Not-so-lazy Sunday

Not sure if it was the Cherry Blossoms or the fact that April is just around the corner, but I popped up out of bed bright and early and was motivated to get a move on the day. Spring cleaning, anyone?

I cooked my honey some breakfast in bed, unpacked and put away some wedding gifts, and deep cleaned the kitchen. I also cleaned the bathrooms, did laundry, and hung up more stuff on the walls. Zeke watched action movies all day and was my clothes folding buddy, which was fine with me. I enjoy a good cleaning binge once every few weeks, so as long as he stays out of the way but still contributes, I'm a happy camper.

For dinner, I made pan-seared ahi tuna with mixed veggies and served it on our new china :) I know I'm supposed to wait to use it until after we are married, but couldn't help myself.

Another Bobby Flay favorite

After dinner, we had our final pre-marital class. Another great session, we learned more tools for compromise and had to list our top expectations for marriage. The funny thing is that this class has helped confirm the fact that we (in my opinion) are one of the best couples ever ;) I feel like we are starting from a solid foundation of a great 4+ year relationship, and learning these new tools excited me about become the best wife/partner that I can be. Even though we have lived together for a while, I'm still looking forward to our new life as a married couple. 13 days and counting!

Big week coming up- not only do I have to close the month strong for work, but Jess is coming in town from Tuesday-Saturday so I will have a fun-filled week ahead of me! Off to bed to bed for this girl, hope you had a great weekend!

PS- I also did some Spring cleaning on the blog- you like the new look? I thought she needed some "pizzaz". 

Back in the saddle again

Hey there- it's me, Kate! It's been a while.

My last post was hours before I left to go to New Orleans. As predicted, we had the time of our lives! We sipped tea, went sight seeing, and volunteered at the local shelters- spreading peace and joy all throughout the world.

Ok, ok, not really.

We sipped Hurricanes, went to the casino, and volunteered to dance on stage at multiple bars- spreading excitement and our Douggie'ing skills across the world.

I'm not sure what it is about that city, but it really does turn me in to a different person! I know (and I know you know) that I'm not one to turn down a good ole' fashioned booze-fest once every few weeks, so imagine my tendencies mixed with the excitement of being with all of my girls, tied together with Bourbon street- it's the perfect storm. I wish I could recant every detail of the three day whirlwind, but what happens in New Orleans stays in New Orleans :) I won't TOTALLY leave you hangin' though... here's a pic from our brunch Friday morning at Eat.

And true to form, I left my voice, dignity, and liver function in the great state of Louisiana. I got my voice back Tuesday and was finally thinking clear by Wednesday.

Since traveling has caused me to miss so much work these last few weeks, I really had to buckle down and kick it into gear this week. I had the best week ever- closed 9 deals and won a contest! And Friday we were pumped to learn that we have officially caught Groupon in revenue!!

I know this might not be a big deal to you, but to us it's HUGE! Everyone, no mater what industry you're in or position you hold, has a rival. And nothing pisses you off worse than being beat by your rival- you feel like the kid brother. But on the contrary... learning you've caught up to and are about to CRUSH them makes you feel on top of the world! I like to pretend like I had some sort of impact on that statistic ;0)

Aside from working late nights, not much has been going on in our world. We started our pre-marital classes with our minister (aka Zeke's dad) last Thursday. I wasn't quite sure what to expect, but I was pleasantly surprised with the course content. We are taking a course called "Engaged 2.0: The Eight Fundamentals To Everlasting Love". It sounds cheesy, but it's actually really cool!

We had to answer questions about each other, list goals/expectations for our marriage, and describe what we want our relationship to be like. The main focus of our first class revolved around conflict resolution and communication. Believe it or not, we actually learned something new about each other in one night! Luckily, we haven't had to use the tips for conflict resolution yet, but I really do feel like we can communicate in a more effective way now with our new facts we learned about each other. Our next session is tomorrow night, looking forward to it!

Moving along...

