the city that stole my heart

this past weekend I got the privilege of going to Washington DC for the first time with some dear friends. if you can fall in love with a city, I think I did this past weekend. from the stunning architecture to the underground metro to the beautiful history that runs rampant in DC, it just drew me in piece by piece. it's hard to say what was my favorite part because there were so many, but one thing that stuck out to me & my friends was that we knew it was a BIG city but it actually felt like a smaller city because we were walking everywhere & meeting tons of fun people!

I will say that one of my absolute favorite things about this trip had to be the fun friends that I traveled with. nothing was over-planned **and by that I mean we didn't really have a plan** & we were up for anything. we ate great food, walked for miles, laughed all weekend, & just simply had fun. these are my friends. they are stunning, inside & out. they are full of life and love to share that with others. they are literally the best. love y'all, mean it! 

needless to say, there is a weekend update coming with TONS of pictures, BUT I'm still working on that one.. so coming soon: weekend update {dc edition}, life lessons, & it's almost over.

why stress sucks

stress is like a catch-22 situation. stress makes you tired, but if you're too stressed you don't sleep well. because you are tired, you don't want to exercise, but you should because that will give you more energy. you don't exercise, you have less energy, so you eat something or drink something to wake you up. you aren't exercising, you have less energy, you are drinking diet coke like it's your day-job, and you feel fat. you are tired, you aren't exercising, you drink diet coke all day every day, you feel fat, and you don't have time to do anything. it's like this dumb, never-ending cycle. sometimes I just want to scream STOP, but then I guess people would look at me weird.

I just had one of these weeks, and it just sucks. sometimes you just have to duck your head & work until you get out of it. and then hopefully comes release & relief. and then hopefully you've learned to refuel. refuel through good-for-you food **think rainbow colors**. refuel through exercise **yoga is my fav right now**. refuel through the quiet. sometimes it is good to stop, sit in the quiet, and listen. praise the Lord for the quiet moments & the crazy moments that make me savor them more!

my fav things {local edition}

on the long list of my absolute fav things is my love of local good eats. maybe it's something that's been passed down through my mom, but if it's off the beaten path, quirky & local, count me in. my mom always made an effort to explore new places to eat when we were growing up and especially now that I am old enough to appreciate them. one of our absolute favorite places in Dallas to eat for lunch is café Max. hands down best salad place ever. if you haven't been, go. it won't disappoint.

once I moved to Bentonville, I began looking for those little local gems. oh my word. to say I've hit the jackpot in great local places to eat would be an understatement. crepes paulette was one of the first places I found & immediately called my family to brag on that first Saturday morning. the farmer's market in Fayetteville had been such a fun Saturday morning find, that I thought why not try out Bentonville's? Surely they will have some kind of bakery I can grab a coffee & muffin from. that's when I found crepes paulette. a little food truck on the downtown Bentonville square where a French man & his wife make the best, melt-in-your-mouth crepes I've ever had. ever. my family & I frequent this place, & it's become a non-negotiable that we go every time my dad comes in town :)

some of our favorite Dallas-area local eats: Breadwinner's (McKinney Ave location), Café Brazil, Spoons (in McKinney), Urban Crust (downtown McKinney), & the all-time fav (and maybe not so local) Gloria's.

some of my fav NWA spots: Green Bean, Crumpet Tea Room, Crepes Paulette, Pressroom, Kind Kitchen, Little Bread Co, Green Submarine, & Big Rub BBQ (bbq tacos, anyone?)

texas + arkansas + virginia

I'm not going to lie, my favorite state is Texas. yes, I am one of those kind of obnoxious people that believe it has everything you need. yes, I did cry when I had to trade in my Texas driver's license & license plates for Arkansas ones. yes, I do miss it a ton. however, I am not one of the super obnoxious people that believe Texas is the only great state. this is probably due to the fact that I have fallen in love with Arkansas. I am an Arkansas razorback through and through. I will wear cardinal red & yell woo pig with gusto. Fayetteville & Bentonville will always hold special places in my heart.

each place I have lived has given me a little piece of who I am today. Being from the Dallas area, there is a little bit of a big-city girl in me that craves night-life, dressing up, and dancing. growing up in the South, there is a little bit of country girl in me that craves being outside, wearing cut-off jeans, country music blasting, & summer time. living in Fayetteville & Bentonville, there is a little bit of hippie in me that craves local eats, farmer's market Saturdays, Patagonia sweaters, hiking, & campfires. this is me & I wouldn't trade all the different parts that make me who I am for the world.

