When did July get here?

Hello!!!

How 'bout a recap of what I've been doing lately?

Some things will get more details than others...even I get bored with myself on this thing...

So yeah, Sara graduated from MSU. No more Renfroes at State. Try not to cry.

LIALAH GOT ENGAGED!! She sneakily told us over sushi one Thursday night. One second she did not have a diamond ring on her finger and the next she did. BAM!! Just like that. Love it.

And then....

...I had the opportunity to be a mentor for Youth Villages.

My mentee and I were matched at the beginning of May.

Thanks to our incredible liason, Emily Vanderpool, we had lots of stuff in common so hanging out was super fun.

She is a 12-year-old girlie girl (just like me!) so of course we got our nails done one afternoon.

She likes to dance and run...not unlike me except running is more of a love-hate relationship for me.

Other fun things included multiple visits to the mall (of course), seeing Kung Fu Panda 2 (I laughed more than she did), and a trip to the Memphis Zoo with Emily and her mentee.

I don't know if you noticed that I've been writing in past tense.

That's because my mentee was so amazing she got to discharge home a couple of weeks ago.

Most mentoring relationships last longer than a couple of months, but she was so happy to get to go home.

I can only hope that I was somehow as much of a blessing to her as she was to me.

And now I have a new pen pal!!

My very first ever trip to Nashville happened in May. Lots of tailgating, people watching, and betting on horse races.

I turned 24!!

I took my first week long vacation since starting work (the first of many to come I'm sure) and went home to good ole Moss Point to hang out with the fam.

That vaycay was topped off with the wedding weekend of Elizabeth "always will be Butler to me" and Jan Blaine. It was great to see everyone...Butler looked A-mazing...the whole shabang.

In June, Sara came to Memphis and we went to the concert of the amazingly talented, melt butter with that voice, one and only Michael Buble'.

Words can't really describe how incredible his concerts are, so I'll just suggest that if you ever get the chance to see him, pay the money and go.

My "partner in crime" at work, Brooke, left me high and dry to go work in more of a community nutrition setting.

(Brooke, I only said it like that because I know I'm on your google reader now.)

But really, I'm pumped for her...now my trips to Starbucks are just a whole lot less exciting without anyone to take them with.

So with Brooke's leaving I now have a new floor assignment: the cardiovascular ICU aka CVICU. With those 3 letters I'm sure you can figure out that these patients require more critical care. Most are on vent support and therefore need alternate nutrition...that's where I come in!!

Duh Duh Duuuh! Mary, RD to the rescue!!!

Those doctors need to know how fast to run a tube feeding or how many calories IV nutrition's giving?? I'm their woman.

Sidenote: I just sneezed 7 times in a row. For me, this may be a record. I'm even thinking that if my Granny were still here it would be worthy of one of her "bless your little cotton pickin' heart"s instead of just the automatic reaction of a "bless you". End sidenote.

Alright, here's the moment you've all been waiting for....

the NKOTBSB concert!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

For those of you who do not know, well first off you should be ashamed of yourself, and secondly that stands for the merging of 2 super powers known as 90's boy bands combining to form one insanely awesome mega man band of the 2011 summer concert tour scene....New Kids on the Block and the Backstreet Boys!!

haha sorry. I get carried away when discussing childhood dreams coming true. It happens when I talk about Disney World too.

So as June 20th drew nearer there's no denying I was excited about this concert. I mean, I feel like any girl our age who watched TRL would be even remotely excited.

Well anyway, I did not expect to have as much fun as I did.

I laughed pretty much the whole time (except when NKOTB sang their lesser-known-to-my-generation love ballads, that was potty break time).

My laughter came from 1) amusement with how silly I felt (everyone of those BSB songs took me back to my dramatic 12-year-old self laying around mine and Sara's bedroom thinking about some dumb boy I was madly in love with at the time) and 2) it came from how funny it was to watch these 30 and 40-something year old men sing and dance to songs they recorded when they were 19 years old...

AND I LOVED EVERY MINUTE OF IT!!

We left there with ears a'ringin' from the thousands of grown women screaming their heads off...ourselves included.

Krystina's bachelorette party weekend in Nashville was a success. As if it wouldn't be.

Spent most of July 4th weekend in Stark seeing Sara and the rents, topped off with a cookout/pool party back in Memphis courtesy of Emily's parents.

