currently: the summer edition

playing
Okay, so once upon a time I hated country music. And I still kind of do...but Freds listens to it non-stop and I love Freds so yadda yadda yadda (I still don't like it...). I've been catching up on the show Nashville and have these two certain songs stuck in my head. Like you can find me singing one or the other about 22/7. Okay fine, 23/7. They're so catchy! Sing with me!

going

That's a good question, currently link-up. Here's the thing, Freddie and I have been go, go, going since the minute we moved to Texas. We got here and then both have been leaving here for other commitments, so instead of going anywhere right now we are staying--staying and exploring. So by going I mean we are staying and going around Houston. 

wearing

With the help of some wonderful people, I found a Pilates studio here (!!!!) where I can get in my trainee hours so I'm back to wearing workout clothes forever and real clothes for never. I've got my eye on some of these super fancy lace workout leggings. My eye will get more focused on them once the price goes down (so never...), but I'm still looking at them for now because they are pretty.  

sipping

Did you know they make Pinot Grigio Hard Cider? Guess what? They make Pinot Grigio Hard Cider! How rad! I'm not sure who "they" are, but I think they made a great decision when this drink choice was created. Freddie's taste buds disagree. 

reading

Um, can we just talk about how great reading is? Reading is great. Having time to read is great, too. I feel like such a turd saying that. Like if something is really important to you, make time for it, right? Well, I have not been having/making time to read in the past. Lately I have been, and it is the best. If you want to laugh and cry and laugh some more, go read What Alice Forgot. If you want to feel inspired and a little lame because the sound of carrying 50 lbs on your blistered back is a no and then inspired again, go read Wild. I'm having trouble deciding what my next book should be, but I have a feeling it's going to be epic. (I realized that I ordered The Anatomy of Movement from Amazon so technically that is my next book. I told you it was going to be something epic. Wink). 

Linking up with Anne and Jenna!

thing i want, no need. edition one.

I am so naive. Really, I mean I thought that when big life changes (read: leaving a job, leaving a beloved city, moving across the country) happened that suddenly blog posts would be a plenty and/or the server wouldn't even be able to keep up with everything I was needing to say and tell. Get on my level, internet!

Ha. Ha. Ha. My life feels so shamble-y and crazy that I'm not really sure what I would or could tell. As interesting as it is to everyone that I wanted to take ballet class, but realized my ballet shoes are on a moving truck to Houston or that I really needed my modge podge for some bridal shower crafting, but nope, the modgey podge in also en route to Houston, I figured I would keep those stories to myself and let you all continue on with your days.

In keeping up with the whole I want, I need, I'm not happy with what I have theme in today's world, I thought I would just add more fuel to that fire and talk about everything I am pining after on Pinterest. Because we never have enough, after all! ;)

^^PSA: that entire paragraph is tongue-in-cheek. Well, I really am talking about what I am pining for on Pinterest, but everything else=totes tongue in cheek. 

via

If there's one thing in this world that I will never need to buy again it's definitely bags. So of course I need this bag. Right? Right. Okay fine, I'll go ahead and order it. 

via

I know some people aren't into the whole displaying oodles of personal pictures in their homes. That is a shame because a) it makes it more homey and b) it helps nosey guests coming in your home to stalk you and your life more easily. I prefer the decorating method of oodles and bagoodles of personal photos everywhere so I'm a sucker for any kind of Instagram display. 

via

Ughhhh, these shoes. My feet. Sole mates. 

Get it? Get it? Good. Get on my feet already. 

via

I think I've alluded to this several times, but I've been on this huge sweet potato kick lately. Like huge. Like you know how Violet Beauregarde turned blue in Willy Wonka? Yes, I should be quite orange and round and knobby right about now. I also think quinoa tastes delicious and could eat it in mass amounts all by itself. Apparently this thinking is odd so I guess to normalize myself I will add in quinoa with sweet potatoes and OMG my mouth can't even right now. I'm so hungry for this and this only.

There you have it. All ways in which I distract myself from crazy, big life changes.

But really, I need that bag...

currently: the no resolution edition

New month (erm, and year), new Currently linkup. Because nothing gets you through your Wednesday other than hearing what I'm up to right about now.

