Rubes Cubes

I'm heading to Greenville to see this little love muffin this weekend and I couldn't be more excited!! It has been a whole month since I saw her last (when this smiley little pic was taken) and that is FAR too long!

I will be taking my handy dandy Nikon so I can snap a ton of pictures of this cutie!

Yes...I may be a little crazy about this little one :-)

I also CANNOT believe that Saturday is October 1st. I am very excited about the Fall weather...as long as it doesn't get too cold for this wimp. I have so many things on my TO DO list for October that it is getting a little overwhelming. But to start things off...I have some fun plans (well 2 DIY projects) for fall/halloween decorations that I will hopefully get around to in the next week during my study breaks.

"Spirit Jugs"

Pumpkin house numbers :)

And do not be surprised if I try to do this to one of my sweet little nieces this month! Ruby may be a little young for it...but I do have another adorable niece, Mia, who turns 1 year old this month that would look adorable in this little pumpkin!

Yep! I can totally see this little face in that pumpkin ;-) hehe

Just a couple of things I am looking forward to this month....

1. more yoga teacher training

2. last days at MUSC as a PT student until graduation in May!

3. Anna Richey's wedding!

4. possibly seeing Adele in concert in ATL!!!

5. clinical rotation at Coastal Therapy pediatrics!

and last but not least

6. WOFFORD HOMECOMING!!!

Have an awesome weekend! Happy October!

xoxo-

Shana

Exploration

"Explore daily the will of God"

C.G. Jung

This quote is from one of the books I am reading for Yoga Teacher Training. And I have quickly come to love this book. It is called "Meditations from the Mat" and if you practice yoga, you have probably heard a teacher or two read from this book during your practice- it is truly inspiring. The cool thing about this book is that it is based on yoga sutras, yet the author pulls scripture and quotes from all kinds of religions- but proves that the messages are universal. It is very interesting!

I particularly loved this meditation- it speaks on "tapas", which means zeal or austerity (not your spanish appetizer! Although, I love those too!) Tapas is about having a heart of an explorer with the willingness to work hard, the desire to know oneself, and the will to be honest. In this meditation, Rolf Gates tells the story of a man who spent 20 years in prison, and once released he found a spiritual awakening, in which he set new priorities for his life. In his old life, things were predictable, yet in his new life, each day was a new adventure. This man would wake up feeling guided through his days by a loving force, with a lively desire to explore the will of God. He had the heart of an explorer and his religion was not built on rigid self-discipline, but simply built by the desire to know more. Can you imagine waking up daily with this lively desire for the day? How amazing would that be?

I, for one, am quite familiar with a life and faith that has it's ups and downs and is like a serious rollercoaster. But this is a consistent prayer of mine, to walk in God's will and that God would strengthen or in some cases re-ignite the fire in my life for knowing Him more. There are definitely days that I get stuck in my routine and am not necessarily excited about waking up and studying or heading to MUSC for class, but I am excited and open to what God has in His plans for my life. Waking up with His guidance and love gives so much more meaning and purpose and excitement into my life for the days ahead. Tapas can be a natural reaction to the events in your life- waking with the desire to explore the will of God and hungry for growth.

A dear friend also shared a devotion with me today that goes perfectly with this meditation. The devotion came from Proverbs 31 Ministry,

"A person can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in their own toil. This too, I see, is from the hand of God, for without him, who can eat or find enjoyment?" Ecclesiastes 2: 24-25

"So I commend the enjoyment of life, because there is nothing better for a person under the sun than to eat and drink and be glad. Then joy will accompany them in their toil all the days of life God has given them under the sun."

Ecclesiastes 8:15

Have a joyful day!

xoxo-

shana

Easy Lasagna

I think I may have a dangerous obsession with pasta. I seriously crave it way more than I should. And it makes the BEST leftovers, so that's always a plus. I have made this lasagna multiple times, sometimes for large groups and sometimes for just Nelson and I, which we end up eating it for DAYS (although I'm kinda okay with that). And I will not claim that this is a healthy lasagna, but it IS easy and it IS delicious. The BEST part about this lasagna is that you don't even have to cook the noodles- you LITERALLY put uncooked noodles down in the casserole dish, and I promise 1 hour later, they are cooked perfectly. I emphasize this because I have shared this with others and they didn't believe me..haha. So try it out yourself ;-) It works. Sorry the picture isn't the best- I forgot to take a picture of it until after we dug in for dinner! Yep... delicious every time!