Today was fun :) We woke up early-ish, did some laundry, watched School Ties, got some wedding stuff knocked out, then ventured to the National Mall for the Cherry Blossom Festival. Incase you are like me and didn't really know the significance of the Cherry Blossoms, they were a gift from the Mayor of Tokyo, Japan in 1912 as a sign of peace and friendship. The trees are native to Japan, and when they bloom, it's considered the start of Spring. The bloom life cycle is very short, and I heard on the radio that it was only supposed to last for 4 days this year.

As a festival first-timer, I wasn't sure what to expect. Most of the festivals I've been to in Houston revolve around music, food, art, or wine, so I was expecting street vendors and hippies everywhere. It wasn't like that at all- it was really just a bunch of families and couples walking around taking pictures in front of the trees. It was a beautiful day though, and we were able to find some munchies, so we sat in the grass and had a mini picnic. A few pics from the day...

I present to you- a Cherry Blossom!

All of the food tents were chinese. Hmm..... ?

Enjoying some beef teriyaki skewers

Happy and full from my egg rolls

The only hippie I found :( He was an amazing artist though!

Washington Monument

Jefferson Memorial and the paddle boaters on the Potomac. If it were 10 degrees warmer we would have been all over it!

The future Mr. and Mrs. Smith- 2 weeks and counting!

I just realized that 2 weeks from now- literally right now at 7:15 pm CST- we will be MARRIED!! I am excited times a million.

Hope you have a wonderful Saturday... I'm signing off for the night.

Brace yourself New Orleans...

We're coming your way!!! In 8 hours, I'm boarding a plane to NOLA for my bachelorette party.


Besides the fact that it's St. Patricks Day, Spring Break week, or the last time I was in NOLA I slept 9 hours all weekend and had no voice for 3 days... what I'm REALLY excited about is seeing all of my girls!!! We could go anywhere and make it a great time... But New Orleans is a great setting for the weekend I've been anxiously awaiting since we got engaged. Hopefully this time, I'll come back with a voice and my dignity. 


 On a separate note, this last week has been pretty cray cray. Hence the reason I haven't posted in over a week. The trip to Austin was a success! My Aunt Jena was a wonderful hostess (as always), we had an action packed day filled with wedding planning galore, and even drove out to Gruene hall for some sangria and Brandon Rhyder. We met up with Mark & Michelle, and also my dad's cousin Craig and his wife Susan. Fun times! Sunday, we ate lunch at Abuelos (my favorite) and went shopping with the folks.


It was sooooooo good to see my parents! There's something about a big hug from your mom that makes everything better. It's the ultimate cure-all... And you sometimes forget how nice it is having her so close. Until you move 1500 miles away. And my dad was just as sweet as ever. He ran to get us muffins and coffee at 10:00 on Friday so we wouldn't be hungry before bridal portraits on saturday morning :) I'm a lucky girl. 


This week, I tried to cram as much work and GTL into the schedule as I could. Left me zero time for blogging. Me no likey. 


Well I need to try and go to sleep. It's tough... I feel like a 5 year old on Christmas eve waiting on Santa to come. I need to remember what my mom always told me, the sooner you go to sleep, the sooner it will be here! So long, friends. KJ signing out until Sunday... KMFJ is stepping in for me this weekend ;)

"Fat" Tuesday

Little known fact, if we were in the UK, we would actually be celebrating "Pancake Tuesday" according to Wikipedia. "Making and eating such foods was considered a last feast with ingredients such as sugar, fat and eggs, whose consumption was traditionally restricted during the ritual fasting associated with Lent."  

Growing up, I always felt left out when everyone at school talked about what they were giving up for Lent. In fact, I didn't know it was spelled "Lent" (not "Lint") until after college. True story. I spent most of my years confusing a religious fasting period with the stuff that gets caught in your belly button. I was raised baptist... how was I supposed to know? But since we are being married by an Episcopal priest (who is also my future father in law) and I plan on converting, I've decided I will give something up this year.

