in our bedroom

If you were to walk into our bedroom at night, you would see...

 Hubby would be stretching for his own space, with half of his body covered and the other half uncovered. This is how he settles in, right after he wrestles with me. Then he quickly falls asleep {I really don't understand how he does it so fast}. He falls asleep with his arm up and under my pillow. Once in a while, he twitches as he's drifting off and will literally launch my head into the air...
.

I would be snuggling with my body pillow, blankets cozied around me, all while holding my "babers" bear {and yes, I still sleep with a stuffed animal that Bry gave me.. in my defense, B's not much of a cuddler but I'm training him}. I would most likely be sleep-talking at some point during the night...
{hey, blogging is about keeping it real right?! no lies here, kids}

If you were to walk into our bedroom in the morning, you would see...

Bry with no blankets on.

Me with the blanket still cocooned around me.

The bottom comforter {yes we sleep on our lovely goosedown for extra comfort} is usually pulled down near Bry's waist. When he climbs into bed at night, that lovely goosedown starts tucked under our pillows. I have a feeling he burrows during his sleep. Just like a lil doggy.

Both of our cell phone's alarms going off simultaneously and both of us hitting snooze for 45 minutes.

Bry handing me his phone thinking it's mine and telling me to shut it off.

Me waking up by checking the email, weather, and instagram... all the while trying to keep my eyes open {this usually consists of one eye staying open, which then leads to both eyes closed until the next snooze}

Body pillow on the floor. Sometimes bear too. And usually 4 socks that were worn during the night end up around the room.
.
.
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And that's just a glimpse, people... 

today I am 24

I brought out the balloons for celebration!

Today I am 24. My life is no where close to being perfect. But, I am alive. I am healthy. My hubby's the best. He's healthy. Our family is loving, supportive, and always there for us. We both have jobs. We both have cars. We have a place to live. We have recently found a church that we love attending. Our friends are the best- even the ones we see only once or twice a year. We are blessed. I am blessed.  

clark w. griswold

Chambray. Such a hot trend right now. I've been loving my chambray button down. I wear it a lot. Maybe too much. But as you can see here and here, I love it.

Last night, I was watching Vegas Vacation {one of our favorites} and I realized that Clark W. Griswold and I were wearing the exact same shirt....

Either the trends from 1997 are coming back in, or Clark and I are both very fashionable. I'm choosing the latter.

Two peas in a pod, Clark & I. 

birthday snow!

We were forecast to get some snow last night into today and I was so excited, unlike the rest of New England. Regardless, a perfect addition to my birthday weekend if you ask me! 

The snow makes sitting inside and relaxing all day completely acceptable even though I already do that without snow. 

Happy Snow Day!

on the phone

Bry and I usually call each other on the way home from work each day. Today's conversation went like  this...

Bry: Johnston residence, Bryan speaking!
me: Oh hi! Can I speak with the head of the household please?
Bry: She's not here right now.
me: HA.HA! Well her birthday weekend has begun!!!
Bry: I think she's on her way home...
me: Yup, going to the store then I'll be home. K, bye!

We're lame, but we entertain ourselves. 

7 deadly sins

{cheesy photobooth oldie}

Apologies for my lack of posts lately. This time, I'm blaming the dead of winter (ie my love of being cozy inside watching TV) and my new love for knitting. Hey, I'm not a granny, it's just relaxing... okay?!

I found this here and she got it from here. It's a link up, kids. So fill one out yourself and meet some other bloggers!

pride

seven great things in your life

bryan p. johnston
our families- so supportive and loving
our cars are both working and both paid for
my students
our friends who are so sweet to us
my metabolism
teaching schedule- summers off!

envy

seven things you lack and covet
a new wardrobe
a bigger salary
discipline to maintain a yoga routine
our very own puppy
the desire to eat healthy meals
to be able to vacation wherever whenever
hair full of volume

wrath

seven things that make you angry
bad drivers
losing electricity for more than a day
liars
when people don't follow through on their word
watching a tv show with 40 commercials
being woken up with the overhead light
when I don't eat anything for 6+ hours 

sloth

seven things that you neglect to do
dishes
cleaning up my clothes
getting an oil change
have more patience
paying bills
pick up the 10 empty water bottles out of my car that roll around everywhere
say i love you enough

greed

seven worldly material desires
a house
more cash {duh}
a person that will blow dry my hair for me everyday
a Chevy Equinox
an unlimited free supply of Jcrew clothes every season
a new & cozy couch
weekly manicure/pedicures

gluttony

seven guilty pleasures
candles
bejeweled blitz
shopping
newlyweds: nick & jessica
pinterest
16 handles fro yo
blogs
laying out in the summer for the entire day

lust

seven things you love about love
snuggles
3am late night chats about deep issues
sleeping next to each other
being a team- yes that's how we do chores
kisses
inside jokes
starting and ending the day together


Happy Friday!

rusty

Happy Birthday, Dad!