Ingredients, Serves 6

• 1 lb ground beef
• 1 chopped onion
• 3 cloves garlic (minced)
• 1 (26 oz.) jar pasta sauce
• 1 cup water
• 2 cups ricotta cheese
• 3 oz cream cheese
• 1 egg
• salt and pepper to your liking
• 2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
• 9 UNCOOKED lasagna noodles
• 1 cup grated parmesan cheese

Directions

1. In a large skillet, brown ground beef with onion and garlic (and any other veggies you want); drain. Add pasta sauce, water, and any spices; mix well.
2. In a large bowl, combine ricotta, cream cheese, egg, salt, and pepper and mix well. Stir in mozzarella cheese.
3. In a 13x9 baking dish, place 1 cup ground beef mixture. Lay 3 uncooked lasagna noodles on top. Spread 1/3 of ricotta filling over noodles and top with 1/3 of the remaining beef mixture. Repeat layers twice, ending with ground beef mixture.
4. Cover tightly with foil and bake at 350 for 1 hour. Uncover, sprinkle with cheese and bake another 10-15 minutes, until casserole is bubbling and cheese browns.

I don't follow directions EXACTLY- if you like it reallly cheesy, go ahead, add more cheese. I also add in mushrooms and sometimes spinach into the ground beef mixture. And thanks to my wonderful sister-in-law, April, I started to add a little kick to it by adding some crushed red pepper flakes and chili powder!

ENJOY! :)

XOXO-

Shana :)

Tuesday Birthdays in September :)

So since I am incredibly new to blogging....this is my excuse. But I have been meaning to give some birthday shout-outs to some of my favorite people but fell behind. But I figured since each of these people have their birthdays on a Tuesday in September..it will be my theme :)

So the 1st one...Sept. 6th, my little Kitty Kat turned 26!

Happy Birthday Kat!

And the following week on Sept. 13th, my E turned 26 as well!

Happy Birthday Erin!

And finallly today, the 20th, Momma Ang turns 27! (we call her momma ang because she OFTEN kept the rest of us volleyball girl in check.....she isn't actually a mother to a child YET)

Happy Birthday Ang!

AND Sweet Claire turns 28!

Happy Birthday Claire!!!

So although I probably wished you all a happy birthday in every form of communication possible....there's always another way!!! ;) I love you all! Enjoy the rest of your birthday month!

Mags on Canvas

So, I have this AMAZING friend. Her name is Patricia Fast. She is a dental student and also a ridiculously talented artist. For Nelson and I's 2nd anniversary I asked her to do a painting of our dog, Maggie, as my gift for Nelson. I knew it would be great because I have seen a TON of her work and have been amazed by her talent. I picked up the painting of Maggie.....and the girl doesn't disappoint. I am in LOVE.

This is the photo I gave Patricia- Maggie as a puppy and told her to be creative and do whatever she wanted to with it.

And this is the BEAUTIFUL outcome. I love that she put her on a dock and LOVE the colors of the water.

You can find some more of Patricia's art work on her blog http://www.patriciajordanfast.blogspot.com/

She is simply wonderful! Thanks so much Patricia! Hope you don't mind me promoting you on my blog ;) love you!

Namaste!

