Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Tuesday Treat

Last night my friend Amanda texted me and asked if I wanted to do a study/coffee/lunch date with her today! She is taking her NCLEX nursing exam next week, so I had told her that if she needed a change of studying scenery to let me know! I am so glad she did. I wanted to get out and about today. Tuesdays are my "free" days, the days I can study, craft, catch up on housework, etc.

We decided to meet at a local coffee bar called Common Grounds, ordered coffee, and cracked open the books. When we get together, there is usually a lot of chit chat, which of course we did, but we also got some studying done! I was so proud of us! :) I love hanging out with a big group of people, but I also love one-on-ones with friends.  It's so much more personable and you really can talk without the chaos of five different conversations going on at once! 

Speaking of such "chaos"... I got to have dinner with some of my pledge sisters this weekend. Aaron had class so I decided to go visit my mom and give her some much needed girl/estrogen time! :) I had to pick up a bridesmaid dress from my friend Amy who is getting married in April, so it just worked out to have dinner! I thought it was originally going to be just 6 people, and when we got there, more people had been invited and so we had 11! We ate a place called BIG ORANGE in the Chenal Promenade in Little Rock. It is a burger place that a few of my friends had raved about, so I am glad that I finally got to try it!


That was my Hickory Smoke burger. It was delicious!!!! I ate every last bit! Sooo yummy! I can't wait to take my husband there! We also went to a fro-yo place called Logan Berry. It's always a good time with those ladies!

On Saturday my mom and I went shopping, out to dinner at a chinese restaurant called Chi's, and then to a movie! We saw Joyful Noise. It was good, kind of predictable in a "Sister Act" kind of way, but the music was great!

After church on Sunday, we packed up my car with a desk (which I can't wait to finish painting and use!) and I headed home! Even though I had a great weekend seeing my family, I was SO happy to be home with my husband! 

I'm off to craft! :)

Loveee,
Holly

Monday, January 23, 2012

Productive Weekend.

It's Monday...and I wish it wasn't. 


I had a very productive weekend, but it wasn't long enough. It never is. My husband was busy Friday-Sunday, so I took advantage of my free time.  Friday wasn't TOO eventful. In fact, it was down-right boring. Aaron was gone til almost seven. I was bored and hungry, and trying to refrain from snacking out of boredom. We stay pretty busy during the week, so the weekends are our time together. We usually just lounge and go with the flow. This weekend was a big game weekend in Fay, so every place we wanted to eat out was PACKED. All I wanted was a nice dinner to talk about our days and to catch up and unwind from the week, but that just wasn't going to happen. We ended up picking up food and bringing it home. 


I know, you aren't seeing how my weekend was productive yet? I'm not either. Whoopsie. 


Saturday, I met up with my college friend (and pledge sister) Bethany for lunch. We didn't really make a plan for lunch, so when she picked me up, we just drove and tossed around a few options. She suggested a place called Hammontree's (One of my goals for this year is to explore new places in Fayetteville and to take advantage of living up here!) She told me they had soups, salads, and were known for their grilled cheese sandwiches, or, as my brothers and I would say growing up, "girl cheese". I was totally excited about it! We went inside and it was packed due to the UA-Michigan basketball game that in town. It was quirky and very "hippie", so it was a perfect Fayetteville spot! I'm a Star-Wars nerd (I blame it on my brothers) and so I just had to order a grilled cheese called a Chee-baca (Chewbaca reference anyone?). Bethany insisted we order the edamame hummus as an appetizer and OHMYWORD I was so glad that we did! I love hummus, but this was just so great. We had great girl time and a very yummy lunch! Here's a picture of our edamame hummus:






http://hammontreesgourmet.com/  --Here's the link to the website of Hammontree's. If you are ever in NWA and wanting to eat somewhere funky and fun, I would definitely recommend it! :)


My dad and oldest brother Joshua were in town for the game. After it was over and the Razorbacks won in the last few minutes, they decided to come over to our place and relax. I STILL hadn't taken down my Christmas stuff (sad, I know) but my dad hadn't seen it yet, so I left it up for him...and me, just because it was from mine and Aaron's first Christmas together, so it made me happy to look at. Aaron got home around 4:45 and we decided to go to dinner with my dad and Joshua. We ended up going to Catfish Hole. Once, again, it was packed (there were some big-name recruits in town) and I was worried that we were never going to get seated and my dad would be driving home so late in the dark. I'm a worrier, it's the Garland in me. I've never been to Catfish Hole either, so that was new place #2 of the weekend (productivity, I tell you). 






