A quick trip to Philly

With all the stress of home buying going on I decided on a whim about a month ago (I love that  this counts and on a whim for me) that I wanted to go “home” to Philadelphia to see my two best friends Kate and Sarah. As you might recall, Kate’s wedding was this July. We went up to Philly for the first time together and Mr. A got to experience the full force that is Philadelphia. Note as a reminder is as effing 121 with heat index in the church where Kate got married. NOT COOL, literally…

So this trip was much lower key. I wanted to meet Sarah’s new little baby Brycen and I wanted to spend some good quality time with both of them before I was going to bogged down with house projects this summer. I knew that spending money on a ticket up there with all the expenses of home buying was going to seem nuts. So I just bought a ticket before I owned a home officially!

Friday I spent the day hanging out with Sarah and baby Bryce in their home. We walked to Main Street in Manyunk and had lunch and then made dinner with her husband and drank wine on their porch overlooking the city. We talked about their move to the Boston area they will be making later this summer (I can’t believe they will not be in Philly anymore) and all the home choices they have to make. The weather dinner and company were just what I needed to relax and enjoy. It was perfect start to the trip.

Yummy salad Sarah made for dinner. I must make this.

 Saturday we got up and had breakfast at their house and chatted more about all of the house stuff going on with them and Mr. A and I. Sarah also gave me a whole run down on the whole birth process, which BTW, I want to give birth just like she did now. We then walked down to Main Street again to get a mani/pedi. This was the first one Sarah had had since getting pregnant! It was so great to see her relaxing and getting to have some fun girl time with her. He husband, Gian, took the baby and headed to a sports bar with the baby bijorn in tow. It was so cute. Here is a picture of the two of them!

Sorry I know this is sideways... So cute though.

I will figure out how to rote tate this. But this is Sarah and Gian walking back to their house in the city. So pretty.

Shortly after coming back from mani/pedi time Kate arrived at Sarah’s house and the three of us headed to dinner. We went to this super cute Italian place that serves you olives and cheese when you sit down. Yes. I know. Amazing. Sarah is a rock star mommy and brought baby Bryce with her. It was so cool to see how much she has grown into a wonderful mom! She just chatted and hung out with us while Bryce hung out. The three of us caught up over a glass of wine. I can’t believe that we have known each other for a decade now! It was just a perfect night.

Proof about the olives and cheese. So yummy.

I got my WAWA run in while in Philly. This is a necessary stop on every trip back home.

After dinner, Kate and I headed to her house. Note: when Kate and I are left alone things tend to get very out of control quickly. Kate and I started the night with a glass of red wine and a chat and me saying, “I am pretty tired”. Before I knew it we had gone through 3 bottles of wine!!! I know… we are awesome, you are jealous. Her husband, the state trooper, left for work at 5 am. We were still sitting on her back porch chatting. He told us to go to bed and that we looked like a hot mess. We did not turn in until 6am. Hey, when you only get a little time together you have to make the most of it.  And we really did!

Sunday we woke up and headed over to a local bar to watch the Flyers game. I know nothing about hockey so I chose to instead nurse my hangover with more beer. Because you know, that is how you get rid of a hangover right? After the game was over we headed home and watched game of thrones and chatted. I loved just getting to “hang out” at their house. Usually when I am in town we are always doing something special so we never get to just relax and spend time together. It was really a perfect end to a super fun mini vacation to Philly.

Sunday funday at the bar in Philly. Watching the Flyers!

The Wedding of Mr. and Mrs. S

Kate's wedding was truly a family affair. Her friends and family are all so close and it was so special to be a part of her big day. Kate is a great planner and the day seemed to go off without a hitch. There was food and drinks around every corner (which let's face it is very important to me) and she always had this cool and calm aura around her. Just the perfect bride! So here is a recap of the night in pictures.

We started off at the salon getting ready. Kate's SIL got her this cute little wrap dress with "Mr. S" on it. I totally am going to get one for myself.

The Bride getting ready in her fabulous wrap dress/towel that her SIL gave her. Hair all done!

Bridesmaids getting their hair did. Her friend Amy has the mos amazing red hair I have ever seen

Then we headed to Kate's parents home and got ready. She and her mom had a cute little buffet of snacks and drinks set up for all of us. Her parent's home is so cute and loved. It really felt so cool to get ready there.

Really cute champagne set up at her parents house.

Kate bought all of us custom champagne flutes! So cute.

Kate got ready at her parent's home. In her childhood bedroom. It was really touching. Totally made me cry.

Could she be any more beautiful!? Just perfect.

After pictures at her house Kate was ready to cool off on the bus. Little did we know the air on the bus was not working very well. Here she is still looking fabulous and very cool. I love this picture.

Mr. A and I enjoyed my favorite beer at the reception. I have missed lager for all of these years. He seemed to love it too!