It was a weekend FILLED with yoga teacher training, but honestly it was a very fun weekend! I may be exhausted physically, emotionally and mentally, but it was WELL worth it. I am getting certified with 2 awesome girls and our teachers are great as well, so that definitely makes being there all weekend okay! My favorite part of the weekend, of course, was Salutation Nation on Saturday morning in the beautiful Brittlebank Park. Salutation Nation is an annual, international day of yoga- brought together by the wonderful Lululemon community here in Charleston. If you don’t practice yoga yet, I obviously HIGHLY recommend it, since I have become ADDICTED to power vinyasa over the past year. And of course once I start teaching I might harass y’all to come to my class and try it out! ;)

I had never practiced Yoga outside, but Salutation Nation at Brittlebank Park here in Charleston was really unbelievable! There were moments as I looked up into the great big blue sky or out over the Charleston water and was just in awe of God’s creation and was overcome with gratitude for the opportunity to live in such a beautiful city and to simply practice yoga outside with such a large and loving yoga community. I truly wish every Saturday morning started out this way!

Here are just a few pictures from the event. J

Natalie Wooten and I. Natalie is one of the awesome girls that is doing the teacher training with me at Charleston Power Yoga. LOVE her!

Warrior 2

Revolving Crescent Lunge

Wheel

Downward Facing Dog

If you've been wanting to try out power vinyasa yoga and haven't yet, Charleston Power Yoga offers local peeps their first class for free! So try it out! :)

Namaste!

Cheapskate

Out with the old....

Over the long weekend I discovered a "gem".....Uptown Cheapskate in Mt. Pleasant. For most of you who know me best, you know that I LOVE me some consignment shops.

#1 because it helps me justify (in my head) some of my shopaholism. If i haven't worn you in over a year..I'm probably not going to wear you, so out you go, and IN comes something new I've been eyeing online or at a local boutique :)

#2 because you can honestly discover some great finds- in this new little joint I found an adorable Modern Amusement t-shirt dress and a Collective Concept top, both SUPER cheap and in "like-new" condition.

The EVEN better thing about this new store is that it is a "resale" vs "consignment" store, so they buy your stuff up front! Much better than waiting on your stuff to sell and the worst is checking in with the consignment store and your stuff may have either not sold or they gave someone a ridiculous discount. Needless to say I am a huge fan of this new store and dropped off a couple of bags full of stuff yesterday and left with some cash to show for it!

So whether you need to clean out your closet or just need to go shopping....you Charleston peeps should check it out! You may even end up with something out of my closet ;)

xoxo

WANT

WANT sometimes seems like a dangerous word...or atleast it is in my world, where my husband believes all I do is want, want, want. But my yoga teacher training started last week and on top of a lot of technical yoga poses, practicing, etc... the process includes finding your authentic self, which I am also really pumped about. This week, one of our journaling activities was to have someone (nelson :) ask us for 10 whole minutes, "what do you want?" and for 10 minutes, this is what you do. List what you want. Simple. At first he thought it was silly and dangerous, but then he saw the importance in the exercise. So of course you are going to have the materialistic things in there like, for me a David Yurman ring, more Lululemon clothes, a great dane.. but then inevitably in 10 minutes you will get deeper into what you really want out of your life.

Although I am probably one of the most indecisive people you will EVER meet, I do know what I want. And I think it's a great exercise to audibly state what you want out of your life. And down the road we will see what we have, what we never needed out of that list, or what we STILL want out of that list.

this will probably be on my want list a LONG time...

Harlequin Great Dane....Maggie needs a brother :) or sister...

Try it out...it's actually kind of interesting to find out what comes to mind in 10 minutes :)

Giving It a Shot

So, I have decided to jump on the blogging bandwagon. And I have NO idea what I am doing, so bear with me. For some reason, in the past couple of months I have decided to pursue quite a few passions and new endeavors in my life, including painting, photography, power vinyasa yoga (which has turned into teacher training :) and I figured why not give blogging a shot. I guess I figure, life is short...and busy...and I probably need to keep a record of it. I honestly don't find my daily life to be too incredibly exciting, yet if you know me...you know I have a horrible memory, yet another reason to blog and document the things I consider to be worthy enough.

Let me introduce you to the Poe's and some of my favorite people, favorite things and random thoughts. Hope you enjoy! :)

First things first...This is my family. More to come...

The Poe Family- Nelson, Shana, and Maggie

happily married for 2 years :)