And today I got back from Jackson, visiting my BFF for a "MaryAnna" weekend.

Yesterday my mom texted me and said, "This weekend is Junior Miss's weekend to meet in Meridian - you and Anna met 7 years ago tomorrow afternoon!!"

How fitting that we randomly decided to spend a weekend together and it ends up being our "anniversary".

And what a great 7 years it has been.

This is the day we met! Here's the 17-year-old versions of Anna and Mary.

(disposable cameras didn't zoom haha)

Pajama party

Judges' party

Weren't we gaaawgeous??

Love and miss

Big Saturday Night

So my balcony has slowly been furnished since moving in last July...

...but still no flowers.

You may have seen Mary Margaret Cockroft's tweet yesterday with a picture of her nicely potted flowers and kite decor for her balcony.

Well, I got inspired when I went over to her apt last night before a trip to Hobby Lobby.

(Yep, we're living it up here in the big city.)

One trip to Hobby Lobby and Lowes later...

And below is the product of how MM and I spent our Saturday night.

(I had way too much fun playing in the dirt...and then sweeping it off the balcony...

...I really am turning into my mother...which I'm thrilled about.)

This is the bench Lori and I put together back in the fall.

Here's my balcony.

I like to call it a porch though.

We have the best view of the lake.

Talk about a great place for reading and drinking coffee...or other beverages...

(Why oh why is this underlined??)

Okay, I officially joined in with all you bloggers who blog about flowers.

I hope you were thoroughly impressed.

love and miss

COASTIES

My siblings are so talented.

I'm not sure how all the artistic talent skipped me, but John and Sara are definitely not lacking in it.

Sara is graduating from MSU in 2 WEEKS!!!

What the heck?!?!

Time, do you mind slowing down a little bit?

K, thanks.

Anyway, her Graphic Design class will be putting on their "Freak Show" this coming Tuesday night.

Check out the website.

And I'm obsessed with Sara's personal website.

Maybe I'm a little biased, but I love the colors and the waves and basically everything about it.

She's been working really hard and pulling multiple all-nighters the past few weeks.

So proud of my baby sister.

I'm going to miss her SO MUCH when she's working in Disney World!!

Speaking of waves and the coast, John's COASTIES business is taking off!!

The stickers have been selling like ca-ra-zy.

I love riding around in Memphis with this sticker on my Jeep.

It's been really cool to see people's reaction to this idea.

We're all so proud of growing up on the coast.

John, in his entrepreneur awesomeness, has come up with this image/statement to display the love and pride we have in our beloved Coast.

"It's more than a nickname...it's a way of life...Coasties."

I'm so proud of both of my siblings.

And have I mentioned how pumped I am to be getting another sister?

Yep, John is marrying his church camp sweetheart in March 2012.

Couldn't be more excited.

love and miss

Shuffle

There's probably no way to catch y'all up since I last posted 2 months ago without boring you to death. Well, here's one way...the short and sweet version:

Thanksgiving with the Vanderpools/Orrs

Egg Bowl victory with brother John

St. Jude Half Marathon (!!)

Harry Potter 1 - 7 in 3 weeks

Abby tied the knot

marked something off of my bucket list: attend a black church

(we were there for 3 hours)

the Granola Girls bowling team made it through 3 rounds

(I can still hear you laughing)

couple of Christmas parties in Memphis

missed the most important Christmas party in Jackson

*sad face*

5 days in Moss Point for Christmas

New Year's Eve

Gator Bowl watch party

Mary Margaret moved to Memphis (!)

colored my hair

(again)

experienced driving in for real snow for the first time

(scary)

Now let's look forward, shall we?

Rachel and I started this here video. The first week I spent 2 days hardly able to move.

Let me tell ya, it is awesome.

20 minutes a day and you've had a great workout.

Love it.

And to motivate me to run this I got myself one of these little cuties.

Can you guess what color I got??

Did y'all watch the Golden Globes??

I was obsessed with Olivia Wilde's dress.

And speaking of obsessed, here is my new favorite show.

While I was home for Christmas, my parents got me into The Big Bang Theory.

(I watched the entire first season in less than 3 days.)

They eat a lot of take out on this show, so if you decide to start watching it beware!

You will begin to crave Pei Wei and have no idea why.

I suppose that's enough for now.

Love and miss