so close...

...I can taste it.

what am I referring to?

college football, OF COURSE.

36 days til kick-off for the Knights and Gamecocks!

If only I could be in two places at once, I would be here....

{image via}

AND HERE...

{image via}

ahhh. so close, I can taste it. Go Knights! Go Cocks!

introducing maxwell fenway...

....with my adorable husband.

Isn't Max just the cutest? 

Look at that little face! 

He was so tiny... 

I've never held a baby that small before 

[um, what if I break him?!]

I love these pics of Max with "Uncle Danny" he's going to be such an amazing dad.... it's the whole me being a mom thing I'm worried about... eeeh I just felt panic pangs... clearly, not ready to procreate. I'll stick to being "aunt hita" for now ["Aunt Annahita" just doesn't work too much alliteration]...

Yellow House Photo Challenge Urban [love me]

This week's In a Yellow House Photo Challenge theme is "URBAN"  

you don't often find something so sweet and pleading written in graffiti on an alley dumpster... gotta love those hidden gems.

Check out more URBAN entries here...

Black & White Wednesday [Guardian Angel]

[taken at a local graveyard in Great Barrington, MA]

check out more of this week's black and white photography at The Long Road to China

hey bookie bookie... [2 more books read]

I've been slacking on the reading thing.. I blame my iPhone [i heart iPhone games], Weeds, and my eyes [they've been tired lately]. Also Hit Reply took me awhile to get through, I knew what happened so I just wasn't motivated to finish it... anyways, I need to get cracking if I want to get anywhere near my goal of 100 books this year!

18. Hit Reply

I'm not going to lie... it was hard finishing Hit Reply this time around... this is the third or fourth time I've read it and I was least interested in it this time... it's not a great literary work - it's just entertaining. Fun. Quirky. Different style. [The entire book is comprised of emails and IMs] Good beach/cruise read if that's what you're looking for! Careful, might tempt you to contact that high school love that got away! :)

 19. The Lovely Bones

This is probably the third time I've read The Lovely Bones... [I'm on a re-reading saving money kick]... it was just as haunting and captivating as the first two times I've read it. I read this book in a single sitting [thank you airtran for your flight delays] and just fell into it. I'm debating if I want to see the movie... I just can't bring myself to watch this movie or My Sister's Keeper... I feel like I'll just be disappointed so what's the point? Anyways, if you're looking for a captivating and dark coming-of-age story The Lovely Bones is a great read!

My mom bought me a book at the airport [thanks moms] so I'm excited to read a fresh book, I'll let you know how it is ASAP!

she's baaack

I'm back and better than ever exhausted. What an amazing whirlwind the past five days have been... I feel like I could write post after post about this weekend but in all reality, that probably wouldn't be very interesting for anyone other than me... so here's the cliff notes version...

In no particular order... noteworthy weekend mentionables:

-gel manicure.... "new technology" said the sweet lady that did my manicure... I got a french "gel" manicure and supposedly it lasts for two weeks without chipping... day five, no chips - previously unheard of. apparently if they're done incorrectly you can get nerve damage, but I'm feeling fine. no worries.

-PUBLIX. I miss Publix, we went several times over the weekend. I had a publix sub and publix sushi. Did I mention, I love Publix, I do. I really do. No other grocery store compares.

-b.a.b.i.e.s. -- surrounded by them and loved it. not quire ready to procreate but am loving being "aunt hita" - I have the cutests niece and nephews in the world. [pictures to come]

-my two moms - it was great spending time with my moms and my mom j [DJ's mom]. My mom got along really well with DJs fam and it was so fun for us all to be together.

-grandma took shots. do you really need any more info? it was spectacular.

-bridal shower - showered with love. so much fun and amazing to see my great friends who came to see me and spend QT with us.

-I BOUGHT A WEDDING DRESS! CHECK. I can't really speak about this amazing dress too much because DJ read's the blog [hi honey, love you]. but it's spectacular and it has pockets... um 'nuff said. I went with my mom, DJ's mom and grandma... it was so fun to experience with them. so wedding dress and veil - check and check.

-We saw Donovan McNabb at the Atlanta Aiport... he was wearing Phoenix Sun's basketball shorts... that really confused me.

-Our flight got delayed. Three times. We finally arrived in Boston at 3:00am.... then got to our car around 3:30... then drove home to the Berkshires... didn't get home til around 6am. NOT FUN. We crashed and DJ skipped out on jury duty. Needless to say... I'm exhausted and so is he, we are going to sleep well tonight.

pictures to come of our weekend extravaganza... it was amazing to see family and friends and just be surrounded by love... and now we're back to our little family of three.... speaking of three, we're going to pick up Oliver after work and I am SO EXCITED. I missed our little butterball.

alright off to research tradeshows. wa-hoo.

so hard to say goodbye...

