dinner + people= a very fun night

my family has always loved having people over.  my parents have an incredible gift of hosting people and a huge heart for serving them too.  we have people over a lot and i love it!  tonight was no exception.  we had our very fun friends, the bohlingers, over for a delicious summer dinner.  the menu?  grilled lemon chicken, grilled veggies, and brown rice with angel food cake topped with strawberries and what was supposed to be cool whip (i might've forgotten to get that one at the store...oops!) but ended up being vanilla ice cream.  deeeelicious!  have i mentioned my parents are fantastic cooks?  well they definitely are.  thanks for coming over tonight bohlingers!  it was so fun getting to catch up with you all and laughing at silly things!

our yummy appetizer

lemons are my new favorite food!

they taste good in almost everything.

one of our chefs!

pina coladas...virgin of course!

call up some friends and have a dinner party!  they're the best!

xoxo,

erin with a p and a double r

helloooo summer

i have been such a terrible blogger these past couple of weeks.  i never quite found the time to blog between studying for finals, going to Winchester for the Apple Blossom festival, packing up and leaving JMU, unpacking everything at home, starting a new job, celebrating my mom's special day, catching up with friends at home, reuniting with friends from school, celebrating my 19th birthday, doing crafts (coming soon on the blog!), redecorating our house, cooking dinner for the fam every night (also coming soon on the blog because i love to cook now!), mowing lawns, going to the beach (ok, i actually enjoy doing that) etc., etc.  so hopefully you can see why i haven't exactly had the time to blog.  but i'm getting settled into this idea of summer and i think i'm going to like it.


here's a brief recap in pictures of what's been going on...

Apple Blossom!

my cousin, meredith, and me at the parade

the queen and her court

a day at the farm!

frolicking through fields

mary-kate and ashley go country

my beautiful suite mates for next year  

our last night at jmu for the year

mother's day

day trip to williamsburg!

 chillin on the river

 jmu meets virginia beach on my birthday

the gang!

my super cute tea party! thanks sj :)

and this is where i plan on spending most of my summer...

that's all for now! but i promise i'm going to be a better blogger this summer, do not worry!

hope your enjoying these beautiful days :)

xoxo, 

erin with a p and a double r  

long time, no post.

wow, i can't believe i've gone this long without posting.  there's so much to tell, that i don't even know where to begin!  so, instead of me telling you all the highlights of these past couple of weeks, i'm going to tell you the top 8 things that i think you should do/try.  i have either done these things or things similar to them in the past few weeks and want to share:   

1.  dance. and I mean like crazy.  one of my favorite things about JMU is their awesome dance parties.  everyone just dances like no one is watching and it's so much fun! it's such a great stress reliever too.  but not even at dance parties...just try dancing when you're doing normal day-to-day activities. you'll love it. i promise.

the most recent dance party: a black and white semi-formal

2. marvel at God's creation.  i feel like i haven't been doing this enough, but in the last week there have been some pretty sweet times where i have been able to just stand amazed at the world God has created.  for example, the other week (after a dance party of course), some friends and i were driving home and decided to just pull off the side of the road (lots of country roads actually), get out, and lay in the middle of the street and star gaze.  it was perfect.  God's creation is perfect.  i have never seen the stars look so beautiful and bright.  we saw multiple shooting stars and had such a fun time freezing in the middle of the street coming up with reasons why we believed God created the stars. 

3.  relax and unwind.  you need to take time to just sit back and not work or stress about work.  this is hard for me to do because i feel like i should always be doing something. but last week kayla, kaitlin, abby, and i went to do get pedicures.  ahhh they are the best.  not even kidding, having clean and good-looking feet is one of my favorite things in life!!  go do something that will relax you and help you to distress.

love a good pedicure!

