doomsday birthday

check out the evolution of his wardrobe {my ongoing project}

Happy birthday to this dashing man! 

Lucky you, you get to celebrate life and death (according to the Mayans, not me) all in one day! What a stud. 

Just in case my cynicism is proven to be ridiculously unfair and the world does indeed stop spinning, happy birthday Handsome! I have had an incredible past 8 months (to the day! yes it was planned for future memory issues of our anniversary) being married to you, living in our new apartment for 5 whole days, and owning a sweet pup 800+ miles away from us that we've never personally met. You've given me a wonderful life serving as your co-conspirator, and I am constantly blessed and encouraged to be your wife. Plus, you have a last name that everyone can spell and is shorter than the standard cut off on applications of 12 characters. You rock husmate. And I can't wait to always be by your side in this life and the next.

Love, Kat

it's a mad world

We live in a broken world. It's almost as if someone has taken a hammer and smashed it into tiny little fractures that would make even Humpty Dumpty's situation look favorable. While that overview is bleak, it's really quite simple: since the fall of man, our world has been riddled in sin. Anger. Hate. Greed. Lust. Envy. Doubt. Cleverness. Fear. And pain. Lots of pain. This is what the world is made of, and we humans (or rather our flesh) inhabit it. 

The challenge of the world is not to outsmart it, but rather overcome it. Patching up our hearts with love and filling them with Hope. And having unwavering faith in that Hope which allows our spirit to overcome our flesh. 

Tragedy strikes and the first thing we ask is "why?" Why would someone do something so horrific? So sinister? What could possibly be their motive?  To put it simply it's pain, and it was never our burden to share until it was too late. 

I've never felt so heartbroken in my life until today. The wonder and innocence of so many children were stolen this morning and that's something we can never get back. I know this story will turn into a platform on gun control, but how terrible is it that it took the loss of almost 2 dozen children with tremendous potential to get that one going? Not even the shooting of a congresswoman could do that. Are we that desensitized? But the real takeaway from this situation should be love, not politics.

I've seen a lot of coverage on the issue of getting stricter gun laws (and I'm not totally against it), but the counterargument of if you take away guns, tragedy will still happen is quite true (reference Matthew 2 if you need proof from a relevant story). We live in a broken world. Perhaps the issue that is not so easily recognizable is that our culture has slowly over time kicked out God. We can hardly do anything anymore without worrying about stepping on people's toes or offending others, and I'm right there in the middle of it. I have never wanted to push an agenda on anyone. I'm a firm believer in listening to others and I generally play the moderator between sides, but it has become increasingly clear to me that we can't keep doing this. We also cannot shove scripture (especially fearful excerpts) down people's throats as a way to evangelize.

It's an uphill battle for sure, but we're called to love on ourselves and others. Love as God has loved us. He recognizes the utter pain and horror of having a child be bullied, threatened, and killed. He did that to himself for our atonement (1 John 4:8-10), and he still shows us grace everyday for the stupid things we do whether intentionally or not, and actually forgives us so long as we seek it.

So despite the fact that it is Christmas and I cannot possibly fathom the pain of losing a child, especially one who still believed in the wonder of Santa, remember that it is Christmas and God sent us his son as a sign for us of the Hope to come.

This is a time to come together. To pray. To hug your loved ones and be thankful for your blessings. Nothing is certain in this world. Not the weather, the economy, or the politics. Our world and even our country is so incredibly divided, but this is a time to close that divide. Love on each other, I beseech you!

we interrupt your regularly scheduled programming to wish you a merry christmas

Let me start off by apologizing for being MIA for the past oh almost month on the blog... Thanksgiving came and went and with it my effort at being somewhat consistent on posting. However in my (limited) defense, we are moving this weekend into our new apartment, and things have been a little chaotic around here with packing and puppy shopping and Christmas shopping...

