Start Spreading the News, Part 1

(I'm apparently really enjoying capturing every detail of our engagement weekend.  So much that I have to break this story into a 3-part series. I'll cover how we told Will's family when I have more time to write again!)

The honor of 1^st person to learn we were officially engaged goes to our friend Amy (Will’s friend from college).  She starts every conversation, email, facebook post, etc…with “Are you engaged yet??”.  Will long ago promised her that she would be the first to know should we ever actually become engaged, so we surprised her by sending her a picture of me wearing the ring.  She lives in North Carolina now, but had been in Chicago that week and we had missed her by a day.  Will had encouraged her to extend the trip over the weekend, and our photo evidence proved to her that she should have listened!
 

Will didn’t want the happy news to go public on the internet as he wanted to tell his family in person over Thanksgiving.  We thought it would be best to at least call our families and let them know the news before anyone else did, but he really wanted to surprise his sisters (his Dad also already knew) and tell them in person.  I agreed to keep it quiet on the internet, but I was going to have a hard time keeping it from our friends that we would be seeing shortly!

So we agreed that we would make an exception and tell our Chicago friends that we saw that weekend…after all, we were in the mood to celebrate! But they were sworn to secrecy until we had a chance to tell as many as we could in person. We had hoped to personally call as many good friends as we could on Thanksgiving to share the news with them before it was blasted onto social media. 

 

Unfortunately we weren’t going to see my family over Thanksgiving, so I got to call them to share the news that evening.  Shortly after Will popped the question we headed out to meet up with our friend Kelly for drinks.  As we were walking to the bar, I tried to give my Dad a call.  Will insisted that I tell my dad first, as he was the only one who knew Will’s plans.  I tried calling him at home and didn’t reach him, so I called the bakery next. Mom answered and I tried to talk with her as nonchalantly as possible for a couple minutes before asking if Dad was around.  “No,” she replied.  “He had some dental work done this afternoon, so he’s at home with a mouth full of gauze and can’t talk.” Needless to say, I wasn’t super happy to hear that news.  I talked to Mom for a few more minutes, avoiding her probing questions (as I’m sure she knew something was up), and then tried to call Dad at home again.  I left him a message on the machine, asking him to just pick up the phone and grunt to let me know he was there, because I just had to tell him something really quickly…he didn’t even need to respond.

 

Well, he didn’t pick up, which was a bummer.  By this point we were at the bar, though, so I didn’t dwell on it too much.  We share the news with our good pal Kelly, her fiancé Chris, and Will’s cousin Anna at the bar, and had champagne all around to celebrate (after we swore them to secrecy, of course!) We then headed to dinner with one of Will’s old Four Seasons buddies, Edgar, and his girlfriend Crystal at Café Iberico (Mmmmm, tapas- a girl couldn’t ask for a better celebratory dinner!) We continued the evening at Fado (another one of my favorite establishments in Chicago) where another Four Seasons friend Megan met up with us.  We enjoyed our celebration, for sure! So much so that Will and I didn’t want to be done celebrating when everyone else was, so we headed to the late night bar (and another one of our favorite Chicago haunts) Dublin’s and ended the evening there.  Or should I say morning.  In true Chicago fashion, we got back to the hotel room around 5 AM.

 

Needless to say, we were feeling ROUGH the next morning.  We had to rally, though, as we had friends to see and news to share.  I was finally able to reach Dad that morning at the bakery, and he was happy to hear our news.  And a bit surprised, too, that it happened so quickly after Will had talked to him.  He shared the news with Ella (who fell out of her chair) and my BFF Kelly (who was working there) but let me know that Mom was out running errands.  I made him promise not to tell her as I wanted to be the one to let her know.

 

We were at a bar watching football and celebrating with friends Megan, Abby, Kelly, and Tracy when Dad called me back and let me know that Mom was back at the bakery and that if I wanted to tell her our news myself, that I should call quickly.  She was catching on that something was going down.  So I went outside and called her back.  When she answered, she asked if I had something I needed to tell her, to which I replied, “Yes, I do.”  Then she made a big show of letting me know that Kelly was there, and so was Molly, so she took the phone back to the kitchen area and put me on speaker phone. 

Once the phone was properly set up, she said, “OK- what’s your news?”

This was just too good of an opportunity to not mess with her.  I took a deep breath, and said, “Are you ready to hear the news?
...I’m pregnant.”

"WHAT?!?! THAT WAS NOT THE NEWS I WAS EXPECTING!!!" was her reaction.

I had to laugh at that point.  "Of course I'm not pregnant, Mom! You just saw me last weekend, and I was definitely drinking the whole time.  The real news is, we're engaged!"

It was definitely a memorable and fun way to break the news to Mom.  She was also really surprised that Dad and Kelly already knew. But she did say that she suspected that it was going to happen soon based Will's reaction in Savannah when she had (again) said something to him about us getting married.

We spoke with Andy and Sandy that evening once we were settled back in at the hotel.  Rockstars we are not, so 2 nights in a row of late-night partying were not in the cards for us.  They sneakily asked us what hotel we were staying at, and we thought nothing of letting them know as it is a pretty integral part of the engagement story.  We were pleasantly surprised about 30 minutes after we  hung up the phone with them.  They had called and arranged for champagne and chocolate covered strawberries to be sent to the room!

