Super Sunday Moments

I was super excited to introduce my sister to Amelie's French Bakery in NoDa today - we had a chicken salad croissant, a croque monsiuer sandwich along with our raspberry lemon tea and lavendar lemonade.  We also had a fruit tart and salted caramel brownie!  We rarley get the chance to just go out to eat, and were on our way back from visiting our godmother at a nearby hospital so we decided to sit on the patio and enjoy a quick lunch!  It was wonderful!  Now I only wish I had time for a nap!



Weekend Madness!

Whew what a weekend and it's still not over!  Friday night I got to spend some time with my 'second momma' eating supper and enjoying the first ARTwalk in our little town and had a great time!  I treated myself to three new pairs of handmade earrings because they were only $25 for all three!  How crazy is that? I can't make them for that by the time I drive all the way to the bead shop, take time to craft them and then be able to wear them!  They are very cute and here is the artist's Etsy Shop in case you might want to check them out for yourself. 

Saturday was my monthly scrapbooking event and I had an intimate crowd of five with allowed me the luxury to not be running around too much, but I still got up early to purchase the food I needed for our lunch and got everything set up, just in time at 9am.  In the afternoon, I was SUPER EXCITED to get to tag along with my best friend Lennie and her daughter to her MckMama photo shoot in Charlotte and even got to take a couple of pictures to hopefully add to my eHarmony profile to update it a little bit.  She was suffering from the wonderful NC pollen and we felt so bad for her - it is in full force right now and everything is covered with the yellow sneeze and cough inducing yuckiness!  But is was wonderful to get to meet her and be photographed by her and just hang out with her for and hour!  She and her family of 5 kids are traveling in an RV making stops to do photo shoots until the end of April - SO glad they made a stop in Charlotte!  Lennie's little girl Samantha's pictures are going to be WONDERFUL - she is super photogenic anyway and has just enough attitude to make everything interesting!  Can't wait to see how they turn out!

Today holds yet more busyness as I gear up for a crazy week - but I keep reminding myself that I am SO blessed to have such a full life and am sincerely trying to enjoy every moment!  Take time today to count your blessings - and enjoy them a little - I know I'm going to do just that!

Blessings,
S

Just what I needed....

I've had kind of a crappy day - feeling a little kicked around...lots of things going on in my mind, my heart and just in general.  Got in the car tonight to head to church for praise team practice and turned the radio on as the intro to this song came on....Just what I needed to hear...and I wanted to share it just in case someone else needed it too....

Beautiful by Mercy Me

Growth, Focus and Real Change

It's interesting how things change and flow in our lives, sometimes fluidly, sometimes feeling like a u-turn and sometimes feeling like you hit a wall and never saw it coming.  No matter the method, the end result should be the same - learn from the situation and grow, focus on what is really important and implement real change if it is necessary in order to keep from going down the same path again.  Or at least that is the theory.

All of the experiences in our lives shape us in some way and for me, I usually find myself wondering 'how in the world did I end up here?' after the ones that really didn't go the way I wanted them to.  But that's a valid question, I think, because we can get SO wrapped up in the 'now' that we lose sight of where we are headed and that the brick wall is indeed looming.  And when we don't see it coming and it's too late to pump the brakes to avoid the impact, it's inevitable that feelings get hurt and self evaluation begins.  Because I process through things emotionally first then rationally, I usually get upset first, everyone needs a good cry every once and a while anyway, right? Then the yucky stuff starts...the desire to eat everything not nailed down since I am a world class emotional eater, the late night rants to my best friend, the self examination checklist of what could I have done differently, how did I miss that this was happening, what can I do now, if anything to make it better or make it go away...I doubt I'm alone in this process, or I sincerely hope I'm not!  And even if so, that's okay - because I have learned to own my feelings and try not to compare myself to others so much. 

Which leads me to today.  I am once again at a crossroads of sorts that I need to push forward for fear of falling into bad habits yet again, but I struggle with  the actions that it will take to forge past the fork in the road and not take the path that is sure to end up in more pain for me.  I am drawn to the wrong path for many reasons, not the least of which is my need to please everyone, usually at my own expense.  And I really know that I don't want to be.  But yet, often I do.  And that frustrates me even more!

