a propose-iversary of sorts

Well, shoot. It has just been a hot minute since I posted anything gushy mushy sappy wappy about my Freddiefriendhusband, hasn't it? Let's change that now. 

Monday marked our one year engage-iversary (now doesn't that sound silly? Hmm, what about one year since Freddie proposed-iversary? No? They all sound silly? Moving on). April 28, 2013 was a day when my left ring finger got a lil heavier and my life got a whole lot lighter. Lighter because my love for Freddie is so high, maybe? Man, apologies for this entire paragraph. 

How in the whole wide freakin' world has a year passed since then? I still remember so many little details. So many of the crazy happy emotions. So many of the endlessly long glances at my finger. But there's also a lot I'm sure I've forgotten. I am desperately trying to cling on to every last little memory I can squeeze outta that day. Like the most obvious memory of...me being the dumbest person.

There. I said. I was the dumbest person on April 28, 2013. Being a good blogger stalker, I have read many a proposal story online. 9 times out of 10 there's usually the line about I had an idea it would happen that night so I made sure I painted my nails. Or I made sure I looked really nice. Or He was so nervous! I was just waiting for it to happen. My story has none of those lines in it. My nails were not painted. HORRORS! My students had performances all day so my "nice" outfit consisted of an all black ensemble since I was working backstage. Nope, not the glam black ensemble you are picturing. More like a black leggings and an oversized black shirt ensemble. Very in style in the working-backstage-world. 

Now that I'm on this side of the proposal I can see there were a lot of signs that night. Signs so obvious that the universe might as well have had a big ole fat neon glowing finger pointing down at each moment. But I had on my anti-big ole fat neon glowing universe finger sunglasses so that's obviously why I didn't see any of them...

Sign #1

We had been talking about marriage and engagement for awhile. I was gearin' and ready to be married and living in South Carolina. So when Freddie insisted we have a special night to ourselves and go out somewhere nice I just thought he was happy to see me. Because ya know, long distance sucks and who doesn't want to celebrate being together by going to a fancy wine bar? 

Sign #2

April showers bring May flowers. April in Georgia is usually rainy, but fairly warm. Like hey, 80 degree weather already. April 28, 2013 was neither extremely rainy nor cool, yet Frederick wore his rain jacket the entire night. Even as he helped load up heavy scenery pieces after my kid's show. Even when inside said fancy schmany wine bar. 

Purple teeth and rain coats make for the more dapper night out attire. Everyone wave to Freddie's left sleeve pocket. Otherwise known as The Ring's Hiding Spot. 

Sign #3

This is the part in the proposal story where other girls might say they could see how nervous their significant other was and knew something big was about to happen. This is the part in our proposal story where I am singing and dancing around the room and didn't notice how extremely nervous my significant other was. I can't help it---give me a few glasses of wine and a good Spotify station and I'm good to go. I can rewrite lyrics for you. I can choreograph some new hawt dance moves for you. The possibilities are endless. So as Freddie grew extremely quiet around my loud-mouthed dancing self (which hey, it isn't that strange for Freds to stand there quietly and let me get the crazy moves out of my system) I wasn't aware that every time he kept pulling me in for a hug he was holding the ring behind my head trying to get up the courage to get down on one knee. And he kept pulling me in for hugs... 

So Monday night, April 28, 2014, in the 30 minutes between work and my rehearsal that we got to spend together, we sat down and just laughed. We laughed about how it felt like Freddie must have given me a script that night with how well everything worked out. We laughed at how dumb I was. We laughed at how this all means we are 4 months away from being married for a year (because laughing is better than freaking out about it, obviously). 

Boy oh boy, Freddie-o! I am so happy you decided not to wait to propose after you got the ring because that night is forever engraved in my mind as one of the most wonderful nights of my life. And I've had a lot of wonderful days and nights with you soooo kind of a big deal that I can pinpoint one down like that ;)

Didn't get enough proposal goodness from this post? Because one can never have too much proposal goodness. Check out the real proposal story here. 

five on friday: the dreamy edition

Last week was such a dream, I tell you, an absolute dream (minus the dreary, rainy, and not so beachy weather). I didn't even care about the weather because it was a week full of family and friends. Full! Of fun! With family! And friends! Which means this week has been full of sadness as I'm reminded that my family and friends don't live a hop, jump, and a skip away. More like a hop, jump, skip, leap, and 5-10 hour drive away... But really, does anyone else go into major post-hostess blues when your guests leave? I kind of felt like lying in a dark room and listening to sad music (read: R.E.M.) all morning after Caroline left Monday. And by morning I mean I still feel like doing that here 4 days later.

Sigh.

Having my mom and Robbie here for 3 days immediately followed by a long weekend with my best best best friend eva completely spoiled me.
Side note:
I don't think you understand what I mean when I say best friend. Whenever I told people my best friend (who I had not seen in 8 months) was coming into town they were like Oh, cool. or How fun! No, just no. You didn't hear me correctly. My best friend. The best. The kind of best friend where I just believe there are no words to accurately describe how best best of friend. But whatever, I guess it was cool and fun.

