Happy Birthday, Beck!

(My favorite picture of me and Becky is from this same night; it's a close-up of both of us laughing and it's framed in my bedroom, but I don't have the digital copy. Becky does...and apparently she's not answering my phone calls today, so...)

Today is my sister's 29th birthday (yep, as in her LAST twenty-something birthday.). Becky is one of my absolute favorite people... I may have two triplet brothers, but my big sis is my emotional twin. We pretty much have the same opinions and emotional responses to pretty much everything. Who knows where I would be now if she hadn't sat on the phone with me and listened to me cry and worry and "what if" days before my wedding when I was in a total panic. She'd been through the same thing leading up to her wedding and she understood my every fear. (Don't worry husbands, it was just pre-wedding jitters-- we love you very much!) We can make each other cry simply by talking about hypothetical sad situations...who does that? We do.

And lest you think all we do is cry, we do laugh a lot! Becky and I can crack ourselves up simply by remembering the awkward look on Randy's face when he walked in as I was aloe-ing up my very sunburned sister on a cruise a few years ago. Or the ridiculous trip, me, Becky, and Mom took trying to get out of that stupid parking garage after hours and we joyfully walked out of the garage...to find ourselves in the back alley of a CVS...where a semi was being unloaded by some very large men.

Matching easter dresses, me following you around when we were little, ballet and piano recitals, me stealing your clothes in high school, Six Flags pictures, me reading your notes in middle school, our road trip through Santa Fe... I am so lucky to have so many great memories with my big sis and I can't wait to spend the summer with you making more (hopefully laughing-- not crying). AND I can't wait to see you become a momma. You're going to be awesome. I love you, Beck!

(Enjoy your last year of youth. Hahahaha...)

Update: I decided to just take a picture of the picture. This is my fave picture of us... Isn't she cute?

Week in Review

1. The Memorial Day holiday last week allowed Tyler and I to spend a lot of time together, more time than usual which I was particularly grateful for due to my impending departure. We also had The Riley gang (Tucker's family) over to the pool on Monday, which made my week. I feel like there are so many big parts of my life that Tyler doesn't get to see and I'm with the Rileys so much and talk about them all the time, so it was very, very fun for me to merge my worlds for the afternoon.

2. We went to see Rent at the Warner Theater on Thursday. The outing alone was a nice treat, but I hadn't ever seen it on stage. It was, however, Tyler's fourth time, so it was totally routine to him (Yes, FOURTH. I promise, I did marry a straight man...who just really likes Rent....a lot.). Even better, Anthony Rapp and Adam Pascal, who originated the main roles of Roger and Mark, were in it, which the crowd LOVED. It was a great show and a lot of fun. (And I behaved myself and didn't sing along. It took A LOT of willpower.)

(Heading out to the show. I'm always torn on what to wear to the theater because some people are super dressed up while others come in jeans... This is what I came up with which turned out to be a good choice. Megan, my newest follower (yay!!): the top and belt are from New York & Co and they were purchased recently...)

3. For whatever reason, even though I'm leaving next week for nine weeks, I've been on a rampage through the house trying to redo things and get new or different things up on the walls, as you can see by my last post. Perhaps a reverse form of nesting? The pictures are still "as is" on the wall, but I have some ideas for a different arrangement and perhaps a solution to the mat colors... We'll see. Thanks for your advice. I know you're on the edge of your seat.

4. We finally solved the "How am I getting to Colorado?" question! After weeks of exploring different options, different dates, and various forms of transportation, we finally worked it out so Lindsey, my BFF, is flying to Savannah from LA, driving with me to Colorado Springs, and then flying back to LA from there. What a friend, right? I am super duper excited about our little adventure. We've done a lot of things together, but a real road trip isn't one of them... (No, a 2 hours drive from LA to Vegas doesn't count...even though I called it a road trip in February. :))

5. We got a new toy! We were very blessed last week to get an unexpected bonus from Tyler's company. Husband has worked very, very hard this year and he's been wanting a specific DSLR camera for a very, very long time, so I was okay with him getting to treat himself with part of the bonus (we were more responsible with the rest of it). However, the camera came with a hefty fee, so I'm pretty much afraid to touch it. And since we don't have kids, there's not too much around here to take pictures of. Sooo, if you want pictures of inanimate objects throughout our condo or lots of pictures of me sitting on the couch... You know where to come. Oh yeah, and pictures of our food. We have lots of those too.

