Furry Friends

I still have a lot of catching up to do on the blog about our trip to Jacksonville to visit Abbie & Mike, our 1st Anniversary, a football game, a trip to DC, and Alyssa’s Bachelorette weekend. 

 

But, for now, I just wanted to share some VERY cute pictures of some our favorite furry friends!

Rascal, Emma, Sophie, and ChiChi

 

On Sunday, Adam was doing some yardwork, so the dogs and I decided we would go outside to keep him company.  (Notice we had 4 dogs staying with us this weekend! Actually, 4 dogs stayed with Adam this weekend as I was out of town.)

 

Sophie, Adam, Rascal, and Emma

 The big dog in back is Rascal, Adam’s parents’ dog and his childhood pet.  Rascal came to stay with us a couple weeks ago while Adam’s parents were out of the country, but then he got very sick, so Adam kept him here so that he could keep a close eye on his health. Thankfully, he is doing much better!

 

Rascal's PhotoShoot

 

Also, we can’t forget about my mom’s dog ChiChi.  She stayed with Adam over the weekend, too, while my mom was visiting Samantha in DC.  How cute is her snaggle-tooth?? haha!

ChiChi (a.k.a. "Little Nutcase")

And, last-but-not-least, we can’t forget about Pookey.  He hops into bed to snuggle with Adam every night.  

"That's Mr. Pookey Bear, to you!"

 

Oh, how I love all of our animals!! And, my smart hubby who takes such good care of them all!

 

What does this say about the town I work in….?

I work in a tiny little town about 45 min south of Charlotte.  There’s a Wal-Mart here…and a McDonalds, and that’s about it.  The other day I was running an errand (to the post office) on my lunch break, and saw this delightful little store-front:

I thought that this was pretty funny!

 

"When you have more fun than the law allows!" ha!

 

So, yeah….I work in red-neck-ville!

Daphne & Andrew’s Wedding

The last weekend in August we celebrated Daphne & Andrew’s wedding!  The party started for Chrissie and I on Friday at 11am drinking tall boys of Corona Light in a cemetary in uptown Charlotte.  Yes, we are quite aware of how classy we are!

Classy Ladies....

 We had arrived early to the Bridesmaid Brunch, and Daph wasn’t ready for us yet… so what else were we to do?? haha!  Eventually, we went up to the pool-side patio where we joined the bride and other bridesmaids for a delicious brunch.  We had breakfast casserole, cream-cheese muffins, freshly squeezed orange-ade, coffee, fruit, and bacon!!  It was so nice to be able to relax and have fun together before the weekend really got crazy! 

Bridesmaid Brunch: Daphne, me, Chrissie, Beth, Courtney, and Miquel

 That evening was the rehearsal, followed by an awesome mexican fiesta dinner at Cantina 1511.

Bride & Groom-to-be!

Bridesmaids showing some love for the Bride!

 That night, all of us girls had a sleepover at the hotel, and the next morning it was time to get ready for the wedding! 

Andrew reading the sweet note from his bride!

Daphne's STUNNING hair & makeup!

On our way to the ceremony!

 Their wedding was held at Freedom Park in Charlotte.  The ceremony took place on the island under the weeping willow trees, and the reception was held in the open-air ampitheatre.  All of the decorations were DIY projects, and even though it took FOREVER them and get everything to the wedding planner, I think the results were great!

These next two picture below are from their photographer Tirzah Photography.  Rachel did an AMAZING job capturing the day!!  Go here for more pix: http://www.tirzahphotography.com/2011/09/andrew-daphne-wedding.html

Bridesmaids! (my friends are so pretty!)

Mr. & Mrs.

These last two were mine…  definitely not the most quality images, but I love these two pix!

Shannon, baby Brayden, and the bride! 🙂

 

And, last but not least, the bride and groom!  About 3 weeks after their wedding, they moved to Korea for a year to teach English together.  I miss them so much already, but I’m so glad I got to be apart of their most special day! Daph & Andrew – you two are such a sweet and wonderful couple! I wish you nothing but many more happy years filled with fun, and adventure!!  xoxo

 

WAY Overdue Weekend Whereabouts – Bachelorette Madness!

