New Year's Eve Randomness

Here are some of my random thoughts to wrap up 2009....



-I've been to spinning two days in a row, and now realize how much I missed it. Once we get back to CA I plan to start searching for a good spinning class that is reasonably priced! Hopefully CAhusband will share my enthusiasm and start going with me again.



-I am totally sick of almost every song on the radio and my iTunes... please let 2010 bring some new good music.



-New Year's Eve is over rated. I always thought that once we turned 21 we would have fun, glamorous, exciting plans for every New Year at least until we had kids, where we would then resort to cozy nights of staying up until barely midnight and a nice home cooked meal. Well, two years in a row, we've had no major plans and nothing makes me feel more lame and unexciting.



-I was sooooo good at the mall yesterday it's amazing. Not one single thing even tempted me in J.Crew or Anthro.... YES!!!! I did find the place mats and napkins I want to order from C & B, but that doesn't count because I didn't purchase them, and when I do it will be with a gift card!!!



-I haven't seen one of the new releases in the movie theater this holiday season, and am totally bummed about it. I thought about dragging CAhusband to one this afternoon, but it's so cold and he'll resist so much that I doubt it's worth the energy.



-Purdue is ranked #4, and I can't wait to eat junk food and drink beer and watch them beat #6 West Virginia tomorrow afternoon. BOILER UP!



-I am likely way too excited for the HGTV dream home that will be revealed tomorrow. I truly look forward to this each New Year's Day, and think I am going to become fanatical about entering to win it this year, just for the hell of it! (Mom and Dad, you know you will too!!!)

J.Crew Resort New Arrivals

Can I just say that I think I deserve a gold star. I visited a B & M Jcrew store today and did not pick up, try on, or purchase a single thing! I think I showed some real restraint given that they had new items in that I hadn't yet seen in person, and although this may seem like a pathetic accomplishment, this is BIG for me! I never make it through a JCrew rollout without picking up at least 3 new things (don't forget my discount). I might be starting one of my New Year's resolutions a little early (though I won't hold my breathe).

Anyways, I think I escaped with my wallet still intact and full of Christmas money to be spent on furniture because most of my coveted items are still online only at this point, or weren't available at the certain store I visited. Regardless, I'm still proud of myself, but I'll show you my favorites anyway...

Vintage Latticework Popover, $69.50

I love this pattern and the colors. I think this top is perfect for where we live, and would look so cute with white or chino shorts here in about 6 weeks when I wear shorts again. : )

Suckered Gingham Perfect Shirt, Deep Chartreuse $69.50

I really wanted to winter version of this shirt that sold out so quickly and is now back ordered 'til April, until I saw this version. It comes in 5 different colors that are all great, and is so cute for spring. Again, I'd love to wear this with chino shorts and rolled up sleeves for the spring. Too cute!

Cotton Pleated Dress, Fawn $75.00

Now I don't know if this dress is a cover-up, a nightie, a real dress, or what, but I love the pleated ruffle detail. I think I like it most as a bathing suit cover-up, and for some reason I like this beige color and think it would look great with a tan! It looks kind of shapeless though, so I'd like to try this one on first.

Skimmer Pant, Slate $69.50

These pants are too cute, and fill in my wardrobe where the Minnie pant couldn't! Whereas the Minnie pant looked awful on me, I love these pants (I actually tried these on a few weeks ago at my store). I think it's the back pockets that helped. These come in 4 great spring colors, and I really don't see myself making it to March without at least one pair, preferably this grey!

Can you tell I'm so over winter and am ready for spring?

2009, Year In Review

2009 was a wonderful year, and one I know I'll never forget. In 2009 I became a Mrs. and moved across the country. It was a very busy and amazing year.

January:
-We celebrated New Years in CA with my parents.
-My mom and I found and bought my wedding dress.
-CAhusband started his last semester of college, and I started my second semester of teaching 3rd grade.
-I turned 23!

February:
-CAhusband's brother proposed to my friend and now sister-in-law Christina. We were thrilled!

