Things I Never Blogged About - Part 1

It's no secret that this blog hasn't been updated super-frequently since I started work last September. It turns out that BigLaw lawyering kind of takes over your life. I experienced my first "all nighter" at work last week (and it came after a string of nights including a Saturday and a Sunday and a President's Day that weren't technically all nighters but were well-after-midnight nights, so basically... totally exhausting).

Jeff and I are trying to balance everything and I think we're doing pretty well (Jeff is becoming quite the chef lately!), but the blog seems to have fallen pretty low on our priority list and it just doesn't get updated like it used to.

But there are so many things I do want to document and share, so I'm going to try to do a little series of catch-up posts, starting with three special events from over a month ago!

New Year's Eve
We hosted our third New Year's Eve party! It ended up being a really eclectic group of people (friends from church, neighbors, our siblings, friends of our siblings, my coworkers, Jeff's coworkers, etc.), and it was really fun!

While I was in law school I was accumulating reward points with a legal research website I used a lot (I had a free membership as a student), and right before I graduated I spent all my accumulated points on the best thing I could find in their little point redemption store — a chocolate fountain! We broke it in on New Year's Eve with some dark chocolate - yum!

It was a fun night!

Tim & Emily's Engagement
A few days into 2014, Jeff's little brother Tim proposed to his girlfriend Emily! They've been together since high school, and we are SO excited for them to finally be married!

I'm particularly excited that I'll officially have a sister-in-law soon! Emily and I were friends even before she started dating Tim, and she's just the sweetest, and I am SO excited!

Beautiful, right?!?!

Jeff, Matt (Jeff's other little brother), and I were out celebrating my sister's birthday the night Tim proposed, so we were waiting for the phone to ring all night. When it finally did ring, we could hardly hear them because the bar was so loud, so we sent them this picture to make sure they knew how excited we were:

I wish it wasn't blurry (iPhones don't focus too well in the dark), but I kind of love it anyway.

We can't wait for their wedding next December! 

Julianne & Ben's Wedding
Also in January, my cousin Julianne got married! The wedding was so fun, and it was really great to get to spend some time with my grandparents and extended family. I wish we had a family wedding at least once a year!

All dressed up!

My grandparents, great aunts, sisters, and parents!

Such a pretty dress, right?!

(with my parents and sisters)

(my Gran and Grandpa)

So now I'm only... oh six weeks or so behind on the blog? Slow and steady. :)

Five (Catholic) Things

It's been a while since I did a Five Things post, and I happen to have a bunch of random church/Catholicism-related things to talk about, so today we have five Catholic things!
1. I take a purse to church solely for the purpose of using it to mark my seat while I go to Communion. Without it, I end up going back into the wrong row on accident, and then I have to awkwardly squeeze past a bunch of strangers, which they're always nice about, but I just feel ridiculous. I don't need my wallet, keys, phone, whatever at church at all, but I always bring a purse for this purpose. Is that silly? Please tell me I'm not the only one that has issues going into the right row after Communion...
2. This blog post from a gay Catholic man in his late twenties was fascinating to me. The rest of the blog isn't bad either - I spent a good hour reading stuff on there! 
3. My engagement/wedding rings never sparkle so much as when I'm at church. It doesn't matter which church - our church, my parents' church, the church by our old apartment.... I don't know if all churches use the same amazing lights that make rings look really sparkly or what, but it always distracts me while I'm kneeling with my hands folded in front of me. But it's also kind of nice... like God's reminding me that our marriage is most radiant when we're really united with God. Does this happen to anyone else? 
4. Regarding Pope Francis: While the papal conclave was going on, people I know that aren't Catholic kept asking me if we were following it, using all our spare time to watch the TV waiting for smoke, etc. And I thought it was a little silly because, you know, I don't have a whole lot of spare time to sit and wait for smoke. But I was praying a lot for the Cardinals that were making the decision. Anyway, I wasn't following it on the news or anything. But last Wednesday afternoon it just popped into my head that I ought to Google it and see how it was going. And lo and behold, they had just elected a Pope, and the whole world was waiting for the announcement of who it was! Isn't that crazy that the one time during the whole process that I thought to check the news, it had JUST happened?

(from ABCNews.com)

I was able to watch the Pope's first appearance live on my laptop, and I was able to pray the Our Father along with him and the whole rest of the world, and it was just really kind of amazing and I cried a little. So many people around the world gathered and praying. Just amazing. 

(from ABCNews.com)

(from ABCNews.com)

Anyway, prior to that happening, I knew absolutely nothing about the new guy, but I think he'll do a wonderful job. I think he seems refreshingly genuine and humble, which is nice. 
Also, I saw this on Pinterest and it made me giggle so much that I just had to share (past Popes compared with Pope Francis):

(source)

5. I may have mentioned this before, but our church made a new photo directory and we all had to take family portraits for it. 

But the photographer made us use the most ridiculous pose, and considering we live in the suburbs (with a bunch of families), we're like the only childless couple in the directory under the age of 60. And we look ridiculous. But we got a free 8x10, so now I have to figure out what on earth to do with this:

Ah yes, let me walk up behind my husband and rest my hands upon his shoulder just so, while he tilts his head toward me lovingly. We look like this ALL THE TIME, let me tell you...

