What I'm Loving Wednesday - 8.31.11

Where have I been?! It's like I looked up and haven't blogged in a week and a half. I am going to have to figure out when I will do this in order to keep it up. I do not like being a fair-weather fan and I refuse to be a fair-weather blogger. But for now we'll just take it one day at a time. Here's what I am loving this week!

1. Reading. I am trying to constantly remind myself how much I am enjoying reading each night lately. I have been reading Chuck Colson's autobiography (which I think I mentioned several weeks ago - it's long, okay?!) and really like the book. But I also just like that I am not living in front of the TV. Well, that's not entirely true... I read on the couch, which is, in fact, in front of the TV. But I am living in front of the TV while it is OFF. That's the important part. The reason I am trying to really drive this home to my psyche is that right now there really isn't a lot of TV temptation. In a few short weeks, though... it will be a constant fight for me to avoid watching between one and eight shows a night. I really don't think it's a problem for me to watch one or two things each night but when it turns into a situation where I am recording three hours of TV on TWO CHANNELS each night... we have a problem. So, here's hoping I am able to exercise some self control and keep up my more mentally stimulating past time. 

2. Will's Sense of Humor. Okay, I know that I could list Will in my Wednesday posts every week but right now I am just appreciating how much he makes me laugh. Here, for example, is the type of marital argument we have:

Last Friday after we saw Crazy, Stupid Love at the theater Will made fun of the Twilight: Breaking Dawn poster. 
Me: You can make fun of it but I will see that movie the day it comes out.  
Will: You absolutely will not.
Me: Um, I absolutely will.
Will: Look, I don't ask for much of anything but I am honestly asking that you not be one of those people who goes to see that movie the day it opens. (Please note that Will was deadly serious)
Me: Will, this is the one where (SPOILER ALERT) they get married and sleep together and have a little vampire baby! I mean, he breaks the bed on their honeymoon. I am going to see it day one. 
Will: I have broken a bed before. But not having sex.
Me: ....um, that is the opposite of cool. 
And scene. I love my marriage.

3. Rest. It's almost Labor Day weekend - and we're not doing a thing! I am so looking forward to a little R&R and some house projects that have needed to be done for quite a while. Get excited about a new doorknob on our front door! Haha. It's the little things in life. We are also toying with the idea of putting new shutters on the front of our house. I would LOVE to do that this weekend, too. Ours now are dark green and they are starting to warp and pull away from the house. I have been thinking we would just switch to black but my mom had a great idea to do dark brown and I think that would look great with our orange(ish)-red brick. If anyone has any other fabulous ideas I am open.
 
4. Football Season! Much to a lot of my friends' disgust I am not one of those people who usually gets super pumped about football season. But this year I really am! I think the Hogs are going to be good and we get to host one of their games here in Music City! Super excited about that! I also think I'll make it to Fayetteville this year for my second home game post-college. Ugh, I have GOT to make it up there more often. Anyway, GO HOGS!!


5. HBO GO. It is a miracle that this new discovery has not ruined my reading stint but I have enjoyed watching movies and some older shows on the iPad and my iPhone. HBO GO is free to HBO subscribers and gives you free access to all the movies that are currently on HBO OnDemand as well as all the shows that have ever been on HBO. Like, every episode of every show. Amazing. Download the app immediately. 


Happy happy Wednesday!!

F.R.I.D.A.Y.

Okay, with Will back I am going to have to get my act together still blogging at night. No Theater Thursday yesterday. And today I would just like to say that I can't wait for my dad to get to town today! He and Jennifer are coming for the weekend. Can't wait to show off Nashville, eat some good food and do some fun stuff! Some photographic daddy love:

Love you, dad! Can't wait to spend some QT with you this weekend!

What I'm Loving Wednesday - 8.17.11

Here's what I'm loving this week!

1. Will is home! Praise God!! I am loving having him here for the company, the food (mmm... Parmesan Chicken last night was deeee-lish) and for Dexter to have his playmate back. Also, I just talked to Will on the phone and he was at CostCo. I love that man.

LOVE having this man back on our couch!!

2. Michelle is coming to visit today! She hasn't been to Nashville since Kathleen and I have been living here so we are excited to show her our city and spend a little quality time together. Also, we're eating at a super yummy restaurant that Will and I have never been to since she's coming - added bonus!

Michelle, Kathleen and me at a Yankees game in April.

