Post Thanksgiving Blues.

I am so sad to be back at work today!!! Jay is home off work and I wish I was too. We had such a great long weekend together and we didn't want it to end. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving and time spent with Jay's family, and can't forget our 4th row seats to the Vikings game yesterday. I can't complain though-today has gone by fast and relatively pain-free. I was in the office by myself for most of the day and it was so nice. I'm about to take off and head to ikea to get some final items needed for a few special Christmas surprises....so excited about my presents this year! And then it's Monday night football! Big night for the Vikes because the Saints need to lose. For one night I'll be cheering on Tom Brady and his Patriots! ARE YOU READY FOR SOME FOOTBALL??? I know I am =)

Thoughts on Thursdays

Happy Thanksgiving!!! I wasn't around my computer very much this weekend, and especially not on Turkey day so thoughts on thursdays had to wait =) Since we just gave thanks for all the wonderful blessings in our life I'm just going to share a few reasons I'm thankful for my husband.

Because of Jay:

-I've never had to get my oil changed, car fixed, or been anywhere near a repair shop. Sometimes I don't even have to get gas!

-I've never had to figure out computer problems or go too long without a technical solution.

-I've never felt insecure in our relationship.

-I've never mowed a lawn.

-I've never felt alone in my Vikings obsession ;)

-I've never gone without.

-I've never gone a day without sharing a smile and a laugh.

-I've never taken out the trash on Sunday night.

-I've never started up the grill/grilled for a delicious bar-b-que.

-I've never gone a day without feeling like the luckiest girl in the world.

Just a few thoughts that I was thankful for this weekend =) Hope your holiday was blessed.

Black Friday

Who is getting up at the crack of dawn to go shopping on Friday?? We aren't sure if we are going to yet or not-we going to check out what's on sale tomorrow and then make a decision. Last year we got some great deals =)

Remember when I blogged about my favorite shop, Ruche? They are having a 15% off sale on Black Friday and Monday. So excited to pick a few things out! Black Friday is so exciting!! =)

Can hardly wait...

for thanksgiving.

for the long weekend.

for family time.

Tonight my brother is coming over to celebrate his birthday and we are having yangs chinese....amazing! I talked to him for awhile on the phone the other night and it was so fun to just talk about nothing. He is so sweet. I'm looking forward to seeing him today. After his party we are going to see the football movie The Blind Side. We have a fun little night planned! I'm taking a half day tomorrow and Jay has the day off so we are heading to Baja Sol early so we can meet Jared Allen =)

Friday night we are having Jenni's birthday party. I need to make a few appetizers and need some recommendations. Does anyone know anything delicious that is prepared with cheese? That's her favorite food. I'm trying to have an array of appetizers that involve cheese. If anyone knows of anything delicious please let me know. Any kind of cheese!

Thursday we are spending Thanksgiving with my in-laws at Jay's Dad's. It's always so fun to get together, especially over the Holidays. We also have a game day planned for Saturday at Jay's Aunt's home so we will have lots of family time this year, which is great. It's always hard to make the rounds to each side of the families, especially with two sets of divorced parents, and we really appreciate the time we can spend with his family. And Sunday, just because my husband is SO amazing, he got me 4th row tickets to the Vikings vs. Bears game at the dome!!!!!!!!! 9 exclamation points does not begin to explain how excited I am. I've only been to 3 Vikings games and they have all been in the nosebleed section, and I am a HUGE fan. I won't go to say that I am a bigger fan than Jay, but it's definetly close. Let's just say that when Sunday rolls around, game time comes, and I tell him not to talk for a few hours, he knows I'm serious ;) It will be a perfect ending to our fun-filled weekend. Have a blessed Thanksgiving everyone! I'm off to lunch with Jenni.

blah.

It's Monday morning + I'm just feeling blah. This weekend was fun and it was hard to drag myself out of bed and into work. Thankfully it's a 3 day week. Why are Mondays always so hard?



But today is a special Monday! It's the day that a wonderful, amazing, and caring person was born. She's the person that you can't really put into words how awesome she is.

