Lameness is my Middle Name

Lately things have been rather crazy over in the life accounts household and it's been tough to keep up, this has demonstrated rather obviously in my lack of posts and comments. I'm so sorry! I will be caught up by the time the weekend is over. I've been charged with planning a very special surprise party and the details have had me a bit swamped. With cases of swine flu swarming around and getting closer to home, not feeling the best myself (although I'm SURE it's not swine flu) and trying to stay caught up on life, the house and finances....to say it's been hectic is probably an understatement. However! I'm not complaining, just desperately hoping things fall into some sort of schedule, as I've missed blogging and catching up on everyone else's goings on. First up on the list of posts: updates on the house, boudoir post(s), fall series continued and who knows what else! I've been seriously craving some quiet, laid-back blogging time! Lastly, can we all stare at the awesomeness of this sweater:


It was one of my birthday presents and it's a J Crew cashmere sweater that I had mentioned loving awhile back...can I just say that I have the most amazing husband ever? Because I do! It was such a lovely surprise to open the gift and I totally wasn't expecting it (especially since it was sold out almost immediately)! Hubby definitely hit a grand slam this year in the present department, can you tell my love language is gifts?

Laugh Enough?

Wedded Wednesday is a collaboration
of married bloggers sharing their inspirations,
anecdotes, struggles and thoughts regarding
the amazing union of two separate people, as one.
Check out the other Wedded Wednesday bloggers at Marital-Bless

Amidst all the craziness of life in our first year of marriage, we are just starting to learn some of the "keys" to staying sane. One of the biggest keys, is keeping a sense of humor and being able to laugh with each other (versus at each other). Below is an excerpt I enjoyed from "The Love Talk" by Les and Leslie Parrott that definitely rings true in our marriage:

"The most wasted of all days is one without laughter." - E.E. Cummings

"Do you two need a tissue?" a voice gently whispered from behind us. We were sitting in a quiet theater watching a somber play when — at the saddest moment — something struck us as funny. Hysterically funny.
At just that moment, Les found a withered old banana in his coat pocket. Who knows how long it had lived there. He set this surprising discovery on my knee. Caught off guard by the incongruity of the banana and the play, I developed one of the worst cases of the giggles I've ever had. Les quickly caught the same disease. We tried desperately to stifle our laughter, but, as we bowed our heads to hide our faces, we couldn't keep our shoulders from shuddering. An older woman behind us, thinking we were moved by what was happening on stage, offered us a tissue for our tears, which made us want to laugh all the more. When Les accepted her kind offer, I really lost it and had to leave the theater.

Just another day in the marriage of Les and Leslie? Not quite, but we do laugh a lot together. The tiniest of things can sometimes set us off — a slight inflection or a knowing glance, for example. We can quote a funny line from a movie or sitcom for weeks. Better still are the unplanned faux pas in front of others that bring embarrassment. We have the same funny bone and can't keep from using it. No wonder we enjoy our marriage.

Laughter bonds people. Any good friend will tell you that laughter is the shortest distance between two people — especially in marriage. But one never knows what's funny to others. In a survey of over fourteen thousand Psychology Today readers who rated thirty jokes, the findings were unequivocal. "Every single joke," it was reported, "had a substantial number of fans who rated it 'very funny,' while another group dismissed it as 'not at all funny.'" Apparently, our funny bones are located in different places. Some laugh uproariously at the slapstick of Larry, Moe, and Curly-Joe, while others enjoy the more cerebral humor of Woody Allen.
Wherever you are on this continuum of humor, one thing is certain: Laughter, on a daily basis, is like taking a vitamin for your marriage. And it is a healthy habit all loving couples enjoy."

I haven't yet figured out whether the hubby and I share the same funny bone or not. Some days it seems like we do and other days we seem to be complete opposites, I think maybe we have different but compatible funny bones. It's a tough call as to who laughs easier in our relationship...I think it depends on the hour and level of sleep deprivation! ;) As much as we've gone through the last couple of years, I definitely think that, had it not been for all the laughter and hilarity, we never would have it made it this far. Thank goodness for grace! Anyone out there share a funny bone with their spouse? Would you classify yourself as the jokester or your spouse?

