five on friday

Dare I say that I'm enjoying this new routine of waking up early on Friday to ENJOY my cup of coffee while I get ready and write my blog for the day?  I may or may not (I did) set my alarm half an hour early so I could be ahead of the game.  There's just something to be said about a morning where you can enjoy your time instead of rushing around to get yourself together and out the door to work!  

{one} 
Most excitingly, I have to share that one of my best and oldest friends, my sweet Keegan, and her husband welcomed their first baby on Monday!!  Landon Evan, 8lbs, 6oz-- his daddy is a football coach, so I'm pretty sure he's imagining a little quarterback in the making!  Such a sweet little chunk-- I absolutely cannot wait to meet him when I'm home for my Texas bridal shower in June!

{two} 

Since I can't be near Keegan to bring suppers and offer to watch the baby while she sleeps/showers/has a minute to herself, I've been searching for the perfect little gifts to send to her in a care package.  If I lived closer and these actually made sense to use, you can bet that these little letterpress beauties from IOU Letterpress would be on their way to me right now!  Kind of hard to read, but just an example of what some of them read: leave me with a bottle and take the night off- I'll BABYSIT.  you will under no circumstances eat ramen noodles- I'll COOK.  don't even think about washing that adorable pile of dirty onesies- I'll do the  LAUNDRY.  Seriously-- swoonworthy!

{three}

Still trucking away at the whole "sweating for the wedding" plan.  Some days it's awesome, some days it just feels like a novel idea that one should entertain at some point far away while one sits on the couch with a glass of wine watching Million Dollar Listing.  I have to admit, THAT person is a lot less present these days.  Call me crazy, but I think not drinking wine for 40 days kicked the "habit" of drinking that I had fallen in to.  And I so had-- I love enjoying a glass of wine while I cook, while I get ready for nights out... but I had also started having a glass too often during the week just because, and the calories were definitely adding up.  Brian/the Easter Bunny did indeed come through and put a bottle of red in my Easter basket this week, and I haven't finished 3/4 of the bottle yet-- that's big, y'all.  HUGE.  Adding to that, I've also committed to running 500 miles before the wedding, and completing 50 Spin classes.  That averages out to around 12 miles per week (totally doable) and 2-3 Spin classes per week, which is nice because my gym spaces classes out-- Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday, so I have options to switch things up.  I went back to Spin for the first time in a while last night and I swear, it never fails to remind me how much more of a workout it is than just standard cardio.  

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I don't think that I've mentioned anything here yet, but we're house hunting.  Why not add THAT stressor to the process of planning a wedding, right?  It's been tricky, because I feel like we're pre-approved for a great amount for two people our age.  Unfortunately, that great amount is peanuts in the area that we live in (South Shore area, MA, so basically the towns where lots of the Boston business folk commute to work from).  We've only seriously been looking for the past month, but there is just NOTHING on the market right now, and it's so frustrating!  When great houses do come on, they're gone within a day or two and go for way over asking price.  We have a little time to be flexible, but our lease is up at the end of May, so we'll have to renew for month-to-month if we haven't found something by then, and I really do not want to have to fall back on that option.  I know the perfect starter home is out there somewhere-- we just haven't found it yet!  Let me just say that real-life house hunting is nothing like House Hunters.  I keep waiting to walk into an older home and be blown away by the detail and architecture, but I'm really just blown away by the bad decorating taste of current owners and the smell of someone else's house.  Here's hoping things look up soon?

{five} 

I'll leave y'all today with this little gem, mainly because I just cannot stop watching it.  How great is this little boy's reaction!  A gem, a GEM, I tell you!

Happy weekend!!