March:
-CAhusband traveled to Dubai with his grandfather.
-I traveled to CA to visit my parents for Spring Break. My aunt and cousin came with me, and we traveled to San Diego one day to go to the zoo.

April:
-My friend and now sister-in-law Katie got engaged to her boyfriend Jake! This made for 3 family engagements 6 months!!!
-We spent Easter in Muncie with CAhusband's family.
-CAhusband and I took our engagement photos that I'm still in love with!

May:
-CAhusband graduated from Purdue University!
-I finished my first year of teaching, and sadly packed up my entire third grade classroom I'd worked so hard on.
-We spend Memorial Day with CAhusband's family and went to the Indy 500.
-We threw a surprise bridal shower for my now sister-in-law Christina.

June:
-We moved back to Muncie to live with CAhusband's parents for the 6 weeks before the wedding.
-We mailed our wedding invitations, and started getting the replies.
-We worked for what seemed like an eternity on wedding plans. I don't even want to think of all the emails I sent in this month!
-I had 2 bridals showers and traveled to Chicago to my bachelorette party.
-CAhusband traveled to Hilton Head for his Bachelor Party, and I then flew out to meet him after his friends left for 4 days of wedding planning free relaxation.

July:
-I had 2 more bridal showers.
-We got married in Indianapolis on the 18th!
-We left for our honeymoon in beautiful St. John on the 19th.
-We returned home from our honeymoon 10 days later and started packing and preparing for our move to CA.

August:
-The moving truck came on the 1st (I think) and we left Indiana on the 3rd. It took us 36 hours and we drove straight through to CA with Reilly in tow. 1 speeding tickets, several potty breaks, and dozens of Red Bulls later, we reached our new home.
-CAhusband turned 24!
-CAhusband started his new job.
-We lived with my parents for a few weeks while waiting for our moving truck to arrive, and finally got into our place the last week of August.

September:
-We finally got mostly settled in our new place, and I started writing CAwife!
-My Grandma came to visit my parents and us in CA.
-CAhusband traveled to Vegas for his brother's bachelor party.
-I started working at JCrew.
-Reilly turned 4!

October:
-I traveled to DC to see my brother-in-law and Christina before their wedding and helped with any last minute details (we mainly shopped).
-I traveled with them to Charlottesville where CAhusband then met us.
-We celebrated Charlie and Christina's wedding on October 10th!

November:
-We celebrated our first Thanksgiving as a married couple in CA with my parents. We participated in a 5k walk, and had a great day!

December:
-I re-designed CAwife and started using Twitter.
-I started subbing in the public schools.
-We sent our first Christmas cards and put up our first Christmas tree.
-We finally got our table and chairs and decided on some bedroom furniture.
-We traveled home to Indiana on Christmas Eve to see some family and friends.

In the New Year we hope to/or will....
-Get Reilly a brother/sister of the canine species
-Finish (well not really, it will be a long process, I should say make SERIOUS progress) our apartment
-Spend less, save more
-Eat less, exercise more
-Attend weddings (3 so far)
-Find CAwife a teaching job!!!!!

I hope everyone has a happy and safe New Year!

Our Christmas, Part 6

CAhusband and I feel very lucky to have had this chance to spend the holidays with so many of our family members that we don't get to see very often. On Sunday we wrapped up our Christmas celebrations my spending time with my mom's side of the family. We all met at my Papaw and Merry's house to see both sets of grandparents and my Aunt Kelly, Uncle Neil, and cousin Mallory (poor Derek was sick). Luckily, my sister was able to make it into town as well, so I was able to catch up with her and her boyfriend Jonas too!

My Grandma Briggs and I

We enjoyed soup and sandwiches, exchanged gifts, and watched the Colts throw about their perfect season. It was a wonderful time, and was really great to see so many family members that I hadn't seen since our wedding about 5 months ago.

Molly and I

I'm so happy that my sister and Jonas were able to stay in town through Tuesday morning so that we could have some more time together. Being 2000 miles away from family is hard at times, and I'm so glad we were at least able to spend 48 hours together.

