Our Wild Weekend

Oh yes- Brandon and I are huge party animals. We lived it up this past weekend during our little "vacation" here in Memphis.  We got wild and crazy and acted like we were 21 all over again.

Okay- that is your huge dose of sarcasm for the day.  

So even though we didn't party hardy we had a GREAT weekend.  After going back and forth and back and forth about taking a long weekend out of town to ourselves we finally decided to just rent a hotel room here in town.  The thought of being in an entire different state than my baby just didn't really sit well with me but Brandon and I really wanted a few nights to ourselves.  Staying in Memphis seemed like the perfect solution!

We actually had some Hilton points built up so we put them to good use and came out only paying $100 for 2 nights at our local Hilton hotel.  Score!

My mom drove into town Friday afternoon and my dad came and joined her later that night.  I kissed my little Annie Ruth about a dozen times before we left and made sure to tell my mom to expect lots of phone calls and texts!  Here are a couple of pics I snapped before we left:

I dropped B off at the hotel to watch a soccer game that was coming on and I went and ran a few errands around town.  I had been putting off these errands for awhile so it was nice to knock them out in an hour or two!  After that, we spent a little time laying out at the hotel pool and then headed to dinner and a movie.  We saw "Rock of Ages" and it was fantastic.  I can see how it might not be for everyone but B and I LOVED it!  Tons of great 80's songs and the outfits were awesome!  I so wish some of the 80's clothes would come back into style:)  Have I mentioned what a huge 80's fan I am??

After the movie it was nearing our bedtime so we crawled into bed for a little TV and relaxation- oh yes we are getting old!  We were up bright and early Saturday morning for a huge breakfast at a great local restaurant- Blue Plate Cafe.  Afterwards we headed downtown to walk down Main Street and window shop.  We had no specific purpose and it was so nice to just wander around holding hands:)

Lunch was another Memphis classic- Earnestine and Hazel's!  If you ever come to Memphis you must come here.  Tons of movies have been filmed here and another one is starting in a couple of weeks.  There is no menu- just the one and only "soul burger" and chips.  It started out as an apothecary shop then later became a brothel (gasp!) up until the mid '90s.  Now it is old and run down (but clean!) but that only adds to the character and charm! 


 After a quick trip to Babies R Us we holed ourselves up in our hotel room for the rest of the afternoon.  B watched a soccer game while I pretended to watch but really just played on the internet.  It was SO nice to just be LAZY for a change!  We had the best time!  We ate a quick dinner out and came back to the room to watch a movie in our pjs!  I do miss times like those but I wouldn't trade our life right now for anything!  Sunday morning I was hurrying Brandon to get ready and load our bags so I could see my baby girl!


We had a great weekend and I know my mom and dad had a lot of fun getting to spend time with her so it worked out great for us all!

A Little Trip Home

Anniston and I drove to Jackson, TN today to spend part of the day with my family.  It's been almost 4 months since we have made the trip and this was the first time I have driven with her by myself.  I will admit I was a tinsy bit worried she would get bored or restless and start screaming her head off while we were on the interstate and it would send me into a panic but really, I knew she would do fine.

She slept about 75% of the time and when she woke up and started squirming I quickly plugged in my iPod so we could jam out to "I'm A Little Teapot."  We only had to listen to it about 5 or 6 times before we reached Jackson.  Considering I did not want to throw the "I'm A Little Teapot playing iPod" out the window before we got there I would say it was a successful trip!

We met my mom at her work so she could show Anniston off to all her co-workers.  They've all seen her before, but it was when she was just a month or two old.  She is such a little ham- and so good natured.  She let anyone and everyone hold her and when someone would smile and talk to her she would just grin right back.  We also went to see my aunt Nancy, who works there as well and then we all headed over to her house to meet my grandmother for lunch.

We played hard after lunch so she would be good and worn out on the trip back.  They were all amazed at how much better she is pulling up now.  She is able to keep her balance better now and has gotten faster at pulling herself up.  We all had a lot of fun playing with her.

