Little Big Moments

There’s a line at the end of the movie version of Pride & Prejudice (the Keira Knightly one), where her character uses the phrase “incandescently happy,” and I’ve always thought that was such a beautiful pairing of words. Seriously, why don’t people still talk like that?

I can honestly say there have been three moments since March where I have felt so happy that the only way to describe it would be incandescently. The first was the moment Joey asked me to marry him. The second was as we left the jewelry store after purchasing our wedding bands.  And the third was this morning as I walked out of the court house holding our marriage license.

The dress, the mason jars, the necklace, the cake topper — these things are all fun (kinda), but they are also just that — things. It’s the items that bring me one step closer to marrying my best friend, that moments that remind me I’m about to start a new and exciting journey with him, that fill me with a sense of pure joy.

The moments are fleeting, like all moments are, but the feeling of being so happy you want to hug a complete stranger and say, “do you realize what just happened?!”, is something you put in the emotional safe deposit box of your heart and save forever.

 

Do Not Pass Go

When it comes to asking for anything in life, it’s all about the approach, right? Well, I wanted to breach the Chalkboard Wall idea with Joey and I knew he was going to think I’m nuts, so I implemented the “Tuck & Roll” approach. You know, where you tuck the actually thing you’re asking about into a conversation about other things, and then roll right past it like you didn’t really ask a question but rather stated a fact. It went a little something like this:

Me: I was thinking, since next weekend we don’t really have anything going on, we should go to Lowes because we really need to paint the trim on the door before we get in trouble with the HOA people…

J: uh huh…

Me:…and I was thinking that while we are there I’ll buy some Oil Rubbed Bronze spraypaint to freshen up the house numbers and the outside light fixture, and we should probably get some good shears to trim back that out of control tree…

J: yeah…

Me:…and then I’m also planning on buying some of that really cool chalkboard paint andpaintingthiswallinthekitchenlikeagiantchalkboardit’slikethisreallycoolthingthatyouseeinpotterybarnmagazinesand itwillbeawesome.  So who do the Redskins play next week?

J: The Eagles. Wait – what? Chalkboard?…blah blah…no way…blippity blah…resale value…

Me: No it’s cool, I promise. We’ll talk about it later. (Exit stage right)

😦 Epic Fail.

I guess I might need to implement the Plan B Approach: Don’t Ask For Permission, Ask For Forgiveness.

Just Because

I live with a lot of crazy. And I love every bit of it. This picture made you laugh, right?

Happy Friday friends! It’s Kacie’s wedding weekend, so I’m off being a bridesmaid and can’t wait to share all the wonderful details with you. Until then…

xoxo

Boys Just Wanna Have Fun

Alternative headlines include:

Happy Birthday Joey &Merry Christmas to Us

Time to Eat Ramen Noodles

I Must Really Love My Fiance

Late Quarter-Life Crisis?

What the $%&@ Are We Thinking?

Life’s Too Short

and

Don’t You Wish You Were Nicer to Us Last Time We Saw You

All joking aside though, just a little update in the life of us. While I was busy not making plans for Saturday, Joey had a plan of his own. His plan looks a little something like this:

It’s a 1999 Seadoo Speedster Jet Boat. It seats four, and it’s now ours.

I haven’t met  her yet, but Joey has been putting in a lot of time since Saturday getting things in order (ala life jackets, proper registrations, flares, covers, engine checks etc etc etc) so she’s in tip-top for my maiden voyage which, weather permitting, I’m hoping will be this coming weekend! Stay tuned for more of our latest adventure in “buying a boat feels really grown-up and a little scary.”

 

Atonement

While looking over my calendar yesterday I realized something I had overlooked —  on Joey’s birthday, September 5th, I will be out of town for a bachelorette party! Now, as you may have noticed on my Summer List, this year isn’t just ANY birthday…it’s Joey’s 30th Birthday. And while I will be home the night of the 5th, I am filled with guilt that I won’t be around to vocally countdown the days and minutes of him saying goodbye to his youthful-twenties and entering his THIRD DECADE of life. (Note to readers, I in no way think 30 is old but of course I have to incessantly tease J about becoming an ‘old man’ because I’m younger than him and…well, I’m younger than him.)

To atone for this sin, I’ve decided I really need to pull out all the stops for his birthday. Not only do I need to come up with a realllly awesome gift, but I have to throw an even more amazing party than I originally intended. Good thing I have a little time. And good thing the internet is filled with awesome party ideas.

I first thought about an “80s” theme party given that Joey was born in ’81. And given that we make for a pretty awesome “80s” couple…

But then I felt like an 80s theme was a little too ”been there, done that’ and stumbled across something I liked a little better – a pub-theme birthday party…

Beer, darts, soft pretzels, sliders, cornhole, flavored nuts in little bowls, BEER… it automatically felt more “Joey.” So that’s where my mind is today.  I’d love to know if anyone else has a great idea for a 30th Birthday Bash. Extra d-spot points if you have photos for inspiration!

O, and Pam101…your 30th was amazing, but I’m not sure Joey would appreciate a life size cutout of Robert Pattinson 😉

Finding the Fresh

As typical in Maryland, we were graced with a few beautiful spring days and have now jumped, head first, into summer heat and humidity. The sun has been out in full force lately and I’ve found it makes it very difficult to motivate myself to get into the gym. So I’m working to find the magical balance between targeted work outs and outdoor activities that are like work outs in disguise — like the mom who bakes broccoli into brownies.

I like tennis, I love swimming and yesterday Joey and I added something new to our repertoire.

Kayaking! What can I say, it pays to have friends in high places a Mom who lives on the Bay.

Joey and I went kayaking once before. It was a double kayak, we were in Mexico, and lets just say team work is not our strong suit 😉 We were like a so-bad-it’s-good comedy skit, spinning our kayak in circles and arguing over who was paddling wrong.

