the world. some oysters.

I like to think I'm an adventurous person. 

Okay, I could barely type that out without laughing. I'm sure any relative, close friend, or Freddiehusband of mine reading that statement is/was also laughing. 

Come on, though! Up until 3-4 years ago I lived off of Pringles, Kraft, pizza, Coke, etc., etc. I've come so far. Greek yogurt, fruit, most non-green veggies, wheat bread, soda water exclusively, chips that aren't Pringles (I can't do that Annie's Mac and Cheese crap, though. Nasty. Kraft for lyfe). Just call me Adventurous Eater Emily. Front and center. 

Okay, so not much has really changed.

And recently I upped and moved 330 miles away from all my friends and family. Away from my home for the past 24 years of my life. Livin' the cuh-razy life over here. Proof #2 of some serious adventure going on. 

Let's see. What else? I rode the Metro consistently for the 5 weeks of one summer I lived in DC. Through drug busts, homeless people sleeping on me, and all. For someone who h-a-t-e-s public transportation that has got to be considered an adventure. I even dipped my finger into a mason jar of moonshine recently and placed said finger on the tip of my tongue. Ya know, to taste the moonshine. Whew. The adventure never ends. 

I bring up all of this to show you that I'm either A) really adventurous or B) really sarcastic...and also to tell you a story. 

What do you want to do this weekend? I so bravely asked Freds. 

I want to find some oysters. Freddie answered very matter of factly. 

Now being married to The Freddie I was able to decipher the meaning of "find" some oysters and I realized that the meaning did not involve going to a store and purchasing some oysters. How does one exactly "find" some oysters? Well, shucks (har har), I decided to google such an important question and what I found is high-larious.

Step 2 involved something about wearing heavy duty gloves, but I kept on reading anyways. Step 3 involved wearing waders and carrying a 5 gallon bucket around. Eh, my arms aren't that weak, right? It wasn't until Step 7 (so many steps) when it talked about prying apart the oyster with a screwdriver and measuring to make sure it is of the state-appointed legal size that I decided maybe I'm not so adventurous after all. I can rock some gloves. I could possibly rock some waders even though they are the complete opposite of the skin huggin' tights I wear on the daily. But possibly committing a crime by accidentally taking an oyster of the wrong size?! After all that hard work? What if I got a Georgia appointed legal size, but not a South Carolina legal size? Jail by oysters?! I just can't. 

Side note: this was the first time I tried oysters. The look on my face rather accurately explains my thoughts and feelings towards oysters. Um...why the hype? Give me a big plate of crab legs with a huge bowl of scallops in place of shucking oysters any day of the year.

Being new to the beach life, I realize there are lots of things I should try. Like kayaking. And fishing for more than 5 seconds. And maybe even measuring oysters to make sure they are the state-appointed legal size. The adventures really don't ever end.

And you know what they say...

The world is your oyster. 

Besides the point of what does that even mean?!, I guess I will make the world my oyster and go "find" some oysters real soon. I'll be sure to write up a full report of how the wading and raking and prying open and measuring and not committing a crime go. 

P.S.--Freddie also suggested we add camping to the adventure list. For someone that supposedly knows me so well and wants to spend forever with me, that someone really doesn't know me very well. This is the only way I will ever even consider going camping...

Tom Haverford style!

over and out. 

and a hug around the neck

Remember that one time I was planning a wedding and posting some pretty weddinglicious Wedding Wednesday posts? Or after my wedding when I was posting some pretty weddinglicious post-wedding WednesEveryday posts?

Well, Miz Old School Been Married Six Months Bride over here never finished those really important wedding recaps. And with the heavy traffic of people viewing my new wedding page I thought I should finish up these bad boy recaps (I mean, that wedding page is up to like a whopping 2 views a day. 2 in 1!).

We left off these posts with some man and wife action (not that kind of action, ya nasty). You know the pictures. The staring lovingly into each other's eyes picture. The swing picture. The kiss picture #1, #2, #3, and on and on. The dance picture. The kiss #4 picture. 

