Baking Adventures

Recently I had really been wanting to try and bake a cake from scratch since I had never done it before and it sounded like an interesting challenge. Keith also really loves cake, and the last time I made cookies he said, "maybe you could make a cake sometime?" I went into it with no expectations, so it was actually fun instead of stressful. I learned a thing our too about beating egg whites and how to flour a pan. I spent a few hours flipping through my copy of The Joy of Cooking to find the perfect cake and icing recipes and reading all the tips on cake baking. I love love LOVE this cookbook because it's pretty much just an encyclopedia of cooking knowledge and is extremely helpful when you're doing something for the first time. I learned that shortening is the best thing to grease a pan with? I totally would have just used some Pam if I hadn't read that haha.

I'm not going to post the recipe because that could take a long time, but if you're interested I would be more than happy to pass it along! I made a yellow cake with chocolate cream cheese frosting and a peanut butter frosting filling. It was pretty much one of the greatest cakes I've ever consumed and I don't even like cake that much haha I would recommend it, even though it is a lot of work. I think if I did a cake from scratch again I could do it a lot faster... but this definitely took up a chunk of my evening.

I finally got to use my cookbook stand!

Tonight I found out just how un-level our oven is... check out those lopsided cakes haha

It didn't look the best, but that is never the most important part, right?

More important! Today is my beautiful mothers birthday, so I'll dedicate this cake to her, even though she won't get to eat it haha I miss her a whole lot and can't wait to see her again soon! Hope that your birthday was awesome mom!!!

Weekend Update 2/27

This weekend was great :) which was obviously what we had planned.

I almost forgot, but it started with dinner at Family Wash on Friday night where we humorously ran into Ryan and Chelsey and invited ourselves to join them. It was a really fun night, with some really great dinner. I'm starting to really love Friday night dates because it gives me something to look forward to all week haha

Saturday, we began our morning with some AMAZING blueberry pancakes and then gave ourselves time to lounge on the couch and read. It wasn't until well after noon that we felt the need to remove ourselves from the house. We went on a very interesting trip to the Rivergate Mall to do some shopping at American Eagle and I scored some great new work clothes. We wrapped up the afternoon with a trip to Jersey Mikes and Home Depot and then back home to do some cleaning. Keith teased me by putting chili in the crock pot as soon as we woke up, and since we couldn't keep that awesomeness all to ourselves we invited our friend Ives and his girlfriend Jennifer over for some dinner and games later Saturday evening. We're old people, so we kicked them out around 11 because our eyes were closing, but it was still a really fun night.

Today was really just a catch up day, which I think every person needs to have every week. We went to church in the morning, and then came home for lunch and our favorite: SUNDAY AFTERNOON FAMILY NAP! We didn't get one of these last week, and I think even Theo was cranky because of it haha Keith and I love naps, but Sunday afternoon naps are seriously the best. We were all pretty reluctant to get up actually. Once we finally arose... we went on an epic grocery store trip and then went on a cooking/baking spree (more on my cake next). Keith made us such an awesome dinner tonight, like he usually does, but he kinda knocked my socks off with this one. Thanks Ina Garten for the inspiration; I guess all the years of watching the Food Network are finally paying off in our newfound kitchen skills haha

It was a super heavenly piece of chicken that he put goat cheese and sun-dried tomatoes under the skin of, and served with some red potatoes and yellow squash. Seriously yum :)

Currently

Things I am excited about at the moment:

1). THIS WEEKEND! We still have no plans at all set for these two days and I couldn't be more excited! That doesn't mean we won't necessarily do anything or see anyone, we just don't want to feel locked into anything. Best feeling ever :) I was so out of whack this past week and I'm really glad to get some time to relax and recharge. Working until 7 every night means that I come home, eat dinner and then want to get in bed around 9 haha Thankfully Keith usually wants to go to bed before 10 also. We are definitely old people.

2). The beautiful washer and dryer that are currently sitting in my kitchen. Who thought I would ever be excited about doing laundry? It really does make SUCH a difference when you're able to do smaller individual loads a couple nights a week instead of having to lug a months worth of clothes to the laundromat and sit there all darn day. These machines are already paying themselves off with the unbounded happiness I'm feeling towards them haha. Hooray for grown up things! 

