Dreams

I had a pretty awesome wedding dream this morning before I woke up. We were apparently getting married on the steps of the art institute in Chicago (which is really bizarre because neither of us have ever lived in Chicago and the museum in my head looked nothing like the one in Chicago haha) Anyway, for some reason where I had to walk down the aisle was like a mile away from where Keith was actually waiting for me. I had to go through some kind of security check point where people kept trying to cut me in line even though I was yelling at them that I was trying to walk down the aisle at my wedding. Then I had to run across a street and run up 12 flights of stairs and through a fountain getting myself completely drenched in water. The whole time I was running I just kept saying "I hope that Keith doesn't think that I ditched him! and Chicago suckssssssss". When I got to the top of the stairs Keith's face was the greatest thing in the world, he was smiling bigger than I had ever seen him smile, and he had a tear coming down his cheek. He had to help me up the last few stairs because I was so tired from running and when we looked at each other we just started laughing about how ridiculous it was that I had to come so far to get there. Also, Keith had apparently shaved his head bald for the wedding which is another reason why we may have been laughing haha. The whole dream was pretty humorous and left me with a smile on my face when I got up. I don't know if it was a sign that I'm going to have to go through a lot more obstacles before I finally get to my wedding ceremony or what? Hopefully none of these things will happen to us haha

A full recap

It's pretty pathetic that I have put off blogging for so long, because in all honesty, I'm not THAT busy. I'm just about a week away from leaving for Florida! How crazy is that??? My days are pretty planned from here on out with all the last minute things that need to get done, and thankfully they are all pretty small. To all of you that will be at my wedding: If I look like a giant ball of stress, it's probably because I am... please shake me and remind me that this is the happiest day of my life!

Anyway, as I'm sure most of you know by now, Keith and I have run into some bad luck recently in terms of transportation. Last Friday we headed down to DC to visit Andi and Katelyn and to drop off some things that needed to make it to Boca for the wedding in Kate's car. We have had car trouble since the day we left Florida for Philadelphia, but neither of us predicted that this trip would be the Blazers last hurrah.

Here she is getting towed

As I stated in my last post we had to say goodbye to the car forever as we left her behind at the mechanic in Baltimore.

Katelyn thankfully came and rescued us, we looked like a couple of hobos sitting in the waiting room on Tire Kingdom with EVERYTHING that was in our car in bags all around us. It's funny the things you find when you have to unexpectedly clean out your car haha

After we got back to Andi and Kate's apartment, we set out to correct our day by gorging ourselves on burgers at Good Stuff. The name really says it all.

We love our local burger spot Sketch, but we always look forward to a trip to DC so that we can eat here. They have rosemary fries, and awesome milk shakes too. Keith ate more than I've ever seen him eat before :) Needless to say, we left in much better moods. The rest of the weekend in DC we spent our time relaxing with friends and putting off the stress of figuring out our transportation situation.

When we returned to Philadelphia on Sunday evening we met up with our friends Tim and Gillian at our favorite burrito place because Tim offered to let us borrow his bike. We're very thankful that they came all the way to our place on the train just to drop it off to us. Of course it couldn't be quite as easy as that. Keith attempted to ride the bike to work on Monday morning, but got stuck walking the 5 miles to work because of a flat tire on the bike. Always something :)

Tuesday we had an adventure day/adapt to our new life with out a car day haha. We crossed off a bunch of things on our list like getting Keith's suit altered, getting the bike tire fixed, and grocery shopping. Here are some shots from our day:






We had some lunch at a new place, and finished off the day with a beer at our favorite bar. It was a really fun day :) Since Keith's failed maiden voyage on the bike he's had much more luck. We seem to be adapting well to life with no car and we've had lots of people reach out to help us as well. When we get back from the wedding and honeymoon we're going to readjust, and decide what to do about getting a new vehicle.

For now, we're easily crossing things off our wedding to do list, and getting ready for the greatest party ever. I cannot wait to get to Florida and see all our friends and famiy in one place :)

More phone updates

Looks like this week was a pretty heavy one for losses. First it was
Lucy and now our car. Keith and I drove to Philadelphia in my fathers
old Chevy Blazer and made it our own last summer. As I'm sure you've
read on our blog before, we've had one problem after another with it
and today as we were travelling to DC for the weekend it died on the
highway. We got it towed to a mechanic (where we're actually still
sitting) who eventually told us that it was dead with no more hope.
We've now cleaned everything out of it and said our goodbyes, because
we're never going to see it again. I can't decide how bummed or
relieved I should be. The car was a money pit towards it's final days
and it really needed to go, but at the same time the idea of being
completely without a car, with only 22 days until our wedding makes me
so nervous.... we're in no place to buy a car. If it's not one thing
it's another! We're living and learning and adding to our long list of
life stories haha at least we don't have to pay car insurance this
month? Please send some good thoughts our way this weekend :-)

