thanksgiving 2011

thankful thoughts

cake

baking attempt...frosted pumpkin delight.  it's ok. the cream cheese frosting saved it from the whole wheat flour i used.  do not try to make unhealthy foods somewhat healthy...not worth it.  if i could do it again, i would use white flour and another stick of butter.  good thing i have a cooking expert in my life for guidance- a one mrs tracy bennett. 

(photo- thanksgiving dress rehearsal....better get it together tomorrow.)

georgia going to the SEC championship and not being blind

barely scraping by with a win over kentucky but i will take it.  UGA is going to the SEC championship this year....probably against LSU....yikes.  i am thankful for the W today nonetheless.  

i am not grateful for the $81.50 jimmy johns sandwich that i had for lunch today.  $6.50 for the beach club sandwich, hold the mayo.  $75 to get the boot off of my car that i received in the 4 minutes that it took to order the sandwich.  a boot?  really?  so dramatic atlanta.  but that's not the point of this blog.  moments later, i saw a blind man walking down the street and decided to be grateful for not being blind rather than pissed off at the jerkstore that gave me the ticket.  there.

band of horses pandora

this station is hands down the best pandora channel.  i listen to music all day at my desk so i quickly burn through albums and am always looking for new stuff.  sometimes i'm just expired, tired of my rotation and too busy to stop and pick out an artist.  enter pandora.  everyone knows the greatness of this online radio site but there are definitely some days that i exhaust my song skips and can't quite find what i want. although i would say i am never not in the mood for the band of horses channel.  thank you for being so reliable.  too many favorites but will leave you with this one.

madewell

my absolute favorite clothing store is madewell.  complete love of this style.  jcrew's sister store for the downtown girl.  jcrew is more uptown.  and it's not crazy popular, so you don't find people with the same stuff.  (shhh don't tell everyone.....)  in the middle of the firestorm of work-related emails today, i received this one "prepare your closets....your madewell order has shipped."  ahhh.....good news for the day.

an annabelle greeting

the new black keys video

this dancin' man makes me smile. 

happy friday and happy veterans day. 

generosity

generous people just tremendously warm my heart.  i experienced this on so many levels today.  through a serious of events, my family has become very involved in the Albert T Mills enrichment center.  this is a school for children ages 3-5 who live in a very rough part of atlanta.  the woman that started the school did so when her own son was shot and killed by a couple 16 year old kids.  she realized that they really did not understand the consequences of their actions.  she wanted to develop a place to teach kids right from wrong early and to prevent these tragedies from happening to other families.  the school is run completely on donations and they have SO much need.  they are out of money, and the teachers are now working without pay.  most of the students do not have heat at home and are sleeping on the floor.  the school serves the children breakfast and lunch and for some these are the only meals that they receive each day.  my mom and i have been talking about ways to help for the past few weeks and decided we really wanted to hit this hard for the holidays when people are in the giving spirit. 

this morning i set out to work on three initiatives that we developed.  one- give a thanksgiving meal to all 60 of the children's families.  i sent an email to my atlanta friends and had several people respond immediately wanting to participate.  two- organize a drive at my condominium for people to donate educational toys for their classroom.  the condo board is kind of uptight so i expected to receive push back but they thought this school was a great partnership opportunity.  three- one of my besties jill has her annual xmas party and plans to asks her 70 something guests to bring school supplies for the kids.  i'm so overwhelmed with how much everyone wants to help our community.  all i've done is send a couple emails....it is the people around that are so inspiring.  so excited to see where these projects go.....

reality checks

this has not been the greatest morning.  i've been kinda bummed out the past couple days for a few reasons and just not feeling anywhere near my best self.  in an attempt to take a break from work and zone out for a bit, i started clicking around facebook....really healthy i'm sure.  she's living in paris, look how cute her kids are, he has a four day work week, they get sushi for lunch, not fair!  whaaaaa.  then a familiar name appeared in my "people you may know" section.  brittney watts.  this was extremely haunting because i remember this girl because she tragically died in a senseless shooting one block from my home this past july.  her facebook page prompted me to her blog which led me to this entry.  i know i never knew her or met her family but if i could tell them one thing it would be that she's a complete inspiration which i think is the best legacy that you can leave on this earth.   thanks for making me want to be a better person and live life to the fullest.  no more whining, today is a wonderful day.

lana del rey

lana del rey's video games song and video.

local honey

i literally use honey at least four times a day - 1 shake, 2 coffees, 1ish hot tea.  i always buy my honey local.  raw honey has so many great health benefits: contains antibiotic properties, prevents ulcers, treats nausea, naturalizes toxins, harmonizes the liver, acts as a sedative, anti-inflammatory, etc etc.  buying local is ideal for food across the board but honey is specifically great for allergy suffers (which is not me fortunately, but i also use local honey :) ) because it mostly likely contains the same allergens you are exposed to on a daily basis.  i'm so happy that the kroger near my work carries honey from ball ground, ga - only 20 miles away.  this line- weeks works - also has several different honey "flavors" depending on the flowers that the bees frequent.  tupelo honey is pretty fragrant and splendid for bedtime tea.  i like things fairly sweet but can't stand refined sugar, so thankful for honey.  

 

(photo- tupelo honey)

iphone 4s

after 3 + years with iphone 3g, i no longer have the patience to wait for directions, email and well, pretty much everything else to load.  i also wanted to do my part to honor steve jobs.  and the white phones are just so much prettier, right?  siri is kind of freaking me out though....how does she know so much?  computers are taking over the world.  the movie irobot was a premonition.  how did will smith handle it again?  actually didn't that movie end alluding to the robots winning?  oh well.  siri can give me witty answers and remind me to change out my contacts each month!  i look forward to taking better pictures for this blog and maybe get around to some videos too.  upgrade!