weekend alliteration

nonna tata nomming 

[Mother's Day celebrating on Friday night with my wonderful MIL, Pam! The food was amazing, and RP took the opportunity to out-order me, as usual. And I didn't take any photos because I'm crazy]

stanley stalking

[took the in-laws by the house for a little peek!

bulldog babysitting

[our friends needed a little help on Friday watching their puppy, Ziggy. I mean, that face... ]

crack of dawn cleaning

[awake at 530 on Saturday AM cleaning and packing our bathroom. Who am I?]

donut devouring

[i was in a treat yo'self mindset]

west elm wishing and crate and barrel coveting

[nothing like a spontaneous little trip to Dallas to dream about furniture and decorating. RP was the champ of champs while I died Rachel Zoe style over end tables and headboards.]

taco tasting 

[on the way home from Dallas we took a little foodie detour to Fuel City Tacos where the barbacoa and picadillo of my dreams sufficiently blew my mind. Magical.]

So simple, so good. 

leo loving

[we met friends to see the Great Gatsby last night, and it did NOT disappoint! The soundtrack may be my favorite part of the movie - I mean, Andre 3000 and Beyonce singing Amy Winehouse?? Crazy In Love as a charleston?! Jay-Z, you are a genius (Chyea).]

kid corralling

[Today was our first day leading Children's Worship at church, which was a little like hearing cats, but mostly so fun. Also, many thanks to the 3 that chose to be baptized this morning a s shaved a good 15 minutes off our controlled chaos]. 

mom and the mercury 

[We met Gail for brunch at The Mercury - so fun! I love my Momma and was so glad to celebrate with her today.]

i'm an idiot (sometimes)

[After a glorious 2 hour nap this afternoon, I declared this weekend the "best ever." I should have known that upon uttering these words I would eat them. I ran up to work to grab the iPad for a training I have tomorrow and somehow locked myself out of my office. Keys, purse, iPad inside. Lovely. TCU Police helped a sister out, and all was well.]

It was a weekend for the books indeed! A little last hurrah of sorts before the home improvement projects begin. Hope you had a fun weekend, too! 

moving on

Whoa, baby, so much for "really blogging" in 2013. Does it count that I've thought about blogging since I wrote that last post?

What's been going on since my last little update? Lots of house hunting. Lots of travel for work - Orlando, Vancouver, Kansas City, Chicago, and Nashville - whew! Lots of events and opportunities to serve at church. Lots of good times with family and friends. And in the last six weeks or so, lots of decisions, paperwork, spontaneous fits of excitement, prayer, and a few near meltdowns, because...

We found our house!!

I've typed and deleted a bunch of cliche metaphors to describe this momentous event like "It's been a journey!" "It's been a wild ride!" "It's been a process!" and "It's been an adventure!"

It's totally been all those things, and also things like "headache" "near disaster" and "end of my sanity."

Above all that, we are just so excited! It isn't the house I thought we'd end up getting (one bathroom, y'all), but it is perfect for us, and we love it more every time we creepily drop by (we may be on a first name basis with the painters and floor guy - what up, Jose and Ramon?!). We have plans to add on in the next year or so, which I'm sure will be a whole new adventure, wild ride, headache, process, etc. Not to mention actually closing and moving in next week.

Anyway, I figure there's no time like the present to give this little bloggy another go. Here's to new adventures in playing house!

happenings

I made a semi-resolution... or really a half-thought on the way home from a New Years Eve party, "I'm going to try to really blog this year." Hah! How about a list of what's been going on?

1. I'm taking one class this semester, because last semester was like a war on my social life and sanity. My grad school actually became like real grad school (my grad program requires no thesis). I was reading/writing/posting/responding every day of the week, and I was a subpar friend, wife, employee, and sister for it. Never again. So far I feel affirmed in my decision to just take one this semester because my brain already hurts from ALL THE READING.

2. House hunting is still a thing. As in, we've been actively looking since September and haven't found "the one." I'm starting to think that Rhianna was talking about her first house when she sang, "We found love in a hopeless place," because Fall 2012/Winter 2013 in Fort Worth, Texas real estate certainly seems like a hopeless place sometimes. Will we find love? Surely. When? Who in the world knows. Right now we are trying not to drive each other crazy in our 1/1 downtown apartment, and trying to enjoy our cool/hip downtown living situation -- as in I was less than a block into my walk to meet friends for dinner last night when RP called me saying he'd pick me up and I jumped on that offer. At least I thought about walking?

3. My word for 2013 is "joy." This seems to be working out a little bit better than the whole resolution situation (see the first paragraph of this post). this book is helping -- a lot. Gratitude journaling is my jam, y'all. I don't know if I seem more joyful, but I sure do feel it in my spirit. Praise God.

4. I got crazy on some MLK weekend sales and bought lots of new big girl work clothes with the rest of my Christmas $$. My office is pretty business casual (I just tried to abbreviate casual to cazh... or casjh. nope), but I got a few fancy things that I'm excited to bust out. I'm also thinking about doing 30 for 30 challenge a la Kendi Everyday to get a little more creative with my wardrobe and curb my spending habit.

5. I'm also reading this book which is a MUST if you love the show, but NOT a good lunchtime read. Trust me on this one. It is also excellent birth control. You are welcome.

5 things on a Friday afternoon seems like all I can muster today. Maybe blogging will become the new house-hunting. Cheers and happy weekend!

february photo a day faves

Did you do the February photo a day challenge?

Here are my favorites from this month:

inside my closet

drink

 green

 hearts

money

something new

phone

 shoes

I missed a couple along the way, but this was a fun challenge to take more photos. 

I'm playing along for March, too! 

Febru (wait for it) ary

February is one of my favorite months. It's my Gail's birthday, Russ' birthday, Valentines Day, AND presidents day.

It's been pretty great so far. We celebrated Russ' birthday with a series of rich and artery clogging meals and fun with friends. We started with Mellow Mushroom on Thursday, Mi Cocina on Friday, chai pancakes for brunch and Babes Chicken on Saturday. Not to mention 4 kinds of cake over the course of the weekend!

We celebrated Valentines with a post work pre class In-n-out burger.

We planned to celebrate another night and keep it casual on the 14th... But then I came home after class to an apartment full of candles and some brand new cherry red Hunters! That man... He gets it.

It was a glorious week, full of sweet time with Mr. Russ, celebrating his life and my most favorite greeting card holiday!

HAP-py birthday!

Today my favorite person turns 25!

I'm not great at waxing meaningful sentiments, but I will do my best. Russ, your birthday means so much to me, because without it we wouldn't be us (duh). You are my favorite person in the world, and my greatest treasure. I love the life we have together and being your wife. I hope this coming year is the best yet, and I can't wait to celebrate many more with you. Love you, babe!

(Also, thanks for catching up with me on age so I don't look like such a cougar. Rawr :)

february photo-a-day challenge

Lots of people participated in a January photo-a-day challenge, and I was jealous because I was late to that party and it was mid-January before I found out about it. Oops.

I'm only one day late this time, and I'm totally doing it. February is turning into a crazy month and I am both super excited and super nervous every time I look at my planner. Hopefully taking a little photo here and there will help me remember the life and times of February 2012. Let's do this! I'll be throwing mine up on instagram (ekp1007) and twitter. 

Ready set go!