"You Can't Play Cards Here"

On this fine long weekend, I got to hang out with these wonderful people in beautiful Asheville, North Carolina.

Our original plan was to go skiing in Boone, Nc, and this was going to be James' gift to me for my 21st birthday!!! (best boyfriend award right??) But.... there was a quick change in plans when the warm front came in and the majority of the snow turned muddy. We were bummed because Emily and I had never been skiing and were really excited about it, but that didn't stop us from finding something adventurous to do.

On Friday, James and I loaded up the car when he got off work, and headed to Lilburn, Ga to pick up Derrick and Emily (we also headed to Lilburn only knowing we are going to Asheville with no other details....ahhh panic). We headed to Asheville and stayed in a boys camp, thanks to Emily's connectionsssss!!!! AND it was freeeee. SCORE.

Saturday we headed in to the city to find exciting local restaurants and cool mountain shops. The weather was perfect, the atmosphere was exciting, and there were too many dreads on heads to count (yes I'm referring to dreadlocks. It's just cooler to refer to them as dreads, well at least that's what I heard). We then headed to the beautiful Grove Park Inn and walked around to catch glimpses of the breathtaking view.

How beautiful is this place?! STILL the perfect birthday getaway.

By dinner time we were winding down and the boys were dying to take Emily & I to this place called the Grey Eagle to eat to-die-for hush puppies and listen to mumford & sons type music. I was pumped. I love the idea of chowing down on a bunch of appetizers while listening to live music. We arrive...and...well it went a little different as planned.

1. I get the mark of hey-you-aren't-21-so-let-me-black-sharpie-all-over-both-hands

2. THE MAN WAS RUDE

3. We walk in and we are the only people there...besides the cook and bartender

4. THERE ARE NO TO-DIE-FOR HUSHPUPPIES

5. We have two hours before the band starts to play

6. THE BARTENDER WAS RUDE

......then we had the brilliant idea to play cards..pitch to be exact. Just a little harmless competition between girls & boys. Then the following hostile man comes into the picture.

(bodyguard with bald head, glasses, and sleeve tattoos leans over our little table of four): "Um. You guys can't play cards here."

(one of us laughs): "Are you serious?"

Bodyguard: Yes. (sternly)

Emily: (laughs) "We've been playing for the past 30 min. and no one has said anything to us."

Bodyguard: (bobble head )"WELLL, I am TELLing you now."

OH NO HE DIDNT.

Long story short...that little mess set James over the edge, and he had no problem walking straight up to the bartender and letting him know how our experience had gone that night at the Grey Eagle while taking his tab back. We walked right out the door, but not without asking for our money back for the show.

As we drove away we started coming up with "what we should have done" scenarios which involved James fake crying, punching the bodyguard AND bartender, and asking the bodyguard to join in our game, which left us all in tears of laughter, which made out for a great night. We decided to end our night at a local coffee shop and tasted some heavenly hot chocolate. 

The next day we woke up thinking we were going to spend the day hiking before we went home, (obviously we thought a lot of things during this weekend that went differently) but ended up walking around the little town of Black Mountain, and venturing in to probably one of the most beautiful college campuses I've ever seen at Montreat College.

After this visit, we jumped in the car, made a pit stop at the Tanger Outlets, and headed home just in time for Revenge!!!

mmm. My weekend is complete.

meredith. 

Jingle Jam

My mom won tickets to star 94's Jingle Jam concert & she invited me!! I wasn't sure who many of the artists singing were until they actually were singing their hit songs, but it ended up being a lot of fun! Who knew this british guy named Ed Sheeran was a teen heart throb (seriously, I had no clue I could experience the screams I heard when his name was even mentioned), and who knew the latest American Idol winner, Phillip Phillips was someone I actually really enjoyed listening to.

For any of you that don't know what Jingle Jam is, it is a concert that is put on by star 94 radio, and they ask 6 artists to perform 5 or so songs, and the last person sings a whole set list. This lucky one that sang their whole set was none other than Ed Sheeran. Seriously guys, ha I had no clue who this guy was and yet my ears were ringing the screams were so loud. Now, the 6 artists that performed (in order) were: Andy Grammer, Grace Potter, Alex Clare, Phillip Phillips, Jason Mraz, and Ed Sheeran.

