I'm coming back!!

I know I have been gone a long time from the blogging world but I am making a comeback soon. I actually have started two posts just haven't been able to finish them quite yet. I thought I would send out some good thoughts to Fort Worth for the HUGE game this weekend for TCU!!!

Oh how I wish Geoff and I could be there this weekend to celebrate and cheer on our favorite team. We will be cheering from home, you may even hear us if you listen really well. :)

Let's go Horned Frogs!!!

Our Great Country!!!

Happy 4th of July to everyone! I am proud to be an American and truly believe this is a great country. I am proud to know some soldiers fighting in the war right now and want to wish them much love and safety. Thank you for standing up and protecting this great country of ours when it is needed.

Geoff's brother, Brent, and his wife, Katy, are both in the Army and Brent is currently in Afghanistan serving a year's tour of duty. He was just home for some R & R, then left last week to go back. We think he should be done in October of this year. Please keep Brent and Katy in your thoughts and prayers along with all of the other soldiers around the world this holiday weekend.

Geoff and I are headed to Beaufort, NC this weekend for some sun, sand, and good company. I have found I really enjoy living so close to the coast. It has been nice to drive only 1.5 hours to the beach when it used to take 8 hours in Texas. We are excited to spend the weekend on the boat and hanging out at Cape Lookout and the Shackleford Banks along with celebrating the July 4th holiday!

I hope everyone has a wonderful and safe weekend. Hopefully you will get to see a fireworks show, I know I'm looking forward to seeing some. Enjoy good food, good friends, and great celebrations.

What a Smart Woman

I found this poem on another blog, have a lovely, and it really opened my eyes and spoke to me. I hope you can take something away from this as I did:

"people are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered;
forgive them anyway.

if you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives;
be kind anyway.

if you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies;
succeed anyway.

if you are honest and frank; people may cheat you;
be honest and frank anyway.

what you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight;
build anyway.

if you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous;
be happy anyway.

the good you do today, people with often forget tomorrow;
do good anyway.

give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough;
give the world the best you've got anyway.

you see, in the final analysis it is between you and God it was never between you and them anyway."

-Mother Theresa

Better things to come...

This week has been a very upsetting time for myself and certain people I love very much. We realize there can be things thrown at us that may make us fall but we know that God will be there with us with love and comfort.

I saw this verse today and thought of those I love:

2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.- James 1: 2-3

Much love goes out to those who are grieving right now and please know many prayers are being prayed for you and with time it will get better.

Love,
Katy

Great thoughts...

I just read a updating article on Us Weekly about Julia Roberts. I have always enjoyed her as a actress and I now as a mother. In the article she was speaking about her children and husband and I really enjoyed reading this quote,



"The coolest thing you can do for your children is to love each other in their presence." - Julia Roberts.



I would like for everyone one to do this in their relationships, whether you have children or not. Act as if someone is watching you and think about how you treat other people, it really does mean a lot and shows the kind of person you are.



Thanks Julia for brightening my day. :)

Happy, Happy Birthday!!!

Today we are celebrating Geoff's 29th birthday!!! I am so happy to be able to share with him becoming an old man (I am one year behind him so I can say that :) ). Just kidding, this man has more energy than most and will always be a kid at heart. I love every piece of him and continue to find more and more things I love about him everyday! Thank you for the 9 birthdays we have shared together and lets wish for many more to come.

I want to wish Geoff and very Happy Birthday!!! Honey I love you and hope you get all that you want and wish for on this day. I can't wait to celebrate!

A little about me...

This a fun idea I got while reading other blogs, I hope you learn something new about me and hope to read something new about you on your blog.

what was i doing 10 years ago?

I was getting ready to graduate from high school. I remember being really excited at this time of year, waiting to turn 18 years old and counting down the days until then. Being super excited I was accepted to TCU starting the process of getting ready for such a big chance.

5 things on my to-do list:

1. pack for this weekend
2.Organize the guest room closet and storage closet on patio
3. get ready for work next week- two presentations and a tv appearance
4. get birthday presents for Geoff, Beth and mail packages home to FW
5. clean the house (bathrooms!)