Lucy

Today my first pet ever passed away. Poor old Lucy lived a very long
and full life, but it's still so sad to say goodbye and I'm glad that
I got to see her this one last time. It's strange to think that at 22
years of age I've never lost a pet, but Lucy hung in there for almost
18 years. I remember the day that my dad, Jake and I went to the pet
store and picked her out when I was only 5 years old. There were a
bunch of adorable kittens in the cage but my dad really wanted the
little black one hiding in the corner. I don't ever remember her being
aggressive with us; never biting or scratching very much, no matter
how many time we picked her up by her tail as young kids haha. I'm
sure most of my friends know her from her older years of just lounging
around the house waiting to be pet but in her younger years she was
quite the playful hunter, always on the lookout for lizards to snatch.
She's Unfortunately been showing her age a lot more these past few
months and just since I've been in town she's completely stopped
eating. My mom made the decision to have a vet come by the house
tonight to put her down since her whole life she was always so
traumatized about going to the vet. We didn't want the last few
moments of her life to be unpleasant.

Thank you Lucy for being the best first pet a kid could ask for, we'll
miss you for sure.

Business Trip

Being one month out from the wedding has caused me to be a little
negligent of our blog. I've been digently working to finish the
majority of our decorations by today and I'm happy to say that I've
met all my goals. This evening I'm hopping on a plane to Florida to
tie up some remaining loose ends before going for the wedding in
August. I'm sad to be leaving Keith for the week but like I told him,
this is truly more like a business trip. I'll be meeting with the
caterer, the venue, our friend who is making the cake as well as a
friend who is helping me with flowers. I'm also shopping for last
minute items like my shoes and jewelry, getting my dress fitted and
having a wedding shower. Hopefully I'll be able to accomplish
everything, and at the least I'm bringing all our decorations down
with me so that's one less thing to worry about next month. For the
record, I don't reccomend getting married in a state that is 1000
miles away for the one you currently live in haha.

Keith,
I am going to miss you so much! Think of it this way though: I'll be
gone for 5 days and then once I get back it will only be 2 1/2 weeks
before we head to Florida to get married!! Can't wait :-)

One month

I've never been a huge jewelry lover but this is one piece of jewelry
that I CANNOT wait to wear!!! Keith and I went and picked up our
wedding bands this afternoon and he had to stop me from wearing it
home from the store haha I think he also got a little annoyed that I
kept asking "can't we just get married RIGHT NOW?!". We're getting so
close! Hope everyone is ready for the party of the summer because we
sure are!

Best Bud, Baseball, and Beer

So I don't do this whole blogging thing as much as I wish I did. All the more reason to be thankful for my beautiful fiancee documenting our lives as well as she does! But the past couple of days have been too good for me not to record and share the events.

It starts with the fact that I haven't been to my home state of Georgia since January. Since then I have been having to save up my paid time off for the two weeks that I will be out of work for our wedding and honeymoon. So when my best friend from home, Jonathan Hillyard, realized I wasn't going to be able to come home before the wedding he came through in a huge way and made plans to come visit me and get us tickets for the Braves Phillies series. I can't put into words how excited this made me! I get to see my best friend plus I haven't seen a baseball game ALL SEASON! This visit also happened to fall during a time when work has been a little chaotic and stressful (because we've been running short one manager at my store for two weeks)so it was much needed time away from work.

Jonathan got in around 5:00pm on Thursday so I got off work around 4:15, iced down some beer in the cooler, and headed to pick up Jonathan and get to the game.

We started with a small tailgating session then headed into the game.

We had a little bit of a scare in the bottom of the 9th with the game tied 3-3, but our Bravos pulled it out 6-3!

The next day we started with burritos and our favorite burrito place in downtown Manayunk. We came back to the apt. and watched Invictus that we had from Netflix, then we headed out to fill up with more ice, beer and a couple of hoagies from Wawa.

Jonathan came through in a big way as far as our seats went. He used a connection and came up with seats in the visiting player family section. Primo seats!

We may not have been the most popular attendees at the game, but we sure did enjoy a 7-5 victory at our second game with B Mac coming through with a huge 3 run double!

