i'm a lazy blogger so this post is just pictures

yes, we made a blanket fort for the sole purpose of eating chocolate cake and listening to jim gaffigan standup.

be jealous.

p.s. kitchen roselli in east bend. do it.

the worst decision i ever made

Last night Lacey, Jaws, and I decided to go to Chili’s.  I’m not sure why we picked Chili’s…maybe it’s because the restaurant served us well during the high school years, maybe we really thought getting margaritas, appetizers, entrees, and a dessert for $35 dollars was a great deal, I don’t know. We just did.

The second mistake of the night was ordering cheese fries as an appetizer and BACON CHEDDAR quesadillas for my entrée. I didn’t  stop to think that the two were basically the same ingredients in different shapes. I also didn’t think that the quantity of cheese involved, mixed with the sugar and tequila in the blackberry margarita would tear my poor stomach to pieces.

But I soon realized.  Ohhhhhh, I realized.  I knew that something really bad was going down in my stomachular region.  That cheese was ripping down the lining of my stomach like it was a bad wallpaper.  I even went to the bathroom and considered forcing myself to throw up.

Listen.  Until you’ve stood for 10 minutes in the dirty bathroom of a chain restaurant where you just inhaled 6,000 calories of cheddar and bacon and considered sticking your finger down your own throat to end your agony, you have not reached rock bottom. 

In the end, Jaws took me home and walked around the neighborhood with me until that glob of death moved out of my stomach and into my small intestine.

Ladies: if you find a man who will shuffle around your neighborhood with you because you ate your way into a cheese-induced bout of heartburn, hold on to him.  He’s a keeper.

In the end, the three of us vowed never to eat at Chili’s again.  It’s nothing against the restaurant; I just think we’ve outgrown the days of eating solid cheese and animal fat for dinner and are moving on to better days of fresh vegetables and well-cooked steaks.

i hate running

not really, but i'm feeling quite dramatic right now.

today i tried out my 4 mile run that jaws & i neglected during our vaca last weekend. it started out fantastically. the route was (relatively) flat, i had been hydrating all day, it was the perfect amount of time between meals that i felt energized but not full...it seemed that the stars had aligned.

then i hit some major hills, nearly got run over by a car, and then got lost!

by the time i realized that i had missed my turn, i was waaaay out of the way and ended up adding an extra 2 mile loop to the run.  needless to say that i walked it.

so, i'm feeling discouraged. i thought i was gonna have a great 4 mile run to brag about, but instead i got sore legs and major thirstyness.

if this is how dramatic i feel after 4 miles (or 6), i'm gonna be a MAJOR diva after 13.1

sigh.

update: to the person who got to my blog by googling the phrase "do real runners laugh at 13.1 stickers?":
i would say no, no they don't.

on a lighter note...

i'm going to the beach!

tonight i'm having an early memorial day cookout with momma

then it's off to the beach with jaws & his fam.

see y'all next week! happy memorial day!

p.s. can you tell i'm excited to eat that watermelon?

this post is long overdue

she's going to kill me for posting this...

 i don't want to exaggerate, because then A MILLION people will be all worried, but last week was really one of the worst weeks i've ever experienced.

cliff notes version, my sis was in the hospital for some of last week with kidney stone number 3.  every time it would seem like she was getting better, that gosh darn stone would start moving again.  it felt like the nightmare that would never end.


anyhows, during this week, i kept praying and praying, but seemingly NOTHING changed. i mean, clearly, she got better since she's back to work and stuff, but it didn't feel like my prayers were heard or acknowledged at all.

i don't believe we should be whiny toddlers when God doesn't answer prayers they way we wanted him to; HOWEVER, i feel frustrated that we're supposed to come to him with our troubles and he didn't seem to be listening to mine.  what's the point in praying then?

so i got to this point in writing the post and couldn't think of anything else to say.  i really wanted to come up with some neat conclusion, something that would keep this post from sounding like I was saying that prayer is pointless (which is NOT what i'm saying), but I couldn't come up with anything.  so i let it sit till i found this...

But He said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness."  Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me."

