A Fourth Recap

We had a very fun and full Fourth weekend filled with festivities and friends and family celebrating our nation's founding. Whew, there's no doubt I deserved that English degree after that alliterative sentence.

We were dog sitting Chelsea again, and, after sneaking out of work a little early, I arrived at the house to find this lazy beast enjoying the air conditioning. {sorry about the glare on the glass}

But since it was about 1,000 degrees, I could hardly blame her. When John finished studying, we ran out to Whole Foods because they were running a "4th of July Bundle Deal" where for $20 you could get a pound of wild-caught sockeye salmon, mixed green salad, apple pie, and lemonade. You can't beat that, particularly at Whole Foods!

I got too carried away by the deliciousness to snap a picture of dinner, but I did get one of our "hangry-preventers."

Smoked salmon, fresh Black Mission figs, and some white cheddar cheese.

Of course John went straight for the smoked salmon.

On Saturday morning, we made a quick sprint to a nearby yard sale where they were selling milk glass pieces.  Unfortunately, most were pretty bad reproductions, but I did score one beautiful Fire King hobnail vase for $2!

I'm thinking it would look great with some pretty straws at the wedding.  I actually think the picture below shows the exact same vase.

Image via Style Me Pretty

After the yard sale, with the help of Brooks Brothers, we made John a true Southern lawyer.

Yes sir, we got him a seersucker suit.  After the pants are hemmed, I will be sure to report back on how handsome he looks.

Later I ran to the mall with one of my bridesmaids so she could order her dress.  

 

More details on these soon, but I was glad for another check mark on the wedding planning!

That night we attended a surprise birthday party for a friend organized by his fantastic fiancee {can't get away from that alliteration}.

Here we are scrambling to light our holiday-appropriate sparklers when the "errant honk" let us know they had arrived.

Surprise and happy birthday, Mr. C!

On Sunday, we attended a very patriotic and multi-cultural fiesta at John's aunt's house.

We even had a Brit there for good measure. 

After our fajita fiesta {I'll stop now} the night before, I was craving a cool salad after our walk on Monday morning.  We headed down to Weaver Street Market, where I put a dent in their salad bar.

Finally, I tried to get a picture of Chelsea with her American flag, but she was feeling a little shy.

Dog Sitter Extraordinaires!

This past weekend we got to dog sit one of our favorite pups, Chelsea.  When her mama and daddy go out of town, it's kinda like this at the house...

Image via Skip to My Lou

There we are.  Well, maybe it's not that extreme, but we both enjoy getting our dog-fix and I think Chelsea enjoys it too.  This weekend we played tug-of-war with Mr. Fox.

 

Who is going to win this round?

I think Chelsea is pulling ahead...

Nope, there she goes!

And Chelsea also enjoyed crawling under the bed, which made a hilarious sound as she tried to scooch herself under there.  Eventually she did make it to the other side.

 

She also enjoyed barking at the TV while watching Harry Potter (of course!), getting the morning paper from the curb, and taking lots of naps.

The Beginning

In true twenty-first century fashion, John and I met at work.  We were both interns at the same organization between undergrad and graduate school. We finally met when I transferred divisions and moved to an office closer to his.  He worked with a friend, now groomsman, who grew up in Athens, so I soon found lots of reasons to stop by their office to talk about mutual friends from home.  After a few weeks of this and many (many!) gchats with my girlfriends about the cute intern, I learned two very important things.  

First, John was starting UNC Law in the fall, which happened to be next door to the School of Government, where I would be starting the master of public administration program.  I can still remember the exact moment he said he would be staying at Carolina after his internship, and even way back then, with fewer than 50 words exchanged between us, I thought there might be a chance.  

Second, I learned that the guys played tennis after work.  So, with the confidence of someone completely infatuated, I piped up that I, too, played tennis.  Now, my parents play tennis and I had been present at some family outings to the courts, but I did not play tennis.   I rushed down to the pro shop and picked me out a pretty blue racquet and raced home to put on my cutest believe-me-I'm-a-tennis-player outfit.  Well, I must have provided the boys with enough entertainment that first disastrous day because they let me come back.  