3. The weather! Not going to say a lot since everyone else in a 500 mile radius is feeling the same way - but thank you Lord for temps in the 80's and 90's (does that make anyone else from Little Rock want to quote the B98.5 slogan?)!

4. Small Group. I was in a small group with my friends here about a year ago and due to schedules, drive time, and general laziness on my part I was not in it for about a year. But I'm back in it and, while it has only been two weeks, I love it already. These girls are amazing and I love each and every one of them!

Just missing Brandi, Mollie and Cameron...

5. Chuck Colson. We are reading Chuck Colson's book Faith in our Sunday school class and I have been totally intrigued by his story. He was one of Nixon's top advisers and he went to prison in the wake of Watergate. He became a Christian in prison and has worked in the ministry and written some really great Christian books since then. I started his autobiography (I am a HUGE autobiography fan - ask anyone who knows me), Born Again,  last week and am really fascinated by it. If you read my last movies post you know that I am somewhat obsessed with Watergate so this book is right up my alley. 

That's all for now - Happy Wednesday! The week is half way over!!

Memory Monday 8.8.11

I'm back. And all this build up will end with me talking about... hair. This will come as a surprise to exactly zero people who know me... I love to change my hair color. Like, in college I might have had a problem. And when Will and I got married I decided that my biggest marital sacrifice was going to be to stop coloring my hair. Think about that - moving in with another human being (a guy, for that matter), sharing a bank account, moving to a new city 350 miles from home and I thought that not coloring my hair was the biggest sacrifice I was making. Unbelievable. 

I have been a blonde*, a brunette and a red head. I have had bangs, layers, a bowl cut in 5th grade and a borderline mullet in high school. I have grown it out and chopped it off - pretty much an endless cycle at this point. I think the reasons I have changed so much are two fold: (1) my hair is naturally that "non-color" mousy-brown/dirty blonde color so I can get away with having all sorts of colors and (2) my mom starting highlighting my hair when I was young because she was bound and determined that I would stay blonde. I was pretty well behaved in junior high and high school (I am generally well behaved because I do not like confrontation and hate getting in trouble) so one day in high school - I think in the 11th grade - I went to the salon and decided to go buck wild... and color my hair dark blonde. Yeah. That's right. Dark. Blonde. And I think it had a touch of red in it... that'll show my mom to tell me what to do! Well, not long after that the mullet happened (see below) and I had to immediately go back to blonde just to save myself somewhat. And, when I say immediately... my mom drove me right back to the salon and said that if my hair was going to be that short then I at LEAST had to have some highlights. I was at the salon for probably six hours that day. But I digress... From there on out I enjoyed changing my hair color almost every time I went to get it done. And now... I am back to blonde. Looks like she was right all along. Darn the luck. Love you, mom. :-)
*if you're curious about "blond" vs. "blonde," as I was when spell check told me not to put an "e" at the end then click here. I think I am supposed to use the "e" because I'm female. Weird.  

I have tried to put these photos in chronological order but, no kidding, I can't do it! I can't even remember when I was what. It's bizarre. So, instead I will just show you all the different colors that I've been through the years. Maybe one of these will inspire your next change (do not see the mullet, almost black bangs or white blonde for inspiration, though. Just trust me).

Me as a little blonde baby - I guess I had a bit of a widow's peak when I was little, too. Our kids don't have a chance. Ha!

My mom's little blonde angel.

Quality = Zero because the best I could do was taking a picture of a picture in my scrapbook but this is when I went buck-wild and dyed my hair "dark blonde." Also, shout out to super young Wes Buchman.

Mullet. There's really not a whole lot else to say.

Back to blonde and mullet grown out before high school graduation - whew!

This is what I mean by "white blonde." My niece Ada would say that, "Aunt Caroline's hair is tooooooo blonde."

I'm the one with the black bangs and the ugly sweater. Ah... college.

For those of you who don't know... this is what we call the "Kappa Poof." I fought it for as long as I could in college. And then I embraced it. Embraced it big time.

Chop-chop in college.

Not blonde at my wedding. Mary Neal = heartbroken.

I waited a year and a half to do the "chop your hair off after you get married" thing. But I did donate it. All 12 inches of it.

Getting blonder post marriage. I had a friend in hair school so I could FINALLY afford highlights again!

A couple of weekends ago - back to the basics and loving it!

And that, my friends, is the brief (I know it didn't feel brief but it was) story of my ever changing hair! Happy Monday!

 

I Have Been M.I.A.