I’ve gotten WAY behind on my blogging, but I’m going to at least try to catch up!  Starting way back in August, I had about 7 ridiculously busy weekends in a row including two back-to-back bachelorette weekends for two of my closest friends! (I’m actually still not sure if my liver has forgiven me!)

Daphne’s Bachelorette weekend was planned by the maid of honor, Miquel. Six of out bestest friends spent a long weekend at a gorgeous house in Oak Island, NC.  The weather was rainy off and on all weekend, but we still had an amazing time!  We spent time chatting and sunning ourselves on the beach, chatting and cooking in the kitchen, chatting and drinking margaritas on the front porch, (yeah, us girls did a LOT of talking), dancing, laughing, and enjoying all of the bachelorette pariphanaila!!  For the big night out, Miquel had arranged a special outfit for the bride-to-be…and she was such a good sport about it! 

• Top Left: We started the weekend by stopping for a delicious dinner at the sketchiest of all highway-side Mexican Restaurants in the middle of nowhere.
• Top Right: All of ladies enjoying a couple bottles of wine and a delicious seafood dinner beachfront! (From the left: Courtney, me, Daphne, Miquel, Chrissie, and Beth)
• Bottom Left: Out on the town celebrating the Bachelorette!
• Bottom Right: Daphne’s reaction to seeing the beautiful beach house that was all ours for the weekend!

There are so many more fun stories and pictures I’d love to share, but I just don’t have the time right now… It was just an all around WONDERFUL weekend spent with some of my closest friends celebrating our dear friend Daphne!! 🙂

The next weekend, I flew up to Boston to celebrate Audrey’s Bachelorette-ness!   Audrey is my old friend from summer camp (shout-out for Camp Barney Medintz!) and I am so glad that we’ve been able to keep our friendship alive for so long.  We that this amazing relationship where we can go months without talking, or years without seeing eachother, but we’re always able to pick back up right where we left off.  I cherish that friendship so much, and I’m so honored to be a bridesmaid in her wedding that is coming up next month! 

Several of us had some flight delays getting into Boston (including the Bachelorette herself who was 6.5 hours late! boo!).  So, we had to  rearrange our plans a little bit.  But, in the end it turned out to be a fabulous weekend filled with amazingly delicious food and wine, lots of hilarious face-purple-ing moments, and fun fun fun!  And, I just have to say, Audrey’s sister Molly did an absolutely amazing, breathtaking, wonderful, incredible job planning this weekend – soooo fabulous!!!

From the top, down:

• Some of us girls wearing our “The Glasses Got Ditched – Audrey’s Gettin’ Hitched!” t-shirts on our way to the airport to pick up our bachelorette!
• Picnic near Faneuil Hall after getting amazing lobster rolls from the marketplace there!  (From the left: Catherine, Bethany, Ashley, me, Audrey, Laura, Loryn, and Molly)
• The infamous “I’m Getting Married Bitches” t-shirt that we made Audrey wear!
• The Bachelorette making a lovely face!
• All the girls, plus a few other of Audrey’s friends enjoying a delicious dinner at Stella.
• Audrey and I have killer facial expressions while dancing our bootys off!
• At the club…
• Audrey, Molly and I at brunch the next morning.
• All of us girls at brunch.

Due to some “bad” weather (um, yeah, apparently planes can’t fly in rain anymore) both Audrey and my flights got cancelled that Sunday, so we got to spend an extra night hanging out and catching up in Boston.  It definitely was not a great experience (espeically for Audrey who had checked her suitcase and couldn’t get it back), but it was so nice to get to spend some extra time with my dear friend! 🙂

I have several more weekend to blog about, but I just had to make sure i got these two fabulous bachelorette weekend up here.

I’ll be back soon…..  🙂

Grown Ups!

