Coffee CubBuster

Easton Kelly Shanks, the name of my new little nephew! My big sis, Nicole, is going to be a mommy, and I can't wait for little Easton to come in to the world. He is scheduled to arrive on Jesus's b-day, but Nicole is determined to bring him in sooner or later than that date, and we all know when Nicole wants something, she figures out a way to get it. :) I don't care when he gets here, I'm just excited to be an Aunt! I'll be throwing Nicole's baby shower this fall, and I welcome ideas for shower games and themes. I already heard a cute idea of serving beverages in little baby bottles! How cute! You can make ANYTHING cute when its little and revolving around an infant. Take diapers for instance. What's with those games where you put different things in diapers and ask your guests smell the buttocks portion and determine what the smell is. Gross!! But still most everything having to do with babies is SO cute! Congrats Nicole and Stephen! See you for Matt...

I love being able to cook, bake, volunteer, and catch up with friends! This break has been awesome! So the past couple of days I've spent a couple hours teaching immigrants to speak English. At Sandy Spring ESL, volunteers are needed to dictate, review, and teach basic English reading, writing, and speaking skills to mostly spanish-speakers living in the Atlanta area. While slowly (and with much patience-- teaching someone a language when they barely speak it requires a LOT of patience), trying to teach my native language (and being thankful at the same time that I can interject spanish words to help clarify what I'm saying in English), I realized how difficult English is! I mean come on-- why are there so many irregular words that don't follow the general rules? Take plurals for instance- Goose- Gooses , nope, it's Geese sorry. I have no good explanation for it either. Person- we don't really use the word Persons much, nope the correct answer is People. Sorry, ...

So my mom called me while I was grocery shopping and asked if I could "start" or "throw" together the various colored tomatoes in the fridge, add some fresh mozzarella and maybe add basil.... "like a big salad or something-- I need to take it to a party to feed like ten people! I mean if you can just get it started that would be a BIG help." She was a bit rushed if you can't tell by the request. So I (also in a rush) chose not to use my recipe for homemade balsamic syrup from my Everyday Italian  cookbook (which would have started my creative juices in the kitchen and I'd be late for my date), and instead did exactly what she asked. I chopped up various colored tomatoes including Roma, grape, beefsteak, off-the-vine, and yellow tomatoes. I coarsely chopped some fresh basil and fresh flat leaf parsley, diced up the fresh mozzarella (two packs of Sargento ) , add it all to the tomatoes and drizzled with already made Lite Balsamic and Basil Vinaigre...

I am one of those strange 25 year olds that some how has almost every song in Phantom of the Opera memorized. How could anyone like a musical that much?  Well, my mother had an addiction to the beautiful broadway play when I was very young, and she used to blast the soundtrack in our house for hours. So, when Brittany invited me to attend a showing of the infamous performance at the Fox with her mom, I of course couldn't resist. It was beautiful! The singing, the dancing, the special effects, the music!!!  Uhhh.... it gets better every time I see it. I miss my days of performance, but retain an overwhelming appreciation for the arts. Thanks Pink and Mrs. Taylor!!!  What a great night it was.

Yay, I'm in the homestretch of my first graduate semester. It really wasn't that bad once I got a rhythm down and remembered how to open a textbook and skim the content-- skimming will be clutch in grad school let me tell you-- it started coming together. I'm pumped to have a "summer" like the good ole days for the next couple weeks. No work or school. I plan to sleep, eat, catch up with friends, and stay up late playing kick the can with my friends down the street. My little bro Matt moved back home too--- so it really does feel like a flash back, except instead of arguing over the remote...... well we are still arguing over the remote. Some things never change. But instead of discussing the possibility of him becoming a famous Rock Star, he's become a little more realistic in his old age. He's now surfing the net looking for any possible job in this economy. Matt Blair actually threw out the words law school and police officer. Mmmm hmmm..... I can...

I've had such a blessed couple of weeks getting to feel like I'm on vacation, and this is during school mind you-- it's been great! Last weekend I accompanied Matthew to one of my favorite little cities-- Greenville, SC. It's just 2 hours from Atlanta, and we were only there for the day, but we couldn't stop talking about how it felt like we were on vacation. He had his local long drive qualifier-- which he WON, with a 400 yard drive and a brand new driver he'd never used! Crazy!  He goes to Regionals in Greensboro, NC later next month, and if he qualifies there, it's off to Mesquite again for the World Championship! Well, the rest of the day was spent in the quaint town of Greenville. We saw a great movie-- Knight and Day (I was pleasantly surprise- it was hysterical!)-- visited my favorite coffee shop- Underground Coffee , had a great southern gourmet meal, and then stopped back by Underground Coffee before heading back to the ATL. Then this past weeke...