The Last Thing

This weekend, my mom and I made our way up to Washington D.C. to pick up the last item I had up there, my box springs. My friend Matt moved into the house I lived in, and let me keep my box spring in his basement until I was ready to move into my new house. {{Matt was also the one that adopted Hank.}}

Driving to DC is still a little “weird” for me. I don’t feel like DC is my “used to be.” I feel like I am driving from one of my homes to the other, but this time I am happy about which home I visit for the shorter amount of time. I definitely don’t feel like a tourist. Fact: I get around the city better than the people that still live there. I especially miss all the things there are to do, but do not miss the traffic, housing prices or the northern personalities. Maybe one day I will return, but right now I am right where I need to be.

For the first time in our DC adventures, we spent the night in a hotel off Pennsylvania Ave. The White House was just four blocks away. I still didn’t get a picture.

The Hotel Lombardy is one of the Historic landmark hotels in DC, and thanks to Expedia.com we were able to stay cheaper than everybody else. As thankful as I am to have friends in the city I can stay with, it was beyond enjoyable to just walk out our hotel room and be in the middle of everything. Let me tell you, that is the life. Where my senator husband at?
We left bright and early on Saturday morning, so once we dropped off our bags we were on our way to Shake Shack. There are a lot of places in the downtown area that I have been wanting to try, but finding parking/traffic/the need to take my dog to the park over going downtown has kept me from some of these cool places. The Shake Shack is pretty delicious, a little pricey for a burger joint (but what isn’t expensive in DC?), but worth the experience.

Then we hit the monuments. You always gotta hit the monuments, but I highly recommend doing them at night. Go to the Smithsonian Museums during the day, monument hop at night. Trust me on it.

reconstruction from the earth quake…

All of these strangers hogging my main man

Korean War Memorial

My momma!

As many times as I have been here, this was my first time putting my feet in the water!

Saturday night I got to spend time with my friend Drew. He was one of my best friends last summer, until he left me all alone when he went back to grad school. It was great to see him again, almost a year later, to catch up and hang out. Of course I didn’t get a picture. Way to go me.

A throwback because I wanna. (Drew is the in the red)

Basilica the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception

I had a blast this weekend, even if I was only up there for a little over 24 hours. It seemed like an entire week we crammed so much into our little weekend.

It was real DC, but I am pretty excited about moving into my little nook here in a short 14 days.

P.S I am totally watching the Hannah Montana movie on the Disney Channel right now. #teammiley

Katelyn

 

 

 

 

Dirty Myrtle

This past weekend Lori and I loaded up her car and headed East. We were beach bound and determined to have a sunny weekend spending time making memories. Lori is one of my good friend here in Winston-Salem and also works at the Y.

Friday was spent at the outlets due to an overcast day. I didn’t mind hitting up J.Crew and finding some cute summer clothes. One item has been a blouse I have been dyyyying for and another some fun printed denim shorts.

i love them.

Here are some snapshots of our weekend at the beach!

We had some trouble. It literally took 10 minutes and several different tries/wine openers… We ended up on the floor.

kicked her butt in putt-putt!

wine slushy!

Highly recommended!

Even though I am a self proclaimed Belieber… I laughed.

Romper Selfie…? There was no other way.

We ended up having GREAT weather on Saturday and Sunday. We were very lucky, because everywhere else it seemed to rain. I got a nice tan, but even two days of constant sunshine didn’t get rid of my Chaco tan.

If you are looking for places to go in Myrtle Beach I highly recommend Dino’s Pancake House! It is my absolute favorite. Also, make a day trip to Calabash and go to Ella’s Seafood. You won’t regret it.

Vacations are the best. sigh

Katelyn

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Currently

Dreaming of the lake. I went to the lake over Memorial Day weekend and got a pretty nice sunburn. Regardless, all I want to do is be at the lake. Hopefully next time it will be a little warmer and I won’t have to brave the cold in my bathing suit.

Trying to come up with outfits that don’t revolve around white bottoms. All I want to wear lately are white skirts, white shorts and especially, white skinnies. I FINALLY found a pair of non-see-through white skinny jeans at Ann Taylor Loft. They were having a 40% off sale, and they finally had my size in stock! Hip, hip hooray! I just wish people wouldn’t notice if I wore the same pair of pants everyday. They would.

