Longing

With our anniversary coming up in just a couple weeks I've been reminiscing a lot about this time last year and all the things I really loved about it. As stressful as wedding planning was, it was so great to see all of our friends and family in one place. As great as it was to see all those people... going away for a week on our honeymoon? was EVEN BETTER! Chelsey and I bring up from time to time that we each wish with all our heart that we could afford to forget everything and go on another honeymoon. Oh my goodness that would be so nice. The closest that Keith and I will get to that this year is taking a 5 day weekend and driving to meet my parents at Bald Head Island off the coast of North Carolina for some rest and relaxation.  Don't get me wrong, I'm definitely counting down the minutes until we head east to the beach... but there is something about getting to call a trip a "honeymoon" and not just a vacation that I'm missing.

Here are some shots from our awesome cruise to the Caribbean last summer:

For more pictures and stories, check out my full recap from last year here.

In other news! We FINALLY ordered thank you cards for our wedding! It's only taken us the entire year, but better late than never right? If you came to our wedding or sent a gift you can expect that coming soon... hopefully before the 14th haha.

Ramblings

Here  is the mash up of things that are going on in my brain today:

Started the day thinking it would be pretty stressful based on the extremely strange week that I had. I needed to go get a nail removed from our tire and have it patched because I got rear ended on my way home from work on Wednesday and ran over a nail while trying to pull off the side of the road. Fun times. Keith made an appointment at the Honda dealership. When I got there they said I had no appointment. I left. Called Keith. He said to go back. I went back. They "fit me in" after he called and made a stink. Waited for an hour. Got back our car with no holes in the tires and a freshly washed exterior. Went to Kroger and got a Clif Bar and some coconut water.... this is when things started looking up. I went to work to help Sarah with making some phone calls. She offered to let me help her at a camp next week that our kids are going to. This is GREAT because I've been bored to death this past week at work without anything to do. We had to get some permission slips signed so we walked the neighborhood making home visits and getting some exercise. A dog peed on us. Got back to the building and find out that I have an interview next week for a tutoring job. Success! Maybe I won't be unemployed in October after all! Also, I found an amazing childrens book about one of my favorite artists, Paul Klee. Then I finished my application to become a substitute teacher and registered for an online class on classroom discipline so I can get extra hours at my current job. Double success! Now I'm back home, eating lunch, packing and preparing our family for a trip to Georgia this weekend which includes: seeing family, going to 6 Flags and going to a Braves game. Hooray!

Why was this past week so strange? Well, there are no kids up at the center so all the adults are just trying to "get everything ready" for their return, which means lots of "cleaning" and sitting around socializing. I spent everyday this week cleaning out some sort of forgotten closet full of binders, books, random crap, etc, dating back to the 90's that no one ever cared to organize. Ugh. Our nights were all busy this week with trips to the gym, errands, dinners or cleaning. AND someone decided they wanted to bump our little car when I was coming home Wednesday. No real damage, just a couple bumper scrapes.... enough to be a pain in the butt to have fixed though.

All of that put together, I thought it would be a lot harder to get out of town today with a smile on my face, but something in that coconut water must have REALLY cheered me up! I'm in an awesome mood, loving how much I accomplished this afternoon, and now I can't wait for ROLLERCOASTERS tomorrow!

Review

For our date night last weekend Keith and I went to see the movie Midnight in Paris. I had seen the trailer, and heard some people tell me how much they enjoyed it but was still unsure about the story line and what to expect. We DEFINITELY enjoyed it though, and left the theater wanting to talk about what we saw and how that applied to our own lives. It was really interesting and not what I expected at all. I don't want to give anything away for those of you who still may go out to the theater to watch it, but it follows a man (Owen Wilson) who is visiting Paris with his fiance (Rachel McAdams) and her parents and he finds himself unhappy with his present life and wishing he lived in Paris during the 1920's. I got super nerdy towards the end picking out all the different artists that he encountered along the way. It's not the kind of action packed movie that leaves you at the edge of your seat, or comedy that has you laughing so hard you're about to pee yourself... but it really made you think and completely held our attention. Keith wasn't sure it was going to be his type of movie when we sat down and were clearly the youngest people in the crowd, but he was the first to say that he really enjoyed it. I would give it a thumbs up!

Weekend Project

I first posted about our Heirloom Book WAY back in September of last year. It is this really really awesome, HUGE leather bound scrap book of sorts that our friends Andi and Kate got for us as a wedding present. We vowed to fill it with photos and stories from our life as a way to pass down our history to future generations in a fun, creative way. With our move to Nashville I definitely slacked off on updating it with all my best intentions to get pictures printed being wiped away by other responsibilities. Last week I got some photos printed for a project at work at saw that Walgreens was running a deal on 4x6 prints, so I knew that this was my time to bite the bullet and get it done. I now have us all caught up from last November through June, with most of July's photos printed as well and I am SOOO thrilled to see these pages full of great memories. We're slowly writing in captions and stories and my heart is bursting to know that one day our children will get a chance to look at these photos and laugh with us about how silly we were. If you're having trouble understanding how INCREDIBLY large this book is, be sure to click the link above and look down at the last picture of Keith writing in it... it truly takes up our whole coffee table now haha. We love it and are so thankful for this thoughtful gift.

I think it's safe to say that this is WAY more fun that your average photo album...

