February Happenings

It was a beautiful February. It seemed to go by pretty quickly, but here's some of things we were up to. Lily wanted to go on a tour of Auburn, so Ryan and I were excited to take a day trip with her and get the official tour. We got to go up on the Eagle's Nest which is on the top of a building where you can get lots of great view of campus, including looking over the football stadium. They are on the smaller side of the SEC schools which we all really liked. It was fun that it was a whole college town, but it wasn't overwhelming and huge.

You can't go to Auburn and not stop in at Toomer's Drugs to try their famous lemonade. This is one of Southern Living's 50 Southern Things to Do Before You Die list! Ryan and Lily both loved the strawberry lemonade while I thoroughly enjoyed my blackberry lemonade. This alone might be worth the trip to Auburn. We enjoyed a delicious lunch at The Hound, and then made a stop in the gift shop on our way out. This was a very fun day!

Lily co-captained the Mock Trial team this year with Nene Harvey. They've been preparing for several months to get their case and their witnesses ready. Mia was witness Alex Epps. The competition came around in early February. I love that the school totally hyped them up the day before!

This team was ready!

I absolutely loved watching these three trials, and I was so proud of them! Both girls did a great job, but it was pretty clear that Lily was in her element. It was a lot of fun. Awards are handed out at the end of the evening. Unfortunately, the team didn't advance to state (which was a little surprising because they were really good). However Lily won an award for Outstanding Attorney for her work in Round 2. How cool is that?! Way to go Lily! 

We were happy to host a mock trial team party a couple of weeks later. It was a fun celebration of their season. How cute is this cookie cake we got for dessert?

Ryan and David met up in Nashville to attend a Milk Carton Kids concert together at The Ryman Auditorium. They both love this group. David has previously purchased a Pattengale guitar which was designed by one of the band members, Kenneth Pattengale. David worked hard to and found a connection so that they were actually able to meet Kenneth before the concert. On top of that, Kenneth actually signed the guitar for David. How cool! Then, David actually gave the guitar to Ryan which was a really special gift that Ryan will treasure. Ryan took the guitar back to the hotel for safekeeping, and then they enjoyed the concert. This was a wonderful adventure for them!

We were excited to see that Hamilton was included in the season tickets at The Fox. This show is incredibly well done. We were excited to get to see it together.

Ryan found a program at AMC Theaters called "Screen Unscene." You buy a $5 ticket and have no idea what the movie is going to be. We went one evening and enjoyed up enjoying the surprise movie, Ordinary Angels. It was a touching, based on a true story, movie. I'm so glad we tried this!

One of my fun Goldbelly finds was a cacio e pepe pizza from Los Angeles. We love cacio e pepe, and we love pizza, so I thought "why not?" It was a great call! This was delicious, and I'll look forward to having it again.

Decker cracks me up. He apparently loves to lay on Ryan's side of the bed when we're not around. I've found him snoozing here a few times. If Ryan's at home, you can bet Decker will be by his side instead of on the bed!

I ordered a King Cake through Goldbelly, and it did not disappoint. It was so good! We had our small group over that evening, and we all cut a slice out. Whoever got the baby would also be the lucky receipient of a $25 Chick-fil-a gift card. We had enough for everyone to take a slice, and there was only one piece left...that slice was the one with the baby! Since none of us actually pulled it, we decided to give the gift card to Jeff Pennington as a small thank you for pastoring our church.

I always like to make a fun dinner for Valentine's Day. This year we made some cheese tortellini in a butter sauce; I died the water red, so it would die the pasta. This was a cute little twist.

I absolutely love putting hearts on the girls' doors as we count down to Valentine's Day. Each heart states an attribute that we admire in them along with a Bible verse. We hope these encourage them to continue to develop and use those gifts to God's glory. 

Sweet Mia made cookies to take to her friends one evening, and she left these out for me to see when I got home after a late night at work. Such a sweetheart!

Another Goldbelly find was this wonderful spaghetti carbonara from Rome.

All four of us took a day to visit Berry College in late February. This was Mia's first college visit! This campus is gorgeous. We all really enjoyed this tour and discovered how much we like this college. It seems like such a great place.

Go Cambridge Geography Bee team! Mrs. Hobson sponsored this team made up of Lily, Liam Harvey, Luke Denny, and Liam Hobson. A powerhouse team for sure.

Ryan and I went back to AMC for a second Screen Unscene, and it turned out to be the movie One Life. This was an absolutely incredible movie, and it has become one of our favorites. The acting was fantastic, and the storytelling is amazing. Sir Nicholas Winton was a true hero, and I'm grateful his story has been told.