Enjoying the new dog park at Tanglewood. Well, I tried to enjoy it. It was only enjoyable for about hmmm… five seconds. Sadie doesn’t get the whole play with other dogs she doesn’t know thing very well when I am around, and especially not when she finds a ball and I am there to throw it. She ignores all dogs, won’t play with them, nothing. Even if there is no ball… I sit down, Sadie lays down beside me. I love her very much, but wish she would run around and play some, too. The story goes… she found a ball at the park on Saturday and there was another dog that wanted to play with her. Why not just throw the ball for both of them? Well, because that other dog is aggressive and when Sadie brought the ball back they got in one nasty dog fight. Poor Sadie had a bleeding tongue for a little bit.

Bad to the bone and lookin’ a little rough.

Deleting hundreds of pictures off my phone. Since Jacob has spent the past two years trying to crack my iPhone code, and can’t, he spends his time leaving hundreds of pictures of himself on my phone. He has tried locking me out of my phone but has realized death will come upon him if he ever does that again. Thus, I am left with versions of this…

Finding old gems. My mom spent the weekend cleaning out the garage and my dads office and found so many great things for me to take to my apartment. {{only 30 more days!!!}} She also found tons of old photo albums where I was able to snag some pictures dating all the way back to 1921. My favorites are 3 WWII portraits of my great grandfather, and great uncles in their uniforms. I have special plans for those, keep watch! In addition to the pictures, she found her old dishes she stored in her Hope Chest growing up. Apparently, you bought things you saved to use for marriage and stored them in a Hope Chest.

30 years old and counting. Corelle, I love you.

I was so confused at first, there were so many dishes. I have two types of coffee/tea cups, platters, saucers, salad plates, dinner plates, coffee creamer holders, sugar holders and Lord have mercy! And there are EIGHT of each. Who in Heavens name needs that many dishes? I guess I will just have to have a party and all 8 of us will rotate at my 2 seat table.

I have special plans for you, my friend.

She also passed on some measuring glass bowl thing that you can mix a cake in, and then bake a cake in, all in one.

Please note the rice hanging on my shirt. #1 eater right here.

So now I have more plates than any one person on this Earth knows what to do with, a stellar green filing cabinet and a legit glass bowl/mixer/baker thing. One step at a time.

Being surprised by the Dollar Store. Y’all… seriously, check out the Dollar Store before you buy anything. They have some legit stuff in there. Name brand cleaning supplies, dish soap, sponges, Moon Pies… Don’t count the Dollar Store out. I bought rolls of shelf liners (that sticky, but not sticky stuff you put in your cabinets) for $1 a piece. At Bed Bath & Beyond a roll was TEN DOLLARS. It might not be “the same” but the job will get done, and it saved me $27.

Dreaming of the beach. I am going to the beach next weekend. Yes, yes I am. The anchor romper will be making her debut. Get ready blogland.

Happy Monday!

Katelyn

 

Singles Registry

I went out on some errands today. While I was browsing the aisles of Bed Bath & Beyond and Target I realized that singles moving into apartments by themselves should be able to have a registry for their needed items. I mean, most of the kids getting married these days are younger, right of college and need all the apartment/house things because they will be moving into their first home. Where is the love for us single ladies? By the time we ever get married we will already have all we need for a good home. If that happens what are we supposed to register for? Cash money? So if you don’t get married right of college, but move into your own place, you should totally be able to make a registry. Single people unite.

Then I started putting together what my registry would be if something as awesome as this existed for us loners.

Katelyn’s Single People Registry

#1 Waffle Maker – You better believe it. Pancakes are easily my favorite of the two breakfast foods, but we all know waffles are that special occasion breakfast. When you are sleeping in a hotel, you wish for a waffle maker at the continental breakfast. When you are feeling fiesty, you choose waffles over pancakes. With a single people waffle maker, you can feel special all by yourself whenever you please. Who needs a ring when you have a waffle maker. Not I, says myself.

# 2 – A Dyson vacuum. This would be every other girls Kitchen Aid Mixer item, but I don’t cook to save my life… so I pick the kick ass vacuum. They come in awesomely fun colors, and they are practically robots. If I had a vacuum this awesome, I might actually vacuum.