Love you (& this picture)!

it's in the bag

I arrived home from a rough day at work to see my early birthday present from Bryan! My THEIT bag!
Yay! Oh, and I also found jeans at J.Crew for $23 marked down from $125. Score!

I love birthdays!

  

weekend on a whim

We went to Philadelphia this past weekend on a whim. We had no plans of where to go or what to do. We just went. We left Friday and came home Sunday afternoon. Independence Hall, the Philadelphia Zoo, Philly cheesesteaks, Mac's Tavern, and Penn's Landing were all stops we made. As well as a few delicious dinners. Spontaneity can be so exciting.

{Did I mention it was 60 degrees outside? In January? It was beautiful!}

{Yes, that is a tiger fight. I wish you could hear the roar that came out righty's mouth.}

Hubby,

I love all the fun we have when we are together. We always find a way to have fun, even if we get lost in extremely ghetto places together. All for you, babe. I love you!

xo, al

confession...

I'm not the best housewife. 

Okay. There. I said it. The worst is over. I think.

 I need to work on being a better housewife. And wait. Don't get me wrong... I'm not one of those believers in a woman completely losing her sense of self, career, and social life all for the sake of ironing bed sheets. First of all, I don't see the point in ironing bedsheets. {WHAT is the point?} Second of all, I believe a woman is typically the more nurturing of a couple. Therefore, I will take it upon myself to make our home a place where we want to be always- More of a place we want to return to over and over. 

One of my goals for this year is to be a better wife. Go here to read more. In short, my husband is quite the neat freak {sorry, babe, but you are}. And I'm so lucky in the fact that he is willing to cook and clean frequently. But this sometimes makes me feel like I don't have to do as much. And while I can be a little lazy, I need to be better. I need to try more. I need to do it for Bry. I know he deserves it. 

I've compiled a little list of things I can do better, or more of. And my thinking is maybe if I put this goal/list on my blog- it becomes more real, more of a to-do, more of something that I need to be held accountable to. So here goes:

Keep up with the dishes. Guys. This is the thing I hate the most. Like literally. I would avoid dishes all the time if I could.

Keep up with the laundry. Sometimes the laundry piles up, but I am much better with the laundry than I am with the dishes. 

Pick my clothes up. I don't know about anyone else, but I change probably four times a day. And I'm not always thinking about folding them and putting them away right away. I usually just throw them on the floor and pick them up about three days later. Do the math, that's quite a pile of clothes on the floor. 

Keep the place organized. I tend to leave things around, and Bry is guilty of this one too! But I need to straighten up more frequently.

and...

Clean the floors weekly. Dude. Our floors can get gross. And I'm not even sure how. Good thing I love  using our vacuum. It's probably my favorite electronic appliance. 

There you have it. Here's to becoming a better housewife. And here's to making our home somewhere we want to return to over and over. 

Oh... right, gotta go wash the dishes now...

i'm related to a bunch of polar bears

See these crazies... right here?

Bry, Kelsey, Brad and Jacki participated in the Coney Island Polar Bear Swim on New Years Day. They asked if I wanted to join- I thought No way! You could not pay me to get into that water. Turns out the water was about 40 degrees and the air was only maybe 50 degrees.

It was quite the interesting experience. There were many drunken people dressed up in awkward outfits and running around in bikinis. I'll spare your eyes from the freakish people who were still drunk. You can thank me later.

Instead, I've posted two videos, so you can understand the chaos. This seems to be similar to a scene from Jaws and or Titanic- you decide.

{Ps- Sorry the video is really shaky. I was trying to watch it all happen and videotape at the same time. Tricky, tricky stuff there}

Here's those bears after their dip.. you can't really tell its winter, right?

and just this one because my hubs is so fine

After everyone was dry and, well, not warm, we walked on over to Nathan's for lunch. It was delicious.

What a way to spend New Years Day... with a buncha polar bears :)