3). Mom and Joe-Dad's wedding is so soon! As much as I'm stoked for a weekend of lounging at the house, I'm pretty ready for a weekend away. In just two weeks we'll be down in Georgia celebrating Keith's moms wedding with what I can only image to be the party of the year. Can't wait to see family and friends and to get some Ikea shopping in haha we've got a list of things we've been eying and were just waiting until we had an excuse to make the trip down to Atlanta. 

4) My parents coming to visit!! My mom and a dad called last weekend with the proposition of visiting in April and I couldn't be happier. I feel like it's been forever since I've seen them (even though it was just in January) and I can't wait to show them our new city and our little house and all the things we've been up to since November. I know that they're always proud of us no matter what, but I'm really excited to show off how well Nashville has been treating us. It's definitely an upgrade from our place in Philly :)

5). I don't want to jinx it... but I'm pretty sure that spring is here. 

I mean... check out these flowers (weeeeeeds) that are already popping up in our yard! The sun is shining today and I have an infinity amount of smiles at the idea of no more snow. Please no more snow?

One more thing I'm REALLY excited about? Keith just got back from the grocery store and we're about to make a breakfast feast for two. I haven't had pancakes in forever and that needs to be ended right here, right  now. Bring on the syrup.

Happy weekend everyone!!

Dessert of Champions

Dear family and friends:

     In case I haven't expressed this before... I have the best husband in the whole world. I enjoy sending him to the grocery store on his own because he always brings home a special treat. Tonights treat? Obviously! A box of each of our favorite Girl Scout cookies!! The issue here is that I could eat a whole darn box in one evening alone, I'll have to hold myself back. Or will I? Keith also knocked my socks off with an AWESOME dinner :) He made us raviolis in a creamy artichoke parmesan sauce with peas. My tummy is still smiling.

Hope you're all having a great week!

Weekend Update

This weekend was busy. Maybe just a little too busy for my liking since it followed a VERY busy week. Keith and I have vowed to make no plans next weekend because we are in need of some serious relaxing at home time. Theo will be ecstatic haha.

Friday I had a pretty anger-inducing night at work so Keith took me out to a nice dinner at Boscos and we had some very yummy beers. We couldn't stay out too late because Saturday morning I had to get up for another day at work. Our girls club was having their "sweetheart brunch" which I think was supposed to happen last weekend (it was Valentines' themed haha) but it turned out to be pretty fun all the same. We had a music group come and play and we had a feast for all the girls and their moms/aunts/grandmas or whoever else they brought with them. The funniest part is that the Boyscouts also had to attend to serve all the ladies their lunches. They were pretty hesitant at first, but once they all got into it they were super eager to grab us anything we needed and I even got my plate taken away before I was finished hahaha. Here are some photos from the event:

Who knows why, but Tyniqua and Julia had masks.

My coworker Sarah with Kenithia, Shazeedra and their mom Ms. Jolly along with Geneva.

Our faithful (and excited?) boys. 

My date Geneva and I (her mom was out of town so we sat together).

MarShaniece and Tyniqua.

Geneva insisted on feeding me my fruit haha.

Jermonika and her mom.

My favorite buddy Sahra and I :)

After the sweetheart brunch, Keith picked me up and we went to Steve's house to celebrate his birthday with a barbeque. We grilled up some amazing turkey burgers, enjoyed some beers, and shivered a bit outside since it was a touch colder than any of us had anticipated. The guys played endless rounds of this new game they discovered call Kan Jam. It seems like something all my college friends would LOVE since it involves a frisbee and lots of yelling haha. Basically there are two small can type objects that you place 50 feet apart and you try and throw a frisbee into it. Your teammate is allowed to deflect it into the can, which is actually a lot harder than it looks, and calls for lots of jumping, yelling and obviously.... jamming. Keith unleashed his inner dude and jammed until he was sore haha. Here he is modeling the "Kan" on his head:

