Southern Weddings | Marriage Confessions Southern Weddings

I wish I was still reporting to you from my sick bed, but duty calls. I went back to work yesterday, and the exact words from my students were, “You look like death, Mrs. Brown,” and “You look terrible, Mrs. Brown.”

Ahhh…middle schoolers. Such honesty.

Anyway, I’m still not 100%, so I’m rerouting you today to my column over at Southern Weddings Magazine. It was written back before I came down with the Plague and so it’s better than anything I’d write here today under the influence of cold pills.

I’ll be back up and running when I’m finally feeling better!

0 comments | posted in Marriage Confessions, Southern Weddings | tags: Southern Weddings Magazine

I’m so happy to announce that I’ll be posting a regular column twice a month on the Southern Weddings Magazine blog starting… TODAY! I am super excited because Southern Weddings encompasses all that I stand for as a Southern woman – charm, sophistication, and sweet tea, among other things – all wrapped up in super chic and yet very down home weddings. Basically, I want to invite myself to every wedding they profile. I don’t think the brides would mind. I’m a really good wedding guest. I always bring a gift, I never drink, and you only have to take the microphone away from me during love ballads.

Come visit and say hi to me and the lovely ladies of SW. Today we’re chatting about my pro-Valentine stance.

What are your thoughts about V-Day? Cheezy? Lovey? Too commercial?

8 comments | posted in Marriage Confessions, Southern Weddings | tags: Southern Weddings Magazine, Valentine's Day

1. I am finally getting up the courage to wear leggings and I think they are going out of style. Are they going out of style? I feel like I haven’t seen them in a while, but maybe I’m just missing them. I always miss trends by two or three months.

2. I just finished reading “Little Bee,” by Chris Cleave. It was so good. It’s a lot like “The Kite Runner,” if you read that one. You don’t REALLY want to know what is happening because it is so heartbreaking, but yet you can’t stop reading! It is incredibly well written. If you’re looking for something to read, I highly recommend that one.

3. I blogged this week over at Southern Weddings about mine and Chris’s New Years resolutions as a couple. We have occasional “State of Our Union” dinners and we usually kick off the New Year with one where we set our goals and priorities for our marriage for the upcoming year. For tips on how to have your own “State of the Union” dinner or conversation, be sure to go check it out. (And then leave me some comment love…)

4. Today I booked our air travel with the travel agent for our trip to Costa Rica in March. I am so freaking excited. I haven’t blogged or even talked too much about it though because I am so afraid something will go wrong and I won’t be able to take the trip or something. I think I’m just nervous and can’t believe we won something so incredible! I’ll feel better once I have my passport (yes, I had to apply for a new passport so I could take this trip and, naturally, it is taking FOREVER to get it back!) and our plane tickets in hand!

5. I am on Day Three of cutting soda out of my diet and I think I am going to die. I miss my Diet Dr. Pepper! I miss it so much! By 2:00 in the afternoon, I am craving caffeine. But I have been a good girl and have resisted and am only drinking water instead. It sucks. I hate it. But I’m doing it because I’m supposed to feel good…or WHATEVER.

6. My friend, Sarah, is doing this whole “refreshing our lifestyle” resolution thing with me and so yesterday she dragged me to a yoga class. I hadn’t been to yoga in four or five years and I had forgotten how much I love it. Even my mind felt better by the time the class had ended. Of course, this morning at school when I raised my arm to write on the board, I thought my arm was going to fall off because it was so sore. Hopefully, that’s a muscle growing in there!

7. My kids are the coolest. Hands down. They are the coolest people I know. I have so much fun with them. Bean and Gracie are starting to play together a little and it just melts my heart. Gracie got a tea set for Christmas and Bean has spent the past two days sitting down with her, drinking tea. He gets really frustrated that she doesn’t know how to hold the cup. She just gives this warrior cry and hurls something across the room. It’s pretty entertaining to watch, actually. I went back to work today for the first time in two weeks and I really missed them. Bean cried when I dropped him at daycare this morning and I kind of wanted to, too. I miss those boogers when they aren’t with me!

8. At Christmas, I stole a really warm, super soft fleece blanket from my sister’s house and I have to mail it back this week. I will be very sorry to see it go. If she was a good sister, she’d insist that I keep it… (hint, hint)

9. We had taco night tonight and to trick Bean into eating some of it, I told him the black beans were boiled peanuts. He loves peanuts. As soon as I said that, he started eating black beans by the handful. Mom wins. I love when I outsmart a two year old. Surprisingly, that doesn’t happen often…

10. It’s that time of year again, imaginary friends. The Bloggies are upon us. Every year I cringe at the thought of asking for you all to go vote, but, alas, here I am again. Asking you to go vote. This year they have added a new category called “Best Parenting or Family Weblog,” and I think that’s the category I fit best into. Why are the Bloggies so important, you may ask? Well, if you’re a blogger who makes money off of their blog, like me, then it’s a fantastic way to get your numbers up, which generates more revenue. It also looks really great to publishers for someone who might possibly be working on their book in super secret right now. So, if you’re feeling generous, head over to the Bloggies website and drop a vote for me into the Parenting or Family Weblog category. Then, if you’re feeling extra nice, Tweet it, Facebook it, blog it, tell your Grandma about it, and just generally spread the word that you know this super lame blogger who is asking for votes. It would be much appreciated. (P.S. I’m going to ask you to do this all again if I’m nominated. So, you have that to look forward to…)

Namaste.

