what i'm loving wednesday!

I am so excited for this Wednesday post!  I have so many things I love to share with you!  Link up with Jamie at this kind of love if you're interested in playing along with us! :)

I'm loving sweet Tobbie!  He got groomed yesterday and just looks so handsome!  He was very overdue for a haircut, so I am loving his new shorter hairdo!

I'm loving this day!  I am spending the day with one of my favorite friends.  We are going to see an accupuncturist (which is kind of scary!) and then doing lunch and a movie afterwards.  I've been looking forward to today for a long time and I am glad it is finally here! :)

I'm loving that we are going to see The Vow today!  I am so excited to see this movie, even though I know I will cry my eyes out.  Have you seen it yet?

I'm loving that I am going to get to see my family this weekend.  The circumstances are definitely not the best, but I am looking forward to seeing them nonetheless.  I am so thankful for every day I get to spend with them.

I'm loving Rob, of course!  I am so incredibly blessed to have this wonderful man to walk beside me in life.  I feel like life has been kind of tough lately and Rob has been such a steadfast, loving, and compassionate husband.  I love him of course, but I am also so thankful for him.  :)

dream kitchens!

Lately I have been obsessed with creating my dream house on Pinterest. In the next year or so,

Rob and I would like to start building a home. There is no better place to find the rooms

and home of your dreams than Pinterest! Here is a little bit of my kitchen inspiration...

I LOVE the exposed beams in the ceiling. And the island is amazing! This is definitely a dream

kitchen. :)

Source: google.com via Becky on Pinterest

I absolutely adore the natural light and the white in this kitchen. Isn't it gorgeous? Although, if we're being honest here, I wouldn't be able to keep all of the white clean without going crazy, so this dream kitchen would have to come with a dream maid. :)

Source: wittconstruction.com via Becky on Pinterest

I'm pretty sure this kitchen would be the one my husband would dream about! The restaurant-style kitchen. The high-end refrigerator and stove are both items we would love to have in our dream kitchen, of course! :)

Source: houzz.com via Becky on Pinterest

While the kitchens above are absolute dreams of mine, this kitchen below is probably more what our reality will be. There are two things I adore about this kitchen--both the amazing farmhouse sink and the window above the sink. That's just about the only thing that would make doing the dishes tolerable! :)

Source: architecturalhouseplans.com via Becky on Pinterest

What about you, friends? Do you currently have your dream kitchen? What items are in your ideal kitchen? I'd love to hear about it! :)

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my weekend in review

Typepad is being so difficult about loading pictures, so I am just going to tell you about my weekend and add the pictures later!

Friday, after I had substituted during the day, I came home and took a 2 hour nap. I was exhausted! When I woke up, Rob and I went to Lonestar for dinner. Rob's parents gave us a giftcard there for Valentine's Day and we made great use of it! I had the bacon-wrapped sirloin and it was amazing. Simply wonderful! I tried to pull myself together to go see a movie, but I was just completely exhausted. Part of the reason I was a little exhausted is because when I came home a bunch of the siding from our house was missing! Rob is such a rockstar and already has someone coming to fix it this next week! :)

Saturday morning I woke up a little early (probably thanks to my marathon nap the day before!) and headed out to run some errands while Rob relaxed. I went to the post office, library, and bank all before 10:30 AM. Not my normal Saturday, for sure! When I got home, we started watching some of the Harry Potter movies! We made it all the way through #3---Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. I am looking forward to watching the rest so so much! As far as my book reading is going, I finished the sixth one today and started the last one! So bittersweet!

Rob and I both took naps on Saturday because we are such bums. :) Rob was a champ and made us both pancakes for lunch. I love pancakes and Rob makes some pretty stellar gluten-free ones. I am so so blessed with a husband who can cook! :) Saturday night we met up with some of our friends for Mexican and then another one of my best friends joined us afterwards. Such a fun night and I hated to say goodbye at the end of the night!

Sunday morning brought church and then brunch with one of our favorite couples. We tried out a new place, Matt the Miller and it was SO yummy! We all left full and happy. :) I may have taken a bit of a nap on the way home. No judgement, please. ;) I needed my rest because after brunch we went to Rob's grandpa's birthday party and then an Oscar Party! We ended up having a pretty late night and I was up at 5:30 this morning for work. See why I needed all of those naps this weekend?

