Wedding in Nashville

Kor and J's wedding in Nashville was stupendous. 

Nicole Marie Photography

 Belle Meade Plantation was gorgeous. Such a fun weekend full of love & dancing, singing at the top of our lungs, and Fireball shots. 

Damn Fireball shots.

Ben and I even had a little bit of time to head downtown one afternoon and have Jess take some "10 year anniversary" photos on her fancy pants camera. The photos............... capture our odd little relationship pretty accurate. Kinda awkward, super cheesey, and basically crazy.  Once I bug Jess enough, I'm sure she will forward them. 

On our drive back to the Dairy State, we pulled over at a dusty little gas station to refuel the car and fill my need for caffeine and Doritos. It was straight out of a movie. Dusty little shack, middle aged lady behind the counter with a southern drawl, and a cop and local farmer sitting at a bench talking over a coffee. Hey small town, hey. So good.

xoxo, b 

turkey recap

Pre-Turkey Tuesday:

My last day at the jewelry store. Smash made me a pink sash and a glittery pink crown that I wore the majority of the day like a preschool princess. Roughly 1.7 million things went wrong and required me to fix them, so I didn't get much time to just hang out with my coworkers. After the store closed at 7, Smash and Co. popped open a bottle of bubbly and gave my "eugoogly"...which I had jokingly requested. Or not jokingly. After the beautiful eugoogly, we headed to Mexico for dinner and dranks.

I'm horrible, awful, no-good at having things hit me right away. Seriously. Which is part of the reason that I generally don't get too emotional......until a week and a half later when Ben finds me on the couch with a cup of coffee and mascara-face. As a whole, I'm 100% time-consuming and tiring to understand... literally a waltzing contradiction.

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Turkey Time:

Having two families too close to each other makes for filling holidays. Turkey day was no exception. A late lunch turned into dinner at my parent's house, and after wiping the gravy from our faces we were at Ben's side of the family enjoying desserts and falling asleep on the couch.
Unlike last year, no one stood up and announced any life-altering news. 

Also unlike last year, Ben and I did zero Black Friday shopping. Instead, we slept in and I telephoned my mom (who was downstairs) to bring us a couple of coffees in bed. She said no.
In my defense, 1: It worked the last time 2: At least I tried and 3: Brilliant idea, right?

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Saturday & Sunday:

To make the next tidbit make sense, I need to confess that Ben and I are raising spoiled thug cats. Long haired, fluffy, spoiled, social butterfly thugs named Paris and Nicole.

These little thugs stayed home alone for 2 nights while we went home for Thanksgiving. 

When we got home to the apartment Saturday afternoon, we found half eaten cookies all over the kitchen and scattered around the living room floor. The cute ceramic food bowl with the the painted blue script of Tuna Breath was mercilessly thrown in true riot state into the mecca of the chaos. Clumps of long black hair adorned the once cozy home that had- from all accounts- transformed into a gladiator coliseum only hours earlier when the last bit of cat food was nibbled and the undeniable possibility of certain death first crept to attention.

So we fed the monsters, and they fell asleep purring and cuddled up together. Because in all likelihood they are also un-medicated bipolars as well.

And now it's officially time for Christmas!
Which means Christmas music, Christmas decorations, Christmas cats, Christmas everything at all hours of the day and night. Christmas!!

xoxo, b

the maine attraction

A little while ago... as in over Labor Day weekend.... I took a little ladies' trip to Portland, Maine. Trying lobstah just so happens to be on this girl's ole Life To Do. And what better way to try lobster for the first time than to go directly to the source!? And check out Maine in the process.

So here's the Maine attraction: 

• Our flight was way early in the morning. I allegedly supported that idea, claiming that we would then have the most amount of time in Portland. During one of the flights, I was separated from the girls and sat next to what I thought would be a quirky gentleman. After telling me darling stories of his handicapped daughter, he transitioned into detailed descriptions of seeing someone splatter while bungee jumping, and watching a military friend slit both arms and neck before dying in front of him. My already over-worked imagination was on overdrive, and I told the quirky gentleman his stories were grossing me out. To which he replied that he grew up on a farm so things like that don't bother him. Exactly dude, but your listener has jumped outta a plane before.... and will do it again.
  
• Our hotel was connected to a brew pub. The first day we got to Maine was rainy and overcast and dreary and sad. So we grabbed some grub at the pub, tried to do a little shopping/exploring, then returned to the pub for a 5:30pm nightcap.
  
• The rest of the time there was gorgeous fall weather. We rode around in an old firetruck and got a tour of the city (aka a tour of the tour guide's childhood), did some exploring in the shopping areas, tried local craft beers, did a ton of walking around, took a lighthouse boat tour through the harbor, rode the ferry to Peak's Island, somehow ended up at a club during rap night, and dun nuh nuh nuhhh tried lobster.
  
• Portland Lobster Company is where we had our first "lobster feast." I had limited ideas on how or what to eat concerning the red crustacean watching me with beady, judging eyes. In times like that, it's best to just have at it. Did I feel like a Midwest hick? Damn straight. But it was delicious, and turns out there was a "how to eat a lobster" printout at the bottom of the tray that was found after we were done making a delicious mess of ourselves.
  
• I adore the way people talk in Portland: Goin' down to da ha'bah to get some fwesh lobstah and buttah to make a nice dinnah fo ya.
  