Kate had really pretty centerpieces. They matched her bouquet and her whole theme was black and white. I thought it went so well in the ballroom.

The night was filled with fun, laughter, dancing and great food! We had so much fun with her friends and family. I only hope that we are lucky enough to have a family like this one day where all the cousins know each other and the families truly love each other. It was something I have never been around. It was so cool.

Kate had lots of great details at the wedding, including a "Love" statue in ice during the cocktail hour, a really fun photo booth and a late night desert room filled with every sweet you could ever want! LOVE.

Mr. A and I had a blast. Got a little drunk and danced our butts off! So much fun

Kate and Matt truly deserve all the happiness in the world. I am so blessed to have been a part of this crazy family affair. I think it was a great way to end the weddings I will be in. It was so great to share this with them and I look forward to sharing lots more with both of them in the years to come!

Cus where I sleep is the most important place in our home.

On our recent trip to Philly it was 10000 million degrees out. Mr. A and I were staying at Sarah's house and she of course had a fabulous guest bedroom for us.

On the bed she had a light cotton quilt that felt great to sleep with even though it was 10000 million outside. I loved it so much I decided right then and there I was going to but one for our bed in Texas. All we had was our down duvet that we would fold at the foot of the bed in the summer, but the bed just never looked finished. Plus it was always too hot! You can see a picture of what I am talking about here:

After some serious searching at Target, Crate and Barrel, Dillard's, Macy's and several other places we headed to Marshall's. First thing we found was what we bought. I was perfect! $40 king size quilt in our bedroom nutrual color pallet! Can't believe my luck on this bad boy!  We also spent $15 on a bed skirt and all of a sudden BAM bedroom makeover for $55 bucks!

What do you think?

Philly In A Day

As promised, I wanted to give you a full update of our recent trip to Philadelphia. My true home away from home. I wanted to show Mr. A everything the city had to offer. We had one day to cover a lot of ground. So, here is the breakdown.

We started the day off at Independence Hall. It was bright, sorry for the face.

Me inside the buislding where the Declaration and The Constitution were created and signed! Every time I still get dorky goosebumps!

We then walked around Society Hill, where Mr. A decided "I could totally live here", music to my ears.

To seal the deal on the living in Philly idea, I took him to Reading Terminal Market. We had DiNic's and lots of ice cream. It was amazing. Can't you tell?

We then went to visit Sarah in her office in City Hall. We got a personal tour from the lady herself!

City Hall Council Chambers. So cool.

We then met up with Matt and Kate for thier reahursal and dinner. SOOOO Yummy. They had a great spread for us, again Mr. A said, "Yeah, I could totally move here, I smiled! 

The whole group of boys did shots to end the night!

The bride and the bridesmaids looking great!

The next day was the wedding. More pictures of the best wedding to ever hit Philly coming up next!

When desperate, listen to the hippies

 The last few months I felt like my diet was lacking. I have felt really tired, stressed out, unfocused and in general off through most of my work day. I have tried changing what I eat, working out, more sleep, less drinking (lets be honest that was not really going to happen) all of the usual things and still nothing really has helped. So I decided to try something out that Sarah had suggested to me a while back. Vitamins, specifically New Chapter brand.

I ordered from Amazon today New Chapter One Daily Multi-vitamin

I also ordered New Chapter Wholemega Fish Oil Focus (I am secretly hoping I get really smart taking this)

I will let you know how this little experiment goes but I am very hopeful that these vitamins will make a difference. Maybe I will even become smarter? Probably not.

Happy Friday!

I can't help falling in love, with you Philadelphia/Katie D.

Last week Mr. A and I headed to my “hometown” of Philadelphia, PA for the wedding of Kate and Matt. We had an amazing time in the City of Brotherly Love with two of the best friends a girl could ask for. We stayed with Sarah and her husband Gian in the city. Sarah was in my wedding and is my oldest friend. We actually met on the first day of classes our freshman year of college! For most of the trip we split our time between Philly and Springfield, where Kate and Matt live. Mr. A got to have a real hoagie and learned why I would NEVER have Texasdelphia, rode the train and used a lot of public transit, saw Independence Hall, walked around Society Hill, SAT IN TRAFFIC, drove 90 to the rehearsal because of said traffic, ran up the rocky steps, saw City Hall, saw my huge university, saw the real ghetto, ate at Reading Terminal Market and so much more. Since so much happened, this post I am going to focus on the main event, Matt and Kate’s wedding.

