two years and counting

Remember when Dusty and I celebrated our first anniversary?

That was a YEAR AGO.
What-what?

Sometimes, it's hard to see the changes in your life until enough distance has occurred between the past and present.
Looking back, I see how different our lives and our relationship has become. Most of it for the good, praise the Lord!
We're halfway through our time in Virginia, and we have settled in here. A year ago, I was still dreaming of the unknown...wondering what friends I would have, wondering if I would become a great cook, wondering where I would spend most of my time.
Now I have all the answers! I have amazing friends, I'm too lazy to cook, and I spend most of my time looking for stray kittens or making a mess. :)
This blog has served as a kind of diary for me, jumping from one grand idea to the next and following me as I figure out all this wife stuff. I'm still working on it, but Dusty and I are better than ever.
I'm really lucky to have him. Little things he does every day remind me that there is no one in the world that I could be more completely myself with.

In fact, the other day, we made up a fictional man named Gavin who I might have married instead of Dustin.
And anytime we do something weird or we're having a particularly fun time, he says, "See, Gavin would never have done this. Gavin's too fancy, he and his expensive sweaters and fluffy show dogs."

Second anniversary etiquette says the gift should be "cotton".
Dusty got me this incredibly luxurious cashmere (close enough, right?) cardigan from Banana Republic. I'm obsessed with it.
And I got him this AWESOME cotton sweatshirt.

Name that TV-show reference !

I also got him that vintage Guess Who game (that I gave him before we went to Arizona) and a custom photobook of our trip to Ireland together. I love anniversary gifts!

Our actual anniversary was spent with family and friends. We spent the day saying bye to Britany and Bryce, and Danny and Erin (Dusty's brother and sister-in-law). We went to the Cheesecake Factory with them for lunch, and then spent the rest of the evening at my brother and sister-in-law's playing games, hanging out and enjoying the smiles of our sweet nieces.

The next night, we took some time to ourselves to enjoy a date night.
The Capital Grille is one of our favorite restaurants, after we were introduced to it by our friends Jon and Emilie on a summer trip to Charlotte, NC.

They treated us like royalty, with rose petals on the table and flawless service.
We were even treated to an on-the-house dessert!
The most delectable coconut cream pie dessert. It was custard-y and whipped creamy and all the things that make you wish butter was a key ingredient to healthy living.

I just want someone to notice that I'm sporting a cat dress.
The best, classiest cat dress out there.
Because it's from Loft. 

Also, just so you know, under NO circumstances should you ever go to The Capital Grille and NOT get the Lobster Mac and Cheese. That's an order.

Because we really love to eat out, and because we really love to extend special occasions as long as humanly possible, we continued our anniversary in Virginia!

We went to THE shoe hotel.
The Craddock Terry Hotel!
My Virginia-life-long dream has been fulfilled.

We had the most amazing evening, just relaxing and going to bed early to catch up on some sleep from all our traveling adventures.

Welcome to the lobby:

"...and suddenly you're in love with a shoe!"

The rooms are across this causeway, which also connects to two restaurants -- Shoemaker's and Waterstone Pizza.

We decided on Waterstone, which was just a few steps and an elevator ride from our hotel room!
It's our favorite pizza place in town.

We both ordered large mugs of their delicious root beer, and settled down for a scrumptious meal.

I always love seeing this busy restaurant full of interesting people - watching sports, hanging out with friends and just enjoying the downtown scene.

I always have goat cheese added to whatever pizza I choose, because I'm a wild animal.

I think we were asleep by 9 that night.
We were both so exhausted, and it was amazing to have our beautiful room right upstairs, pajama-ready!

How cute are the doors!?

Even the bathroom rug was covered in shoes.

In the middle of the bed, there was this vintage wooden shoe box. You put a little slip inside and place it outside your door, and in the morning, it will be filled with your complimentary breakfast!
Breakfast in bed, in a shoebox. I'd totally be okay with that everyday.

We slept in the next morning, and I'm not gonna lie, I totally pretended I was in Paris the entire morning.

It wasn't even hard, with that beautiful brick wall window and the light streaming in.

