Yep Not Happening

I've been trying I really have but I think I am ending my short interest into blogging. It was a phase I think that has now passed for me, but if you were reading thanks for that!!!

Friends are like diamonds, Precious and Rare

I'm feeling kind of sentimental today and just need to give a post for my friends. Friends are people you can call no matter how your feeling and they know exactly how to deal with you. Whether its to talk about it, be excited about it, cry about it, eat ice cream, throw pity parties or just to be there next to you...they just know. You go to them no matter how you're feeling because you know that by letting them in its going to help one way or another. I find myself soooo lucky that I have a few of these people in my life that I feel this way about. You know who you are and I am so thankful for you everyday!!

Ok that's my sappy post, you don't get to witness many so enjoy!

Videotastic!!

So I love our wedding videographer Jason! He made us this awesome wedding music video of the highlights along with the regular footage of our wedding. If you need a videographer in the NOVA area def talk to him! Jason Siemer Productions

In Love

So I love Etsy!! That's all i can say in this post because I don't want to ruin anything but seriously its awesome. The first time I went on I was totally overwhelmed because there's so much to look at but when you have something specific you're looking for, always check Etsy! You can find some great deals because the sellers aren't companies they're just regular people trying to sell their product and some of their products are so awesome. I'll do another post a little farther into fall showing you what made me so excited that I just had to do this post today! YAY

Goodie Bags

Goodie Bags are the most important part of a Birthday Party to a child so please don't ever forget this, we did. SIL had a birthday party for her hubby yesterday where some of their friends and their 3 year old son were invited, so obviously they had told him he was going to birthday party, about half way through he's like where are the goodie bags? Everyone's face dropped.....how could we all have gotten so old that we forgot the importance of goodie bags!!! I guess we prefer beer to goodie bags nowadays, but we did have cake! In walked another party goer a little later and the little boy is like It's a birthday and there's NO goodie bags!! It was adorable but sad haha, so SIL being the great gal that she is put together a cute little bag of candy corn, M&M's and a granola bar and even sharpied his little name on the bag. Isn't it funny the things you loved as child and completely made your day and how quickly you forget them? It made me reminisce about some of my favorite things:

#1 - Goodie Bags (obviously)

#2 - Ants on a log (celery with peanut butter & raisins)

#3 - Sandboxes

#4 - Flashlight Tag

#5 - The day the pool opened (which is still of great importance to me haha)

#6 - Cool Lunchboxes

#7 - Peanut Butter, Honey & Banana Sandwiches

#8 - Making cookies with mom but really just sitting on the counter and eating the product

#9 - Monopoly

#10 - Summer Vacation

#11 - Puppy Chow (that chex mix covered in peanut butter, chocolate & powdered sugar)

#12 - Frogger

#13 - Keds & Jellies

#14 - Mudpies

#15 - Tooth Fairy

Puppy Fever

Yes I know I'm married now but no baby fever for me yet...but I do have a severe case of puppy fever!! A girl in our apartment building has a Maltese poodle mix and it is the tiniest most adorable little fluffball of all time I'm totally in love with it haha. Every time I see her i have to stop and play for a few minutes. I've been wanting a puppy for a while but thought we should wait and see what was happening with our house hunting. We're still hunting but I have an even better plan which is since i live so close to work now its the best time to get a puppy because I could come home at lunch and i don't have long commutes to add onto the time they'd be alone. It's PERFECT, right? Plus I figure training a puppy in an apartment is a positive because lets face it you're renting and you didn't actually pay for the carpet, one nice job with the carpet cleaner before we move out and we'd be good to go! I mean just check out their adorable faces how can you resist! So we'll see maybe sometime soon hubby and I will add another member to our family!

Comfy & Stylish!

