Wife fail.

I went thrifting this weekend and got D a Stephen King book. He loves Stephen King but barely has/makes time to read anymore. When he got back from work at the outer banks, he gave me a gift. A beach chair I've been dying for. It was 30 bucks. He gave me a $30 beach chair and a t-shirt. I gave him a 2 dollar book that was actually bought with his money (because I'm still broke...payday is FRIDAY!). Wife failure.

Sent from my iPhone

House Hunting :: The realtor.

I told you guys that we had been driving around window shopping homes, and we decided to take the plunge and start looking inside some of them.  We knew this was going to be an involved process, so we figured why not go ahead and look at some.  We got hooked up with a realtor who of course asked us about pre-approval.  We hadn't taken that step yet because we weren't feeling like we would find something that day and want to put down a bid.  Then we decided to just go with it so we would have an idea of what our actual price range would be.  Much to our surprise, we got approved for more than we thought!  That still doesn't change much about our price range though. 

We're looking for something like this...

Haha...yeah right.

We're still looking at our modest three bedroom/two bath homes :)  Even though we initially tried to make our point clear that we are simply looking, the realtor loves to keep mentioning a particular house that we should "make a move on quickly" for whatever reason.  The thing is...we weren't even in love with that one.  It was one of the first we looked at and it was adorable.  It was very much like the homes D and I have rented in the past; however it has a tiny kitchen (with no dishwasher...ugh) and one bathroom.  I mean it is high on our list of "likes" but we don't see ourselves coming home to that house every day.  Realtors can be so pushy.  Then there's a home that is really close to downtown that just went on the market we want to see.  When we mentioned it to her, she almost immediately shot it down stating that since it just went on the market she "seriously doubts" we could get the seller to go down on the price and pay closing costs.  Ok, we'll call her B, get a freaking grip.  We want to LOOK at the house and keep our eye on it.  After this, we had to gently remind B that we are looking and taking our time.  We're freaking first-time homebuyers!  This is nothing we are going to rush into the first house we might moderately like.  Now we know we aren't going to find something like this...

[Although isn't it gorg?! weheartit]

We're just looking for our modest three bedroom/two bath with a decent kitchen and big yard.  We'll find it.  

**This is another reason I've been slacking on posts!  I'm trying to fit in a full day at school and leaving immediately after to view houses.  BUSY!

What am I going to wear??

The school year officially begins on Wednesday.  I think I'm more excited about my payday on Friday ;)  I've been working so hard on getting my classroom decorated and preparing everything for the year.  I am so excited about some of the ideas I have for this year!  I won't bore you with all my wonderful classroom stuff (yet).  I have started brainstorming...WHAT AM I GOING TO WEAR THE FIRST THREE DAYS OF SCHOOL??  I don't have money or time to buy anything before.  I think I'm going to have to dig through the closet on Tuesday night and have a mini fashion show :)

Speaking of clothes...I made the worst idea on Sunday and ventured to the Crabtree Valley Mall in Raleigh...on a Saturday...the last weekend before school starts back.  It was dreadful.  I thought I may find something on sale at H&M or Forever 21.  There were lines for the fitting rooms.  Nope.  Not even gonna deal with that mess.  But I totally am going back once I get paid so I can get a few wonderful pieces I found!

 Um, I'm in love with the stripe trend.  I know horizontal stripes aren't the most flattering, but I can't resist!

I wanted to try this on to gauge how it would really look.  I think it would be fab for layering, adding a belt, and a long chunky necklace.

I don't remember seeing this in the store, but I am sort of obsessed with it.  I need to see it in person to gauge work/school appropriateness.  How awesome is the zipper front??

Love this shirt.  Although I just found out that we are not going to be able to wear jeans at all (even on casual Fridayss...wtf??)...so for an oversized shirt that I would typically pair with skinny jeans, I'm stumped.  I think I could get away with black skinny jeans.  I'm really going to have to re-think my wardrobe.  Lots of skirts, tights, pants, belts, a blazer, and jewelry to dress up/distinguish myself from those middle schoolers!

