My Poor Poppy Plant

Guys, I have unfortunate news.

Remember that little burst of happiness in the form of a fledgling poppy plant? 

Well, last week Joey and I came home from church to find that the poor thing had been destroyed...by none other than our mischievous Marley.

Two days later, she also ate my strawberry plant. 

The little jerk.

So much for finally feeling successful at growing something!

She didn't rip up the roots of either plant so there's hope that they'll grow back, but since we just got orders to go to Connecticut in June for about two months (which means a little post anniversary detour to Washington DC on the way!), I'm not sure if plant growing will be a successful project this summer. But hey! We're going to Connecticut! So excited. Besides getting to visit DC again (including a mandatory lunch at Cava and Georgetown Cupcake), we'll also get to do day trips to Boston and New York. I'm sold!

In other news, tomorrow morning I'm headed to Ohio for my mom's graduation from Wright State University, and I couldn't be more excited for or proud of her for all of her hard work! 

Marley & Remy Help With the Grocery Bags

The following photos and video are about two months old (at least!), but I've been forgetting to share what these two cooky animals got themselves in to! 

Usually I have reusable shopping bags for when I go grocery shopping, but on those days when I forget to grab them from the car as I head in to the store, Marley and Remy get to enjoy those rustling, billowy bags and the endless ways to wrap themselves up in them.

Don't worry, we don't let them suffocate!

You can still see how small Remy was at the time--still hadn't turned fully red and her snout hadn't "popped out" yet! But now she is unmistakably a wiener dog. Sure do love them both!

An Unexpectedly Delightful Saturday

So all last week, Joey and I had been looking forward to our monthly trip that we'd be taking on Saturday to the temple in Columbia. Its a great chance to take a step back from life and kind of....recalibrate our minds and spirits. Going to the temple helps us better get through some of the things life can send our way.

Well, as we started to make our way to the temple in the drizzling rain, we noticed that the traffic near our home was significantly thicker for a saturday afternoon. And, after a little research, we realized that the Color Me Rad run that had taken place five minutes away had just ended. So, thanks to the color run and the resulting traffic, we got so far behind that we never would've made it to our scheduled session at the temple which unfortunately, was the last session for the day. 

I will admit, I was pretty upset that we weren't going to make it. I had been excited to go all week and I knew that I really needed to be there to help me and prepare me for the coming weeks. But after rescheduling our trip for this Friday and coming up with a new plan for the rest of the afternoon, Joey and I ended up having a quiet, cuddly, just as wonderful Saturday at home.

We decided that on our cozy, rainy Saturday we would make some paninis, one of our favorite things that we hadn't made in quite a while---I'd also like to add that this required us to make a stop at the local walmart (which we haven't stepped foot in for over two months) for bread while still in our church clothes, and we were asked why we were so dressed up.....

Oh. So good.

And apparently, neither of us were in the mood to take some sincere photos.

With the addition of a couple movies, homemade chocolate peanut butter cookies, a little impromptu dancing in the kitchen, and some cuddling with our Remy and Marley, it turned out to be such a great Saturday with my love and best friend. 

And while I'm on the subject----

Guys, Joey is the greatest and I love being married to him. From some of the comments and messages I've received I feel like there's some concern out there that, because I'm frustrated and sometimes very upset about this infertility thing and not being able to conceive right now, that people think I'm completely oblivious to the blessing it is to have Joey and to be married to him, that I'm ungrateful for an amazing husband. Just because both of us want a baby and I struggle with the fact that things aren't going the way we had planned, doesn't mean that I completely forget about my husband and how loving and kind he is. I know that its a blessing to have him in my life. I don't know what I'd do without him or our marriage, especially at a time like this. He gets me through so much and I can't imagine my life without him. I hold on to those special days like Saturday that we get together and I'm so grateful for every moment I get to spend with him. So don't worry about that, friends. We are so happy with each other, and though we have been married a short time, we are stronger than ever and its only getting better. 

All right, enough of the mushy gushy-----have a great Monday, everyone!

Marley Just Keeps Getting Better

I call this her 'come hither' look...

Well as if Marley isn't crazy enough, she has recently taken to chasing her tail! At first she would only do it in one particular spot in the house, but lately she has moved on to other locations, including the back porch, and my personal favorite: the bath tub. 

Chasing her tail, playing fetch, drinking from the faucet--what will this goober kitty do next?!

Want more of Marley? Well in case you didn't see it on Facebook, click here to see a video we got of her last week, chasing the shadow of Joey's YoYo. It still cracks me up!

iPhonography: Life Lately

Happy February, everyone!

