I am...

...counting...

...down...

...the...

...hours...

...til...

...5.

Let's all go home!!!!!!


all images via weheartit.

Wedding Inspiration

Love by CherylA featuring Andrew Hamilton Crawford earrings

Because I've been getting death threats

SK and I went to JAMAICA! for New Year's and yes, you heard right - we came back engaged. I was floored, as I didn't at all suspect it would happen there, and I have been floating for the last week and a half.

I have a post in the works about the proposal and the trip and how we swam with dolphins and I actually napped during the day, for the first time in my life. It was an amazing 5 days, and SK and I came back with the whole wedding planned, so you KNOW there will be some updates on that, as well.

For the inquiring minds that want to know, here is a photo of the ring. My man did good ;)

It's the day before the night before Christmas!

Apparently, as a child, I sang. A lot. I don't sing now because I know better, but when I was little I sang EVERYTHING. I made up songs in the grocery store, I sang my ideal itinerary for the day, and yes, ladies and gentlemen, I even once tried to sing the Pledge of Allegiance while standing on my grandmother's hearth. Did I mention I was also dressed like a mini-Magnum PI, complete with tiny white shorts and red hawaiian-print shirt? Because I was.

So when my mom walked into the bathroom one December 23rd MANY MANY years ago, and I was singing while showering (what? bathrooms have the BEST acoustics...don't hate), she wasn't surprised at all. She did, however, totally dig what I was belting out...

"It's the DAY before the NIGHT before Christmaaaaaas!!!"

Now, every year on December 23rd, I get texts from family and close friends with that awesome reminder of my past. The calls in the high falsetto, singing it back to me, really make my day.

It's 9:32am and I have already been hit twice. This is going to be a great day.

~*~

In other, not as awesome news, our fabulous vacation is 7 days away and I am so excited I can't think about anything else. Until I see news stories like this:

Plane overruns runway in Jamaica

Oh, the Who-manity!

I have had issues getting into the Christmas spirit this year. Maybe because the weather has been so crappy in Houston (although, it did SNOW!), or maybe because SK and I have been so busy, we haven't really decorated the inside of the house, and finally just got our tree last Friday... Whatever the reason, I have just been kind of BLAH.

I realized I was really in a weird place last night when, while listening to a woman who called into the radio station talking to the DJ about how this is the first Christmas she is experiencing without her mom and how tough it is for her, I started bawling in my car. I was sobbing down Beltway 8. WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME???

Today, though, the sun is out. Both SK and I have holiday parties for work tonight. It's Friday. My little brother comes home next week, and the rest of the Texas family will follow a few days later. We only have 12 days left until we go on our spectacular vacation.

I am determined to break out of this funk. Today is the day I stop worrying and stressing and being depressed about all the crap that doesn't matter. I am going to enjoy the sunshine streaming through my office window, and an evening out with my handsome man. It's about time it started looking more like Christmas!

All photos from this Flickr group

Holy crap.

Russell Crowe as Robin Hood?

Sign me the F up.

CLICK HERE for the trailer.

Just another reason to hate her...

Hi, my name is Cheryl, and I am an addict.

Hi, Cheryl.

No, I don't do drugs. I'm not an alcoholic...? Just kidding - no question mark. Alcoholics go to meetings, and I don't DO meetings. Seriously, though - no question mark.

I am addicted to Twilight.

Good Lord, I cringe even typing that.

It's not that I am ashamed of my addiction, because I'm not. It's the fact that, like many addicts, I struggle daily with keeping it under control. Seriously y'all, if it were up to me, I would have the movie playing 24/7, I would keep the books in my purse, and I would work Edward Cullen into every conversation I had, FO REAL.

Edward Cullen...not Robert Pattinson (I am a little revolted by HIM)...Edward. The fictional eternal teenage vampire. WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME???

I get that it's lame. And I get that, as a 26 year-old woman with a job and a mortgage I should have better things to do with my time than obsess about a whole world that doesn't even actually exist, but really, I can't help it.

I am an addict.

So when I hear people bashing my wonderful Twilight saga, I get defensive. We all know it's not real (well...most of us anyway...Newsflash, Tweeners - R-Patz biting you is gross. Get over it.) and we all know vampires don't walk among us, but to hate on us for being into it? Well personally, YOU have too much time on your hands!