Such a pretty shirt!  But with which bottoms?? Typically I pair empire waisted with skinny jeans.  My hourglass shape can't handle wide leg pants and emphasized hips.  Certainly I can find straight leg pants?

No words except...I need this shirt asap.

Whoa!  Gotta have this!  You know a blazer is on my have to have list this year.

Also digging the gorge trench!

They have some of the cutest bags...but I love this one!

I'll update on what actual purchases I make this time next week!

#87

So it is getting close to time for me to start my 101 in 1001 List.  I officially start on September 1.  Now I love love love lists.  I've actually devoted way more time than is acceptable into copying and pasting the IMDb's Top 250 Movie List into a Word document (because it wouldn't print).  The copying didn't format right and the only page that pulls up in print preview is 1 so it took way longer than it should.  I finally finished marking off the movies I've already seen and adding the ones I haven't to our Netflix queue.  Um, it takes a lot longer than you would think.

So I've seen 58 out of the 250.  I have a terrible memory (for most things...some things I can remember impeccably well) so I am not counting some of the movies that I can barely remember.  In order to fully document my 101 in 1001 experience, I want to attempt to review the other 192 movies as I watch them.  I'm starting off on the right foot and going to list the movies that I have already seen.

1. Inception
2. Pulp Fiction
3. Toy Story 3
4. The Dark Knight
5. The Lord of the Rings - Return of the King
6. The Lord of the Rings - The Fellowship of the Ring
7. The Matrix 
8. Seven
9. Momento
10. The Lord of the Rings - The Two Towers
11. Forrest Gump
12. American Beauty
13. Terminator 2: Judgement Day
14. Wall-E
15. The Departed
16. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
17. Pan's Labyrinth
18. The Prestige
19. Inglorious Bastards
20. Up
21. The Green Mile
22. Gran Torino
23. Slumdog Millionaire
24. Batman Begins
25. Avatar
26. Hotel Rwanada
27. No Country for Old Men
28. District 9
29. Donnie Darko
30. The Sixth Sense
31. There Will Be Blood
32. Kill Bill, Volume 1
33. The Big Lebowski
34. Into the Wild
35. The Lion King
36. Toy Story
37. The Bourne Ultimatum
38. Finding Nemo
39. The Terminator
40. Stand By Me
41. Ratatouille 
42. V for Vendetta
43. How to Train Your Dragon
44. The Incredibles
45. The Princess Bride
46. In Burges
47. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
48. Kill Bill, Volume 2
49. Pirates of the Caribbean - The Curse of the Black Pearl
50. Crash
51. Toy Story 2
52. The Truman Show
53. Little Miss Sunshine
54. The Nightmare Before Christmas
55. Monsters, Inc.
56. Changeling
57. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
58. Shaun of the Dead

I can't believe I've only seen 58 of 250!  Not even close to half.  I'm looking forward to watching some classics!

*Sorry for the boring post.  I had a somewhat boring weekend but couldn't find the energy to upload pictures and update on happenings.

It is such an honor to be up here accepting this award...

Annelise from Box of Crayons presented me with my first blogger award!  I'm so honored :)  I mean seriously.  I feel like I'm now officially a BIG DEAL.

Since I've never officially accepted an award before, I hope I get my speech right.  I believe I am supposed to impress you with seven random things about me.  I must say this is quite difficult as I feel I am pretty open about myself and what goes on with me and my life.  Hmm...here goes nothing?

