Autumn♥

I'm writing this post during commercial breaks from "Glee". If you haven't seen it, you should.

It may be set in a high school backdrop, but I think it's actually written for adults. "I think" because I think I may be an adult.


In the past week, fall has swept into our little town and home so quickly I didn't even get to say my proper goodbyes to summer.

The air is cool, the breeze is blowing, and I can smell the holidays approaching.

I should mention now that I am head over hills in love with fall. It brings a wonderfully skippity-doo-da feeling to my soul that is indescribable.

Heck, I even want to name our future girl munchkin Autumn in honor of this very special time of year that makes me want to do a happy dance each and every time I step off the front stoop.

But that probably won't happen due to the fact that we're passing down Nick's middle name, Snow, to our daughter.

Autumn Snow? A little too literal if you ask me.

But I digress.

I was a little concerned when we painted our family room blue that it would sort of be a color splash train wreck when I started decking the walls with fall and Christmas decorations but I'm actually finding it kind of fun.

There's something about that pop of blue that keeps everything so fresh and exciting when all the warm colors can make your head swirl and throw you into a curled up ball on the couch with your favorite snuggie and a mug of hot apple cider, falling into a cold weather coma before you can even say "...but wait I had dishes to do..."

I wouldn't really know though, seeing how I've never owned a snuggie, but it does seem to be pretty convenient when you want to hold that mug of cider but you don't want to bring your arms out from under the covers. Those geniuses.

Tonight, Nick and I will be spending out first night back in our own bedroom with the new furniture. We're sort of silly excited about the tufted comfort of the new pillow top mattress and the extra room we'll have moving from a queen to a king. Who would have thunk that darned 9 pound dog could some how take up more room in the bed than the two of us combined?

Then too early tomorrow morning I'll be up and off to stay in a hotel for work Thursday night. What a tease tonight will be.

With the new cooler weather, the Nickster and I will also be doing less sneaking around the thermostat before bed as well. Someone {me} always wants it cooler for sleeping while someone else {he} is always minding the electric bill. No more discussions of compromising degrees because that favorite season of mine makes this house a perfect degree of baby bear soup!

As if I needed another reason to love this time of year.

My favorite part of fall decorating is using the bags and bags of loose faux leaves I own. Call me tacky, but I LOVE sprinkling those babies over any and every surface they may stay put on.

It may not look like much, but I spent more time decorating this one little room than I care to say and when Nick saw it for the first time, he only had one thing to say:

"Looks like we need to break out the rake."

MEN. Gotta ♥ 'em.

my collections

While I've been gone, my various collections have been growing.


The collection of nagging "To Do" lists are piling up, jotted down everywhere from a script pad at work to the list function on my phone, or even the traditional slip of paper.

Unfinished projects are collecting themselves around the house. An in-process painted mirror in the family room floor, a stack of forms to fill out and mail into work on the dining room table, loads of clean laundry setting in baskets begging to be folded.

Happily, our furniture collection has been increasing as well. We recently lucked into buying a barely used, oversized king bedroom suit from another pharmacist at work who was moving and couldn't fit the monstrous furniture into his new master bedroom.

The new bedding has been ordered and I can't wait to show it all off. Until it arrives at our doorstep, my hubby and I have been spending our nights in the basement guest bedroom, which is fairly familiar seeing how it now holds all the old furniture moved out of our bedroom.

A sneak peak until all has been beautified and ready for a photo shoot:

Of course, with all the traveling, my collections of hotel amenities has flourished. I am close to set for the next decade with shampoo, conditioner, lotion, mouthwash, soap, shoe mitts, q-tips, facial cleansing cloths, toothpaste, sewing kits, shower caps, etc.

In reality, it all sits in the linen closet waiting for the time we're in a pinch and need one of these items. I believe I'll soon try to find a good home in need of these items and pass them on. Any suggestions?

With Fall's official arrival and my slight obsession with pumpkins, I have a hard time passing up any sort of faux pumpkins in the stores. I have been unable to find my fall boxes since the move to the new house {to my two mothers - have either of you seen a labeled "fall decor" box still being stored with you???} so these are only the pumpkins I've brought home this year. I can't wait to find the others and let them meet their new brothers and sisters.

Side note: I seriously ♥♥♥ pumpkins. I miss the others terribly. I am also in the process of planning to plant a real pumpkin patch for next year, as well as convincing my father he should plant one as well.