Well, what I'm up to other than mourning the end of a very, merry two-week holiday break. And sitting among mounds of dirty laundry that I just kinda don't care about right now (jay kay, I totally care and already started the washing process). Long hair, loves cleanliness, don't care. 

planning

2015 vacas, babays. Freddie and I have big ideas about trips, but somehow our money tree isn't on the same page as we are and has yet to sprout. We might have to go along with some of our smaller ideas for this year. DC, we be coming for ya. I lived in DC one summer while I studied at Washington Ballet and I will forever and always claim it as the best summer of my life. And hey, I got married during the summer months so obviously this means something deep and important about that one, fateful summer in DC. 

hoping

I'm hoping that Netflix realizes what a horrible mistake it was to take off Desperate Housewives when I was 10 episodes away from finishing the series. Netflix, why? Why, why, why?

baking

Good question. If by currently you mean recently then I could say some Christmas goodies. If currently means actually factually currently then I'd have to say nothing. Zilch. Zero. But I am very thankful for those who "bake" Kind bars because those babies are my busy teaching day jam. 

wearing

Holy Cotton/Not Spandex, I got to wear real clothes every day for the past two weeks and my closet was like Whoa, girl, get out. You're not allowed in here so much. Suck it, closet. I enjoyed every stressful second of picking out real clothes for 14 days. And now it's back to the leotard grind. I never realized how many different ways I could wear my 5 chambray shirts. Why explore the world of color when there is chambray in the world?

resolving

I have resolved to make zero specific resolutions this year. Instead I will live my life and have a shiz ton of fun this year. Deal?

some soul goodness

Thanksgiving did good to my soul. I never really understood what in the world people were talking about when they used that expression: good to my soul. I mean I got the gist of it like, Wow something was great and wonderful. We get it, sure. But it wasn't until I became a grown-up (according to whom?!) and started worrying about money and jobs and bills and taking care of others and why won't this stain come out of Freddie's dress shirt and why is my car making weird noises again and why am I the worst teacher stress and living away from family woes that I realized my soul needed some goodness. 

And times like Thanksgiving, times when I can sit and relish in nothing but uninterrupted nothingness and family time, that did my soul some real good. I ate. I drank wine. I played Quelf too many times to admit (okay, 4 or 5ish times....). I slept in. I went to Pilates. I had no schedule and no classes to teach, no rehearsals to run, no one to remind to use ballerina manners. It was all so glorious, typing it out just makes my soul want that goodness again (by the way, 14 days until Christmas break, but who's counting?).

^^ all the Moore children together means having mo(o)re fun

^^thankful rolls! 5 of which ended up in my belly

As you can see I'm very thankful for a sister who takes nice pictures because this is Thanksgiving as seen through Emily's iPhone...

^^Playing Quelf

^^More Quelf-ing (or is it just Freddie being Freddie...?) It's Quelf. Don't worry. 

And this, my friends, is a recipe blog post on how to have some good to your soul.
Happy Friday!

currently: desperate and darius edition

making

These really adorable thingy-ma-bobs to use as stocking stuffers. I say thingy-ma-bobs not because I can't think of the name of said crafts, but because too many people who will be receiving said crafts in their stockings read my blog. Just know the thingy-ma-bobs are tres cute and Santa told me he's just about ready to go ahead and put them in the stockings. 

listening

Since our former neighbor, D. Ruck, can't come over for sing-alongs every night like he used to (wink) I've taken to listening to his new Christmas album over and over. And over. Sa-woon. Ricky and I have almost got down the right amount of twang+soul+country all mixed together like presents for one's ears. 

wrapping

I've never gone Black Friday shopping and I'm still breathing and living so that's good. I've also never really Cyber Monday shopped, but Holy Never Say Never I spent oodles of money on Cyber Monday this week. The good news is I saved bagooodles of money and everyone knows bagoodles > oodles. Our mailbox is about to explode with Christmas gifts and my wrapping hands are ready to go.  

watching

Desperate Housewives. So bad that it's good. Almost. I just can't get over the ridiculousness of it all and wonder if one day I'll live on a street with psychopaths and strippers and con-artists and all the crazies. One can only hope. 

anticipating

Our new, beautiful, amazing, large-and-in-charge sectional is supposed to be delivered any time from today to next Wednesday. So I vote for tonight...(if only my vote counted for anything). My bootay is anticipating sitting on puffy cloud-like cushions instead of spiky wires. Hashtag booty blessed and all that.
Update: just found out they called and are delivering it on Friday. Friday Yayday. Friday Funday. Friday Fluffy Butt Cushions Day.
!!!

