Happy Birthday Matt!

It’s been an exciting week around our house, and the excitement doesn’t stop today, because we have moved from celebrating Matt’s almost Ph.D to celebrating Matt’s birthday!  Today is my fabulous hubby’s big 2-7, and I can’t wish him enough happiness or enough joy!  He is an incredible source of love and encouragement in my life, and I can’t imagine my life without him!  So happy birthday sweet Matt, my life is so much richer with you in it! 

And just for fun, I dug up some of my favorite pictures of me and my man…

At our wedding rehearsal last June.  Nobody makes me laugh like Matt :) {photo by Rachel Robinson}

Sightseeing at Stonehenge when visiting my family in London.

On our Honeymoon in Playa Mujeres.

In Toronto last fall.  I don’t know why, but I love this picture of us.

Just another day at the park :)  And weird, I just noticed we have our sunnies on in almost every single picture.  That’s just how we roll.

Happy birthday, love.  May your dreams come true this year and always!

Smitten for My Mom…We’re on Glamour.com

In honor of Mother’s Day, Smitten (Glamour.com’s) daily blog, asked for photos of readers and their moms.  My mom is beyond fantastic, and there are simply not enough ways to tell her!   But…I thought submitting something to the site would be a fun way to attempt to show her how totally awesome I think she is.  And guess, what?  Mine appeared on the blog this afternoon!  Eeeek, my mom is famous!  So check out the post here to see a glimpse of how much I love my mom, what I had to say about her, and how good we look rocking pool-time mohawks :)

We’re the third picture down, and no the title of the post was not intended to be a mother day’s jingle (though it is kind of catchy!)

Love you Mom, you’re the BEST!  Enjoy your newfound fame!

Dissertation Day Celebrations

Wow…I knew I had awesome readers, but you all have been so sweet and thoughtful about Matt’s exciting dissertation defense this week.  I can’t thank you enough for all your kind words and well wishes.  Matt was equally impressed and grateful for all your support.  So seriously, thank you, thank you from my bottom of both of our hearts :)

After a morning filled with anxiety and nerves (oh yeah, and getting up at 6:00 am to make 40 little sandwiches and a complete spread for the defense), we breathed a huge sigh of relief around 3:30 when Matt got the official word he passed.  Our friends cheered, he smiled, I squealed then cried.  Lol, a perfect example that we all respond to joy differently.  Most of us had blocked off the entire afternoon for the defense, so we quickly dropped off our stuff and headed out for a few celebration drinks.  Quick disclaimer, I typically do not drink at 4:00 pm in the afternoon, but this was a special occasion :)

The soon to be Dr. Davis and me (though it won’t be too much longer till I’m Dr. Davis as well.  Weird!)

THE celebration shot

Some of our sweet friends who helped make the day so special for Matt.  I have to say, I knew our friends were great, but seeing how each of them made a point to really make the day memorable for Matt really made me grateful for them.  We are so blessed to have found good friends in this strange little town.

What is a celebration without fried pickles?!  If you don’t live in Texas or have regular access to these, you are seriously missing out!  Though you probably don’t have to grease yourself into your jeans the next morning like I do :)

Proud me…happy Matt lol :)

We had a celebration at our house later that night, and I wish I would have taken more pics, but I was wrapped up in the moment and enjoying Matt’s exciting day.  Another big congrats to Matt and another big hug to all of you for your sweet thoughts.  This is sort of “Matt’s week” as he is also celebrating his 27th birthday on Saturday.  And you know me…I love any reason to celebrate, so two in one week is quite fabulous in my book!

*Several of you have asked about how Matt and I met, and never one to leave you hanging, I’m working on a little post about that.  Perhaps with this week being “Matt’s week,” it’s a perfect time to dish :)

Happy Friday yall!

My Husband…the Almost Dr. Davis

I just wanted to send out a HUGE congratulations to my amazing husband who successfully defended his dissertation today!  This is probably the biggest hurdle in getting our Ph.Ds and he did it today!  My smiles are so big and my hugs are so tight; I am beaming with joy for him!