So yesterday we went to Pottery Barn and picked out our new couch!! I'm obsessed with it haha, I've loved it for forever and now we finally get to have it. First we had to decide on color, which wasn't too hard as I wanted something neutral and not yellowish so we went with Light Wheat. Then we had to decide if we wanted the chaise on the left or right....this was a harder decision because we're in our apartment now but still house hunting so we have no clue what the layout will be. After lots of thought and drawing son floor plans we decided to go just go with the chaise on the right and fit it in!! I can't wait to get this new comfy addition to our apt. but it won't be in until mid November. That's OK it gives us plenty of time to buy new coffee tables and a TV Stand, yay for decorating.


On a side note from our couch I am super excited for fall now and am trying to hold off on decorating until next weekend but I found this adorable fall colored votive candle holder that I'm going out to buy today to put on our dining room table!!! Yay for leaves falling I can't wait for all our fun fall excursions!

Busy Bee

So I know I have been fairly MIA. I had a huge event in Vegas that I just got back from and was so busy at work that I just couldn't find time to blog so rather then backtrack with posts about whats happened I'll just do a simple throwback list and then start fresh:

• I spent 5 days in the OBX with Hubby's fam and just had a relaxing little vacay with lots of fun moments from my new (due to marriage) nephew Baby B.


• Half's older sister got married so we had a fun bachelorette party at the melting pot and she had an amazing wedding at Clydes in DC which I helped coordinate the ceremony for! She was a gorgeous bride!


• I finished all our Thank you notes from the wedding and got lots of compliments on them so that was nice!


• Our good friend's K&K are getting married in November and I went to a super fun shower for K, we all brought her a pair of underwear that represented ourselves and she had to guess who they were from (the ones I brought were pink and frilly but she guessed me as the edible candy necklace ones, hmm......hahaha)


• Some of our best friends moved in across the courtyard from us and its super fun having neighbors who you are close to one rainy night we all put on sweats and we took huge bowls of popcorn and just hung out at their apartment watching movies.


• Hubby and I had a romantic day in old town middleburg going in all the cute stores and having lunch at an outdoor cafe. We went to a couple wineries and I now have another favorite VA winery Chrysalis other then Lost Creek Vineyard which is def one of my favs. We also got to see my super cute godson and his mommy for a little bit!


• I had an event in Las Vegas and was gone for 6 days while hubby cleaned our whole house so my homecoming would be nice and comfortable!

So that's a recap of whats been missed on my blog, I have lots of fun things coming up like trips to festivals, birthdays, baby showers, our annual NYC trip etc etc so I'll try to be better about my blogging now!!

Next Stop...Crazy Taxi Drivers!

Kristen in Haiti and I went out this weekend and had a ridiculous night the main point of this however is our horrible experience trying to get home. We were in Adams Morgan and needed to get a cab, first of all it started raining so that was just awful and now they won't let you get a cab off the main street there's one main location they pick you up so we went there got in cab and he said $26 to home. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? It was only $16 to get there, but he was a Maryland cab, I was like are you flying us there because if not its not worth it. So then we got out about 1 block up. As we got out my dress literally split so the once small slit in the back of my dress now went up just a little to high and I had to stand there holding it together in the rain. Kristen managed to flag down another cab...little did we know he was awful too. We get in and say we're going home and he says "$20 flat rate because it's Saturday Night and I just don't want to go there"...again ARE YOU KIDDING ME? When did cabbies start getting so bossy! Ok fine $20 at this point we just want to get home so he takes us to my apt and then we tell him where Kristen's is (keep in mind its 2 miles and about 4 min from minutes on the way back into DC) He says "no I said $20 flat rate to home its $15 more for her". WHATT!!! She still lives in the same area, so he starts yelling I don't want your money get out of my cab, seriously INSANE, so we get out I mean he said he didn't want to money right, then he starts screaming to pay him for the first part of the ride. OMG We wrote his license plate down but missed the name of the cab company but don't you worry we are still researching this. I hate trying to get cabs to VA in DC...rant over. =)

Falling head over plaid!