Linking up with Jenna and Anne!

currently: is it christmas yet? edition

wishlisting

This necklace. Sa-woon.

I went from knowing that gold bar necklaces were all the rage to kind of caring that they were all the rage to obsessively thinking about this particular gold bar Roman numeral necklace and how it would be all the rage around my neck. Do you think the ancient Romans are like Thank God! Finally our numeric system is trendy again!?

creating

Something about the holidays makes me want to quit my job and become a crafting housewife. Not a cleaning/doing housework housewife, but a crafting housewife. Me and the mod podge kickin'' it back all day, every day. We're about to get real Christmas-y and glitterfied up in here. 

pin found here

reading

Yes, Please by Amy Poehler. My weekend plans include this book and my laughs. That's all, folks.

loving

Last Tuesday when it was decided we would be driving to Georgia that Friday I begged/straight up told my sister she would be taking anniversary pictures of us while we were in town. I love them! I am loving them! I will always love them! And so on and so forth. It was about 40 degrees and windy and we only had an hour to get them done, but man oh man! Ann made 365 (plus) days look good on us Weiss folk.

anticipating 

We've been saving up to buy a new couch. Not just any couch, but a beautiful humongo sectional couch...that doesn't have wires sticking up your butt when you sit like our current couch does. I mean, we will be living the high life! No booty wires?! After months of planning it, discussing where it should go, measuring and remeasuring and re-re-measuring, and more discussing/changing minds of where it should go, we are finally able to get it.

And now Ricky wants to wait it out until Black Friday since we're so close. My poor booty. What's a few more weeks of sticky in your booty wires, I guess?

Happy Friday!

Are you currently loving that it's the freaking weekend?

Linking up with Jenna, Anne, and Karli!

on to thanksgiving

Thank goodness Halloween is over. For many reasons, but mostly because my ears were hurting from teaching sugar-high children all day. 

Another less-but-kinda-more important reason I am glad is because now we get to...

bring

on

the

holidays

!!

!!

!!

One of the first things I made Freddie talk about when we moved into our new place (on September 29, 2014) was where we should put the Christmas tree. Tall ceilings call for tall trees. Big living rooms call for fat trees. Tall ceilings and big livings rooms call for the most perfect Christmas tree ever. 

I can't wait. 

But I have to wait because it's only November 5 and I still have my Boo pumpkin out by our vat of leftover Halloween candy so obviously we're in a mid-holiday limbo crisis over here. 

This past weekend we made a super fast weekend trip to Georgia. Super fast Georgia weekend trips stress. me. out. When I say stress me out I don't mean it in the normal every day stress omg I might get a stress zit kind of way, I mean it in the I could develop an ulcer or five from trying to see everyone and do everything with limited weekend hours. My family lives there. Freddie's family lives there. 90% of our friends live there. Whine whine. Life is really hard when you've got great people in it and your family just won't go ahead and move to Charleston, right? 

Sigh.

We started the weekend by seeing my sister as Magenta in Rocky Horror Picture Show.

If you've never seen Rocky Horror live, then go. Go and just sit back and take it all in. Yes, even take in the shouts of "slut!" and other just wonderful words. It was an experience, that's for sure. I thought seeing the movie was an experience, but seeing it live with advanced Rocky Horror fans in the audience took my experience from a 5 to a 25 on the level of weirdness. 

Now, seeing my sister with a frizzy red wig, creepy ghost make-up and a French maid outfit? Totes normal, obvi. 

