Baby, Baby, Baby

We're having a baby.

A tiny person. A mini-me. A little minion.

It only seems fitting that our B & Me blog has a baby, too:

b-and-me.weebly.com

Here's to the next adventure!

xoxo, b & ben

Since... MAY!?

We've been on Go Mode since.... well apparently since May and the first hints of summer.

Since then, we had a Ben&B trip to Vegas.... where it actually ended up raining for a good portion of the trip. In the desert. We had a pretty wicked awesome corner suite room at the Hard Rock, with floor to ceiling windows overlooking the center pool on 2 of the 4 walls. Ben flew in from Wherever, USA that he had a work trip the week prior, and I managed to get myself from MKE to LAS in one piece. Because Ben is amazing sometimes, he went out and bought an array of snacks, champagne and orange juice, wine, vodka, red bulls, and waters to stock up our room before I even got there. We had way too much fun at the pool (on the nice day.5), playing goofy slots, hitting up the blackjack tables, and walking the Strip.

So obviously, we went back in about a month's time. Hello Hard Rock Hotel, you sexy beast. The second go-round was for Ben's birthday, so we ended up going right over Labor Day weekend. There was a little snafu with not getting the corner suite again, so we stayed one night in a standard room and were told we would move in the morning. Morning came, we fueled ourselves with mimosas, and headed to the pool to wait for the call that at our new room was ready. Long story short, when we grabbed all our stuff and dumped it in the new room, our wedding bands were nowhere to be found. Ben went back to the old room to look around, and the nervous Nelly maid assured him that she hadn't seen anything................................................this brings me to a dark place. No additional comments.

Anywho, we spent the majority of this trip outside by the pool. We played swim up blackjack, lounged in the sun and sun, and went to the Jason Derulo pool party concert. It was while we were poolside that I found out my friends Kor&J were already on their flight headed to Vegas. And then Ben's cousin Jennifer from Phoenix texted and said she also was in Vegas for the weekend. What are the beautiful odds?! We ended up meeting up and spent a night out together causing a general ruckus.



The week before the second Vegas trip, I surprised Ben with family and friends at our apartment for his 29th birthday. His high school friend/best man Dan stopped by as the official distractor, and took Ben out on a brewery tour and to Potowatomi for lunch while everyone gathered. If you know anything about me, I'm :HORRIBLE at keeping secrets from Ben. I get too excited to share things with him, and when I do keep my mouth shut, he can pick up on my even more awkward attempts at being smooth and nonchalant. The surprise went off without a hitch, and the second surprise-- a pontoon boat for the evening-- went over great as well.

But more catch up later... time for work!

unsupervised.

I'm unsupervised this evening, which means that there's no one here to make me check my crazy at the door.

It's about time to de-clutter my pack rat husband's stash of lordy-knows-what in the closets and from the goodness of my blessed heart give the vast majority of it to Goodwill. Because I'm absolutely full of good will... And stuff we don't need and I don't want to move come 4 months or whatever when we decide to up and leave our current living establishment and move cross country to an environment full of sun and warmth and deemed fit for human life.

I'm seriously starting to doubt my relationship with Wisconsin. It's emotionally draining. Wisconsin is so terribly horrible to me all winter long, then summer rolls around and I forget why we were fighting in the first place. The weather is glorious, brats and burgers are frying on the grill, bonfires are crackling, stars are twinkling, there is a festival practically every freakin' weekend, the outdoor theater is open, and my energy level goes through the roof. In the summer, Wisconsin gives me wonderful things like a social life, patio drinking, and a tan. I totally blank on how the majority of the year is a frigid betch.

But I digress. Time for me to continue my good will rampage through this place.

Or maybe not yet.

