Home sweet home

This will be a quick one, wanted to upload some pics that I took this morning. Zeke did a great job picking out the place!








Master





Guest bath


Guest room- love the nook!








View from living room








Club house- where we will be hanging out since we don't get cable for 2 weeks.


Playing a little virtual golf Will update later! - Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Columbia Pike,Arlington,United States

My butt is numb

Hi friends! I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday. I'm writing you from our hotel room in Charlotte, North Carolina. We finally made it here. As the title of this entry indicates, frankly I'm tired of being in the damn car. To recap our last few days, we drove from Houston to Mobile, AL Wednesday (8 hours)... Mobile, AL to Montgomery, AL on Friday (3.5 hours), and from Montgomery to Charlotte today (8.5 hours). We have driven through Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina. Sound exhausting? You have no idea. We have had a eventful few days. I'll start by posting some of my favorite pics...


Our empty house


Zeke, his dad, and his brother watching football at Fred & Alma's.


The leftovers of thanksgiving.


I downloaded Hipstamatic and took pictures of everything! This one one of my favorites though, Maggies eyes look cool.


Annual post-meal football game with the cousins. Zeke was the QB & lead his team to a victory! He's so dreamy.


We perfected the Smith team recipe for the 2010 Nogg-Off taking place at my parents house during our family Christmas in a few weeks. This batch was so good that I chugged 4 huge glasses in 15 minutes and gave myself a horrible stomach ache.


Alma (Zeke's aunt) taught me how to make homemade buttermilk biscuits and tomato gravy. It's delicious! A strong breakfast staple in many Southern Kitchens. Between this meal and the egg nog, it's safe to estimate my weekly weight gain total to be around 4 lbs.


Fletcher family recipe.


The finished biscuits. Mmmmm


This picture is significant for a few reasons- 1) this was a small portion of Zeke's uncle Chuck's bar. This is the uncle who played for Auburn. Talk about a PAD... I felt like I was on an episode of Montgomery Housewives! I wish i would have taken more pics, but i didn't want them to catch me and think i was a creeper. 2) this bottle of Makers pictured here contributed to the second shattering of my iPhone screen. Yep... I sipped a little too much sauce, got really excited when auburn won so we were jumping up and down spastically, and my phone fell out of my pocket and shattered. So I'm writing you from yet another spider web looking screen. 3) I'm really obsessed with the hipstamatic app!


Incase you didn't know- Auburn beat Alamaba! This is the one day a year I am a tshirt fan. I figure it's allowed... I have no ties to the Alabama team so I'm not offending anyone. And Auburn is so much fun to watch! Plus I'm REALLY glad they won, because I would have had to deal with a depressed, moping fiancé if they lost. Not sure at what point in the night I took this picture, but it seemed like a good idea.


I took this pic while driving through atlanta. In case you've ever wondered what Atlanta looks like- there it is! I gave a shout out to Ludacris and Big Boi while I rode by.


Hello from Charlotte! I just took this 5 minutes ago. Not sure if the picture does it justice (because my screen is cracked so I can't really see anything anyways). If there's one good thing that has come from Zeke traveling so much for work, it's that he's Gold Status at the Marriott. I've never felt so cool! They upgraded us to a downtown view executive king suite, waived the valet charge, were overly nice and accommodating, and kept calling Zeke "Mr. Smith". I don't know about you, but I get excited about the little things like that. So tomorrow we finish the last leg of the trip. It's about 450 miles to Arlington from here. If there's one thing that this trip has taught me, it's that road trips are over rated... The Wright Brothers were spot-on when they invented airplanes. I can guarantee you that I will not make this drive even again. Until we come back, that is ;) Sweet dreams, will update the blog tomorrow when we get to the apartment! Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

No turning back now...

Welp, our entire lives are on a large 18 wheeler on its way to Arlington, VA! Guess it's too late to change our minds. I will say, however, that we are officially spoiled. We were able to find a moving service that packs, loads, drives our belongings, and unloads it for us in DC for a reasonable price. After having someone pack for you, I think it might be impossible to ever do it the "other" way. You never truly realize how much CRAP you have until you try to move. But it's much easier to cope with the amount of crap you have when someone else is packing it.

Speaking of crap, I also cleaned out my trunk last night! HOLY MOLY! In it, i found:
- a packaged cookie wedding favor from Emily Jackson and Kelly Belcher's wedding in August 2008
- a 12 pack of sunkist
- 3 pairs of shoes
- 4 beach chairs and 2 straw beach mats
- a bridesmaid's dress
- Nikki Fruciano's binder from Recruiter II training at Aerotek, circa late 2007
- A trash bag full of stuffed animals
- tailgate golf
- Mint condition floor mats for the driver and passenger front seats of my car. Looks like a new ride!
- I think that's all

Judging by the amount of stuff I found, I think it's safe to assume that if times ever truly get tough in DC, I can always live in my car. Comfortably.