I am so blessed!  I really am!  I praise the Lord for SO many things in my life...His grace ~ oh my goodness what would I do without it?!?!?  I need to focus on Him...I need to stop and give Him praise for His faithfulness and guidance in my life, even when I so often fall short.  In times of growth there are bound to be growing pains, right? So I need to buckle down and push through, so that real change can come.  I desire a stronger, real, in depth, in good times and bad relationship with God, so I need to be willing to put in my part.  Just as in the other areas of my life where my happiness is lacking - nothing will change without some work and faithful steps in the right direction.

While this isn't one of my happy go lucky posts with pictures of food that I've been posting lately - it's one I needed to write.  And maybe someone needs to read, only the Lord knows that.  But I'm glad I'm pushing forward through my 'dealing with things process' and the tears have dried for now and I am ready to pray about the next step that God will have me take.  Real change - honest, open, painful, raw emotions, big steps of faith , great reward at the end kind of change....That's my prayer!

I've probably shared this song before...but I'm playing it over and over today..."I'll stand, with arms high and heart abandoned, in awe of the One who gave it all....I'll stand my soul Lord to You surrended all I am is Yours"  Check out the song/video here . It's just good stuff...I can't make real changes alone - and I know God has put people in my life to lean on, depend on,  and seek support from and I am so thankful for them! 

Blessings to you all,
S

Random Restaurant Reviews



Massala Chai at Copper after the gallery crawl



Pistachio gelato, mango and passionfruit sorbet at Copper after the gallery crawl



Brewing coffe at the table in the Vietnamese restaurant

Finished coffee - it was pretty strong and had condensed milk at the bottom to be mixed in...was pretty good!

Won Ton Soup



I just really liked these bottles in the decor



Grilled Chicken with sesame seeds served on vermicelli lettuce with cucumber, mint and bean sprouts

Showing his chopsticks skills

Lemon Grass Curry Chicken

Sweet and Sour sauce

Dessert at another restaurant - enjoying a warm spring night on the patio

Fire Pit outside on the patio

Zucchini Chips - YUM!

Key Lime Pie with homemade blueberry ice cream



The week in review...food and fun!

This week, 'we' (bachelor #1 and I) had dinner with my best friend and her husband at our local family restuarant...and the food was good, the conversation was too and I was excited that they could meet each other and get acquainted! We chose the club with onion rings, lasagna, chicken fingers and spaghetti with meat sauce, sides of fried squash and macaroni and cheese and everyone went home happy!

We also made the trip to eat at Martino's italian restaurant, but he suprised me by making a trip up that way to check out a couple of places early, namely the Miss M's Sweets and he brought me back a selection of chocolates and a whoopie pie which were wonderful!!!  We then selected an Italian wrap and a penne chicken dish with mushroom, prosciutto and spinach in a cheese sauce that was way 'heavy' but very yummy! Cannoli's for dessert of course! And they were pretty good as well! I love the pastry on the outside the best! Always a bread girl!

We are headed to an art crawl this weekend and then I have a super busy Saturday planned, but looking forward to the weekend!

Blessings,

S



Have you noticed?

The Yelp! box on the side of my blog?  I joined this online review site this month and it's a pretty neat site for reviewing area restuarants, galleries, stores, you name it, you can review it!  I LOVE that you can add pictures of the places you visit (go figure that! any excuse to take a pic, right?) 

Every time I add a review it will be added to the listing popping up within the box.  Check it out...join yourself in your area if you're not in the Charlotte, NC area!  It seems to be a great community and it's a lot of fun!

So take some time to go to http://www.yelp.com/ and see what you think!  If you decide to join, message me with your screen name and I'll follow you... mine is Stephanie M on the Charlotte, NC site...I think you can click through the links in the box to get to me if you like.

So get to yelping! :)

Blessings,
S