thursday's ten or so: the holiday edition

since i'm still kind of in a holiday coma (and more to come since we haven't celebrated with my family yet!) i thought it would be fun to share a few holiday memories from this year. please feel free to respond in the comments or write your own post with these memories and more!

most awkward moment
a toss up between playing a dirty santa game that half the room wasn't into and when we all had to be silent while an aunt read the weather report from...louisville?

most satisfying receipt of a gift (for me)
anthony's reaction when he realized that i had bought him the complete collection of calvin and hobbes. 

most satisfying receipt of a gift (for us)
we made anthony's mom cry. twice in a row :-) first for a cashmere scarf and second for a family photo from our wedding we had printed and framed for his parents

most surprising gift (for me)
anthony got me a new tv!

most surprising gift (for us)
anthony's aunt bought us the sound of music on bluray, which was on our list. only she got us a limited edition collector's set. it's pretty amazing...and TOTALLY above what we would have ever expected!

most gobbled part of the main meal?
we had prime rib and sides...not surprisingly the prime rib was number one on the "like" list (at least at our table). however, the twice baked garlic potatoes were pretty freaking awesome too!


most fun stocking surprise?
for me? pretty sure it was the OPI bondettes mini set anthony stuffed in there. for him? i think it's a toss-up between the ninja-bread cookie cutters and the om-nom (character from cut the rope) plush. he might tell you differently though ;-)

most pleasant surprise?
that instead of everyone ripping into their gifts at once there were several of us who watched for the reactions of everyone else...that made it last slightly longer, but certainly made it more fun.

most fun new tradition?
we added to an old tradition (that of everyone gathering to watch a christmas movie for 3 or 4 nights) but offering to bring dinner one of the nights. tomato basil soup and grilled cheese is now officially "the" meal for the viewing of white christmas :-)

so. how were your festivities?

it's a great day to put up my saturday post a day late!

so, we celebrated my birthday and anthony's awesome new job at the pub friday night with friends & family

slept in on saturday morning, then went to see one of the youth group kids in a play

and then anthony told me that he wanted to take me shopping for my birthday

he knew what he wanted to buy me, but knew that i would want input.

he wanted to buy me a north face jacket (which i've wanted for YEARS but haven't justified the money spent)

so we went to a couple of stores, and ended up finding a triclimate jacket on *clearance* for a hundred dollars off normal price...and a light hoodie on clearance as well.

i ended up walking out of the store with two jackets -- and a pair of reef flip flops that ALSO happened to be on clearance, all for well under the amount he had budgeted and set aside for the original jacket.  

i'm spoiled, blessed and happy :-)  

today is church, lawn mowing, and once upon a time/gcb with natasha.
i'm kind of not wanting this weekend to end!


happy sunday, all!

hey, it's ok (tuesday) 12.27

hey, it's ok


...to get choked up while watching ellen.  or the soldier appreciation episode of rachael ray.
...to see someone giving design/creative ideas on a talk show and thinK "she totally got that off pinterest"
...to toooootally have baby fever after cuddling our friends 11 week old for an evening
...to have paused everything to watch drew brees break the record last night, and to be genuinely happy for him.
...to talk about football (or hockey) in everyday conversation ;-) and your blog
...to have LOVED your Christmas celebrations, been totally overwhelmed by all the generosity given to you, and to just feel completely blessed by the whole season
...to be glad for a quiet day after Christmas to unwind a bit from ALL that family time, as good as it was
...to have been really spoiled over the long weekend by going to bed (too) late and still getting a solid 7-8 hours of sleep
...to still not understand why people want sweet stuff on their meat.  pass the spice and savory; keep your apples away from my roast


visit amber's blog and link up with your own list of what's ok in your world!

it's a great day to celebrate Christmas #1

today we are in indiana
staying with my parents
and celebrating Christmas with them


in a few minutes we'll unwrap gifts
and hang around chatting for awhile


this evening we're headed to evansville
to have dinner and exchange gifts with our friends brian and angie
(these great people)

so happy to be here
enjoying "comfort food"
and our first official overnight trip as a married couple 
:-)


have a great weekend everyone!

it's a great day to be at WoF

today i'm in atlanta

attending women of faith

with my future mother in law

when i get home i will share more with you

but pardon me while i go live in this moment

and worship my Papa

:-)

happy weekend, all!

thursday's ten: the women of faith edition

so...this week is a bit different here at thursday's ten!  i'm so excited to be participating in a really cool program this fall.

