Friday Favorites

Happy Friday friends!  We had a fun, and busy week.   My bff Sara and her family visited from Florida.  It was so great to see them and hang out with them last  weekend.  I had the best time catching up with them.  Friday we went to the Cider Mill to get some apples and have lunch.

Last weekend G and I went to the movies to see A Star is Born with some friends. Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper (btw-who knew he could sing?!?!)  are phenomenal in this movie.  They have incredible chemistry together.  I laughed and cried and I hope they both win academy awards for their performances.  

I’m the president of the Garden Club and on Saturday we did a community outreach project and gave away daffodil bulbs at the Farmers Market.  We gave away 95 bags of bulbs in two hours.  We gave people some instructions when they picked up the bags and included instructions and our meeting schedule inside the bags.  It was a cold, rainy morning but I’m glad it was successful and we got rid of all our our bulbs.  

Saturday afternoon I worked around the house and worked on some crafts for the upcoming holiday market.  I’ve been trying to do a few here and there when I have the time so I have enough for our Holiday  Market on 11/17.

Sara and Sabrina got up bright and early Monday morning and came to my 6 am class at the Y.  It’s a core/cardio/weight class called Total Body Blast.  It was fun to have them there!

Another favorite from this week was Tuesday night when I had some friends over to sample some drinks I’m making for Halloween.   I’m going to be a guest bartender at a Halloween event at a bar/restaurant in our town next Saturday night  and I have to come up with my own signature drink for the event.  My friends and I sampled 5 drinks Tuesday night and their favorite was the autumn inspired Moscow mule I  made. I also made nachos that were delicious!

 Funny story it turned so cold on Tuesday and we didn’t have our heat on so my friends covered themselves up with blankets and we texted this pic to G.  

That’s it for me this week.  I hope you have the best weekend!!! 

Xoxo

Our weekend

We had another fun and busy weekend this past weekend.  I love the weekends and this past weekend was a lot of fun.  We had our annual end of the year town/college festival, I got together with some friends and I took Ava to buy a dress for the prom.  I am exhausted just reading everything we did this weekend. 

Saturday morning I got up bright and early to help with the annual festival that the College where I work hosts for the community.  We started our day with a big breakfast and I took a picture of the student volunteers.  They worked so hard from bright and early in the morning until late at night on Saturday to make the festival a success.  

My friend Rachael and her family had an Earth Day celebration at their organic grocery store so I raced over to the store to see her and get one of the amazing organic earth day cookies that she had made for the event.  They were SO good!!

Saturday afternoon Ava and I went to get pedicures together and that was so fun.  I love spending time with our girl!  She also loves driving us every where we go.  It's been fun (and a little stressful!) having another driver in our house.

Saturday night I worked backstage at the festival concert.  The performer this year was A Boogie wit da Hoodie.  My friend Amy and her son came backstage to he could meet A Boogie.  I asked Ava is she wanted to go backstage but she wasn't interested-ha ha!

All the "old people backstage" took a picture with A Boogie 

There were SO many people at the concert.  I took this picture of all the people from backstage.  A Boogie wanted everyone to hold up their phones with their flashlights on.  It looked so cool from where I was standing.  

I left the concert early and raced to my friend D's house for a little get together.  I made my cowboy caviar and it was a huge hit!!  I have been so busy lately so it was nice to catch up with my friends.

Sunday I left bright and early and took Ava to Albany to look for prom dresses!!  She tried on SO many dresses at 3 different stores.  She finally settled on this simple black dress.  She loves it and is comfortable in it and I am so happy that she is happy!!  My friend Rachael went dress shopping with us and it was good to get her opinion on the dresses. We ate at the Cheesecake Factory and made a fun day of it!  

I hope you had a great weekend!!

Xoxo

Catch up!

Hello friends.... Last week flew by!  I had big plans to blog every day.  I have so much to share but last week life got in the way.  The first few weeks of May are always so hard we have end of the year events and parties for work at the College.  It's SO fun but SO tiring.

Last week I had Bunco!  It's always fun to get together with these ladies :)

I teach a cardio/weight lifting class on Monday mornings and Tuesday's at lunch. This is my group from last Tuesday.  We are working on increasing our weights in class and these ladies have been working SO hard.  I am so proud of them!

 

One day last week I worked at graduation headquarters.  Students picked up graduation tickets and their caps and gowns in one central location.  We had snacks for them and a photo booth.  It was a fun way to spend a work day!