So I love summer..everything about it! The clothes, the weather, the fun things to do buttt I am slowly getting excited for fall. My sister-in-Law gave me a jean jacket for my birthday, as I somehow lost mine in college, and that started me off. I love pumpkin patches, apple cider, caramel corn, Oktoberfest, corn mazes and mostly fun fall clothes. plaid is very in for fall this year and I am obsessed with this dress I hope it looks as good as it does in the picture will tall brown boots YAY. I've found plaid all over the place recently plaid round toe pumps, plaid clutches, plaid headbands. It seems to be the up and coming trend for fall so I guess we'll see but you can bet this comfy looking dress will be part of my wardrobe!

On the Hunt!

So we've been house hunting lately and there's so many things to consider:

- HOA or condo fees
- Is there a garage
- Is there a pool
- How's the commute (Metro, Car, Bus, VRE)
- Hardwood Floors?
- Granite Countertops?
- Size of Bedrooms
- Is there a yard
- If its older what things might break soon
- If its newer how's the area around it
- curb appeal
- what will the mortgage be
- what will the taxes be
- what will the insurance be
- how much will utilities be
- If its less expensive could you upgrade stuff to be really nice for less then a new house

I've been loving looking at houses and it helps you decide on all the above things and what are most important to you. Most of the houses we've looked at so far are new because we haven't decided on a realtor yet so we've just been going to open houses. Its so fun to get to pick your cabinets, floors, carpets and countertops in a new home but then is it worth it? That's just something hubby and I need to decide along with narrowing our area down right now there's about 4 completely different areas we're looking at in the NOVA area. I can't wait to decorate our new house, I'm sure I'll have my mom over to help as hers looks like it popped straight out of a magazine every time I'm there (which is a lot!). I want a few bigger things rather then lots of small ones I'm not the country theme kind of girl with knick knacks I like statement pieces. It's going to be so fun! There will be lots of Blogging about it I'm sure. We may end up renting for a while longer so we'll just have to see.

16 Days!

So in exactly 16 days I will be here

I finally asked for the time off and although I knew I couldn't take a whole week because it's close to one of my big events in Vegas I did get 3 days which makes 5 days at the beach!!!!! I can't wait to relax in the OBX and do absolutely nothing! Just sand in my toes and Doritos on the beach yay!!

Hubby loves his family's beach trip as he gets some quality time with his brothers and sister in a super relaxed environment. He's on the beach by 9am and won't leave until around 5pm haha

Shopping with $0

So this week should be fun I get to shop without spending money WAHOO!!! We got tons of gift cards from all our amazing friends and family members for our wedding and now its time to use them. We are not using any of the checks we received so we can put all that towards a house so I had to make the most efficient use of our gift cards possible based on sales, coupons etc! So for any recent brides this Thursday at Macy's from 7pm - 9pm you get an extra 20% off any leftover registry items (and things don't even have to be on your registry as long as you had one you can add anything to it and get the discount that night). They are also having an awesome sale starting Thursday so you're saving awesome money. We're getting 4 china place settings and our pots and pans set there. With our china they're also having a promotion where you get 2 rimmed soup bowls with every $150 so we're going to get 4 free soup bowls WAHOO! Bed Bath and Beyond we are getting the rest of the bedding for our guest room (when we have one) before its discontinued, 3 place settings of china, a pancake flipper (hee hee), and 2 medium cookie sheets and 2 large cookie sheets! I can't wait to go shopping and spend no money I did all the discounts and added in sales tax just to make sure I wouldn't go over. We also have a target gift card that we are using to get a crock pot and an iron!! I've loved having all our new gifts in our apartment and Hubby's been getting spoiled with super Nice dinners just because I want to use all the new stuff!

Weekend Photo Montage

Not really in the blogging mood today buttt I do have a little photo update of what my weekend entailed!

