So how does it feel when two of your best friends get engaged over the same weekend...well it feels like I'm getting married and I'm so excited! I am constantly looking for flowers, dresses, venues and of course shower ideas.

If I could snap my fingers and give them each the prefect wedding this is what each of theirs would look like:

Emily and Jose's

Katy and Dooley's

So let it be known....

I may not be able to give them the weddings (or honeymoon) of their dreams but a girl can dream can't she...

So this time next week I will be NYC, one of my favorite cities in the world!!!

And by this time next week I hope to already have accomplished...

Breakfast at Tiffany's

An afternoon at the MET

One hot dog (ketchup,mustard and onions)

Won tickets to Shakespeare in the park

AND started celebrating a certain someone's birthday!!

So let it be known...

To be classified as one of my favorite cities you must have the following: priceless art, great cheap eats and be home to someone I love.

With the World Cup match between England and USA coming up on Saturday I thought I would reflect on some differences we have with our neighbors across the pond. We may speak the same language but that is about the only similarity.

10 % of the population of the England attends church services at least once a week, here it’s 39%. Please keep in mind that England fought for a good 1,000 years over the correct translation of the Christian religion, what a waste of beautiful places to worship.

Westminster Abbey

In England they have Council Houses and the people that inhabit them are “Chav’s”, here we have the Projects.

Council House

"Chav's" as featured on the sketch show Little Britain

In England they love soccer, cricket and rugby, here it’s football, basketball and hockey.

Vintage David Beckham....you're welcome!

In England gas is $9 a gallon, here it’s about $2.60 a gallon, which might explain why they don’t love the SUV as much as we do.

This car gets 40 miles to the gallon

In England they love Indian food the night Mum doesn't cook, here it’s all about the pizza.

YUM

In England they plan there day around there next cup of tea, pint of lager (room temp) or gin and tonic, here we plan around the next time we are going to eat.

Two pints and a bag of crisps

In England the show Seinfeld was canceled, here it is one of the most successful comedies of all time (making $2.7 billion since the finale in syndication ALONE)

Never seen a full episode (FYI)

So let it be known....

Most Americans probably have more in common with people from Guam than England.

About 4 years ago to the day I graduated from the best university in the world, if you want to know my educated opinion, Auburn University.

It is hard to come down from the college way of living. Partying all the time, learning new things everyday and not having a care in the world. When I noticed it has been that long I was taken back because I thought of all things I have now that I didn't the day I left Auburn...

To start I'm still paying off my loan from Auburn as well as my debt from learning the hard way that buying things you can't afford on a credit card really add up. I have experienced the type of moments that take your breath away and I'm not talking about the good ones. I found myself having to be more independent than I thought I would ever be and it scared me. BUT... I have traveled to places I've always wanted to go and have no plans of stopping. I adopted a dog that does not only make me smile everyday but has helped me lose 10 lbs over the past year by forcing me to take long walks twice a day. And I am surrounded by the same amazing group of best friends I had the day I left Auburn.

So let it be known...

The 4 years after college go by faster than the college experience itself but if you surround yourself with great people, a good dog and a lot of wine its not that bad.

My first word was most likely food related but my second was ‘Mum’. On Mother’s Day I always end up turning it into a day for me, a day to reflect how lucky I am to have a Mother that knows everything about me and still keeps loving me more and more every day. My Great-Grandmother, Grandmother and my Mom all found soul mates through their relationships with their mothers and this is one family tradition I am happy to carry on.

So let it be known….

I LOVE MY MUM!!

In the new SATC movie there is a quick clip on the preview of the girls flying first class on a Middle Eastern airline, probably Emirates. I'm a total sucker for upgraded air travel, I don't even think twice if I'm offered an upgrade for a few hundred more on an international flight. Emirates currently have the best first class cabins in the world. For the average price tag of about $4000 one way from Heathrow to Dubai you can have your own cabin, access to the first class bathrooms (which include a shower), 23 inch TV, premium cuisine and champagne…just to name a few. The best perk, they fail to list, is the total avoidance of badly behaved children or obnoxious adults.

First Class

Economy

First Class

Economy

So let it be known...

