Remember how I went on vacation?

Yeah, this month hasn't been month. You know how every once in a while you have "one of those days?" I've had one of those months. But, that's a post for another day. Wanna see pictures from my vacation to Biltmore?

It's the biggest house in the United States. It's more like a castle really. Four acres of floor space. For a family of three. Built in the late 1800s, it was fully electric, had an indoor swimming pool with underwater lights, refrigerators, 40 something indoor bathrooms, and a full gym. Ri. Dic. U. Lous. It took us hours just to walk through it!

I know you're bored hearing me talk about it, so I'll stop. But man, this house was amazing. The land was amazing, it was just a freaking ridiculous. 

 Omg, I wish you could have seen the gardens. My pictures don't even KIND OF do it justice.

 This was just perched on the edge of the reservoir. It made me squeak.

 And I got to go horseback riding. All over the estate. Gah, it was awesome. That's me and my MIL.

And now I have no more energy to type. Peace.

R.I.P. Jellybean

In case you don't follow me on {facebook}, I've been taking a short break from blogging since we had to put my beloved cat, Jellybean, down last week.

I know, I'm a grown woman, I shouldn't be so upset about my cat dying. But I've had my darling since I was 10 years old, she's been a major part of my life for 15 years! I begged and begged and begged my parents to get me a cat, for YEARS I begged them. When they  finally caved in shortly after my sister was born, they even let me name her.

I named her Jellybean. I saw the name in a magazine and I thought it was just the cutest thing ever.

Back when I was 10, I didn't exactly know how to handle a brand new kitten. She had just scratched my face when my parents decided to take the picture. At least my siblings are still cute, look at my brothers just hamming it up!

She always did the dumbest things. Like sit inside of lunchboxes on hot days.

And play Monopoly.

And become very protective of hangers.

The funniest thing she did was lick laundry baskets. It always cracked me up, she would just lick and lick and lick!

She slept/sat in a lot of weird places and positions.

 (Ok, ok, this one was posed.)

She was always very tolerant of the hilarious things we would do to her.

Notice I said "tolerant." She was such a cute kitty. Old and grumpy, just like me.

This one is just because she looks like a crazy, evil plotting psycho kitty here. 

*Sigh* I miss her so much. I loved her more than I love most people, I'm just a crazy cat lady. Putting her down was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do. (Even though I didn't actually put her down...) But it was just cruel to keep her alive, the poor darling was suffering so much I couldn't even bear to think about her living like that for one more minute. 

As a gigantic cat lover and someone who doesn't yet have kids of her own, losing my 15 year old cat was just devastating for me. But, I've been reassured that I will see my beloved kitty again, and she's happily prancing around chasing lasers like she hasn't been able to for years. 

R.I.P. Jellybean.

What about you? Have you ever lost a pet? Do you believe in a pet heaven? Got any fun pet memorial crafts?

Chartreuse and Co, antique shopping

Over the weekend, and I went Meg and her hubs to an antique store called {Chartreuse and Co.} Maybe you've heard of it! Do you read the blog {Primitive and Proper}? Yup. That's her. Amazing huh? The store was so packed full of gorgeous goodies we walked through the house AT LEAST twice just to make sure we didn't miss anything! Refinished furniture that was to die for, fun old trinkets, jewelry, ahh. The prettiness. They even had barnfulls of old furniture you could refinish yourself!

Being on a budget sucks. Not having a house sucks. Jus' saying

I took some pictures with my phone, and used the "vintage" filter to make it SEEM like they are actually good pictures. Enjoy.

This is all I walked out with. Two little numbers, an 87 for me, an 85 for the hubs. Our birth years. Now just to figure out what to do with them. :)

How was your weekend?

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day! Since today is all about love, I thought I'd share a little bit about me and my love.

1. How long have you and your significant other been together?

We've been together for about 4 1/2 years. 

(We had been dating only a few weeks at this point. Hence the lack of wedding ring.)

