Two Things Tuesday

1. I finally wrote another memoir piece. And I’m really happy with it.

This piece has sort of been a long time in the making, the different parts floating around in a non-cohesive jumble for quite some time before I was ready to tackle them head-on and harness them into something worth sharing with the world. I so desperately want to write things that I believe in whole-heartedly; that speak to the essence of who I am; that I can stand behind 100% as defining pieces of my story that I desire to get out just so. I want to believe in what I write, and let others see pieces of me as I’m ready to release them. I want my memoirs to be written from the soul.

I’m happy to be able to say that I believe this one is a part of that unfolding.

How I captioned this on IG:

Thanks in advance if you read me, friends. Means more than you can know. ❤

2. I had a stellar, glorious weekend of running! It was GORGEOUS here finally, and I felt so so good, so I just listened to my body and let it keep going as long as it desired…which turned into a total of 20 wonderful miles along the West Side/Hudson River. I ran 12 on Saturday and felt so good on Sunday that I thought, “a 20 mile weekend sounds lovely,” and 8 miles later, I’d hit my goal.

Dontcha just love when that happens? And what was so nice about these back-t0-back long runs was that they didn’t feel hard. I felt great and happy and enjoyed every single moment of them (and even ran again this morning without any pain or soreness, woot!). God knew I needed a weekend like that.

& then I got a little bit reflective after those runs were done and started thinking about how fortunate I am to be able to set goals like that and meet them, and how good it feels when you just feel good. I know you know what I mean! As runners, we experience the ups and downs and joys and trials and euphoric runs and miserable runs and everything in-between. I don’t know about you, but I’m a firm believer in riding out those highs while they’re here and reflecting on how thankful I am for all that I’ve been given.

So today, I am happy. & that feels like enough.

Hope you had wonderful weekends, friends!

Tell me a weekend highlight!
Anyone have a glorious run/race/workout?

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2 Things Tuesday {6/16/15}

ONE: it’s my birthday!!

i will unabashedly admit that i love my birthday. not because i love myself so much that i need everyone to celebrate me — don’t get me wrong. i just love having a day to feel so utterly blessed and thankful to be alive, in MY little life, and talk to the people i love most, and feel that everything is just silver-lined and glitterstrewn. my parents have always been the in-love-with-life, celebrate-everything-and-make-you-feel-so-unbelievably-special sort of people, so we were a family who loved to celebrate.

today, i’m especially thankful for my loveliest of families and outstandingly, beautifully amazing friends, who make my life such an unparalleled one to lead. thanks for making me feel so LOVED, today and every day!

TWO: inspiration. because today, it doesn’t feel right to talk about anything else but happiness, dreams, and all good things. 🙂

xoxo.

2 Things Tuesday

ONE: workouts. i did back-to-back last night and this morning, so i’m in a pretty fantabulous mood about that. i fully admit i definitely have an exercise obsession, but i consider it a healthy one: i crave this form of “me” time as a way to decompress, focus on bettering myself in the healthiest of ways, and just tune out from all the crazychaoticeverythingness of my life.

oh, and it feels pretty darn good to see yourself getting stronger and your body changing, too. i like that.

*last night (Monday, 3/2): 5 miles on the treadmill (4.25 mile run, .75 mile incline walk); 30 minutes of kettlebells and abs
*this morning (Tuesday, 3/3): 4 miles on the treadmill (3.5 mile run, .5 mile incline walk)

this morning’s was short-n-sweet, but considering i haven’t been running outside the last few weeks and i’m not feeling prepared for my half in a few weeks, i just had to get a few miles in before work. bam.

TWO: gratitude & love. last night, i was working on a reflection paper for my Parenting class (yes, i’m taking a class called “Parenting” this semester, with an amazing professor), in which i had to write about my own childhood experiences being parented. to although i’ve always been aware of it, this Master’s program has instilled within me time and time again a renewed sense of just how ridiculously, unbelievably blessed and “ahead of the game” (with “life” being “the game”) i am, just by the sheer fact of being born into the family i was given. to be fortunate enough to have the parents i have, and the childhood i had, grounded on a foundation of unconditional love, support, encouragement and security, is more than any girl could dream of…and it was, and still is, my very present reality, every day of my life.

not every child gets this. there are so many, many broken families; so much heartbreak and dysfunction and world-shattering life experiences all around us, and the reason i went into this Marriage & Family Therapy program is to humbly try to do my part to help people “get better” at doing relationships and learn how to navigate through their situations as best as they can. i’m so grateful, today and always, for the life i was given, and hope i never take it for granted. i’m so grateful for assignments that force me to that place of introspection where i remember what is most true and real and important and beautiful about life, and where the essence of the human heart and emotion really lie: embedded in the relationships we have with those we love.

may we never forget that, in the midst of the chaos that sweeps us away. may we always love fiercely, despite the storms, no matter the cost.

xo.

