Along with the “Big Girl Job” comes the “Big Girl Pay“, so today I made my first “Big Girl Purchase“. What is it you ask?!?!……..

A KING SIZE BED!!!

Oh yes! I was so excited when I shook the sales man’s hand and he told me “Congratulations“. I just couldn’t get the smile off my face! I felt like such a grown up. And girls, it was time for a new bed FOR SURE! My old one was borderline embarrassing, it was only a full size, with nothing but a mattress and sheets that I had had since I lived with my parents! I needed something a little more grown up! And of course along with the purchase of the new bed, I had to get new pillows, sheets, comforters, and pillow cases. The bed is going to be delivered Thursday morning and I CAN NOT WAIT!

Do you remember your first “BIG KID” purchase? What was it?!

Today was my day off, so I took FULL advantage and slept a good 12 HOURS! When I finally awoke I fixed myself up a nice warm, yummy breakfast of oats and coffee in my San Fran mug!

After breakfast I shopped around for my bedding items with the mom and then came home to a wonderful lunch!

Turkey, spinach, and Laughing Cow Swiss Cheese in a Spinach Flat Out Wrap.

This is the first time that I have tried the Spinach flavor of these wraps, and I was kinda scared considering the total let down of the Sundried Tomato flavor. But I actually really like it! The Italian Herb is still my favorite, but this came pretty darn close!

After lunch I met up with Tanya for her birthday. She wanted to go to a local Mexican restaurant. Since I had already eaten lunch I just joined in for the company and to celebrate her birthday.

The dress that I am wearing is from Forever21. I liked it so much that I bought it in two different colors! I am currently toying with the idea of making adding on a “fashion” feature to this blog (since that is the majority of my life now). What do you guys think? What are some of the things that you would like me to talk about (if I did add a fashion section)?

I really want some input because I’m thinking that my blog needs MAJOR revamping! PLEASE HELP!

Well, I’m off to cook up some dinner and settle into a movie before hitting the hay…its a 7 AM work day at the ol’ F21 tomorrow!

Hope everyone is having a great night!

Lots of Love <3 Ems.

I have big changes planned for the blog now that I’m back too and will be working on trying to get it all fixed up over the next week. Any suggestions or things that you would like to see on here…PLEASE LET ME KNOW! You can comment me or e-mail me with anything at all. I would LOVE to hear your suggestions, it would really be a big help!

I also noticed that I have a few new readers, so thanks for continuing to support the blog, even though I have been gone! I can’t wait to settle in and catch up on all of my blog reading! I have missed you girls TONS!

I have the whole rest of the weekend off, because I racked up so many hours during the week. So it feels so nice to just be relaxing on a Saturday morning! I may even stop by the farmers market with the momma later on today!

Even though I am relaxing and off work, I am still working over breakfast….

A breakfast “MESS” which includes:

• Cinnamon Chex
• Peanut Butter Puffins
• Vanilla Yogurt
• 1/2 Banana
• Blueberries
• Raisins
• Heaping pile of paperwork on the side!

Ok gals, I’m off to enjoy my day off! Hope everyone else is having an awesome weekend!

Lots of Love, <3 Ems.

For those of you who didn’t know, I was in Nashville all last week training for my new job as assistant manager at Forever 21. It was such a crazy week, tons of work, but also TONS of fun!There was so much that happened last week and so much that I want to tell you girls,  so get ready this may be a long post. Grab a coffee, maybe some snackage, and settle in.

Ready?!

OK!

Monday

Kelli and I went to orientation in Johnson City to meet all the sales associates. Nothing too interesting there…except for one girl who stood up and introduced herself and then proceeded to tell us all that she was the hardest worker that anyone had ever seen and she was taking all our jobs, because she was the best. Yeah, I kid you not.

So after orientation Kelli and I met at the airport to pick up our rental car. That is probably the coolest and most important that I have ever felt. All I did was walk up to the counter, say my name, and they handed over the keys to a brand new 09 Accord. Just for me and Kelli for the whole week!

Her mom took pictures and kept saying that we were "Women of the World", which was a saying that we kept repeating to eachother all week.

