New Year

Well, it's a new year now, isn't it? Josh and I spent NYE day celebrating the 1st birthday of our best friends' twins, and then spent a quiet evening at home watching Simpsons, snacking, and doing laundry. Exciting I know, but there's nothing else I would rather have been doing.

New Year's Day was a marathon shopping day. Holly picked me up and we grabbed some breakfast before heading to Stephanie's. I got to play with the twins a little more while she finished getting ready. Then we headed to Home Goods, Ikea, and lunch at Chili's. Steph went home, and Holly and I moved on to Anthropologie and Target. I got several cute things at Anthro, including the Hop, Skip, Jump skirt that I wore to work today. At Target I got some great basic sweaters on sale, a second pair of jeggings, and a new belt, all of which were paid for with gift cards. Then we went back to my house and I forced Holly to help me make some new outfits with my purchases so I knew I didn't waste my money. Holly left, I tidied up and went to bed.

Josh had been in Houston for a show and driven back w/ a bandmate, arriving home early in the morning. We both slept in Sunday, however I got up before him and worked on framing up some photos for our bedroom over coffee and some Bob Newhart Show. Once he was up I had moved on to watching some Simpsons and started putting together the new drawers I'd bought for my closet at Ikea. I went to work installing them, which led to a reorganization, which led to some closet purging. I worked on Josh's side a little bit too. It took me quite a while, but I finally got things just the way I wanted, including a new pull out peg rack that stores my necklaces. I showered and we made a late run for groceries. So, all in all, the first weekend of the New Year was pretty darn productive.


Oooh, aaaah, organized.

TGIF

What a long week! Lots of studying for my math test, which was beyond frustrating. And then yesterday was just the pits. I overslept and missed my first class. I rushed to school just in time for my second class, only to discover it was canceled. And then there was the math test. I actually did great on it, which turned out to be the high point of my day. Then work, therapy (where I impressed my doctor with my neuroses, can't be good) and tons of traffic while trying to run errands. I was able to make a nice dinner, and do a little housework, so I suppose we can add that to the good list. But Josh didn't get home until almost 11, so that put a damper on that stuff a bit.

In other words, whine whine whine, ha. BUT! Tonight should be much better. One of my errands post-work yesterday was picking up some goodies for this evening. My pals Steph and Holly are coming over for some snacks and drinks, hopefully on the deck, before we head to the bar Steph's bro works at for more (and cheaper) drinks. Yay for girly fun times that I need so badly after this week!

Weekend Roundup- New Year's Edition

Well, shortly after I posted my 2009 Goodbye where I mentioned looking forward to loving on Stephanie & Rodney's soon-to-arrive twins I got a text saying they were arriving early- as in, about an hour, ha. I grabbed a ride from my bro who happened to have the day off and be heading my way, and made it to the hospital just a little after they were born. Things happened so quickly though that I was the first person there, aside from Rodney's mom who was sitting with their 4 year old Rylee. Stephanie's mom and youngest brother arrived just a few minutes after me and we were all there early enough to see the twins rolled back to be cleaned and examined and Stephanie rolled back to her room a little bit after them. I spent the next 6 hours at the hospital visiting with all the family and friends coming and going, trying to be helpful every now and then, taking pics, and of course loving on the twins. Logan was born first, weighing in at 7 lbs., followed by Hadley at 6.2 lbs. Josh came to see the newborns when he was done at Rock School, and then we said goodbye and made our way towards home. Josh had already eaten, so I grabbed some bad fast food on the way. We got into our jammies, played a few rounds of chinese checkers, uno, gin, and yahtzee while we watched Monty Python episodes. We shared some champagne and a kiss at midnight, listened to a surprising amount of firecrackers and the like going off in our neighborhood, and tucked in to bed. So, that was our exciting new year's eve, ha. And the rest of the weekend consisted mostly of mucho chores, one more visit to the twins with Holly before we went to see A Single Man (movie good, Colin Firth great), a night of wigged out dreams partially influenced by said movie, grocery shopping, and a lot of Muppet Show watching. That about sums it up. Here are some pics I took on the trusty iPhone the first day at the hospital.