Now let me take you on a tour of the beginning of our reception. The dancing. The toasting. The hugging and squeezing all of our friends and family wishing that the night would never end. Typical wedding stuff. 

Lemonade, sweet tea, and smiles. 

A brother/sister Weiss Waltz (can we make this a real thing now?!) Remember I said there were a lot of hugging/squeezing pictures? This squeeze-y hug is one of the best. 

A father/daughter jig. Or something. We both did a really good job of moving around and shaking our booties. I do love that Russell man a whole lot. 

After the Weizz Waltz and the father/daughter jig, everyone seemed inspired to get up on that dance floor. And shake it like a polaroid picture. Yes?

A spy a whole lotta polaroids shakin'.

Just like any middle of a wedding reception, we had a flash mob. A choreographed surprise dance. Remember I like cheesy things? (Food and emotions, just to be clear). I fought this idea. I fought it so hard. But when am I ever going to have all of these precious dance friends all in the same room again?! So me and 20 of my closest dance friends, old ballet teachers, and family got up there and flashy mobbed my new husband.

Which started with some jumping up on chairs...

And went on to the mob of dancers, who came from every nook and cranny of the room, entering the dance floor...

And finished up with some Thriller. Because why the heck not?

In order to follow through with the title of the this post, I will finish it up with some hugs around some necks.

And this Mr. Dude right here (otherwise known as Randy to some people)...he and his wonderful wife, Ellen, came all the way from Texas to photograph our wedding. I grew up dancing with Randy. We partnered together a lot and one time he even dropped me on my crotch...but that's a story for another time. It was such an absolute joy to have them come take these pictures for us. Pictures that I will treasure forever. And ever. And ever. And maybe one day stop looking at obsessively...Thanks, Randy and Ellen, I'm squeezing y'all's necks via this blog right now.

For curious minds:
Brother/Sister dance: What a Wonderful World by Louis Armstrong
Father/Daughter dance: My Girl by The Temptations
Flash Mob was a homemade compilation of: Good To You by Go Jimmy Go
What I Like About You by The Romantics
Marry You by Bruno Mars
Thriller by Michael Jackson

movies

The Oscars reminded me how few movies I've actually seen/heard of this past year. Which is hard for me to admit, ya know, me being a movie star and all.

yeah, remember me? The Footloose movie star?

Anyways...I've been slacking this year. Minus the whole Frozen epidemic. I have definitely seen that and do definitely sing the songs with my students on the daily.

And talk about silly Olaf.

And talk about how Cinderella's dress is the same color as Elsa's. 

And use our Anna voices instead of our ballerina voices. 

The usual. 

But these movies! These many, many Oscar worthy movies that apparently have not been Emily worthy. I feel so behind. So out of the loop. So out of season.  

Replace shoes with movies. Maybe one day I'll stop talking about all those last season movies. But seriously how great was The Help?! And the Girls with the Dragon Tattoo?! And...The Sound of Music?!?! The hills will always be alive and kickin'.

But after last night I sat down with Mr. Frederick and made a list of movies we are definitely going to watch before our 10th wedding anniversary soon. 

Saving Mr. Banks

Wolf of Wall Street

The Hobbit -- this is an example of compromise in marriage. Because this is Freddie's input. And because I have below zero interest in watching the Hobbit. 

American Hustle

Blue Jasmine

The Lone Ranger

Captain Phillips

Gravity -- also note: I need to start taking anxiety medicine now to prepare myself. 

Despicable Me 1 & 2 -- I have seen these wonderful movies. My husband has not. I figured instead of divorcing him for such a travesty I'll just have him watch them and I'll suck it up and watch them again. Sigh. Life is hard.

Now excuse me but I am off to learn all the dance moves from Pharrell's Happy performance last night. If that 8 year old girl could shake her tail feathers so vivaciously then I can definitely get at least one of my tail feathers to shake. 

on the small stuff

Yesterday was our 6 month wedding anniversary. And I know what you're thinking...that is so middle school of her to be celebrating months! 