Catch up since last month:

mini-moon up north

• I flew out to Virginia Beach for the weekend to meet up with Ben at the end of his work trip. We got seafood and walked on the beach and had a room with a balcony overlooking the water and I thought it was overall fantastic. Then we went to a crowded sports bar and yelled at the tv as we watched the Badgers end their NCAA run in the last seconds of the game. Because that's how we do.
• My grandparents sold DeCabin up in Winter, WI. We spent the weekend up there helping load up the truck and empty out the place where we spent time every summer since 1999, where Ben and I took our "mini-moon", and the go-to place for a last minute trip away from it all. We got a few items that are now in our apartment, and that still smell like the pine-needle-fresh-air-cut-grass-pine-wood-whatever-else-there-was that was DeCabin. That certain smell which, depending on how much wine I've had that particular evening, makes me tear up and/or cry a few glistening tears. Soooo many memories!! 
• I'm finishing up a gigantic king-sized patchwork-esque type quilt for our bed. My determination to finish it comes and goes. 
• I'm helping Jess shoot video at a wedding this weekend. wheeeeeeee
• May 2nd was the 5 year anniversary of Ben flinging me off of a teeter totter. All because I was trying to be a responsible 22 year old and NOT go to a street party in Madison that particular night in question. Going to the park and playing "farmer brown let me down" on the teeter totter seemed like a good alternative at the time. At least it did before I was sitting in the Urgent Care cry-laughing as Vicodin powered its way through my bloodstream. The damage = dislocated shoulder, collar bone split in two, and mild concussion because I can't play nice with the other kids.  The moral of the story: Never turn down a street party.

xoxo, b

weekend warrior [part b]

I'm not 100% sure where I left off.... oh well. 

Bachelorette Par-tay in Nashville  

• 5am + coffee + sick Jessica + minimal sleep = 8.5 hour power thru drive to the glorious country capital of the entire freakin' world
• Little black dresses, little tank tops, little hotel room, little party favor pins and "Mrs. Mathews" shot glasses
• Fireball shots + fire-y red lipstick on the "kiss the man" poster = bachelorette pre-gaming
• Bar dancing, booty shaking (I legitimately won a booty shaking contestone night... what?!)
• Big hair, big attitudes, big country accents
• Theme song = Eye of the Tiger. Why? Sometimes magical things like that happen on their own.

And now for the harsh reality: Girls are a gross group when they get together, scream, hug, jump around screaming "I-have-not-seen-you-in-forEVERRR!," and then spend a night or two together in confined spaces. Pillow fights and giggling? More like smeared lipstick, fake eyelashes clinging to life, and no topic frowned upon. But girls already know that. And boys? They should go on pretending. 

Minnesota Bday Bash

mega beer

• This last weekend was a very short trip up to Minneapolis for Bean's birthday. 
• Fancy bacon and chocolate donuts and coffee Saturday morning at Glam Doll Donuts
• Mall of America 6+ hours Saturday afternoon, where I fell in lust with Typo.



B at the Mall of America

• Mall of America also including a fantastic trip through the aquarium where I got to poke and prod water dwelling things. PLUS we took a trip down the underwater aquarium tunnel of awesome which included none other but the apex predator of the seas.... dun nun dun nun... sharks! My tireless educational Shark Week watching on Netflix proves useful yet again.
• German beer hall and one gigantic stein of beer each
• Brianna falling into a 12 foot+ snowbank on our way there... but conquering it on the way home
• Entire backseat of the car to myself on the way home meant that I got to sip my Starbucks coffee drink and knock-off Gatorade and send fat chin Snapchats to all my friends. My lucky, lucky friends. 

Ben in Tampa/Parents on Mexican Cruise/Ben in Boston

• and I was not/am not. Instead, I'm drudging through a Polar Vortex and having dinner with my cats. Because I'm cool like that. 

xoxo, b

Weekend Warrior [part 1]

HOLY CRIPES, BATMAN! Weekends off?! I forgot what those were............but I love them. Here's the dealio, since New Year's Eve (which I spent bad dancing at Karma), I've been a weekend warrior. The titan of the truck stop. The pop star princess of car concerts. I've been able to give into every whimsical fancy that floats across my mind involving a car and the open road (within reason).

And now I present to you, my weekends in Reader's Digest form:

1) Britani turns 25+2 birthday celebration extravaganza. This particular weekend started by going out with friends Friday night. Then Saturday morning rolled around, and Ben and I tentatively decided to go to Louisville because, hell, it's within the 6 hour radius perimeter that we had just set and neither of us have spent any time there. After a little Google search I found underground zip-lining outside the city limits. Sold. BAM-A-LAM and we're headed south early Saturday afternoon.

