There Ain't No Place Like Birmingham

This weekend was fabulous.

Jana and I dined at Do Di Yo's on Saturday night. Holy Smokes. SO GOOD. I miss Birmingham's Greek food when I'm in Auburn. The whole restaurant was an experience and I'm so sad we had to eat so fast and couldn't fully enjoy it.

"There are two kinds of people: those who are Greek and those who wish they were Greek." Mr. Portokalos, My Big Fat Greek Wedding

So true.

We ordered fried doughnuts for dessert. Soaked in honey. Best I've ever had. Ever. And I've tried a lot, so that's saying something. I think I scared our waiter when we ordered these. I wouldn't let him get through the rest of the dessert menu. I just wanted these.

Step Sing at Samford! I think I've been almost every year since I was in middle school. This is pretty much the only evening I begin to second guess my decision to go to Auburn. It was probably one of the better shows they've had... right up there with DAP's Monster performance. Dudes-A-Plenty, get at me.

Visited this sweet little squirt while Caroline and I caught up with Momma Ashley. I'm looking forward to hanging out together this summer!

Hope all of your weekends were lovely, lovely, lovely!

Treasure

It's finding little gems like this that make me love small town life.

Knit Together

"...their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God's mystery, which is Christ"

Colossians 2:2

photo by the talented Jenna

Meet some of my bible study girls. They are more of a blessing than I could have ever imagined. Our fearless leader Jenna so graciously opens her home to us and has made us all her baby chicks, which is funny since she does have actual chickens in her backyard. Even though we are just beginning our second semester as a group together, I cannot even fathom what my year would look like without all of these women! Jumping into the Word with them has been so encouraging and challenging and I am so incredibly excited to work through the book of James with them. We never have a dull moment in bible study and their humor refreshes my spirit constantly! Imagining the love we have for each other is just an iota of the Father's love for us just blows my mind!

Chicken, Veggies, Soy, Rice

I was blessed beyond measure to serve as a D-Now leader this past weekend in my home church alongside some of my nearest and dearest friends. It was a wonderful weekend and I was so encouraged to watch my sweet group of eleventh grade girls grow in understanding the movement of Christ!

I have been so challenged recently in giving of my money to glorify God beyond tithing. This weekend provided a wonderful opportunity to see where some of that is going, and I want to encourage you to pray over where God wants you to give! Here are a few of my favorite ministries and ways to contribute...

We participated in Feed My Starving Children on Friday night. What an experience it was! Total, our church and community packed enough food to feed 1,494 children for an entire year!

Read more and donate HERE.

It's okay, you can be jealous of our hairnets.

"Blessed are those who are generous, because they feed the poor." Proverbs 22:9

Maybe you want to support some workers being called to His field. Meet Dana and Laura, two Auburn grads called to serve the Lord in Uganda. In efforts to raise funds for their trip, they are selling some super cute threads HERE. I bought mine this past week and am so excited to sport that bad boy around campus.

Um, how precious are they?

"I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given to me the task of testifying to the good news of God's grace." Acts 20:24

Last, but not least, Urban Purpose is a ministry near and dear to my heart. I had the opportunity to work with them last spring break and occasional Sundays when I'm home and don't have to get back to Auburn. Started by two men in our church, this ministry is devoted to building relationships with Birmingham's homeless population and seeking to meet physical needs while actively sharing the Gospel. Read more and donate HERE.

Through these ministries, may God be glorified above all else.

Why I Am The Way I Am

I went through some of our childhood photos this weekend trying to find the perfect one to embarrass Kendall with on her birthday.

I had to keep in mind that my birthday is just three weeks away, so it couldn't be too humiliating.

Along the way, I found some real gems of me. I was a pretty spunky child. Rather than show all of them to you, I picked out one that I thought really summarized infant Kelsey:

February 1993... aka my 2nd birthday.

No, you don't need to get your eyes checked, I am indeed holding a child-sized broom. When I questioned my mother why on earth they included a broom in my birthday gifts (because pictures of me with the other gifts just weren't as entertaining) she insisted that I really, really wanted a broom and was obsessed with sweeping our entire house, but specifically the kitchen. She found the cutest one she could, and I was apparently a very happy child. Way more pumped than I was about my Winnie the Pooh VHS tapes (that I watched until we literally wore them out) or Thomas the Tank Engine Trains (another obsession) or classic children's books.

