50 things!

Because it's our date-i-versary week (& also because I miss Myspace surveys), we pooled together 50 FUN FACTS!!!1 about us while we made brownies tonight, inspired by Queen Taza herself.

In all seriousness, it's really sort of a weird thing to just jump into blogging about your daily lives & expect people to hop on board the reading train. I think little pieces of our background come up along the way, but there's never really a life story presented. Not that 50 facts about our pet peeves & oddities is a life story, but it's still fun. I mean, for us. & that may have been because of the brownies. So, in closing, I'd recommend reading this over brownies. Enjoy!

1. We started dating when we were 17 &18.
2. He is the middle child of seven - Three brothers & three sisters
3. She is the second oldest of four sisters.
4. He is a classically trained vocalist.
5. At one point in college, she had 26 piano students.
6. Vivaldi is his favorite composer.
7. The West Wing was her favorite t.v. show in middle & high school.
8. Pirates of Penzance was his favorite musical in middle & high school.
9. She has a children's song (with hand motions!) for at least 100 Bible verses.
10. He knows the words to every Beatles song.
11. She can't keep up with him on the dance floor.
12. But he twirls & dips her a lot, anyway.
13. Her shoes are forever spread all over the apartment.
14. His sock & bowtie collection grow by the holiday. (& he loves it.)
15. She is left-handed.
16. We're pretty bad at keeping traditions.
17. He can balance almost anything on his chin. Yes, his chin.
18. She's a night owl.
19. He's quickly becoming a morning person. 
20. She's allergic to cats, but pets them anyway.
21. He sneezes every time he eats chocolate, but eats it anyway.
22. She doesn't really wear extra jewelry.
23. His car is a mess.
24. She knows the music better than the lyrics to almost every song.
25. We are definitely Macs.
26. If he could only eat one thing for the rest of his life, it would be tacos. & he wouldn't even be mad.
27. Our first date was to Sonic's drive-in. Faaaaancyyyy!
28. She doesn't like breakfast.
29. He buys 4 types of cereal every time he's at the grocery store.
30. She's obsessive about keeping the refrigerator clean.
31. He's obsessive about replacing the toothbrushes.
32. But neither of us are obsessive about doing the dishes. Darn.
33. We were both homeschooled from kindergarten to graduation.
34. She will harmonize to any song.
35. We suspend the baby fever by looking at puppies on google images.
36. She has an intense sense of smell.
37. He likes doing money stuff, which is her answer to prayer.
38. She silent sneezes.
39. He's the most dapper guy she knows.
40. We both have a scar above our left eyes, & freckles in our eyes that are actually mirror images.
41. She has a different color scheme for the Christmas tree every year.
42. He will have a luscious head of white hair someday, & she's pumped.
43. She would have preferred rice crispy treats or popcorn to wedding cake.
44. He interjects her name into every song that gets stuck in his head.
45. She wanted to be a wrapping paper designer when she grew up.
46. He wanted to be a cowboy.
47. She's learned all the songs in Les Mis for him.
48. He's opened the car door for her since they started dating.
49. She slips into a southern twang when she talks on the phone.
50. We've had an epic poke war going on Facebook since 2006.
51. BONUS: We both think we married the funniest human on this earth, & we'd highly recommend that quality to anyone in the spouse-hunting market ;)

seven years

Seven years ago today,  Jared & I took a bike ride to this little garden in my parents' neighborhood, & he asked me to be his girlfriend. Dating anniversaries are maybe supposed to fall by the wayside as years go by & wedding rings are acquired, but every year, May 27th has remained special for us. Somehow, we already knew that getting into a relationship that day wasn't going to just be another girlfriend or boyfriend. I was sure 48 hours into knowing him that I would be his wife. & just like that (with a couple hundred years in between), we are at seven whole years. 2,555 days of hand-holding, forehead-kissing, flower-giving, fist-bumping, share-dessert love.

I pulled together a few (hilarious) photos to commemorate the last seven years of Jared + Kelsey. I can't apologize enough for the puka necklaces & buzz cuts. It's been a lot of fun to pull all these photos out today. (& if you just can't get enough of us, I wrote about how we met here.)

Click the read more below to see all seven years of Jared & Kelsey glory!

sunday best

HIS

shirt & tie clip - j. crew // tie - gap // pants - UO // shoes - thrifted

HERS

dress - old navy // heels - F21

Things that are unusual about today: 1. The weather was perfect, as opposed to in the 90's that we're used to for Memorial Day weekend. 2. We were both able to go to church this morning, instead of in 30 directions the we're used to for weekends in May. 3. Although we did take a two hour walk around town, we opted to use our day off to finish re-watching Season 3 of Arrested Development before we start on the new episodes... OBVIOUSLY a priority over the beautiful weather. Errrr...

I don't know what's happened this month on this little blog. There's a mixture in May of events at work & sneaking in as much fun things as possible on the sides, & the internet got lost in there somewhere. But I'm on the case. You know, the Mystery of Documenting Interesting Things to Share. It's a big one, but I'll solve the crime by dinner time!

rainy may day

If you ask me what my favorite movie is, I will not hesitate for a second to tell you that it is, in fact,  Remember the Titans. Yep, that one. I don't even like football, but somehow this movie won me over. (For the record, Ryan Gosling was my favorite character, even back in 2000. When he looked like this. Yeah, true fan.) I always figured that somewhere between age 12 & 24, I would reevaluate & upgrade my answer from a Disney movie that's sorta-kinda-loosely based on a true story. It hasn't. I'm only a teensy bit sorry.

