thought for the week: love and laugh abundantly

I love this quote.  It makes me thankful for all the love and laughter we have experienced in our family as of late.  Here's a quick recap...

LOTS of laughter as we celebrated my Grandmother's 80th Birthday...

mimi's children and grandchildren...we missed you emily!

Lots of love on my parents' 33rd wedding anniversary...

love them

Laughter and fun during Rebecca's debut at the Magnolia Ball....

2013 debutantes...rebecca is in the orange in the second row 

sportin' the carolina blue bow tie and cumberbund set.

Loving Dad at a Father's Day brunch... and Father-in-Law, JF from afar

we like aviators

Lots of love to mother-in-law Peggy for her birthday

happy birthday!

AND last but not least, love to Niece, B on her birthday!

happy birthday b!  never make a funny face in a picture...you never know where it might show up!

Thankful for so much love and laughter.  

xo,

first weekend in florida

This collage could not be more descriptive of our return to Florida!  We had a wonderful first weekend here complete with temperatures close to 100 (my car was in the sun when she hit 113), palm trees, and afternoon storms.  As crazy as it sounds, there is something so comforting to me to know that everyday at 4:00pm, a storm will roll through to cool things off...

While I wish I could say we did something over the top and crazy on our first weekend back, most of my weekend was spent staring at my computer screen.  I start my bar review class this week, so I had some pre-work to catch up on that took most of my weekend.  I did have a beautiful view of the river and loved seeing so many boaters whiz by enjoying the gorgeous weather.

my current desk set up...moving to a larger desk tomorrow!

For study breaks, we snuck in some visits with family and friends.  We are still adjusting to the fact that we are in Florida for good now and that we don't have to squeeze everyone into a few days or weeks.  We have lots more friends to catch up with, and we need to schedule some extra time with my family, but all in all, we have loved getting time with our Florida people.

quick visit to our new house for some measurements and planning with rebecca, mom, and josh

dinner with claire and ed at basil thai...and an amazing mango sticky rice dessert

family dinner with nieces k and b

Though I don't have a picture, we got to have dinner with Russell and Simmons earlier this week and Simmons introduced me to a fantastic wine.  This was the perfect red for summer- light and delicious and available at Total Wine!

cloud break

Hope you all had a great weekend!  Trying to get back into my routine of blogging now that we are in Florida but with bar classes and another move into our house on the horizon things might get a little crazy again.  Thanks for bearing with me!

xo,

dinner with sheri castle

In my weekend recap on Monday, I mentioned we had an amazing "adults" birthday dinner for Cotton and Josh last week.  Well, today I am so excited to tell you more about it!

My sister in law, May, called me a few weeks ago to say she had a surprise planned for dinner.  While I wasn't sure what the surprise would entail, I knew we had a date, time, and location- our kitchen!  A few days later she unveiled the surprise...Sheri Castle was coming to give us a cooking lesson and make dinner.

our menu for the evening

Some of you may know Sheri from her recipes and expert opinions that have been featured in the USA Today, the Washington Post, or Garden and Gun.  Others may recognize her as one of the chefs from the cooking school at Southern Season in Chapel Hill or as the author of "The New Southern Garden" cookbook.  I, however, know her from her recipes in Southern Living.  The woman is a cooking genius and to say I was star struck wouldn't be an understatement.  

Sheri with an warm antipasti appetizer

When Sheri arrived she was so sweet, and in true southern style, she began chatting like we had known each other forever right away.  She got to work unloading and setting up all of her own supplies in our tiny, tiny, tiny, kitchen.  While she asked us about our upcoming move, Sheri prepped a pork loin wrapped in pancetta and a warm appetizer for us to enjoy.  Cotton and May arrived shortly after and the real cooking lesson began.

diligently learning about our meal

food prep

One thing that continuously impressed me about Sheri was her knowledge of food, chemistry, and ingredients.  She truly has a gift for combining flavors and understanding how different textures, tastes, and smells will complement one another.  She was also amazingly helpful with little things- like where to buy everyday use olive oil and where to buy very good (like only use a tsp. at a time) balsamic vinegar.

antipasti

spinach and roasted red pepper salad with hot olive oil vinaigrette

pork loin wrapped in pancetta

Dinner was a wonderful experience made even better because we saw first hand how thoughtfully it was prepared.  Check out Sheri's website here and look for her recipe for tomato pie in next month's issue of Southern Living.

pork loin drizzled with balsalmic

delicious dinner...this is the only picture of the herbed cannellini beans I seem to have.  although they are out of focus, they were delicious...and even better the next day!

dessert

Thank you to Sheri for helping us celebrate, and thank you to May for arranging such a wonderful evening!  It will be one that Josh and I cherish for a long time to come.  

xo,

As a quick "PS," I am about the head to my last day of school ever.  It's been a wonderful three years (tempered with, as my friend Virginia says, some not so wonderful times ) and I'm so thankful for the friends I have made.  While Gator blue will always be my first love, Carolina blue definitely holds a special place in my heart now as well.

easter weekend with my peeps

Good Morning!  Did you have a fantastic weekend?  I spent most of the day Saturday writing a paper, but it paid off because I got to enjoy lots of treats and family time on Easter.

