the super bowl!

It's kind of crazy to think that this is our second Super Bowl here in Lynchburg, Virginia.

I clearly remember last year's Super Bowl. It seemed like a new milestone for our friendships, one of the first big parties we had all together. I remember feeling nervous and excited to go, holding Dusty's hand and saying, "I'm so glad we have friends here!!"

Super Bowl Sunday, 2012.

It was one of the first of many get-togethers with these folks.
This picture is hanging up in our upstairs hallway, along with pictures from our St. Patrick's Day party, and our trip to Washington D.C.

This year, we had our Super Bowl party over at Greg and Allison's place!
Once again, I had no idea who was playing. But I asked Dusty what colors to wear, and settled for wearing purple pants and a top with a kitten singing into a microphone for good measure.
Go Ravens! My enthusiasm obviously helped them into victory.

It was a great night. We ate way too much (pizza bites, mini burgers, chips and salsa, bacon-wrapped water chestnuts which were holy-moley delicious, hot wings...) and had both awwww and ewwww reactions to the various Super Bowl commercials.
For most of the night I'd wander into the kitchen for more snacks during game time, and resume my seat in the living room for the commercials. Classic.

It was a really great night! Lots of laughter and intrigue, what with the stadium black-out (is Beyonce involved with the Illuminati?) and the surprisingly exciting game.
We laughed at the plethora of memes that seemed to pop up within seconds of the black-out. We all complained of full stomachs. But we ate more anyway.

We cried a little at the Budweiser commercial with the faithful Clydesdale. We vomited a little when we saw the hairy lip of a red-cheeked nerd slobbering all over the face of a desperate-for-money blonde chick.
But most of all, we enjoyed each other's company.

You can't really beat candid shots.
And this one is begging to be captioned.

 Our friends!

Once we started doing Beyonce impressions, the camera needed to stop.
While I cannot and will not show some more intensely Beyonce-ish pictures, they definitely had us laughing ourselves to death.

Another great night in Lynchburg. :)

Valentine's Day is swiftly approaching, and even Spring Break is sneaking its way over here!
I wonder what the rest of the this semester will hold? :)

In love,
Cait

polka-dots and sunshine

What a busy few weeks it has been!

I feel like I have so much to tell you, and hardly any time to tell it in.
I'm about a month behind in my posts, because this summer has been that good.
It's also been impossible to blog about, because each blog takes an entire day's worth of hours to sort through pictures, and edit the adventures down to a palatable summary.

I last blogged about our city-wide blackout that took place around the first week of July.
I still have a Schanaker family visit, O'Neil family visit, Harris family visit, brief breath, Jamaica/Cayman Islands Cruise trip, Florida trip which includes Disney World and Universal Studios, and now me, sitting here  staring at my computer screen trying to figure out how we had such an unbelievable summer.

This summer has been, and forever will be, known as "Summer Tweeeeeelve!"
I even have a tattoo to prove it.
Just kidding.
:)

Now for a nice breath of fresh air. An interlude from the many posts to come.

While were gone this last week, I got some really exciting news.
I was featured on Ruche's Style File blog post!

That's me, in the middle row. Happy to be there!

While my posts about fashion or crafts/home decor are few and far between, I have been eagerly hoping to become a part of the Ruche Blogger Family.
This past Spring, I was able to submit an entry for their adorable Spring DIY Guide, using a simple tutorial for some lavender and lace sachets.

Now, I'm able to officially say that I am a Guest Blogger for Ruche!
(Notice the fancy new badge, located on the right!)

I've had a lot of fun with my pieces from Ruche. They've become fast favorites in my wardrobe.
I love their excellent customer service, their ever-changing inventory, and their unique style choices.
They really hit at the heart of how I want to dress!

The outfits they chose are some of my favorites from this Spring and Summer.

Top: Forever 21
Bottoms: Ruche
Shoes: Steve Madden
Earrings: Cookie Lee
Watch: Fossil

This next dress was worn to an outing to Caribbean Snow, our favorite summer go-to.

This dress is bright and fun, definitely a statement piece. It's easy to put on for an instant pick-me-up.

Dress: Ruche

Necklace/Earrings: Opal set, gifted from my husband

Bracelets: Cookie Lee silver bangle, James Avery charm bracelet

Shoes: Blowfish

Thanks to Ruche for featuring some of my favorite pieces from their boutique.
And thanks to you for reading, and stay tuned for many more updates on Summer Tweeeelve!

In love,
Cait

lights out!

We found ourselves in a similar situation a few weeks ago, when we came home from Arizona.
We got home late June 25th, and were struck with a derecho storm on the 29th, which wiped out our power for nearly a whole week.