Movies & Picnics

So I have always loved Screen on the Green in DC. It's a chance to do something fun on a weeknight, have a little picnic and watch some fun movies all while on the national mall. I am highly disappointed in their line-up this year:



July 20 - Close Encounters of the Third Kind

July 27 - Dog Day Afternoon

August 3 - On the Waterfront

August 10 - Rebel Without A Cause


Hubby and I will only be going to the July 20th show and not even because we realllly want to see it but because it will be fun and my 502 roomie from college gave me an awesome picnic basket set for my bridal shower that I've been dying to use. The rest I can totally do without. Although outdoor movies are becoming more popular so here are a few other areas you can have some fun this summer:

Rosslyn Outdoor Film Festival - Mostly great 19080's and 1990's movies

National Harbor - Oldies and Newbies

Crystal City - Comic Movies

Bootcamp

So Bally's has a 7 day free guest pass on their website. Kristen in Haiti and I are going to check out their bootcamp class next week and possibly a pilates one as well. I think haveing a class to go to and a friend may help motivate me and their membership is only $29.99 a month right now which is not bad at all if I decide I want to keep going! So if you need some motivation yourself get the 7 day pass and at leats try it out!! Updates to come after the classes!

ALERT - Aeresol Cooking Sprays No Good!

So I know this may be the most boring post ever but it could also save your pots and pans! So as you know I like everything to be neat and tidy and I also am a big fan of instructions. So last night I sat down and read the instructions for each of our new gadgets and items that we brought home this weekend and I found out something I thought was really interesting! Calphalon states not to use aerosol cooking sprays to grease pans such as the ever so popular ***, not to be mentioned. There is something in these sprays that sticks to pans and even when you think it's clean it's not. So especially for those non-stick pans that stop working and everything is sticking to them, it's probably because there is a ton of build-up from your cooking spray that is causing them not to work. They suggest putting your vegetable oil into a spray bottle and using that instead. As always you still need to give your pots and pans a good washing but at least there won't be build up that you don't know about!! I found this really interesting because I feel like that has happened to me with other pans and I've had to toss them, so I have thrown my *** out in exchange for a nice little spray bottle!! YAY

Excuse Me Mr. Biker....

So I am all for people getting out there and being active, I think it's awesome. But there's one thing that really annoys me...bikers on the roads (and by biker on mean those on a bicycle), more than annoy me I'm scared to death when I go around them that I could hit them if a car comes out of no where and I have to get back in my lane. Now I get it...you want to bike to work and get your exercise in on the way that's awesome but unless you can bike the speed limit why are you allowed on the road?!?!?!?!! I mean for example you're driving down the street and there's a biker no the right side of the road, now they're small but not small enough that you can stay in your lane and go around them, so you have to wait until there's no oncoming traffic and veer across the line and around the biker...SERIOUSLY? Or you end up stuck behind them going so slow. There's a reason I don't ride my bike to work...because I don't want it to take me an hour, that's fine that you do Mr.. Biker but I don't!! I just don't get it...I feel like if there's a bike path GO FOR IT (notice the girl in the picture is nicely placed on a bike path) or ride on sidewalk AWESOME but on the road in front of the cars trying to go the speed limit of 50 mph NO THANK YOU. Anyways that's my rant for today if you didn't guess there was a biker on the highway today in front of me ;)

OCD and LOVIN IT!

Wedding gifts are so fun to get and maybe if you had a nice big house you could put them right away but that's not the way it is for most people I don't think. All my shower gifts and wedding gifts have been storing in my parents basement until we had a chance to go through them! So finally on Sunday Hubby and I bit the bullet and went into the basement of registry items we divided into what we were taking to our tiny 1 bedroom apt and what could afford to stay at my parents until we figure out what we're doing when our lease ends on October 13th. The options are A. Stay in our current, B. Move into a different apt in our neighborhood for cheaper rent, C. Move into a house or D. Move somewhere temp and then into a House. So you see we figured we'd leave the china and breakable glassware at my parents until that decision is finalized! Soooo I spent all night after work yesterday rearranging our kitchen to fit all the gifts. Of course since I am slightly OCD I took everything out of all the cabinets and rearranged neatly. These photos are just a few of my nice and neat kitchen now.