And while I’m gushing…I thought I’d share the dedication page from his dissertation.  Because it’s out of this world sweet…

“To my wife, who stands by me and edits me in my writing and my life. My life would not just be incomplete, but it would be grey without her. To my parents who raised me to be a man, to follow my dreams, and to never give up. To my brother who inspired me by his own accomplishments and paved the way for my own success. To my sister who showed me what family is through her children and her love. To Allison’s family, my new family, who’s generosity and openness makes me a better person. And to my friends, for sticking by me as life is empty without laughter and tears of which good friends are never in short supply.” 

Congratulations Matt, you’re one step closer to being Dr. Davis.    You inspire me daily, and I am so proud of you for all your hard work and dedication.  Today is your day!  I love you so much. 

Monday Blues, Student Dinner, and a Weekend OOTD

Monday, Monday, Monday.  Oh how I despise you.  But, since I didn’t have to teach at 9:00 am this morning, I guess I will forgive you.  This weekend came and went entirely too quickly, and though I got some work done, I have a feeling I’m going to be kicking myself later in the week for not being more productive (particularly on my take home exam that is due Friday and is still not started.  Ugh.)  You already heard about our fun date night on Friday, so Saturday and Sunday were filled with errands and doing stuff around the house that we’ve been avoiding a couple weekends in a row.  Then last night, I joined a group of my student mentors at our last community dinner of the semester.  I have been at my job for four years now, and I have to say, this group of students is like no other.  They are energetic, wise, fun, and kind, and I learn something from them every single day.  I really do have the best job in the whole world :)

Love, love, love these people.  Working with college students is so fun, and I am so lucky!

Never a dull moment :)

This is the fabulous student that I supervise.  She rocks and has somehow managed to put up with me for a year.  Love you K-vel!

My INSANELY fabulous boss is on the left.  Saying goodbye to her will be one of the hardest goodbyes I’ll have to make when we move to Chicago.  I am seriously attached to her (and have her to thank for these awesome pics.)  If I didn’t like her so much, I might have to steal her camera :)

My outfit of the day was actually inspired by this picture I’ve had on my inspiration board for a few months.  (Do you have an inspiration board or am I the only fashion picture hoarder?  I’ll have to show you my inspiration board at some point, it was an easy DIY project that has been super useful for me and my wardrobe.)  But back to my OOTD inspiration…I love how the heaviness of the skirt was made fresh for spring, and as always, I am loving the layered bauble look.  I’m from Texas, the land of big hair and big diamonds, so I am all about lots and lots of jewelry.  Here’s a breakdown of the look…

 

Skirt: The Limited

Button Up: Eddie Bauer

Shoes: BCBG

Necklaces: 4 in total (Like I said, I’m a big jewelry layerer.)  The gold and cream ones are thrifted, and I stole the green one from my mom’s closet :)

Bracelets: vintage {it was my great aunt Bunny’s}; Banana Republic

Earrings: Kohl’s

Clutch: vintage

This skirt was actually a score from a Thanksgiving shopping trip with my mother in law who temporarily lost her mind while shopping on Black Friday.  She was literally grabbing everything in the store for me, and though I tried to refuse, she insisted that she wanted to get  me something.  I later walked out with two giant shopping bags stuffed to the max.  (Thank you, Jamie!)  This skirt was the one thing I hadn’t worn yet, and all but sworn it away till next fall because I thought it was too heavy for spring.  Glad I didn’t!  About the shirt, I know Eddie Bauer is super random, and what’s even more random is that I’ve had it since high school!  Kind of disturbing to admit that lol.  I worked as a hostess at a Mexican steakhouse where we had to dress like cowgirls, so my mom bought me 940 of these white button ups at Eddie Bauer (her personal shopping mecca.)  For some odd reason, this lone button up has lingered, and I’m glad it has.  It’s a great basic for this rich and patterned skirt.

The rest of the week is pretty crazy for me, but tomorrow is all about Matt as he is defending his dissertation!  This is such a big deal, and I’m SO proud of him.  The actual defense is at 1:00, and we have celebrations planned for the rest of the day and evening.  Matt is stressed about his defense; I’m stressed about the celebration details.  Hmm, what’s wrong with that picture?  Looks like somebody needs to get a grip and it isn’t Matt :)

What about you?  How was your weekend?  What exciting things do you have going on this week?

