Friends In High Places

Jennifer lived with my sister all four years of college. She is incredibly smart and accomplished and has some fancy schmancy title that basically means she's in charge of real estate development for one of my favorite places to eat....Zoe's Kitchen. Well, she sent me a message last night that read "Zoe's opens tomorrow!!" For those of you that have never heard of Zoe's, let me just tell you...YOU ARE MISSING OUT! It is one of my very favorite fast restaurants in the fast casual category, really one of my favorites in any category.

From what I hear, there are 4 characteristics you must meet in order to be called a called Raving Fan of something... :)

• Comes more often...Let's see, I went for lunch AND dinner today, and it's not super close. 30 minutes, one way, without traffic.
  
• Pays full price...I have eaten there more times than I could count in the past 6 years or so and have only had a coupon twice
• Tells 'us" ("us" being Zoe's)...I'm all for mailing in a comment or telling the staff personally
• Tells others...I sent emails to my Atlanta friends telling them about the opening, tweeted about it and even de-virginized my roomie tonight.

Pretty sure I pass all of those characteristics with flying colors.

Speaking of colors, I just love the color scheme Zoe's has going on...so bright and cheery!

So, for all of folks that have never tasted the goodness that is Zoe's, check out the website and find your nearest location. All of the food they have is delicious. I highly recommend the chicken salad, either in a sandwich or a plate, and the chicken rollups. All of the sides are super yummy...my faves are the slaw and pasta salad. Oh, and you can't forget the limeade...and the chocolate cake!!

I'm making myself hungry again just thinking about it. Good thing I brought a to-go box home for tomorrow!

It's been too long...WAY too long

The last time I saw my sweet niece's face was in January. January 21 to be exact. Entirely too long ago! So this Friday, I will be making the drive down south to lovely Brewton. Yes, I'm looking forward to seeing family and friends, going to my home church, eating at my favorite Mexican restaurant and enjoying small time life...but I'm most excited about spending some time with my precious niece, Emma Kate.

I've been planning my trip home for a month or so, but the trip got even better when I found out last week that not just one, but BOTH of the families that I nanny for are going to be on spring break next week. Translation...I GET THE WEEK OFF! It didn't take me long to decide that I wanted to spend that week with EK.

As of now, my only plan for the week is to lavish her with love and fill the days with things she enjoys doing. So, we'll probably be taking in some of the local sporting events, going to the beach, feeding the ducks, swinging and sliding at Rainbow Dragon, eating lunch at the Pizza Hut buffet, playing Puppy Pal Bingo, going for walks...and anything else her little heart desires. Who knows, if she asks me nicely, we might even do some of those activities wearing matching outfits!

Oh my goodness, I can't wait! See ya on Friday, my little EK.

Car Washes and Car Seats

My car has been in MAJOR need of a wash! Well, the Goo Goo Car Wash is one of my favorite places to get 'ole Harriet fresh and clean. It offers a combination of the automated wash and a hand wash plus the complete vacuum treatment. Sadly, there isn't a Goo Goo anywhere in the Atlanta area. Well, I went on a little road trip yesterday and I remembered from when I went there the last time that they had a Goo Goo, so I took the fun car seats out of my car and got it all ready for a thorough cleaning.

The wash was great, but even better was my roomie Lisa's excitement over the car seats in the den. I took a little video footage...please note that for the first 5 seconds or so, she thought I was taking a picture. Love it!

Too bad evey Friday can't be Friday the 13th!

So far 2009 has had two Friday the 13ths and both of mine have been great. The one in February was pretty laid back but filled with lots of things that make me happy and I was excited that there would be another in March. I was a little worried that the March festivities wouldn't be as good as the ones in February, but I was wrong about that. You see, I spent the day...and the weekend...in NASHVILLE!

I had not been to Nashville in years. When I was a kid I went a few times to Opryland, but I had never really been as a "big girl." Well, my roomie and I got all packed up and left the great state of Georgia on Friday afternoon, and everything about the weekend was pretty fabulous. Yes, it did rain most of the time, but that didn't stop us from touring and absolutely falling in love with the Music City.

Special thanks to Miss Caroline...my friend that I met in October who graciously opened her home to us. Not only did she provide a great place to stay, she also gave us a detailed list of all of the fun things to do and places to eat while we were there. What she didn't know is that one of Christen's Top 5 Strengths is ACTIVATOR and one of mine is ARRANGER. So when we were talking about all of the things that we did over lunch on Sunday, she couldn't believe it. In her words, "y'all dominated Nashville." To that, we say "thanks, Caroline." We can't wait to come back and dominate your city again! Next time, we promise we will give you more than a week's notice so that you will be able to play WITH us instead of having to work!

One of the many perks of blogging...

winning contests! I love love LOVE to win things. Usually I'm pretty unlucky, but since I've had a blog, I've won a couple different little bloggy contests. All of my wins were a few months ago, but I had to wait to blog about them...more on the specific reasons later.

