friday favorites: the all things tex-mas edition

Deck the blogs with lots of Christmas related posts

Fa La La La La La La Laaaaaaav-ly

If I could just read and write all things Christmas related blogs year-round then you could definitely count me in for the 5x-week posting type of blog gal. But since my following would drop from fifteen to about six I'll stick to just posting Christmas related things for the next five two weeks.

Favorite Christmas Song //

Picking just one would be too hard (okay fine, Silent Night), but I will tell you my Favorite This Is Not A Christmas Song song: My Favorite Things. Yes, the song from The Sound Of Music. And also yes, you are correct, The Sound Of Music is definitely not a Christmas movie. 

Why in the world did this song get on all the holiday stations? Is it because it talks about packages tied up with string? How did the put-on-holiday-playlists people know that this is a Christmas package that the song is talking about? They don't. You don't. We don't. No one knows that. For all we know they are talking about a birthday package. Or a graduation package. Or a hey-it's-a-Tuesday-so-enjoy-this-package-tied-up-with-string package. 

Favorite Christmas Tree //

Forever and always the giant tree my family gets every year (pic above, duhz). God bless weird Brady Bunch looking houses with tall ceilings. Tall ceilings = taller Christmas trees. 

Favorite Santa //

Oooooh, another hard one. If you were to ask Freddie this question he would say the Billy Bob Thornton Santa from Bad Santa. That makes me want to cry and not associate myself with Freddie anymore so for the sake of my marriage we will A) not ask Freddie this question and B) go with either the Santa who gives Kevin Tic-Tacs in Home Alone OR Tim Allen from The Santa Clause. But only once he's fattened up and orders a sundae at his work lunch meeting. 

Favorite Ridiculously Wonderful Christmas Song //

Aye, Aye, Aye It's Christmas by Ricky Martin

I worked at Gap for a holiday season, and this ^^ song would play all. the. time. It's my Christmas jam for sure. Listen to it once and I promise (with the strength of at least fifty pinkies) that you'll never forget it. 

Favorite Christmas Vacation Moment //

This is the part of the post where I admit that I never watched Christmas Vacation growing up. Never. Freddie views this movie as kind of a rite of passage into the holiday season meaning it's not Christmas until you've watched Christmas Vacation at least three to four times. Needless to say I've seen it a lot. Probably just as much if not more than I would have seen it if I had actually grown up watching it. This all leads me to my point---my favorite part(s) of that movie are any and all parts in which Uncle Eddie gets to talk. 

The End. 

Happy Christmas-y Friday!

Linking up with Karli and Amanda

just breathe

Well, hello there. Hi!

I feel like I'm finally back at school after a long sickness absence (think mono length) and the teacher is calling role, and I finally get to say PRESENT! or HERE! or whatever kids are saying these days.

Oh, what's that? Nobody calls role anymore because it's 2016 and #technology? Cool.

Today's post is about to get real. Really real. I've spent the last three weeks slowly crumbling into a deep, dark pit of anxiety. Add in some stress, self-hate, second-guessing, overthinking, and a dollop of insecurities and you've made an Emily (plus so many other people in the world) (I want to hug all of you).

A dollop of sour cream is soooo much better than a dollop of insecurities. 

I've always been a worrier by nature. Oh my gosh, what if we are late?! Freddie, turn down the music? Will the world end if I don't make the bed this morning? Etc., etc., etc., but recently my worry has gotten on an elevator and gone up about 25 levels.

Full disclosure: I haven't made our bed once in the past three weeks. A) I think this has been the first time in my adult life when I haven't made the bed every morning. Insert big gasp <here>, B) That's how bad my anxiety felt. Crazy Emily couldn't even make the crazy bed. and C) The world didn't end, in case you didn't notice.

I won't bore you with the details of the dreary anxious place in my mind, but it's not pretty. You know what else isn't pretty? When you don't take care of yourself.  And after these past several weeks, I fully believe that part of taking care of yourself includes admitting things aren't great, asking for help, and hugging the crap out of your support system.

It's okay when you don't smile every minute of the every day. It's okay when you reach out to a friend or family member and be straight with them. Tell them what's going on. Tell them what sucks. Because you know why you have a family and have friends?! TO SUPPORT YOU. To encourage you. To love you. To show you grace. To give you a helping hand. To like your crazy. To make you nice playlists that calm you down. To help you make goals. To help you achieve said goals.

That's why these people are in your life, so use them! Because we aren't meant to go through life alone with no human connection.

End of story. End of rant.

Now let's see what my Camera Roll says has been going on in my life for the past several weeks...

^^^Lupe wanted some coffee.

^^^We bike around Houston so we don't feel as guilty for stopping for food like this along the way.

^^^Set-up for a private this week. Why haven't you tried Pilates yet?!