Engagement Story, Part 1

We’re engaged! Hooray! (Or, as everyone we know put it, it’s about time!) I’ve decided to take a minute to write down the whole story while the details are relatively fresh in my mind.  This is pretty much just for myself (and Jess, of course). :) But, I’m sure it will be fun to go back and read this later…especially on days when I want to strangle him. Kidding…sort of.  Some of these details I’ve learned post-engagement, but I’m going to attempt to keep things in chronological order.

Will actually took his first trip to a jewelry store to look at rings way back in February.  He didn’t really intend to buy one then, but it’s nice to know it’s been on his mind for awhile.  Coincidentally (or perhaps hilariously is the better descriptor here) his first trip to look at rings fell on none other than Valentine’s Day.  He didn’t realize that it was the 14^th until he was already walking into the store.  He later told me he felt pretty stupid, but he braved the V-Day sales rush anyway to get an idea of what he was looking for.

My baby nephew was born in May.  We drove back to Decatur in June to meet Liam, and following that trip, I had a full-blown meltdown on Will…in bed…in the dark…after waking him up to “talk”.  (I’m sure every male has had that happen to them by their lovely lady at least once.)  I loved holding a brand new baby and really felt for the first time in my life that I was totally ready to start a family.  I was freaking out worrying that Will wasn’t in the same place as me and wondering when and if we would ever get married, let alone have kids.  It wasn’t like we were newly dating- we had been together for nearly 5 years!  (Will was probably just rolling his eyes at me in the dark as he already knew he had plans in the works to ask me to marry him.  I can be a drama queen. But I felt pretty justified in my ranting at the time.)

Fast forward a few more months to our most recent Europe trip.  Will had warned me before we left that he was not going to propose, so I shouldn’t get my hopes up for an engagement.  So of course, I got my hopes up for an engagement.  I was pretty convinced that he was trying to reverse-psychology me into thinking he wasn’t going to propose so that he when he did, I would be extra surprised.  Well, the joke was on me. I distinctly remember the moment we walked into the hotel with the a-ma-zing view of the Matterhorn and our own private balcony. I thought to myself, “this is where he’s going to ask me! How romantic!” Well, afternoon turned to evening, which turned to night, which turned to the next morning and I did not become the future Mrs. Mason.  I even said to Will as we left that fantastic hotel, “you know, that would have been a great spot to get engaged.”

Sometime shortly after we returned home from Switzerland Will actually picked up the ring.  He had it hidden in plain sight at our place- in his sweater drawer under the bed.  I never once suspected, nor saw anything. That goes to show how often Will wears sweaters, or how often I put away his clothes- I'll let y'all be the judges on that one.

We had a trip to Vegas planned for 2 weeks after we got back from Europe to go to a Jimmy Buffett concert (Will’s birthday present to me from back in May).  Prior to leaving for Europe though, we failed to buy our flights out there.  So after lots of hemming and hawing, I told Will that we needed to cancel the trip. It was just far too expensive/pointless since we had just gotten back from a big trip, and the flights were ridiculously expensive that close to the trip.  Will grudgingly agreed to cancel the trip…and then I felt really bad because he wasn’t able to sell the concert tickets. So basically he wasted a lot of money on a present that I never got to use.  And here’s the real kicker- I later found out that he had planned to propose in Vegas on the bridge of the Venetian (which happens to be the precise place where he realized how much he cared about me 5+ years ago) (Queue “ahhhhs”- I’ll wait.) So basically, I thwarted my own engagement by being financially conservative.

In early November, we met my family for a long weekend in Savannah.  Will tried several times to get Dad alone so that he could ask him for permission to marry me.  That apparently proved to be a difficult task.  They never did get any time alone, so Will had to call him the following week and ask him over the phone. Dad was really excited to know that he knew something before anyone else in the family did, including Mom.  Will didn’t tell Dad when he was planning on proposing, though- Dad assumed it would be around Christmas.

Anywho, Will kept going on and on about how he needed to get out of town and how much he wanted to go back to Chicago.  We try to go to Chicago every year for a Bears game so I didn’t think that was too weird.  And even though I didn’t think we needed to take another weekend trip away, I felt guilty saying no since I had forced him to cancel the Vegas weekend. I tried to convince him to at least let us stay with friends in Chicago to keep costs down, but he insisted that we stay at the Four Seasons (where he used to work- he still gets hooked up with sweet deals there).  He used the excuse that staying there was an integral part of his Chicago experience because he spent so much timing working there and he still knows so many of the employees.  And he had already made reservations that were not cancellable.  So, he won.  I took the Friday before Thanksgiving off and off to Chicago we went. 

