Two random thoughts

First of all, a big thanks to Alex for giving the blog a bit of a facelift.  All of the wedding planning has really rejuvenated Alex's creative mojo, so she channeled a bit to our little blog.

And now for my random thoughts.

1)  The "crosswalk safety tips" sign on Auburn's campus.

It's not that this sign inherently bothers me, it's WHY the placement of this sign is necessary.  I feel like that how to safely cross a road is one of those skills taught in kindergarten*.  Stop, listen, look both ways, hold hands with the person beside you, don't step out in front of a moving vehicle.  Since most people using this crosswalk are in COLLEGE, I am really concerned about the caliber of students that Auburn currently enrolls.  Also, if you don't know how to safely cross a street, you probably can't read this sign either.

2)  The Romney-Ryan logo.

I realize that I already tweeted about this, but seriously -- the R-R logo might as well have been stolen from Girl Scouts of America.  I wonder if R-squared is paying royalties.

Which brings me to part 2: was the exponent really necessary?  There are 3 R's (or 2, depending on how you look at it) already built in the logo - (3R)^2 is mathematically 9 R-squared.  Which is just confusing.  Also, it appears that the uniforms designed by Adidas for the Wisconsin v Nebraska (or Tungsten** v Nitrogen***) game also rocked the exponent/ periodic table of the elements look.

* I like pulling out all of my German vocabulary when I can.

** Yes, W is the periodic table symbol for Tungsten. 

*** Credit for this "joke" goes to ESPN.  Believe it or not.

Formal and Football

My wonderful roommates looking beautiful as always

Hello there blog-world.  It's been a while.  After a fairly lethargic start, this semester has taken over hurricane-style.  Last weekend was very busy ~ formal and the LSU-Auburn game.

the formal crew

Clearly, we are a very serious bunch.

typical

again - typical

At formal, a countdown camera (photo-booth style) was set up, complete with lots of fun props.  Excuse the text across the photos, I'm too lazy/frugal to pay 2 bucks for the pictures when I can just screenshot fo free.

And as for Saturday, the LSU game was quite fun.  After ESPN told Auburn to not bother showing up, we hung in there a little better than predicted.  Still an L is an L, and that's stinky.

Bridesmaids Boxes: DIY

So I knew I wanted to do something special to ask my bridesmaids and after seeing this blog post, I knew I wanted to do something similar! (Although mine were not quite as elaborate or detailed since I'm still in the first stages of planning)

Here are the steps I went through to accomplish the final product…

Buy wooden boxes from Hobby Lobby. I was originally going to get them all the same box, but of course HL didn't have 7 of the same size. But it was okay because it made each of the girls' gifts that much more unique!

Paint each of them with a base coat of white paint.

 Put down tape on the edges before painting the tops with chalkboard paint. (I highly recommend not using spray paint because even though it was quick, it ended up being more messy than I thought)

Come up with list of what to put inside the boxes. Here's what mine had:
               -notebook
               -my flowers (fake- from Hobby Lobby)
               -my colors (paint swatches from Home Depot)
               -other details that will be in my wedding: Lace and burlap (found burlap cutouts in the
                   scrapbooking section of Hobby Lobby
               -note (I came up with a poem…total English major move)
               -Chocolate

And then the boxes are ready for final touches before asking the girls!

{They all said yes!}

surprises and smiles.

 September 4, 2012. 
Here's what went down on this memorable day…
Got out of class at 3:15 and hurried home because Kevin wanted to go to the park before my meeting at 5. After rushing home, I quickly grabbed a slice of pizza and my water bottle from the fridge because I was starving. Obviously I had no idea what was in store because stuffing your face with cold pizza clearly isn't the most romantic thing. So after Kevin picked me up, we headed to Kiesel park to lay in the hammock and work on homework. We walked up and Kevin suggested we post up under the pavillion since it might rain. Umm okay. Still no idea. We walk up and I see pictures of us lined up under the pavillion, with candles along the way. Starting to freak out. I ask him repeatedly, "What IS this?" as we continue to walk down the path. We stop and Kevin gets his Bible out and reads from Ephesians 5 (Husbands love your wives…) and John 13 (Jesus washes his disciples' feet). Umm... still in shock over here! He washes my feet and tells me a lot of sweet things (insert mushy stuff here) and continually talks about keeping our focus on Christ. Down on one knee, he asks me those four words that every girl dreams about: "Will you marry me?" I don't actually remember saying yes, but I know I did because he slipped a beautiful ring on my finger!

Cary, Liz, and Caroline emerged from behind trees, trash cans, and bushes--all with a camera in hand. So thankful for such great friends to capture the whole proposal!

After a quick photo shoot and several phone calls, we went back to Kevin's apartment and, little did I know, there were surprises still in store. Sweet friends and both of our families drove down to celebrate the excitement with us and I was so happy they did!

It was a day I will never forget and I am so blessed to see how the Lord has worked in both of our lives and how He always has a plan.

5K: 1 for 2

As Alex mentioned earlier, last weekend's Color Run adventure didn't involve any running.  Something about having water squishing between my toes after standing in rain for over an hour just doesn't make me want to take off.  Hey - at least we got the tshirt.

This was as close to running I got.

This past weekend, I headed home for the Monkey C Monkey Run 5K benefitting Camp Smile-A-Mile and got to run on "Team Julianne."  This time, I actually started the race and ran all but about 2 minutes.  Shout out to Charles for running with me even though he could have left me in the dust.

Extremely sweaty, post-race picture

Auburn {round four}, part 2

Almost a month ago, Alex posted about her room in our "new" apartment.  

My turn.  Quite an upgrade from Magnolia Hall!

I'll also add that we got a new washer and dryer about 2 weeks after moving in.  We were probably more happy about that than we should have been.  Oh well.  It's the little things.

I reused all of my previous artwork, and I made this gem out of my favorite pictures from Austria.  I ran out of mini-clothespins, so pardon the random paper clips.

She Said Yes

Cookies courtesy of Happy Bakes

Let's just say that this past Tuesday, we had a little excitement.  After dating approximately 933 days, Kevin popped the question, and Alex said yes!  Whoooop!

Right after the big moment.  (Sorry about cutting off your head, Kevin.)

I was honored to be a small part of this big day.  But seeing as this isn't exactly my shin-dig, I'm gonna hand the floor over to Alex to fill blog-world in on the details.  Until then, enjoy a few pictures and make sure you congratulate the new fiancés both in person and over every form of social media that you are a member of.

Love you both!

And so it begins...

Obviously the 'it' I'm referring to is none other than football season.

We started off the 2012 season by making a trip to the Georgia Dome to cheer on our Auburn Tigers!

We may have lost against Clemson, but our spirits soon rose as we headed to Six Flags the next day. There's nothing like near death experiences riding roller coasters to help you gain some perspective on a loss!

After a fun day at Six Flags, we were Birmingham bound for The Color Run.

Here's what I was picturing this Labor Day activity to be like:

Unfortunately, the day went more like this:

Yeah, this is Caroline checking the weather forecast. Spoiler Alert: it rained. a lot.

So we stood in the pouring rain for about an hour, waiting on the rain to stop or the race to start. When neither happened as quickly as we would have liked, we opted out and drove home for coffee and hot showers. 

Can't say we didn't try.

All in all, it was a great weekend. There were long car rides with good music and I was able to spend time with sweet friends and wonderful family. And I would call that a win.