A busy week!

So Wednesday through Friday of this past week, I traveled back here:

to work for a few days in the office. It was really fun to see all of my coworkers, and to stay in a swanky hotel, and walk about the city streets of DC for a little bit. Here are some highlights of the work trip:

• my company's 10 year anniversary celebration at the National Zoo
• eating sushi at my favorite place in DC, Asia Nine
• eating at my favorite salad place, Chop't (ummm...is it bad that so many of my highlights revolve around food??)
• staying in an ultra-cool hotel (probably too cool for me....everyone was wearing skin tight black clubbing stuff -- there was a bar on top of the hotel by the pool that seemed to draw that crowd).....but the deal on Orbitz was extraordinary, and it was only 8 blocks from the office

Oh man, I forgot what it was like to be in the city in the summer. It was SOOOO hot, muggy and humid. Needless to say, the good hair days were pretty much non-existent (and not helped by the bad shower in the hotel....it never got hot, so I was in and out as fast as possible!)

I'm happy to be home now though -- after a hellish flight from Philly that was delayed 2 hours -- ugh. And now on to the Saturday fun!!! SB and I ran with Daisy this morning. It truly is my favorite way to start off a day. We have zero plans all weekend ....and we're loving every second of it! (well, actually I do have a tennis outing scheduled tomorrow with some new peeps! Here's hoping it goes well!)

New Junior Leaguer

Last night I went to an informational meeting about the Junior League of St. Louis.....and I ended up joining! I think this will be the perfect organization to help me to make some friends, and to get out and involved in the community. I'm so excited!!! We went around the room, explaining who we are and why we wanted to join. It was like 90% of the ladies were in my exact same situation (just moved here, don't know a soul, looking to get involved and meet people!). Can't wait to attend some meetings and really get involved. This will be fun!!!

Gap Discount....etcetera

Have you seen the 20% discount being offered at the Gap? They've come back to being in my favored circle of stores -- they went a weird "trendy" route for awhile, but now they're back to the basic classics (for the most part). I'm debating purchasing a few little things. I'm in need of a handful of underpinnings, and I just love the GapBody products. I've also found a few other cute things that I'm not so sure if I "need" ... but they're in my cart for now.



Now that I work from home, I really can't rationalize purchasing that much stuff. I mean, don't get me wrong - I LOVE working from home, and am so grateful for this opportunity -- but it's weird to get used to the idea of not wearing "work clothes." I can see how stay-at-home moms can get into a rut of dressing for comfort every single day. I'm doing my best to avoid the sweats...I've always believed you should dress for the position you want, and if you dress nicely - you'll be taken more seriously.....but if the only living thing that sees me is my dog, then maybe a little comfort isn't such a bad thing.

This weekend we're hosting SB's mom and her husband. SB has been working 12-16 hour days for the past 2 weeks (I was literally in bed when he left yesterday (6:30am), and in bed when he came home (11pm)...poor guy!)....tonight is the Rams' first pre-season game, so here's hoping that all goes well!!!! Have a great weekend :)

I'm in the club!

The "Newlyweds With KitchenAid Standing Mixers" Club!!


Yep, it's true....every newly married girl lusts over KitchenAid mixers. Baking is one of my favorite things to do...it's a stress-reliever, and with my crazy huge sweet-tooth, I do enjoy the baked goods (a little toooooo much, admittedly). Macy's was offering a 20% discount on registry completion....and with a few returns, that silver puppy was ours!! (or mine really since SB probably won't ever use it) Last night I baked blondie bars for SB to take to work (plus a few to keep here....just didn't want all of them in my belly!!).