My hangover from Saturday night is finally gone, what a night! That's a post for sometime later this week. We have some great pics to share with everyone. And the night also confirmed that I have the GREATEST friends in the whole wide world! I love you girls so much. Sunday was like Christmas... I love tearing paper. I can confirm that everyone thinks we are lushes, because we have all of our barware we registered for, the wine opener, and some really nice serving trays! No bathroom or bedding though... we will have to wait till the wedding. I am very excited about the spice rack from Auntie Colette! I don't even know what 1/2 of the spices are, but I'm sure I'll find a use for them.  And mom and dad got us some really cool salt and pepper grinders. It's funny the things you get excited about these days. 

So, now we are off to finish up running errands before we take off. On our to-do list today is: Zeke go to his office to submit receipts, Kate go to her office to get final paycheck, drop off clothes and belongings at Goodwill, get oil changes, finish laundry, try to meet up with Jess to get my bike and give her the bar stools, take Zeke's DJ stuff to storage, touch up the paint in the house.... then drive to Alabama. Oh- and I have my phone screen with Corporate Executive Board for an Account Executive today at 3:30! Wish me luck!

Will update y'all on the 1406 mile road trip as we make progress. Bon voyage!

The Smiths are no longer homeless!

GOOD NEWS! We found a place to live! Thank you baby Jesus! And you'll be pleased to know that it's a 2 BR/2 BA, so you will always have a place to stay when you come visit us three times per year.

Check out the new digs... It's located in Arlington, just across the Potomac River from DC. Aaaaaaand one little thing... we're in the Penthouse. NBD ;) We got a great deal though, don't be fooled. They threw in free parking (which is HUGE) and waived a bunch of stupid one-time fees, and gave us a free LCD TV! We also get a complimentary one hour design consultation with an interior designer, a free accent wall painted, and free unlimited valet dry cleaning for 6 months. Oh AND they have virtual golf and a spin class room! You can see we clearly chose our future residence based on the practical things in life.

Here are some pics that Zeke took yesterday of the actual apartment. These are the "real life" pictures, not the fancy schmancy ones posted on the website.

View from the front door- Living room with our "free" TV and part of the Kitchen. From our window, you have a great view of the National Mall. And if you think that's actually a mall in DC, click here and don't feel stupid... I thought the same thing. The master is to the right and the guest room is to the left from this view.

Master bed/bath. Two sinks! Yay for no makeup in Zeke's sink and no shaving cream remnants in mine! And by the way, this is actually one of only TWO apartments out of the 20+ that we looked at that have double sinks. It's insane to me that no where has them... have you ever had to share a sink with a BOY?! I guess this is a prime example of how we are spoiled in Texas.

Building exterior. I was happy to learn that there's a CVS, farmer's market, park, Irish pub, wine bar, nail salon, Alamo Draft House, and several restaurants within walking distance.

So there you have it! Now all we have left to do is ind out exactly HOW we are moving our stuff there. Nothing like the last minute.

And on another positive note- I was contacted for my first official phone interview today! I've had a couple of "we are looking over your qualifications blah blah blah" emails, but this one is the real deal! We are still finalizing the exact date/time, but keep your fingers crossed and say a prayer to baby Jesus for me. He's been good to us today :) 

When will we get too old for this?

TGIMFF! I'm certainly not feeling in tip-top shape today, my liver needs a break. After my post Tuesday, we went to dinner and had a blast! Celebrating engagements is always a good time :) I'm definitely trying to squeeze in as much girl time as possible these days. I'm really realizing that I only have a few weeks left with my favorites. anyhow, here's a pic of the bappy bride... pre-drinks.

 

After we got kicked out of  dinner, we decided to take our party elsewhere. To our disadvantage, we discovered that bars in the Washington/Shepherd area don't stay open past 11:00 on Tuesday nights. WHO DOES THAT? We had to go to 4 different bars to finally find one that stayed open! I'm sure you can imagine the "lectures" that the doormen and bartenders got about how inconvenient their 11:00 closing schedule was to "paying customers". You would THINK that since it was 11:00 on a school night, we would call it quits. But noooooooo... not us! And with a little luck, several u-turns, and using the "around me" app, we were able to locate Cahill's on Durham. Turns out it was right down the street, we just didn't realize it was a bar. Anyhow, after several shots, solving the world's problems, and Tara spending $9.00 on Rod Stewart songs in the jukebox, we called it a night. Here are a few of my favorite pics....

Next week I'll post my pictures from the Fin, Feather, & Fur Cookoff that my company participated in Thursday night. Let's just say I showed up in jeans & flipflips ready to cook at 2:00 pm, and left around 11:00 intoxicated wearing boots, a gypsy scarf, a sparkly alligator hat, and smelled like a BBQ pit. Good times.

I'm headed to pick Zeke up from the airport... he's taking me to dinner tonight to celebrate our 46th monthaversary :) Have a good weekend!

Yay for Tuesday

Here are a few reasons why today rocks:

1. Speaking of rocks, LOOK AT BRITTANY'S! Tonight, I get to celebrate the engagement of one of my very dear friends, the soon-to-be Mrs. Brittany Winter Halbert! Her fiance, Matt, proposed last Friday when they were in Lubbock for parent's weekend. I can't wait to hear all of the gushy details of how he did it! And I also can't wait to go to Lubbock next fall for their TTU football inspired nuptials :) Here's is a pic of Britt's bling bling. Nice job Matt!

2. Jessica left for Peru and Jon and Liz left for Costa Rica today. Have fun and DON'T FORGET MY REFRIGERATOR MAGNET!!!! Can't wait to see every one's pictures.

2. It's kind of a random thing: but I found out that my favorite Bath Junkie store will ship products to me in DC at no extra charge. SCORE! I went to a luncheon downtown this afternoon and just "happened" to be near the store, so I stopped in to use my nifty Groupon ($25 for $50 worth of products). I had to break the news to Mary that I'm moving. Oh... who is Mary you might ask? She's my sales rep who talks me into buying all of this bath crap I don't need  adores me and says I'm her favorite customer. Anyhow, she was sad that I'm leaving because her monthly sales will suffer she will miss my sweet face. So running out of my favorite hand picked scented bath gel and sea salt scrub is one more thing I can cross off the list of "things I'm worried about happening when we move".

3. Speaking of, we are leaving two weeks from today! Holy moly! We booked the movers to come Tuesday, November 23 at 12:30 to load our stuff into the Pod. We are still deciding on how much effort we actually want to put into packing... they offer a packing service for cheap. The only other thing we need to do is, well, book the actual pod that is moving our stuff from Houston to DC. I guess that's kind of important. OH- and we need to find a place to live. Details, details.

Zeke is in DC again this week for work. I'm happy to report that so far, he really likes the new office, his new boss, and all of the people that work in the offices. (Also, his new boss' last name is Raider, so naturally I think I'll like him too. I'm going to have to refrain from getting drunk at happy hour and yelling  "RAIDER POWER") Zeke is off Thursday for Veterans Day, so he's going to go look at a few more places. For those of you that don't know exactly where we are moving, here's a map! We are going to live in Arlington, VA (which is the red highlighted area). It's right across the Potomac from River from the actual District of Colombia. I know to you people from TX, I might as well be explaining the Geography of Bangkok, Thailand. As a point of reference for you Houston peeps, imagine Washington D.C. as Midtown, and Arlington as Upper Kirby. Virginia isn't spread out like Houston, everything is super close. I will update the blog later this week if Zeke finds a place.

4. Our wedding is exactly 5 months from today! I can't believe time has flown by this quickly. Plans are coming along nicely, in case you're wondering :) I pick my dress up on Saturday... kind of nervous! Not because I don't think I'm going to like it, I still love it and haven't seen anything more beautiful. But nervous because I've gained 10 lbs since May. True Story. So hopefully I'm not blogging next week about this insane diet I'm on because my dress didn't fit.

And I spent. It's now approaching 5:00 and I might turn into a pumpkin if I'm here much longer. Again, stay tuned my friends...

Let's try this again...

Ok, ok... I admit it. My initial "itch" to blog, while filled with good intentions, deserves a big FAIL.

I still managed to make it to church a few more times, and I am still on a quest of self-discovery, but I never kept up with the idea and it quickly escaped me. Sorry to you 10 loyal followers, I over promised and under delivered.

With that said, I would like to re-introduce myself and give you an overview of what's been happening since my last post in February 2010. Let's see...

March- Changed jobs (shocker, I know)
April- Completed my first full MS150! And I have no desire to ever ride a bike from Houston to Austin ever again. That's why god made cars.
May- Crossed a Sprint Triathlon (500m swim, 15 mile bike, 3 mile run) off my bucket list. Another activity that I'm not ever doing again.But I enjoyed it much more than riding a bike 150 miles.
June- Celebrated Zeke's 30th birthday rock star style.
July- Celebrated my 27th bday, took a family vacation to the beach, oh and GOT ENGAGED!!!
August- Nothing really exciting that I can think of
September- Changed jobs, yet again. I know, I know. But this time, it's "the one".
October- Zeke was offered a promotion to manage the DC and Baltimore offices for Apex, he accepted, and we took our first trip to our new city of residence!!!

Needless to say, the last few months have been interesting, exciting, overwhelming... you name it, we've been through it. All of these factors have inspired me to re-ignite my old passion for blogging. Although, I'm not sure if 2 posts can really be considered passionate. Either way, I wanted to keep a blog running so I can feel like I don't actually live 1400 miles away from you guys and vice versa.

So... here you have it! My new old blog. I gave it a face lift and a new catchy title that's a twist on an old Hollywood classic. And this time, I promise to update it. Seeing as though I'll be unemployed and chillin' on the couch searching diligently for a new job, I "might" be able to find some time to share our experiences with you all as we settle into our new lives abroad. I even added Zeke as an author so that he can tone down my KJ1/3 if he needs to. I'll keep you guys updated on the move, finding an apartment, settling in, finding a job, exploring the city, our nights out on the town, and the random things that always seem to happen to only me. You know... things like bike being chased by a chicken in a neighborhood, scoring free home plate tix to MLB games from the president of a major sports team as a result of sticking napkins to my forehead, or having someone carve P---- T----- on my front bumper. Hopefully we will have some pretty good stories to share.

So, thank you for reading, and stay tuned!