Aside from birthday posts, I haven't done much around these parts lately, so here's some photos from the past couple weeks---

Some of the things we've been up to:

• We got Remy! Tomorrow she will be 11 weeks old. She's a spunky miniature dachshund and she's definitely keeping me on my toes! Thank goodness she's getting better at sleeping at night because I was about to lose my mind! Marley has been doing pretty well with the new addition, but you can tell she's still wary. She has definitely become more of a daddy's girl since Remy moved in!
• We shucked oysters...outside....at night...in short sleeves...in January. January, people. This place is bizarre. However I suppose it is nice to skip the post-holiday-winter part and the grey ugliness that comes with it (though I'm extremely sad we missed the snow in Virginia). But if its this hot now, I hate to imagine what summer will be like....!
• We celebrated Joey's birthday with a lunch date to the popular Tattooed Moose, as seen on Diners, Drive Ins, & Dives. We loved our corn dogs, duck fat fries (sounds more gross than it is), and cuban sandwich! Then we headed to the Apple store to get Joey's birthday present, a new iPhone. I also made him his favorite birthday meal: meatloaf with asiago mashed potatoes and roasted asparagus, and a homemade flan for dessert!
• Once a week we go on a date, which usually means trying a new restaurant in Charleston. We have a rule for ourselves that we don't go to the same place twice so that we can try as many places as possible. This month we've tried the Noisy Oyster, Tattooed Moose, the Mellow Mushroom, Charleston Bagels, and a belgian gelato place. After eating we like to take a walk along King Street and check out the cool store fronts.

We hope everyone has a great weekend!

iPhonography: Marley Lately

Every time the printer starts up, she likes to investigate it and put her head in it || Fascinated by the moving spool of thread on the sewing machine, and of course has to lay all over Joey's Christmas present while I'm working on it || Watching Elf with us. She kept pawing at Buddy's face || Guess she had a tough day and needed a break || Most mornings we find her sleeping above our heads || The cheeky girl kept trying to sneak into the pizza box by chewing a hole in it and slipping her paw through the hole to lift the lid. And don't even get me started on how gross that pizza box looks in hindsight...

Holiday Photo Mega-Post!

Hi all! 

Well its been almost a month since we've updated anything---just enjoying the break from Power School I guess! But now we're back in the swing of things, so I thought I'd share some of our photos from the past few weeks. 

For the Christmas holiday we went to Ohio (with a stop in Tennessee), Lexington VA for a day, and VA Beach. Then, We came home to Charleston for one night, and left the next morning to spend New Years Eve in Myrtle Beach with the newly married Kara and Mike Casper! So, that all adds up to staying in six cities in four different states and driving about 2,200 miles in ten days. Boy! What a trip. Oh, and did I mention that we had Marley with us the whole time? Luckily she loves the car!

Marley is quite the traveller now! 

A trip to Steak & Shake while we were in the midwest | my puppies! | Christmas with my family

Annnnd more driving | we loved seeing the Blue Ridge in Tennessee--we missed our mountains! | Joey was so excited to see White Castles in Ohio (but apparently not as excited as the kid in the poster behind him)!

Our little bit of snow this year | A stop in Lexington VA | Marley checking out the snow at VMI

So happy to see Mallory again! Marley and Piper didn't quite agree though... | We found new ways to make sure Marley was a happy, fed, kitty

New Years Eve at the Beach! | But definitely ready to go home | Homemade chocolate sorbet with our new ice cream maker from Joey's mom | "detoxing" from holiday feasts and road trip fast food with some blood oranges and english muffins

We hope everyone had a merry merry Christmas and a great New Year! 2012 was pretty great, 

but here's to an even better 2013!

iPhonography: Weekends Lately

Dinner at Monza (we recommend the Volpini pizza, with arugula, prosciutto, and pecorino) || Birthday Date to Pan E Vino and yummy calamari (with cinnamon!) and Tiramisu || Ritzy Charleston || Apparently Joey's name is actually Jody? || Marley joins us for breakfast....and every other meal || Marscapone gelato from Paolo's || Christmas lights at Park Circle || Date at Sesame. we tried the burger with banana and peanut butter on it--strangely awesome! and another with fig and bacon jam with fontina--also good! || I'm in the market for some new glasses...

Marley Lately

Every day is definitely an adventure with this feline! She is always more spunky and energetic today than the day before. And while sometimes she makes me want to rip my hair out (like yesterday, when all she did was sprint all over the house, knocking stuff over and attacking the Christmas tree. Literally, all. day.), she always does the silliest things that I can't help but love her for.

So, here are some of the things she's gotten herself into lately---Matt-Man, this one's for you!

Her new lounge spot. Makes brushing your teeth a liiiittle tricky.

Yeah, don't know how she swung that one...

 Her new stalking spot. And of course she messes up the presents every time she jumps out to attack her prey. And by prey, I mean our toes or the draw string on my sweatshirt.