We ended each game with a victory ale in the parking lot waiting for traffic to clear out a little bit. Wednesday night we stopped at Kildare's, a favorite bar of ours, to cool of and extend the celebration of seeing our team win 2 of 3 in the series.

We wrapped up Jonathan's visit with a couple of cheesesteaks and lagers at Chubby', a steakhouse close to our apartment.

I could not have asked for a better mini getaway! So here's to 25 more crazy days at work until I travel to south Florida to marry the most beautiful girl I've ever known and party with all of our closest friends and family!

Something cute to read...

One of my new favorite blogs to read, Adventures in Love and Happiness, is featuring us today for their "Real people in love series"

Go check it out friends!
Adventures in Love and Happiness

Fourth of July

Keith's friend Jonathan is getting in to town tonight meaning that Keith's been working a lot so he can have the next two days off. I was pretty bummed when I found out that he was going to be working on the 4th, and that I would be hanging at the house solo. Keith caught wind of my funk and made some plans for us to hang out with our friends Gillian and Tim when he got off. We headed down to their house, had some beers and burgers on their deck and then took the train over to the parkway for the free Goo Goo Dolls concert and fireworks. We had an awesomeeeee time! And it was MUCH better than sitting at home for another night.

May I introduce you to my new favorite cat ever Henry (don't tell Theo haha) He may look like an ordinary cat to you, but Henry here is the largest short haired cat that I've ever seen. Gillian and I go to school together and spent a lot of time together last semester, so I knew that she had a cat and that he was pretty over weight, but I was not expecting him to be quite as awesome as he truly is haha

Here is me holding Henry, who is about 30 lbs. Gill and Tim rescued him from a shelter and apparently before he got there he lived with a homeless man who fed him McDonalds. I LOVE BIG CATSSSSS!

Keith enjoying his burger. Their 3rd floor deck is amazinggg! Keith and I are so jealous. I would be out there all the time if we had a space like that.

Here are our gracious hosts for the night Gillian and Tim.

The sky was really pretty as we were waiting for the train.

GOO GOO DOLLS! I think we were all a little surprised by how few songs of theirs that we actually knew haha I guess they only had like 5 hits. There were thousands of people down in the city for the concert, and I'm positive that at least 50% didn't even know who the Goo Goo Dolls were, so I guess our 5 song knowledge gave us a heads up haha I had a pretty good time people watching, and trying to figure out how in the world their singer still has the same haircut he did in the 90s, and why he was wearing a long sleeve shirt on a 95degree night haha

Can you tell that we ate blue water ice?

The fireworks were pretty good too, afterwards though it was a mad rush for everyone to get back to the subway/train stations and we got stuck standing in line for 30 minutes trying to get through the turnstiles. Overall I would say that it was a very successful holiday!

41 days

To my favorite:

Thank you for loving me each and every day of the week. For kissing my goodnight before I go to sleep, and waking me up with a hug every morning. Thank you for working so hard everyday at a job you had never hoped to have, just to put food on our table and make my life so comfortable. Thank you for making me laugh, and for making me laugh so hard that I cry. Thank you for showing so much love to our pesky little kitten, you are going to be the most amazing father to our future children. Thank you for putting up with how stressed out I can get over the smallest of things, especially now that we're planning a wedding together. Thank you for listening to my complaints, dealing with my laziness and not getting upset with me when I let you down. Thank you for loving me even though I hate doing dishes or cleaning, and I'm no good at cooking. Thank you for being ok with my pickiness when it comes to food and graciously making chicken for dinner when I'm sure you would rather have steak. Thank you for being yourself, being outspoken, and being the life of the party even when I get embarrassed about being the center of attention. Thank you for always trying to surprise me even when I nearly ruin it by trying to figure out your plan. Thank you for taking care of our finances because you know that I'm no good at staying on top of bills. Thank you for loving and embracing my family, actively wanting to be a part even though we're all a little crazy at times. Thank you for encouraging me when I'm about to give up. Thank you for driving us everywhere now that I'm terrified to drive. and thank you thank you thank you for moving 1000 miles away from your home and family to live with me, and for asking me to be your wife, so that we can spend the rest of our lives adventuring together.

You are the greatest, and I love you more and more everyday :)

My little helper

... is really no help at all, thank you very much. I'm currently
cutting one of the pieces of fabric that were hanging to create an
altar, but Theo has parked himself and insists on monitering my every
move (including pouncing on my scissors ugh). Gotta love our little
boy! I will be very very happy when I can get all of our wedding
decorations out of this apartment and away from his pesky little paws
haha.