Date Night Surprise and an OOTD

Last night was date night, and not only did Matt and I have fun, we got a totally unexpected surprise at dinner.  We went to our favorite little local Italian spot in the historic downtown of our little city.  It’s a really special place for Matt and I; we had several of our first dates there, we got engaged on a bench across the street from the restaurant, and we’ve celebrated just about every occasion there.  So for Christmas, Matt’s brother, Josh, got us a gift card so we could enjoy our favorite spot on him.  He is so thoughtful :)  So last night as we were in the middle of dinner, I said, “We should text Josh to tell him we’re enjoying date night on him,” so Matt did, and Josh texted back something along the lines of, “Oh I’m so glad, have fun!”  So as we’re wrapping our dinner (I had their seafood ravioli which is oh.so.good), the waiter comes over and says, “So have you saved room for dessert?”  Matt and I laugh and start to give the standard, “Uhh, I don’t know, we’re so full, blah blah blah,” when the waiter says, “Well you better have saved room, because Josh had ordered you two every dessert on the menu.”  Wait, what?!  It turns out that after we texted Josh, he called the restaurant, explained the gift card and our love for the restaurant and then ordered us every dessert on the menu!  This is what came to our table…

Helloooooo sugar/chocolate/cream heaven!  Not only was it ridiculously delicious, it was so incredibly thoughtful of Josh to make Matt and I’s night extra special.  He always thinks about the little ways to make stuff memorable.  Thank you Josh, you are my favorite brother in law ever!  (Ok, I know you’re my only brother in law, but you really are my favorite!)  Annnd I may or may not have had the rest of the tiramisu for breakfast :)

After dinner, we walked to meet our friends at a wine bar just around the corner.  It’s one of our go to places on a weekend night.  Love it (and my fabulous friends!)

They were having a steal of a deal on wine flights, and my friends and I are never ones to pass up a good deal  :)  And because you all were so sweet with my last OOTD post, I thought I’d do another one from last night’s date night.  I’m not crazy about the way the whole thing photographed, and Matt and I need to work on figuring out the best backgrounds and poses for these posts, but enough of that, here’s the look.

My face is blurry, but whatev, you can still see the outfit.

Dress: BCBG

Boyfriend cardigan: a boutique in London, can’t remember the name!

Belt: Steinmart from a bazillion years ago, I’ve never found a belt I can wear or love more

Shoes: Jessica Simpson

Necklace: Kate Spade {see my post here}; Target, Target

Rings: vintage { my great aunt Bunny’s}; Banana Republic

Earrings: Banana Republic

Not totally thrilled with this outfit, but I’ve decided that part of my OOTD deal is going to be posting regularly, even if I think its not a home run or one of my faves.  How was your Friday night?  What did you do; what did you wear?  Let me know!

PS: To see the awesomeness of the another one of Josh’s Christmas presents, check out a post from last November.  If you haven’t seen it, there’s a video, and you’ll be surprised, it involves me and a gun range :)

Take the Power

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Happy Friday yall!   Hope its a great one :)

Happy, Happy Me

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Hey lovelies!  Just wanted to say a huge thank you for all your encouragement with my first ever outfit of the day post on Tuesday.  Yall were totally awesome and supportive, and I cannot tell you how much I appreciate it!  Thankfully, I didn’t get the, “what the shiz are you wearing and why do you think you’re cool enough to post an OOTD” comment.  Success in my book :)  But for realz, I really really really appreciate all your kind words and will keep the OOTD posts coming :)

Along the lines of OOTD…I sent an outfit over to Kim at Anthroholic (if you love Anthro, this blog is for you) for her weekly reader outfits, and she was kind enough to post my little get up.  I felt sooo cool in my Anthro get up on an Anthro blog.  But don’t worry, you folks got the VIP treatment and saw the outfit in my birthday recap post.  Yeah…nothing but straight up VIP for my smart and sassy followers.  Straight up VIP .  (And rewind, did I just say “folks” in the previous sentence?!  What am I, ninety?!)  Anyway, if you want to see my cameo, you can check it out here.  (I’m like the 13th picture or so down, not that I’m counting or anything.)  If you’ve hopped over from Kim’s blog…hey hello, I’m glad you’re here, feel free to sit and stay a while.