After the bbq the boys went to the Belmont Basketball game and I had plans to see the Predators with Sarah. I picked her up, we ate a fabulous dinner at the International Market and then attempted to get downtown for the game. Downtown Nashville + Saturday night = no parking for Sarah and I. After a half and hour of trying to find a spot in any lot, regardless of price, we gave up. But never fear! Giving up meant that we got Reeses cup ice cream and watched Eclipse :) Way better than hockey hahaha

Today after church Keith and I gorged ourselves on Jersey Mikes subs (mmm mmm mmmm!!!) and then started our semi-hectic afternoon. We went shopping a bit for a washer and dryer, but then decided that we wanted to take Theo to the vet before his pet insurance ran out. We drove back to the house to grab him, I dropped the boys at the vet and then I headed to Fido because I was meeting with some friends to plan a babyshower for the lovely Chelsey Meyer. After our little meeting, I got the boys, we dropped Theo at home and then continued our mission to purchase a washer and dryer. It only took two more stores for us to feel comfortable sealing the deal... BUT!

We don't have to go to the laundromat ever again!!!!


We are now the VERY proud owners of a brand new washer/dryer set that will make our lives infinitely better. No more waiting a month to do our laundry and hating our lives because we have to sit at the laundromat all day. I am beyond excited! (now we just need a dishwasher. maybe in my next life). 

awkward? one of my shoes fell off when Keith boosted me up to get this picture haha

It's stuff like this that makes me feel like we're actual adults. Hooray for making lifelong investments! Anyone have fun weekend plans? Here's hoping that next weekends update reads: this weekend, we did NOTHING. Fingers crossed :)

Hope?

Tonight my husband was at his alma mater, cheering on Belmont's basketball team so I invited my co-worker and great friend Sarah over for a little post-work dinner/movie time. We had both been wanting to check out the movie Waiting for Superman and I just happened to have received it from Netflix this week.

I don't know if maybe this affected me differently because I work with students who are facing a gigantic achievement gap, but this movie left me in tears. Our public school system is ridiculous, and I think Davis Guggenheim did a really terrific job of exposing our countries short comings. A lot of us who grew up in decent neighborhoods, had parents who supported our education and encouraged us to go to college never even think about what it's like for so many kids in the country. A great education is something that parents really have to seek out at this point, and there are many parents who don't have the means or knowledge to do that. This movie follows around 5 students who have applied for charter schools because their home school is at a failing level. It shows them going through a lottery process and it shows most, if not all of them not being accepted because the number of spots is so limited. As I visit the schools that my students attend I see so many things that could be changed and reinvented, but our system doesn't allow for it. I see with my own eyes how "no child left behind" is epically failing to support each one of these kids.

I'm still not quite sure what to do with what I just watched. My brain is definitely still processing all this information and I'm trying my hardest not to sink into that "our system is doomed, there is no hope" mentality. To be honest though... it's hard. Statistics have proven that about half of the students I see daily will drop out of high school. They will suffer the same fate as their parents. They will live off the government in public housing and on food stamps, join a gang, never get a job or just have no sense of self worth. Does this start with poor schooling? Does this stem from inadequate teachers and role models?

The problem is so wide, and the solution is so debated. What really struck me the most is what Michelle Rhee had to say about the problem stemming from adults, not children; which is my major argument day in and day out. I couldn't find the exact quote but she said something to the effect of: we would rather ignore the issues we see and disadvantage millions of students just so that we don't have to put up with the backlash from the adults involved. Which is crap. A HUGE load of crap. I could be a million times more effective at my job if I didn't have to deal with "adult" problems... the people who stand in my way and who don't have the students interest in mind. It's more about money, and saving face, and who you know than it is about helping and I know this is what all the great teachers out there face daily in the school system.

Sorry for the seriousness and for pushing my opinion. This is just something that has been really heavy on my heart since we've been in Nashville and I've seen the school district here. I would really recommend adding this movie to your queue, it's not as intense and I may have made it out to be haha. I can't wait to watch it again and do some more research about about what I can do, and what is going on in the world. End rant :)

My Valentine

My Valentine knows exactly how to make me happy. He is always romantic even when I tell him not to be. He plans surprises for me even when I spend all my effort trying to figure out what he's up to. He loves me even when I run out of time to make him a card. He is the cutest, and the best Valentine in the whole wide world.