Happenings

This weekend was a fairly lazy one, and we got a chance to do some catching up around the house which was MUCH needed after our Florida trip. Friday I had an Americorps get together at work to say farewell to some of my coworkers who have ended their term and are moving on to bigger and better things. After, I got a chance to stop and say hey to Chelsey and baby Elliot, then Keith and I drove down to Franklin to have dinner with friends Carolyn, Issac and their daughter Sage. She is growing up so fast! After dinner and dessert with the Ezell's I dropped Keith at home and went to Sara's REAL going away party which meant I needed to drink a 5hour energy (grossest thing ever!) and rally to the occasion. She and I didn't get to work together much during the school year, but she was my only ally this summer and I'm going to miss her witty banter and sarcastic attitude so much haha

Saturday we slept in, which was quite an amazing feeling. Keith was a trooper and did a couple hours worth of yard work in the sweltering heat, while I staying cool inside working on a project I will be chatting about in my next post... We ran a couple errands in the afternoon and then went on an amazing, and CHEAP date, thanks to groupon. If you're not using this site, or living social you are seriously missing out. This is truly the only way that we can stay on budget with dates for the month haha. We had a $30 hibachi dinner for $5, and got two movie tickets for $9. A $14 date for two was such a steal that Keith even spoiled me with a piece of delicious cheesecake for dessert from the Cheesecake Factory. Mmmm.

Hibachi man put his hand in the flame?

Sunday we worked at church in the morning which meant a nice long afternoon nap in our cool air conditioned room afterwards. We were both in such a deep sleep that it was nearly impossible to wake ourselves up; somehow we managed and even worked up the motivation to CLEAN. Keith had our friend Tytus over to watch baseball so I went on a dinner date with Chelsey and Elliot since her husband Ryan is out of town. Our dinner at Las Palmas really hit the spot, and then watched Paris, Je T'Aime when we got back to her house. I'm always thankful to get to spend time chatting with Chelsey and to hold her precious little boy; he gets cuter and cuter everyday, I swear! When I got home after the movie Tytus' wife Jamie had made her way to our house and we spent the rest of the night catching up on each others lives and laughing at how weird our husbands are.

Laziest cat on the block. 

Even though I've been nostalgic for Philly these days, and our trip to Florida made me wonder why I ever moved away.... it is weekends like this that remind me we are in the perfect place for us. Nashville is home right now, and we couldn't be happier.

Last Days of Camp

Did I mention that summer camp is over? Well... SUMMER CAMP IS OVER!!!!! Excuse my excitement :) When I started my job here in Nashville it was NOT well noted that during the summer I would transition from a teacher/tutor/mentor into a summer camp counselor. Ugh. Spending 8 hour days during the summer with my students when they know none of the academic work I'm making them do is graded, is NOT on my list of things to ever do again. It has been a very trying and physically challenging 6 weeks and I'm excited for a little break. When I say break: I don't mean that I'm off of work, I just mean that for the next 3 weeks we will be preparing and planning for the school year and the kids will NOT be allowed in the building. Happy day for all the adults! I'm thankful for this time, but I must admit that I was a little bored without all the craziness that my students bring to the day haha.

Here are some photos from our last week of camp:

We took the kids downtown and then while we waited for the bus we took a terribly hot stroll over the pedestrian bridge. This was our view of the city.

Despite being miserably hot my group can never pass up a chance to throw up gang signs.

On Wednesday afternoon we had a little "showcase" of the things the kids had made throughout the summer so that their parents could come and look. This is a poster I made of photos of the students making art. 

I had a very dangerous time trying to hang all these things haha

Last day of camp we had a BBQ at Percy Priest Lake and the kids got a chance to swim ALL day.

Sarah and I

Sara S. who has moved away from Nashville now that her term is over... I miss her already :(

I feel like I learned a lot this summer about being selfless, and definitely tested the limits of my patience. I  think I'm better for it as a teacher and have a little bit of a tougher skin going into this next school year.... that being said, I am VERY happy to go back to my normal 10 to 7 schedule of only being in direct contact with my students in the evenings.

History

I mentioned this in my Florida recap, but one of the best things I got to do while I was in town was sift through many albums worth of old pictures, and grab a bunch for my own collection. I really appreciate that my parents were so diligent about saving those pictures, and neatly putting them away in albums so that they're so accessible to us now. We had some pretty great laughs while going through everything, and we still only made it to about half of all she has! Here are some of my favorites:

My big brother Jake as an infant. Hysterical faces haha

Me with mom and dad, coming home from the hospital.

Jake was so confused. 

Forget me crying... can we talk about Jake's sweater?

Happy little family.

Jake + a saw + me running = danger. 

Aunt Kathleen and that hair!

Me and dad.

Look at my beautiful mother :)

Family. 

Jake was always messin with stuff... usually at my expense. 

My favorite Garfield blanket when it was back in it's prime. 

Forever a fashionista haha. 

The outfits are just too much for me haha

Jake in his acid washed jeans. Too cool.

Self timer family photos

I love these people with all my heart. Now we just need to raid some photos of Keith's past :)

Borrowed

I didn't take many decent photographs from Erick and Catie's wedding, but our good friend Noah really did. I swiped these from his facebook, and hope that he doesn't mind sharing :) Here are my favorites that he took:

Always photobombin'.

Cochran's.

Jake Beal looking dapper.

Bachelors fighting for the garter.

Groomsmen.

PLEASE check out his photography at www.noahfrankphotography.com. He's got some pretty darn impressive stuff on there and I'm extremely proud to call such a talented person a good friend of mine. Can't wait to see all that he took of the bride and groom!