Throwback Thursdays - Grandmothers

Christmas in Kingsport with my Grandmother Quillin

My Grandmother Burton's last Christmas with her grandgirls

Not a day goes by that I don't think of my Grandmothers. There are so many things that I wish I could tell them about and so many questions I wish that I could ask them. They were both so important in my life and although I miss them everyday, I am so thankful for the time that I had with them.

Trials of Tuesdays

So I have officially decided that I hate Tuesdays! Every thing on Monday is still usually pretty relaxed and slow going from the weekend. Once you get to Wednesday, you're halfway to the weekend. Thursdays are good because even though I have a night class, I can taste Friday. Fridays are just Fridays - enough said! Tuesdays however are just plain miserable! I feel like I always have a million things to do, my phone rings off the hook, and I have a night class. I feel like they are just never ending. All this said, the last thing I feel like doing on Tuesdays is blogging. I'm pretty sure you only got a picture of Kip last week.

My painting from Uptown Art last night!

It's T-Ball Time in Tennessee!

David and I brought him Big League Chew and Sunflower Seeds

Snack time is always a favorite!

In AZ!

Over the past few years, I have become really close with Donna, Jeff, and Tanner. They are kind of like my Knoxville family. I rented their house when they moved to Auburn, I traveled with them to AZ for Auburn's National Championship game, and I lived with them for a few months when they moved back to Knoxville. This weekend was Tanner's first ever t-ball game and I was so excited to go watch him play! He plays for the Cubs, batted 3rd, and played around first base on Saturday. His team likes to just chase after the ball and fight each other for it, but Tanner did a great job of staying in "his area" when the other team was batting. He also got hits at both of his at bats. He was so stinkin cute and I'm so excited to be able to watch him this season!

Throwback Thursday - LA

One of my best friends, Anthony, lives in LA and works on Modern Family. I went out there a couple years ago to visit and will hopefully go back soon! I explored LA by myself while he was working a couple days, we went to the Santa Monica pier, took a trip to Disneyland, and I went on a Hollywood bus tour with a friend I grew up with who just happened to be out there at the same time. It was such a fun trip!

Santa Monica Pier

Disneyland Entrance

The top of Hollywood Hills

From the Kitchen- Chicken Parm

So if you know me very well, you know that I don't do very much cooking. David pretty much cooks every night and I love it. I don't despise cooking or anything but when I get home from being at work all day and class on Tuesday and Thursday evening, the last think I want to do is cook. However, I made a delicious dinner on Monday night! One of my favorite meals is chicken parmesan and I never eat it because it is fried and loaded with carbs and cheese - not a good combo for Weight Watchers! I looked around online to see if I could find a healthier recipe and went to my new favorite blog, Skinny Taste. This blog is awesome; it has tons of recipes and she has figured out all of the WW points which is so nice.

Baked Chicken Parm (adapted from skinnytaste.com)

• 2 chicken breasts either halved or third (next time, I will get the tenderloins instead of breasts)
• 1/2 cup breadcrumbs (I used Fresh Market Italian)
• 2 tbsp parmesan cheese
• 1 tbsb melted butter
• 1/2 cup reduced fat shredded mozzarella
• 1/2 cup pasta sauce (I used Classico Florentine Spinach and Cheese - my favorite!)
• cooking spray 

Preheat the over to 450*

Combine breadcrumbs and parmesan in one bowl.

Dip the chicken into the butter and then dip into breadcrumbs and place on the baking sheet.

Spray a little bit of cooking spray on top before baking.

Bake for 20 minutes then flip the chicken over and bake for 5 more minutes.

Remove the pan and put the pasta sauce and mozzarella onto the chicken and bake for 5 remaining minutes.

So simple and easy and turned out delicious! I also steamed some broccoli with a little bit of Smart Balance EVOO Butter. It was a delicious dinner (only 7 WW points) and I have to say I'm pretty proud of myself! 

Only Tuesday?

This is how I feel! How can it only be Tuesday? I promise I will actually blog tomorrow! Goodnight!

Weekend Finds and Wishlist

I mentioned that I went to Old Navy on Saturday. I don't shop there a ton, but sometimes you can get some great finds for cheap! I had some Old Navy Bucks to spend and I wanted to get a couple of spring/summer v-necks. I ended up getting 2 t-shirts and 2 tanks for $13. I have a $10 more to spend by tomorrow so I may run over there and get a few more t-shirts. I got a white one and a light lime green on Saturday. If you're in the market for some good, lightweight t-shirts, go check out Old Navy!

