Annoying Little Things

Hey guys!!! Sorry I'm posting super extra late today. It's been crazy...I've been driving all over the country trying to get my new car situated. The CD player is broken and I'm getting it worked on and the 4X4 system is messed up and needs a new sensor...Anyway, for today's inspiration I wanted to share with y'all an email my mom sent me a couple days ago. I don't know how much truth there is to the stories...but regardless, it's a great message that we all need to remember.

As you might remember, the head of a company survived
9/11 because his son started kindergarten.






Another fellow was alive because it was
His turn to bring donuts.






One woman was late because her
Alarm clock didn't go off in time..






One was late because of being stuck on the NJ Turnpike
Because of an auto accident.






One of them
Missed his bus.






One spilled food on her clothes and had to take
Time to change.






One's
Car wouldn't start.






One couldn't
Get a taxi.






The one that struck me was the man


Who put on a new pair of shoes that morning,


Took the various means to get to work


But before he got there, he developed


a blister on his foot.






He stopped at a drugstore to buy a Band-Aid.


That is why he is alive today..










Now when I am


Stuck in traffic ,


Miss an elevator,


Turn back to answer a ringing telephone ...






All the little things that annoy me.


I think to myself,


This is exactly where


God wants me to be


At this very moment..






Next time your morning seems to be


Going wrong ,


You can't seem to find the car keys,


You hit every traffic light,


Don't get mad or frustrated;


It may be just that


God is at work watching over you.

May God continue to bless you


With all those annoying little things


And may you remember their possible purpose.



This meant a lot to me because at times I get so impatient and stressed out when something takes longer than I'd like or I get off course during my day. One time, me and my friend drove to Atlanta for a dance conference. The next morning as we were getting dressed, my friend sheepishly said she just realized that she forgot her jeans. We had to miss the first few dances to go get her a pair. We went all over downtown Atlanta searching for jeans and it ended up taking the whole day and we missed the entire dance conference. She didn't seem to mind a bit and went with the flow. At first I was so mad. I couldn't believe I drove all the way to Atlanta to miss the entire reason I came. However, it ended up being so much fun and we have wonderful memories. I look back on it and try to have her attitude about things. Well, it's not what I planned on, but I'm going to make the best of it.

I hope this inspired you today as much as it did me! Happy Monday!! :)

The Biltmore House

Photo from lastradaatlakelure.com

A beautiful house with breathtaking gardens, a winery, an inn and even a farm located near Asheville, NC. George Vanderbilt had the Biltmore House built as a retreat for himself, his wife and his daughter. The house was completed and revealed in 1895 with 250 rooms including a banquet hall, indoor pool, library, gymnasium and bowling alley. As beautiful as the house is, the gardens are just as astonishing. You pay admission and you can either take a guided tour or a self guided tour. I have always done the self guided tour because you are able to spend as much time as you want in each room. It's a great place to visit if you've never been!! There are shops and restaurants and tons to see and do. You can stay in the inn, visit the winery and enjoy wine tasting, visit the farm, go horseback riding, fishing, hiking or even go on a carriage ride. You can even get married there!! Imagine how ridiculously beautiful and expensive that would be.

Photos from biltmore.com

The Biltmore House is sight to see any time of the year. In April and May, they have the Festival of Flowers. You can enjoy acres of gardens carpeted with beautiful blooms, live music, and unique floral displays.

Photo from biltmore.com

During the summer, they host many concerts. You can listen to some awesome music with a view of the beautiful Biltmore House and lovely North Carolina mountains in the background. I've never been to a concert there but I have wanted to! They had a christian concert there last year but I wasn't able to make it. I hope I can make one this year!!

Photo from biltmore.com

Starting in August, you can see their amazing Flower Carpet. It's basically a huge garden with bright, colorful plants weaved around each other to create a beautiful living carpet on the grounds.

photo from romanticasheville.com

Then comes the best part! Christmas!!! Christmas at Biltmore is something you just have to see for yourself. You have to get your reservations way ahead of time because it fills up fast. You will see tons of beautiful Christmas trees, decorations, and even a 35 foot Frasier fir. During the evenings in November and December, the house is lighted with warm fires and candlelight while choirs are singing heavenly carols to get you in the holiday spirit. Sound magical doesn't it??

Photo from romanticasheville.com

My first trip to the Biltmore House was in the 6th grade. We visited on a field trip. What fun we had!! When we got back, we watched the movie, The Private Eyes. It is a HILARIOUS movie starring Tim Conway and Don Knotts and was filmed in the Biltmore House. If you haven't seen the movie, you really need to go rent it! You will LOVE it! I have seen it a million times and I never get tired of it and still laugh like crazy at all of the corny jokes.

Have y'all ever visited the Biltmore House?? What was your favorite part?

Low Calorie Fast Food Lunches

Hi guys!! Hope y'all are doing well on this beautiful morning!! It's going to be a great day!! It's finally going to warm back up today in my neck of the woods. That cold and rainy weather is not for me. Also, we bought a new car last night!! Well, new to me anyway. I looove it!!! It's a white Jeep Grand Cherokee Limited. It's a v8 which I could care less about but it makes my husband happy. LOL I can't wait to get one of those mirrored monogrammed license plates that I saw on this post from Southern Cinderella. I'm thinking about getting the same scalloped design but in turquoise. Isn't it adorable?!


On to the food!!! Since I've been on my diet plan since January, I've learned a lot about fast food for lunch. As much as I would LOVE to make my lunch every day and have a little homemade salad or sandwich with some homemade hummus dip or baked sweet potato fries...it's just not practical for me. I don't have a lot of time to make that and to be honest, on my lunch break sometimes I'd like to get OUT of the store for an hour rather than eating at my desk. That's where fast food comes in. Fast food isn't ALL that bad. There are good choices, you just have to sift them out!! I'm going to share with you some lunches that I have found to be low fat and/or low calorie that you can pick up quick on your lunch break.



1. Taco Bell - Fresco Chicken Burrito Supreme - This burrito is soooo good and it's very filling! It only has 340 calories and 8 grams of fat. Easy lunch on the go!

Photo from tacobell.com

2. Panera Bread - You Pick Two (Half Sierra Turkey Sandwich and Half Classic Cafe Salad) - On the sandwich, you can substitute the chipotle mayo for spicy brown mustard and save 155 calories!!! Also, substitute the Foccacia bread for Whole Grain White bread and save 170 calories! This puts your sandwich at only 170 calories. With the reduced fat balsamic vinaigrette, your salad only has 80 calories making your whole lunch come to only 250 calories and 9 grams of fat!

Photo from panera-easttennesse.com

3. Wendy's - Grilled Chicken Go Wrap and a Side Salad - On the Go Wrap, order it without cheese to save 35 calories. For the salad, order the fat free french dressing which only has 70 calories in it. This meal will have a total of 320 calories and 7 grams of fat. The Go Wrap has a honey mustard sauce on it and it is so delicious!!

Photo from wendys.com

4. Chick-fil-A - Grilled Chicken Sandwich and Medium Fruit Cup - This is probably my favorite go to meal. I even eat it for dinner sometimes. It is so yummy!! The sandwich has 300 calories and 3.5 grams of fat. The fruit cup has 70 calories and 0 grams of fat. This puts your meal at 370 calories and 3.5 grams of fat. Healthy AND delicious!!

Photo from eduinreview.com

5. Subway - 6" Roast Beef Sandwich with Apple Slices - With wheat bread, lettuce, tomato, onions, green peppers and mustard, the sandwich has 315 calories and 4.5 grams of fat. The apples have 35 calories and 0 grams of fat. This meal is very filling and comes to only 350 calories and 4.5 grams of fat. Yum!! Just try not to look at those heavenly peanut butter cookies while standing in line. I could eat 15 of them...

Photo from cookinglight.com

These are just a few of my favorite lunches but there are so many more healthy choices and different combinations out there. Just go to your favorite restaurant's website and figure out a healthy meal for yourself before you go and it will help you to eat the right things. I hope this helps y'all to start eating better and getting in shape for summer!! What are some things y'all are doing to get in shape??

Monogrammed Vase

Good morning!!! I hope y'all got through Monday okay. I'm ready for the weekend already! Hahaha. One of my friends just graduated college with a nursing degree last night! I'm so proud of her. I decided instead of buying a gift, I really wanted to make her something. Her and her husband just bought a new house and are in the process of decorating. I thought a vase for the table in the breakfast nook would be simple. She said they just painted the walls a pale yellow with white trim. Here's what I made her!

I had originally wanted to put silk flowers in it but at the last minute I decided fresh flowers would be better as a gift. To make it, I just superglued ribbon around a vase. I found a little wooden disc at AC Moore and painted it pale yellow. I used the same stick-on letters that I used on the candles for my mom.

It was very simple but she loved it! I will even toot my own horn and tell y'all that her cousin wants 10 of them for his wedding coming up in December! They are wanting red carnations as the flowers and I'll have to figure out the theme to determine which ribbon to use. I'm so excited about making them!! Maybe I can also see if they want cupcakes instead of cake!! I would LOVE to decorate wedding cupcakes. Wouldn't that be a blast??? So, what crafts have y'all gotten into lately???

Is perfectionism an issue for you?

It is for me!! I will stress myself out beyond belief to make sure everything is perfect. Whether it be for a party, a project, work, dinner...any old thing...it has to be PERFECT!! It adds a great deal of stress to my life and I'm sure it does for you too! Today's inspiration is from Encouraging Words Daily Devotional for Women. I recieve an email every day with inspiration and it is so wonderful. If you'd like to have them emailed to you too, click here. You'll love it!!

Sorry I'm so late with my post!! It has been crazy today. I'm searching for a new car and it's stressful. I also had a catastrophe this weekend at the beach. We decided to go fishing on the little dock behind the condo. We had a great time and caught a bunch of fish...however, the wind blew the chair over that had my iPhone sitting in it. It should be sitting nicely on the ocean floor right about now. Talk about depressing!!! I'm still not over it. LOL My lovely husband did buy me the Pandora bracelet and surprise me with it on Saturday night though!! He is too sweet and it really did surprise me because he bought it so quickly! I can't wait to start getting more charms for it!! Anyway, I hope y'all had an amazing Mother's Day this weekend and were able to spend it with your mothers and/or your children!!




 "So don't be too good or too wise! Why destroy yourself? On the other hand, don't be too wicked either. Don't be a fool! Why die before your time? Pay attention to these instructions, for anyone who fears God will avoid both extremes. Not a single person on earth is always good and never sins." 
- Ecclesiastes 7:16–18, 20



If perfectionism is an issue at all for you, take heed. Trying to be "too good or too wise" can cause so much stress that it can destroy you. Realize the truth of the last verse: nobody is always good. Quit trying to be perfect! Yet this is not license to be wicked. The key is fearing God—realizing you are fallible, accepting God's provision for that, and doing what you can to avoid sin, while realizing you cannot be as good as God. Fearing God means acknowledging that he alone is God (perfectly good), and we are not.



—Diane Eble, author of Abundant Gifts: A Daybook of Grace-Filled Devotions

Pandora

Happy Saturday y'all!!!!!!! I'm so glad it's the weekend! This week has felt so long for some reason. Our Uncle Buddy passed away yesterday afternoon. :(  I know he's in a better place and is free from his pain and suffering, but I really wish we would have been able to see him before it happened. It has probably been a year since we visited him. I know we can't go back so there's no sense in worrying about it, but I still feel a little guilty and sad. We are headed to the beach in a couple of hours to visit the family. I need to get off here and make a beef and potato casserole but I wanted to talk to y'all about Pandora bracelets first!! Have you seen these?? I must have been living in a hole or something because I just found out about them! My friend had one on the other day and I fell in love with it.

I've always loved charm bracelets and this particular one is so nice! I had been looking for a Mother's Day gift for my Mother-in-Law and this is what I decided on. She loves the beach so I went with the silver bracelet and a flip flop charm because she grew up by the beach and still loves it.

I have to have one for myself though!!!! I hinted to my husband which style I wanted, what size I wear, and a charm that I saw that I HAD to have. Guess what it was!!! A cupcake!!!!!!!! Isn't it the cutest thing?!

They have tons of different beads and you can get silver, gold, or leather bracelets. They have silver, gold, glass and wooden beads. I can't wait to get one and start filling it up! Do y'all have one or have you heard of them? What do you think about them?

Photo from Mccoyjewelers.com

Photo from Bandajewelers.com

Photo from mypandora.com

Photo from pandoras.web-log.nl

Norman Rockwell

Mornin'!!! Hope everyone is doing well today!! I had a great time with my mom yesterday in Brevard, NC. It's such a cute little town with lots of shops and restaurants. Yesterday was the National Day of Prayer so we stopped in the center of town to say a little prayer with a big group of people. That was nice! Then we had lunch and walked through some shops including a huge antique mart. It had 3 stories and I had the time of my life looking at every single thing in there!! I think what I liked seeing the most was all of the Norman Rockwell magazines or books or paintings. I absolutely love Norman Rockwell's work. I thought I would share some of my favorites with ya'll today.

"Sport" I love this one and I want to get it framed for my husband. He loves fishing and I think this is so cute!

"Check-up"

"Airplane Ride"

"Marriage License"

"Going, Coming"

"Shiner"

"Begging"

Do ya'll have a favorite Norman Rockwell picture??