We stayed true to the tradition we created on our first anniversary, which was to go to Barnes and Noble and pick out anniversary cards for each other!
It was fun "secretly" writing in them, and giving them to each other at random times throughout our giveaway.

We left at noon, and grabbed some lunch at White Hart Cafe, complete with my favorite lavender latte and my love by my side.

Two years.
It seems like a long time to me, but two days ago, I realized it was our six year dating anniversary. And we've known each other for nearly ten years.
Before too long, I will have known Dusty for most of my life. What a fun/crazy/unbelievable/wonderful idea.

I hope you all are escaping the vicious flu that's spreading around - both Dusty and I have been sick all weekend, and are slowly but surely edging toward recovery.
It's definitely no fun being at work this week, but it's Dusty's first week of school so we're destined to get back into law school mode!
Wish us luck. :)

In love,
Cait

new year's resolutions

Have you ever had a New Year's Resolution that you've actually kept?

I honestly can't even remember any of mine. I'm sure I had some like, "lose weight", "do better in school", "learn a new language", "work out more", "journal every day", etc. etc. throughout the years. All the typical improve-yourself regimens.
Yet as we all know, decisions like those tend to fizzle out after...well, after New Year's Eve.
It's like a summer camp spiritual or emotional high, feeling like you can conquer the world. So many possibilities!

I'm kind of shooting myself in the foot by being so pessimistic about New Year's Resolutions, when this blog is actually about my resolutions for 2013! It has been years since I've made any. So this year, I have two definitive resolutions.

1. Read 36 Books

I've realized that my love for reading has been slowly squelched in the last few years, due to busy schedules and way too much TV. This year, reading will reign supreme. 36 books sounds like a very small number, but it boils down to about 3 books a month. I was originally going to do 50, but I want to succeed, and I think this is a reasonably challenging number that will encourage me without totally overwhelming me. I'll have some leeway.
I found a great app through Facebook called Goodreads, which will allow me to input my 2013 goal and keep track of all of the books I read. It also has shelves for me to list all of my previously read books!
I also already have one of my friends joining me in this 36-book challenge, so I'm excited to get started!
I'm currently reading/finishing Eye of the World by Robert Jordan to start the year off.

2. Posies by Cait

As you might know, I am the owner/creator of a little Etsy shop called Posies by Cait. 
Last year was my best year yet, and I still have so many ideas and designs swimming around in my head. 
While it may be a bold conquest, my resolution for my shop is to roughly double my revenue from 2012.
Stay tuned for fresh designs and ideas for affordable accessories! So far, my plan is to post new items twice a week and to be extremely active with social media to help my shop's traffic.
I've made a Posies by Cait Instagram account (follow me @posiesbycait!) and will continue to utilize my Facebook page, Facebook.com/PosiesbyCait.

On top of all that, I'm confessing this all to you, so I have some friends as witnesses to my endeavors!

This is an exciting year.
This is the last full year we will be in Virginia. I don't think I fully realized that until I just typed the words.
At this moment, I have butterflies in my chest region. The future is uncertain and scary and exciting and completely exhilarating, fear and anticipation combined. 17 months from now we will know so much more about where our future lies.
I am praying for a summer internship in Arizona for my husband, that he might be able to get valuable experience for future Arizona employers. I am also praying, ultimately, for a long-term job for him in Arizona. Worrying does no one any good, but we will be heartily thinking about and praying about his employment, on top of 3 more semesters of classes and the all-encompassing Bar Exam in 2014. Whew!

This weekend we will be recovering from two full weeks with our families in Arizona.
It's hard to get back to the grind, and I'm thankful that I only have to work today before the weekend!
Tonight we'll be heading to a mini getaway to the Craddock Terry Hotel in downtown Lynchburg.
I have been wanting to go there ever since we moved here!
I've been to the hotel a few times, including Dusty's birthday last year (we ate dinner at Shoemaker's, the fancy hotel restaurant), and this summer when family came to visit (we wanted to show my aunt and cousin how cute it was). But we've never stayed there!
(Just a refresher about this hotel - it used to be a shoe factory, and now everything is shoe themed. The lobby, the decor, the books, the room numbers, the art...they even serve breakfast in shoe boxes).

Needless to say, I'm thrilled.
And I'm very much looking forward to some down time with Dusty before he has to go back into school mode.
2013, here we go!