Did you catch that one? The phrase caught between the overwhelming packing process stress and the happy festive brainstorming of giving to others? Yes, we've been puppy shopping- and I'm quite excited to share that we (as in my sweet parents acting on our behalf) found one (like an hour and a half ago while I was typing this post). 

Meet our new pup and member of the Berry fam: he who shall not be named (you know I had to work in some HP somehow...). The fact is we aren't completely sure of his name, so when we figure it out we'll let you know! We do know however that he's a Catahoula Leopard mix and totally adorable. Now to get him home via a 13 hour drive... Plenty of stories to come I'm sure!

Back to what I was typing before I found out our family just became three: I must also credit some of my disappearance to the drawing and printing of our first Christmas cards and fitting them within some criteria: a) I really wanted to do something creative and not do the typical use your wedding picture as a card thing (but for those that did, we love seeing your pretty faces!) b) we were definitely on a budget, so not many cards ventured out this year and c) I had to make sure that people might take the extra time to notice our new address on the back, so I used that as an excuse to make the addressing festive. {Side story: we ran out of ink twice printing them, so some of the finished products aren't even blue! HA! To you people (cough parents and close relatives) who get ones in black ink, it's not that we love you less but rather we didn't have the time nor money to spend on buying ink again, and we felt that you would fully understand the situation and credit it to being a newlywed story/fiasco/accident to regale later in life.}

And as if we needed any more surprises around here, husband surprised me by purchasing our first (mini) Christmas tree, despite forgetting all the ornaments my mom and I have collected over the years in Alabama and the fact that we're moving in the middle of December! He's the greatest :) I know that a tree is normally a given around the holidays, but it wasn't necessarily for us and I'm pleased as punch* that he bought one for me to celebrate the coming advent season!

*Just looked up the origin of that phrase (I tend to after I realize I have no idea what it means) and it's kinda sketch, you guys. Apparently, Punch was a puppet character who was quite the comedic murderer...

All that to say, we wish you a Merry Christmas! Love, the Berrys

by the numbers, vol. I

Meet Madison, aka Dobby, the studious Bryan pup

208. The number of days I have had the privilege of being married to my sweet husband.

122. The approximate number of days it took for me to somewhat naturally introduce myself/sign the dotted line with Berry as my last name, rather than sounding like I chose to hyphenate my name and therefore star as a feminist/wealthy socialite in my new life. 

60. The number of pairs of shoes in this tiny apartment that are mine, including 18 pairs of heels/wedges, 32 pairs of sandals/flats, and 4 pairs of boots. Sorry I'm not sorry, husmate. But have courage: I don't have any intentions of adding to the collection anytime soon.

39. The number of days until Christmas (seems crazy, doesn't it?). Thankfully, other than for each other, this husband-wife team has finished our shopping. To my family who knows that I usually procrastinate to do my shopping until 3 days before Christmas day- be amazed...

24. The number of posts I have miraculously penned so far without quitting this blogging project. Also, my lucky number from high school for no reason whatsoever. 

23. My age despite the fact that half the time I want to tell people that I'm still 22. Also, the age that I began forgetting what my current age is and I quietly do the math in my head while keeping a pleasant smile on my face.

9. The number of pairs of shoes in this tiny apartment that are husmate's. Single digits. Why is it that men need so few shoes? I suppose to make up for their wives needing so many...

6. The number of days until we road trip 13 hours home for my favorite holiday (aka Thanksgiving, aka best meal of the year hands down) and I get to be reunited with the pup above (I'm her favorite, she's not husband's favorite).

3. The number in the Harry Potter series of my least favorite plot line, and most likely least often read. I may love the character of Sirius Black, but Prisoner of Azkaban just wasn't thrilling enough (perhaps because dear ole Voldemort didn't have a hand in it?). 

0. The number of times I've seen Elf, Home Alone, or A Christmas Story. Cue the gasps of disappointment and comments of deprived childhood. 

Old Rag Mountain

1. Old Rag from the road

2. a Marbled Orb Weaver (check out the horned face on his back & his trendy striped legs)

3. Virginia really is for lovers (good call Sarah!)

4.Let's be honest: a puny upper body strength girl like me could never pose as Atlas, but look at the view!