...to my puppy.

had to say goodbye to Oliver today for six days... I won't see him again until Tuesday after work.

so. sad.

this is the first time we've ever left him for that long... before now it's only been a slumber party here or there for him and then for the few days when I left to go to Charleston/ILM [but he was still with his daddy]. I know he's in good hands with Jeff and Janis but still.... sad.

anyways... here's the king of cuteness last night trying to sabatoge my packing....

"maybe if I lay on her clothes she won't be able to pack and leave me..."

in other news, he's getting HUGE. such a big boy. so big that I almost fell down the stairs carrying him this weekend. fail.

Black & White Wednesday [you spin me...]

you spin me right round baby right round... like a record baby....
taken at the Experience the Music Project in Seattle...

check out more black and white photography at The Long Road to China

anyone home?

so I've been setting up a MLB  Summer Tour for my company - basically get a suite for 20-30 guys to watch baseball, smooze while drinking and eating really expensive catered food... it's been a success [it would also be nice as the event coordinator if I got to attend these events, but alas - not anytime soon here].... so the next ballpark we're targeting is the Minnesota Twins... I contact the stadium and they say sorry all sold out of suites... then the sales guy sends me a link to a CRAIGSLIST POSTING to contact that person for their suite... um hello, shady - we're a CORPORATION trying to get a luxery suite not a random guy trying to scalp some tickets. needless to say, I think the whole thing is a scam so he's going to "investigate"

seriously, people? anyone home? it'll be interesting to see how this one turns out... another day in the jungle.

in other exciting news - today is my friday, tomorrow I'm taking a half day and then DJ and I are off to ATL! SO EXCITING.

I'm interested to see how I do in a "city" after living out in the Berkshires for the past six months... DJ's amazing mom is throwing me a bridal shower on Saturday so clearly I needed a new dress... [and then I bought 2 and a pair of flats, oops]. So we're really excited for this weekend, some of my friends and bridesmaids are coming in on Saturday night and we get to meet our nephew Maxwell Fenway for the first time, he'll be 20 days old at that point! SO EXCITED... AND we get to see my mom for the first time since we eloped... and for DJ and his folks the first time seeing my mom in a decade... crazy.

As DJ's parents put it - the muslims are meeting the jews.... maybe our families can bring peace to the middle east.

LASTLY, I finally finished my Color Me Happy Swap exchange gift to send off to Carmen... I hope she likes everything... I'd tell you what I made/bought but just in case Carmen reads this I dont want to ruin the surprise! :)

wait... whats that? you want to see the shoes and dress I bought from Target... okay, okay... here they are... so. freaking. cute.

the dress I'm going to wear to the bridal shower....

not great quality pic I know... but you can see it on the webpage here.

adorable everyday red flats [wearing them now, I love them]...

so cute. see them here. AND they come in yellow.

yes, I excerised self control and only bought one pair.

action [paper mama photo challenge]

when we have kids I hope they're as sweet and cute and Emerson Amelia... here is she is in action playing soccer this past fall...

I know you're shocked I didn't use a picture of Oliver, I figured I'd spice things up a bit...

Check out more action entries here.

sleeping beauty.

I swear he does more than sleep...
he's just really funny when he does...
clearly it's time for a new dog bed... he just keeps on growing!

my beautiful boy...

I love him.

I know you do too, how can you not?

holy hunger pangs.

I scarfed down ate my lunch [turkey on a whole wheat sandwich thin, clementine, ww string cheese] in less than 15 minutes... this is a problem because I am now huuuungry. I have two snacks [clementine and a vita-muffin] left... but there are also four and a half hours left in the work day.


must. pace. self.
must. exercise. self controool.


we had a really great weekend [I just fell off the healthy food and no drinking wagon], stayed up way to late drinking way too much wine on Friday night with Jeff & Janis... but it was definitely worth it! Saturday we went to go see our amazing friend Ian's dance performance and picked up his husband from the train station and hung out at their house for a bit then headed home and walked down to downtown GB and had some drinks [and then got the munchies and oops ate frozen pizza]... yesterday we spend a lovely afternoon at Tanglewood where we saw Alec Baldwin and Arlo Guthrie perform with the BSO [and ate lots of cheese] then we went and saw Inception... have you seen it what do you think? I'm still processing.


needless to say I did not get soco ice cream because I did not deserve it after eating like crap... oh well, maybe in two weeks?!


today has been a pretty good day at work, loving my new office space, being quazi productive and happy knowing that this will be a short short work week and atlanta is right around the corner... excited to go home and cook stirfry in our new wok [hooray mom for her amazing bridal shower gifts, which she wanted me to open before the bridal shower on saturday, gotta love her].


okay.... feeling less hungry. think I'll go drink a glass of water to hold me over. next snack time: 2:30.


AND I just found out DJ is stopping by to see me at work... so excited. must go primp for my husband. okay, or must go pee, same difference.

going, going... gone.

clearly, I don't have anything better to talk about than Oliver... our friend Greg always says that he has "dog mono" because he's always tired... this is true, this dog can fall asleep anywhere... here he is...

he's going...

going...

gone.

how can you not love this little face? 

today is a good day. all moved into my new office [bye bye cubicle, hello four walls and a door... okay so they're fake walls but hey i'll take what i can get]

AND i'm so excited for the weekend. taking chinese food over to our friends jeff & janis's house to thank them for the lovely pig roast they threw us, dogsitting ollie next weekend when we're out of town and just for being great people. tomorrow dj and I are off to our friend ian's dance show and just relaxing. so excited for the weekend. i've decided. i'm having soco this weekend, i've been so good i deserve it.

this time next week DJ and i will be in hot-lanta. so. freaking. excited. [to see our family and friends]

no the shift key wasn't broken, just not in the mood for capitilization [only all caps]. one of those days :)

RAW(e) Dessert Photo Challenge

 This is my first time participating in a RAW(e) photo challenge... the theme this week is DESSERTS so clearly, I had to... I have the world's biggest sweet tooth. WARNING: the following picture will make you crave sweets.... ready? 

 

The Rules:

-Only post one photo that is COMPLETELY untouched. Totally in the buff, with no edits

at all.

-Link to your photo post and not your blog as a whole.

-Have fun!

-Each week the winner picks the next winner.

-You have until 5 pm Friday to link up.

 

 

[BTW- no, I did not make this baklava. I WISH. however, I have eaten it and yes...it's just as good as it looks!]

 check out more RAW(e) desserts here!

black and white wednesday...

working from home today meant quality time with the one and only Ollie-monster... we played and he napped... and I laid on the floor and snapped... here's one of my favorite shots from today....

see more black and white photography at The Long Road to China....

hit me with your best shot... [yellow house photography challenge]

I don't know if this is my "best" shot but it's definitely one of my all-time favorites... taken at the Bottle House at Airlie Gardens in beautiful Wilmington, NC...

Check out other people's best shots here at In a Yellow House....

puppy love.

i love my fifty pound lapdog.

just another {miscellany} manic monday...

I'm having a case of the Mondays.... ugh. so here are my random musings....

{one: reading}

I will finish the book I'm reading this week. I just haven't been motivated to pick it up. but the thought of reading other books makes me want to finish especially since we're traveling next week...

{two: momma dukes}

on saturday I'll see my mom for the first time in seven months [and since DJ and I got married]... excited is an understatement. [a bit nervous too, not going to lie]

{three: pappa bear}

I've been missing my dad a lot lately... just wanting to talk to him more than anything. I would give almost anything for even a five minute conversation. Every day, week, year makes me feel like it should get easier but somehow it still hurts almost four years later.

{four: Parenthood}

{via}

one of my best friends brian told me about this show Parenthood... through July 30th they have the whole first season on hulu -- go check it out, it's worth it! funny, sad, sentimental and an all-star cast... it reminds me of Brothers and Sisters meets Modern Family!

{five: Weeds}

{via}

you can also watch the first five seasons of Weeds on INSTANT PLAY on Netflix... amazingly witty and hilarious! DJ and I have recently become addicted, we're almost done with the second season and can't stop watching! The theme song is really cool too! :)

{six}
I'm going to the gym after work today. I AM GOING TO THE GYM. I'm telling you and myself. I ran outside a few days last week but didn't make it to the gym... I'm going this week. Donzo.

what I think about when I brush my teeth...

welcome to my brain... here's my train of thought during my extreme teeth brushing session this morning...

...I forgot to call Tanya [my roommate from freshman year of college] on her birthday on Sunday... [or text or facebook or ANYTHING] I'm such a [drunk] jerk...

via

...I should call her...

via

... Oh,Tanya.... oh the inflatable pink couch we had in our dorm room... I miss her and those days...

via

..."I like my sketchers, but I LOVE my prada backpack" [we used to say that all the time... no, neither of us had a prada backpack]...

via

...10 Things I Hate About You is SUCH a good movie...

via

...I should watch that movie... I wonder if I can con DJ into that...

via

...[then I thought about like ten different parts of the movie that I liked]...

via

...whatever happened to the Alex Mack girl that played Bianka in that movie... ....I really liked the Alex Mack show too...

via

[**side note... Jessica Alba was on Alex Mack?!]

...I should spit out this toothpaste now...

via

...and there it is folks a little snippet of what goes on in my [wacked out] head...

so here I am at work and have a little downtime so I jump on IMDB.com [aka the answer to all my movie questions] and look up Larisa Oleynik [YES that's her name, I forgot] she's so freaking cute... and then I remember all these shows she was in when I was younger - Boy Meets World, 3rd Rock from the Sun, The Babysitters Club Movie [which you know I LOOVE] so recently she's done some TV work here and there... but fell of the radar. SO THEN... I google her because, well, I have no life...

and found out she went to Sarah Laurence [I love it when hollywood folks do that, get that education! so important] she was on some show Pepper Dennis [never saw it] and THEN I found her stalker... www.larisa.com OK I don't feel so creepy anymore... wow.