We got some amazing stuff and like I said probably half of it is still in my parents basement. Now its time to return all the duplicates and go spend our gift cards and store credits this weekend Yipee I LOVE shopping!! Especially when I'm not spending any of my money!!

Butts Up!!

Bathing Suit Check, Cooler Check, Starfish shaped tube check?! This weekend we went tubing at Butts Tubes with a group of friends and it was so much fun! I wanted to fill everyone in because this place is awesome and less expensive then the ever popular River Riders. We made reservations which is definitely the way to go (there were huge lines that we didn't have to wait in). It was $28 (you can also bring your own tube and pay $15 for a lifejacket and the shuttle) and we could go on the river as many times as we wanted (It's about 1.5 hours a trip). They say you can't have alcohol on the river but if its in a cooler they don't check so be sure to take some cocktails. One of the girls with us bought the PERFECT beer tube it was a baby's tube so it only had two little whole for legs in the center so it held the cooler in and even had a canopy to keep or drinks nice and frosty, it was also starfish shaped...we named it Carlos (after the baby in hangover) it was so perfect.you can also rent coolers and tubes there but they are not as fun) haha. My suggestion for the best way to enjoy and make it a fun-filled day is arrive around 11am (leave the Arlington area 10ish & make sure to pack food for lunch and rinks in your cooler)) check-in and get your lifejackets then you'll wait for a bus and get your tubes. The bus takes you over the state line into West Virginia and you go tubing down the Shenandoah. They drop you off you tube down the river and then there's a get out point and some picnic tables, stop eat some lunch then take the shuttle back up to the start point and do it again!!! If you see some small paids make sure your butts up or you might hit a rock! We had a great day but only got to go once due to the incoming thunderstorms! Hubby and I want to find a Carlos of our own because he went back to New Jersey with his mom ;)

Officially Mrs. Hubby!

So I LOVE the social security office, I know what a random thing to love right? But after an entire day of before work, lunchtime and after work trying to get through lines at the DMV and stillllll not getting my new license, walking into the social security office at 1:45pm and out at 1:55pm was AMAZING. It was a simple process you take your ticket, fill out your form go up to the desk and Bing Bam Boom you've got a new name. But then.....it was actually kind of...sad. I mean don't get me wrong I loveeeee being married and my hubby and his family and their name is just fine, it was just actually signing away that "Official" document stating that I am now and will always be Mrs. Hubby was a little sad. I mean I've had my name for 25 years its a major part of my life and now BOOM its gone. But on the bright side I am halfway through the process of changing my name on alllll those avenues I talked about earlier. I am waiting until next week to tackle the DMV again and I have a game plan so hopefully it won't be as bad! I've been practicing signing my new name and I feel like I'm in middle school writing in my binder, but eventually I will get my signature down pat and all will be right with the world.....or at least with my name!

Hanky Panky

Excuse the scandalous title haha but if you haven't heard of Hanky Panky's yet you must! I admit they are the most comfortable underwear ever and they're not boring either! They come in all sorts of fun colors and designs, with embellishment and without and also with a RIDICULOUS price tag of $16 to $20 EACH. I mean seriously that is way to much to be spending on an everyday undergarment that doesn't get to see the outside world!!! I splurged for my wedding and bought a cute little white pair that said "I DO" in rhinestones but that's it and they are amazing and I love them but I will not continue to purchase these lovelies. I have however found some wonderful alternatives at Target (where you can get one for about $3) and Victoria's Secret (where they are 3 for $25), still not the cheapest around but much more reasonably priced! I know there's a Hanky Panky craze going on but I don't get how people can afford the habit haha!

