what i wore

so now that i have a place to live and my clothes again i've had a lot of fun getting to mix new clothes in with old and also now that it is getting chilly and all fall i've been able to start wearing different clothes! so here is the most recent edition of what i wore

top: gap fall 2012
pants: gap cords winter 2011
shoes: sperry's

top: gap spring 2010
pants: ann taylor spring 2010
shoes: target fall 2009

sweater: gap fall 2012
pants: fall 2012 - omg i am in love with these pants!
shoes: black pumps nine west fall 2010

top: tank h&m winter 2010
sweater: ann taylor loft summer 2011
skirt: h&m pencil skirt winter 2010
shoes: bandalino winter 2012

shirt: gap winter 2010
cardigan: macy's spring 2010
pants: ann taylor spring 2010
shoes: nine west summer 2011

top: old navy tshirt summer 2012
blazer: ann taylor summer 2011
pants: ann taylor loft summer 2012
shoes: target summer 2011

we have a pretty lax dress code at work - jeans are fine, but i try to only wear them once a week and if i do dress them up with heels or a blazer. but it is great because i can mix and match so many things! i want to try taking these photos with a timer - the lighting isn't the best and they are all coming out blurry!

hope you are having a good week! what is your favorite turning fall clothing?

disconnected

so a few of my friends have commented on the lack of blogging the last 10 days but due to moving i didn't have internet at home until saturday - so i was a week without it and i don't blog at work. but we finally are connected! woooo! so nice to have tv again too! 

my cube at work! - just got more pictures printed! can't wait to add more!

empty apartment! the living room/dining room and hidden kitchen

moving! 

leaning tower of boxes!

so a busy busy few days with moving and work. so last saturday i moved into the apartment! yay having a home again and the fun of decorating! and then sunday was part of the 150th anniversary of the battle of antietam, so i was happy with my unpacking efforts so i decided to go! i was really happy i decided to go because i had a blast! i went to antietam last year for the first time and really enjoyed it, and the national park did an amazing job with the 150th - i just wish i was there on monday for the actual anniversary!                

my building!

bathroom

bedroom - not totally finished. i need my dresser and to hang things on the walls. 

more bedroom


went to antietam for the 150th anniversary weekend of the bloodiest day in american history. 23,000 casualties.

great artillery demo - this was the confederate one near the visitors center - so loud!

 the cornfields - 12,000 casualties in 3 hours. i had a wonderful guided talk on this aspect of the battle

along the bloody road at antietam

the rest of the week was fun! tuesday i went on an ikea adventure with my roommate and a coworker! and wednesday night i went to my first northern virginia zeta event - which was a blast and i met some really nice people and i'm really excited to get involved with the chapter! and then friday night i went out into the district for ellie's birthday!

my first ikea experience - got some end tables & coffee tables!

living room! couches and tv! woooo! and yes my tv is a little old - whatever it works!

saturday we got connected and i met one of the zetas to get our nails done and then the couches were delivered! woooo! so excited about them! i feel like such an adult now that i own couches! and then i was invited by the same zeta to a small bbq with some of her friends. so that was fun to get to meet some people and just have a relaxing night! annnd it was pretty cool - i ended up getting a ticket to the redskins football game today! zeta teams up with the nfl teams to help raise awareness for breast cancer for our think pink games and the game is in a few weeks but we ended up getting tickets for this weekends game and getting invited by the owners wife - who is also a zeta to a pregame event. so changed my sunday plans of going to the national book festival on the mall, but it was great to get to go to a nfl game! and my dad was so jealous! he is a HUGE skins fan! it was a crazy game - they ended up loosing, but it was still fun to go to! and an absolutely gorgeous day! 

with the nova zetas and tanya snyder at the pregame event!

at the redskins game!

hail to the redskins!

and my jets managed to pull off a win! i couldn't watch the game but i kept checking the score - but my fav revis is out with a knee injury, just hoping it isn't my least favorite knee injury. and it was a crazy day in the nfl - it is crazy how the standings are this year! a lot of surprises! 

so things are going well! i'm excited about everything and it is crazy how fast time is flying! i can't wait to finish getting the apartment set up and decorated and make it feel like home! how was your weekend?

