Day Seven

Day Seven: Four things you're looking forward to.

Today's topic was supposed to be four turn-ons, but since I'm married to the perfect man and am no longer interested in anyone other than Ryan (well, maybe Bruce Willis), I thought this would be more appropriate.

1. Mini Medical School - Guess what...I was accepted to medical school! Yay me! No really, everyone that applies (and pays tuition) is accepted, so I can't claim to be some kind of doctor/lawyer extraordinaire. St. Louis's own Washington University Medical School offers an 8-week "Mini-Med School" course for regular people. Mini-Medical School provides savvy healthcare consumers with the latest information on medical research, nutrition, genetics, diseases and treatment options. I'm taking Mini-Med School I, which meets for 2 hours every Tuesday night and teaches operating room protocol and practice surgical techniques, offers lectures on topics such as Alzheimer's, allergies, diabetes, skin conditions, Gastroenterology, pneumonia and heart attacks. We get to tour the Washington University School of Medicine Genome Sequencing Center and the ER. How cool! And at the end of 8 weeks, I'll graduate! You can call me Dr. Sara. :)

2. Bien Living Master Bedroom Make-Over - Remember that Long Distance Design session I won from OMG I'm a Mom? Well, it's finally time I got my act together and made it happen. I finally figured out what I want to do with our bedroom. FINALLY. It's only taken me 3.75 years. I bought bedroom furniture last week! (Holy moly bedroom furniture is expensive.) I figured out what colors I wanted to do the room in (surprise, they're not the same as the grey/yellow that I thought I wanted to do here). And this morning I sent Kristin at Bien Living my ideas and the "before" pictures of our bedroom. This is finally going to happen! Now, who wants to come over next weekend and help me paint?

3. Camping - Ryan and I are packing up the canoe, the dog and the pick-up truck and heading down to the river this weekend to float/camp. The weather is absolutely perfect - 70s during the day and cool 50s at night. I can't wait to sit around the campfire and make S'mores and listen to the water without another living soul anywhere around. Ryan will spend the days fishing, I'll read and relax and Mally will get completely covered in burrs and sticks and mud. Perfect weekend.

4. Birth Announcements - Next week my friend Jessica and I are going to design her birth announcements! I'm so excited about this! She's having a baby girl in October, so I get to use my love of paper products (oh how I love cardstock and envelope liners), pink bows, pictures and babies to help her make/design some adorable birth announcements. I'm accepting ideas if you have any. Can't wait.

Your turn! What are you looking forward to?

Happy Blogiversary

Hard to believe it's been 3 years since I started this little blog.  I never imagined that I'd still be doing this (and people would actually be reading this!) three years later!  This blog has morphed over the years and has really become something I'm proud of and love to do.  It all began with the purpose of keeping my friends and family informed on my progress as I trained for the St. Louis Marathon.  As it would turn out, my friends and family never read it!  No one knew what a blog was three years ago!  I had 2 loyal readers (Kirsten and Rick), who were also training for their first marathons.  I basically wrote just to keep myself motivated and accountable.  And, of course, I became hopelessly addicted.

After the race, the blog became more personal.  I posted about birthday parties and vacations and things going on in my life.  A few months later, I started planning our wedding.  That was taking up most of my free time, so I started using the blog to document our wedding details.  Although, I admit that I really held back on doing this because I didn't want to ruin all the fun details and surprises we had in store for our wedding guests (just in case they were reading the blog...which they weren't).  At this time, I think I had maybe 10 followers.

In the last year, after the wedding, this blog has really blossomed into what it is now.  It's a blog about my day-to-day life and whatever happens to be on my mind at the time. It’s a work in progress, constantly changing directions, with a mind of its own. It’s exciting because I never know where my posts will lead me!