Case in point, the wretched Miley Cyrus, getting all high and mighty about her disdain for the franchise:

"I don't believe in it. I don't like vampires. ... I don't like the wolf that pops out of the screen when I'm watching my TV at night. I don't like it. I don't want anything to do with it. I don't like the shirts. I don't like any of it. I feel really lame because everyone's, like, so excited (and) I'm like, 'Don't even talk about it.'"
via LaineyGossip

Jealous that you didn't get asked to be part of it? I think sooooo. Go throw your heinous blond wig on and magically transform into someone else for a while, because clearly THAT'S real enough for you.

Ugh. Boo, you whore.



**I get that this is me hating on her for hating on Twilight, but really, I just hate her.

Made my Monday

Today, this week, and the month of November got off to a rocky start as this morning, while cruising the Beltway on the way to work, I got pulled over and ticketed for my expired registration. Annoying, but also 100% my fault, so whatevs. To the courthouse I go, to pay the increased fine for being caught. Boo.

I was unexpectedly snapped out of my funk about a half an hour ago, though. I work on the same floor as a general practitioner's office so there are always random people wandering around our halls. I was headed back to my office and was caught behind an elderly couple, shuffling their way to the dr's office. They were cute, and walked next to each other, chatting about what to do with the rest of their day. The woman stopped in front of my office door and read the sign, mistaking it for the door she needed to go into to. I stopped a few feet back, thinking they hadn't noticed me, and waited for them to realize they were at the wrong door, planning on saying something in a few seconds.

Before I could get anything out, though, the man swatted her on the booty and said, "Helen, wrong door. Now you're making this young lady wait!"

Helen giggled. GIGGLED, y'all. She then took his hand and smiled at me. The man looked back at me and winked.

I about died from the cuteness.

Totally, totally made my Monday.

Eggplant, pumpkin toss, and Mary Poppins

So SK and I are going on a fab vacation in 61 days (more on that in another post...wheeee!) and we've totally amped up the exercise routines and have started making seriously serious efforts to eat better. I usually cook dinner, which, if you've known me for any length of time will have your head going "whaaaaaa???" but for real, y'all, I am a pretty badass cook. Yes, my mom still almost passes out each time I tell her about my latest culinary escapade, and yes, I still have MASSIVE fails, but most nights, I make solid meals that I wouldn't be embarrassed to serve to even the most critical of dinner guests, so BOOYAH.

Last night, unfortunately, was not one of those nights.

Sidebar: If you're just tuning in and have noticed that I call my man by only initials, please don't automatically assume I am some snobbish wench that is afraid for our privacy and doesn't want the paparazzi all in our business. My blog address is my first and last name, for heaven's sake. Anonymity is not something I strive for, clearly. The thing is, there are real issues with the paparazzi in our lives, if by paparazzi you mean HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS. SK is a senior-level English teacher at a local high school and a few years ago, I accidentally published his first and last name in a gushy post I had written about our first date, and all of a sudden he's in the middle of a lecture at school and one of his kids pipes up with, "Mr. K, your girl's name is Cheryl and you have a dog and you like to drink wine?" I took down all mention of his actual name that night, in every post it had appeared, and even took down the first date post, just in case, which was a bummer, because it was a great memory. So, just in case you were wondering about the initials, there ya go.

Aaaaanyway...about the food disaster last night.

I bought eggplant. I've heard amazing things about eggplant. I thought, wow, what a great alternative to our normal chicken/pork/beef dinner - let's try eggplant! Right off the bat, SK was skeptical. I put the purple (gourd? fruit - *it does have seeds*? vegetable?) in the cart and he goes, "hmmm...don't trust it." It was totally my goal to make it delicious and trustworthy.

I decided on Eggplant Parmesan, because low-fat cheese and tomato sauce make EVERYTHING awesome, but even while I was slicing and baking and our house was filling with the yummy scent, he still was sketchy about the final product.

For the record, I L-O-V-E-D it. Which is good because SK finished his bowl, pushed it across the table, looked me lovingly in the eye and said, "Please never make that again."

~*~

Tonight, we are carving pumpkins. I am so pumped! The sad thing about Houston Halloween is that it usually stays somewhere in the 89 degree with 98% humidity range until about 16 hours before the actual trick-or-treating takes place, which means that if you prematurely carve your gourd and set it on the porch for all to admire, all they'll see come Halloween night is a puddle-y mess of pumpkin stickifying up your front stoop. So, we slice and dice tonight. Also, we are going to listen to the re-broadcast of The War of The Worlds (http://waroftheworldstribute.com), so I. Am. Stoked.

