Since I've Been Gone...

I've been doing TONS of this...

by this...

but mostly this...

We've been here, Charleston & Isle of Palms, SC
and here, Savannah, GA

And here back to Savannah to celebrate the soon to be, Mrs. Stansell!

And I've been to DC!

And we've been to Asheville, NC to celebrate newly married, Mr. & Mrs. Stansell!

And I've been to Las Vegas!

Then here, Fripp Island, SC

to celebrate the future Mrs. Wiley!

And this past weekend I've been home!

But don't worry I'm not getting too comfortable because... we're leaving again real soon!

I promise starting today I am back with regular posting!

Life is Like...

I'm sorry for the sporadic posting recently, my life has been doing a lot of moving so I can stay balanced. I had a fun weekend in Charlotte with some of my girlfriends and dinner last night with another girlfriend who's wedding is 3 months away! Where does time go? I was taking a glance at my calendar last night and I don't have a free weekend until June and that's the only free weekend until August! Summer is always an extremely busy time of year for me, but I'm looking forward to it all!

What are you looking forward to most in the coming months?

I'm Back...

I don't know where to begin other than apologizing for my two week long absence which was completely unplanned! I will be back to regular posting starting tomorrow. Even though I have been gone, I've still been keeping up with all of your blogs and have been enjoying them tremendously!

On another note, I gave up "sweets" for Lent, which I thought was going to be a huge sacrifice for me because I have tried other years and failed miserably. In past years, I would go through such terrible withdrawals that I got the shakes and just couldn't stand it any longer.

I don't know what it making the difference this year because I am pretty sure I was more addicted to "sweets" at this point in my life than when I last made this promise and failed, but what I have found half way through Lent is I feel fantastic with out all that sugar in my diet. Don't get me wrong I'm not forgoing "sweets" forever I just plan to tone it down once Lent is over, but in the meantime that groggy feeling is gone!

I am excited to be back and on track starting tomorrow!

Happy New Year!

As I look back on 2010, many memories come to mind. In 2010, I continued to grow and progress to be successful at work, my relationships with family and friends strengthen and grew, celebrated the engagements of cousins and friends, started this blog, traveled to new places, made plans for the future, and made many more memories big and small.

If you have been following my blog from the beginning you probably remember one of my first posts about my New Year's Resolution for 2010 and philosophy if you will on resolutions. Well 2010 didn't change how I feel about making resolutions, but I have put lots of time and effort in to making my New Year's Resolutions for 2011 after successfully completing my resolution for 2010, which was a success by the way! Without further ado...

Katie's 2011 Resolutions

1. Drink MORE water. I don't drink enough water. period. I have always been that way and I want to change that about myself in 2011. It bothers me because I know its not good for my body. Water is a vital part of your body's health and I know my body is severely lacking. It's not that I am choosing other drinks over water, I actually just rarely drink anything. When I am thirsty I usually only drink milk or water with the occasional sweet tea if I go out to lunch or a glass of wine at dinner on the weekends. So here's to drinking more water to keep my body hydrated and healthy in 2011!

2. Read. In 2010 I feel like I got away from reading, wait I know its a fact, I definitely got away from reading. I wouldn't say it's because I lost interest in reading, I really feel as though I just got busy with other interests. My goal for 2011 is to not only get back in to reading, but to make a reading list and to challenge myself to read 10 books in 2011. Anyone want to join me?

3. Try something new. I don't exactly know what I want to try that is "new" to me, but I do have a few ideas. I want this resolution to force me to step outside my comfort zone with the hope that it will become a part of my life from this point forward.

4. Blogging. To continue to grow and create this blog. I have a subcategory of blogging goals for 2011, but I promise there will be some changes, all for the better I hope!

What's your "philosophy" on New Year's resolutions? Do you agree with making resolutions at the beginning of the year or not? What about spending time reflecting on the previous year?

Here's to starting 2011 on the right foot and putting my resolutions in to action!

Two Funnies.

I hope these two jokes put on a smile on your face this Monday morning!

Two weasels are sitting on a bar stool. One start to insult the other one. He screams, "I slept with your mother!" The bar gets quiet as everyone listens to see what the other weasel will do. The first again yells, "I slept with you mother!" The other weasel says: "Go home, Dad, you're drunk."

------------------------

A married couple in their early sixties were celebrating their fortieth wedding anniversary in a romantic restaurant. Suddenly, a fairy godmother appeared. She said, "For being such an exemplary married couple, I will grant you each a wish." The wife answered, "I want to travel around the world with my darling husband." The fairy waved her magic wand and poof!--two tickets for the Queen Mary 2 appeared. The husband though for a moment, and then said, "Well, this is all romantic, but an opportunity like this will never come again. I'm sorry, sweetheart, but my wish is to have a wife 30 years younger than me." The wife and the fairy were deeply disappointed, but a wish is a wish. So the fairy waved her magic wand and poof!--the husband became 92 years old. The moral of this story: Men who are ungrateful should remember fairy godmothers are female.

Brain Dump

Boyfriend gave in and upgraded to the iPhone4 this weekend.I can't wait to try out face time.I wish every day could be a weekend-day.Where did the Fall weather go?Groupon you are my new obsession. For the best deals ever sign up here.I wish there was such as thing as the laundry fairy.I could eat fried Oreos every single day.I'm so excited to start my Christmas shopping.Why do the Gamecocks always seem to disappoint?Hopefully this weekend will be better.I can't wait for the Holidays.I love giving gifts.I've already made a huge dent in my Halloween candy from my parents.It's only 4 days old.I wish I could stop, but I can't.I wish I had all the money in the world. Don't we all?I still haven't bought a pumpkin.Running out of time.Yikes.I can't wait to share my post from this weekend.Come back tomorrow.I can't get enough of reading all of your blogs.I need a pedicure.My feet are really dry.I know there's a big change that is about to take place.I don't think I will ever be prepared for it.But I know it's for the best.I wish I going shopping today instead of to work.It's hump day. Alleluia.