So today we will be talking about
5 Reasons Having Family/Friends In Town Is The Tops.

one.
You get to learn new things. Like this trip I picked up the new skill (or my mom painstakingly taught it to me) of embroidering. In my mind I see it as a way for me to make adorable things like this...

Via

And then turn my guest bedroom into the adorableness of this...

Via
Here's how it really all went down during the week:
Freddie: Isn't that something old people do?
Robbie: Haven't you finished yet?
Man at the post office handing me my embroidery package: Aren't you a little young to be doing this?
My mom: Ooooh, it looks so great!! Keep going!! <---- obviously the best. 

two.
There are musical concerts all the time. Like...all the time. Between my mom bringing and playing her mandolin, to sing alongs with harmony (why does Freddie never join in when I sing Sound of Music?!), to performing rhythm chants, we've got all the fun here and you're obviously missing out on it.

three.
Because finally someone can go shopping with you and convince you actually to make a purchase or actually to buy a new purse that you've been talking about getting for over a month now. Over two months? Over three months? I've lost track. Number three is brought to you by my mother saying You're welcome, Freddie. Now she'll stop talking about needing a new purse. 

four.
Someone actually wants to craft with you. Hobby Lobby, or Hob Lobs as the cool kids say, is heaven on Earth. I fully 100% cross-my-heart believe that. So when Caroline comes into town and wakes up ready to get our craft on I can't say no. The Holy of Holies (Hobby Lobby) will not let me say no.
And then a little while later we have these beautiful, magnificent, wonderful Disney coaster creations.

five. 
You get out of the house and on to enjoying the town more. Hashtag: even in the rain.
As I mentioned above, the weather was less than dreamy. It was windy. And chilly. And rainy. But did that stop us from hitting up the hot spots of Charleston? Negative. Well, okay, maybe half negative.
We said poo-poo to the wind and had drinks on the Rooftop Bar anyways.

MC is rockin' that wind blown look. Model status.

We said poo-poo to the torrential downpour and spent Friday night sitting at the bar of a hip Prohibition bar with soaking wet clothes and hair. Worth it.

We said poo-poo to the cold air and dressed up all fancy like for an evening downtown.

Why are they obnoxiously flashing their rings? Oh, I will tell you. Those just happen to be our matching bff rings that we've had for almost 15 years. The ring I lost in the ocean and happened to find a replica of at an arts festival. The rings that inspired this tattoo. The rings that rule them all, sorry Frodo.

Of course there are many other reasons why family/friend visits are the best. Someone to stalk old Facebook photos with you. Someone to eat copious amounts of delicious food with you. Someone to drink wine with you while Freddie cooks. Yadda yadda yadda, you get the picture.

I said something whined to my mom about wanting her to live closer and she said PSH, you'd get tired of me! Ummm. Let's test out that theory because I think life is just better when family is nearby. For sure. No doubt. Let's get this thing going already.

Happy Friday! Hope you give your family and friends an extra big squeeze this weekend. 

ghosts of Easter past

Easter is like......one of my favorite holidays. Mostly because there's a whole lotta good candy (which means basically I like any and all holidays, if you picked up on that). Around Easter, I'm like a kid...in a candy store. No analogy needed there because it's true. The food that sustained me on Sunday included (but is not limited to): Reese's eggs (milk and white chocolate, please and thank you), gummy eggs. gummy bunnies, Cadbury caramel eggs, Snickers peanut butter eggs, pretzel m&ms mixed with peanut butter m&ms. Hmmm, am I missing anything? Oh yeah, let's not forget the h-u-g-e Easter Feaster we consumed. I told my Monday students that Easter gave Miss Emily a big fat tummy ache, but I'm pretty sure that Miss Emily gave Miss Emily a big fat tummy ache. Whatever, no regrets. Hashtag: blessed 'n full 'n all of that. 

 Chyeah we had dumplings at Easter Feaster. You didn't?

This is my attempt at an artsy picture. Please notice that A) the knife didn't want to be part of an artsy picture and B) this isn't an artsy picture at all. 

In honor of such a wonderful holi-feast-day, my mother sent me and my siblings some old Easter pictures. Let's just say 24 years old is not the only age at which I enjoyed eating copious amounts of candy. Let's also just say that apparently styling my hair as a young lass was something challenging for my mother. She tried to blame it on my hair. I blame it on the cow that licked my hair line the day I was born. 

one// Baby Emily in an Easter food coma. Much like grown Emily looked Sunday.

two// Young Emily showcasing a fashionable haircut for '91.

three// Emily the Leper. A.K.A. the year the Emily picked at her chicken pox instead of picking at candy wrappers.

four// Rocking that shoulder pouf. 'Nuff said. 

five// That dress had velcro on the middle insert. Couldn't be showing off my young cleavage. 

six// Emily, the older sister of a princess...obviously. (also the younger sister of a brother who really liked wearing his pants closer to his arm pits than not). 

