First Giveaway!!

Hey girls, it has been a super busy week already!  I have been watching my Mom's dog for the week and finishing up my last week of Summer classes, along with work!  I did get awesome news today, I don't have to take my final exam (I am going to anyways because I am paranoid) and I have the highest grade in my class :)  Week = Made!!!  

After this week, my blog will go back to normal, but until then I am participating in my first giveaway!!!

Michelle at Mish Lovin' Life is doing her July group giveaway and I am participating!  I am giving away a $15 Kohl's Gift Card!!  And several other ladies are giving away great gift cards and tons of ad space!!!

Be sure to check it out!! 

 A little bit of cuteness for the day

Book Club Friday: A Time to Kill

A Time to Kill 

By: John Grisham 

Read: 6/20/12

Pages: 515

"Clanton, Mississippi. The life of a ten-year-old girl is shattered by two drunken and remorseless young men. The mostly white town reacts with shock and horror at the inhuman crime. Until her black father acquires an assault rifle and takes justice into his own outraged hands.

For ten days, as burning crosses and the crack of sniper fire spread throughout the streets of Clanton, the nation sits spellbound as young defense attorney Jake Brigance struggles to save his client's life... and then his own..."
{GoodReads}

I think this is a story everyone knows, whether through the movie or the book.  What an incredible story! The Writing was amazing and the story never got boring, I was interested the whole time.  Jake's speech at the very end, alone, makes the book worth reading.  I don't know what else to say other than that everyone should be required to read this book (I think it is especially appropriate now with all the stuff with the Trayvon Martin case) and it should be part of school curriculum, though I know it never will be.  Also, the movie is one which is incredibly close to the book!  I was impressed and I am super picky and critical!  So, even if you are not a reader, you should still watch the movie!

I gave this book a 5/5 on GoodReads

Wanderlust Wednesday: Europe

Today I am linking up for the first ever Wanderlust Wednesday; a new monthly link-up.   Each month there will be a theme and you can write anything you want about that theme.  This month's is Europe. 

I thought I would talk about my top 5 places that I have been in Europe and my top 5 places that I want to visit in Europe!

My 5 favorites that I have been to (and why):

Barcelona, Spain which I wrote about here

Assisi, Italy which I also wrote about here

Carcassone, France which is, yet again, talked about in this post

Toulon, France 

 This little town will always have a piece of my heart.   This is where I did my home-stay.  Myself and another girl stayed with a lady named Miti.  She was such a sweetheart and had the sweetest dog that was totally her shadow.  She took such great care of us and really tried to show us what everyday life was like in France.  I feel lucky that I got put with Miti and stayed in touch with her for a while after the trip.  Toulon is such a beautiful place and I hope to go back one day and revisit.  

Cinque Terre, Italy 

 These little towns are incredible.  Before this trip, I had never even heard of Cinque Terre as it wasn't a huge tourist place in 2006 as it is now.   It wasn't crowded at all when I went and I really feel like we got a feel for real Italian life.  The roads were super steep to walk on but it was so cool walking around and seeing all of the colors and small restaurants and stores.  We had such a fun and relaxing day taking the boat to these 5 towns!  

5 Places I Want to Visit:

 

London, England

  Really, England in general but definitely London.  I want to visit London mostly because it is one of those places that I could actually picture myself living.  I want to go to London so that I can either realize its not for me and stop wasting time dreaming of moving there or so that I can figure out some way to live there.  Also, all of the castles in and surrounding London make it even more desirable for me!

 

 

Lake Bled and Ljublijana, Slovenia

  Ever since I read this post I have been dreaming of this country.  Lake Bled and the castle look incredible and hot air ballooning over Lake Bled is definitely on my must-do list!  Also, Ljublijana looks like a very interesting city to visit. I have a ridiculous fascination with castles and both of these cities have beautiful castes to visit.  I also love that it isn't super high on many peoples travel list. I have heard that it is not very touristy, which I absolutely love!

Santorini, Greece 

I mean, is it even a question why I want to go here??  To me, this would be the perfect place for a relaxing vacation.  I feel like there is enough to do and see to keep a person entertained but not so much to see that you feel like you have to rush to see it all.  I could see my self sitting in a lounge chair overlooking the caldera with a book and a drink and being perfectly happy. 

 

Ireland

 This has become a top priority for me.  I want to go to Ireland sooooo badly.  I am Irish by heritage and I love the Irish culture.  I love the music, the dance, the food, everything.  I want to visit places like Dublin, Galway, Cork, Limerick and County Kerry.   Josh and I are saving for a two week tour of Ireland for our first wedding anniversary and I really hope we are able to save enough to go!

 

Vienna and Salzburg, Austria

Austria has been on my list for a while.  I have always wanted to do the Sound of Music tour (cliche but whatever).  I have always thought that these two cities looked so beautiful and that I had to see them.  There are so many interesting and beautiful sites I want to see, I don't even have time to name them all.  I was actually supposed to visit both during a school trip to Germany, Austria and Switzerland but the trip got cancelled. 

