Happy Friday!

I can't believe this week is over already! Between starting tennis lessons, working around the house and several trips to Lowes, finalizing the decor proposal for an upcoming charity event (basically feels like the pressure of planning a wedding!), and, you know, actual work, this week has gone by in a flash. And we've got a busy weekend planned too, I'm running jogging a 5k tomorrow, my husband has got a soccer game, and we'll be making some really good progress with our bathroom renovation.

With everything going on, I still haven't gotten around to narrowing down all of the photos from our whirlwind Florida trip last week, but I couldn't resist sharing what I think is going to be my favorite of the trip!

I got to hold the softest little baby alligator at the park where they film Animal Planet's Gator Boys! Definitely one of the highlights of the trip, although I kind of wish we hadn't done a 15 mile bike ride through the Everglades in 90 degree weather right before, so my hair and makeup would have been cuter for the photo opp. Oh well, I'm sure the baby gator didn't mind my disheveled look. :)

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend planned. Is anyone doing any Halloween activities?

Funny Cat Photo For Your Friday

I sent this photo to Melinda at Palindrome at Home a couple of months ago, because she inspired me to see if I could "bread" one of my cats. Yes, I know, totally old and stale internet meme at this point!

But I just came across the photo again and it made me laugh, so I thought I'd share it here. Hope it makes you smile too!

(I'm pretty sure he was licking his lips in anticipation of eating the bread off his face!)

Hope you all have a great weekend! Anyone got any fun plans?

Surprise, surprise, we will be working on the house. On the agenda for this weekend is organizing my home office/closet bedroom while my husband works on his own office, looking at bathroom tile ideas, attacking the still completely full of boxes dining room, and maybe removing wallpaper from the downstairs bathroom. Depends on how ambitious and motivated we feel like being. Our to do list is so long at this point that we are just kind of picking what to do next by what we feel like at the moment. But we also need to make time to enjoy our deck though, since we only have about a month left before it gets humid and icky out! Gotta enjoy "first summer" while it lasts!

Happy Friday! And happy Mother's Day to any of you mothers reading (hi Mom!).

A New Kind of Backyard Friend!

Y'all know by now how much I've LOVED spotting wildlife in our yard ever since we moved to NC. Well I found a new type of animal to watch in our new backyard!

Do you see it? Between the slats of the deck?

How about now?

It's a gorgeous hawk! We've seen this guy a couple of times a day, flying through our yard down to the little runoff creek and up along it, searching for food. I've even seen him flying with a little snake in his mouth!

Happiness Is: Friday!

Really, that's all it's taking to make me happy this week, just the fact that it's finally Friday!

For some reason this week has seemed really long, probably because last week was a short week. I'm looking forward to happy hour tonight with some lovely bees, and a productive weekend doing exciting things like cleaning and doing laundry. And maybe I can convince my husband to venture out to get new cell phones, our contract was up for renewal last month and I'm dying for a new phone, since my G1 is getting sloooowwww!

Happy Friday everyone!

Happiness Is: A Catch Up Weekend

Oh, hi there! Anybody miss me?

Yep, I've been slacking all week on blogging, but this weekend we finally have nothing planned! No concerts, no trips, no activities, nothing!

Ok, well, not really nothing, we do have a lot to catch up on around the house, since we've been so busy lately. But I'll be back next week, refreshed, caught up, and with some more posts on all we've been up to lately, plus some easy new recipes I've tried.

Have a lovely weekend everyone!

(Hiking near Falls Lake, North Carolina, last weekend. Photo taken by me.)

Happiness Is: My Husband Being Older Than I Am

Today is this guy's birthday!

(by Shoot Me Now Photography)

I love that for the next 5 months I can give him crap about him being "so old." That is, until my birthday in April, when we'll be the same age again.

The hubs wanted me to combine his birthday and Christmas presents this year, to get him a new laptop, so he won't be getting that until Christmas. However, I did get him a useful, but joke gift, to open this weekend. Fans of Always Sunny In Philadelphia might be able to guess what it is....