^^^Lupe knows no personal space and it's kind of the greatest. Except when you're really wanting personal space. Like when you're trying to type this blog post, for instance.

So there you have it. Anxiety + dogs + Pilates = my life. But my life also = an amazing support system, a cute as heck dog, and a Pilates teaching job where I get to teach something in which I fully believe. Now go take a few deep breaths, stand up nice and tall, and go conquer the crap outta this Friday.

Happy Friday!
Linking up with Amanda. 

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all about alliteration

I always feel like I have to write a post about fun things, favorite things, or five things on Fridays. 

Or fried things. Or funny things (well, I mean, that's all my posts. Insert smirk 'moji). Or finicky things. Or financial things. Or filibuster things. Or...you get the idea. 

Basically I feel like I'm not real blogger status until all my weekly posts contain some kind of alliteration. On that note...

Five Favorite, Funny, fThoughts fI've fBeen fThinking fLately fBecause fIt's Friday

1) Who else has the iPhone update? Who else has spent countless hours sending messages in invisible ink or with confetti bursting on the screen? But most important question of all, who else still swipes to unlock the home screen? Let's say since I updated the phone two weeks ago I've unlocked my phone 173 times. Let's also say that that means there have been 173 times during which I swiped my phone, it didn't unlock, it took me to the news, I started pressing buttons, I made it a mess, I didn't unlock my phone, and I swore I'd remember to double press the button the next time. Update: I wrote this post last night, and in these past 12 hours I have yet to successfully remember to double tap the button to unlock my phone. Once a failure, always a failure. 

2) I rearranged and cleaned our storage room guest bedroom yesterday, and I literally feel like I cleansed my soul. <<not really sure what that even feels like, but it sounds properly dramatic for how I feel/felt after rearranging. I told this to Ricky when he got home so he excitedly went to look in the guest bedroom. Aaaaaand then asked what was different. My soul, Ricky, my soul is different!

3) Thank the Netflix gods that season 6 of The Walking Dead was put on because now Freddie and I can continue our healthy marriage routine of binge watching shows every night instead of talking to each other. I use the term "watching" very loosely because the end of season 6 TWD is terrifying, and I find I have to stare at my phone, my nails, the dog, the blanket, the spec of dust under the shelves, and/or the print across the room and then act surprised that my eyesight is so horrible that I can't read it all before I can actually just watch the TV screen. 

4) Whenever people say they love Halloween I always think they are dramatically pausing before finishing that sentence with the word candy. It bewilders me when people say, "I love Halloween." instead of, "I love Halloween candy." 

^^This sentence is brought to you by my sticky-eating-ghost-gummies-fingers. 

5) Ricky and I did this thing this month where we tracked our spending by listing every single item we purchased. According to Rick we spent an ungodly amount on wine. Apparently our apartment complex has a wine robber because what else is the explanation to where all this wine is going? On a similar note, he did suggest we celebrate our figuring out how much money we spent on wine by going to Trader Joe's and buying some more wine so... is admission the first step of acceptance? Admission is the first step, and celebration is the second. 

fHappy Fabulous Friday!

May your day be filled with all things alliteration.

Photo taken last week at Gavelston. 

p.s.- Thanks for everyone's kind words and virtual head pettings on Wednesday's post! You all win. 

click goes the camera

Life has been so dang busy recently lately.

^^ I've almost started the last few blog posts with that sentence, but when I try to write a second sentence I can't think of what in our lives is actually making us that busy. Is it the dog who needs ten walks and twenty-six snuggles a day? Is it the BBQ sauce that Freddie keeps spilling on his clothes and testing my housewife laundry skills? Is it the six pounds of ground turkey from Costco that we keep needing to cook?

Slow. Down. Time. I know by saying this, time is only going to fly by faster, so let's go ahead and agree that I should never have kids because time is going to really fly with them. Like I'm already sad about my future bajillion kids being grown, and these kids aren't even being thought about right now, if ya know what I'm saying... (TMI? Sorry, Mom and Dad).

Freddie and I are re-watching The Office for the third or ninth time, and we just watched Jim and Pam's wedding episode. The whole episode Pam takes mental pictures by clicking an imaginary camera up by her eye. That is absolutely brilliant. It's also in the movie Elizabethtown, if you're a fact checker/movie buff. I am the worst about taking things for granted. The worst! I don't kiss Ricky as hard as I should when we leaves for work in the morning. I don't talk to my family every single day. I don't send my friends snail mail with big X's and O'x as often as I should. I do always tell the Lu-ster I love him before I leave. I don't want to wait for something sad or complicated to make me appreciate the little itty bitty wonderful things in my life. On that note, here are five mental pictures I took this week.