Then the snow started. The freakin' snow. North of Indianapolis, we were creeping along. Our trip was taking longer than planned (granted, not a lot of planning went into the trip other than "head south"). That's when traffic stopped. Just stopped. Before long, tow trucks and police cars and hazardous waste clean up crews were driving past us. And we stayed exactly where we were for the next 3+ hours. The worst 3+ hours of hoping that my bladder would not explode, because that's right folks, this chicka had to whiz from minute uno. (btw, no one was killed in the gigantic accident) After that special bonding experience with my man of choice came to an end, we figured it was best to stay in Indy and leave early for the Lou. Ben found a room, and we ended up staying downtown at a hotel hosting a middle school cheer competition. There were fake eyelashes, glitter, and high ponytails everywhere.

By early Sunday afternoon we were in Louisville, hanging out at the Louisville Slugger Museum because sidenote, I wanted to be a baseball player when I was younger.








We also did a whiskey tour at the Evan Williams Experience, where we tried two shot sized glasses of whiskey.

Then Ben booked a hotel online and we drove over to check in and drop off our luggage. As we were standing in line, we looked at each other and commented about how it smelled like old perfume. We had a chuckle, and waited like perfect angels until our turn came. During this time, I figured I should check in on Foursquare because sometimes I'm social media conscious like that. As the Internet delivered my request, the front desk beckoned us to come forward and check in. At this exact moment, the Foursquare stars aligned and the top comment for Seelbach Hotel popped up onto my phone "careful, the 8th and 10th floors are haunted." I don't do haunted. I don't do scary. I do do Google researching though, and Google researching revealed that yeah, that place has had a few things go bump in the night. One of the things was people smelling perfume...
So long story a little less long, we stayed on the 7th floor which means my ceiling was definitely haunted. I think we were the only living humans on that floor. I may or may not have screamed because I saw my own reflection in the window and maybe I tried to pee with the bathroom door open while maintaining eye contact with Ben. All alleged activities keep in mind.  Creepy stuff...especially when I woke up at 3am to use the restroom and our tv was on (did we leave it on?!) and Insidious was playing.........Ben woke up as I was getting out of bed, saw the tv, and knowing that I'm 100% chicken started yelling "DON'T LOOK AT THE TV!!!" which of course made me freak out. Very little sleep that night... and not even for fun reasons.


Monday was my birthday and for my birthday we went going cave zip lining at Mega Caverns!!!!!!!!! Never been zip lining, and definitely never zip lining in a cave so check that one off the ole bucket list. I adored dangling by a rope and going fast, which my mom tells me is "not right." She's such a nice lady.


Monday afternoon consisted of driving back to WI, and getting Kentucky Fried Chicken while in Kentucky. Obviously.

2) The following weekend was a trip to Winter, WI. This trip was also a last minute "hey-ya-wanna" trip, and also included snowy weather that made us take an early pit stop. This time it was a pit stop in LM at my parents' house for the night. It's cool though, because I got to have a glass of wine with my mom and pop and shoot the breeze. And Ben got to say sassy things to make my dad laugh and my mom's "ears bleed." The next morning we proceeded up nort', stopping at the Leinenkugel Brewery for a tour, then in Hayward for lunch, and finally a stop at the casino before getting to the cabin after dark.

super long walk in the dark...

....seriously.....

Since we had rented a crumby little Nissan Versa (which, incidentally, is the exact same little piece that we totaled in IL one year....) we were not able to make it up the tiny snowy hill to the cabin... so we were going to have to walk. In the dark. In the northern woods where bear have been known to wander and a giant had been spotted the month before near the cabin's front porch. I pouted. I got out and tried to push the car myself. Then (mostly because Ben made me), I grabbed my bags and started sprinting through the knee high snow while wimpering and screaming and carrying on like a gawd-damn fool. Once inside the cabin, I hyperventilated for the first time in my life. I don't understand it, and I probably never will. I can jump out of airplanes, speed makes me happy, heights get me excited............ but you ask me to go down a water body slide without a tube, ride a ferris wheel, or deal with the possibility of a bear and I'm down for the count. The rest of our time there was spent watching old movies, playing games, drinking wine, and watching snow fall on the lake. Relaxing once you stop thinking about being mauled by a bear.



xoxo, b

NYE MKE 2013-14

Procrastination.

 

 

It lands us in the exact same spot every year at exactly this time..... desperately trying to figure out what to do for New Year's Eve.

 

 

Every year.