2 Conrinthians 12:9

i was reminded of why i write about spiritual things on this blog.  it's not so that i can share some sort of deep wisdom or theology with you, cause we all know i'm not qualified to do that.  it's because i want this to be a real blog.  i want other believers to know that it's okay to struggle and i want my friends who aren't to know that the Christian life isn't about being perfect.

so i'm boasting in my weakness. i don't have an answer to this insecurity (yet!), but in my weakness, His power is all the more evident.

bird war!

i don't know if i've mentioned the evil demon bird that lives outside my apartment before, but alas, there is one.  this spawn of satan poops on my car

every.

         single.

                     day.

i've started parking in the street to avoid him. yes, i have been exiled from the driveway that i pay to park on by a bird.  this bird makes me rue the day that i became a wildlife biologist.

anyway, my mom threw conservation to the wind and went out and shook this out of our tree.

no birds were harmed in the making of this photo

so at last i thought it would be safe to park in my spot again.  in my jubilation, i even washed my car until it was squeaky clean.  then today, i saw this:

dun.

      dun.

             dun.

it's on, bird.

oh yeah, it's on.

dirty hair

friends:
i am in the process of writing a deep post with musings about hospitalization and the meaning of prayer, but while i'm formulating those deep thoughts, i wanted to share with you this little convo that lacey & i had yesterday:

me: i'm trying this new thing where i only wash my hair every other day.

lms: ew. why?

me: ...well it saves me a lot of time...you know...i'm not spending 30 minutes drying and straightening...it saved me so much time on saturday!

lms: you're unemployed. what are you doing with your time that couldn't be better spent cleaning your hair?

touche, lacey. touche.


whatever. i'm sticking to it.

living the life (girls night edition)

Remember my awesome cousin Sumer ?  Thursday, LMS and I went to Charlotte for a girls night with her friends. First of all, let me say that 'cabo fish taco' is the most delicious restaurant in all the land (or the Charlotte metro area).  We ended up piling into the mini-van (mom's night out rides in style) and cruising through the city.  at one point, we realized that you CAN'T close mini-van doors while in drive, but we were already in the middle of the street, so we drove around downtown with the Oddessy doors open, emergency alarm beeping, and kids music blaring.

By the time we got there, I had to pee in a MAJOR way and so did LMS, but we found that 'cabo taco' didn't feel that STALLS were necessary in their restroom facilities. I had to go so bad that I almost considered it, but LMS was a dear and let me go ahead.

also, i witnessed someone using a breast pump for the first time ever.  you learn lots of things when most of your friends are older than you. 

if you're ever in charlotte, go to 'cabo fish taco' and get the bbq mahi tacos. you won't regret it.

living the life

here are 3 ridiculous things that happened to me today:

uno.   i went to food lion to get boxes for moving and they gave me banana boxes, which are awesome because they're sturdy and have handles that are helpful for weaklings; however, 2 hours into packing my winter clothes, i realized that the whole room smelled like a dirty famer's market at the end of the afternoon. (ew).  6 hours later, the smell has reached the kitchen and front door.

dos.  not showering until 5pm.  unemployment is pretty awesome. i can be productive and not have to look presentable.

tres.   i stopped by walmart for a few staples on my way to run.  whilst navigating towards the conditioner aisle to grab the ONE THING i needed, i found candy on sale for 98 cents, so naturally i bought some...and ate it...on the way to the greenway to run. 2 miles later, i was definitely regretting the cheap milkduds.


ridiculous.

turkey-spinach lasagna

  Yesterday was a frustrating day to cook.  I was trying to find a recipe for some sweet comfort food for a friend, but we were out of sugar and making comfort food without sugar is dang near impossible.

  I randomly picked up a Women's Day magazine we had laying around and there were recipes for using up leftover turkey, which was perfection considering that my mom roasted a turkey last week and we have tons of it still in the fridge! 

It's healthy, tasty, and it keeps in the fridge, so you've got dinner for the rest of the week.

Here's how you do it:

(un)productivity

4 years later aaaaaand you're qualified to answer phones...

 Today was my first official day of unemployment, which was (expectedly) sad and unproductive.  I had a very, very long to-do list of things that sickness, employment, and loooooooove have prevented me from accomplishing over the past 3 weeks, but actually, I did very little of it.

It's bittersweet to be finishing with my year of ministry and moving on. It's also frustrating to have a very expensive piece of paper hanging on the wall in my room that says i should be qualified for a job, but to receive rejection after rejection.

I didn't really intend for this post to turn into a rant about my employment frustrations. I truly honestly know that big J has it under control.  If I learned anything at all from the whole Sweden debacle, it's that God knows best.  He's never done me wrong, never let a bill go unpaid, and never given me anything that I couldn't handle, but there are still moments where I think "grrrrrrrrrrrrr i hate this" and proceed to throw myself a really fancy pity party.

On a positive note: I got out and ran for the first time in a week and it was so. nice. I'm so impatient to up my distance so that I can feel like a real runner (sorry, JP!), but it was fantastical to get back out after a week of tissues and dayquil, even if it was only 1.5 miles. :) Unemployment or not, I'm a lucky girl.