5 snacks i love:
1. Cheese nips/ its
2. tomatoes/ mozzarella/ basil and balsamic vinegar
3. Cool ranch Doritos
4. sour candy( sour straws/ blow pops)
5. Blue Bell ice cream

5 things i would do if i were a billionaire:

1. move back to Fort Worth
2. pay off all school loans and credit card debt!
3. buy a new car both me and Geoff
4. Take a trip to Italy and Greece for a month
5. buy a beach house in NC to have that connection
(*also, save money for college for children, help out family and friends, etc.)

5 bad habits:

1. I love eating carbs, bread is one of my favorite things to eat
2. Procrastinate on just about everything- wish i could stop
3. have major sweet tooth (and I'm diabetic!)
4. Pile leaver (i have piles everywhere :) )
5. being very slow, I take my time with everything

5 places i have lived:

1. Fort Worth, Texas
2. Standering house- FW, TX
3. Myrtle Springs house- FW, TX
4. TCU Dorms/Apartments-FW, TX- college
5. Greenville, NC- currently

5 jobs i've had or have:

1. Designs for Children/The English Cottage- I loved this job, selling toys and gift items
2. Alliance For Children- Family Advocate/group facilitator
3. Child Protective Services Investigator- State of Texas
4. Alliance For Children- Center Coordinator- child abuse prevention education
5. TEDI BEAR Children's Advocacy Center- Community Outreach Educator- child abuse prevention education

i want to know more about: (you're tagged!)

1. Katy Berry
2. Lindsey Benson
3. Kristen Buchanan
4. Kathryn McGlinchey

Chance to win...

I have entered into a great giveaway this week through another blog, Southern Hospitality. Rhoda at Southern Hospitality is giving away a Photosmart C6380 Wireless Printer, what an exciting prize!!! I could use a new printer right now, ours is pretty old and has just about bit the dust. Each time a print something I am afraid of how it will come out, colors wrong, taking forever to print, etc. I also have a ton of pictures I would like to print and frame for our home but cannot do that with our printer right now. One of the great features of this printer is the fact it is wireless! This is so helpful, especially living in a small place with not so much storage for printers and all the wires that go along with them.

Here is a picture of the printer that will be given away. It looks great and is very helpful with all of it's great functions.

If you would like the chance to win the printer also please visit Rhoda's blog, Southern Hospitality, to comment. Thanks to Rhoda for the chance to win a spectacular prize.

New Orleans Baby!!!

I am a little late in posting about our wonderful trip to New Orleans, LA. We had so much fun spending time together on our little getaway, sharing such a great city. We arrived in NO Saturday, February 28th around noon and headed to our hotel, The W off of Poydras. Geoff and I have stayed in a couple of W hotels before and really enjoy all that they include. It's such a nice treat to stay the night in a great hotel.

We arrived at the hotel and were given our room key and went straight up to the room to unpack before heading to get some lunch. I believe when you are paying for a nice hotel and room you should get a nice hotel and room. Our first night at the hotel was not very satisfactory, dirty room, stained furniture, broken fixtures, horrible room service, dirty walls in the bathroom, etc. Geoff made a list of all the problems in our room, it just looked like this room had not been fully taken care of in a couple of months, and took it to the management. After hearing about our problems they immediately gave up double points for our stay, and upgraded us to a suite on the 22 floor. I wasn't expecting much with the other room we had but I was very excited to see our wonderful (and CLEAN) room that afternoon.

Here are a few pictures of our room:
Our Bedroom...Our Bathroom... (I love the subway tiles they used in the shower/tub)Our living room, with bar and table...

And our guest bathroom... (This suite had great views of the river, I hate I didn't take any pictures of that)

We spent all of Saturday down in the French Quarter. It was nice to walk and see all the beautiful architecture, iron porches, small alleyways which lead to small courtyards. I love New Orleans and the feeling it gives you. We went shopping on Royal Ave. and found a couple great antique stores, art galleries, and gift stores. We went to the French Market hoping to find something great, and we came away with some good ideas and a wonderful candle (French Quarter Candles) that smells so good. I love burning at home, it just takes us back.

