Girl Time

Thursday night, I had the pleasure of hanging out with Jess and Savannah.

There's something refreshing about spending time with people you love. These ladies are great company.. Savannah is extremely entertaining at 8 months old! She is crawling like crazy, she babbles constantly, and she has the cutest personality! Between Sav and my niece, I am in baby heaven. :)

Don't have much time to write this morning, but I promise I will update again soon!

Love and Lattés,

Katie

Since I Last Blogged...

*I have learned the *right* way to throw a frisbee
*My husband has turned 24
*I have lost two pounds
*I have gotten a tan (okay, I used sunless tanner.. but still)

As part of my plan to reinvent myself, I have given up sugary drinks and started drinking lots of water throughout the day (with the exception of my one cup of coffee per day), and I have made a conscious attempt to get out and enjoy the beautiful sunshine as often as possible. I'm also exercising more - Justin and I bought a frisbee a couple days ago, and we have been having a lot of fun with it! It's nice, because it's the kind of exercise that sneaks up on you, which is perfect for us since we're not big fans of working out. Ha!

I feel like I should clarify the word "reinvent." I am happy with myself in most aspects - I have made a lot of emotional and spiritual progress over the past few years. However, there is definitely room for improvement health-wise, which is why I'm ready to make a few changes. I've gone head-first into diet programs and extreme exercise regimens before, and they just didn't stick.. so my new theory is that one small change at a time will eventually result in good habits that are easy to stick with. Soda (or pop, depending on where you're from!) was the first thing to go, and that hasn't been too difficult. I'm looking forward to keeping up with this in the blog. Now that I've put this out there, I can't poop out anytime soon. :)

More to come!

Love and Lattés,

Katie

Springtime: A Cinquain

Springtime


Sweet sunny breeze


Colorful flowers bloom


Bursting with life, Earth awakens


Beauty

America's New Idol

Confession: American Idol is my guilty pleasure. I watch it, I vote.. the whole 9 yards. This season, I was rooting for David Cook ever since his audition. Who would have thought that he was going to win the whole dang competition? Watching the two-part finale this week, Justin and I were pretty sure that David Archuleta was going to win, even though David Cook was our favorite. So last night, when Ryan Seacrest announced that Cook was the 2008 American Idol, I did a happy dance. :)


Congratulations, David C! You deserved it!

Love and Lattés,
Katie

Yay!!

Lookie what I'm gonna get!



That's all for now. More soon!

Love and Lattés,

Katie

So Sweet

I know I have talked a lot lately about focusing on the present, and not dwelling in the future. And I have been doing pretty well with that, I really have! But this afternoon, I caught a glimpse of the future, and I really liked what I saw.

We were at Justin's brother's house, spending some time with Tim, Shannon, and baby Emily Grace. We got in some fun aunt and uncle time with Emily, oohing and aahing at every cute little movement or noise.

Justin wanted to hold her, so I handed the baby to him and he received her like a pro, being careful to support her with both hands. He went on to bounce her on his knee, and then flip her around to talk "with" her. She started to fuss, and he immediately got up and walked her around the room until the fussiness subsided. A few minutes later, he handed Emily to me, and after a little swaying, she fell asleep in my arms.

Today I saw, just for a minute, that one day the two of us will make a really good parenting team. I was really impressed that my husband already knows how to hold a baby without feeling awkward and provide comfort at the first sign of fussing. Am I ready to be responsible for our own little one? Not yet. But, when the time comes, it's nice to know I'll have an excellent partner to experience it all with.

Love and Lattés,

Katie

Lately...

Lately, I have done the exact same thing every day.

My days are filled with work and a class on the Holocaust.

For class, I am reading parts of Lawrence Langer's Art from the Ashes. It's pretty intriguing, actually.

This morning, my boss brought in a bag of "Belly Flops," which



---Sidenote: We just had a firedrill at work. That was interesting! I even sang a rendition of "Ryan Started the Fire" a la The Office!---



Okay, where was I?

Oh yes. Belly Flops.

Belly Flops are Jelly Belly's irregular jelly beans. A bunch of them look like siamese twins, and

some are itty bitty.. but they taste great! So Katie and I are munching on them as we speak.

Yum! Did you know Jelly Belly makes a grapefruit jelly bean? It's delicious!

Well, that's about it for now. This afternoon, my coworkers and I are having a "Rock Band" party, so I will surely have more to talk about after that!

TGIF!

Love and Lattés,

Katie

Weekend Fun

This past weekend was a nice segue into my new "Maymester" schedule. Friday after work was all about spending some quality time with my darling husband. He was a dear and agreed to watch 27 Dresses with me. It was cute! I mean, there was nothing earth shattering about it, but it was a great way to spend a couple hours, and I love Katherine Heigl. Quite enjoyable!

Saturday, I did a little bargain hunting with my best friend, and ended up spending $9 for two tops at Belk. Not bad, if I do say so myself! Our time together was limited, but it was awesome to see my girls (7 month old Savannah was there too.. such a little angel!). In the afternoon, Justin and I had a pre-Mother's Day get-together with his family. It was fun! We sat out on his parents' porch and enjoyed the sunshine, ordered Chinese food and giggled as my 13 week old niece had a "conversation" with herself.

Sunday was Mother's Day. Church was quite the event! Baby Emily Grace was dedicated to the Lord, and in honor of this occasion, my sister-in-law's whole family was there, as were my mother- and father-in-law. We filled up two pews! At the end of the service, Justin and I went forward and told Pastor Matt that we were ready to officially become members. He prayed with us, and then introduced us to the church. Tim, Shannon and Emily went forward as well, to be re-introduced, as they are technically still members but haven't attended Friendship Baptist in a while.