Night, y'all.

Yet I am always with you; you hold me by my right hand.

You guide me with your counsel, and afterward

you will take me into glory.  Whom have I in heaven but you?

And earth has nothing I desire besides you.

Psalm 73:23-25

songs for a sucky day

i know you probably have those days when you feel like there is something really big weighing on you and you've prayed about it over and over and it just feels like God
is. not. listening.

sometimes those days stretch into weeks or months and it really wears on you.  you're tired and your faith feels really small.

i've definitely been through some of those times (and know there will be more).  while i was driving today, i heard one of the songs that i listened to a lot when struggling through some career decisions last winter. i love me some worship songs,  but i also really love christian songs that are about struggle too.  it refreshed me to remember that i can be honest with God and also that other people are struggling through similar things.

No temptation has seized you except what is common to man.  And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear.  But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.

1 Corinthians 10:13

Here are some of the songs I love when I'm feeling far away from God:

"how long, o lord, will you wait to rescue me?

how long, o lord, how long?

Would my tempter pursue me

if he knew you were near?

would he boast of his power

if he felt your hand?"

"there's only one way to figure out

will you let me drown?

hey now, this is my desire

consume me like a fire, cause i just want something beautiful to touch me

I know that I'm in reach

cause I am down on my knees 

waiting for something beautiful"

"lord, didn't you see me crying

and didn't you hear me call your name

wasn't it you I gave my heart to?

I wish you'd remember where you set it down"

I hope these songs encourage you as much as they've encouraged me.  If that doesn't work, you can look at the picture of the horse sticking out his tongue. That has to make you laugh :)

to: jaws

two nights ago, i got serenaded via skype, which seems like it might be weird

but was actually incredibly sweet. 

can you believe we've been together over 4 months and this is the first time i've heard him play?

you might say "what is the point of dating a guy who can play guitar if he doesn't play you sappy love songs?"

and don't worry, i was asking myself that too.

so at the risk of being "that girl", i wanted to post these pictures that make me smile every time i look at them AND

prove to jaws that i DO mention him on my blog. 

that is all. :)

so apparently i'm a runner now...

so my friend JP (remember the one who did the half-ironman with her hubby??) hates it when i say that i'm not a "real" runner.  she is of the opinion that anyone who puts on shoes and runs is a runner, wheras i've always thought of runners as those people who eat Luna bars and have 13.1 stickers on their cars. 

anyways, APPARENTLY i'm about to become one of those people, because i'm training to do a half-marathon in november.  i'm simultaneously excited and scared out of my mind.

BUT my knee is all better, i've got new shoes (insert "black&yellow" reference here), and we've made a training schedule.

"real" runner-dom, here i come. 

sweet apple melt

We're running out of groceries over here at de casa Browning, so I had to get creative for lunch today.  I've had something similar to this at a couple restaurants (I'm starting to think that I eat at too many trendy places), and so I decided to recreate.  Yum!

she flies without wings

My dear sis, Ki, got me a living social deal for two horseback riding lessons as a Christmas present.  I've been waiting for the weather to get really nice, so this weekend I finally slipped those boots back on and got back in the saddle after 6 years!

getting Bo dressed and ready to go

"Mooooooom! Where are my friends?? Why can't I go play?"

Bo was a perfect gentleman, except for the face scratches.

Nothing like an after workout snack of fresh clover...

I had such a great time and can't wait to go back for my second lesson!

Also, thanks to my boo, Jaws, for being such a great photographer.

Peace, love, and future blog posts.  I promise!

bacon pancakes!

this week has been a week filled with pizza, chocolate, ice cream, margaritas, and other unhealthy food items (hey it's my birthday week, don't judge).  i had the morning off today, so i decided, in honor of turning 23 (official adulthood), i would make myself baconcakes, as seen on my new blog obsession, The Londoner.

oh. my. gracious.  best things ever and easier than easy to make.

ummmmm yeahhhhhhh...