Overall CAhusband and I had an amazing Christmas. We received many wonderful gifts and spent lots of quality time with family and friends. If you're wondering what we got for Christmas, we mainly asked for contributions to the furniture fund! We did quite well in that department and should be able to finish up our apartment shortly after returning to CA this weekend.

**More non-Christmas posts coming soon, including my year in review and goals for 2010!

Our Christmas, Parts 3, 4, and 5!

Yes, now that we've been back in Indiana we have had 4 more Christmas celebrations! This post will cover the 3 fabulous Christmas events that we shared with CAhusband's family.

Due to the fact that we didn't arrive in Indiana until 11 p.m. on the 24th, we pushed back Christmas Eve and Day. The 25th became Christmas Eve, and then the 26th became Christmas Day, and surprisingly it really did seem like it! Very rarely did we realize that our "Christmas Day" was really the 26th!

We started off our Christmas Eve by having a delicious bruch with CAhusband's Grandma. We had a fabulous brunch followed by carmel chocolate bars and Lowery's Chocolates, then exchanged gifts! It was so nice to spend time with CAhusband's Grandma because it is so rare that she gets to see all of her grandchildren and spouses together at once.

CAhusband and I at his Grandma's on Christmas Eve



CAhusband, my father-in-law, and my brother-in-law at his Grandma's

After brunch, we all headed to CAhusband's grandfather's house for a great dinner, gifts, and holiday movies! It was great to see all of CAhusband's cousins and aunts and uncles that we don't get to see very often. We all had a great time!

Our amazing dinner consisted of beef tenderloin, ham, yummy potatoes, and great wine! We were all stuffed and after we finished eating had no energy left to do anything other than watch Christmas Vacation (then Twilight).

The Beebe family cousins!

Christmas Day was wonderful and very relaxing! We all woke up and exchanged gifts before snacking on leftover sweets and making omelets.

CAhusband opening up one last gift from me! Boiler UP!

Once we all got cleaned up and ready for the day we played games and watched movies until we could hardly stay up any longer!

VABelle , Katie, and I after playing games!

Even though our trip to Indiana was very last minute, CAhusband and I have had a wonderful time getting to see almost all of our family that we probably won't see again until Katie's wedding in July.

Even though I've been around CAhusband's family for years, I feel so lucky to feel like such a part of the family on our first married Christmas together.

Our Christmas, Part 2

We have actually almost completed all of our family Christmas celebrations, but due to the craziness of the season, the holiday recap posts will come slowly!

Wednesday night CAhusband and I celebrated Christmas together with Reilly. We made a yummy dinner of filet mignon and mashed potatoes (that's right mom, no 3rd component, and nothing green) and opened our gifts together. We had a wonderful time relaxing and sharing gifts together and spending the time with Reilly before we left the next day.

CAhusband got lots of little goodies that included martini glasses, several magazine subscriptions, a sweater, cologne, and more; while I finally got to open my Tory Burch Reva flats!!!! CAhusband really enjoyed all of his little surprises, and I was so excited to finally have my coveted shoes.
Reilly got lots of yummy treats and a stocking full of new toys. She wasn't quite as excited as she was on Christmas Part 1 because without Gus to demonstrate she didn't quite get it, but she loved her treats and toys nonetheless!

We are in Muncie now, and will wrap up our final part of Christmas this afternoon. My sister is in town and I will get to spend tons of time with her over the next few days and am so excited! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas.... stay tuned for more pics soon!

Merry Christmas!

It's hard to believe that it's Christmas Eve already, boy has the holiday season gone quickly! CAhusband and I are so thankful for all of our family and friends that we have already spent the holidays with, or will see very soon. We both feel so lucky to have so many wonderful people to call family!

CAhusband and I celebrated Christmas together with Reilly last night (pics and more coming soon) and shared a great dinner together before packing up and preparing everything for our trip to Indiana. We will be leaving sunny California for Indiana in a few hours, and are praying for safe travels and hassle free airports this Christmas Eve.

(sorry, can't get the pic any bigger)

I hope you all have a wonderful and safe Christmas!