We got there a little after 8, changed, and headed downtown for dinner. We ended up going to the Hardrock Cafe, because it was the first place we saw and we were STARVING!

After dinner, we stopped for a little desert.

And hung out a little with our Bestie Elvis, you may have heard of him…

After a little carousing around downtown, we decided to head back to the hotel and call it a night.

TUESDAY

Kelli and I woke up and took full advantage of the free breakfast at the hotel. Am I the only one who thinks this is the BEST part about staying in a hotel?! I always get sooo pumped about the breakfast. This hotel had such a good one too! They even had a "healthy" section where they had yogurt, fruit, oatmeal, and things like that. It was something like amazing!

After breakfast we got ready, and just like true girls went to the mall! Hey we had to check out the store…right?!

After shopping we went home to rest up a little because our first night working was going to be an over nighter! We arrived at 8 p.m. and didn’t leave until 5 a.m. It was weird, but totally fun because we got to see all the new clothes coming in and shop before anyone else even SAW the stuff. We even brought a coffee pot to make our own coffee and the manager brought snacks and candy to keep everyone pumped up all night! Im pretty sure that NO ONE in Nashville sleeps.

After finishing up the floorset at 5 a.m. Kelli and I hit the bed and were OUT!

WEDNESDAY

Nothing too exciting…pretty much slept all day because of our late night and then went into work at 4. It ended up being another late night and we didn’t get off work until 3 a.m.!!

THURSDAY

The other managers and I worked a mid shift at Forever21 and then decided to go out for a nice dinner. Hey, Forever21 was picking up the tab, so we went all out and decided on a really nice sushi restaurant.

The menu was INSANE, with millions of different kinds of sushi. Im usually not too big on the crazy rolls with all kinds of different stuff crammed in, so I got one that sounded a little like a spicy tuna roll…and I can’t even remember the name of the rolls the other girls got…but I did get pics, of course!

No one else was very enthusiastic about picture taking.

FRIDAY

Friday was out last day of work and we had to be there at 7 a.m. to launch a new line called "TWIST" which is a circus inspired line that Forever21 JUST put out in limited stores. It was so exciting to be able to shop all those clothes before they were even available to anyone else! Everything was so cute and very crrazzy with tutus and head pieces. Here are some samples:

You can see the whole line HERE. Of course we all had to snatch up some of the stuff and rep it out on the town that night.

We ate at Cheesecake factory that night…and since it was free ordered just about everything on the menu…and took most of it home.

And of course got a couple of drinks. Cheesecake factory had the BEST martinis!

Oh yeah, and don’t think we didn’t get CHEESECAKE!

SATURDAY

Woke up, checked out, finally got home. It feels so good to be home and sleeping in my own bed! It was such a crazy week but sooo much fun!

Today is a rest day with lots of unpacking and laundry on the schedule. I start work tomorrow night, which is "truck night". We pretty much stay overnight and unload all the new clothes into the store while everyone else is snoozzzzing. Its kinda like CHRISTMAS! haha.

Hope everyone else had a great week! I have missed you girls TONS! I have ALOT of catching up to do in the blog world. Hope you didn’t forget about me!

Lots of Love, <3 Ems.

Also, I have had a TON on my mind with the new job and all. It is so bitter sweet because I love every second of work when I am at Rave and I love all of the girls to death, but this new job is such a great opportunity I would be stupid not to take it. Tomorrow is my last day of work at Rave, and then Monday I leave for Nashville on my very first business trip!! We get our own rental cars and everything. I would be lying if I said I didn’t feel just a little bit bad ass about that.

Since it was one of my final days at Rave (final days for my 50% off employee discount) I had to do all of the purchasing that I had saved up. Check out this awesome shirt, it was so unique and different that I just had to get it.

The zipper can be zipped down as far as you want. Depending on the level of scandalousness that you wish to portray .

Last weekend we had a girls only sleep over. My manager, Tanya brought her new baby Thailana over to join in the fun too. We took her out to dinner with us too!