We spent the whole day on Friday wandering around our old neighborhood, eating at one of our favorite lunch spots- Cozy Noodles, having a couple drinks at our old stomping grounds, window shopping on Southport, stopping in to pick up a couple items at Strange Cargo, and walking by our old apartments.  It was so nice. Chicago, how I love you.  We were meeting up with some friends for dinner and drinks downtown that evening so we headed back to the hotel to get ready.  Just as we were getting ready to walk out the door, Will asked if I had seen his wallet… to which I replied no.  Then he asked me to look for his wallet in his inside jacket pocket (which, admittedly, I was annoyed by.  He often asks me to do stuff like that (grab his shoes, his coat, look for his keys or wallet on the counter, etc… as if I am sitting around twiddling my thumbs. I am trying to get ready, too, buddy!))  I bit my tongue, though, and reached into his pocket expecting to find a wallet there. Instead I half pulled out a ring box. And then I quickly tried to shove it back in his pocket, thinking I wasn’t supposed to find it. (He had often joked around that he was going to propose on a jumbotron at a sporting event…and we were going to the Bears game on Sunday) When he asked me if I found something in his pocket, I told him no! Then he asked if I was sure, and as I turned around to look at him, he was on his knee. :)

And then I started jumping up and down and doing that weird half-laughing/half-crying thing. And I kept asking if he was being for real and if he was serious, and then proceeded to repeatedly ask him, “Are you going to ask me? Are you going to ask me? Are you going to ask me?” until he had to tell me to be quiet because he had something important to ask me. And in typical Will fashion, while on one knee, instead of asking me to marry him, he asked, “Are you ready to leave?” Then I think I hit him.  Thankfully, he then popped the real question, and of course I said yes.  It was a wonderful, surreal moment.  I couldn’t stop crying/laughing/smiling/kissing Will.   I love that he surprised me in the way that he did and that he kept it very true to our relationship- we were joking the whole time.

The only kicker is that the ring didn’t fit! Will had sized the ring by putting it on his pinky finger.  I keep an old ring in my car that he always plays with on his pinky, so he assumed that was the proper ring size for me.  Unfortunately, the ring was a size too small, so I didn’t get to wear it that weekend. Talk about torture!! Finally engaged and not even able to wear the ring for proof.

Stay tuned for part 2: how we told our families….

30 Days of Thankfulness: Day 30

Day 30: I'm thankful that I have so many more things to be thankful for. 


Well, I made it. Full disclosure: I did have to "cheat" and do some back-blogging to get all these posted...some days because internet and blogger were being spotty, other days because I just didn't have time to write anything...but I gave it a solid effort.  Admittedly, it was harder than I thought it would be to do this whole 30 days of being grateful thing.  Some days I felt thankful for so much that I didn't know where to begin, other days it was hard to come up with something, no matter how miniscule.  But in the end, this little exercise reiterated to me how fortunate I am in life to have so much to be thankful for.

Now, on to some more regularly-scheduled blog posts!

30 Days of Thankfulness- Day 29

Day 29: I'm thankful that it is now socially acceptable for me to listen to Christmas music non-stop.  As a general rule, I won't bust out the Christmas tunes until the day after Thanksgiving.  But now that turkey day is over, it's on.  I could listen to 100 different versions of Oh Holy Night and be a happy camper all day long. I love this time of year.

Now if only I can convince Will to get our tree this weekend...

30 Days of Thankfulness- Day 28

Day 28: I'm thankful I have a wedding to talk about! :) Otherwise my 30 days of thankfulness was going to start getting pretty lame...

Today I'm also thankful for: Burts Bees chapstick, my gigantic Beatles Love Water Cup that I keep at work, and for Spotify for letting me create my own playlists.

30 Days of Thankfulness- Day 27

Day 27: I'm thankful for patience.  Roughly 9 days into our engagement, and we're both learning how true the meaning "Patience is a virtue" really is.  Will and I are fortunate that we have the same common goal in mind for our upcoming wedding- we want it to be a unique, fun, party that people where people will have a great time celebrating with us.  Where we are...ahem, differing in that vision, is the location.  Aside from a far-fetched vision of marrying in a castle in Ireland, I am not the type of girl who dreamed about her wedding day.  That is turning out to be pretty unfortunate because now I can't even begin to decide where we should get married.  I have so many thoughts swiveling around in my head, I hope I'm patient enough with the whole planning process to get everything worked out.

2nd thankful thing: I'm thankful that Will actually wants to participate in the planning process, even if it does cause a few more headaches.  It's his day, too, so I want to be sure he's just as happy with how things turn out as I am!

30 Days of Thankfulness- Day 26

Day 26: Thank goodness for lazy Saturdays.  We had nothing to do today but call friends, go to a car show, and watch movies.  I loved every second of doing nothing.

30 Days of Thankfulness- Day 25

Day 25: I'm thankful for the seasons, and to live in a climate where I actually get to experience all 4 of them.  I love each for different reasons:

Spring: my birthday, the smell of rain, flowers blooming
Summer: Boating on the lake, going on vacations, a dark, air-conditioned movie theater
Fall: pumpkin spiced lattes, changing leaves, sweaters, boots, and football
Winter: Holiday season, the anticipation of snow, and all around general merriment

30 Days of Thankfulness- Day 24

Day 24: I'm thankful for new traditions...even if I'm not the one who decided they should be so.