And to you I say, Psssh yes. (ooo, burn!) I am celebrating monthiversaries because we celebrate by drinking some wine and eating chocolate lava cakes. I am always looking for a good excuse to celebrate with wine and any excuse is a good excuse when you need an excuse. 

But let's look into this a little more closely. Everybody celebrates the big anniversaries. The years. Everybody celebrates the big days like birthdays. But how many people celebrate the little things?  Little things like monthiversaries and first dates and Freddie's been in Chucktown a year. By the way, we did celebrate the whole Freddie's been here a year thing and it just so happened to fall on the same date as our first kiss. Two little birds with one stone glass of champagne.

When I made some comment about being that girl that posts monthiversary updates on all social media sites one of my friends pointed out that it is, in fact, something worth celebrating since it is 4 or 5 times as long as Kim Kardashian (or B Spears) was married.

And that is definitely cause enough for celebrations and wine. 

So today I challenge you to celebrate all the small stuff, too. Celebrate the first kiss. Celebrate the I love you's. Celebrate another month because all those little months add up to the big ones, didn't ya know?

Happy 6 months and a day, Mr. Frederick!

life lessons

Life teaches us a lot of lessons. In a lot of not-so-funny ways, I might add. Whenever someone is going through a hard time the words that are *supposed* to make them feel better are things like:

Years from now you'll look back on this and it will all make sense.

Or 

This is part of God's plan.

Or 

Be patient. Good things will come. 

As much as I loathe hearing those words when I think my life has turned upside down, I can honestly say that those sayings are somewhat true and have some purpose. Had I not dropped out of college due to financial issues and stayed out of school for 1.5 years I would have never met Freddie. That's kind of a big deal thing that happened in my life. Here I am married to the man and living in a different state because of him. So maybe I should thank life for throwing me that curve ball? Thank ya much, life!

But enough about me and my life lessons. A week ago today two super special babies made their grand entrance to the world. A grand entrance that was long awaited for their Mommy-O and Daddy-O.

You see, 2 years ago I applied for a part-time ballet teacher job on a whim. That one day a week teaching job has turned into my life. Teaching 5+ days a week. Teaching all ages. Teaching all styles of dance. Choreographing. Rehearsing. Singing. All the things. And all thanks to a lady named Lindsey. 

That's Miz Lins there in the middle. A blushing (pregnant) bride. Shh, don't tell!

Lindsey became my boss. My co-worker. My co-choreographer. But mostly, she became my friend. 

She listened to me agonize over Freddie moving and then worry about if Freddie and I were going to get engaged and married and live happily ever after. She listened to me cry over the loss of grandparents. She drank Riesling with me and introduced me to the most delicious yogurt I've ever tasted in my life. (Seriously though, go try this now). We came into each other's lives during big transitional periods for the both of us (well, at least on my side). I was on the verge of getting married and potentially leaving my life in Georgia and she and her husband were wanting and trying with everything they had to start a family. 

I'm not the one to sit here on your knee and tell you all about Lindsey's story and journey to pregnancy. I don't even know half of her story. But the part I do know? The part where I got a phone call saying she was finally pregnant, the part where she came into a Beauty and the Beast rehearsal wide-eyed telling me she was having twins---I know those parts of the story. And it is a story that is b-e-a-utifully well-written (thanks, God! Ya cool dude you). 

Baby Celia and Baby Joel, you could not have gotten better parents even if you could have picked some outta a big best-parents-ever magazine! You are so loved and are going to be raised in a house FULL of laughs, hugs, delicious food, more laughing, support, and all of the love. Heck, sounds like we all should move into this kind of house! But really, I can't wait to semi-move in with you and kiss the crap out of your baby cheekies (face, not tush, ya nasties). 

I'm not posting a picture of the twins on here. But how about all of you picture the cutest little twin babies in your head (other than Freddie and his brother, of course...good wife award!) and then Voila! You've correctly pictured Celia and Joel. 

Lindsey and Drew, you. are. PARENTS!!!! (In case you didn't get the memo...)

Time to celebrate for the rest of your lives!!

Brb, I'm off to plan my next trip home so I can get some twin lovin'.