I'll confess...

...I did it. Our apartment looks way better than I presented it. You'll find out one day.

But what's wrong with Michael Jackson, at least in the 80s. Sure, he got a little interesting in his later years, but to paraphrase Dave Chapelle, "The man did Thriller!"

And, I just pulled these out of the oven. Wish you were here!

Beauty

Oh! Get ready for some beautiful pictures!

Yesterday I went to visit my dear friend Michelle and her husband Aaron Ray. They live in the beautiful countryside of NC and I couldn't get enough of it. It was a two hour drive from Charlotte and I arrived around dinner time.

Their house is absolutely adorable!

We sat out on the front porch with our tea/lemonade and visited. Doesn't that sound delightful?!

Me & Malart!

Mich & Aaron Ray!

This was taken on their driveway.

One last shot on my way home. It was a wonderful, quick trip and thank you so much for a delightful stay!

Also, you can see below that a certain husband of mine got hold of the blog while I was away. I'll have to give you a proper apartment tour at some point because this is not how it usually looks. ;)

Jolly makes a move

So after all this discussion of decorating on the blog, Andrew and I have revisited what percentage of our decorating input comes from him versus me and we've agreed on more of a 50-50 arrangement, instead of the 95-5 agreement previously in force. It was one of those things where we were hanging out on Monday night and both just decided it was time to re-arrange things a little bit. Let me know what you think!

Andrew is redoing his bureau as a shrine to Coke. Not my favorite, I'll admit, but it's one of his only spaces so I'm going to let him do whatever without comment. At least my lamp managed to stay!
Andrew had this "St. Andrew's Ale" bottle that he'd left sitting around for a while now, and I thought it would be fun to have next to one of our wedding pictures. Ignore the hammer. That doesn't live there.
This one took a little more thought but after much debate, we decided that MJ could sit on the nightstand on my side of the bed. I mean, who wouldn't want Michael Jackson watching over them?
I like what Andrew did here. We moved one of the plants we got as wedding gift to a different spot in the room and are using one of those big glass jugs Andrew brews beer in as a new accent on the couches (which are to the left of this picture). I'm still not sure what I think about that sword he put on the bookshelf. It's still under discussion. But at least he let me put the dolphin clock on our "mantle" overlooking the kitchen. This was one of our favorite shower gifts and it's taken a while to find the perfect place for it.
I'll admit, this one took me a while. I mean, I liked the Jolly Roger just fine in the laundry room. This whole idea of this being "our home" is very true and all but I'm not sure I want a skull looking down on me while I sleep. Michael Jackson, sure, pirate flag...maybe not. This one may not last too long.
And in honor of college football starting off soon, we've broken out the USC blanket Andrew has for the loveseat. If nothing else, it's really warm and will be great for snuggling during Gamecock victories in early winter!

Weekend Update

Last week I had the lovely Lindsey and Cameron over for a visit! It was the first time I've seen my sweet ASU friends in a long while!

Last Friday night Andrew surprised me with a date night: we went to Cabo Fish Taco for dinner. I love the Charlotte skyline.

Then we went Uptown to see King Lear.

It was a 3 hour production.

Saturday we went to a pool party with some friends and while I didn't take any pictures there, I got one of Lake Wylie on the way home. Ahh, I love summertime.

Saturday night we went to visit and have dinner with the family I used to nanny for! It was so fun to hang out and spend time with them. Mar Mar Chickadee is getting so big.

Have a great week! :)

Happy Left Handers' Day!

Yesterday was national Left Handers' Day! Since Andrew is a leftie, I thought we should properly celebrate.

We started out the day by writing a note to each other (me with my left hand):

And Andrew with his right hand.

(I know... we're so weird. Actually I'm just weird because I made Andrew do all this.)

Last night we had a beer from Left Hand Brewing Co.

Left thumb up.

Yay for silly holidays! :)

Meet Jolly

Well Andrew's post below made me want to talk about decorating a home after you're married. I think I had this idea that I would get to decide/pick out/choose everything we did to our home. Oh no, no. While 95% of our home is "my taste" and decorated by me, Andrew did have his opinions and things he brought into the marriage that he didn't want sent to Goodwill. I mean, this is his home too so I met him halfway.