Friday Five: L-O-V-E

annnnnd i’m back! i’m sure you were all wondering if i made it out of Miami alive, after my radio silence for over a week here?!

i did. i survived. barely, but i lived to tell about it. and i promise to recap it at some point, after i’ve caught up on sleep and regained most of my brain functioning. i’ve had such an insanely busy week since i returned, both at work and outside of work, that i’m thankful today is a Friday Five Link-Up and my theme is already chosen for me. #lazyblogger

this week, the ladies have appropriate chosen “LOVE” as the Friday Five theme.

given that i’m one of the overzealous types who gets excited about everything, i need some sort of focus here to prevent me from spewing a whole list of random things i love (like unicorns & mermaids & head wraps & snapbacks)…so i’m just going to give you 5 things having to do with love & hearts & all that darling “all the feelings” stuff to get us in the V-Day mood.

because berate it though you may, i happen to love Valentine’s Day, single or taken. a day to celebrate all the love in the world, regardless of to whom you’re giving your love away, makes my little heart oh-so-happy.

ONE: Shakespeare, Sonnet 116

TWO: Shakespeare in Love quote. quite possibly my favorite quote ever.

THREE: Sidewalk wisdom. because love can be ever so urban, & ever so universal; ever this simple.

FOUR: the truest example of what love really means.

FIVE: White Oleander. these are some of my favorite sentences, from one of my all-time favorite books, and this sentence has stayed with me since i first read it. i will forever be haunted by this image of love, and i wish these words were my own.

have a wonderful Valentine’s Day weekend, loves!

What’s something you love?
Any Valentine’s Day plans?

Christmas: aka break from life

today is December 29th. the last time i was sitting at my desk at work in NYC’s Financial District was Friday, December 19th.

Merry loooooong Christmas break to me. thank the Lord.

suffice it to say, i feel like i just took a mini vacation from my regular life and fell into a 9-day black hole of all things wonderful and homey and comfortable.

my Christmas break was long, lovely, and exactly the way i wanted to spend a week off.

*family time. alllll the family time. it’s like the four of us live in our own little bubble at the lakehouse, completed by 3 dogs. we watched The Family Stone, which i think is my fave Christmas movie and seems to be totally underrated. i forgot how awesome this movie is, and with such an amazing cast.

every time i watch a movie with Rachel McAdams, a small part of me wants to be her. or be friends with her. or both. and every time i watch a movie with Luke Wilson, every part of me wants to date him. especially his character in this movie.

we did our Christmas Eve tradition of attending the candlelight service at my parents’ church, which i always enjoy immensely. as soon as we start singing “Silent Night” and the flames begin popping up all over the sanctuary, it feels like a bit of magic has descended out of thin air and wrapped us all up into a velvety moment, a transcendent moment, where all is right with the world for the duration of that song. as long as we hold those little flames and raise our voices with the people we love standing beside us, our hearts are full to bursting.

on Christmas morning, my dad and i went for a run together. rephrase: we drove to the place where he has mapped out a mile route and ran it at the same time, until i lapped him and we finished 4 miles (me) and 3 (him). 🙂 i think he secretly loves that i can outrun him these days, and i totally love that he passed down his running legacy to me. it was awesome to be able to get out and run with him, for the first time in years.

i rocked a pretty good pace on this run, too, so that was a nice little addition to my Christmas. check out them splits?! happy girl.

*cuddle time. breaking news: i am officially a cuddler.

baby Henry, my bff’s lil guy, has officially stolen my heart. i’m still not having children, but it’s nice that my friends continue to have such adorable little babies who seem to want to turn me into a big mush. i held this guy as much as possible over break. he seems to like me, which is always what i’m going for with cute boys, so that works.