 (from oldnavy.com)

So my legs are totally white, I don't want to go to the tanning bed, and the pool at our apartment doesn't open until next weekend. I have used some of that tinted lotion before that is supposed to gradually tan your skin and it made me break out, but I decided to try it again. I ventured to Target yesterday afternoon (usual Sunday any day activity) and spent about 20 minutes on the lotion aisle looking at the ingredients trying to pick one to purchase. I finally decided on Jergens Natural Glow Express Moisturizer. I put it on last night and again this morning so hopefully I will have a little color to my legs soon. If not, I guess I will be spending all weekend at the pool!

I have a few things on my wishlist that I either can't find, I haven't looked hard enough for, or I can't justify the purchase right now. Here they are!

Black Canvas Wedges
Brown Leather Strappy Wedges
Pink/Coral or Turquoise Hobo Wallet
Fedora(ish) Hat
Crotchet TOMS

(from hobobags.com)

R & R

I decided that since I had no real plans for the weekend that it was going to be full of rest and relaxation! So far, that is exactly what has happened. I slept in this morning (glorious), ran a couple of quick errands (Old Navy and Gander Mtn.), went to the Tennessee baseball game (beat Florida), and I am now in my PJs watching my Bravos. I hope everyone else is having a nice weekend too!

Finally Friday

I'm going to keep this post short and sweet and give you some reasons that today (Friday the 13th) is going to be a great day!

1. It is Friday! Hello weekend and sleeping in!
2. It is Opening Day at the Ted. Even though I won't be there, it is still exciting to know that it is baseball season in Atlanta and I will be there in a couple of weeks.
3. Weight Watchers is working! I finally hit the 10 pounds lost mark - 10.2 to be exact.
4. Only 4 more Fridays until I will be at the beach!
5. There are only 2 more weeks of classes until I have 4 weeks off.

Happy Friday, everyone!

Throwback Thursday- The Beach

I've been slacking on my blogging this week. I think it is because I have been really busy and because I don't really have much to say! Here is a picture from a beach trip we took the summer of 2007 after my freshman year. We are in the process of planning a beach trip to the Gulf for the end of May and I am so excited! It will include some of my favorite things in the world: my mom, sister, the beach, shopping, and books! I really can't wait and it is the only thing that is going to get me through the next 6ish weeks!

Weekend Recap

David and I both had Friday off for "Spring Recess" so we took a little road trip. After work and class on Thursday, we headed to Stanardsville to his parents' house. We got there after midnight so we just went straight to bed. Friday morning, we drove up to DC to explore a little bit and most importantly to pick up David's mom who has been in Cambodia for the past two weeks. We got to DC at about 11am and checked in to our hotel and planned what we wanted to do for the rest of the day. David really wanted to go to a restaurant we had seen on Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives called Tune Inn.

After a really long walk, we finally made it and I was starving! I had two mozzarella sticks for an appetizer and a salad for my meal. (I could have eaten about 10 of them, but I would not have wanted to count those points!!) Here is my little salad next to David's "Guy Burger!" This burger is grilled then dunked in a beer batter and fried. I had a little bite of it and it was delicious! After lunch, we took a couple of pictures by the Capitol and then headed to the Air and Space museum.

Before Dinner

After our day of walking, my ankle was huge so we headed back to the hotel (in a cab) and watched some golf before getting ready to go to dinner. A friend suggested a pizza place called Matchbox so that was our dinner plans. I had a roasted chicken pesto pizza that was delicious! David had a spicy meatball pizza that he liked too.

On Saturday, we went to a little cafe that had crepes for breakfast. I had strawberry and banana and David had Nutella, strawberry, and blackberry. Both of them were very yummy! We headed to the Museum of American History after breakfast and spent a good 3 hours in there. I wanted to see the First Lady exhibit (with the dresses and china) and Dorothy's ruby slippers. We couldn't find the ruby slippers. There were a lot of renovations going on and a lot of exhibits were closed so I think those were to blame for the missing ruby slippers.

After picking up Miss Gayle from the airport and hearing all about her amazing trip, we made it back to Stanardsville for the night. She brought me back a beautiful orange, Cambodian silk scarf. I can't wait to wear it to a UT sporting event soon! We got up early on Sunday, grabbed Bodo's for breakfast and headed back to Knoxville to make it in time to watch the Masters. The Masters was so exciting! I wanted Phil or Bubba to win so I was so excited that Bubba was able to get his first Masters! What an exciting week for his family - a new baby and a green jacket!

It was a great long weekend even though we spent a ton of time in the car! I'm hoping to get better at the blogging thing and learn how to format the pictures in a better layout!

Throwback Thursday- Opening Day

In honor of Braves' Opening Day...