We've got another jam-packed fun weekend planned, including a party, a bee meet up, hiking, and lots of other fun activities. I can't wait to share next week.

Hope everyone has a wonderful first weekend of November! (Wow, can you believe it's already November?!? Where did this year go?)

Happiness Is: Halloween

I hope everyone has a wonderful Halloween weekend! I didn't carve a pumpkin this year, but if I did, this is what it would have looked like:

{Pumpkin image from Google Images, Weddingbee bee image poorly drawn in Illustrator by me}

I still don't know if or what we're doing for Halloween on Saturday, but I've got a (boring, store bought) costume. Tonight we have a friend's birthday party to go to, that's not Halloween themed, and Sunday we'll be giving out candy to the 30 or so kids in our neighborhood. It will be the first Halloween in a couple years that we'll actually be home to hand out candy!

Have a safe and fun weekend!

Happiness Is: Mountains!

I still need to write about our amazing trip last weekend, to the Colorado Rocky Mountains. But in the meantime, here's a teaser...just look at those mountains and those clouds, just a gorgeous part of our country!

But instead of blogging this weekend, I'll have the privilege of attending the Perpetual Party Planner's wedding, which will be amazing. I'm so excited to see all the little details of her wedding come together, after all, I've been following her blog for over a year now! And on Sunday we have a concert to attend with our wedding officiant friend, and I'm crossing my fingers that the 30-40% chance of rain this weekend doesn't happen, both for Kim's wedding's sake, and the fact that the concert on Sunday is outside!

Does anyone else have a busy weekend planned? And please keep your fingers crossed for Kim that there's no rain on her wedding day!

Happiness Is: A Day Off Work!

I'm sure this is how I'm going to be feeling all day, because I have the day off! (You're jealous, I know.)

{Source}

Much needed freedom, because I've had a really rough week. The good news is that I think my hair is ok now, and I'll be sharing pics soon, once I have a chance to take them! In other good news, we have a jam-packed fun weekend ahead, and I can't wait. I promise updates on Monday!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Happiness Is: Gettin' My Hair Did

I can't even tell you how excited I am to go to the salon this weekend for a much needed cut and highlights.

I usually go every 2 1/2 to 3 months, but this time it's been almost 4 months--since right before our wedding! My schedule has just been too crazy to fit it in. But my roots definitely need some love, and my hair is always less frizzy after being colored, as you can see from these pics.

(This is after being blow dried straight, straightened with a wide curling iron, and then curling the ends under. Still kinda frizzy.)

(My roots bug the heck out of me, but actually aren't that bad. I always get 3 colors of highlights put in, 2 shades of blonde and my natural light brown, so the grow out looks more natural.)

And no, I won't be doing a "post wedding chop." I love my long hair, even though it takes a lot of time and products. But I think I'll get my layers trimmed up a little higher than normal. That way it will look more wavy in the back when I curl it, instead of the curls just concentrated at the bottom like it is now.


Did you do (or will you do) a post wedding chop? And does anyone have anything more fun than a haircut planned for this weekend?

Our Meet and Greet With Sara Bareilles!

This past weekend was a blast!

On Sunday we attended a free concert in Golden Gate Park that was put on by a local radio station I listen to. Along with 14,000 other people, we enjoyed about 5 hours of music from Ryan Star, Five for Fighting, Natasha Bedingfield, Plain White T’s, and Sara Bareilles.

But the best part was that we weren’t “slumming it” with the rest of the crowd, sitting on blankets on the grass. Oh no! We were pimpin’ it with the VIPs in our own sectioned off area, with chairs, tables, umbrellas, free BBQ lunch, private bar area, AND we got to meet Sara Bareilles in person!

This VIP access was all due to the fact that I won the tickets from the radio station’s morning show, that I listen to everyday.

So, wanna see some pics?

Our VIP area, and BBQ lunch.

We had to wear special badges so we could come and go from our area. Gotta keep the riff-raff out, ya know!

The hosts of the morning show were in the VIP area, doing live broadcasts. As a dedicated listener, it was really cool to get to see them doing their thing.

