husband

My weekend.

| cheriarmour

First off.

I’m really sad.  I want to just be sad for a second ok.

Austin is back in China for the week, and I really hate it.  I absolutely hate it.

He left on Saturday morning – I dropped him off at the airport and it was hard.  The trip was pretty last-minute, and I could tell he didn’t want to go.  When we were kissing goodbye, we both were really bummed, and there may have been some tears.

I drove home, and managed to squeeze in a really quick run before I headed to Fleet Feet to help out for the weekend.  It was good for me to get a little distracted, and my entire family, including my brother-in-law, stopped in for a shoe fitting really quickly toward the end of the day.  Debbie’s a big big walker, and Kimmy, a big dancer and tumbler, is working to be able to cheer professionally in Charlotte.

Family
Which one of us do you think is the oldest? The youngest? What do you think my siblings do for work?

As soon as I got home after a day at Fleet Feet, Kimmy and I did what we do best, and headed to a bar to grab a few drinks and to catch up. It was around the corner from the house, so after our drinks, me and Kimmy laid down in the bed and watched some cable on-tv movies, and decided we were going to head out for sushi.

Thankfully neither me nor Kimmy were driving, because we enjoyed ourselves thoroughly, and probably drove Debbie and Luigi nuts by insisting they take us to Harris Teeter to buy a bunch of stuff for brunch on Sunday morning. So Kimmy and I, buzzed, flitted our way through Harris Teeter, working off of a list we’d made during dinner. We tossed champagne, biscuits, orange juice, bacon, and all the necessities for brunch in the cart, and managed to get home, drink another, and I had a sleepover with Kimmy.

Biscuits
The seconds before this thing pops? Literally the scariest seconds of life.

We turned into our Aunties literally, and got up at 8:30, and cooked for a while until Debbie and Lu, my brother and his roommate, and MY college roommate, Mackenzie, got together to eat up a storm, drink, and laugh on a Sunday morning.

Throughout the day, I managed to text Austin a bit, and figured out Skype on my phone and got to see his face before he started his day in China.

So that was my weekend.  What did you do this weekend?

Well hello there!

| cheriarmour

I took a few days off from blogging because of how crazy things have been over the past few days.  But don’t worry, I will fill you in on everything going in.

For one, remember how I said I would never drive a minivan? This is why you never say never.  After I managed to total my car (the Lancer is a total loss) I’ve had a lot of trouble with Metlife getting any answers on my car.  Which is a completely separate issue, which we can talk about later.  But the car that I’m being given in the meantime is a minivan.  And everything about it screams “mom”.  It’s a Maroon mom color.  There are like 6 seats in the back.  But the one really nice thing about the minivan is that it’s got mom features – it’s got the hands-free bluetooth thing, which is nice because I can work in the short amount of time that I spend in my car.

Second, I’m having huge issues with trying to get the issues with my car resolved, which I may have to address in a separate post.  But suffice it to say that I’m not satisfied in any way with my experience with the insurance company.  My understanding is that provided that you pay your insurance, that your insurance company is supposed to have your back, no?  That has not at all been my experience, and I’m getting extremely frustrated – I spent hours on the phone yesterday to try and get some of this resolved.  How do people do this?

My husband is back from China!  I am really excited, and he definitely had some stories for me. He talked about the flight (17 hours from Dallas), the air (very smoggy), and showed me pictures of the food, which looks good on him.  He said that the food was not super calorie-dense, and it showed – not that he needed to lose an ounce, but without the chance to work out while he was in China, he manged to slim down somewhat – very interesting!

What has your last week been like?  

Weekend Recap

| cheriarmour

I know things were a little quiet around here lately, and I have a perfectly good explanation for that.  This was the last weekend that we had of the old apartment – I actually think that we have that apartment through the end of  the month, but we moved out a little early and were able to get everything cleaned up yesterday – baseboards, carpets, and all.

I feel good because I’m finally able to focus on the new place – unpack the millions of boxes that are just hanging around – and finally start working on the house, room by room.

But this weekend:

I started off the weekend by running around our new place, and around NC State University and listening to one of my favorite podcasts, The Read.  Unfortunately, a friend of mine posted on Facebook that a guy jumped out at her on the greenway on Friday morning near where we live, and I had a feeling that since he hadn’t been nabbed, I would take my chances on the street.  I found a road nearby that was closed, and went for it.

Road RunningEven more unfortunately, on Sunday, our local news station reported that a woman had been attacked on the greenway.  I am so incredibly sorry to hear that, and once again, this renews my vigilance to my safety. I hate that we have to think that way, but we definitely have to think that way.