Jenni, thank you for being nerdy with me.

thank you for nourishing my Twilight addiction.

thank you for laughing when no one else thinks it's funny.

thank you for creating nicknames for our favorite places to eat. fatties.

thank you for knowing what I'm saying when I speak in nicknames.

thank you for our mid-day lunch dates.

thank you for years of sleepovers and movie nights.

thank you for being the best dance partner when we go out.

thank you for your hilarious stories that make my day better.

thank you for our deep conversations + your invaluable advice.

thank you for always going with the flow.

thank you for your funny laugh.

thank you for being my best.

Here is a picture of us from college when we were young, cute + very blonde =) Happy Birthday Jenni! I can't believe you are 25+ can remember when we were young + naive in highschool and didn't have a clue about life. Look how far we've come!

Thoughts on Thursdays

Put a little effort in.

I'm preachin' to myself here folks...so don't take offense =) The other night Jay worked really hard and made us a fabulous dinner while I relaxed + unwound after a stressful day. After we were done eating he wanted to head to the gym and work out together. After my long, stressful day that was the last thing I wanted to do, and the first thing that came to mind was "no"....but I caught myself and thought that after all he had done for me to make my night stress-free, the least I could do was put a little effort in and go workout with him. Turns out I really needed to workout to relieve my stress! There are also little things that I know make a difference to him, like dressing up for dates or wearing a cute outfit I know he likes. I know what you are all thinking-we've only been married a year, gag me with the effort...the honeymoon phase ends. I know that we've only been married a year, but we've been dating nearly 10...and trust me, it takes work and effort in our relationship to keep the romance. But even after 10 years, I still get butterflies when getting ready for a date, or when he calls and says he is picking me up, or when I am curling my hair and he walks past the bathroom door and says "lookin good baby!" Those are the moments + feelings where I know every effort I put in is soooo worth it and I need to remember that.

Random thoughts.

Sorry about the slack this week. I've been working on a few projects that have taken up my time during the day=no time for blogging. Blame it on etsy....the other love of my life =) Last night was date night + we made cayenne rubbed chicken with a pineapple avocado salsa. It was really simple, easy + good. I'll post the recipe this week. After dinner we headed to the club to start Making the Cut again. It's about that time of year before the holidays when we need to shed some pounds! It was pretty much hilarious. I wish there would have been a hidden video camera on us for this one day in our lives. We were rolling around like dead fish and could barely get through workout one!! Total whiners. We are so out of shape, our training really took a backseat this fall. I bet at least 4 people at the gym were wondering why we were even there. It makes me giggle thinking about it. Today will be better, right????!

Last night was our first home cooked meal of the week and tonight will be our second. I am trying to keep up with the promise I made to myself to cook for Jay more...so far so good. Tonight we are having baked chicken with mustard cream sauce and asparagus-it's so yummy. It's just so nice to spend nights at home. Ok back to etsy. esty has saved my life this holiday season! I was able to have a few hard to find things custom ordered and I am super excited about it. I think handmade gifts are really thoughtful and you can get exactly what you want. Plus I really love online shopping. It makes my life so easy. Alchemy is one of my favorite options of etsy. It's a place where you can request custom items you want made and people can bid on them if they want to make it for you. It allows you to set your own price & explain exactly what you want made. I purchase a lot of photography props on etsy, especially for newborn sessions. Talking about etsy has got me in the shopping mood. Just wanted to share my favorite store, Ruche. It is modern vintage goodness in one spot (and the prices are good!) love love love love. This season I really like textured hoisery. It's feminine & sexy and just looks cute. It dresses up any outfit nicely. I am going to get a pair or two for our winter dates, we are going to some fun restaurants around the cities.

I love dressing up for my hubby. I also like dressing up for work-on the rare occasion that I do =) It's nice to be comfortable and we are pretty laid back at the office but sometimes I like to mix it up. So these will be a nice addition to my work wardrobe too. I'm so worthless at work today. My Christmas pandora mix is making me giddy!!!!!!

Headed home.

