Bring on the new year!

Hard to believe it's already 2014. Christmas was great this year - spent a lot of time with my family, which I'm sure Truss loved! If I haven't said it before, Christmas Eve is much more exciting to Truss than Christmas day. He grew up having lobsters and steak on Christmas Eve, which is something we have done for the past couple of years. We had my parents over and cooked steak, twice baked potatoes and asparagus. I also made this great "Charleston cheese dip" recipe! Having my parents over gave me a great excuse to whip out our wedding china, crystal and nice linens. Sharyn Blond, who owns Sharyn Blond Linens (also where my sister works), gave us a set of hand embroidered linens for a wedding gift - they are absolutely beautiful! I was afraid to use them, but my sister, who is a pro with the linens, assured me I can wash them in the washing machine and lay them flat to dry. Here's a pic of my 'tablescape' and linens up close.

It was really fun to watch Patrick open gifts this year. All he asked Santa for was one drum (not two, just one). Well Santa brought him a drum set, harmonica and trumpet! As you can see in this pic, the entire family got into the rhythm...

New Year's Eve is not a favorite night of mine - it's so overrated and, to me, just feels like another night out. We keep saying we'll go out of town for NYE one of these years, but it hasn't happened. We got together with a few friends and went to Garozzo's for dinner. We had a 9 p.m. reservation, but didn't end up getting seated until 10:30. I don't mind waiting for a table, but there wasn't much else to do besides have cocktails before we got seated. Here's a pic from the end of the night - we actually celebrated midnight at the restaurant. Truss thinks our eyes look glassy...probably all those cocktails
 before dinner!

Happy 2014!

Truss and I made a list of things we want to accomplish in the new year. It's a pretty long list, but includes not so exciting things like painting the guest room and fixing an oil leak in my car. I also included a very ambitious goal (for me) of running a 5k. I've been wanting a treadmill for a while now, and we're going to Nebraska Furniture Mart this weekend to check them out. That will hopefully get me on my way to running that distance. Truss has already committed to running a marathon in the spring, so he'll be able to use the treadmill as well.

Our first few months of the year are shaping up to be busy. We probably won't log as many travel miles as we did last year, but have a few trips planned. I'm super jeally of truss who gets to go to Miami for a work trip next week. Temps here are colder than cold. As of today, Miami has a high of 83...I'll regret my decision of not going, I know. He's staying at the chic Mandarin Oriental, I told him to take lots of pics while he's there!

We are going to Dallas later this month to visit Truss' brother, Matt and his family. Surely Dallas will be warmer than here!

Auntie x 2!

Disclaimer - this is a delayed post...I have many drafts I've started, but have yet to actually publish. (New Year's resolution, perhaps - once I start a draft, I need to publish it!)

From Dec. 11-ish
My twin sister, Courtney, gave birth to her second child on Monday! I couldn't be more excited to have a niece. Leigh Lawrence Gray arrived December 9 at 10:19 a.m., weighed 7 lbs 4 oz and 20.5" long.

 Patrick, Courtney and Brett's first child will be three in February. We weren't sure how he would do 'sharing' his mommy with another child, but seems to be doing really well! He absolutely loves his baby sister.

Baby Leigh on Christmas

Leigh (2 weeks) on the left, Patrick (1 month) on the right. They look so much alike!

My sister made having a baby look so completely easy. First off, she's completely tiny (I'm envious!) and looked so compact (no swelling, all baby!) her entire pregnancy. Not only did she have Leigh on her due date, she went into the hospital at 6 a.m. and had the baby that same morning!

I must say, she's a cutie and looks so much like her big brother Patrick. Patrick, who seemed like a little guy at almost three years old, but now seems about 6! It's amazing how that changes when another baby comes into the picture.

Like I need another excuse to be on my phone

I figured if I downloaded a blogging app, I might be more inclined to post more often - make my posts short and sweet vs. a novel. We'll see if my theory works out! 

First quick post: 

A recipe I came across on Instagram - I don't like pumpkin pie or pumpkin coffee, but I really like flavored pumpkin seeds. 

