Friday, Saturday, Sunday

It was a weekend full of family.

1] filled boxes
2] fitting in as a monster
 3] a deserted mall
4] mother & daughter-in-law pink pants 
5] my favorite guy

1] Packing up the apartment with my sweet grandma on Friday was somehow cathartic; I think partially because it was the first tangible step towards this next phase of our lives, and partially because my grandma is one of the few people that really gets me and loves me fiercely anyways. Spending time talking with her is always good for my heart.

2 & 3] Ben and I made it a point to go on a date Friday night. I've been working from home these past two weeks, as you know, and not really having a reason to put pants on and leave the house was really starting to get to me. Ben had an absolutely crazy week of school work that ended Friday afternoon, so we decided to get out of the damn house and do something. I put on some a new shirt, some jeans, and high heels and I felt like a new woman. Never mind the fact that the new heels gave me a wicked blister that I'm pretty sure is going to require amputating my foot. We had a dance party on the way to Outback Steakhouse, scouted out Lowe's for the best new drill for Ben to use a Christmas gift card on, and later settled into the germy movie theatre seats to take in The Great Gatsby [which was so good, by the way]. After the movie, we met one of our best friends out in the city, caught up over some beer, and wasted money on hunting video games and the dart board.

On Saturday, we slept in really late, I stuck to my commitment of running 5 days a week even though I hate weekend runs, and then we headed out for the night, stopping by my step-sister's college graduation party and going out to dinner with Ben's parents. He graduates next weekend, but will be at his Air Force base, so they wanted to celebrate ahead of time and motivate Ben for a strong last week. You know me; I consider breadsticks to be one of the best motivators out there. Din was delicious and spending time with Ben's parents was really nice too.

4 & 5] Sunday was a day of pink pants at church, burgers on the grill, and saying thank you to our mommas. We spent the day at Ben's parents, watching weird movies and doing homework, and once my mom got home from a weekend away, we visited her as well. I'm so thankful for both of these women in my life and for how loving and supportive they always are.

Now onto another week of grad work and packing up. I cannot believe that we leave two weeks from tomorrow. I move 1,500 miles away from my family in two weeks. What.

Home Again

We're back home safely. We have been since late Monday morning, but as with all traveling, getting back into the swing of things has been harder than getting ready to leave. That's especially true when there wasn't time to wash the sink full of dishes before the trip, so you're now faced with the decision: wash them like a nice wife so your husband doesn't have to deal with the smelly sink even though it's in his vows OR lay on the couch and watch The Bachelor in between unpacking? Obviously I did the latter.

It was a really good trip. Driving 17 hours there was actually a lot of fun, I feel like I kicked ass in all of my interviews, Ben and I had time to do some fun things, and then we drove 17 hours back home which wasn't bad either. It was a whirlwind since we were actually only in Memphis for 2 1/2 days, but it was meant to be a business trip and we made it even better. I'm definitely glad that Ben came with me and I'm so thankful that the work side of things went well. Meeting people in my field was so much fun and it really made me feel like this is where I belong; this is what I'm supposed to be doing right now. Nothing was decided, as these were all preliminary interviews, but I'm feeling good about the whole thing.

I brought my mini-Instax camera with me to take pictures the whole time because I'm sick and tired of being attached to my phone. That being said, I did take a few just so I could have electronic pictures to share, so here they are:  

I had a few breaks in between interviews, so we spent that time relaxing on the fluffy hotel bed and eating sour gummy worms. It balanced out my crazy busy days [I'm looking at you, 8 interviews on Friday & 5 on Saturday]. Also, I was scared for our road trip, if we're being honest. 17 hours stuck in a car together is intense, even when you really really like the person you're riding with. Turns out, I had nadda to worry about. Making videos and being weird together and eating junk food really helps the time go by faster.

Like I said, there were a lot of interviews. But I researched all of the positions, had a cheat sheet for each school, and rocked them like nobody's business. So thankful for that. After all was said and done on Friday night, I remembered a BBQ recommendation from one of my interviews, so we drove right down the road to a little hometown place, got the secret thing on the menu and inhaled it all. Those homemade nachos were so damn good.