Double side note: I think everyone should know about the orange pumpkins below, called "funkins". These can be carved to your liking without the pumpking gut mess {which, actually, I love to getting into} and finished with a real candle placed inside. They're extremely realistic looking and you can spend a ridiculous amount of time carving a gorgeous design and not have to throw it away at the end of the month. Score!

My attempts at carving one soon to come.

In the last couple days, our backyard has started its own collection of rain water. Our small babbling brook, which normally barely has enough water to babble, has swollen to new depths.



I can just see our little pup, or "pupkin" as I've newly dubbed him, floating away down the muddy waters. Thankfully, he seems completely uninterested in the creek, soothing his momma's fears of losing him to the newest collection.



My absence has also caused an accumulation of pictures and stories from our everyday life to collect on the laptop. I wish I had the time to blog everyday to preserve our memories, but that hasn't been the case as of late.

Case in point: who wants to forget Nick's triumphant return to the game of baseball church softball. It brings back sweet memories of our undergraduate days at Georgetown.

The pupkin got to see his poppa play the game for the first time. He was slightly more amused by the fallen leaves in the grass than the fact that his daddy was at bat. He's still young...

Hopefully the time in between blogging will not be so vast in the future. I'd like to increase my "blog post collection" and decrease my "laundry pile collection". Fingers crossed!

A beautiful bride and a baby story

Maybe not a real baby story, but I am finally going to answer the questions y'all asked about the possibility of our little family expanding in the future.


Even more exciting... finally, some pictures of the gorgeous BRIDE and GROOM!!

Plus, Nick tells me I probably shouldn't mention work or how much I work or how much I'm on the road or living in a hotel lately, cause that's boring and apparently I've mentioned it enough on here that he says that may be boring others...

I didn't even know he read the blog that often??

I also told him that I write about our my life and if my life is all work and little play, well heck - that's all I have to write about.

But I'll go ahead and NOT tell you about how little I'm home which explains why the blog gets neglected. I guess you'll just have to figure out why I'm absent so much some other way.

Now, what you really came here to see:




The moment Lauren and her father walked down the art museum's spiral staircase to her groom was BREATHTAKING. Again.. I can't wait to see their photographer's images of the moment over this amateur stuff.

Could these two have looked any more beautiful??

Talk about babies - I can't wait to see the handsome little bundles of joy these two lovebirds will bring into this world one day!

{It wasn't our "R" on the wall, but we did take advantage for the picture!}

I can't believe they've already been married almost 2 weeks.

Time flies, people.

Lastly, I'll leave you with a few vague answers to your questions about little blue eyed boys and brown eyed girls in our future.

First of all, we do talk about children. But they are just a dream for now. We haven't been very good about naming a day and time that we will be ready for such an undertaking.

I expect we will be all grown-up around 2020, so by all means, hold your breath! =)

As for making such plans, counting days of the month, taking temperatures every morning, or scheduling "extra curricular activities" - those have never appealed to me. If IT could just happen without us getting totally and utterly wrapped up in the process, we would be pleasantly and appreciatively surprised. We are well aware that the Big Guy has his own plans anyway and letting mother nature take it's course is truly more of our style.

Should we hit a bump in the road or find ourselves reproductively challenged, we will, by all means, dive head first into taking action.

{After all, I personally, as well as my sister, would not be here without modern science and I am very grateful to my parents for going out of their way to get us here!}

Until then, we're just chillin'.

As for a number of ankle biters, I think our discussions settle mostly around the number of 3. We'll see how that all pans out.

Adoption also sprinkles our conversations often. I believe whole heartedly that it is a journey that we will also be taking on.

Vague enough for you?

After all, who wouldn't want a future baby-daddy like ^this^ one??

Goin' to the BALL PARK and we're gonna get married...

Today's date: 9.9.09. Very cool!

I also chose to publish this post at 9:09 am just for the pure heck of it. Very uncool of my dorky self.




Okay... you should know ahead of time that Chad and Lauren's entire wedding party got to take photos before the wedding at the Cincinnati Reds' Great American Ballpark. I tell you this in my usually overly dramatic fashion because eventually, the real photographer's photos will be available and you will be blown away.


I have only come to you today to prepare you for that moment.






But really --> We had so much fun with this! The day was spectacular, nicely shaded, the boys had their personalized Louisville Sluggers given to them by the groom, and Lauren... well Lauren had her own PINK LOUISVILLE SLUGGER!