Rylee and Rodney with new sister/daughter Hadley



Rylee and Rodney with new brother/son Logan

Stephanie's Baby Shower

So, bff Stephanie is currently growing two babies in her belly. That's right, twins- a boy and a girl! This weekend I hosted a shower for her family and friends. This was the second shower I've thrown for Steph, and this time around she wanted things to be really simple. I chose a bird theme that I knew she would love and almost everything else just fell into place. I looked through the archives of a couple of blogs I frequent, namely Oh Happy Day! and Brooklyn Limestone, for some ideas and everything came together really well, I think. I used some kit invitations that I actually found in the wedding aisles at Michael's, and embellished them with a little birdie stamp to work with the theme. I went with a light lunch-ish menu of tuna and chicken salad sandwiches, kettle potato chips, veggies with dip, fruit salad, and blueberry crumb bars. I had lemonade, iced tea and coffee to drink. Michael's also provided the grapevine wreaths that I "nested" the sandwiches in, the little birdies that matched my yellow and blue color scheme, the twig & nest combo, and the card stock to make the sandwich flags. I bought two small bunches of delicious smelling freesia for the tabletop and voila! I think everyone had a good time, and Stephanie and her husband Rodney got a lot of stuff that's going to come in handy once little Logan & Hadley get here. Here are a few pics. Oh, and the cake? It was made by Steph. Because she wanted to make her cake, and because she makes awesome cakes. If she hadn't been dying to make this particular cake design then I probably would have done some of those bird's nest cupcakes that have been around the blogosphere and back again. Or talked her into doing it. Because she's awesome. Here are a few pics. Thanks to everyone who came to celebrate the soon to be here babes! Edit: I neglected to thank Josh and Holly for being super helpful with the party prep and even more so with the clean up. They rock!

Weekend Roundup

Friday:
-Sleep in
-Breakfast
-Clean house
-Shower
-Finish reading Teacher Man
-Grab some Chipotle with Josh
-Eat and watch some Arrested Development while the storm moves through
-Hit the hay

Saturday:
-Up early
-Cereal and coffee
-Get ready
-Shopping and lunch with Holly and Steph at Grapevine Mills
-Score loads of tees at J. Crew Outlet and goods at Old Navy
-Great pant hunt with Holly, failed
-Grab some Schlotzsky's for dinner
-More Arrested Development while eating
-Surrender to big fat sinus headache, take ibuprofen and benadryl
-Climb in bed and watch Netflix movie, Because I Said So
-Remember how much I love Diane Keaton and fall asleep watching Manhattan Murder Mystery

Sunday:
-Sleep in late due to benadryl
-Leftover Chipotle for breakfast/lunch
-Make menu plan and grocery list
-Place online clothes order
-Grocery shopping
-Put groceries up and start laundry
-Clean and prep veggies while watching A Mighty Wind
-More laundry
-Put slipcover on living room chair
-Shower
-Homemade pizza for dinner and finish Manhattan Murder Mystery
-Finish laundry and ironing
-Bedtime

Weekend Roundup

Friday:
-Work, blech
-Run errands to Target and Pier 1
-Grab a few groceries at Central Market
-Get dinner from Chipotle
-Eat and watch 30 Rock, hilarious!
-Grocery shopping
-Watch TV and tidy up
-Go night-night

Saturday:
-Wake up and make coffee
-Get Beef Stew ingredients into Crock Pot
-Make Beer Bread
-Clean living room while doing laundry, 6 loads!
-Make bed and put clean cover back on couch
-Prep salad
-Eat Chipotle leftovers
-Send Josh to store for salad dressing
-Shower
-Start on dessert
-Start over on dessert, sigh.
-Welcome Spencer & Deb with congratulations on their engagement!
-Spend a lovely evening enjoying good food and pleasant conversation
-Leave the dishes to Josh
-Watch MST3K: The Giant Gila Monster
-Hit the Hay