 

I can't wait to read all of the Wanderlust posts today and can't wait to link-up again next month :)

Travel Tuesday: Random

Because I really have no time to write a good post and I haven't been able to finish my post on the Coliseum, I will leave you with a bunch of random travel pictures from over the years.

Enjoy!

 Costa Rica - 2009

Rome, Italy - 2006

Savannah, Georgia - 2012

Nassau, The Bahamas - 2012

Orange, VA - 2013

NYC - 2013

DC - 2012

Acadia National Park, Maine - 2005

San Jose, CA - 2008

Chandler, AZ - 2008

Bethany Beach, DE - 2010

NYC - 2009

Chicago, IL - 2004

Strasbourg Railroad, PA - 2012

Greenridge State Park, MD - 2011

Battleship New Jersey, Camden, NJ - 2011

  

Cannes, France - 2006

Mount Vernon, VA - 2013

 Philadelphia, PA - 2012

Book Club Friday: One Day

One Day

By: David Nicholls

Read: 5/23/12

Pages: 437

"It’s 1988 and Dexter Mayhew and Emma Morley have only just met. But after only one day together, they cannot stop thinking about one another. Over twenty years, snapshots of that relationship are revealed on the same day—July 15th—of each year. Dex and Em face squabbles and fights, hopes and missed opportunities, laughter and tears. And as the true meaning of this one crucial day is revealed, they must come to grips with the nature of love and life itself."
{GoodReads}

This book was interesting.  The concept of only catching the characters on one day was an interesting and frustrating concept.   I am a person who has to know everything and it killed me to not know anything about their lives other than what happened on that one day!  However, I did still like the book overall.  I thought it was a good story and I really liked Emma.  Dex drove me nuts but for the most part, I liked him too.  I also liked how it was written from the perspective of both of them.  I am usually a little skeptical when a man writes from a woman's perspective and vis-versa, but I think the author did a good job.  Last, I liked that it wasn't a typical love story.  There were conflicts throughout the book, not just happiness, then one conflict which is quickly overcome, then more happiness.   It was very real.

Overall I gave this book a 4/5 on GoodReads 


 

Busy, Busy

This blog may be lacking in content (other than normal travel tuesday and wedding wednesday posts) until the beginning of August.  This summer class is so condensed (15 week class in 4 weeks) and is kicking my butt!  We had an exam today and have another one in our next class on Monday along with two papers due on Monday and two due on Tuesday.

Also, I am staying at my friends house for the weekend starting today to watch her animals and then next weekend I'll be staying at my Mom's to watch her dog, Charlie while she is on vacation. 

Annnnd to top it off, everyone and their mother is requesting off from work so my work schedule is insane.  Six days per week and closing 4 of those days. 

So, apologies in advance for the complete boringness that will be this blog over the next few weeks!

Sarah's Charlie

Mom's Charlie

 Charlie LOOOOVES his Joshy

Snickers!

Wedding Wednesday: The Men

Josh and I are in agreement that we want our wedding to be very laid back.  So, we decided that having the groomsmen wear fancy tuxes just wasn't what we wanted.   So, we began browsing pinterest for ideas (I rely waaaay to heavily on pinterest) and found some great ideas!!

This one is my favorite!!  I love the texture and it goes perfectly with our theme!

This one would probably be easier because it would be no problem at all to find white shirts and matching brown vests (though I'd probably tell them to get lighter brown).

I really hope we can find the textured vests somewhere!  I absolutely love them!

Also, we found a few ideas for gifts for his groomsmen!

This is a cute idea.  I hope we can pull off something like this :)

We are definitely 100% ordering these knives!  They are perfect for the guys!

Other than that, they just have to show up ;)

Rome, The First Night

Our first night in Rome was eventful to say the least!  First, we realized while in the airport in Germany, that 5 people in our group were on a different flight than the rest of us and would arrive about 2 hours prior.  Luckily, our DM was there to meet them and they got a few extra hours in Rome, lucky!

When we got to Rome, we collected our bags, met Josef then headed straight to dinner.  We had dinner at a small restaurant right next the the coliseum!

During dinner, we noticed this guy who looked gay and we were sitting there trying to figure out if he was.  Then out of nowhere we hear the Spice Girls song "Wannabe" playing really loudly.   Then we start seeing "floats".  Turns out there was a gay pride parade going around the coliseum!  It was definitely a unique start to our time in Rome!

After our exciting dinner (I can't even tell you what we had because we were so interested in the parade) we ended up stopping at a random spot because we had issues with our bus, the bus and the driver changed at that point and we ended up sitting for a while.

 

After that was settled we finally went to our hotel and crashed for the night!  We were seriously jet lagged and went right to sleep!

Our Hotel was called Rouge et Noir.  It definitely wasn't the best hotel we stayed in but it wasn't the worst either.  And honestly we couldn't have cared less, we were exhausted!

That concludes our first night in Roma.