We got to sit in the club level!!

Grace Potter killin it.

Phillip Phillips

On top of the awesome people watching at a place that supports many different tastes in music, the middle-aged women dancing around us to the one and only rockstar Grace Potter all the way to the "Ginger Jesus" Ed Sheeran...I('m serious guys...that quote was on a poster by two teenage girls), it was quite a show & I thoroughly enjoyed it.

This was when J Mraz asked everyone to turn their phone lights on, it was soo pretty.

Now I will leave you with a new favorite song of mine...

Enjoy.

Lately

Life lately has been quite peaceful; filled with lots of sleep and the people that warm my heart. 

Everyone meet my boyfriend. 

Wearing some sort of santa/pimp hat, casually drinking starbucks with an oh-so-loved shirt of his that has "plenty of holes to tell plenty of stories", so he says.

This wonderful boyfriend of my mine just so happened to take me to the Nutcracker and sit through a ballet where I soaked in the elegance, grace, and beauty of it all. There were around 30 little girls as mice, gum drops, lamb chops, and so on...and we couldn't get over how adorable they were. James was cackling so hard at one point, this lady turned around to see what was going on (apparently The Nutcracker isn't supposed to be funny). These little girls were waving at their parents, running back and forth, and just looking as precious as they could be.

The next day, I packed up my car and headed home for a long but needed month of Christmas break. James came along for the weekend, and we ended up going ice skating with a college group from a church that his best friend is an intern with. Although ice skating isn't something I die to do, it was definitely memorable...

As you can see, they are professionals, and they were getting plenty of looks from people petrified they were going to run in to them.

Baby, it's Cold Outside

I wish. Where's the cold weather? I never thought I'd say this, but I want the chill in the air that makes it feel like Christmas!!

Finishing my first semester of the Early Childhood Cohort...I feel so free!! This semester has probably been the hardest semester of my life along with many different emotions. Things changed a lot this semester, but I'm hopeful to see the outcome of the changes starting Spring semester along with when I get to be with my Kindergarten babies!!

I am SO excited to be home with my family and have sporadic hang outs with my sweet friends that live near me, or near enough to meet up. I am excited for all the Christmas movies (thank goodness for ABC family), and decorations all throughout my town.

I get to be an elf on the square, you guys, it is going to be so much fun. Picture it...

Sadly, I don't have to wear an elf outfit like zooey, but I do get to watch the joy of little kids visit Santa himself.There are so many things I am excited for over the next month, and I can't wait to start the festivities on Friday. My wonderful boyfriend is taking me to see the Nutcracker, and then it's all uphill from there.

In the meantime, I will be listening to my new favorite Pandora station: She and Him

Zooey is full of Christmas spirit.

Happy Halloweeen

In the spirit of Halloween, I'd like to say...

Halloween is an exciting day for me because of all the candy.

My mom actually would take my candy away and I could only pick three things a day, because otherwise I'd eat. it. all.

Carving pumpkins has never been my strong suit, but I try. And then I get frustrated and only have holes throughout my pumpkin.

 I've never missed dressing up for halloween...even in highschool

 In elementary school we didn't go trick or treating, but we went to a "reformation celebration" at my church

 As you can see, I had no problem with midriff, at church, at the age of five.

When you are a Younglife leader and you attend farm-o-ween you WILL end up getting pied in the face...which is fun too. But whatever you do on Halloween have fun and get back to the classics of bobbing for apples and playing games!! My friends and I are in to that sort of thing.

I'm excited to attend our halloween party hosted by this beautiful messy faced girl.

Dress up. Be scared. & Eat some candy. Lots of candy.

& Have a happy halloween!!!