Sometimes I still feel really young like I’m just out of college, and other times I feel really old and grown-up.  I know it’s all relative, but it’s interesting/scary/amazing to think about how much things really do change as you get older. 

This past weekend when we went boating for Adam’s birthday, we talked about this very topic and came to some interesting conclusions.  Over the course of the day, we spent a good deal of time marvaling at how different this trip would have been if we had done it 7 years ago!  Here are some of the differences that we imagined:

Things we brought with us:

• Boat trip at 28 years old: 1 cooler for food, 1 cooler for beer
• Boat trip at 21 years old: at least 3 coolers for beer….and maybe 1 bag of chips?

Things we did:

• Boat trip at 28: first thing we all did was apply lots of sunscreen
• Boat trip at 21: we all would have come home looking like lobsters!

• Boat trip at 28: we obeyed the laws (well, except for the one about jumping off a moving boat…but we didn’t know!) and respected the rental boat
• Boat trip at 21: someone would have certainly gotten arrested, and something would have definitely been broken on the boat

After we all got home for the day:

• Boat trip at 28: Here is what happened when Felipe had a headache and went to bed earlier than the rest of us:
  

  Emma came to snuggle with Felipe!

• Boat trip at 21:  Whoever passed out first would have most likely woken up with sharpie drawings on their face!

 

It’s funny to think about how much we’ve grown up!!

Weekend Whereabouts – Adam’s Birthday

I really meant to post this sooner, but it has been a crazy/busy/stressful week! 

Anyways….last weekend I planned a BIG surprise to celebrate Adam’s birthday!!  You should know that I love planning surprises, but Adam doesn’t usually cooperate very well.  So, over the previous 2 weeks, I slowly let him think that we were going out of town for his birthday…I even played it off like he had “caught” me spilling the secret when I told some friends that we’re going out of town for the next several weekends in a row! 

So, Friday after work, I packed some empty suitcases into the trunk of my car, and when Adam got home from work, told him to pack up his toiletries so we could get going.  It had been a long week for him, and he was acting all grumpy about the fact that we’d be leaving the dogs, and that he didn’t want to go anywhere.  Just before we were about to leave, I gave him a card that was his Birthday Surprise No. 1. (See picture 1.)  It had a picture of a beach on the front and the words “Get ready to go on a trip with me! To the far away land of….”  And the inside said “JUST KIDDING!! We’re only going out to dinner!”  

He was sooo excited and thought that it was hilarious!  (See his reaction in Picture 2.)  We then went out to a lovely Thai dinner, the Birthday Boy’s choice!  On the way home, we picked up some beer for what Adam thought would be just a quiet evening at home.  Little did he know that i had been texting all evening with Lani to make sure the timing of the real surprise would go smoothly.  I even had to hurry him out of the store by faking having to pee!

When we got home, I presented him a birthday gift – he was so confused when he unwrapped the Captain’s hat!  But, then there was another card, Birthday Surprise No. 2, that explained that we’d be spending the following day on a rented boat on a nearby lake.  (Picture 2.)

The third, and final surprise came with another card that said “Guess who is coming with us?  (open the door)”.  Adam opened the front door of our house, and standing outside was 4 of his best buddies: Felipe, Brian, Aaron & Lani!!  (Picture 5)  He was shocked and soooo excited!!  It made me so happy to be able to pull this off and surprise my hubby!  Everyone came in and we had some carrot cake cupcakes (Adam’s fave) to celebrate. 

Then next morning we got up early, had breakfast, and went to the lake our day on a boat!

 

1. Birthday Surprise No. 1
2. We’re going on a boat!
3. Gotta love that surprised face!
4. Adam and Brian
5. Aaron, Lani, Captain Adam, Felipe, & Brian right after their arrival
6. Lani & I enjoying the sun, and the other 6. (since i apparently can’t count) is Captain Felipe
7. Aaron & Lani are just too cute!
8. The boys on the boat
9. Felipe & Adam
10. the breif reign of Captain Ivy
11. nothin’ better than just floating in the water on a hot day!