When we were walking back down to catch a cab back to our hotel we stopped in my dream store, What's New Gift and Home Accessories. They had so many fleur de lis in this shop I could have bought everything. I have a bit of an obsession with fleur de lis items, they make me feel good and part of my Kappa background (or at least that's what I blame it on). I didn't buy anything in the store, they were in the process of closing and trying to get a homeless many out of the store who was being a little to friendly with the sales clerks. I will have to go back to this store when I go back and will be visiting them online.

Geoff and I stayed in Saturday night so we could rest up for Sunday. On Sunday, we went on a walking tour of the Garden District of the city. I did my reseach beforehand and this was the best tourgroup I found (Historic New Orleans Tours). We had a blast on this tour and our tour guide, Bob, was excellent, he gave great detail to all the stories he told and answered all the questions we had. He even gave us trivia questions to answer, Geoff got 2 out of the 3 correct! Here are some pictures of the homes we saw along the way,

This is the "Curious Case of Benjamin Button" house. This is the house I really wanted to see throughout the whole tour and it was the last one we came to. The next picture is of the back of the house with the stairs, where the baby was found!! It was pretty exciting for me to see this since I enjoyed the movie so much.



I had so much fun seeing all the homes in this area of the city, they are so beautiful and I love the Greek revival architexture. While we were walking we saw Nicholas Cage's home (now for sale), John Goodman's house, and the author, Anne Rice's home (also for sale). This neighborhood has the best coffee shop and book store (The Garden District book shop) which has so many signed copies of books, I picked up a few books as presents. What great gift ideas!!

Once our tour was over, we took a streetcar back to our hotel to go get ready for a surprise dinner Geoff had planned for us that night. This streetcar ride was my first one and we had a blast. Here is a picture of Geoff and I riding along:

After getting to the hotel and cleaning up for dinner we took a cab to the secret location. Geoff had been keeping the location of the dinner a secret since we started planning and I had been trying to guess all week long but he wouldn't budge. We took a cab to Emeril's New Orleans restaruant. This was a great choice and one of the ones I had been guessing. :) He did a great job planning and we had the best dinner, Thank you to my wonderful husband!
Monday morning was bittersweet, we were excited to spend the morning exploring a little more of New Orleans but we had to leave such a great city. We got up early, packed our bags and headed to Cafe Du Monde!!!! This is the one place I really wanted to go and we saved the best for last.
The beinets were delicious, I debated on whether or not to bring some home with me on the plane. We truely enjoyed this treat on our last day in NOLA.
After eating our fabulous breakfast we strolled around the french quarter for the last time. We went to Saint Louis Cathedral in Jackson Square. It was so beautiful inside and out. We spent alittle time inside and enjoyed experiencing this historic church.

Afterwards we walked down Royal St. again and bought some artwork at one of the many galleries in the French Quarter then we headed to Brad and Angelina's home. I was given the address the day before by our tour guide and I was excited to see where they have a home. I'm not a crazy fan or anything but it was something I just had to see before I left. Here is a picture of me standing in front of their home (don't worry they were in NYC while we were there):
After this we caught a cab back to the hotel and then off to the airport. We had such a good time visiting and can't wait to go back soon!!
~Katy

Walking for a Cure

This past weekend I was involved in wonderful cause, the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. I have been a diabetic since 1989, almost 20 years, and have learned to manage everyday life while living with this chronic disease. Over the past 20 years I have never been involved in a walk like I was this weekend.

This weekend Geoff and I walked to raise funds for research to cure diabetes with some friends we have met this past year. Stephanie and Brooks Bunn invited us to be a part of their team honoring Stephanie's niece, Hailey. Hailey is 10 years old and has been a diabetic since she was 8 years old. I found it a great opportunity to join together as a team and raise money for such a great cause. I was able to raise $700 for the research foundation with the help of wonderful friends and family who have supported me throughout my life, from childhood into adulthood. I appreciate each one of the donors and thank them for their help.