6. I do actually hang out with my school friends outside of school! Every break, our class is always like, "Yeah, let's hang out!" and then three months go by and no one hangs out. BUT, Husband and I went out to a happy hour-turned-dinner with my friend Kelly and her hubbo Chris. It was POURING last night and we were running late meeting them at Guapo's, so as soon as I got there I was like, "I'll have one of those," blindly ordering the extra large margaritas my friends we drinking... Drinks turned to dinner and dinner turned to...the bill. $122. I almost fell out of my chair. Granted that was the bill for all four of us, but it was bigger than I expected for our happy hour outing. Turned out our margaritas were $12 apiece. Dang. Those extra large margaritas that were extra delicious were also extra expensive. And, good thing, extra strong- I only had one. So yay for friends. Boo for big bills. (P.S. We had a GREAT time with Kelly & Chris....)

All in all, it was a good week. Thanks for reading, thanks for caring!

Help!

Remember how I said I wanted to do something with the main wall of our "dining room" last week? Well, after two hours of pacing and measuring and comparing (and pacing, measuring, and comparing some more) at AC Moore today, I came home with 8 frames and 10 mats because I just couldn't make a decision.

One thing I DID decide was what exactly I would frame. It was an all out battle on aisle 9 between a set of 5 antique-ish botanical prints I already had or 12 2009 calendar prints from Ling's Little Calendar, which I already frame, just individually month to month. The botanical prints won out because the Ling prints just didn't fit any of the mats correctly and cutting 12 of my own would have turned my little afternoon late-into-the-evening project into something much bigger than I intended...and more expensive.

After laying out my purchases at home, playing with arrangements, comparing mat colors and wall colors and print colors...I was still nowhere. So I just framed a few in different prints in different mats to get the full idea. The process of nailing the hardware to all of the frames, centering and framing the prints, preserving the plastic liners for what products would be returned, removing what is currently on the wall, measuring, calculating, drawing, properly spacing, leveling, re-assessing, calling for back-up to approve heights and widths and spaces took me 3 hours. Mind you, the very first thing I did before nailing a single nail into the wall was to call in Husband for layout approval. Too high? Too low? Too right? Okay. Perfect.

So, as I place the last frame on the wall-- yes, three hours later-- Husband walks in and says, "Do you think the whole thing's just a little too high?"

I didn't get mad. I didn't yell. I didn't make a face.

I blankly started at him.

Then, Mad Wife Thoughts That I Don't Say Out Loud (MWTTIDSOL), the same ones from Christmas, showed up: "Are you kidding me?? The first thing I asked you was if the top pictures were too high! I've been measuring and hanging and taking down and re-measuring and re-hanging and asking for your opinion this entire time. Is this too high? No? Okay, Great. I'll put a nail in the wall. And I will proceed to hang all of these other pictures around this one picture that you do not think is too high."

But here's the crappy thing. When I look at the wall, I'm OK with it. But when I take a picture of the wall, I sort of think it IS too high. Crap. And I STILL can't decide between the cream or green.

Here's where you come in, readers. Be honest. I won't be mad at you like I was mad at Husband who watched me do this for three hours and then tell me when I'm done that it looks wrong (However, if you have comments for Husband, feel free to leave those also. He reads this.). Are the pictures too high? If I lower them, will the bottom pictures be too low? Currently, they're about elbow height.

(I think they definitely look too high here.)

(But not so much here.)

And what about the mat colors? I think the cream makes the pictures stand out, but they're the exact same color as the wall...

But could I really handle it if they were all green? Would it be too much? Should I try to find different mats altogether? I'm starting to just hate the whole wall now...

Help! Anyone. Everyone. Feedback. I need.

P.S. I realize this is frivolous, lest anyone think I'm being too dramatic. (ME?? Dramatic?)

Memorial Day

(Yet again, a fantastic performance from my current music addiction- Corey Smith.)

Please take a moment to remember and give thanks for all of those who have come before us or are currently serving our country for our freedom and protection.

Happy Memorial Day

Worthless

Man, we are lazy today. I mean, really, really, haven't-even-brushed-my-teeth-today lazy. The kind of lazy where you try to make yourself feel better about how lazy you're being by telling yourself you're resting up or deserve a break, but in reality...you just feel fat and worthless and wish you had a reason to go do something. And the longer we sit here, the lazier and lazier I get.

Example?

Husband looks like he's been trapped on a desert island with four days of stubble growth and a sunburn from the pool yesterday, neither of us have showered since Friday, and all we've done today is eat, nap, and watch TV. We only managed to crawl out of our cave long enough to go get more food to eat.

Seriously, we're disgusting human beings. We'll try to be a better example to the human race tomorrow.

Show Us Where You Live Friday

So, it's that time of the week again...except I skipped last week (guest rooms), so I guess this isn't quite a tradition yet. A) I was out of town. B) I didn't think you'd want to see pictures of an air mattress blown up in the middle of the living room.

Anywho-- here is our dining room (or the room where a table and chairs sit. If you really want to see our dining table, go back to the living room edition and check out our coffee table.:)).


I love my table. I bought it from Kroger (yes, the grocery store) in college for $120. It's lived in my college apartment, my little studio where I lived when I first moved to DC, and finally made the move here. I don't know if I like it more because it's cute or because it was such a good deal. It's in great shape because, again, we don't use it much. The table is always set like this. I'm sure one day we'll get a big kid table, but it works for now.

I've been wanting to do something with this big wall behind the table, but haven't had the motivation to really figure it out. I'm already getting ideas from some other dining rooms posted on Kelly's blog.

I think this is my favorite piece of furniture that I own. I'd once eyed a similar piece at Pier One and always regretted not buying it. Sometime last year I saw this table/bookshelf on sale and just couldn't say no... The wedding portrait above is relatively new. My mom had it framed as a gift. Again, one of those things that, if left up to me, I'd always want to do, but never take the time to actually do...


We try to keep things around the house from places we've traveled, together or individually. The boomarang is from Tyler's trip to Australia, the wooden flute is from Grand Caymen Island, and the picture above it is a gift from my best friend Lindsey, who took it while traveling in Italy a few years ago. The color's in it are perfect for our place. The small picture of us that you can't really see is us standing on Lake Michigan a month or two after we got married.

So that's it! Thanks for stopping by.

I swear...

Going home is the perfect getaway. If we ever move back to Savannah, I will be sorely disappointed that life isn't always like this... "Whaaaat? You don't go on the boat everyday?"

Here's how my Saturday went. I woke up early and my mom and I hit up a garage sale. Not just ANY garage sale, but a garage sale put on by a family friend who has exquisite (and expensive) taste in all things southern. When I heard _______ ________ was having a garage sale I HAD to go. Here's what I came home with:

So the sale wasn't AS fantastic as I anticipated, but I was still excited about my finds. I would've bought more if we had a bigger place. (Regardless of what you think, Husband, I actually told my mom: "Tyler will kill me if I bring that home.") Not pictured? A quesadilla maker for $2!

After the garage sale, I went to get spray tanned (they had a BOGO sale, so I can do it again when I go back for the wedding next month). I then came home and made a delightful salad with fresh caught shrimp (stolen from a bag of LCB), feta, and poppyseed dressing (my favorite). (Side note: I could write an entire blog post on the vast variety and amount of cheese in my mom's fridge. It's kind of ridiculous (not that I didn't appreciate my options)-- what say ye family? In my best Bubba voice: "Chedder cheese, feta cheese, goat cheese, white mexican cheese, american cheese, shredded mozzerella cheese, brie...") I enjoyed my salad (and cheese) on the back patio, sitting in the sun while reading the latest issue of InStyle.

After Mom and Rick got home from an early afternoon wedding (Rickism: "Of all the weddings I've been to, that was...the most recent."), Mom and I hit up a cute new store on Whitmarsh Island called Polka Dots. It's the kind of store that makes you want to monogram every single, solitary thing in your household. I told my mom, "I think you could give me dog pooh and I'd like it if it were monogrammed..." I came home with this bag, which will be my new pool tote for the summer-- only $15:

My mom is great to shop with and I wanted to get my bag monogrammed where they could do it same day, so we continued onto the mall. I got this dress for $20. Kind of simple, but how cute will this be with a wide brown belt, gladiator sandals, and a big chunky bracelet? (Shell, I have to take back what I said about gladiator sandals-- I found a pair I DON'T hate.)

We also hit up JC Penny, a store where I would have never, ever in my wildest dreams think to go, but Nicole Miller has a line there now. Pretty cute stuff. And I l.o.v.e. graphic prints.