this part big city, part hippie, part southern girl is about to pack up & move to the unknown: Virginia. I say it's the unknown because I've spent a total of 8-10 days of my life in Virginia... 5 of which were on a field trip in 9th grade to colonial Williamsburg & Appomattox Courthouse. I'm sure I will come to love it & it will grow a little space in my heart soon enough, but I'm just so anxious to see what piece of me it will grow into. will it be the beach? will it fascinate me with the history? and I'm a little nervous about the north. don't get me wrong, I'm sure northerners are great people & I will learn to love things about it. however, the south has made me who I am today. the south gave me a subtle **at least I think it's subtle** accent. it's taught me about being put-together before walking out of the house. it's taught me to always smile & say "hi" to people you see & ask "how are you" when you see people you know. after speaking with my future roommates, I've already been called a "sweet southern girl" which is hilarious because I thought Virginia was still considered the south! little do I know apparently... 

so here I go. Virginia, watch out! you have until august to prepare yourselves because this little southern girl is comin at ya, ready or not! 

my fav things {concert edition}

one of my absolute favorite things is going to outdoor concerts. it's definitely on my bucket list to go to a music festival in Austin, TX. but since I can't make it this year, I am taking advantage of every outdoor concert opportunity that comes my way. this past weekend some of my great friends and I went to a free ben rector concert at the u of a. **please don't ask me how many of his concerts I've been to, it's embarrassing** the weather was absolutely perfect. like sundress, light cardi & converse perfect. these girls are the most fun because they don't care what anyone thinks of them. one of them in particular, Anna, and I are the worst influences on each other. it's so fun when she & I go out together because us together equals zero inhibitions! this pertains to the ben rector concert because we all quickly realized we were the oldest people on the lawn. strange because we aren't that old (24-26ish). but there were so many high school kids there and freshies in college. don't get me wrong, I don't mind blending in with a younger crowd, but when people, I don't care what age, just stand at a concert & don't dance, I get annoyed. I'm sure that it was equally annoying to them that the old farts **that would be us** were dancing around like fools to the music. people, when you hear music & you don't dance or move at all, I don't think you are human. loosen up. have fun. let your hair down. do what you gotta do to let everything go & enjoy life!

some of the best times in my life are filled with friends, music, outdoors, laughter and dancing like no one is watching! if you haven't experienced that, or you even if you haven't experienced that lately, go try it! go to a spontaneous concert with a group of friends. dance the night away. act crazy and don't care what people think. live life out loud. you won't regret it. promise. 

weekend update

this right here was the highlight of my weekend. no, not the sweet treat **although it was pretty great** but that moment. this past weekend was not a super relaxing one. it was one where I had to put in some extra hours for a big work event on Sunday evening, but we all have those weekends/weeks right? I did manage to stop working for a few hours and relax with some close friends. we knew that our favorite downtown Bentonville spot, pressroom, was having a live band & a distillery debut this past Saturday night. the weather was perfect. I even broke out my jean shorts for the first time this year! there will hopefully never be a time when I'm too busy to listen to some good live music, sip on a whiskey sour, talk with good friends, and enjoy life.

soon after finishing drinks, KG decided she wanted a sweet treat **which I have never said no to** we walked outside in the beautiful breeze to a Bentonville spot I have never ventured into, tavola. why have I never been to this place?! definitely next on my to try before moving list! upon ordering a to-go piece of tiramisu, we all met at KG's for sweet treats & a glass of wine. can we say best crazy-weekend-work-break ever?? it was at this very moment that I snapped a quick picture to remind myself of a few things: 1. never get too busy to enjoy life. it's not worth it, 2. life with a group of girls who love Jesus & love you is the bombDOTcom, & 3. these are the moments worth savoring.

coming soon: my fav things {local edition}, why stress sucks, & **hopefully** becoming an aunt (clarification: through the best from college)

favorite things {spring}

some of my favorite things about spring: wearing soft pink nail polish, riding in the car with the windows down, wearing shorts and a light jacket, nerds jelly beans, sno cones from shave the planet, food trucks and eating lunch outside, newly budding trees, Reese's eggs, & afternoon walks.

this spring season always gears me up for my favorite, summer. I love when you begin to see families outside for longer hours & sunshine warming everything. it's almost as if the sun is finally waking up, especially after the crazy winter the whole nation just had! here's to being outside more, breaking out the shorts, & wearing piper's all day every day.

weekend update

this weekend was full of catching up with good friends, stress relief through yoga, 5k running, meeting new friends, sleeping, & watching really good movies. overall, it was a winner.