So let me preface this post by saying that this was a first time experience for me in mountain climbing... both in reaching a summit AND in actual rock climbing. This shouldn't come as much of a surprise to most of you, but before the climbing part actually came into play, I thought I was only going to be experiencing the summit portion. Ha, silly me... 

So husband suggests we tackle Old Rag Mountain Saturday morning and preps me for increasingly cooler temperatures and 5 hours of hiking, but slyly leaves out the part about rocks. Crafty, husmate, crafty. After parking our car in a random lot in the middle of nowhere, VA, we follow the half mile road to the start of the trail. We stop for a moment at the trail map, and I notice nothing out of the ordinary with the exception of this small mention of misplaced boulders due to erosion? Eh, that doesn't cause me to even guess what's coming (I can be really naive sometimes), so we start the hike up. 

We randomly come across the crazy colorful spider, the tree for lovers, and even a few pieces of fallen pine that reminded us of the coming Christmas holidays. Things are going swell until we reach nothing but rock, and I overhear this mom telling her daughter that they best turn around because she doesn't think they'll be able to finish the hike... That definitely perked up my ears. So here I am thinking that we're very near the summit... oh how I was wrong. 

5. Just following the blue stripes

6. Before I started testing my rock climbing skills

7. Anybody surprised that husband is downing this platypus of water? 

8. One of the many boulders we got to walk under/over/around

This is about when husmate (husband + roommate = husmate) tells wifey that the remainder of the hike to the summit involves rock climbing and that the summit is still about a mile away. I have to give him credit: he knew that I would fret over this portion the whole way up if he had told me beforehand, so kudos to him. Ha! About a fourth of the way into this alternating climbing and waiting period (the trail is so narrow and the hike so popular that you get to wait in Disney-like lines for your turn to go), I turn to husband and say "They really should tell people that this hike isn't for the faint of heart" to which he replies "They do... I just didn't tell you." Cleverrr... At least my panting is now justified. 

So after about four summit fake outs on my part ("Husband is this it?" "No, not yet... See that even higher point? That's where we're headed"), we finally make it to the summit. The past few hours have started to make me feel 20 years older (hello hamstrings! I hear ya, I hear ya), but it was so fun! However, let me clarify: I was not going back the way we came as I was fairly certain that I might have rolled off the mountain due to some of the rocks being so smooth. So after a light lunch on top of our rock, we escaped the crazies and hiked back down a longer and less adventurous way to our car. 

9. The view from the REAL summit

10. Both excited to have finally found it!

11. Our reactions from some of the things we saw/heard from other hikers

12. Leftovers for dinner

This side of the mountain cut down on the number of hikers significantly (probably because it was double the length) which finally allowed us to have some pretty fun conversations (much better than wifey panting up the mountain while husband was totally fine during the first half...). I think one of my favorite things that husband said during this part was sharing his excitement over potentially going to sleep at 8:30. Old man wannabe, but so adorable all the same. 

We eventually started to follow a brook back to the beginning of the circuit, which made for a nice change from all the dead leaves. Plus since all the loud and annoying groups decided to be dare devils and return from whence they came, we got to see and wait on two sweet deer to cross the trail as they looked for food.

And speaking of food, since we hiked almost nine miles and burned off over a day's worth of calories, we were totally justified in ordering a Papa John's pizza on the way home as our aching muscles began to talk to us. Right? Right? Right. Thanks for agreeing with us. At least we enacted the reduce, reuse, recycle bit by drinking the rest of our hiking water at dinner rather than wasting it. We're so granola. 

the perfect weekend

1. The Christmas candies already on display at Wegman's (and attempted to be ignored until post-Thanksgiving, despite spotting some Reese's Trees)

2. Our bed made with its new addition of a heavenly down comforter from The Company Store (like sleeping under a cloud, you guys)

3. Our first introduction to Old Rag Mountain from the road in the middle-of-nowhere, VA

4. Skyfall Sunday matinee tickets

5. Perfectly justified (and delicious) chocolate cheesecake after hiking #3. please note that half of it is already missing...