Friday night, I stayed in with my husband, and caught up on one more episode on what I think is going to be our new favorite couple show, Mad Men.

image via Tumblr

Can we talk about for a second how you used to be able to drink, swear, and harass people in your office without it being much of a problem at all?  That still boggles my mind, and we are into season 2 now.

Saturday, I taught a pretty bomb Zumba® Fitness class, and was finally able to thank the angels in my class who put together a little card from Target for us from the wedding.  We went over to the apartment, packed up the last bit of stuff, and Saturday night, I went and did some dancing at Legends with some friends, and played sober sister for the evening to make sure that everything got home safely.

All in all, it was a very busy, but not overly exciting weekend.  I am looking forward to putting some serious miles in, getting these boxes unpacked, and welcoming some really really pretty weather to North Carolina.

How was your weekend?  What are you looking forward to this week? 

 

Our wedding.

| cheriarmour

If you’ve ever gotten married, you understand why I’ve been disappeared for the last week or so.  The lead up was crazy – but I don’t even need to get into that right now.  You want to get into the good stuff right?  The stuff I’ve been talking about for the last year or so?

We got married on Saturday!

I will break down the whole thing a little more in detail in a few days, but I will give you guys a little taste of what we did this weekend.

Our wedding was gorgeous.  It was perfect.  It went off without a hitch.  And I am officially a Mrs!

  •  I heard from someone at the venue that our food was the best.  We did fried chicken (tofu for me), collards, mac and cheese, potatoes, and biscuits.  It was straight-up as southern as it gets.
  • My dress.  Ahhhhh that dress.  It was delicious, and I never ever wanted to take it off.  After we got back, I kinda flopped down on the bed in our suite for a good 20 minutes before I had to take it off.
  • I danced literally for 100 hours.  I had to shower after.
  • The day was perfect, and I love my family – my family family, and my new family – new husband especially!  Feels cool to finally call him husband!

A few photos to tide you over until I do the FULLLLLL recap?

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This was a quick screen grab that stopped me in my tracks. We actually got into a tobacco field for this one. Photo via Blest Studios.
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A drunken groomsman who charmed the pants off of all of our parents snapped this quickly at sunset.
photo 3
A guest snapped this as my father escorted me down the aisle. He’d been talking about wearing this tux for months and it TOTALLY came together. Love it!
photo 2
This was us, the HOT day of the rehearsal/rehearsal dinner.
photo 1
All lined up to practice walking down the aisle!

So, this is just a little taste, as I ease back into my life.

What I can say, however, is that I feel SO loved – by friends, by family, by my husband and I’m looking forward to years and years of celebrations like these.  I love you all, and thank you all for an amazing weekend.

That said…what did you do this weekend?

The boy behind the blog.

| cheriarmour

You guys every wonder who my man-friend is?

You can lie and say you don’t, but the truth is that I can see everything that you google to find my blog, and one of ya’lls nosey selves has been googling to find out what my relationship situation is.  And typically, I won’t talk about him a ton, but this is Austin, the man I’m set to marry in a few very very short months.

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A little bit on the boy behind my blog.

  • We met in grad school, when we both were working at NC State’s Department of Campus Recreation.  He was a cycling instructor, and I was a Zumba instructor.  I was dating someone else when we first met.  It didn’t work out, and I like to tell myself that Austin jumped at the chance to ask me on a date.
  • Our first date was at the Rockford in Downtown Raleigh.  On this date, I ordered a burrito without chicken and he ordered one with.  They gave me that burrito with chicken and we didn’t notice til I ate about a quarter of it.
  • Austin is stupid smart.  He’s very math-minded and analytical, and these are really really useful skills for me to learn and to have, since I’m all artsy and loosey-goosey.
  • Austin likes to eat everything in sight.  EXCEPT mayo.  If someone brings him out a sandwich with mayo, he gets really really sad.
  • Austin pretended to like the Real Housewives of Atlanta for a short time when we were first dating.
  • Austin loves the NFL to the point where we scheduled our wedding so it wouldn’t interfere with his fantasy draft.
  • I once hit Austin’s car when I was rushing off to do something and he barely go mad (probably because my car got jacked up, and not his).
  • Austin want for me to feature him on the blog for eating disgusting items off fast-food menus, and then writing about it.  He wants to start with Taco Bell breakfast I think.  He also makes a habit of trying fish sandwiches from fast food joints, and then comparing them in-depth.

And that, ladies in gents, is the boy behind the blog.