So we've covered sparkly rings, silly directory photos, squeezing past people in church pews, and watching for smoke. Kind of random stuff today... haha! I hope you all have a lovely weekend! 

Joy

When I was in college, I went on a retreat once where there was a speaker who gave a talk about "joy." I can't remember her name or what exactly she spoke about, but the concept of living your life filled with joy has stuck with me ever since then. Periodically, I try to remind myself to just find joy in life and rejoice in it and give God the glory for the amazing things He has put into my world.

(source)

So today's post is all about things that have brought me joy lately!

My Sweet Husband

We went out to dinner at a pizza place by our house on Sunday, and toward the end of our meal, the waitress asked "are y'all together, or are you just dating?" Kind of a weird question (especially had we been a "just dating" couple on the verge of becoming officially "together"), but I said "actually we're married!" She was all surprised, and she said "but you guys look so happy! You've been talking and laughing and you just look like you're having fun with each other!" Jeff kind of laughed and told her we've been married for a little over two years, and the sweet waitress was just so surprised. She said most married couples don't look like they're really enjoying their time together. When she handed us the check, she said "bless your marriage! I hope you're always as happy as you are tonight!"

She's right though. After all this time, I do genuinely enjoy every second I get to spend with Jeff, and he just makes me happy. SO MUCH JOY!

Homemade Bread, Fresh Out of the Oven!

I'll get a recipe for this up on the blog soon... it's really easy! 

My newly-replated rings! 

I keep staring at them like I did when we were first engaged! 

My Giveaway Package from The Fashionable Wife

I rarely win anything, but I won a giveaway on another blog and got this package of fall beauty goodies! I put the nail polish on my toes right away! 

Fun Times with my Sister, Karoline!

Karoline came to stay with me last weekend while Jeff was out of town with his brother for the South Carolina-LSU game. We had such fun! We bought a GIANT mum for the porch, baked a lot, watched Big Fat Greek Wedding, and just had a lovely time! 

Biggest. Mum. Ever.

Good Friends (Especially ones that move to Houston!)

Jeff and I don't have a TON of friends, but the ones we do have are so dear to us! I think we just don't have time to keep up with a lot of people, but we really treasure our good friends! One of Jeff's best friends from South Carolina (and the Best Man at our wedding) is moving to Houston for his job (best news ever!), so he's staying with us for a while until his apartment is available. I made him a "Welcome to Texas" basket with Texas-shaped chips, Texas-style salsa, "Texas-sized" jelly beans, a Texas flag, an issue of Texas Monthly, and a Texas shot glass. 

So, what's bringing joy to your life lately? Let's all have a joyful day! 

Five Things

Time for another day of Five Things! Generally, "Five Things" is for five little things, none of which are big enough for their own blog post, but today a few of them actually ended up being fairly lengthy. So you get a giant Mega Five Things today! 
1. Remember this chair? 
My antique chair re-do was featured on Better After last week. Click on over and take a look! If you're coming here for the first time from Better After, welcome! 