In other exciting news…Matt and I booked a trip to New York City for next month.  Woo hoo!  Remember in this post where I talked about voluntarily bailing from our overbooked Delta flight and getting mega dinero in return?  Remember how I thought for hours about all the fabulous places we could visit with that dinero?  (No idea why I’ve now said dinero twice.  Weird.)  Well, we’ve booked a flight to Phoenix in a few weeks to visit Matt’s parents and then we booked a trip to NYC for mid June with those lovely Delta dollars.  Score!  We’ll be going to NYC for a friend’s bad ass wedding.  More details to come, but let me just tell you it involves a private yacht, the harbor, black tie attire, and fabulous friends.  Can I get a helllll yeah?

To say its been a good week for me just doesn’t do it justice.  I survived my first ever OOTD post thanks for my fab fab readers, got a celebrity shout out (yes, Kim that’s you!), survived a presentation in my structural equation modeling class (a miracle in itself), and booked a trip to NYC (with the promise a fabulous new dress.)  I mean, its only Thursday, what else has the week got in store? :)

First Ever OOTD!

Hello and happy Tuesday!  Sorry I’ve been MIA the past two days, but I have been hard at work adding labels to allll of my blog posts.  (Yes, every.blog.post.from.the.day.I.started.this.blog.  Eeesh, it was a long process.)  Hopefully the labels will help my blog’s organization, both for my sake and yall’s sake.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gone to link to an older post and then had NO earthly idea where to actually find the post.  So hopefully this will help.

Anyway…after several suggestions and requests from readers, I am finally doing my first outfit of the day post.  WAIT!  Before you furiously scroll down to see if I have OOTD street cred, let me say that I am very hesitant about adding an OOTD feature on my little blog.  Something about doing OOTD posts, seems a little like I’m tooting my own horn.  Now, there is nothing wrong with tooting your own style horn, but part of me thinks I should leave that style horn tooting to lovelies like Amber, Anh, Amy, and Andi.  (Hmm, perhaps having a name that starts with an “A” gives one instant OOTD street cred.)  I love their posts because they are stylish and fab (I like to abbreviate fabulous, aka fab.  Must learn quickly to understand my speech.)  Not saying I’m not fab, but I don’t know how fab my style is, and I certainly don’t know how fab YOU all will think my style is.  But because several of you have asked, and because I’m feeling optimistic this Tuesday, I’m going to give it a try.  I’m giving myself a few OOTD posts, and if people tell me they could care less what I wear, I’ll end this little experiment.  My day to day wear is fairly flexible, sometimes I can do jeans, sometimes I have to be a pencil skirt.  It just depends on what I have going on that day with work, school, class, etc.  So, now that I’ve officially rambled (no surprise!) here is my FIRST EVER outfit of the day post!  Hope you like it :)

Sorry about the shadows (and the fact that my wedges are sinking into the grass.)  Beginner’s error :)

Sweater: the Gap {here}

Tank: J.Crew

Jeans: the Gap {here}

Shoes: Jessica Simpson {here}

Necklace: Anthropologie {see my post here}; Target

Bracelets: vintage {it was my great aunt Bunny’s}; Banana Republic

Earrings: Kohl’s

Bobby pins: Sprout Studio {here; see my post about Sprout studio here}

So there you have it…my first OOTD post!  Eeek, hope you liked it!

Weekend Delight

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Hey there…hope this finds you at the end of a delightful weekend!
Mine was certainly delightful…filled with extra Zs…lunch with my little brother…a mini shopping trip at the Gap (hello additional 40% off of sale items)…Saturday thrifting…a spritzy glass of sangria…a trip to the spa thanks to a thoughtful birthday gift from my parents…a dinner date with Matt…Hills marathon madness (Lauren Conrad, we NEED to be friends, I know you’d like me, I’m certain of it)…budget friendly furniture makeovers (pictures to come)…a yummy take on broccoli cheese soup meets chicken and rice…more planning for our upcoming move which involved the rental of a 26 foot truck (ohhh this could be interesting)…an afternoon walk…sunny weather…and Dairy Queen’s buy one get one for 25 cents Blizzard treat (hells yeah for the “Texas stop sign.”)
Tomorrow is Monday, boo.  So to avoid facing that truth, tell me about your weekend; I’d love to hear!