*all the workouts. the best thing about having your days to do as you please is that you do everything you like best — which means i worked out every single day except for this past Friday, the day after Christmas. (a day spent relaxing with the boy was more important and much needed, and entirely worth skipping any workout.) i ran (outside or on a treadmill, when it was raining) almost every day (!!!) and had 2-3 good, long strength/total body workouts, so i think my caloric expenditure far outweighed the wine intake this week. winning.

my “fastest” run was my Christmas 4-miler, and my longest runs were two 7-milers: one on a treadmill at the beginning of break, and this guy outside on a hilly route on Saturday. my legs were so tired throughout this entire run, but i managed to survive.

those hilllllls. def slow a girl down and make your muscles scream.

i wish i were training for the NYC Half (insert sad face), as i’m feeling so good and loving the running so much lately. i’m thinking of doing the Queens 13.1 half in March, so we shall see about that.

*Christmas drink of choice. Josh by Joseph Carr, Pinot Noir. this wine was my go-to drink this past week. really loving this lately, and my mom (who is wonderful on all accounts, not just because of this) knows i love it and makes sure we’re stocked when i get home. she’s so good to me.

 *read. i finished a beautiful, clever, witty, amazingly-written novel over break, called The Rules of Civility by Amor Towles.

this is what i’d call a real “book lover’s book.” it’s beautifully crafted, with rich, dimensional characters and interesting, clever dialogue, and the theme of good literature and literature loving runs rampant throughout, as the main character is a book worm and literary aficionado herself. it held a double appeal for me, then, because it’s also set in New York City and paints a glorious, realistic, varied portrait of this amazing city in the late 1930s, with all its dazzle and charm and grit and rawness. i loved loved loved it and am so glad my friend lent it to me. Alex — you must read this next!! you’ll love it. 🙂

i have a habit of taking pictures of passages in books that i want to remember, and this one struck me:

and, welp, it apparently struck other people out there as well. ah, how Google searching brings us all together.

and now i’m off to try to write something grand about life and love and loss and New York, dahlings. because that’s what life is all about, after all.

hope you all had wonderful Christmases!

Tell me a highlight from your Christmas!
Read any good books lately? i need recommendations!
How’s the running, runners?

WILW: Christmas (Eve) edition

happy & Merry & all things glorious Christmas Eve to you, my lovely friends! whether i know you in my real life or have had the pleasure of “meeting” you via the blogosphere, i’m thankful to have so many absolutely incredible people in my world and wish you all the cheeriest, loveliest, most blessed of Christmases and holiday seasons.

when you have a full week off and you’re able to use your time to spend however you so desire, with the people you want to see, well — you can’t help loving everything. i’m basically having the best week ever.

*Jesus. because although there are a million and one little & big things to love about Christmas — the spirit of the season; the indelible magic in the air; the shimmer of white lights glittering in the darkness; a cozy sense of belonging when you’re sharing time and space with the people you love most — no matter how precious & warm & all-things-lovely these moments may be, Christmas will always start and end with the birth of Christ, for me. He is my joy and my salvation; he is my hope in all things; He is my wonderful savior. anything good and lovely i have been given is because of Him, and i truly believe that the reason i have the most wonderful people in my life is because God chose to bless me beyond measure in this way. for me, Christmas is a time to love Christ, and then love the people i hold dear and count them as my most cherished blessings.

*friends. i know i am a broken record with the whole “i have the best girlfriends in the world” thing — which is fast becoming a theme on this blog — but i really believe it’s true. [see point above for reason.] girls’ nights just make my life such a lovely one to live.

so thankful for these amazing ladies! and for our new little addition to girls’ night, lil Mr. Henry, my bff’s baby (who i confiscate as much as possible). this little guy just melts my heart, and i’m hoping his first words are “Auntie Shoshi.” still working on that one.

isn’t my best friend the cutest mom ever? love you baybay!

baby jumping jacks. it’s a thing. can’t start ’em too early!

oh, and speaking of baby workouts…

my friend Jessie made this delicious bourbon cocktail for us that we all loved, too, and it was so easy: bourbon, gingerale and a splash of cran. perfect holiday drink.

oh, and the above spread pretty much displays my dinner every night this week. this is my fave way to do a meal.

*home. i love being home at the lake. fireplace & puppies & sipping Bailey’s w/ almond milk with my parents at night and having bro-sis time and wearing gym clothes all day…this is my kind of life.

this is my current blogging state, as we speak:

*running/workouts. they’ve been consistently great — i haven’t missed a day since i’ve been home! Saturday was freezing here, so i hit a 7-miler (in just under an hour, which made me happy) on a treadmill, and it wasn’t as horrible as i expected (given that i haven’t made the treadmill jump very often this winter, as we’ve been fortunate to have pretty mild weather so far).