Sunday:
-Wake up
-Watch Graham Norton
-Eat cheese toast for breakfast, best ever!
-Finish getting ready
-Head to Stephanie's
-Hang out while she finishes cupcakes for Ryan's birthday
-Play with Rylee
-Head out to Grapevine Mills
-Buy some super cute things at Forever 21, Steve & Barry's, and Banana Republic Outlet.
-Grab some grub at Chili's and chat old school while we eat
-Hit Old Navy and Target for some Christmas gifts
-Head back to the DeMeglio casa
-Go home
-Show Josh all my new clothes, yay!
-Crash into bed

Weekend Roundup

Friday:
-Oversleep
-Make chore list
-Dust & tidy bedroom
-Scrub tub & shower doors
-Clean counter & sink
-Tidy living room
-Clean kitchen counters & sink
-Sweep
-Devour Chipotle
-Play Sims and watch movie while Josh is at band practice
-Nighty-nights

Saturday:
-Watch Real Simple and Rick Steves' Europe while enjoying my coffee
-Go shopping with Josh, buying a black tank and these pretty things
-Eat leftover Chipotle while indulging in some Father of The Bride
-Get ready & hit the road
-Stop by Margarita Ranch for Rodney's birthday
-Head to Club Dada to drop off the drums
-Head to Cafe Brazil with Steve, Meri & Cory for some pre-show grub and set list decisions
-Head back to the club for Team Evil, meet up with Spencer, Deb & Ang, then Carissa, then Steph, Rodney, Lisa and Jamie, and then Ryan and Claire- I had a lot of mingling to do!
-Rock out to The Chem Set
-Say adios to most of the peeps and head to the patio to chit chat with Ang, Deb & Spencer
-Hit the road
-Feel not so good once I got home- oh mi estomago!

Sunday:
-A whole lotta nothing while I recuperate from Saturday night!

Weekend Roundup

Friday:
-Work to make up sick day
-Container Store for pantry storage solutions
-Grocery shopping while Josh picked up Chipotle for dinner
-Watch What Not To Wear with a ballroom flair
-Enjoy this week's Most Haunted
-Night-night

Saturday:
-Bake up a batch of yummy whole wheat blueberry muffins
-Listen to the new Paul McCartney album- love it!
-Get ready to head to Steph & Rodney's
-Go grocery shopping with Steph
-Cook & enjoy dinner together
-Play with Rylee
-Have delicious dessert & play fun games, even more fun when you win.
-Head home & go sleepies

Sunday:
-Make smoothie to enjoy with muffins
-Read new issue of Blueprint
-Do laundry
-Quick swim while laundry is going
-Out of pool just in time for the 800th thunderstorm this year
-Eat Mellow Mushroom pizza-mmmm pepperoni, black olive and feta
-Mix up a batch of low fat granola
-Eat rest of pizza and watch Laugh-In dvd
-Wait for Josh to get back from practice while watching PBS britcoms
-Hit the hay

Shopathon

Stephanie and I went shopping Sunday afternoon. We used to go shopping all the time, but both of us becoming old married ladies and she being a super-mommy definitely decreased the frequency of our trips. And we had been trying to go for several weeks, with life just getting in the way. But we gave life a shove so we could get together. And despite Stephanie's annoyance at how long it takes me to change, we had a great time and I got a ton of stuff. But, let it be known that she bares some of the responsibility, because she always picks out a ton of stuff for me to try on, ha. Of course, the things I want to show you most can not be found on Forever 21's site.

What did I walk away with?
-Strapless bubble dress in a great bold black & white floral
-Cute short sleeve three-button swing jacket in red
-Summery spaghetti strap top in yellow with tiny white polka dots
-Black sweater/shirt combo that's great for work
-Fun skirt that can transition well to autumn in this mod print
-Comfy and stylish bermuda/crop bottoms in a brown plaid
And I was actually able to find pics of the rest: