the power

I was watching Gilmore Girls yesterday (just as any young female blogger should be doing) when Paris said, "Never underestimate the power of alliteration, my friend."

That Paris--she should have been a blogger. Does anyone else feel like you are killing it in blog land when you come up with a clever post that is centered on some kind of alliteration? 

I would like to take this moment to point out that while no, I did not coin the ever-so popular Friday Favorite phrase, I did choose to participate in said Friday Favorite posting today which means I chose alliteration which means I am powerful.

Or something (bonus points: I have Five Friday Favorites today). 

So let's move on to some favorites on this fine Friday. 

Favorite Thing That I Didn't Think Of But Wish I Had

This Instagram...

is the bee's knees. The tops. The everything that is wonderful. Who knew that dressing up a skeleton and making her be cliche could be so perfect? I wish I had known. Hats off to whoever created Skellie. I think you are one of the smartest and most clever people. 

Favorite Funny

I have this 3-year old student who draws pictures and brings one to me every Tuesday. It's her morning "work" as her mother calls it. It's kind of adorable. So one week this precious girl says, Miss Emily, I want to be just like you when I grow up. Awwww! Shucks. I don't tell her that dance teachers make diddly squat or that being around precious little girls like her all week is exhausting. Instead I smile and think "Yes! I'm making some kind of difference as a dance teacher." The next week the same student says, Miss Emily, when you die I am going to be you. 

I'm still processing that comment. 

Favorite Strawberry Snack

Every Valentine's Day since we started dating I've made Freddie some kind of dessert that has strawberries. I didn't intend for it to be a thing, but now it's totally a thing and so I scour Pinterest for a new and exciting strawberry-ish dessert. This year since we were away for V-day I had to find something that didn't need to be refrigerated. I should also mention that when I'm scouring looking for a strawberry-ish dessert, I'm also looking for one that is e-a-s-y. Because remember---I'm the woman who isn't in the kitchen. 

Say hello to the the ever-so easy and delicious Nutella strawberry cookies.

Favorite Flashback Freddie

obviously a necessary category...

moving on. 

Favorite Feeling 

When you make up the bed and it just looks so...great. Even on the sides, lined up, and perfectly fluffed pillows. Man, it makes my freaking day when that happens. Amiright or am I really right?

Happy Friday!

Don't freeze on this fabulously frigid Friday.

See? So powerful.
Linking up with Karli and Amanda (the bride!).

the stars at night are big and bright

People say everything is bigger in Texas. Up until this point in my life I never really thought twice about that statement. I mean, I can get a supersize meal with a 64-oz. drink and back-pack size bag of fries at McDonald's in any ol' state, so how much bigger can everything actually be in Texas? Then I went to Texas--Houston to be exact--and I think I'm starting to understand just what this bigger statement means.

It means Texans have the biggest pride for their state.

It means Texans have the biggest love for their state. Freddie and I asked just about everyone we ran into (so that means we asked Uber drivers...) whether or not they liked living in Houston and without one second of hesitation they all said, "Yes!" Yes with an exclamation point. A big fat yes. 

It means when Texans do something they really do take the statement, "go big or go home" to heart. So they go big so that they can stay home in their beloved state. 

And yes, the bags of peanut butter M&M's available at the airport were very large and in charge so I can totally get on board with Texas being bigger. 

Freddie and I didn't have a car this trip so our main modes of transportation were our feet and Uber <---when I say Uber I mean it in the way that I'm pretty sure Ricky and I funded 75% of their profits this past weekend. It's kind of fun (in a daunting and not fun kind of way) to go to a new city and have no plans or car and no idea what to do or where to go. The city is yours! Go forth and explore! So that's exactly what we did. We chassed over to Hermann Park where not only did we daydream about napping in the grass under the sun, but we also saw some actual dancers who were chasse-ing in the grass. #1 moment of the trip I knew I liked Houston. Real dancing! Right in front of my face! 

From there we ran across the street and into the Houston Museum of Natural Science because it was Thursday and apparently admission is free on Thursday afternoons. Get on our lucky level! With only 45 minutes left to explore before closing time we managed to make friends with Little Foot and friends. Success. 

The next day we decided to test out our physical fitness levels by walking all. day. long. Walking the seven miles of under city tunnels to find dumplings to walking to Discovery Green to take pictures with sculptures and to do some more grass napping daydreaming to walking into quaint bars with friendly bartenders and pomegranate mimosas. Alcohol helps the weakening leg muscles, okay? I'm a dancer. I know these things. So since our legs were really sore by dinner time (we didn't calculate but decided to go ahead and say that if we had Fitbits they'd be super impressed with our million steps for the day) (wink), we ended the day with more bars and lotsa tapas. Lotsa tapas! That's fun to say. Say it. See, wasn't that fun? It was equally as fun to eat that tapas. 