Playing peek-a-boo with Kay Kay...

Tickle fest on the couch with Great-Grandmother and Aunt Nancy...

Ooh, I love these bright, shiny buttons and necklace you have on....

She was definitely worn out after all that playing.  We stopped by my dad's work on the way out of town, and she had already fallen alseep.  I woke her up (slight mistake!) so my dad could see her thinking she would fall back asleep on the way home.  Nope.  She squirmed and fussed until I finally pulled over about halfway to Memphis and gave her a bottle to relax her a bit.  She finally fell asleep right outside of Memphis.  All in all- it was a very good trip.  She did very well for so much driving back and forth in one day!

What I'm Loving Wednesday

(1)  I'm loving that my vacation officially starts in 2 days!  B and I have a "stay-cation" planned here in Memphis and I'm so excited about it!  I also get to spend lots of time with Anniston and hopefully I can squeeze in some time to plan a little more of her birthday party!

(2)  I'm loving these iPhone/iPad covers I found at Toys R Us this past weekend.  They make your device completely baby proof (and that includes drool proof!)  I have several apps downloaded to entertain her when needed but I try to only use that as a last resort.  I don't want her to become addicted to the iPad plus I don't think it's good for her eyes to watch it a lot.  Sometimes when we are out at restaurants she needs a little something extra to entertain her during the last 15 minutes or so of our dinner so this will be good for that!

(3)  B and I have a new show- The United Stats of America.  This show is so cool- it talks about all kinds of unique stats in America.  Everything from height, weight, work, transportation- it is so interesting and the guys that host are really funny and witty.

(4)  I love that Anniston has started "dancing" to music.  Sometimes at night we turn on some music and sing along and dance to it.  She will sit on the floor and bounce up and down when the music comes on.  It is so cute!

A Little Bit of This & That

I'm feeling spoiled this week since I returned to work yesterday only to have today and tomorrow off again!  I do have to work this weekend but I get 3 days off this week!  Anniston and I have planned a lot of "chilling" at home these next two days.  We will probably get out some to run errands and such but I'm looking forward to laying low for the most part! Brandon and I have been busy planning another "stay-cation."  We went (actually I did) back and forth for months about whether we wanted to plan a mini vacation in June for just the two of us.  One week I wanted to and the next week I was unsure about spending time away from Anniston.  I have to take my vacations a week at a time so I thought if we planned a little 3 or 4 day trip I could make it since I would have all week off to spend the rest of the time with her.  A week or so ago we decided to fly to Chicago for a long weekend while my parents kept Anniston.  We were about to book our flights and I started to feel very anxious.  I had trouble going to sleep that night. I was very apprehensive about being in a completely different state than her.  I told  Brandon the next morning that I just didn't think I could do it and still have enough fun to justify spending the money.  So we changed our minds and decided not to go.  And that's our final decision!  We still wanted to have a little bit of "us" time during my vacation week so we are going to do another stay-cation here in Memphis!  I feel much better about this!  If I start missing her, all we have to do is come home!  Perfect!  I think we may even stay at the Peabody downtown- fancy schmancy!

I am so excited for my show to start up this summer------So You Think You Can Dance!  Aside from Vampire Diaries, this is probably my favorite show.  LOVE it.  I'm not that into Dancing With The Stars because they aren't professional dancers and you don't see the quality and technique as you do on SYTYCD.  I danced from the time I was 5 or 6 years old all the way through college when I was in the Dance Ensemble.  My all time favorite was tap (I even did a few competitions when I was in high school) but I also loved jazz and contemporary.  I'm too old to dance now so I re-live my dancing days through this show and I'm so excited it's back on!  I really, really hope Anniston wants to dance when she gets older!

It's time to start baby proofing the house!  Anniston hasn't gotten very fast yet but she is definitely getting around.  She's even trying to pull up on stuff!  Where did my little baby go?

I've GOT to get back to running.  I had a little touch of laziness the past couple of weeks and I can definitely tell a difference!  A and I actually went this morning and I feel great!  I ran 1.5 miles while pushing a 20 lb baby and I was very proud of myself!  I hope to try for 2 miles next time or 3 miles if I get to go by myself!

