Job Perks and Life Snapshots

So it looks like my most recent posts have just been a compilation of pictures I've taken over the last week or two. Which I'm okay with. We've had birthdays, our anniversary, and just random work stuff going on. Patrick started a new job 3 weeks ago so he's making the horrendous Buckhead commute as well. 


But on the upside, we have had some incredible new perks at my work that make me really LOVE going into the office (and bearing the terrible commute). First of all, we now have a fully stocked beer fridge. Praise God. Working in client services has the tendency to drive you to drink. And I'm not ashamed. Secondly, we now have 'Freestyle Fridays' which means - no meetings, no check-ins, and don't come into the office. Everyone works from home on Fridays now, so all of our catered Friday events will be moved to Monday. As well as our weekly massages. Thirdly, and on that same note, we can now work from home 4 days a week! I'm doing a bootcamp with work on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so I will not be participating in all four days, but having the option is awesome. Lastly, we now have the option of getting our car washed and detailed once a month, AS WELL AS getting our HOUSE cleaned once a month. Can the benefits get any better!? Poor Patrick is finally going to have a clean house. He's going to be so excited! 


So with that said, here are some snapshots from the last two weeks. I have a lot of pictures on my nice camera, but haven't had a chance to upload those yet. But they'll be on their way soon! I hope. :)

KILLER butt work-out from Natalie at Fresh Life Findings. Trust me, you need to this. And if you think it's hard, remember that Natalie runs for 2+ miles AFTER completing it. Ugh. Over-achievers. Jk. :)

This is a pretty hilarious card I gave Patrick for his birthday. Sorry for the lack of class on this one. :)

One of the pieces of jewelry Patrick gave me for our anniversary. It's so beautiful!

MY GLORIOUS NEW FOOD PROCESSOR. I'll post more pictures of my recipes soon.  This is my first batch of salsa in it. It was pretty awesome.

We went to Lake Wylie for Memorial Day weekend, and spent LOTS of time with this little bug. 

My perfect morning.

Love watching the sunrise on the dock. Sweet iPhone picture too, I'm pretty impressed.

The King of Pops came to visit at work!

My Georgia Peach popsicle that I have attempted to replicate at home. Pureed peaches and agave nectar. Pretty hard to beat. 

Do you see what I see? Apparently 'vajazzling' is a popular trend that is exactly what you think it is.  'To bedazzle oneself in the nether regions'. You're welcome.

Our newly hung wine racks!!! They are awesome and look great against the dark gray wall.  If only we had an unlimited wine supply to populate these racks... then we'd be in business.

My newest piece of home decor. An antler from Alaina at Recycled Interiors.

Make sure to check out Natalie's blog for her great work-outs and recipes! They are all really awesome, and if you see how fit she is, you'd be crazy not to take some advice from her! I'm still hobbling around after that butt work-out. 

Healthy Recipes

On Sunday, I had the privilege of visiting the Dekalb Farmer's Market for the first time. Its a hike from our house, but we had gone out to lunch in Decatur for my brother's birthday. And of course Patrick was practically BEGGING me to go since we'd never been before. Not. I had to drag Patrick kicking and screaming(which surprisingly stopped once he realized that the beer and wine section at the Farmer's Market was OPEN. ON SUNDAY. AND THAT HE COULD BUY STUFF). I'm not complaining though. He was a good sport, as Sunday has to be the absolute worst time to go. 


The main reason I wanted to go was to switch out some 'traditional' ingredients and foods for some healthier ones. We have a Whole Foods near us, but it is so expensive that we don't go in that often. That and I get kind of annoyed with the whole health food thing. And the people involved. And I can't bring myself to buy flour at Whole Foods for $78 when I don't know that it'll be that much better for me. Or worth my $78. Because I would kind of rather spend that money on shoes. 


So the Farmer's Market is the perfect place (in my mind at least) to swap out a few old things, try a few new things, and learn some different ways to prepare your food. For dirt cheap.


So I bought a bunch of fruit and vegetables, but I also bought flax seed, hard wheat, couscous, millet, and raw un-pasteurized honey. Now the couscous doesn't really fit into the 'abnormal' category by any means, but buying 2 pounds for $1.10 was AWESOME. 