Happy Belated 4th of July! I had so much fun this weekend that I abandoned my blog! I'm sorry but I think most of you were probably out doing the same and had no idea ;) I had a relaxing weekend of going to the movies, the pool, catching up on netflix, grilling, picnics, fireworks and BBQ's it doesn't really get much better then that for the 4th! I made a Red, White and Blue Banana Spit Brownie for one of our outings and thought I'd share the recipe:

Ingredients:
1 box Brownie Mix
8 oz Cream Cheese
1/3 cup sugar
8 oz Crushed Pineapple (drained)
Sliced Strawberries and Bananas
Blueberries
Chocolate Syrup
Chopped Nuts

1. Make brownie mix and bake in pizza pan, let cool
2. Blend cream cheese and sugar until smooth then add in pineapple, Spread onto brownie
3. Place sliced fruit in circles on top to make red white and blue pattern
4. Drizzle chocolate syrup and sprinkle nuts on top
5. Serve or Refrigerate

SO FAST and SOOOO GOOD! I hope everyone had an amazing 4th of July weekend!

Resolutions...only 6 months late!

I feel like I've been being a slacker lately.... So I know I've been planning a wedding but I feel like I've just been letting myself go on a number of aspects:

1. Sweats - I get home and immediately through on something comfy which usually does not mean cute or even presentable to the outside world. I think I need to stay in real clothes for more of the day and then throw on some cute comfy clothes for the evening (I'm sure hubby will appreciate as well)!

2. Work Dress - I've always prided myself on my wardrobe but I don't think I've been putting it to good use I've been going drab and easy which is just NOT ME. Today was the first start of that as I paired an adorable crinkle grey top with white pants and silver sandals I also washed and straightened my hair! (Not that I ever not wash my hair but sometimes I let it air dry and that's just not as cute haha)

3. Cooking - I got all these amazing recipes and cookbooks from my friends and family for my shower and am determined to put them to use. I am going to try to pick new recipes out each time and make a grocery list before I go to the store so I can start learning to cook more interesting meals! I've got some pretty good ones that I do now but I feel like we've been eating the same thing over and over because it's easy which is just slackerish haha. I also got some adorable aprons for my shower so I can wear those to help keep my clothes (non-sweats) nice and clean! Tonight Cornflake chicken, Corn on the Cob & homemade Mac n' Cheese YUM. I didn't say healthy I said different =)

4. Ebay- It's once again time to go through my closet and disperse of the clothes I no longer wear I've been good about this in the past but haven't done it in a while. None of that oh well if we go trekking through the rainforest I can wear this, nope if it hasn't been worn in the past year up it goes onto eBay or to goodwill! I tend to buy nicer clothes so eBay is a great way to have my clothes be more of an investment then just giving away a $100 top.

5. Saving - I've been passing off excuses for why I couldn't save like I was already putting away a lot for the honeymoon and I need to buy stuff for the wedding but now all that's behind us and hubby and I are going to try and save half our salary a month I know it's a lot but I really want a new house and if that's what its going to take to get it I think I can squeak my way through plus I love sales and coupons and SHOPITTOME.com haha Speaking of coupons did you know that Giant and Harris Teeter automatically double any coupon up to $1 when you check out? AWESOME!

I think that's it from now but they are my married life resolutions!

Ms. Va to Mrs. Hubby

So lots of people asked me how complicated it is to change your name and I have to say VERY COMPLICATED. I mean think about all the different avenues your name appears it's ridiculous! I tried to go through and change my name on anything digital (aka e-mails websites etc) before the wedding but then came money issues. So I don't want to change it with my bank until i change it with my work (for direct deposit) and I can't change it with work till I have a new Social Security Card and I can't get that until our official marriage license comes to us in the mail and that hasn't happened it. I'm a person who likes to get things done, I rarely procrastinate, I like everything neat and tidy so this is driving me nuts depending on where you look my name is different! I came up with a comprehensive list of all the avenues I have to change to help anyone who might be going through the same problems:

These can be done at any time:

- e-mail

- websites (like shopittome, airlines miles, Victoria's secret, jcrew, cityshopgirl, giltgroupe, etc)

- eBay & pay pal

- facebook & linkedin

- apartment complex (Mortgage if that's the case)

- Magazine Subscriptions

These you have to wait till you get to the social security office which is only open M-F, 9am - 4pm btw, I mean who has time to take off work! at least open in the early AM:

- post office

- License

- Bank/checks

- car insurance

- renters insurance

- car registration

- work

- 401K

- Doctor, Dentist, Med plans

- passport

- voting

- Bills in your name

I mean really what's a girl to do this is going to take forever!!!

