the beach I grew up at

I grew up in beautiful Virginia Beach and I love that my grandparents still live there.

Beau and I had such a good time visiting and spending time with them for a weekend.

We ate at my all-time favorite breakfast restaurant.  When my brother and I were kids my Poppa used to take us there on Saturday mornings.  Best pancakes ever.  Oh so good. 

My adorable grandparents. :)

It might not be Hawaii, but it sure is beautiful to me. 

While we were in Virginia Beach we met with Beau's mission president and his wife.  They were his make-shift parents while he was serving a mission for our church in Guatemala for two years.  This was the first time Beau was able to see his mission president since his mission ended almost 4 years ago.  It was so fun having dinner with them and hearing all the great stories from Guatemala.  

And our last night in Virginia Beach was spent having a feast with my grandparents.  My family has a tradition of eating crabs on certain holidays, like July 4th, Memorial Day, etc.  Well, we happened to be at the beach the weekend after Memorial Day so we celebrated by eating wonderful Chesapeake Bay blue crabs. We always line up our crab shells so that we can keep count of how many we've eaten.  My all-time record is 12.  And I have no shame in that number.   

Virginia oh Virginia

While we were in Virginia we were busy busy, but we had a blast. 

Have a peek at our trip...

We went to my cousin's wedding to his beautiful new bride.  

The ceremony was gorgeous.  And aren't they adorable together?

The location was absolutely gorgeous. 

I got to meet my cute newest, little cousin.

And I convinced my brother to take a picture with me. If you know my brother, that's a feat in and of itself.  

We went to an amusement park, though I sadly don't have any pictures.  

I find that big and fast rides are not a good place for a camera, hence the camera was left safely at home.

We went to a baseball team with my mom, stepdad, and brother.

Go Nationals!

We went and toured George Washington University for grad school for Beau.

We met with a professor and student from the program Beau is applying to. 

And it seems that GW is climbing back up to the top of our list.

Tomorrow, stay tuned for pictures from our visit to my grandparents house in Virginia Beach!

Greek=Great

So while in DC we ate at this delicious Greek restaurant, Zorba's Cafe.

Seriously, the food was wonderful--I may in fact be converted to Greek food. 

And the restaurant was absolutely adorable, both inside and out.  

Beau and I went with one other friend and while the two boys were downstairs waiting for our food, I went upstairs to save us a table.  Unfortunately (for me) the food took a little longer than expected, so I was sitting upstairs by myself for a little while.  And across the room from me was a middle-aged portly man sitting by himself.  I made unintentional eye-contact with him while surveying the restaurant.  

And what did he give me?  Two things actually.  

The first was a finger waggle.  Yep, you read that right, this man gave me a finger waggle.  You know what I mean--palm flat, facing down, fingers outstretched, and a brief little waggle of the middle three fingers.  Um, can you say ew?  And then, after I intentionally avoided looking in his direction, he finally got up to leave. But, wait, I said he gave me two things, remember?  Well, aside from the finger waggle he gave me initially, he also dropped something by my table as he was exiting.  He got up from his seat, walked over to where I was sitting and handed me a folded-up receipt. After he left, I unfolded the receipt and found a short note scribbled on the back "I want to talk to you. Call me. *insert phone number*"

And of course about 15 seconds after the man left, Beau and our friend walked up with the food finally. Thank goodness.  It was most definitely an uncomfortable experience for me.  

But hey, I'm a married woman who's still got it going on apparently.  

At least according to the middle-aged man.  

Not sure whether I should take that as a compliment or not, but I think I will. :)

Vacation phase 1: Conference in DC

Alright, so technically the first part of our visit to the Mainland wasn't a vacation.

As I think I've mentioned before, we flew with the school to present at a national conference in DC.

Which just happens to be very very near to my house. 

Ah, so convenient.

The conference went wonderfully though. Beau and I both had presentations that we did.