Once I got back, I went to Patrick's house to use his mom's wheat grinder. Because she has an incredible blueberry muffin recipe that is to die for. And it is completely guilt free. 


I wanted to give you guys the recipe because I love it so much, and could eat muffins and pastries as my sole source of sustenance if they weren't terrible for you. So why not find ways to make them better? And this is definitely the better way to go.

Here is the recipe:

2 1/4 cups freshly ground wheat (you want to use it within hours of it being ground or the nutrients start to deplete)

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder (aluminum free)

1 cup buttermilk (I used nonfat Kefir - its like Greek yogurt)

1 egg

1/2 cup olive oil

1/2 cup raw honey, unpasteurized

1-1.5 C organic blueberries

1 tsp organic cinnamon

1 tsp organic vanilla

(I added a handful of millet because it is high in vitamins and gives an extra crunch)

Preheat oven to 350. Mix the dry ingredients together, then add the wet ingredients. Add batter to muffin pan. Cook for 15 minutes.

My other favorite recipe that I made this week was MANGO SALSA. I've posted the recipe before, but since its been awhile, here it is again:

3 mangoes

1 red pepper

1 cucumber

1 red onion

handful of chopped cilantro

lime juice to taste

*this time I also added some mint leaves from my yard

Chop everything up and voila! The PERFECT mango salsa. It's great on tacos and turkey burgers. And anything in between. I would give vats of it as gifts but I eat it too fast to give it away. :)

Boot camp at work starts next week, so I'm excited to have some more regularity to my work-outs. Mine and Ginny's schedules are now opposite, so my main motivation is now gone. But hopefully this free bootcamp class twice a week will get me back in gear.

PS - I tried a lemon kale pasta the other day, and I'll do my best to post the recipe. The jury is still out on this one. Ginny loved it, but kale and I are not quite warm and fuzzy yet. 

Camping, Rafting, Graduating, Etc.

It's been a great few weeks. We've been moderately busy, Patrick started a new job, and we've had some good weekend outings with friends. Spring is so nice for that sort of thing, and I think my blood pressure has dropped a good bit. That could also be in part due to my increased wine drinking as of late, but that's of course hard to measure.

In other news, today is our FOUR YEAR anniversary, and we're celebrating by going to Bistro Niko in Buckhead tonight. According to the Bert Show, it has the best bathrooms. Praise God.

Here is a look at my recent life through my iPhone: 

Libby Gray graduated from preschool! Look at that cute little bug in the green dress. 

We went camping with some friends up at Red Top Mountain. And Lucy slept here. In our tent. On my sleeping bag.  Yes it was just as terrible as it sounds. SHE IS 60 POUNDS FOLKS. And the tent was so spacious that we had to keep our bags in the car. :) It was still great fun though. And Lucy is very easy and sweet. Just very affectionate.

Last weekend we went whitewater rafting for our friend Liz's birthday. It was hilariously fun, and I have bruising down my left leg to prove it. :) Our guide was a little bit aggressive, which 80% of the time made it more fun, and 20% of the time made me want to quit and walk home. But I put on my bravest face and have great battle scars to show my domination of the Ocoee River.

This is a shot from our camping trip at Red Top Mountain. Just a little 6 mile hike before lunch. Had we known it'd be that long, then we would have packed a lunch. But Lucy loved it and we couldn't keep her out of the lake. 

[FOR THE HOME]

Newly recovered chair in our office. I need a bright pillow for it but haven't had the time to look for one yet. 

Just ordered one of these babies that I am THRILLED about receiving! It will go in the room with the Anthro bedding in the last picture. Check out this girl at Recycled Interiors for her great design ideas, crafts, etc.

My purse rack from GoodWill that I bought for $2.67. 

Wine racks that hang on the wall like a shelf. I'll probably put wine bottles in one, and pictures in the other? The tough part will be figuring out how to hang these guys. As Patrick and I aren't the handiest of folks.

My new euro shams from Anthropologie (my happy place).  I LOVE THEM. A lot. And I have lots of Pinterest-y ideas for the room now, that I probably won't ever get around to. But now I wish I had a million dollars to Anthro in order to furnish the rest of the room to match the bedding. And you can't furnish a room from here without a million dollars.