2. Weird Coincidence of the Weekend
Sometimes really weird stuff happens to me. Last Friday, Jeff and I decided to go out to dinner. I said I felt like Italian food. Jeff suggested Zammitti's (a favorite place of ours), but I suggested we try somewhere new. There were two Italian places we really liked when we sampled their food at Tasting the Town (an event we went to recently), Christopher's and Amedeo's. 
We decided on Amedeo's.  We got there, ordered food and wine, and were having a lovely time. Then, I saw this man walk across the other side of the restaurant, and he looked really similar to my high school boyfriend's dad. Weird. Now, Jeff and I live in a totally different part of Houston than we did in high school. Kingwood is almost an hour away from where the high school boyfriend's family lives, so I was sure it wasn't really him (because why would he be way out in Kingwood for dinner?), but I told Jeff "wow... I just saw this guy that looks just like {ex-boyfriend}'s dad!" And Jeff was like "hmm, weird." And we went about our dinner.
So our food comes, and then... I see the ex-boyfriend himself walking across the restaurant. Quick background on the high school boyfriend: we dated for a couple weeks shy of a year (so by high school standards, it was pretty serious). I broke up with him my senior year and he didn't take it well. Apparently he thought we were going to get married. He continued to call me semi-frequently for a couple years after that, but eventually I was happily dating Jeff and I just wanted to move on, and I kind of just stopped calling him back. Soon after that, he finally started dating someone else. I ran into both of them at Target once. She seemed really nice. He seemed really uncomfortable. That was two years ago, and I haven't talked to him since.
So anyway, he went to the front door of the restaurant and met another guy at the door, and I recognized the other guy as his college roommate. So then I'm like "Jeff... I just saw {ex-boyfriend}, and I'm sure it's him, and his college roommate is here too! Why on earth would {ex-boyfriend} be having dinner with his dad and his college roommate in Kingwood?" So we start hypothesizing about what could possibly be going on, and we decide maybe one of his parents is having a big birthday party or something, and I start trying to remember when his parents' birthdays are. I mentioned to Jeff that {ex-boyfriend} was engaged to the girl I met at Target and had been engaged for a while (I only know this thanks to the magic of Facebook), and then it dawned on us that oh my gosh... it's Friday... and they should be getting married sometime soon since they've been engaged for a while... and this is a fairly nice restaurant... and this could very well be their REHEARSAL DINNER. 
So then I started freaking out. I mean... what if I ran into someone?  A lot of his family and friends would recognize me, and what would they think? Probably that I'm some sort of weird stalker ex-girlfriend that decided to crash the rehearsal dinner. And even if they didn't think that... you just don't want to see the ex-girlfriend at the rehearsal dinner. And what if I ran into him? It was a bit awkward that time at Target... surely it would be a million times worse at his rehearsal dinner! They're all really nice people... I wouldn't mind running into any of them any other time, but NOT at the rehearsal dinner!! 
So I'm like "Jeff... we have to get out of here." And he's like "no... we're on the opposite side of the restaurant... no one will see you, we should just finish our dinner." I started wishing we hadn't ordered a whole bottle of wine (why, oh why didn't we just order a couple glasses?!?!) because we had to stay until the wine was gone... and what if someone sees me?!!?
We ate pretty quickly, but there was still the issue of the 1/3-full wine bottle, and then another problem happened. I had to go to the bathroom. The bathrooms were on the side of the restaurant where they were, and I just knew I could NOT go over there. Running into his mom, or his sisters, or his fiance in the bathroom... any of it would just be weird. So we finished the rest of the wine as quickly as possible, and the waitress came and asked if we wanted dessert and we both said "no!" so instantaneously that the poor waitress was caught off guard a little, and then she brought the check and we paid and left quite speedily.
We looked on Facebook when we got home, and sure enough... it was their rehearsal dinner. His fiance grew up in Kingwood, apparently. We were at the restaurant at the exact time as their rehearsal dinner. Isn't that weird? I mean... we were so far away from where he and his family live, and we had never even been to that restaurant before, and we don't go out to eat that often but we decided to that day, and we were SO close to going to Zammitti's or Christopher's, but instead we picked the exact restaurant where the rehearsal dinner was. SO. WEIRD. 
On Saturday, I stayed away from any place that could possibly be a location for a wedding, or a reception, or bridesmaids getting their hair done, or groomsmen getting lunch. And I successfully avoided appearing at any more of {ex-boyfriend}'s wedding-related events. It makes my heart happy though to know he's found the perfect girl for him and he got married on Saturday. He's a really great guy (he even took my little sister to a dance in high school after we broke up because she didn't have a date), and he deserves a lifetime of happiness with a wonderful wife. I hope they had a wonderful wedding, and I hope they're really happy!
3. Funny Video
I'm not normally a huge fan of YouTube videos, but this one had me cracking up laughing so hard. I'm trying to convince some fellow law students to recreate it in the Law Review office. 

4. Jewelry Repairs! 
My white gold wedding rings have been long overdue to be re-plated with rhodium for a while. I've never done it before, and I've had my engagement ring for almost three years. I finally took them in, and oh my gosh... the difference is astounding. Take a look at these before-and-afters:

BEFORE: The engagement ring is older than the wedding band, so it was way worse!

AFTER: everything's the same color, and it's shiny!!

BEFORE: sooo yellowy!

AFTER: shiny!

BEFORE: tarnished and dirty...

 AFTER: yayyy!

BEFORE: it was WAY overdue for a cleaning...

 AFTER: shiny diamonds!

It's so sparkly and shiny now... I can't stop looking at it! It's like when we were first engaged all over again!

Moral of the story: get your ring to the jeweler and get it re-plated! Don't wait as long as I did!  I also had them re-size this heirloom ring that used to belong to my great-grandma, so now I can wear it without worrying that it will fall off!

5. Pinterest Fails
A lot of times, Pinterest is awesome. But sometimes, it's just ridiculous. I seem to be stuck in a rut with Pinterest... the last few things I've tried have been an absolute disaster. 
Like this pin about baked mozzarella bites:

Source: pinporium.com via Katie on Pinterest

I followed the instructions exactly despite some reservations about how the cheese would do in the oven, but the bread crumbs wouldn't stick, and as I suspected, it just turned into a melty mess. I suspect the directions were just copied down wrong somewhere along the way. 

Melty mess. Not brown and golden and beautiful at all. Pinterest lies. 

Then there was this one about a single-serve cookie. 

Source: lacreativitedelafille.blogspot.com via Katie on Pinterest

I followed the directions exactly (despite wondering why there was no baking soda or baking powder), but it ended up as a chalky, crumbly mess. 

It looked good before the microwave...

Not cookie-like AT ALL! 

Crumbly and gross. I couldn't even eat it. 

I looked at the comments to the blog post that was pinned after I made it, and tons of other people had the same problem. Should've read the comments first.
So, in conclusion... Make sure you re-plate your white gold jewelry periodically. Pinterest sometimes lies. Go see my chair over at Better After.  Watch the funny video. You'll be glad you did. Try your best to avoid running into your ex-boyfriend's rehearsal dinner. It'll kind of ruin your romantic night out with your husband.