Last night, as mentioned earlier, we were celebrating our engagement by surprising Cari with our "announcement".  We spent many hours at the kitchen table talking and laughing, and many glasses of wine were poured for me from my trusty box.  (Side note: I love me some boxed wine- it's so affordable and actually decent these days.  But, it's hard to know when to say "when"- unlike a bottle, which eventually has to run out, a box of wine is deceptively always full!)

At some point in the conversation, Will's dad let me know that he would be knocking on the door at 6:30 AM the following morning to get me up so I could help stuff the bird.  In a merry stupor (and thinking he was joking), I agreed.

Well, the joke was on me.  Sure enough, I've been up since 6:30 AM this fine Thanksgiving morning, working side-by-side with Willard to shove stuffing into a turkey.  And my wonderful, sweet boyfriend fiance(!)?  Sleeping like a baby in his room.  Welcome to the family.

30 Days of Thankfulness- Day 23

Day 23: I’m thankful for surprises! As much as I’ve wanted to shout it out and tell everyone we know that we’re engaged, it’s been fun to surprise people one-by-one.  Will really wanted to tell his sisters in person that we were engaged, so we purposely held off calling them until this week, as we knew we would see them over Thanksgiving.  Cari and her boyfriend Curtis found out tonight.  We decided that instead of telling them right away, we would wait and see how long it would take for them to “discover” the ring (which was hidden in plain sight- on my finger).  We sat around the kitchen table for a couple hours talking before Curtis finally asked Cari if she had forgotten to tell him something (as he pointed to his ring finger).  Cari was still oblivious, though, and it took her a couple more minutes to figure out what exactly Curtis was hinting at.  Her reaction was well worth waiting to tell her, though.  She couldn’t stop hugging us!

30 Days of Thankfulness- Day 22

Day 22: I’m thankful for my sense of humor.  It can be somewhat crude, immature, and childish- but I love to laugh.  And I love that I can find the humor in many situations. To quote Buddy the Elf-  "I love smiling. Smiling's my favorite."

30 Days of Thankfulness- Day 21

Day 21: I am thankful for Kelly, one of my oldest friends. We first “met” on the basketball court in grade school.  She played for a different team and quite frankly, she was terrifying.  Large, quick, and competitive, no one wanted to guard her, me included.  In 8^th grade all the Catholic schools in town hosted a sock hop- the goal was to get all of us shy 8^th graders to interact with each other and “meet” our soon-to-be classmates.  Well as it turns out, Kelly was not so scary in the basement of St. Thomas Church.  We hit it off right away and have remained close ever since.  We were pretty good kids in high school and rarely got in trouble, but we sure did have fun together.  Like most high school stories, most of my “younger” year memories of Kelly involve being in a car- we loved to drive.  Wherever and whenever- we would drive for hours and hours. 

My top 5  favorite “Kelly Car” moments:

1.       The day that Kelly wrecked the Mustang.

2.       Going on our “route”, a drive that in no way, shape, or form involved driving past both of our ex-boyfriends houses before turning around at the scary road that dead-ended straight into the lake

3.      Getting a flat tire en route to Peoria and then deciding to lay out on the side of the interstate in our sports bras while we waited for Mom and Dad to come bail us out

(To learn more about those stories, click here)

4.    Listening to a special mixed tape (yes, tape) over and over again. This involved reciting the “animal cracker” scene from Armageddon more times than I care to admit. I can still remember almost every song we had on that tape.

5.       Cruising “Eldo”- a must when you grow up in Decatur.

30 Days of Thankfulness- Day 20

I am thankful for my Chicago friends. We always have fun when we're together, and this weekend was no exception. I love that no matter how much time goes by between visits, we can always pick up right where we left off. Sometimes when we're together, it feels like I never left Chicago.

30 Days of Thankfulness- Day 19

I am thankful that Will asked my dad for my hand before he proposed to me. What a true southern gentleman I have. And my dad was elated to know that he knew something first in my family...before my mom did. :)

30 days of Thankfulness- Day 18

Warning, This is going to be the extended addition.

Today I am so, so thankful for Will. As our friend Megan once put it, "I can't believe God made two of you...". He is the perfect compliment to me in so many ways. We have so much fun together, whether we're on an overseas adventure, or just sitting around at home in our PJ's watching bad TV.

Here are some things I love about Will, in no particular order:
-His ability to make me laugh, all the time, even when I am irritated with him
-His boyish grin and facial expressions
-His hard-working nature. He is so determined to be successful- it's pretty inspiring
-His love of adventure. We would not have gone on nearly as many memorable trips if it hadn't been for his prodding and planning.
-The way he can be with kids- it makes my heart melt and gets me so excited for when we have our own children someday. He is going to make a great dad.
-The way he has always taken care of me. I know, without question that he will always be there for me. I knew this for certain the morning that he flew home with me from Denver (when Shaughn had his accident)- he quite literally boarded the plane with nothing but the clothes he was wearing so that I wouldn't have to be alone.
-His fierce loyalty to his friends. He always makes every effort to be with old friends when they're celebrating big life moments, whether it's a wedding across the county, or cheering them on at an Ironman competition
-His financial savvy. He somehow manages our finances so that we can afford to live a life far better than I could have imagined.
-The close relationship he has with his family. It is so fun when we're all together
-The way he looks like a little boy when he is sleeping
-He sometimes brings me home flowers for no apparent reason
-Our inside jokes
-His many nicknames for me, Panda being the best one.
-The way he looks in his Nashville boots
-His ability to cut loose and have fun, always.
-His ability to surprise me, always.

