5 years!

high fives all around for 5 years of marriage!

on september 1, dave & i celebrated our 5 year anniversary.  we decided not to go all out on anniversary gifts this year.  we were bummed out because my bff and her husband were going to mexico that week and invited us along- but we had no passports and most importantly no one to watch ian- so the trip was out of the question.  since we have not been on a real live vacation SINCE OUR HONEYMOON (so seriously stop talking about your 5th vacay of the summer everyone else), we decided that maybe we can save up for one...  but who are we kidding?  our priority is to get out of debt- and that means those student loans need to be paid off... so one day.  i also haven't seen aforementioned bff in, oh, 3.5 years.  we're not bitter...  ;)

so, of course, we say we aren't getting each other gifts and we do anyway...  i got dave a cd he wanted & he got me a new pepper grinder since the traditional 5 year anniversary gift is wood.  i told him his "wooden" gift would arrive on sept. 11 when the avett brothers' new album "the carpenter" come out... get it?

anyway, our friend offered to watch ian (which is perfect because they love each other dearly) so we could hit the town to celebrate our day.  we went to a local restaurant that we had never been to before that came highly recommended- and, man, was it good.  it was recommended because of it's crazy beer selection, but we fell in love with it because of the food/mission- everything is local- the meat, the bread, the veggies- heck, even the pickles.  all the food comes from farms located in various parts of illinois.  it's sustainable living at its best.  the food was amazing.  you could really tell everything was fresh.  yum.  if you live in this area- check it out!  dinner was amazing from start to finish & we were even feeling a little sentimental & split a piece of carrot cake for dessert (we had carrot cake as part of our wedding cake).  we then spent the rest of our evening at buy buy baby- so any cool points went out the window...

dress:  modcloth "good enough to premiere"

heels:  seychelles via amazon (can usually find a good deal there)!

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happy anniversary

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it keeps getting better.  

sorry i'm a week late... you know, we were out of town.

i love you.

mommy & daddy's 30th christmas

dave & i are so blessed to have ian, and that we celebrated our 30th christmas with ian's 1st christmas.  if you were my 11 y/o niece, you'd be asking me how it's possible that we are celebrating our 30th christmas, being that we're both only 29, and then you still wouldn't get it after i had explained it 20 times...

i love buying gifts for husband- i love the thought that goes into them, i love the secret, and i love seeing his surprised face when he opens gifts!  i think i did pretty well for christmas given the fact that we set a smaller budget due to having ian to buy for!  of course, i also love getting gifts (who doesn't?)

1.  hockey gift card.  gift cards are boring to give (awesome to receive), but there was no way i was being held responsible for picking out hockey gear for him.

2.  The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference by malcom gladwell.  dave is really into books about economics and how social stuff effects economics.

3.  Sigh No More by mumford & sons.  dave has been carrying on about them ever since he came to me one night and said "who the hell is mumford & sons and why won't everyone stop talking about them on facebook."  i gave him a listen, and he knew why.

4.  Capcatcher.  dave's cousin has one of these, and dave always talks about how cool he thinks it is- so i remembered to look at it last time we went to visit them.  plus, i always think a personalized gift is something you can't go wrong with!

he likes!

as far as stocking stuffers, i did a lot of the usual- small amount of candy (mike & ike's b\c i won't eat them!), chapstick, and a unique bottle of beer.  my favorite thing was soap made with beer from the beer soap company (which i read about here)...  pretty cool- and it smells really good!  dave loves trying new beers, and brewing his own beer, so i thought this was a neat twist!

the beer is called 'sex panther.'  i chose that b\c dave & i love anchorman!

dave also got some other books and a few movies including Despicable Me (which is hilarious, see it now!), clothes, a gift certificate for beer brewing and for more hockey supplies.  he did pretty well!  

dave is not as good at finding "unique gifts" (his words), but he always manages to get me things that i really enjoy, and that's what counts!  

i got- a gift card for the loft (which was only $25, but i took that, a bit of christmas cash, and a few coupons and managed to get over $200 worth of clothes), grey suede booties that i'm afraid to wear anywhere for fear the snow and rain will ruin them, and a couple of books (plus 2 more from mom & dad and one from brother):

i got tons of books...

i'm going to be busy

i also got another season of himym, another movie, a really cool uga bag.  i got some pretty cool stuff at our other christmas as well- i'm going to be spending a lot (more) time in the kitchen!!

i'd call christmas a rousing success!

it's my wedding day

a page is turned in this life, he's making her his wife
and there is no secret to the source of this much life
when the grace that falls like rain is washing them again
just a chance to somehow rise above this land

bebo norman

happy anniversary

and many more

the one where i win wife of the year and possibly go mia for a while...

we have been busy.  this past weekend started a month-long stretch of weekends totally packed full of junk!  this past weekend dave's gma was in town, so we had the entire mcfamily get together.  there are 15 of us- and one on the way.  you think that's insane, you should be @ dave's gma's house @ christmas.  there are 40 of us total (and 2 on the way).  it's a bit much, especially considering my entire extended family totals 12 on one side and 14 on the other.  this weekend we have the summer picnic for my office- i'm pretty excited about swimming, i am not exciting about buying my first post-baby swimsuit, and then wearing it.  boo.  the next few weekends i will detail more below, and then we hope to wrap things up with a visit to the beach in michigan.  we decide to forgo a vacation this year because 1.  we are poor, and 2.  we are broke.  dave's parents however are going to stay @ family friend doc's lake house, and we are all invited to stay a few days!!  yippppeeeeee!

so, as i've said already our next few weeks are going to be jam-packed and it all started several months ago- and it's almost here!  background story:  my husband studied international business and german in college- he's made a few trips to deutschland over the years, his last trip in 2004 for his internship.  while there, he made some good friends, and he has kept in touch w\ those friends since said trip.  the aforementioned friends were a couple while dave was over there, but split up while i was pregnant, much to the heartbreak of one of the friends.  we have both tried really hard to cheer up friend, but it seems they've fallen into a bit of a funk.  friend was looking for a place to vacation, and husband told him that he should come visit us here in the good ol' u.s. of a. 

he thought about it, and said, yes, i think i will come visit your family.  how long can i stay?

husband says, as long as you'd like.

friend replies via email- here is my flight itinerary. 

husband forwards flight itinerary to me- am i reading this right, he asks.

i reply, yes, husband, friend is staying with us for 3 weeks.  3 WEEKS?!

first of all, i am jealous that americans don't get 3 weeks of vacation- we're too overworked as it is.  don't even get me started on european maternity leave vs. american.  second, stay as long as you'd like in american means different to an american... BUT..

we're pretty excited.  i don't think he reads my blog, but if you do- don't get us wrong, we are soooo thrilled for you to be here.  we are now over our initial shock.  we have been hard at work on an end all be all list of things to do while he is visiting- places to go, things to see, food to eat (i'm most excited about that, as you and my scale surely know).  i have great plans to become fluent in german, and to have ian, who can't even talk yet, to be fluent in german...  i'm excited to meet someone new, and dave is excited to see a friend that he hasn't seen in years. 

i win wife of the year because i think most women would laugh in their husband's faces if they said someone was taking up residence in their home for 3 weeks, so here is my issue- where do we put our friend?  here's our situation...

2 bedrooms, 2.5 baths (our atlanta house had 3 bedrooms, but that is neither here nor there, and going on about it, won't take me back there).  we obviously occupy 1 room, and ian occupies the other.  both bedrooms have the full bath IN the room.  we obviously want our friend to feel at home, and have some privacy, but we have no extra bed- so he would have to sleep on either the couch or a blow up mattress.  and there's the issue with ian.  do we move him back into our room for 3 weeks (sleeping in his pack n play)- disrupting his sleep space, and giving us no privacy (he naps throughout the day, and goes to bed early, so we would have no where to go).  this is a tricky situation, but i think it can be worked out to where everyone benefits... help...

polishing my award until sunday....