. Next year I will spend one of my clinical rotations in Women's Health/Infertility to learn more about how to treat this terrible problem. I hope to one day be able to help at least one couple going through this.

If you or someone you know is facing infertility, know that I am praying for you. Praying for God's perfect timing, for patience, and for your future babe!

Accent chair

Happy hump day!!

We have been making progress in our house, slowly but surely. The next purchase we are making is an accept chair for our living room. We don't have a huge space, but adding a chair with a small table beside it will make this room feel so much more complete. Our living room is tan, navy, and mustard. As much as I love neutrals and would love for our whole house to be creams and browns, I made myself step out of my comfort zone in this room.

I am leaning towards navy for the accent chair, but I also think mustard would look amazing. I have found tan chairs that I looove but I think in the long run I will regret going neutral. All of these are from either One King's Lane or Pier I. Of course my favorites are waaaaay out of our budget [go figure]. What furniture stores do you shop at? Any good online stores that I may be able to find a nice chair for a good deal?! 

MIA!

Happy Friday!! My poor blog... I have been totally MIA lately, but for good reason. I'm practicing lumbar punctures and taking exams by day, studying and trying to be a decent wife by night, and wedding guest/bridemaid by weekend. In the middle of the most intense semester of PA school I have 4 weddings to attend in October all while trying to stay sane and give my hubs some attention.

I have been eating all things pumpkin and I finally broke out my Frye boots this week! My FAVORITE month is here! So, bare with me while I attempt to keep my head above water.

And p.s. happy PA week! If you want to learn more about my future profession, read Kristina's amazing blog post!