a happy, little adventure to charlotte

I went on an adventure last week for work... 

I had a lot of fun going too!

I got to go to a fun training out in Charlotte for the company that I work for AND this just happened to be my very first time staying in a hotel room all by myself.

Eeeepppp.

I was a little nervous about it, but I found comfort in the fact that my boss stayed in the room next to me.  My boss...she's a fun lady.  We rode together and had such a great time! 

We left on Monday afternoon to our training that started bright and early on Tuesday morning at 8 AM sharp!  The ride there was quick and painless because we chatted the whole way there and didn't run into any traffic at all.

When we arrived to our hotel we were quite impressed by the grand entrance and all of the gorgeous architecture around.

Just look at this pretty wall hanging behind the front desk where I checked in....

Sooo pretty!  :)

Once we got checked in we went off to check out our rooms. 

I wasn't expecting a huge room when I was told that I was going to this training.  Needless to say I was quite surprised when I opened the door and found myself in this little suite!

I then whipped out my phone and started taking pictures like crazy so I could show off where I stayed.

Here's what it looked like looking at the door....

I had my own little mini kitchen...complete with a mini refrigerator, microwave, and sink!

and of course....a $3 bottle of water:

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I didn't drink that.  I stocked up on my morning coffee at Walgreen's when I bought some Diet Mt. Dews for my refrigerator.  :)

Here's where I got to sleep:

Two beds!  All for me!

I thought about switching beds each night just for fun.

I didn't do that though.

But it sure was tempting...just because I had that option.

Here's my second flat screen in my home away from home for the week:

Oh and when I woke up here is what is waiting on me at my door:

Hello, newspaper!  So lovely to see you!  You thought it was going to be a puppy, didn't you?

Haha!

And once you walk outside my door you can look down over the lobby at this lovely little fountain...

And you can also see THIS....

This is where I ate a glorious breakfast each morning that I was there. 

You name it, they had it!

Omelet station?  Check.

Every kind of hot breakfast item you could ever want?  Check.

Fruit galore?  Check.

Kashi Bluberry Cereal?  Check.

Muffins, Donuts, Pastries, etc?  Check.

Diet Coke for breakfast?  Check, Check, Check!  (Each morning I filled up my glass with it!)

:)

Needless to say, breakfast was pretty awesome!  I enjoyed it!

The training was super beneficial to me and I was so excited that I got to go.  I had a good time learning about the company and meeting new people that were in my small group for the week, as well as everyone else in the big group setting.

I felt like I did a good job working with my coaches there too!  The exciting news for the week was that my small group won Jeopardy for the week!  We beat out seven other teams, so we were pretty excited and it meant that we'll get our faces plastered on the company newsletter!  :)  Whoo hoo!

My boss and I had long days while we were there and we also had REALLY good food if I hadn't mentioned that already?!?!

They fed us like crazy while we were there and the food was amazing!

You already know about the great breakfast...so let me tell you about lunch....

 For lunch one day we had a huge Italian Feast, and then another day we had a big Mexican Fiesta!

Are you hungry yet?

And guess what else?  Would you believe that they brought us afternoon snacks too?

Snacks like popcorn, pretzels, corn dogs, cookies, fruit, and all other kinds of fun things.

I almost felt like I was at a food convention while I was there.  :)

I tried not to indulge too much, but boy was it hard!  :)

We also did a little shopping while we were there....

I found an awesome pair of shoes here...

Calvin Klein flats....

aren't they cute?!

I only paid $10 for them!  :)

Score!

I also got some other stuff at Ann Taylor Loft but I just couldn't take a picture of it because it might be for some one's birthday.  :)

We might have eaten out at night too...

My first trip to Carraba's was Ah-MAZING!  So delicious!  I absolutely LOVED their salad and bread!  So tasty!

I also found some amazing new shampoo and conditioner while I was away!

Crabtree & Evelyn Shampoo!  It was great stuff!  It smells wonderful....so wonderful that while I was talking to some other people at the training about the hotel that we were staying in I made a comment about the shampoo and just how fabulous it was.

The next day everyone in my little small group brought me their shampoo and conditioner from their hotel room.

Yes, I was that girl.  The one walking around with 12 bottles of shampoo and conditioner in her bag.

I didn't care though.  That shampoo was awesome!  :)

I forgot to mention it was NASCAR press week at the hotel/convention center that we were staying at! 

The hotel that we stayed at was probably about two miles away from the Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Whooo!

I did hear from some other people that were at the training that Danica Patric and Kurt Busch were at our hotel one evening. 

Whooo!

I was probably somewhere eating when they were there!  Ha!  :)

They did have a cool car sitting in the lobby...

and the halls that led us to our conference room smelled like tires and oil.  Did I mention that there were a lot of NASCAR people there?  There really was a lot of them!  :)

I finally got back home on Thursday night to my sweet husband.  He was a bachelor all week long.  I was proud that he made himself a big pot of chili to eat on for the week.  He's that great!  :)  I offered to make it, but he wanted to do it.  He's turning into quite the chef these days!