 

 

It's not like New Year's is a floating, mysterious holiday, springing out of the shadows within 24 hours of happening screaming "HERE I AM SUCKAS!! HAVE FUN TRYING TO FIGURE OUT AN AWESOME WAY TO REALLY CELEBRATE THIS HUNK OF AULD LANG SYNE (maniacal laugh)"

 

 

Champaign toast this, New Year's Eve.

 

 

I don't even know what auld lang syne means. No one does. It's just a slow song with made up words.

 

So for all purposes listed hereafter, auld lang syne means there are too many parties and my lack of commitment to any of them makes me feel like the soggy fruitloop left behind in the cereal bowl of New Year's Eve parties.

 

 

 I wonder where we will end up. I'm pretty much ready for anything-- I shaved my legs tonight. And I've got a certain young man on contract to kiss me at midnight. (maniacal laugh)

 

 

Try and stop me now, 2013.

 

 

But I'm done Google-ing MKE NYE shindings for now. There are more important things going on: Shark Week Season 25 is now on Netflix.

 

 

xoxo, b

merry christmas kiddos

I'm going to be honest, I thought about doing a Pinteresty-lovey-dovey-oh-how-adorbs type Christmas card this year. We clean up nice.

Picture it: Snow gently falling as we tenderly embrace along the lake shore. A sweet kiss on the forehead with the city lights twinkling behind us. Holding hands and looking backwards over our shoulders while cheesing for the camera.  Or maybe a smile-worthy, heart warming mishap with a string of lights, tangling us together into a PG-13 kiss.

Then I realized that's silly. We don't skip around town gazing into each other's eyeballs. Well, not all the time.... and besides, that's what everyone else is doing. Which is lame. Because I've walked around and I hardly ever see people striking a traditional Christmas card pose during my day to day activities.

So I present to you, Ben & Brit's real life Christmas card(s):

cats wearing clothes, cell phone, wine, mess.

Merry Christmas :)

fa la la la la

la la la la

xoxo, b

brit-sit

I had no Brit-sitter this week. 

Which is good, because I've been very busy working two jobs.

And which is bad because I've spent an unhealthy amount of time talking to my cats and growing extremely accustomed to their strange behavior. Trying to climb on my back while I'm sitting upright and typing, trying to climb on my lap while I'm using the.... ahem ladies room, eating a cardboard box for the hell of it, punching me in the face in the morning because they are channeling Mike Tyson, and general clingy-ness, snoring like dogs, purring all.the.time., and yip-yapping are 100% normal to me now. Sure, it was upwards of 86% normal to me before, but those monsters really beefed up their crazy and are dedicated to making me feel like a spazzy old cat lady..... and it's working.

No Brit-sitter is also bad because there is no one to stop me from having a package of bacon, 2 apples, miscellaneous Halloween candy, and a hefty portion of wine for dinner. I'm thinking Ben would not be too happy with me, since he has vocalized concerns over my odds of making it to 30............but I can rationalize just about anything. Take the above mentioned fantastic dinner for example: Meat, good. Period. Apples=fruit=good. Candy=chocolate=derived from a plant=plants=good. Wine=grapes=fruit with antioxidants=good. Throw "antioxidants" into any food-related nonsense sentence and it's like a free pass. 

Ya know what, I did have a Brit-sitter tonight by the name of Marshall's Store. Which means someone has a new pair of boots, among other things.

Ya win some and ya lose some. 

Ben's home tomorrow, and done traveling until February or something like that. Whoot whoooooot

xoxo, b

my party has a promo trailer

Our Halloween barn party-- Mischief & Mayhem-- has its own promo trailer:   Video

Because I can't think of any reason that a holiday party wouldn't have a promotional video distributed three weeks prior to the event. Seriously.

Invite only.

xoxo, b

2 years & unsolicited advice

I had a vivid revelation of awesomeness the other day. In order to reflect upon our last two years of marriage, I thought Ben and I should answer similar open ended questions concerning stuff like what's changed, what's the same, where do you see us in 5 years, why isn't there any good beer left in the fridge, and what's for dinner.... but I digress.  

So I cornered him. Started asking him questions. And he, like a wild animal, tried to escape. My revelation of awesomeness was going nowhere, and I was forced to shut it down after there was way too much interest in describing in detail the only thing he believes to have changed in the last two years: that I've farted in front of him. There were references to Nazi gas chambers, dying beasts, and the end of days before he finally concluded, gave a satisfied smile and nod, and shut his mouth.

First off, I'm a trophy wife wanna-be, I don't fart. That's something boys do. 

And second, I don't fart. 

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So in lieu of my vivid revelation of awesomeness questionnaire, 

here are my little bits of unsolicited advice/knowledge nuggets on the matter:

Your husband will be the single most annoying person in your life. He throws his dirty socks at the cats. He is addicted to checking sport updates and stock prices on his smart phone. He forgets to put leftovers in the fridge. He gets moody when he is having what I can only assume is a man-period. He still has not figured out how to work the laundry hamper, despite intense one-on-one training sessions with the Rocky theme song playing in the background. He strolls into the bathroom and asks what you're doing when you're trying to use the toilet or shave your legs in the shower because he doesn't fully understand privacy. And sometimes he flat out disagrees with you about severely important things like "what should we do tonight?" But what sets the husband apart from any other run-of-the-mill annoying roommate? It's that you care way too much about his opinion and your opinion matching up. You want him to see things the way you do. Exactly. You want him to think the way you do. Exactly. You can't give the generic "whatever I could care less what you think" response to him and de-friend him on Facebook because you do care what he thinks, and he lives with you. He's an individual with his own opinions and thought process... which is so annoying. 

Your husband will be the single most amazing person in your life. He wakes you up with breakfast in bed most Sundays. He swaps back rubs with you before falling asleep at night. He's funny and spazzy and doesn't mind that you sing off-key during car concerts. He let's you do your own weird thing, and encourages you to be your awkward self. He takes you to the zoo, even though you've gone at least one gagillion times already. He lets you have the bigger piece of steak or eat more of the cookie chunks from container of ice cream. He makes excuses to drive 30 minutes with you to your job on the weekend so that at the very least you can see each other for the hour worth of driving there and back. He just gets you, even when you don't get yourself. As a self-proclaimed commitment phobic person (it took 7 or 8 years before I power-walked down the aisle), my Oprah ah-ha moment was when I realized that yeah, I could live without him... But I didn't want to. And even though I allegedly hyperventilated and had to take a moment to sit (not run, even though there were bets placed) before my I-do's, that 24 hour period of time is a drip in the leaky faucet of life. A very expensive drip. 

And everyday since then has been a bit of an adventure. 

xoxo, b

Ring-a-ding

My friend Kor recently went and got herself engaged, and then so kindly came home to WI over July 4th. We got a little group together Friday night, caught up, went out, came home. A more detailed description of the night is as follows:

- I got to use my fancy pants serving bowls and glasses to make sure my guests were aptly fed and watered (or champagne-d and Chex-mixed)
 

- Kor has a pretty ring. I felt honored to be the one to show her how to use it to ward off creepers at the bar.
 

- I'm fairly certain I know how people end up face down in the MKE river. Spoiler alert: It's the power trippin' MKE police department on their ponies at the end of the night snatching boys and throwing them into the timeout trailer. Fools.
 

-And there was dancing. So much bad dancing. 

Saturday was a surpris
e lunch for Kor at The Smoke Shack. And since it was a surprise, Kor had no problem being nearly two hours late. Since the lunch was right before we had to book it to a wedding, we wore our wedding dress attire. I went ahead and spilled some BBQ on my lap like a hillbilly. 

 

After lunch, BBQ spills, and a wedding ceremony, Ben and I were standing outside under the shade of a beautiful, big tree with a small group of his relatives waiting for dinner to be served. There was a perfect breeze, sweet sunshine, and the wine was finally flowing. Then Ben's cousin spilled red wine all over her husband's lap. We all had a good chuckle. Then I subconsciously decided that I would one up the red-wine-pants-spill that could be covered by a shirt. Not realizing what my subconscious was plotting, I began to move my red wine from one hand to the other. Mid-move, the light breeze got frisky and tried to Marilyn Monroe my skirt. So obviously I spazzed while trying to maintain my "I'm a lady" act, and proceeded to throw the entire glass of red wine down the front of my dress. Fantastic. 

And so concludes my July 4th weekend.

xoxo, b 

Summer? That you?

Welcome to May....