I tried this recipe earlier this week- it's very good, easy and has a nice kick to it! 

http://theartofivankatrump.tumblr.com/image/64684879782

Just call me a world traveler

2013 will always be remembered as a year when I traveled the world...well, a portion of the world at least. We didn't set out to do so much traveling this year, it just kind of happened. And, I'm so glad it did!

LAS VEGAS

Little White Chapel

January was full of snow storms, so going to Las Vegas that month was perfect timing! Our friends Jake and Betsy were renewing their wedding vows after 5 years. The weekend was a riot, complete with the Little White Wedding Chapel. It took all of me to not laugh out loud (there were people there doing it for-real) at the pastel plush carpet, the drive-thru marriage option and Elvis, who doubled as a musician and priest to re-marry Betsy and Jake. I always say this when I go to Vegas and it rang true during this trip... Vegas IS the WEIRDEST place ever. We had fun though!








NEW ORLEANS
Truss had a work trip in New Orleans in May and since neither of us had been, it was a great excuse to go for a long weekend! Our hotel, The Omni, was fantastic and in a great location! We had a very lavish dinner at Antoine's the first night. It was seriously the most ornate restaurant I have ever been to - lots of gold and lots of color! I was really inspired by all the lanterns and shutters on the architecture there. I think I commented on the shutters about a million times during our walk through the Garden District. We visited a great Lantern store called Bevolo and I fell in love with these ladderback chairs with rush seat. They are darker and not as red as they look in the picture - I love that they are new and sturdy, yet have a little wear to make them look older. I'm putting them on my wish list!

The Carousel Bar inside Hotel Monteleone. It actually moved slowly in a circle!

The cemeteries were so incredible!

Acadian ladder back chairs

In between these trips, Truss and I celebrated our first anniversary. Wow, a year flew by! Truss surprised me with a digital SLR, that I've been wanting for awhile. Apparently he was sick of me talking about it a lot! (You'll see below why my talking about it increased after our trip to New Orleans!) We went out to dinner at Il Centro and he surprised me by having the waiter bring over the camera all wrapped up!


AND, EUROPE...
When I say we didn't plan these trips, I really mean this one! The back story:
In early May, Truss heard about a "5 trips in 5 days" contest a local radio station was putting on. Basically, they were giving away trips and all you had to do was text in the word "Trips" to a certain phone number and confirm your birth date. Then, during a certain week they would call the last four digits of your phone number and you had nine minutes to call in and claim your prize.Truss and I both entered to increase our odds. I don't listen to the station, so really had forgotten all about it and didn't know a ton of details about the trips. Truss went to New Orleans several days before me for work and had a conference the first day. Because he wasn't able to listen to the station, he had some co-workers (who also entered the contest) listen for the last four digits of our phone numbers.

I received a frantic phone call from Truss around 9 a.m., just as I was getting into work. He had rushed out of his conference to tell me his coworkers had called and texted him to let him know they called the last four digits of my phone number. At that time, I didn't realize I only had 9 minutes to call in! So, I nervously called the station and said I was calling about the trip to London. They asked me to confirm my number and birth date and proceeded to put me on air with the DJ. I really didn't know all the details and didn't want to be "That Person" that won and doesn't even listen to the station, so I kind of faked excitement and tried to get off the phone (and on-air) as fast as I could! So, in the end, we won a 5 day trip to London and tickets to a music festival (Glastonbury). The kicker was that the trip was a little over a month away! The promotions guy got in touch with me the day I got to New Orleans and wanted to make sure we had our passports and they were up to date. Luckily we did! After a lot of back and forth and me stressing about not having all the details of the trip, we finally got everything booked. Ran into a couple of glitches along the way - the festival had sold out and they couldn't get us tickets. It would have been a great festival - Mumford, Lumineers, Rolling Stones - however it was camping out in a field for four days, which, as most people know, isn't really my 'scene.' They tried to move us to another festival in August, but we had already arranged PTO with our jobs. So, we asked if they could get us over to London, put us up for a few days anyway without the festival (in the end, we weren't heart broken over the festival because really, who wants to spend all your time at a festival when it's your first trip to Europe!) So, the station was great and booked us to leave on the date planned and extended it for us to come back a week later. So, they really didn't pay for the entire trip, but the flight out and two nights in London was definitely worth it!

