Weekend Recap

Thursday night we met up with friends at Pazzo's that we haven't seen in forever.  Scott and Audrey are truly amazing people and it was great to hear about their lives.  Scott just finished teaching in San Fransisco for Teach for America and is now at law school, and Audrey works for Not for Sale, a nonprofit organization helping to end human trafficking.  Honestly, both of them are living saints.

Friday night and Saturday morning I worked on my big fifty presentation that I give tomorrow for my thesis seminar that is required to graduate.  While C went to Keeneland. So jealous! At least it will be over tomorrow evening.

Saturday night we went to UK game.  Although we lost, we played a heck of a game and I am so proud of my Cats.  I made two dishes that went over well, so i'll share the easier recipe: 

 Jalapeno Cheese Squares
-1 lb of cheddar cheese
-diced pimentos and jalapenos to taste
-8-10 eggs

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Mix the cheddar cheese, pimentos and jalapenos together in a 9x13 pan.  In a separate bowl, beat the eggs.  Pour the eggs over the cheese mixture and let bake until the top is golden brown (about 25 or 30 minutes). 

Seriously, easiest thing every that everyone seems to love. Also, I mix it all together (including the eggs) ahead of time, so it can save you time there.  It also makes a great dish for a morning game because it kind of reminds me of a breakfast casserole or omelet. 

My mom and stepdad came up for the game, so it was great to see them.  We all went to church in the morning, then went to lunch and to the pumpkin patch.  

We went to Boyd's orchard this year, which honestly wasn't my favorite one as an adult.  It seems like a great place if you have little kids or if you're looking for a pseudo farm experience.  All the large pumpkins were already picked and placed in the front for you to just go select which of the pre-picked pumpkins you wanted.  They have a nice country-themed store with all sorts of goodies baked and picked, but it wasn't the "lets go out in the field and pick the Great Pumpkin and apples" experience I prefer.  I picked up a great-smelling sweet potato pie candle and a cute spider stand for a pumpkin (ours doesn't have the eyes, which is fine because we like to carve our pumpkins): 

We also just purchased our pumpkins and apples pre-picked since we didn't have much a choice. Oh well, we go out to an orchard every year, so at least we know not to go back to that one until we have little kids because they did have child-size pumpkins in a field to pick and had wagons to ride in, ponies, a petting zoo, etc.  

Funniest moment of the weekend though goes to a neighborhood child.  The boy saw me in the yard arranging my pumpkins with pup, and ran over to pet her.  C came out, and of course the boy had to ask, "Is that your daddy?" I about lost it laughing so hard, and C just shook his head.  It is clearly because the man hasn't shaved in a month, so he has a total beard going.  Of course, the kid just wanted someone to play with him, so C got a helper with washing the cars  in the driveway for two hours.  It was cute, until he kept coming by and ringing the doorbell and asking if we (or the dog) could play with him. Seriously, 4 separate times that evening. I have a feeling this probably won't stop anytime soon...

Hope everyone had a great weekend!  Now, off to keep working on this  wonderful presentation...

Here's to Us

Today Cam and I celebrate five years of being "us." I am so grateful and blessed to have such a wonderful, supportive, and loving best friend that I get to call my husband.  It doesn't hurt that he's pretty handsome too.  

 First picture of us together, Delt Formal in Charleston 2005

Us during our study abroad in Prague, 2006

Us as glasses-wearing nerds in San Fran, 2007

Us in our engagement pictures at a family friend's horse farm, 2008 

Us scuba diving in the Caribbean on our honeymoon, 2009 

Us at a rehearsal dinner in Milwaukee, 2010

Here's to a lifetime of kisses just as good as the first. I love him.  I love us. 
 

Habitat For Humanity

Cam and I volunteered this weekend with Habitat for Humanity with the firm I am interning at this summer.  It was an absolute blast, and after learning more about Habitat, we definitely are interested in doing more builds and being more involved in such a wonderful charity. 

Two local firms partnered for this build and were listed as "Buildable Hours"--how cute is that?

 

The moment Cam thought he'd never see--me in a hard hat with a hammer and Demarcus Cousins style glasses.  See those awesomely crooked rows of nails? All me.

Hubs, also looking cool.  Except he actually knew what he was doing.

Midway through the build. The support beams were built and the floor joists were nailed in place.

Our finished project--we had about half of the subflooring put in.