- It may be summer



MKE Riverwalk

warm enough for a grill out

- Ben may have cancelled our gym membership for a  9 day stint before realizing that is exactly what I wanted and re-instating forced gym-going back into my life



- Paris & Nicole may have emptied a full container of catnip all over the living room floor and rolled around in it until we found them twitching like little drug addicts

paris

nicole

- We may be living in this here apartment just until the end of August, and then headed lordy knows where. Stay in Milwaukee? Head south towards Deerfield, IL? Seriously, let's just go West already and live in Vegas for a year?



- I may be finishing a glass of wine and a cup of coffee right now. The wine was going to skunk any minute now. And I make a conscience effort to refrain from wasteful habits, and to have variety in my life.





undercover kitty

- Paris has really started to ramp up her under covers exploration missions. She may or may not get squished one of these times.









- Since it's warm out, Ben and I have been taking a lot of walks around downtown, and we may have searched out patio dining the last two nights. Sunday afternoon = Rock Bottom Brewery and Monday night = Belair Cantina




 - Thursday nights are ladies' night at Oak. I may have attended.



Brooke being a rockstar

delivering spirits

 














- Since we live right on the river and I have a self-diagnosed addiction to just how cute ducks happen to be, I may be stockpiling old bread and rolls to feed to those adorable little quacks. Old bread now outnumbers new bread in our household, which seems like an amazing notion, but lame geese outnumber adorable ducks on the river. And I am not about to go and feed those winged devils.



- And finally, FAKE PROM 2013 was a splendid and magical night under the stars. But more on that later. Maybe.



xoxo, b

 

Double-o 7

I've finished Mythbusters on Netflix. Yes, my world is crumbling around me.

In what I thought would be a desperate and futile attempt at finding a new tidbit to tune into, I ran across the old 007 Bond films on the Netflix. JACKPOT!!!!!!!!!!
 
*In order to even partially understand what follows, one must be aware of a little game Ben and I play with each other. The I can't even phase you anymore game.     Rules are simple: Catch the other person off guard with ridiculous words or actions to see if you can make them consider the possibility that they married a lunatic.


So anywho, we've started the James Bond movies from numero uno. Ben was thrilled by my fantastic sleuth skillz (with a "z") of finding such Netflix fun. He was so thrilled and immediately into spy character that he screeched out the James Bond theme song and bit me. On the ass. I honestly wish I could claim it was some type of sexy experience. But some weirdo biting thru your flannel pajammie pants while yelling "dun nun nun nuuuuh!!!" in James Bond style while you try and figure out what the heck is happening? Nah, not so much.


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baby blanket!



I made a baby blanket!

Whoohoo marvelous creation with such character.... aka a few patches of consistently inconsistent stitching.

Psssh whatever. Baby needs to know that life ain't perfect. Aunt B may as be the one to teach that valuable life lesson in the form of a comforting and freakin' awesome blanket






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new beast mode glass

I received a pretty cool glass to add to our collection. Beast Mode, welcome to the fam!

Perfect for summer baseball season (go brewers) and cold beer

Thanks Schmev!



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Here's a little known fact.... I have road rage and relatively poor parallel parking tendencies.



Here is an example of my most recent parallel parking job. It's close enough to 8 inches, or 1 foot, or maybe 4 inches? from the curb... knowing those details is apparently half the battle....We were just running inside for some caffeine... otherwise I would have used my road rage to get the job done right. Or at least better. Ugh screw that.


Parallel parking is for fools.



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Guess what I found under the fishie tank. More Mardis Gras beads.


Whaaaaaaaaat?! why.


If you want them, you may have them.




 xoxo, b

Inception

I had a dream within a dream last night. I know-- Inception. That's what I thought, too.

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This weather is so depressing and cold and lame.

This morning, my goonberry husband bounced out of bed today and yelled "Is it too early for a beer?!" then had a giggle fit. A very manly giggle fit of course. I believe the poor young lad is having a bout of cabin fever.

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I think we are going to go to Vegas in June. Seems like a solid notion.

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I'm still doing this silly 30 day hair shhht. Lost all interest, but I'm close to completion sooooooo........... apparently that's a good enough reason to stick with it.




xoxo, b

if you seek britani

In a land before this blog, there was another blog. It was a starter blog. It was Britani's very own blog. It was named after a Britney Spears song. It was: If you seek Britani.

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I cleaned out our storage locker the other day. It was intense and terrifying and at the very end, strangely beautiful. It also surfaced a few issues with my husband's hoarding obsession. We have 5+ boxes of Maris Gras beads. I do not know what genius idea he has for them, but I'm thinking baby shower gifts. Baby's first beads. I'm going to get ahead of that trend.