1. because i review books for Thomas Nelson through Booksneeze, i was presented with the opportunity to apply to attend a Women of Faith event for FREE.
2. i immediately went to the website and filled out all the info.  i knew that atlanta was probably a pretty popular choice, so i tried not to get my hopes up that i would be selected.
3. a few weeks later, i got a great email informing me that I had been selected!
4. my requirements for going are to post at least 2 blogs about the event, one before and one after as well as to display the nifty little badge you see over there to your right on the blog for at least 30 days.
5. i will TOTALLY be life tweeting the event.  the official hashtag for the WoF Imagine is #wofimage so be sure to follow if you're interested in what's going on there!
6. i received 2 free tickets to the event, and I'm taking my future mother in law.  We will be staying with Anthony's Aunt Tammy while we are there, so we'll get a little family bonding in too :-)  i'm so thankful that God has placed me within such a God-seeking family...a little added bonus to marrying this man i love :-)
7. i honestly have a very limited grasp of what to expect.  BUT i'm actually pretty excited about that.  i'm praying that God will release His Spirit all over that place and that the worship and speakers will be out of this world amazing :-)
8. we leave today after i get off work.  events begin Friday at 9 am sharp, so we may be slightly sleep deprived...but i'm sure staying involved won't be a problem.
9. i can't WAIT to tell you all about it!
10. Have i mentioned i'm excited? :-)

i have wanted to go to a women of faith event since a few years ago when some friends gave me the women of faith devotional for a birthday gift.  i have so appreciated the wisdom and insight from these Godly women, and am thrilled to be able to experience all of this firsthand.  plus, you know me...any chance to take off a weekend and just worship my Papa is a chance i'm going to take!

it's a great day to babysit, well, all day!

so i've picked up a regular (every 3rd week) job to squirrel away some wedding cash
meaning that i spend every third saturday and sunday caring for 2 adorable children under the age of 2.

i'm gonna be busy!
and i'm totally taking a change of clothes. because nannying for 2 under 2 sometimes requires a hazmat suit.

right after i work 11 hours today, we're getting together with a's parents to give his mom our gift since i won't be around for actual mother's day.

hope your weekend is just as exciting as mine promises to be!

meal planning tuesday .4

tuesday (today)

breakfast: coffee
lunch: sonic (down the street from where we set the wedding date ;)
dinner: frozen pizza with a's mom (we were discussing wedding stuff)

wednesday
breakfast: bagel/cream cheese, coffee
lunch: leftover shepherd's pie
dinner: taquitos and rice (taking to church since i'm helping lead worship and THEN we're meeting with the minister we want to do our ceremony.  i think i'll have 30 min though to sneak in the kitchen ;))

thursday
breakfast: bagel/cream cheese, coffee
lunch: leftover poppyseed chicken
dinner: taco mac (my invention...i'll share it here one of these days ;)

friday
breakfast: bagel/cream cheese, coffee
lunch: chicken salad, hummus and veggies
dinner: on the road, meeting our friends angie and brian in evansville

saturday
breakfast: coffee
lunch: with my parents
dinner: hopefully at my favorite german place there

sunday
breakfast: coffee
lunch: with my parents
dinner: something quick, since we'll have traveled all afternoon...probably frozen pizza

monday
breakfast: coffee, bagel/cream cheese
lunch: at nanny gig
dinner: greek meatloaf, mashed potatoes

