What to See?

My mom's coming tomorrow!!! I am so excited to have her here and to really start seeing the sights! The problem is, I have no idea what sights to see.

She is here for 4 full days. Here's my idea so far:

Day 1: Irvine/new house/shopping

Day 2: LA (we have Jimmy Kimmel tickets)

Day 3: San Diego

Day 4: maybe LA again? maybe Newport/Huntington/Laguna beach?

So what all do we need to do and see? Mainly I need help with LA and San Diego. I need to make an itinerary STAT!

And before she comes, Mom will have her full body scan tomorrow morning to determine where the cancer has spread and what the next steps are. Prayers are so appreciated!!

Hot Douggity Dog

Doug emailed me yesterday, asking for a picture of him for his company. I immediately found a good candidate (and cracked up by myself for five minutes after I sent it to him). You may not have the same sense of humor as we do, but here is an example of our stupid humor :)

Happy Thursday!

Puppysick

I am missing this face so much!

Doesn't this picture just make your heart hurt!? She has such pitiful puppy dog eyes!

I have a Skype session lined up for tonight with my girl...can't wait to see her cute face! :)

Light It Up

We got the house!!! As soon as we found out, I immediately started planning the decor. We have most of what we need inside, but this house has an amazing backyard that I can't wait to spruce up. 

I knew my first purchase would be string lights. The owners actually have some up that they are taking with them, so I started my search as soon as we found out, since they are a seasonal item and won't be around much longer!

First I went to Target. I found exactly what I was looking for. And the price was right.

But then I read reviews online and apparently they shatter too easily. 

So then we went to Home Depot, Lowe's, and Homegoods. We found some pretty ones, like this

and this

and this

I love the paper lanterns but I don't think they would hold up well outside.

Then I try Pottery Barn and JACKPOT! I found the perfect ones!

The strand was really long and they are a great price! I was sold. So I add them to my cart to only find out that they are on backorder until OCTOBER! If you know me in real life, you know that I have about zero patience. So obviously this was not going to work. I get all sad for a minute then continue on my search.

Enter: partylights.com. They have the exact same ones, for a better price, that they can ship to me today! 

Now that this important matter is taken care of, I can concentrate on patio furniture. Craigslist and I will be spending a lot of time together! :)

Yikesabee

First, a little update: my mom did GREAT through her treatment! She gets to come out of isolation tomorrow and will have the full body scan on August 1st...we are so excited to put all of this behind us! Thank you all so much for your sweet words and prayers! 

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Y'all, California is awesome! We have had the best time exploring our new town...although it still doesn't feel real that we will be living here. I keep saying "I feel like I'm in a movie!" Particularly Win a Date with Tad Hamilton. I would be Rosalee in this situation. Yikesabee!

Also, we found a house!!! It's not official yet, as we are still going through all of the paperwork, but hopefully we will be the new renters of this beautiful home soon! My mind is already reeling with design ideas! We met the owners and absolutely loved them and their BOXER! I think it was meant to be :) Here's a sneak peek:

In other news, celebrity stalkfest #1 was a major fail. Our realtor asked us what we were doing last night, and Doug told him that we were going celeb hunting. Luckily, he wasn't freaked out by this and suggested that we go to this high-end shopping center in Newport Beach where Kobe Bryant frequents the Starbucks. 

So we go and find a table and I get my camera all ready (I wish I was kidding...I am seriously this psychotic excited about celebs) and to my disappointment, Kobe is nowhere to be seen. So I ask my new best friends (2 high school girls working at the Starbucks) if this is a good place to spot stars, and they told me Kobe comes all the time in the mornings! So we will be returning :)

I think I need to head on over to TMZ for my new job. I'm already doing it unpaid!

Prayers for Mom!

If y'all could keep my mom in your thoughts and prayers this week, I would love y'all even more than I already do! :) She starts her treatment Monday morning at 10:00. She gets a shot on Monday and Tuesday, then receives the radioactive iodine on Wednesday. She'll be isolated in her room for 4 days after that. 

I may not be around much this week due to this and the fact that Doug and I are leaving for California on THURSDAY! 

Time is flying by way too fast!

I Wanna Be a Rockstar

While I was listening to my Lady Antebellum Pandora station the other day, a surprising choice of band came on...A New Found Glory. Most of you probably have no idea who this is, but they were my favorite band in middle school during my punk loving years (I didn't dress or act like a 'punkster' but I was sooo into the music). Less Than Jake, Sum 41, MXPX...those were the good 'ole days.
I actually saved up money and purchased my own electric guitar. They didn't have pink, so I settled for purple. This is exactly what it looked like!

Of course, I needed a rockin' strap to go with the guitar.



My friend, Katie, and I actually went to their concert and you better believe we dressed the part...we visited Hot Topic at the mall to fully accessorize our look...

You can't see it well in the pictures, but we had hot pink streaks in our hair :) Not sure why we went with the messy bun pig tails though??

This random song on Pandora brought me back to those dreamy days, where my friends and I would belt out the lyrics to every song, jammin' on my new guitar (which I never learned how to play...)

What was your dream job when you were young?

After remembering all of this, I grabbed my iPod and listened to a bunch of the old stuff. And I finally realized they weren't very good.....at all.

Raleigh Farmer's Market

During our visit to Raleigh, we visited the NC State Farmer's Market. It was GORGEOUS. And I had a lot of fun pretending to be a photographer. I brought along my DSLR (that I still don't know how to use), put it on automatic, and took hundreds of pictures. I've got a LOT to learn, but I think these came out pretty well!

Love these baby blues :)

My SIL, Kelly, had a great idea for this picture. Since it's of peaches, I'm going to frame it in our new Cali home so I can always see my GA roots! I love it!

Later that day, my mom, Kelly, and I went shopping at some consignment stores. I found these two beauties that I couldn't decide between, so I got both :)

When we went to the second store, Rigsby was in the doorway, ready to greet us. 

I may have spent way more time on the floor with him than shopping :)

Raleigh Getaway

For the 4th of July weekend, my parents, Doug and I headed up to Raleigh, NC to see my brother and sister-in-law! 

We decided to just take one car, so Maisy was smooshed in the back with us. 

So she found creative ways to stretch out. 

Matt and Kelly took us to PieBird, where they have all kinds of deliciousness in pie form. I chose S'more Pie. Yum.

Maisy got to meet her cousin, Maggie. They hit it off right away.

I love this picture....looks like they are saying their prayers :)

(Don't worry....they're just playing!)

Hugging her daddy.

Then we scooped up our dogs and took some pictures.

I scored some great deals on this trip....one of them being my new dress! My mom said it looked like a California dress and I knew it had to be mine :)

I think I'll break this trip into 2 posts. Be back tomorrow with the Farmers Market pictures!