Tostatadas were the first Piquant Post recipe we received, and they're still our favorite. SO GOOD!!!

Out and about...

It's been a lovely month.

A Cold but Nice January

Here we are in the new year! We've all gotten back into the routine of work and school. The girls have started back with mock trial practice. Both girls auditioned and have been cast in Brylliant's spring production of Mean Girls, so rehearsals have just started for that. We've had some other fun during the month too. Here's some of the pictures from along the way.

Mia painted this beautiful picture in her school art class. It immediately takes me back to Hawaii. We stood on this ledge, and I love that it inspired her.

I may have gotten a little excited when Goldbelly ran a sale recently. I'm always happy to order the Wagyu steak when it's on sale, but this was a great opportunity to try some new places too. I can't wait to enjoy these yummies!

Ryan planned the most fun surprise date for me one evening! We always love the "this or that" activities with the girls, and he planned a Friday evening where I got to pick all the items for us. First up was dinner. I was super excited to pick a new restaurant, K-Pot. It's a Korean BBQ and Hot Pot spot. It was so much fun! I've done both of these while traveling in China before, but Ryan had not yet tried either. It's an all-you-can-eat menu, so we ordered several different proteins, noodles, and veggies to try. I used a regular miso soup base for my hot pot while Ryan had a spicy Thai Tom yum sauce. After dinner, I picked a card that said "1 new book at Barnes & Noble" which made me quite happy. In the parking lot, he gave me the option to pick the other card instead. That's not usually part of the game, so I was confident he was sure I'd like the other card better. I switched it out, and he was right; it said "2 new books at Barnes & Noble!" I always love exploring the bookstore, and I got two great new books (Night Road by Kristin Hannah and The Things We Cannot Say by Kelly Rimmer). Next up was dessert, and I was very happy to pick Great American Cookie Company. I ended by picking "read a book by the fire," but I switched it for the other option of "watch a show or movie together." I was having too much fun with Ryan and wanted to keep spending time together! We started the series "All the Light We Cannot See," and it was really good. What a fun evening of adventures for us!

Lily bought this hat on Amazon, and I truly love it. It says "This actually is my first rodeo," and I think it's fantastic.

Our family loves our season tickets to the Broadway Across Atlanta shows at the Fox. We were excited to learn that Aladdin was coming too. Mia was at the JTF competition that weekend, so Ryan, Lily, and I went and were happy to bring Lauren Martin with us too. How perfect to have Morroco-based Aladdin at the Fox! The genie absolutely stole the show.

Mia always loves going to the JTF competition with Brylliant. The studio decided to go with Shrek Jr, and Mia was thrilled to be chosen as Donkey. She was incredible in the show they recently performed, so we weren't surprised at all that they chose her to continue this part. The kids spend about 3 weeks getting ready for JTF. It's certainly similar to the full production, but they have to condense the story down to 15 minutes; they perform a lot of the same music, but they have a lot of new choreography to go with it. It's a lot of hard work to prepare for this, but it culminates in a very fun weekend. A couple of days before the production, Brylliant has a dress rehearsal night for the parents to come and watch. We were absolutely blown away! These kids did such an amazing job! I was so proud of each one of them (but especially Mia).

Their hard work paid off! I'm so glad they won an award for their ensemble. This group was fantastic!

The downside to JTF is that Mia picked up Covid while she was there. She was diagnosed on Monday (a holiday so no school) and was told to quarantine through Friday. She didn't feel well for several days, but turned a corner on Thursday. We were thankful that school was actually cancelled on Tuesday. It was ridiculously cold around here for about 36 hours temps never rose above 25 degrees. Schools were cancelled to avoid any potential ice on the road and to make sure they could be properly heated. The girls didn't mind an extra day off! We were glad this meant Mia only ended up missing 3 days of school that she had to make up.

Even though she was done with quarantine by Saturday, she decided to stay home and sleep while the other three of us drove down to Fayetteville to eat at Truett's Luau. Lily had gone with the volleyball team this fall, and it's been a place I've always wanted to try. A Hawaiian themed Chick-fil-a adjacent restaurant? Yes please! We all ordered a Frozen Hawaiian drink which was delicious and came in a fun tiki glass. Ryan tried their Hawaiian burger (yep, this Chick-fil-a serves burgers!), Lily had a breakfast bowl with nuggets, and I tried their tacos made with grilled nuggets, spicy sauce, and pineapple coleslaw. We all split their Hawaiian nuggets because we wanted to try them. They were delicious! This was a fun little outing.

What a great January it's been!