kylie and matt's georgia wedding

hey there, it's been a while. i am going to stop making any types of excuses about not blogging for long stretches of time. i'm going to keep blogging but it'll probably be pretty sporadic for the near future. though i am not exactly short on time since school is over i am getting pretty caught up in packing, visiting people, being in weddings and planning my own wedding. it's a lot of fun getting caught up in this stuff and i just haven't had that much that seems blog-worthy lately especially in terms of fitness and healthy eating - seems that stuff is taking a place on the back burner for a while. i'll be back i'm sure when i've got a more regular schedule. until then i'll just be popping in and out. i promise i'm reading all of your blogs and staying caught up on your lives even if i'm not regularly commenting!

this past weekend i was down in georgia bridesmaid-ing for my friend kylie. kylie was my big in my sorority in college and it was wonderful to get to catch up with her and a lot of the other members of my sorority family. unfortunately tex wasn't able to make it to this wedding with me but that just meant i had lots of time to hang out with my ladies (including my beloved mary who continues to prove that she and her hubby joel deserve the title of cutest couple ever). 

i got into atlanta late friday night and drove out to lake lanier islands to meet up with ashley, kylie and another bridesmaid angela. we spent the rest of the night gossiping, i picked their brains for wedding planning ideas and then we crashed around 1. i was up early as usual and snuck out to grab breakfast and have coffee with christina, another member of my sorority who i haven't seen in ages. after breakfast we headed to kylie's parents lake lodge to get ready. we got our hair and makeup done, vegged out and tried to remain calm until the big moment arrived. kylie was absolutely gorgeous and i had to hold back tears when she put her dress on. 

the wedding venue was amazing - kylie and matt got married right on the water of lake lanier and then we traipsed around through fields to capture what will undoubtedly be amazing photographs. i'm not the most patient person when being photographed and it's probably my least favorite part of being a bridesmaid but i was incredibly impressed with kylie - she was a TOTAL trooper and i hope to be half as amazing as she was as a bride. 

i've never seen her happier or more beautiful and i was so lucky to be a part of her special day. you'll notice i was lucky enough to wear the same dress for kylie's wedding as i wore in my brother's. it was a total coincidence but since i loved the dress a lot it was definitely a happy coincidence. 

the wedding had so many carefully crafted details - i am continually amazed by people's ability to plan and execute so many little things that really make a wedding feel special. how gorgeous was ky's cake? as pretty as it was it was that delicious. red velvet? yes please. 

to kylie and matt - i love you both and i am so thankful that i got to be a part of your fairy tale!

<3

tim and razaan get hitched

this weekend my brother tim got married. i love weddings in general but there really is nothing like a family member's wedding, especially a sibling. i have three brothers and i adore them all to pieces. they are completely different and i have a very different bond with each other them but every time i get a chance to spend time with my entire family i feel so blessed to have such a wonderful crew behind me. 

sean and liam were co-best men in tim's wedding and i was lucky enough to be a bridesmaid for tim's wife. being in a wedding can be stressful but razaan was seriously the least stressed bride i have ever met in my entire life and i was amazed by how calm, cool and collected she was about absolutely everything throughout the wedding weekend. it made me hope that i'll be half that chilled out for my wedding. 

tim and i were incredibly close when we were both living in chicago and i'd be lying if i said i didn't miss him so much all the time now that we're not living together. this weekend was a great reminder of just how lucky i am to have such a great big brother. i'm always a sap at weddings but this one really got me - they wrote their own vows and i bawled like a baby when they spoke about how much they loved each other. 

another reason i love family weddings is because i get to spend time with my parents. my dad hates being in pictures but i made my mom take about a billion. how beautiful is my mom? god willing i've got some of those genes in me. 

luckily tex was also able to fly up to minneapolis for the wedding and he got a chance to meet a lot of my extended family which was great especially since we got engaged. 

the highlight of the wedding for me (besides the everlasting love and all that) was the baklava. i love baklava and ate way too many pieces of it throughout the night. i can't say no to the phyllo/pistachio/honey combo. 

here's to tim and razaan - i am hoping they are having an amazing time in spain and i feel so lucky to have been a part of their special day! 

i've got another wedding in georgia this weekend - my friend kylie is getting married to matt - and i get to stand up in her bridal party as well! it's a busy couple of weeks but there's nothing better than celebrating love with the people who mean the most to you. 

