Playing Catch Up

so, like i mentioned earlier, life has been extremely crazy lately...not only have we been really busy, but for about a week, our internet didn't work. my friend biscuet says that a successful blogger posts at least once a day. i have been severely lacking in this skill lately...so here is a recap of the past week or so:

- we had our waumba weekday christmas program. whoever says you can't get 2 year olds to sing, is crazy. it was awesome!

- we had our waumba weekday staff party. getting to talk without babies crying or chasing after little kids, was priceless.

- david and i went to birmingham for christmas with my side. my niece is getting so big i have no idea what to do with her. she is the cutest thing in the world. this is david with his spoils of the "as seen on tv" dirty santa...we are tempted to break things just to "mighty putty" them back together. i got an "open it" - a 4 in 1 tool designed by stay at home moms. it led to an unfortunate accident where my cousin's husband cut through two layers of clothing - not quite as safe as they make it out to be. 

- i dyed my hair brown. (and haven't washed it much since)

- we went to see the nutcracker at the fox...believe it or not, birmingham puts on a better show. but it was still fun. 

- and now we are back in atlanta for another day then off to houston for christmas with the ytterbergs. 

IKEA Nightstands

i love making things my own. i love to take old things and make them new (just ask david...he has issues with how much i paint old funiture). so especially for him, the idea of buying something brand new and then changing it didn't make much sense. (i have very specific ideas in my head that i can rarely find in the real world - this is the single reason almost everything with our wedding went horribly wrong. but that's a whole "what not to do" book.) well, that was a month ago. then, we were so sick of not having nightstands and we realized there were better things to do with our money than buy a whole new bed on top of everything else we have going on right now.

so sunday we went to ikea and bought some basic nightstands. BUT then we went to anthropologie (ahhhh, my sanctuary) and we picked out new knobs. david got to pick his own...an awesome black and ivory one that still looks manly. and i picked out mine. now we have nightstands that are unique to us. 

i know that probably sounds lame to some people but rarely do i find something in the condition that it is going to stay in. i like it to look different. i like it to look like me. so we took this:

and turned it into these:

can you guess which side of the bed is mine? hmmm.

The Last Encounter (for real)

so today was a long day. last night david and i drove to auburn to go to the last encounter. if you know anything about encounter, you know how late it starts/gets over. so that made for a late night coming home and then chasing 2 year olds around all day today. but it was worth it. for my reminiscent thoughts on encounter, check here.

but anyway, it was an awesome night. it was almost surreal to be there, with a completely different band in a building that wasn't even finished when we moved, much less had ever been in before. we thought it was fitting that encounter started in one of the oldest buildings on campus and ended in the newest.

we also had a lot of friends from birmingham, atlanta, etc. to come. it was great to see everybody all in one spot again. it was a great 6 years and we will miss it greatly but hong kong will be gaining something amazing. i'm excited to see what will happen there.

this picture was taken 3 years ago before an encounter. we were talking about this exact picture while we were taking this one...

probably one of the more awkward pictures ever taken. but i love each of them.

all the girls. memories of all the small groups. all the monday night dinners at dan's. all the musical roommates. it was good times.

The Sweetest Thing

...i've seen since moving to atlanta

God bless target.

Apartment Christmas

a studio apartment requires a studio apartment-sized tree. 4.5 feet in all it's splendor...

my ever beloved willow tree nativity...these are honestly the only decorations we have so far. i left so much stuff in auburn that i didn't realize.

Top 5 Places I Want to Go

so, something i have always loved is traveling. i blame my parents because we always went on adventures. we used to spend 3 weeks out of the summer driving to montana and camping our way home. it was amazing. and then we would take random trips in between. when i was in high school, i used the opportunity of a student ambassador program to go to europe for a month. since then, i have only been to honduras and swaziland, but those places have also stolen a part of my heart.

david and i want to travel. we have ideas WAY bigger than our bank account. we are working on our first trip right now, but we can't seem to narrow down where we want to go. but anyone who would like to donate to these trips is more than welcome to - ha! anyway, i figured i would make a list. if i got to choose anywhere in the world - where would i want to go? so here's the top 5...

5. sweden

i know its silly, but its a HUGE part of david's heritage. i have been proudly adopted into a swedish family and i love it...the horses, the smörgåsbord, uff da!, the motherland of ikea...what's not to love?

4. moscow, russia

here's the deal with russia - it is vast (duh). there are so many places to see...the sight of the imperial murders in ekatrinburg, the transsiberian railroad, the crimea, etc. but moscow has more in one place. its not europe but not asia. its all its own. 

3. the united kingdom

now, seeing as how i am narrowing these down to just 5, i hope that you excuse me combining 3 countries into one. but oh, how i would love to visit the UK, especially scotland. ah, real scotch in scotland...seriously? followed by guiness in an irish pub. could it get any better? plus the fact that the whole place is freakin' gorgeous (as long as your goal is not a killer tan).

2. japan

ah - home of the amazing cherry blosom! this one has way more meaning for david, but i would love to go here also. we would of course have to visit yokahama - david's childhood home for a while. but also go to the countryside and coast. not to mention i like japanese food way better than chinese...

1. prague, czech republic

one word: bohemia. not to mention it is one of the oldest cities in europe. what history major could turn this place down?