# 3 – Pyrex everything – Give me all of that expensive glass stuff. You know what? I might not cook, but just like the vacuum, if I had awesome cooking stuff I might just start. It’s not everyday single ladies are showered with thick, expensive glass.

# 4 – Along that same note, Tupperware. That stuff lasts for decades, unless I lose it, but decades none-the-less. My mom has Tupperware that was bought before I was born… that she still uses. That is cray. Sign me up! They have fun colors, can be thrown in a dishwasher, and last forever. Packing lunches never seemed so fun.

#5 – Grocery store and gas gift cards. Oh, the married ladies want gift cards to Crate & Barrel? Bump that shiz, I want to be able to make it to work, fo free.

# 6 – A non Walmart special Microwave. Us single ladies have to get the cheap stuff, because we have to buy everything ourselves. Of course I am going to go for the $30 microwave over a $75 microwave. If I could register for a microwave it would be the $150 one. Life has a double standard against us who would rather have a dog than a husband.

#7 – Anthropology bedding. And I wouldn’t feel one bit bad about it. I did find some awesome bedding at Target today, but who would register for Target bedding when they could register for their dream bedding. Didn’t think so.

# 8 – A years supply of Brita filters. Gotta drink clean water, yo.

# 9 – A new computer or even a tablet. Brides register for crazy thing, like Egyptian cotton sheets. Everybody could just pitch in and buy me a new Mac, that’d be great.

# 10 – A Smart TV. I don’t own a TV. Sure there is one in my bedroom that has been in my families house for a solid 10 years, and it weighs close to 100 pounds. I am not moving that. It will stay exactly where it is and I will move without a TV before I move with that T-Rex. My uncle has one of those Smart TV’s where you can stream Netflix and Hulu Plus through your TV without having to have it hooked up to a computer or gaming console. That is some cool technology. I don’t plan on getting cable, so a Smart TV would be pretty epic.

get in my apartment

When it comes to silverware and wine glasses, I have that covered from college. Everything else I need will be hand me downs from my parents of things they had when they were first married 30 years ago. I mean vintage is in style now, right?

Katelyn

US Whitewater Center

This weekend was a great weekend.

Let’s just start it off at that. I spent all of my time with Lori, Billy and Ben. Ben is Billy’s younger brother who came into town during leave from West Point. You know that Military Academy in New York? Yeah, that one. They had lots of plans for the weekend and I was invited to tag along on the weekends adventures. We went to the Greek Festival, Putt-Putting, good bye parties, and the US Whitewater Center in Charlotte.

I hate to break it to you early, but I don’t have too many pictures. I took none at the Greek Festival, I met Ben for about five minutes before we were dropped off together. Oh hey stranger, let’s take a picture! Lori and Billy put us on a political discussion ban, so when they weren’t around we took advantage of talking a little politics. Even though I am glad I don’t work in them, around them or for them anymore, it is nice to have a solid discussion and not feel like your brain is shrinking when uneducated people start shouting their opinions at you the second they find out you worked in DC. (on both sides of the aisle) Ben and I ate a Gyro (he ate 2), those delicious dough things (he ate two) and some ice cream. Apparently growing soldiers need a lot of food. After the Greek Festival there was a goodbye party for a co-worker and then onto the late night putt-putt.

The weather was pretty perfect and all four of us are really competitive which ended up making it so much more fun. There is nothing like laughing at somebody who wants to throw their club over the fence after their ball bounces out of the hole and we count it as an extra stroke. I got second place to the resident golfer on our second game. He made a hole in one on the last hole and beat me by ONE STROKE!

Saturday morning we all woke up bright and early ready to hit the road to the Queen City. We were on our way to the US Whitewater Center, where the Olympic Whitewater Team trains!
This picture doesn’t do the compound justice. The place is massive, and SO MUCH FUN! If you have kids, or if you like doing active things, I suggest you high tail it right to Charlotte and spend the day here. It was $54 for an all day, all activity pass. When you see $54 you’re like… um, kinda pricey. But when you are doing all the stuff you’re like… um, I would pay more for this.