Sunday i ran 7-8 miles outside, which felt amazingggg, and Monday i did an hour of total body workout at the gym, followed by 2 quick miles on a treadmill. yesterday i ran 4.5 miles on a treadmill and walked a half mile at an incline, and then did a half hour of abs (planks and decline bench). i’m pretty happy with this week’s workouts so far, i have to say, and i’m feeling so great with the running.

my best friend asked me the other night (while i was playing with lil Henry!) if i got upset when i didn’t run…like, if i needed to have it in my life and felt “off” if i didn’t.

errrr let’s just leave it at that. 🙂

i could keep going but i need to get to the gym and start my day, sooooo have a wonderful, safe, merry & bright Christmas Eve, my friends! love you all.

i’ll leave you with a fabulous addition to my “feet in the sidewalk art” collection that my lovely friend Lauren took for me last weekend. so thoughtful, and i totally love this one. i’m hoping LOVE is my Christmas super power.

xo

Friday Five: Five Holiday Traditions

TGIF you guyyyys! i’m so especially excited for this Friday and have been looking forward to it for, ummm, ever? tonight starts my Christmas vaca — taking the whole next week off work and heading home tonight upstate til next Sunday (so get ready for lots of lake pictures!). i cannot wait: for a week off, for so much lovely family relaxing time, for bro-sis bonding, for drinking wine with my mom, for celebrating my dad’s bday tonight (it was Wednesday — happy birthday, pops!), for seeing my bff and her baby, for catching up with other girlfriends, and for as much time with the boy as possible. and mayyyybe some snowboarding!?

so many good things to look forward to!

but first, i gotta make it through one more day of work (brrrrrppppp), which is made more fun by means of the Friday Five link-up. this week’s theme:

ONE: Fam time by the fire. my parents have a lovely stone fireplace as the centerpiece of their lake house living room, so our holidays often include some cozy cuddled-up-on-the-couch time in front of the fires that my dad loves to make. there’s something so intimate about spending time around a fire with the people you love most, tucked away in a quiet moment. that usually includes wine. and nodding off. two of my staples.

TWO: Running. not sure this is any surprise, but i usually like to run on Christmas day. we generally just stay home and chill, so i like to get out and run and reflect on my blessings and lil baby Jesus’ bday. i don’t do any themed races, but i revel in having my own Christmas run.

specifically these. i want these.

THREE: Family meal. the four of us always have a quiet family Christmas dinner together (now that we’re all adults) at the lake house, which i love. we go around and each say something — sometimes we all pray, sometimes we all say what we’re thankful for — and it always makes me think of how significant the “family meal” has always been in my immediate family, and how very thankful i am for that. i read a study recently on the role of a family meal as an indicator of the strength of a family’s relationship, and it totally spoke to me and made me reflect upon how thankful i am that this has always been such an integral component of our little fam of four. i love having this time together.

oh, and the dogs love this time, too, and try to sneak their ways in at all costs, without fail. they reallllly don’t do well at being excluded from any family events — esp not ones involving food. there have been numerous “tried to jump on the chair or table and ended up entirely falling on my face” incidents, and they somehow always survive those attempts at flight entirely unscathed. their antics are just so cute, you have to give them treats. 🙂

FOUR: Cards & games. we’re a big “play all the games” family. Spades is our go-to card game, and we throw back some rounds of Cranium and Apples to Apples on the regular as well.

and sometimes we look like vampires while doing so. nbd.

the dogs hate to be left out of this time, too. so spoiled.

FIVE: Candlelight Service. we always go to a Christmas Eve candlelight church service, to which i really look forward. as a Christian, it’s paramount for me to stay reminded of the whole purpose of Christmas, and the Christmas Eve service is such a lovely time to commemorate Jesus’ birth and reflect upon everything and take inventory of all for which i’m so very thankful. and it never fails: i get emotional and teary every year when we sing “Silent Night” and light our candles, and the room is pregnant with everyone’s unspoken gratitude and hearts full to bursting, and for that moment, all seems right in the world, and time almost appears to stop and wrap you in the beauty of a moment so completely that you can’t help but be utterly, entirely present and humbled. at moments like that, my cup more than runneth over.

happy Friday, friends!

What are some of your favorite holiday traditions?