-Ricky sitting across from me at the coffee shop with his new, super hawt haircut. Ricky has a disease that the brother of Benjamin Button, Fenjamin Futton, had. Instead of aging in reverse, he just gets ridiculously more good looking the older he gets. Is that a male thing? Oh excuse me, Rick just informed me it's called Benjamin Cute as a Button disease. Anyways, ignore me on the other side of the coffee shop table, with my recently acquired hormonal zits and under eye bags.

-The smile one of my clients had the first time she successfully did a Roll-Up on her own. If you've ever attempted a Pilates Roll-Up in which you do not get to throw yourself up to a seated position like you do in a sit-up then I'm sure you understand the awesome sauce-ness of that smile and the awesome sauce-ness of that move.

-Lupe curled up as snug as a bug in a rug...except he's a dog curled up in my lap. And yes, I do take mental pictures and real pictures of this one. Sue me.

-The giant BE SOMEONE graffiti that's written on an underpass as you take I-45 into downtown Houston. So go already! Be someone!

-The solemn and grateful faces of every single fan at the Astros game on September 11 as the National Anthem was sung. What a sight. I got chills taking it all in.

And because wordy blogs are boring, here's a real picture!

A very, merry Houston sunrise. 

What are some of your mental pictures from the week?

best of fall

I love this time of year. And not because of the Pumpkin Spice Lattes or the pumpkin scarves or the pumpkin tall boots or the pumpkin vests or the...oh sorry, am I adding the word pumpkin to too many things? No, I love this time of year because it reminds me of so many big moments in my life.

This time of year reminds me of the fall of my first year of college. It reminds me of listening to the Dan In Real Life soundtrack one million and fifty too many times while driving up and down the crunchy leaf crusted roads of Decatur, Georgia. Just living life for the first time as a "grown-up" with the best of friends. Read I wasn't grown-up at all, but at eighteen I felt like such a bada** gown-up (who didn't have to pay bills...so the best kind of grown-up). 

This time of year reminds me of falling head over heels in lurve with Ricky. The kind of head over heels where you literally feel like your head is going to smash on the sidewalk by your feet. Such romance. It reminds me of moving up to Atlanta and finally living in the same city as he did which meant froyo dates and Antico pizza non-stop. It reminds me of when I knew he was going to tell me he loved me, but decided to play dumb. And then not say it back...but that's a story for another time. My life soundtrack of choice at the time was The Avett Brothers I and Love and You on repeat. 

This time of year and my Timehop app remind me of our first few months as newlyweds, living and exploring our first new city of Charleston together. The Saturday mornings spent downtown eating bagels and taking pictures of Broad St. buildings and Ravenel Bridge sunsets. The Tuesday nights spent sitting on the beach and singing musical theater songs that were stuck in my head from teaching (it was that or the Biebs. So hard to remember which one was more important at the time...)

The crips cool mornings remind me of visiting home and crafting on the patio with my sister. 

The grocery store aisles remind me that it's time to stock up on ten pound bags of Halloween candy off of which we can live for the next ten to twelve months. 

The calendar reminds me that I should pick out a Halloween costume that I'll never actually follow through and wear. It's the thought that counts. #onedayillgoasmugatu

The Instagram posts remind me that I should start wearing scarves and pretending that I'm not sweating profusely underneath them. We can will fall weather to come by wearing scarves, right? Insert eye roll.

The bright blue skies remind me that even though Houston is still hot as mother fluffing hellfire that one day soon the whole day will be cool, not just the mornings. That one day soon we'll be complaining that it's cold drinking hot chocolate. That one day soon we'll be seeing family and celebrating holidays. That one day soon I won't feel weird painting my nails deep reds and dark greys. That one day soon my hair will have endless static in it. 

I love cooler days.

I love bright, blue skies.

I love family time.

I love Christmas (seriously though, let's fast forward there).

I love my OPI Manicurist of Seville color. 

I love pretending like I'm not gaining a pound a day from bite size peanut butter Snickers. 

I love this time of year, and all the hope it brings of what's to come. 

What do you love about the now?! Other than PSLs and stuff. Give me the real, good stuff you love. 

Happy Friday!

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when you're an olympic gold medalist

If you're like me the rest of the world, then you've been parked on your couch in front of the TV, watching the Olympics every night now for a week. 

And what a glorious week it has been! Simone Biles jumping higher than a Jack Russell terrier on speed, Lilly King being so Straight Edge/hardcore, Michael Phelps turning into a merman (by the way, his son has an Instagram, and yes, at age five months he has more followers than you do). 

In honor of the Olympics I thought this post could take you through my brain at any given moment when watching NBC/MSNBC/Bravo/NBC Sports/Gold Zone coverage of the Rio 2016 Olympics. 

DOESN'T THIS SOUND LIKE SO MUCH FUN?!?! YES! <---that's what is going through your brain at this moment. 

Side note: my dad worked at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics which, to six-year old me, was a BFD. 

I'm not saying he did invent the self-timer selfie, but I'm also not saying he didn't... wink wink. double negative. win win. 

Okay, back to you + my brain + all you've ever wanted + funsies = this blog.

What's that noise? Lupe...? No. Someone outside? No. Oh I see, Venus and Serena Williams are still making weird sexual groans and moans while playing tennis. NBD.  

Does calling ping-pong table tennis make it any more official? No. Ugh, Freddie, why are you still watching ping-pong table tennis? Didn't we just see this at the bar last weekend or...at least at Sally's house in sixth grade? Does that mean air hockey is the next sport to be at the Olympics?

Ew. Why did his muscles do that? Can we rewind? FREDDIE! DID YOU SEE HIS LATS? He needs Pilates. 

humming along with the song

Is that safe on her knee? Oh no, no, no. That is not safe. She needs Pilates. 

Haha, Aly Raisman's parents are hilariously ridiculo...omgomgomgomg girl, do not scare me like that you when you land. Stick that shiz. 

I'm definitely working out tomorrow. 

humming loudly along with the song

Why can't gymnasts learn how to slick back their hair and do a real bun? #balletforlife Chyeah, maybe I think in hashtags, mmkay?

But seriously, didn't people stop using those clips in their hair ten years ago? Maybe if I keep critiquing their hair then no one will notice I've accomplished nothing with my life.

Oh my gosh, I've accomplished nothing with my life. 

SIMONE!

Aliya Mustafina....or MUFASA?

Oh yes, yes yes. Synchronized diving is my new favorite sport. 

Oh yes, yes, yes. Gymnastics is my favorite sport.

Oh yes, yes, yes. Kayaking in my new favorite sport. 

singing loud, made up lyrics with the song

It's also the time of year where I like to think I'm being very original by claiming that everything is an Olympic sport, and every time we win the gold. Example A: Olympic gold medalist wine drinkers! Cheers! Example B: Olympic gold medalist trash chuters. He shoots, no CHUTES, he scores! Example C: No, but really. Olympic gold medalist wine drinkers! Cheers!

Happy Friday!
May you be the gold medal winner of everything you do this weekend. Cheers!

friday favorites: the internet wins again

It's Friday morning, there's a cool breeze humidity outside, and we've got zero plans ahead for the weekend. 

^^^All those things combined up there make a pretty freaking great Friday, if I do say so myself. Although that zero plans part is a lie because I fully plan on kicking off the three weeks of me watching TV non-stop Olympics by watching the Opening Ceremonies tonight. 

I thought I would interrupt your regularly scheduled wide range of topics Friday Favorites post to focus your attention on one topic: the internet. More specifically, how the internet keeps winning every. single. day. 

Winning what?! you might ask. And that's a good question...what do we mean when we use the term someone or something is winning? Let me Google that. 

...

Ah yes, Charlie Sheen graced us with such wonderful slang. Thanks, Charlie! You're winning for sure. 

In the midst of everyone arguing about politics (and government, race, and life), I've found social media to be pretty much 100% unbearable. Times infinity. I've always wondered the stats on people's minds being changed by someone's rude and passive aggressive Facebook post in which he/she tries to convince you he/she is right and you are wrong. I'm assuming the numbers are rather low, but if you have a success story of Party A shoving beliefs down Party B's throat, and Party B changing beliefs, then please share.  I digress. 

Here are some links for top notch ways the internet was won lately:

For the 30 Rock/no-Trump fan:

Donald Maroney

Excuse the language on this one (or go wash out your mouth with soap):

WTF should I eat?

This one could be filed under winning and goals.

#nowineleftbehind

Anything with Aziz is golden, add in Jimmy Fallon and you've got...double golden:

First Textual Experience

Nothing is more beautiful than male ballerinas. Nothing. 

Foundation.

Happy Friday!

Linking up with Karli and Amanda. 

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five on friday: moving mayhem

 Today's Friday Five/Five On Friday/Friday Favorites/Alliteration Annihilation is...

Surprise! We're moving! And no, it's not a fun moving post like this or this.

We're moving a mile down the street. Literally a mile. Down the same road.  The same, horribly pot-holey Houston road. 

Now raise your hand if you've ever watched Tiny Houses and had an epiphany like, Oh my gosh! I need a tiny house. Downsize is the right size! I'm here to tell you FALSE. Tiny houses/homes/apartments mean sitting on top of each other all the time. They mean that if you need to do separate work that somebody has to sit on the bed or study on the floor. Or leave and go somewhere else. They mean  that when you have a few months of some serious stomach issues and the bathroom is off the bedroom and you can hear everything that goes on in there that you're surprised when your spouse still wants to go to bed with you. But like not that I would know that particular point or anything...

I say all of this because our new place is 350 more square feet for the same price. High five self! (I never knew I could have such strong feelings for a unit of measurement, but wowza). It's got a separate dining room. The bathroom isn't right off the bedroom. It's got a small study. It's got an entire laundry room*. High fives for everyone! 

*room here means small space just big enough to fit one washer, one dryer, and one person's sucked in tummy to fit in said room.

But with these beautiful, precious, and prized square feet come all the ugly, disgusting, and horrible factors of moving. 

one // boxes 

I've never appreciated the term think outside the box more than when I started trying to fit things in boxes. Boxes are not made to fit things. Boxes are made to fit books, aaaaand that's about it. My fun "W" shaped decor does not fit in them. Our kitchen gadgets do not fit in them. Our linens do not fit in them unless we turn them all sorts of different ways. So ya know what? I'm about to start thinking and packing outside the box. And by packing outside the box I mean just carrying everything in my arms, I guess. 

two // motivation

This time around we have fifteen days to move stuff before we have to be out of our current place. That sounds great until we realize that another day has gone by, and all we've done is talked about packing, not packed, and watched Game Of Thrones. But as the ever-so-wise Scarlett O'Hara said, After all, tomorrow is another day. <<<this way of thinking will only work until June 15 when there is literally only one more tomorrow before we have to be out.  

three // crap

When we did the whole downsizing is the right (wrong) sizing thing last year we purged a lot of crap. A lot. There's also a lot currently living in my parent's garage, but we'll count that as stuff we got rid of. So in the past twelve months of living in a tiny apartment I'm not sure how we accumulated so much crap, but...

...this is the part in the post where I want to say we should never own a house because I know we'll accumulate too too too much stuff, but I refuse to say that because Freddie will come back here years from now and find it. 

...but oops, I did say it. 

four // packing tape

Am I the only one who can never get it to stay on the weird red part that's supposed to hold it from sticking back to the roll? 

five // unpacking

Do I really need to further explain this point? Isn't it just a universal thing that everyone hates unpacking? I'm pretty sure you can't be a human and live on Earth unless you agree that you hate unpacking. Or something. Decorating is one thing and that one thing is fun. Unpacking is another thing and that thing is sucky. 

Happy Friday!

May all your future moves be easy as pie. 

And then may you eat pie to celebrate the easy as pie move. 

Linking up with Karli and Amanda. 

friday favorites: being an adult is not my favorite

It's really hard for my brain to comprehend that it's almost June. Like really hard. Like when I try to comprehend it I want to hyperventilate because I realize that by next Thursday it'll be 2050 and I'll be sixty-one. TIME SLOW DOWN. 

In other-but-still-related news, let's look at...

one //

Milkshakes. That's all I've been wanting lately. A plain, ol' chocolate milkshake. It seems so easy. Go get a freaking milkshake already, Emily! 

Here's one reason why adulting is the worst: because you overthink milkshakes. Milkshakes, of all things! You overthink, second guess, and talk yourself out of them because calories, milk, bloatedness, and the fact that it's already hard enough to work out when you've been eating Brussels sprouts, so it'll definitely be hard to work out when you drink milkshakes. 

Screw you, milkshakes. 

two //

I went to the orthodontist this week and found out a whole slew of things wrong with my mouth. Did you know I have a narrow arch? I know, how embarrassing, right? My sister got the wavy hair, and I got the...narrow arch? Anyways, being an adult means deciding between if the extra money goes to new retainers, or it is goes to a trip this summer.

Sigh. If that whole paragraph isn't the perfect example of #firstworldproblems then slap my bleep and call me Sally!

three //

Ricky worked really late one night this week, and I found myself standing in the middle of the kitchen thinking, "Wait, didn't I get married just so I never had to feed myself again? How did I get here?" So I roasted vegetables. All by myself! I'm doing work in the kitchen equivalent to what the MasterChef Junior kids do before they can talk so... 

Freddie thinks I can cook now so we need to SHUT THIS DOWN, people. Pretend you didn't even read this paragraph. 

four //

Let's be real here, you don't always want to shower. Sometimes you want to hit snooze. Sometimes you want to have an extra glass of wine at night and not have to go to bed with wet hair. Sometimes you think that baby wipes might just do the trick for the time being.

And you know what, you do you. You wipe yourself down with a baby wipe and call it a day. Because being an adult and making yourself shower might be hard some days, but on the opposite side of that it's pretty great being an adult and getting to make your own decision not to shower sometimes. 

Oh, I'm sorry. Not everyone is as gross as I am? Cool, moving on. 

five //

I have six other tabs open on my internet browser right now, and they all have to do with deep cleaning my kitchen. 

'Nuff said. 

Happy Friday!

Linking up with Karli and Amanda. 

friday favorites: the where's my personal photographer one

I spent all yesterday thinking it was Friday, and so far today feels like a Wednesday. So I'm looking forward to tomorrow feeling like a...Monday? 

Gag, a Saturday Monday would literally be the worst. 

May all your Saturdays be anything but Mondays. 

Favorite Song

I Believe In A Thing Called Love by The Darkness

Enjoy this crap video because it won't let me post the real weird video...

While driving around falling into the pothole-y roads in Houston this week, I found a CD my upper crust friend made for me with songs we looooooooved (add more o's) in middle and high school. This one made the cut, and it may have made me scream sing along in my car. Maybe. Probably. It'll definitely make you scream sing along right now. 

Favorite Food

Remember how Freddie and I were watching all the 007 movies and making themed dinners? And we were going to do a movie a week until we got through them all? And we started the first week in January? Guess what number we are on? Guess. We are in week nineteen and we are on movie...THREE. Three. Holl to the er, folks, because we are rocking twenty sixteen, obviously. 

Now here's why we are stuck on movie three. Title: Thunderball. Dinner: ummmmm, what? Meatballs and...thunder? We are stuck. So please advise, thank you. 

Favorite Houston Factoid

One year ago yesterday I arrived in Houston with my mom after a crazy month of Freddie being in TX, and me being in SC and GA and LA and then TX. 365 days DOWN. Many more days to go. Math is hard. 

Favorite Pilates Move

Remember that whole Real Life vs. Fake Life post? Well insert that thought process here because in FL I would have stayed up late last night to take Pilates blog pictures with my personal photographer who would either be my husband and/or a real life photographer who follows me around. However, in RL I did not stay up, I do not have a personal photographer (spoiler alert: I do have a husband), and instead I went to bed because I started teaching at 6am yesterday, and I was tired. The End. So enjoy this picture from a training weekend. Please also note that in FL I wear my matching Lululemon workout clothes to train in. In RL I wear this...weird...but comfortable ensemble. 

side note: unless you have a Cadillac, don't try this at home. But please do rotate your spine every day. 

Favorite Hug

Favorite hug(s) = plural = anytime with this dude.

Cue the awwwws. Awwwww.

Happy Friday!
Linking up with Karli and Amanda. 

on finishing a book

I finished reading a book yesterday. A book that I started in January, but hey! I did it! If this had been a marathon, I would have been about three minutes months behind the cop car that herds all the slowpokes to the finish line. 

Don't wait on me! I'll catch up to you soon! 

Wait, maybe come back here and help me...

But whatever.  It felt so good to read something that didn't have any words that ended in -itis or -lysis or -osis. 

Wanna know what I finished? Steve Martin's autobiography, Born Standing Up.

Wanna know what other books are lined up for me to finish in the next two to fifteen months? A big, fat pile of astronaut autobiographies. 

THIS IS WHAT HEAVEN'S LIBRARY LOOKS LIKE, PEOPLE.

I'm sure of it. 

Anyways, this whole me being a grown bleep woman and finishing a non-anatomy book thing made me think of other things I should do more of now that things like studying anatomy and Pilates history are no longer consuming my life

Get ready for the lamest and most adult list ever that also might be the best and coolest list ever. 

 1. Sit down and look through the dang photo books I've made. 

When I decide to make a photo book it becomes my job. My job that I don't get paid for, but instead am the one doing the paying. So that makes perfect sense. I spend hours, no days, debating over whether to add the sparkle sun badge or the flag banner on the top left corner of page 9. Because what if I hate it once it's printed?! I'll probably end up sticking it on a shelf and never looking at it! So I have to make it look perfect!

Oh wait...they end up stuck on a shelf anyways.

So you know what? I pulled out those bad boys yesterday, wiped off about a year or two worth of dust, and actually looked at them. 

2. Let the dog sleep on me. 

Ugh, twist my freaking arm, but fiiiiiine. I'll take a few chill minutes and let doggie look like this on my lap.

And this.

And this.

3. Spend more time on Pinterest

Because how else will I know which household projects I can feel guilty about never doing if I don't pin them on Pinterest?

4. Clean

I don't mean Clorox Wipe clean. I mean clean. In bold so you realize how serious this cleaning business is. Getting those baseboards clean. Getting those cabinets clean. Getting whatever is under the couch clean. So fresh, so clean clean and all that. 

This also includes not dusting around stuff, but moving said stuff in order to dust. Speaking of dust, let's talk about how it's the most unrewarding and frustrating job on the planet. 

Me: I feel awesome. I just dusted!

Dust: I feel awesome. I'm going to float around in the air for a few seconds before landing back in the same spot I was!