"looks like someone has a case of the mondays..."

tiny green peas

Let me share a little tale with you that will highlight how completely I suck at doing most normal things.  I have recently procured an injury to my left knee whilst running.

wow! 

you must say

you must be some kind of super hardcore lance armstrong type athlete. please share with me your tips for being so fit.

but before you get carried away with thinking that i am all athletic and whatnot, let me tell you that i injured my knee while running  A MILE AND HALF.

yes, a mile and a half.

i've been all ego-inflated because i ran 3 times last week and starting having visions of running 10K's and things until I woke up Wednesday morning with an annoying feeling in my knee-al region.  every time i straighten my leg, my knee feels like it needs to pop; however, no amount of twisting or hopping (painfully, i might add!) produces the desired pop.

then while complaining about my plight to jaws (the boyfriend, who used to run half-marathons and stuff, which is my way of saying that he KNOWS about these things), he informed me that i probably had an inflamed tendon (or ligament? can't remember.) and that by NO MEANS should i try to pop my knee (whoops) and that I should be icing and stretching my leg. and that i should stop choosing my running shoes based on which ones are on sale.

so me and this dumb bag of peas have been getting well acquainted (did you know there is such a thing as 'grade a fancy peas'? and you can buy them at the food lion?)

the knee is feeling a little bit better, and soon i will go select REAL running shoes. and then maybe i can run more than 1.5 miles without injury.

with love, from internet

my new favorite way to pack: drawing outfit ideas before hitting the closet. i'm hoping this will cut down on the agonizing "what am i going to weaaaaaaar?" portion of packing for next weekend's beach trip.

it took the combined power of lacey & jaclyn +5 hours to pack for NYC... and that was only my suitcase.

oh and don't worry, i erased the fugly floral tanktop +black skinny jeans combo up in the top left.

 

 @WillFerrell

I changed all my passwords to 'incorrect'. So my computer just tells me when I forget.

how awesome is this room? i bookmarked it so hopefully i can remember when i'm more mature
(read: when i'm done buying pink duvets and/or married)

here

 

my friend samantha is famous! read about how she met Jesus here:

life was not what I thought it should be.

here

way to ruin it, kid. :)

Happy Weekend, friends.

hang out with little j!

exciting news!  on april 29th my small group is hosting a concert by JJ Heller and Audrey Assad at River Oaks Community Church in Clemmons!

if you don't know who they are, you should listen to a couple of my favorite songs by them:

i like to think of it as "hipster christian" 

so if you're looking for some new music,

if you want a place to meet cool people in their 20's &30's,

if you love going to concerts,

or if you just want to come,

head over to River Oaks Community Church

on April 29th 

doors open at 6:30pm

you can buy tickets here

or by contacting me (they're only $5)

also, i'll be there. so come hang out with little j.

easy strawberry parfaits

Apparently when I'm bored, I cook.  I almost never get a whole saturday just to relax, but of course I ended up cooking an entire feast just out of boredom.  I guess I'm too type A for lazy Saturdays...

I found this recipe a couple days ago and thought it would be the perfect way to end a meal of pan-fried steak, garlic parmesean green beans, and baked potatoes.

it's the little things...

i had a sudden realization the other day that life has been so good lately.

it's kind of the nature of life & stuff to cycle through good times and bad times, and it's weird that you don't normally realize that you're in the middle of one of those cycles until you're at the very tip top (or zenith, as the GRE practice book taught me) or at the very bottom of the pit. when you're at the top, everything seems so beautiful by association (like when you're looking at the city from an airplane), but when you're at the bottom, it seems like you're never going to come out.  right now i must be on the good cycle (or else I've gotten really good about being appreciative. doubtful.) because everything seems so sweet.  even those little things:

<--- having bible study outside!

making the kids I nanny pizza for dinner twice in one week and only feeling a teensy bit guilty about it.


settling arguments like this:
"when we get to heaven, we're going to replay that moment and then I will say 'i was right.'
... in the most holy way possible, of course." 




 praying with kids:
"jesus thank you for this day and bless this food for the nourishment of our bodies and thank you for my clothes. AAA-men."
(by the way, there was no food in the room)

 and listening to screamo while applying for jobs. it helps relieve some of the frustration, I swear. 

The only negative thing I have to say about this week is that i am AT WAR with the bird that lives in the tree by my driveway. this joker poops on my car EVERY DAY. every SINGLE day, i tell you.  where is his decency?

creme brulee french toast

today was gloriously unproductive and lazy. i woke up late and made the most delicious french toast evvvvar.

check out how to do the creme brulee french toast (sorta based on this recipe)

happy thoughts

right now, a song is being written that you will play over and over in your car.

there is someone in the world who has your exact sense of humor and thinks you are funny

someone, somewhere has prayed for you

a med-student somewhere is drinking coffee and studying so that one day they will help you get well

no matter how bad things get, there will always be jokes on the internet to make us laugh

there will always be a cup of coffee in the morning

in your life there is someone wiser than you and someone who needs your wisdom.

you can always start over

xoxo,
little j

my brain

hello dear friends, loyal readers, and you who were bored on facebook and saw this link,

today on the way back from the capitol of our state where that handsome boy who lets me call him my boyfriend lives, i was trying to think of something profound to write about on the blog.  nothing really came to mind,  mostly because it's hard to think deep thoughts while listening to country songs.