In love,
Cait

July Stories: Jimmy, Jefferson and Peaches

As I've said many times before, this summer has been awesome.

After my husband's parents left, (check out details of their visit here and here), my parents came into town!

I wrote about their grand train entrance and the first few days of their visit in my post "it's been a while".

SO! Jumping right in where I left off, this is the story of our very full house.

July 12th, my aunt and cousin came into town. They were coming so that Madi could see Liberty, and also to spend some time with us and in Washington D.C.!

It was so fun to have them at our table.
(And we were really glad that we got this bigger table!)

We have a super good-looking family.

On Friday, they had a tour of the campus. So I went off to work, and everyone else kept themselves busy at the house, or around campus.
That night, mom made her famous (and one of my absolute favorite meals) chicken enchiladas.
We thoroughly enjoyed those, and then decided it was time to introduce them to Caribbean Snow.

(If you don't know what Caribbean Snow is, then you obviously don't read my blog. So hop to it.)

Side Story: When Paul and Rhonda were here, we took them to Carib Snow. Rhonda ordered a Kiwi and White Coconut by my suggestion, and I ordered the same thing, with ice cream in the middle. The man erroneously put ice cream in Rhonda's as well....she was not happy about that. Until she tasted it. Now I'm pretty sure she craves it daily.
:) 

Okay, now I need some Snow, stat. This is the worst part about blogging around lunch time.
It's almost always about food.

To save my stomach further grumblings until Dusty gets here for lunch, I'll talk about the butterflies!
Earlier this summer, our apartment complex traded out our plain bushes for some flowers and other plants. Everyone's front yard area looks so summery and bright.
For some reason, our two yellow-flowered bushes were particularly attractive to the butterflies.
They were packed full of them!
Of beautiful butterflies!

"I'm a beautiful butterfly!"

Anyway. We had a lot of fun looking at them all, flying around and landing on the flowers.
It was really pretty.
We had fun catching them, as well!

They stayed around for weeks, only around our bushes. Not really sure why, but it was definitely a fun sight every day, leaving and coming home to our lovely winged friends.

On Saturday, we had a whole day planned.
The six of us headed up to Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's plantation in Charlottesville.
We had been there before with Dusty's parents (during my birthday month when they came to visit), so we were looking forward to visiting again.

He was a handsome fellow, although a bit bronzed.

If you ever have the chance to go to Monticello, you should.

It's absolutely beautiful.

It's obvious why he would have preferred to spend all day, every day at that plantation than anywhere else in the world.

There's no photography allowed in the house itself, but we took the tour and were able to walk through his halls, rooms, library, and even his bedroom, where he died.
The house is beautiful, expertly designed by Jefferson.

You can see how clever he was, and how entranced he was by time and weather.

The back side of the house:

We spent a good amount of time around Monticello, touring the grounds, taking pictures, visiting his grave and wandering around the gift shop and museum by the visitor's center.
It was pretty warm out, but we had a really great time.

On our way to Monticello, we had seen a sign saying "Fresh Peaches".
My mom's favorite fruit!
So, as we drove down the windy road down the mountain, we took a left at that sign and headed up to who-knows-where in search of fresh peaches.

Looky there!

Sometimes, that long and winding road leads you right to a peach market.

 I think mom was in heaven.

Needless to say, we lived on peaches for the next few weeks.

They had everything! Peach cider, peach dressing, peach butter, peach salsa, peach barbecue sauce...
The list goes on and on.
We had a lot of fun wandering through their store, ooh-ing and aah-ing at everything we wanted.
We settled on a little bit of everything, grabbing some peach donuts as well.

What a worthy little stop. We were glad we had made the trek up the hill. Even just for the view!

Afterwards, we piled back into the car...
(Oh and PS, Dusty rode in the trunk the whole way there and back. Not an actual trunk, but the little back door slot of the medium-sized car....don't tell any police officers you may know. The car only sat 5, so we had to improvise. He was alright. Really.)