Well thanks for spending some time reminiscing with me about my trip to Charlotte!  I had fun and I hope you did too!

I think I'll go eat something now!  :)

Kidding!

Lots of Love,

The Preacher's Wife

Recent Happenings...

It's been a lot of work during the week and a lot of down time during the weekends.

Since my honey and I have been working like pack mules lately we've been taking the weekends to relax and spend some q.t. together.

A couple of weekends ago we did absolutely nothing.  I mean nothing.  Nothing as in we ate out at every meal.  Nothing as in we sat in the house.  Nothing as in we may or may not have taken took showers.  :)

It was kinda nice and relaxing.  Just what the doctor ordered.

And then last weekend the head cold hit me!  Not fun!  And again I had another weekend of nothing.

I did muster up the energy to walk across the parking lot to our friend Jodi and Chad's house for her sister's birthday party.  It was a lot of fun and I'm glad that we went.  Even if I did spend a lot of time with Kleenex while I was there.  :)

We played my amazing, new game that I got from my wonderful sister called Headbandz!

It's absolutely amazing!  I love playing it and everyone else loved it too!

That's Kelly, Sarah, and Jodi with their headbanzs on.

The purpose of the game is to ask questions to everyone in the room to see if you can figure out what is on your head.  A ton of fun!

Sarah was all over this bacon card.  When she asked if it was meat on her head, we told her yes.  And then she guessed pork.  Yes...again!  She guessed everything but bacon for almost four or five rounds.  She is precious.  This is that kind of game where you want to kick yourself after figuring out what was on your head for so long.  At least I felt that way a lot.  :)

Here is my honey and Chad...

Chad's card was the bedroom.  Bless his heart.  :)  It took him a while to get this one.  We confused him like crazy!

And this is Kevin...Kelly's husband...

He had Batman.  We told him that he was black and white.  It's true.  Black outfit.  White man.  Yes.

We also celebrated Kelly's birthday with a big top CUPCAKE!  :)

and it was Mexican themed night if you couldn't tell!  :)

I have spirit fingers in that picture above.  That was my instrument!  :)

We also sang Happy Birthday to Kelly!

Chad just got back from a trip to Israel and he brought back these fun horns that have a more complex name than horn on it (and right now I'm too lazy to look it up!).  This was the type of horn that was blown when the Walls of Jericho fell.  At least I think that's right.

Anywho, Chad showed us how they worked.

They are loud and they are stinky.

They absolutely reek of this insane, nasty mildew smell because of whatever they are made out of.

but aren't they cool looking?!

He looks so important!

I don't know that I'm every to sick to sing Kelly or anyone else my famous Happy Birthday song.  Chad and Kevin even accompanied me as I sang!

And yes, I am using a spoon as a microphone.  And yes, I am closing my eyes.

I really know how to feel the music.

Let's just say that we were all in tears by the time this song was over.

It was a fun night to say the least and I'm sure Chad and Jodi's neighbor's love them for all of their amazing music they play!  Ha!

The night wore me out though because the next morning I felt worse than I did the previous day.

No bueno.

So I stayed on the couch for most of the day again.

And that Sunday was my sister's birthday!  :) 

Isn't she pretty?  She needs to come visit me again soon so I can give her the rest of her birthday presents and bake her this.

On another note...

This past week I jazzed up a wreath that I made last year to be a Valentine's Day wreath.

I like how it turned out!

Another fabulous thing from this past week were these beautiful flowers that I got at work!  :)

Just loverly!  :)

And lastly, I have the most amazing husband in the world!  I didn't want to blow dry my hair today, so he did it for me.  Isn't he precious?!

That's love!  :)

Hopefully I'll have some more exciting pictures next week!  I think it's going to be a good week next week!

I'll be sure to keep you posted!

Lots of Love,

The Preacher's Wifey

Cupcakes & My New Favorite Salad! :)

Look what came in the mail today!  :)

My sister started a new tradition last year when she bought me a cupcake calendar and now I'm going to have to have one every year now!  Thanks sis!  :)

I didn't get a calendar for Christmas, so I made this a present to me from me.  :)

I just love cupcakes.  If you stepped into my kitchen you might figure that out.  :)

I can't bear to throw away my calendar from last year, so I'm going to have to find something fun to do with it....if you have any ideas, let me know!

I also have a new favorite salad with all of these ingredients...

A restaurant called Sullivan's from back home has the most amazing Signature Salad ever!  It is leafy greens, craisins, feta cheese, candied pecans, and balsamic vinaigrette.  It is delish and I decided to recreate it myself.  I like how it turned out!