<3

the first of many

it's really hitting me that i'm leaving. i know i've said that i've been feeling a lot of emotions lately but they've been a jumble of excitement, stress and a bit of sadness. i'm pretty much fully on the sad train now. again - i am still excited about texas but i'm overwhelmed completely by my deep unpreparedness to leave the people i love here. tuesday night was 8th grade graduation and even though the 8th graders have been coming back to school since (because apparently they don't know how to have fun staying at home - crazies) it felt very final. it was the last school event that the middle school team really worked on together and the end of it actually felt like a capital-E end. 

the past two years these two people have kept me sane at work. that might be overstating it a bit because i haven't really been sane per se, but any semblance of sanity is due almost entirely to the laughs and venting i've been able to do with my coworkers. if you aren't a teacher i can't really explain what it is like to work in a school. i know that people focus on the perks of it - the summer break, the built in christmastime off, the "getting out early" (i work from 6:15 - 4:30 so early is relative), but this job takes a lot out of you. don't get me wrong - i love what i do - but it is demanding physically, mentally and most of all emotionally. without a team of people surrounding me who support me through all the tough days i'm not sure i'd make it. there's a reason that teachers drink more than the average person, trust me. 

these people know me as well or better than most other people in my life just by the sheer nature of the amount and quality of time we spend together and i am so lucky to have the many hours of goofiness, laughter and downright RATCHETNESS under my belt that i've logged over the past two years at my school. 

(don't get your panties in a bunch - i got permission to post this 

AND the bus was stopped when we took this)

it's not just the coworkers though. it's hitting me also that on friday i will be telling my students that i'm leaving and i will be saying goodbye to some of the other people who have most deeply impacted me in my past few years in dc. when i first started teaching i used to say one of my weaknesses was toe-ing the line of keeping boundaries up with my students. i'm not good at it. i get too close, too involved and far too enmeshed in their personal lives. i'm no longer sure that's a weakness. sure there are times it bites me in the ass but overall i can look back on my years of teaching and feel like i've genuinely impacted kids' lives outside of the classroom, which is almost as important to me as knowing i've taught someone how to balance an algebraic equation. 

these goodbyes i'll be saying over the next couple of days are going to be hard. they aren't really the "see you soon"type of goodbyes that i'll be doing with my friends. i can't exactly fly my students out to visit me in texas, not to mention that i'm pretty honest with myself about it - i know most of them will forget about me relatively quickly. i'm okay with that - i don't remember most of my teachers and that's not because they didn't impact me at the time. these are final goodbyes instead of see you laters, and that is hard to reconcile.

this post is self-indulgent, i know that. i'm probably going to keep having self-indulgent posts for the next few weeks because my blog has become a place to vent my feelings and so many of my feelings are downright sad and filled with wallowing. i'm sorry in advance and i'll try to keep a little bit of peppiness around these parts as well but for the most part - try to be patient with me while i attempt to get through these weeks without bawling my eyes out every single day. 

<3

final baking and a new protein bar

i am smack in the middle of an extra long planning period due to the fact that the 8th grade class graduates tonight so they don't have school anymore. it is extremely nice, i have to say. makes my schedule for the week pretty light which is good because i need to get through this week and get to summer as soon as possible. tex's summer started officially yesterday and i am extremely jealous. i've got this week with the kiddos and then next week of closeout activities before i'm done and can really devote myself to the packing/moving process full time. as for now, i'm enjoying my last few days with my students as much as humanely possible. though that isn't that much right now because as any parent or teacher can attest, the last week of school does not lead to the best moods for the kids. 

i baked my final baked good in my apartment on sunday night. i used up the last of my flour and since i have decreed a moratorium on buying any more items at the grocery store that i can't consume before i leave, i can't buy any more. this means no more stress baking. tex and my mom are concerned - both of them think i can make an exception and buy flour because they're not sure how i'll make it through the next few weeks without a timeout for cookie baking. i promise i can do it, but don't be surprised if tex arrives in dc with a 5 lb bag of king arthur in tow. 

still haven't stopped crunching away on apples. i'm definitely a pink apple variety lady...the yellow/green apples are just too tart for me but i have been loving pink lady, jazz, gala, honeycrisp and braeburn apples like it's my job lately. the habit is a bit obscene - roughly two apples a day. i hope they don't cancel each other out and send me to the doctor. 

