Happy Father's Day!

This weekend Hank and I went down to Phoenix to spend time with my family in celebration of Father's Day! We had a nice, relaxing weekend and ate at Green twice. haha. Hank is newly addicted to their espresso barbeque sandwich- he used to always do the spicy Poor Boy but has turned over a new leaf. Once wasn't enough for him so we found ourselves in there two times in the span of 24 hours. Silly. But so delicious.

This morning we woke up early and headed over to IHOP (my father and Hank's choice...disgusting in my opinion but I kept that to myself since it isn't my day! haha). Our group consisted of my Mom, Dad, Hank, me, my sister Lauren and her fiance Abe. Breakfast was fun and it was so wonderful to have two dads at the table now, with Hank being a proud papa-to-be! It's seriously melting my heart to see him so excited about being a dad and today was extra special since we find out if we are having a daughter or a son in five short days!

Afterward Hank and I headed home and I fell asleep hard for the entire drive. I haven't been sleeping well lately so I've been feeling pretty tired for the past few days, which I hate...but I better get used to it, right?! When we got home we went grocery shopping quickly at Fry's and New Frontiers. We've been gone so much that our fridge was empty so we had to stock up. Now Hank is golfing with his Dad and we he gets home we'll be enjoying a nice evening walk downtown. So...that's OUR Father's Day! How was yours? I hope all of you are having a wonderful day and have a great rest of your night!

Some photos from today:

Nanny at breakfast






We were laughing because my Mom and sister accidentally got Hank the exact same card and almost wrote the exact same thing in them! Too funny.


my Dad and me! Happy Father's Day :)


my Dad is an avid gunsman (is that the term?) so Abe and Lauren got him a BB gun that he had when he was a kid! Great present. We got my Dad some home gym equipment.


my cute parents- married 31 years this past Friday!


Lauren and Abe! :)


Hank and Nanny- this photo makes me so happy!


annnd...the men of our family!


Again, Happy Father's Day everyone!

and ps, if you could click this banner below to vote for this blog, I'd truly appreciate it! They reset the count so we have to start again! :) It's a neat way to meet more Moms in the Mommy-blog world...and it's also a great site to check out if you're expecting or are already a mama. All you have to do is click once and click again to vote! Thanks so much everyone!

Memorial Day Weekend

It's wonderful Sunday and I'm totally exhausted after spending a great weekend with my family. It was fun celebrating both Hank and my birthdays (his is on June 1st), and it was nice dedicating the entire time to family, rather than running around trying to get things done and see friends. I am finally feeling like it's summer, and I'm sure that's mainly due to the summer time barbecue we had, and all the time in the sun and in the pool at my parents'. And what a relief to NOT have to go back to work tomorrow. I have a nice day of relaxation planned- gym early in the morning and then I'll be getting things done around the house.

I hope all of you are having an excellent holiday weekend! Here are a few photos I snapped yesterday. I really need to take some belly photos so I will be doing that this week as well. Have a great Monday!

parents' backyard


Madeline is SUCH a water dog and hates getting out of the pool! It's so cute.






birthday!


Hank loves Carvel ever since his first trip back to NJ with us a few years ago!




and for a fun comparison, here's us LAST year, celebrating in Vermont! We have six years of photos of blowing out our birthday candles together. I love that and feel so lucky to have our birthday just days apart.



my sister's newest tattoo!


hanging out with my grumpy girl

Friday/Saturday

my hair is SO long! I am beyond happy :)


It's so good to be home. I spent most of yesterday in a tired, slightly jet-lagged daze, not doing much of anything outside of catching up the Real Housewives episodes I missed while in Hawaii, and being pretty lazy. When Hank got home from work, we headed down to Phoenix to spend time with my family and have a bit of a relaxing weekend. I've written it before, but Hank doesn't get a lot of days off at this point (although that is soon coming to an end), so when he does, we try to take full advantage. We spent last night celebrating my Dad's birthday and ate delicious pizza and ice cream cake! Afterward, we all just sat around the dining room table and talked all night. It was awesome.

This morning Hank and I woke up with a huge to-do list. He needed a few new pairs of jeans and a new hoodie, so we went down to Tempe and took care of that. We had a delicious impromptu lunch at Green, and then headed over to Cosmos so my sweet friend/big sister Rhonda could do our hair. She's been doing my hair since we moved to Arizona, when I was about 14, but this was surprisingly the first time she'd cut Hank's. He is super picky and was a little nervous but we both agree this is the best haircut he's ever had! Thank you Rhonda! We love you so much. I feel so happy and lucky you are in my life. Oh! And while there I also got to meet a blog friend Lindsey (http://thebrownsfam.blogspot.com/), who is a friend of Rhonda's. We got to sit and talk for awhile and I fell in love with her. She's so cute and awesome. So hey Lindsey!