I have been out of my mind for a week. But I'll be back on Monday!



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

It's a Friendly Friday!

With Will out of town for the last few weeks I have really been spending time with my "Nashville Friends." I was thinking about this the other night just really appreciating how fortunate I am to have such a great group of girls to spend time with in my new (I guess after three years it's really not new anymore) home. Then I IMMEDIATELY started singing the cheesiest song ever in my head:

Make new friends,

But keep the old, 

One is silver and the other's gold.

Yep, I just admitted that. But I just wanted to say that I have been SO blessed when it comes to friends in my life. I have life-long friends, friends from high school, friends from college and now friends from after college that are all very near and dear to my heart. 

Now, I learned a lesson over the 4th of July when I tagged a couple of people in my Facebook status and about three minutes later had multiple comments that I had left people out. SO, to all of my friends - I love you so much and thanks for being generally awesome. And here's a shout out to a couple of super cool crews...

Friends since almost the womb. I love you so much, Rebekah.

Friends since high school. Halsey, Haley, Brittany, Michelle, Kathleen - growing up together and then becoming so close as adults is such a treasure.

Friends since college. I had some of the most fun years of my life with these amazing ladies!! 

 Friends since adulthood - I am so loving getting to know you girls and spending more and more time with you all!!

So, happy Friday everyone.... especially all my amazing friends. Love you guys! Have a great weekend. 

And get excited because I am already working on Monday's post which will catalog my infamously changing hair color!!

 

Theater Thursday 8.4.11

Okay, this week's Theater Thursday will be quick and dirty. Three lists from Sara's email last week: (Loosely) Based on a True Story; Grossly Overrated Films (I'll do underrated at some point, too); Best Sequels. 

Based on a True Story - My favorite movies like this are usually one of two things: about something I would have never learned about otherwise (read: cocaine and Mozart) or about something in history that I find wildly fascinating (read: Nixon and the death penalty). 

1. Frost/Nixon - I loved this movie. I loved Michael Sheen. I loved Frank Langella. I thought this story was so cool to watch and was fascinated to learn about Nixon. (Another great movie about Nixon would be Oliver Stones Nixon starring Anthony Hopkins. It's long but worth it. Also, see #3).

2. Blow - Johnny Depp is cocaine king pin George Jung. This was the first movie I saw that really showed how much drugs can destroy your life. And how enticing they can be at first. I am not a Johnny Depp fan but I think this is him at his best. And Penelope Cruz is a crazy bat in this and I love it.

3. All the President's Men - Okay, this movie is about Watergate. Clearly I am kind of obsessed with Nixon and Watergate. I just think it is an invaluable study on how we can destroy ourselves in such a HUGE way. And it is unbelievable to see someone do that in such a public and devastating way. I was also a journalism major so watching how two reporters relentlessly researched and pushed to have their very controversial stories published in Washington was very exciting to me. Oh, and super hot 1970's Robert Redford is in it - yes, please.

4. Amadeus- I think this is the movie that I was most shocked by on the AFI Top 100 list (read below about my undertaking of that list). It looked boring and I really don't like period pieces. But (in the words of my mother-in-law) Oh. My. Stars. I love this movie. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was MAD. He was crazy. Off the wall crazy. And he suffered so much because of his incredible talent. Of every movie I write about today this is the one you should watch. Love it.

5. Dead Man Walking - This movie could be construed as anti-death penalty. And that really is probably the point of it. But I didn't see it that way. I think it's a story of love and the fact that we should love all of God's children. No matter what they have done. In the movie Sean Penn is a murderer on death row and Susan Sarandon is a nun who meets with him and grows to really care about both him and his victim's family. It's a great movie.

Grossly Overrated Films - Okay, in high school I decided to watch the AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies (1896-1996). It was aggressive and such a random goal for a 17 year-old to set. I still haven't finished because some of the movies are really hard to find and I don't want to buy them to watch them. Also, they came out with a new list recently so I need to go through that one to see what has changed. ANYWAY, these five films are on that list and I just wasn't that impressed. At some point I will do a list that includes overrated by popularity but that will require a lot more thought...

1. Lawrence of Arabia (#5) - Tried to watch it three times. Fell asleep (twice during the day) all three times.

2. 2001 A Space Odyssey (#22) - I get it. Computers could take over. Whatever. HAL's voice was creepy and that's all I really got from this movie.

