richmond's bacon festival

 

When my huge event at work this past Friday was postponed due to the predicted tropical-storm-that-wasn't, I took that as my opportunity to end a nine day work streak early. Friday started with sleeping in a little, cleaning a lot & Jared's car battery dying. Off we went to the auto part store to retrieve a new battery for him. It was as we got back in the car to leave that MY car's battery decided to die. It's in those moments that you just have to choose to laugh instead of cry. Like, hysterical, ugly cry. So, we laughed-instead-of-cried ourselves away from the auto part store, knowing that we at least had a mini vacation planned for the next day. It had been a little while since we'd had an entire weekend away from work, & there was plenty to look forward to.

We were already 100% in for a quick weekend trip to Richmond as soon as Amelia mentioned the inaugural Bacon Festival taking place on Sunday. But when we got the texts confirming that Amelia & Andrew had found the puppy of their dreams on Saturday AM, we went a little nutso. I think we chanted "PUPPY PUPPY PUPPY" for a solid 2 minutes when we got in the car. Little Miss Maisie (who is a mix of chow + adorable) stole our hearts right away. It was so fun to see their little family of three (because you can't forget Raja, the only cat I'll ever love) grow to a family of four over the weekend.

But back to bacon. We traipsed down to the 17th Street Farmer's Market & were not disappointed by the parade of bacon that greeted us. The local restaurants and food vendors pulled out all the stops with everything from Bacon Pierogi Nachos to Pork Belly Avocado to Maple Bacon Pops. Bacon was being sold on sticks, in cupcakes, blended into drinks, on pies, wrapped around veggies... It was pretty astounding. Things got busy fast so the camera got put away as bacon treats filled our hands. Sorry/Not sorry. 

Maisie was such a trooper, & almost a bigger hit than the bacon. We had to take a puppy nap break & people were going out of their way to bring her everything from ice to puppy pops. Yep, puppy pops. I imagine that she'll have grown so much the next time we see her that we'll already be looking back to these pictures saying, "OMG, her head fit in your hand!"

We went home & finished the day by putting their new fire pit to good use. Amelia dreamed up some Caramel + Bacon S'mores, & I will just never settle for anything less than that for the rest of my life. Gourmet camping trips from here on out. (Grahams, caramel sauce, mallows & bacon. Milk chocolate optional. Dark chocolate tested & not recommended.)

It was back to work today (which started my third-to-last-week in the office - EEK), but we have wonderful memories of bacon & puppies to get us through to the weekend. Seriously. Bacon. And puppies. Best weekend EVERRRRR.

p.s. May have started watching Game of Thrones. So far, we're mostly just freaked out. Will report back.

big ol' wings

Last Friday, I put in my months notice at my current job.

But let me back up.

This past September, my 24th birthday was rapidly approaching, & I was beginning to feel claustrophobic. I wrote about it here, because that sinking feeling of "Now what?" was taking over & it was all I could think about (... as my favorite college professor would say, "Don't think - Write!"). For some reason, 24 seemed like a very menacing age, full of either huge potential or missed opportunities. 

Obviously, I'm far from reaching any conclusions. In the mean time, I'll be reaching for truths. Constant truths to draw close to my soul & find rest in. Like love & the Word & this steamy mug of frothy goodness sitting in front of me.

So, I pursued the truths I knew to be invariable in my life: God's promises, my personality traits, Jared's commitment to our family of two, unconditional support from our families & friends, unwavering ambitions, my work ethic... These static truths gave me the gumption I needed to dare to move forward & make a change. A big, BA change. Right before Christmas, with the encouragement of a very dear friend & a very dear husband, I laid out the pros & cons, & guess what? Huge Potential won. 

Right now, there's one more month of events ahead of me before I dive into this next big... Adventure? Chapter? *insert analogy for flipping your life upside down here* Lots of little things are being finalized, & just as soon as they are, I'll spill the beans. (To be clear, these are definitely not the baby kind of beans.)

It's pretty scary. I'm *usually* a pretty logical person who wants all the pieces laid in front of them before fitting said pieces nicely together. Alphabetized. Color coordinated. Perhaps with a table of contents. & let me tell ya, this "leap of faith" kinda business doesn't really like being told what to do. But that sinking feeling is fading, & underneath those nervous butterflies are butterflies with "FIERCE" tattooed on their big ol' wings, flapping their hardest to keep me moving upward & onward.

& really, I'm enjoying the ride.

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!