On the Lookout

"Knowing that your future is absolutely assured can free you to live abundantly today. I have prepared this day for you with the most tender concern and attention to detail. Instead of approaching the day as a blank page that you need to fill up, try living it in a responsive mode: being on the lookout for all that I am doing. This sounds easy, but it requires a deep level of trust, based on the knowledge that My way is perfect." -Jesus Calling

Being on a YoungLife team allows you to go on weekend getaways to have bonding time with the team. Our team decided to go to Lake Allatoona and stay at one of our fellow team members lake house.  I wasn't really sure what to expect and I wasn't really sure I wanted to go. These past couple weeks have been extremely tiresome, and have almost made my body ache because I have been so busy. I started to develop headaches for no reason. I would try to sleep them off, and they just kept coming up. All I wanted to do was to rest. Rest, but not have anything on my mind while I rested.  This wasn't going to happen, because I have been swimming in work & outside projects. I felt almost as if this "getaway bonding trip" was just another thing on my schedule I had to take part in. I didn't have a lot of emotion about the upcoming weekend as Friday rolled around, and we were headed for Atlanta. I packed up, loaded up on gas, picked up a friend, grabbed lunch, got my bangs trimmed, forgot my purse at the salon, went back and grabbed it, was scared to death by an innocent homeless woman that knocked on my window, drove through atlanta, got my emissions done, surprised my mom at work, took a quick trip to the mall, and then it was smooth sailing to the lake house.
(2011 YL lake trip)

Okay, so maybe I had a lot of things to do before I finally arrived, but I don't go home very much so I thought I'd check it all off at once. When I arrived, I was greeted with smiling faces, loud music, and the smell of yummy food. We spent the night eating, playing embarrassing games, and spending quality time with each other. The next morning came, and I came across my devotion that said the excerpt I wrote at the beginning of this post. My day changed in an instant. My view of the day changed in an instant actually. I went on a morning walk around the lake with a really wonderful friend of mine, and it was absolutely breathtaking outside. The air had a morning warmth to it. You know when you walk outside, and you can feel that it is going to be a warm day, but there is a slight chill in the air? That's how it felt. It was such a refreshing feeling spending my morning in the fresh, warm air.

HOKAY.
Some of you might be thinking: (if you're on my younglife team) "We didn't go to the lake this weekend", or (if you're my hair cutter) "I didn't cut your bangs", or (even my mom) "You didn't surprise me at work." welllllllll....all of these things happened, but back in March. I know you're probably wondering why this is just now being posted, but I was going through my blog and realized I had never finished/published this post. So I read through what I had written and thought...interesting, I really really needed this. You know when you read a letter from someone, or read an old journal entry, and you think, "Wow!", if that wasn't God's perfect timing, I don't know what is. So here it is, my post about my younglife team's getaway that ended with stronger friendship and deeper understandings of each other. The more I dive in to this year, the more it is easier to get too busy for the important things. Important things are different for everyone, just make sure YOUR important things are what is held high in your day to day routine.

Now on to some Pumpkin carving!!!! Happy almost Halloweenie!!

It's Fall, Ya'll!!

Fall is here, and I am so excited!! Scarves, boots, cardigans, pumpkins, Starbucks, blankets, and beautiful changing leaves!! I LOVE FALL!! I am so excited that there is a chill in the air, and we are getting closer to Halloween and Thanksgiving...which means we are also closer to CHRISTMAS!! I can't get ahead of myself though...I have a lot going on before Christmas break.

Don't get your hopes up...this is no tutorial...just me, obsessing over things like fall, ombre wreaths...But how awesome is this?? There's a website that lists over FIFTY different DIY wreaths. Pretty awesome...I guess I'll plug it, since I took her wreath picture and all...DIY wreaths

The last couple weeks have flown by, and I think it's about to get even faster. I do want to take a couple minutes to RAVE about a wedding I was able to attend because it just so happened to be my boyfriend's sister!! It was the cutest/craftiest wedding I've been to on plantation land near Charleston, SC. Lindsay's colors were yellow and gray and they were accented fabulously about the wedding. Two things that caught my eye though...1. Kids table (who would have thought?!) & 2. A candy bar! AND every candy was either yellow or gray...perfect. Between her mom and brother singing her down the aisle, and dancing with my new 6 year old boy friend, I'm pretty sure it was a night to remember. Here are some snapshots...

YAYY! Happy newly married life Lindsay Dammeyer!!

Ps. A couple days after we drove home...the Mcconnell's got MORE beautiful news. The precious little 2-yr-old girl that has been in the process for about a year now of being adopted is HOME in the states!!! You can read about that here!!!

XOXO

O and Ps Ps. I love my greek family.