After a few weeks of after-work tennis matches, our co-worker/co-player went out of town {thanks, D!}, and I got the chance to ask John out.  That's right, I asked him out.  Well, I asked him to join me and a group of friends at a Durham Bulls baseball game.

We had a great time talking and laughing and pretty well ignoring the rest of the group, but I don't think I really sealed the deal until we were leaving the game.  

You see, I have this thing for mascots.  

 

Bulldogs, Mountaineers, Arthur the Aardvark, fire dogs, I don't discriminate.  

As we were leaving the game, we ran into I hunted down, Wool E. Bull, the newest animal mascot for my menagerie. Now, most people wouldn't want to reveal this level of obsession on what may or may not be a first date, and normally I wouldn't either, but I just couldn't contain my excitement, so we ended up with this little souvenir:

Just look at that excitement!  This past Saturday we went to another Bulls game, and I was bound and determined to get a picture of us with Wool E. Bull.  As we walked to the gates, there he was!  I nearly knocked some little cub scouts out of the way to park myself right next to him.  With visions of fun pictures for the wedding dancing in my head, I smiled big and this is the picture we got...

 

Guess Wool E. thought I made the wrong choice of who to go home with at that game three years ago.

Happy Birthday, dear John!

Join me in wishing the future man of the house a very happy birthday on what may or may not be  his penultimate birthday as a single man! 

 

We celebrated on Friday night with Paula Deen's delicious Key Lime Tarts.  {Confession: Paula's recipes are the first place I look for something special.  I mean in my world calories don't count on special days, so why wouldn't you go with the best?} 

After a week of bad storms and summer-like weather, the weekend turned out beautiful!  And spring in Chapel Hill is particularly beautiful.

On Sunday, we toasted the birthday boy at Crate and Barrel.  Well, we were actually attending a wedding registry event, but it was still appropriate.

Marital Lesson #1

In true Oprah-style, what I know for sure is... if John goes to the Asian Market, this will soon be coming out of our oven.

Hello, Mr. Grouper Flounder {whoops- thanks for the correction, fiance}!

 

He ain't pretty, but it sure was good!

Side note... On the day of this feast, I came in from work pretty "hangry" and, as a result, didn't fully appreciate the gesture and effort John made.  However, adding these two little pictures has made me unbelievably excited about the years of culinary adventures to come!

Masquerade!

Be honest, did you start singing this song after reading the title? 

Well, except for some masks, dresses, and tuxedos, these stories aren't really the same.  Catch up on last week's tuxedo cliff hanger here.

The law school's formal Barrister's Ball was the same day as our mason jar adventure and we had made plans to go to dinner with some friends beforehand.  We tiredly finished cleaning the masons jars at 3:45,with dinner reservations at 6:00.  As we plopped down, John looked at me and said, "we just took all my suits to the dry cleaners!  I have nothing to wear tonight!"  While the first part of that statement was actually a good thing (I had been "politely nudging" him to do this for a while), the second part was a little alarming.

Since we had just gotten engaged a week before, I was learning that they should change the schoolyard ditty to "First comes love, then comes engagement, then comes loads of wedding magazines."  On Friday night, I showed John an ad for Formalware Outlet and their $99 tuxedo special, which even intrigued his frugal self.

So, ad in hand and with the clock ticking, we jumped in the car, made the 20 minute drive to Hillsborough and... 45 minutes later we walked out with John's brand new Tommy Hilfiger tuxedo, shirt, vest, bowtie, cuff links, and button covers!  For $85!  Oh yes, they were running the "student prom special."  Thank you, OneCard!  After all this, we were only 20 minutes later for dinner.

Isn't he handsome?
 

Well, I guess a tuxedo can only dress a guy up so much...

Masquerade!