I had been very worried that we’d have bad weather, but luckily it was a gorgeous day!  (Well, up until about 4pm, anyways!)  We had so much fun just driving the boat around, swiming at the sand bar, jumping off the moving boat (which is apparently illegal…who knew??), eating lunch while anchored in a cove, and of course drinkin’ lots of beer!  There was a pretty bad thunder and lightning storm that rolled in around 4pm.  Things got pretty scary there for a while, but thankfully Captain Aaron got us through! 

Me and my handsome Captain!

That evening, we grilled out at the house, hung out for a bit, and then went to bed.  Boating can be quite exhausting!

The next morning, his friends had to leave fairly early, but we were so glad that they came!!  Adam slept in while I cleaned the house a bit, and then his family came to town that afternoon for some bowling and sushi dinner.  (Birthday boy’s request!)

1. Adam and his mom (shouldn’t birthdays really be about celebrating the mom’s anyways?? they did all the work!)
2. Me and the hubs
3. Brenna & Adam
4. Brenna and I now have a signature shot whenever we go bowling!
5. Gunga & his TWIN!  (Adam’s dad’s nickname is Gunga, and he was getting very grumpy that the waiter was not coming quick enough to take his order.  Just a few seconds before this shot Gunga was making the same EXACT face as in the painting behind him! ha!)
6. This is what  happens when you don’t feed him quickly enough!
7. Bowling Family Fun!

After dinner we had carrot cake back at the house and Adam got to spend a little time loving on his parent’s dog Rascal.

Rascal & his boy

 All in all, it was a wonderful weekend!  I could not have been more happy about how the surprises turned out! 

Yesterday, Adam’s actual birthday, we had a quick dinner of Chinese take-out at the house and went to see Harry Potter with my dad and sister.  Honey, I hope you had a fabulous time celebrating your birthday!  I love you so much!!!

Weekend Whereabouts – Amy & Jason Got Married

This past weekend was the first of 6 super busy/fun ones in a row!  On Friday night after work we drove up to Raleigh.  We decided to leave the animals at home, but my mom was nice enough to stay at our place over the weekend to take care of them. 

Our dear friends Matt & Candra were sweet enough to let us stay with them over the weekend, and were awesome enough to greet us with beer when we got there! 🙂  Felipe also came over to hang out that night, and we had such a great time catching up with everyone. 

I think Sammie wants one of those pizza-rolls!

Then, after a while, Adam fell asleep on the couch…

Sleepy Hubby...

I feel like every time we hang out with Matt & Candra we end up staying up way too late just talking and laughing and having so much fun.  Somehow, i didn’t get any pictures of them, though…but there are some cute ones of their puppies coming up! 

The next morning we slept in, and then Matt & Candra’s dogs Sammie & Belle came to wake us up!

Belle says "Good Morning Adam!"Belle & Sammie

We spent the rest of the morning at the vet school library b/c Adam wanted to do a little research.  (I spent that time reading Harry Potter.)  Then we went back to the house to get ready for Amy & Jason’s wedding.

Amy & I grew up together at Sunday School, Hebrew High, and BBYO.  More recently, we were advisors for the Shaina BBG chapter in Raleigh.  She is one of those super friendly and outgoing people, and we had so much fun hanging out at our weekly meetings with our other friend Rena.  I remember when Amy first told us that she was dating Jason.  She would just glow when she talked about him, and I think everyone knew right-away that they would end up getting married sooner than later.

Amy & her daddy walking up the aisle.

It was a hot, but beautiful ceremony, and the reception was gorgeous and oh, so much fun!! Here are some more pictures of the evening.  Congrats Amy & Jason!!

1. Amy & her dad
2. Amy & Aimee (one of our fave BBG girls!)
3. Aimee & me before the ceremony
4. Rena & I shaking our bootys!
5. The Newlyweds Eating Cake!
6. The famous Aimee & Chris faces
7. Rena & Aimee
8. Jamie & Allison enjoying the cake
9. Jaime, Chris, me, and the hubs enjoying cocktail hour.