We started out at the rock wall where I completely shot my arms in the first hour trying to climb all the wall paths. Billy and Ben were trying to one up each other on the boulder, while Lori and I were just trying to get feeling back in our fingers. We had a great person helping us, and he even tried to give us some finger exercises for when we go back.

not my picture

After the rock wall we did the mega zip line, obstacle courses, high ropes courses, and then finally whitewater rafting. If you do ever go to the US Whitewater Center I suggest to go rafting last! They sign you up for the next available when you show up, but it was a slow day so we knew we could catch a later boat. There was this super hipster guy named Matt waiting around for a group and we walked up to him and said, “we want a rough ride, you in?” Next thing we knew, us four and Matt were as strapped in as well as you can get and down the river. We “surfed” everything, got soaked and had the BEST TIME. Right before we got started there was a group of Girl Scouts and I looked over to Lori and said, “no screaming like little girls.” Literally five seconds later, we were both screaming like little girls. It was the best ever. I spent the entire hour on the river screaming, laughing and having the best time.

After our adventure day it was to the hotel and showering in record time to get to the best restaurant known to man, Roosters Uptown. I haven’t been to many super fancy restaurants in my day, but even if I had, this would still take the cake. I am not adventurous when it comes to food, but I was eating duck, braised whatever I don’t remember, different types of pasta, MEDIUM cooked steak, masked sweet potatoes. Good Lord, this place is FANTASTIC. If you are ever in Charlotte, go to Roosters. Run to Roosters. They also have one of the best wines I have ever tasted, ever. I have tried a lot of wines. So if you ever spot Sant’Evasio Moscato D’Asti in a store, grab it.

Next stop, Bar Coco. I had my first macaroons! I felt so Blair Waldorf. They were fancy and delicious.

caramel, coconut and peanut butter

Livin’ the Dream in the Ritz Carlton Bathroom lounge area

This morning we took Ben to the airport, sent him back to West Point, and headed home. We got back around 9am and I slept soundly until noonish.

This was definitely a weekend that needs a weekend to recover from, but it was totally worth it. I had a blast with some really awesome friends and it was exactly what I needed to put some adventure in my always working life.

Katelyn

 

Random Prayers

As my time back in North Carolina grows and grows, I have come to realize that I have developed a little something I call my “Dear God’s.” These aren’t my bedtime prayers or before meal prayers, but more like my secret wishes and good luck charms. I constantly find myself saying these little “Dear God’s” throughout the day, and I thought I would share some of my most used quick prayers.

First and foremost, Dear God, please don’t let me see anybody I know. I say this all the time. ALL THE TIME! When you know 50% of your hometown and the other 50% knows your mother so by default knows you, you really hope and pray to escape Target without seeing somebody who will stop and talk to you for 30 minutes each. You know your home when a 10 minute trip took two hours. The place I always tend to see people I don’t want to is the grocery store. Just let me shop for cereal in my headphones with a passing wave. That’ll do pig.

Dear God, please don’t answer the phone, I would rather leave a voice mail. We all do it.

Dear God, please let there be milk in the refrigerator. You might be surprised by this one, but I say it way too much being back home with brothers who eat an entire cereal box for breakfast. I wake up craving a specific type of cereal, pour a big bowl of it and turn around to find NO MILK IN THE FRIDGE. It hits panic mode when I walk downstairs and there is no “back-up” milk. I don’t do mornings, so when it comes to this I find myself pounding my forehead on the counter top. Breakfast is my favorite. Cereal is my favorite for all meals. When I don’t get my beloved cereal, well, you don’t want to see that happen.

Dear God, please let *insert name here* not be here yet. I am always, always, late. No matter how hard I try, no matter how early I leave, I am always late. If you hate me for that, so be it. 

Dear God, please make sure Jacob isn’t hiding under my bed, in my closet, behind my shower curtain, behind any door or really any place in the house. You see, Jacob has this habit of scaring me to death all the time. I walk down the hall and chant this little prayer. Sometimes Jacobs isn’t lurking in the shadows because he is too busy torturing my dog, but other times… he gets me.

He leaves hundreds of pictures on my phone for me. Daily.

Dear God, please let there be one last Dr. Pepper. See the milk reaction.

Dear God, please make sure the guys side of the gym is empty. I hate going on the guys side of the gym. Read: weight room. They just freak me out. Luckily my super buff and looks nothing like me little brother is in town this summer and has agreed to work out with me. This might be the only time I hope other males think I am dating my brother. If it keeps them from looking at me all creepily then so be it.

Dear God, please don’t make me get up this morning. Don’t me wrong, I am thankful for my life, but I am 100% fine spending it in bed. I know a lot of people say that you waste your life in bed. To that I say… you are wrong. I beyond enjoy lounging in bed for an extra long time after I first wake up. I don’t think that is wasting my day at all. You want to get up at the crack of dawn and crochet? Good for you, but I will be asleep. Have fun cleaning that kitchen, I will be dreaming about Aaron Rodgers.

Dear God, what do you mean I missed McDonald’s breakfast, AGAIN?! I have been having these strange cravings for McDonald’s breakfast lately, but I always seem to get them at 10:31am. My craving clock needs readjusted. This also applies to Chick-Fil-A being closed on Sundays and always craving CFA… on Sunday.

Dear God, please not have let our crazy neighbor unhook my dog and let her loose outside; I don’t want to go to jail. Moral of the story, we have cray neighbors and I honestly believe one day they will let Sadie off her lead line and she will be missing. He is legit that insane, and then we will have one insane man not living beside us.

The world’s most awesome dog.

Dear God, **close my eyes, lean my head back and clench my jaw.** This is my most used quick prayer. It’s just one of those throw it ups and know that God can read your mind moments. It mostly happens when I drop my iPhone and I am praying with every ounce of my being that it didn’t shatter. Or when Jacob is torturing me. Or when I open the fridge and all there is to eat is nasty flavored Greek yogurt. Or when I have to fill up for gas. Or when I see a staffer calling me five minutes before their shift is supposed to start. I reserve this little prayer for all those beyond annoying moments. You know the ones where it takes everything in you to not scream and the only way you can make it through is divine intervention? Yeah, those.

You simply can’t make it through the day without a few eye rolls, imagined shots of tequila and few quick prayers.

Katelyn

 

 

A Trip to the ER

This weekend was a little bit exciting. I kicked off Saturday slipping on the pool deck and landing in the ER. I was teaching lessons for one of my girls because she was graduating and I was trying to be the boss and get lessons started all the while trying to teach kids how to swim. Somewhere along the way I slipped on the lip of the pool deck and came crashing down on the metal edge of the gutter. Whoops. A lovely dad helped get out of the pool and I kept on teaching that lesson on the side of the pool and trying my best not to move my left leg.

I ended up at the ER across the street from the Y (coincidence?) to make sure I didn’t break anything. I didn’t feel like anything was horribly wrong, but for workers comp practicalities I had to make sure everything was okay. Luckily my little brother was there for an interview and could pull him out to drive me. I would have driven myself, but I drive a standard and couldn’t operate a clutch with a bum left leg… Jared likes being the hero anyways, and he will use this against me for years. I can hear it now… “Hey J, will you do this for me?” “No.” “Why not!?” “Do you remember that time you pulled me out of an interview to take you to the emergency room?” He ended up getting the job and I’ll be able to keep my eyes on him all summer!

I am perfectly fine now, just have a super awesome bruise. I would show you, but I don’t want a picture of my butt on the internet. Sorry y’all, it’s a pretty stellar butt bruise. I just hate that you are missing out.

We spent Mother’s Day in mountains of NC with Auntie. We left early on Sunday morning and got up there just in time for “lupper” at Olive Garden. Lupper is the Garlow term for a late lunch/early supper. We had a great time eating, talking and dreaming of afternoon naps.


Of course Krispy Kreme was involved.

I hope everybody enjoys their week! I will be spending mine resting up for the weekend and trying to not make any sudden movements. I have a pretty packed and super fun weekend planned!

Katelyn

 

Weekend Ramblings

I had a very relaxing weekend. It’s hard not to feel completely lazy when it rains 24/7.

I spent the weekend dog sitting for a friend in town and figured out that you can stream Hulu Plus to your TV through a Wii. I am totally stealing one from my little brothers and not even going to worry about getting cable. If I can use my Hulu Plus through just internet and Wii… Best discovery of all time. {{Even though I am pretty sure you could do that two years ago. Whatever.}}

Sunday was the action packed day full of fun! (and rain) I’ve been DYING to see Iron Man 3 ever since they started showing previews months ago. Iron Man is my favorite Avenger and who doesn’t like to watch Robert Downey Jr. (one of my top five hottest of all time actors) play a narcissistic billionaire super hero. Pretty sure he doesn’t have to act very hard for the role, he was born for it.