He also gave me the best Valentine's Day gift ever!

He shaved off his very long beard so that I could see his adorable face again! This is a certain sign of Spring, because Keith is very very protective of his Winter beard haha.

Thanks for an awesome holiday and the best 6 months of marriage a girl could ask for :)

Restful Weekend

This weekend was a really really great one. Not just because it was Keith's first weekend off in a long time and we actually got to see each other, but it was just very refreshing. I feel really ready to take on this week with my renewed and fully recharged batteries. It was definitely needed!

Here is our list of simple pleasures from our weekend:

- Sunday afternoon naps. Not only are they awesome... but they are a wonderful excuse to wear PJs for the rest of the day :)

- Watching our little cat adventure outside all day! Theo has been stressing both Keith and I out a lot recently by keeping us up for most of the night. He just decides that 4am is a great time to play and we don't seem to agree. We're SO grateful for days like this where we can tire him out with outside time. Fingers crossed for some sleep tonight!!

- Our new iPod music player thingy. We haven't really had a place to set up our stereo system at the new house, and we're definitely both been missing having music to play while were at home. Today was extra special because I found my iPod that our DJ Robert had loaded with the music that played at our wedding. We spent the day working on some things around the house and reliving that night a bit. I got super sentimental when the song I walked down the aisle to came on and also our first dance song... but we both laughed a lot when the next song was T-Pain. And then we danced hahaha

- Getting our guest room organized. Now it finally looks like a room and not just a place we pile up our crap!!! This was a huge achievement for me because I finally have every box unpacked from our move in November. Is it embarrassing that it took me this long? Oops. I'm just happy to have a book shelf up a running, I hated having all my favorite books hidden in boxes for so long.

I also discovered that I have two copies of the sixth Harry Potter book and no copies of the first haha

- Anniversaries. Tomorrow marks 6 months since our wedding in August and I can hardly believe it. It was really that long ago? It's been a pretty crazy collection of months but our love has done nothing but grow, I'm so excited I get to call him my husband everyday! Can't wait to see what he has planned for tomorrow night!

-60 degree weather this week! I can finally start pulling out the more colorful things in my closet that have had to hang towards the back because everything I own for winter is black or gray. I should work on that haha. I'm just so excited to see the sun! Today we had the windows and doors open and it felt sooooooo great. No more snow?? Please?

- The very generous tax return that we filed tonight. I was pretty impressed, and we're both so grateful for it. It's definitely going to open up some room in our budget that is usually so exceptionally tight. Can I also say how thankful I am for my husband who manages all our finances so I don't need to worry about it ever? This may sound selfish, but I never have to file my own taxes again! Yipee!

- Listening to my awesome talented husband play guitar next to me on the couch right now. He doesn't play often anymore, but when he does it makes me smile so much :)

I love our life so much right now. 2011 has already been really really good to us so here's to things continuing to be more awesome!

Random question: what do you guys do with your old school work? I'm a little bit of a hoarder when I comes to things like that and I have no idea what to do with the piles of notes that are clogging my desk at the moment. Do normal people throw it all away? I feel like I put so much of my life into it (especially my grad school notes) but the odds of me going through it again are not very likely. Hmm advice is welcome!

Nostalgia

This week I've been really missing my best friends a lot and doing some reflecting on what the last 5 years of my life were about. I've lived in 8 different places since I was 18 and the roommates I had along the way definitely shaped who I've become. This is by no means a conversation about not enjoying living with Keith (because it really is the best ever) but there is something that I miss about late night movies and popcorn with the girls or throwing a raging disco/glitter party on a whim haha

A little reflection:
My freshman year of college I lived with my best friend Andi. People tell you not to live with your best friend and we found out why, for sure. We had lots of ups and downs that year, but I have nothing but great memories of all our crazy antics. Like when we had a Viking funeral for her fish, or the crazy surprise party she threw for my 19th birthday. OH! Or the time our building caught fire and we sat outside all night and the week we only left our room for food and watched every episode of Sex and the City. We always made a point to eat dinner with each other and made so many new friends together, regardless of the awkwardness of dorm living. This was the first time either of us had ever lived away from our parents and we had such a blast.