In other fashion news, Britt and I took a trip to Charlotte to visit the Forever 21 down there just so I could kind of see what went on in the store and I bought a KILLER dress. That, of course, I had to rock out last night. (Thursday night DUH!)

The front of the dress has a zipper going all the way up the front. You can see it better in this picture:

Please just ignore the annoying face that I am making and the fact that the dress DEF. shows my IBTC (itty bitty titty committee) pride.

And just for fun a few more pictures of the night. This will probably be one of the last big party nights for a while. Its time to start the “big girl” job…and work the crazy hours!

We may or may not take a zillion and one pictures in the bathroom while getting ready.

Now I am laying in bed, recovering with a nice bowl of oats and some blogs…and some texting to the MIKE. Why is it that the boy of my dreams lives on the other side of the country?!

I have LOTS to do today so I better get my lazy ass up and get to it! Hope everyone is having an awesome weekend!

Lots of Love, <3 Ems.

didn’t get too crazy

Thursday night Kelli and I celebrated our new job with Brittani, Stephanie, and a bottle of Champagne. Because that’s what your supposed to do when you get a new job, right?!

Stephanie, my manager at Rave even stopped by for a glass of Champagne. Tears were def. shed all over the place. We are really gonna miss our family at Rave.

Gettin’ Pretty to go out and continue the celebration…

I wore my “party dress”…its short, red, and animal print. It screams party.

We all had such a fun night. Kelli and I really wanted to go all out, because this may be the last time for a while that we will get to go out on Thursday. We have heard “rumors” that the hours at Forever21 are INSANE! (read: 7Am opening shifts and 3 AM closing shifts).

After our big night of partying we went home, passed out, and then went into work at Rave for Kelli’s last day. She is leaving for the beach tomorrow for a week, so she had her last day at Rave a week early. My official last day is next Saturday.

We surprised her with a cookie cake, cards, and speeches. More tears were shed and lots of hugs were given. Its such a sad time but also a exciting one. Its bigger and better things for Kelli and I, but Rave will always be our family, so we will really miss them ALOT!

Kelli with her cookie cake

…and reading her cards.

Ok! Onto the food!

Thursday was celebration day, so I fixed up a nice celebration breakfast of french toast with the works

2 slices Whole Wheat Bread dipped in 2 egg whites, vanilla soy milk, and cinnamon. Topped with banana, strawberries, and maple syrup. YUM!

For lunch I fixed up a wrap. It was my last Flat Out…looks like a grocery trip is a MUST soon.

Turkey Wrap on Original Flat Out

Before I “wrap up” this post I really want to say THANK YOU for everyone’s kind words and congratulations on my last post. I had a huge smile on my face all day seeing everyone’s comments and knowing that you guys were genuinely happy for me. I know I have said it 10000 times, but I love you guys and am so grateful for you in my life <3. I truly feel that my prayers have been answered with this job and that everything happens for a reason. For the longest time I was so worried and upset about not finding a teaching job. I was struggling with my money ‘sitch, and had NO IDEA what I was going to do. But, maybe I didn’t find a teaching job because this is what I was meant to do. We will see. All I know is that things are starting to look up now, and I have never been more excited/nervous/happy. This is a new road in my life and I can’t wait to see where it takes me.

Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

Lots of Love, <3 Ems.

So I didn’t really talk to much about this but as you might already know Forever 21 is one of my very favorite stores.…Im sure most of you can relate. When they announced that they were opening up a HUGE store in our mall in August I was VERY excited, to say the least. And when they announced that they were having open interviews for management positions, a bunch of us decided to go up and interview...just for fun really. I never even told anyone that I interviewed because I thought that it was such a long shot. I am only a sales girl at Rave and have NO management experience. It was almost a month ago that I interviewed with my manager/best friend Kelli. Neither one of us had heard anything, so we both just figured we didn’t get the job, which was really no surprise. Well yesterday morning I get a call and guess who it was?!!

FOREVER 21 OFFERING ME THE ASSISTANT MANAGERS JOB!!!

Thats right girls…you are looking at the new assistant manager of FOREVER 21!

And the news gets even better…Kelli got the job too and they are sending us to Nashville in two weeks for training!

