sunday best

I guess our little Sunday Best features have become more of a series of pictures posted on Sundays than our actual Sunday Best. Which is interesting. Hopefully once the event season calms down, I'll... You know, be able to go to church on Sundays again.

But, how great are those polka dot high heels? Yeah, Jared got them for me. Not that it's not painfully obvious that I have a small polka dot obsession or anything. PSH. He's such a catch.

his

shirt: h&m | sunglasses & shorts: cotton on | belt: j. crew

hers

shirt: pacsun | necklace: charlotte russe | jeans & watch: francesca's collection | shoes: f21

the rest of richmond

how to break in a new house: let friends invade for 2 days pretty much IMMEDIATELY following purchase of new home, under the pretenses that there's a 5k to be run, but really... it's an excuse to party. have friends explore city surrounding new home to (once again) give their stamp of approval that your city is, in fact, wonderful. make really good food that makes the new house smell all sorts of delicious, but also go out to a fancy shmancy restaurant & drink celebratory/way too expensive drinks (toast to friendship & home-owning & caramel + lava salt gelato). break in front yard tree with impromptu bestie-photo sesh. imagine having future children recreate photos in front yard tree. (not pictured: stomp around house singing & banging on walls just to feel better about not having upstairs or downstairs neighbors to worry about.) finish with a super precious photo shoot with spouse to commemorate homeownership. decide that new house probably isn't completely broken in yet, & begin planning the next friend invasion.

sweet, sweet times in richmond.
we are so happy for our kindred spirits & their new adventure.

color run!

Amelia & I decided waaay earlier this year that running a 5k seemed like a really good goal to achieve, & that a 5k involving being pelted with colors seemed like the way to go. Amelia has long claimed rainbow as her favorite color, & I have long claimed running as the bane of my existence, so the obvious choice was skipping our way through a run that didn't involved being timed or you know, like, training & stuff. but we did it! we walked a little but we did it! & it was just happy & carefree & we high-fived people we didn't know A LOT. the color mosh pit at the end was definitely magical, although this is coming from someone who was smiling/laughing her way through every color station & ended up with brown teeth by the end of the race. This is the same runner who was coughing/sneezing/q-tipping color out of various orifices for the next 6 hours. Which is the same girl whose armpits & kneepits were stained navy blue for 48 hours. ... Who is the same blonde that rocked green, algae-like tips in her hair for the rest of the week. Totally. Worth. It.

& of course, where would we be without our biggest fans, who found us at the finish line sporting their Color Runner sweatbands, with added "Husband of A" flair. Husbands are cute. & please don't let it be lost on you that my race number ended in 143. Obviously a sign that I was the most in-love runner out there.

Obviously.

sunday best-ish

I HAVE BOOTS ON. ihavebootsonihavebootsonihavebootson. !!! I, along with the rest of southern Virginia, have been obsessed with the weather around here recently. You don't understand - We don't really usually get more than two weeks of "fall", & when we do? It's in November. We're usually battling hurricanes or humid, sticky heat this time of year.

The weekend is finally upon us, since Mondays are our glorious day-off, & my big plans are to color coordinate our bookshelves & book our anniversary trip. But tonight? Tonight, Jared's cooking up his out-of-this-world honey glazed brussels sprouts, it's my turn to pick out a movie, & we're going to just hold still. & it's going to be great.

& no, I didn't wear this to church. I wore this after work. so there.

shirt: pac sun | shorts: h&m | boots: payless, whaaat | bubble necklace: southern jewelry auctions (check them out on facebook!)

minus & plus

-

blog silence = busy times. 

+

but mostly really great busy times! that include lots of pictures!

-

my whole department was away at a conference last week, so I got to wear many, many hats at work.

+

I survived. I also took 2.5 days off, so I sorta cheated.

+

I survived my first 5k! (there may have been some walking involved.)

-

I'm still sore!

-

there's a chipped paint mess all over the back seat/trunk of our car.

+

it's from a really lovely find in Carytown that I can't wait to show you.

-

super crazy traffic on the way home from Richmond

+

road trip conversations with my guy. it's a lot of laughing & hand holding.

-

mixed emotions of leaving dear friends & our carefree weekend to come home to our still-mostly-disorganized-apartment.

+

the last of the boxes have been emptied & it's just an organizing game from here on out!

-

I should have done some of said organizing tonight.

+

I made baked macaroni & cheese instead. 

ohhhhhh, september. please slow down. 

mama mia!

click the "read more" below to see all the pictures!

fake curls

I wrote a song in high school with words something like, "sitting in your parents' car//my fake curls & your fake words"... you know, something super dramatic like that. I don't remember the tune or the rest of the lyrics (thank God), but sometimes when I'm curling my hair, I get that line stuck in my head. oh, emo Kelsey.

but about the curls - they're half fake. I'm on a no-brushing-or-really-washing-now-that-I-think-about-it kick with my hair, & I've been using this sucker to help define some of the pieces that only want to dread instead of curl. I don't really know what brought this hair-decision on, but it happens at least once a year. it harkens back to my freshman year of college when I switched my major to English & decided to live in silk skirts, while I wrote poems about living in a forest with Jared & our 32 children. yup, that happened. 

in case you're looking for a sunday best post, I don't have one (again). LAAAAME, I know. but our work schedules have been nearly opposite for the past two weeks, & we've both found ourselves working on Sundays an awful lot. but the good news is that moving expenses have sort of evened out finally, which made room in the Fill Kelsey's Closet with Fall Goodness! budget. the better news is that polka dots could not be more on trend right now, & I nearly passed out from polka dot induced happiness when I walked into Forever 21 last week. polka dots are just... joy. sweet joy to my soul. 

I'm running a 5k on Saturday. I just unpacked my running shoes last night. I leave you with that thought & images in your head of what that may end up looking like.

on morning light

I'm not a morning person. there are three sisters, two parents, 4 college roommates, & a husband that will back me up on it. don't talk to me until my contacts are on my eyeballs & my teeth have been brushed, & please keep your comments short & pertinent until I've eaten something.

but man! do our new streams of morning light make it hard to be grumpy! every room has some corner being flooded with white morning rays of sun that feel like they should be accompanied by squirrels waving & birds winking at me from the window. & if there were squirrels & birds, I'd probably wave back without thinking twice. because there's just something a little spectacular about 6:45 a.m., if you can get past the nagging sensation that being in bed > being awake.

my childhood best friend's mom used to wake us up every sleepover morning (in which we'd been asleep for maybe three hours) with, "Good morning, glory, what's your story?" sometimes I still hear that in my head when I'm stumbling around the kitchen looking for a spoon. there usually is a story, whether it's about last night's event at work or yet another crazy dream. (I have lots.) I've pocketed that saying for when I'm waking my kids up. I just think it will be sweet to let them share their sleepy adventures before the adventure disappears from memory forever.

I have high hopes for becoming a morning person someday. whenever someone mentions their morning quiet time with scripture, tea & the sunrise, I get misty-eyed because that sounds oh-so-pleasant & I WANT THAT!!! then I wonder for a brief second if that person is a robot or maybe they're just lying... then I go back to believing them & dreaming of early Somedays spent alone with just me (& maybe a baby) & the quiet morning. 

for now, I'll just take the morning light.

sweet things

1. chocolate chip banana bread for breakfast

2. kissing!

3. finding the perfect chord

4. seeing the "fall" issues hit the stands

5. a big enough parking spot right in front of our building that I can simply pull into

6. dreaming of trips to faraway lands

7. cobblestones

8. seeing friends in love

9. the smell of a freshly squeezed lime

10. jared's hair being long enough to twirl & twirl & twirl with my fingers

it's nice to know that I could go on & on with the sweet things I'm blessed with. especially when my day was clouded by a little bit of self-doubt. isn't that a funny thing?

'tis grace

this morning, I played piano for the very last time as the music director at our church. it's definitely the end of an era, & it is good. it really is! it's been a good 4 year run, & it's a good step forward for me, for the church. but that doesn't make it any less sentimental. seriously, I know that piano almost as well as I know my parents', & that's saying something.

for so, so many years I've been on that stage, praising Jesus! & of course, the praising doesn't stop, but the last minute offertory rehearsals do. the late-saturday night "I FORGOT TO DO THE POWER POINT FOR WORSHIP!" panic attacks are over. & my favorite - waking up at 6 a.m. for worship rehearsal even though I only left work at 2 a.m. is (joyfully) a thing of the past. I've loved (nearly) every moment of it, though. & I am grateful for all of it.

I have been so blessed by being a part of the music at our church. I have also been pushed & strained because of it. every direction it pulled me was God moving in me. moving forward, moving (what often felt like) backwards. He made it an anchor for me, for better and for worse. I am so excited for the new director & what he is bringing to the church & the worship team that I've been given the opportunity to love so hard & for so long. I'm excited for what's next. excited for the journey.

'tis grace that brought me safe thus far

Soli Deo gloria