Birthday weeks.

I'm a big fan of birthday weeks, birthday months? eh...that's pushing it. But birthday weeks I strongly believe in and support. Today marks the start of mine, Paul could tell you all about that as I have been so kindly reminding him every chance I get. "What are you making for dinner? ...it's my birthday week" "Let's go home this weekend! ...it's my birthday week." He's a real fan ;-)

Hey...you only turn 23 once, why not make a week out of it!

**Exercise update**
- 2 mile run
- Kettle ball is my new bff.

Road trip to Monterey.

Paso Robles, you small piece of heaven, you..

We survived our first husband/wife road trip! And I use the word "survived" lightly. I think it's safe to say that in light of our marriage we probably shouldn't spend 13 hours in a car together within 3 days for awhile. Whew! But we are back, all in one piece so for that we give ourselves a pat on the back.

I love this picture because it makes us look 50x cooler than we really are.

Monterey was great, wedding was great, weather...eh, overall it was awesome. Weather..eh = I forgot to bring a jacket and froze the whole trip. We happened to be there the weekend of the Monterey clam chowder festival which made me one happy girl. Mmmm, I love me some clam chowda! Sunday was our big exploring day, we walked on the pier, grabbed breakfast, and strolled downtown before heading home.

how great is their movie theater? 

Wishing you a fun Memorial day weekend! 

grad, con't.

Just a couple more from Paul's graduation Sunday. It was early, it was hot, but it was great. 

the fam.

this guy was for real... I know, we are super mature..but this had to be documented.

I'm done??

yayy Paul, can't wait to celebrate summer with you starting with a road trip this weekend!! Friday we are heading up to shoot a wedding in Monterey, Ca. It's about a 6.5 hour drive north. Normally if it takes us 5+ hours of driving to get to a shoot location we add airfare into the package price but we decided to switch things up a bit and see how we handle one another while road trippin'.. wish us luck!

Today's workout::
2.5 miles <-- big deal for me at this point, woo woo!

10k training plan

I'm a big fan of the 10k training guide I recently came across. It's set over a course of 11 weeks, consisting of 4 running days with 1 day of cross training. So far week one went great! I really forgot how much of an outlet it is to have some kind of exercise routine each day. Because bikini season is right around the corner I'm using my "rest days" to still incorporate some type of pyramid cycle workout. Pinterest has made it so easy to find a variety of them. This was yesterdays... (see below)

Because it was an off day I went ahead and nixed the 10 minute run. It was great!! Still going strong...woohoo!

Graduation Day!!

Today was the day!! We woke up bright and early for Paul's 8:00am (ouch!) commencement ceremony. I may be biased, but I definitely felt like he was the cutest graduate out there ;-)

Bachelors in Civil Engineering

We took so many more photos but after this full day and running off 4 hours of sleep the Gilsters are over-due for a nap! So proud of Paul, already looking forward to his next grad ceremony in a couple years :) 

10k in training.

People warn you about gaining the freshman 15 when you head away for college, and they tell you about the weight you'll gain in the first years of marriage. Well luckily I was active enough to breeze past the freshman 15, but sadly I can't say the same for maintaing my weight post-wedding. We are coming up on our 2 year anny and I have suddenly becoming committed to shedding the extra lbs. I don't have a specific number in mind, honestly Paul and I don't even own a scale.. I'm more inspired to tone up what was once toned. Me and the treadmill have become re-aquainted, weights are new in my life, and our ab wheel has come out of hiding. 

Here's a wedding/post-wedding image

So I've decided to begin training for a 10k, I'm comfortable running a couple miles right now and plan to slowly build on those in the weeks to come :) I might begin blogging my workouts from time to time just to keep my motivation up and also to keep me accountable. I'm a big time slacker. Wish me luck!

Today's workout -

Cario::

2 miles on the treadmill

Arm pyramid::

- 10 pushups

- 20 dips

- 40 second plank

- 30 bicep curls

-40 second plank

- 20 dips

- 10 pushups 

curling iron < hot rollers

In high school I tried using hot rollers, granted this was on the rare occasion that I did my hair for school. The bun was my best friend back them (and now). But as much as I wanted them to work out, rollers never did the trick for me. They turned out frizzy with kinks. It was a hot mess. So I embraced the iron, then tried curling with a straightener, both worked out but I never got the curl I wanted. Until I found this gem of a tutorial!! After all these years I had been setting my hair in rollers all wrong!




This tutorial shows just the right way to set your hair in rollers for perfect curls. I also ended up throwing away my old rollers and buying velvet lined ones (like in the video). So much better for your hair and curl great too! Here was the final product...

Rollers, you my new best friend.

hip hip horray.

He did it!! Today marks Paul's last day as an undergraduate, it's been 6 (yes 6) long years and I'm so proud that he has accomplished this chapter in his life. Not to mention even prouder that he has chosen to continue in the fall for his Masters. Yeah, I married a smarty (patting myself on the back). Now it's time to celebrate and hang out with friends we have been sadly neglecting for the past 3 weeks. Woohoooo!

daydreaming.

Daydreaming today, I began to think about these next 4 weeks.. Full of celebrations all around. From graduations (two in fact), a birthday, a new wedding season, a road trip, and an anniversary. Our 2 year is just around the corner and I don't want to sound cliche, but where the heck has the time gone? In all honesty these past 47 months of marriage have probably been 50% fighting and 50% making up. So it's complicated and we are both stubborn as heck, but it's us and I like it. In 2 years we have grown a lot and I'm so thankful for the great families we have behind us. I can't tell you how many times I've called my mom or Paul's for a heart to heart and for some words of wisdom. These ladies know their stuff. Marriage is a journey, a tough one, but a fun/exciting one and all in all I'm glad to have this one on my team.

bff love.