I'm off to spend some time playing with my baby girl and enjoying my two days off work!  Happy Wednesday!

My Family

I'm linking up with Neely today over at A Complete Waste of Makeup to share more about me and my family.  Since Valentine's day is tomorrow, I thought I would share a little about my husband and I, how we met, and about us starting our family.

In 2004, I was a second year pharmacy student at UT College of Pharmacy and Brandon was a logistical sales rep for a world-wide shipping company.  On my 24th birthday, some friends and I decided it would be fun to go sing some karaoke.  We ended up at a small, hole in the wall place and sang our hearts out.  Brandon had attended an engagement party earlier in the night, and a group of them decided to continue the party by singing some karaoke as well. (Well- his friends did but B opted out.)  A group of us girls got up to sing "Love Shack" (and quite terribly, I must add.)  That's when Brandon noticed me and an hour later as we were leaving he followed us out to the parking lot asking for my number. I had just gotten out of a relationship and was not about to give some random guy that I had not even talked to my phone number.  My friends, however, thought he was cute and looked normal enough so one of them slipped him my number as we walked off.  Looking back, I'm really glad they did.  He called me the next night and we talked for an hour or two just getting to know each other.  After a week or two of phone conversations, we had our first date. Obviously, it went well.  He called me the next day to ask if we could go out again.  I knew he was going to be special because he didn't even follow the 3 day date rule!  (The unspoken rule that you must wait 3 days before calling after a good date so you seem aloof, breezy, and cool.) 

One Saturday in June 2006, I arrived at his house after a very long day of work at Super D Drugstore.  I was in my fourth year of pharmacy school, in the middle of rotations, and working there as a pharmacy intern on the weekends for a little extra cash.  I was exhausted and stressed from a 6 day work week and was under the impression we were going out for a nice dinner.  When I walked in the door to his house, there were red roses laid out in a path leading me to the living room.  There were candles everywhere and the lights were dimmed low.  My first thought was that he was doing something nice for me because he knew I had a long week and was super stressed.  He had ordered pizza and had a blanket set out on the floor for us to have a little picnic.  We sat down to eat and he handed me the pizza box.  I grabbed a slice and immediately started chowing down because I was so hungry.  He looked at me strangely and handed me the pizza box again.  "Look in there again" he said.  I opened it back up and sitting in the corner was a black velvet ring box.  He took it from me and proposed!  Honestly, he couldn't have picked a better way.  I was so surprised, which made it even better.

Here are is a snapshot of my ring and a couple of photos from our engagement session:

We decided to wait until September, 2007 to have the wedding so I could finish up pharmacy school and get settled in at my new job.  I wanted to be able to fully concentrate on my last few months of school (and pass the boards) before starting the stress of planning a wedding.  Our wedding was everything I had hoped it would be.  Sadly, I don't have any digital copies of our professional wedding pictures but I do have some random snapshots of the festivities.

Engagement party

Rehearsal dinner

getting ready!

This was actually a pic taken for my bridal portrait shots.  For the day of, I had my hair up and a beautiful veil:)  I got to walk down a huge, southern-style staircase and pretended I was Scarlett from Gone With the Wind.

My beautiful bridesmaids

In December 2007 we welcomed the first member of our family- our beautiful boxer, Ruby.  I spoil her every chance I get.  She is seriously the best dog I know and we love her so much!  Here are a couple of her puppy pics from the first day we got her:

B and I had four wonderful years to enjoy just being "us."  We traveled, had plenty of date nights, and sometimes just plain goofed off.   It was a lot of fun and I'm really glad we waited awhile before having kids.  We were both so ready for parenthood by the time Anniston.

Fun times with just the two of us:

Honeymoon- Playa del Carmen, Mexico 2007

 Go TIGERS!