Why we Work

| cheriarmour

Time for a mushy-gushy pre-Valentine’s Day post.

264558_696428549623_6702677_nI’m marrying this guy in 190 days.  And I couldn’t be more thrilled about it.

I could tell something was different about him, because from the beginning of our relationship, I really really protected it.  I didn’t talk about it a lot to others and I didn’t feel the need to gush to cover up some sort of shortcoming he might have had.  Trust me, I’ve been there.  He took me on real dates, not just to Applebees.  He insisted he pay, and I always felt safe with him.  And now, three, almost four years later, here’s why we work.  

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  • We’re really different.  But our insides match. We’re obviously interracial.  I am all over the place, wildly creative, and he is analytical, and he thinks things through before he does them.  I decide to do things, and do them.  But inside, there are a few things that are really important to us.  Health/wellness.  Animals.  And treating others the way they deserve to be treated.  These are our cardinal rules.262787_1937735048582_6179921_n
  • When we fight, we fight fair.  You’re a rotten dirty liar if you want to claim that you have a relationship with someone and that you never fight.  And we do.  But when we do, we fight fair.  We don’t hit or scream or call names.  And if we slip and do one of these, we put it in reverse, and asses where we need to apologize and do better next time.  Besides the hitting, we’re not animals.  We don’t do that.
  • He supports me.   I say I want to run a marathon, and he watches me cross the finish line.  When I started this blog, he was all about it.  When we first started dating, and I went to audition for X-Factor, he gave me his iPod FM transmitter thing for my car, and kissed me goodbye.  I made it that year, and part of it was the support. Similarly, whatever he needs or wants to do?  I want to give it to him.  If he wants to start a business?  A new website?  Wants to take apart the washing machine?  I don’t get it, but I will be behind him.
  • I feel safe with him.  When I used to run into trouble, I would call my Dad.  Now I’m a grown-up, and getting married, and I feel 100% cool calling him for help.  He can change a tire, one drove to DC to pick me up when I was stranded in the middle of the night, and dusted the snow off my car and my steps today.  It means so much.

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  • We laugh together.  A bunch.  I could go on for days about our inside jokes but that’s why they inside, playa!
  • He keeps me grounded.  I am a weirdo.  A beautiful, tall weirdo.  And sometimes, my ideas get a little crazy.  I adopted a dog out of the blue a few weeks ago.  I still did it, but he asked me all the important questions.  And I keep him fun!  Life wouldn’t be any fun without my randomness.
  • He went out in a snowstorm to get me coffee today.  Can I please tell you that I didn’t ask him to do this, it was a surprise.  But it was still a nice surprise and it made me feel like he pays attention to what I like 🙂 .

This list is by no means exhaustive, but it’s what comes to my mind when I look at our differences and still can see why we work.  Big ups to Life of Bon for the sweet idea on the day before V-Day!

whywework

 

And if you love it, grab that image ^^ and link up!  Why do you and your significant other work?  

A tale of two cameras.

| cheriarmour

When I decided a few months ago that this blog would be a thing-thing, I also decided that I would need to graduate from taking all my photos on the iPhone, and start taking them on a camera.  Higher quality, and more permanence.

Side note:  I’d really really to get a real camera for the blog, and some real photos taken of me, but we’ll get there when we get there.

So two weeks ago, when I was headed to DC, I begged the husband-to-be to use his camera so I could take a few pictures when I ran up to the Capitol Building and ran around and stuff.  He obliged, but before he handed it to me, he said, “Please make sure I get this back in one piece.”  OF COURSE I will, why would I not bring it back in one piece?!

So I got to DC and was having a great time until the birthday/dinner party.  I asked this guy to take a picture of me and Scott, the host (pictured below)…P1020103

Which he gladly obliged by dropping the camera on the floor.

FACK.

The camera that I’d promised would be returned in one piece was now 100% broken, and I had to figure out how to make it right.

As soon as I got back from DC, I Google it.  Camera was discontinued.  Great.

Plan B.

I logged into my Amazon, and found that there was exactly one of these discontinued cameras left in the right model and right color.  So I bought it and sat in wait.

And waited.  And waited by the window until it arrived yesterday.

“Babe I have to tell you something,” I said.

And I pulled both of these out.

photo (17)
I explained to him what I’d done, and that in wanting to make it right, I’d ended up replacing the camera.  And luckily for us, the memory card and the batteries were still good, so all of the picture were unharmed.  No harm, no foul, and I’d taken responsibility for what I’d done.

Now your turn!  What’s the most thing you’ve ever lost/broken?