1. I've told you about my love for tattoos but not that I have any.  Well I do currently have two.  A cluster of three stars drawn by myself on my foot (not so original) that I got my sophomore year in college.  It actually represents a very transitional year for me.  My other tattoo is on the back of my neck and is a peace dove sketch by Picasso.  I adore the sketch and meaning behind peace doves but that represents my time in Athens and as a social worker.
2. I'm not the best driver.  I actually hate to say/type that out loud.
3. The previous being said, I have been through five cars now (on my sixth) and I have only wrecked two of those.  The wrecks have also only happened within the past 3 years.
4. I am about to pay off my last credit card.  I made some bad mistakes with credit cards in college and don't plan to get another one unless it is for family emergencies.
5. Even though I still feel like I know very little about teaching, I feel like I am exactly where I am supposed to be.  I hope I stay a teacher forever.  (ps. I love the flexibility you have as a teacher to experiment with different ages, subjects, etc...I hope that keeps me in the field).
6. D and I actually went to the same small, rural high school together but never spoke to one another until college.  
7. Of all my talk and love of craft beer, my favorite beer, when I "met" D 5 years ago, was Rolling Rock.  We still get a laugh out of this.  I also use it as testimony that anyone can become a quality beer lover...I went from Rolling Rock to stouts :)

Now I get the honors of passing on the award to three wonderful bloggesses!  I have been finding soooooo many wonderful blogs lately that it is so hard to pick...here's my best shot!

• Kaleena at Just Add Kaleena - somehow she always makes me laugh with her posts!  And I can relate to something in every single post
• Mayra at life is BANANAS. - I know she has received this award already (is that blogger faux pas??) but I can not get enough of her posts.  Love love love this blog!
• Carrie at this free bird - I love her pictures, her fashion, and her stories, (her comments on my blog ;))

Seriously...I would love to be friends with all these ladies in "real life" (at least I hope I would).  Thank you blogging world for making me laugh, giving me fashion tips, reminding me that I'm not alone, showing me beautiful art and photography, and giving me virtual "friends."  And so completes my "First and foremost I need to thank God" award speech (because we all know I would never thank god)! 

Thanks again to Annelise and my growing blog supporters!

Two little turtles.

I'm getting my wedding tattoo on our six month anniversary.  I'm getting these little guys on my chest, right over my heart :)

They're the turtles that were on our wedding pint glasses (which I just don't have those pictures on my computer) and our party invites!

I'm not getting the initials though.  Anyhow, I am super excited.  It'll be my third tattoo and the first that D has witnessed.  I'm not sure if he is going to get one but I'm hoping he'll be inspired when he's with me ;)

Since I've been thinking a lot about my third tattoo...I'm starting to obsess about my 4th!  D has never been much into tattoos (he doesn't have any), but I just can't help it.  Mine are all meaningful and represent a specific time in my life.  None of them are very obvious and can be easily hidden if need be.  I just keep thinking of new, hideable places I can get more ;)  I doubt my third will be my last!

Here are some fabulously inspiring and beautiful tattoos!

[A Cup of Jo; such an adorable couple tattoo.  It makes me wish I was an artist]

[A Cup of Jo; damn.  I can't imagine getting that on my wrist.  It looks fab though!]

[life is bananas; this b&w photo just doesn't even do justice to how actually amazing this tattoo is.  This is banana's actually tattoo and has so many details and meaning behind it.  Check out more pics and a description here]

[Google image search; I told you how obsessed I am with owls and their meaning and am totally feeling a cute owl tat]

[Tumblr; whoa.  I am in lovvvvvvvvvvve with this.  It almost doesn't look real.  I know the tree is a necklace but I love the idea of getting that as a tattoo somewhere else]

[Tumblr; I can't even wrap my head around this one.  Adore the roots of the tree]

[Tumblr; I don't understand this one but I love finger tats]

[Tumblr; I'm also obsessed with wrist/inner arm tattoos...and birds]

Ok, ok...I could go on for dayyyyyyyys.  I won't bore you.  Hearting tattoos.

Flying by the seat of my pants.

Ah!  I had a post scheduled for Monday and Blogger turned it into a draft instead of scheduled post.  I get that issue a lot.  I'm definitely so busy now that school is back.  My classroom is in a trailer and I don't have a computer or internet out there yet.  I'll hopefully update with some posts tonight.  We have lots going on outside of school too!