All Good Things Must Come to an End....Honeymoon Day 7

Our honeymoon was really everything that I wanted it to be. We arrived there easily after the wedding, the weather was awesome, the beach was beautiful, and we were able to do some pretty fun, active things. Our last day was the perfect ending to an amazing week. We woke up and did breakfast at the Jasmine Porch. I had their version of eggs benedict, and SB opted for the Charleston breakfast sandwich. Both were simply delicious. We headed to the beach for a little time in the sun. After that, we headed to Osprey Point to kayak in Kiawah's marshes! It was awesome!!! It was pretty windy, so we had to deal with a fairly strong current - but it was so relaxing and peaceful at the same time. We saw a bunch of birds, a turtle swimming near us, and 3 dolphins swam right by us. For dinner, we ended on a high note by feasting in their best restaurant, the Atlantic Room. It's a steakhouse, and the food was absolutely amazing. The service was out of this world....of course they knew we were on our honeymoon (the whole time, they greeted us as "Mr. and Mrs. B" - which was fun!) - and there were flower petals on the table, and we were seated at a table for 2 with a sofa as the seat. We always laugh about sitting next to each other at dinner...but this time there was no choice, and it was pretty fun! I started out with a corn, okra, tomato salad with corn sorbet (sounds crazy - but it was delish), SB had onion soup. Then we both had filet mignons, and shared the sides. Unfortunately we were just too stuffed for dessert, so they brought out a few truffles at the end of the meal.

All in all, it was amazing - and I'm glad that I have the memories captured here so that we don't forget a single thing! Here's hoping that we can celebrate future anniversaries back at The Sanctuary.

Honeymoon, Day 6

So with only 2 days left in our honeymoon....we sure made the most of it! On Friday morning we woke up and played tennis. I feel so lucky that SB plays tennis so well, and that we can always keep up with each other to make for a fun match. After tennis, we showered and went to the beach for a couple of hours. After the beach, we grabbed a bite of lunch at the pool. From there, we borrowed bikes and rode from The Sanctuary to the Ocean Course Clubhouse. It was a great ride. We even spotted a gator mid-ride!! There's something about alligators that I just find soooo intriguing, but so scary at the same time! It was probably 20 feet away from us, and then all of a sudden it went under the water, and came up like a minute later just 10 feet or so away (still under water)...but totally looking at us. SB thought I was such a chicken, but I practically lept back onto the bike after that to be ready if it came after us. Once we reached the Clubhouse, we grabbed a couple of bottles of water and hit the beach to make our way back. We were going against the wind and it was really tough. We made it about 3/4 of the way back till we found a public walkway back to the roads to ride on the paths.
We had worked up an appetite after that ride...so we headed over to Shrimpers for dinner. It was tasty! After dinner we went back to The Sanctuary, and sat outside taking in the view. It was another amazing day.

Honeymoon, Day 5

On Thursday, we woke up, ate breakfast, and hit the beach. We really just spent the day lounging. We explored the island a little bit, napped in the late afternoon, and ate a casual dinner at the Ocean Course's pub. This was our view from dinner....

Honeymoon, Day 4

On Wednesday morning, SB and I woke up early for a tennis drill group. We were joined by 2 other couples, and 2 pro's. The drill was pretty fun, but the pro was pretty talkative.....and I prefer more hitting than talking. Somehow after chatting while picking up balls we realized that we had one set of newlyweds (us, obviously :), one couple who just got engaged the night before, and one couple celebrating their 20th anniversary! Pretty amazing!

After tennis, SB and I showered and ate breakfast (I can't remember what we had though??). We headed out to the beach, and did our usual routine with SB under the umbrella and me under the sun (yes, he is the more responsible one when it comes to the sun!).

For a late lunch, we went to the Italian restaurant to load up. The American Express card we have provided free breakfasts all week long (amazing), and a gift card for lunch worth $85. Needless to say, between the two of us.....we ate a lot! Plus we ordered pizzas to share for dinner too. Might as well make the most of a free lunch, right? After lunch we toured through a number of the golf pro shops so that SB could find some fun goodies. I think he only ended up with one golf shirt, but he explained that touring the pro shops to him was like touring through Lilly stores for me. Enough said - I let him take his time :) We also ended up touring through this fun shopping area just outside of Kiawah. They even had a Lilly store...and a great sports store where I was able to get a really great priced pair of sunglasses to replace the ones that were scratched.

For dinner, we ate the pizzas out on our balcony. It was a great, relaxed, casual day.

Honeymoon-apalooza, Day 3

On Tuesday morning we woke up early for an 8:30am court time. It was awesome -- the skies were just a little bit cloudy so the sun didn't just immediately drain us. We ran each other around, and had a lot of fun. After that, we showered up, and went downstairs for breakfast. We both did the buffet, and man oh man, I stuffed myself silly. Too.much.food! It was just so hard to choose. However, we had a full day ahead of ourselves, so we had to get a move on, despite our aching bellies. With the weather potentially calling for rain, we decided to spend the day in Charleston!