Not only did I take pictures, but the news came to our build site  and the clip was the "top news story" on a story about funding for a Habitat build in honor of Amanda Ross (but, I know, lawyers actually doing something good for the community is newsworthy in and of itself).  Here's the link to the clip (Cam's in the blue hard hat and DTD shirt and I'm in an orange hard hat and white shirt and navy shorts).  No making fun of my sitting-indian-style hammering skills either. It was effective, okay?!

 

Also, in a completely unrelated note, is anyone up for a Lexington get together? Jill had mentioned it, and I think it would be fun! August 27/28th works for me--does anyone else want to do this? 

Hope everyone had a good weekend!

Let the Destruction Begin

Grrr..anyone else's blogger not work all morning? Sorry this is later in the day, but I kept getting an error when I tried to post this morning.

Anniversary weekend went well. Cam and I went to dinner downtown and then out for drinks (and late night Goodfella's pizza) with a few friends. Last night, we opened up an anniversary bottle of wine (we had guests at the rehearsal sign bottles of wine that we are opening on various anniversaries) and made stirfry. We also cleaned up the house, went to Lowe's and picked up 6 recessed can lights, and moved practically everything out of our kitchen because....

our kitchen remodel begins today!

We are getting our soffit taken out, the lighting installed, the backsplash and counters taken out, the room re-painted, the island built, new counter installed, and then the cabinets painted. The work should be completed by the end of June. 

In honor of our remodel, here are two coupons from Lowes:

This one is apparently a better deal percentage-wise for a smaller purchase (20% off a $50 purchase but a 10% off a $250 purchase).  But, who am I to question coupons?

Housewife of the Year Award

According to my husband goes to me.

So I may or may not have tried to be good and cut back on our dry cleaning bill by washing a sweater that states it can be machine washed on the tag with our other darks.  The sweater may or may not have shedded all over hubby's polo shirt (to the point it looked like it had been our cat and dog's blanket for 10 years).  I may or may not have tried to hide it and grab the lint roller quickly to try to de-fuzz the polo, at which point my hubby may or may not have come upstairs and seen 2 used sheets of lint roller on the floor, a filthy sweater, and me frantically trying to fix the situation.   And he may or may not have laughed hysterically and told me just to wash it again becuase there clearly weren't going to be enough lint roller sheets on the roll. 

My favorite part: hubby suggested that wanted to make a blog to share my awful house-wife skills (I'll admit, he does have some good stories--I didn't know how to do dishes, laundry, or basically anything when we got married and had some pretty funny attempts at learning) and would entitle this post "Is she serious?" and just put a picture of up of the filthy sweater hanging in his closet (fyi, there is no such picture, otherwise I would have included it in this post, I promise). We were literally laughing for hours about how fuzzy his shirt was from the measley sweater. 

I know he was clearly kidding about blogging, but I had never thought about my husband having a blog or what he would even blog about (besides his addiction to watches).  Cam reads mine and occasionally takes photographs that he deems "blog worthy," but he isn't really involved in my blog at all, so I never think of him even reading my blog. I would love to read a blog he did, so I may make him do some "guest" postings on here if he would be so willing.  What would your husbands blog about? Are they involved at all in your blog? Would you want your husband blogging?

Derby Day in the Bluegrass...Home of Fast Ladies and Beautiful Horses

I am so proud to be a Kentuckian today. Being from Louisville, I went to the Derby almost every year.

Cam and I in the winner's circle and the paddock at Churchill

Unfortunately, law school and finals have (literally) gotten in the middle of that. Next year, I graduate the day before the Derby (Oaks day), so I am already planning on going.  Here are just a few of my favorite things about today that remind me why I love this great state:

My Old Kentucky Home

The Call to the Post

So ignore the "this is me" little clip and sorry its shaky, but it was by far the best version of Churchill's Call to the Post out there on Youtube.

Cam and I love the Call to the Post so much we had the bugler from Churchill come and perform the Call to the Post as our introduction at our reception. Once we entered, he played My Old Kentucky Home. It was absolutely one of my favorite parts of the night. Here are a few of the pics of it:

The Hats

Mint Juleps

The Horse Farms

Derby Pie

Bourbon Balls

We love the state so much, that I not only themed my blog and my wedding about the state, we also have a lot of home decor to reflect our Kentucky pride. Here's a peek into a few of the Kentucky themed items in our home.

