Chores

Geo and I have a confession to make: we are procrastinators.

Not like, "Oh I will do the dishes tomorrow."

I mean, we do laundry on Sundays and 50% of the time it remains in the hamper until we wear it... then back in the hamper for washing.

Yeah, and the dishes, they get done when the sink is half-full and the dishwasher has already filled with clean dishes.

After a long day, we just do not feel like doing much else than making dinner, straightening up and hanging out.

But I tell ya, we have done a lot these past few day! 

Cleaning, laundry, mowing, cooking, dishes, gardening... we even got a good start on our guest bedroom!  A new queen bed, bed frame and linens.

We realized our house will fall apart this month (with all the weekend traveling we have planned!!) if we don't do more chores during the week.

And when thinking long-term, our laziness will not be allowed when we have a baby so we might want to get in the swing-of-things now.

How about you?  What is your method for doing chores?

Sunday Morning

After days of rain and more in the forecast, the sky cleared as much as it could and Maroon 5 took the stage!

Adam sang and shook-his-groove-thang (while I had a perma smile on my face) for over an hour and it was amazing.  They gave it their all and the crowed cheered for an encore. 

And an encore is what they gave us; they returned with "Sunday Morning"!

Can you hear Geo singing at the top of his lungs??? 

And I am not sorry for the shaky camera... we were dancing to our song :)

Many may have questioned our choice of having "Sunday Morning" as our wedding song.
My response is the same every time: it's romantically realistic.
"Thing just get so crazy, living life gets hard to do.  Sunday morning, rain is falling and I am calling out to you.  Singing someday it will bring me back to you. Find a way to get myself back home to you."

With that, it's Sunday morning and I am going to find my way to Geo!

xo,
S

Happy Friday

Geo and I have one heck of a summer planned and it kicks-off this weekend!

Tonight, we are on our way to see Maroon 5.  In concert.  For our first time.

For those who don't know, Maroon 5's "Sunday Morning" was our wedding song.  And I am praying they play that little ditty tonight so we can beam with love and delightment at each other!  Yep, I love me some cheese :)

The concert is a few hours away from our house, so we will be sleeping over then hitting up the wine trail on the way home ...

... and hopefully, the outlet mall too!  Mama could use 4 new pairs of shoes and some new pots and pans :)

Then Saturday night, we get home and head out to Beer Fest for our friend's birthday!  The best part... well, other than unlimited beer... is we get to hang out with our "extended" group of friends. 

You know, there are your close friends, which is 3 other couples and us, and your extended friends, which is about 8 couples and us.  And it sounds like almost all 9 couples will be together, drinking and being marry.

Then Sunday my youngest cousin, Johnny, is graduating from high school! 

Hope you all have a great weekend as well!!

Thank You McDonalds

I would like to thank McDonalds. 

I know, I know... fast food is the devil (cause so delicious with calories and greasy-goodness) but when they launched the "Any Size Coffee for a $1" promotion... I fell in love and I don't care who knows it!!

So every other morning, I get my large coffee with 2 creams, 1 sugar for a whopping $1.08.

Gooood Morning Sunshine!!

And those 108 pennies that I spend every-other-day seem to make that day so much more enjoyable... like I have something to look forward to... something other than the weekend!

I hope these dollar days are here to stay! 
Happy Friday morning :)

Just a Little Bump in the Rue

So, we left off with Geo and I having a perfectly Parisian lunch and touring Notre Dame.
We had schedule an illuminations bus tour for that evening so we went back to the hotel to rest.

A few hours later, we decided to head to the Louvre so we would be close to the bus' pick up area. 

This is the bus stop...

Haha... right?!  The bus stop was right in the middle of the road that cuts through the plaza of the Louvre and drops you in front of the pyramid.  Crazy!

We were stunned by the beauty and massiveness of the Louvre.

So stunned, we had to call home while there... it was just too much... we had to share!

So I took the above picture, turned around and saw this...

OMG!  Eiffel Tower!  Just there!  I cried.  It was just such a magical moment :)  Worthy of a picture, in the opposite direction... haha...