Around the Web

Two things to share:

1.) When I first started exploring the blog world, I somehow found the blog, Catalog Living. Catalog Living "looks in side the exciting lives of the people who live in your catalogs." This is one of the funniest blogs I have come across and my day is incomplete without seeing what Elaine and Gary are up too. I hope enjoy this blog as much as I do!

2.) My boss sent me an e-mail last week with this video. I thought it was too cute and just had to share!

I hope everyone has a great Friday and an even better weekend!



P.S.- Where did September go??

Blog Award!

Kelley at The Eclectic Owl put a huge smile on my face when she gave me this blog award last week! I absolutely adore her blog. She is very creative, lots of fun, and a beautiful person inside and out! If you haven't checked out her blog, be sure to pay her a visit!

7 things about ME!

1.) I am an only child, though my Mom is one of 8 and my Dad is one of 5, which means I have a total of 28 first cousins!

2.) My Mom is my bestest girl friend in the whole world, we have so much fun together! And can literally shop til we drop!

3.) My dream job is to put my major, Retailing with an emphasis in Fashion Merchandising, to use one day working for a designer or magazine.

4.) I'm not a big TV watcher but when I do I love HGTV, the Food Network and I start my mornings watching the Today Show.

5.) I lived in a house with 7 of my best friends for my Junior & Senior year of college and miss those two years of living together every day.

6.) I could live off pretzels and Haribo gummy bears.

7.) I have a passion for traveling and am so thankful for my semester abroad in Florence, Italy and the opportunity to travel throughout Europe. Thomas and I traveled throughout Spain for 10 days this past May and had a blast, we can't wait to plan our next trip!

I'm passing this award on to:

Trish at Pink Preppy Lilly Lover

Erin at Erin & Wesley

A Note on the Screen Door

I Promise

Sorry I haven't been blogging the past week or two, life has been crazy! That's not an excuse just an explanation. Between traveling on the weekends, friends in town, football on the weekends, and the normal day to day activities, I have been spinning in all different directions.

So here's my promise, starting tomorrow morning I am going to update you on life the past couple weeks. Bare with me as they will probably be long posts to get everything covered, but I want to share my adventures with you and I hope you enjoy reading. I also can't wait to catch up on all of your blogs!

So incase you were wondering if I was gone for good, now you know I am back for good! I hope everyone has a fantastic Monday!

P.S. I can't wait for....

Doodle It, Doodlebug!

Have you heard of Doodle before now? If so, what do you think? Are you hooked? If you are anything like me and my group of girlfriends then it has most likely changed your entire social life/calendar, and if you haven't heard of Doodle before now keep reading because you are in for a real treat!

I first encountered Doodle back in the Spring when my girlfriends and I were attempting to plan our Girls Beach Weekend. Needless to say 12 girls responding a single e-mail is always a disaster, let alone several e-mails with multiple different dates per girl that fit each one of their schedules, is what you call a scheduling nightmare!

That's when my friend Katie in Chicago, saved us all from the mayhem. She sent us an e-mail with a link to Doodle. If you are like me, you are probably thinking "Doodle? What is this all about? I thought we were just trying to figure out dates to go to the beach for a weekend." Guess what, you are wrong, Doodle is life changing and makes scheduling easy for everyone!

So what is Doodle? Doodle takes the pain out of finding a suitable date and time for a group of people to meet. It can be used to schedule meetings, appointments, movie nights, a group event or family reunion, the possibilities are endless! Doodle is simple, quick, requires no registration, and is free! What is there not to like about that?

Here's how to schedule an event with Doodle!

On the home page
Click "Schedule event >>"

General information
Provide at least a title and your name. Use the optional description field to add further details, e.g., location, agenda, or duration.

Select dates
Select at least one day to be voted on by clicking on its day. A click on a selected day removes it from the selection.

Select times
If you want, you can refine the selected dates by providing a time, a place, or anything else. Click on "Add further time slots" if you need further time slots. And click "Copy and paste first row" if you want to enter the same time for all days.

You can click on "Finish" at any time to reach the next page. You can leave all the time slots empty if you prefer to vote on complete days only.

Done!
Your poll is now complete. If you have provided an e-mail address in the first step, you will receive two e-mails with one link each. Please forward one to the people who are supposed to participate in your poll. Please do not forward the other link (the so-called admin link), but use it to edit, export, or delete your poll if necessary.

If you have not provided an e-mail address in the first step, the two links will be displayed on the page

Voting (my favorite step!)
Your participants can now use the link you sent them to visit the poll and cast their votes. You can use the same link to cast your own votes if you want or to observe the poll's progress.

Now you can't tell me after reading this post you're not already thinking of an event you can use Doodle! To make you feel better you aren't alone, I was the exact same way and I think I can speak for most of my girlfriends and say they were just as excited about using Doodle as I was! Well get to planning and be the first of your friends or coworkers to send out a Doodle link to schedule your next get together or office meeting, they'll be thanking you for making scheduling easy!

Comments, Comments, Comments

So I am sure you read my blog every day (not!) and might have noticed that you wanted to comment on something in my post and weren't able to. I apologize! I am new at this whole blogging adventure and did not realize the comment section had been turned off.

I am here to tell you that has all been changed since the middle of last week and I welcome your comments, input, opinions, feedback, etc. I am very interested in what my readers have to say and I hope this opens up other doors for us to share ideas!