This is from Andi's birthday... she dressed as a zombie most of the day/night 

This is one of the only other ones I have from our dorm (damn external hard drive crash!) we rented a wheel chair for a week and rolled each other around campus haha

Eventually Andi decided that college wasn't for her so I lived with the darling Amanda the next year. We too had ups and downs but that was really another stellar year. We did things like staying up all night talking or watching Disney movies. Riding bikes on campus when no one else was around, played lots of video games and made jokes about how my room smelled like bandaids, ugh. We took classes together and pulled all nighters in the library which usually spilled over to Dennys. She introduced me to the pub and I introduced her to my brother (they've been together 3 years now!)

A night at the Pub

Our shabby little "Christmas Card" photos haha

Thankfully Amanda wasn't too sick of me because when I was 20 we moved off campus and added Roxanne to our home. The 3 of us did so many silly things together and thinking about it now I'm really coming to terms with how important it is to live with women who will influence you positively. We shared so many interests and would always have deep late night conversations about art and philosophy and boys and life and EVERYTHING. We threw parties, went swimming a lot, took in stray cats and even adopted one for Amanda. We shared clothes and family dinners and evenings at the beach. I was definitely sad when we parted ways; but we were all pretty ready to move on to bigger and better things at the end of that year. Amanda and my brother moved to New York City that summer and Keith and I prepared for our big move to Philly.

That's Sir Fierce... the stuffed tiger who lived in our home.

LOVE these girls :) and that they loved to dance as much as me.

This is from our Cosby party.

Before we headed North we had the opportunity to live with our great friend Katelyn. It was one of the most fun summers we've had to date and a great introduction to living with each other. I LOVED living with Keith and Katelyn because it was the best of both worlds haha I had my boyfriend around all the time and when he was at work, Kate and I could watch bad movies and eat tons of chocolate. The best.

This is an awful picture of me, but it's a pretty good glimpse of what Katelyn and I did while Keith was away haha

I have such an amazing life, and even though these past 5 years were the toughest I've ever faced, they've been the most fun, and rewarding, and exciting and I wouldn't take even ONE moment back. Thank you to my lovely former roommates for listening to me cry and putting up with my terrible taste in music. Thank you for putting up with my candy eating habits and feeding me real food now and then haha I am a better person because of you.

That being said... living with my husband is seriously the best. It's like a best friend and a roommate all rolled into one and we always discuss everything, so there's none of that passive aggressive "I'm secretly mad at you, but won't say it" garbage haha. But maybe we could watch more Disney movies together though? And have more dance parties? Please!

Thank God for cookies :)

It is snowing again this evening, so I'm home early from work and what better way to warm up our home than by turning on the oven and testing out a new cookie recipe.

I came across this recipe the other day and I have been craving these cookies ever since. I love chocolate chip cookies, I love Nutella... why not combine them?! It seems crazy that I didn't think of this sooner haha I keep our kitchen well stocked with cookie baking supplies these days in case the mood strikes, but we didn't have any Nutella on hand. Keith went to the grocery store on his own last night and when I woke up this morning I almost screamed with joy to find a nice little jar of nutella in the cupboard... I didn't even ask! He must have read my mind.

On to the cookies. These are seriously a dream come true! Watch out, I may start adding Nutella to everything I bake haha. They are light and fluffy and not TOO chocolately which makes it very easy to eat a dozen of them without thinking twice.

Nutella Chip Cookies from Love and Olive Oil

1/2 cup unsalted butter
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup Nutella
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt (mine came out a little fast and got a bit extra, but I kind of liked the salty/sweet effect)
1/3 cup chocolate chips


Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
Cream butter with a mixer and then add both sugars mixing well, until fluffy. Add egg and vanilla continuing to beat. Then add Nutella and mix well until combined.
In a small bowl whisk together dry ingredients and then slowly add to the wet until smooth and incorporated. Fold in chocolate chips. 
Form dough into little balls and place on parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake 6-7 minutes and let cool for 5 minutes. 