Needless to say, the one-man kayak was a good look on us.

(This is one of those photos where J will say, ‘You always post pictures where I look stupid and you look good.’ To which I would say that this is the only photo we took of the two of us, and nobody made him make that stupid face ;))

We paddled around for about an hour, stopped briefly on a little beach and then made our way back to dry land.

I will totally admit that I’m sore as all hell today! Seriously, every time I get up after sitting down for awhile my legs burn and my back is stiff. There’s something to be said about finding the fresh, mixing up a routine, trying something new. It’s definitely a hurts-so-good type of feeling.

And while I’d like to blame it all on the kayaking, after looking through my pictures, I realized that my soreness could also be partially due to this…

Sick of the jumping yet?

Me neither.

Tonight We Lift

Tonight is gym night with Joey, which means he’s going to make me lift weights. Which means I’ll start off all awesome and gung-ho, but after 30-40 minutes I’ll revert to a whiny 4-year-old and be all, “Are we done yeeetttt???” (insert slumped shoulders and pouty face here)

But Joey’s awesome and he pushes me, and makes me do abs even when I don’t want to, and for that I love him.

I also love the funny faces he makes when he lifts weights. And although this picture isn’t him, he totally makes that face. And that face makes me laugh. That face has inner badass written all over it.

PS: For a laugh, find that picture and more crazy weightlifting faces here.

Celebrate We Will

Joey’s at the gym, our guests are gone, the dogs are sleeping and I’m sitting down at my computer for the first time since Wednesday to share a little bit of my whirlwind first week engaged.

We’ll start back in New York City where we celebrated the big day over pizza, wine and cappuccinos…

John’s Pizzeria in NYC

High on Happiness

We got back home a little before midnight on Sunday. I was excited to let our kids dogs know they would no longer be illigitimate 😉

Riggo seemed really excited

And of course, my Mom (who is amazing and not only watched our dogs Sunday, but did all of our laundry and cleaned our bathrooms to boot – love you!) left a few surprises for us…

Notice the bottle of wine is a gift from Moose and Riggo 😉

The week that followed has been filled with champagne popping…

My fiance 🙂

And dinners with wonderful friends…

Pam101 and me at Bistro Du Coin - amazing food! amazing company!

And dinners with cakes…

I broke lent, sorry JC!

And lunches with mimosas and future-mother-in-laws…

Are we entering the chessey zone yet???

FMILs: My mom on the left, Joey's mom on the right

And celebratory dances…

Ok, she wasn’t really celebrating our engagement but she sure was celebrating life, so I’m counting this!

And dinners with family and friends…

Taken by the cutie pie 4 year-old above, not bad!

There were even great gifts from even greater friends (and future bride-t0-bes)…

You're the best Alex!

So you can imagine how good it feels to be sitting in a quiet house, listening to a chorus of crickets chirping outside and just reflecting on a memorable week trying to soak up all the love that’s hitting us from every angle in the form of cards, calls, texts, dinners, lunches, hugs and high-fives.

After we got engaged, my mom said, “Down the road when you’re having a bad day, or things are feeling hard, just remember how happy you are in this moment.“

I feel like I have a hundred moments to pull from now and I’m so incredibly grateful for that.

(How’s that for a sappy Sunday post?)

When in New York

This weekend is “Joey & Diana’s Big Apple Adventure” aka Joey’s Christmas gift coming to fruition.  We’re off to NYC Saturday morning with little on the agenda except for having a good time. We both like to plan as we go along, Joey more so than me, but I’m learning to enjoy his ‘figure it out as we go along’ style of travel.

Of course, since this will be my first time playing tour guide in New York and Joey’s first time in the city that never sleeps, I’ve had to organize myself a little so we maximize our weekend and don’t waste time doing circles. It’ll be like a Choose Your Own Adventure book – where there’s a framework built but the story is what you make of it.

Here’s my list of possible things to do and see, we’ll revisit next week to see how much we accomplished:

• Visit Rockefeller Center (Maybe do Top of the Rock, but someone, not saying any names here, is scared of heights…so it’s a big maybe.)
• Visit Times Square
• Eat at one of Bobby Flay’s restaurants (Bar Americain is right near our hotel, I may or may not have made a brunch reservation that I may or may not tell Joey about.)
• Get a slice of authentic NY pizza
• Check out a Museum
• Go to FAO Schwarz
• Walk around Central Park (I may or may not be plotting a way to get Joey to agree to a carriage ride. So super touristy, but something you need to do once in your life.)
• Eat at Eataly (Hazlenut Gelato here I come.)
• Try and score cheap tickets to a show
• See St. Patrick’s Cathedral
• Visit Little Italy
• See the Flatiron Building
• Get a Gray’s Papaya hot dog

Should I start fasting now? Stay tuned for more!

Best. Road Trip. Ever

Daily Post Challenge: Describe the best road trip you’ve ever taken.

If you know me, then you know my heart skipped when I saw this question because I relish any opportunity to replay in my mind the three-week cross-country road trip Joey and I took when I graduated college. It was my graduation gift to myself, and 21 days we won’t ever forget. We went from Maryland to the Grand Canyon and back – stopping in major cities and exploring lots of national parks along the way.

We took HOURS worth of video and hundreds of photos, and while it took me a couple of months, ok, years, I whittled it all down into a fabulous 30 minute video that we have since shared with friends and family (basically anyone who will indulge me).

I won’t bore you with the 30 minute version, but here’s a fun, short version I put together. Enjoy!

Side note – our ‘music video’ portion of the video was done during an 8+ hour drive clear across the state of Kansas. Yeah, we went a little crazy and I have the video to prove it 😉