On Saturday morning Geoff and I got up early and headed to the Greenville Convention Center for our walk. I was excited to get walking and hoping this would help to motivate me to start excercising more. :) Here are Geoff and I before the walk.

Here we are with Stephanie and Brooks, Stephanie was our team leader and kept everyone in order.

We had so much fun walking in the sunshine, even though it was a little chilly with the wind blowing. :) We tried to keep warm by keeping up with the kids walking with the sign. They were fast and energized, how nice to be a child again.

We wore shirts that said our team name, Hailey's Angels. Hailey is the little girl in between the boy and girl with the blue zip up jacket.

I truely believe there will be a cure for diabetes in my lifetime and I know that with more conversation, donations made, and research in this field we will find a cure. Please get involved in your area and help to CURE diabetes. Insulin is only a treatment not a cure.

Love, Katy

Quote of the Day

I really enjoyed reading this quote today. I can totally use this in certain parts of my life and would have read it over and over. I hope that it helps like it did me.

"Life can only be understood backwards, but it has to be lived forwards. -Soren Kierkegaard

Big Easy Here We Come...

I am so exicted!! This weekend Geoff and I are going to New Orleans!!! I can't wait to see all the history NO has, the culture, the food, the music, the art, etc. This trip was planned for our Valentine's gift, Geoff was in Miami over Valentine's Day and we are using this as an excuse to go on a trip. ;)

We are going, I think, at a great time, Mardi Gras will be over but there should be some things left for us to see. I don't think I would do very well with all of the people in such a small place with things being thrown at my head. Haha. I can't wait to go on a trolley ride, visit the French Quarter, I've already been scoping out some places I might need to visit (Shopping!!), and I really can't wait to eat at Cafe Du Monde! www.cafedumonde.com

We are staying at the W Hotel while we are there for the weekend. It looks like a really nice place to stay and really close to all the things we are interested in seeing while we are there. Check out where we will be staying, www.whotels.com.

I can't wait to post more when we return from our trip. There will be lots to see and I can't wait to share with everyone. Please send me some suggestions of places to go and things to see while we are down there.

Quote of the Day

I really enjoyed reading this quote today. I think each person should think about this before start the day. It helped my attitude for the day and maybe it will help yours. Enjoy. :)

"An optimist is a person who sees a green light everywhere, while a pessimist sees only the red stoplight... The truely wise person is color-blind." -Albert Schweitzer

Quote of the Day

This quote was supposed to be used for Valentine's Day but I'm a little late getting it on the blog.

"Love is love. All, everything that I understand, I understand only because I love. Everything is, everything exists, only because I love. " -Leo Tolstoy

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend and was able to share love with someone or something special.

Quote of the Day

I received this quote and thought it was perfect for the end of the week.

"A laugh is a smile that bursts." -Mary H. Waldrip

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend and will be able to share many laughs.

Quote of the Day

"Life is a great big canvas, and you should throw all the paint you can on it." -Danny Kaye

Quote of the Day

I'm going to start having a quote of the day on the blog. Over the past 8 years I have been collecting different quotes and I want to share them with everyone. Who knows what might spark someone's interest...

"I don't know who invented high heels, but all women owe him a lot. " - Marilyn Monroe

It has been quite a while since I have written. This week we had SNOW in Greenville. I have been told a long time ago Greenville used to get lots of snow but recently there hasn't been much at all. Last year at the time I was in Greensboro with my mom and grandmother which is about 2.5 or 3 hours away from Greenville and it snowed like crazy but not a flurry fell in the sky at home.

This year was different, I think we had 5-6 inches of snow in Greenville this week. I was able to take a few pictures of the snow from my office on Tuesday, Jan. 20th. Theses were taken about 1:30pm and the snow continued to fall all day long. It was wonderful!! I couldn't stop smiling while I was driving home in the snow. Isn't it funny how the smallest things can make you feel great. :)

This last picture probably shouldn't have been taken while I was driving but I wanted everyone to see what the roads looked like and the snow actually falling. Plus I was only going 5 miles a hour at this point, it was really icy.

I hope you enjoy these pictures and I will post more pictures from the house I took after I got home. :)