I love OTHER people's children

So don't let my title mislead you I love children and can't wait to have some of my own in the future but I'd like a few years to enjoy jsut being married to hubby and travel and be by ourselves, therefore....I love other people's children! Make sense? I've had a lot of baby talk around me recently as my cousins have been having babies, my new sister in law has a 1 1/2 year old, my other sister in law is jsut now pregnant and one of my best friends from college who was one of my bridesmaids had my adorable godson on Valentines day. Through all of this there have been showers and christenings and just plain gifts to spoil and just now I'm finding out Tiffany's has baby gifts!!! Now some of them are ridiculously priced as is expected of Tiffany's stuff but their adorable little ceramic banks like the elephant are jsut adorable and not bad!! I was so excited when I found this section I feel like especially for christenings it's hard to find a greta gift but now I have a go to location!

After all this talk of children I feel it would be unfair of me to post without giving a little photo tribute to some of these darlings! Enjoy!

My First Bamboo

Above is my first ever bamboo! One of my new coworkers left and so another one of them, K, gave me her bamboo. Did you know you can't take a bamboo it has to be given to you? I didn't! You learn something new everyday! I don't have a very good track record with plants so I'm a little nervous for the lifespan of my lil green one but I am determined to keep it alive! When I was in St Lucia they said you could actually watch their bamboo grow as it averages 4 - 6 inches a day!! That's insane! There are more than 70 genera divided into about 1,000 species of bamboo so I'm not exactly or even close to sure what kind mine his. But he's a nice little peice of the outside world in my office!

Ketchup! YUM!

So I guess the American Airlines magazine I was reading on the way to St Lucia was a little out of date because I thought this restaurant was coming soon but I am excited to say it's already here! Welcome KETCHUP to the list of DC restaurants! They're already on opentable so I was way out of the loop. It's described as:

"like a modern, upscale 50’s diner with a psychedelic twist courtesy of pop art décor, red and white vinyl booths and basket wire metal seating. And the fare is American as you can get with burgers, ribs, sandwiches and salads dominating the lunch menu "

Ashton Kutcher is also one of the investors in the Dolce group that owns Ketchup which is just reason #1254135842153421534 why I can't wait to try this restaurant! Not only that but its located at the National Harbor which I haven't even been to yet because I've been soo busy with wedding stuff. Well here I come because the weddings over and I so love day excursions haha More to come on if it lives up to my expectations!

Quarter Century 25!!

So no sooner did I get married and return home from the honeymoon then it was my birthday weekend! It was a fun filled weekend. Friday hubby and I went to dinner and to see Revenge of the Fallen the new Transformers movie which I loved (I think I'm a geek at heart!) and am really curious if they're going to do a third. There's been speculation Michael Bay said he's interested but wants some time off I also heard it would be coming out July 4th 2012 so who knows really!

I received a lovely this "Strawberry Margarita" from my parents Saturday and we spent the day at the pool with Kristen in Haiti and her boy and then I found out that hubby and her and one of my best friends LB had been trying to plan surprise party for me!! Don't worry I wasn't snooping hubby told me about the plan because due to the ever popular rascal flatts concert and it being a summer weekend there were only a few people in town and he didn't want me to be disappointed he was so upset but I thought it was really cute! It turned out being a great night though we ordered pizza from Cafe Pizziaola which was great and both sets of parents along with a about 7 friends came over and my mom made me an awesome cake. She's made me a strawberry birthday cake every year since I can remember and I LOVE IT.