Weekend Recap

Well, it was an amazing birthday weekend. Friday night started the party with a big family dinner (and cherry chocolate cake!) followed up by a get-together with our small group and more cake! Saturday the hubby had a full day's plan that included starting the day with presents and a picnic. The rest of the day's plan switched to plan B when we got an afternoon filled with rain. We went to the mall for several hours and shopped.

It was the first time we had gone shopping since wedding registry completions last fall, it was so much fun! Everything we got was on sale, even items that weren't marked "on sale" happened to be on sale when we got up to the register, my favorite kind of shopping! We followed up with a few hours reading and relaxing in the chairs at Barnes and Noble, a Coldstone custom creation that we created together back in college, nearly two hours creating Christmas lists at LLBean(yes we are nerds and yes it was amazing fun), ending with a delicious late night meal at the Melting Pot. We've loved Melting Pot since college and it's now a tradition for us whenever we have a big milestone. Back when we were studying for the cpa exam we went for endless melted cheese after every section of the test. There was nothing quite like knowing you had melted cheese to look forward when faced with such a grueling long test!

Gifts is definitely one of my love languages and the hubby really went all out for me this year. He got me a J Crew sweater that was at the top of my list until it sold out nearly right after I spotted it in their catalog! I was so surprised to see that he got it, I thought I had missed my chance! Other gifts also included some of the more frivolous items off our registries that I had been wishing for but couldn't justify the cost, a melting pot cookbook to commemorate all our past dates and our love of fondue, and some amazing new fitness and sports wear! I'm so blessed to have such an amazing husband! He really knows me so well!

Sunday was spent relaxing, looking at tile, hockey scrimmages, Ravens football and Red Sox baseball... I realized I haven't posted updates on the house in forever so this week my goal is to take some pictures and get them posted! The list of posts I owe you guys is definitely racking up!

How did you guys all spend your weekends? Anything particularly fun or crazy?

**Edited to Add** I can't believe I forgot to include this but someone stole two of my hubcaps this weekend! I'm sort of in disbelief. They weren't anything special but I just feel voilated! Plus, my car looks ridiculous driving around without the rear hubcaps on either side! What a nice birthday present right?

Should I Just Bullet?

Ok, so I have been a very bad blogger....I've been wiped out with a bad case of the flu the last couple of days and have been barely been keeping my head above water...

I just barely got my wedded wednesday post up last night, written jointly by the hubby and I!

I will have a boudoir post(s) up soon, thank you for all your super sweet feedback! I am currently waiting on the discs from the photographers but depending on how long that takes I suppose I could just take the smaller images off the websites. I do have to say that I cannot recommend the experience enough! I will do a detailed follow-up post soon, though depending on how quickly I get to the write up, it may or may not have the photos in it yet.

The technology breakdowns that have been occurring lately have been a major pain, the twitter feed for blogger, gmail's numerous breakdowns in the last couple of weeks, paypal and etsy problems, facebook, ugh! The twitter feed of "undefined"s username instead of my own was so offensive and ridiculous that I had to remove the twitter feed for awhile from my blog, heaven forbid people think that I was actually the one writing that junk!

The hubby's and my first anniversary is fast approaching, we are thinking of going on a romantic fall day photo shoot with the regetis after spending the weekend away here or here.

I adore the regetis work and I'm excited at the possibility of working with them again (they did my boudoir pictures). They are truly amazing photographers, I was completely stoked that the hubby and I were able to find a date that worked for the four of us as they are not easy to get!

I need to finish my fall series posts, next up is fall cooking but I've discovered that I have so many recipes that I might have to divvy it up between a couple of different posts! Maybe separate it into soups, breads, desserts and other? I need to finish compiling the list, it's amazing to me just how many recipes I accumulate. I am working on figuring out the best way to organize them but that is a post for another time.

My birthday is fast approaching, I'm not sure if I'm ready to turn another year older, I like being young! I've been feeling so under-the-weather the last couple of days that I decided to order myself an early birthday present, although it won't arrive until end of September early October, so maybe that makes it a late birthday present? I couldn't decide which one I liked best so I decided to order all three and just return the ones I don't like!

Chambray Ruffle Front Shirtdress by Trulli

Stripe Shirtdress by Trulli

Ruffle Shirtdress with Belt

What do you all think? I was thinking it would look cute with leggings and boots?And on a side note, can you all believe that we are almost in October! Man time flies!

Dig That Hole a Little Deeper!