In My Bag

So I have seen a few people that have done this blog and thought it was a pretty cute idea. It really is funny how much the contents of a girl's bag says about her personality. I don't have anything interesting to talk about today so I figured I would do it myself! (My purse is huge but I think it's justified because I take it to class.)

1. small hairbrush- Conair from Target
2. my Kindle
3. inhaler
4. Softlips (of course!)
5. my keys - you can't see it but my key chain says "live the life you love"
6. my sunglasses case with my new sunglasses that I love- Michael Kors Santa Cruz from overstock.com
7. Totes umbrella from Target
8. Hobo wallet from Marshalls
9. camera- Canon Powershot
10. food journal from Target
11. Coach wristlet with some lip glosses, a compact, medicine, and pony tail holders.
12. my phone- iPhone (not pictured because I used it to take the picture!)
13. usually a pen but I must have used it and taken it out

Title IX

I'm taking a social theory in sport class this semester. Honestly, I was not very excited about. I've never been a fan of classes having to do with theories, but I guess the connection to sport has made it much more enjoyable for me. This class has made me think more than any class I've ever taken. It has made me think about the culture I was raised in and how much of an impact it has had on my way of thinking. For the past couple of weeks, we have been talking about the feminist theory. Before taking this class I would have thought that a feminist theorist would be someone in support of Title IX, would probably have an interest in women's athletics, and generally have the same opinions as me. I thought that I would have been a feminist theorist. I mean I am a girl that has played sports my whole life, has a degree in sports, and enjoys watching most sports. Of course I would be a feminist theorist, right?

In class last week, we watched a Nike commercial from 1995 introducing the "If You Let Me Play" campaign. I thought that commercial was very empowering for girls. It basically showed a bunch of cute little girls giving positive reasons of participating in sports.

My teacher likes to give us a few days to let things sink in and we discuss them further so today we discussed the video a little bit more. In our discussion, my teacher pointed out that a feminist theorist would be very critical of the ad. A feminist theorist would wonder why a girl would have to be let play anything. A better slogan for the campaign would be something along the lines of, "We Are Going to Play Our Game and You Aren't Allowed."

Basically what I brought away from the past couple of weeks are the following...

1. I am not a feminist theorist.

2. I am so thankful that I never had to ask to play anything. My parents always allowed me to play the sports that I wanted.

3. I think that female sports are always going to be different from male sports and that's okay.

4. Title IX's idea of "separate but equal" is great on the surface, but when looking at it further there is so much more in women's sports that it doesn't address

Throwback Duluth Rec Basketball picture of the Burton kids. My team was the Pink Panthers and I was so little that I wouldn't get the ball to the goal until the very end of the season without shooting a "granny shot!"

The Weekend

This past weekend flew by! I was looking forward to Paula coming to town all week. She got here Friday and we had dinner at Aubrey's. We both had our favorite - potato soup and salad. When we lived together we probably ate there once a week. On Saturday, we ran around Knoxville a little bit and went to the Dollar Movies. We both wanted to see Joyful Noise when it came out, but never got around to it so when I saw that it was at the dollar theater, I knew we would have to go. After going there this weekend, I don't think I will ever go to the real movie theater again! You can get the "Couple's Combo" for $12 includes 2 movie tickets, a large popcorn, and 2 large drinks. That would be like $50 at the regular theater! Joyful Noise was a really cute movie and if you are in Knoxville, you should definitely go see it at the dollar movies.

We went to Wild Wing Saturday night for dinner and to watch basketball. Kentucky was playing Louisville in the Final Four so I was obviously not going to miss the game. My cats overcame Pitino's amazing coaching and are headed to the National Championship game tonight! I was the only one at the table that doesn't eat wings (normal occurrence) but we ordered the nuggets too so all would be happy. We also ordered a CoronaRita (a margarita with a mini Corona in it) which was so delicious! It was huge - that is why there are 4 straws in it!


We had great intentions of going to church Sunday morning. It was Palm Sunday, after all! Paula even bought a dress to wear while we were shopping on Saturday. When my alarm went off, I did my regular routine... turn my alarm off, check my e-mail, and look at Twitter to see if I missed anything too exciting. There were many tweets about the Knoxville Marathon which meant getting to church would be next to impossible. So, we made a quick decision to sleep in a little bit and then grab Downtown Grill and Brewery after the marathon craziness died down.

I had such a great time with Paula this weekend! I miss living with her and her living in Knoxville period! I'm just glad that she doesn't live too far away and that she lives in a city that I frequent pretty often! This is one of my favorite pictures of us ever. She was such a beautiful bride! I cannot believe that she and Adam have been married close to a year!