I Broke It

Tonight for the first time in a long time, I did it. I broke the routine. Even for just a few hours, it still felt much better than I remembered.

I love my life, it is perfect, and I am utterly conscious of how lucky I am to have "it all". Still though, a perfect life is not achieved without hard work; and it is hard work that I perform every. single. day. I can honestly say that 95% of my daily activities revolve around photography in one way or another, and honestly!? I love that.

Today after an unusually stressful shoot (involving horrifying ticks) Christine drove me back to my car (parked at Target). I was amply ready to fly back home & run in the shower to scrub the living wildlife off of me...

As I sat in my car, I glanced up to my windshield and saw a turquoise envelope reading "Mrs. Morris" on the front.

I anxiously opened my car door to collect the mysterious letter and harshly ripped the outer shell open. As I was doing this, I'll admit... the words "psycho stalker" did cross my mind. But the more paper I ripped the quicker I recognized the familiar hand writing characteristic of my husband's.

The card reminded me of one of the MANY he used to always get for me and surprise me with when we first dated. He used to always make a sweet card appear at the most unexpected moments: as I was about to pick up my coffee cup, or sit in my car-seat...

It had been a while, but tonight he broke it. He broke the routine we have grown so accustomed to, and surprised me with a sweet gesture.

When I came home he was cooking a delicious dinner (10 more brownie points for him!).
and when he proposed making a bath for me I fell in love with him all over again. ;P

He let me take MY TIME, as he often allows me to. He understands that I can easily spend 45 minutes taking a hot shower. I feel like that little note he left for me at the wind-shield of my car was a reminder for me to STOP. and enjoy. and relax.

And relax i did.

After the long shower, I pampered myself with rose scented lotion, painted my nails, and watched Sex and the City. **SIGHHHHHHHH girl-y time was definitely needed**

Here is the note that reminded me to slow down, take a breather, and do something else just- because.




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Tomorrow we will be going to Nashville to party with all our friends. We will be celebrating Tori's bachelorette party, shopping, eating yummy food and yes even bar hopping ;)

4th of FONDUE 2009

For the 4th of July, we invited all our bestest buds over to our house for FONDUE AND FIREWORKS! it was so much fun... The plan was to re-experience some of the yummyness we did at the Melting Pot for my b-day... and although it wasn't nearly as fancy schmancy, it was INCREDIBLY FUN and equally delicious! really I must not even write much about it because the pics below will explain it all.

We started out with Seth's yummy cheese fondue (thank goodness we have a good cook in the group!). This cheesy goodness contained powdered mustard and dark beer and was really very good. We then intended to go to Bridgestreet to watch *THE* fireworks, but ended up finding our own little spot to watch them from a distance. Without trying to find a sparking spot at the mall, and trying to SQUEEZE through the crowd, and spend another hour trying to leave--This was SO much better, we were by a little lake in the vicinity chilling out on blankets taking stupid pictures.

After the show, we returned to our house for DESSERT! The GIRLS stopped at Target to buy MORE chocolate... it was a pretty funny sight: 5 girls on the hunt for chocolate bars in the middle of the night~ ! After that mission was accomplished, we drove back to the house... We found the guys locked outside on the porch because Brian had of course forgotten his keys. They complained that they didn't have the keys NOR beer (which was in my trunk) and so they build weird looking fireworks bombs to shoot soon after.

The chocolate fondue was HEAVEN, and with all the amazing treats we dipped into it, it was a sinful delight!

Anyhoo I needed to upload this many pics, because I just couldn't leave any out.
We are a crazy bunch of kids and I LOVE that.

AND NOW, FOR THE COUPLE SHOTS...

THE FINALE

AUGURI MAMMA!!! ti voglio bene!!!!!

Mami,
anche se sei lontana per questo tuo compleanno sappi che ci manchi tantissimo e che non vediamo l'ora di vederti!!! volevamo mandarti il tuo "regalo" via posta, ma alla fine ho concluso che te lo saresti potuto godere lo stesso virtualmente!!! allora ecco qui... sei pronta per ricevere il tuo regalo!??!?!?!?!?!?! so che e' precisamente quello che vorresti di piu''''''''''' di tutto al mondo... ok pronta????
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TA DAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

CLICCA LE IMMAGINI PER VEDERLE PIU' GRANDI :)










AUGURISSIMI DA TUTTI NOI !!!!!! ti voglio tantissimo bene :) mwah mwah mwah mwah !!!

-Vany

"Just Because" Girl's Trip

There is nothing better than a "just because" girl trip... even if the real reason is we had an "unexpected business malfunction and we needed a break" it felt equally impulsive & liberating. We drove a total of 8 hrs to spend the whole day shopping at IKEA (& then H&M) !!! sighhhhhhh* swoooooooon and more sighhhhhhhhh* it was the best day from beginning to end. Woke up earlier than I ever typically do 7:00 am , drove to Christine's and then straight to

IKEA

..


these are some of the fabulous things I bought:







'


AND MORE MORE MORE !

We had a blast listing and jotting down the impossibly complex names of each item we just HAD TO purchase. Browsing through ALL the show rooms, fantasizing about an imaginary apartment we could own and furnish; and finally, rearranging pieces of furniture we owned in our minds to make room for newer clean & bright IKEA pieces.

I did not have much faith in our girly strength when it came time for us to LOAD the million boxes of semi-heavy to heavy furniture we bought. By the end, we were pushing around TWO carts of "nick-nacks" as well as a huge dolly full of the actual furniture.

I cannot even describe how free and giddy as well as COMPLETELY EXHAUSTED we were feeling in the store. We strode to the parking lot dragging our two carts, dolly, dignities and legs... While staring at the trunk of my car, reflecting about the logistics of how to make it all FIT, we saw the dolly slowly rolling away and then hitting a pole! Then, all the boxes came tumbling down.... Christine and I stared at each other with what I am sure was the same expression and then hurriedly ran to the cart to pick up the boxes to stuff in the car.

I then demonstrated my incredible & newly acquired "parallel-parking-skills" to stop the car in downtown ATL to shop some more at H&M :) !!! Going there was so worth it and after about 2 hours of selecting gorgeous articles of clothing, sweating, trying on, and also selecting a few fancy items for the men, I was still up for "round two". "Round Two" is what Christine and I call it when we leave the dressing room with the FIRST ROUND of clothing, start noticing NEW ITEMS that obviously were not there before therefore instigating a ROUND TWO of selecting, sweating, & trying on..
UNFORTUNATELY (although I very easily could have) we did not go for a ROUND two, instead we were conscious of the long drive home and started heading out....

Impulsive as we are, we stopped at one of the very first exits on the way out from ATL at exit 16. Because an alluring "Atlanta Bread" sign was making our mouths water we eagerly merged over and found ourselves at "WEST VILLAGE" on Atlanta Rd. This was to our surprise, a quaint, characteristic, and rich little area. We never did end up finding Atlanta Bread, but of course we also did not care one bit as we found an ample selection of neat little restaurants among which CREPE REVOLUTION.

We ate so well there. The waitress MUST have thought we were on a date, if it wasn't for me "casually" mentioning our husbands and how we just HAD to bring them back to the restaurant another time.

The whole day was fabulous and was concluded by an exciting car ride where Christine and I spoke about the business, new ideas, new goals that we will make happen in the near future.


ON ANOTHER NOTE... I dyed my hair RED and I love it. Tiffany came to my house and did it and she always does a fab job and knows exactly what I am looking for:




NEXT POST UP --> 4TH OF FONDUE! :)