But the best part was that we made some awesome contacts with some grad school professors and grad students.  Beau and I are currently in the process of narrowing down grad schools.  Right now the list is at 8, but we want to narrow it down to 5 for Beau to apply to in the fall.  The conference ended up being really beneficial to us--we were so blessed to make the contacts that we did.  Now we're just praying that Beau will get into the grad school he's supposed to.  

Since flying back to the Mainland we have been super super busy!

In fact, we've still got another week before we fly home, but we've gotten past the crazy busy part of the trip, so this week I'm happy to be back updating you all on our life.  And I've been taking pictures like a crazy woman lately so I'm happy to share some of those with you as well.  Don't worry, I won't bore you with all the pictures I've taken. Just a few.  So, for the next week, enjoy the stories and pictures I'll be posting.

And I'll enjoy relaxing in the North Carolina beach house I'm currently sitting in.  :)

guest post with Andrea from pics-o-andrea

How's everyone doing? Miss me? Well I am having a fabulous time (and a fabulously busy time) at home right now. I can't wait to tell you all about it.  But for today, I have an awesome post for you by the lovely Andrea over at pics-o-andrea. Enjoy! And don't forget to head on over to her blog and say hello! :)

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Hello there, my name is Andrea and I blog over at pics-o-andrea. 

I am so excited to be able to help out Candace while she is having a blast visiting family back East.

Yes, it is basically summer [insert high-pitched squeel and happy Carlton dance here], 

but I know Candace is taking classes right now, as well as a lot of other bloggers. Also, there are many who are planning for college in the near future. What I’m getting at is,basically, the other night I was talking with a friend about when we were in college and our most favorite semesters and why we loved them so much and how we wished everyone could have those amazing experiences. College can either be really rough or an amazing and memorable experience.

Just because you (yes, you) are so awesome, I’ve decided to share some tips that I used to helped me in college to not be a major bum with no friends or life ...and still get excellent grades:)

1. Get involved. Don’t worry about who else is going, or if your hair looks perfect or not; If someone invites you to an activity, date, dance, BBQ, movie, party, bike ride, team cooking competition, laser light show, Super Smash Brothers showdown, breakdance competition, rock climbing, slip-n-slide, jam session, bridge-jumping, or  a picnic (and they are not a crazy/scary person and there won’t be crazy/scary things involved) GO! -Even if you don’t know the people very well -that’s how you make friends. Also, colleges want you to be social and, typically, they provide students with plenty of ongoing activities, so find what you like and get involved. This advice is especially important at the very beginning of a new semester.
*I may or may not have personal experience being invited by to all of the aforementioned activities in my college career.
**Even if you’re not single, stay involved and go out and have fun:)

2. Get To Know Your Roommates. Roommates are huge! (not literally ...usually) These are the people you live with. Of course they’ll seem kind of weird at first (they’re thinking the same thing about you). You’re living together, so you’re going to discover habits about each other that  may be difficult to handle at first (snoring, stealing food, getting home late, waking up early, smelly, messy, loud...) but you’ll make it much easier on yourself if you really get to know them and spend time together. That’s when you’ll really discover their amazing traits. It’s true, roommates can become some of your best friends. -either that or they just make for really funny stories:) (win win?)

3. Prioritize. Make sure you don’t make college into just a big party fest and forget all about your classes and homework. You’re paying for the classes, so make the most of it! Sure, a social life is important, but stay organized with your schoolwork so you can keep on track.

Some kind of planner is essential.

And you may need to make some sacrifices. Ex: If you have a huge test on Monday, wake up extra early on Saturday to study and prepare instead of going to the river for the day. Then, if you feel confident in your studying, maybe reward yourself by catching a late movie with your roomies. See? Not so bad.

To make college memorable, you need to put in the effort and have the right attitude:) Studying is important and has it’s place, but don’t hide in your room or a corner in the library all day. Make every semester an amazing one!

