Weekend at the Coast!

This past weekend, I headed down to the Gulf Coast with Mary Catherine. Liza's momma was visiting her this weekend so she couldn't come with us. We missed her and will definitely have to plan another trip she can come on! Friday night we just drove down to Mobile where my friend George lives (we stayed with him). We all went out to supper at Friday's then just called in an early night since we were all exhausted and MC was getting over strep throat. Saturday we woke up and headed to the Foley outlets and went shopping!

We thought this jacket was odd...it was like $300 and kinda looked like a hobo coat.

After lunch we were finishing up shopping when it started pouring. So we decided to head to the Gulfport, MS outlets and go to Target and Michaels. After 12 hours of shopping we met George for supper at a really good sushi restaurant in Mobile and got Krispy Kreme after!

Sunday we woke up and the forecast was looking pretty rainy for Gulf Shores again, so we headed to Pensacola! Y'all know how much I love my Florida!

Beautiful beach!

Love topsiders much?

There were 2 swans IN the water at the beach! They were swimming all around the people! I had never seen anything like it!

The water was amazing!

MC floating! The water was really relaxing

After the beach we had lunch at Hemingway's and it was really good!

Since I was in Florida I had to get me some Key Lime Pie!

We stopped off at Bass Pro on the way back to Alabama. George was playing with guns so we goofed off and tried on camo.

MC and I headed back to Starkville after we packed up our stuff at George's. Great weekend! And I didn't do too much damage at the outlets! I mostly got stuff I needed.

I did find this adorable kitchen towel at a store in Foley. Go State!

Monday was ticket day at Mississippi State! We woke up early to go get in line to get our student tickets!

I got my student tickets for all the home games as well as away tickets for my fall road trips! LSU, Alabama, Florida, and Ole Miss! I'll also be heading to Knoxville at some point to see Jim!

Look who was handing out donuts to the students in line! Coach Mullen! Go Dawgs (and GATORS!!)

This week and next we will be preparing for our first home game and tailgating! Liza and I are going to make maroon and white dresses and cups for the game! I'm glad she can sew well because I can't! I'm very excited for football season!

Incommunicado

I've been a terrible blogger this week I know! School started this week at Mississippi State and I have just been so busy! I have spent way too much time here:

...my building at school (Swalm, for those of you who follow me on Twitter and see my tweets about Swalm). It's a lovely building, home to my delightful office and perfectly great labs but...it still feels like summer outside and I am not ready to go back to school! I only have one class this semester thankfully but I have TONS of lab work to do, a thesis to start, and I'm TA-ing a class of 73 students! In Chem E! Dang that's a lot of papers to grade.

But this weekend I will be here:

Gulf Shores, Alabama

Drinking many of these:

And these:
And doing a little damage here:
so I can relax for a weekend before the crazy fun of fall semester and football season starts up here in Starkville! Only 15 days.....:)

Happy weekend y'all!

Random musings

I have been MIA lately! I'm sorry y'all! I've just been busy in the lab and trying to enjoy the last 2 weeks of vacation before class starts up again (a week from tomorrow!)

I have a very busy fall semester ahead but I am so excited for it!

1. I can't wait for football season. Only 25 more days till I'm out in the Junction cheering on the Dawgs and of course, cheering on my Gators (even if it's from Starkville).

Go State!

Go Gators!

I can't wait till they play each other in the Swamp...October 16. Chomp chomp :)

2. I'm really excited to head to Gulf Shores in 2 weekends for a relaxing beach and shopping weekend with these ladies!

Mary Catherine and Liza!

3. I'm excited to see this fella in Knoxville the second weekend in September for a little UT football!

Jim!

Once my research project finally starts working the way I want it to (which should be any day now) I'll post a few recipes and ideas I have for y'all! And my trips and activities this fall will have tons of pictures up on here!

Wastin away again in Gulf Shores: Concert for the Coast and 30 Day Blog Challenge!

This past weekend, I had the most amazing time at Jimmy Buffett's Concert for the Coast!

I had originally planned on traveling down to the Gulf Coast on Saturday (it's about a 4-5 hour drive from North Mississippi), but due to some car issues (and a VERY sweet boy!), I made it Sunday about 11:30 am! My friends and I had lunch and then went to the beach to wait for the concert to start! The beach opened at 3 and the concert started at 5. During the wait, we got t-shirts and had some Landshark (which is bottled in the best city in the country JACKSONVILLE Florida! I'm not biased or anything haha).
Here is our view of the stage. We had pretty dang good seats! Since no chairs (or coolers or cameras) we allowed, we spread out some beach towels.

Here I am waiting for Jimmy! The funny thing about the crowd-it looked like a big "which SEC school are you a fan of?" competition! There were TONS of Alabama, Auburn, LSU fans...and quite a few Florida State fans. Look closely and you can see I repped my Gators with my huggie!

I heard there were about 50,000 people at this concert! I'm not sure if that's true but there sure were a ton of people!

Here I am with Same Sweet Girl from Same Sweet Girl: Memoir of a Southern Belle! She was SO SO sweet to send me an extra ticket she had! I had such a blast at the concert and I was so excited to meet her!! She is such a sweetheart!

Jimmy Buffett!!!

I didn't see or smell any oil on the Gulf Shores Public Beach where the concert was, but there are tar balls a little farther down the beach. I follow BP Oil on Twitter to keep up to date on the oil response.

Now on to Days 6 and 7 of the 30 Day Blog Challenge! I had of work to catch up on so I couldn't blog yesterday.

For Day 6: A moment you wish you could relive...the first time someone, we'll call him J, said "I love you". St. Augustine, Florida on a dock overlooking the river while "Fishin' in the Dark".

"You and me going fishin' in the dark

lying on our backs and countin' the stars

where the cool grass grows

Down by the river in the full moon light

we'll be fallin in love in the middle of the night

Just moving slow

Staying the whole night through

Feels so good to be with you."

Day 7: 5 Things you can't live without:

I picked material things for this...obviously I would pick my family and friends first!

1. My BlackBerry Storm. We are BFFs and attached at the hip haha!

2. My sunglasses...so many pairs...it's a problem. But no matter which pair I'm wearing that day, I'm never without them.

3. The beach. It's where I feel happiest and most alive.

4. College football season...it's my favorite season!

5. My ipod touch that holds all my tunes that I rock out to in the truck haha!

I hope y'all had an amazing weekend!

What's in my beach bag?

As y'all know, I'm headed to Florida for the week to see my family! And since I live at the beach, I'll be spending some serious QT working on my tan and relaxing!

I always love seeing what's in other people's beach bag...so here's what's in mine!

First-the bag. I got this a couple years ago. It's by Juicy Couture and it says "Juicy says relax". I just loved the saying, the size of the bag, and the fact that I can throw it in the wash. Plus it's pink!

I have highlighted hair which tends to turn brassy if it's in the sun too long so I break out my Florida Gators hat most of the time to protect my hair from the sun!
Banana Boat's SPF 8 deep tanning lotion-it smells great and I always feel like I look a lot darker after a day in the sun with this secret weapon!
My beach towel-Vera Bradley! I love how big this towel is! (I hate it when I have a beach towel that's too small...either my head or my feet hang off and get covered in sand!)
I brought Julie and Julia to read at the beach this week!
And the newest Women's Health I got in the mail Thursday and saved for the beach...perfect timing!
I hope y'all have a great week and I'll keep y'all updated!

By the way...like my Florida-themed background? :)

Later y'all!