After shopping, I went for a quick run around Lake Mayer and thought, "I wonder if God, like He knows the number of hairs on my head, knows the number of times I've run around this lake..." I have run around that lake COUNTLESS times and it felt good to hit the path I'm so familiar with.

Saturday night was Charles and Landon's couples shower set on the perfect waterfront estate. It was a great night. The weather was great, the food was great, and the sky was perfectly clear (the bugs even stayed away!). I spent the evening with "The Blondies" (the self-declared name of my mom's group of friends) and their families and topped the evening off sitting on the dock watching the sun set with old friends from high school, followed by a night cruise on the river with storytelling over beers.

It was the perfect, reminiscent, deal-finding day.

Roadtrip Recap

I drove to Savannah today to spend the weekend with family and friends and attend a couple's shower for Charles and Landon (except Tyler didn't come with so I'll be the 31st wheel at the party. Fun, right? :))

Anyway, here's a recap of my trip in numbers:

Number of times I thought "Wow, this is fun" while driving in Virginia: 0

Number of Corey Smith songs I listened to: 53

Number of times I got honked at by truckers: 2 (This is how I gauge my self-worth, so I'm feeling pretty good right about now)

Number of times I almost peed my pants: 1

Number of times I listened to (and sang very loudly with) Faith Hill's "Lost": 7

Number of times my mom's phone called me while in the Chick-Fil-A bathroom: 3

Number of miles driven door to door: 593.5

And now I'm here! Bring on the sunshine. (I wish you were here, Lindsey! I bet we would've gotten honked at 16 times...)

I love Sonic Commercials

Becky, this is for you:



I predict this is how my preggo sister and I will be spending our summer nights together. We're pretty wild and crazy girls (you should've seen us in college). Sometimes...we even skip church! (Don't tell.)

Angie, if you come out too, maybe we could like...stay up all night...and...watch Golden Girls on the Hallmark channel.

(Anyway, this made me laugh. Sonic commercials usually do.)

American Idol

School's out for summer, the weather's a cool 75 degrees (when it's not raining), and DC is lush and green... But how do I really know it's finally May?

American Idol finales, baby.

Not a fan? Allow me to brainwash you for a minute: yooooooou waaaaaaant kriiiiiis to wiiiiiiin.

I admit, Danny and Adam won me over early, Danny with his voice and his story, Adam with his rendition of "Do You Believe" by Cher during Hollywood week. But Danny and Adam no more (sure, I still think they're talented). Kris Allen, "the dark horse," has won me over.


















Danny's great and fun to watch, but does the same Michael McDonald-esque songs every week. And Adam consistenly "makes songs his own" but he also does the same thing every tme: "Gee, I wonder if Adam's going to open the song slowly and dramatically and then break into 80s hair band style screeching at the end?" And for the record, I HATE it when he sticks his tongue out. (I tried to find a picture to exhibit the creepy habit, but alas could not find one, though googling his name yields some...interesting pictures.)

Kris has covered Kanye West, the Beatles, One Republic, Michael Jackson, Garth Brooks... Sometimes he's on guitar, sometime's he's on the piano. He's cute, nice, and humble. He's just good.

Sorry Norman... My cell phone's calling a new number on Tuesday nights. So, readers, vote for Kris. (That's what all the cool kids are doing.)


P.S. Is anyone besides me excited for "Glee" to start? Maybe it's just the provided opportunity to fist pump and sing Journey songs at every commercial break, but the ploy is working. I'll be tuning in.

Show Us Where You Live-- Living Room Edition!

So, a few different bloggers I follow have started "Show Us Where You Live Fridays" at the behest of Kelly-- a blogging QUEEN. Last Friday was the first one, starting with the kitchen. I missed the boat, but I'll do it another week off schedule. Seeing that we live in a tiny condo, showing you our living room and kitchen in one week would be showing you 75% of where we live. So let's take it in moderation, shall we?

Drum roll, please.... I present to you, our living room. We just rent here in Arlington, VA, but we were the first people to live in these condos, so it's brand new and we were able to decorate how we wanted, so we sort of feel like it's ours. We are still somewhat limited in what we can do though...

I'm fairly satisfied with our living room, but I'd like to replace the coffee table and pillows. The dark red and mustard is fine for fall and winter, but I'd like something lighter and more spring-like for...well, spring. I haven't been to the fabric store in awhile, but I imagine new pillows and/or curtains would be my first real sewing venture... (Though that 'skers me a little- I need my mama for that.) That couch right there, it doubles as our dining room table, along with the coffee table since we eat pretty much every meal right there. Klassy with a K...