We went to London for two days, Brussels for two days, Paris for two days and back to fly out of London. I loved each city for different reasons:

London - reminded me a little bit of NYC with all the different burroughs. I loved Kensington Gardens & Hyde Park! London was a great first city to visit in Europe - it wasn't such a culture shock and kind of eased us into the other cities. We had transportation down pat once we got to Brussels!

Buckingham Palace

Kensington Park

Tower Bridge

Wimbledon - as close as we got

Trains were incredibly easy!

Brussels - it was so old and not as congested as the other cities. We were able to do more free experiences than the other cities and didn't have to wait in so many lines!

Atomium, built for the World's Fair- we went up in it

Loved the beer in Belgium

Beautiful Cathedral of St. Michael

Manneken Pis "little man pee" - a famous Brussels landmark 

Grand Place

Paris - my favorite! Loved everything about it. I wish I had practiced my French a little bit more, but was able to get by on a little bit. We didn't get to go to a ton of landmarks due to the long lines, but we ended up seeing quite a bit. Two days in each city wasn't nearly long enough, but definitely gave us a taste!

Loved all the street side cafes

Eiffel Tower

Very reasonable wine in a bag!

Architecture was amazing!

The louvre

My one piece of evidence of Fashion Week, which was occurring while we were there!

Holiday happenings

I sent out all 600 wedding photos via Shutterfly to close friends and family yesterday. One of these friends replied "the wedding seems like yesterday but also ages ago." I couldn't agree more. After looking back through the photos and watching our video it does feel like a long time (only 6 mos.), but also like I was just starting the planning. Hard to believe at this time last year I was picking out my dress! A few of my fave photos below:

We celebrated Thanksgiving last week - it was nice to have some time off  (I find myself so much more productive during the week!). Truss' mom, mike and sister, Olivia came in town on Wednesday evening and we went to dinner, then Thursday we headed to my parents house late in the day for Thanksgiving dinner. My aunt Susy, cousin Jason and his two kids Georgia and Wilke were in town from LA. It was good to see all of them and catch up. Patrick, Court and Brett also came for their second Thanksgiving dinner - Patrick was, as usual, his cute, hysterical self. He's getting so big and he's so smart - already before the age of two he knows all letters, numbers and can name almost everyone in a room (if he's familiar with them). Genius baby has set the bar extremely high for our future kids. Here he is at Halloween and out to lunch - doesn't he just look smart??!

Thanksgiving food was great - all the fixings as usual: turkey, mashed potatos, green beans, cranberries, LaLa's rolls (family favorite from my Great Great Grandmother), stuffing, brussel sprouts - to die for! and of course, dessert, including Tippins french silk pie. Needless to say, I got my carb count for the year during that meal.

Pretty Dining Room Table

Now, on to Christmas! I came home on Sunday to a cleaned up yard and Christmas lights on the house - courtesy of Truss. He did a great job and I added some faux trees from Frontgate that my mom bought me last year. I'm pretty impressed - they do appear to look real from the street!

We'll decorate the inside of the house and get our tree this weekend. And, we're having our annual holiday party on 12/15. Typically this is held at Truss' house and considered an ugly sweater party. However, it's moved to PV now (our West side or 'summer home') I'd like to see this be a 6:30 cocktail party, yet Truss still wants it to start at 8:30. I tried convincing Truss, that people (including me) at our age don't like to wait until 8:30 to go out (what is this, college??). So, we've compromised and made the start time for 7:30. The flow at the PV house isn't as good as the KCMO house, so I'll be really interested to see how crowded it gets. Might have to shave down the guest list a little bit this year.