Unfortunately for us, we are not allergic to dairy. And had plenty of it in our fridge.

We were really happy to be home to Lynchburg, even though it was hard to say bye to our families.
Luna had really missed us.

She got kinda possessive.

I had a lot of work to make up that week, so I had to stay late a couple nights.
Dusty even brought me a picnic one night, complete with a homemade meal and Sonic drinks.
It was so sweet. He used the super-adorable picnic set my grandma got me for our wedding.

Things were looking up. Until.... Señor Derecho. 

This is how it went down.

I'm not gonna lie, I have no idea what to do in severe weather situations. I'd be useless in a tornado, hurricane, earthquake, you name it. I only know the desert, and the desert knows me, and I don't really have much interest in getting acquainted with things like derechos.
But it happens.

My reaction was close to, I would imagine, Dorothy's.

A lot of Oz-like images came to mind.
Are we going to be swept away in this? Will we land on a witch with red heels? 
Will we end up in Never Never Land?
Oh wait. That's Peter Pan.
The point is, fictional standards for large storms and mysterious weather are all I've got.

Okay - back it up.

It was Friday night, and Dusty and I were hanging out.
We had decided to make a spontaneous fun-run to Kroger for some tubs of ice cream.
I was experiencing pre-buyer's guilt for the ice cream, but I had a feeling I was gonna eat it anyway, and enjoy it immensely.
We were both playing games on our phones. We kept saying, "Okay, let's go."
Then 10 more minutes would go by. "Dusty, come on. Get up. Let's go. It's getting late."
Then 10 more minutes would go by.
By the time we left, it was probably 45 minutes later than we had originally planned.

We drove to the store, contemplating ice cream flavors, and noticing the dark clear sky.
As we drove into the parking lot, Dusty pointed to the distant horizon and said, "Oh hey, lightening!"

Once inside, we walked straight to the ice cream aisle. We didn't need to go to the store for anything else, so it was just a quick stop.
We spent some time mulling over flavor choices, when the lights began to flicker pretty intensely.
Our first thought was that the store was closing, so we tried to speed things up and grab our ice cream.

Side note: Dusty and I hardly ever share flavors. If we go get ice cream, we almost always end up with 2 cartons. If we go get frozen yogurt, we never share. I like the weirder flavors. Blueberry, pecan praline, tart with lots of fruit or toffee, and coffee flavors. He usually goes for the chocolate on chocolate with chocolate chunks, chocolate candies and a side of chocolate with chocolate syrup.

With our 2 cartons in hand, we hurried to the cash register. We paid, and headed to the exit.
That's when it hit us -- we saw how wet the floor was near the automatic doors, and when we looked out the window, we knew -- it was the apocalypse.

Thankfully it wasn't, but it really could have been. We both were totally shocked. It was pouring rain, and there were leaves and branches and bags and small creatures flying through the air.
Panicky but determined to make it home, we ran to the car, me squealing all the way. The wind was pretty intense, and we were both relieved when the car doors slammed shut and we were safe(er) inside.

Looking around at the terror, I had a flashback to a Godzilla movie. "What did you see?"

(I told you, fiction is my only reference.)

Dusty drove, calming me down. I started praying out loud, just for everyone that was out driving like us, and for our own safety in getting home. It was not a fun drive home. It was windy and rainy and there were trees down on almost every road, with debris flying around and covering the ground.

We turned the corner to the road that leads to our street, and came up to this bad boy:

That's how it was all over the city.
Driving down this particular lane was freaking me out, because it was lined with trees and I was pretty afraid of one falling on us as we drove. Dusty sped through. We were maybe half a mile from home at this point.

We breathed a huge sigh of relief as we turned onto our street.
But then we realized all of the cars in the parking lot of the Elks club...

...and the giant power line that was covering the entire entrance to our apartment complex.

That car was stuck inside.
And we were stuck outside.

We parked in the Elks parking lot (directly in the middle, far away from any other power lines and all trees), and sat there in the car for a few minutes. I think I started panicking a little bit.
What were we gonna do? How were we gonna get home? Where were we gonna stay?
Of course, all calls to 911 or the power company or anything else were totally busy. It was city-wide.

The rain had died down at this point, so after some careful deliberation, we decided to make a run for it.
We had to go into a person's driveway and across their lawn to avoid all of the wires from the powerline.
It was so dark and wet, and I already have a phobia of grass out here, with all of its hidden amphibians and insects. So we ran. With our ice cream.

A silver lining that we didn't realize until much later was that we could have been trapped inside the complex, like a lot of other people. But God bless that craving for ice cream (and our distracting phone games).