Once (that time i had alllll the feelings)

warning: this post is full of alllllll the emotions and heart ramblings and waxing poetic you could ever dream of. it’s not a review of the show — i don’t know how to review something so akin to magic. it’s just me, bleeding emotion all over the screen. don’t say i didn’t warn ya. 🙂

you know those inexplicable moments when time truly seems suspended, and you forget everything about your life and the outside world and all the things & people you’re supposed to know and all the responsibilities you have and all the ways you’ve loved and lost and rejoiced and been let down? how the world seems to pull a velvet curtain around you and encircle you in an infinite moment of such intense beauty and emotion that you wonder how you will ever again exist in the reality of your every day life? how you walk through a door and into a place that’s like every other and like none at all, and what happens in that room transforms you from a girl who dreams of city lights and champagne nights to one who suddenly needs so much more, more than anything this world can offer, it seems — love like an explosion of the heart, a riot inside that cannot be put on paper or spoken into words?

well, welcome to my world, today. population one, in the wake of Once.

there are feelings that we can name and understand; these things we expect. then there are things we experience that puncture deep to the very marrow of our beings and we involuntarily bleed forth every emotion we’ve ever known and a whole slew of others we cannot quite comprehend, and we have no choice but to capitulate to this thing which is so much bigger than us and yet the very truest part of us: that essence of what it means to be human, to be connected to all of humanity and the world at large, and to understand that things like love and loss and God and destiny and joy and pain and beauty are all so very, very real, and so much bigger than we allow them to be in the smallness of our own minds and lives.

this is how i felt last night, watching one of the loveliest, most heart-wrenching, gorgeous things i’ve ever experienced: Broadway’s acclaimed musical Once.

photo: broadwaybox.com

i will have all the trouble in the world trying to capture with words exactly how brilliant this experience was for me, so i’m just going to relay allllll the feelings and tell you that it was a life-changing piece of theater and art. truly beautiful, in every way.

i’ve been aching to see this since it came out, and have no excuses as to why i didn’t go before now. i live near the theater; i have plenty of free nights; i have it on my bucket list. now that it’s ending in just a few weeks, a girlfriend and i felt the urgency and knew we were running out of time. and i’m so, so glad we didn’t run out of time.

have you seen the movie? if not, well — see the movie. stat. a few years ago, when my brother was still living in Colorado and i’d just moved to NYC, i received a slim envelope from him in the mail containing an unceremonious burned CD in a generic sleeve, upon which he’d written just one sentence: “i have a feeling this will be your new favorite movie, too.”

i watched it on the train to Boston, where i was going to attend a girlfriend’s wedding — and i sat in my window seat with my Macbook and my headphones and a fresh glow from my new love affair with NYC — and was utterly, completely unprepared for what hit me. i remember how i felt in that moment, crying like a baby as it ended. i remember the first time i heard “Falling Softly” and how i saw love in an entirely new way — unplanned, unfettered, born entirely of a shared passion for something so much bigger than the two people it brought together, and so raw that it seemed unable to truly exist in everyday life. and yet, everything about it was everyday life.

i think i feared (felt? knew?) then that i’d never fall in love like that, and it broke my heart a bit to think that it was probably my own fault — and that the little hidden romantic in me stays hidden because she’s always waiting for that great big love that springs up right out of nowhere and everywhere and is quiet and explosive all at once, and that i believed in it the way you believe magic might spring out of thin air like a bouquet of flowers — you can’t imagine anything more beautiful, but you can’t imagine it truly exists like that, either. it’s the tension between the real and the ideal; between the dream of the fairytale and the half-knowledge that there isn’t one; between knowing things can change in a moment, and then remembering that they can change in every moment after that, too.

this all came flooding back to me last night as soon as the first actor opened his mouth and began to sing. i lost myself and found myself all at once, in the way the best forms of theater and music and poetry and art and all that is good and true and beautiful in the world can do to you — and it shatters me in the most gorgeous way possible, and creates me anew every time.

so today, i’m sitting here — back in the real world, where things like morning alarms and jobs with desks and people asking “how’s your morning?” out of habit and heels that click too loudly on these cold floors — i’m sitting here in the middle of all this but high above it, a bundle of synapses and skin, of felt emotions and raw edges, and i’m wrecked for it all — for love and loss and anything beautiful and genuine enough to make you feel the pangs of both — for all that reminds us what it means to be alive.