Speaking of house, we'll probably be here for a least a few more years and I've really want to make it 'my own' or, I guess 'our own' now (I'm still having a hard time with the words 'my' and 'ours'). I had planned on painting a few rooms after I moved in (the red office and the green guest room), but haven't gotten around to it. I recently received a pretty good estimate from Court's paint guy, but Truss is trying to convince me that it's easier and more cost effective if we do it ourselves. Two problems there - it probably won't get done anytime soon and I'd do a really crappy job painting these rooms! Take our office for example - I went out and purchased a great Benjamin Moore color I saw on Pinterest. I primed a section of the wall and painted a sample. The proof is below....after three coats of primer, you can still see the dark red through. I did a pretty shoddy job painting, and, like most rooms in the house, there is wallpaper underneath that's pretty visible. Truss says he can take down the wallpaper - I'm going to relinquish control and let him do it. The dark red paint is hideous, so the room can't really look any worse, right? Gotta love homeownership - next up, have foundation folks come look at some nasty cracks in the basement....that will be a blast.

The proof is in the paint...

Sheesh!

I'm SO not good at keeping this blog updated. Things have been pretty busy since the last post - 7 whole months ago! I'm not going to backtrack seven months, mostly because it was a blur.

The big thing that happened over the course of that time included wedding preparations and the actual wedding! Truss and I were married June 16, 2012 - it was a great day and we had a lot of fun celebrating with family and friends! Wedding planning wasn't my cup of tea - the total opposite feeling than I thought I'd have. Lots of decisions, lots of attention and a lot of work, to be honest! Truss will happily agree with me on this one! However, along the wedding planning there were many fun moments and great excuses to hang out with friends!

We encountered such generosity from friends and family during that time. We had six or so showers which included a luncheon, cinco de mayo themed party, a stock the bar shower and a bachelorette party hosted by my sister in Austin. That was a blast and she did such a great job!

The wedding day flew by as expected, but I really remember most everything. We're expecting our video back in the next few months - that will help fill in a few fuzzy moments, I'm sure! We went to Costa Rica after the wedding and stayed for 8 relaxing days. It was gorgeous and we had a great time!

The other big thing that occurred a few weeks ago was me starting a new job. I was offered a job at KidsTLC, a nonprofit in Olathe. I am their new Development Director. It's an odd feeling to do something totally new after being at the same company for more than six years, however I was ready for a change. This new job will be challenging, but I'm ready for it and excited!

We are currently trying to sell Truss' house - it's been on the market since April. He had the entire home repainted, floors redone and there is a new A/C and heater - what more could you want?! There have been a ton of showings, but the slanted floors in the dining room are turning people off. It's an old house people!! We've dropped the price significantly and are just waiting for the right person to come along. Sooner than later, please...

That's it for now. I'll post wedding photos once we get them back.
B.

The list goes on and on...

My 'to-do' list for wedding stuff seemed simple enough. I mean, how much more can there be in these last four months - we've done the big stuff: booked the venue, band, photographer, got my dress, etc. We're almost done, right? Wrong. There are a ton of loose ends to tie up: wedding and reception music, hotel gift bags, rehearsal invites, getting my dress altered, finding shoes. These are my dream shoes...probably not going to happen!

Other fun things we've done : updated registry, I had my first shower (girls luncheon at Aixois) and we picked out wedding rings.

Last weekend was very interesting - we had our day-long, required "marriage preparation" class at St. Andrews. We really lucked out and only had it with one other couple and it lasted from 9 a.m. - 1:30 p.m. - totally bearable. It was more of a therapy session than anything - the other couple has some major family baggage or the bride at least made it seem that way. I would say we have a few family issues, but ours were pretty minor, compared to theirs!

We also met with the wedding coordinator a few weeks ago to map out everything down to the details - where do we want the cake, will the guys be dressed when they arrive at the club, who will sit in which pew - things like that. This wedding is starting to feel real!!

We have a few showers lined up and those will be fun to celebrate! Next up, the bachelorette party in Austin with the girls in my wedding party!