6. Our potential new love seat

Since we now live in the Land of Government Holidays, this weekend got to include a Monday off with husband, and it was simply wonderful. It was the perfect blend of low key and activity, errands and fun. We're trying to prep as much as possible for our move in December, which includes losing some furniture and gaining new replacement pieces. We're having to make some adjustments due to floor lay-outs and size, and it's been quite the process of locating a love seat/settee and an armchair that are both attractive AND comfortable. But fingers crossed, we think our search may be over! Hallelujah!

We also finally made a decision on a winter comforter (much needed for an area of the country that actually experiences 4 seasons and a couple who tries to use their heat sparingly during the winter). It may have taken awhile to come to that conclusion (so many choices and stores, it's unreal), but totally worth the wait. And that comforter was very much appreciated after our hike on Saturday and the soreness that ensued...

For all you Bond enthusiasts out there, and perhaps even a few skeptics, the newest installment is incredible. It reminded husband and me of The Dark Knight in a few ways, so you know it must be good. Definitely reinstated the Bond dynasty for several years to come. 

To our parents who might be concerned that we won't take care of ourselves as well as we would if our sweet mothers were closer to remind us of things, be proud: yesterday, husband made his own eye doctor appointment (on his own initiative) and has finally ordered new eyeglasses. He looks dashing in them by the way (no, I'm not biased). And husband forced me to stop delaying on getting a flu shot by driving me to the nearest Walgreens. I even had to drop the act of being a wimp about it when a brave 6 year old showed up to get hers as well. FYI this year's vaccine doesn't burn like last year's did, so if you readers haven't gotten yours yet, go do so! No pain at all, thankfully. 

Tyler after his first birthday party this weekend (picture sent from his smitten grandparents)

And finally, today is this precious little boy's first birthday. So adorable, can't wait to play with him during the holidays! 

P.S. The post of our hike up Old Rag will be up tomorrow, so be sure to check back! 

Breathe in, breathe out

After what seems to be a wacky few weeks around here, I'm thoroughly looking forward to a weekend of being still. And strangely, I don't think I'm the only one who feels this way. 

Being in the lucky portion of the northeast (Northern Virginia), we experienced the days off in anticipation of Sandy without any of the consequences. I still cannot fathom what those poor people in New Jersey, New York and the surrounding areas are experiencing. Being from the south, I know what hurricane clean-ups entail, but they usually are accompanied by 70+ temperatures immediately following. Imagine losing everything you have (or even just losing your power for 2 weeks) and also receiving freezing temperatures + a 2 foot blanket of snow from a sister nor'easter at your feet, too. 

To add to the mania, we have half a country in jubilation over the re-election of our president and the other half who is still steaming at the ears and spouting out hateful comments. I have even witnessed a few saying that this is the end of times and crediting the Mayans for their portrayal of December 21 as the deadline of sorts. You guys, breathe. 

Now that we live in a world that hides behind social media as a way to speak for ourselves rather than by our actions (and I'm not talking about actions like the riot at Ole Miss), we forget that our integrity stands to lose by the 140 character tweets we send out and all the like buttons on Facebook that we click. 

As Americans, we should be so lucky to recognize that we have the best democratic process in the world. We had a record turnout at the polls (to which I am so proud), and the decision was made. Now, we as Americans need to respect that decision, even if we don't agree with it. We need to come together as a country, rather than remaining divided in our trenches; if not to state the obvious, what good will come of such negativity anyway?

As Christians, it's not our place to judge another's Christian belief. I'm astounded by the flagrant remarks berating our re-elected leadership, including the occasional use of the phrase "antichrist." Whoa, buddy. The Lord has a greater plan, and we have to trust in it. Rest in that. It is all we have ever had in this world anyway. Hope in Him, and his plan for us. Besides the fact that our words truly are precious, and since we are called to bring others to the light, remember that the same mouth is speaking words of love for Christ and hate for others (Matthew 12:33-37).