Best friends are great. Especially when your husband won't get on the dance floor so you dance together instead.

images by color me rad

Now that she lives 3,000 miles away, I'm glad to have little memories like these :)

mom day.

Mom, I love you so much that...

- I bought your card a month in advance

- Carefully selected a dozen roses 

- Endlessly strolled thru the farmers market with you

- and waited 2.5 hours to get into Cafe Mimosa

all because you're my mom,

Kelley

wedding-less Saturdays.

Wedding-less weekends are kind of amazing. To 9-5ers they are equivalent to having a 3 day weekend or better yet, a paid vacation (except we don't get paid). These weekends are normally spent catching up on current work, cleaning our home, or you know..perfecting our toe-touches.

Medusa called, she wants her hair back..

TENN called, they want their male cheerleader back.

I'm sure our neighbors below us love it. - The Gilsters.

out and about.

After forever  a week and a half of Paul non-stop studying, spending weekends on campus, and also just not coming home one night (story to come) while getting caught up in pulling an all nighter...it was such a joy to have him back for a bit. I can tell we are enjoying each others company more and laughing more together. The statement, "absence makes the heart grow fonder" has never been so true.

With an entire day to spend together, we decided to give in and join the Costco cult club! 1 membership, 2 awkward card photos, 2 slices of pizza, and $175 in groceries later we made it out alive. it.was.awesome. We can now feed a family of 8 for the next week and have leftovers. Why not?

to go back in time...

Paul and I work, live, breath weddings. It's the industry that we work in and love. At times I secretly think Paul loves weddings more than I do. Needless to say, if we had worked in the wedding industry before getting married our wedding would be so, so different. Completely untraditional, because we see traditional every other weekend..

Engagement session also applies to this post. Why not have a beer fight in the midst of them? I don't particularly care for beer, but it's the fact that I've never seen it before - I love it.

photo credit: Braedon Photography 

Pinterest recipe reviews.

I am full supporter of Pinterest, and also a full supporter of food. Luckily both go hand in hand! I recently went on a "I want to try everything on my Pinterest food board" spree, I'm hoping you have had one of those too, if not, I advice you to because they are freaking awesome. Below are some recent recipes I've tried and some critiques here and there.

Recipe

Really, really good. This was my first attempt of homemade Alfredo sauce, and I was pleased. Next time I'm planning to cut back on the butter, it got a little too oily with the full stick that the recipe calls for. 

I have to add that I'm also a full supporter of "food with good looking pictures turns out better." And I'm usually 90% right. This next one fell into the 10% category. Nasty picture, but delicious.

Cheesy/bacon potatoes. Recipe

These guys are perfect just the way they are, wouldn't change a thing!

Copy cat Olive Garden soup. Recipe

This guy is perfect too and tastes exactly like the OG soup, wouldn't change a thing!

Happy eating! - Kelley

Paul way of showing off new kicks.

Obviously there is the wrong way, the right way, and then there's Pauls way to show off new dress shoes.

"Hey Kelley, check out my new dress shoes!"

...and he's down for the count.

Kills me.

Cinco de Mayo.

I've been sharing Paul with school for the past couple weeks, it's a love/hate relationship I have with Cal State Fullerton right now. And sadly it will continue for the next 2 weeks until graduation (oh, happy day!). Can't wait to get that guy back. Needless to say, it was great to go out with some friends on Cinco de Mayo to celebrate as many of them had just graduated that morning. Welcome to the real world guys! In the midst of all the excitement, 3 great things happened this weekend...

Mason jar margaritas. 

did my hair/makeup for the first time in a week. Had to

be documented.

1:00am Taco Bell runs.

Oh, and the tangerine pants came out to play for the festivities! Hope you had a wonderful weekend :)

Tangerine pants and the weekend.

So ready for the weekend and to debut these bad boys!! World meet tangerine pants, tangerine pants meet world! Be friends. Today is a mad dash of cleaning, grocery shopping, and prepping for some out of town friends to stay with us this weekend. No weddings, just friends for the next 3 days :) Have a wonderful Cinco de Mayo weekend, don't forget to chow down on chips and salsa, eat a burrito and drink a margarita! - Kelley

p.s. May the 4th be with you! (bad star wars joke..) To make up for that, watch a new wedding vid! These two make me all warm and fuzzy inside.

ok,ok. The last post about Max&Leigha's wedding..

We've got pictas!! Here are a few :) By colormerad.net

She, gorgeous.

they're pretty awesome.

For more pictas, go HERE!

Perfect timing.

I'm a firm believer in the belief of God's perfect timing. That any situation but good or bad, joyous or heartbreaking, unexpected or not.. is part of God's ultimate plan. And sometimes His timing can be overwhelmingly wonderful resulting in an abundance of praise and joy. While other times it can lead to confusion or even anger and the question of, "God, why is this happening?." Over the past decade of my life, I've been blessed with those "overwhelmingly wonderful" timing moments and I've learned to see the blessings in the, "God, why is this happening" moments as well.

This year we are entering our 2nd full year as business owners. We wouldn't call ourselves parents, but our business is considered our baby. We've watched it grow, watched it succeed, watched it fail, and have worked our hardest to make the best decisions we can for it. Obviously parents, right? We've already learned that each year is going to be different, just this year we have had different experiences, clients, and opportunities. All of which I know have been a result of God's timing. To help us grow in our experiences, learn from our mistakes, and to understand what brings it success. A blessing that I am daily thankful for. -Kelley