Things I changed a bit: I don't know about your super sonic oven, but my cookies were not done at all after 6 minutes. I kept them in for about 12. Also, I didn't have any parchment paper so I just Pam-ed the heck out of our baking sheets haha they didn't need as much Pam as I gave them, I just get nervous about cookies permanently forging themselves to my pan. I let them cool on some paper towels to soak up the greasys. I didn't have very many chocolate chips (because I used most of them this weekend to top some rice krispie treats mmm) so they aren't super chippy. I think they could use more chips, but Keith thought they could do without them all together haha. Bakers choice ;)

These will DEFINITELY be added to my regular baking repertoire and I may even make them again this week haha.

Now Keith and I are enjoying a glass of wine on the couch and watching some television. It took him 2 1/2 hours to get home from work today, ugh. Nashvillians drive like they're handicapped when it snows and I have a cranky husband on my hands because of it. On the agenda: eat a yummy dinner, drink some more, watch Modern Family, and eat lots and lots of these cookies!!!!

First Day

This is the face of a boy who just had his first day at a new job AND got to celebrate with the best burritos ever from Baja Burrito. I think he's the cutest, but I'm also a little biased ;) I'm very proud of my husband and can't wait to see what's coming up next for our little life together!

Superbowl Sunday

Today was seriously the best. I slept in and then refused to get up or get dressed until around 2pm. I watched Harry Potter and SVU and indulged my laziness to the fullest degree. Keith got home from work at 3, we did some prep for our little Superbowl Party and then spent the whole night hanging out with friends and eating so much food.

We had a pretty great spread and I wish I had gotten a photo! We went potluck style and my tummy is quite pleased with the results. Tonight we were joined by Trent and Jordy, Tytus and Jamie, Ryan and Chelsey and later... our friend Ives. It was so nice to have everyone over and to catch up with those we hadn't seen in a bit.

I'll admit it... I was bored with the football game before it even started. I hung in there and got a few laughs during the commercials but I eventually had to give up. The ladies and I headed to the bedroom to find something (better) on TV but then we had a pretty big laugh about how ridiculous we looked laying under the covers in the bed haha

Me, Chelsey, and Jamie

This is how non-football enthusiasts make it through an entire game haha. We eventually rejoined the boys in the living room and ended the night with a rousing game of Loaded Questions.

Overall we had a pretty awesome weekend, but I'm DEFINITELY looking forward to next weekend when Keith has both Saturday and Sunday OFF! What a miracle!

Busy Weekend

Can I be honest? I started this weekend with a pretty poor attitude. I ran out of work Friday night with so much relief to have a break from my long and stressful week... only to remember that I needed to go in this morning. I woke up today in a bad mood because all I really wanted to do was sleep in and NOT see my students for two whole days. That was not the case because my 4th graders have a Black History Month project due in a week and most of them live in homes that don't have computers/printers/markers/posterboard... aka the essentials for making a decent project haha. The teacher that I work with and I committed to coming in this morning to help the students get a head start, but it turned out to be much more stress on us because our kids really don't know how to research, and just wanted us to do everything for them. I stuck to my guns and refused to write anything for them and did lots of cutting and pasting (and grumbling about having to be at work) haha. It kind of felt like I was in 4th grade and didn't want to do MY project. It's times like these that I'm thankful I never have to return to middle school haha

After working on projects all morning and afternoon, I picked up Keith to drop him at work (FOR HIS LAST SATURDAY EVERRRR!). I then proceeded to our great friend Carolyn's baby shower!

Isaac dropped by for a little bit during the present opening portion.

I didn't know too many of the other women there, but I got to spend some great time with Isaac's mom Tami, AND I won the game where you have to guess how many Hershey's Kisses were in the jar haha. Carolyn and Isaac are having a little baby girl in early March and got SOOO MANY adorable things for "squirt" (they aren't announcing the name until she has arrived). There was definitely pink overload happening over there, but all the baby excitement was quite contagious. Can't wait to meet their little one!