From there we celebrated my sister-in-law's birthday in the best possible way: 70 jello shots and a bonfire. I mean, hello! Nothing like a jello shot to help ya warm up in the 30 degree weather. Also I never feel like I'm drinking when I take a jello shot because I prefer my jello shot with a spoon and then I slowly eat it just as I would if I was 6 and eating a jello cup in my school cafeteria for lunch. Bliss! Pure bliss.

Also, screw Halloween candy. Oreos on top of an ice cream cake wins. 

Now I have a very important announcement to make:

I, Emily, am very sorry I ever said I was excited for cooler weather. As I turned into an ice cube inside of an ice cube inside of a slushie held by a snowman this weekend, I remembered why I dislike the cold--because my body doesn't know how to survive in the cold. I sit there with a 24/7 case of goose bumps no matter how many layers in which I am bundled. So, Mother Nature, please accept my deepest and most sincere apologies and bring back the 70 degrees really, really soon. 

Yours truly,

Frozen like the movie Emily

30 years

Happy 30th Birthday to dude with the best laugh.

To man who stretches out his legs and points his toes just to show off how sexy they are.

And to further prove my theory that he would make the best ballerina man.

To the guy who wants nothing more in life than a good back and head scratch. And for his wife to not cut her fingernails (ew).

It's the little things, people. 

To the Freddiehusband who wrote the sweetest wedding vows. Vows that included his promise to sing and dance with me every day. 

Except he won't sing Chitty Chitty Bang Bang with me...

To the boy roommate who puts up with my nicknames for him. Rick is the latest one. Riiiiiiiiiiiiiick! 

To the chef who cooks delicious feasts and loves every second in the kitchen.  

To the 30 year old who still knows how to have fun like a <insert younger age> year old. 

I felt creepy saying anything younger than a 10 year old. And we all know teenagers don't know how to have fun. 

Happy Birthday, Freddie (Rick)!

I love you a lot more than just 30 years worth of lurve. 

Now...let's eat some cake. 

30 years worth of cake, that is. Muah!

lessons learned from a weekend

Sometimes in life you just have to suck it up and buy the pixie pants at J. Crew.

And take a Pure Barre class to wake up your tiniest ab and booty and leg muscles that you haven't felt in years and/or ever. Lift and hold. And tuck and freeze. And bend stretch. And...ow. 

And have a dinner/game night/slumber party with your friends.

And buy the chocolate covered pretzels from Trader Joe's because...well, yum. 

That up there ^^ that was my weekend. It was a glorious one. 

Now it's Freddie's birthday week. We're not talking just any birthday week, we're talking his 30th birthday week. 

30 years! 

Tear, they grow up so fast.

Here's hoping our future children are just as cute as little Frederick. Fingers crossed. 

currently: no sleep edition

writing

This blog post, obviously. Oh, you want to know what I'm actually factually handwriting? That would be anything and everything in list form. My current lists include: groceries, outfit ideas (so cliche and girly. so what), ideas for packing (yes, we're moving to a new apartment), and other random to-do things like thank you notes and e-mails to parents. Phew. 

anticipating

Remember ^^ up there when I said we are moving into a new apartment? I'm anticipating that. And decorating said new hardwood floored apartment. I'm in love. I mean, I see an IKEA trip needing to happen in the near future. I also see us needing to win the lottery before that IKEA trip. So yes, I am anticipating winning the lottery. 

missing

Our friends, Paul and Brian (otherwise known as our wedding coordinator and videographer), were in town for Labor Day weekend and they showed us a good time. Isn't that backwards? They got us out and partying in the city. I haven't stayed up until 2am in awhile. I haven't stayed up until 2am 3 days in a row in a longer while. And if that picture of Brian partnering me in the middle of a dance club at 2am doesn't explain what fun we got into this weekend then I just don't know how to explain it. Read: lots of wine. 

wearing

Leotard and tights. Forever and always. Amen. 

craving

Jeni's ice cream. Forever and always, again. I had it Sunday night and by Monday morning at 7:30 I was ready for more. I mean, my thought is if I'm going to run and exercise 6 days a week then I am totally allowed to eat ice cream every day (<<reason #35 why I am not a nutritionist or personal trainer).