• The trip was a lot of fun, and a lot of seafood. Halfway through the excursion I had the worst craving for some beef and cheese. You can take a girl out of Wisconsin, but apparently you can't take the Wisconsin out of the girl.

xoxo, b

little big town

Little Big Town came to the Jefferson County Fair a week or so ago.... and Ben, Jessica, Brianna, Adam, Mama Steph, dad and I decided we should probably go. Because 96% of above mentioned group enjoys the likes of country.

 

 

Things got off to a rocky start when we could not all fit into one car, immediately followed by a surprise extra $10/each for general admission into the fair. We resolved to shake it off by shaking our bums to some country tunes, and to do that, you need a nice cold beer. So we got in line....

 

 

And the chaotic, communication-failing Jefferson County Fair sent us a curve ball.

 

 

Turns out that the line we made it to the front of was the line for beer tickets alright, but the country bumpkin running the shhht show needed us to have wristbands. Instead of talking to us like humans, she hog called "LINE FOR WRISTBANDS IS OVER THERE! WRISTBANDS FIRST!!" Annoying, but fine. So we got in line for wristbands... which apparently were a buck each. After defeating that line, we got back into the original line for beer tickets. Country bumpkin gave us our magical tickets, and we got in line at the beer tent. Upon making it to the front of that line, we each received our beer.

It was the most refreshing beer I have ever had in my life.

 

 

But our night of lines was far from over. One would think that the general admission ticket and reserved seating show ticket would be enough to gain access to your seat. Nah. The Jefferson County Fair would not be complete without another seemingly pointless line for another wristband. This special wristband stand was located on the opposite side of the entrance.

 

 

Yet to be deterred, we conquered the above mentioned lines, got another beer, and found our bleacher seats. The show started, and the booty shaking commenced.

 

 

  

The show was bunches of fun, and Ben was singing along by the end. Now Ben is a very creative boy, and towards the end of the show, we realized that we needed to "use 'em or loose 'em" with our drink tickets. So Ben used 'em. And he got fancy with those beers, artistically pouring them like a waterfall into his mouth during some group photos we took after the show ended. So by the time we were walking back to the car by going through the horse and cow barns...... Ben was a lively fellow. When a cow started to "moo" and we all started to giggle.... Ben began to yell "'HEY! Shut up cow! You don't talk to me like that! SHUT UP COW!!! SHUT UP COW!!" Mama Steph snorted and dad grabbed Ben by his flannel before the cow's 16 year old country kid owner came figured out that his cow was being harassed.

 

group shot!

 

And we all made it home to LM in one piece. Yee-haw

 

 

 

 

xoxo, b

summerfest 2013

I happened upon Summerfest 2013 on Saturday, and a little country concert performed by Thomas Rhett, Jake Owen, and Jason Aldean.

And it was fantastic.

Once the concert was over, we left the Marcus amphitheater and headed towards the chaos that was an overcrowded Summerfest grounds. The original game plan was that Ben was going to pick us up or we would cab it back to my place. Well Ben was zonked out and there were no cabs since hello this is Milwaukee and all 27 cabs were occupied-o by the time everyone and their aunt were busy leaving. So we walked to my apartment. MapQuest tells me it is approximately 2.6 miles along the river walk. I believe it.

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 Fireworks tomorrow night in Milwaukee for the Fourth of July.


'Merica!

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Three years ago, on July 5th (because he was told holidays & birthdays were not allowed),
 Ben asked me to marry him. So sweet.


However, I just want to take the time to reiterate the fact that Jessica and I had spent the entirety of July 4th sitting on a front porch wearing flannel, sipping sweet tea and lemonade from mason jars, listening to country music, and trying to play a guitar that was missing a few strings. Ben witnessed all of the above, and still decided to see what I was doing for the remainder of my days.


Soo yeah.


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Paris ate an ibuprofen this weekend. I think she was trying to dull the pain from earlier when Nicole slammed her head against the wall. She must have been riffling through my purse looking for cash or something, because I know she has not mastered the kitty-proof top on the ibuprofen bottle, and there were a couple floating around at the bottom of my bag. Anyways, she threw it up and she's still alive.

Which makes it another successful day in the life of Paris and Nicole.


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xoxo, b

Easter weekend

First off.... Ben & I have been dating for 9 years. Nine. El nine-o! What a crazy little whirlwind of high school proms, two fluffy black kitties, dinner dates, road trips, inside jokes, and all that gooey lovey-dovey stuff, too. In one year we will be joining the decade club

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Ben's strange sleeping position

Good Friday Ben and I drove back to LM for our traditional Good Friday bonfire. I love bonfires and summertime! And I swear, summertime is [probably] coming...








Saturday was a lot of hanging around and watching basketball games. Ben may or may not have won our little bracket bet; I will be demanding a recount.



Ben made friends with my parents' cat, Sam



exploring the partially frozen Rock Lake

Easter Sunday, we went out to a little white, country church. Makes me miss small town life a bit



Sunday afternoon, Brianna and I made some AMAZING colored eggs complete with Disney princess stickers. I like to think of myself as a new aged Van Gogh.

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Today is Brewers opening day!! Here comes baseball season!!

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we clean up nicely

Ben & B

xoxo, b