date night/start of summer.

Although it's gloomy, chilly, and feeling a bit like November here in Costa Mesa today, I'm so excited for the start of summer! For Paul and I, it's just beginning to feel that way because of our new little item. A barbecue! This little guy is our ticket to fame as husband/wife BBQ pit masters. Not really..but have you watched that show? Givin' me some serious BBQ envy, "someone get me a brisket STAT!"

Paul has been dying to get one since we first moved. So July 3rd, (probably the worst day of the year to go barbecue shopping) at 9:00pm, we made a trip to home depot and this guy was ours for a mere $99. Now all we need to the break this guy in with some parties!

Because summer also means the busiest time of year for us that can't stop us, we love us some summer date nights topped with friends, mexican food, and 95% of the time a late night coffee.

He did his hair, I curled mine. Needless to say, we were fancy. For anyone looking for a new curling iron. I swear by my new Fahrenheit 2" iron. It's amazeballs (yep.) It gets up to 450 degrees! Even though I haven't put my hair thru that much intensity, a girl likes her options.

Celebrating 2 years.

Celebrating 2 years together..

If someone would have had told me 2 years ago that our second anniversary would go the way it went, I honestly would have been a little bummed. Pre-marriage I think that every girl has a little bit of anniversary daydreaming in her. Thinking of future anniversaries ahead, fancy dinners, maybe a vacation, or better yet...heading back to your honeymoon destination. Heck, I'll admit I daydreamed.

Our intentions were good, we thought about a fun trip, but with all our recent traveling and family vacations coming up this year, we decided to give our bank account a break. In a nutshell, this is how it all went down.

Woke up at Paul's parents house, had lunch together at the deli in our hometown, returned equipment rentals, drove to the coast and stopped at a surf shop to get Paul a new hat, continued up the coast to head home, we worked for a couple hours, I took a nap..Hot stuff, I know. My 2 year ago self would have read this and thought, okay enough. I get it, our second anniversary was a flop. It wasn't until 7pm that we decided to get our act together and get ourselves to dinner. It was chilly, so we quickly walked to an unknown but interesting looking italian restaurant on Balboa Island where we dinned with a total of 6 people in the restaurant. Afterwards we grabbed chocolate covered frozen banana's and strolled Balboa until we couldn't handle the cold anymore.

honeymooning in Kauai two years ago.

No..it wasn't fancy or extravagant. It was simple, and I think we both appreciated and found the value in the simplicity of it. I know that we will have future anniversaries that will include vacations or fancy smanchy activities and I know that we will have other anniversaries just like this one :)

housewife. or not.

Paul and I have been lucky enough to work together from our home for a year and a half now. It has many pros, planning your own schedule, waking up at 10am if you want, baking at random times of the day, watching tv while working, planned naps, it's pretty cool, 90% of the time. The other 10% counts for the cons, one of the biggest cons (which I have talked about before) is that I spend most of my day in sweats, my hair on the top of my head, and usually I don't see the shower till around 1pm. Honestly, I have no shame in it at all but I can't help but feel horrible that Paul has to live with me in this slob state of mine each day. Until today...

I woke up around 8:45am, Paul was still dead asleep and I made my way to the bathroom. I showered, blow dried my hair and placed it in hot rollers, applied makeup (what's that?). Things were getting serious. Around 9:45am Paul had gotten out of bed and walked into the bathroom at the moment of me applying mascara with a full set of rollers. If there was a picture in the dictionary of what confusion was Paul's face at that moment would be it.

Paul - "What are you doing?"
Kelley - "Just getting ready for the day."
Paul - "Why?"
Kelley - "Because I wanted to look cute."
Paul - "Well stop because it's creeping me out."


And that was that. He walked out of the bathroom. At first I was a little bitter. "This guy? Who is this guy? I'm just trying to look cute for him, psshh." Then I realized how great he is. He loves me bun, sweats and all. What a guy. Well..I can't say I didn't try, but knowing that Paul isn't looking for a glammed up Barbie Doll as a wife is a-okay with me!

Photo of today's hard work. Those curls weren't easy!