breaking pointe

I am in no way a reality television fan - in fact, the closest I come is a slight obsession with laguna beach in high school & a really embarrassing addiction to sister wives that was developed during a SW marathon that played aaaaaall day as I was laid up on the couch with cramps this past christmas.

however! tonight, we will be in front of the tv, tuned in to the CW to watch our friend Josh's show premiere. because 1. we love him 2. he's a freaking amazing dancer (check him out at :09 & :024!) & 3. he's one of the only people that appreciated laguna beach the way I did, so I owe it to him. josh is a company member of ballet west, so we're definitely hoping to see him on camera a few times this season. it somehow seems a little fancier than skype ;)

 tune in tonight at 8PM/ET on the CW!

iphone does: memorial day weekend

I had four glorious days off this weekend, & even though I was sharing jared with fruitive A LOT... I also checked many an item off the perpetual to-do list while managing to get in as much baby/family/beach/puppy/naps!/husband loving as possible. see instagrammies below for reference:

baby niece's first birthday party//sunday naps with lissy//locking myself out of our apartment//working man arrives at his abode to dear, sweet, doting wife//puppy, pools & coordinating outfits//jared & ellie model & it is presh//cookout deliciousness//momma's place settings//his & her beverages of choice//breezy beach lovin'//swimming//puppy cuddles//a pre-tropical storm sunset to finish a bee-youuu-ti-full weekend

fruitive!

12 reasons why you should visit

1. fruitive is a brand spankin' new fresh juice and salad bar to our area. they believe in healthy living, healthy eating and sustainable, LOCAL, fresh produce. what is there NOT to love about that?

2. they have a wall of fresh fruit & veggies. & more fresh fruits & veggies on the counter. & wheat grass. WHEAT GRASS.

3. fancy menus serving up tasty with a heaping of good-for-you on top.

4. they have drinks like sweetgrass juice (apple, pear, pineapple, wheat grass, mint) & the f.i.t. smoothie (almond milk, blueberry, banana, peanut butter) - my favorites. for now.

5. beyond tasting good, they're all vibrant & colorful, which is like, instant happiness.

6. their delicious salad bar with one-of-a-kind fresh ingredients. plus, carrot-ginger dressing? shut the front door.

7. their classy staff, who work hard & play hard. never a dull moment behind the counter, ya'll.

8. the cozy environment, from the restored wood to the hundreds of old books lining the walls.

 9. because smoothies & juices alike make for excellent accessories. (kidding. sort of.)

10. officially blonde & red-headed approved

 11. because, let's face it, you're going to the beach anyway, so you may as well pop in before or after. it's refreshing either way. (hours are 11 a.m. - 6 p.m. until the grand opening)

if you're thinking that yeah, this place sounds amazing! but why am I so smitten with it???

well, I may or may not be a little biased.

12. jared is there!

fruitive

• hilltop north 1624 laskin road ste. 740
• virginia beach, va 23451

the day we met

this is a photo from the day I met jared. 

you're not crazy, it's definitely prom. if you think that's weird, just wait till you hear the rest. jared & I were both homeschooled, & since there are so many homeschoolers in this area, there is actually a homeschool prom. (you can read that sentence again if you need to.)

the year was 2006. I was a senior. my best friend was in the purple dress. we were both on the "prom committee," planning decorations & playlists & BONUS! the senior gifts. every time the name "jared bethune" popped up on the list of senions, she went out of her way to make sure I knew that she knew him. from way back when. hadn't heard from him in forever. "AWESOME." was usually my response. I didn't really care, & other than the used-to-know-that-guy factor, the conversation didn't go much further than that.

skip forward to prom night, april 21st. gretchen came running up to me with her purple dress hiked up to her knees, yelling over the music that she "FOUND HIM!!!" I screamed "WHAT?? WHO??" back in her face, but she just grabbed my wrist and pulled me across the dance floor. we were standing at a table. a boy was sitting in a chair. another boy was standing behind him, trying to talk to him over the bad techno song. gretchen didn't really care.

"KELSEY! THIS IS JARED!"
"WHAT???"
"THIS IS JARED! THAT GUY I WAS TELLING YOU ABOUT!"
"UHH... OH! HI, JARED!"