It's a place where I can write about whatever I want!  I typically write about my hobbies and interests, including cooking, sewing, photography, shopping and running.  I blog about trips and vacations I take, weddings and events I attend, races I run, home improvement projects I tackle, cooking and sewing classes I take and meals I cook, things/trends/items I like and shows I watch.  Basically, it's me, me, me!  Every blogger's dream!  And I'm almost up to 150 followers and I get comments on nearly every single post!  I couldn't be happier!

Since most of you have probably only discovered this little blog of mine in the last few months, I wanted to highlight some of my favorite posts over the years that I hope you'll take a minute to read.  These are just a few of my favorites:

Anna's First Race

Ryan's Proposal

St. Louis Marathon Race Report

Halloween Party 2008

Our first trip to Jackson Hole

Wedding Invitations

Adventures in Camping

My Favorite Hostess Gifts

I Do NOT Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas

Plate Wall

Coq Au Vin

Lenz Family Challenge

The Lamb Cake Saga - Part 1 and Part 2

Vegetable Garden

Cooking with Josh

 

Mally's First Visit to the Beach

 

Wedding Day Recap

 

Cody

 

AND NOW...to celebrate the big 3 year blogiversary, I'm doing a giveaway! 

Halloween cupcake decoration, Sprinkles cupcake mix and a Halloween rubber spatula from Williams-Sonoma!  Such a cute little gift pack that I want to keep it for myself!

 

 
 

How to enter:

 

Just leave a comment on what your favorite blog post has been over the last three years!

 

That's it!

 

Make sure I have your email address so I can get in touch with you if you win. 

Winner will be chosen at random.

Giveaway ends Friday at midnight.

 

Good luck!

 



Quoted in the New York Times!

If you follow me on Facebook or Twitter, you know (because I was shouting it from the rooftops) that I was recently interviewed by the New York Times about our wedding.  I know...the NEW YORK TIMES!!!  I'm still in shock too!  HERE'S A LINK TO THE ARTICLE.  You might have to create an account and sign in to be able to view it.  I was out of town and didn't have a chance to pick up a hard copy of the NYT, so if anyone has one, please let me know!

So, how did this happen?  The absolutely lovely and talented Kathryn over at Snippet & Ink recommended me to the NYT as a real bride that used blogs as inspiration during the wedding planning process.  Snippet & Ink is famous for featuring gorgeous inspiration boards, focused around a color scheme, an idea, a holiday, a location, an item, etc.  Kathryn has impeccable taste and comes up with some really incredible creations.  Our wedding was featured on Snippet & Ink last summer (here) and I mentioned to Kathryn that her website and other blogs were a huge part of the inspiration/idea process.  Kathryn must see hundreds of weddings a week, so I'm completely honored that she thought of me for the interview.

I also was beyond thrilled to see a few references to Weddingbee in the article.  When the author asked me about whether I got inspiration from real life brides, I immediately told him all about Weddingbee, which is a blog that features around 20 real brides blogging daily about their wedding planning process, ideas, inspiration, projects, pictures, etc.  Weddingbee also has a forum where you can chat with other brides, classifieds where you can buy/sell wedding items, DIY tutorials and a large picture gallery.  It's updated about 25 times a day, so there's always something new and fresh to read every time you go back. 

I found Weddingbee during my planning and was blown away by all of the amazing, talented, smart, crafty, accomplished, funny women bloggers featured on this site.  I felt like I really got to know them by going through the process and emotions of planning a wedding together.  I still follow a lot of their personal (non-wedding) blogs, which involve being newlyweds, buying new homes and being new moms.  Unfortunately I found the website a little too late to apply to be a "Bee" on Weddingbee (that would have been so cool!).  But I did meet some amazing people/vendors through that site and made a few friends along the way. 

So, if you're planning a wedding (or just love weddings as much as I do), you MUST familiarize yourself with Snippet & Ink and Weddingbee ASAP.  That's my wedding-related PSA for the day.  And my 15 minutes of fame are now up, so I'm going back to my day job. 

Tootles.

7 Years Ago Today

Once upon a time, on a warm September day in 2003, a boy asked a girl out on a date.

She said no.

