Muff's M&M Eating Competition


If you ask the girls in my family if we're competitive, we'd promise you backwards and forwards that we are not. But it seems that whenever we're together we find ourselves engaging in a little friendly competition.

Maybe we're just not like normal families that can eat dinner and talk over a glass of wine. Sure, sure we do that. But we just have things like this interspersed throughout the conversation...


{eat}lanta

I love going into a weekend with the whole thing planned out - big events and dates and travel. But, there's something to be said for that rare weekend when you start Friday wide open and (mostly) unplanned. There's so much opportunity - your expectations are low, and yet anything can happen. And that's just how this weekend was.

Friday night, we celebrated Katie's birthday at Watershed. It wasn't on my bucket list before, but it definitely is now. I'm a sucker for good ambiance and anything themed, and Watershed is both. Not to mention the food was pretty amazing.

I was so happy to celebrate the start of Katie's 25th year. It's going to be a great one :)

Saturday, I went to yoga with my friend Jen, which was almost as crazily packed as church was Sunday. Everyone is going after those resolutions! After that, I met my friend Kacie at Souper Jenny. Are you beginning to see that we ate our way through Atlanta this weekend?

Saturday night, we went to half priced sushi at Kiku in Buckhead. Half priced on a Saturday? Enough said.

After that, we ventured far down Buford Highway to Happy Karaoke (bucket list #47). I didn't know what we were getting ourselves into, but it was everything and more than you could imagine. The exterior is less than thrilling, but inside those karaoke walls - well, that's where the magic happens. 


I hope you had a wonderful and tasty weekend!

oh love.

I know Christmas is beyond over and I claimed that I like to be done with the holidays the minute they're behind us. But our by-the-seat-of-our-pants-break was too good not to share. So, just a few photos of love...

Headed to Alabama for Katie's engagement party...

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Breakfast at Patachou in Indy with friends, two times... (addiction)

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The Skipper getting ready for all of his babes to come home. Wrapping those gifts!

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Playing in the snow with the kiddos...

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Playing in the snow late night, sans kiddos...

 
(I missed the memo on being fierce)

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Attempting to get Diego to sooth his little teeth with a popsicle...

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Muff and Sam getting ready for a friendly competition. AKA just another night at home.

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So many shoes! Everyone is home. Happiness.

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A front porch workout with C&A. The cold weather won't hold us down...




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New Year's Eve in Nashville with these wonderful people...

 


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And because my parents somehow mostly escaped my constantly snapping phone, a little extra love from them. They're too important not to show again.

I hope your break was wonderful, re-entry hasn't been too rough and the weekend ahead is great!

resolving // waiting // yaay!

2012, I liked you. You were different and fun and exciting. You had trips and happy visitors and festivals and a triathlon and a well and new homes and family time and so many adventures.

And you were happy. And I loved you.

But, roomie Katie and I were recently talking and were both a little bit sad that we started the year out so strong (she got engaged, for crying out loud), and then let the fall get away from us. It left us feeling like 2012 wasn't as great as it was, because we didn't embrace the final season. As we started to reflect on the first nine months of the year, we realized it was a phenomenal one, indeed.

But from September to December, we realized we spent a lot of time waiting. Waiting for the rats to be gone, waiting for my foot to heal, waiting for our house to be back to normal,  waiting to be able to run again...

And when you spend so much time waiting, you stop embracing and living.

That thought, in and of itself, got me thinking bigger - how often in our 20s I think we do a lot of waiting. For a job, to move to a new city, to meet the right person, to live near our family, to buy a house... We're all waiting for something because we're all in different spots.

But I don't want to wait, because I love life right now.

I'm not a particularly middle-groundy-person. If I do things, I like to really do them. And the thing that I want to do really a whole lot is control every aspect of my life. But what I want to do, even more (most days), is trust God's plan. And there is this tricky middle ground where I want to control everything and trust Him and then it gets all messy because that's not really how it works.

It's hard to do both, which is why I find myself in this awkward area of praying to relax and not control things, but also secretly trying to control on the side. Something like: God, please let your will be done. But also let this happen and this happen. But mainly let your will be done. But if it could happen next week that would be great, too...

And where did we net out??

So. My resolution for 2013. This year, I want to stop waiting for the next thing, and to just live life, and trust everything will fall into place. Because, um, had the plan I laid out happened so far - well. It'd be a hot mess. Thank goodness 18-year-old Whitney didn't get her way! And 26-year-old Whitney may pretend to be a leetle wiser, but that's not really the case so much.

So, here's to an amazing year - rat free, injury free and wait free. Because, this life? It's pretty amazing. And I couldn't feel luckier to be living and loving with so many incredible people around me.

Happy shiny, sparkly, new year to you!

PS I also resolve to continue my quest for punctuality. And to like kale.

OK. That's all.