Guilt.

Will complained to me the other day that I don't use my nice, shiny, beautiful KitchenAid mixer nearly enough. Translation: "Make me cookies, woman."

The problem? I'm attempting to count calories and eat healthier. Quite frankly, the temptation of having baked goods in the house is far too great for my mediocre will power to handle. I've avoided baking cookies for that very reason. But today, the guilt of being a bad house-girlfriend caught up to me, because Will is right. I really don't use my mixer as frequently as I promised I would when I squeeled with excitement as I opened said-mixer on my birthday a few months ago.

The solution? I made Will a batch of chocolate chip cookies this evening...with oatmeal.

Oatmeal equals healthy. Good compromise, no?

In no particular order...

• So our beeping smoke detector? 2 weeks later...and it's still beeping. I've learned to tune it out.



• Hello, my name is Meaghan, and I'm addicted to zumba. Zumba is like a latin music dance party/aerobic workout and it has you sweating and gyrating in no time flat. It's also like a drug. You become addicted and HAVE to zumba. All the time. I go to 3 different YMCA's in the course of a week, just to zumba. Zumba reminds me of my younger years, when I was shaking my thang in the clubs of Madrid. Sigh. To be young again...



• Speaking of young, Will and I went on an "urban" hike yesterday. We were big into urban hiking when we lived in Denver. On the weekends we would just wander around the city, exploring different parks and neighborhoods. Yesterday we had every intention to spend the day sunning on the boat, but the weather chose to not cooperate with us- 70 and overcast, while not great boating weather, is perfect for urban hiking. We walked from our place to Centennial Park, then meandered through Vanderbilt's campus before heading back downtown. It was move-in weekend on Vandy's campus. Is it just me or have college freshman grown younger? I remember moving into my dorm at SLU freshman year. I felt all grown up. The "students" I saw moving in yesterday resembled 8th graders to me.



• And while I'm on this soapbox- we saw moving vans being unloaded yesterday at the dorms. Moving vans!! What?! And no, these students were not moving into apartments- they were moving into on-campus housing, which, I'm willing to bet- comes furnished. I'm usually not into the whole "When I was your age" argument, BUT...When I was your age and moved into my dorm, I packed darn near everything I owned into several boxes that fit in the back of my mom's car. Ugh. I'll stop now because I'm at risk of sounding like a bitter old lady who is jealous of all those freshman who are at the beginning of what will turn out to be some of the greatest years of their lives. Moving on...



• Want to play a fun drinking game? Will and I invented one on Saturday night. When watching Pineapple Express, take one drink for every person who takes a hit of a doobie for each scene. If you've seen that movie before, you'll understand why Will and I nearly cleaned our fridge of beer over the course of a 2 hour long movie. And PS- James Franco makes a hilarious burn-out. Hard to believe it's the same guy from the Spiderman movies.



• I've been too busy chasing zumba classes around the city to have done much else the past couple weeks. But I did want to share a fun video that I found on YouTube. The stuff you can find on that site! In honor of the Vandy kids returning to school:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngKKnmDFbug

Life in a loft...perplexing issue #1

We wondered this when we moved in...and now we are experiencing it firsthand.

How does one go about changing the batteries in a smoke detector that has been beeping (annoyingly, I might add) since Saturday morning?

In a home with typical 8 or 10 foot ceilings, a step ladder would do the trick. In a home with 18 foot ceilings, however, this issue becomes a bit more complicated.

To be continued...

Dear Coffee,

You are delicious. I am enjoying my 2nd cup of the day. I usually keep the coffee maker in hiding in a cabinet so as to not clutter the countertops, but I busted it out on Sunday morning...and it's not going back to the cabinet anytime soon. There's nothing like a cup of coffee to make your morning a little bit nicer.


We bought a table last night! Technically it's a poker table for our game room, but it is going to serve as our dining room table for awhile. We could have bought the dining room table that we have had our eyes on, but the poker table was a steal of a deal, so we couldn't refuse. Will is picking it up today, so we should have fun assembling it this evening. I'm so looking forward to eating our meals on a table (not the ottoman that we are currently eating all our meals on!)


Now it's back to saving again until we can afford to buy our next piece of furniture. We're pretty excited about this bed from Z Gallerie- maybe in a few months we'll be ready to actually buy it!

We bought art!

Real art! Like one-of-a-kind, from an art gallery, art!

OK, if we're going to get into technicalities, we had a gift certicate to use from moving into our place, so really we didn't buy the art. But we are still excited.

Will's favorite phrase now is "I like our art." I hear it about 7 times a day. But I like it, too, so it doesn't bother me to hear it over and over again.

Slowly but surely the place is coming together!

To my big brother:

Happy (30th) birthday to you, Happy (30th) birthday to you!

Happy (30th) birthday, dear Andykins...

Happy (30th) birthday to you!

You're growing older...but not up! May you continue to be a positive role model of maturity and wisdom for your niece as well as your own future children.

And don't stop having fun! :)

HAPPY 30th BIRTHDAY BIG BRUDDER!

Mawwiage...

Mawwiage is what bwings us togethaw today. Mawwiage,that bwessed awwangement, that dweam within a dweam...

LOTS of wedding schtuff to report on this blog! First of all, a big Congrats to Molly and Kelsey, who became "officially" engaged this weekend!

The ring:

The couple:

And another big congrats to Colin and Jackie, who tied the knot over the weekend!

Colin gets a lot of lip from Will for living in the middle-of-nowhere Iowa, but really, Pella is an adorable little town. Its city center is charming and reminded me a lot of Bruges or Gent in Belgium. The town is actually meant to look more like Holland, complete with windmills, tulips, and a molengracht river running through it. The weather was perfect, the humidity was low, the bride (and groom) looked beautiful and happy, and the groomsmen were well-behaved...for most of the weekend, at least!

Some pics from the weekend:

Exchanging rings:

My handsome boy toy cleans up well!The groomsmen Jackie went with a black and white theme and yellow accents- it was really pretty. And her dress was gorgeous!Hey everyone, come see how good we look!

The bride and groom!

Will and Colin have been great friends since highschool