Natasha Bedingfield, who was really, really good live! For some reason I had expected her to not be very good live (like Katy Perry on SNL, did anyone see that? Yikes!), but instead I was quite impressed.

Plain White T's went on next, and the lawn really started to get crowded.

While the Plain White T's were performing, we were given our cue to line up to meet Sara Bareilles. But first, I've gotta share some pics of the crazies. Seems like there are always some odd ones in San Francisco.

First up, this guy. Shirtless, wearing black dress slacks, and a backpack. He was quite entertaining during Natasha's performance, belting out all the words to her songs, and dancing. Doesn't look like your typical girlie pop music fan....

....but then, neither does this next guy. This guy was just a total mess. Belligerent, drinking beers he snuck in, could barely stand, but still dancing and dripping beer down his hairy chest. Klassy!

Anyway, back to Sara!

We had to wait in line for about 10 or 15 minutes, while she greeted other VIPs.

Then it was our turn! She is so sweet and pretty in real life!

(Photo from the radio station's website)

We didn't get to spend long with her, but long enough for me to gush that she is one of my favorite artists, a handshake and a hug (afterward my husband was all, "I'll never wash my hand again!" Dork.), and got an autographed poster.

While the meet and greet was going on, they brought out even more free food, this time it was hamburgers, hotdogs, pies, brownies and cookies.

Then we just had to hang out and wait a few more minutes for the performance we'd really come for.

And I must say, the performance didn't disappoint! This was the second time we'd seen Sara Bareilles in concert, and she was amazing again.

I really need to get a Flip video camera, my camera does pretty good sound, but doesn't take very good quality videos.

A couple more pictures of the performance.

And another video, with less people getting in the way.

And that was it! The concert got done around 5pm, and an hour later we were home, and spent the rest of the evening vegging on the couch, and catching up on shows we'd DVR'd the week before. What a great weekend!

Happines Is: Playing Catch Up!

I'm so happy this week to report that we finally got our wedding photos! It's been a long 3 month wait, but I'm so excited that I can now catch up on posts for my other blog. I've got two wedding recap posts banked for next week, and am hoping to work on some more this weekend so I can go back up to my 3x a week posting average on that blog.

I know I posted this on Twitter yesterday, but it's one of my current favorite photos (although I seem to keep finding new favorites every day!)

(Photo by Shoot Me Now Photography)

Other than that, there's not much new going on. I've put some craft projects on hold while the hubs and I spend some time reviewing our financial goals (oooh, spreadsheets, exciting!), and try to figure out how and when we can actually afford to buy a house, or if it even makes sense when we live in one of the most expensive housing markets in the US. Sigh! Being an adult and having to prioritize our savings is a PITA!

Happy Friday everyone, and I hope you all have a great weekend!

Happiness Is: Drinking Buddies!

It seems most weekends the hubs and I do pretty tame things, like surf the internet from our couch, go hiking or out to dinner, or clean our garage. But not this weekend!

This weekend is the 2nd Annual Caltrain Pub Crawl, meaning 8+ Bars, 2 Meals, 35 Miles, In 12 Hours!

Basically, we’re meeting up with some friends, buying a Caltrain day pass, and riding up the peninsula, hoping on and off the train to have a drink or two at bars all along the way, until we end up in San Francisco. Last year was a blast, and we’re hoping even more people can join us this year!

(And this year I won't be the only girl, our officient/friend and his girlfriend are coming this year. Seems like most of our friend's wives and girlfriends prefer things like wine tasting over a good old fashioned pub crawl, for some strange reason!)

What are you plans this weekend?

Happiness Is: Wine

Happiness is a picnic and bottle of wine with my new husband.

(personal photo)

This weekend I'm hoping to convince The Mr. to go to check out the live music at a winery a couple miles from our house. Picchetti Winery regularly has something going on in the summers, and even though I've been a member of their wine club for years, we've never checked out their weekend events.

But what could be a better way to spend Sunday afternoon with my husband, than a picnic, a bottle of wine, and live music?

Do you have any fun plans for this weekend?