IT WAS SO AWESOME! And all of you not familiar with Marvel movies… always stay until the end of the credits! They preview a little something something after. You’re welcome.

Did anybody else have to have their bag checked before they went into the theater this weekend? They were bag checking everybody before they let them in because of the whole Batman thing. This is the first time it has happened to me since Aurora. I was confused as to why they were only doing it this weekend and not all the times before… Are they going to be doing this for all super hero movies? It was just a really sad realization of the consequences on good people from the result of an evil person.

My friend Lindsey had an “episode” before dinner Sunday because she chugged one of those Monster energy drinks and her blood sugar was really strange because she hadn’t eaten very much that day, and she went crazy. Not hyper crazy, but thought she was going to pass out and I was going to have to do CPR crazy. The situation made me realize how cool it would be to become an EMT. Sure, I wanted my friend to be perfectly safe and not a hair harmed on her pretty blonde head, but I wouldn’t have minded doing a little lifesaving. Color me crazy, I am okay with it. I have looked into becoming an EMT a couple of times, but never followed through. It could be time to seriously check into it! I don’t have the money, time or brains to be a doctor, but being an EMT would be kind of awesome. Maybe I will dress up like Iron Man.

Speaking of super heroes,  two boy twins were crying hard core in lessons on Saturday and refused to get into the water until I convinced them that my lifeguard was Batman. Like legit the real Batman. He was of course in his “super hero life guarding clothes” and couldn’t put on his Batman suit. Cole was such a good sport and the boys were perfectly getting in the water to their undercover swim lesson teacher, Cat Woman.

Lastly, and most strangely,  I had a comment on my blog asking if somebody could use the picture of my feet in my Chacos from last weeks post for their foot fetish website. I do not know if this was joke, but either way, no. I apologize for any inconvenience to you or the traffic to your website, but I do not consent to that.

Katelyn

Pedicures & Pitchers

Yesterday was just one of those days. Not the kind where everything went wrong, but the kind that everybody needs you all at the same time all day to the point you are just about to lose it. My boss is on vacation and I was supposed to be doing one thing while everybody needed me to do everything else. Whew. Talk about being pulled in a million directions… Around 4pm, the first time I even had the chance to breathe, one of my staff friends decided we were going to go for a pedicure, and I was all like okay. The only issue was that once I got to the nail place I got a call saying I had a potential employee waiting in my office for an interview. I completely forgot I had an interview scheduled at 4:15. Awesome.  Of course I went back, interviewed the girl, she was nice, and sat there punching myself for forgetting. I got over it in about 5 whole seconds and then walked right out of the Y and drove straight back to the nail place for my pedicure. I didn’t even care that I went back-and-forth, I was getting that pedicure.

They put my Chacos on before they painted my toes. Apparently they were too complicated to put on with wet nails. Do those separators hurt y’all toes? After about 5-10 minutes my toes are HURTING! They just do not feel good. I love my pretty pink toes and dirty Chacos. Side note: If any of you are thinking about getting Chacos, do it. Best shoes ever. (In addition to Toms and Rainbows)

After my pedicure I headed back to work for another round of everybody needs Katelyn today, and got a couple more hours of work done before I just decided that I could either stay here until 9:30 at night or do it tomorrow. I chose the latter. Sometimes you just have to wait until tomorrow.

I was planning to go to dinner at the Loop with my friend Lindsey but then she suggested Mexican instead. When I hear Mexican food all I think is delicious cheese and Margaritas. After my day yesterday, I was fine with copious amounts of both. I tried to get her to split a pitcher with me, but she was running later and I decided to be responsible and not buy a pitcher for myself… but the medium Ritas were on special that night. Can’t turn a good deal down.

It was yummy! Queso dip, a Rita and good conversation with an old friend is just was the Crazy Doctor ordered. Me being the crazy doctor and the cray cray patient all in one.

I am just now realizing that I haven’t posted in a seriously long time… whoops. I have been writing a lot, just haven’t been putting it on the blog. Maybe I will cowgirl up and let y’all read some of it one day. Maybe.

Thank Goodness it is Friday. That is all I have to say about that.

