She Likes Purple

Seven Quick Takes: Travel, Budgets, Happy Birthdays

1. May has been officially re-named (well, in my house anyway) The Month of Collecting a Lot of Rewards Miles. Mike was gone for 20 days this month on six separate flights, and I'll be gone for 6 days starting today, though on just two measly flights. I'm bad at math, but that doesn't leave a whole lot of days together, does it? We didn't spend Mother's Day or our anniversary or THE NFL DRAFT together, but such is life sometimes. You occasionally have to text one another during the NFL draft instead of watching it on the couch together. Push through and make the best of it, right? I do keep not-so-subtly suggesting that Mike use some of those miles on a quick trip to Mexico. JUST WAITING OVER HERE. NO BIGS.

2. A picture taken over the long weekend, before I had to go. We took the training wheels off Kyle's bike and Mike took him in the backyard so falling wouldn't be so scary.

I don't deserve this much sunshine.

3. As I mentioned, I'll be traveling today and I'm heading to New York for Book Expo. This will be my eighth BEA--I had to count up those years three times to make sure that was right!--and I love it each and every year. I love what I do, but I always love it just a little more after returning from BEA, re-inspired by so many smart, interesting, ambitious people. And there's also New York. Not too shabby a place to be. (And I'm on the prowl for a new favorite cupcake place--always am--if you have one to share.)

4. Totally unrelated to travel, a couple months ago (inspired by Natalie) I splurged on a Madewell tote. I'm trying to splurge on more things I'll love for the rest of my life and fewer things I'll hate in a month. Honestly, this is the most I've ever spent on any purse I've ever owned (like 98% of all the purses I buy are from Target, not a percentage exaggeration), but I haven't regretted it for a second. I love it. If you ever decide to buy the same for yourself, trust me, get it monogrammed. 

5. Despite that Madewell tote (don't let it fool you!), Mike and I are acutally hardcore budgeting right now. I'm pretty proud of us, though let's not shoot confetti in the air in our honor just yet. It's been like a month. Anyway, one of the areas I've become a bit of a hardass about is our food budget. (I may have recently said without irony, "We can make it until next week without milk, BABE.") No more fancy-pants dinner recipes that require 27 ingredients. I'm now building menus based on what we have and what is cheap, easy, semi-healthy, and delicious. I should start a food blog called Cheap, Easy, Semi-Healthy, and Delicious, but it'd be like four total posts because this is not an easy formula, my friends. Still, I've lucked out on a few recipes lately, let me share them with you: Chicken & Pesto Orzo Skillet, Chicken & Vegetable Curry, Crock Pot Tacos. If you also have Cheap, Easy, Semi-Healthy, and Delicious recipes, let me have 'em.

(Chicken & Pesto Orzo Skillet.)

6. I'm hosting another round of Biggest Blogging Loser. Let me know in the comments if you want the details! Short of it is: $20 but you get $10 of it back if you make it the whole 12 weeks. (You get two "skip" weeks.) We start June 2nd.

7. Today is my little brother's 21st birthday. I've loved him since the day he was born, and that's an awfully long time to love someone. He's grown into such a special man, but he's always been special to me. I loved him so much as an adorable little toddling kid, and I loved him so much at age eight, as we went to Disneyland together, and I loved him so much at our wedding, as a 14-year-old teenager who still had no problem dancing with his sister. I hate that we're so far apart, though, and that it's been three years since I've gotten to hug him. I doubt he'll ever quite understand just how much I love him, but it's so much. Happy 21st birthday, Adam! I wish I could be there, but you probably don't want your thirty-something sister there anyway. I'll be there to buy you a drink soon.  

One of my favorite pictures ever taken, hugging my brother at a wedding.  

Wedding Day Highlights

Since our wedding anniversary was this week, I thought it might be nice to throw together some highlights of that super special seven-years-ago day.

1. My mom and I had breakfast together that morning, just us. We ate bagels and grinned at each other the entire time. 

2. My dad and little brother delivered champagne to my room as me and my ladies got ready. 

3. I gave my mother-in-law a letter right before I got into my dress, thanking her for the man she raised. It was a special moment.

4. Natalie, my maid-of-honor, was so wonderful the entire day. She ran around talking to vendors before the wedding and helped clean up after the wedding. There will never be the right words for how grateful I feel to know and have that lady. (And then she danced with me all night! She's tops.)

5. We splurged on a violinist, playing as I walked down the aisle, but neither Mike nor I actually remember the violinist except for the one picture we have of her. I'm sure she was wonderful!

6. I don't remember Mike's vows. I just remember he said over and over, "You look beautiful, I love you, you look beautiful." Those may have actually been his entire vows, for all I know. Which is more than okay by me.

