A Must Read!

No matter if you are a male or a female...

or feel you are too old or too young...

Please take time to read this article...
... you'll thank me later.

25 Things I Want Myself to Know at 25

Below, quoted straight from her blog are my favorites that she has listed....

"Most of the time, you don’t know anything about anything. That was true when you were 15 and that will be true when you are 65. You do, however, know how to be a good person and you know how to follow your heart. Keep doing that and you’ll be just fine.                                                                                                                                                                  

Be grateful for that moment when you decided to stop being such a sarcastic asshole and let your guard down long enough to fall in love and let someone fall in love with you. Even if it ends in heartbreak, it is still one of the greatest adventures you have been on.                                                                                                                                 

Always make time for your parents. They might live for another 67 years…but they probably won’t. Enjoy the time you spend with them. Don’t try to rush off the phone when they are telling you about their week. Enjoy getting to know them as their adult child and realize that they still have a lot to teach you.   

                                                                             

Keep writing. Know that some of the things you write will be really bad. Write anyway. Write because it makes you happy. Write because it’s important to have hobbies. Write because sometimes, on very rare occasions, the things you write will be more powerful than you would have ever thought possible.                                                                                                                                                                                    

It is good to have a plan but remember that it is OK to wander off the path a little and get lost. You have an amazing support system that will be there with you through it all.                                                                                                                                                                                     

Be thankful that you are the youngest in your family and you have been able to learn from the mistakes of your siblings. But also be thankful that you are able to learn from their success and the wonderful people they have become.                                                                                                                                                                          

Be fearless and be brave. You are no longer the two year old little girl who was scared to go in the sand and walk down stairs. You are the young woman who has traveled the world, worked for causes you believed in and taken on a multinational financial institution. You are brave and you are fearless. Don’t forget it.     
          

Believe in something bigger than you. Something that you will never understand. Whether it’s God or the Universe just believe in something because when everything else fails, which is bound to happen, all you’ll have left is your faith that things will get better."                                                                                   

Thank you CapitalOne!

I was lucky enough to be invited on a weekend getaway with Mike and Jeanine!  Mike had decided to cancel one of his credit cards and needed to use his reward points beforehand which led us to a weekend trip to Burlington, VT - Thank you CapitalOne!  We headed out early Saturday morning so we'd have the whole day to explore.  

We got to our hotel around 1:00, dropped off our stuff and headed right into downtown Burlington.  We had lunch reservations at the Farmhouse Tap & Grill to try this "famous" burger Mike's co-workers have been raving about.  It was a beautiful 75 degrees and sunny day.  We decided to sit outside so we could enjoy this burger in this beautiful weather.

Jeanine and I found the perfect drinks for this perfect weathered day...

Now onto the burger...

LaPlatte River Angus Farm Beef

Landaff Creamery “Landaff” cheese, local bacon, pickled red onions

We decided to have Mike do a before and after picture to really show the deliciousness of this burger.  Before eating the burger we had heard rumors of it being better than New World Bistro's burger, we were about to find out which burger was really better...

We had come to the conclusion after eating the food that both burgers are good, if we could combine attributes of both burgers into one, we'd have one fantastic burger.  After we finished eating we headed out to do some exploring.  Some streets had been closed off and turned into a street fair/farmers market kind of thing with all the main stores open for the public too.  We walked through the streets and made our way down to the beautiful waterfront and then looped back up to the streets.

After walking around, shopping, eating, and enjoying the town all day, we were pooped!  On our way out we stopped at a Candy store and did a lot of damage.  We headed back to the hotel to wind down and relax for the rest of the night.  We ordered take out, relaxed in bed and then dove head first into our mounds of sugar.

After finally waking up for the unbelievable sugar coma we put ourselves in - memo to self: never, ever try to eat as much sugar as Jeanine, ever again... - we got up, got ready, and headed to get some breakfast before heading back home.  

We had passed a place in our exploration yesterday that looked interesting so we headed there for breakfast.  It's called The Skinny Pancake.  It's known for their wide variety of crepes!  We got there about 30 minutes after they opened and the line for fresh crepes was already forming and the place was already filling up.

Jeanine: Hot Apple Crispy: VT apples, pure VT honey, cinnamon sugar, and VT Whipped cream

Mike: Noah's Ark: two eggs cooked to order, two slices of bacon, side of sausage and two cinnamon sugar sweet crepes.  Served with a side of VT maple syrup

Julie: Biscuits and Herbed Sausage Gravy: entirely made from scratch.  Served with two eggs to order and fried sage

Breakfast was delicious.  The quick weekend getaway was just what we all needed.  Perfect weather for what we needed.  It was beautiful in Vermont, I wish I had taken more nature and/or scenery pictures, but food pictures are always good too :-]  If you get a chance get out to Burlington before winter strikes, late summer or early fall it is truly a beautiful place.