In Love with Statement Necklaces

Now I have a few statement necklaces that I absolutely love to wear, and I don't exactly "need" any more; but who cares, I love them! Anthropologie has a few new pieces that I absolutely love; so here's some eye candy for you!

Weighted Boughs Bib Necklace, $78 Anthropologie

Allamanda Necklace in Grey, $48 Anthropologie

Allamanda Necklace in Dark Yellow, $48 Anthropologie

Now, obviously I don't need the same necklace in two colors, but I'm conflicted on which one is the best! I think the yellow would be great for spring and summer, don't you?

Our Christmas, Part 1

After having a wonderful and relaxing weekend, CAhusband and I got to celebrate Christmas with my parents yesterday. We started off in the afternoon at my parents house for appetizers, cocktails, and opening presents before heading to Riverside for dinner at The Mission Inn!

My grandma sent some presents for Reilly and Gus (my mom and dad's dog) that we let them tear into right away. It's so funny how they just knew the presents were for them and got so excited. They both got matching Christmas collars, and then continued to play with the boxes!

Reilly wearing her new collar and tearing up the box some more.

Gus laying down so that Mom and put on his new collar.

Once we finished exchanging gifts with my parents we hopped in the car to head to dinner. We wanted to have time to take in all of the beautiful lights at The Mission Inn before heading into dinner at Duane's but there was soooo much foot traffic from people who wanted to see the lights that we were running a little behind. Luckily on our way into the restaurant we were able to see most of the very impressive Christmas decor.

The lights at The Mission Inn

CAhusband and I after dinner

We had a absolutely fabulous dinner and were able to take in all of the beautiful sights and Christmas decorations with my parents. Yesterday was a wonderful start to our holiday celebrations that will continue later this week!

CAhusband and I plan to have a little Christmas celebration with just the 3 of us on Christmas Eve morning, where we will give Reilly her presents and exchange gifts with each other. CAhusband will then head into work for a few hours before we head to the airport in the afternoon to catch our flight back to Indiana.

Stay tuned for more pictures of our Christmas celebrations throughout the rest of the week!

4 days 'til Christmas!

5 Months In

As of today CAhusband and I have been married for 5 months, and once again it's crazy how fast time has flown by. At this rate I feel like we'll be celebrating our first anniversary in no time!

Our fifth month as husband and wife has been fantastic! We had a wonderful first Thanksgiving as a married couple and also began preparing for Christmas, which has been so much fun.

The main thing that has changed over the last month has been our time together. Before Thanksgiving I was spending at least 3 evenings a week at JCrew as well as at least one day of the weekend. Now that I've cut back to just one night a week it has made a huge impact on our time together. With me subbing now our schedules are almost identical, which we've loved. We get up around the same time each morning and I get home about 2 hours before CAhusband, which gives me some time to catch up around the house and have some time to relax before making dinner.

We have finally made some progress on our place too! Our table will finally be delivered tomorrow, and once we get some Christmas money and gift cards we're moving onto our bedroom. Even though the steps are small we feel like we are finally getting somewhere! We will have our first house guests in January, so once we get back from Christmas we'll be busy getting everything ready for CAhusband's parents to arrive on the 20th.

I'm anticipating that this next month will fly by faster than all of the others with our holiday travel plans, etc. We're very excited for our first married Christmas together and can't wait to share the holidays with almost all of our family and friends. I truly hope that we can enjoy the quality time with each other this Christmas season; and that we will begin to make our own holiday traditions together.

7 days 'til Christmas!

Holiday Riddles

I subbed at a high school today. Here are some of the "real stumpers" that the kids had trouble with on their holiday crossword....

Q1) What is a five letter word for Saint Nicholas?

Q2) 6 letter word- You hang these on your tree and outside your house. (Hint: You couldn't have done this before we had electricity.)

In case you're just as smart as the local high school students I had the pleasure of working with today, the answers are provided below.

Answers: 1: SANTA, 2: LIGHTS

The Dreaded DMV

Today I had the lovely experience of visiting a southern California branch of the DMV, and boy was it an experience.

I arrived to find the entire parking lot COMPLETELY full, and about 15 people walking up to the building from their cars that they had to park in the nearby neighborhood... GREAT!