Thank you all for the wonderful birthday wishes :)  It brightened my day!  I had a great birthday, am officially 25, and a very happy girl.  And in other wonderful news, I weighed this morning and did NOT gain weight :)  Technically, I even went down .2.  And I didn't work out Monday!  I'm contributed to all the walking around and moving stuff I'm doing at school.  Yay!  Seeing that number motivated me to get my ass to the gym and run (even though I really wanted to sleep in on my late start work day).  Off to run AND spin class!

Work it.

It's about time!  I finally lost 2 pounds :)  I have to celebrate the small successes here.  I think it can be contributed to a couple of things.  1) Drinking more water.  This often slacks while I am here at home because I am not consciously thinking about it.  2) I cut out drinking during the week.  I think this was assisted by that fact that D was out of town for a bit and I didn't have beer events to accompany him.  I haven't changed my workout routine so I think those two factors helped.  Oh D and I have been cooking more this week too.

I am worried about potentially gaining it back this weekend.  Why this weekend you ask?  Because...

IT'S MY 25TH BIRTHDAY!

 [image via Google]

My birthday is on Saturday.  Since I have work training all day Thursday and Friday, I'm meeting D in Virginia after my training on tonight.  I assume  there will be lots of eating and drinking.  Since pre-planning gets back in full force (which equals 9-4 work days) on Tuesday, it'll be harder to devote 2 hours/day to the gym to work off what is gained.  I'm going to try to make semi-healthy eating choices (hello, include veggies!) and drink lots of water.  We'll see what happens...a girl only turns 25 once ;)  Except those pounds don't go away forever.  

 Ps. Is anyone else as excited as I am about Eat Pray Love opening today?  I was to go see it!  I read the book a couple or few years ago and absolutely loved it.  And hello...Julia Roberts and James Franco...I die.

Both images via Google.

D's grandparents were so sweet and brought us their old bikes when we went camping.  D took me one day to bike around the lake at the campground.  I was thinking that it was going to be paved roads on the edge of the lake.  WRONG.  Now let me preempt this by saying that I am am a bit nervous on a bike.  I had a bike wreck when I was in 5th grade.  Long story short, I flipped over my handlebars...blacked out...and woke up in the bathtub spitting grass out of my mouth.  I ended up with a black eye and busted up face.  The experience still haunts me.  Back to the bike trail.  That thing was scary as shit.  I couldn't figure out the gears on the bike so I couldn't pedal up the freaking mountain hills.  I ended up doing a lot a pushing the bike (because there was no way this girl was risking cycling off the edge of a steep mountainside!).  I was scared to death I was going to pedal over a root and flip.  I'm making it sound terrible, but it was actually a beautiful trail and great workout.  I'll stick to the paved greenway around here once I buy a bike of my own :)

[Yep...we cycled around the whole thing.]

 [I was so sweaty!]

[I loved hearing about D's memories of cycling around the lake as a kid]

Chilly oasis.

I never talked about our camping trip from a couple of weekends ago.  I'm going to split it up into a few posts so I can get more bang for my.....buck?  Bang for my blog!

I told you guys that I was going on a camping adventure with grandparents.  Here are some photo highlights.

[Sweet Marlee.  Except it wasn't so sweet when we were on the windy mountain roads and D decided to roll down the window.  The heat was too much for Marlee...he got sick, we pulled over on the side of a scary mountain road, he jumped in the front seat and peed on mine and D's seats.  I yi yi...what a way to start off our trip]

[Look at the beautiful background!]

[It's hard to tell, but D is hard at work chopping firewood.  My manly man.]

[We attempted to take the dogs with us on this boat ride.  Yeah...we were all over max weight capacity.  The lake is an oasis.  Beautiful]

[Our one sunny day...we left a day early because we got cloudy and torrential downpours on our third day]

[We paddled out to the edge of the lake and opened a bottle of wine.  On the way back we saw bats all over the water.  Unfortunately I didn't have my camera the day D fished and caught like 8 fish (which he threw back)]

[Marshmallow roasting]

[And eating them]

[Look at that bad ass headlamp...given to me by D's grandfather]

[Sleepy dogs on the way home]

My days are dwindling.