Not sure what color to paint the walls though? 

Happy to let you in on my life these days. Hope you all have a great weekend!

Love love.

Bucket Lists

A good friend asked me last weekend what was on my bucket list. And honestly, I don't have one. I'm not an adrenaline junkie, and I'd rather die than go skydiving or bungee jumping (thanks to the story where the girl's bungee cord BROKE). 

I'd rather just see every country of the world and meet as many people as I can. So I figured my best attempt at a bucket list would just include some of the places I want to visit or things I want to see. Here is my destination bucket list, and I'd love additional recommendations on things to add, as I'm sure I've barely scratched the surface of what is available in the world. 

Visit outdoor markets in Instanbul and Mumbai. Take a gondola ride in Venice. Camp on the Great Wall of China. See the cherry blossoms in Japan. See the Northern Lights. Hike to the villages of Cinque Terre. See kites being flown in Afghanistan. Sit by the ocean on the Amalfi Coast. Ride a bike in Beijing. See the fjords in Norway. Drink wine in Tuscany. 

Oooorrrr basically do everything that these guys did in their year around the world (minus the skydiving). I would even do all the overnight hiking/camping treks because they look too stunning to miss. I'd need grace from everyone on how oily my hair would be in all the pictures, but hats are always an option!

Traveling is basically a drug to me, and if I could have any luxury in the world it would be to see everything there is to see before I die. (This makes me grateful for my no vacation limit at work, but also makes me sad because I don't have millions of dollars and Patrick does have a vacation limit. Rats). Here are some photo gems stolen mostly from Matt and Taylor, in case you needed any reason to believe that their journey was anything less than incredible:

Cheers to dreaming of traveling the world.

Happy Spring

I apologize for the lack of writing these last three weeks. I've had a lot to say, and putting it all down to pen and paper has felt a little too overwhelming. And part of me wants this blog to be purely fun. With touches of seriousness sprinkled throughout. Then on another hand I want to bare my soul. To say everything I need to say, and process everything I need to process... in hopes that I can partner with someone else when they face similar challenges. But the tricky thing is that I never want to hurt anyone's feelings. But we all have to process events, relationships, books, workplaces, etc. and sometimes that's just messy. But how else do we really learn who we are and what we need? Sometimes the strongest bonds are forged out of periods of stress or frustration with one another.

I had dinner with Christina and Stephanie last night, two of my best friends that I know are with me for the long haul. And Christina and I were chatting about the process our friendship had to go through in order for us to truly value and love one another well. Because she is the exact opposite of me. But I would fight heaven and hell to see her boundaries maintained, and for her to have the alone time, and the space that she needs to be healthy. And she gently reminded me that it has taken years to build up the kind of love and trust that we have for each other. We have had lots of fights, taken a few 'breaks,' but have emerged as tried and true, deeply connected friends. And at this point, I don't know of anything that could separate us, because of the raw life that we've done together and pushed through, communicated about, and learned to honor each other through.

In other non-serious news, here are some pics from the last week or two. Just so you know that I have a normal life and do normal human-y things.

Our first blooming hydrangea! I'm lucky these things require nothing from me.

Natalie and Darin's stunning wedding in Vinings.

A fave iphone picture that I took on a run.

Love this quote. Inspired by Banning when talking about Nehemiah, and how we have to build the wall in front of us.

Fabric I'm looking at for our office. I'm extremely indecisive so nothing might ever come of this.

Attempting to grow a banana pepper plant. I forget to water plants, so they don't always last.

I got Lucy a new toy. And this is what happened within 30 minutes. You can't even tell it was a cow can you?

After a work fire drill (which requires everyone to walk down 34 flights of stairs), we had free ice cream and played red rover.

For a work event we went to Dip 'n Dab to paint "Abstract Splat"

Here was my painting halfway through. It got progressively worse from here.

Worship with Daniel and Liz at Carrie and Bronson's on Friday night. SO GOOD.

Stephanie and Christina at Cheeky.

Pardot voted best small workplace by the AJC.