I am skipping the pre-teen Easter Emily. You are welcome. That's really all I can say about that. Other than to tell you that Freddie looked at the pre-teen picture and laughed. Then said I looked like a ghost. Then said I looked like one of the twins in The Shining. Then probably went into our room, shut and locked the door, and tried to figure out how to get out of the life long commitment we kinda just made. 

Easter Feaster 2014. Way less shoulder poufs, same # of cowlicks, and the best of friends.

Edit: I somehow forget to mention this splendid little gift the Easter husbunny got me.

Right?!

an apple a day...

Did you ever have that elementary school teacher who was such a cliche teacher and had all things apple decor? Because teachers and apples go together like peanut butter and Nutella (sorry, I'm a strict no jelly kind of gal), right? Wrong. I don't get it. Let me insert apologies here in case any of you reading this are teachers and do have copious amounts of apple decor. 

Yeah, you know exactly what I'm talking about. Don't hide it. 

Well these days the kiddos have decided to give a different kind of gift to their teachers (me): 

gift cards.

Let me just say that if I was given as many apples as I've been given gift cards in the past few years of teaching then I would be...very regular. I'll leave it at that. Winky wink and insert smiley poopy face emoji. Have a hankering for some ice cream? Let's go to Cold Stone. It's on me. Need coffee, coffee, with a side of more coffee? I'm your girl. Starbucks or Dunkin? Your choice, my treat. Always wanted something fancy from Nordstrom? Well too bad because I'm saving that one for me. 

The thing is... I'm the worst at making decisions (Freddie is somewhere reading this and praising Jesus that I've finally admitted to this one flaw of mine). So let me repeat. I, Emily, cannot make a decision worth flip. Worth diddly squat. I can't do it. These beautiful little cards full of money and gifts for me are just getting dusty in my wallet. Almost every weekend Freddie asks me to pull them out and we go through and plan out a day where we only use gift cards...

...and then we don't. I go to a store and look and look and can't decide on anything. So I come home and yes! Online shopping will save the day! But online shopping doesn't save the day. It just makes the gift card decision making harder. Omigosh, are these hives from online shopping anxiety? <---it's a real thing. Take deep breaths, Emily. It's just a blazer. 

By the way, yes those are my inner thoughts while online shopping. Those and a slew of other more insane/second guessing/why can't I do this kind of thoughts. 

A-n-y-w-a-y-s, guess what?? I used one of the gift cards yesterday. I bought the prettiest little floral blazer. 

via

I mean, hellooooo floral is so in right now, Well, according to Pinterest. And according to some fashion bloggers I follow (follow with googly eyes yet never comment because what would I say? Me. Want. To. Dress. Like. You. Help). Awkward. 

Now my gift card collection is down one whole gift card. Progress, people. Now to use Dunkin Donuts. And Lulu Lemon (too many possibilities!). And Williams and Sonoma. And Hobby Lobby. And...

I guess my point is that maybe my students should just stick to giving me apples and/or apple decor. Then the only decision would be when to eat said apple or where to display said apple decor. 

Hashtag: firstworldteacherprobz? 

Or something like that.

on a break.

It's Sunday night as I'm writing this. I got one load of laundry done over the weekend and yet I'm not worried. The apartment smells like a mixture of sunscreen and tacos, heavy on the sunscreen. There are beach towels rolled up in a bag somewhere and bathing suits hung in the bathroom. And the bathing suits were hung in the bathroom with care...

Welcome to my spring break. 

Bold print and large font were necessary because it is spring freaking break! I have counted down the days, minutes, and seconds to this break more than I have ever counted down for any extended break. That, my friends, is a complete lie but let's pretend it's true and move on. 

Emily, what are your plans for the week?

Great question, blog reader #5. Pull up a chair and let's go through them. 

Deep clean the apartment. 

Maybe I'll even have Freddie make the bed again during this cleaning spree. Not. 

Who gets excited about dusting off the top of door frames and throwing out a whole bunch of schtuff?! Me. Me. Me me me. This apartment is about to be so clean we could eat off of the floor. But we will not because we like tables... and living in the 21st century. 

Easter crafting. 

Need I say more? Yes, yes I do need to say more. Easter crafting would not be complete without Easter candy. Need I say more to that? Not at all. 

The beach.

I will be doing the beach thang all while not getting sunburned. One of those statements will happen and the other will not. I'll let you take a guess as to which is which. 

Well this looks like a delightful spot to park my bum. 

Hug/squeeze/love on/cry years of joy with these people.

My mom and my not mom, Robbie, arrive on Tuesday night. Tuesday! So soon! But get here faster, Tuesday!

My BFF/LYLAS/hoe best friend, Caroline, gets in town Friday. Eeee!! Eee!! Eeee!! This picture on the right just happens to have been the last time we saw one another. That's right. At my wedding. Almost 8 months ago. Stupid.

Know that this emoji was invented for the sole purpose to describe my feelings about these spring break visitors. 

Tears of j-o-y, people. Read those dashes as if they were sobs and you've got it down.

Let's get this party started.