It's almost time for the ole work routine to be back up and going.  I start this dreadful "Beginning Teacher Institute" on Thursday.  I figured they'd let us slide with a 9-4 day, yeah fucking right.  How about 7:30 to 4...ugh.  I die.  Maybe I'll learn something.  Regardless, I'll take the $100/day (and this little girl needs that money desperately).  I'm savoring the days of sleeping in a bit (hello 5:00am wakeup calls) and working out anytime I want.  Oh and going to my group fitness classes at the Y.  I'm really, really going to miss those.

Anyway since I did a closet craving yesterday, I will update on my weekend.  We had a pretty chill weekend.  D had been out of town for half the week.  He had also been feeling sick.  We took Saturday to chill out.  We did hit up the state farmer's market.  I'm planning to be a regular there once the money is flowing again.  They have it all.  I can't wait for farm fresh produce and eggs!

On Sunday we went to see Inception in IMAX.  I have to say bananas has the best pictures (and quotes) from the wonderfully handsome cast here.  I'm not going to go into a synopsis, spoilers, or whatever (because you can get that stuff other places online).  Suffice it to say, you should see it.   See it in IMAX if you can.
I mean there's Leo...

[whoa.  can't believe he went from Gilbert Grape to this.  image.]

I've never swooned so much over Joseph Gordon-Levitt...

[I read that he replaced James Franco in the movie...as much as I love James...Joseph was a good pick.  And surprisingly more handsome than I would have thought.  image via google]

[Not a scene from the movie, but whoa.  I am a little in love with him here.  Great turn around from his hosting stint on SNL which did not win me over.  here]

And finally, Tom Hardy...

[this really isn't the picture I wanted to use.  He looks 10x better in the movie.  He's dreamy :)  here via google]

All in all, nice relaxing weekend before I get back to the 7-3 grind of school.

Closet Craving :: Budget-friendly wishlist

I've been trying so hard to avoid looking at much clothing online.  Even when my check comes at the end of August, it'll practically be gone.  I am going to have to buy just a few pieces to make myself feel better.  I decided to check out Forever 21 online to get some ideas of cheap pieces that can be worn in a variety of ways.

$13.50 - This is actually sheer so I have to wear something under it.  That's a great way to wear this shirt in a variety of ways.  It has some ties, but I would consider cutting those off and belting this (depends on my stomach and how confident I feel in belting).  I need to find a good belt!

$24.80; I'm not 100% sure this shirt would flatter me.  I like that I could pair it with black jeans or a blazer for school or with leggings and fun jewelry for night.  I'm not sure what colors I'm going for this fall...

$22.80; I realize everything I've picked is blue.  They have this in beige, but it would look awful against my skin when my tan fades and I'm pale again.  I love this top.  It's kind of a knockoff of this Tucker blouse, and I've been dying for a Tucker blouse for ages.  I really hope it doesn't sell out before I can snag it!

$22.80; I know this one seems unusual.  1...I'm not sure if it would work for my figure and 2...I'm not sure how I could dress it for school.  I still love the pockets and colors.

$29; Oh I love this skirt!  It's always hard to gauge how short something is going to be on these teeny tiny models.  I could totally see dressing this down with some Keds or something and dressing it up.

$19.80; I already own a wool gray skirt, but it's about a size too big so I wear it low on my hips.  I love how this one also has the belt loops.  I like I you could interchange a variety of belts.  This is more school appropriate.

These are actually here from Urban Outfitters.  They're $58 which is a splurge I can't make until at least September.  I'm loving oxfords right now.  I really need flats for all of the standing and walking I do as a teacher.  These are such a nice change up from regular little ballet flats.  I need these.

And that's enough online window shopping lusting for me for now!