We finally were seated, ordered, and not three minutes later our food was on the table. Their catfish is good, it doesn't quite compare to my Mammaw's (Dad's mom) but it was a great meal. I was so glad to get to see my dad and big brother!


Saturday was also the 8 month mark of our marriage. :) We didn't really do anything to really celebrate, just because Aaron had been busy all day long and we were both tired after stuffing ourselves with catfish, hushpuppies, chicken (Aaron's favorite) and fries. So he studied and I watched The Notebook. He ended up watching the rest of the movie with me and he didn't laugh at me when I cried at the end. That movie really gets me. I am so blessed to have found my "Noah" so many years ago. :)


Sunday rolled around and I productively took down the whole Christmas tree, packed up the ornaments, took down the stockings, and had a moment of silence. Now the corner of our living room is "nekkid" until I can re-arrange some stuff. I had made plans with my old swimming teammate and one of my best friends, Erica. I hadn't seen her since last semester. She's in her last year of college and is so involved, so she is super busy! We went to a favorite coffee place of mine called Common Grounds. I love love love coffee. I could go on for hours about coffee. Well not hours, but maybe 20 minutes. It was so good to see Erica and we always laugh a lot when we are together. After my coffee and her soup were all gone, we decided to be bad. Aaron and I splurge on a piece of this cake called "Ten Pound Chocolate Cake" -or something along those lines- every blue moon. It's so rich and can't be good for you, but it is DIVINE. So Erica and I opted to split a piece. I think our waiter liked us because he warmed it and put a scoop of vanilla ice cream on the side.


Yes. IT.IS.HUGE. Aaron and I usually cut it into thirds and have a little bit throughout for dessert throughout the week. Erica and I didn't finish it. We were almost in a chocolate coma near the end! It was so good to see her as well, we don't get together NEAR enough for my liking. 


Sunday night, we met with our community group that we are involved in with Fellowship in Rogers. It was a great time of fellowship with other newlyweds and couples our same age. Our leaders are great. We got our schedule for this next semester and were told there was going to be a camping trip in April (weather permitting)! We are so excited about that. We are blessed to have found this group :)


Happy Monday!


Holly

Monday, January 16, 2012

New Year, New Start

2012...


I can't believe it is 2012. I can't believe I just turned 23. I can't believe I'm finally married to my high school sweetheart after over 8 years of dating. I can't believe I have been out of college for close to a year. Heck, I can't believe that in a few months, I will have been married for one whole year!


Time flies. My oldest brother is twenty-five, my middle brother is twenty, and my baby brother will be sixteen next month. I don't feel old(er). I don't feel like my parents have gotten any older. My husband Aaron will also be twenty-five this year. I still remember when I met him when he was a gangly sixteen year old. :) Our dog Marley will be six and I still remember when we brought him home, and how mad my dad was! It didn't last too long though, because the next morning my dad was feeding that sweet little puppy Cheerios from his cereal bowl...and the rest is history.


I can't wait to see what 2012 has in store for my life as well as my family and friends' lives. 2011 was SUCH an amazing year, I just don't know how 2012 can compete! ;) 


Maybe now I should list some goals for this next year? I don't really "do" New Year's Resolutions, but I guess this is something of that sort.


Goals for 2012: 

  • Take advantage of living in NWA.  Explore more, do more.  Who knows where we will be in a few months, or even next year!
  • Get plugged in at a church.  We are currently visiting a church in Rogers, AR, and both really enjoy it and the community group that we were placed in.  But we both want to find a church that has a Sunday school that we can plug in to. It's something that both of our former churches had that we miss being a part of. 
  • Get healthy. (I know, I know, that's what EVERYONE says!) I don't want to lose weight, I just want to have a healthier lifestyle by being more active and trying to eat a little better. This will be a challenge, because the husband and I both love our chocolate chip cookies. :)
  • Visit family often. We get to see our families often, but at the same time, since we don't have any children, we should enjoy our flexibility and go to as many family events as we can.
  • Travel. This is a goal that we both share. We want to start going on trips. They don't have to be big trips, but once again, since we don't have children, we have a little more flexibility (minus when we can't take our dog). We want to start traveling to places that we haven't been too, or places that we both really enjoy. This is the "honeymoon" period of our marriage and we definitely want to take advantage of our time together.
That's all I can think of for now. This is the second time I have tried to blog, so maybe that should be another goal? Ha! We'll see!

Loveee,
Holly