4.  go hiking.  so. much. fun.  some of sarah, ali, and i's best friends from tech came and we went to shenandoah national park to a mountain called stony man.  somehow (i still can't figure out how) we got lost.  although there were arrows pointing us to where to go, we still never made it to the very top of the mountain.  we did make it to little stony mountain along the way which was really cool.  it was a great time to get to know each other better and laugh at our humorous situation.  the best part? i would say eating this fancy cheese with crackers that lauren and christie brought at the top of little stony man.  so, go hiking and if you get lost, just laugh. 

the gang

cheese and crackers...yum!

beautiful tech girls :)

jmu ladies

5.  ponder Revelations.  i say ponder because i don't think anyone will be able to fully comprehend this chapter of the Bible.  i love it though.  i've been studying it for awhile and it is so sweet.  chapter 4 is my ultimate favorite because it is such a great image of what the throne of God looks like.  my small group has been talking about it for the past few weeks and our study on it this week was really neat.  we all just realized how such a mysterious and smart and just God we serve.  if we completely comprehended everything in Revelations and knew everything that was going to happen in the future, i think we would be bored and not have this sense of mystery that God gives us by not straight forwardly telling us everything.  read Revelations.  

6.  go with the flow.  i can't believe i just told you to do that.  it kills me to say it.  i am such a "i-need-a-schedule" person and it stresses me out when we don't have a plan which is why i probably end up making the plans most of the time.  this weekend i had a challenge to not make plans at all.  it was hard and stressed me out a little, but it turned out to be one of my favorite weekends yet!  now, my goal is to be to be more and more go with the flow and not follow a set schedule all the time.

 

7.  learn frisbee.  i have never played frisbee more than in these past 2 weeks and it is so much fun!! it's perfect for sunny days on the quad and you can learn all sorts of tricks.  i am not pro or anything (yet) and have a ton to learn, but look for me in the future on a national frisbee team (yeah right)!

8.  drink tea.  tea is incredible.  there are so many different types and it's a great way to socialize with people.  my favorites are chai, peppermint, earl grey, and any white teas.  last week my parents came to harrisonburg and went to my favorite place downtown, Earth and Tea, (go there if you live in harrisonburg!) and shared a pot of white tea and just talked.  talking with them and sipping tea with them and just the conversations we shared was definitely a highlight of my year.  and not to mention, the tea is delicious!  

i hope you will try some of these things.  i know some seem silly, but they have all helped make these past couple of weeks super great even in the midst of chaos and stress.  hope you have a marvelous monday!

xoxo,

erin with a p and a double r 

i finally did it.

i finally did it!!! did what?! i changed my major!  i have been debating whether or not to do this since day 1 here at jmu. and i did it. and it feels soooooo good! i've been praying about this for awhile and really feel like the Lord wants me to do it. i am no longer a math major (why did i ever think math would be a good major? no offense to any math lovers), but am an interpersonal communications studies major!! i figured i love talking and i love people, so what could be better? 


well that's all for this post.  it's been a busy week and there's not much time to blog, but i was just so excited about this i had to tell!  
have a great week rest of the week!      
xoxo,
erin with a p and a double r 

realizations of the week

this week i have realized a lot of things and i'm excited to share them with you! so here they go:

• i own way too much pink. seriously, i have pink overload.  and you want to know what's funny? i don't even like pink that much.  i mean i like it, but it's definitely not my favorite color.  as i'm typing this i'm looking on my desk and noticing my pink stapler, pink scissors, pink lampshade, pink perfume, pink journal, pink phone, pink, pink, pink!! i think you get my drift.  so, i have decided the next thing i buy cannot, and will not, be any shade of pink!
• fitted sheets are impossible to fold.  i tweeted about this on monday (yes, i tweeted) because i was so frustrated by it.  if you look in my closet you will now see a partially folded/partially wadded up fitted sheet.  and that's as good as it's gonna get.
• my fashion name.  this week my friends and i have come up with names for each of our fashions.  we have named people's fashion looks things like "earthy crunchy," "sports barbie," "cool, laid back mom," "prepster cutie," and "sporty chic."  and what was mine?  for me, they came up with "yacht fresh."  i'm not sure if that's a good thing or not, but i'll take it.  
• my love language.  i have wanted to do this for so long, and i finally did!  if you click here, you can take the 5 love languages quiz to see which one you are.  my highest 2 results were receiving gifts and words of affirmation.  and these are how i show love too.  i've realized that just because my love language is receiving gifts doesn't mean i'm greedy and materialistic and just want more gifts, but that i feel appreciated when people show they value spending their money on things for me rather than on other things.  well, that just made me sound self-centered and egotistic, but do you know what i mean?  giving people gifts is how i show love for others too.  and i found that the lowest love language i scored on was personal touch with a big, fat 0.  i think this explains why i went through my i-won't-hug-a-single-person phase.            
• laughter really is the best medicine.  whenever i have felt stressed this week, i've been trying to make myself laugh.  something about it just feels so good and takes all the stress away.      
• my love for classical music.  i stumbled across this guy named Brian Crain and he's amazing!  i bought his album called "A Summer in Italy" and i seriously feel like i am in a movie with the background music playing. it's great for studying because there's nothing i can sing along to!  