the one where i drove to nj twice in 4 days

last week was a  CRAZY week for me! work is going well - i'm getting more and more excited about what i'm doing, especially as we get into more detail about the conferences i'll be doing starting in january.  and then i was searching for a place to live. seriously that is a full time job itself. i looked at like 6 craigslist places last week and just wasn't having any luck. so on saturday one of my co-workers and i decided to look at apartment complexes near work and we signed paperwork to move into a 2 bed/2 bath apartment on friday!!! soooooo excited to have somewhere to live! i'll be living in fairfax co.

so in the crazy of work and trying to find somewhere to live - my mom, sister and i had tickets to see luke bryan & jason aldean at the pnc in nj. so i drove the 4 hours up to nj thursday for the concert and had a blast with my momma & sister! luke bryan was totally worth the 8 hour drive! my mom & sister saw him last year with tim mcgraw and it was my first time. but i LOVE luke - so it was great to finally see him and damn he has amazing stage presence! jason was great but just didn't have the energy that luke has - but it really made me realize that while the image that jason tries to portray is the bad boy a lot of his songs are love songs or sentimental. so then after the concert i drove back to no.va and got a few hours of sleep before work on friday!

luke bryan <3 td="td">

the delaware memorial bridge toll empty
i was the ONLY car - freaky

so had a quiet friday night due to the very little sleep and saturday i went to check out some apartments and on my way my mom calls me to let me know that on sunday my family was celebrating my grandparents 60th anniversary and a photographer was coming to take family photos... so while it was my decision to make i decided to drive up so i could be there. so after driving up on thursday i drove the almost 5 hours home saturday night getting home at 1am. lets just say after driving to/from charleston 5 hours in a car is a short trip... (crazy right!) but i was glad i went home for it. here are just some photos of my mom, sister and i just fooling around with my phone. i'm excited to see how the professional ones come out! 

momma, sister and i 

momma and i 

sister and i 

J-E-T-S! Jets Jets Jets!

siblings! i'm so short!

and another fun thing on sunday was FOOTBALL started again!! wooooooo! so exciting! my JETS had an amazing first game - especially after how horrible they were in the preseason. it is exciting to see how the offense is coming together and how the sanchez/tebow thing might work. i just love football!

 so drove back to no.va sunday night and staying at the wonderful mj's until friday when i get keys!



and i signed up for the philly half today! so excited to run it in november with my crew loves! wooo! let's see how my knee loves this.


and on a more somber note with today being september 11th - it really hit me driving back to mj's tonight after work when i drove by the pentagon and seeing the flags at half mast. i started tearing up and crying just thinking about it all and knowing what happened there 11 years ago...

civil war 150th

so my love of the civil war should be evident by now - 2010 civil war virginia, 2011 civil war weekend and all of my other random stops when i can. so on wednesday evening we arrived in no.virginia and after unloading my things into storage i was hanging out with my parents when i saw on twitter that it was the 150th anniversary of the 2nd manassas (bull run) which was aug 28-30, 1862. and so thursday was the 30th and i needed something to do during the day so it was perfect!

you know i love the nps signs!

i went to manassas last august in the civil war weekend and so set off thursday morning for some of the talks and ranger tours to commemorate the 150th anniversary. 

the morning was a tour on the robinson family - a free black family who lived where the battle was fought and their experience. i was really looking forward to the 2pm talk about the battle at deep cut  so between the two i went to a few sites of the battles again and get my passport stamps! the talk on the battle of deep cut was really interesting. it was the largest union attack. 

i had a fun day at manassas and talking with all the cute old men. a few who were going to all the 150th anniversary battle events! so it was my first time going to a civil war battlefield on its anniversary but so cool. there were no re-enactments but it was still awesome anyways. 

the union troops marched up this field to where the deep cut (an unfinished railroad line was) where the confederates were defending. it was a pretty steep hill. 

standing along the deep cut - to the left is the actual cut where the confederates defended their spot by staying hidden in the cut.

about 200 people were on the talk - it was really awesome!

monument of the battle at deep cut

 some of my more recent stamps in my national parks passport - there are 3 for manassas battlefield! 

i have a post coming about my national park passport obsession!

second manassas was part of jackson & lee's march northward and trying to get closer to dc. it was fought on almost the same ground that the first manassas (july 21, 1861 and first major battle of civil war) and it was a confederate victory and would help lee continue to march northward into maryland for the battles of harpers ferry & antietam which were in september 1862. which i'm probably going to go to the 150th of one of them!

so there is my history dork moment!

 but besides my civil war moment i've been staying low. i had my first day of work friday! wooo! so weird to be back and know i'm permanent and that i moved to dc. i'm still searching for somewhere to live - looked at a few places thursday that i didn't like and have some more places to check out this week. uuugh searching for somewhere decent to live in the nova area! so not fun! but i've been spending my time with my friend mary jo and living the mormon lifestyle. friday night relaxed and watched bachelorette & bridesmaids. saturday was pedi's with a little shopping then dinner and a movie where we saw premium rush. and on sunday i went to church with her house. going to a mormon church was really interesting but i liked seeing the differences between religious groups. and then a lazy sunday which consisted of a great lunch, reading & relaxing on the couch/a nap, a delish dinner and then a walk around their neighborhood.

and yesterday we had a fun day - i went with mj and 2 of her roommates to charlottesville,va. one of their past roommates is now at uva law school so we went to see her and walk around campus and took a rotunda tour! it was a pretty nice day out and lots of laughs! i had been to uva prior quickly when i went to monticello but this time actually got out and walked around. i was in love with the lawn rooms around rotunda.

at UVA

mj & i with my fav tj!

in the rotunda of uva

how was your labor day weekend? and have you been to any civil war battlefields?

last week in charleston

so i've been in the dc area for a few days now staying with friends, trying to find somewhere to live and had my first day of work! but before i get to all that here is my last week in charleston in pictures!

went to folly beach friday night for the sunset - i love the beach at night and it was just so nice to sit on a quiet beach and just read and take it in.

saturday morning i went downtown to the farmers market and walked around 

then i met up with my zta friend elizabeth at sullivans island and we hung out at the beach for the afternoon and had to swim across the gully to actually get to the beach. yes - swim, it was over my head. pretty crazy! then saturday night i went out to dinner with the girls.

one of the things i wanted to do before i left charleston was walk the ravenel bridge. so sunday morning before i picked up my parents i walked the bridge! 

so after picking up my parents & going to the tattooed moose for lunch we headed to patriots point as my dad loves battleships and the uss yorktown (a HUGE aircrafy carrier) is now a museum in charleston. the view of the ravenel from patriots point.

mom & dad with the yorktown

chocolate chip cookie recipe for
10,000 cookies

hanging out with a old fighter plane - being on a flight deck was really cool!

after the afternoon at the yorktown we went to sullivans island for a walk on the beach!

where i attempted to make my parents do a jump photo - they were hilarious!

us on the beach.  

monday morning we headed out to fort sumter - here are my momma & i with the flags that all flew over ft. sumter

my parents and i at the fort - i had a great time telling them about all the civil war history (plus got my park passport stamps!) so after fort sumter we headed back towards my apartment for the plantations. 

where we got to magnolia, walked around a little bit and while we were on the nature train seeing the property (where we saw so many alligators, even on on the path!) it started to POUR. so we got a little wet. and it continued to downpour for a while, so we cut our visit short. so after going home to change we headed out to walk around downtown charleston. so the plan for tuesday was to load the truck in the morning and then go back to magnolia in the afternoon and walk around downtown before driving a few hours north. butttt a new plan took place due to this!

so tuesday morning it was lightly raining but the forecast said it should be done by early morning but after getting the truck to my apartment it was POURING. by early morning we had gotten a few inches of rain and the drainage ditch behind my apartment was a river! and so we didn't do any thing except wait for the rain to stop - so we tried to leave my apartment to get lunch butttt we were a bit flooded. the water came up to my mid calf right outside my car and i wasn't driving until it went down a bit more. so it finally started to drizzle and the rain receded off the parking lot.

 

it was a little bit flooded.

but we started loading the truck at around 4 in a light rain and by 6 amy & i finished cleaning and turned in our keys. and my parents and i hit the road so we would have a few hours less driving to do. 

so leaving charleston was hard - i love it there but i'm ready to start a new chapter in my life and SO excited about dc! (or will be once i have a place to live)