We were excited (dad was really excited) to be going back to Jimmy's on the James that night for dinner.
It was his last night with us, so it was important that we go somewhere great.
And while we did take my parents a few other places, (including The Crown, which has the most amazing wine parfaits) their love could not be swayed to anyone but Jimmy.
(Despite the fact that dad kept calling it "Jimmy on the John", which doesn't have quite the same meaning.)

Such a fun place!
Everyone's food was amazing. We all split some desserts, and, despite the smutty waitress, had a lovely evening.

Smutty: adj: smut-ti-er, smut-ti-est: cruddy: characterized by obscenity. Soiled with smut. Grimy; indecent or obscene. 
Ex: That smutty girl is wearing leggings as pants. 
Ex: That waitress that bends over to show her gleaming backside is the smuttiest of them all.

I don't have anything against waitresses, skirts, leaning, cleaning, or smiling.
But when the waitress is oblivious, the skirt is short, the leaning and cleaning is extensive, and the booty is out, then that smiling waitress starts to bug me.

Madi and I were staring, unable to rip our eyes away. Like a car crash.
I wanted to tell her. I really, really wanted to tell her.
Casually walk by and say, "Excuse me, lassy, your skirt is too short. So much so, that your tush is making an appearance like the bad encore of a terrible concert".
At every slight movement, her skirt would whisk up. To be fair(ish) it was way shorter in the back than the front, but even so, the skirt was too short to begin with. How could she not know? 

I felt like I was at a show in Vegas.
That I did not want to pay for.


It's moments like those that make me wish society was more concerned with the truth than with being "nice", or not hurting anyone's feelings...like those poor people on American Idol that have been told they have amazing singing voices all of their lives.

Anyway...

After waddling home in happiness, we plopped down and decided to watch an episode or two of So You Think You Can Dance. We were pretty far behind, so we were trying to catch up.
My dad and Dusty ran to the store, to get the cable that would allow us to hook our computer up to our TV.

While they were out, dad went and grabbed me Starbucks and THIS:

The best parting gifts ever. We had been talking about this movie earlier in the week, and I still can't believe I own it now. I can watch it whenever I want. Except not really, because Dusty still refuses to watch it.
I suppose you had to grow up with it.
Otherwise it may seem a little weird.

Dusty and I had nursery duty at church the next day, so we went while the rest of the gang hung out at home and prepared lunch.
It was our first time in the nursery rotation, so we were slightly nervous!
I wish I could have taken pictures of all of the cuties. To respect the privacy of them and their parents, I decided not to, since I didn't have express permission. But we had a blast. We were with the really little ones, and one little girl didn't want to be anywhere but my lap.
She latched onto me for dear life! I spent the entire time in the rocking chair, talking to her and just hanging out. She did not want to talk to Dusty. Haha! Every time he came close and tried to say anything she burrowed her face into my shoulder.
He was a little offended but I think she's just a one-person-at-a-time kind of gal.

That afternoon, we took dad to the airport and had to say adios!
Which is never fun to say.

Love my parents!
Luckily, my mom was staying for another two weeks, so it helped ease the pain of a slowly-but-surely emptying household.

The Harrises were set to leave the next day, so we enjoyed our last night by going to an especially adorable part of downtown Lynchburg.
The Craddock Terry Hotel!

It's a hotel dedicated entirely to the theme of shoes.
Thus, the giant red high heel on the side of the building.

It used to be an old shoe factory, and now is a super cute hotel. Every room has a different shoe on the door, and the lobby is filled with old-fashioned shoe polish stations, a shoe-filled gift shop, and books and art about shoes. It's pretty great!

Madi and Terri were able to get a few souvenirs...
Especially since my aunt is a teacher and is contemplating a shoe theme for her classroom! She found a bright red high-heel door-stopper!

Afterwards, we went down the road a little to Waterstone Pizza, our favorite pizza joint in the area.
We finished off our meal with their home-brewed root beer floats!

The rest of the evening consisted of us four girls downstairs laughing hysterically and talking inappropriately, while Dusty was upstairs trying to study. I doubt he was able to do so very effectively, but we sure were having a blast!
It was really sad saying bye to Madi and Terri the next day...the house seemed oddly empty and quiet when I came home from work that day. But, we were really excited to have mom for two more weeks.
Two weeks of peaches, laughter, reading, and happiness.

:)

In love,
Cait