Charleston was one of our favorite vacation destinations when we lived in Atlanta. I think it will always be a special place for us (especially after spending the honeymoon in the area), and who knows - maybe we'll even be able to live there one day. We drove straight to King Street, and did some good shopping. SB found a great new Lacoste polo, and I wound up with 2 pairs of shorts from a store that carried Vineyard Vines. There were a bunch of Lilly items (on sale even) that I wanted at the Lilly store on King -- but I exerted some serious self-control, and didn't buy anything because I didn't need any of it. We strolled to the end of King Street, and walked back up on a side street because SB thought he saw some galleries in that area. We need to find a few big pieces of wall art for the new house. We were thinking of some lowcountry photography, since that area means so much to us. Well, after what felt like miles and miles of walking -- we didn't find the galleries we thought we would. We did find a few here and there - but nothing that seemed really special.

From Charleston, we drove to the Isle of Palms. There's a fabulous restaurant there, the Morgan Creek Grill, that we visit every time we're in the area. It was like 3pm or 4pm -- which shows just how far that breakfast carried us!!! So we ate "linner" or "lupper" as we like to call it... Their food is amazing, but it's the view that just floors us every time....


Here's a picture of the oldest thing east of the Rockies....the Angel Oak. We arrived past the park's closing time, so I had to take a picture through the fence. It's an impressive tree, supposedly 1500+ years old!

We brought not only our wedding cake, but also my wedding bouquet. It made me smile every day! (though I didn't dry it...so we left it there at the end of the stay)

Since we weren't that hungry after our late lunch/early dinner, we skipped dinner and went straight to dessert. "Beaches and Cream" was the ice cream store on site. It was just an adorable tiny little ice cream shop. I chose mint chocolate chip every time we went. We have some in our freezer now, and it makes me think of our honeymoon every time I eat it!

Honeymoon, Day 2

We quickly adjusted to a relaxed schedule of waking up casually and going to the Jasmine Porch for breakfast. Today we both tried the buffet....and it was delicious. Made-to-order omelets, amazing fresh fruit (strawberries, pineapple, raspberries galore), bagels, lox, oatmeal, pancakes, bacon, sausage, and more! I'm pleased to say that I didn't overstuff myself on Monday.

After breakfast, we headed to the spa. SB had arranged for a couples massage on that first day, and boy was it amazing! I think that with the move and the wedding all happening at the same time, we both needed a little pampering. Both masseuses were outstanding...and it was just an awesome experience overall. After that, we headed back to the room and dressed for the beach. We stayed out there for a couple of hours....SB under the umbrella and me soaking in the rays. SB tasted his first strawberry daquiri out on the beach. Needless to say....he liked it.....a lot. (or at least he did until a few days later when he saw that they each cost $11!) Once we'd had enough of the beach, we toured around the shops in the resort. We made our way down to the tennis pro shop to see the kinds of drills and lessons that they had scheduled each day. We ended up booking a court time for Tuesday morning.

After that we hung out a bit, then showered and got ready for dinner. We had reservations at the Atlantic Room at the Ocean Course Clubhouse. The building itself was just stunningly beautiful. It's on a gorgeous golf course, right on the beach. We split a filet and a grilled grouper special dish. Both were amazing. For dessert.....wedding cake! One of the best decisions we made was to bring 1/2 of the wedding cake top layer with us (instead of freezing it....we left the other half with my parents). It was FANTASTIC and I ate a few forkfuls every day (eating dessert every day was one of my goals for the honeymoon!!) Here are a few pics from our awesome dinner.....

Reliving the Honeymoon

4 weeks and 1 day ago....SB and I got married! The very next day we set off for a week at The Sanctuary on Kiawah Island....for our honeymoon. It was perfect in every way. I was relieved not to have to travel a far distance, and the service and overall experience there were just top-notch. In an effort to relive the fun of it all, I will do a day-by-day overview (yes, this is probably more for my enjoyment than yours...but the point of the blog for me is to chronicle some of our experiences to remember for years to come).