While Easter in North Carolina is wonderful, I do miss my family's traditions.  Josh and I don't have any traditions of our own for Easter, but we want to start some!  So far we have (1) eating a fresh baked good and an orange on Easter morning before church... and with that we are officially taking your suggestions for creating some Easter traditions of our own.  Help is obviously needed and much appreciated...

easter morning

Saturday was the most beautiful day I can remember in a long time.  We opened all the doors and windows in our little house and enjoyed the weather as much as possible.  As I said before, I spent most of the day writing a paper, but on my breaks I ran outside to soak up some sunshine.  We had lots of walks with Mac and enjoyed lunch outside at Merritt's, home of the best BLT in the country. 

josh and mac "at the rock" on our favorite walking route

spring flowers and merritt's blt

Easter this year seemed like the perfect chance to load up on sugar...and I did.  I made homemade scones for our Easter breakfast and then with each meal we added more treats and sugar.  I think I will be on detox for at least a month!  On another note, how cute are those cupcakes my sister-in-law May made?  They are carrot cake cupcakes topped with chocolate peeps- adorable and delicious!

cupcakes and peeps // homemade scones // easter petits fours

Sunday night we had pancake supper at the my sister-in-law's parent's house.  The Easter Bunny hid eggs for our niece and nephew in the yard and we had fun hunting for the hard-boiled gems.  That's right- hard boiled eggs- as in real ones...here's hoping we found them all?!?!

jake, maggie, and david ready to hunt / annie and maggie / josh and jake

What are your favorite Easter traditions?  Like I said, we are taking suggestions so I would love to hear from you!  Wishing you all a wonderful start to your week.  

xo,

weekend in florida

Good Morning!  We arrived home from a whirlwind trip to Florida last night (a little more than 48 hours) and I am one tired girl today!  So, I thought I would let my pictures from the weekend speak for me...

Reinhold Family Reunion Service Project, Annie and Josh

Reinhold Family Reunion Service Project, Peggy and Neely

Reinhold Family Reunion Service Project, Klare and Maggie

We were in Florida this weekend for Josh's Family Reunion.  We did a family service project at BASCA, an incredible organization dedicated to improving the lives of mentally and physically handicapped adults.  Our projects involved building garden boxes, hanging bird houses (made by program participants!) and doing general planting/grounds clean up at their women's home.  The entire family participated and we had representation from age 1 to age 74!

Lunch with the Adams Family at Havana Jax!

Lunch with the Adams Family at Havana Jax

I got to sneak away on Saturday for lunch with my family at Havana Jax Cafe.  Cuban food is one of my favorites and sweet plantains are the best way to end a meal if you ask me!

Got to see Reagan!  Unexpected surprises are the best!

After lunch, we went to a few open houses in the neighborhood.  While I love looking at houses, the best surprise was when we ran into not just one, but two of my best friends in Florida!  Our friends Claire and Ed are looking for houses and we just so happened to pull up to the first open house right behind them.  AND, one of the open houses was right by a house that one of my dearest friends recently bought with her husband.  We were thrilled when we drove by and saw she was home.  Sweet Reagan was nice enough to let us come see the amazing progress she and her husband have made on their house and interrupt her weekend house chores.  I hadn't called anyone since we were only in town for a quick trip and we were committed to the family reunion, but getting to see two friends was one of the best surprises of the weekend.  (I forgot to snap a picture with Claire...next time!!)

Reinhold Family Reunion Dinner

Reinhold Family Reunion Dinner

On Saturday night, we had the Reinhold Family Reunion "official dinner."  It is a wonderful time where everyone gives a speech with the highlights of their year.  While it is usually a little stressful to think of something to say, it always turns out to be one of the greatest parts of any family weekend.

Birthday Celebration!

Birthday Celebration with Josh

Birthday Celebration!

Birthday Celebration!

Birthday Celebration with Mom and Dad

After a jam packed Saturday, I came back to my parent's house and celebrated my birthday with my parents, sister, Josh, uncle, and grandmother.  I had my favorite chocolate cupcakes, got to make my wish (or four), and felt so special and loved.

How was your weekend?  While ours was FULL, I wouldn't have it any other way.  We had busy days with meetings, hellos and goodbyes, and flights on Friday and Sunday, but being home for Saturday and seeing both of my families made lots of travel and a quick turn-around absolutely worth the trip!

xo,