Wedded Wednesday is a collaboration
of married bloggers sharing their inspirations,
anecdotes, struggles and thoughts regarding
the amazing union of two separate people, as one.
Check out the other Wedded Wednesday bloggers at Marital-Bless

I am super late with my wedded Wednesday post today, blame it on being sick and more work than usual but since I am so late I thought I would do it a little different this week. Today the hubby joined me and we wrote this together admist many howls of laughter at each other. The topic of our post? What NOT to say to your spouse. :)

"Are you shrinking?" - me

"At least I didn't call you fat..." (after already inserting one's foot into one's mouth) - hubby

"Oh you got a new dress, it looks like it's for older people, is it for toddlers?" [instead of babies] (said in response to seeing a new dress I had bought for me-that came down to my knees!) - hubby

"Did the dryer shrink those pants?" - both/neither/no one wanted to take the blame for this one...but it's been said

When asked if he thought I had put on weight, he responded with, "yes you have been"

"Your boobs are bigger than mine!" (For the record, he just has large muscles but I like to grossly exaggerate) - me

"Don't be like my mom" - hubby

"relax" - hubby

"You're going to wear THAT?!?" or "What are you wearing?"- me

"Don't dance, people are watching?" - me

"Are knees supposed to move like that?" (when he was dancing) - me

"It's just a game!" (referring to any sort of sports game and yes I totally knew better) - me

"that looks cute" (in reference to something he was wearing-for the record he likes words such as manly when referring to him/activities/clothing) - me

Last but not least, absolute deal breaker is saying...nothing! There is nothing worse than venting, talking, stressing over something and getting done and being greeted by absolute silence and a blank stare. Ok, so what are some of the priceless-insert-foot-into-mouth things you and your spouses have said to each other?

First Fall Outing

Today, the husband and I woke up to a gorgeous fall day. Sunny, breezy, upper 60's/low 70's...slight chill in the air...a perfect day to go visit the Maryland Renaissance Festival! The Renaissance Festival here in Maryland has been rated one of the top 100 best North American events multiple times and is the second largest Renaissance Festival in the country. I have to say, the husband and I had soooo much fun people watching, some people are very serious about the festival, not only dressing up to match the era but talking the language or "lingo" as well.

This post is basically a photo overload from all the festivities but before I lose you in the hilarity (who am I kidding, most people look at the photos first and then come back and read) I will say that it was so inexpensive! I expected it to be a huge overpriced production but it was very cheap to get in and then once you were in, all the shows, live performances and demonstrations were free! Food and games were all very cheap, most things were $1-$2! The hubby and I really had a blast and have decided this is definitely the start of a fall tradition, we're even thinking of going back for the jousting tournament in October! We didn't dress up this year like many people do but who knows, maybe one day I'll get the hubby in a dublin and tights?

Some of the town setups and stages...

Next we'll start off with the more "normal" costumes...

this man was quite fashionable....over the knee boots with tights, so in for the fall!


bat wings, tail, tin man hat...this guy had quite the ensemble!


the hubby and I got quite a kick out of this hat, it looked like a bird sitting on top of her head!


Haha, at first I thought these were water balloons!


from the front....

from the back...

There were a lot of families all entirely dressed up, even the babies!

More of the performers:

A little fox skin turned into a ballerina puppet...(no idea if this was real or fake skin so please no rants)


International bagpipe performer at the festival performing for Irish Weekend...


Belly Dancers...


This belly dancer held a brand new baby infant while she danced...

Apparently tails were big during the Renaissance festival???







Also, some of the women were literally floating and bobbling about on top of their corsets...

I got the hubby to jump in a few photos and even jumped in one myself!

That's all folks! Sorry for the photo overload, it was hard to narrow down the several hundred photos that we took!

Simple and Sweet

I know I've been late the last couple of weeks...shame on me, this new fall ISI group (*wink*) makes it quite a challenge to make my deadlines! I love you babe! You are my knight in shining armour and I am forever grateful I get to spend the rest of my life with you.

Thank you for working so hard for us! You are so dedicated and true to yourself, I love watching you grow and learn and get so excited as you begin to reap the benefits from all your hard work! Your strength shines through in both your character and your appearance (quite sexily at that!) When you hold my hand, our fingers intertwine perfectly together and everything seems just right...

I love you infinity mostest (me!) my sweet darling! You are my better half!

-Your darling lover