Life lately and the longest day of the year!

Oops! Sorry it's been a long time since I've posted anything. I blame it on marital bliss, oh and the fact that my computer screen went blank and I've yet to do the whole backup hard drive however that works blah. Computers stress me out. Thankfully Andrew is letting me use his computer and just this morning I uploaded a ton of pictures and will now share for your enjoyment. I'll let most of them do the "talking".

Happy Summer!!!

The Parkers and Neels came up for Memorial Day Weekend! They were our first overnight guests and we had so much fun!

We've also enjoyed spending time with Andrew's niece and nephews as they've been staying with Andrew's parents some this summer. Upon having them over, I quickly learned that our apartment is not kid-friendly. So when the kids asked for juice, yikes! we don't have juice!... I squeezed all the lemons and limes we had, made a simple syrup and voila! lemonade.

I got to visit with my college friend, Kate and her adorable little Rush.

We've been enjoying wedding presents, like this vacuum pot coffee maker. Andrew LOVES it. I have yet to figure out how it works, but it is pretty entertaining.

Summertime means parties! We went to a goodbye party for our friend Lauren this past weekend. Here are some of my Charlotte friends: Katie and Laura (and Bryan cheesing it up in the background).

My love and I.

Lauren! Soon to be leaving for Morocco!

This past weekend Ginna, Lucy and I traveled home to celebrate my Dad! We surprised him with a porch swing! It was a blast to be home and with the "original five". I adore my family and we just have the best time together.

Yay Dad!

Haha, Gin, Lu & I had a sister date that night when we went into Greensboro for dinner and frozen yogurt. This picture cracks me up every time I look at it. Sorry, Ginna. It's just too cute!

Today is the first day of summer which means it's the longest day of the year!!!! It's my favorite!!! And always has been!

Andrew and I have a double date tonight so we wouldn't be able to watch the sunset. Last night we went to get Yoforia at the mall and then went to the top of a parking deck to watch the sunset on the second longest day of the year.

It was so pretty and fun to start traditions with him. :)

It's about time...

...for a party at my house...
--MxPx

While my lovely wife continues to be away from the proverbial keyboard, I thought I'd sneak in a second guest post.

First things first. I was instructed to explain a couple of peculiarities regarding the way I blog. The first being that I intro every post with a song lyric, usually whatever's stuck in my head or what I'm currently listening to. Second, I always end my blog posts with "Crazy kids and their crazy (fill in the blank)". These are quirks carried over from my previous blog. In case you were wondering, that's what those starting/ending things from my previous guest post were. Old habits die hard, and these are pretty well ingrained.

In other news, Carrie told me on I believe Tuesday that she was taking me on a surprise date on Thursday. Now, usually, one doesn't tell the intended target of a surprise about the surprise, but we'll let that slide. The activities of said date were indeed a surprise, especially since she rushed home after babysitting and we wolfed down a quick dinner of quesadillas and salad and decamped for parts unknown in the space of 30 minutes or so.

Once we were underway, she told me that our date was to drop off some recycled engine oil at Autozone. I saw through this pretty quickly, and surmised our approximate destination, Carolina Place Mall in Pineville. Initially, I guessed we were going to see a movie there, but when she demurred on that option, the only thing I could come up with was that we were going to Bed, Bath & Beyond to pick up something she had ordered earlier in the week. She's quite the actor, because she had me convinced I'd gotten it right at this point. Then, once we got to the mall, after driving by BBB, we did indeed end up at the movie theater, where she revealed that we were going to see Fast Five, the aptly named fifth film in the unlikely street racing saga. She even had popcorn and Skittles. And great fun was had by all, though we've established once and for all that action movies are my forte, not hers.

The movie itself was probably the best in the series, though that admittedly is based on a very low standard. Being the avid F&F fan that I am, I caught all the little references to past films and goofy quirks only obvious to the observant and well-studied viewer, and, yes, I did enjoy the Vin Diesel, Dwayne Johnson dust-up about half-way through. Overall, I give the movie two thumbs up for being a fun, summer action flick, and I learned some valuable lessons along the way, namely, that the best way to clean up corruption in law enforcement is to lead a troop of corrupt cops on an absolutely ridiculous car chase across town, preferably while dragging a large hunk of steel behind you.

Crazy kids and their crazy furiouser car rides!

Is anybody there?

Does anybody care?
--Pink Floyd

So I convinced Carrie to let me guest post occasionally on the blog, now that it's officially CCD and all that, not that she knows I'm guest posting today...