Ugh, I told you this list was lame and awesome. 

5. Snapchat Face Swap More

Because everyone else is doing it, and I look really good as the 1990 version of my grandfather. 

Happy Friday!

Linking up with Karli and Amanda. 

when it rains, it pours. and floods.

For those of you who watch the news/skim Twitter/scroll slowly through Facebook, you've probably seen that Texas was underwater this past Monday. 

That's a slight exaggeration. I mean, we personally were not physically underwater, but we also live on the sixth floor. If we had been in the basement of our building then we definitely would have been underwater. I know this because Ricky and I decided to walk down to the basement to see how high the water was getting, and well...we couldn't even get down the stairs to the basement so. Yeah. That answered that question.

Also, the dog park was underwater so we sent Lupe out there to play/swim in it.

KIDDING. Kidding. Ain't nobody got time to pick up whatever strange diseases the bayou water is carrying... 

side story: one time Freddie and I saw the most, ginormous, humongous, mutant catfish ever swimming in the bayou. Seriously, King Kong Catfish. Alert! Alert! Bayou is gross. Moving on. 

I can't help but think maybe this is God trying to tell me I need to build an ark. Or move back to Charleston. Or something. If you remember, we went through this whole flooding thing last Memorial Day weekend, and here we are almost a year later going through it again. Alas, I am not spending my time building an ark, nor am I spending my time calling up two of every animal. However if I do decide to call two of every animal, I do solemnly swear that I'll leave off mosquitoes this time. #thanksfornothingnoah

From left to right: Normal, Memorial Day 2015, Great Flood of 2016

In honor of The Great Houston Flood of 2016 (so far) (knock on wood) today's post is...

Five Things To Do When Houston Floods. Again. 

one

Pop champagne corks into the flooded waters. Because...why not?

two

Make jokes about driving around, but NEVER actually drive around. Seriously, I will never understand the people who try to drive down an underpass that is filled with water...

...

...

Say no to driving in the flood. Also say no to drugs because drugs might make you think you should drive down that flooded underpass. 

p.s.-remind me to write a post sometime about the time my mom drove us through flood waters and we had to abandon our car. Fun times!

p.p.s.-drugs were not involved in the making of the above story. 

three

Eat Nutella out of the jar for lunch because you just got back from a trip and hadn't gone to the grocery before the flooding started. Oops and also yum. 

four

Invite people to come over to play games before realizing no one has a helicopter to get places when it floods. Well, I'm sure the Coast Guard has helicopters to get places, but I don't think they would accept our game night invitation. Or maybe they would? Who knows. I'll save that to try during the next flood. 

five

Snapchat the bleep out of the flooding. We live right by the bayou so we can watch it get higher and higher (and lower and lower, post-rain ending). And when the bayou does flood, I don't think it counts if you don't Snapchat it. Right? Snap or it didn't happen? Is that what the cool kids say?

Jokes aside, we were/are safe, sound, and very fortunate to have suffered no damage to us or our home. Others were not so lucky, and we're sending lots of dry-flood-be-gone love to them. 

What would you do if your city was flooding?

Oh hey, that's about every week in Charleston, too!

Happy Friday!
Linking up with Karli and Amanda. 

friday favorites: the thrown together one

Do you ever sit around and wonder how it's already April 8? Like really wonder how in the heck we went from January to April so quickly? Or hows about how we went from January 1998 to April 2016 so quickly. Or January 2000 to April 2016. Or January 1989 to April 2016. 

Riddle me those and then read on. 

Favorite Song

Windows Are Rolled Down by Amos Lee

This song speaks to me. I don't know what that really means, but let's pretend I'm a deep person with deep feelings about this song. Keep calm and listen to this song. 

Favorite Food

We've got a friend from Charleston in town this weekend which means HELLO, Texas BBQ. Which means hello, food baby. Which means hello, worth it. Worth it? Is it?

YAH, it is. 

Favorite Texas Thing

Texas Bluebonnets are a for real thing...who would have thunk it?

There's this corner near where we live that is covered in bluebonnets. Now take the image you have pictured in your head of a bluebonnet covered corner and multiply that times five or twenty. People go gaga over this bluebonnet infested corner. Families frolicking through the blue babies with their own babies, dogs running around sneezing, tripods and professional cameras set up everywhere. Or actually more like Snapchat open on all the phones. Anyways then there is Freddie taking classy shots without us in it like this winner. How's that for a non-Snapchat pic?

Favorite Pilates Move

Shoulder Bridge.

Let me guess...you sit at a desk, text on your phone, carry a heavy bag or purse, and lounge on your couch all week long. Here is your move to strengthen your booty, give balance to your body by working the posterior chain, and improve posture. Now get on the floor and booty bridge it out!

