a very happy birthday to one of the best of friends

To the loud girl two doors down in Griffis Hall,

Thank you for being the first friend I made at college. Despite our terrible first impressions of each other {you the loud & annoying girl on the hall, me the shy & snobby bookworm}, we still managed to form an incredible friendship that I am blessed by everyday. Thanks to you, I actually developed a love for Mississippi State that finally put to rest my childhood adoration of Auburn {that first picture was from freshman year, give me credit...}, learned the proper way to perform a pageant walk/turn on stage {at 3 am in the dorm hall, making us both the loud girls on the second floor of Griffis}, found a friend who would side on the greatness of Harry Potter over Twilight any day, interviewed for one of the greatest groups I have ever been a part of- Alumni Delegates, created the best wake-up alarm game ever: peekaboo! - the many faces that could haunt the first few seconds of your day {as well as the many adventures we had on that dying inflatable twin-sized mattress}, discovered that there's more to college than good grades & studying even though we spent the majority of our college life in Mitchell Memorial Library, survived Dr. Mead's Organic Chem I & II classes relatively unscathed, realized that medical school was never meant for either one of us, & came out of my shy shell to become who I am today. Even in college I knew that our friendship was going to be one of the great ones because we never considered each other our competition in class but rather our cheerleader in life. I am so thankful for you, and even though we're separated by 985 miles {I looked it up, some bookworm habits never die}, I still feel like if we both walked into Mitchell Memorial right now we could pick up where we left off & procrastinate on our studying by talking for hours :)

happy birthday, sweet Sarah! you, my friend, are one of the greats of my life.


love,
the shy bookworm hiding behind her desk, waiting for you to barge in & ask your question about our class assignment

scenes from the cold month of january

So I promise we haven't intentionally gone quiet here on the blog, it's just that it is January. And with January always comes the quick disappearance of a month and a bit of a haze as to how that happened. There's always such a build up to Christmas and New Year's that once they're both over, it's like time keeps going on around us and we're all still standing still. Or at least that's how I feel about the month of January. It's too bad I feel that way, too, considering my birthday falls in January...

To make up for the lack of posts, here's a recap of all the things we were doing in our absence here. We strolled around the District the day before the inauguration and admired the long and plentiful line of porta-potties on the National Mall (we're talking thousands). We tried new places to eat around Old Town Alexandria and the District, like the Crumbs cupcake above (who can pass on a yummy red velvet cupcake? Not this girl). I've been making a lot of doodles trying out new fonts. We've taken lots of walks around our new neighborhood admiring all the old and pretty brownstones. Husmate joined the oxford-wearing-cool-kids party (another score for wifey and her influence!). I made my first pie by trying out this yummy Chocolate Chess Pie recipe from the delightful 1canoe2 blog to (quite randomly) celebrate National Pie Day (not to be confused with the ever important Pi Day on March 14... Nerds unite! 3.14159265359...). I mailed a fun little happy to my sweet nephew. And I celebrated my birthday with a delicious breakfast at Founding Farmers and pink tulips from the husmate (Side note: I will be reporting back on our second experience to FF for their red velvet pancakes. Yes, you read that correctly- red velvet pancakes).

And now you're all caught up on our whereabouts for January! Best wishes for better accountability for blogging next month (fingers crossed)!

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

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! 

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 :)