Next, we started walking through the gardens of the Louvre at sunset...

And again, there in the distance, the Arch de Triumph and Cleopatra's Needle...

Geo and I were pretty excited to see Cleopatra's Needle for several reasons.  1.) His Mom and Dad are pretty in love with all thing Egypt and 2.) We have now seen all 3 Needles: the one in NYC, the one in London and the last in Paris.  Pretty sweet, uh?!

And of course, the Arch de Triumph made us weak in the knees!!!! 

One last pic of us at the gardens while we wait for our tour bus.  This will mark the last nice picture of the evening...

The rest, from the bus tour, all turned out like this...

So we LOVED the Louvre, the Glass Pyramid, the gardens and the view. 

We didn't love the tour. 

They picked up us in a nice area, central to public transportation, which was nice.  The bus was enclosed allowing for no pictures.  The bus route made it that all the sites were on the left side of the bus; we were on the right.  But the French music in the head phones we nice... but a vocal tour would have been great!

We would have been okay with all the above IF they hadn't dropped us off in a completely different area that had low lighting and ZERO public transportation options.  AT MIDNIGHT.

After walking around aimlessly and consulting our Rick Steve's tour book, we found out that you need to go to the taxi stands to get a taxi; you can't hail them like in NYC.  So after an hour of trying for a cab, we jumped in a cab with another couple heading in the same direction.

Overall, it was a great night.  I got to see (some of) a glowing Paris with the man I love.

Next, all of Paris in a nut shell!

Unforgettable Paris

So, we hopped on the EuroStar in London and arrived in Paris. With 75 lbs of luggage in tow, George had us take the metro from the train station to our hotel then walk the 4 blocks to our street.

After a few choice words from a miserable me, we arrived to this... The Sorbonne!

And a HUGE, clean, comfortable room...

That is one happy man...

And one heck of a view...

It was lunch time and naturally, we were hungry.  So we headed out to explore the St. Germine district and stopped at our first bistro...

Craving vegatables, I had a salad with fresh goat cheese and toasted baguette... heaven!

George went right to a must-have; Croque Monsieur!

Mmm... ham and cheese soaked in cheese sauce then broiled for brown-goodness...mmm



Full and happy, we started walking... just to the end of the block... when we saw this from across the river ...

Like, we turned a corner and saw history.  It was breathtaking!  So we went in...

The main alter was beautiful.  It was somber but enlighting.  Though, we didn't know if it was okay to smile, so we went "neutral" face.  Kind of like "Blue Steal" but more neutral :)

After walking the interior, we walked the exterior and I took a million photos of all 3 rose windows...

I told Geo, I want to print off pictures of all three and hang them in the house.  I just loved them.

After Notre Dame, we went back to the hotel to rest and get ready for what will be the biggest disappointment of Paris: Our Illuminations Tour of the City.

But don't worry, hanging out at the Louvre before hand made up for it :)

More to come!

The Dream Came True...

... and we can't wait to share it with you!

First, London...

we went to Buckingham Palace

strolled St. Jame's Park

stared in amazement at Westminster Abby

were super excited to see the red, British phone booths

shrugged and said "nah" to the London Eye

searched for the perfect shot of St. Paul's Cathedral

couldn't believe we got to see Shakespeare's Globe

kept repeating the words of Clarke W. Griswald, "Big Ben. Parliament."

walked the Millennium Bridge...

 me, referencing Bridget Jones; him referencing the Death Eaters from Harry Potter

We also fell in love with sticky toffee pudding, Pimms, Hyde Park, Harrod's, cabs and fish and chips. 

We really enjoyed our time in London and we wished could have gone into the country side but there was just no time.  We both said we we were a bit disappointed in London; the blend of new and old wasn't smooth, actually it was almost jarring.  It was really expensive, very upscale and, at times, intimidating.

As we set off on the next lag of our trip via EuroStar, we worried that Paris was not going to live up to our expectations.

Oh boy, we were in for the most magical surprise... PARIS!