11.29.2012

this little blog of mine

Alright, so here’s the thing.

(Pardon the ME! ME! ME! nature of this post.)

I’ve been dutifully writing to a diary since I was 10. It started with being told by my mother to keep a travel journal during our summer vacation in 1999. This included trips to everywhere from Florida, to Europe, to Missouri. Somewhere along the way, chronicling my experiences stopped being an assignment & became… duty. A personal duty that I obligated myself to. At 10, I worried that somewhere between Pensacola & Hamburg, I wouldn’t write down a moment & it would be lost forever. I’d never remember to tell my grandchildren about the doll in the window that I fell in love with in a Belgium town square. I would forget about the time that we visited the Arch & it was so windy, I thought it would blow over. & so I wrote. Maybe out of self-induced guilt. But the diary from that summer is a great read, nonetheless.

For awhile in high school, I was able to maintain an actual written diary that lived under my mattress while I also kept up with the trend that was sweeping the halls at school – Xanga. The actual diary held all of my secrets – Abundant boy troubles, drama with friends (& “friends) & frustration with parents or teachers. A typical teenage girl’s end-of-the-world problems. It also held my poetry, love notes to a future husband, verses & sketches. My soul. Xanga started fading amongst friends, but I kept writing under my anonymous pen names, eventually moving to LiveJournal as I started college.

When college began, I tried to make an effort to write in my real diary once a month. It didn’t last long. Between homework assignments, new friends & a new long distance boyfriend with whom I spent all of my free time talking to on the phone, LiveJournal became my outlet. I vented, I waxed poetic. Stream of conscience entries written to an invisible, online audience was the therapy that got me through college.

I’ve forged a long cyber path of my thoughts over the last 10 years. When I began discovering blogs & blog communities, I was obsessed. I think DesignSponge & Oh Joy! were my first doses of what a blog could really be. As such, I moved into the design focused realm of the blogging internet, which helped shape (& justify) my then-recent shift to an event planning major. I started a pathetic attempt at a wedding blog, because OnceWed took over my life as I looked forward to getting engaged & started coordinating weddings on the side. It’s really embarrassing. In fact, I think I deleted all of it ;)

Sitting in Our Tree started budding in my mind the summer before we got married. The guilt of not writing in a diary kept me up some nights, especially as we planned our wedding. But the stress of a new job on top of planning a wedding had kept me from doing much of ANYTHING. I, like everybody else, discovered Cup of Joe, Rockstar Diaries & The Daybook blogs (along with many more than I care to admit to) & dove headfirst into the PERSONAL blog realm. How lovely – Somewhere to document our life as a married couple! & so Sitting in Our Tree was born. An effort to document our lives, for us to look back on & remember some of those little memories. Bottling up conversations & adventures & sealing them tight.

It’s been weird writing here, though. It’s difficult to find a voice that’s approachable, easy-to-read & non-controversial. I’ve ended up censoring myself because of a fear of personal circles conflicting with a public blog. It’s easier to present the nice & shiny - To throw up some pictures, write four sentences & call it a day.

But the truth is – I’m an awkward, sarcastic, wordy person. I talk a lot & write even more. (As demonstrated by my 800+ words on this post alone.) & that’s just the way I've always been. (My older sister’s travel journal from Summer ’99 involved sentences like, “We took a carriage ride through the misty English countryside, drawn by a beautiful, dappled horse named Dill.” My experience was more like, “We were STARVING & it seemed like sitting in a box pulled by a horse was only making me hungrier for another apricot pastry like we’d had on the train.”) I've only just realized that THIS is my corner to write, rather than post my broody, dramatic pictures, or 140 characters worth of absolute Kelsey nonsense.

So, THE POINT IS that I’m going to start writing more often on this little blog. WHAT A NOVEL IDEA, I know. Sometimes, it may just be some pictures & 4 sentences. But I think this is a step in the right direction for me right now. The FORWARD direction. & I am all about some onward & upward, friends.

This post was more for me than it was for you, I suppose. It's just time for reflection & changes, you know?

11.27.2012

ohhhh, christmas tree!


Apparently, I just can't get enough of making videos right now! We finally got our tree up last night & it feels (& smells) like Christmas has arrived. (I say "finally" as though 4 days after Thanksgiving is late. Honestly, it's hard for me to even wait until Saturday after Thanksgiving.) It's pretty funny watching yourself decorate a tree in 1:09. IT'S LIKE WE'RE REAL CHRISTMAS ELVES!!!

We totally flaked out on the whole hacking-your-own-tree-down once again this year. I will be OHHH, so happy when we're finally able to trot our way out to a farm & hereby-declare-this-tree-BETHUNED, but $24.95 from a parking lot sounded right up our alley this year. That may or may not have something to do with the Great iPhone Massacre of 2012 that took place on Sunday.

Really, truly, I think making Christmas in an apartment is half of making an apartment home for me. It's just cozy, & familiar, & ours. & I like ours. Ours means it's full of love.


11.26.2012

on the cusp

So, here we are! On the cusp of Christmas. It's my last day of Thanksgiving Break from work, & I don't really know how to make the most of it. I made a pretty big dent in my to-do list this weekend, so staring at a wall or playing a video game with the neighbor's cat sounds about right for today's activities. I also made a pretty big dent (crack?) in my phone yesterday, & I feel like a trip to the local apple store has wandered its way onto that very same to-do list that I thought was so to-done.

I don't know. I get all jittery this time of year, worrying that I'm forgetting a tradition we've tried to start over the years or not being tradition-y enough. That's the curse of this Internetland that we dwell in. & you wonder why I don't get on Pinterest. HA! I get hives! Every time!

Today is probably a good day to think, make lists & take a deep breath(s) before the blur of December begins. But also to decorate the naked tree in our family room & hang some stockings on our fake mantle.

Santa Claus is coming to town, ya'll.

11.24.2012

thanksgiving & giving thanks



This past year, we've been especially thankful for:
A new job for him
A new home for us
Friends all around
A new record player
Our time together before puppies & babies (MOSTLY thankful for. Sometimes not ;))
Nieces & nephews
The shop on the corner, with local milk & plenty of chocolate
Big plans & bigger dreams for the next year
Laughing ourselves to sleep
The Dan in Real Life soundtrack
Hardwood floors
Cranberry pie & whipped cream

It seems so silly to try to make a brief, little list containing fraction of all we have to be thankful for. Really, every day that I wake up - Breathing & in love & saved by grace - there is nothing else but gratitude.


We hope you had a WONDERFUL thanksgiving, everyone.

11.20.2012

andrew potter vs. lord jared

It starts with taking christmas card photos, then you're asked to hold your wife's glasses "for a second," during which you find a stick, & suddenly, it's like BOOM. You're battling a Dark Lord. Just ask Andrew. Avada Kedavra, SON.

11.19.2012

sunday best

his:
shirt - j. crew | cardigan - h&m | tie - gap | jeans - cotton on | boots - thrifted

hers:
dress - francesca's | cardigan - f21 | tights - tj maxx | loafers - old navy 

One reason I know we're not anywhere near ready to be homeowners is the fact that I still can't understand why you'd prioritize keeping your lawn alive over just letting it be covered in beautiful, fall leaf glory. Because, really, what's more practical than standing in your lawn, throwing leaves into the air, giggling? 

Can you believe it's Thanksgiving week? We hosted a little friendsgiving event last night that involved A LOT of pie, & I've had to practice some serious self-control today to not over-indulge on pie too soon. But one of the pies I made MAY have had the words triple, chocolate & pumpkin in it... So YOU try staying out of the fridge with that taunting you. Jared's all like, anti-sweets these days, so he doesn't identify with my struggle. I'm alone in this fight. That also means MORE PIE FOR MEEEE. Heaven help me. ;)

11.15.2012

iphone does: november beach escape


I guess I haven't done that many "iphone does" posts since I started using ridiculous apps that help me cheat my way out of a limited square frame, because I was about to throw my laptop off the bed  screaming, "BLOGGER'S SPACING IS ALL OFF AGAIN." ... Mmmm, nope. It's just me & my square-frame-claustrophobia.

To be honest, I've not even pulled photos off our camera yet from our fantastic week in Pine Knoll Shores. We've been being social, which is ah! SO MUCH FUN! I'm inching my way ever nearer to the last event of the season at work, after which, I become a normal Monday-Friday-er for the next four glorious months. HUH-RAYYYY! It's the perfect cycle, because that's about when I start getting twitchy inside the office, craving a good event to get the adrenaline pumping.

Long story long, you get Instagram pictures because I've been being a normal 20-something. I am so bad at this blogging thing ;)

But isn't my niece just thah CUTEST?
Thanksgiving, come quick!
I need a baby fix!

11.12.2012

back on the grid

We have come to the end of a very beautiful, very wonderful, very nap-filled week of vacation & it is already approximately 7,469 times harder to go back to real life than anticipated. I spent today wrapping up one of the things I'd been pushing off until this vacation, but aside from finishing three Harry Potter books & turning my alarm off for the entire week... not a whole ton was accomplished, & I don't even feel bad. I even used up any reserve energy that I had saved up fighting off the insane baby fever that our outrageously cute niece induced.

So, it's back to work tomorrow. I'm trying to get pumped, but really, I'm already counting down days till Thanksgiving. 11 DAYS, YA'LL.

11.05.2012

from the shores of north carolina

We are taking a blissful week off on the North Carolina shores. Jared's brother & his wife, along with sweet baby Mia have joined us for some R&R, making for lots of baby lovin' & laughs. It has been a loooooong event season, but our November vacations are well worth the wait! Alright, I'm being told it's movie/naptime. My kinda afternoon.