Thursday's Ten: Christmas traditions

today's list: your favorite personal or family traditions for this time of year :0)



1. opening one (just one!) gift on Christmas Eve
my parents always let me, and i loved it.  i think i'll continue the tradition with my kids with Christmas pajamas :)
2. Christmas Eve Mass
i'm not catholic, but i love the service
3. sleeping just one night per season underneath the Christmas tree
that wouldn't be hard for me this year...considering the tree is just across the room from where i sleep anyway...
4. black Friday Christmas shopping -- online and in person
i know some think it's crazy but i love it!
5. wrapping presents. it may not be a tradition, really, but i have a rule at Christmas that there will be NO bags involved unless it's just a particularly hard gift to wrap.
i love wrapping gifts.  is that weird?
6. movies -- A's family watches the same movies every year, starting with Elf on thanksgiving night and including White Christmas and It's a Wonderful Life...and a few others ;-)
and anthony and i watched Love Actually tonight...and i think we'll do Four Christmases before Christmas day
7. the Advent wreath. this year I put it up late, and didn't prepare by finding any books to do during the season...so unprepared, but hopefully this is the only year that will be a problem.
there's something so peaceful and lovely about lighting a candle and whispering simple words
8. my open house party...that's another thing that just isn't happening this year :( 
but there are plenty to attend, and i hope that next year's will more than make up for this year's lack
9.  caroling.  i haven't done it for YEARS, but maybe i should change that.  my cell group (small group) talked last night about the possibility of caroling sometime before Christmas, so who knows? :-)
we actually snuck to a friends house to sing a song for them last night...which is what brought the conversation up 
10.  playing Christmas music...constantly
normally i have only holiday music playing after thanksgiving.  this year has been a little strange in all regards.  i'm missing directing a choir, i'm missing decorating a space that's truly mine, and i've discovered pandora to play in the car...but i suppose i could choose a pandora Christmas station...

i'm sure as the years go by and i have children things will get even crazier.  but those are the simple traditions i've kept for the last 5 years or so.  what about you?

Monday's Memory: the one where a relative actually comes to nashville!

for whatever reason, i normally end up visiting my family in their place of residence

instead of them coming here

this is for a two-fold reason

i love to travel, first of all

and their lives seem infinitely busy

(my parents have the 3rd reason of me not necessarily wanting them to make the drive more than necessary)

but once in awhile

someone actually comes here

and i love it :0)

way back in 2006, my brother's ex wife

who will always and forever be my sister in law

(my family)

called me to tell me that she was bringing a group of students to nashville

for a convention

at the time i lived right between the hotel they were staying in

and the hotel they were conventioning in

so it just made sense

that i take off work a couple of days

and play tour guide

and just hang out

it was a great time

and yes, in the picture above we are standing in a graveyard

an old, historic and cool one

(her kids had quite a fascination...they made us pull over for pictures and exploration)

her divorce was only a few months old

and i was grateful

to be able to spend some extra time with her

perhaps i should let my family come here more often :-)

Monday's Memory: the one with hailey's birthday

anthony's littlest sister turned 13 shortly after we started dating

and anthony, his other sister kat, kat's boyfriend tony and i took her out for lunch to celebrate

which means she's 15 now

is that even possible??

yes.  yes, it is.

Thursday's Ten: The KCMO edition

we had a GREAT trip to kansas city last weekend.
and while i meant to post the trip update earlier in the week
clearly that didn't happen

and so because i'd like to comment on other blogs
and, i dunno, have a life
outside of car shopping
ughhhhh
i thought i'd combine the weekend wrap-up with my thursday's ten this week

hey, it's my blog
i can if i want :)

it began pretty eventfully

1. the plane ride for example. beautiful. for the first hour and 15. the last 45 minutes were spent first circling the greater KCMO area and THEN pummeling through the air in a sickening, treacherous, tumultuous, turbulance. when the flight attendant walking down the aisle immediately stops and buckles herself into a passenger seat, you know you're in trouble.
(and yes, a part of me was wishing for an island crash landing. but alas, we made it safely. all on friday the 13th)

my facebook status upon landing was:

Lora B was definitely on a flight worthy of being on friday the 13th...but she and anthony are safely on the ground in KC.