After parking my car in front of a very suspect house (in a not so great part of town) that prominently displayed "BEWARE of DOG" on their garage door, I began my walk of doom to the dreaded DMV(while repeatedly locking my car again and again, just to be safe) . You see, I knew this wouldn't be easy because not only did I have to take a written driving test but I had a name change too... what luck!

Once I got inside I walked right up to the lady at the counter to retrieve my number and the proper form, only to find out when I walked away that I had cut a line of 15-20 people that were waiting in line at my left to get their number.... WHOOPS! Now I get to endure a 3 hour wait with 20 people I just pissed off; I bet they'll be thrilled to see my number called before theirs!

Then I began the wait! I forgot a book, which was a big mistake, but I had some paper to doodle and make notes on, and I played several rounds of Brick Breaker. CAhusband knew I was bored because he received rapid fire text messages everytime my number advanced; and I got to watch about 15 people SERIOUSLY struggle through their vision screening (this was way more entertaining than you might think it would be).

After 2 hours and 15 minutes G059 was finally called!!!! This is where my real panic set in because I found out that they were going to punch a hole in my old license, and that my new license with my new name on it wouldn't be mailed to me for about 30 days. You see, this is important because I purposely put my "new" name on my plane ticket back to IN for Christmas to give me a strict deadline to FINALLY get my CA Driver's License! Surprise, surprise, the lovely government employees couldn't have cared less about my dilemma and had absolutely no answers for me. (Picture me freaking out about a TSA disaster on Christmas Eve at the airport right before taking my written test... not pretty).

After a minor freak out that produced absolutely no results I took my written test (and man is that test a tricky one)! While waiting on my test to be graded, the following scene took place before me....

Picture a young guy around 20 years old, sitting with his 50-ish father waiting to take an actual driving test (like in a car). Up walks a Hispanic girl also about 20 with her friend. They awkwardly pause and giggle in front of the men, then one girl hands the young guy a piece of paper and says, "you dropped this," before giggling some more and running out of the door. The guy then looks at the piece of paper with a heart, the girl's name, and her phone number on it and then busts out laughing, before explaining to his VERY confused father what just happened.

Now I am sitting right next to this guy as all of this happens and am doing my best not to bust out laughing... I mean seriously, who does that? At least it was something to take my mind off the guy grading my test. Once the entertainment was over, I found out that I did in fact pass my test (that I was very sure I didn't) and I headed home.

Once I got home I called Northwest Airlines as quickly as possible and was luckily able to find a solution to my "ID" situation. I'm sure that it will still be a hassle, but she assured me I'd be able to get on my flight, so I'm breathing much easier now.

2 Books/1 Week!

You might be asking yourself, "Has CAwife become a speed reader?" but no.... I've just become a substitute teacher who plays more movies and hands out more busy work than one thought was possible! Luckily there's lots of great lit out there to keep me entertained between taking attendance and saying "you are dismissed." (Note: I've been mainly subbing in Middle and High School, hence the lack of student communication).

The first book, The Weight of Silence, is one I've had forever (well, 5 months)! It seriously took me awhile to get started, and is a little slow, but without a computer, TV, or housework to distract you, it's amazing how quickly you can get into a book! This book slightly reminds me of Jodi Picoult's style and was pretty good; but isn't one of those books I'd say you "have to read."



Next up is Breaking Dawn, which I was kind of bleh about! I know, I'm probably getting boo-ed right now, but it was just a little tooooo out there for me (I know you're shocked that in the 4th book of a vampire series, I'm finally saying it's "out there," but the other ones were more believable). I was; however, pleasantly surprised by the turns the story took. I honestly thought the ending to the saga would be more tragic (i.e. Romeo and Juliet) than it was!

Any good reads you'd like to recommend?

10 Days 'til Christmas, and I'm Finally in the Spirit!

It's finally starting to feel like Christmas here in the desert!