Biltmore- Asheville, NC 2006

San Francisco 2005

In October 2011, we welcomed our first child, Anniston Ruth.  Read all about her arrival here.  Our lives couldn't be more complete right now- and I have a feeling it's going to keep getting better!

Fill in the Blank Friday

I'm linking up today with The Little Things We Do to do my first Fill in the Blank Friday!

1.  My favorite place I've ever traveled to is   Boston.  I love the charm and the big city life at the same time.  I LOVE all the history that's associated with it.

2.  Italy is where I'd love to go someday.

3.  I pass time on a plane/bus by  focusing on breathing in and out and not puking.  I get really, really motion sick and I've spent several plane rides hugging the barf bag or the airplane toilet. Fun times.

4.  My three must-haves when I travel are:  make-up (you never know when you might get stuck somewhere), a bottle of diet coke, and, my motion sickness wrist bracelets.

5.  My favorite travel companion is  my hubby.  He does all the planning!

6.  The craziest thing that ever happened to me when I traveled is  probably losing our luggage in Mexico on our honeymoon.  We flew into Cancun and were going to take a bus to Playa Del Carmen.  Our luggage was on another plane when we flew into Cancun so we had to stay there and wait on it before traveling to Playa Del Carmen.  I was one unhappy camper.  I did NOT want to spend my honeymoon partying with the college age spring breakers in Cancun!  Thankfully, it was there later that night!

7.  The most exotic food I've ever tried while traveling  Ha.  If you know me at all you know that I'm a VERY picky eater and have a hard time trying new things! I did get really freaked out (like literally let out a little squeal in the restaurant) when we were in Boston and our waiter shoved a live lobster in our faces in order to see what size of lobster B wanted to have for dinner.  I was traumatized.

8.  If I could live anywhere else, I'd live in   Boston.  Hands down.

9. I've been to 10 states in the US

Yay! My first tag!

I was so excited when my friend Sarah at Moske Monkey Business tagged me to play along in this fun post.  I'm still new to the blogging world so I'm thrilled to be able to join the fun.  Thanks Sarah!

The Rules

1. You must post the rules.

2. Post 11 fun facts about yourself on the blog post.

3. Answer the questions the tagger set for you in their post,

and then create 11 new questions for the people you tagged.

4. Tag 12 people and link them on your post.   (I still don't know that many people in the blogging world so I'm just going to tag the few that I do know!)

5. Let them know you've tagged them!

Facts About Me

1.  I MUST have a diet coke ASAP in the mornings before I can even begin to start my day.

2.  I can recite every line in every episode to FRIENDS.  I love that show.

3.  I used to be a really good tap dancer- I might still have a few good moves left in me:)

4.  I love having a glass of wine and taking a bubble bath- pure bliss!

5.  I sometimes really miss school- crazy, I know.  I was a student for 8 long years and loved organizing all my notebooks and getting good grades on tests.  I'm a dork, I know.

6.  The only meats I eat are ground beef and sausage- and I don't eat them all that much.  I do not (nor have EVER) eaten any other forms of meat.  I'm weird.

7.  I still really miss my Humpty Dumpty and Care Bears that had to be thrown away when I was in kindergarten because I got head lice.  I still think about them and it makes me sad:(

8.  I've met the guys on the the TV show "Pawn Stars" that comes on the History Channel.  B and I were actually extras on the episode "Phoning it in."  Only my arm made the cut.  Brandon, however, was a lot of shots "pretending" to shop in the store.

9.  I hate roller coasters- I get motion sick and will throw up afterwards.

10.  My favorite time periods are the 1920's and the 1950's.  I've always thought it would be a cool time to live in.

11.  B and I love to watch all the house shows on HGTV.  House Hunters and Property Virgins are our favorites.  I've always wanted to be on there when we look to buy another house!

Questions from Sarah

1.  What is your all time favorite movie?

Dirty Dancing.  "Nobody puts Baby in the corner"  Love it!

2.  If I come to your city, what's the one thing that I MUST do?

Graceland, baby!  I love Elvis and it's so neat that he used to live about 20 minutes from my house!

