Mom's Visit!

Mom came in town last weekend! Words can't quite cover how good it was to have her here. We did some exploring around Capitol Hill (tried some awesome restaurants!), but we spent a lot of time inside thanks to the heat wave. It ended up being good though, because we revamped my room! Mom was so sweet and volunteered to help repaint my room-- I promise she volunteered! We got our supplies on Friday afternoon and started painting Saturday morning. About thirteen hours of painting, a new duvet and a few pillow shams later... we turned this:

into this!

We actually moved almost all of my furniture out of my room while we repainted, so my back porch came in very handy. Mom was so sweet to come and help fix up my room! It was a fun weekend together.

These two pics are a little random, but I found them when I was looking for "before" pictures. I took these the day I moved into my house and literally the only thing on the wall was my mirror hanging on my closet door! Thought my friends would appreciate my "furrowed brow" in the first one haha

Thankful for a great Sabbath Day worship at Capitol Hill Baptist. We sang "We Rest On Thee" and "How Sweet and Awful" and heard a great sermon on 1st Thes. 5... So thankful for that body of believers.

More updates to come during August Recess... I'll have lots of pics from the 2011 Smithsonian Folklife Festival and July 4th!

A Penny A Pine Cone

Here is a classic Stone Family story for you:

Growing up, we always did chores... I actually really enjoyed them! Probably because Mom and Dad were great about incentivizing them. For instance: at our old house, we had two huge pine trees and, as pine trees are proned to do, these trees dropped pine cones on our yard. One of my chores was to pick up the pine cones to help keep the backyard tidy. Dad turned picking up pine cones into a business opportunity for me and would pay me 1 penny for every pine I cone gathered. Yep. Making the big bucks! But, it gets better-- for every 10th pine cone I picked up, I would get a penny bonus! I thought it was awesome! I will say that I'm pretty positive Dad threw in an extra few dollars as a bonus at the end of the day.

I remembered this story Saturday as I was in the backyard of my house pulling weeds and my sister Emily called. She had come inside from LAYING A PATIO with my brother-in-law Josh. Yes. They were laying their back patio themselves! I can only believe that it was chores like the penny pine cones that taught us to love working and around the house. It was a very satisfying day. My yard is weed-free and ready to be planted!

The yard before (still learning about using the ISO).

 View from the balcony of the cleared out backyard!

Graduation

I'm thinking pictures may be the easiest way to recap the great week(end) known as graduation at The People's University! Between End of the Year parties and Senior dinners, somehow the one-day event turned into a whole week. We could all be here longer than we want to if I tried to write about it all. So- here you go! The week in pictures:

Where's Waldo?

Roommates- thanks for putting up with me for 3 years, Cat!

The Blades :)

Thank you, Mrs. Susan and Coach Rockey for a wonderful Graduation Lunch!

'Drella

As of you have probably heard from this proud sister, Caroline was in the all-school musical at Madison Central! The title of the post is courtesy of Carbear because when she was little, she loved the Disney version of "Cindrella" but (as Caroline is known to do), she gave it a nickname and simply called it, "Drella". Caroline was one of the towns-people and a guest at the Royal Ball, and she did great! Come on over to our house if you want to watch a recording of the production-- Caroline watches it at least once a week!

The star in action (breaking it down).

Sweet friends Alex and Victoria

The Fam!

A few charter members of the fan club...

Party Pic with Dr. Thomas

Mary Helen did great!

Caroline with "Cinderella"

The best stage parents around

Caroline and Libby (Caroline asked me to post this one!)

Jan and Tracy- y'all are the best!

Girl's picture

I'm so glad Mom and Dad encouraged Caroline to try out for Cinderella! It was so much fun to see her be a part of the musical and to see the many friendships she made through it. Caroline could not have been a part of the musical without Mom's dedication to it though. Mom was there for every dress rehearsal (including one that was spent in the orchestra pit with the entire singing cast because of a tornado watch), and was backstage for every performance! So, as much as this post is about Caroline, it's more about Mom. She's amazing!

Country Roads, Take Me Home

Sorry I haven't posted in a while! Here's a quick recap:

• moved back to Starkville
• went through my 4th and final round of Panhellenic Recruitment at MSU
• celebrated bid day and reuniting with Grayfer and the Gamma Chi's
• began class
• RUF Ministry Team retreat
• RoadRunner retreat to ATL
• MSU beat Memphis!
• MSU loses to AU :(

Last weekend I went home for the first time since I moved back to Starkville! It's was great to have some time to catch up with Mom, Dad, Caroline, and Granny.

I ate at Local 463 for the first time last night! One of the many things I love about Mississippi (Jackson, especially) is vibrant local restaurant business. Local 463 is a new restaurant in Madison but it is owned by the owners of Walker's, a staple restaurant in the Fondren neighborhood. Mom, Dad, and I went for dinner and had the best time!