Now I know we put our tree up a few weeks ago, and that helps and all, but there's something about 75 degree weather and the fact that I could get away with wearing shorts most days that doesn't make it seem like Christmas is just around the corner! (I'm pretty sure that's a run-on sentence, but I don't have the energy to worry about sentence structure today).

For example, last week I was literally sweating as I loaded groceries into my car in the middle of the afternoon, when all of a sudden I heard the Salvation Army bell ringer playing Silent Night on his trumpet. I was literally thrown for a loop because something about hot sun and sweat didn't go hand in hand with baby Jesus and a holy night. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a scrooge, and the music was great, but something about the situation seemed off.

Finally this weekend I feel like I got "into the spirit"...

-We (I don't know why I say we, it was definitely ALL ME) finished all of our Christmas cards (no notes, just addresses on an envelope.... sue me)

-We added a few more ornaments to our tree (thanks to Pottery Barn and my Where the Wild Things Are ornament from my Grandma Briggs)

-I finally found some decent wrapping paper and wrapped a few gifts! Despite my luke warms feelings for all wrapping paper I saw at every store, I'm very happy with the finished product. Even CAhusband was impressed. Too bad almost all of my gifts are getting shipped to IN this year direct from the store, and I'll only get to wrap gifts for 4 people on my list in my pretty paper and bows.

-We were able to mark almost everyone off our Christmas list after shopping on Saturday and Sunday... whew! After my meltdown Saturday morning this was a huge accomplishment!

Now that Christmas is less than 2 weeks away and I have all of the stressful parts of Christmas out of the way, I feel like I can finally enjoy the season. CAhusband and I will celebrate Christmas with my parents this Sunday, and will then work for a few days before heading to Indiana on Christmas Eve.

Are you getting into the Christmas spirit? It's just 10 days away...

A Quick Friday Post

Today was a good day!

-I subbed for the fifth day in a row at another great school! I showed up for my position today to realize that I had unknowingly also agreed to come on Monday. So make that 6 days of subbing in a row, right before Christmas... what could be better!

-I was supposed to work my one night a week at JCrew tonight, and they called me just as I was starting to get ready to tell me they didn't need me because they were soo slow! I don't think there's anything better than getting called off of work on a Friday night when you REALLY didn't want to go in the first place! : )

-I completely just realized that CAhusband and I will be celebrating Christmas with my parents NEXT WEEKEND! EEK! I have purchased a few gifts, but I really need to get a move on it tomorrow.

-My Christmas cards came in the mail yesterday, and I'm kind of bleh about them. I loved the proof online, but in print the picture looks a little dark and is WAY smaller than I thought it would be. Oh well, they're going out anyway... better luck next year!

I'm hoping to resume non-bulleted posts again tomorrow! That is unless I can convince CAhusband to make the trip to Orange County for a day of Christmas shopping.

Happy Friday!

A Little Wednesday Randomness...

I've got a whole lot of randomness in my brain today, and since I'm sure you're just dying to know what I've been thinking about, here it is...

-I have subbed 3 days in a row and have already been called for tomorrow! Subbing is far from glamorous, but I love being in the classroom again without the stress of lesson plans or hours of grading at night. I actually tried my hand at high school Spanish and English this week, which was definitely interesting and more enjoyable than I thought it would be (we watched movies and I was able to get about half way through Breaking Dawn)!

Note: I find a way to tell every single staff member I see that I did in fact have my own classroom before moving here, hahah! Insecure about my job situation? Maybe?

-I love our Christmas tree, but still feel that it needs some more ornaments! I feel like it's kind of dumb to just go out and buy a bunch of cute ornaments though. Aren't they supposed to have meaning and be collected over time?

-I am so ready for our kitchen table to finally get here! Unfortunately, Crate and Barrel isn't in our area very often, so we still have to wait until the 19th for it to be delivered! I want to get it all set up for Christmas, but we'll only be here for 5 days after we get it, so will it even be worth it? Hmm?

-Tiger Woods is starting to make me sick. I'm so disappointed in myself for defending him when it all started. I know the media is likely embellishing some, but who knows?