For the past couple of days I've been feeling pretty unmotivated to blog, and this morning I tweeted that I had kind of lost interest in it. I received a lot of great responses, and I appreciate the kind words so much! Sometimes it's just hard to see the point of this all- it seems silly and narcissistic at times, and it's hard for me to see the "why." Luckily though, I usually only feel like this rarely. I really enjoy blogging and documenting my life, and I know I will never stop, but sometimes I just need to take a step back for a minute and take a break. It was also hard for me to get back into the swing of things after my little vacation, but I'm back now and feeling positive about it.

I go back to work Monday, and it's something I'm both dreading and looking forward to. I'm so excited to see my friends I work with, and to see my kiddos, but it's hard to get back into the groove of it all when I've enjoyed almost two weeks off. I shouldn't complain though, I know...summer break starts in 8.5 short weeks and it's going to be so wonderful.

SO, I hope all of you are having a great weekend. It's been a family weekend for us, and I feel so happy. I hope you are experiencing the same feeling!

Lots of love.

squinty in Tempe


awkward, falling off belt :/


pre-haircut. He is so handsome :)




veggie burger and their yummy pasta at Green! mmm

Answers, Part Two!

Alright, here are the next round of answers to all of those questions in this post!

First question, from Kristen-

I'd like to see a post about how you dress for work, or: looking professional but not too frumpy or teacher-y. thanks :)

I did a little Flickr series documenting the first two weeks of work this week, so click here to be transported to the set! Here's my "first day of school outfit." My main staples are pencil skirts, dresses, and tights!



Next, from an anonymous commenter:

how is it possible that your tattoo is on your chest and on your right arm in some pictures while it is on your left arm in other pictures?

For a lot of my quick pictures I use photobooth, which is actually a flipped view! So the tattoo many appear to jump arms from picture to picture!

Third question(s), from Ashley-

What's your biggest pet-peeve? What are your favorite TV shows?

Pet peeves...hmmm...this is hard. I don't know if this is necessarily a pet peeve, but something that is extremely annoying to me is when people can't just LIVE and LET LIVE. I believe in equal rights for ALL people. Example: I'm a supporter of gay marriage and it's upsetting to me that people can't just let other people be happy. On a smaller and less important level, here are some things that annoy me: the sound of clipping nails, when things in a cupboard or cabinet are unorganized, people blowing their nose around me (weird I know- but I think this comes from sniffly students doing this in my classroom), people who are "short" via text or email, and sharing drinks or food with ANYONE other than Hank and a handful of my best friends- no thank you. And I think that's about it. I'm sure I could think hard about this and make a huge list but this is all for now!

TV shows- I love love love Lost, Mad Men, Freaks and Geeks, Big Love, Pushing Daisies, Carnivale, Sex and the City, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Seinfeld, True Blood, and then about a million reality shows, including but not limited to: Biggest Loser, The Bachelor/Bachelorette, Jersey Shore, etc.

The next question is from Katie!

but now i want to know how you do your hair and what products you use. it seems like you always have a lot of body and it's shiny and sometimes curled? my hair is flat and blah. tips please!

I've gotten a lot of question about this, so maybe I'll do a little tutorial when we *hopefully* get a Flipcam at our last Christmas on Sunday. But to give you a quick overview, I use Biolage shampoo and conditioner. I switch between three different types, depending on the stage my hair color is at. Those three are the "Color Care" line, the "Hydrating" line, and the "Body" line. Color for right after I get my hair done, body most of the time, and hydrating when I feel I need it. I also only wash my hair 2-3x a week, and use dry shampoo between. After I get out of the shower, I wrap up my wet hair in a towel for about 10 minutes. Then I apply Catwalk's Root Boost to the roots of my hair- top, sides and back. After that I spritz Bumble and Bumble's thickening spray all over. I don't put any products in my bangs though. Then, blowdry time. I use a round brush to dry my bangs for literally a second, then I blowdry to the side with my fingers. Following that I dry all over my hair, flip it over and dry upside down, then use a paddle brush to dry the rest (getting the roots, etc). I finish with a cold shot all over. Once my hair is dry I spray the underside with Sebastian Hairspray and then pin it back while I apply makeup. Once my makeup is done I tease my hair a bit, then use the curling iron to add waves! Done! That seemed kind of strange to explain that in such detail but hopefully that was what you were looking for! :)

This question is from Ashley (no link given):

i also have a question about your tattoos... do you have any that you don't particularly love anymore and wish you could change or remove them? and... how do you decide what to get??