On Sunday, we headed to Chapel Hill to eat brunch with Michael who is about to start Medical School there, and Rena & Chris joined us as well.  It was great to hang out with all of them!!  On the way back home, we stopped by Greensboro to have a delicious Italian dinner with Adam’s family. 

It was an exhausting, but FUUNNNN!! weekend, and we were sooooo happy to come home and snuggle with Sophie & Emma a bit before bed.

New York City – Family Reunion – Part II

Adam recently informed me that he could not BELIVE that I forgot to include “the very BEST part of the day” from the Part I post about our trip.  What was this “highlight”, this “unforgettable  moment” you ask?  Obviously it was that we got to see a real, live under-cover NYPD bust unfold just a few feet in front of us! 

It was actually very cool! Like an episode of Cops happening right in front of us.  We were walking down the street toward the prohibition-style secret bar, and all of the sudden an un-marked mini-van and another un-marked sedan screeched to a stop right next to, and behind a car that was parked against the curb.  Almost before the cars even came to a stop, several guys, with bullet-proof vests and guns-pulled, hopped out and started screaming. “Get out of the car!”  “Put your hands up!” “Now!” (with more than a few F-bombs thrown in!) 

The driver and passenger got out with their hands up.  But, then, the really strange part started.  While half the cops went over to arrest the passenger, the driver blatantly sneaked past the other cops and hid behind one of the cop cars.  The cops who he had just walked right by started yelling “where’s the driver?” “he ran off that way” “let’s go get him”.  And proceded to go ona fake chase, while one of the cops sneakily went back to where the driver was hiding, tapped him on the shoulder, and let the driver disappear into the crowd the other direction. 

It took us a minute, but we soon realized that it must have been a set-up!  That the driver was really an undercover cop setting up a sting on whoever the passenger was.  It was definitely a unique NYC experience! haha!

Anyways…on to Part II. 

Self Portrait in Times Square

Our second day in NYC, we slept in, and then did a lot more walknig around Times Square and the Theatre District before arriving at the Carnegie Deli for an early lunch, where we shared (and still couldn’t finish!) this…

The Rediculously HUGE Sandwich: Rye Bread, Salami, Corned Beef, Pastrami, Bacon, Lettuce, Tomato, and Spicy Brown Mustard

Once we had stuffed ourselves silly (we had pickles and a potato kinish along with that sandwich!), we decided to go for a nice, long stroll through central park. 

Adam was VERY excited to see the Balto statue.Enjoying the beautiful weather and this famous bridge!

Next stop was the Museum of Natural History.  We both really loved the Night at the Museum Movies, so we knew that this place was a must-see! 🙂

Then, it was time to head over to my cousin’s house in Brooklyn to meet up with the rest of the family! yay!

 

 

Weekend Whereabouts – the last low-key one for a while…

As the title suggests, we had a wonderfully low-key and relaxing weekend.  Which is a very good thing since I’m booked solid for the next 6 weekends in a row! (5 of those being trips out of town!!)

On Friday after work I went to yoga, and then we just relaxed around the house for a while.  It was just too hot to do anything else!  Eventually, we mustered up enough energy to go to the grocery store and then we came home to make bacon and cheese turkey-burgers! yum! 

Saturday morning, Adam had to work, so I got up early hoping to be able to take the dogs for a walk before the heat got too bad.  But, it was already 88 degrees and sunny at 7:30am!! So, I just spent the morning cleaning, and then went to another yoga class.  In the afternoon, I  met Erin for a shellac manicure.  I have probably only gotten 5 manicures in my life, and they are ALWAYS chiped by the next day.  But, Erin swears by this shellac stuff, so I figured I’d give it a shot. They ‘bake’ on each layer (undercoat, 2 layers of color, and then a top coat) with UV light, and when you’re finished your nails are totally dry, so you don’t have to worry about smudging them. I have to say that it really seemed to work well, and now, 3 days later, they still look great!  Thank you Erin! 🙂

Shellac Manicure – Day 3

After the manicure, I went to meet up with the girls to have another Yarn-Ball-Extravaganza!  Unfortunately, about half of the yarn balls did not survive after the last one.  It was quite tragic, really, the heat caused the balloons to deflate before the yarn dried, and they ended up looking all wobbly like a birds nest, rather than a ball. 😦 

Anyways…we were happy to help make more.  We met at Beth’s cute little house, and spent the afternoon covered in glue, having a great time together:

Yarn-Ball-Extravaganza!

Yarn Balls Drying in Beth's Dining Room

 Saturday night, Adam cooked a yummy dinner of bacon-wrapped chicken kebabs on the grill with a salad.  After dinner we had a little date & walked to TCBY for some frozen yogurt!  🙂  It was a great end to a 100+ degree summer day!

Sunday morning, we went out to brunch at Terrace Cafe using a gift certificate from my mom.  (Thanks mom!)  We had been there for dinner once, and were not impressed, but the brunch was really delicious!!  I had a quiche made with chorizo, cheese and some veggies, with a side salad & fruit.  Adam had an omelete with mushrooms, sausage, and cheddar with a side of hashbrowns and fruit.

Then, we came home, cleaned the house, and had some very important snuggle-time with the dogs.  Does a Sunday afternoon get any better than this??? 🙂

 

Late Sunday afternoon, I spent some time hanging with my mom by the pool, while Adam went to a driving range with our friend Bo.  Then we had a quick dinner with my grandparents to wrap up the weekend.

Weekend Whereabouts – lots of yummy food!

I almost forgot to do this post from last weekend!  It was another busy/fun/relaxing one filled with LOTS of really yummy food!  Unfortunately, I forgot to take a lot of pictures of it….  but here goes:

Friday Evening: I went to yoga after work (go me!) and then we ate leftovers from a really yummy dinner that i made Thursday night.  We had grilled chipotle-honey BBQ chicken, an Israeli salad made with tomatos from our garden, cucumbers from my co-worker’s garden, red onion from our CSA, and feta cheese , and fresh green beans from our CSA. Then, we went out to meet our friends Bo & Rebecca for a drink at one of the bars we can walk to.  It was a fun, but early night.

Saturday: I ran some errands and visited my grandparents and then we took the dogs to play in the park in the afternoon.  That night we had a double-date with my dad and Erin at one of their favorite restaurants, Passion8.  It was resaturant week, so we figured we’d splurge!  The food was good, even though their restaurant-week pre-fixe menu had some strange options.  I had a salad with a pancetta chip and some sort of cheesey custard thing, a bison steak (orderd without the sweetbreads – which are the thymus gland from baby cows – ugh!), and a delicious tiramisu dessert!!  Also, a yummy watermelon beer.  Adam had some pasta made with sausage, fish with succotash, and chocolate ganache for dessert!  

Sunday: I got up early and walked the dogs (separately, of course!  because if I tried to take them at the same time, I would be the one being taken for a walk!!).  Then, we went over to my dad and Erin’s house for brunch.  They served fresh blueberry pancakes, bacon, fruit salad, mimosas, cheesey scrambled eggs, and english muffins with cream cheese, lox and all the fixins.  It was absolutely delicious, as always!!! 🙂  After we rolled our stuffed selves home, we spent the afternoon cleaning.  That night, my mom and grandparents came over for dinner.  My mom and I combined forces to create this delicious meal:

Grandma & Pappy were ready to chow-down!

We ate: soy-honey marinated & grilled tuna steaks, fresh tomato/basil/mozzerella salad, purple-cabbage cole slaw, crescent rolls, and grilled corn on the cob.  It was all fresh and delicious and so so good! 🙂

After everyone left our house, we decided to beat the Sunday-Night-Blues by walking to one of the nearby bars to sit outside and have a couple beers.  And OF COURSE the puppies got to come with us!! 

Sophie was being such a good girl!

 

Emma loves her daddy!

Another wonderful weekend!! 🙂