another place on my "must try before i move" list was protein bar. protein bar is in dc and chicago (my two cities!) and their motto is that they do healthy....healthier. they serve a variety of protein/veggie combos in three ways: burrito style, quinoa bowls and salads. i opted to try the buffalo chicken quinoa bowl (chicken, blue cheese, buffalo sauce, carrots, celery and cucumbers) though i really also want to try the spinach pesto bowl, the chicken parmesan bowl and the bbq chicken bar-rito. guess i'll have to go back several times before . 

the bowl was delicious but to be honest i wasn't TOTALLY full afterwards. i had it with a fruit cup on the side but it was after a five-mile run and my post-run hunger needed a little more sustenance (read: fats as that seems to be the best way to tame my hunger beast). it definitely would make a great lunch but i think i should have gone burrito style for dinner. next time i will definitely do that (or just not have this meal right after a run). nothing a couple of van's waffles and some almond butter couldn't handle when i got home. dessert of champs. 

<3

hey there, june

oh hi there, it's been a hot minute, hasn't it? i'm soaking up a lot of my "lasts" in dc and so i am not worrying about staying as updated with blogging. real life > the internet every single day of the week no matter how much i love you all (and i do!). i have had a great few days though and want to share some of the most delightful parts of the beginning of june (WHAT?! how is it june?!). 

district taco - i have been wanting to try this place for a long time. it's similar to chipotle in the style and options and i will probably get reamed for saying this but though i enjoyed my bowl a lot i definitely didn't think it was that much better than chipotle. they also are a bit skimpy with the guac which is a problem in my book. however the all you can eat salsa bar? well clearly i hit that up in a big way. i recommend it if you're in arlington and interested in a tasty dinner but it didn't completely blow me away. 

berry overload! i have been working through about 4 lbs of strawberries a week in my apartment. fine by me, i know the season doesn't last that long so i'm embracing it while i can. plus all the antioxidants? gotta be doing me some good. 

my moving boxes arrived from u-haul. they are still completely contained inside these boxes in my apartment (boxes in boxes) and i can't bring myself to open them quite yet because 1. it makes the move way to real and 2. it's going to be mayhem around here as soon as my living room becomes filled with cardboard boxes. i'll be putting this off as long as i can. 

on saturday afternoon we celebrated richard's 27th birthday by touring a couple of virginia's wineries. i got hit with some type of stomach bug on friday (i swear this never happens to me but alas, poor timing) which sucked but i was still glad i bucked up and went because i had a great time hanging out with my girls over wine tastings and quite a picnic spread. 

my sunday started off exactly as it should have - overnight oats in bed and then a gym date with allison. we did our own cardio thing and then rocked some upper body moves from best body bootcamp so that i could convince allison she should join the next round. she's going to and you should too! it's the best and even though i know my next 8 weeks will be crazy and i'll probably be missing a lot of the workouts i am still excited to have a brand new bunch of workouts to choose from when i can fit them in. 

i'm now planning on spending the rest of my sunday relaxing and catching up on my stories - aka clearing the dvr and watching law & order. perfection.

<3

champagne poppin' and carrot cake

thank you for all your lovely comments on the post about my weekend. obviously i'm still in a bit of an excited fog - people keep asking me if i've started wedding planning and i'm all "hold your horses peeps! i just got this ring a few days ago!" anyway i have no intention of turning this into a wedding planning blog mostly because i am utter crap at planning and so really would not have a lot to say but obviously i think some wedding talk will naturally go on as i've heard it gets kind of utterly consuming. sorry and i'll try to give fair warning for anyone who wants to skip over the wedding talk. 

so far the best part of being engaged is all the celebrating. allison and her hubby gave tex and i a wonderful engagement gift when we saw them on sunday (this accompanied luna bars and tobasco as well - obviously the girl knows me well) and i realized how blessed i am to have friends who are so thoughtful and excited on behalf of my life changes. as you can tell from the posts of late, there is a LOT of change in my life right now and i have rarely been this thankful to have people in my life who unconditionally support my decisions and pick me up when i'm laying in an anxiety ridden heap of tears on the floor. figuratively, of course. so this bubbly's for all of you - as a thank you!

you may also have a brownie. one of my student's birthdays was last week and i made her sally's cookies and cream brownies with crunched up oreo cookie thins on top. they were a HUGE hit with the kids, just like they were when i baked them for the bachelorette party a week or so ago. the only difference in this batch was instead of using a boxed mix i made her homemade recipe for brownies and you all simply have to go the homemade route. i had all the ingredients on hand and they were SO much fudgier than the box mix which is just how i like my brownies. this might be my new go-to recipe, especially when kids are involved. lots of times i try to bake fancier stuff and my students aren't having it but brownies are always a crowd pleaser. warning: these are incredibly rich and definitely need milk and should also be cut in very small pieces.

i posted about the wholly guacamole avocado ranch spread in my last post but i just wanted to highlight it's amazingness. i was worried it'd be more like a dip and less like a guac but really it's just like a regular guac with a bit more spice. love it and it's been delicious on eggs and wraps. 

thanks to allison i got to finally try the carrot cake luna bar. i was so excited to try this because i love luna bars (you may recall if you have been reading my blog for a while) and i also am obsessed with carrot cake. honestly? i think i'm over luna bars. i am such a quest devotee now and this bar felt incredibly insubstantial for a snack. i think it'd be tasty as part of a bigger snack but having it solo didn't cut it for me. the flavor was spot on though - perfectly spicy and definitely evocative of carrot cake. 

brinner is the best. i'm still in the process of clearing out my freezer and so i heated up a banana bread waffle that i had in there. it looks rather pathetic - i am wishing i had a belgian waffle maker for blogging purposes, but it tasted great with earth balance and syrup. i know that a lot of people are into fancier toppings but i'm definitely a butter/syrup girl when it comes to pancakes and waffles. keep it simple stupid. i also had a big scramble with my leftover fajita vegetables, jalapenos and pepper jack cheese with a side of strawberries. i've been going through 4 lbs of strawberries a week. the season never lasts as long as i want it to so while berry season is open i basically house a bowl with every meal. 

<3

celebrate good times

what an absolutely perfect weekend from top to bottom. despite the fact that tex was delayed flying in on friday night, everything else was absolutely wonderful. i don't really know how to sum it all up without writing pages and pages not to mention the fact that despite splashing lots of minute details about my life on the internet i'm still kind of private about certain things so instead i'll just share some pictures from the highlights of the weekend in no particular order - well, kind of in reverse order, actually now that i look at it.

yet again confirming that tex is with me for my skills at making mexican food. i saved about half the carnitas i made a few weeks ago in my freezer and reheated them (with a little chicken broth) while cooking up a boat load of red peppers and onions. i also made some cilantro lime rice for tex. we made our own chipotle bols/salads on sunday night and i have rarely been prouder of a feast i crafted. top to bottom yum. we also watched the hunger games which i loved even though i've seen it a few times. 

earlier on sunday tex and i went with allison to see the nats beat the phillies. it was my ideal baseball situation - we were kind of late due to stupid dc traffic so we made it there in time for about 6 innings of baseball, it was perfect weather and the game went quickly. don't get me wrong - i love watching sports - but baseball is not my favorite. unfortunately that's the exact opposite of tex's preference so it seems i'll have to make sacrifices at least a few times a season.  

i continue to love my early mornings even on the weekends. tex sleeps til about 8:30 (which is still early for him) while i usually get up around 6:45 on the weekends so i sneak out and watch tv and have breakfast while he's catching zzz's. 

i'm back to being obsessed with wraps. tex and i had a wondrous weekend of eating (we went out for steaks on saturday and hit up sweetgreen AND chop't along with the carnitas and some baseball food) so all i wanted to do last night after he left was forage in my fridge for something easy and tasty. i picked up some packs of wholly guacamole avocado ranch and it was an awesome spread for this wrap. turkey, spinach, guac/ranch, cheddar and jalapenos - doesn't get much more delicious. 

saturday night we went to ray's the steaks and then out to my favorite local bar to meet up with jess and her husband for cocktails (and dessert...and nachos...) and to celebrate the fact that on friday night tex proposed! basically the whole weekend turned into one big celebration and i couldn't be happier. thanks to all of you guys who already congratulated us on instagram and twitter. i'm thinking he's just trying to ease me into my move to houston with a diamond but hey - it seems to be working because i'm even more excited than i was before not to have to say goodbye to that face. 

like i said, the weekend couldn't have been much better than it was. i hope you all had just as great a long weekend and that your summers are off to an amazing start!

<3