He was charming and smart and funny.

But she had laundry to do.

He was persistent.

She finally said yes.

He showed up to her apartment in a pick-up truck with no shoes on.

It was strange.

But he was sweet and thoughtful and brought her a case of Diet Coke.

They went to a Cardinals baseball game...with two other guys.

It was awkward.

Then they went to a bar and sat outside and listened to music.

He bought her a rose.

It was nice.

The lead singer of the band made strange comments to them about having "red eyes" for each other while holding up candles to his face and dancing around.

It was weird.

He drove her home and went inside to met her dog.

The dog tore his flip flops into tiny pieces so he was shoeless once again.

He kissed her goodnight.

It was a perfect kiss.

It was September 10th, 2003.

It was the day that changed the rest of my life.

Happy first date-iversary Ryan!

I still have red eyes for you, love.

St. Louis Aces Tennis Match

A few weeks ago, Ryan's cousin's husband Greg invited us to a St. Louis Aces tennis match at Forest Park.

Greg's company was hosting a cocktail reception before the match and wanted to know if we'd like tickets.

Never one to turn down free cocktails, we said yes.

Greg also gave us 2 extra tickets for friends, so of course we invited Alice and Ryan, the biggest tennis fans I know.

However, this was no ordinary tennis match.

There would be a special guest.

Did you see that?!

Anna Kournikova.

Anna (freaking) Kournikova!

ANNA KOURNIKOVA!

Anna would be in the picture area at 6:00 to take a picture with us.

I die.

The boys were absolutely giddy with excitement about meeting Anna.

Not gonna lie...Alice and I were pretty excited too!

Of course, Anna was drop-dead gorgeous.

She was shorter than I thought she'd be (although still taller than me), but so so so tiny!

My Ryan had to get his own picture with Anna. 

He didn't want to share her.

I think he may have slipped her his phone number.

Alice and Ryan were next.  They got their picture with Anna together.

I have a feeling this might be their Christmas card.

And if you didn't know, Anna is married?/engaged? to Enrique Iglesias and has the most unbelievable ring.

Check that sucker out!

Good job Enrique.

And if Anna Kournikova wasn't enough, Lindsay Davenport was also there!

Lindsay was so incredibly nice (and so incredibly tall!).

She genuinely seemed happy to be there.

Afterwards, it was time for the matches.

We had great seats.

The St. Louis Aces wore black and white (I approve).

The first match was between two guys. 

(I took pictures, but they were boring, so I'm not posting them.)

While the guys were playing, the girls strategized about their doubles match on the sidelines.

Anna showed off her tramp stamp.

Lindsay cheered for her St. Louis teammate.

She's so nice!

And then it was time!

Anna and Lindsay vs. two unfortunate girls from the OC. 

Those poor girls.

Bet they thought St. Louis would be a piece of cake.

We had quite the dream team.

Anna's shirt had her name on it...in case anyone in the world didn't know who she was.

She's a diva like that.

Celebrities are just like you and me.

Sometimes they pick their butt too.

The match was exciting.

There was a nice little cheering section.

I loved all the power serves.

Alice loved their facial expressions and trying to image what they were thinking (and discussing their personal lives, of course).

The boys loved the view.

And the beer.

Suddenly, in the middle of the match, we looked across the stadium and were distracted by this:

Do you see that?! 

Black sleeveless turtleneck and black lace bell-bottom leggings at a tennis match? 

In the middle of freaking July?

What was she thinking?

We couldn't stop staring.

Anyway, back to the match...

Anna and Lindsay seemed to get along well together.

Alice follows Lindsay on Twitter and said that Lindsay tweeted about how excited she was to be playing with Anna.  I love that.  Linsday's awesome.

At the end of the match, St. Louis won!

Way to go Lindsay and Anna - you did St. Louis proud!

Anna texted Enrique and told him they won. 

He was proud too.

Thank you Greg! 

We had such a blast. 

I'm happy to repay you in free baby-sitting services any time!