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Thanks Andrea!

guest post with Leah from An Ordinary Fairytale

Happy June 1st you guys! I hope everyone is having a fabulous week so far.  Today, I have a wonderful guest post for you to read from Leah over at An Ordinary Fairytale.  She has definitely been a great blogging buddy and I wish I knew her in real life.  So today, while the hubby and I venture off to visit a grad school, sit back and enjoy this lovely post! And when you're done, head on over to Leah's darling blog! :)

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Hey Together for the Better Readers! It's Leah from An Ordinary Fairytale and I'm excited to be guest posting for Candace as she is off traveling!

I've got a question for you today- What would you do with an extra hour in your day? I feel like I'm not alone in saying that another hour or two in my day would be nice! When you break down a 24 hour day, you're supposed to sleep for a third of it (if you're lucky, right?!), be at work or school for about another third of it, and the last third is usually spent running errands, doing homework, washing clothes, making dinner and other tasks like that.  Hopefully you enjoy your job or classes, and we all know what a good night's sleep does for us, but where are the hours to enjoy doing things you love? (Except of course if you like doing laundry... ;]) Because those hours seem to be few and far between, that's how I'd spend an extra hour in my day. 

If my day had 25 hours, I would spend time ...

crafting.

personal photo

I love to make cards from scrapbook materials, and I have an entire list of other crafts I'd like to try, but I am always running out of time to get anything made. With an extra hour, I'd get my fingers nice and sticky from glue while going crazy creating!

reading.

via

I've loved to read since I was a little girl, but as a college kid, it seems like all I read are textbooks now. With an extra hour, I'd have time to read a book for fun without the risk of being too tired to read  for enjoyment before bed!

baking.

via

Someday I want to decorate all sorts of desserts- cakes, cookies, cupcakes, you name it! But I rarely have time to experiment or try, and so with an extra hour I'd be able to learn to create all sorts of yummy treats!


Now it's your turn- what would you do with an extra hour in your day? Unless you really like to do laundry or finish your homework, I don't want to hear it! What are the things you enjoy doing that you'd like more time to do? Leave a comment and tell us what you'd do with an extra hour in your day! :)
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Thanks so much Leah!

guest post with Brooke from Bright Wishes!

Today you guys get to hear from the lovely Brooke over at Bright Wishes.  I fell in love with her blog a couple months ago and if you haven't seen it yet, go over and check it out! 

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Hey everyone, its Brooke from Bright Wishes! It's so great to be here at Together for the Better blog! Candace asked me to write about anything I'd like, so I chose to share with you some wedding colors that have been in style lately. I'm a bride to be and basically planning a wedding while my fiancée is in another state, so I'm so absorbed into the wedding world although I think any bride is :)

LAVENDER 

click to view more of this wedding.


GREEN

click to view more of this wedding.


GRAY + YELLOW

click to view more of this wedding.

BLUSH PINK

click to view more of this wedding.

I hope you enjoyed going through the colors! My personal favorite is the blush pink. I think it's such a romantic color. What's your favorite?


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Thanks so much Brooke!

guest post with Christal from Mustard Me Yellow

Hey everyone! I am back in good ol' Virginia these days! I'm sorry I wasn't able to put up the wonderful guest posts I have sooner, but unfortunately I had some unexpected internet problems.  I do believe they're all resolved now though, so for the next few days, sit back and enjoy listening to some fabulous posts.

Today you get to hear from my lovely friend Christal.  She lives in Hawaii as well.  Remember when Beau and I had those awesome pictures taken? Well, that was Christal.  Now, enjoy her awesome post and then head over to her blog and say hi!

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Hello. I'm Candace's friend, Christal!  I am so glad that she has asked me to be one of her guest bloggers!  I am a lifestyle blogger and I love photography.  I love taking pictures and I can't get enough of it. I also love thrifting and doing little DIY projects whenever I get the chance. Feel free to follow me HERE.
Here's a little DIY tutorial on a ruffled wreath that I've been wanting to make.  Enjoy!

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Thanks again Christal!