they usually re-route any philosophical ponderings to things like beer and trucks and kissing.

i thought, rather than write a short essay about ONE thing, i would write a sentence or two about SEVERAL things i've been thinking about this week. here goes:

gluten free diets actually cause weight GAIN   oh no, hipsters!  according to this article, less than 1% of americans have celiac's disease but 20-25% of consumers will buy gluten-free products.  think how much more money you'll have for apple products when you aren't paying extra for gluten free bread.

matt chandler on dating: not exactly what you read in "I Kissed Dating Good-bye", yet still so biblical.

NC State gets farther than Duke in the NCAA tournament? That's the craziest fluke that i've ever heard, but also super gratifying.  i am very determinedly not-geting-my-hopes-up for anything more.

west elm

i want this bed! how cool and modern and practical is it???? p.s. if you're bored, pick me a duvet from this company that's under 50 dolla and would match grayish purple sheets and you'll earn my undying love.


these are the things i think about, people.

no makeup

unedited except adding border and adjusting brightness a little

so in the random news of j's life, I went without wearing makeup today.  I'm not a huge makeup wearer but don't exactly have flawless skin either, so I usually slap on a little tinted moisturizer and mascara before I leave the house. if I'm feeling fancy/seeing the boyfriend, I'll add a little eyeliner to the mix.  So today I woke up, showered, put on lotion with SPF (80 degrees what what!!) and thought:

"you know what? I don't have time to put all this junk on my face today. I'm a brave woman; I'll just go without it. I am beautiful no matter what they say." 

jk about that last part. that was a Christina Aguilera song.

 I felt a little bit like Robert Pattinson in "How to Be"

 "You're not a nobody. You're a somebody!"

and so I did it, and it was scary and liberating at the same time. sometimes I would catch my reflection and think, 

"who is that?!?"

and I don't really have any deep thoughts/reflections about this except that I wish my own face didn't surprise me and I thought you should know about my day.

the end.

(it's easier than you think)

this is gonna sound super stuck-up, but i swear it's true.

homemade icing is better than store bought. 

you can make it whatever flavor you want and the taste is beyond comparison. luckily it's not hard to make, and I swear that's the truth because I'm someone who thinks "hard" is anything that uses more than one pan.

add a little of this icing to box brownies or cookies and they're 50% more glamorous.

here's how:

6 tbs of real butter, softened (microwave for 30 seconds in a glass dish)

2 cups of powdered sugar

1 tbs of heavy cream

1 tbs of water

flavoring   (I used 2 tbs of raspberry jam here)

dump all ingredients into a big bowl. using a spatula, mix ingredients until all sugar is damp.  beat with electric mixer for 1 minute. VOILA. 

toldya it was easy.

other flavor suggestions:

cinnamon,  lemon zest, vanilla, coffee liquor, pumpkin puree, graham cracker, the possibilities are endless!

10 things I learned in NYC

I'm back!! and alive! with sore feet, less money, and tons of amazing memories. here's what we learned:

"our" station

1. NYC is not as dangerous as people make you believe. granted, we stayed in midtown Manhattan, but by the way people talked, i was 100% convinced one of us was getting mugged/pickpocketed. really though, we rode the subway and walked around at night and i never felt unsafe. 

2. the food is delicious. i'm probably gonna do a post solely about this later.

3. the people aren't rude. assertive? yes. if you had to cross the street 24 times to get to work, you would be too. but rude? no.

4. the # of Starbucks in the city is simply outrageous. especially considering you can get great coffee and a bagel for 2.25 from a street vendor.

5. speaking of which, bagel carts are the best thing ever. especially when they remember your order by the 3rd day, making you feel like a real new yorker.

breakfast!!!

6. this part was really sad, but riding the A train through  Brooklyn/dowtown to Manhattan you see every racial and economic stereotype on the spectrum.  I could tell when we had reached our district, simply by looking at the other people on the train.

7. don't let the deceiving signs at The Met deceive you! admission IS by donation, and a 25 dollar suggested donation is absurd.

the met

8.  rent on the Upper East Side is around $3500 a month!!! How do Chuck & Blair afford it?!?! (XOXO. gossip girl)       

9. stores are outlandishly huge. finding a bathroom in a 5 story Bloomingdale's is dang near impossible.

10.  i didn't hate it! I mean, obviously, I knew it was going to be fun, but I was surprised how fond I got of the big apple, considering that I previously thought of Raleigh as a "big city".