2. we had a bit of trouble with the rental car (like, we couldn't figure out how to unlock the steering mechanism and turn the key and had to go ask for help like idiots). but once we got on the road we called my brother who had assured me they would be "partying til late". it was nearly 11 when we called. i'm 80% sure we woke him up. so much for late...
so we headed to his ex-wife's, where we were staying, and ended up staying up until 2ish talking. this was the first time anthony had met any of my KC family, and they hit it off.

on our way, however, we stopped by a taco bueno (which anthony had never seen outside of texas and i had never had) and split a quesadilla. this sort of set the tone of the weekend: food, food, food!

3. the next morning, we woke up, showered, and went to oklahoma joe's for barbeque. now, anthony is a HUGE lover of all things bbq. so he had REALLY been looking forward to this one. along with karen, we ate with my niece liz and her partner melissa, and my other niece aimee. scott (my nephew) wasn't able to join us since he was the best man and stuff.
the barbeque was awesome. the company was even better :)

4. after lunch we quickly went back to karen's house and changed. and then ran to hallmark to grab a card (which thankfully i found on the first try). we headed to the church, taking note of one set of directions in particular which prompted the following facebook status from anthony:

Anthony N is driving towards Rainbow Boulevard... Oh, the irony.

the ceremony was tasteful and short, and we visited with "the kids" some more at the reception. headed out when the cake had been eaten :) and gave gaylen our love...with hopes to see each other again before we left.

(anthony, me, tommie, melissa, gaylen, liz, scott and aimee)

5. while we were in kansas city, anthony really wanted to see arrowhead -- where the chiefs play. several people had told us it was a pretty quick drive from where we were, and not too far out of the way. after my iphone took us through the projects and down a street that was closed, i began seeing signs that we were near the stadium -- there were street signs that had pictures of football players on them. i also noted that it was strange, there were also pictures of baseball players...but i supposed that made sense because that's the season we're in.

when we drove onto the grounds, we noticed there was a sign that said "toll plaza ahead". we thought this strange, but didn't think much of it since it was off season...until we saw that there were indeed attendants. anthony at this point said "never mind, just turn around..." to which i replied "uh...i can't..." as we both looked in astonishment as cars began to FLOOD in behind us. what the heck?

we were able to explain our situation to a nice parking attendant, who explained to US that the chiefs stadium is indeed next to the royals stadium. and the royals were playing the yankees in just a couple of hours. he told us that he'd give us a ticket, and as long as we got out of the stadium in under an hour we could get our money back.


we didn't stay an hour. long enough to take 4 pictures and speak to about 13 other parking attendants.

(this experience prompted my facebook status of:

Lora B ‎'s notes to Kansas city visitors: 1. the chiefs and the royals have side by side stadiums. 2. they share a parking lot. 3. it's ill-advised to attempt to visit the chiefs stadium on a day the royals play the yankees. Oops.

6. we left the madness that was the baseball game (by the way, yankees won that night, royals won the next day) and headed down to the plaza. now, kansas city is known as the city of fountains. my mom tells me stories of going to college back in the day and ice skating on them when they froze. something i think is *way* cool, and i totally canNOT picture my mother doing!

i was excited to see some of the fountains, but mostly i was excited to be spending time with my wonderful boyfriend. although our 2 year anniversary is the 21st, we decided to spend saturday evening as our "anniversary date" for two reasons. 1, we were in a new city and thought it would be fun. 2, his birthday is the 17th, and we decided to celebrate his birthday over our anniversary weekend so that he could celebrate in nashville :)

(even starbucks has a fountain...)