With power out all over the city, we decided to make the best of it. First, we needed to eat all of our ice cream as soon as possible. (This is when we started cursing our different ice cream tastes).
Then, we decided to light a bunch of candles and play board games.

Apparently Dusty has a head lamp. Who knew?

The lesson I learned from Dusty having a headlamp is that you should always be prepared.
And also, sometimes that random crap you really want or don't want to get rid of actually does come in handy!
(Thousands of hoarders all over the world nod enthusiastically)

After a very restless night of sleep, we realized we needed to figure out what to do.
In our experience, power outages only last a day or two, tops. But rumors were quickly spreading that power would be out until Saturday. Over a week after the storm.
Our house was getting warm fast! It was a hot week.

But despite the loom and gloom of the next few days, we were incredibly blessed.
Our friends Allison and Greg were out of town for the whole summer, and had asked us to stop in and feed their plants every once in a while. We went to check on their house on Saturday, and they had power!
With their invitation, we were able to stay there and keep cool while we waited on our power to come back on.

There was a lot of walking back and forth, trying to empty our fridge of all of our groceries (it was full, since we had just gone shopping) to take everything over to the Earls and set up camp. Our friend Erica joined us, since she also was out of power and her husband was out of town.
There was also the small matter of Dusty's parents coming into town on Monday...

They didn't even clear the power line from our road until Sunday night. Kind of ridiculous.

The funniest part of this whole experience was trying to go to Wal-Mart.
(We were thinking of trying to get a battery-operated fan for Luna. We felt bad for abandoning her.)
I know, you guys. Obviously in hindsight we should have known it would be a mad house.
If somethings truly disastrous ever does happen to the human race, we'll all be absolutely useless.
The back part of Wal-Mart was littered with people and completely devoid of all merchandise. Survival kits, gas lanterns, anything camping-related, it was all gone. Random items were strewn about the aisles...
Obviously Wal-Mart is stop #1 for the truly panicked.

After a few days, we had to just accept that Dusty's parents would be staying with us on air mattresses at our friend's house...
But just in case, we went home on Sunday night and cleaned our apartment in the heat, getting the guest room ready and hoping that they'd be able to stay at our own apartment at least one night during their visit.
The upstairs had to be 90 degrees. I didn't even mind the heater-less cold shower afterwards.

Despite all these things, Dusty, Erica and I had a really fun weekend together.
We lounged around at our temporary house, playing games and watching Indiana Jones. We shared the fridge to store our groceries, and made meals together. (And finished our ice cream). While we were stressed about the crazy events, we really enjoyed our little weekend adventure. We commiserated. We went out to IHOP one day, and just tried to make the best of things!

Dusty's parents were so great when they arrived Monday night. They didn't complain and were totally up for the adventure. We made it work!
They got us some easy breakfasts, to make the week more manageable.
And Rhonda and I went out for some much-needed pampering after work one night. :)

But the best part of our week was most definitely Tuesday night, when we drove home to see the warm golden lights across the complex. It was an American miracle!
Just in time for the 4th of July.

What a sweet sight.

We had left our front porch light on, so we could know immediately if we had power back.
So that little light above the red door on that white apartment is the sign of true happiness.

We spent one last night over at our friend's house, then cleared out and moved back home on July 4th. Four days and five nights, and we were finally able to be home!
We were fortunate - a large portion of Lynchburg actually did have to wait until Saturday to get their power back.

And that, my friends, is the story of the derecho. May he never come knocking on your door.

In love,
Cait

it's been a while

Two weeks.

That's embarrassing!
I haven't even wished you all a happy July yet.
(and by "you all" I really mean mostly myself, because I think less than 10 people read this. I'm a tenth of my own viewership.)

Since I've last spoken with you, a lot has happened! Dusty and I went home for a whole 10 days, which was magical. We celebrated my best friend's wedding, and no, it wasn't anything like the movie. That would have made things a whole lot more interesting. And shocking. And awful.

Needless to say, the wedding was beautiful and it was wonderful to get to celebrate with her.
I want to do a full "home" post, which will feature a beautiful bride, an adorable baby, and lots of Mexican food. :)

After we got home, we were on the receiving end of a derecho. Don't know what a derecho is?
Neither did I.

de·re·cho/dāˈrāCHō/

Noun:

A line of intense, mean, widespread, and fast-moving windstorms and sometimes thunderstorms that moves across a great distance and invites all of its windiest friends to damage everything in its path, including trees and power lines until its satisfied that every town in its path is forced to live in barbaric conditions for as long as possible.

Oh. And also? It all happens in about twenty minutes. Maybe less? I don't know. All I know is we were out getting ice cream and the next thing we knew, people were dying and trees were falling and we were stranded outside of our apartment complex.