We are making our way home to Minnesota after a wonderful weekend with our dear friends in Sioux Falls. This trip has to be one of my favorites to make-and it never gets old.I love visiting SF. We are so thankful for the friendships we have there! More to come later. On the agenda today: Vikes game, laundry, wrapping some Christmas presents, grocery store, and grilling some chicken for the week. I just love Sundays at home :)

The list + jessica claire

We've been checking things off right & left on our 1001 in 101 list.

Today I checked off an item I had been hesitating to complete, and also a huge one for me.

I e-mailed someone who inspires me. That someone is Jessica Claire.

For those of you who don't know her, she's one of my biggest photography inspirations.

She's talented, fresh, imaginitive, inventive, amazing.

The reason I hesitated is because I'm sure she gets these e-mails all the time.

I didn't want to be that girl. The annoying one singing continous praise.

But after being inspired month after month by her, I got some courage.

I decided that compliments never get old, even if you get them every day.

Heck, if I came across someone's blog with a post about me,

I might just drop dead right there ;)

Of course she's known nationwide and is very successful

So it's probably nothing new for her. but I'm still glad I did it.

She deserves the recognition!

Thank you Jessica for being so amazing and a huge inspiration.

Thoughts on Thursdays

Last week we received the sweetest compliment.

It's Thursday + I'm tired so this is all you're getting for TOT =)

I know, creative right? hah.

Jay and I attended every one of my sister's soccer games this year,

with the exception of one re-scheduled rained out game. we are superfans.

One of Aly's teammates Mom's took my Mom aside the other night.

For 10 straight minutes she complimented our relationship.

She said she's watched us all season and was really touched.

By our relationship and the people we are, together and towards others.

She said sometimes we would smile + talk to her without knowing her and it made her night.

I almost teared up hearing the story. What a sweet lady.

We were really flattered, because that's really something coming from

someone we don't know-an outside view of our relationship, an unbiased opinion.

It really taught us that how you interact as a couple can make an impact on others.

It encouraged me to reach out to people we don't know + always be kind.

Everyone is fighting a tougher battle, and sometimes they can use a smile

or a friendly conversation, even if you talk about nothing.

My favorite part was when she said we were an incredible couple that

look so happy together + will be married forever.

I don't know why I was surprised to hear that-because she's dead on.

I guess it's because she took the time to really see us as we are,

and I love that we gave her that impression.

be kind to all. you impact more people than you think.

The Christmas Spirit....

it's totally within me.

i'm so excited to go home and put the lights on our tree tonight

hang out, and enjoy our weekend memories.

we thought it would be fun to make our blog festive this year.

we are almost done with our christmas shopping!

yes i may be crazy, but i hate fighting the crowds + picked over selections.

i haven't gone so far as to put up christmas music on the blog,

but just you wait ;)

Boston

We have been on so many incredible travels this year that it's hard to pick our favorites,
but this has to be at the top of the list. Boston is so amazing, as we knew it would be!!
It was also really very fun to share our memories with Bunny, Papa, Mama & Al.

You can't get much better than that.

The first day we walked the Freedom Trail-
a 2.5 mile red painted trail leading to 16 nationally significant historic sites.
That was really fun. We saw all of the sites of significance in the founding our country.
The first schoolhouse in the nation, the place where the Constitution was read for the first time to the public, the boston tea party site, the graveyard where prominent U.S. leaders are buried, Paul Revere's home, the Church that Paul Revere road to warn the people how the British were approaching (1 if by land, 2 if by sea), etc. It is an incredible city + so cool to experience the history that made our country what it is today. We are big history nerds so we really enjoyed that--and we got quite a workout walking all over the city of Boston! The next day we toured Fenway Park. This was probably a big highlight for both of us-another incredible landmark in the history of baseball & a really cool experience. We got to go inside the press box, the green monster & all over the ballpark. I know Jay loved this part too. We also visited Harvard...what a beautiful campus! we lucked out with really nice warm weather and it was the perfect time to be in Boston during the fall. Jay had his first experience on a subway and was really impressed.