7. We played Journey more than once. 

8. The next day, Mike and my brother-in-law talked about this "dance off" they had on the dance floor. I whined, "Ahhhh, I missed the dance off?" Then we got our pictures back. 

Turns out I didn't miss the dance off. I was standing a foot away from the dance off. There was just an open bar, you see. (And who gave me a baby to hold!?)

9. My mom has a brother and sister and they each have two kids, and I have a sister. So, on my mom's side of the family, there are six cousins. I don't think we'd all been together, ever, and we haven't been all together since. I'm so glad they were all there. What a special memory.

10. This.

It's too bad I can't throw a wedding every year on our anniversary. I'd really prefer that to our fridge breaking this year on our anniversary. That seems like a stupid alternative to an open bar and dance offs.

Kyle Quotes, Two

(Previous Kyle Quotes)

I'm sure you've got some Johnny Manziel opinions, but my boy thinks he's the most awesome football player there is. After finding out the Cleveland Browns drafted Johnny Manziel, Kyle kept saying: I can't wait to root for the Cleaning Browns!

Mike was taking Kyle to dinner, and he asked if Kyle wanted to eat at the restaurant or take it home. When they were nearly there, Mike said, "I can't remember, Kyle, did you want to eat there or take it home?
Kyle: Seriosuly, daddy? Did you forget to put it in your head?

Upon spotting a vintage Mustang pulling out of the gas station: Look at that fancy car! I wonder if it's Fancy Car Day.

Kyle, catching a glimpse of a boxing match on TV: Those best friends look like they may be arguing. 

Kyle was finishing watching a Curious George episode before bed.
Me: Bedtime after this.
Kyle: Do you think you might change your mind?
Me: No, sorry, buds.
Kyle: I had to try.

Our fridge went on the outs right about the time Mike left town. As I put Kyle to bed, I told him the ice maker wasn't working (he usually gets a glass of ice water at bedtime), but that we'd fix it soon.
Kyle: How will we fix it without Daddy?
Me: Hey, I could fix it.
Kyle: I don't think that's true, Mommy.

I took Kyle to Panera for dinner, and he held the door open for me. 
Me: Buds, you're the sweetest!
(After dinner)
Kyle: Can I stay up late and watch George tonight?
Me: No, not tonight.
Kyle: But I held the door open for you.

Mike and I spent our anniversary apart. I told Kyle I was sad about it.
Kyle: Mommy, you can just kiss Daddy when he gets home.

(Photo credit: Natalie Seeboth Photography) 

Eleven Questions

I began blogging about a million years ago on MySpace before eventually moving over to Typepad, and probably 75% of my early MySpace posts were simply those internet surveys/"memes"/questionnaires/whatever they were called that were all the rage in 2004. So this is kind of a nostalgic jaunt down blogging memory lane, thanks to Janet's recent post that tagged me at the end of it. 

(I love Janet's blog and always have.)

1. What is your favorite type of cheese? I like to think of myself as an equal cheese opportunist. I love all kinds, equally, but I've been on a cheddar kick lately. 

2. What are you excited about? My work trip to New York next week, the ATX Festival, our family's long weekend in Hollywood (Florida), our July Fourth party, meeting Natalie's baby girl in August, Kyle starting Kindergarten (!!), a girl's weekend in September, and a trip to Vegas in December. Then the holidays, my birthday, lather rinse repeat. Happiness is having something to look forward to or, as I translate the saying, a full calendar.  

3. How did you celebrate your last birthday? I said "To hell with finances and and nine-hour roadtrips, take me to New Orleans, Mike." He said "okay," which is why I like him so much. 

4. What is on your bedside table? Clutter. Change. My glasses. Rogue earrings. It's not the Instagram-worthy nightstand I'd like it to be.

5. What do you order from the movie theater concession stand? A Diet Coke. I used to half-love the movies for movie nachos alone, but adulthood introduces both taxes and wondering what's in that neon-orange cheese. In other news, adulthood is overrated. 

(And don't even start about what's in Diet Coke. I know, I know.)

6. Do you have a garden? What’s growing? Closest I have to a garden is a shoe garden, and wedges are growing.

7. Any summer plans? A trip to Florida, a big July Fourth party, swim lessons, more hikes, bitching about the weather. I really want to find a way to make it to California, to visit my brother. 

8. Which TV couple(s) are you rooting for? Damon and Elena, and Stefan and Caroline, and both are from the same CW show. I am who I am.

9. What’s the last thing you bought? Plane tickets to Vegas. 

10. What’s one thing you are passionate about? Just one? Impossible. But I just read/heard about the Qatar World Cup migrant worker issue and it absolutely disgusted me, so I'm passionate about spreading the word about it. Let's all boycott the 2022 World Cup, okay?