We drove to Kiawah from Ponte Vedra Beach, FL .... it was about four-and-a-half hours. We stopped midway for a bbq lunch, but otherwise we made pretty good time. Here we are just after the Sunday farewell brunch, and right before leaving......the newlywed couple:

And here is the view from our room. The beach was beautiful....the weather was perfect....and I love just thinking about sitting out on that balcony, feeling completely and totally happy to be there with my husband!! We arrived to find champagne on ice, chocolate-covered strawberries, and rose petals on the bed. What thoughtful touches for a newly married couple. It sure made me feel like the week was really going to be special.

I pretty much collapsed into our bed that first night at like 7pm. I was exhausted, and just totally drained from the week before. SB stayed up that night, planning out all of our meals and activities to make sure we didn't miss a thing. His efforts definitely paid off though....we had a BLAST!!

Belated Thank You!!!

This is an extremely belated THANK YOU to the one and only, Miss Sweet Tea, for her generous gift to me of an eggling. It is soooo adorable. I brought it to work, and my colleagues and I excitedly cracked it, watered it, and placed it on the windowsill. When I left, they promised to keep up with it....so we shall see how it looks when I return to visit. Again, thank you thank you thank you - it was so sweet of you to send that my way!!

1st Rue La La purchase...plus more

After belonging for over a year.....and lusting over a number of items....I finally jumped at this:
It's a little plain, but it's classic, it's timeless, and it'll be a really nice, durable, quality product (Cole Haan).....and it will be a great replacement for my fave purse, which was a casualty during the wedding week.

The week leading up to the wedding was wonderful in so many ways, but pretty stressful too. Among the many things that happened (my phone broke....our "dream" condo was suddenly no longer available after booking it a year prior.....a groomsman couldn't make the trip because his mom was quite sick....etc.), my fave purse was kind of ruined (yes, totally minor in the grand scheme of things....but it felt like just one more thing after a week of crazy troubleshooting). It was a beautiful Kate Spade bag that I just loved. I bought it last summer.....it was the tan canvas with the KS pattern all over.....and it had a bright pink and red stripe of fabric down the middle.....but it was a casualty at the nail salon. One of my precious bridesmaids accidentally dropped a bottle of nail polish, and it splashed all over the bag. Cleaners said it couldn't be saved. Sooooo I've been looking for a good bag since then, and I think this will fit the bill!

More to come!! It's been hectic. My parents are coming in to town this weekend. I just signed up to attend a Junior League info session. I have been so worried about how and where to find friends, and getting involved in the community....and my sister was like - "Emily! That is what JL is all about." Soooo we shall see!!

Tonight will be the first time that my parents see our new house. We'll eat dinner here tonight...bbq chicken, roasted potatoes, a yummy salad, and peach crisp. It's going to be blazing hot ....high of 98 tomorrow - so we'll see how long we last doing the typical touristy stuff outside. I think that a visit to the famous Ted Drewe's frozen custard stand is definitely in order.

Enjoy your weekend!!!!

Heavy News Day

During the week, my favorite thing to do after getting ready for the day, before settling in to work is to watch some of the Today Show. I love being aware of what's going on in the world news-wise, and I think Matt, Meredith, Ann, Al and crew are so entertaining. So I'm not usually a big crier (I didn't cry at my own wedding....didn't cry at my sister or brother's weddings....you get the drift), but there are those certain things that always trigger tears (the Extreme Home Makeover show being one!)

So this morning the first story was about the tragic shooting in Pittsburgh at an LA Fitness. I just can't imagine how frightened everyone in the club must have been. It's just a place where you usually let your guard down, and don't pay much attention to the other people there....and you usually don't have your phone/keys/ $$ with you mid-workout. Tears.....streaming tears....just listening to the ladies recreate the whole scene, and how terrified they felt.

The second story was about the rescue mission to release the two American journalists from North Korea (Laura Ling and Euna Lee). When they exited the plane -- the second they saw their families they just collapsed into tears (and so did I....from my living room couch). I can't really imagine just what it would be like to be held captive in a foreign country.....but the sheer emotion they displayed was pretty remarkable. Gosh, just to see Euna reunited with her little daughter was enough....but all the family members, the husbands - I just can't imagine that whole scenario. Thank goodness they are back on American soil.