3.  What kind of car do you drive?

GMC Envoy- my first SUV......and I love it.  I will never go back to a car.

4.  What is your favorite place to shop?

J Crew!  Cute, classic, and a little bit trendy- perfect!

5.  What is the best place you have ever been?

Boston, MA.  I could SO live there.  It is a big city but so quaint at the same time.  I love all the history associated with it.  I want to go back the first chance we get!

Us at Fenway Park in Boston

6.  Would you ever get plastic surgery?

Probably not.  I'm too scared something will go wrong.  Plus, God made us the way we are and I don't think we should alter that.

7.  What is your favorite chain restaurant?

Olive Garden!  Salad, breadsticks, and CARBS!  Yum yum.

8.  Do you like your job?

Yes- I love it.  I love getting to know my patients and feeling like I can make a difference in their health.  I love it when I can give people medical advice and they tell me that it really helped them.

9.  Do you watch the Bachelor?  If so...who do you like/not like?

I haven't watched the show in years...

10.  Beach or Mountains?

Beach!  I'm not really the outdoor/nature type of girl...

Brandon and I in Mexico on our honeymoon!

11.  If you could go back...would you do things differently?

Maybe...but I feel you learn through the choices you make and experiences you've had.  Each one makes you the person you are today.

Tag!

Tami @ Little Moments Like This

Andrea @ Life in Dawleywood

Allie @ Allie + Brandon

Natalie @ Corporate to Domestic

My Questions for you guys:

1.  If you could meet one famous person to sit down and have a conversation with, who would it be and why?

2.  If you had a day off with nothing that you HAD to do- how would you spend it?

3.  What is your favorite fashion item that you own?

4.  If you were to paint your nails today, what color would you paint them?

5.  What was your favorite cartoon growing up?

6.  If you were given $500 how would you spend it?

7.  What is your least favorite chore to do?

8.  What is your favorite website to visit?

9.  Do you prefer lipstick or lipgloss?

10.  What is your best childhood memory?

11.  Where are you going to vacation this year?

Hope you play along!

Our "Stay-cation"

Last night Brandon and I had us a little "stay-cation" right here in Memphis.  My parents came to stay the night at our house to watch Anniston and Ruby so Brandon and I headed downtown to Mud Island and stayed at the River Inn in Harbor Town.

Driving down along the Mississippi River and seeing all the people out running and walking their dogs brought back so many memories of when I used to live there during pharmacy school.  I have such great memories of those times- I had met some great friends, I had a great career ahead of me, and Brandon and I had just begun to date.  Brandon and I reminisced and shared funny stories that we remembered from those days.   I was nice to go back in time and remember that time in my life.  I couldn't help but think how much has changed in just a couple of years.

Back when I lived on Mud Island, they had not even built the hotel or the restaurants below it yet so it was a new experience for us both.  We were greeted in the lobby with a glass of Chardonnay for me and Merlot for Brandon (how fancy!).  We were personally shown to our room and were told that chocolate truffles along with more wine would be delivered to our room at 8 pm.  We had a great room with a beautiful view of the mighty Mississippi in front of us.

Our view out over the Mississippi- a little blurry because it's taken with my iphone!

We ate dinner that night at Tugs- the restaurant below the hotel.  It was very casual but also nice.  They had the most amazing fried onion shoestrings!  Yummy (but also very bad for me!).

 Again- kind of grainy but oh, well!

After dinner we headed over to TJ Mulligans on Main St. to watch football and play trivia.  We started getting sleepy at about 8:30 so we headed on back to the hotel to lounge around and watch a little TV before getting a full night of sleep!!!  Funny how a baby changes your sleep habits even when you're away for the night! The next morning we enjoyed a complimentary breakfast at a Memphis classic- Paulette's.  Blueberry pancakes, fresh croissants, eggs, bacon- we were in heaven!  After breakfast we hurried back home because even though we had a lot of fun, I was SO ready to see my little Anniston Ruth!  I had missed her so much!  I'm so lucky to have such great parents to take such good care of her and give us a date night here and there.