With our very busy summer, I sadly only got to go to one game. This MORE than makes up for my baseball drought. Our special time on the field and in the dug-out will always be in each of our memories forever.

.



Having lots of wedding pictures to show you, I believe, is the best way to spice up my answers to the Q&A. Feel like suffering through a few more?

On the subject of me and the Mister:



What is your favorite thing about being married?


Hands down: having my best friend with me at the best and worst times of my life. We have become better friends with each passing year and have definitely noticed a 100% increase in fun, laughter, and sharing together in this first year of marriage. We {mostly} have a ball together.




When did you know you wanted to marry Nick?...was it love at first sight...were you friends for a long time...did he sweep you off of your feet after a few months? :)


Not love at first site, but BOY was he cute! I think yesterday's answer covered the "were you friends for a long time" bit. Sweep me off my feet? Hardly. I would say we took it very slow. It wasn't a head over heels love from the very beginning. To be honest, we grew on each other - the beginning was a little rocky with figuring out each other's personalities and learning each other's "code" in communication. But it did happened and I don't know the exact moment I realized it but I was in that place one day where I knew I wanted to marry him and that was that.



Maybe it was after we had been dating for about a year and a half and I cried at least one night a week that summer as I laid in bed and thought about how I was moving 4 hours away from him to go to pharmacy school. He would be very busy with his own school and baseball and I was sure it would be the end for us. I was a heart broken and distraught. So maybe it's not always a romantic notion of "I knew I wanted to marry him when..." but it did happen and I've never looked back. ♥♥♥



From email: My question is did you and the blue eyed boy look at rings before you got engaged? Did you suspect the proposal? I don't want to suspect my engagement but I want to choose the ring so just a little curious!!

Nick and I had actually set the wedding date before we were ever engaged. Strange? Yes. But I wanted needed the wedding photographer we booked and he had to be booked at least a year ahead of time. John Michael actually, inadvertently, chose our wedding date when we said we wanted a date in July and the 19th was his last weekend left in July besides the weekend of the 4th.


As for the ring, Nick's brother was working at Helzberg Diamonds at the time and luckily helped us in the search. I picked out several I loved one day and later, without my knowledge, Nick went back and picked one of the ones I was drooling over. As for the engagement, it was definitely a total surprise. Even with the date already set and rings looked at, I had no idea he bought the ring and no idea when he planned to pull it off. I was blown away with surprise the day it happened. He is the best.

How long were you and your husband together before you got engaged?

2 and 1/2 years. I don't think I could have waited any longer, but I would have waited forever for him. Make any sense?

Pictures of the lovely bride and groom at the reception to come! {Saving the best for last, naturally.} And to wrap up the Q&A, answers to the toughest questions you asked, a.k.a. questions related to the baby factor.

I don't think you're gonna wanna miss that one ;)

Rehearsal and more answers

Happy Labor Day!

We're home recovering from our gorgeous weekend celebrating the love of two very wonderful people♥

The decor, the dresses, the food... every detail of the weekend was top notch. We were wowed, entertained, and swept off our feet with the romance and elegance of the big day. I can't wait to see the photos from their fabulous photographer! Over the next few days, I'll be featuring a few snapshots of the moments some of my friends and I caught on camera.

In between pics from the rehearsal dinner, I've decided to answer a few more questions. In honor of the new Mr. and Mrs. Roberts, today's Q&A theme will be those questions geared towards the ins and outs of THIS Mr. and Mrs. Roberts' relationship.

You ready for this?!

How did you and your hubby meet?

Sweet story with a happy ending: Nick and I met our freshman year at Georgetown College. During the summer, I signed up for classes at orientation where my mom convinced me I needed to take Freshman Seminar. What a waste of one hour of time a week, or so I thought.

I ended up meeting a very cute, shy guy who took MONTHS to break out of his shell and speak to me, the chatterbox of the class. We ended up walking dogs together for our class required community service and then watching a couple movies in the dorm. I wouldn't say we ever "dated" that year, we shared only one kiss and whatever the relationship was or would be called was quietly over within a month of us beginning to spend time together. We never spoke on the phone or became serious whatsoever and the flame just flickered out without any type of break-up or conversation about "us".

We remained acquaintances and always waved or stopped to speak if we saw each other in the cafeteria and still had a couple other classes together over the next couple of years where there was nothing more than a smile or a few innocent words spoken in passing.