First I want to give you a little background on the newly married couple. Kate, was my roommate during the semester I spent abroad in Rome. Kate and I have always said our meeting was fate. Kate was supposed to be roommates with some weird girls from Maine and I was going to be in a room with a Japanese girl (who later turned out to be totally awesome) and another girl from Maine. Well they asked to switch with Kate and she walked into my room and it was love at first site. We quickly bonded, while lying about smoking cigarettes (which both of us did at the time) and lying about not liking to drink “too much”, if you know me you know how big of a joke that is. We proceeded to spend the next 5 months drunk on our balcony and becoming lifelong friends. Kate is also the reason I moved to Texas. I know you are thinking, huh? Well see Kate has a sister too, who she is very close with and Kate told me to move to Texas because family is everything and having a chance to live close to my sister again was more important than anything. Plus she promised that we would always be friends and distance would not matter (she was so right). To this day this conversation makes me get all mushy inside. She, like every one of my truly close girlfriends has changed my life. 

Matt, is a state trooper and was the friend I told you all about over a year ago that was in a horrible accident involving a drunk off duty cop hitting him on the highway. He is an all-around great guy and has been friends with Kate since they were in high school. They are both incredible friends and great people, they totally deserved the best wedding day ever! 

Well, they got it. 

Kate’s wedding was one of a kind. I had never been a part of something so big! It was like I was a spectator in a real life “My Big Fat Italian Wedding”. The wedding was 200 people, it was 124 degrees out on the hottest day on record in Philadelphia, they got married in their childhood church with zero air conditioning and Kate was 100% freaking stunning in her wedding dress and 6 inch heels. The whole day was a blast. If I could have only gotten married after her and Janet I think I would have totally taken a page out of their books. Kate was super chill, got ready at her parents’ house in the room where she grew up in. It was really touching to see her sister helping her into her dress and thinking about all the nights they spent in that room.

After a VERY hot ceremony, including the groom pulling out a hand held fan in the middle of the sermon we all hopped on a limo bus and headed into the city. They took pictures at Love Park, and I can’t wait to see how they came out! Then we all arrived at The Ben:

Source

 A really fantastic old ballroom in the heart of center city. We took pictures and drank Yuengling Lager and then headed in for the most unreal cocktail hour I have ever seen! It was nuts. Mr. A summed it up with this comment, turning to me he says, “Wow this dinner is amazing, there is so much food”. I then responded, “Oh honey, this is JUST the cocktail hour!” at an Italian wedding you do not go hungry! We then watched emotionally as the groom danced at his wedding. Something that many thought would never happen. It is a testament to all the love and support they have surrounding them and the determination of both Kate and Matt to recover fully from that accident only 17 months ago. 

The night progressed with Mr. A drinking raz and sodas and getting just drunk enough to dance with me. We made fools of ourselves and loved every moment of it. Then after a night of dancing and drinking the trooper of a bride wanted to walk to the hotel they were staying at 6 blocks away… in her wedding dress and 6 inch heels. It was awesome and she cracks me up. The party continued at the hotel until 530 am! Her friends are crazy. Mr. A and I headed home in a cab, with no air conditioning, of course, and poured ourselves into bed.

To my surprise the next day at 12 the entire wedding party was ready to go! We continued the party at the Bride and Groom’s house with a BBQ with friends and family. Kate was a rock star and hosted an event at her house the day after her wedding. I would have had a heart attack. I am totally obsessed with Kate’s house and I was super pumped to show Mr. A the house. We helped get the party with some champagne and hoagies. From what I hear when we headed out the party was just getting started. The whole crew was up late night AGAIN hanging out and drinking 12 bottles of champagne (and much more)! Mr. A and I have learned that we are in no way cool, and our friends are whimps when it comes to drinking. I will just need to go visit PA more often to be reminded of how it is done! 

Katie, you are a great friend and I could not even begin to express how much it means to me that you included me in your wedding day. I hope you had a great mini-moon in Florida and I can’t wait to relive the whole party with you again next time I come to visit.  Congratulations Mr. and Mrs. S! You guys had a fabulous wedding, and I am sure it is just the beginning of many great things to come! 

Full photo recap to come soon! 

Philly girl weekend re-cap!

I had the pleasure of attending the bachelorette party of a great friend Kate. She is marrying one of her longtime friends and an all-around great guy Matt. If you don’t remember Matt is the cop that was in a horrible accident about a year ago. They have worked so hard to get healthy and stick together. I know they are going to have a really special marriage and I am so lucky to know them both.  Right away I knew I wanted to attend this girl’s bachelorette party because I knew it was going to be a great trip. 

I headed out at the ass crack of dawn on Friday morning and landed in Philly around noon. After some last minute shopping and a tour of Kate’s adorable 1950’s Cape Cod style home we got the party started. I made queso and guac which I am sure the Philly girls thought was weird. I also busted out my favorite Oreo truffles. They are amazeballs, and super easy to make.  We hung out all night with all the bridesmaids and got to know each other. Gallons of champagne will really speed that process up! We finally headed to bed at 4am after a lot of great story telling and yummy snacks. 