 

I invited these three students over for lunch on Thursday to celebrate the end of the year  I worked with them this year on the Greek Council.  I am so happy for them but I'm so sad to see them leave.

 

Graduation day was Saturday it was FREEZING cold.  I went to one of the ceremonies to see a few of my favorite students graduate.  Jessie was the President of the Greek Council for two years and she worked in my office this year.  I am going to miss her SO much next year.  I am glad I got to see her and meet her parents on graduation day.

 

G worked 16 hours on graduation day because he coordinated all of the volunteers for the three graduation ceremonies.  He was exhausted when he got home and took a nap on the couch with the three puppies.

 

Yesterday Ava had basketball so I drove her to Albany for her two games. I love watching our girl play basketball.

 

Sunday night G and I went to see The Zookeepers Wife.  It was such a great movie.  It was a moving story about a couple who helped 300 Jewish people escape from the ghetto of Warsaw during World War II.

I am reading this book about Whole 30 and I decided to start Whole 30 today. My friend Rachael is doing it too and G pretty much eats Whole 30 all the time so I am hoping it won't be too difficult for me.  I made this egg bake for breakfasts this week. 

 

That's a look at our {busy} life lately.  I hope you had a great weekend and a very happy Mother's Day!

Xoxo

Life lately

It's September! For me that means the students are back and things are busier than ever at work.   

Sunday night we had a welcome event for our freshman.  My friend M and I took a picture with our mascot Red the dragon.    

 

Some of my students with Red.

 

Monday I went to book club.  We read  What Was Mine this month and it was so good!  It was about a baby who gets kidnapped at an IKEA.  The story in the book was told from three main perspectives-the birth Mom, the daughter, and the lady who took the baby and raised her.  I couldn't put it down it was a great story. 

 

As always the food and drinks were delicious at book club.

 

 

Tuesday night I made us Mason jar BBQ.  I read about this in a magazine and thought it would be fun to try.  You layer cornbread. BBQ pork, and then put coleslaw on top.  It was great.  I think this would be perfect for a party!  

 

Yesterday I canned pizza sauce with my friend J.  It is delicious and I can't wait to use it this fall/winter when we make homemade pizza.

 

I hope you've 

Goodbyes are hard

Graig hosted a dinner tonight  to say goodbye to his students who are graduating tomorrow. He works in the conference center on campus and the students he hires work at the front desk and help with meetings and events in the building.   They are a tight knit group.  

Here is the whole gang!  Graig said something about each of the 9 graduates and told what their plans were after graduation.  

I also got a few pics of Graig and his students and their parents.  It was a fun night and a great fun to meet the parents of all his students. 

Graig's student is in purple and his sister on the end is going to start grad school at EIU in the fall!  I was so thrilled when she told me she was going there! I loved going to EIU- my parents and sister also went there and it's where I met Graig.  I hope she has the best time in grad school!

It was a great night!

Xoxo

Life lately {celebrations}

We've had a lot of little celebrations this week 

1. My friend Amy graduated with her MBA!  So we had dinner and drinks to celebrate her HUGE accomplishment :-)

2. I made a 5 layer chocolate peanut butter cake to celebrate my boss's birthday and administrative professionals day.

3. My friend Lisa went to The Jersey Shore for spring break and she bought us matching sand dollar bracelets. I love it!

4. We celebrated my friend Jenn's birthday on Friday with lunch out.

5. These two cuties helped Rachael and I with a craft project we are working on for our new business open house. 

6. I met these former students for bagels and ice tea this morning for breakfast.  They are all back for their sorority alumni weekends.  I'm glad I was able to see all of them :-) 

Xoxo

End of year awards dinner

Last week I coordinated an end of the year awards banquet for my work.

This is always a fun event but it takes a lot of planning and organizing!

I'm thankful to work with many great students that helped me to plan this event.  Here is a picture of us before the event.

This year we added a reception for our graduating seniors with a champagne toast.  We had 125 seniors attend!

After the senior reception we headed to the  awards banquet. Here are some of my student leaders before the banquet. They worked so hard to make sure the event was successful!

Here are some pics of the award winners.  We gave out awards for chapter of the year, chapters advisor of the year, and sorority and fraternity member of the year. 

This banquet is my last big work event for the academic year.  Its been an exciting year but I'm ready for the quiet of summer :-) It was a great night!  

Xoxo