Now most of you know that I have recently graduated with my teaching degree and have been looking for a full time teaching job. I have been struggling so hard to find something and only working for minimum wage at Rave an average of 15 hours a week! Well, they offered me almost what I would be making as a teacher and plus its my DREAM JOB and I will be doing it along side one of my best friends!

I was totally jumping up and down and running circles around the house yesterday when I found out. Things are FINALLY working out for me in the job world. I just hope I will like it as much as I think I will. Im kind of nervous because I have never really been “in charge“, but I’m going for it full speed ahead and I’m gonna work SUPER hard at it. I mean its fashion! I was MADE for this job

Thanks to everyone who already congratulated me on Facebook, you guys are soo sweet and I love you to death! Normal food posting will resume tomorrow. I just had to tell my favorite bloggers the BIG EXCITING NEWS! <3333

Lots of Love <3 Ems.

I was sooo excited yesterday about all of the ideas that you guys gave me for my squash and zucchini that I immediately set up shop in the kitchen and spent the whole afternoon chopping, and grilling, and baking, etc. etc. I ended up preparing my veggies three different ways (so I could use them in multiple recipes later). Some of it I simply boiled with some salt and pepper so that I could possibly use it in a casserole later. Then some of it I chopped up with some green and red pepper to use in a stir-fry later. After all that I STILL had one zucchini and one squash left to deal with. I wanted something quick and easy, that didn’t require a trek through the jungle to find the ingredients! After looking at several different recipes I found one, then changed it around a little to fit the ingredients that I had. I was sooo proud of the results!

Stuffed Zucchini Boats. They were sooo simple to make, short ingredient list, and most importantly DE-LISH! Here is the recipe:

Stuffed Zucchini Boats:

Ingredients:

• One Zucchini
• One Small Yellow Squash
• Half of a Small Tomato
• Kashi Fire Roasted Vegetable Crackers (Handfull?)
• 1/4 Cup Chopped Red and Green Pepper
• 1-2 tbsp. Light Italian Dressing
• Salt
• Pepper
• Garlic

Directions:

• Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees.
• Cut zucchini in half length-wise
• Scoop out the insides of the zucchini and place on a plate to the side.
• Finely chop the inside of the zucchini along with the squash and tomato and place all together in a bowl.
• Add your chopped red and green pepper and chopped garlic to the bowl as well.
• Add Italian dressing to taste (1-2 tbsp.)
• Add salt and pepper to taste.
• Toss all the ingredients together and then spoon into your “zucchini boats”
• Place in the oven for about 15-20

Sounds mighty tastey huh?!

Also, yesterday I tried to go for a run and it was one of the worst runs I have ever had! My legs felt sooo heavy and I could barely go at all! For you runners out there…does this ever happen to you?! I mean sometimes I can run for miles and miles with absolutely NO PROBLEMS, and then other days I struggle hard with even one mile! I always try to just listen to my body and not push myself too hard if I’m not feeling it. I want running to be enjoyable, not torture. So I finished up the mile and walked home. Today I plan on doing some yoga to hopefully stretch out my leg muscles so they won’t be so tight and give it another try.

This morning I woke up to a gorgeous sunshiny day and the birds chirping out my window. And I started my day off right with some cereal and computing!

• Cinnamon Chex Cereal
• Special K Blueberry
• 1/2 cup Vanilla Soy Milk
• 1/2 Banana
• Sprinkle of Raisins

Today I have the whoollleee day off so I plan on relaxing by the pool, doing some laundry, and yoga and run later.

Hope everyone is having a great day!

Lots of Love <3 Ems.

Work has been a complete mad house and I have been going going going NONSTOP! We are having a summer clearance sale and everything is marked down to a dollar. I think sales make people forget how to hang up up clothes, because the past couple of nights the store has looked like this:

I like to refer to this as a “floordrobe“.

Another thing that has been keeping me “on-the-go” is various social activities. I’m tellin’ ya its hard trying to keep up an active social life. My sleep HAS suffered.

Jimbo (Kelli’s BF’s) birthday celebration at a classy little joint you might know as hooter…karaoke night, to be more specific.

He got a birthday song sung to him

The birthday boy and his girl.

A few drinks later “Truely, Madly, Deeply” was performed in honor of the birthday boy.

Thursday Night Party Night:

Wine and PB&J…class!

Gettin’ pretty…notice our OB post-it.

Sexy Mamacitas.

My friend Aaron even came by to enjoy a nice glass of wine

Saturday “Little Black Dress” Night with the Rave ladies:

yeah we dance in the streets. What of it?!

Ok now some random food shots from the week…for all you food porn lovers. Geezzz you guys are SICK! haha.

Kashi Mighty Bites, Cinnamon Chex, Strawberries, Banana, Vanilla Soy Milk

Whole Grain Waffles, Banana, Strawberries, Maple Syrup

HUGE salad with tuna on top!

SUSHI!!!!

Yogurt and cereal breakfast.

Ok now time to get caught up a little on everyone’s life. I promise a better post tomorrow when I get back into the swing!

P.S. I got a LOAD of squash and zucchini from the farmers market the other day…anyone have any good recipes?! PLEASE HELP!

Lots of Love <3 Ems.

Yesterday morning I woke up to a cold summer-y breakfast of cereal with vanilla soy milk.

Cinnamon Rice Chex, Kashi Mighty Mites, Banana, Strawberries, Vanilla Soy Milk.

After breakfast the brittster and I just sat around for a little a while, and then I finally convinced her to go on a run with me! We went on this awesome trial that goes in a circle from my house and back and I LOVE it. Brittany did so great for her first run in years! I had initially told her that it was three miles (which she was ECSTATIC about), but later that day I mapped it out on Map My Run and turns out it was 4.25!! Looks like she should be even more proud of herself!

When we got back from our run we hurried and got ready (ok it took us about 4 hours). Does it ever take you girls that long to get ready? Its not that I have a lot to do to get myself ready, but I keep getting distracted and only doing one thing and then going to the computer, or the T.V. or some other thing that takes up time…and then before I know it I have spent 4 hours getting ready. It might just be me and my excessive ADD, but it would really make me feel a lot better if someone else would fess up to it! haha.

After that I fixed up a nice lunch of soup and “Grown-Up Grilled Cheese“

Tomato Soup with crackers and pepper

“Grown-Up Grilled Cheese“…Wheat Bread, American Cheese, Spinach, and Tomato grilled up on the Georgie.

I gobbled up lunch and Britt and I headed over to my essential summer activity…

BASEBALL!!

I am loving me some baseball lately. I just can’t get enough…I think the cute guys help my obsession out a little too We went to the local minor league game. We lost bad, but I still had fun!

We decided to go even more summer and get ice cream cones while we watched the game…

During the game I may or may not have been my clumsy self and fell on the asphalt when walking to the bathroom. No one saw thank GOD, but I did suffer some injuries.

We will just call it a “battle wound”

During the game I get a text from my running buddy Ben asking me if I wanted to go for a late night run. Since my run had been pretty easy earlier because I was helping Brittani out during it…and because I can never turn down a running invitation, I said “yes, of course!”

Now, if you remember Ben runs a 7 minute mile. I DO NOT run a 7 minute mile. I had my list of excuses for not keeping pace with him all written up…current injury, second run of the day, stomach ache…etc. Of course he excepted non of them and told me to suck it up!

It ended up being one of the best runs I have had! I really did push myself harder because I was running with him and I felt like I kept pace pretty well for the most part. Also it was the first time that I had gone running that late at night (it was about 1030 before we headed out) and I really enjoyed it. The temperature was perfect and it was just so peaceful. I took Ben on the same running trial of 4.25 miles…so I ended up doing a total of 8.5 miles yesterday! Yeah, I feel pretty bad ass about it.

Oh yeah and in case you still weren’t convinced that I have the best roommate ever…she brought us back matching coffee cups from her recent weekend trip.

CHHHECK OUT HOW CUTE

Now its time to get this day started…its a GORGEOUS day so I’m def. feelin the pool and some tannin in the works.

Hope everyone is having a great Tuesday!

Lots of Love <3 Ems.