3. All About Eve (#16) - Okay, this will/would offend a lot of huge movie fans and movie buffs but I am just not the biggest Bette Davis fan. Knowing that I am borderline obsessed with Meryl Streep, I probably would have loved Bette Davis back in the day but I just don't connect with her movies that much. 

4. Hitchcock Movies (#18, 40, 42, 61) - I'll give you Rear Window - I actually really like that movie. But there are four Hitchcock movies on the list (Psycho, Rear Window, Vertigo, North by Northwest). I just don't get the big deal.

5. Fargo (#84) - I mean, this is a good movie but it seems so mediocre compared to some of the amazing movies on the list. And the fact that William H. Macy can talk like that in one of the top 100 movies - NO.

Best Sequels. This is me challenging myself. This really is a tough category to not be cliche. But I am going to start with the most cliche "best sequel" possible...

1. Duh. Godfather Part II - Only sequel to ever with the Best Picture Oscar. For a reason.

2. The Dark Knight - Only movie I remember leaving in the past five years where I thought, "I would have paid double to see that and still been totally happy."

3. Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith or The Empire Strikes Back - I am not a full fledged Star Wars fan by any stretch of the imagination. But I love the entire story arc and I like both of these movies as stand alones. I thought they were both great - the end of Revenge of the Sith was the most exciting and insane part of any of the movies and in The Empire Strikes Back Han and Leia kiss, Luke is trained by Yoda, Han is frozen and (of course) Luke finds out that Vader is his father. So, best Star Wars scene goes to Anakin Skywalker becoming Darth Vadar in Sith and pretty much everything else great in the series happens in Empire. Okay, maybe I am a bit of a Star Wars nerd...

4. Christmas Vacation - I think I like this one better than Family Vacation. I mean, Julia Louis Dreyfus and David Duchovny alone make it worth watching. 

5. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade - Sean Connery. Nazis. The Holy Grail. Love this movie. And I love that they had the cajones to make it after Temple of Doom was such a crock. Also,I do not think it is a coincidence that the only good Indiana Jones movies are about Christian artifacts. The aliens and the glowing stones were just too weird.

Hope you enjoyed the lists (they were totally Meryl free today - I am proud of myself - well, I did mention her though. Dang it...). Also, as a movie side note - I saw Crazy Stupid Love this week and loved it. It's funny and a totally different story than I've ever seen. I definitely recommend it as a date movie. And (here comes the obligatory mention of the weather) it's too hot outside to do anything other than go to the movies!

What I'm Loving Wednesday - 8.3.11

Happy Wednesday, Everybody! I am back from Arkansas and trying to get through this second to last week with Will still there. So, without further ado... what I am loving this week:


1. Wednesday night dinners. For the last several weeks my Nashville girlfriends and I have been getting together for dinner each Wednesday night. It is such a great time to catch up and eat yummy food. Now, I don't know how long my pocketbook can handle this eating out but when Will gets back and starts to feed me again then we should be back on track. But for now, I am just enjoying growing closer to these girls and getting to know them better and better each week. 


2. Tan. Will and I went to the lake this past weekend and it is really sad how much better I feel about myself with a nice little tan. I mean... really sad. I made a decision about a year ago to never go to a tanning bed again. I still use Tan Towels (best. invention. ever. and so much cheaper than spray tanning) but that's not something I do all the time. So, for now I am just enjoying wearing very little makeup and not gagging each time I look in the mirror.


3. Emma Stone. I have been a fan of hers for a while but I saw Crazy Stupid Love with Kathleen last night and was reminded how great she is. She is so funny and gorgeous but is really one of those actresses that I totally feel like I could be best friends with. I am so pumped that she is in The Help (which comes out in a week and a half!) and I actually might see the new Spider Man movie since she's in that, too. MIGHT. 

4. My God. He is great. He is constant. He is mine. 


Happy Wednesday everyone. See you tomorrow for some movie thoughts!

Memory Monday 8.1.11

Since I'm still in AR my memory Monday will be brief... Thought I would just share some fun photos from my phone.

iChat with my mom, Gigi and Mimi a couple years ago. Four generations iChatting!

Dad and Will putting lighting in our dining room on moving day... A year ago this past weekend!

Arkansas vs. Alabama.

Tacky Christmas sweater party 2010. Awkward turtle?

Our house after the snow in January 2011.

At Yankee Stadium - the banner is my great uncle, Bill Dickey.

Visiting Rebekah and the kiddos over July 4 weekend.

At the lake this past weekend!

Have a great Monday!!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone