- Happy Birthday, Madre -

Sum-It-Up Sunday

Cheers to the heart that taught me joy and the soul that taught me love...

Happy birthday to this super sweet and totally timeless momma!!! :)

We celebrated by chomping down an entire coffee cake in an undisclosed amount of [not very many] hours, having a nom nom nom SUPER yummy dinner at the Ariston with family, and closing down the bar at Maverick with a huge clan of my mom's bestest friends!  But the partying did not end there -- bagels and brunch the next day with Pat and Laura AND shopping in Edwardsville! :) 

Happy birthday, Mom!  We hope your couple days of celebrating were just as special and perfect as you are!!

Other week highlights: 

-- We broke in the new Texas Roadhouse for dinner with Missy & Toby and Lauren & Mike! Yummmm yum, I cannot WAIT to go back there for some more of those rolls!!!

- State Queen SUMMER! -

Sum-It-Up Sunday

It was Summer's time then, and now it's Summer's time again!  

Holding our breath for the final look at Top 15...

...and screaming our lungs off at the announcement and coronation of the new queen!  

The 2014 Miss Illinois County Fair Queen isssss.....our very own Miss Montgomery County, SUMMER ROBBINS!!!!! :D

[Photo by Studio 131 Photography.]

This year's state pageant was full of laughs and memories as usual!  I adore this one solitary not-often-enough weekend every year when all the oldies and "has-beens" reunite! 

...ANNND catching up with the BFF... Life is good! We brought along our arm candy for good measure! ;) 

 Love these royal drama mamas from 2010! 

Team Summer! :)

Montgomery County lovin' after the prelim! 

All hail, Queen Summer!! Holy schmoly, can't believe we're bringin' home the jewelzzz!

Congrats, congrats, and more congrats, you pretty pretty girl! You will be an amazing state queen!!! So proud to have you in the Montgomery County sisterhood!! :) 

Other week highlights: 

-- Women's group at Jen's! Another great group of strong and confident women I love spending time with! :)

- Bridget: 1, Snowmaggedon: 0 -

[Super late but I'm super lame so all is well.]

When frigid ole' Mother Nature took her crap of the century on this chunk of the country...

....m.a.s.s. .c.h.a.o.s. .e.n.s.u.e.d....

...in every household except this one.

15+ inches and subzero temperatures ain't got nothin' on us.

Endless days of snowing also = endless days of snuggling and cooking and movie streaming and crafting.  Add in a little coffee and cleaning and therein lies a sneak peek into a week of our super active, always exciting lives.

Woke up Sunday morning to this...

...and this.  By the end of the night, this sweet neighbor had already cleared our driveway and the road between us times three. I told Brian to go outside and tell him to put his feet up and drink a cup of hot chocolate because neither of us plan on leaving the house before Wednesday..... 

^^ But really, what good reason is there to leave when your wife is a goddess in the kitchen? ;)  Stuffed ravioli and candelit dinner for two and putting the new snowflake dishes to good use! [Got this super adorableee set of dishes on clearance at Kohl's last spring!!]  

Whilst unpacking the dishes:

Brian: Isn't it too late in the season to be getting those out?

Bridget: .......

#happysnowday ?

A few things that Snowmaggedon 2014 made time for:

-- Finishing the square at the bottom of the steps...

-- Rearranging all the kitchen cabinets...

-- Cleaning Deep-cleaning every crevice and corner of the entire house...

-- "Working" from home...

-- Reorganzing the closet floor...

-- And lastly but not leastly, a few extensive calorie-burning activities that can go un-noted. ;) ;) 

The best best BEST thing about snow days: taking Indian showers and changing into a clean pair of pajamas!! (Although LET'S be honest...this is just another normal day in the life! #bumforlyfe #judgemerealgood)

On Wednesday we were so stupid stir-crazy that finally finally finally-eeee we ventured out...

...and braved the arctic only to head straight to Orange Leaf.  Because obvi it's the perfect season for froyo.

Most critical thought of the weekend: I wonder how many home and/or car births there have been?! 

And most dreaded thought of the weekend: 

[^^ But really, this is real.]

Happy snow dayS, ya'll! [<-- Plural and more plural.] Hope you stayed warm and snuggled in!!

- B&A: Hallway Closet -

Project: Goodbye House, Hello Home!