I hope you had a good weekend too! As soon as typepad gets its picture issues fixed I will upload some pictures--I have some great ones to show you from the Oscar Party including Oscar Bingo! :)

wedding cake link up!

Today I am linking up with Britt at The Magnolia Pair to show off our wedding cake! I was so anxious about getting our wedding cake because I'm gluten-free, but I knew I didn't want our wedding cake to be. So, what does a girl do when she wants a cake with regular flour that she cannot eat herself? Enter my wonderful sister and maid of honor! Rachel helped me pick out her favorite cake/filling combinations. Piece of Cake in the Short North did both of our wedding cakes--the regular cake and the groom's cake. I LOVED working with them--they were so nice and made the entire process stress free!

Rob is a graduate of THE Ohio State University, so I knew I wanted his groom's cake to be themed for his beloved Buckeyes. His cake was red velvet, of course and was a replica of the OSU football stadium. Rob had no idea he was going to have a groom's cake, let alone something so fun! There were a lot of Buckeye fans at our reception and they all got a huge kick out of it, too. :)

For our actual wedding cake, I knew I wanted our monogram and I knew I wanted some polka dots--but I wanted it to be all white. Piece of Cake had several options to choose from that were right in our price range and I couldn't have been happier with the way our wedding cake turned out. The only struggle I had was what type of cake topper to use. I had thought about doing something personalized, but the price tag seemed a little steep for me. So, I purchased a Willow Tree Promise cake topper. I still think it is so beautiful and I hope someday our children will be able to use it. :)

Our cake was chocolate with raspberry filling and I heard from several sources that it was delicious! I had a small gluten-free cake made at a bakery so that we would be able to cut at least one piece of cake and feed it to each other. The gluten-free cake was carrot cake with cream cheese icing.

When we went to cut the cake I was so anxious because I suddenly realized this is the one thing I hadn't planned! Was Rob going to smash the cake in my face? Was I going to smash it in his face? Were we going to use our hands? A fork? Talk about major stress! :)

In the end, Rob was a complete gentleman and fed me my piece of cake very sweetly. :)

Thanks Britt for letting me relive such a wonderful day!

wilw

I'm linking up with the always wonderful Jamie to share with you what I'm loving this week! If you want to play along, head over to her blog! :)

I'm loving the quality time I've been able to spend with my family lately! Although it hasn't been under the best of circumstances, I am still thankful for the time I get to share with them! :)

I'm loving Whitney Houston's awesome Pandora Station! It's the perfect thing to listen to while I do some blogging and catch up on emails. There was even a little Michael Jackson thrown in today! :)

I'm loving this reminder for the week. It's so true! :)

As I say every week, I am loving my sweet husband! When I came home last night, he had emptied the dishwasher for me. It's a small gesture, but it really means the world to me when he does things like that! I love him and I am so thankful he is my partner in life. :)

groupon date!

 

 

After dinner, Rob and I used another Groupon to go to the movies!  I made a deal with Rob to see all of the Star Wars movies when they come out in the theater in 3D.  I thought there were only a few, so I didn't think I was getting myself into too much.  However, there are SIX!!  Did you know that?!  Anyways, the movie was fine--especially because it was in 3D.  I've heard the movies only get better from here, so I am looking forward to that--or else I might be taking a little nap in the movies. ;)  We also were given popcorn and a drink as part of our movie deal! :)

 

Most exciting part about our date night?  $30 worth of Groupons=$90+date night!  Success :)

 

miscellany monday!

-So, this weekend I made an impromptu trip to Kentucky. My papa is still having some pretty major health problems, so I decided a visit to Kentucky was in order to spend some quality time with him. I had a wonderful visit with him at the VA Hospital and having some fun with my mom and sister. My visits to Kentucky are always way too short, but definitely sweet. :)

-In a complete change of topic, I have now finished Harry Potter #5 and am moving onto #6. I am devastated that I am almost finished with the series, although I'm really looking forward to watching more of the movies. I'm also devastated I didn't read the books and watch the movies when all of my friends were! What was I thinking?!

-Some of you have asked about my friend, Crystal's, little baby boy. He is currently working his way up to four pounds and is doing very well! She has also started a blog (hurray!) if anyone is interested in following along on their journey!

- My heart is also so very burdened for so many of my friends and family. Life is hard and sometimes things just don't make sense. I am trying to think of these challenges and struggles as ways to show my faith or their faith to others. Not always the easiest, but hopefully it will get easier.

Hope you are having a good start to your week, friends! :)