After the parents left and cake was eaten a few of us proceeded to have a lovely power hour and go out in Arlington, needless to say I was a little out of commission on Sunday! But I was excited because we had made plans with my parents to go to dinner at Rosa Mexicana which I've been wanting to try FOREVER! Dinner was good, the guacamole made table side was amazing but the rest was just eh as far as I'm concerned I've had far better Mexican at little hole-in-the-wall places but it was a fun atmosphere and I love trying new restaurants! I also got some fun gifts a new purse, a Coach Wristlet and matching bracelet, some tops and AMX giftcard. Yay! My birthday weekend was perfect for joining the quarter century club: family, good friends, good food, good fun!

Widen your blog

I hated the tiny column on my blog and thanks to John Deere Mom I now have a nice wide Blog YAY

http://johndeeremom.blogspot.com/2008/07/how-to-widen-your-columns-on-blogger.html

Honeymoon Withdrawl

So we've been back from our honeymoon for 2 days now and I am having major withdrawal! Not only do i miss the island paradise but just spending quality time with hubby without TV, Internet and cell phones its amazing how much of the day these things take up.

For those of you who don't know we spent 10 days in St. Lucia at the Sandals Grande St. Lucian and #1 Sandals definitely has it down to an art the pool chairs are in sets of two every table is set for two they even know when you leave your room for dinner and come in for turn down service with SNICKERS bars haha by far one of my favorite candies so I was in heaven I mean who ever eats all those mints other hotels give you? #2 St. Lucia itself is an amazing island the Pitons are large mountain looking things below formed from the active volcano on the island. They are the most picturesque amazing things I have seen, I was so intrigued by them and it made me want to go back and watch all our Planet Earth DVDs ha

Sandals itself provides you with kayak, Hobie cat sailing, water skiing, snorkeling and windsurfing all for free. We did everything but the wind surfing, the water skiing neither of us could get up it was really hard! (If anyone has any pointers I'm determined to try it again!) SO we spaced these activities throughout our day. We also went zip lining which was one of the big highlights of the trip. It's amazing to me you can be 250feet in the hair sliding across a 1500 foot wire through the rain forest it was hot and muggy and absolutely one of the best days on the island! We also did a tour through one of the locals Simon Says, this is a tour not to miss if you are in St. Lucia. There are a lot of tours that are the same you take a boat around the island going to various cities and bays to see the sights, snorkeling between the Pitons then you take shuttles to a waterfall in the rain forest the drive in active volcano (which smells soooooooooooooooo bad because of the sulphur yuck!) and the bets part is Simon takes you to his house, our tour had 26 people, and his wife has made you an amazing creole lunch it was a great day and well worth the money.

The people in St. Lucia are some of the nicest I've met they were not the annoying trying to get money for everything like taking pictures and stuff they were all very helpful and interested in the U.S. it was really fun to get to know some of the locals! This is a picture of hubby and Brad Pitt haha I guess his real name is Brad and they added on the Pitt for kicks! All in all our honeymoon was so perfect and now you can see why I am having major withdrawal!

First Time Ever!

Hi Ya'll...YEAH RIGHT! Yes I consider myself from Virginia now after living here for 10 years (always be an upstate New Yorker really), but Northern Virginia which is completely different then the rest of Virginia it's more of a hodgepodge of nationalities and most of those people do not have southern accents (which I loveee by the way, they're so cute but I definitely don't have one)! I just got married two weeks ago to my amazing hubby and can't wait to continue on that fun "Newlywed" journey. So I am brand new to blogging world and eager to try it out. During my engagement I stalked and I mean stalked several wedding blogs and found some other loveable blogs along the way! I hope to fill it with likes and dislikes and stories of my life as interesting things continue happening.

On the note of my wedding I can't even begin to describe the emotions that I feel towards my parents, family and friends that came together to give hubby and I the most wonderful wedding of all time. Every aspect was perfect and everyone was so amazing to travel and help out with everything they did I couldn't have asked for a more amazing day. Just a few teaser snapshots below as I haven't gotten the professional pictures back yet!