So back to how I started this soapbox of a post, I'm quite looking forward to just being this weekend. I'm hoping to hike with my sweet husband and experience some of God's glory in his creation this weekend. Nothing recharges the spirit like some two-on-one with the outdoors and the Lord. 

A tidbit for a Thursday

Yesterday at the gym, I'm totally struggling with this machine that is kinda broken, and being the enginerd that I am, I'm trying to fix the machine without drawing attention to myself. This nice man walks by (I'm pretty sure he thinks that I'm befuddled by this situation) and starts to help me. Alas, the machine cannot be fixed, and I thank him kindly and move on to another. 

Here's the best part: he asks me if I'm British. Boom. My day is made. Heck, my week is made. 

Naturally, I start to blush as this is one of the best compliments of my life, but I set him straight and tell him that I am actually from the sweet state of Alabama (my thinking is that I could win some education points for our state for not sounding anything like the people in Here Comes Honey Boo Boo). Lo and behold, this man used to work for UAB for 20+ years and loved Birmingham and Alabama so much, he still has his house there. And wants to retire there. He even went on to say that Alabama is a far better place to live than the UK (I'm not exaggerating). Yes, as you could imagine, I was filled with gooby pride and carried on a conversation with him for a few minutes while my sweet husband is quietly laughing at me from across the gym.

I would like to take this time to credit the two straight days of rain and wind from the not-so-sweet Sandy hurricane that encouraged me to watch Downton Abbey Seasons 1 & 2 and thus sound more polished and therefore British for a day or two. Husband had his own Brit invasion the past few days as he finished Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince and requested that we watch the movie version as well. Only one more book in the series to go for a boy who never thought he'd read HP before we got engaged (it might have been heavily encouraged... I'm just looking out for his best interests).

My only hurdle to overcome in order to become a posing Brit (other than the US birthplace and lacking an accent issues): I'm not terribly fond of tea, whether it be hot, iced, or sweet. So really, I'm at an identity crisis because I can't properly become British, nor do some find me fully Southern. But I suppose it's alright because I live in Virginia now, and they don't always offer tea. It's a healthy middle ground, I suppose. 

And in more pertinent news, if you're friends with my sweet brother, Blake, in facebook land or in real life, be sure to wish him a wonderful birthday today! I know he'd appreciate it :)

Luray Caverns

Last post I shared about our short little day hike in Shenandoah, but to finish off the day, let's go back to that morning when we went to explore the Luray Caverns (I know- I realize that I posted about the afternoon before the morning... What can I say? I work backwards sometimes). 

So to give a little background, the last time I ventured into a cave was during a third grade field trip to Desoto Caverns in the great state of Alabama (please note I refrained from using the phrase "sweet home Alabama." Growing up with that song being played at every.single.dance until you're into your 20's means that you tire of the phrase at the age of, oh, fifteen). What I remember of that trip was learning the cutesy way of distinguishing stalagmite and stalactite (some things never leave you, usually the ones that aren't useful for everyday life), being told that you should always carry a flashlight in a cavern unless you're feeling courageously stupid, and getting lost in an outdoor maze and climbing under the fences so that I wouldn't get left. Quite the adventure for a bookworm third grader whose glasses took up half of her face.

In comparison to the memories of that trip, the Luray Caverns are HUGE. Like I thought it was kind of ridiculous at the start what we were paying to see, but after the hour long walk through the massive underground world, I'd say the trip was worth it. Now that I have an inkling of what a cubic inch is and how long time can be (neither of which you understand in the third grade), it's incredible that that it takes 120 years to form one cubic inch of new deposits. I mean good grief. The tour guides at Luray estimate that with the formations they have, Luray began forming a loooooong time ago. Like 400,000,000 years ago. Hello dinosaurs, how's life up in the Shenandoahs? That's swell.