Linking up with Jenna and Anne!

the miss momma way

I had a different post planned for today. Another California recap (p.s.-thanks for reading putting up with all my virtual diary posts about my trip, people), but when I woke up this morning I knew it was a day for a different kind of post.

2 years ago today my grandmother passed away. Coming from a family that is closer than close, it completely rocked everyone's world. Rocked. Part of me feels like these last two years have been a story of how a family tries to build back their life with one person missing. It's hard and sometimes it feels like we'll always be that puzzle with the dang missing piece (seriously, where do the puzzle pieces go?!), but most of the time now it just feels like...life. Life kept going. The sun kept going up and down. Life moved on. We've moved on, in a sense. We've moved on in the way that she lives through us every day. We are doing things she taught us. Or doing things that remind us of her. We are the legacy. 

Freddie and I recently met a new-to-Charleston married couple. The girl and I have bonded over family and our strong desires to be stay-at-home moms (side note: this is not a pregnancy announcement. I repeat, not a pregnant announcement). She made a great point about how the mom job is so different (and important!) than a job job because kids are our legacy. Family is our legacy. Family (this includes friends, too, obviously) is what we've got. But I'll stop there since I wrote about all of this kind of stuff in the OMG-I'm-so-emotional-we-are-back-from-our-trip post. 

So when I reach for a slip every single time I wear a dress or a skirt (EVEN when it's already lined) that's because Miss Momma always said wearing a slip was the nicer thing to do. I can't not wear a slip. I want to be nicer. I can use a double negative, though. 

Or when I make up dumb songs for everything or harmonize with a song on the radio that's because Miss Momma raised us to love and appreciate all things music. She raised my mother, who had to play the piano and then my mother raised us, who also had to play the piano (as long as you live under my roof! That was the rule). 

I love living life the Miss Momma way and I can't wait to teach my future kids how to be nicer, too. 

Family is errythang, if you ask me (and my opinion is very important...). Give them all big hugsies today and every day. 

I wrote about my grandmother and her life here. 

california adventures: california adventure style

Now that we're all on the same page about Disneyland vs. Disney World, let's talk about California Adventure. 

Otherwise known as My Favorite. 

California Adventure is a weird mix of part Hollywood Studios, part Epcot (why hello, alcohol), and part awesome. That part awesome is divided up into different awesome things, one of which being that there was an entrance to the park straight out of our hotel. Kind of Platform 9-3/4 style. I like to pretend it was a secret entrance. 

^^When exploring new Disney parks always wear the ears. Unless your name is Joseph, MC, or Freds and you're too cool.

^^but no one is too cool for a matching Star Wars day. Except me, MC, and Freddie.

^^fake LA slash a version of LA we actually like.

^^Story time!! When Ann was little she had an imaginary friend named Princess Atta. But it wasn't like any 'ole imaginary friend it was the person Ann was always talking to, always talking about, and always doing what Ann was not allowed to do. Princess Atta was more like a part of the family. The End. 

^^While this is a blurry picture, no one can resist Freddie's windblown hair model status picture. No one, I tell you!

^^My "brave" sister, brother, and father decided to ride the Ferris wheel of death. Freddie, my mother, and I were "not brave" and found margaritas, milkshakes, and Mickey bread. You decide who won this game in life.

^^one of my brother's friends is a manager at Disneyland and got us VIP seats for the Aladdin show. Hair flip. And also, thank you!

The night show at California Adventure is called Colors of the World. It has water that shoots into the sky, images projected onto said shooting water, and music that makes you want to dance and sing (Spoiler alert: I did). 

So yes, the show was awesome. But you know what was even more awesome?  

??

My dear mother ended up standing next to a man who is the father of one of the dancers in The Wiggles.

ARE YOU SCREAMING AS MUCH AS I WAS?!

No? Okay, well The Wiggles is a children's band who sings songs that are so ridiculous you can't help but love them. I saw their ridiculousness and lovability and had Wiggles sheets throughout college. Weird, yes. Also not weird and kinda cool? Maybe. People, I was obviously in the presence of a celebrity. He was the nicest Australian man who told me that I should move to Australia and teach ballet there. Apparently it's in high demand.

Done. 