In the spirit of Fat Tuesday and sacrifices I plan on making for Lent, I decided to literally interpret the meaning of the day. While I was walking with some co-workers to pick up a quick, healthy, low-sodium lunch, I saw a baby blue ice cream truck followed by a line of people. You know what that means... ANOTHER DC FOOD TRUCK! 

The fact that I have bridal portraits on Saturday completely escaped my mind. Instead, I was overcome with the aroma of deep friend dough and fresh baked oatmeal cookies. That's right... it was the DC Empanada Truck! I ditched my co-workers and stood in a line that was almost as long as The Lobster Truck. It took me a good 20 minutes to get to the front of the line- which was ok with me- because that means it's good!

I was by myself today, so I didn't have anyone to take my pic when I got the food :( So this guy didn't know it, but he made a guest appearance on my blog as the stand-in KJ.

Deep fried deliciousness coupled with an Oatmeal, Sweet Cream, and Rum Soaked Raisin cookie sandwich.

To make the Empanada Truck even cooler, they were all dressed up for Mardi Gras, were playing Zydeco music, and the three empanadas they featured for the day were cajun themed. I ordered the Red Beans & Rice with Andouille Sausage. I give it 5 stars! I have yet to meet a food truck entree I don't like. So far, I've crossed three off the list in my quest to conquer DC Food Trucks... still have a ways to go.

Today was a successful FAT Tuesday, so I'm ready to begin my "fasting" period. I've contemplated what I am giving up this year. Last year it was soda, but I successfully stuck with the trend and don't drink them anymore. The Diet Coke in the picture above is probably the 10th soda I've had all year. I would say alcohol, but let's be honest with ourselves here. Not gonna happen. I would also say cussing, but that sh*t ain't happening either. I don't bit my nails, smoke, or eat fast food. Hmmmmm.

When I thought long & hard about what object/habit means the most to me, one thing stands out- Steak! I love steak. I eat it at least once a week, and to me that's not enough. Would eat it every day if I could.  I've also always said that I could be a vegetarian if it wasn't for steak (because I really don't like chicken). But I also know that I can't cook only veggies for Zeke for dinner, and I still need protein. If we try to get all of our protein from beans, we will not have a very happy "honeymoon phase", that's for sure. 

So with that, I have decided I'm giving up traditional meat (chicken, pork, STEAK) and becoming a Pescatarian. But I'm putting a disclaimer out there- I have a menu tasting with our caterer Saturday in Austin, so I have to sample some delicious prime rib to make sure it's ok for guests to eat. But after that I'm done, swear. 

What are you giving up for Lent? Would love to see some audience participation :)

When the cat's away, the mice will play

As expected, I have an entertaining post regarding our "Girls Night Out". Brittany picked me up around 8:00 and we went to her place. I had a few glasses of champagne while I was getting ready, so I was ready to par-tay. Britt's boyfriend Kyle is in Cabo with Zeke, so we couldn't let the boys have all the fun! He called her while we were getting ready, and told us that they broke the record for number of Grey Goose bottles purchased at the club in Cabo. He sent me a picture of their tab.

That's right... 22,635 pesos. Ridiculous.

Well, we knew we weren't going to break any bottle service records... but we had to go all out. We put on our hottest outfits and most padded bras, and hit the town.

We met Brittany's friend Amanda at Carribean Breeze in Ballston for a margarita, then we headed to the new bar/restaurant Dirty Martini in Dupont. My new favorite place! I definitely want to take Zeke there when he gets back in town. Any place that's slogan is "Come clean, leave dirty" is bound to be a good time. Of course I ordered the "Dirty Martini" and it was one of the best I've ever had! Very smooth. Which was a problem, because we ordered two rounds.