True, we will just have to throw the empty shells away on Sunday, which seems like a waste, but I'll roast the seeds tonight, and possibly do something with the guts (homemade puree, perhaps? Get Mom the smelling salts...), and maybe we can even have a pumpkin toss like we did last year. SK won $20 from our friend Toby after Toby couldn't hurl our massive pumpkin off our roof, over our pool, and over the fence into the jungle-y uninhabited lot behind our house. The pumpkin cleared the pool, but sadly, hit the fence (or more specifically, the giant thermometer hanging on the fence) and exploded in the back yard. It was not the best decision we've all ever made concerning safety, but it was a great time and we laughed about it for months. Toby has already bet SK he can get his money back this year. Challenge extended!

~*~

To add to the randomness that has become this post, tomorrow I am going with my mom to see Mary Poppins at the Hobby Center. Squeeee!!! I am so excited, I can't stand it. It was my favorite movie when I was little, and when my mom heard it was coming to Houston, she called me immediately. Tomorrow's matinee showing is the only time we both could make it, so we'll be Chim-Chim-Chereeing it up downtown at 2pm!


This is going to be a great weekend...

Twinkle Twinkle

I am so in love with twinkle lights, it's ridiculous. My love affair with the glowing bulbs started back in college, when all the girls on campus tried desperately to make their dorm rooms cute and awesome with posters and hanging stuff and pictures and lights, while all the guys just sort of, kind of, but not really because they were gross and didn't care too much, tried to make their rooms not smell like sweat and fart.

My roommates, luckily, were equally as down with the sparkle, and so twinkly lights we did have, and oh, how they made my heart sing. Though I have graduated from college and dorm/apartment days, I have migrated this cheap decorating idea to my actual house and still L-O-V-E it. I have woven a strand of white lights through our wine cabinet so that it makes our bottles and glasses shine (we illuminate our booze!), we have strands of lights in the backyard along the fence, and we used to have lights up under our patio umbrella until the day the wind howled at like, 84 bagillion miles an hour while we were at church (woah) and shattered our table and bent up said umbrella.

Christmas light time is a'comin' and though I am more of an old school, big colored bulbs lining the eaves of the house gal, I do love to see all the pretty lights around. Here are a few projects I am working or would like to be working on, and some lights that make me happy happy...


I totally want to re-create this FABULOUS idea from Tasha at Charmed. Seriously, that is gorgeous and what an awesome idea!! We have a HUGE master bedroom that we haven't touched since we moved in and I am itching to paint and get some stuff up on the walls. Love this.



I saw this on Apartment Therapy (I have a house, I know, but it's such a cool site!) and immediately went out and bought a canvas that I have yet to do anything with, but I can soooo imagine it propped up on the table in my entry way. Si, si....



GAH! LOVE this photo.



Twinkle lights even make bare sticky sticks bee-yoo-ti-ful.

Last night, SK was flipping through channels and put this on for me. My granddad's name was Charlie Brown (legitimately, y'all) so all these movies/comics will forever hold a little piece of my heart, and instantly warm me up when I watch.


Have you ever seriously listened to the dialogue in this movie, though? I guess I hadn't, and while watching and laughing last night, I frequently would catch myself thinking, 'Dang, some of these kids are kind of assholes.'

Lucy Van Pelt: All right, all right! Let's bob for apples! This is the way to do it.
Schroeder: Yeah, Lucy, you should be good at this. You have the perfect mouth for it.

Charlie Brown: Hey! I got an invitation to a Halloween party!
Lucy Van Pelt: Is the invitation to Violet's party, Charlie Brown?
Charlie Brown: Yes. It's the first time I've been invited to a party.
Lucy Van Pelt: Charlie Brown, if you got an invitation, it was a mistake. There were two lists, Charlie Brown: one to invite, and one not to invite. You must have been put on the wrong list.

And some of them were just totally awesome.

Linus: You don't believe the story of the Great Pumpkin? I thought little girls always believed everything that was told to them. I thought little girls were innocent and trusting.
Sally Brown: Welcome to the 20th century!


Photo sources here, here, and here.