She's finally engaged!

One of my best friends, Rebecca, recently got engaged to one of my new favorite people, Scott Fitzgerald. The joy that accompanies engagements is so contagious. It has been so exciting to see smiles of happiness, relief, and contentment on both of their faces recently. The Tuesday after Scott proposed he and Rebecca shared with us at community group the story of their engagement day. It's an understatement to say that I've been waiting for this day for a long time.

Ladies and Gentlemen, feast your eyes on this gorgeous, monstrous rock: well done Scottie boy.
It was so cute to hear them both tell the story together:
I love this face
Similar looks were probably exchanged all night during their engagement dinner:
Practicing cutting the cake together (Although Rebecca needs to get used to doing things proactively with her left hand. Despite my hints at the need for flashing the ring around whenever she can, see it just hanging there?)
A little pink bubbly to celebrate a sure to come sparkling, pink, glamorous wedding day:
Love you Rebecca!

Pseudo Guest Blogger

Since my sister doesn't have a blog, or can't seem to pick a background theme, I will blog for her.

Heather married a sleep walker. Not just your average sleep walker but a sleep terrorist. He has been known to attempt to jump out of dorm windows, propel himself off his bunk bed, punch deep holes in his ceiling while standing on the bed (bloody arm and hand abrasions included), and many more oddities that I do not remember. He also can have obscure conversations during sleep. Heather posted this one on Facebook not too long ago and it's just too funny to forget:

"The other night I woke up to Matt hopping out of bed, shouting at me that I tried to kill him with a poisoned candy apple. When I finally convinced him that he was sleep walking and dreaming, he climbed back into bed and turned away from me, saying that I had hurt his heart with my evilness. Whoever said married life is dull, was wrong."

Victory!

After 3.5 years of marriage Michael and I finally agree on how to roll the toilet paper. He crossed over to my side....we roll OVER. Marriage only gets better through the years.

Freakshow

Almost daily I'm reminded of how much I miss him. Sunday it was Karaoke, Monday it was the moonwalk, Tuesday it was my dance class, Wednesday it was the 80's channel, Yesterday it was Free Willy. Today it was this photo in "My Pictures."

316 Reunion

Michael and some of his college friends/ roommates were able to pull off the first 316 reunion last weekend! 316 is an all guys house at UVA and can hold about 17 guys. It's not a frat, but might as well be. They had graduates from the class of '99 (I think) up through last year. It will be fun to see it grow throughout the years. Who knows, maybe Megan Daubert Events will step in one of those times and pull off great event. :) Just kidding, Michael you did a great job!

Why not burn your gas stove for 8 hours?

With the exception of morning dance class and meeting Jenny for coffee lunch, I've hit the wall of failure many times today. I'm trying a new recipe of sausage gumbo in order to feed 16 people tonight at community group. I multiplied the recipe by 4 in hopes of having enough food. One problem: crockpot not big enough.

I came back to a total mess after the first 2 hours:
No problem! Grandpa and Grandma gave us an extra crockpot for our wedding 3.5 years ago that we haven't ever opened! Perfect time to use it!

Wait what?! It's not a crockpot in that box?? It's a gorgeous piece of pottery??? (So excited, but now how do I cook the gumbo?)But:

The joy only lasted for two seconds because some time in our three moves it must have broken. :( Of course, all this time I've thought it was a crockpot. I even wrote them a thank you card for the crockpot. So not only am I 1)out of luck for the gumbo 2) down a fabulous serving dish but 3)crazy in my grandparents' eyes.

In order to make dinner not a total failure, I transfer the gumbo spoon full by spoon full to le creuset. And turn the gas on for 8 hours straight.

So nervous about dinner.

rainy day rambling

Thank you for your recent medical advice on how to cure the common sore throat. Margaritas worked for a while, but as suggested, it was only a temporary fix. Did you know one could be allergic to a city?? I'm totally allergic to Charlottesville. I came back on Monday with sinus issues.

In more important news, my dear friend, Rebecca, recommended this blog to me yesterday. It's really cute. She cooks, takes pictures, homeschools her kids, runs a farm and has an entertaining dog named Charlie. If your name is Heather and you get bored at work, you could spend some time reading this blog since she updates way more than I do.

And final thought, last night I had a dream that I had a baby with only one eye and lips that were turned sideways. Please don't interpret.

First Love?

The smartphone is everywhere. I can't escape it. We have them when we roll out of bed in the morning, we have them during the work day, we have them in the car and surf the web at stoplights, we have them in church as our Bible, we have them during weddings to check sports scores. Never a moment without them. It drives me crazy. I am not a fan of using the phone while you drive for any purpose other than calling someone. I think it's dangerous and unnecessary (OK googlemaps and GPS is fine). What can possibly be so important that it can't wait until you put the car in park? I also think that phone usage during a public gathering (church service, wedding, funeral) is distracting and also unnecessary. What did humans do with their free time before we had access to the world wide web literally in the palm of our hand? I may be old school/old fashioned but I enjoy the times when I get lift my head up and focus on the world happening around me and not peer into the tiny HD screen on my phone.

Dr. Needed

Help!! In a matter of hours my voice has gone from sounding like the 16 year old normal voice to a smoker addict that just finished off my third pack of the day! My throat is in pain but that's my only symptom. Michael introduced me to our new neighbors when I got home and I could barely squeak out my name. He said in front of them, "is that a frog?" when really it was me making the normal, guttural sounds of agreement such as "mm hmm" while they were talking to us. I haven't been sick in forever and I don't know what to do besides stop talking (ha!) and drink hot tea.

I have my last wedding of the year this weekend and I'm hoping that my voice recovers before then or no one will take me seriously.

These friends are like fine wine

They just get better with age.

Me and Amanda, the brightest duo in the crowd. Love this girl.
Sorry Micheal, of all the photos of us you look the least silly here:
Gosh, no words to describe my love for them.
Jimmy and Sarah looking incredible:
Yoony and Katie are seriously some of our favorite people.
They all met when they were 18.
Greggy-poo, we love you.