Monday, April 26, 2010

showers, showers, showers

Amanda's Baby Shower
Atlanta, GA






Mmmm... some of the best cake I ever ate... Thanks you Macon Cake Lady!

Granny and Gma

The Grandmothers and Great Grandmothers.

My team

Sisters 



Anna's Bridal Shower
Athens, GA



Pie themed yummo!

My Lar Bar. 

The gorgeous bride

V baby

Anna's quilt from the bridesmaids (I want one before I'm dead ladies...)


Chrissy's Baby Shower
Durham, NC


Not the shower, but I had to stick this in... Aislinn and Cole's awesome house. So amazing!

The Fantastic Four and Kai

Nana, Kate and Caleb

Noelle starting out the games

My version of Kai

"The Amazing Diaper Race"



Chrissy's nursing blanket

My gift for Kai

We stole a moment with Caylin... The card said 
"It's your turn! Love, Aislinn, Laura, Lauren, Chrissy and Jenni"
(She loved it)

Her awesome bag with her new initials and 3 bridal magazines... Caylin, happy as a clam :)

Friday, April 23, 2010

The Great Debate

The job debate has finally ended for the Clemens family and it is time to celebrate! Wahoo! I am so proud of my husband who received today a much deserved promotion. He had 2 amazing offers on the table, and after weeks of wrestling, prayers, advice, decision making, etc... he decided to stay at his current company. He is now an Investment Strategy Analyst. Booyah!

SO PROUD!

Proverbs 11:23 - "The desire of the righteous ends only in good..."

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

a generous man

Who knew husbands could be so generous? 

My already trophy husband on a whim buys me an iphone... pretty much blowing my mind. Just for fun, cause he loves me, got a promotion and wanted to treat me. 

(I am lucky)

And after having the gift in hand, I realized something. I am not a gadget buyer, at all. 
If I get a wad of cash... it either goes to two places: 

1. My secret wooden money box (yep, true and lots of cash resides there) 
2. Anthropologie

So all of a sudden having a iphone in hand, and a 3GS 16GB at that, is seriously empowering. I had NO idea what I was missing all this time. 



Thank you handsome, giving, loving, generous husband. And Steve Jobs. 

Sunday, April 11, 2010

Caylin and D.H. sitting in a tree....

Sharing in their joy. Truly. 

Ian and I are so grateful for our wonderful friends. We have endured so, so much together. I can't wait for this next chapter. Cayd, its your turn :)

(Side note, there is so much I want to share from my incredible weekend - Revived, Renewed, Refreshed - but it will have to wait... my heart is just too full of joy for the soon to be Bathons!)

Monday, April 5, 2010

Getting out of town

Wow, the last week has been quite eventful... 


As I waited at 30th Street Station to head to the airport, I had no idea what the next 6 days would hold. 



Waiting for the R1 train to come so I could race to my gate and barely catch my flight.




Starting with meeting Lola in the airport, a 5 year old that began our friendship by complimenting me on my sneakers.
Courtesy of my husband for Christmas. Designed by him (impressive right!?) - notice the "Mrs C" on the heal. Love him.

Lola and I shared 15 minutes of riveting conversation, and as I turned away from her to eat my salad, I felt two little fingers in my armpit. Yes, you read that correct - IN MY ARMPIT - wiggling around. I turned to her cute smiling face and asked... "um, are you tickling me?" And sure enough, full of giggles, her cute little voice replied "yes, are you ticklish?... hehehe..." After explaining that I am the kind of girl who prefers for some one to know my name before they tickle me, (which she didn't really understand), she followed by tickling my neck with both of her little hands. What does one do in this situation?? She thought this was hilarious... until her mother turned to find her tickling a complete stranger. The scolding was so funny, considering her mother was laughing so hard and at the same time was mortified. 

And this was just my airport experience!

I soon arrived in sunny Florida, mid-70s, blue sky, my parents and awesome cousins and aunt.... ahhhhhh..... Do you know how hard it is at times to live 13 hours away from them!! 

3 days in Seagrove, off of highway 30A, is sometimes just what the doctor orders. It was bliss. Just wait til you see the sandcastles we built!

Sunday, March 28, 2010

The Dreaded Chore.

LAUNDRY DAY. 

the enemy

Blah... it tastes bad coming out of my mouth. I feel nauseated even typing the words. 

With a short lead ahead washing dishes, laundry is the most pain in the butt, long, hated task I have to accomplish. 

I admit, there are moments when I would rather go by new socks, underwear and undershirts than do the laundry. And then I remember the budget and restrain myself. 

With enough undergarments to last us 5 weeks, possibly 6 weeks if you count the low moments where we re-wear items inside out (those are very low moments I might add), I am continually waiting until the last possible moment to do it. 

It starts with the sorting. And God love him... my husband makes up 3/4 of the laundry easily.

Then we move to toting the 4+ loads (with more left to do) down the stairs to the apartment building's basement.

Followed by getting rolls of quarters for the $3 wash and drys per load... stuffing clothes in small washers praying they all fit to reduce the mounting cost.

30 minutes later you go down to move the wet to the dryer. With a line waiting at times for your washer, you have to be on top of your game, otherwise you risk a stranger pulling out your underwear and putting it on top of the washer in order to start his/her own load. 

An hour of drying and then you tote the 4 loads back up for the folding. And you pray for several things - no eaten clothes (which our dryers have sometimes done), no missing socks, no spotted bleached towels (my number one frustration due to our few ruined wedding towels arrrrr). 

You fold it all and yet you're still not done. You have to put away the clothes. And some how, the clothes I have left in my drawers have expanded leaving no space for the newly cleaned items. 

And 5 weeks from now... I will be doing this again. When Ian and I are wearing our last pair of underwear, have no towels left, and no dish towels in the kitchen.

Its funny because people don't take me for a messy, chore-hater ... but let me just say looks can be deceiving. Those who know me well know my weakness. Even my own husband has nicknamed me the "human tornado" due to my talent of creating a mess wherever I go. No worries though, it was part of our vows - "In clean laundry and in dirty"

A gift from my mother

The joys of being a wife... and living in an apartment in the north where the average household task takes 3 times as long and is never convenient. Making me a chore-avoider.

Friday, March 26, 2010

Avid Sports Fans

Well, I am happy to share that I can scratch another item off Ian and I's "Buried Life List" -

Attend a pro basketball game. Check!

Ian and I enjoying our $10 tickets

Awesome date night. $23 spent in total (parking, taco bell, and a $1 ice cream for me and $1 hotdog for Ian)

And let me just say, awesome game in general - thank you Sixers vs. Hawks for making the second half memorable.

Not just because the last 5 minutes was exciting...
Or that we were in the nose bleeds while we could see Ian's company's CEO enjoying himself in his courtside seat...

Courtside seats conveniently next to the Sixers cheerleaders

Or all of the slam dunks that the Sixers made once they got their heads on straight...
Nope, it was the rowdy, avid sports fans who made it great.
It was the two older gentlemen on the row above us who screamed at the top of their lungs for nearly the entire game. And when "Hip-Hop" the mascot was shooting out shirts from the t-shirt launcher, these two old men nearly wrestled on the ground for one of the shirts. I love "these" people.

I think God new I wanted an exciting first pro basketball game. Even if it was the Sixers playing.





First time at the Wachovia Center