17 comments | posted in Fun Things, Just for Fun, Marriage Confessions, Out and About, Random, Southern Weddings | tags:

1. Thanks to everyone who voted on which “Gift of Happiness” trip Chris and I should take. We are so happy that you all chose the ADVENTURE PACKAGE!! Yay! Chris says I messed up the voting because I swayed you, but I think you all just know the perfect vacation package when you see one, right???? SO SHUT IT, CHRIS!

2. Thanksgiving is, like, next week. When did that happen??? I thought Halloween was yesterday? We are heading to my parent’s house next Wednesday to spend a few days with the fam. I’m super excited, but about 1.3 million things have to happen before we can leave. First, I have to take Gracie to the doctor on Monday and go to the DMV to get my license renewed. Then on Tuesday I have jury duty (who schedules jury duty the week of Thanksgiving?!?!). And on Wednesday morning I’m have my BFF, Emily, over for breakfast while she is in town from California. Sometime in the middle of all of that, I have to make green bean casserole and two dozen deviled eggs for Thanksgiving dinner.

3. I’m taking a field trip tomorrow to Chris’s theater. I’m super excited, but not as excited as my students. They really want to meet Chris for some reason.

4. Chris and I are in a funk/slump right now. Actually, he’s in a funk/slump right now. He doesn’t feel good, he has an ulcer in his mouth (he gets them from stress), and work has been crazy for him lately. I’m sympathetic to all those things. But it’s been going on for about a month now and, to be honest, I miss my husband, darn it. I go back and forth between being mad at him and feeling sorry for him, but lately I’ve decided that sometimes in marriage one person just has to carry the relationship for a while. Someone has to make the effort for both people when the other one isn’t able to. Chris did it for me last year and so I’ll do it for him now. Cause I love him. And cause he’s a good kisser.

5. Bean has a Christmas play at his new daycare in a few weeks. It’s supposed to be a surprise program, but a couple nights ago, Chris and I were sitting in the living room after we’d put the kids to bed and we heard Bean singing in his room, “We WISH you a merry Christmas! We WISH you a merry Christmas! We WISH you a merry Christmas and a haaaaappppppyyyyy neeeewwww yeeeeaarrrrr!!!” We silently died laughing and then sat on the stairs together for 10 minutes listening to him sing his entire Christmas program. It was one of the sweetest moments. I love being his mom.

6. I have been reading the entire Harry Potter series with a few kids from my classes this semester. It’s my first time reading them and they are just as good as everyone has always said they are. I just finished the sixth book last night and started the seventh book today. I have one class where practically every student is reading some part of the series right now and they all cheered with me when I told them today I was on the last book. It was the 4,000th time in the past year that I said a silent prayer of thanks that I’m a teacher now because kids are pretty darn awesome.

7. The fourth volume of Southern Weddings Magazine came out a few weeks ago and I am so proud that a piece of my writing is in it! The SW editorial team are just about the sweetest people you’ll ever meet and the quality of their magazine is absolutely breathtaking. If you’re getting married (or even if you just love pretty pictures of happy people and gorgeous places), pick up a copy of Southern Weddings Magazine and then let me know what you think of my article on how to include family in your planning process and, later, in your marriage.

8. If I had one wish, I’d wish for a laundry fairy who would just silently show up when the laundry needed to be done. She’d whisk it all away with a flick of her fairy dust and it would instantly be clean, smell good, and be folded back in the correct drawer or closet. If science can make those tiny toy dinosaurs that grow into huge toy dinosaurs in water, then surely they can whip up a laundry fairy in some lab somewhere…

9. I have not checked my email in a week and I know for a FACT that I have at least six important emails that are waiting for my response. I’m hoping the world doesn’t explode before Saturday because that’s when I’m scheduling time to tackle the email beast.

10. If I had a second wish after the laundry fairy wish, I’d wish for an email fairy who would read all my emails, respond to the ones who need responses, save the ones that are worth saving, and trash the ones that need to be dumped. I’d also want my email fairy to organize some email folders for me. And maybe figure out how to delete the email accounts from my phone because email on my phone just annoys me.

That is all.

Happy weekend.

24 comments | posted in Around the House, Communication, Family, holidays, Husbands, Marriage, Marriage Confessions, Southern Weddings | tags: Gift of Happiness, life, Southern Weddings Magazine