well, hope you enjoyed my realizations of the week.  who knows why i haven't discovered these things before, but i'm certainly glad i did!

happy hump day!

xoxo,

erin with a p and a double r

spring break 2011!

spring break was awesome.  it wasn't awesome because i was in bora bora sipping piña coladas and getting my tan on (although that sounds nice), but it was awesome because i got to stay in my pj's until 3 in the afternoon, visit with friends from home, do arts and crafts (aww yeah), have movie nights, shop, and just relax.  


the break started off with a trip to sandbridge.  it was my high school's young life campaigners weekend and two of my friends and i were invited to go down and cook dinner for them on saturday night and share with them how we followed Christ in high school and what we would've done differently looking back now.  it was great.  first colonial high school's campaigners are on fire for Christ and i'm so excited to see how they are going to change their school. first colonial's campaigners are also craaaaazzzzy and i love it.  we were able to get our dance on for hours and let me tell you, these girls can really dance!! i especially envy miranda's moves (the one in the hot pink).  here's a video of our crazy dance party:

on tuesday, amie, lauren, and i road tripped it to williamsburg for some prime outlet shopping and see our friend ali!  we shopped til we dropped and then ali came to va beach to celebrate her birthday and spend the night.  i loved having ali at the beach!   

the week also included a delicious homemade dinner at the gma's, a late night movie to see the adjustment bureau (good movie!) with lauren and kelsey, and lunch with stacey and my 3 year old boyfriend, trey.    

the best part of my week was all the alone time i had.  i am such an extrovert but i love time when i can just be at home by myself.  my sister was at school, dad was out of town, and mom was busy working so i was able to watch movies, do crafts, and make food all. by. myself.  it was awesome.
here's a little sneak peak of some of the crafts i did over break.  i'll post how to do the first one in a later post.  

coffee filter flowers! 

(thanks ali for doing them with me!)

sneak peak of a painting i'm working on!

if you had spring break last week i hope it was great and relaxing! :) 
happy monday!
xoxo,
erin with a p and a double r  
   
      

pens, vera bradley, hot pot, and ingrid michaelson!

what do all these things have in common?  that's right! they are all some of my favorite things!! i'm not sure if this post is considered really late or a little early for favorite fridays? but oh well, it's happening on a wednesday this week because friday i will be traveling back to good old Virginia Beach (can't wait!!).  


first on the favorites list this week are my Pilot G-2 07 pens. they are seriously the best.  for all those who write in cursive like me, you need to get them.  they are gel, which makes them super easy (and i think fun) to write with.  i prefer the 07's, but the 05's work just as great too!  ask kayla and she'll tell you that they're the only pens i write with.  no other pens can compare.  i highly recommend buying them!!  

today's second favorite is my vera bradley wristlet.  they are perfect for college. i can attach my key, have my jac card easily accessible, put my cell phone in the outside pocket, and store all my money in the inside.  i grab it, slip it around my wrist, and i'm good to go!  plus, there are so many colors to choose from!  mine is in "poppy fields" (thanks grandmother and granddad!), but i'm thinking about switching it up for the spring!

my third favorite for today is the Rival Electric Hot Pot kayla and i have in our dorm room. i got it from Bed, Bath, and Beyond for only $12.99!  and let me tell you...it is worth every penny. we use it to heat up water for tea or oatmeal and it heats water up in a hot second, it's quiet, and it's so easy to clean.  what else could you ask for in a hot pot?!

and today's last favorite is one that has just started growing on me.  and that would have to be my Ingrid Michaelson pandora station.  it's fabulous! she's fabulous!  there are artists on their such as Adele, Regina Spektor, Iron and Wine, and Glen Hansard who are all great.  and sometimes they'll stick an oldie in there and i love oldies!   try it out!

well that's all for wednesday favorite fridays!  have a fabulous night :)

xoxo,

erin with a p and a double r