 I know I know, don't feed your pets human food (which I may or may no scold my dad for doing with our dogs all the time...), but we had finished our dessert and set the empty container beside us while we decompressed with an episode of Community, and I guess that leftover marscapone was just too tempting for that kitty! And then when she got it in her whiskers? Too good. We're still just so surprised at how much human food she actually likes--my family's cat, Mittens, is so picky, and usually she won't take it even if you offer it (or at least thats how it used to be)! But Marley? She loves it all. We're pretty sure yogurt is her favorite---she goes absolutely nuts for the stuff! We can barely take a bite from our bowls of yogurt before she's trying to stick her head in it.

And then there's this gem. I don't even know how I caught this, but it makes me laugh every single time I look at it. Really. Every time.

Here's to another day with this crazy fur ball!

Hey, Its Christmas Time!

Last weekend we got our first family christmas tree!

Originally, we planned to go to a tree farm and cut one down ourselves because I loved doing that when I was younger. But instead of driving half an hour to pay almost 100 bucks for a tree, we just decided to go across the street, get a tree from Food Lion, and use the money we saved for a date instead! And we were really surprised--for a tree that came from Food Lion, it actually looks pretty darn good!

Another plus: because we literally just had to drive across the street to get it, we could just stick it in the trunk instead of tying it to the top of the car and potentially scratching it--which Joey wouldn't have been too happy about!

Naturally, Marley started investigating as soon as we brought the tree in, walking around it and rubbing her nose on any branch she could reach.

And eventually she climbed in it, of course.

The next night, Joey and I put on my favorite Nat King Cole Christmas album and set to decorating the tree! Lucky Joey got to put the star on top. 

We wanted to start a tradition and get ornaments characteristic of where we live at the time (the life of a military family!), so we got a palm tree wood ornament from the Historic Market in Charleston.

And there she is!

Just the Two of Us: Life With Marley

I've noticed over the past few days that, the time I get to spend with Joey is inversely proportional to the number of Marley photos I take. Basically, having less time with my husband means more time with my crazy cat. And when you don't have a car for most of the week, your photo material is significantly limited--has anyone else noticed that my last few Instagram posts are all of her? But darn it, she always does the goofiest things, like play fetch, accidentally fall in the toilet, or parkour (this is all I can think of when I think of Parkour) off the walls, and I just can't help myself. Last week, she taught me how to commandeer anything during the time it takes to watch an episode of 30 Rock on Netflix, in only six moves.

Some Photos + Some Thoughts

Last week I took Joey on one last date before Power School started---and the majority of our together-time ended. We had a beautiful, windy afternoon in downtown Charleston!

There are two culinary institutes in Charleston, and each have restaurants run by the students as part of their training. Basically, people can go to the restaurant, have a three course meal for less than fifteen dollars (a steal!), and then fill out a survey about the food and service. So we decided to try 24 North Market, the restaurant at the Art Institute. Boy it was wonderful! Talk about delicious. Joey and I loved our southern inspired dishes--perfect portions, perfect flavor, and an unbelievable price.

And for those who love her, here are some photos of our crazy Marley. 

She has a thing about sticking her head in glasses---that kitty sure has no shame!

-----------------------------------------

Like I said, Joey has started Power School, which means I have a lot of time to myself now---and its only going to increase as he gets deeper into his classes and needs to study more. And while he is my whole world and he does so much for me, any power school wife will tell you that during this time, you kind of just have to live your life on your own a little. And this ridiculous abundance of time is leaving me feeling a little useless, lost, and lonely, desperate for purpose and friendship. I am making an effort to fill that time, but those efforts haven't quite yielded a result yet. And I'm having a hard time right now. 

But for now, I'm going to focus on the weekend's arrival, which means spending time with Joey and forgetting those worries for a moment. I don't know what I'd do without that boy. He sure is wonderful.

iPhonography: September Lately

Hello friends,

So.....We're moving in 11 days! Which means blogging frequency has continued to go down. But things are coming along. I'm finishing up at my two jobs, the movers come in 6 days, and we're pretty sure we have a place to live, and though I'm stressed often (I just can't help it!), things are going to be ok--no, great! Even though the power school schedule is going to be INSANE, we're so excited to move and start a new part of our life. Plus, as Debra Sowell told me, I'm going to have a Costco, so its going to be awesome. We're definitely ready to live in a bigger city, that's for sure!

Anyways, here's life lately as we try to fit in as much Virginia goodness before we leave!

Mom + Amy visited so we took them to a VMI parade || My newest cousin, Jackson Tanner Crellin! || A very sleepy Marley || Yummy pear tomatoes || Outdoor date night to welcome in the cooler weather || Newtown Bakery mini-haul || Fruit leather making || Split Banana Gelato || hooray for Warhol soup cans || Last Trip to DC, including lunch at Cava + Georgetown Cupcake for a Chocolate PB Fudge || Pitango Gelato || Last trip to the DC LDS Temple || deliciousness from Cool Springs Organic Market