The only thing that would make it better is a big 'ol piece of grilled chicken on top!  YUM!  You should get these ingredients and try your signautre salad today!  It's good for you and It's so tasty, too!  :)

Hope you're having a Terrific Thursday,

The Preacher's Wife

Holiday Festivities

The holidays have come and gone, but I still wanted to post a few pictures of some fun times with our families from when we went back home.  A lot of these are random pictures.  We did a lot of running around during the time we were there and I wasn't always good at pulling out my camera and snapping up some good pictures, but I did get some good ones with my fun, new phone...and with a little app from Instagram.  :)

We had a wonderful time back home!  Here's the recap...

We had fun...

 going to the Waffle House and Wal-Mart the morning of Christmas Eve,

eating a yummy dinner on Christmas Eve night and hanging out with my Nana,

spending Christmas morning with my family exchanging gifts and eating a yummy breakfast,

getting to go to church to celebrate the real and true meaning of Christmas,

going to Ma's house to celebrate by eating delicious food and opening gifts where you just never know what's inside (this year we got fun things like a stuffed parrot, a deviled egg carrier, rose candle holders (a matching set I might add!), memo pads, pens, earrings, and a drill!),

going to Preacher Man's house and exchanging gifts with his family,

celebrating with his Dad's side of the family where we showed everyone how we make our famous biscuits (thanks, Mom for teaching me how!) for breakfast dinner, then a fun game of Catchphrase with the family,

and then the next morning we got up and went to Apple Barn (my word was it good!),

then we took a trip to Bass Pro since there are none in NC,

then we traveled South to my Nana's house to have a Feliz Navidad with my Dad's side of the family (we had a Mexican feast cooked by me, Preacher Man, and my sister...we gave everyone else the night off from cooking since they always did it in the past!),

and then I proceeded to sing and get the rest of the family to sing Feliz Navidad with me before we ate dinner, but I didn't have much luck, but I do think that everyone enjoyed my singing.  :)

Then we traveled back to Preacher Man's parent's house and the next day we had a surprise party where all of our friends stopped in to see us!  We again ate yummy food, played games, and caught up with all of our friends that we haven't got to see in a while.

The next day we had to get up and head back home.  No bueno.

Christmas was a ton of fun.  And that was a really long sentence or paragraph or whatever you want to call it.  :)  We were on the go the majority of time that we were here, but every minute was worth it.  Making memories and enjoying all of our family at the same time.

So now that you've gotten the full recap of Christmas with me and Preacher Man, here are some random pictures:

Hands down, my hubby always has the best reaction when giving gifts. 

His reaction to things are just wonderful and I love seeing the sheer surprise and excitement when he opens something that he's not expecting.

Just take a look at him below...

I just love it!  :)

One of my Christmas presents from the hubs was this awesome new pair of pink shoes...

I think they're pretty dandy!  :)

Here's a picture of my family from Nana's house...

Love my family!  :)

My sister and I got some fun Christmas rings from our aunt and uncle.

They were quite hilarious.  They even light up too!

I got Santa and she got a snowman.  If you look closely in the picture you can see it.

For the rest of the night I acted like the ring had super magical powers like the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.  :)

Here's a picture of Nana...

and no, that's not a hat I got her!  :)  I made her a wreath and then the lady puts it on her head and acts like she's the Statue of Liberty.

She's a hoot.  I just love her!

Oh Nana!  :)

Here's Preacher Man and his little mini-me, Ethan....

He loves UNC just like his uncle, unfortunately.  (Go Duke!)

I do have to admit that they're as cute as can be when they're matching though!  :)

And this precious thing....

'

crooked smile and all.  She is a ball of fun to be around!  :)  I just love her so much!

And here's a big family picture with Preacher Man's Mom's side of the family below...

...and to think there are still people missing from this picture!  Holy smokes!  Gotta love Christmas with Ma!  There's never a dull moment and it's always so much fun!  :)

And before I forget, here's a picture of my table, Mom...

I just love snowmen!  :)  This one was really random.

Hope you enjoyed a few random pictures from the holidays!  We surely enjoyed spending time with our family and friends!

Now I'm going to go back to my couch and curl back up with my book.  :)

Love,
The Preacher's Wife

Happy New Year!

I know that I'm five days late, but......

HAPPY NEW YEAR!  :)

We rang in 2012 the right way...

With Welch's Sparkling Grape Juice!

Oh yeah!  :)

  We had a fun, quiet night at our house eating yummy food!

I like to consider myself sort of Grandma-ish when it comes to this.  I like it.

I can't wait to see what this year has in store!

Goodness knows 2011 was the ever changing year for Preacher Man and I, so bring it on 2012! 

So here's to you....Happy New Year!  May you have much happiness and success in your venture in 2012!

Much love,

The Preacher's Wife :)