She's noted a few things about living with boys that were, if not earthshattering, at least eye-opening. The same could be said for living with girls, or a girl in particular.

All I can say is, bobby pins and the question of where I should put them.

Crazy kids and their crazy invading the wife's blog!

Wedding

We're starting to get pictures posted on Facebook from our wedding. Our good friend Tiffany took some the day of our wedding and they're just so sweet. I briefly looked over them on our honeymoon, but two + weeks in, I'm just now really going through them. I can't wait to debrief on the blog and share about our wedding and what I remember of it, what was most special, etc. I just love this picture of our beautiful flowers with my simple, little engagement and wedding band. So, over the next few weeks I'll post more about it all.

Living with a boy

Living with a man is real fun. Oh but we're so different. Andrew is the more predictable, disciplined and level-headed one and I'm the more emotional, free-spirited and whimsical one. He likes to do things and make quick decisions while I need time and have to "feel" it before I make decisions.

Andrew talks fast (real fast) and eats even faster. I realized this had affected me one day when we had a couple over a month before we got married. I served dinner and 5 minutes in it hit me that both Andrew & I had completely finished our meal and our guests still had lots of food on their plate. Oh my gosh, I thought, I'm now a fast eater too! This was fully realized when we went to Cowfish last Saturday (if you live in Charlotte, go! it's a sushi & burger place. so good!). We had the waitress bring out a sample of their fried pickles (Welcome to the South!) and there were three on the plate. We each took one but mine was still super hot, I put it down. Andrew ate his and then after a minute picked up the last one and ate it. I was like what?!??! That's when it dawned on me: eating with Andrew is the survival of the fastest. I had one of those "ah-ha wife moments".

He also watches Sci-Fi and I told him to give me a year to like it. Although I might need longer. ;) There have been a few times when I have more of those "ahhh, I'm living with a boy" moments and I usually tell him. One day I asked if he had any living with a girl moments and then he immediately said, "Yes! Your bobby pins, hairbands and earrings that you leave all around the house! I don't know what to do with them and I don't know where they go!!" Haha... oh good times. :)

We're back!

Hello there! It was so nice to honeymoon, especially after a week (or few months) of wedding stress. I'm just now getting back in the hang of answering phone calls, emails and Facebook after I turned my phone & computer off for a week. {which was heavenly!}

Andrew & I went to Charleston, SC for part of our honeymoon and then to Boone, NC. Oh it was a perfect combination of beach & mountains. We stayed at the Market Pavilion Inn in Charleston, complete with Nitrotinis, an amazing dinner at Grill 225, rooftop pool and bar. We went to the beach one morning and I went for a little swim, then for a walk. The weather was wonderful!


I loved Boone! We stayed at the Mast Farm Inn (go stay there if you're in the area... so quaint!) and perhaps my favorite part were the bunnies they had in those cages behind us, to the left of the picture below. Oh how cute!! I also enjoyed showing Andrew around campus and where I used to live.

I'll try to post soon about the wedding and other recent events.

Much love!

Wedding week

Welcome to the wedding week! Where "Just Married" signs are to be made (I HATE hot glue guns), pew decorations are to be figured out, directions & programs printed, still need to find that something old and something blue, and finalize those sweet little touches to a wedding. There's a lot to be done still, but I want to remember it all and enjoy every minute!

I hope our wedding ceremony will be worshipful and slow. I want our bridesmaids to walk slowly down the aisle and then for us to take a moment to look at those gathered together. I want to enjoy it. I want our reception to be not a wedding reception but a party, where people sit and talk and we can spend time with our small crowd of family and friends. It's a little hard to be the center of attention. I feel much more comfortable celebrating others than receiving it. For those coming, it means the world to us. Truly. {I can't wait to see you, Kath, LA, Erin, Mirabelle, Katiebug!}

I've also felt pounded by the weightiness of the recent news events. The tornadoes in Alabama were so devastating and left me to remember that our hope shouldn't be in the things of this world, but in heaven. As a bride who is humbly receiving the gifts others want to bless us with, I need to remember that it could all be gone in a flash. The royal wedding got me so excited about ours, and thankful for our small guest list. :)

What joy there is knowing that we will soon be married and then life can resume. Andrew and I will make our house (apt) a home and have people over and the news of the day will be work at the office and my care will be what to make for dinner.

Until then, I'm going to savor each of my last days as a single girl, and as CCC.