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So I guess the American Airlines magazine I was reading on the way to St Lucia was a little out of date because I thought this restaurant was coming soon but I am excited to say it's already here!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!