So there you have it...

This is why I am the way I am.

And sadly there are so many more pictures that anyone could guess was me a mile away.

Chili Night

First Crock-Pot meal of the semester! (In case I haven't told you excitedly in person, I got a slow cooker for Christmas and have been itching to use it!)

Last night I made taco chili from the Better Homes & Gardens Biggest Book of Slow Cooker Recipes with a few of my own variations. It turned into a little party with three other sweet friends coming over to celebrate making it through the first day of class! Naturally, we completed the meal with cornbread and some terrible cookies I ended up throwing away. Live and learn, you know?

Here's to a great spring semester!

Taste of the Town

Let me tell you about my hidden talent.

I am a great restaurant picker.

Maybe it's not such a talent after all. And maybe no one else feels I have this gift. But I certainly feel that I do.

It took me two and a half years of living in Auburn, but I finally branched out to nearby Opelika for restaurants after being a regular at all of the Auburn ones.

Pause. If you haven't wandered around downtown Opelika, it's an absolute must. Adorable. I go to church down there and knew it was precious, but the entire downtown district is to die for. Resume.

So on our first night back after break, I had a hankering for pizza and had my heart set on going to Opelika. Enter Ma Fia's, also known as the best decision we made all day. My friend Hillary and I popped in there on Friday and we left as changed women.

A general outline of the evening, as follows:

1. We circle the parking lot about 6 times trying to get a close spot, then decide to park like 30 yards away. Struggles. We are such divas.

2. We walk in and find out a girl in our pledge class is one of the hostesses there. I'd just like to take this opportunity to go ahead and bless her heart.

3. We find out that at 7pm on a Friday night there will be an hour and a half wait for a table.

4. Our sweet friend tells us she can seat us in an hour and she'll give us a call when our table is ready. She assures us it will be worth the wait.

5. We bless her heart and decide to go to Target to kill time.

6. Our precious friend calls us after we've been gone approximately 30 minutes telling us our table is ready. We feel cool already being treated like regulars here.

7. We abandon our hand baskets in Target and book it to the restaurant.

8. We walk in, and sit down at a table by the bar--perfect for people watching.

9. About this point we notice that we are the youngest people there in a rather trendy crowd, by Auburn standards at least. Typical.

10. We peruse the menu and after much deliberation decide on each building our own personal pizza, a decision we do not regret.

11. We have excellent service. I drink a lot of water, but the waitress kept my glass full even though she probably had a ton of other tables to keep up with.

12. We see a lady with a sweatshirt on that says "Pets Leave Pawprints On Our Hearts." That's not important, just really funny.

13. Pizzas arrive. Holy. Smokes. Mine had cheese, dried basil, chicken, caramelized onions, and prosciutto ham. It was fantastic. Perfect size, perfect taste, perfect texture, perfect ratio of toppings. I can't even deal.

14. We bask in the pure ecstasy that our pizzas brought to our tummies.

15. We go for dessert, also known as the second best decision we made all day.

16. This arrives.

Party in my tummy. These italian doughnuts were like a beignet, but a little chewier. The man who brought out this dish forget to bring us some extra forks, so I swiped some baby ones from the bar that I'm pretty sure were just for the bartender to use to fish out garnishes for cocktails. You know what, desperate times call for desperate measures. And once he saw why I was so needy for eating utensils, I think he understood.

17. We pay a perfectly reasonable price for such a wonderful meal and leave feeling extremely satisfied and marveling at how wonderful our lives really are, even if we act like old ladies.

I think it's safe to say we can whole-heartedly recommend Ma Fia's since we're already looking forward to the next time we go back, which, if we're being honest, will be this week.

Master Plan

So I don't exactly have the best track record when it comes to keeping this little ole blog updated. The little number next to the months in the archives hardly ever goes above 4, if even that. I would say one of my new year resolutions would be to update this more, but a) that would be a lie and b) I don't make new year resolutions, so that pretty much just explains the first point. Anyway, if you're still reading, kudos! You definitely gained some cool points in my book, or you would rather just spend your Friday nights alone cuddled up in your jammies with a classic DVD in, a gallon of rocky road, some nice candles from Target (jasmine bamboo is my personal favorite-- it smells like an L.L. Bean catalog), and google reader just calling your name. But hey, that's just a guess.