Recipes, Showers, Learnings and Laughs

I don't have anything really poetic to say here, other than enjoy these life snapshots from the last two weeks! I'll come up with something wittier for the next post.

Stacy, Amy, Juli (and baby Jesus/Margarita), me, and Fiona at Juli's amazing shower thrown by Stacy. So blessed to be a part of this celebration! I love these women and they are such a huge part of who I am today. I'd like to thank Stacy and Juli in particular for helping me hone my sarcasm skills. Surely that's a great resume builder?

Learning to process each thought, even the painful ones. Changing my perspective on 'blessed are those who mourn' as I now see "mourning" as a means to wholeness and freedom. The book Supernatural Power of Forgiveness by Jason Vallotton has been incredible in this journey. 

Bethel gave us all prophetic words for Easter yesterday.  Which meant yesterday was probably the greatest Easter ever. I was consumed with the love of God and His presence, and wished I could have stayed in those moments forever. I also encountered God through hymns (and Kelly Smith) in a way that I've never experienced before.

Balsamic Flank Steak. AMAZING. Recipe adapted from  here. Really great for the Easter dinner crowd.

Ranch Roasted Potatoes = heaven. I even ate all the charred pieces because the flavor was so good. They also kept well over night surprisingly! Definitely an easy go-to side dish. And a weight watchers item as well! 

Sweet and Spicy Honey Grilled Shrimp. My happy place. These were easy peasy, and after marinating them for the afternoon, they took a grant total of 3 minutes on the grill. Recipe adapted from here. But I toyed with the recipe and just used honey, lime, and sweet chili sauce (which I could bathe in its so good). I brushed on a little extra sauce before serving. FAB. 

If honey lime shrimp is my food happy place, this is my beverage happy place. Mirko Sangria. Can't. Get. Enough.  I have to be extra careful when consuming said drink because of the chatty-ness in pulls out of me. But for $1 on Thursdays and $3 every other day, you just can't beat it. 

In my season of alone-ness (no I'm not being melodramatic), I have been taking Lucy on jogs every day. Not long ones, but enough for us both to stretch our legs and see the flowers. There is another black lab that she loves to visit, so I'm sure the neighbors think I'm a nutcase when I stand at the end of their driveway with Lucy waiting on her friend to come out. They romp around for a few minutes and then we're on our way. But if we don't stop at her bud's driveway, Lucy cries and cries. And of course, as all good moms should do, I stop to tend to her every need (infer sarcasm). In this case though, I do tend to this need. Because I see it as allowing her to release some energy and do some learning that doesn't have to be done on Bailey the cat. Because Bailey is not amused by Lucy's chasing and antics.

And in closing, I leave you with a few quotes from one of my dearest friends:

"I asked if there were viles of the west nile virus accessible. Thats me trying to have a Kingdom attitude about it."

"Mourn with those who mourn idiots!"

"Whitney Houston died." -Me

"What? How?" - Friend

"Hasn't been released yet." - Me

"This feels like 9/11." - Friend

"I don't want to shock you, but I'm sitting down to read the Bible. I may need an intervention."

"I just thought you would appreciate knowing that, as I was praying, I, in all seriousness, accidentally told God, 'Well, I'm the shit.' If heaven has an equivalent of coal for your stocking...I've got the most of whatever it is."

"I am SO excited about heaven for the open bar."

"I just texted your husband that I needed to start my period."
BE BLESSED MY FRIENDS. AND HAPPY MONDAY. PRAYING THAT YOU WOULD EXPERIENCE THE LOVE OF GOD TODAY IN A WHOLE NEW WAY, AND THAT YOU WOULD NEVER BE THE SAME. 
Love love.

The iPhone Case You Always Wanted

Thank you Pinterest for yet another fabulous find. Check out Society6 for the most beautiful iPhone cases you have ever seen (sorry droid users)! The second one down is the little gem that I just bought. 

And to make this company even better, they even have prints of a lot of their designs. And I'm OBSESSED. I'm going to order hundreds of them. Because they are amazing. Granted, I might wait til my case comes in just to double check that they are truly as beautiful as I expected. 

I hope you enjoy these beauties!