And what a surprise today was.  For better or for worse, in sickness and in health, from this day forward, I know he and I will always be together.  Because as of today, at roughly 4:40 PM, I became engaged to my very best friend. And words can't even begin to describe how happy that makes me.

*This posting was delayed because we wanted to tell as many people personally before "announcing" our engagement to the Internet world...

30 Days of Thanfulness- Day 17

Day 17: I am thankful for my most favorite city in the world- Chicago!  Will and I leave in just a few short hours and are heading to Chicago for a quick 3 day weekend, and I couldn’t be more excited.  We have a full agenda planned- lots of eating (because, duh, we’ll be in Chicago and have to hit up our old staples!), playing with old friends, seeing the old sights, and going to see Da Bears play on Sunday before flying home. 

I have now officially lived in Nashville longer than I lived in Chicago…but for some reason, going back to Chicago just feels like going “home”. I can’t get Kanye West’s song “Homecoming” out of my head today- “if you don’t know by now, I’m talking ‘bout Chi-town. I’m comin’ home again.”

Yay!!!

30 Days of Thankfulness-Day 16

Day 16: I am thankful for my extended family members- cousins, grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc... Some relatives I keep in touch with regularly, be it through blogging, facebooking, texting, or phoning.  Others I don’t get to see as frequently.  For the past 4 years, I have lived too far from home for it to be a given that I make it back to Decatur for holidays.  I remember the first year I missed Thanksgiving at Mark and Pam’s house.  We were living in Denver at the time, and it wasn’t feasible for me to fly back home, so our friend Jess graciously offered to let us celebrate with her family.  It was wonderful to be with family that day, but I distinctly remember getting choked up as I talked to my mom that afternoon.  I could hear everyone in the living room, talking, watching football, playing with babies, looking through Black Friday ads, shuffling cards for a poker game, and could practically smell the homemade noodles and gravy.  It was my first major holiday away from home, and I was definitely overcome with a feeling of sadness that I wasn’t able to be with my family that day.  Unfortunately it is just not as easy to zip home for Thanksgiving and Christmas these days, but it makes those times that I do get to catch up with everyone that much nicer.

30 Days of Thankfulness- Day 15

Day 15- Today's thankfulness shout-out goes to my one and only, my most favorite, sister-in-law Sandy. Anyone who can tolerate living with my brother on a daily basis scores high marks in my book. Sandy has been a wonderful addition to our family. She is smart, talented, generous, patient, and welcoming. Another thing that I love about her? Her ability to put my smarty pants, know-it-all older brother in his place. Is it wrong that I get such satisfaction out of that? :) I enjoy having an older "sister", especially since I'm used to being the oldest girl in our family. I have gone to her for advice in lots of areas- professionally and personally, and I value her opinion greatly.

Just as I love watching Andy learning to become a parent, I have enjoyed watching Sandy's relationship with Abby evolve. It is so apparent that Mama and her baby girl l-o-v-e each other. It melts my heart to see them together as it is very clear that they are happiest when they're together. I'm so happy to have Sandy as a sister-in-law!

30 Days of Thankfulness- Day 14

Day 14: I can't be thankful for my siblings if I'm not thankful for my parents as well! I have paid homage to both of them individually before, but they do make a great pair together. After 30+years of marriage, they are like scientific proof that opposites attract.

Dad is the ying to Mom's yang...

Mom is the life of the party while Dad is the strong presence in the corner...

Dad is generally a man of few words...but he doesn't need to say much- Mom doesn't know a stranger and talks enough for both of them. :)

Mom is creative and spontaneous and always ready for a new challenge (hello, bakery!!) and Dad is almost always willing to go along for the ride.

Mom and Dad make a most excellent Gramma and Papa- Ella, Liam, and Abby can attest to that.

So, cheers to my parents and their ever-present importance in my life. They are my value instillers, booboo fixers, lunchbox makers, driving lesson teachers, adventure seekers, patient listeners, guilt layers, and advice givers that I sometime do and don't want to hear. But more than anything, they are always there for me and my siblings, and I am extremely thankful for that.

30 Days of Thankfulness- Day 13

Day 13- I am thankful for my brothers, Andy and Shaughn. They are good stuff, my brothers.