Isaac thought the name of this gift was humorous, humorous enough to wear as a hat and text a picture to Keith haha

Carolyn showing off baby's adorable crib bedding

 I had a really great afternoon and I think I finally shook my crumby Saturday mood. On my way home I felt inspired to make some changes around the house to help myself feel more organized. I stopped by Southern Thrift and hit the jackpot for sure. I got a basket for our mail, a box for Keith to store all the things he collects on top of his dresser, a fruit bowl for the kitchen, a neat little dish for my jewelry and a perfectly fitted blazer... for $11! I felt very very successful.

Hopefully now that I don't have my jewelry hidden in a drawer, I'll wear it more often!

 Another helpful thing that I did tonight was clean out my wreck of a purse. I'm constantly impressed with the amount of things I can cram into a bag so small. I'm just glad we didn't play one of those shower games today where you had to grab things from your purse, because the amount of trash that I was harboring was pretty darn embarrassing.

Things I carry with me regularly, regardless of their impracticality: two bottles of hand sanitizer? I should probably downsize. Wallet. Makeup bag. Journal/Planner. Zyrtec for my allergy prone husband. Hand lotion. Perfume. Mini journal for lists. Various pens I collect. Chewy bar for when I have a snack attack. Orajel. Kitty cat change purse that Amanda got me in Florence. Candy/gum. Nail file. Advil. Chapstick and lipstick. Flipcam. Two broken watches and my Invisible Children bracelet, which has seen better days. Missing of course are my keys, which are currently on the key ring, my iPhone which resides in my back pocket and my camera which was obviously being used. 

Another little project that I did to brighten our home a bit this weekend was to quickly make some tissue paper flowers to fill our empty vase. I love having fresh flowers, but Theo ALWAYS eats them and the last ones we had I left out way longer than what could be considered safe (aka they were dead and moldy, ick).

Hope everyone is having a great weekend! I'm looking forward to the little Super Bowl party that we're hosting tomorrow, football aside I love having an excuse for all our friends to get together (and eat).

Pretty Presents

Last night Keith blessed me with a really special treat! I received a great belated birthday note from Keith's mom as well as a Valentines Day package from my aunt and instead of using the money to go straight towards bills and other expenses, Keith told me I could use it to get myself some things I had been eying at Crate & Barrel. I was so shocked and excited that I went ahead and ordered my gifts right that second haha could you tell it was burning a hole in my pocket?

I chose these kitchen essentials and I'm now anxiously awaiting their arrival on my doorstep. I've been wanting some jars for our flour and sugar ever since I got on my baking kick and new sets of measuring cups and spoons have been a long time coming. I'm so excited when we're able to buy things for our house that feel more like investments; things that I know we'll keep around for many years to come.

Thank you for putting such a big smile on my face, perfect husband of mine!

New Beginnings!

Remember when I said earlier in the week that we had some big news to share?? Well since Keith already wrote about it on facebook today I figured I would share....

Keith has a new job!! No more American Eagle!!


This is the most exciting thing in the world, in my book... mostly because it means that I get to see him more often. No more working until midnight. No more working every weekend and no more crazy holiday hours with zero vacation time! I can't wait to have my husband home for dinner every night and be able to explore Nashville together on the weekends. With Keith having a regular schedule, that means we can actually commit to making plans with friends more than a few days beforehand. Did I mention that I'm ecstatic? I could list the benefits of this new job all day haha

So after 3 years of drama and selling t-shirts to teenagers starting on Tuesday, Keith will be starting at a hospital staffing company working in human resources. Nothing too special, but at this point it's not so much about the job, but more about improving our quality of life until a better job opportunity presents itself.

A big congrats to the best husband in the world, I'm super proud of you!

Dried Out

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Can someone please send this humidifier to my house? I'm dying over here! 

This is partially funny since I overheard Keith and our friend Ryan talking about humidifiers when we were helping them move on Saturday and Ryan said "Keith why don't you just get her that elephant shaped one that's meant for kids". Secretly I had been eying it over at Target long before though haha. 

Winter is cold, and that is expected but they never tell you how DRY it gets. Us Florida kids need our humidity to thrive. While the rest of the world complains about how gross it is and how frizzy your hair gets.... I'm in love. Keith calls me a little fish because of how much I just really like water, and swimming and humid wet weather. 

So my lips are chapped, my throat is dry, my hair is like straw and I need a little elephant to mist me while I sleep haha