Catching you up on us.

this is becoming an all too common trend: me apologizing for not writing – explaining that life has been busy – and then breaking down life and blurbing about what K and I have been up to.

Well. Here we go:

1. Work Travel it  officially OVER! For now. So I am home – got to put my suitcase away finally and am enjoying being home and not in the air in a Delta plane that is running  out of fuel. {True Story: happened twice... should have morphed this blog to the adventures in work travels – it would have been a “riot” – and I have stories for days}

2. K and I have been lounging by the pool as much as possible – the weather this summer has been less than ideal, but on the  good days, you can find us by the pool.  We have also been loving our deck furniture and now do Friday night date nights on our porch with wine and shrimp and crackers. We have been loving it because work has kept me busy this summer and with Kyle being SO consistent with working out every night we have been having late dinner and then I crawl in bed.  We just don’t get enough time for each other Monday – Thursday, so we make a point to do something simple and low key on Friday night to just catch up and just hang out together.  We average about 2 bottles of wine and lots of shrimp and cheese each Friday – but it is fun.  And Kyle made some summer fresh black bean, corn, and feta salsa last Friday and it was SO good.  We are gonna be super bummed when it gets too cold to have wine night!! ....but we will be happy when the bugs and flies are gone!!

3. We also live in a real life, legit, must reserve your tennis courts online tennis community so we have decided to pick up tennis and wreck havoc on the tennis pros that are unlucky to have the court next to us. Correction: Kyle causes the havoc – i get to run all over the court after the balls.  I still have some skills from when my dad and I would play on the tennis courts by the pool and when i did 1 summer of tennis camp. Kyle know my back hand is my weakness so he goes after it every.time.he.can. I tell him that he plays dirty. But.... we are having fun – getting a tan – and getting exercise.

4. I went to Justin Bieber last night with my friend Afton.  And we had fun! =D  We had dinner and drinks before the show by Phillips and then headed to our AMAZING seats – seriously, amazing {Thanks Ramy Chawani for buying them and putting them on stubhub} – we were 1 level off the main floor and not too far away from the stage so Justin actually looked like a human. Not an ant. There were a lot of screaming, crying, pre-teens around us who we made fun of and hoped that wasn’t us when we were growing up.  We were kinda disappointed – we thought he would bring out more guests {since he is known to do that in Atlanta} and he claimed he was going out “big” since it was his last show... but he only brought out Ludacris  and there are so many other artists that he has collaborated with that are based in Atlanta. Oh well. Luda was still a fun surprise. But still.  Kyle did not go to the concert – he had a boys poker night at the house and he won!! He walked away $120 richer which was fun and exciting for him.  And I know he had fun having having a boys night, playing poker since he used to do that a lot when we lived in VA.  And thankfully our dogs were not maniacs and after they hopped on everyone they settled down and were good little dogs.   Poker night + Dogs + Strangers = our biggest fear all week long.

5. Not sure if I mentioned this or not – but Kyle and I have been able to participate in the Dine Around program with Buckhead Life this summer so we have had fun date nights at places we normally wouldn’t go to because we can’t exactly afford them. Basically –  the Buckhead Life chain sends out $25 gift cards to 1 restaurant per month and you get to go where your card is for.  We went to Atlanta Fish Market last month and have Pricci this month.  It has been fun to just get dressed up and go on a Sunday night date. We had never been selected till this summer and I hope we get picked next summer too!!!

I think that is about it – we’re getting ready for a LONG fun filled Labor Day weekend – Alabama/VA Tech game.  First ever Braves game + Tailgate. And then our busy September. Hopefully..... we will have some fun filled things to write about!!

A Very Tory Burch Birthday & Bieber Fever!

Yesterday I got one year closer to the grave AKA I had a birthday and turned the big 2-8.  And let me tell you, it was a pretty good birthday.  Of course I had to work, but I had a birthday lunch with my office girls and was surprised by my friend and her baby at the office.  Of course her son is so presh and I cannot believe how small and tiny he is, but he is so cute. But other that it was fairly low key.  I was passed out at 10:00 PM.  I am such a party animal.

But, I am calling this birthday "A Very Tory Burch Birthday" {you know like a very merry Christmas - only this is a birthday and Tory Burch filled ... ok ok i know, i am reaching}, since if you know me in real life you know that I LOVE LOVE LOVE Tory Burch.  Kyle got me the earrings that I have been wanting for months and I absolutely love them.  They're bigger than I thought so I really wonder how people can wear the large ones.  And my friend from work got me a Tory Burch mouse pad/notepad combo and I broke it out of the wrapping real quick.  But... I am probably never going to actually write anything on it because it it Tory and well, I wouldn't want to use it all up.

And then today was filled with name changing activities - I was up at 5:30 AM to get pretty and ready for the DMV to become Barbara Shanahan on my license. Then I had to call USAA to change my name on my car insurance.  We were going to go and merge our bank account together but I had a minor panic attack/freak out about my accounts "not being in order" -- I am not really sure what that means or where it came from.  But I feel like I need to ensure all our bills go through that are linked to my checking account before we do anything crazy.  Kyle was not "thrilled" with my minor panic attack, but I promised him next week.  I am sorry ya'll but merging bank accounts is HUGE and I am being put on an allowance and I feel like him and I have not sat down and budgeted out our lives enough to be at the bank merging and combining.  It is all just a lot to take in. 

:: deep breaths. it will all be okay. deep breaths. what's mine is his and what's his is mine ::

But that was not the excitement of the day.  My work friend Afton and I are Bieber fans.  Yes, we know we are not 14 year old girls - but we still REALLY wanted to go to his concert in January.  So we game planned. Afton was going to stay home and try Ticketmaster from her house and I headed to the office for the super fast Internet.  We plotted our actions and everything.  We said go for 6 and if we cannot get 6 we will get 4.  We then decided that I would try for 4 and she would try for 6.  We even knew that we only wanted section 100 or 200 - sections 300 and 400 would not be worth the money. We figured with both of us trying we were sure to get tickets.  Oh we were so wrong!  Despite being logged into Ticketmaster at 9:45 AM {AT THE OFFICE ON A SATURDAY} with my Ticketmaster account pulled up, the map of Phillips Arena out so we could compare who had better seats {dictating who would buy the tickets}, credit card information updated and ready for quick  easy check out we still ended up ticket-less.  And... when we looked on StubHub a $100 ticket was already marked up to like $200+.  Life just is not fair.  Our plan of seeing the Biebs was dashed!  ...With that said, her and I will continue to watch Ticketmaster and try for tickets up until the concert date.  If Afton and I are anything... we are persistent.

And tonight we're doing my birthday dinner at Brio which I am excited about and then tomorrow I figure I will try and no more name changing activities - like get a new passport picture so I can get a new passport and then work on my tax forms and hope I file correctly.