So, the first little contest I won happened on my friend Jennifer's blog. Jennifer was one of the first people that I met when I went to Alabama. In fact, I think she and her friend Savannah were the first people that I met that I didn't know before I moved in. Our paths didn't cross too much in college, but I always thought the world of her...still do. So, when I came across her blog a few months ago I quickly became an avid reader. She and her hubby are pregnant with their first child...a little girl named Charlotte. She has great insights, yummy recipes and is going to be such a wonderful mommy! I'm so glad that I came across her blog and that we've been able to reconnect.

Well, Jennifer did a little giveaway on her blog for some super cute stationary, did the little random number generator and I won! I got the cutest stationary and address labels and I also ordered some stationary for my friend Natalie with her new name on it. Kacey was so easy to work with and all of my goodies arrived super quickly. Check her out at Doodle Bugs Stationary. I'm sure you'll see one or two or twenty things you like!



Now, if you are reading this in something like a Google Reader...which is pretty much my favorite way to read blogs, you're going to have to leave it for a quick minute to check out my actual blog because there is a change. Ok...is everybody here? Do you see a change? If you guessed the header, then you are right. I've been wanting a little header change for quite sometime, but didn't really have any pictures of babies to put up there and I definitely didn't want a picture of myself plastered across the top, so I was looking for a fun little font to help liven things up a bit. Thankfully, I didn't have to do much work because I ended up winning this little header makeover from Joy at 5J's. Like Kacey, she was super easy to work with and SO FAST! She had this header whipped out in 24 hours and it was incredibly easy to install.


So, for those of you that think blogs are just crazy online journals...I know there are a few out there because you are the ones that refuse to comment on my blog, say that blogs are a waste of time and you only read to know what's going on in my life...all I'm going to say is you're wrong and you're missing out. Missing out on meeting new people, missing out on new perspectives, missing out on FREE STUFF!

worth losing sleep over...

Have you ever had a moment when it appears that out of nowhere, someone or something just pops into your head. A dear mentor once told me that those thoughts are not out of nowhere in God's eyes. He is bringing those people to mind for a reason. So when someone pops into my head, I usually say a quick prayer for them. The key word is quick...usually 15 or 2o seconds. Nothing fancy, because remember, I usually don't know why they were brought to mind...so I just lift them up. If I think about it, I will send a text or give a call to let them know they are being thought of. The response is usually a quick thanks and that's all there is to it.

Last night I was having the hardest time falling asleep. This is not the norm for me. Usually I fall asleep as soon as my head hits the pillow and I rarely wake up in the middle of the night. God had different plans last night. As I was getting ready for bed, a name crossed my mind...sweet young lady, awesome woman of the Lord, just met her a month ago. So, I added her to my nightly prayers. Well, after I finished praying she was still on my heart. Quite honestly, my first reaction was, "Lord, I already prayed for her...why is she still on my heart?" After pleading with Him to grant me sleep for the next 45 minutes, I finally got out of my bed and got on my knees to pray for her.

I felt so unqualified to be praying. I didn't know what was going on in her life. Surely someone else could pray for her better than I could, but the urge I had to pray for her was overwhelming.
When I talked to her last, she told me about the guy she was dating. She talked about her special someone just like my friend Natalie talks about Scott. So, I prayed for their relationship just as I did for Natalie and Scott's before they were married. I prayed that if it was meant to be that He would make His plans perfectly clear and that if it wasn't that He would surround them with people to speak truth into their lives and offer support when things begin to crumble. I pulled out journals of prayers that I had prayed over Natalie and Scott and replaced their names with the other couples'. Finally at about 2AM, I fell asleep.

Flashforward to this morning. I sent the girl a quick message just to say that I was lifting her up in prayer and this is what I got back (names removed)...


Oh Lindsey.....

IT WAS GOD WEIGHING ME ON YOUR HEART!!!!! Lindsey, something has happened to ***** and I. ***** broke up with me Sunday.. Lindsey- God and I have cried and wailed in wrestling over this.. I was literally laying in bed praying for someone to lift me up and praying for clarity and trust in this circumstance if in fact this is God's deliverance... I literally feel like I have been delivered.


Oh my goodness. As I read the words, chills ran up my back and tears flooded my eyes. I had NO clue what was going on in her life, but God did. I felt highly unqualified, but The Lord met me there and showed me that once again HE DOESN'T NEED US TO ACCOMPLISH HIS WILL, but HE LONGS TO USE US!!

Thank you Lord for not giving up on me. Thank you for pushing and prodding me to pray. Thank you sweet friend for sharing your heart with me. What a testament to the power of intercessory prayer!

So close...but oh so far

For two weeks I have been craving an Icee. I capitalize the word Icee because it is a SPECIFIC brand...I don't want just any frozen drink. No Parrot Ice, Minute Maid, Slush Puppy or Freezie for me. ICEE ONLY! So, when my roomie and I drove by a gas station that had an Icee sign in the window I about had a conniption fit. I pulled into the parking lot, grabbed my change and was by the machine in less than a minute. I picked up the cup and reached for the lever to add my coke Icee only to find this...

Does anybody know of a place between Atlanta and Nashville that has Icees?? I am in DIRE NEED!