and all i can think of is how something like a show — people play acting out the very things we’re often too scared or unsure of putting into action in our real lives — can turn your world upside-down for a brief moment in time and remind you that nothing can compare with the wonder of knowing/realizing/remembering that love is real, in so many shapes and forms, and that any day not spent pursuing that as our truest reality is one in which we lose a tiny bit of what it means to really be alive.

that, my friends, is what this show did to me.

things like this should come with warning labels, i do believe. “come for a show. leave with your heart ripped out and held in front of you in your open palms.”

but oh, it feels so utterly glorious to really feel, doesn’t it?

i think it does.

xo.

i like these things {picture post #5}

sooo, have i mentioned lately how much i love my city?

these views from downtown never get old, and i lucked into this view from another office near mine today. amazing.

ummm, how dope and adorably witty are these veggie plates from Crate & Barrel?

my old roomie/great friend Christine brandished these last night at girls’ night, and i literally just bought them online while writing this blog. veggies and clever wordnerdy puns? made for me.

oh, and that pumpkin Shock Top? can’t get enough.

photo from cocktailsandconfetti.com

so, i had this brilliant idea this week that i’d try to do as juice cleanse, or somethinglikethat, for a day or two.

…and it’s been a half-hearted success. yesterday i lasted til 7pm…which is when the Shock Top and snacks from the previous pic came into my life. until the, however, i survived the day on a few of the above Suja juices from Whole Foods (and a latte), and they were rather delicious. i had another one today, until deciding to eat real food for dinner, and i plan to drink more tomorrow. really yummy and healthy.

remember that friend who’s such an avid supporter of my blog that she is on the continual lookout for fab things for me to post?

she outdid herself again, with this one. i mean, who doesn’t need to be a better human?

i especially love the part about not being embarrassed to feel, laugh, cry, sing or love — that’s such elemental, solid advice right there, and yet we often fall so short because of our own insecurities and fears of how others might perceive us. i know i can value from taking this to heart.

anyone else follow r.m. drake on Instagram?

and now you know why you should.

oh, and that book i told you to read, that my friend who always keeps my blog’s best interest in her mind told me to read? Tiny Beautiful Things by Cheryl Strayed?

well, you’ll want to read that.

it’s like opening your eyes again for the first time in years, and not having realized for quite how long you’d kept them closed.

Christine & Chad’s wedding weekend

i love any excuse to go back home to beautiful upstate NY, but this past weekend’s excuse was an exceptionally amazing one: my good friend and former roommate Christine married the love of her life, Chad, in picturesque Saratoga Springs.

we started the weekend off with a day at Saratoga Racetrack, which was a blast.

anyone ever gone to any live horse races? i’ve only been to the track once before despite having grown up in the area, and although i didn’t bet on any horses, it was so much fun to be up there. there were SO many people picnicking and hanging out and having a grand ole time, and they had a great group of friends and family members present.

their wedding was on Sunday, August 17, which was a bright and beautiful, picture-perfect day. everything about this wedding was absolutely perfect and lovely in every way, from start to finish.

the bride looked absolutely stunning:

and we took these adorable old-fashioned trolley buses from the hotel to the reception:

the reception was at the Canfield Casino in historic Congress Park in Saratoga, which i’d heard was absolutely breathtaking. it’s known as one of the most sought-after and gorgeous wedding venues in upstate NY, so i couldn’t wait to see it. and let me tell you — it did not disappoint, and was spectacular:

check out that ceiling — those are all panels of stained glass. my photo doesn’t quite do it justice, so here’s another from photographer J.P. Elario:

it was outstanding and perfect and definitely a place i’d consider having my wedding (if that ever becomes a thing).

oh, and did i mention i had a wonderfully charming and handsome date? he definitely made this event even more fabulous for me, and i was lucky he was free to accompany me that night. 😉

the groom looked like he was having the time of his life the whole night, and stopped (with his bowtie and suspenders — how adorable?!) to pose for a pic with me and my friend Melissa:
this definitely has to be one of the liveliest and most fun weddings i’ve attended, and i think that says volumes about Christine and Chad and their close circles of friends and family. these two have such amazing personalities and hearts, and everyone there was absolutely bubbling over with love and joy for them. it was truly a joyful, exciting event, and i felt so blessed to be a part of such a beautiful day in their lives. thanks, friends. i love you so.

since it was a Sunday night wedding, i took Monday off work and spent it doing this:

life is just so, so good. weekends like this past one remind me exactly how beautiful life, love, and lakes can be. 🙂

hope you had wonderful weekends, friends!