I love every single one of my tattoos, and I'm lucky enough to not have any regrettable ones. I attribute this to waiting until I was 21 to get my first one. If I would have gotten any of the ideas I had when I was younger than that you can bet I'd have some regrets and cover ups to do. I also had the benefit of only having really amazing artists tattoo me, thanks to the direction of my tattooed friends when I was younger. As far as deciding what to get, most of mine are things that I find pretty or inspiring, or things that have meaning. Sometimes I'll have weird thoughts that kind of turn into a tattoo idea, but for the most part I'll just know what I want and then my artist will run with it, and make it awesome.

Awesome! I hope you guys liked reading these, they are definitely fun to answer! I will continue with the next batch sometime soon!

In the meantime, here are a few photos from later tonight!

I hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas! <3

my sister and Abe


Hank, Tim, and Daron




dinner time


opening up presents








my beautiful Daron Grace :)


Big Kindle and Little Kindle PJ Party! I love this.

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, Part One

Hank and I originally planned to do Christmas Eve on the eve of the eve (make sense? haha), but later decided to just wait until the actual night to open our presents. He had to work during the early afternoon, but once he got home and we both got ready for the evening, it was present time! I'll just mention a couple of the presents we exchanged- and one in particular made me so, so happy. That special gift was one of my most favorite Angelique Houtkamp paintings as a print. It's a big piece, limited to just 200, and is so, so beautiful. It's signed and numbered by Ms. Houtkamp herself, and it's such a great addition to our art collection. To say I'm stoked is an understatement. He really is the most thoughtful husband in the whole world and I feel so lucky he always goes out of his way and is so generous. I got him a lot as well, and a couple of his favorite things were the two prototypes of toys he loves. Our dear friend Alex helped me get some of the toys for him (as I am clueless), which was very kind. So after we did our presents at home, we headed out for the night, armed with huge bags and boxes of wrapped presents. As we do every year, we spent Christmas at Hank's mom and step-dad's home. It's a really fun time- we do a secret Santa exchange with extended family, and then once everyone goes home the immediate family gives each other gifts. Hank's mom is THE BEST gift giver- and this year was no different. A couple notable gifts were Hank's sought-after Wii and a huge box of games and corresponding gadgets and toys. He is in heaven. Another is my Kindle DX, and I am blown away with it. I AM IN LOVE! Now I don't have to lug around a million books on vacation, amongst many other pluses.

I am so thankful for everything we received, but those don't overshadow our "reason for the season," which is not god or anything related, but family. We aren't religious by any means, but we do still celebrate the holidays and enjoy an excuse to shower our loved ones with gifts, our time, and most of all, love! :) It's really neat to have such big families and I feel fortunate that we are all currently in great health and spirits. That isn't always the case so I am extra grateful this year.

After Christmas Eve festivities we headed down the mountain to Phoenix, so we could spend the night and wake up at my parents'! When we got to my parents' around 2am we were met with our annual Christmas pjs! Every year since we were kids my mom has always gotten us new holiday pajamas to wear to sleep. Hank and I put them on and hopped into bed!

When we woke up this morning we were met with a gorgeous tree and holiday music. All of us spent the morning opening up our awesome and very generous gifts. It was my sister's boyfriend Abe's very first Christmas EVER so it was SO MUCH FUN watching him open his presents and get excited. It was neat to be a part of that. So right now we are currently hanging out, waiting for a million of our family members to arrive, both from the airport via NY and up from Tucson. It will be a busy day, so I will be back with part two tonight!

Until then, have a fabulous afternoon.

Photos from last night and today (so far!)

Christmas Eve
















In the tube is the print, the paper on the left is a picture and a letter of what the print is. It goes in for custom framing tomorrow, and Hank didn't want to damage it by taking it out of the container...hence the little letter that he wrapped up in a box. :)












Grandma Jean sneaking in a nap!




"My big Christmas tree is on strike until there are Grandchildren!" -Hank's mom, in reference to the small tree! hahah




family Wii session!




Christmas morning at my parents'!


my overstuffed stocking! I've had this one since I was little :)


Lauren and Abe


Abe's first Christmas!


I love my sister


Take 2 :)


KINDLE DX I LOVE YOU!


Christmas dress paired with black tights and oxfords, sorry for the half pic! Better pics later :)


holiday colors


Mr. and Mrs.