I also hope to do a full post on that interesting week.

In the middle of the city-wide blackout, the in-laws came into town. So we had to figure that out as well!

And somewhere in the middle of all that, there's some fourth of July celebratory activity.

THEN we went to Washington D.C. for the weekend. Which was the hottest, sweatiest, and stickiest I've ever been in my life.

While I'm at it, I'll go ahead and do a full post on that.

Which will probably include a full paragraph describing my humid body. It'll be good.

The bottom line is that I have hundreds of pictures that I still need to upload (none of which are of my humid body), but life has been batty. So once I do that, I'll have tons and tons of posts up my sleeve. And I'll bet at least half of them will be really interesting.

At the current moment, my parents are now here visiting. Which has been really awesome. July is just the month of family and trips and adventures. My mom has visited a few times, but this is the first time my dad has been here since we first moved in! So there's a lot to show him, and it's been really fun. 

And TONIGHT my aunt and cousin are coming in. It's gonna be a full house, and I kind of can't wait. 

They came in on Monday night. They came by train.

Let me say it again -- they came by train. 

The railroad sprawled in muggy dusk,

With wooden planks and metal husks.

Top hats and dresses, with long golden tresses.

Time long gone, of fancier people,

We stand around near a bell-chiming steeple.

Our loved ones draw nearer

And we grow steadily cheerer

All along the railroad way.

That's my poem, because I was feeling very poetic that night. Except I wrote it just now, because I'm feeling very poetic thinking about the poetry of that night.

I mean, come on. Who knew this even existed in Lynchburg? If you did, pretend like you didn't because I feel like we happened upon the secret garden of travel locations.

Welcome to Lynchburg!

Here they come!

When they arrived, they were ready for some barbecue. Unfortunately, all the good stuff was closed, so we went instead of Cook Out to get some burgers and shakes!

They have a super delicious mint Oreo shake there that I sometimes crave. 

This is a video I sent to torture a friend who is gone for the summer. I'm a pretty sweet person deep down.

Did I mention both Dusty and I got horrible colds? That was thrown in the middle of all this nonsense as well.

Although I think we're both better now, so things are looking up.

So Tuesday night, we did some grilled chicken, wedge salads, grilled veggie kabobs and Caribbean Snow (our favorite snow cone hut that we can't stop talking about) and we watched The Dark Knight, since mom had never seen it!

That was a nice fun night in. 

My parents went to the nearby National D-Day Memorial that day, too. Days are much more cheerful knowing your family is nearby. :)

Then yesterday, after a Starbucks run, and a whole day of work, we went straight to Jimmy's on the James for dinner.

Dusty and I first went there with a Groupon a few months ago, when it was really busy. We thought it was a really fun atmosphere, and really enjoyed the food. When we were there last time, I decided it was a place that I had to take my parents when they were able to visit next.

So off we went!

We were the first ones there, arriving right after it opened at 5pm for dinner.
We had our lovely fresh flowers on the table, with fun oldies music playing in the background.
Jimmy himself came by and talked with us for a really long time, describing the night's specials in detail.
Our mouths were watering by the end!
He's a really personable guy, who has developed a really lovely restaurant. We all decided to try something different. I got the Barramundi fish special. Oh. My. Word.

It was almond-crusted Barramundi with coconut cream. It was absolutely the most extraordinary dish of the evening. They only get it once or twice a month! A real treat.

My mom got the pork, which was also on the specials menu. It had been marinated and was served with a peach glaze. It was spectacular.

My dad got a house favorite, the Shrimp and Grits. Dusty also chose a house favorite, the lamb. It was really tender and delicious, with their buttery "spoon bread" on the side. 

One of the key menu features at Jimmy's on the James is the dessert.

Fried Oreos.

Now, don't judge. Basically, just imagine the most delicious funnel cake you could ever dream up, and that's what this is like.

Oreos are fried up in a thin, delicate, chocolate batter. They're warm and delicious, served with fresh cream and berries, with a chocolate drizzle. Ohmyyygooosshhh.

We had also heard that their donuts were extremely good.

But we had no idea how good.

Two honey-glazed donuts are grilled to a golden luster, topped with vanilla ice cream, fresh berries and a honey drizzle.

They had the most amazing crisp to them, almost caramel-y. 

Needless to say, we were waddling out of there, very happy indeed. 

We plopped on the couch at home, and watched an episode of So You Think You Can Dance to just relax and laugh and ooh and aah. 

:)

We're having a great week! That will only get better, I'm sure. 

I'll try to not be so lazy and upload my pictures and post some more next week.

But until then, so long, farewell, alveterzane, adieu, au revoir, goodbye.

In love,

Cait