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It's almost time to move again, and since we are working on becoming competent adults, the search for a new place has already commenced. Lease is up June 30th. Start the timer. Last year, we found a place 1 week before moving. Actually.... we found the place, visited the place (separately because stupid work hours), signed the lease and moved within 1 week. Ridiculous.



xoxo, b

Highlights

Last night, I highlighted my hair at home. Nicole sat in the sink and watched me, because she's girly and likes doing her hair/make-up/nails. Naturally, as any cat would.

Anywho, I dropped a little glob of bleach concoction on her head. In conclusion, we both got highlights.

Ben just shook his head when he found out. Shook his head because he couldn't believe how stunning we looked with our highlights. Typical man.

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








The "no gym" stretch

I got out of going to the gym for a significantly large amount of consecutive days. It was a lot of "hey Ben! Look at this!" Or "hey Ben! I made a gourmet dinner!" Or "Look at me dance with this cat! Let's watch Netflix!"

Now he's on to my little scam. So we are going to the god-awful gym tonight. No amount of my fine tuned distracting techniques will deter his stubborn buns from going and guilt tripping me along. The gym is a place where linguine-armed pizza-lovers like myself tend to steer clear of... but the Mister wants to go, so fine. Besides, I could use a 15 minute tanning session.

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Last night, we walked down the riverwalk to Bar Louie for dollar burgers. After we sat down, I noticed a chair facing a dark corner. I figured it was the naughty chair and proceeded to have a hearty, solo laugh at such an absurd thought while Ben, I assume, was looking up symptoms of lunacy on WedMD.

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When I woke up this morning (to the sound of ducks on the river!), I immediately thought "whaaat the hell was I dreaming." During this thinking dialogue with myself, Ben walked into the bedroom and told me about how he dreamt he was being chased by zombies. I had dreamt that a zombie was lumbering toward me before I got pissed and betch-slapped it.

The moral of that story is that we must have fallen asleep with the television on.

Or the flesh-eating undead are on their way. And that's disgusting.


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xoxo, b

Just because

Tonight, I received a dozen roses.....just because.

I think it's because I'm going to kick his bum in our annual NCAA bracket showdown, and he wants to be sure I take my trash talking easy on him.

Otherwise, he did something/wants something/thought something/or is just banking husband points for when he does do/want/ or come up with something. Or maybe they really are "just because." He can be sweet like that.

The jury is still out folks.

xoxo, b

It's Miller Time

Went on the Miller Tour last week or something like that. First off, alright tour, but after going on the Lakefront and Milwaukee Brewery tours....not as awesome. But free beer is free beer.

Ben, Jess and I took the tour, and then wrote out a couple postcards. And by a couple I mean everyone and my mom will be receiving one.

After finishing our literary works of art in postcard form, we tried to extended-borrow the cool tasting glasses. Those employees are right on top of their shhht though, and foiled our plans.

Psshh, whatevs.

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Last Thursday, I finally went to Oak with Sista Branners and her roommates. They've been asking me for weeks. So I made an appearance and we danced and danced and all was right in the world. And I even got some stunning, vivid yellow sunglasses. I will be sporting them to tailgate at a Brewer's game I suppose.

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Went to the Dustin Lynch concert a few days back with a couple of friends. Concert was good. Girls at the concert were horrid. It's taking a solid chunk of self-control (of which I have limited amounts to be using up so early in the day) to not go all mean girl on their lumpy buns. Great concert though!

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It was Ben's turn to make dinner last night. He slapped some chicken boobs in the frying pan and wandered away...but that's not the point....

Paris & Nicole beg like dogs sometimes, so Ben shared some of his dinner. But P&N went into fancy pants mode and didn't want chicken fat off the floor. That's when I heard Ben reprimanding the cats: "Eat your chicken! There are starving kittens in China!!"

It was immediately following this outburst that he requested banana bread...because 'he likes banana bread and when he was little, that's what he always thought his wife would do for him. So I should be a good housewife and do that because I love him, riiiiight?' Based on what I know about housewives from the media, they don't work, drink wine, and are desperate.

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In unrelated news, I have the day off today. I'm rigorously investigating the pros/cons of wearing pants.

And Google-ing how to make banana bread.

xoxo, b