Andy is the oldest child, and it is painfully apparent. He is the most responsible, the smartest (you don't even have to believe me- he lets us know all the time), and the most successful of all the siblings. I have enjoyed watching Andy navigate the parenthood path the past few months. It's funny watching a person evolve- a few years ago, I would never dream of seeing Andy go gaga over a baby, much less letting her vomit in his hair, drool on his expensive electronics, and patiently bounce her as she cried. But here he is, playing the part of Daddy, and doing it quite well. I'm so happy to see him in this new role. We share and bond over our mutual love of travel- he makes a great travel companion and is always game for an adventure. Andy can be somewhat loud and...ahem...opinionated about things, but when it comes down to it, you can always count on him to be there for you. There are countless occasions when he has gone above and beyond the normal call of brotherly duty to help out all 3 of his younger siblings. He will be there for you at the drop of a hat when you need him. I'm lucky to have him as my big brudder

There are times that I still feel a bit surprised when I see Shaughn- when did he grow up? I realize he's 25 now, but I still think of him as my baby brother. I suppose the fact that I was away at college while he was hitting puberty doesn't help matters. When I left home he was less than 5 feet tall and had a squeaky voice; now he towers over me. I also tend to feel a bit protective of Shaughn- partly because he is still the baby of the family, but mostly because I can't help but think back to his car accident and remember how close we came to losing him. I am thankful every single day that he survived that accident, and I am so happy to see him making the most of his life by going back to school. He is my computer guru- Shaughn is so smart when it comes to technology so he is the first person I call when I am having a computer crisis. When it comes to music, Shaughn and I are kindred spirits- we love all the same stuff. As a matter of fact, one of my fondest memories from college is when I drove up to Decatur to pick him up, drove straight back down St. Louis, and took him to see Weezer with me that night. He is fiercely loyal to his friends and family and I appreciate that. My little brother is pretty top-notch.

Yup, good stuff my brothers.

30 Days of Thankfulness- Day 12

Day 12- I am very thankful that 2 of my siblings have procreated and given my 2 little nieces and a nephew. I love Ella, Liam and Abby to bits.

Abby has so much expression in her sweet little face. At just over 4 months, she already has a ton of personality! She definitely knows who her mama is, and is most happy when Sandy is holding her. She has comedic timing down pat at a young age- this morning Andy was holding her on his shoulders and she took advantage of the situation by spitting up in his hair. Well played, my little Southern belle, well played.

Liam is almost 6 months old now, and is just starting to eat solids (see early video for hilarious evidence). He is a very laid back baby boy, who is pretty content as long as someone is holding him. Some of his other tricks: sucking his thumb, chewing on cold items (he really loved gumming on my beer can), napping in any environment, and drooling. He is a great drooler. He also has a new nickname- Carlos (and can anyone guess why?)

Ella just turned 5 and steals the show with her hilarious commentary. A couple of her gems from the weekend:

(As she was snuggling under my St. Louis Cardinals blanket): "C-U-B-S spells Cardinals!"

(As she was showing me around the rental house, she pointed to a denim couch): "See, Aunt Meagy- this is the couch that is wearing jeans!"
(As she and I were walking through Savannah, and I let her know she is my favorite oldest niece): "I know I am. And I'm the favorite 5 year old niece. And everyone thinks I'm so cute. And I am never gonna quit on you. You're never gonna give up on me, right Aunt Meagy?"

I can't wait for my siblings to give me some more fantastic kiddos to love, but the 3 I have right now are all pretty darn great.

30 Days of Thankfulness- Day 11

Day 11- I am thankful for my sister, Molly. She has been through a lot the past couple years, but is still smiling, which is very admirable. My sister has great genes and is the maker of 2 adorable little kids. To boot, she is such a wonderful mom to Ella and Liam. It is a handful having a very energetic and rambunctious 5 year old as well as a tiny 6 month old. Both require lots of attention and Molly does a great job of handling both her children's needs with ease. We have definitely grown closer as we've grown older, which I love. It's nice to have a sister- you don't have to be anyone but yourself around them and they accept you as you are.

Molly is my go-to lady for all things fashion, make-up, and hair. Anytime I am around her I hand over my hair and face to her. She has a knack for always looking just a bit more put together than me...which is sometimes annoying seeing as I don't have 2 children to dote on and I definitely get more sleep than she does. :) I know it was probably difficult for her to be in Savannah today, and it would have been easy for her to cancel the whole trip, but she put her best foot forward and is making the best of the situation. I'm proud of her for that.

30 Days of Thankfulness- Day 10

Day 10- I am so thankful to have all my family together today in Georgia. We have all decided to make lemonade out of lemons and make the best of our extended weekend together on Tybee Island. Since we can't all be home for Thanksgiving this year, we are celebrating together tonight with a feast of Honeybaked ham and turkey, mashed pototatos, noodles, bourbon sweet potatoes, reen bean casserole, a couple pies, and lots and lots of wine. Happy early Thanksgiving!

30 Days of Thankfulness- Day 9

Day 9- I'm thankful for music, particularly the good variety... ie, everything I listen to. Music makes everything more enjoyable. I love the challenge of creating the perfect places for whatever the occasion may be. I have playlists for cleaning the house, for when I'm alone in the car and can sing as loud as I want, for late night driving to help keep us awake, for cooking in the kitchen on a lazy Sunday afternoon, for when I feel like reminiscing about high school or my days in Chicago, for when we're talking about the universe, for when we're excited about a trip, for when we're decorating the Christmas tree, for when I miss working at the Fox and want to sing Broadway tunes... it only takes a song to instantly transport myself to a fun time. Music in particular helped make a long, late-evening car ride from Nashville to Tybee Island, GA much more enjoyable.