~ Hallway Closet ~

~~~~~

A few details I love: 

• Having extra space.  Finally.  As soon as these shelves were up, I moved all the towels off the storage shelves in our master closet. Whilst stocking, I realized I have an inexcusable towel-buying and shampoo-hoarding problem.  Wow.  ...Only two people live here and we don't even shower that much... [But Beauty Brands annual liter sale. Who can pass up that kind of investment?! Also, the pink and orange towels are from college and should probably be in the trash, but I'm a stage-4 clinger.]

• Wood shelves.  I have to admit, I wanted this extra storage space so badly that I was basically begging Brian to put the flimsy white wire racks back up. ...But he had a better idea in mind...as always... So I sat around like a patient little minion and I suppppose now it was worth the wait. :) 

Posting the progress:

• Closet Shelves

Goodbye house, hello home!

- It's Juan-uary, Ya'll! -

Sum-It-Up Sunday

It's JUAN-UARY!!! 

.F.i.n.a.l.l.y.!!! 

I have been counting down to this day since the final rose of last season.  Yes, I am addicted to trashy reality TV and I'm not emburrrrrussed one little bit.  PLUS, one of the contestants this season is a girl that I went to high school with...so my interest is peaking even more.  I'm a sucker for mushy gushy love stories and tonsss of drama, so bring on Juan Pablo's quest for love and this season of The Bachelor!  Monday nights from now until mid-March, you own my soul.

Other week highlights: 

-- Snow. snow. snoW. SnOw. sNoW. SNOW. We were snowed in together for three enitreeee days. Zomg.

- Happy Birthday, Chris! -

Sum-It-Up Sunday

Raising a glass to the impending snowpocalypse...

...oh, and a great friend's special day!! 

Happy birthday, Chris! Hope all your wishes come true! 

Other week highlights: 

-- Happy New Year! 2014 is gonna be a good one; I can already tell!! 

-- Snowpocalypse wasn't a hoax; we got dumped on with the REAL DEAL! 15 inches and snooooowed in. ;)  More posts to come! 

- Christmas...Around the World -

Nothing like celebrating Jesus's birthday six times, eh?!  We are so blessed that both sides of our family live so close... <---all of which baaasically means lots and lots of celebrating and lots and lots of house hopping on every holiday!  

Note: Brian and I aren't huge gift people. We'd rather go on a nice Christmastime date or put "gift money" towards a vacation or help out a family who isn't able to put gifts under the tree for their kids.  BUT, in spite of all that, I realllly wanted a new camera [need a new one because a) the mini college one has been dropped a few too many times and isn't making the cut and b) we're finally old and mature and ready to upgrade to something legit!].  

...And besides, I've been a really good girl this year [on TOP of not asking for any other gifts AND being a low-maintenance wife all year long!] so I was pretty much positive Santa would bring me a Canon DSLR of some shape or fashion... 

...So to cover my bases and not feel like the greedy wife/only spouse opening a gift I got Brian a little something so we could open simultaneously...

Well, I guess my Canon tumbled out of Santa's sleigh or maybe Best Buy was out of stock when the elves went shopping because it suuuure didn't make it under the tree!  Husband said I have to wait til my birthday?  

What?  I was such a good girl...

Sad day!!!

Nonetheless, here is a portrait of the spoiled spouse opening his little gift... :)  Christmas #1: Christmas Eve Eve before the housewarming party [just the two of us, at our house, on the night when I was supposed to get that camera...]...

Christmas #3: Christmas Eve at my Grandma's...  We went to Mass with Grandma and had dinner and gifts at her house afterwards!  I just love these pictures of the newest little cousin Henry! My dad and Steve and all the other uncles loved to snuggle him! 

Christmas #4: Christmas morning at my parents'... Breakfast and gifts! And I got the fam new plaid pajamas [super steal at Kohl's...couldn't pass it up!] and am super excited that I conned everyone into posing for a cheesy pic.  They hate me.

Christmas #5: Lunch at Grandma and Grandpa's... More food and gifts with the added benefit of Marti's wisecracks AND snuggling in front of the fireplace! Brian officially got his name added to the stocking... Welcome to the fam. ;) 

Yes, A+ and three stars for noticing that Christmas #2 and #6 are missing... Both were spent with Brian's immediate family and extended family and were nothing short of wonderful!  Except everyone in that family tree is into actual sophisticated conversation and doesn't whip out their phone every 30 seconds to take a picture of something [judge me harshly?], so I maturely left my phone in my coat pocket in spite of not being dubbed "THAT in-law."  And now the blog is suffering.  Just can't win... ;) 

Hope you and your family had a very Merry Christmas!  We are counting and re-counting our blessings and feeling very undeservedly lucky and richly loved this holiday season! :)

Oh, and happy birthday, Jesus! 

- Housewarming {6 Months Post-Warming} -

We've been trying to have a housewarming party in this pad since our house was warmed ummmm, last summer?  And now it's the week of Christmas and the end of December and time is slipping through the cracks and we juuuust be gettin' around to it.  But haters gon' hate and partiers gon' party...so party on we did!  

Our original plan was to stick a holiday/housewarming/open house invite in everyone's Christmas card, but a little 3rd grade multiplication math quickly pointed out that that could potentially possibly equal 150+ bodies in our teensy tiny miniature house, soooo yeah.  The invites were tweaked and cut and spliced and perfected until the list was down to our aunts and uncles and cousins.  [But don't you worry friends: there will be party pad round two supa soon.] :) 

Thanks to our awesome family for partying it up with us on Christmas Eve Eve! And thanks for filling our house with warmth and Christmas spirit and making us feel like good hostesses even though we are still trying to kick off the training wheels..... Oh, and thanks the MOSTEST for filling our kitchen with wine bottles!!  

Let's do this again soon!!

- Happy 2014! -

Let me just preface this post with one blunt disclaimer: I'd rather be elbow deep in something bloody than take part in one more second of this disgusting de-veining session at my kitchen table.  [Happy New Year, you smelly shramps?]

Brian and his bucket of shrimp put their party pants on and rang in 2014 at his cousin's house while I trudged to work and dubbed myself a martyr for working yet anoooother holiday.  [Seriouslyyyy?  I'm already super stoked for my 30-year anniversary as a nurse at which point I only work ONE holiday per year and ZERO weekends ever ever again.  ...But this is all besides the point...]  

HOWever, in the car ride to work, my mood took a 180 and I realized:  

Delivering the New Year's baby > wearing party hats and blowing air horns and twiddling my thumbs in anticipation of the ball drop...   

Because how many people have a job as awesome as mine? 

And how many people are actually going to start 2014 with a tiny miracle? 

Muah, perfection.

Exactly.

Cheers to ringin' in this new year in style.  And double cheers to being pretty dang happy about it. :) 

- Dinner Date -

Sum-It-Up Sunday

This is how it should always be done: invite someone over special for dinner and then sit back and watch him cook for you!  

Another dinner date with our main priest in the books, but this time he volunteered to do the honors.  When he went off to college, he asked his mom to teach him five recipes that would "get the girls"... We all see how that turned out... ;) ...but he is more than welcome to whip out those mad Italian cooking skillz at our house any time!!! 

He's off to Villanova for the spring semester [gonna be some kind of big whig honorary theology scholar chairperson or something??!], but we'll be ready to wine and dine again this summer!  May, please hurry!!!

Other week highlights: 

-- We broke in the pad with a housewarming party/open house!

-- Merry Christmas! 

- Onward to Spring? -

Christmas is officially over........and we're onward to spring?  

Brian can't seem to put down his new favorite gift... I hope this isn't how he plans to take down the tree! ;)

More Christmas posts coming soon...stay tuned! 

- Hellooooo, Arizona! -

So many pics from our vacation, so few words to describe the beauty... 

--> Saying hasta luego to the subzero tundra.  

--> Scooting along through the snowstorm...Old Man Snowflake behind the wheel!   

--> 5 people, 4 suitcases, 3 backpacks, 2 sets of golf clubs, and a partridge in a pear tree. "Merry [early] Christmas!" from my dad and one super-stuffed, AZ-bound SUV!! [Yes, he has always taken great pleasure in dishwasher loading and grocery bag accessorizing and other weird sorts of organizational packing.] 

--> Me: the chosen child to sit on the floor between two bucketseats with an oversized "tote" on my lap. 

--> First glimpse of Phoenix...

 --> Our home for the week! 

 --> Hiking. Staring.

--> Hiking at Tonto National Park. 
--> Resting/relaxing/sleeping and simultaneously suntanning at Tonto National Park. 

--> Old Town Scottsdale...

--> Testing out the infamous "prickly pear" margaritas...

--> Grand Canyon Railway: our transport to the 1-mile deep abyss...

--> Long awaited first glimpse of the Grand Canyon!

--> Pre-cliff jumping selfie. #becausewecool 

--> Train back home.

--> Dinner at Black Bart's in Flagstaff. Entertaining...

--> Hiking and exploring in Sedona! 

--> Celebrating the birthday boy!  "It is totally fine to combine my birthday and Christmas gifts!!" --said no one born in December ever.  Happy birthday, baby boy!! :) 

 -->  Super symbolic sun setting at the end of an incredible week and vacation... :( 

We covered a loooot of ground in a weeeetle bitty bit of time, but I would do it all over again to do the things we did and see the things we saw! 

It's been real! So until we meet again, AZ...

Arizona: Part II