That wall back there is probably my least favorite place in the condo. It's more functional than it is stylish, but what can you do? I have to make the most of my 950 square feet (1,000 sq ft if you count the balcony...). The tall bookshelf is full of fiction, the one with bowing shelves shorter one is full of my school books. And yes, those are Easter eggs in the apothecary jar. I have yet to take down my Easter decorations...

We bought our entertainment set last spring... Until we got it, I was totally dissatisfied with our storage situation. My life has drastically changed since then (I have an unhealthy need for things to be put away). And be honest, are the candles on top of the cabinet (directly above the TV) too much? Only the front two starburst ones were there until Christmas, when I put up all of the other ones for a party we were having and I never took them down. That stick leaning against the cabinet is called a (I'm going to just sound this out) dijer-e-doo... An Aborigines instrument that Tyler brought back from Australia last year.

T= Tyler. K= Kathryn.

I'm always interested to see what's on people's shelves and bookshelves. Look closely and maybe, just maybe, you'll be able to figure out our political affiliation... And the picture on the top shelf is a Muriel Bono. We received several different prints of hers as wedding gifts. I love having "southern stuff" around the house.

I like this side of the shelves better...just because it's more interesting than books. The picture is one of my favorites from my trip to China. It's of this old man just sitting on the Great Wall looking out over the hills. The silver plate was another wedding gift from Senator Hagel who Tyler worked for at one time. There's also a metal statue of the Capitol and a painting of the Capital which I bought at Eastern Market...one of my favorite places in DC. And the elephant-- well, I bought that at a little store in New York to represent... The books are all really old copies of various books that belonged to Tyler's grandfather.

I didn't marry a Georgia boy, but I married a boy who's just as in love with college football as I am. So we pay homage to our alma matters (is that the correct plural, who knows...) on our bookshelves. Go Dawgs! Go Huskers!

A sweet friend of my mom's put together this collage of all of our wedding stuff. Various invitations, pictures, labels, menus, etc... I feel like there's a limited range of time where you can display all of your wedding stuff, so I'm taking advantage.

African masks Tyler brought back from his trip to Kenya last fall. The statue is also from Kenya; it's of a Masai warrior & his family. Again, pardon the Easter egg vase. I'll get around to it... (By that, I mean I still have candy canes on a table next to the sofa.)

So that's it! I love seeing other people's homes (Color me addicted to HGTV on a Saturday morning), so I love this little game. Tune in next week for...I don't know what room. But you'll see it for sure.

Late Night Cravings

So for many, 1:30 AM is on the late side of the night. If you're me or my brother David (or anyone else raised by my mother...), you're just hitting your second wind. So that's me. I eat dinner late, hit the gym late, and then stay overstimulated for next 2 or 3 hours, researching, reading, or just thinking. And since school is finished for now, there's no stopping my late night daydreams.

So here I am, having a craving. I've been on a huge Corey Smith kick for the last few weeks (TGrass can attest, I profress my love for him many a time a day), which has me thinking a lot about Athens, which then stirs up a lot of college/north Georgia sentiment. This then leads to thinking about driving to and from my favorite college town. Not to or from here, of course (who cares about the interstate?), but Savannah-- something I haven't done probably since Easter of my senior year. I knew full well when I took that drive up Highway 15 from Savannah to Athens, it may be my last for some time...and it was.

I love solo road trips and was always particularly fond of the days I'd leave Athens on a late Friday afternoon when the sun was still bright, but just on the verge of starting its descent. I'd roll the windows down and sing so loud and long I'd be hoarse by the time I made it home. It wasn't the rolling farmland and sunsets alone, it was the anticipation of my destination. A weekend at home, knowing my mom was scurrying in preparation to have the house just right by the time I got there, complete with some poppyseed chicken (and some pinebark, if I was lucky).

Who knows, still, the next I'll make that drive. When will I ever be in Athens and heading back South? Not even when I graduated was I afforded that final drive home-- I headed north to DC the next day (and cried all the way to South Carolina...). We make it back for at least a game per season, but the route never includes my favorite Georgia highway.

So here I am at nearly 2 AM now, craving a few carefree hours in my old '90 Accord, windows rolled down with just a few hours of remaining daylight...