two reasons why my roommate is awesome

 She leaves me fruit snacks. 

(P.S. If you read the note, you might see the word vegan. This was when I considered doing a 15 day vegan trial after watching Vegucated (scarring). While I'm not officially vegan, I rarely eat meat and drastically cut my dairy intake.)

AND she brings me not one but TWO cupcakes upon returning from a work trip.

(One of these was for her.)

There are lots of other reason my roommate is awesome, and our friendship is not based on food (although that seems to be a frequent conversation topic). And she's coming back today after being gone all week for a work trip which is a good thing because I'm starting to go slightly crazy in this house by myself.

Happy Saturday!

a weekend in Beaufort

After two years of telling my friend Sydney that I would come visit her in Beaufort, I finally made good of my promise. I couldn't believe it had taken me so long especially while I was driving down there. The drive alone is beautiful, and Beaufort is even more beautiful! 

Sydney recently moved into her new house (pictured further below), and it is just a two minute walk from a dock on the marsh. We walked down to the dock soon after I got there, and this was the view. Gorgeous!

Sydney's parents stopped by for a few minutes, and she snapped this photo of her mom checking out the kitchen. Her mom is one of the sweetest people! She invited me over for Thanksgiving after not even talking to me for ten minutes.

After her parents left, we went down to the historic area of Beaufort. 

We checked out some cute little shops and found this gem! Sadly, we did not purchase it. 

Used bookstore heaven! 

We also found this dress at a thrift store, and I made Sydney try it on. It was fabulous.

She showed me Beaufort's castle. The house was huge!

We woke up early Sunday morning to watch the sunrise. 

I'm in love with her house. It was super quaint, and I wanted to move right in.

We picked up a a bagel from Palm & Moon Bagel Company and then got coffee from Common Ground Coffeehouse before church on Sunday.

After church, we got a light lunch at Fat Patties.

The rest of the weekend was spent painting the bathrooms in her new house and hanging out. I had so much fun that I'm already planning another trip at the end of October, and I can't wait!

girls' night out

Jordan texted me on Friday night asking me if I had plans. (Which, for the record, I never have plans. I've turned into a grandmother. Hence the lack of blogging. But that's for another post.) Anyway, she mentioned that it's restaurant week in Charleston. 

While I've been trying to manage my money better, I decided it was worth it. And as my sister wisely said, you have to spend some money to live. So if I go broke, I'm blaming her. ;)

Anyway, Michelle, Jordan, and I got all dressed up and went downtown. We ate at Old Towne Grill and Seafood, and it was really good! It was so much food that we decided to walk around some afterwards. We wandered down to the harbor and apparently came so close to seeing Ryan Gosling. Sadly, we missed him. But that just means we'll just have to make more trips downtown!

Sonic run

Our family friend, Robin, came to visit a few weeks ago. I was able to catch up with her on one of my weekend trips to Lexington. I also caught up with the mom and Kait when they decided to introduce Robin to half priced Sonic milkshakes. Perfect timing! ;)

There are sooo many choices!

Hooray for milkshakes!

a day in the life.

tuesdays and thursdays are long days for me (8:00 am-7:00 pm), and I try not to go home during my one hours break between class and work. this means that I have to pack my lunch and dinner. here's one look into my meals for the day.

p.s. I promise I'm not turning this into a food blog even though writing this post makes me feel like I am!

baked chicken. I dipped it in olive oil (sometimes I use an egg) and then dip it in bread crumbs. this lasted me the entire week. it's so good and lasts all week!

the chicken strips went into my salad.

I also made veggies and brown rice with an egg for lunch.

valentine's day fun.

valentine's day julia, eva, michelle, leanne, and I got together for a fun night of pizza and a movie.

julia and I made chicken pesto pizza inspired by wes and sara. 

pesto, spinach leaves, chicken, tomatoes, green peppers, and lots of cheese. so good!

we watched taken 2 (so romantic!), and michelle arrived with these lovely flowers.

we also ate delicious cookie dough brownies and chocolate ice cream because nothing says valentine's day like chocolate. :)

super bowl party!

my roommates are not very big on football, and I haven't followed it as much since college (although I still love a good game). but we decided that we would use the super bowl as an excuse to eat food and hang out. 

eva, julia, and I made taco pizza.

leanne and michelle joined us!

hilary showed up with yummy dip and chips.

and no party is complete without cupcakes. :)

free pancake day!

a few weeks ago IHOP had its free pancake day, so michelle, eva, and I made our way to IHOP to get our stack of free buttermilk pancakes.

so yummy! 

pizza, pizza!

I'm realizing that homemade pizza is the theme of this semester. It is made almost weekly in this house, and I'm not complaining one bit. It's fantastic.

girl's night

A few weekends ago, Leanne and I met up with Julia, Eva, and Stephanie after they got off of work for dinner and dessert downtown.

We ate at Taziki's, a favorite.

Then we headed to Sweet Frog for frozen yogurt.

Leanne came back afterwards and played Just Dance with Julia and me.

This picture makes me laugh every. time.

the end.

yogurt city.

We recently got a fro-yo place right down the street from our house. It's a hazard considering Julia is a fro-yo fanatic, and Eva and I love sweets in general. Good thing my roommates are disciplined, and I'm broke. Otherwise we'd be regular customers.

friends, gelato, and other goodness.

thursday night I went downtown with macey and michele, both who I hardly ever see anymore. this makes me sad, but I'm so happy we got a chance to hang out finally!

we went here for dinner. a guy I worked with over the summer recommended it to me, and it was definitely worth the trip downtown. so good!

{I love them}

after dinner, we walked down to the water. it was beautiful.

on our way back to the car, I wanted to stop at belgian gelato for dessert. macey and michele decided to hold out for coffee from starbucks, but they were nice enough to wait for me. it took a little while so I took a picture of my feet to pass the time.

so yummy!