30 Days of Thankfulness- Day 8

Day 8: I am thankful for my iPad. That sounds very ridiculous, but I just love it. I use it every single day, and it's almost always with me. I actually dropped it when we were in Switzerland- the top corner where the power button is bent in and I thought it was a goner. I was so genuinely upset at myself for letting it fall of my lap. Technically, that iPad was a goner. The day after we got home from our trip, I took it to the Apple Store to see about getting it repaired. Instead, the fine folks at Apple gave me a refurbished pad that I was able to take home that evening. Thank goodness for great customer service!

30 Days of Thankfulness-Day 7

Day 7: I am thankful for Will's sisters, Sue and Cari. Over the past 5 years I've grown close to both of them- I'm so happy that they live nearby and I get to see them somewhat often. Sue is a wonderful mom to her 3 kids, and she is always good for a laugh. We have very similar senses of humor which makes for some belly-aching laughs when we get together. Cari and I have bonded over our mutual love of Jimmy Buffett, and have spent many-a-night having long talks over beers at Jimmy's and singing our hearts out at concerts. We may not officially be family, but they certainly feel like sisters. Incidentally, today is Cari's birthday. Here's hoping she's having a great day!

30 Days of Thankfulness- Day 6

Day 6: I am thankful that I have a job. Even on nights like tonight, when I'm not quite ready for the weekend to end and wishing that I didn't have to go in tomorrow. After 9 months of unemployment, I know how fortunate I am to have a job at all, let alone one that I actually (for the most part, anyway) enjoy going to on a daily basis. I have great coworkers, and feel appreciated for the work I do day-in and day-out, so I really am pretty lucky.

30 Days of Thankfulness- Day 5

Day 5- I am thankful for Saturdays off, especially when we are in town. Most Saturdays are full of "me" time, as Will either works or goes golfing during the day. This leaves me plenty of time to do whatever I want- sleep in, go to zumba, clean the house, do laundry, have "coffee talk" phone dates with my good pal Megan, catch up on all my trashy TV shows on demand that Will won't tolerate watching... I love having a morning at home to myself.

30 Days of Thankfulness- Day 4

Day 4: I'm thankful for our awesome loft. We've been living here for almost 2 1/2 years, and I still LOVE coming home, each and every day. It has been such a fun place to live- close to all the action downtown, near work, modern and urban and industrial and perfect for us right now.

We are starting to get the itch to move so we can enjoy some of the things that this place doesn't offer or allow, namely a yard, a fireplace, a dog, etc... A move won't be happening anytime soon, but I will be incredibly sad to leave this home when we do eventually move.

30 Days of Thankfulness- Day 3

Day 3: I'm thankful for the friends we've met in Nashville. Admittedly, it feels like it has taken awhile to get "settled" into life here. But after 3 years, we're finally meeting and spending more time with a great group of people. We've been filling up our weekends with activities galore lately- we feel like quite the social butterflies. Concerts, musicals, house parties, and Titans games are much more fun with a good group of friends along!

30 Days of Thankfulness- Day 2

Day 2: I'm thankful for cell phones with video texting. I love getting pictures and videos of my sweet little nephew and nieces. Molly just sent me this hilarious video of Liam eating his first solid foods. He looks just like my great Aunt Mary when he chews! Ha! And is there anything sweeter than that little laugh you can hear in the background? Ella was obviously enjoying watching Liam, too(even if she was sorta grossed out).
:)

30 Days of Thankfulness- Day 1

Every year, I say I'm going to participate in this, but I always fail to actually do it. Hopefully this year I can keep up and participate in all 30 days. After all, I do have a lot to be thankful for.

Day 1: I'm thankful that I've been fortunate enough to travel so much throughout the years. Whether it's a quick day trip, a fun weekend jaunt, or a full 3 months abroad, I've loved every place I've been lucky enough to experience firsthand.

Our most recent trip to Munich and Switzerland was no exception. Here are some of my favorite pictures from that trip:

This doesn't even feel real...

And worth every penny for our "splurge" hotel! Our Swiss happy hour overlooking Matterhorn above Zermatt at Gornergrat. Just like the Corona commercial, only better...except for the moments following this picture when a bird took a poo that landed inches from my foot. It's things like that that keep me grounded and laughing! Otherwise I might quickly start to believe the high-profile, jet-setting lifestyle is the one I am supposed to be living.

Oktoberfest...

Is pretty much the greatest party ever. We had a blast- what a great thing to check off our bucket list!

Abby's first visit to Nashville

We're having a great time showing Abby around town! She especially enjoyed her first trip to the Honky Tonks.

Crouching stories, Hidden blog posts

So I finally became motivated enough to take a plethora of pictures off the camera this weekend. The result? Back-blogging! Have fun searching for some-what (for me) abbreviated posts highlighting a few things I did this summer! :)

Abby's Baptism

The whole family got together in Houston over Labor Day weekend to celebrate baby Abby's baptism. The weekend was chock-full of baby-snuggling, eating, drinking, and being merry.