After dinner, we went next door to Midtown, a 4 story bar/club. The line was ridiculous, but we thought we were cool, so we walked right up to the VIP line and acted like we were supposed to be there. Thanks to our hot outfits and padded bras... he lifted the velvet rope for us! We felt like hot shots. He also gave us a stamp on our hand that gave us access to the top floor, which is the VIP area, and he made sure to tell us "we are very picky about who has access to the area, so you girls have a good time". We waited until we walked around the corner to squeal like little girls in excitement. That never happens to me... there are definitely perks to going out with pretty blondes ;)

Once we got upstairs, we felt like fish in a shark tank. No wonder he let us up there... it was all dudes! Selective my @ss... we were gullible. Three girls with no guys must be an automatic signal for douchebags to approach, because within 10 minutes we were approached by three different groups of guys. I thought since two of us have engagement rings, they would get the idea that we were taken, but one guy told me he didn't care that I was engaged, if I wanted to have some fun he was all about it. I should have slapped him, but instead I just said "you're a douche" and turned around. I couldn't think of anything else to say. The good thing is we got free drinks/shots. Now don't get me wrong, it's fun to get attention sometimes, but when it's attention from slimy guys it's just annoying.

You can only take so much of that... so we were only there for about 45 minutes and headed to Lucky's to meet my cousin's husband Eric & his school friends again. This is when things start to get hazy. 

Circa 1:30 am

I woke up on Brittany's couch this morning, confused again. I promise I don't do this all the time... only when Zeke's gone on his bachelor party and I'm trying to distract myself. The night was an overall success, and THANK YOU Brittany for showing me a great time! 

This morning, we walked down to Bob and Edith's for some good old fashion hangover food. We ordered strawberry & vanilla milkshakes, and I got the "2, 2, 2" special- 2 eggs, 2 pancakes, 2 sausage links. It was the bomb.

Today, I've been curled up on the couch, having a wedding show marathon. I have to cram in all of the "My Fair Wedding" and "Bridezillas" I can while Zeke's gone. I keep waiting for David Tutera to knock on my door and take over this last month of planning.... but it hasn't happened so far. 

I'm getting so nervous though... I've been crying all day!! Actually, I've been crying all week. I am one of those people who cry at every single wedding I go to. I even cry when I watch the bride walk down the aisle on television. There's something about the moment when the groom sees the bride for the first time... and how excited she always looks... it makes me cry just typing about it!  Call me a sap, but I just think that's so special. So I'm worried that I will be a blubbering mess on my trek down the aisle. 

All week, I've been consumed with wedding details, and it's all I can think about. I was at the gym yesterday, and was listening to my ghetto rap on the treadmill, and I started crying when "This is why I'm hot" came on because I started thinking about everyone being together at the wedding, and how much fun we are going to have dancing, and how much I miss my friends. Who would of thought Mims could bring me to tears??? I'm a mess.

Speaking of weddings, I did some shopping online yesterday and found a veil! Also, thanks to Bud & Leo, I bought some nail polish for the big day. I love that William is marrying a girl named Kate... there are so many fun ideas I can piggy-back off of, this nail polish being one of them :) I though the name was too cute to pass up.

Zeke comes home tomorrow and I can't wait! I haven't seen him since Wednesday morning :( He said they had a blast in Cabo, and I'm glad. Now it's my turn... 11 days until New Orleans!!! EeeeEEEEEeeee!

First wedding gift!

After a long and mentally exhausting day, I treated myself to some retail therapy at Nordstrom's Rack, got a Chi Tea latte from Starbucks, then took the 7:00 shuttle home. Not only was I extremely hungover (more on that later), but I had my first rough week at work and wedding planning has me COMPLETELY stressed out.

Throughout our engagement, I've been so surprised with how easy and stress free the process has been. "They" always it's the little details that kill you, but since I've been so stress free, I was beginning to think I'm a wedding planning guru and should go into business for myself.

Ha.

Instead, I totally jinxed myself. I'm so ready for the wedding to already be here. I wish I had a magical fairy who could make decisions for me, track RSVP's, and create seating charts. For the first time, I actually cried at work today and it had nothing to do with work! St. Lucia- please hurry up and get here!