Final evaluation of the road trip to Memphis: success. 

Now for the fun part of catching up on homework and waiting to hear about the jobs.

The part that's pretty damn hard if you have no motivation and no patience.

Snow Day!

 

from here 

Just like every other north eastern state, we're getting buried in snow right now. I got sent home from work early and made sure to stop at Tops to get water bottles, beer, and a bag of Bugles. The snow day essentials, right?

This weekend is Ben's Air Force drill weekend, so we have plans to head up to Niagara Falls tonight [where his base is] and spend the weekend there. There's a big going away party for a bunch of guys in his shop because they're getting deployed in just two weeks and that's a party I don't want to miss.

Butttt if it's declared that we're in a State of Emergency and drill is cancelled, I won't be too disappointed to snuggle up all weekend, drink tons of hot chocolate in our already freezing cold apartment, and watch all the Netflix we can handle.   

What are your weekend plans? Anything good? Everyone stay safe out there!

rainy weekend

This was a different kind of weekend, as I was under the weather and didn't make it into work on Friday or Saturday night. I have to say, I didn't mind the weekend off. It was a nice change from the norm.

Friday night, my little sister had a sectionals volleyball game, so I rallied from leaving work early, went to cheer her on, and then Ben and I went to grab some grub afterwards.

The name of the game on Saturday was comfort. It was comfort food for breakfast, an excellent mail day with the giant comfy infinity scarf that the beautiful Amy knitted for me, and comfy fuzzy socks from Target that go all the way up to my knees. Some naps were interspersed in there, as well as cuddling on the couch, watching Moonrise Kingdom. All in all, a nice cozy day. 

And Sunday was more of the same. We went to church, stuffed ourselves with more panacakes after, jumped right into football and homework, and ended the night with some more SNL reruns. I crafted a little bit during football, making a little book of our wedding cards, and I put together an Etsy order that I got the night before.

I feel lame blogging about this weekend because I only left the house twice the whole time. 

But really, sometimes those are the best weekends.

weekend things

This weekend was, as always, lovely. But it was way too short! I always wish that Sundays could last forever, but I guess that's not gonna happen, so I'll just enjoy them while I can.

Saturday, Ben was gone again for the Air Force, so I had a relaxing day to myself. I woke up slowly, eating breakfast and listening to Fran's playlists on Spotify. Then there was Halloween costume making while I watched The Sweetest Thing on Netflix [so weird and scandalous, but funny], a pretty autumn run, speed cookie making while I got ready for work, work for 5 hours [Saturday night shifts are crazy at restaurants, man], and then a Halloween party!

Sunday was nice too, once we finally dragged ourselves out of bed. We watched football, did some homework on breaks in between, walked into town to get a pizza, watched more football, went for a run together [boys make everything more fun], and did more homework while we I ate a thousand of those cookies I made. It was nothing crazy, but it was life together and I loved it.

wonderful weekend

This weekend was really so nice.
I know I say that almost every weekend, but this one was even better than normal, if you can believe that.

 Friday, I had to work all day: one job from 9 to 5, and the other from 6 to 10:30. It was a long day for sure, but I started it out right with a leftover biscuit from the morning before, some coffee, and a kiss goodbye from my Benjamin.

 Saturday, Ben left early in the morning for his Air Force drill weekend, so I had all that day and Sunday to do whatever I pleased. I chose to do a craft with our wedding cards, start Friday Night Lights [so many tears!], and put our wedding pictures on flash drives for our parents.

These babies right here are our favorite wedding cards of the bunch. Our friends are awesome, obviously.

Then it was time for a little run down a closed off road. This road is so pretty with the changing leaves, even if I did get chased by a fox on it one time.

I had to work again Saturday night, but I made a stop at Target beforehand to pick up the basics: printer paper, Halloween shapes mac & cheese, and hair dye. That place is such a madhouse on Saturday afternoons, but I put on my brave face and pushed little old ladies around to do my business.

[just kidding, I didn't actually assault any grandmas. promise.]