The next morning we woke up and had breakfast and then headed to the real party in the city. It had literally been years since I had been out in Center City. It was so much fun to be home. We stayed at a cute hotel right across from City Hall. After we all finished getting ready we headed out for some drink’s at Steven Starr’s “Continental Mid-Town”. I had a huge fight with a cab driver who refused to make change for a $20. Curse words were said and I did not pay. I did not cut anyone, WOOOT WOOOT! I feel I have really had some growth in the cutting department… 

We headed into the bar and went right up to the rooftop lounge. The weather was perfect and we had survived the rapture so it was time to get the bubbly flowing. Kate had about 25 people at the party including her mom and MIL. I thought it was so cute to see them all out and ready to party! We ordered a bunch of appetizers and yummy drinks. I had a freaking heart attack when I paid for my first drink and it was $9. I took a picture because I had to keep a reminder of what $9 champagne looked like. BTW- It totally looks like $3 champagne… 

Bride looking fabulous.

My champagne that I sipped so slowly... It was so yummy!

My outfit for the night. Thoughts? It was the first time I wore heals in like a year.

We then headed to another bar called “Time” in the gabor-hood. Loved it, but they played horrible techno music so we headed to our final destination. We had to walk through a shady alleyway and there may or may not have been a raunchy photo shoot in said alley. It was the funniest part of the night. We then got into “McGillians Pub” the oldest bar in Philadelphia. Such a cute pub and I have been going there for years. Kate got hit on by some randoms and we all fell down a lot at this point. We then walked back to the hotel and hit the sack around 345am not without some awesome Philly pretzels and more drinks. 

The next morning the bride took us all to a bunch at the ironically named spot “Supper”, such a cute spot. It reminded me a lot of a few cute Austin spots. We had a riot at brunch sharing stories from the night before. Everyone was tired and hung over. We again had many $9 mimosas, which I again had a heart attack when I heard the price.  We had some really yummy food and then said our goodbye. The whole thing went by in a flash. 

GGAB? Maybe. But I thought she looked fabulous for the day after her party!

Right after brunch I had a few minutes to catch up with my good friend Sarah who also still lives in Philly. She took me to this totally cute little coffee shop “Spruce Street Coffee” and I had an amazing cup of cappuccino. We caught up and she of course looked fabulous! I am always amazed at how Sarah pulls off looking better and better through the years (that bitch). After coffee Sarah walked me to the train station and got me all set up with a ticket to the airport. I hopped on the train and off I went. I headed home and after a very long weekend was back in Mr. A’s arms. 

Love the heart in my coffee!

 I can’t begin to tell you how touched I am to have such great friends. Kate is one of those people who will always be there for you and never ask for anything in return. I feel so blessed that I can be a part of her wedding and maybe in some way return some of the MANY favors and acts of kindness that Miss Kate has shown me over the years. I can’t wait for the big day, her wedding is going to be amazing! Congratulations Miss Kate!

Philly Girls Weekend Recap!

As I mentioned my besties from Philly came to town this weekend for a little wedding shopping and a lot of fun! Sarah and Kate are two of the best girlfriends I could ask for!

We started the weekend with dinner at my house. We cooked up a storm of WW friendly food, including an heirloom tomato salad, asparagus soup, garlic and lemon white fish, and zucchini fries. All the recipes we used I found on Gina's Weight Watcher's Recipes. I love her stuff. Kelly and Janet, my other two bridesmaids (and fantastic friends I might add) were able to come for dinner as well, so I had almost all of my bridesmaids in one place! My sister, and MOH was not able to make it :( Here is a picture of the heirloom tomato salad we made:Friday we ran town lake and then went shopping at the Domain and the Arboretum. We then went to Malaga for tapas and wine with WF and some of our other friends. I loved the dinner there and can not wait to go back and try it again. We had lots of excellent options. We then headed out on the town for some drinking and dancing.

Saturday we went bridesmaid dress shopping! First we tried Unbridaled but I found their dresses to be super overpriced and I was a bit discouraged. We then went to Serendipity where we found a SUPER cute dress that we think will work for all the girls. Here is Kate in the dress:
We will be ordering it in a brown and cream option. But honestly if any of these colors were in my wedding I would have gotten this one! I thought it was super cute!

Saturday night we went out to hill country for a wine tasting at Mandola's and then dinner at the restaurant. I LOVE that place for dinner. It's my favorite Italian place in town. WF fiance was even able to make it out for dinner and drinks.

Sunday was the worst day of the weekend, because the girls headed home. I was really sad to see them go because I just hate not living by them. Who knows what might happen though. Maybe fiance will get a job up there and I can see them all the time! After the girls headed home WF and I watched the UT football game and relaxed the rest of the day. We even found a girl on the knot who was selling her centerpieces and I bought the vases from her. I really am happy about the purchase. Click on Rachael's blog to see what we bought.

Such a fun weekend and I feel like we get some much done. I love those Philly Girls and miss them to death already. More pictures to come....