This is all important because I've been on the hunt for the soundtrack disc for the last two months of warmer weather. This is one of those cds that if it was possible to wear out a disc, I would have. The soundtrack is delicious mix of The Hollies & Buck Owens & Norman Greenbaum... Happiness in a soundtrack for me. I know this disc still exists. Somewhere. I've moved four times in the last five years, & I'm devastated at the thought that I've lost it. For whatever reason, I have decided that it's worth it to continue searching for the missing disc rather than purchasing the soundtrack on iTunes. That's the stubbornness talking, but I'm pretending that it's because I'm frugal. I have instead turned to the Cat Stevens station on Pandora, which is fulfilling my need for 70's folk-rock goodness.

As I was driving today, with the windows down & Don Mclean crooning about chevys and levies & whiskey & rye, there was honeysuckle. I couldn't see honeysuckle, but it was there, filling the air. It's such a childhood smell. Honeysuckle: the lifelong constant that summer is almost here. School is almost out. The neighborhood pool is almost open. The beach is almost a good idea. Spring is almost over.

Some things haven't changed in the last 12 years. I will always cry when the Titans (spoiler alert) win the championship & the smell of honeysuckle is still the smell of one season's end & another season's beginnings. Um, & Ryan Gosling is still my favorite.

Alright. This afternoon's weather has gone from sunny & humid to torrential downpours, & now just overcast & humid. This has resulted in too much introspective/nonsensical writing, overdosing on iced coffee, NOT finding my Remember the Titans CD & forgetting to rotate the laundry. I get an A+ today ;)

a windy little picnic

This is one of those things that I imagine I'll look back on a year from now & sort of *facepalm* that I actually deemed it internet-worthy... Between the shakiness & the dirt the lens acquired on the walk to the park from our apartment, it's a little lackluster. But it's still a little memory of a picnic & heel-clicks in the park on a pretty, spring day in May. Plus, I could listen to this song over & over & over again. It would almost certainly be on the soundtrack if my life were a movie.

We've been having to make the most of our "weekends" since it usually ends up that I work at least half of Sundays & Jared half of Mondays. Yesterday, that meant sleeping in, overlooking typical Monday chores & taking a walk to the park. I'm getting the want-a-vacation itch, so every little thing that involves me + Jared + not being in our apartment/at work helps. I may have closed my eyes for a minute & pretended we were on holiday in San Francisco or Barcelona. Heightened levels of the vacation sads, folks.

But it's okay! Because, heel-clicks! Right? 

monday best - post mother's day edition

 boatneck - H&M // skirt - vintage // hat - cotton on // sunnies - UO

I just realized that I'm the jerk posting outfit photos the day after Mother's Day instead of an ode to my wonderful mom & mother-in-law... plus all the other mothers in my life. & they are all wonderful. I just got so excited that I actually took outfit photos for once! Even if my hair looks slightly lifeless towards the bottom. It's fine. It's totally fine.

We got to see both of our moms & 2 out of the 4 sisters that are mothers yesterday, which is probably a record for us. It was simply perfect weather, which made for a pleasant afternoon of flower delivering & mom-hugs. I wish there was more time in the week for us to see our moms, since they both live no more than 20 minutes away from us. They are truly lovely, classy ladies. Well, lovely & classy with a touch of sass - & we respect the sass around these parts, because otherwise, we never would have made it past our first conversation all those years ago.

I had an event in the morning & one of the caterers cautiously approached & asked if I was a mother in a calculated attempt to get bonus points with the big, bad event manager. I said no, but thanks for asking. It's funny, because growing up, I was always perplexed when the couples that got married at our church reached their two year anniversary without any babies showing up. When we first started dating, I figured we'd have a baby as soon as possible after getting married. But here we are! Two & a half years in, & prayerfully fine with it being just the two of us, for now. I am so... so excited to meet our kiddos someday & pass along the sass to the next generation. But in the meantime, I'm just taking notes from our moms, our sisters & friends, while munching on all the niece & nephew cheeks that I can get my hands on.

& for the record, Jared is the one who gets baby fever in this house. I'm still stuck on puppy.

oh, hey.

Pictured above is a post-it note that I wrote while in the middle of writing about 16 other post-it note reminders for events this weekend. It was one of those moments that I needed to just stop & rationalize whether the anxiety-induced tension that was accumulating in my neck was really worth it. Really, truly, grand-scheme-of-things worth it. In the moments that I have to stop & ask myself this question, the answer seems to usually be a big, fat, sloppy "no." I'm not trying to shrug off responsibility, or belittle whatever duty it is that is lying before me. It's just a reminder to breathe. That tomorrow is coming whether I like it, or whether I'm dreading it. & that tomorrow will eventually be yesterday.

Then there's the flip side to tomorrows & yesterdays, & this side looks a lot like doing my baby sister's hair for the prom I am subconsciously doubting she is old enough to attend (because BABY. SISTER.), or looking at the calendar & realizing that May is already halfway over & we've been to the beach zero times. I could go on, but I'm imagining that my existentialism will only hold your attention but for so long. It's been a long day that started at 4:00 a.m. I may or may not be eating hummus for "dinner" as I type because there is still so much to get done before the end of the day.

So... Deep breath.

& oh hey, oxygen.

& then Danielle got married.

Hey there, blog! I'm getting my life back together after a week of wedding wonderland... Seriously, like seven loads of laundry & one "oh, THERE'S the bottom of the kitchen sink!" later, I'm finally reacquainting myself with friends & the internet. Part of my non-blogging time has been spent editing Dee's bridal portraits, & they do not disappoint. 

But the point is... Jeremy & Dee are married! Married with a capital PRAISE JESUS, HALLELUJAH! Yay weddings! Yay love!