It's so fun to experience things for the first time together and I'm glad neither of us had been there yet. We went to the markets for shopping, ate delicious fresh seafood (yes, even Jay had some!!) and had fun together. We stayed at the Back Bay Hotel....and would highly recommend it. It's a 5 star hotel right in the heart of Downtown. It was formerly the police station/headquarters that was rennovated into a hotel so the architexture and history was really cool. If you visit Boston-eat at the Atlantic Fish Company. So delicious! On our last day there we watched the filming of Knight and Day with Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz. I met Tom Cruise.

we are easily entertained.

I found a Twilight store.

steps of the Harvard library.

I'm proud of myself for already getting these up here-usually I put it off and they are either late or I never post them (Osceola, oops!!) I'm trying to get better at posting right away while the memories are fresh in our minds so we can share better with you. =)

Thoughts on Thursdays

I know it's late but it's still Thursday =)

Here are my thoughts on marriage today.

Sometimes it's ok to shut the world out.

It's nice to take time away from the hustle+bustle and just be alone once in awhile.

people give me a hard time when i don't answer my phone at night.

i rarely ever do. it's not you.

there's a reason+ method to my madness. when i'm home i want to be "there"

and spend time with my husband. i don't want to spend it on the phone.

in fact most days i wish i didn't even have a cell phone.

i'm very old-fashioned in the way that i like face to face contact.

amidst the busy-ness of our lives we find it amazing to turn off our phones,

grab a bottle of wine and lay on the floor and watch a movie together.

we love to hibernate.

It's ok to shut the world out.

Here we are.

tonight we're watching game 6 of the world series. we hope the yankees don't win.

i'm smelling the yummy goodness from our christmas pine candle.

we ran errands + got jay some nice clothes for boston.

i'm editing + blogging + my boys are keeping me company.

what else. big game tomorrow. al's in the championship game for the state title.

we're leaving on a jet plane friday. which means thursday is my friday!

darn yankees.

xx abbey

Different

people always say you feel the same after you marry then before.

that marriage just makes you official on a piece of paper.

i feel different.

we live in the same house, and work the same jobs.

we are the same people.

but we're not.

i feel butterflies.

i love being introduced as a wife.

there's just something special about it.

i feel different and i like it very much.

{life}

dear life,

I promise to return to you soon.

lately I've been busy with all the responsibility that comes along with adulthood.

but this weekend, you + me baby. it's on.

let's laugh with bunny and share secrets with papa.

let's cherish time with mama + al.

let's sneak glances + hand squeezes with jay.

we'll catch up with you.

and get to know each other again.

and it will be beautiful.

we'll see you in Boston.

xx abbey.

Big week.

So this weekend didn't turn out exactly as planned because I got sick, so we had some changes of plans but overall it was a really good weekend. We ended up staying around home and had Monica and Chris over to watch the Gator game and we played cribbage. I really just wanted to rest up so it was a perfect day! On Halloween we headed to a low key party at Becca and Brent's. There were about 10-15 people there so it was perfect. We dressed up as Bella and Edward from Twilight! It was fun =) We painted Jay's face pale and doused him in glitter! I wore a brown wig and frumpy clothes a la Bella Swan. We were very dramatic in these images. It's really hard to take serious pictures when you are dressed up so funny! It definetly took us a couple of tired with the neck-sniffing picture ;)
I couldn't kick my germs though and Sunday I paid for it. We watched the Vikes game like usual at my Moms and then we came home and put up our Christmas tree! Yep, you heard me right. We had so much fun!! We are going to be out of town the next two weekends, & we usually put it up mid-November....so we decided last night would be a good time unless we wanted to wait until the weekend before Thanksgiving. We LOVE the Christmas season so we are the early decorators. Plus we don't really have any "Thanksgiving" decorations, & we don't usually celebrate Thanksgiving at our house so it's not usually a problem to have Christmas decorations up. Now the house is so cheery and colorful and fun. We listened to Christmas music and watched the World Serious game. We went to bed early around 9:30 to get ready for our week...hopefully a few soccer games at the dome, some photography, and then Boston on Friday! Our travel adventures continue =) Oh, & check this out.