And everyone was excited: I was pumped to have all my nieces and nephew in one spot; Andy and Sandy were excited to show off their beautiful baby girl; Mom and Dad were ecstatic to finally meet their newest grand-daughter; Molly and Shaughn were happy to meet their newest niece; Liam and Ella were elated to meet their first cousin, the great-grandparents and great-great grandma were excited to have all their grandchildren in one spot...overall, everyone was just happy to get together.

The belle of the ball

Pretty girl in her fascintor

Liam playing the part of Moses for the afternoon

Uncle Shaughn and a happy niece

Daddy's girl

It's about time!

I would like to thank Will for this momentous occasion. Finally, after nearly 3 years of living in Nashville, I had my first celebrity sighting!

Usually, I leave my car at my office garage, and Will and I carpool to and from work together. Tonight, however, Will had to work late so I drove myself home. Now, if both cars are at home, one of us has to park on the street, and street parking comes with rules. Parking on the street means that the car has to be moved before 7 AM, which in turn means that Will has to go into work super early the following morning.
(This whole scenario is one major downside to downtown living- parking is inconvenient with 2 cars and only 1 parking spot.)

(I swear this tangent has a point...)

This evening, Will informed me that he did NOT want to go into work before 7 tomorrow morning, so he convinced me to drive my car back to my office tonight and meet him at PF Changs for a drink. (My office building houses a number of restaurants- PF Changs, Flemings, Moe's, etc...) It took a lot of coercing on his part to get me out of my PJs and back into normal clothes, but I obliged. We enjoyed a couple beers and headed to the parking lot towards Will's car. And guess who we saw, waiting for their car at the Fleming's valet stand...


Wait for it....

Blake Shelton and Miranda Lambert!


This is Nashville, and we are super cool around our celebrities so I didn't go all psycho fan on them. I barely even acknowledged them...at least not until we were a good 20 yards past them, when I non-chalantly pointed out to Will that we just walked by Blake and Miranda... And then I may or may not have made him drive by them again. Not in a psycho fan way, mind you...but just to see what kind of car they drive. For the recrod, it was a Ford Expedition...but something tells me it wasn't actually their car (they had a driver).

So, thanks to Will for making me drive my car back to my office, meet him for a drink at PF Changs, and therefore having my 1st celebrity sighting in Nashville.

For the Kids...

Today is Miracle Treat Day! Buy a blizzard and a portion of the proceeds will go to helping your local Children's Miracle Network hospital. What a tasty way to help out the sick and injured children in your area!

As if you needed an excuse to treat yourself, today you can legitimately say, "It's for the kids".
Calories don't count when you're doing something for a good cause. My rules. Enjoy your blizzards!

From Nashville to Asheville

We ventured to a new state for us this weekend- Will and I spent a couple days in Asheville, NC. What a fantastic little mountain town! We knew very little about Asheville and didn't have a big agenda aside from spending Saturday checking out the Biltmore and its surrounding land. But we lucked out and stumbled upon a festival that takes place in downtown Asheville every year called Bele Chere- how serendipitous! The festival offered some of our favorite things: live music (Rebirth Brass Band, Marc Broussard, Stephen Kellogg and the Sixers were among the musical highlights), street drinking (we got to try a few new-to-us brews), day drinking (when paired with street drinking, it's especially magical), art, and amazing people-watching. Asheville is full of colorful characters, from the patchouli-smelling, Birkenstock-wearing hippies to the megaphone-talking, bible-carrying preachers, and every spectrum in-between. I could have sat and watched these people for hours and hours: they are reason-enough for me to want to return to Asheville again sometime!

We took the "scenic" route through Great Smoky Mountains National Park on our way to Asheville...and saw a black bear inside the park!

Not quite as majestic as the Rockies, but really pretty, none-the-less

Gorgeous evening in Asheville

Marc Broussard

Rebirth

Stephen Kellogg and the Sixers

How cute is that coffee shop?!

As I mentioned, our main reason behind the weekend was to visit The Biltmore. I wasn't sure what to expect, but was hoping to be blown away, given the admission price (over $45/person! And that was with my Vanderbilt discount!). I can honestly say, though, that the admission price is completely worth it. What an incredible home- and the grounds surrounding the estate were amazing as well. You are given a guidebook upon entering and allowed to wander the house at your leisure. Will and I consider ourselves to be "power" tourers. We can get through museums pretty quickly...but even we spent several hours wandering the massive home. Since our admission was discounted, we splurged and took a supplemental guided tour that taught us about the architecture of the home. It was quite informative, and allowed us to tour parts of the home that aren't open as part of the normal admission. Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take pictures inside the home, but the outside is certainly nothing to scoff at!

Impressive driveway

Not a bad-looking back yard, either

Impressive details

Token self-portrait

Back of the house

We headed back to Nashville via Gatlinburg. What...a difference there is between Gatlinburg and Asheville. At the risk of sounding rude, I'll just leave it at that. I will say, though, that I don't foresee myself going back to Gatlinburg anytime soon.

Gorgeous views en route to Gatlinburg

Our chariot to the top of the mountain

With more beautiful views