Friday Faves- Birthday Edition

I realize that I still have 1.5 months to go until I turn 29 again the big 3-1. However, there is no time like the present to start thinking about presents. Ha! So for this edition of Friday Faves, I'm going to do a run down of some things I would love to have for my birthday. And there is a major theme on these items. I think I may have a problem!

Here we go!

1. Key Chain  - Real fancy, right? But I just adore these key fobs from The Pink Azalea. So super cute. They can make them in any color you want and.... of course get them monogrammed. You had me at monogram :)

Dot Key Fob

Swirl Key Fob

Or I would settle for one of these acrylic ones:

Monogram Acrylic Key Chain

2. Workout gear - Ok, maybe not workout gear. Maybe just lounging around the house gear. However, if I did have these, I might be motivated to walk around the neighborhood just because these are too cute to hide.

Running Shorts

3. Coffee Mug!  How cute would this be tooling around my office? (oh yeah, it's monogrammed as well)

Coffee Mug

4. iPhone Case - Maybe one of these days I will break down and get one, but at $60 a pop it's hard for me to justify it just so my phone is pretty. But I love them!

iPhone Case

5. Erin Condren Life Planner - Just typing this out makes me feel like I am cheating on my beloved Lily Pulitzer planners that I have used for the last couple of years. But everyone raves about these planners, so I would love to try them out!

Erin Condren Planner

Although, I wouldn't turn down my beloved Lily Planner if given to me!

6. A New Camera Lens! Need to add to my arsenal of torture devices :-)

Cheap option

70-300 mm

Or splurge!

55-300 mm

7. A New Wallet - Love this cheerful green!

Kate Spade

8. Still want these earrings

Bauble Bar Peach Cut Studs

9. Stationery -  Every good Southern girl needs stationery. To write thank you notes or to just say hello. I currently have none, so I need to restock! These light and bright ones are too cute!

Stationery

But of course, I'm always a fan of the classics! Can't go wrong with an elegant embossed monogram.

10. Watch- It's safe to say that I have a MK watch addiction. I love them. I still have my eye on the tortoise shell one. Fear not, I'm sure one day I will break down and buy it.

Michael Kors

But I wouldn't turn down this Timex watch. I really want one :) You know, for casual days.

Timex Weekender

Wow. I just realized that I went a tad nuts with this. Sorry!

Wisdom Wednesday

⁹ Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. ¹⁰  Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. ¹¹ Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. ¹²  Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.

~Romans 12:9-12

Love. Four simple letters strung together into one little word. However, everything rests upon this simple principle. When the Pharisees tried to trick Jesus by asking him what was the greatest commandment, how did Jesus answer? Love the Lord your God first and love your neighbor second. Simple as that. Everything else will fall into place because you love your God and you love people. 

I wish I had some grand message to throw out to you today, but I don't. I think that this beautiful verse speaks volumes for itself. 

If you participate in She Reads Truth, you will know that the latest series is about prayer- and the power that comes through prayer.

I adore verse 12. What a message! Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. What beautiful truth.

Hope. That's another four letter word that should be as simple as its construction. But at times, it's hard to hope. Especially when life knocks you down to your knees. But then again, when you are knocked down to your knees, you're in a much better position to pray. Huh. Funny how that happens. At times when my hope was lost, I could always count on one thing- love. Love from my Heavenly Father. Knowing that He has me in His hands because I am His child. The more I focused on that, the more hope abounded.

The picture above shows my Love painting that I have up in my office. I have talked about it before, but if you don't know, I keep it in my sight to help remind me. Remind me not only to show love to the people I encounter at work every day, but also to remind me of a love that knows no end. A love that is everlasting. And that my friends is a good thing to be reminded of constantly.

I'm thinking about adopting these four verses as my motto for my life. I think it sums things up pretty nicely!

2012 Olympics

Unless you are living under a rock, you know that the 2012 Summer Olympic Games have started. I love the summer Olympics! It's always fun to watch the opening games and all of the entertainment value that comes with that opening ceremony. What I love more is to watch the competitions. It's the only time that I really watch any sports other than college football (which starts in a month's time, hootie hoo!).

I only caught a few things over the weekend, since I was in Savannah and doing other things. But David and I were able to watch a few events during the course of the weekend. Without a doubt, my favorite thing to watch is the gymnastics.

Image via

 I loved gymnastics as a young girl and if I was any good, I would have loved to have been on the Olympic team. Ha! Guess you can figure out that I wasn't that good :-)

My other favorite sports to watch during the Summer Olympics are swimming, volleyball, and running. I also enjoy watching the other random sports that you never see, such as ping pong, etc.

It was fun to watch Dana Vollmer win the Gold last night and to set the world record.

Image via

And with that being said, I have to throw out a "Go Gators" on that one. I saw on Gator Nation that if the University of Florida was it's own country, UF would be 5th on the Olympic medal count. So Florida is being represented well at the London games.

What were your take on the Ralph Lauren designed outfits for the athletes (with the made-in-China controversy aside)?

Image via

I was interested to see if Labron James would sport that sweet hat and I guess that he did!

I'm looking forward to watching the games again tonight. Are you?

Go USA!

Last Post About the Beach

...I promise! This will be a quick post about my last day at Indian Pass. I'm sure everyone is tired of this by now! I am anyways. On Monday, Brad, David, and I went out on the bay to go fishing. We only "fished" for a moment, then got caught in a rain storm, and then finally got in the water so the guys could spear fish. I occupied myself by gathering sand dollars and other creatures. We had a fabulous time and I was glad that I got to spend the day with two of my favorite men!

That evening, the family hit up the beach with the kids in search of crabs. They had a blast chasing them down. Rendi even got brave and held one. They were adorable and we had so much fun doing it!

So that wraps up our beach vacation. We had a great time and if you are looking into a low key beach vacation off of the beaten path away from a bunch of tourists, check out Indian Pass.
Told you this would be a quick post! Happy Friday, ya'll!

How to Torture Your Boyfriend

David is a sport to put up with me. I am constantly threatening him with taking pictures and I've always got a camera in his face it seems. Before our trip, I ran in Target to grab a few beach essentials. Like always, I pass through the clothes and bathing suits to check things out and came across a cute little sundress. I knew exactly where I wanted to wear it. On the beach and for a photo shoot. So, I ran over to the men's section and grabbed David a matching t-shirt. I may, or may not, have sent David a picture of our outfits as a threat to his impending torture!

Sunday after he got back from fishing and playing in the pool with the kids, we got all cleaned up and hit the beach. I loaded up my tripod and my remote for my camera and lead David down to his doom. {and I warn you, these will just be pictures of me and David for my mother's benefit. Feel free to skip this post if you aren't interested!}

I had to get a shot of the beginning. I was giving him a pep talk here that it wouldn't be so bad.

Here I am again, telling him to smile and act like he was enjoying himself. He in turn said he was hoping we were done. I had to choke hold him to get him to stay a little bit longer!

A little better!

I love his face here. Poor David! He finally admitted defeat.

And I got a few good shots of him.

I then wanted to try a few different poses. It is a little difficult to do when you have a remote for your camera and not someone actually taking the pictures for you.

Then things just got silly. This was my favorite part. I told David to look out at the water with me.

I told him to gaze into our future. He in turn told me that he was imagining getting in the water and drowning himself. Ha! After that, I figured he was done. He had been such a sweetheart to indulge me this. I didn't want him to push his limits too far. He really is too good to me. But we came out with some good shots and I'm so glad we did it. It was quite the bonding moment. :-)

Indian Pass

As I mentioned in my previous post about our recent family get away to Indian Pass, I took way too many photographs, so this post will be more of the same. Just recounting and recording our memories from the weekend.

Sunday was a gorgeous day. All the men loaded up and went fishing, so all the girls and children stayed back at the house. We hit up the beach for a moment. Then Stacey and I stayed with the kids at the pool, since that is where they preferred to be. Go figure! Plus, it allowed our mothers to relax on the beach in peace.

You're welcome for this picture, Mother!

Rendi showing off those painted fingernails!

Barrett had fun playing with Stacey. Sadly, Stacey and my Aunt Susan had to go home later in the day on Sunday. I was bummed to lose my bed partner Stacey. She actually let me sleep with her on Saturday night...in a twin bed at that. Which is unheard of in Stacey-Land. Usually if you sleep with her, she blockades herself in the bed with pillows so you can't touch her. She wasn't that lucky this weekend. And speaking of bed partners, David was a trooper this weekend. He had to sleep with Barrett for two nights. Barrett is obsessed with "John David" as he calls David. (We have a friend named John David that Barrett sees much more than David, so he gets a little confused!) I, of course took pictures of the horror on David's face of him and Barrett before bed. Barret was estatic.

And here's Stacey before her worst nightmare came true...sleeping with me :-P

It's ok because I got payback when little Miss Rendi came on Sunday. She wanted to sleep with Sissy, so I got her and David got Barrett.
The boys finally got home from fishing that afternoon and David surprised me with a present. He had gathered a few sand dollars for me while they were out. He's a sweetheart.

Then he got bombarded by the children. He was the new toy of the trip. I'm surprised he didn't break up with me after this trip between the kids and the torturous photo shoot I made him endure! He's a keeper for sure.

Yep, the kids loved them some John David. They were all big buddies by the end of the day.

I think the kids and adults included had a good day!