Katelyn

6 more years until I’m 30

That is what my Dad told me when I was blowing out my candles today… Thanks, Dad!

Really though, I cannot explain how happy I am now that I can say I am 24 and not 23. I don’t really know what it is about 23, but I am ready to be 24. My mom and I were talking about my 23rd year the other day and it’s not that I want to forget it by any means. Last year was a growing year. I grew a heck of a lot and enjoyed being challenged and learning from those challenges, but I must say it is nice to take the step out of such a large “growing year” and into a more calm, but equally as full of new experiences year. Whew. Hope you understood that. For the first time in a long time I actually feel that extra year older. I didn’t feel much different when I turned 18, I don’t smoke so no big deal there. Nothing really changed after my 21st birthday except my bank account got smaller, but I feel 24. Here’s to my next year, even if it is spent in an odd year… 2013… Gosh that number still sucks. If I can get over my pure hatred for odd numbers during my 24th year, that is a milestone enough. not going to happen.

When I woke up this morning and walked out of my room, I slipped on a piece of paper that just so happened to be a sweet birthday message from my Mom! Living with your parents for any amount of time after college can be difficult, but I can easily say I was glad to be home, more than happy, practically pass out on the floor happy, to be home this birthday. {{Mom, you aren’t allowed to use that sentence against me. It only applies to birthdays.}}

Since I knew cookie cake was in my future, I headed to the Y for an early morning body combat session. I did take a picture for you after combat, but my face turns NC State red whenever I workout and never realized this pre-picture… but I am pretty sure it swells. Nobody needs to see that. I went home after combat to take a nice long shower and take my time (read: brush my hair) getting ready for my birthday. On my way back to the Y (it’s only 3 miles away), I stopped by Starbucks for an “I’m awesome and it’s my 24th birthday” treat to myself.

I apologize for the fact I look like a total brat in this picture. Like one of those crazy girls, but I didn’t realize my head was so tilted and I wasn’t going to risk another drive a stick through lunch traffic while holding a Starbucks while wearing my brand new dress and taking a picture again.

I walked into work around noon and right back out for a lunch with coworkers. Hard life. I even skipped out on swim lessons this evening so I could go to dinner with the family. In my attempt to familiarize myself with downtown a little bit more before I move, I decided to go to Fourth Street Filling Station. It’s a Winston-Salem staple, but I had only been once before, and that was when I graduated from High School. Just because the “big city” is 10 miles away from the suburbs doesn’t mean you go very often. We drove past my house and mapped that it was only .5 miles away from The Filling Station. Any takers for brunch?

I had a yummy Salmon Spinach Salad and then they brought me this ice cream brownie delight!

I forced my mother to bring the birthday place-mat, and then I wouldn’t carry it. The good people of Winston-Salem were going to think my family was thoughtful enough to bring it on their own. That poor mat has been through all the birthdays of all the kids. I even think my mom brought it up to DC last year, but then again I tried to block out all memories of April 22, 2012.

A few hours later and it was time for cookie cake!

For reals though, those $8 cookie cakes from Harris Teeter are the most deliciously tasting horrible for your body things I have ever eaten (besides eclair cake). I could eat it all day erry day.

Being normal is really boring.

It runs in the family

He wouldn’t get any closer to me… 17 year old boys are just too cool for that crap.

All I wanted was a good picture with my sweet baby… then Jacob got in the way. That is “Skinny Face Sadie.” btw.

This is “live in fear of Uncle Jacob” Sadie.

And this is “Jacob just did a sliding fart past us” Katelyn.

For my birthday my parents got me two dressers and a trip to Loft. Even though I wasn’t expecting anything else, it was nice to open something on my special day. Luckily for me, and my other pair of shoes, I got navy Toms!

It was my Dad’s suggestion to use them as ear muffs. Told you, runs in the family.

And just to show how desperate I was for a new pair….


New clean Toms almost look weird. It’s like to really be Toms I need to go prance around in some mud. I always swear I will take better care of my next pair, but it isn’t that I don’t take care of them… I just wear them out! Hooray for a new apartment, new clothes and new shoes!

This birthday really was fantastic. Thanks to all my “in real life” and blog friends for making it such a special day.

Here’s to 24, a perfectly solid even number.

Katelyn