2. How did you meet? {What's your "love" story?}

Heehee, we were both flying out to school and he stalked me in the airport and wouldn't leave me alone. Creepy, I know. The whole story is {here}. 

3. If married, how long have you been married? If not, is this the guy you hope to marry? {do tell}

We just had our three year anniversary in December! 

(We went to Dave and Busters this year!)

4. If you are married, where did you get married at? Big or small wedding?  If not, where would you like to get married? And will it be big or small?

We got married in the truly stunning Washington D.C. temple for time and all eternity! It was an average sized wedding. Since we got married six days before Christmas, we went for a non-traditional reception. Finger foods, no DJ or dancing, people could come and go as they pleased. It was wonderful. 

(This is my favorite pic from the reception. :)

5. Do you have any nick-names that you call one another? Do share!

Um...we mostly just call each other honey. I call him honey bunches of oats when I'm feeling silly, and he returns the favor with honey bunny. 

6. Name 3 things you love most about your honey.

He's very sweet to everyone, he tries to make everyone happy. He is smart and ambitious. He's ridiculously handsome. 

7. Tell us how he proposed? Or your ideal proposal?

Haha, I had come back from a week away at my out of state nannying job. I had to came home to pack up my apartment because my lease ended the next day! It was about 11:30 (PM, that is) and he texted me and said "Hey can I come over?" When almost an hour had passed and he still wasn't there, I knew something was up. It's not like it takes an hour to walk two blocks to my apartment from his. When he finally showed up he had a blanket and his computer and told me we should take a break from packing and watch the stars. We went to our favorite spot and he opened his computer and played me a video he made of pictures of us set to our song. By this point I knew what was going on. He pulled out a shapeless mass and handed it to me. I unwrapped a toy airplane from one of his t shirts and inside the cockpit was a sweet poem he had written. Underneath that was the ring. :) He got on one knee and told me "we should get hitched."

It was well past 1am at this point, and I had to go back to my apartment and pack and clean my brains out before I got kicked out at noon. Good timing honey, good timing. 

8. Is he a flowers and teddy bear kind of guy for v-day, or strawberries, champagne, and rose petals?

He's a "let me play video games for a few hours without nagging me" kinda guy. Oh, wait, what would he get me? Flowers, my favorite, lilies and peach roses. 

9. Are you a sunset dinner on the beach kind of girl, or pop a movie in and relax on the couch?

Most of the time I like to pop in a movie and relax, but I love going out and doing something different on special occasions.

10. Tell us one thing you'd like to do with your significant one day. If you could do anything? Go anywhere?

Hmm...I'd like to go to some exotic island and spend a week alone with him. He's never left the country before, so it would be fun to get our passports renewed and just escape. Or go on a cruise, I'd be ok with that. One day I'd like to start our family, that's something I look forward to. 

11. Tell us what you plan on doing on this Valentine's Day.

This year it happens to fall on a Tuesday, which just so happens to be our regular "date night." We got a really nice gift card for Christmas so we are going to use it to go to a special dinner or some kind. We might wait until later, since it'll probably be ridiculous tonight. 

12. Are you asking for anything this Valentine's day?

Nope, we are on a very tight budget (which is why we are so happy to have a gift card for dinner!) so I told him to make me something. I made him something, see the bottom of the post. :)

13. Give us one piece of advice of keeping a relationship strong and full of love.

Make sure you have lives without each other. Pursue your own interests, hang out with your own friends, keep your own identity. But that doesn't mean stop doing things together!

14.  Show us a picture of what love means to you.

David took this with his phone the other day. Dumb cats, the basket is hardly big enough for one of them!

Wanna see what I made the hubs for Valentine's Day??

Braaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaains, means "I love you" in zombie.

I absolutely and completely, 100% stole the idea from {this} Etsy listing. I was thiiiis (imagine be pinching my thumb and pointer close together) close to buying it, but it just wasn't in the budget. So I improvised. I think it makes him look like he's sucking out my brains. :D

May your day be filled with chocolate.