11. What are you grateful for this week? I'm grateful for both my mom and Mike's mom this week (and always, but I was asked about this week). They say it takes a village to raise a child, and I agree, but for us it also takes two incredible grandmothers. We're so lucky to have both our moms for all the obvious "they make it possible for me to go to a work dinner when Mike's out of town" ways but also for the "my son has a relationship with these amazing women" ways that are bigger than we even realize right now. Also, they do it with grace. My mother-in-law has never made me feel anything but loved and valued, and my mom and I cried and laughed just two days ago over The Good Wife and our own dumb luck for having each other. I'm so grateful for them both.

The rules say I must now tag eleven bloggers: Elizabeth, Christina, Hillary, Jess, Janssen, Maggie, Jen, Sarah, Jonna (hoping this will bring her out of blogging retirement!), Meredith, and Kyra.

I think I'm supposed to come up with eleven original questions but, nah, go ahead and answer the above! I'm most curious what TV couples you're rooting for.

Seven

(six, five, four, three, two, [and my personal favorite] one) 

We've been married seven years today. Mike's out of town, I have a work dinner tonight, and it's Monday. Seven years ago today was a wee bit more magical than actual today. (And seven years ago today had an open bar, which today absolutely does not have. SIDE EYE TO TODAY.)

It's our copper anniversary and I had big plans of surprising Mike with fancy new copper kitchen pots, but then Molly got sick to the tune of multiple thousands of dollars (!!!) right after we got back from an international vacation, so yeah. Pots will have to wait. Instead I spent half an hour searching for pennies from each year we've been married so I could glue them into the shape of a seven. Here babe! I got you eight pennies that you can never actually spend! 

I heard a line from a movie recently (About Time), and I teared up, like the ridiculous sap that I will always be, but this is precisely how I feel about Mike. I'm paraphrasing, but...

I am so uninterested in a life without him.

Mike and I have been to St. John and Belize and Puerto Rico and Canada and all over the U.S., but it was just the other night, sitting in a booth at Chili's five miles from our house when he made me laugh so hard I was reminded that he is just my favorite place. Traveling, not traveling, drinking cheap wine at Chili's or pina coladas in Belize, paying bills or holding hands. He's it. Life is life and love is him. (Even when I need a girl's night away from him. I'm still glad he's the one waving me out the door and into the arms of a margarita with friends.)

Last year was a hard year. A lot of unbloggable, stupid life stuff, but I struggled. Stressed out, snappy, emotional, yada yada. And Mike was just there. Just asking what he could do, telling me to go take a break when he sensed I was too tightly wound, wrapping me in a hug even when he wasn't quite sure why I was so badly in need of one. I want it all to make sense and to be fixable but it can't always be, such is life, and when it can't be, he says to me the same thing over and over, "It will all work out. It will all be okay."

And it will. With him, it will.

Our lives are not always easy or fun or romantic or any of those adjectives our wedding day made us hope our every day lives would be. Very few days have that open bar, for example. 

But, damn, I'm just so uninterested in a life without him. 

Happy copper anniversary, babe! Here are a handful of pennies you can never spend, but I bet you tell me you love them and I bet you mean it. 

Two Hikes to Tell You About

Hiking has become our favorite weekend activity of choice. In Texas?, you might ask, but Texas has a seriously bad reputation for being nothing but tumbleweeds and flat landscape as far as the eye can see when we actually have plenty of hills! And plenty of trees! And lakes too! (We also have places like Lubbock, hence the reputation.) (Kidding, Lubbock fans!) (Except not kidding at all.)

So, anyway, we're determined to spend as much of our downtime--especially in the magical months we call April, May, October, and November, when we can actually stand to be outside for prolonged periods of time--exploring the different trails in driving distance from us. (See Possum Kingdom, Mineral Wells.) 

In the last month or so, we've been to two new places.

Lake Ray Roberts

This is just a thirty-minute drive from us, and we can stop for lunch on the way there or back in Denton (which has some great restaurants). Mike grew up camping at this lake, and we hope to get back to do just that soon, but the trails were fantastic for a day trip. And we've heard great things about the fishing too. 

Those gigantic sunglasses inspired by Elizabeth

Bob Jones Nature Preserve* 

This is a whopping ten-minute drive from our front door, and I literally had never heard of it until a few weeks ago. Seriously, my own home is a surprise five years later. This was nearly deserted on Mother's Day, and it was wondreful weather, and just an all-around perfect hiking day.

After hiking for about an hour, we were treated to a lovely beach, and though I saw a few too many beer cans for my particular beach liking, the breeze and the water nearly made up for that. 

Kyle also slept 2.5 hours after this hike (so *I* slept 2.5 hours after this hike), so let's stamp it the best hike there ever was. 

*There are some seriously awesome-looking programs, classes, and workshops offered through the nature center, if you're local!

Where should we head next?