one of the many highlights was hanging out with my brother who is a senior at the u of a. we hadn't seen each other in a couple of weeks due to spring break & crazy schedules, but we got to share a couple of meals together this weekend. I am always encouraged by the way he loves people and trains to be more like Christ each and every day. his passion for discipling others and showing people that the only abundant life is in Jesus constantly challenges me. he may be my younger brother, but I look up to him in many areas of life. you could say that I am his biggest fan... thanks for putting up with having all sisters, bro.

traveling yoga

sometimes you just have to bust out a side crow, fallen angel, downward facing dog, & a few forward bends to calm yourself down. that was definitely true when it came to last week in Memphis. don't get me wrong, I love my crazies, but when you put me in a situation with 150-something 8th & 9th graders, no sleep, & the only veggie I see all week is in the form of bacon green beans, I get a little crazy myself. sometimes I snap. I for sure get super sassy. so in order to avoid the crazy inside that wants to leap out every time I'm asked a question like "is breakfast ready yet?" **really, does it look ready?**, I have to stop & crank out a few sun-salutations.

sun-salutations are probably one of the only times my mind doesn't go a million miles per minute. I can shut everything out & just focus on breathing & moving. there were a couple times I got some of the junior high crazies to join in! there was one particular night though that I just dropped & did a yoga workout in the middle of the hallway. alone. girls were walking, running, skipping, & yelling by, so if I didn't stop and re-focus they would have had uncensored sass all over them... praise the Lord I realized that I needed to get that energy out before the sleep-deprived, sassy crazy had a chance to come out!

also, another great use of yoga this past week was to impress all the chitlens with my arm balancing magic. their minds were blown. boom.

{week}end update

well, ladies & gentlemen, here is the long awaited update from my week in Memphis with these crazies. warning: longest post ever, but way worth the read. the above picture is obviously day one **you'll see why so obvious in later pictures** disclaimer: although it may look like I am taking this picture while driving, I am not. my co-pilot, co-leader, & great friend, Haley, is the photog & counted down to tell me when I should look. she timed this perfectly & we got a great pic to document the first 45 minutes on the road, right before I received the first "how much longer till we get there" question.

I am always so amazed by our junior high students this week. they surprise me each year how much they learn, serve, grow, and love others. this year was no exception. the girls in this picture were challenged to lead small groups, love on kids they've never met, pray with random people on the streets of downtown Memphis, clean up & restore dignity to an old cemetery, and countless other things. they stepped up big time! I am so proud of the way they showed Christ's love to others & had the maturity to realize that they were changed even more than the people they interacted with the whole week.

this is some of the cemetery work crew from this past week. behind them is now a beautiful landmark with amazing history. they were able to dig up gravestones & clean out areas bringing dignity back to people who had lived through the civil war, titanic, & world war 1. it was amazing to see these kids work hard & even more amazing to see the beauty & imagine what it was like to live when these people did.

 

 

each afternoon our students were divided into gyms. we partnered with Memphis Athletic Ministries who have gone into shut-down community centers and started amazing after-school programs in those gyms. the one I spent my week in is Magnolia. it was simply amazing to watch 8th and 9th graders walk into this gym & love people that they didn't know and that are different than them. one of my favorite stories is when one of our 9th grade girls shared the story of how Christ changed her life with high school kids for the very first time. she was beyond nervous when I asked her to share, but she took a leap out of her comfort zone to share her story that she had never shared before with people she had never known before. what inspiring courage from the life of a 14 year old!

and then we went bowling. right before this picture was taken is a funny story. on our way from Central BBQ to the bowling alley, I was pulled over. out of the huge caravan of white 15-passenger vans that were speeding past me, the policeman decided to pull over the black burb, affectionately known as dirty barb. why did I get pulled over? you might assume I had been speeding, but I wasn't. I actually was nowhere near speeding. it was all because one of dirty barb's headlights was out. worst. but the policeman was super understanding & great about it, especially after I explained how I told my "boss" about it earlier that week. **side note: Garland, sorry for blaming that on you** definitely one for the books.

this is downtown prayer day. maybe my coffee addiction is rubbing off on them... #discipleship ;) also, Haley is the best. 

and this is where it should be completely obvious what is the day one selfie & what was day seven selfie. this is on our way home. in Conway, AR. in Baskin Robbins. we look tired & a little crazy because we are. activities on our way home in dirty barb include: making up our own lyrics to Beyoncé songs, dancing like no one is watching, & belting out the same 5 songs for 5.5 hours. **we be up all night, dirty baaaarb. drivin on that road, drivin' drivin' on that road** goodness. these are my crazies & I wouldn't trade them for the world. love y'all mean it!