Anyway, keeping on the track of self-disclosure, while I'm enjoying my typical Friday night (re-read that last paragraph one more time if you still don't get it) I usually paint my nails. I don't think it's any big secret that I'm not very fashion-forward, so trying to keep up with fun nail colors is about as trendy as I get. Enter my favorite nail varnish, possibly of all time: Essie in Master Plan. I wear it to class, to work, and I would have worn it to deb ball but my mom made me change it. It wasn't worth the arguement, you know? Anyway, I get SO many compliments on it! It's fun and fresh and a wonderful neutral but still a little understated and semi-professional. Bonus: it transitions seasons well because I wore it all summer, through fall, and into winter. Bam. Talk about bang for your buck.

Going back into my first thought of being a bad blogger, sorry this post is weird in my sad little attempt to give you something to gander upon on your kicking Friday night. Especially considering I just posted a picture of my fingernails for you to see. Awkward? Eh, good thing we're friends. And if we aren't, we sure as heck are now.

But what are your favorite nail colors? I've heard everyone talking about OPI's You Don't Know Jacques, but haven't been brave enought to try it!

Southern Charm

I have rekindled my love for Southern Living.

I know, rekindled? Where did the love ever go?

Funny little story about my stubbornness, actually...

My mom always told me (as in, from a very young age when I had just learned to read and insisted upon picking up every piece of print I could find, including her copious copies of SL) that I should major in journalism and work at Southern Living.

Wrong. So, so wrong.

I REFUSED to go this path. And in some ways, I still do. Even as an English major, I don't particularly love writing. It is more of a necessary evil. I don't like to be told what I am supposed to write about. I'd rather just talk through my own free-floating ideas. Hah, surprise.

Anyway, out of spite, I guess, I snuffed my nose to anything Southern Living, lest my mother think she won the fight.

I like to call these my dark years. Because really, who was I kidding?

And then I grew up, accepting myself for the old soul I really am. And I realized that Southern Living people were my people. What had I done ignoring those beautiful tablescapes, delectable recipes, and page after page of Southern charm? Man, Southerners KNOW hospitality.

So I soaked it all up again.

And then this semester I discovered the SL twitter.

Shoot. That was the best transit ride home in some time.

Around Thanksgiving, they tweeted the article on their Christmas Gift Guide.

I can't even deal. Y'all, I seriously want everything on this list. Every item is sure to please any southern belle or beau.

And then I saw it. A most precious pie carrier. Made by Vonny, I didn't even know they existed, but as much as I like to bake and surprise friends and classmates with a sweet treat, I knew I would use such a stylish little tote on the reg.

Typical SL move, they linked up to a site where you could buy it (and the matching casserole carrier) monogrammed.

Lucky for me, my boss decided to carry the line of Vonny products. And that meant employee discount. Bonus: I know how to monogram. Merry Christmas to me from me.

I mean, please. Just tell me this isn't cute.

I think my Happy Birthday to me from me present will be that matching casserole carrier.

Swoon.

Moral of the story: don't turn your back on SL. And don't put Twinkies on your pizza. (Actually, that last one is from Heavyweights, but I think it is pretty sound advice, nevertheless.)

Because I'm A Lady, That's Why

I guess it's official... I'm out as a lady now.

This past week I was presented at the Poinsettia Debutante Ball at the Country Club. Bless it all. The entire debutante season ended up being a lot of fun with some sweet girls I enjoyed spending time with, but the ball was by far the most entertaining. My sweet friends from out of town came just for the event, and my precious buddies here in Birmingham altered travel plans to be there.

The night was such a whirlwind, I don't think we ever got a complete group shot. At least w

e got a few of us!

We all needed a little help getting ready for the night.

Next year I get to go with the red sash across my dress. Yippee Skippee.

Also, I kind of feel like I should be listening to this when I flip through all of the photos.

And this is just in case you didn't understand the title.