& then he said something back, but he wasn't hyper & screaming like us, so I couldn't hear him. I didn't care that I couldn't hear him. I was bored, & from the length of his hair, I wasn't really sure that I had time to stop & talk to what I thought was some skater kid when there was dancing to be done. we waved, said something about how it was nice to meet them & I pulled gretchen back to the dance floor. frank sinatra's come fly with me had just started playing, & in that moment, there was nothing better to be doing than running around with arms our arms out, flying through our senior prom.

I didn't see him the rest of the night.

it was only after we found each other through gretchen on myspace (yup, myspace) that I started paying attention to the skater kid from prom that my best friend used to know. turns out he wasn't a skater kid at all. he was an actor. a singer. a dancer. an artist. he had the theme from eternal sunshine of the spotless mind playing on his myspace (yup, myspace again) profile & I remember thinking, "well, that's promising." turns out, he was interested in my best friend. turns out, she had a boyfriend.

he called her one night when she was spending the night at my house. he ended up on the phone with me when her boyfriend called her. we stayed on the phone for 6 hours. we talked about everything. I remember thinking how odd it was to talk to someone who knew nothing about me. no presuppositions. no impressions. & his voice. oh, his voice. his voice still makes me weak in the knees. just his talking voice... I could have listened to it for hours. & I did. & I have. & I will.

we were dating three weeks later. on may 27th, 2006, we took a walk through my parents neighborhood, where he sat me down in a garden on the golf course, kissed my hands & asked me to be his girlfriend. then we walked home. it wasn't a month into dating that I knew I loved him. at the ripe old age of 17.


& here we are! SIX whole years later, as of today. married & everything. dating anniversaries don't get much attention after marriage, but we're kinda corny & I just can't let it pass without giving him bambi eyes & asking for a dance while come fly with me plays in the background.


it's been an adventure,
jared stedman bethune.
my huckleberry friend.
& here's yet another
public proclamation of l-o-v-e.

sunday best - sister style

another husband-less sunday. but I did snag my beauty of a younger sister to stand in with her eyelet skirt & stunnahhhhh sunglasses. she puts my little butterfly dress to shame, mostly because you just can't beat those wild curls. curly haired people are the best kinds of people.

a friday evening

it's been a big week in the bethune home. in the midst of finishing his two weeks at his coffee shop job, jared dove in head first to helping open a brand spankin' new juice bar down at the beach. in the midst of working long hours at BOTH jobs, he managed to find the perfect car for us at the perfect price while I ran around at six events last weekend. he is a good man. he's a great man. & I'm totally missing him.

busy, crazy, see-you-next-week-maybe?-love-you! season has definitely started. but I'm desperately trying to embrace this season of life & know that every moment of it leads to our Something Greater. 

in the mean time, I have four days off from work that started at 5 p.m. today, & I've so far spent my friday evening cleaning & anticipating the "I'm on my way home!" phone call. I hereby declare this weekend STAYCATION 2012. 

q & a

q. how do you hang out when:
-you are a group of five
-there are two boys & three girls
-two of the girls are event planners
-it's between the months of april-june for said event planners
-one of you is a fancy intern for a politician & keeps a busy schedule
-the other two have brand new jobs that they can't really get away from. ever.
-two of you live 2.5 hours away from three of you
-the boys want burgers & the girls want fancy drinks                            

a. you plan a monday evening dinner in williamsburg (the halfway point between us) & let the boys go one direction while the ladies drive off in another. proceed to soak up every minute of conversation & laughter. stay too long, sleep too little, & begin planning the next time you'll see one another.