I think my favorite part of the Luray story was how it was founded: Some men discovered a sinkhole in the late 1870's, and like all men would, decided to lower one of their friends into the sinkhole armed with a candle. Excuse me, what? Yes, a candle. So the guy with the candle noticed the depth of the caverns and survived the descent, and Luray has since become one of the most visited caverns in the world. Many thanks to the courage of the guy with the candle.

Anybody else think this would be a cool place for an Avett concert?

The two neat things about Luray:

1. There was a electronics scientist who worked for the Pentagon that designed and created a stalacpipe organ, which plays a four-keyboard console by using stalactites instead of pipes. It took him almost 40 years to perfect all the notes (only two were perfect from the start, the rest were sanded until he was satisfied) and install 5 miles worth of wiring to connect them all. Nerdy, but seriously cool.

2. They have a wishing well at the end that you can throw in whatever change you have in your pocket and all the donations at the end of the year goes to a charity. The extraordinary part is that in the heat of some sort of argument, more than one soon-to-be bride has thrown in her engagement ring and called off her wedding at that spot. Crazy people. And they didn't want their rings back. Now, that's some kind of charitable donation. Hmm, I wonder if it's tax deductible?

The guides say this is several feet deep of change... Woah.

And just FYI, Luray has a garden maze of hedges. I declined to participate. Rolling under fences is so much easier than crawling through pointy hedges.

P.S. Sorry for the grainy pictures, but it's just a teensy bit dark down in the underground...

Shenandoah Skyline & Whiteoak Canyon Falls

First, let me paint you a picture as to how this husband-wife team makes decisions regarding the upcoming weekend plans... Unless it's a long weekend (which thankfully involves pre-planning), Friday afternoon or sometimes Saturday morning will roll around and we haven't even contemplated what our Saturday will hold. Call us procrastinators a spontaneous bunch... Living life on the edge here folks.

Well several weekends back, husband discovered that the upcoming weekend was one of the rare get-past-the-guards-free-of-charge days in the Shenandoah National Park, so it seemed only natural that we would spend our Saturday in the great outdoors. We settled upon the Whiteoak Canyon Falls trail, and as usual the trail did not disappoint when it came to beauty. The leaves were at the beginning stages of changing colors, and everything was just beautiful! I can't imagine how pretty it must be now that the leaves have changed around here...

As if you couldn't guess, husband is the outdoors enthusiast of the two of us, and I'm fairly new to the whole hiking thing, so I can occasionally get bored on a trail (I have to be honest). But this trail followed a babbling brook the whole time (and for some reason I found that to be entertaining?), so I was as happy as a lark. That and I can't stand doing outdoorsy things when it's hot as blue blazes outside, so I thoroughly enjoyed the fall temperatures in the 50's that day. Ah, fall. Thank you for understanding me.

Oh, and the view? I'd say it was worth it. We chose to see the smaller of the two falls that day since we were crunched for time after visiting the Luray Caverns. And in case you were wondering, I did actually say "aww, look it's a heart!" without any sense of sarcasm in my voice or in my thoughts. See, I'm maturing a little. There's hope for us all.

life lately

1. a peek over the Shenandoah Skyline Drive

2. one of the many pretty views on our short hike

3. the Luray Caverns organ

4. our warm friend at Mt. Vernon

5. some of the 2 pounds of chocolate we needed for our cookie recipe

(it made some 8 dozen cookies, woah)

6. one of the beautiful buildings at the Naval Academy

7. sailboats at the Annapolis Yacht Club

8. we have survived 6 months of marriage (hoorah!)

Here is just a sampling of what's to come to the Berry blog in the coming days. Every weekend these past few weeks has been full of local adventures, and I just haven't had time yet to put them all to words! I hope all of you had a fabulous weekend, and for all you Bulldog fans out there... 7-0! Who would have seen this coming just a few years ago? Not this girl (if we're being honest). Hail State!