Pro-tips: think the strength of the glutes lift the hips up vs. the abdominals (or any other muscles) doing the work. Only go up to your shoulders---you should still be able to move your head and neck. Pull that belly button down to your spine. Ain't nobody got time for lower back pain.
Don't splay your ribs and lift your chin like I'm doing...

Favorite Snuggle Buddy

This dude!

Ignore every gross thing about this picture and just focus on LUPE. Snugglin' buggin' on my neck. 

Erm, and Freddie...

Happy Friday!
Linking up with Karli and Amanda. 

friday favorites: here comes santa/peter cottontail

Happy Last Friday of March to you!

Happy Last Friday of March to you!

Happy Last Friday of March to yooooouuuuuuuuuuuuu.

Happy Last Friday of March to you!

^^to be sung to the tune of Happy Birthday...

...or any song of your choice...

...it just might sound weird. 

Three more Fridays until my Pilates test out. 

::insert sweaty armpits and such here::

Favorite Jam (clarification: music jam, not jam jam) (but strawberry jam would be my favorite) 

Let Me Down Easy by Sheppard.

Otherwise known as the song that I can't. stop. singing. 

Favorite Food

I feel like when I use the header Favorite Food a full-on recipe is expected. I apologize for the snack food I'm about to show you.

BUT have you tried these?! Have you gotten in your car to go to Kroger to get some right now?! Have you taken a picture of you eating them to post on Inta with the hashtag #omgyum?!

Good. 

Favorite Gif That Explains My Face When Freddie Puts On March Madness Instead Of House Of Cards

Favorite Pilates Move

Speaking of March Madness...in the Pilates world it's actually referred to as March Matness which is way cooler. Seriously, next time you're at work but not working (read now), search the hashtag #marchmatness. One day last week was Double Leg Kick. Hello, exercises that work the posterior chain of the body. Hello, side of the body that gets worked the least in today's computer working/phone texting world. Now drop down and give me twenty. Or just two to four. 

Let's also say hello to Emily's ginormous neck vein. That is not required to do double leg kick, but it might help some. Who knows. 

Favorite Easter Thing I'll Never Actually Make

Where the Peter Cottontail did Easter come from this year?! It was literally just Christmas and I'm still having PTNCTASD: Post Traumatic No Christmas Tree Anymore Stress Disorder. I say all of this to tell you that I have no Easter decorations up right now and I think my housewife card is about to be taken away. Ugh, now I gotta go vacuum in heels AND pearls to make up for it. In the meantime, check out the Easter thing that I wish I had done.

via

Happy Friday!

Linking up with Karli and Amanda. 

friday favorites: the st. patty's day soup

This week went by in the slowest/fastest way possible. Apparently it's Spring Break here in the H-ton which means that one day traffic seems non-existent and the city seems empty, and the next day you feel like everyone and their mom and grandma and grandma's BFF came into town for #sb16, baby. 

**Please note I only drive three miles to work so I have no idea what I am talking about when I say traffic.

Moving on. 

Favorite Song

Intro to House of Cards. 'Nuff said.
Are you/have you binged watched this season?
Please say yes. 
Also apparently this video has the intro looped for ten straight minutes. 
Bonus points if you don't stop it. 

Favorite Food

Freddie and I celebrated St. Patrick's Day as any good, not-green-but-red-blooded, er Germans, would: with Julia Child's French Onion Soup.

I love it when Freddie cooks, but I really love it when Freddie cooks this soup. In fact, this picture is from four years ago and it's probably the real reason I got married to him. Honesty is the best policy after all. 

Favorite Pilates Move

Open Leg Rocker

Have you ever slammed on your brakes before? That's cool. Now hows about you slam on your abdominal brakes and get down to massage your spine with some Open Leg Rocker action? Pro-tips: Keep your gaze on your thighs. Pull your belly button to spine, especially when rocking up. <---there's the whole slamming on your abdominal brakes to help you balance at the top. Pull your inner thighs together to help your body find stabilization. 

Favorite Target Purchase

I may have gone a bit Target crazy recently. You know what? That's a lie. I only ordered a whopping four items online, but for some reason they all shipped separately. Now I love getting mail just as much as the next Blogger Betty, but sometimes I want all my Target grub in one big box on the same day! Ugh, is that too much to ask, First World, is it? But guys/dudettes/ladies/y'all, when did they get such cute workout gear? No, but seriously, when? I feel like I go in there weekly and somehow I missed all of this new cuteness. Hmmm, I have been pretty bad about wearing my glasses lately always. That must be it.

Favorite Lupe Picture

I think this is the definition of what the kids call PTFO (omg did I use an abbreviation the right way? IKR? LOL. LTIWHCNTW). 

God dangit, I love this dog. 

Happy Friday!

Linking up with Karli and Amanda.