After work, I did the classy thing and ate some of that mac & cheese right out of the pot, drank some beer, and watched SNL reruns. It was fantastic.

And Sunday? Sunday was probably the best day of the bunch. I woke up to some birds chirping outside of my window [no seriously, I'm not making this stuff up], and I laid around in bed for a while. Once I worked up the motivation to do something with myself, I had a breakfast full of chocolate [the best kind of breakfast], cleaned and vacuumed the entire apartment, and rearranged our living room. I am woman, hear me roar.

I also whipped up some of these suckers for dessert at my Dad's later that night.

Once said delicious balls were all finished, I went for another run, got persuaded into buying popcorn by a shy little nerdy Boy Scout at my door, and then got ready to go to my Dad's for dinner and see Ben for the first time all weekend!

Dinner was delicious [thanks Wanda!], and we all had fun together, as usual. There's 6 of us kids, so when everyone is together, with significant others included, it's definitely a party. And aren't the grown ups so cute?

To wrap up the night, my little sister Jessa came over to dye my hair for me. I went darker and I think I like it, but once I style it and everything, we'll see how it really is. TBD.

and that's it! Benny and I ended the night with football [him], blogging [me], and some midnight snacks [the both of us]. 

God bless autumn weekends.

Brooklyn, Brooklyn, take me in

Well, after a whirlwind weekend in New York City, we're home and thankful.
I love living close enough to the city that we can drive down and make a weekend of it, even when it's six hours of driving and a tiring weekend. It's totally worth it.

To be honest, I took way less pictures than I was planning on taking. Turns out when you're traveling with a bunch of guys, you're too busy laughing and eating and drinking beer to take out your phone and snap a bunch of pics. And even when I tried, the boys usually complained, so I just stopped trying. But here are a few I managed to get in between our time at the bar[s].

I got a new purse at Target just for the trip, but Ben made fun of me. Boys don't understand. 

 This was obviously on the car ride there, as car rides home usually don't make for such happy faces. 

One of the boys, Luke, lives in Poughkeepsie, so we crashed at his house Friday night before taking the train into the city the next morning. Ben and I got the married people bed. 

 Typical Luke face, typical Bart face.

 I told the boys to get together for a picture and this is what they gave me. 

[and for future reference, from left to right, it's Luke, Bart, Ben & Chris. best friendz].

 Chris found us an cheap hotel in Brooklyn, but it only had one double bed. He was smart and called dibs on the pillow and blanket, crashing on the floor, but the other four of us got real cozy in that bed. Real cozy, indeed.

The first real thing we did in the city on Saturday after getting settled in our hotel and eating delicious hipster pizza in Williamsburg, was go to Brooklyn Brewery. We tried some new beers and went on the free tour, dreaming about having one of these giant beer vats in our house someday.

Excited friends excited for beer.

 Beer tokens were like gold in that place and I had two of them!

 This is what the weekend looked like: beer, laughing friends, and hugs all around. I liked it.

After the brewery, we hiked uptown to Central Park so Benny and I could go back to the place where he proposed. I was hoping that the trees were a little more autumn-y, but it was still pretty.

This was on the bridge where the magic happened. I was hoping maybe we'd find the glove that I lost in the midst of my celebratory dancing, but apparently some homeless guy scooped it up in the nine months we've been gone. How dare he.

 pretty New York.

 I just love this fountain right by our bridge.

 These are the stairs in Friends With Benefits! I love how universal everything in New York is, but that everyone has their own story about it. There's so much history here and I'm such a nerd and I love itttt.

On Sunday, we woke up in a haze and made our way deeper into Brooklyn to hang out at Bart's brother's apartment. He made the best bacon and eggs I've ever had, we watched the Giants game, and we checked out the view on his kick ass rooftop.

Then, after a quick 30-some hours in the city, we started the long trek back home. It involved lots of walking, train riding, driving, coffee, and unlike the rest of the weekend, no beer. 

No matter what I do, New York continues to be one of my favorite places in the world. We're dreaming of making the move down here, but even if that never happens, little trips like this will always be my most loved weekend getaway. I can't get enough of this city.