//brought to you by an act of desperation after not being in the same room together for over two months

bleachy keen, jelly bean

the thing about hair coloring at home is my pride. I am just a smidge terrified of walking into a hair salon with sunglasses on & a beanie covering my head, looking around to make sure I don't recognize anyone while the hair gods of the salon look at me with disdain. because we all know what happened. the proof would be lying underneath the stolen-from-jared's-side-of-the-closet hat. my hair would be orange & I wouldn't hardly be able to blame anyone but myself & maybe the girl on the box who was giving me bleached-blonde flirty eyes that said, "come on... you can do it... you know you wanna..."

so, I tried to highlight the tips of my hair. yeah, that trend. at home. it was a holy fumes, batman! sort of experience, that had me in tears more than once & maybe nearly ended up in chunks of hair falling off my head because I got too wrapped up in an episode of Cupcake Wars & left it on for approximately 34 minutes too long. nearly, only because there were no chunks of hair falling. yet, anyways. the rest of that was true.

the bad news is that years & years of "partial highlights" (because I'm all sorts of cheap) has left the top layer of my hair practically impenetrable in a match against a $7 box of blonde goodness. also, that I spent a total of $14 & 6 hours over the course of two days on something that, let'sbehonest, no one has noticed.

the good news is that I lightened the underneath layer of my hair draaaastically &! there is no immediate need to slink into my hair god's chair & avoid making eye contact while I tell her my carefully fabricated story about a terrible accident involving me & a truck carrying "gallons & gallons of bleach!" I definitely feel more confident going forth in my highlighting endeavors.

but mostly, I'm just more convinced to save my pennies for a trip to the professionals & their mystical hair powers. this was such a letdown of a hair revolution. the hunt for happy hair 2012 continues. sorry for the delay + letdown. total double whammy.

*50 highlighted blonde hairs to our dear friend malcolm 

 for (unknowingly) lending his 50mm lens to me for a day.

it was great fun.

malcolm, you can claim your prize at any point in time,

but especially if you find yourself on the floor in our bathroom.

or folding our laundry.

plenty of hairs to go around.

hairs

I'm currently doing battle with my hair. in an attempt to um, bethecheapestpersonthatIcanpossiblybe, I'm putting off a trip to hair salon for just ooooone more month. unless my hair starts falling out in clumps because of all the chemicals that are burning through it as I type. if it works, I'll tell you all about it. if it doesn't, you can admire the new hat collection that I'll be modeling. 

on mother's day.

I am not a mom yet, & being a mom is not in the near future, really. (there, now that question is answered.) but my maternal instincts sometimes override the logistics of our life, currently ;) I spend a lot (a lot) of time thinking about our babies & that love for them that I can already feel. I am so blessed by all the mamas in my life that set such wonderful examples of motherhood. from sisters-in-law to women at our church to pregnant cousins to our own mothers, I am surrounded by the extraordinary women who show love & peace in every moment of loving their babies. in these pre-mama years, I just want to glean, & ask, & write & read! & I just want to tell all of them that - I see you! I see you in your good moments, when your children are being angels. I see you in the bad moments, when you probably feel like all the eyes in the room are on you & the screaming child on your hip. I see you in the less than glamorous moments, when there are four different types of bodily fluids covering various parts of your shirt. & guess what? it is awe-inspiring. you & your love & sacrifice - you are beautiful. & I truly cannot wait to have four different types of bodily fluid covering my shirt.  to my own mama - not only do I see you, but I have felt your love through every twist & turn in my life, & I have excelled because of it. 

I am so excited for my someday mother's days. but just because I'm not a mom doesn't mean there was anything less to celebrate on sunday! sunday, today, tomorrow... I am so blessed by & grateful for the mothers in my life. 

sunday best - stag edition

it was jared's turn to miss church for an event he was working at, so here is me, myself & my parents' back yard. & yeah, my fingers are kinda in my mouth all come-hither style, but that just is what it is, folks. 

happy mother's day! we were so blessed to have been able to spend lunch with my mom & to enjoy a thai dinner with his. they're pretty & wonderful & pretty wonderful ladies.I  had this elaborate "ode to the mothers in my life" post written in my head on the drive in to church this morning, but wouldn't you know that it & my motivation have both left me? maybe tomorrow. I also want to tell you all about this past weekend's wedding. jared leaves for nyc tomorrow morning, so I'll probably buy a lb. of twizzlers & blog my little heart out while How I Met Your Mother keeps me company on netflix. it's like I'm always trying to tell you people, I AM FANCY.

edit // turns out it was a Golden Girls marathon on WE that kept me company. even fancier.