There a lot of options to upgrade in life but when it comes to international air travel it shouldn't be an option it should be a MUST! (Just ask my dad)

'Settle' is one of those words that can have several different meanings, some which are the total opposite of one another. You can be settled, settling or unsettled. At the current moment I have friends that are in all of these stages and I am coasting somewhere between all three.

Which one are you?

Settled

Settling

Unsettled

So let it be known...

When you are thinking about settling or find yourself in a state of being unsettled just think of nice it would be for your life to be a Norman Rockwell painting....I call shotgun!

Over the past month I have played a good bit of cards and I forgot how much fun you can have with a simple deck. A few weeks ago my mom and I had a drink or two and ended up playing ‘Go Fish’ and ‘Snap’ for at least an hour or two. We laughed and talked through the whole game and actually had a really great time.

Then this past weekend on my amazing girls trip in Savannah we ended up playing cards twice and I think we were all surprised how much fun we had. We actually giggled and talked as a group more during our games than any other part of the trip.

So let it be known..

Playing cards have been around since the 9^th century and with a cold beer in one hand and cards in the other it's easy to see why

With my birthday coming up this Friday I will start reminding people that I don’t like to be surprised in any shape form or fashion. The worst is at a restaurant and they all come over and sing around some excuse of a dessert. I’m not even a fan of surprises that involve a large gift or a a surprise trip…this actually hasn’t happened to me but the thought of it gives me nausea. But with all this said I do consider myself always up for anything…just as long as I have some time to digest it. Hmm did I just describe a plot for an anxiety commercial!?

My Worst Nightmare

But what I do love about birthdays are the cards. We never really give or get big presents for any occasion in my family but cards are never to be missed. Big ones, small ones, handmade ones, ones that don’t make sense but they all make me smile. The old lady in me keeps cards around about a good month after my birthday has passed, maybe I will get one like this in the coming days...

Cute Papyrus card

So let it be known…

If the waiters come out to sing on my birthday I will be livid but get me a card I’ll love you forever

So in a few days I will be….GULP….26 years old. In recent years this number started to scare me and I wasn’t really sure why. But after a glass of wine I started to think about it and I realized when I was a little girl 26 was the age that I decided I was going to be married and have my first baby. It’s funny how when you’re a little girl and you plan out your life it all seems so easy. But it also doesn’t help that at my Alma Mater, AUBURN (war eagle!), you are considered an old maid if you aren’t married or with the one you are going to marry by, at least, 26. Now do I really think I'm going to end up single forever? Not at all but just in case I decided to have a little look to see if I do end up an old maid what type of company I would be in.

Coco Chanel

Queen Elizabeth

Miss Piggy

So let it be known…

That on the closing days of my 25^th year it finally clicked that my childhood dreams are just that, childish

Habitat for Humanity

This past weekend I volunteered for Habitat for Humanity and I have to say it was one of the most pleasantly surprising experiences I've had in a long time. I have done charity work before but something about this was different. Trying my best to get up at 615, which is hard any day but especially on a Saturday, forcing myself out of my comfy I have to admit I kind of wished I didn't volunteer and this feeling grew when we arrived at the site in a part of town that was the worst I've seen in Atlanta yet. But that all changed when I signed in and the cutest little girl ( a Pippi Longstocking look alike) was asking us to sign her scrapbook, I presumed she was from the high priced Catholic school that was helping us build. About 20 minutes past and the building leader asked us to gather around and meet the family we were building the house for....to my shock it was Pippi Longstocking and her Mom. The family made a short touching speech (the things this woman overcame was amazing) We learnt that her Mom had to work everyday on their house, have no debt, a saving account, proof she could pay her mortgage every month on time and take 200 hours of financial planning. I had several conversations with the future homeowner and she was so happy and bursting with pride. This home was her dream! She didn't notice everything negative about the area that I sadly did. Or maybe she did notice it but it didnt matter because she was going to continue to live life in HER new home!

At 10am once the foundation was down we started laying the floor

Noon, we had the floor down and put up the first wall. I can't remember the last time I was so giddy!

All the flooring and two walls in a matter of hours!

So let it be known...

It might be a little late to give something up for Lent but that morning I gave up feeling bad for myself