I still thought he was extremely cute, but no more thought than that was put into it. We both dated others and moved on from our small spark together quite easily.

Then Junior year came and I transferred to the University of Kentucky while Nick remained at Georgetown. I was dating someone else who also attended UK, Nick and I never spoke or saw each other, and if you were an all seeing eye looking at the big picture, you would never imagined we would have another chance to end up together.

In February, my boyfriend and I broke up and I was SO SET ON BEING SINGLE. I was going to focus on everything else BUT a man for a while. This was finally the time for me and it was a breath of fresh air. Little did I know the love bug was lurking in my midst!

Now, if you've been around for a while or were on the internet when it really started becoming a place to chat, you might remember one of the first instant messaging thingamabobs called ICQ. Nick and I had "spoken" on there from time to time since freshman year, a nice way to flirt without ever having to actually call another human being. One Sunday, my friend Melissa and I were leaving church when we saw a guy directing traffic who we both agreed looked just like Nick. I later messaged him to say hi and to tell him about the guy we saw who reminded me of him and that I was just checking in to see if all was well with him.

I swear to you, there was no more thought to that message than I just expressed. Nick will tell you that I was trying to pursue him over ICQ. This is completely inaccurate and you should believe exactly as I tell you. ;)

I had no interest in anyone at this point, let alone, this particular shy guy who it already hadn't worked out with once before and whom I was not interested in trying to make it work with a second time.

To try and wrap up yet another answer session where only ONE question gets answered, Nick asked me out ON THE INTERNET after we messaged back and forth a few times. The date was set for a couple weeks later after spring break was over. In spite of my man swearing off, I thought about him the entire spring break and the anticipation was killing me!

The rest is history. Our first date was on March 21st, 2005 and we've been together ever since. No break-ups, no time apart. Just us. We've had our share of ups and downs, but we're in it for the long haul.

If I could shake the hand of the guy directing church traffic that morning I would. I would also like to show him to Nick to prove he exists and that I didn't just make him up so I could find a reason to message him. My friend Melissa still backs me up to this day that it did, in fact, happen.

I should also say thanks to my mom who made me take, what I thought, was a useless class. In reality, I didn't get much out of it besides an easy A and a husband.

Pretty successful class.

Till tomorrow's Q&A,

Dearly beloved

{The following pictures are all from the very lovely wedding shower thrown in honor of these two love birds this past weekend.}

We're heading out today, Cincinnati bound for Chad and Lauren's wedding extravaganza!!

I'll be on the road in less than an hour to meet up with Lauren and her girls for a night on the town. The last bachelorette party I attended was my own... and it was a blast ;) I can't wait to do it again!

Nick has a church softball game tonight but will be driving up separate at O'dark-thirty so he, his dad, brother, and friends can get up early tomorrow morning and enjoy a round on the links... which I suppose may be fun in guy world - ?

We are so full of love and excitement for these two! I've called Lauren my sister-in-law since as far as I can remember knowing her, but it will be so wonderful to make it official. There are no two better suited for one another and I can't wait to see them tie the knot this weekend.

I'm also very excited that tomorrow is the 2 year anniversary of the day Nick and I got engaged and we get to celebrate with a big fancy party! {Or possibly, the party is a rehearsal dinner party for C&L, but we can also be celebrating our love on the inside.}

Now I must be getting back to finishing the delicious, obscene cake I'm baking for the party tonight! I borrowed the pan from my maid-of-honor, Bridget, who baked a similar cake for me last year. I can't wait to return it to her and get that thing out of my kitchen!

{By the way, I was trying to determine the bake time for such a cake based on the times given for different size pans on the back of the cake mix box. I wonder why they don't list a time for a phallic shaped cake pan? I ended up having to guess and poking a toothpick in the middle to see if it was finished --- Ouch! =) }

Now you will feel no rain

For each of you will be shelter to the other.

Now each of you will feel no cold

For each of you will be warmth to the other.

Now there is no loneliness for you

For each of you will be companion to the other.

Now you are two persons

But there is one life before you.

Go now to your dwelling place to enter into the days of your togetherness

And may your days be good and long upon the earth.

P.S. - Happy Birthday to my other favorite brother-in-law today, David, whose wedding I particularly enjoyed when he married my sister. As a teenager at the time, I was so happy to get my "second mother" out of the house and into his! hehe =) He deserves a fabulous birthday!