When I got home, I had a package notification in the mailbox. I anxiously waited as the concierge went to retrieve my surprise! When she came around the corner with a big Crate and Barrel box, my mood instantly changed :)

Every time I get a package, I can't help but go "What's in the boooooooooox" like Brad Pitt from Seven. Morbid, I know.

Our new cast iron skillet!!! Can't wait to make Aunt Amla's biscuits and red eye gravy!!!

And honestly, as I was typing this post I just realized that I opened our first wedding gift without Zeke here. Oops! He's in Cabo though, so I don't feel THAT bad. And he probably would have done what he ALWAYS does when we get anything for the kitchen... give a sarcastic "yay" and keep watching TV. But I'm stoked!

Speaking of Cabo, the boys discovered my surprise I packed for Zeke in his suitcase. He he he.

Yeah, that's right. 

You know how at Christmas time, there are always signs up that say "Jesus is the reason for the season"? Well I wanted to remind them that KJ is the reason for this seasonal trip to Cabo San Lucas. He he he. I couldn't resist. I got the idea while I was getting ready for work. He left his suitcase open, and I keep that picture on my vanity, so I thought it would be a good idea to haunt remind him why he's on the trip. I strategically hid it in the pocked of his favorite linen pants that I knew he would wear the first night out. Boy, do I know him well. He found it the first night and they texted me this picture and said "Nice move, KJ". I think so, too ;)

So about my hangover, my cousin's husband Eric is in town for a school trip. They're staying really close to my office, so he and his friend met me at our LivingSocial happy hour. He showed up shortly after I fell off of a barstool, which was accidental, I was doing an impression of my co-worker who always gets on his knees in his chair while he's making cold calls, it's pretty comical. Granted, I had a few glasses of wine so my balance was off, but it was still embarrassing/hilarious considering about 20 people saw me eat $hit. Once the Happy Hour ended, we headed to another bar with some of my co-workers. This was the only picture I took...

Bad news bears

I woke up at 8:00 this morning on my couch, fully clothed and confused. I managed to shower & get ready for work in 30 minutes, so I wasn't late. I sounded like Marge Simpson again and couldn't completely get the purple stains off of my lips from the wine, but I was there on time. I live by the philosophy of "Go big or go home". Last night, I chose to forego home and went big instead.

I couldn't manage to do it again tonight, so I've been home skyping with friends and relaxing. Tomorrow I'm meeting up with my DC Brittany and some other girls, and we're going out in Dupont.  Her boyfriend is with Zeke in Cabo, so we are having our own party. Take that, boys! I'm excited, Ive never been out there before! I'm sure I'll have an entertaining post on Sunday :)  

Night night...                      

It takes two to Tango

Zeke and I discovered the coolest app for iPhones recently, it's called "Tango". It allows you to use Face Time even when you don't have wireless connection.  If you have an iPhone 4 and don't have Tango yet... download it!! Because then you can do things like....

Video chat on an airplane! We just had a 10 minute conversation while he's in the air, en route to Houston! He and his best friends leave for Cabo for his bachelor party tomorrow morning. He upgraded to business class tonight (gotta love AirTran) so he's probably about 7 crown drinks in to the trip... our conversation was pretty hilarious. He introduced me to his 2 "buddies" on the plane and showed me how hot the flight attendant is. And I concurred... she is hot. I took some screen shots while we were talking because I was so amazed! And please excuse the horrible camera angles... I look like I did the "fat face" app in some of these. It's my turtleneck, I promise!

Ring Ring Ring! 

Zeke: "Look babe, I'm on a plane! And I can talk on headphones!" 

Zeke: "Look babe... I'm eating the headphones!"
Kate: "Babe, how much Crown have you had?"

Zeke: "He he he"

Kate: "Oh dear"

I know he's so excited to see all of his boys tonight... it's been over 2 months since they've all been together! I am going to try to not think about the fact that he and 9 guys are going to be in Mexico all weekend and the trip will most likely mirror The Hangover. Instead, I'm going to think about how excited he is to be with his best friends all weekend, and how excited he must be to marry the woman of his dreams in 6 weeks ;)