My Husband Rocks Fridays

My husband rocks because he drove with me to pick up my sister and then listened to us gossip for 3 hours on the way back to my parents house....AND did not complain one time. (For those of you whom have had the pleasure of seeing my sister and I together, we tend to have full conversations of laughing in which we can understand one another, but everyone else has no idea what is happening.)

Mini Vacation

So the Mr. and I took a much needed vacation to Washington D.C. It was so much fun! We mostly walked around on Monday to see the monuments (which I had never seen before). Above is the Washington Monument - it is sooo tall when you get close to it. (Sorry it's above the text, but it wouldn't move) It was a little cloudy, so don't mind the lack of sun.

Here is the World War II Memorial. It is quite possibly my favorite - absolutely AMAZING in person. The picture only captures half-ish of it. The memorial is really an oval...all of the columns have the names of the states and there are various quotes and dates of battles engraved throughout. Wonderful, highly recommended.

This is also the WWII Memorial; it's the "cost of freedom" wall. The gold part are individual stars that represent all those that lost their life in the war (even though you can't really tell in my picture). They reflect into the water. One word: beautiful.
The next stop was the Lincoln Memorial. Look, it's just like the back of my pennies! (j/k, even though it really is)
Here's Honest Abe himself. He's much larger than I pictured in my mind.
All of the architecture was gorgeous. This is the inside of the National Archives, right by where the articles of freedom are kept. The building was much darker than National Treasure portrayed; they have to keep it dark for preservation.
Here's the Capitol Building. We didn't go up to the building or go inside because of a lack of preparation (i.e. we didn't write to our congressman in advance to schedule a tour)...maybe next time.
It was an amazing trip. We were exhausted from all of the walking, so we went to the hotel and slept for a bit before meeting up with one of my friends from high school for dinner and to watch the hockey game. (It was tough to watch the game as a HUGE Pittsburgh fan in D.C. with all Capitols fans - especially since the Pens lost). It's a trip we plan on doing again, only seeing other attractions.

Baby Shower

My older sister is very pregnant (she has told me that it hurts to sit down at this point), and her baby shower is next weekend. Now, I know that I am a procrastinator, but I honestly did not mean to put off the bulk of planning until now. It's been too crazy with finishing up, cleaning, and packing. Oh, and I don't live near my parents' house (the location for the shower).
Anyways, Martha Stewart has provided so much inspiration for this weekend. Maybe I will come up with something cute like those to the right or the clothes
line. Now for game, I'm thinking nothing too cutesy because my family is not really into that type of thing. I like the idea of setting a timer and the person that brought the gift that is being opened when the timer goes off wins. Any other ideas? A friend told me to have races to see who can put a cloth diaper on a doll the fastest, although I am not sure how I feel about this.
I have everything to make a diaper cake, although I doubt that mine will be as cute as this one. Mr. Happily-ever-after and I spent weeks shopping around and pricing out everything (since we're still on a one income/grad-school budget)...diapers are expensive when you think about it (13 cents per diaper x8-9 per day adds up, and the money spent literally gets thrown away). I plan on putting things that go with diapering (ointment, wipes, refill cartridge for diaper pail, etc) in the center on each tier.
We (the guests and I) will be eating lite, shower-type foods since the theme is a tea party. These cupcakes are uber cute, but I'm not talented enough to pull this off. Hopefully everything will come together, and a good time will be had by all. Pictures will be posted as to how everything turns out.



*note, all pictures for this post were taken from the baby shower idea section of Martha Stewart

Finished!

I am officially finished with graduate school! Woohoo, I never thought that this day would get here. One year ago I was seriously contemplating dropping out of my program at the local university. See, I already have one master's degree from a prestigious, southern university, but it is not in the field that I would want to work in for the rest of my life. Don't get me wrong, I have a passion for that population; however, being an SLP will give me more opportunities down the road.
This program has not been my favorite - it's the first time that I have felt like a number in the classroom. My G.A. advisor convinced me that leaving would not be the best idea, so I stayed. I loved my internships and the field that I am going into. If only Mr. Happily-ever-after knew where we were moving next so that I can find my dream job.

Lost to do!

In preparation for our weekend guests, there is much to do around the house! Here's a list (it doesn't sound like much, but I absolutely abhor spending a whole day cleaning):

1. vacuum (including moving all of the furniture to ensure we don't have dog hair everywhere)
2. do 3 loads of laundry
3. fold said laundry and put it away
4. put sheets on the guest bed
5. organize a TON of papers that are scattered around the house (we don't have one place for our mail, so it gets sprawled out)
6. organize the closet in the 2nd bedroom
7. clean 2 bathrooms
   
8. sweep and mop the floor
9. make a run to goodwill
10. grocery shop
11. make dinner
12. shower
    
13. get ready for graduation tonight

Like I said, it may not seem like it's a lot, but it really is for me. Wish me luck with completing everything!

Thankful Thursday

Here's our weekly list:

1. Tomorrow is graduation!
   
2. My (Mrs. Happily-ever-after) parents and younger sister are coming to visit for the weekend, which excites me to no end.
3. Our dog finally went to the groomers, and looks mighty cute.
4. The weather has been decent enough to walk/run all week.
5. We have a clean house! We have spent this week cleaning and going through everything in anticipation of moving, and it feels so good. Hopefully the cleanliness lasts!
   

We are getting ready for this weekend. I am graduating from the local university this Friday and couldn't be happier. In the me meantime, we are cleaning the house (and by that I meant apartment). We're getting rid of all of that stuff that neither the Mr. nor I were willing to part with when we moved in together (like VCR's, candleholders, and books from college). It is amazing how much the pile for Goodwill has grown in the past week - I'll show pictures when we're finished. Anyways, it feels good to rid myself of everything and prepare to move...Now, if we only knew where we were going next....