-Even though I'm glad it isn't -10 degrees here, I'm missing the snow right about now (the pretty, fresh snow - not the 2 day old brown mush)! It was always so exciting to predict how much snow we were going to get, and wish for a 2-hour delay. Even being snowed in wasn't too bad every once in awhile. I always loved being able to wake up and look out the window and say, "Wow, can you believe how much it snowed last night?"

-The Biggest Loser was amazing last night, and I'm so happy that Danny won!!! Can you believe how much weight he lost? 239 pounds, HOLY COW!

Well I think that's everything I've been pondering today! Happy Wednesday!

Christmas List Pt. 3: Beauty Splurges

I have always been a HUGE fan of Bobbi Brown make-up, but unfortunately it is very rare that I can justify the price. If I happen to have the extra cash around I usually put it towards clothing first (surprise, surprise) or something for the house.

I've purchased Bobbi Brown make-up for gifts for other people before, and it's usually a welcome surprise because it just isn't something you'd buy for yourself. I think make-up is just one of those things that you can always get for cheaper, so it's hard to fork over the dough for $25 eye shadow when you can find a similar (or exact) color at Target for $5!

The last time I was at Saks though I couldn't help but be drawn to the holiday sets they were featuring at the Bobbi counter. There were tons of great things I'd love to blow a whole bunch of money on, but I restrained myself, and just suggested to CAhusband that he buy me a few things for my stocking. (Could you picture him at the Bobbi counter choosing make-up, haha... NO). Here are some of my favorites...

1. Bobbi Brown Lip Gloss Trio, $40
2. Bobbi Brown Basics Eye Palette, $40
3. Bobbi Brown Sheer Color Cheek Tint, $22
4. Bobbi Brown Beige Shimmer Brick Compact, $38
5. Bobbi Brown Chrome Eye and Lip Palette, $75
6. Bobbi Brown Brightening Lip Gloss, $20

all images from bobbibrown.com

Oh wouldn't it be nice....

Our Weekend

CAhusband and I have had a fabulous weekend! Here are the bullet points....

• Friday night we tried out a new Mexican restaurant, El Ranchito, and weren't super impressed. We then went a few blocks over and met my parents and some friends for drinks, and what eventually led to more food. : )
  
• Saturday I met up with a new friend to finally see New Moon! She is about my age and teaches at one of the private schools in the desert. We're hoping to get together again with our husbands sometime soon... I think I might have my first "friend" here!


• After disliking the movie Twilight I was interested to see if I would like New Moon. I was very pleasantly surprised and actually REALLY liked this one! I still haven't read the last book Breaking Dawn, and promptly stopped at Target on my way home from the movie to purchase it! : )


• Saturday night we had Nick's office Christmas party. I was super excited to wear the dress I had purchased, but it was so cold I had to wear my jacket almost the entire night (the back of the dress was my favorite part)! Unfortunately (but not surprisingly) we COULD NOT take a decent picture last night to save our lives. Here are a few random pics though, and you can kind of see the dress.

My mom and I at the party!

Things getting a little out of hand at The Tack Room

Check out CAhusband... now you see why none of our pics turn out! Seriously?

A random pic of the back of my dress! Cute huh?

• It is currently 2:30 p.m. here and we are still in our PJ's after partying a little to hard at a local bar after the Christmas party with some of Nick's co-workers. We might actually get dressed and leave the house today, but it's not looking too promising at this point!


• I'm hoping to watch Christmas Vacation for the first time this holiday season tonight!
  

I hope that you're all having a great weekend!

Happy Birthday Katie!

Today is my SIL's 23rd birthday, and I'm so sad that I can't be there to celebrate with her! Luckily this little one got her way and now we'll be heading home to Indiana for Christmas... so I will get to see her and the rest of the family very soon.

Katie and I have been close for years and she and I were even in the same sorority at Purdue. We've shared lots of great memories together, and I know we will create a lot more in the future. I'm so lucky to have a SIL (actually I'm REALLY lucky and have 2) that is actually a great friend too.

Happy Birthday Katie, I hope you have a wonderful day and I can't wait to see you very soon!

Photo by Jacob Copeland of Focused Memories Photography