Here's where I introduce you to Jolly.

Andrew had this Jolly Roger (pirate flag) hanging in his old house and wanted to put it up in the apartment. Our apartment. You can only imagine my reaction (coming from a house with sisters and female roommates). I gently told him that there was no way this would be hung in our living room. So he hung Jolly in the laundry/storage room and here he is:

I never, ever would've done this but actually I've become fond of Jolly and we call the storage room Jolly's room and we like to think that he's watching over the place when we're gone. This was a good lesson I learned in marriage: learn to pick your battles. ;)

Two can play at this game

Some of you will recall the last time I invaded this space to discuss the great sense of loss I had at fine art from my swinging bachelor times coming to unfortunate ends in the course of daily life in marriage.

Life, my dear readers, as they say, has happened again. This time, alas, I have nowhere to lay the blame but squarely on my own shoulders. Behold, this glorious artifact from my youth, now quite literally cut off at the knees. I give you あしたジョー, or "Tomorrow Joe" for those of you without Japanese language translation software.



This particular glorious piece of Japanese sculpture requires a bit of digression into my life back in the gloriously early 2000s, circa July 2001. I, being an up and coming summer missionary wannabe and imagining myself to be a bit of a Japanese scholar, signed up for a 2 month stint in Tokyo with SEND International, an organization that my family had had some positive relationships with going back before my time. That summer, beyond being the time of my adopting hair-dos not seen since the era of Billy Idol and Joey Ramone, also proved to be a time for learning about all things Japanese high school, as seen through the eyes of an uncomprehending white guy who's language ability extended about as far as "Domo arigato..." etc. You, no doubt, are familiar with the song. But I digress. Towards the end of the summer, I, along with a smattering of counselors and other staff, descended on a camp for 3 weeks of high school camps. For me, this amounted to sleeping in a cabin with about 10 Japanese high school guys, pretending I knew what they were saying, and repeatedly muttering my catch phrase of the time "しばくぞ、ボケ!" (roughly translated, I'm going to beat you down), though in this case it was a rough term of affection between myself and the aforementioned high school guys. Fast forward about 1 month to the big send-off party for me and my fellow summer missionary. One of the high school guys from my cabin that summer found me in the crowd (admittedly, not very hard, being the only white guy with a blond mohawk there), and gave me the late Tomorrow Joe as a parting gift.

That dearly beloved bobble head has stayed by side these 10 years, most often residing on the night stand next to me. His devil-may-care grin has watched over my sleeping form ever so faithfully, never allowing Bison, Tyson, or any other real or imaginary boxer to interrupt my Zzzzs. It was this loyal companion who I so ill-treated this morning, as you can see above. In a moment of grogginess, reaching blearily for my phone cum alarm at 6 am, I severed Joe from his feet. Shed a tear, or three, and then take a moment of silence for this poor piece of statuary, so slighted by his master.

Joe, I'll miss you. We'll see if superglue can make you good as new.

Weekend Update

We had a pretty fun but low-key weekend! Friday night had friends over to watch a movie (The Prestige... wow, intense!) and then Saturday we ran errands then hung out around the apartment til we met some of Andrew's college buddies for drinks. After that we went to a going away party for our friend Jeremy. He wore a kilt to his party. It was a good time.

Yesterday we went out with some friends after church and then had pizza and game night with two other couples. We've stayed mostly indoors except for when we exercise. I would say that I'm wishing for fall weather but I've been working on being content with where I am/life's circumstances. So, I'm trying to embrace the heat although Andrew and I went for a walk yesterday and I think I was so hot at one point I cried. Anyway, here's to being happy with life as it is now!

Oh, I also volunteered at Levine Children's Hospital this morning (where I've been for a year & a half)... here's a little plug for those of you who live near a {children's} hospital: this is a great time to donate school items such as scissors, construction paper, crayons, etc. to hospitals.. especially if you're out of school but still want to go back-to-school shopping! Even old magazines, movies (not R), and toys are welcomed!

Have a happy week!