Now, back to some colorful worlds. 

I'm sure you can guess how the story ends. Our tired feet managed to take us back to the top secret entrance and we crashed hard. 

Disneyland, I'm sorry your castle is small and your technology isn't as advanced at Disney World's, but despite these setbacks (wink) you were super duper fo' shizzle fun. 

the series of unfortunate events: LA edition

Raise your hand if you ever read A Series of Unfortunate Events books. I'm raising my hand way up in the sky. Through the clouds. Up towards the heavens. That kind of high. In the books you find anything that can go wrong, will go wrong. However, we aren't talking about your average, day-to-day, oh no this went wrong annoyances. We're talking about the most ridiculous, most preposterous, most unbelievable things that go wrong.

And that is exactly how our one day in LA was. 

But let's start at the very beginning. Wi was driving Freddie and me up to LA from San Diego where we would meet my family (who had just flown in to LA) at a TBD location and spend the rest of the day exploring Los Angeles! Sounds like a great plan, right? (Wrong says everyone who likes to plan and realizes that there is, in fact, no plan in that "plan" up there). 

1st unfortunate event: Traffic. The terrible t-word. You'd think that since we're from Atlanta and are used to sitting on our gluteus maximuses for hours in traffic that we would have seen this one coming. Well, we didn't. My family lands in LA, finds each other, gets their bags, rents a car, and we are still miles away from them. Just chillin' in the car. 

Which leads me to...

2nd unfortunate event: No AC in the car. No AC wasn't a big deal until we were stopped on the interstate in the sun. Then it was like oh hey, jeans, glad you love my butt enough to stick to it forever, but... 

I'll do a quick list of the next unfortunates for ya:

Freds has to pee. California exits don't have handy dandy signs that list what is on said exit. We pull off and go to gas station. No bathroom. We go across the street to a Starbucks. No bathroom. We go to restaurant by Starbucks. Closed on Sundays. 

Skip ahead a few steps (read: boys can pee anywhere. Girls cannot. The end) and we were back on the road. The new plan was to drop off Freddie at a bar to meet up with one of his college friends and we would continue on to the Griffith Observatory and meet my family who was already there. 

Already there and becoming best friends with views like this.

Ready for the next list of unfortunate events? Slash or are you already hash tagging firstworldproblems in your head? I know, I know.

Unfortunate #45: The entrance to the observatory had been closed. We assume there was somewhere else to park that didn't involve a huge hike so we continued driving the windy, mountainous roads. Once we were at a spot where we were on the top of mountain A and we could see the observatory on top of mountain B we knew we did something wrong. 

Oops. 

Unfortunate #46: I reached for my phone to call my family and come up with a Plan F. Oh, guess what? No cell service. We drive a little ways down. Still no service. We drive further down. No cell service. We exit the area back to the main road. Cell service! But scratchy. As in all I heard when trying to talk to my family is Ruhigslfaeiwf.jszbdmhjb. I'm a little rusty when it comes to scratchy gibberish, but we somehow managed to communicate to meet back at the entrance.

...the entrance where there are about 5 separate parking lots. 

Let's go back to unfortunate event #something up there. The one where girls can't pee just anywhere. The one where I assumed we would be in LA and close to a bathroom in no time. The one where I was wrong.

The Let's never forget how insane this day was and how sweaty we were selfie. 

Long story short, we found a bathroom. We found my family. And we even fit in some sight-seeing (after getting separated, again, thanks to a crazy motorcycle gang).

If you read all of that then let me know if you think I could get this published as the 14th book in the series.

Wink.

 California palm trees make South Carolina palm trees look like ants. Small, squishable ants.

After the major sights we were done with LA. Done! Hands washed of it! Must get out of here! That kind of done. I would like to go back there someday and give it another chance. And go to the less crowded sights. And just see if maybe, just maybe, LA and I could be friends. Big maybe on that one. We finished the evening in Anaheim, checking into our fabulous hotel, becoming un-sweaty, and eating a late dinner at Downtown Disney. 

The point of this whole post (and the meaning behind life) is that Disney (and food) really do make everything better.

Read all about a very fortunate San Diego day here.