We have these two posters framed in our living room from the Derby we went to together (with an abstract style Ashland Stakes framed poster on the other wall).

This is my favorite poster by far (its actually an Oaks picture, not a Derby picture. The Oaks is the fillies' race the day before the Derby, and its gotten to be just as big locally as the Derby). I think if and when I get a job, I will buy it for my office (or just buy it and put it it up in our home if I stay unemployed).

We have this "embossed running horse" pattern as our every day dishes (made from Louisville Stoneware):

And have these detail items from Louisville Stoneware up around the house (pitcher and plate on display in the kitchen and ceramic riding boot on a shelf in the living room dried wedding flowers in it).

We have a bourbon barrel as a end table in our living room with a horse lamp from Keeneland placed on it.

 

I just love this high holy day in Kentucky, rain or shine. Happy Derby Day!

Flashback Friday: Shoes

I found these pictures of us and realized where our shoe fetish started: 

 Now, we yes, you read that right, Cam too have over 50 pairs of shoes (after that, I stopped counting) that we just can't bear to part with.  

Now we know to thank our parents for getting this love of shoes instilled in us early...

Top Two Tuesday/Ten on Tuesday

I thought it would be fun to participate this week in Top 2 Tuesday and then decided it Ten on Tuesday looked fun too (thanks for the inspiration Jill!)







This week's top two is: Top two favorite magazines.




Gourmet Magazine (RIP)

I adored this magazine, and am so sad it just recently stopped.  I still use their website all the time to find good, free recipes.  

People Magazine

Who doesn't read people--because if it's in People, it has to be true, right? 

What are your favorite magazines?

Ten on Tuesday (v.10)

Visit Chelsea at Roots & Rings if you would like to join in the fun. 

1. If you could travel back in time, would you? What decade would you visit?
I think going back to the Viking's time would be awesome, or any medieval time in Europe.  Even the Victorian era would be such an eye opener.

2. What was your best Halloween costume? (fun to make? most creative?)
I made our costume's last year completely by hand (without a pattern or any help): we were Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head. It was so much work to make because each piece is dimensional and thus had to be stuffed and planned ahead. I also had never used a sewing machine in my life, but at least I learned how convenient they are!

Previous years' costumes for Cam and I include: 

Boy and Girl Scout.(bought official pieces and then threw together this costume)

Reindeer and Tacky Christmas (borrowed/scrounged these costumes up)

 Vodka and Martini (not a cute pic, but whatev. and we bought these)

Peter Pan and Tink (we made both of these costumes with Cam's mom's help)

3. Do you like your name? If you weren’t called by your name, what would you want to be called?
I go by my middle name and could kill my parents for this. NEVER do this to a child, especially a girl. I prefer my middle name (Lauren) over my first name, but I sometimes  wish my parents named me Laurel as they initially wanted to because it's so unique.

4. In the past year, what is the BEST recipe you made. Please share it!
Bahaha, me cook? Um. I think just a simple roasted red pepper sauce I made was good, or peach gelato. I think I have blogged both recipes before under "food."

5. Look around – what is the nearest object or picture hanging on the wall?
The Derby and Oaks prints from 2007 framed on our living room wall.

6. What was the last movie you saw in a theater? Would you recommend it?
Avatar. I liked it fine, but I loved the IMax 3-D--it was awesome! I really want to see Alice in Wonderland this way soon.

7. Did you go to summer camp? Will you/do you send your kids to camp?
I went to cheerleading camp in high school for one week in the summer and a Naval day camp when I was young and my mom worked on the Navy base.  I think I will definitely send my kids to camp--I think it'd be good for them!

8. What kind of ringtone do you have?
The default ring for Blackberry (boring, I know).

9. Where is the farthest away from home you have ever been?
Europe probably. I guess geographically it'd be Prague.

10. Has anyone ever written a song or a poem for or about you?
Not that I can remember...

 

Hippity Hoppity

Happy Easter! Mrs. Easter Bunny brought Gigi's cupcakes to our family Easter basket (she was banned from bringing Graeters' ice cream in the house).  Cam and I went to church with friends and now are heading up to see my family for the afternoon.

 
Just for laughs, here's Cam and I at round 2 or 3 years old on Easter:

Cam's mom emailed this to me this the other morning and I think it is too cute and adorable not to share: 

Recently, the Easter Bunny has had his identity stolen. Beware of these impostors who may try to enter your home: