An Ode To My Birthday

The Man, The Myth, The Legend

Chad thinks that I bash him too much on my blog and make him appear like a sissy so, in honor of his 32nd Birthday I give you 32 reasons why my manly husband is the greatest guy ever and why I love him so much.

1. He is strikingly handsome.
2. He laughs at my jokes and thinks I'm funny.
3. He kills bugs.
4. He takes out the trash and recycle because almost after 6 years of living in the same house, I still don't know what days the trash guy comes.
5. He makes me yummy dinners.
6. He is a very hard worker and is good at his job.
7. He empties the dishwasher without me asking.
8. He gets me awesome gifts like a Nook.
9. He knows how to spell everything.
10. He learned how to put the coffee pot back together.
11. He gives good feet rubs.
12. He takes pride in whatever he does.
13. He is a good son and calls his parents every week.
14. He lets me drag him to Old Time Pottery.
15. He is a great golfer.
16. He loves our fur balls, gives them food, treats, love and good rubbins'.
17. He is very competitive.
18. He is good with saving money.
19. He goes grocery shopping when I don't want to.
20. He has a great sense of humor.
21. He loves his family.
22. He keeps me motivated to go to the gym.
23. He puts up with my crazy antics.
24. He hangs all the pictures and stuff on the walls and it comes out straight (unlike me).
25. He is great with numbers and math.
26. He teaches me new stuff every day.
27. He lets me watch my vampire shows on the good t.v. when sports are on.
28. He always picks the best restaurants to go to.
29. He plans awesome vacations.
30. He can reach the stuff on the top shelf.
31. He knows a lot about wine.
32. He loves me and always has my back.

This guy is my everything.

Happy Birthday Chad! I love you!

Blonde Ambition

I was born a blonde. Okay, I don't think I had much hair, if any at all, but when it did grow in it was blonde.

When I was about 13 or 14 my blonde hair started getting darker and becoming more of a dirty blonde color. This was also around the time I started to highlight my hair. I kept blonde until I was about 18 or so. By this point I was over being blonde and I bought a box of dark brown hair dye.

I liked it a lot. It had a deep red in it which then lead me to dying my hair red. I loved my red hair. Love, love, loved it. I met my husband when I had red hair. After we got to know each other a little better he told he didn't care for it too much. I have to admit it was a little weird when my color would fade and we would having matching hair color.

So back to blonde I went but this time around and for the next couple of years I noticed my roots were getting crazy dark. In an attempt to not look like a strung out crack whore I dyed it brown again.

I've been all shades of brown for many years now and I honestly couldn't have told you what my natural color was until now. I haven't dyed my hair in almost two years and I just cut the last remaining bit of color off. My hair grows super slow by the way.

I've enjoyed not having to spend an arm and a leg to have my hair colored and I learned to like my natural color .... brown with a few stranglers of white. Uh huh, yup, that's right. The one time I stop dying my hair after all these years and this is what I discover.

I actually discovered it last year while we were in Savannah but my husband convinced me that it was a super platinum blonde strand. I only believed him because I actually do have blonde strands but I still plucked it just be safe. I am too young to be getting whites! But alas, the old wives tale is true. More have popped up all over the place! I have now verified the true authenticity of the new ones with others. It is white.

I'm not even 30 yet (I'm 29 years and 355 days old). Now what am I suppose to yell at our hypothetical children when they drive me nuts? The cat is out of the bag. "This wrinkle is from you!" Nevermind, I'll take the white. I'll be a 30-something, baby faced, Florence Henderson.
 

Channeling Mrs. Brady

I've Been Bamboozled

Ever have decorating-block? I don't know why I have such great ideas for others but when it came to our house I had a good case of decorating-block.

The corner of our bedroom is a lonely one. I attempted to fill in the oh-so-lonesome place with a mirror once. It didn't work. I vowed to myself not to look at that dark and dreary hole until we got some new furniture. Well, the furniture came and our little junction was still without a function.

The Old Lonely Corner

The New Old Lonely Corner

My Aunt suggested that we get something big and tall, like a faux bamboo tree. Why didn't I think of that?! Duh! I went searching for a faux bamboo tree which is a lot easier said then done. First of all I couldn't find any at our nearby stores and secondly the ones I saw online were a ton of money which I was not willing to spend on a tree, especially one that wasn't even real.

In a last ditch effort I dragged my unwilling husband to Old Time Pottery. I found a pretty good selection of trees that didn't scream "I'm fake!" like a set of new shiny boobays. We did find a fake bamboo but it was quite wimpy. I almost settled on a ficus but it just feel right. I think faux plants look great in other people's houses but I just couldn't picture one in mine.

I left Chad to play Angry Birds while I went from end to end at OTP looking for ideas for our holy hole. I found some super tall sticks which made me remember this twiggy thing I saw at Ikea.

Ikea Insipration

With my husband and sticks in tow I was off to find a vase which I soon found out was even more difficult than finding a faux tree. Since the sticks were so lengthy I needed a tall vase so the whole thing wouldn't topple over but one with an opening that wasn't so ginormous like a planter.

As much as Chad hates to go decor shopping with me, this is exactly why I drag him with me ... I miracously found a tall enough vase for the sticks at Home Goods. Hooray! That was until it rolled off the back of the seat and shattered into a bunch of tiny effing pieces. I had to go to another Home Goods on the opposite side of town to find another one but this time around  I wasn't taking any chances. Safety first!

After all that hoopla this is what I was left with. The Leaning Tower of Twiza. Sure the vase will stand up and not wobble on a flat, hard surface but carpet? That would be a no-go.

The Leaning Tower of Twiza

The good news is that I spotted not one but two faux bamboo trees in the 2nd Home Goods store. With promises of candy and back rubs I got Chad to come with me to check out the trees and we got one! Was it love at first sight? No, more like like-at-first-sight. We are still in the "getting to know you" stages of dating but so far it is starting to look like the beginning of a nice relationship.

The New New Not-So-Lonely Corner

Niner, Niner

Side by Side, Year by Year.

"It's so great to find that one special person you want to annoy for the rest of your life." - Rita Rudner

 

 

Massachusetts Travelathon

All of our Massachusetts Stops

We recently traveled to Osterville, Massachusetts for a good friend's wedding. We decided to make a mini-vacation out of it and packed in as many things as we could do.

Starting with a 6:25am flight from the happiest hottest place on earth we traveled to the center of Yankee haters. After about an hour of trying to get our GPS and iPhone Maps App to "locate" itself and stop recalculating, we found parking near Boston Common. We spent the day in Boston walking the Freedom Trail. All that walking made us hungry so we stopped by Nico and filled up on gnocchi sorrentina, wine and a humungous fettuccine seafood pot. For dessert we went on a Ghost Tour. Yep, more walking. I am guestimating we walked about 7 miles that day.

We had some time to kill on Saturday before the wedding so before heading to our Bed and Breakfast in Hyannis we stopped into LA Fitness in Walpole because we apparently didn't get enough exercise in the day before.

We left with plenty of time to spare but hit horrendous traffic on the way to the Cape Cod area. This will be the first of many times we get slowed down. Thank goodness we made in just in time to see Keri and Dave say "I Do" and then we ate lots of lobster and danced to Michael Jackson's Thriller. I vowed to myself to never dance in heels again after busting my arse on the dance floor. I wasn't even drinking ... that much.

Day three was a day spent in Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard. We read online that biking was the way to go so we rented two bikes and with our trusty map we set out for a leisurely ride across the island. I must of misheard the guy when he said "8 miles" because we soon found out it was more like 8 miles each way. I mapped our route out and we did 18 mile since we took the wrong road in the beginning. To make matters a wee worse, we really had to huff it back since our ferry to Martha's Vineyard was leaving shortly. We made it back in time and spent the remainder of the day in the "Vineyard". I indulged in a Lobster Mac and Cheese Entree at the Sidecar Cafe and Bar in Oak Bluffs. It was heavenly.

The Not So Leisurely Bike Ride

Our last day was a rainy one but we were able to squeeze in a stop at the Pilgrim Hill Museum in Plymouth and the Samuel Adams Brewery in Boston before we headed to the airport to fly home.

So we flew 1,100 miles, drove 391, biked 18 and walked about 8. I think I need a vacation from this vacation.

Whimsical Peacocks

I was on the hunt for fun curtains for our bedroom which I soon discovered was a daunting task. I looked online, at Ikea, Ross, TJ Maxx and Target but I didn't find "it". After looking through the window coverings section of Bed, Bath, and Beyond, and feeling quite defeated, I strolled through the Shower Curtains. I actually found something I kinda liked. Selling this idea to my Manly Husband was going to be tricky though especially when I hung the shower curtain up. Totally girly? I sure thought so but the Man comes home and I show him the damage and he says "I like it. It's whimsical." The Whimsical Peacocks were here to stay.

Our first night with the Peacocks were lovely until the sun came up. I soon enlisted the help of my Mama, her trusty Sewing Machine named Sue, and for decorating support, my Auntie Ann. We went on the hunt for something to sew behind the Peacock, like real a curtain. Our hunt ended in the Shower section of good ol' Bed, Bath and Beyond where we found a fabric liner that did the job.

Mama and Sue hard at work

Installing the tie backs was a family affair as well. I measured, my Dad installed the hook, Chad was there for moral support and my Mom supervised.

Whimsical Peacocks in all her glory

The Old Boudoir

The New Boudoir