We had portabella fries as an appetizer-- I don't even like mushrooms but these were delicious! Dad got Veal Meatloaf. Mom ordered the pork chop over cheese grits with sweet potato fries and apple sauce on top. It sounds crazy but the sweetness of apple sauce (the texture was closer to an apple butter) complimented the savory-ness of the pork chop so well! The sweetness and crunch of the thinly sliced fries also added great flavor and texture. I thoroughly enjoyed my Redfish 463 (a new name for the Walker's classic "Redfish Anna"). The redfish is served over garlic mashed potatoes with string beans on the side. It was perfect! We finished off dinner with some of the best bread pudding I have ever had! The recipe was featured in the latest issue of Mississippi Magazine and I highly recommend it.

I had another great dinner with Granny and Caroline on Saturday night! We cheered the Longhorns on to victory that night and had a great time catching up. Church was excellent Sunday morning. I'm very blessed to have grown up in a church with the kind of teaching that I hear at First Pres.

So, the moral of this post? 1. I LOVE my family 2. I love good food 3. I'm so glad college football is back (whether or not the Dawgs win)!

DC Wrap Up

I feel like I need to give a quick overview of the last three weeks I had in DC before I move on in my posts!


First, some of my best friends came to visit! We had the best time taking them around the city, going to visit museums, and showing them how we had spent our summer. They arrived on Wednesday and Thursday night was the Capital Club's Sinatra Soiree! The party was at the Building Museum (very cool building) and they had a great Sinatra cover band... it was so much fun to have my DC friends and my school friends all together! We had a great weekend with them, complete with a late-night visit to the Lincoln Memorial!


My friends left on Monday and Tuesday night several of us went to "An American Playlist" at the Kennedy Center! Going to something at the Kennedy Center was on my DC Bucket List so I was thrilled to be able to go to this concert-- especially since the performers included Smokey Robinson, The National Symphony Orchestra, and John Mayer! The concert was all about promoting music programs in schools and encouraging American children to invest in the arts.


On Thursday the Boy Scouts of America came to DC for the National Jamboree and so did my parents and sister (not for the Jamboree though)! Friday we toured around Capitol Hill and met Congressman Harper! It was so fun to introduce them to my boss and the people I worked with this summer. My family came for the hottest weekend DC had had that summer so we didn't spend much time outside on Friday! On Saturday we went to Great Falls (a beautiful part of the Potomac) and that night we went to see some of the monuments! I LOVE the monuments at night-- it's amazing to see them lit up and standing out against the dark sky. Sunday we ate brunch at the Chesapeake Room (restaurant review to come) and then Mom, Dad and Caroline departed on the train for BWI. I made my last trip to Eastern Market that afternoon and almost cried when I left!


The last week of work was a sad but a lot of fun! Work itself was busy then we had softball on Monday, a Nationals game Tuesday, and an SEC tailgate party Thursday! Chaille, Caroline, Lauren, Emily, and I went to the rooftop bar at the W Hotel for happy hour after work! The W is just a block over from the White House and you can see the Washington Monument and Jefferson Memorial so the roof has a beautiful view! We met some MSU Chi O alums for dinner after that and then made our way to the SEC party. We knew we were there when we saw guys with "frat swoop" haircuts in chacos, khaki shorts, button downs... it looked like game day! haha


Friday I went to the office to tell everyone goodbye and then took the train to BWI. I got home around dinner time and had my first night back at home. It's good to be back!

The Week in Pictures

My internet was down this past week so I'm trying to condense this post by using pictures for the majority of it... Each one is 1,000 words, right?

Last week Gov. Haley Barbour came to DC to hold a fundraiser for one of his PACs that promotes Republican leadership! It was written up in POLITICO so that was pretty cool and I was really excited to go. We had a lot of fun hearing Governor Barbour speak and celebrating being republicans! haha

Caroline, myself, and Emily at Haley's Fundraiser!

I had the chance to go see my cousins who live in Connecticut this past weekend! I took the bus the NYC then the train to where they live and had such a great time catching up with them. I got to watch my cousin Jack play tennis in a big tournament and went into New York City on Sunday with my Aunt my cousin Charlotte! Even though it was a quick trip, I'm so thankful we were able to spend the weekend together!

saturday...

Jack making a good save!

The beautiful tennis center at Yale!

sunday...

Charlotte and myself eating lunch in Central Park!

The boat pond in Central Park

Charlotte at the Alice in Wonderland statue in Central Park

I had work Monday and then Tuesday was the 49th Annual Congressional Baseball Game for Charity. Congressman Gregg Harper wore a Mississippi State jersey! It was a close game until the very end when the Democrats got 4 runs to secure the win... Most of our office sat together and a group of people protesting for clean energy and against "big oil" sat behind us! Despite the protesters, we had a great time!

Congressman Harper is True Maroon... 

Myself, Lauren, Chaille and Caroline cheering on the GOP!