7. our first stop? the apple store. the real reason was for me to get a new cable for my iphone (my cable was shot). however, that didn't stop us from playing for awhile. which prompted THIS facebook status from me:

Lora B is out celebrating her anniversary with her wonderful boyfriend...currently playing with ipads at the apple store in the plaza. Dorks? Nah...

8. we took liz and melissa's recommendation of a tuscan restaurant, and went to brio to eat dinner. omgoodness, y'all. if you have a chance to ever eat at a brio (or it's sister restaurant, bravo) please do yourself a favor and GO. i can definitely say that anthony and i plan to go back there next time we visit kansas city!

our waitress was amazing. when we told her we were flying out of town the next day she immediately said "and you don't want leftovers, right?" and suggested not only a meal that we could split, but a soup/salad to go along with it to stretch it out some...and her favorite dessert to top off the night. we LOVED her.

our menu that night consisted of minestrone (me) and lobster bisque (him), both of which we shared--just kept passing the bowls between the two of us
gorgonzola lamb chops
and a dessert trio with chocolate hazelnut cannolis, chocolate chip brad pudding and caramel mascarpone cheesecake

after our dessert we asked her to take our picture. she obliged, and then said

"ok, this kind of looks like your first date. get together or something."

and took another.

(yeah. we hearted her)

after dinner we walked around, took some more pictures, and headed back to karen's (which was an adventure in itself). a couple of fun pictures to note:

there was a diamond store being built or remodeled on one of the streets. on it's temporary walls was a simple question: "kansas city, how do you know you are loved" and surrounding it were answers that people had texted or tweeted in. i thought that was SO cool.

my favorite

anthony's favorite

the one i think is "us"

and us in front of the wall

we also found these romantic streetlights on a bridge, and i decided to snap a picture of the city street just as an older couple strolled by. i LOVED the way this shot turned out. yes, i had romance on the brain, but it was still sweet :)

9. the next morning we went to church with karen, then to lunch at her family's favorite tex-mex place, jose pepper's. the choices were endless!

we both ended up with amazing things (anthony, by the way, chose barbeque chicken quesadillas. told you the boy likes his bbq) and enjoyed chatting with karen, her brother kevin, his wife mary, and their cousin paul.

sadly, we returned home only to throw things in a bag and have a fun little photo session. then we were off to our last stop.

10. my brother had invited us to brunch, but since we were going to church we asked if we could meet later. he then suggested lunch, but i thought that might be a little too much for him to eat brunch AND lunch, so we suggested dessert or coffee. i called him as we were packing and he suggested a gourmet ice cream place. considering the kind of food we had packed in over the weekend, ice cream was about the ONLY dessert that we could have added to the mix, so we gladly agreed and set out.

we ended up at a place called glace, right off the plaza (which we had already fallen in love with). i loved this place--because it had iced lattes, first of all, and i hadn't had any coffee that day. considering it was already 2 pm, i was all set to be pretty grumpy if i didn't get any in me soon!

but the ice cream flavors...omgosh. i settled on strawberry thyme mixed with lavender. and while you may be gagging on the other side of your screen...let me just tell you it was AMAZING.

gaylen and i laughed, because we matched that day...

we really, really enjoyed our visit with gaylen and tommie. since they had been rather busy the day before, anthony hadn't really been able to properly chat with gaylen, and i hadn't been able to size tommie up :) he won me over though, just with his attire. ireland shirt? gets me every time :)
my final status of the weekend was:

Lora B is preparing to board a plane back to nashville...kind of wishing she could stay longer or bring a few people with her...

anthony's the next day was:

Anthony N's weekend was complete Saturday by lunchtime when he got to eat at Oklahoma Joe's in Kansas City, where Adam Richman from Man Vs. Food visited for that very show. Add on to that celebrating two years with Lora B.. yes, it was a good weekend :)

so that was our kansas city trip. definitely different, exciting, crazy, wacky, and wonderful. all in all...pretty much the perfect weekend. we're already planning our next trip up there :)