Our last day was full of friends. We were kidnapped/chauffeured (you decide) by one of my longtime dance friends/wedding photographer who basically spent the entire day talking up Texas. Like I'm pretty sure Randy could get a job either making everyone love Texas and/or just brainwashing them to believe they love Texas. By the end of our day with him we were both big time in love with the big bad Texas. We were also big time full on the delicious sushi and drinks and sights he provided us along the tour. By the end of Valentine's night, after happy hour with this view...

...and finally eating some crisp to perfection pizza, I couldn't help but think how much bigger my heart had grown for Texas in my short four days there. 

Sometimes you just need a little vacation from your beach vacation home to put things in perspective. Life is pretty darn good.

And Texas is bigger ;)

Thanks to Randy and Ellen, and Ryan and Rachel for being big time rocking friends and hosts!

friday whynotpostday

It's 9 o'clock at night and Freddie is sitting in the dining room working on a presentation he has next week. I figured this would also be a good time for me to get some "work" done. Work in this sentence means nail painting, blog reading, blog "what do I post?" wondering, and Gilmore Girl watching. My work is very important--my newly painted nails would agree. 

Oh fiddlesticks, I forgot to add the whole Valentine candy eating thing up there. I'm also doing that. So...the more you know and all that.

And since knowing more is all that I figured I would give you a quick rundown on what is going on in my brain right this second (and this second, and this second, and this second...).

First of all, has anyone been stalking Kayla Itsines bikini body program. Because I have and holy bikini bodies, I'm amazed. Whenever I have a free second I scroll through her Instagram and tell myself that there's no way I would look like that if I did her program. Then I read all these reviews and testimonials and suddenly I'm sold. She could literally be selling me something illegal and I'd take it because that's how convinced I am right now that my body is going to look like this in 12 weeks.

via

...so let me be delusional and I'll let you go stalk her account and also fall into the magic spell. 

I'm also convinced that I could look like that if I was just in Australia so I should probably find some $$ to make that happen.

Today I wore a leotard that I found at the bottom of my Mary Poppins tub of leotards. It was somewhere between the lamp and the umbrella. Anyways, this leotard fit in every way but one. One not so good way. One not so good way that resulted in said leotard sliding down to my belly button. One day I'll have a nice set of nunga nungas to help hold up leotards, but for today I had to cut out the pinch in the front of the leotard just so I didn't scar any children <---there's your daily dose of TMI mixed with IDCE (I don't care, Emily). 

Last Friday we discussed the great mystery of how my hallway accumulates so much dust and hair. Life update: During my Thursday sweeping routine this week it was the same story. Hair and dust everywhere. Hashtag: still confused (IDCE!!).

And finally I'll close with this:

This is my life, Monday-Friday, and I don't care who knows it. Some days I come home and collapse on the party couch and say, I just want someone to listen to me. Just listen and do. That's all I ask. 

And now it's 9:36 which means I just spent entirely too long writing about absolutely nothing. The Lorelai's are waiting on me so Skellie Emily is over and out.

Happy Friday!

currently: the omg-it's-already-february edition

It's the first Wednesday of the month which means several things.
A) Holy Cuhrap, it's already a new month.
B) It's not a Friday. Sad.
C) It's time for this month's Currently link-up.

hearting

Ricky. All day, every day. Most of the time I just squeeze his head and squeal in a high-pitched voice how much I love him. It's really obnoxious and I'm sure he hearts it a lot when I do that. 

reading

I am finally reading Yes, Please--only several months late. As I read this book and other auto-biographies I often wonder how people remember such specific details and stories from their childhoods. They remember stories that have shaped them into the man or woman they are today whereas I remember stories like...the one time a librarian made me cry? Or when my sister was born? Oh wait! I remember one time I hid my vitamin so I didn't have to take it. <---- total autobiography material.  

pinning

Did you ever find an article of clothing after which you had pining for months and months and it's like the stars aligned and life is just grand?! Yes, clothes are that important and yes, that happened to me this week. Because I found the most perfect, beautiful military style jacket and I'm never taking it off. Ever. I've been pinning lots of ways to wear it and I've noticed that none of them suggest wearing it with leotards and tights so I guess that's the one thing with which I won't wear it. And yes, I can totally practice the oh-my-gosh -the-wind-is-blowing-my-hair-but-I-want-to-see-I-can-still-walk-in-a-straight-line-while-drunk-on-coffee look. 

eating

Well this second currently I'm eating an apple, but this week currently I'm eating a lot of sweet potatoes. They are sweet. They are potato-ey. They are delicious. I want to eat them all.
...but I still want to eat chocolate, too.

anticipating

Valentine's Day because I lurve a good 'ole fashioned cheesy V-day gift and I can't wait to give Freddie's his annual dose of cheesiness.
Spoiler alert: I'm not gifting him bananas. 

Linking up with Jenna and Anne.