It's sort of bittersweet to be joining a new church- OUR church. It feels good to be able to say that, and I can't tell you how refreshing it is to be attending church with family and friends. However, I've always been a member of my dad's church, and I must say that it seems strange that once the whole letter transfer thing happens, I will no longer be a member at Living Water. I guess that was the last loose end as far as making the move to South Carolina, and now, almost 3 years after coming down here, we are totally and completely settled.

After church, we had a Southern style Mother's Day lunch at Western Sizzlin'. I had some fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, a salad with all the fixins, macaroni and cheese, and the biggest dinner roll you've ever seen. It was delish! Emily was babbling again, and it was adorable. I just love her sweet little voice!

Fast forwarding a bit here.. Today begins yet another mini-chapter in my life. My work and class schedule have changed, and things will (hopefully) be a little easier over the summer than they were in the spring. I will be able to spend a little more time at home now, which may not matter anyway because Justin will be working on a new project for his dad's business that will start at the end of this month. Life is funny that way.

That's all for now. More to come!

Love and Lattés,
Katie

Dear Momma,

I so wish that I could be there this Mother's Day to spend time with you, laugh like we always do, and show my appreciation in a more personal way. Unfortunately, circumstances haven't allowed us to make the trip to visit recently, and it's looking like we won't see you guys until next Christmas. It's been almost 9 months since we last spent time together, and sometimes I don't know how I get by without being able to see my family. Sure, things have been busy, but I want you to know that you are always on my mind. A day doesn't go by when I don't think about what you might be doing, or how things are going. I miss waking up to find you and Dad on the couch, sipping coffee and talking, and I miss the lazy evenings when we used to lounge on the couch and watch TV.



As many of my friends are becoming mothers, some for the first time and some not, and as I get a little closer each year to becoming one myself, I am realizing just how much time and energy you put in to motherhood. You were always right there to kiss (and disinfect!) my cuts and scrapes, talk me through break-ups and high school crises, and give quick corrections when I was learning to drive and tried to turn left despite oncoming traffic (haha). You gave practical advice, which may have gone in one ear and out the other at the time, but every now and then it still echoes in my mind and influences me to this day. You're loving, sweet, and sometimes silly. And for all these reasons, I love you, mom.


The tie which links mother and child is of such pure and immaculate strength as to be never violated. ~Washington Irving

Love always,
Katie

Coffee Related Confession

I'm going to be honest: money is tight right now. And due to that fact, I decided to switch to something cheaper for a while. I was coffee shopping in Target the other day and decided to grab this instead of my usual Seattle's Best:



I was pleasantly surprised! Those memories of pre-ground Maxwell House coffee out of the can have now been replaced by these Tassimo MH Vanilla pods! It is quite smooth, and has a nice, classic vanilla flavor to it. Perhaps the "Café Collection" is a new, improved line by Maxwell House. I'm curious to try any other flavors they might have released.

Of course, I still prefer Seattle's Best or Starbucks, but for now this will do just fine. :)

Love and Lattés,

Katie

1000 days...

As of yesterday, Justin and I have been married for 1,000 days. Just thought I'd share that interesting tidbit. :) I must say, in marriage there is rarely a dull moment! Today we went to see Iron Man, which was actually pretty good. I know it got great reviews, but the previews really didn't get me that excited, so I went in with low-ish expectations. I was pleasantly surprised! I won't give anything away for those of you who plan on going to see it, but I will say that Robert Downey Jr. and Gwyneth Paltrow make a great team!


But I digress. This morning was interesting, to say the least. My Latin American history final was scheduled for 9:00 am. After setting and double-checking the alarm last night, I slept like a baby, prepared to get up at 7 and cram a bit more knowledge into my brain before the test. Well, around 7:30 Justin woke me up and scared me half to death, mostly because I was in the middle of REM sleep. I believe I was dreaming about feeding my best friend's baby girl, Savannah, some apple sauce when I was awakened.


So I jumped out of bed and washed my face but skipped the shower, to save time, and went through my history flash cards a couple times before it was time to leave.
For those of you who know me well, you know that I am extremely punctual, and usually arrive everywhere pretty early. Well, this morning I left exactly 30 minutes before I had to be there, which would normally give plenty of time to park, get to the classroom, and review a bit more before test time. However, I was forgetting a very important detail: TONS of students had a 9:00 exam today, and there was absolutely no parking available. I drove around for a while looking for an available space, and finally at about 9:01 am, out of desperation I did something that I don't believe I have ever done before. I parked illegally! Someone was parallel parked at a meter, with plenty of space behind their car.. so I parked right behind them! I hurried to Gambrell hall, worrying the whole time that I would come back to find my car towed or something.


Fast forward to a few minutes later. I made it to the classroom just as the tests were about to be handed out. My seat was at the end of a row in an auditorium-style room, and had to climb over about six people on my way to the right seat (yes, they took attendance even on final exam day). So I made it to my seat, out of breath, and didn't have any time to study anymore. I did what anyone would do.. I said a prayer! Thankfully, I remembered most of the names and dates - guess the flash cards worked! The test only took me about 45 minutes, and luckily, I returned to my "parking space" to find that my little Corolla was still there, and completely ticket-free!


So, that pretty much sums up my day. Exam, movie.... oh, and then we gave Ellie a bath and I did some cleaning. I must say, I am exhausted! I'm off to give myself a much needed pedicure and get in some quality husband time.


Love and Lattés,
Katie