wonder woman wednesday

If I were a superhero I'd like to be the Caffeine Countess. I could hand out really cool looking re-usable travel cups of coffee/tea. Of course I'd be conscious of those who shouldn't have it like growing children and pregnant mommas. College kids would be alert in class, business people would be active participants in their meetings, loud obnoxious people would have something to put in their mouths to save the ears of others on the train. Perhaps even light rail conductors would become better drivers. Riders would be so energized we would probably burst into song and dance making the 6:30am train a musical scene brimming at the seems with sunshine and happiness.

If I were to become the Caffeine Countess I would be in need of a sidekick, as everyone knows coffee on an empty stomach is a preposterous idea. I would name my sidekick Pastry Person as not everyone likes one specific item like the bear claw. On second thought, who even likes bear claws? Pastry Person could make those kiddies and preggers not feel so bad about missing out on the wondrous liquid pouring from my veins sweetened with come sort of Shamrock Farms goodness. We would be an unstoppable team in the world of the over extended and under slept!

i hope you had your coffee this morning.

your. sex. is. on. fire.

adventures on public transportation.

These days I've been riding the light rail quite frequently. With gas prices rising and a sweet incentives program from St. Joe's, it's hard not to. On these trips most often I get to read, however I am easily sent into fit of motion sickness when the driver of the train insists on driving like he received his permit yesterday. In that case I get to people watch. Behind the safety of my Coach sunglasses I watch college students cramming 20 more minutes of studying in before their final, the weird guy who unsuccessfully attempts to pick his nose so no one else notices, and my personal favorite the mentally unstable.

As of late I have started practicing Bikram Yoga and my studio happens to be near a light rail stop. Today I rode the rail to class and back. After class I decided to shower in the comfort of home so I could shave my legs. Despite changing, my hair was still soaking wet and I had started to perspire into the second t-shirt when I boarded the east bound train headed back to our apartment. All that laughing under my breath caught up with me this moment. I became the object to ogle. My tomato colored face was still pulsing from class adorned with frizzy hair in a messy bun on the top of my head. My scent was intensely penetrating three seats away in either direction evidenced by the homeless man looking my way with a look that seemed to say "dear Jesus, I thought I had it bad".

In order to get the car I had to pass one bus stop after disembarking the train. Looking ahead I could spot two men in their late twenties, one pacing, obviously anxious about the arrival of the next bus and the other muttering a quick jibberish under his breath. I have never actually seen anyone strung out on a drug made in a bathtub, but these two made it easy to imagine. Eyes fixed firmly ahead, the plan was not to make eye contact or any friendly gesture toward either of them thus inviting an approach. As I quickened my pace, the seated man yelled out at me. Sticking to the plan I did not look in any direction other than straight and continued in a fast walk. My capri pants were riding up giving me a wedgie, sweat covered the back of my shirt, and my face was on fire. Desperate the man yelled out "You are beautiful!". If I wasn't so terrified I may have stopped to contemplate this. I imagined the look on his companion's face after hearing his declaration, and then heard my admirer say to him "what?! she is beautiful".

and then I smiled.

After sweating and concentrating and bending and stretching I had a clear mind and a pink face.

And I felt beautiful.

you are beautiful.

magazine covered carpet

the adventures of planning a wedding...

These "lover duckies" were on our engagement cake made for us by Clayton's Momma.

Who knew there was so much to plan?

i hope you're more prepared than i am.

a royal affair

adventures at 3 am....

Hey Party People!

One of the most prominent memories from my childhood is my Mother's adoration for Diana Princess of Wales. She would always tell my sisters and I how she stayed up late the night she married Prince Charles to watch the wedding. When I was nine, she stayed up with my Aunt Lani to watch her funeral. For whatever reason I always wished I could have stayed up late with my Momma to watch Lady Di in her puffy wedding dress marry the man of her dreams.

Obviously we would be having a shin-dig for Prince William's union to miss Kate Middleton. We went all out. Momma bought champagne, my Aunt Lani brought the wedding cake, and I provided tiara's for everyone in attendance. We Tivoed it for good measure, but still were assembled in my Momma's living room at 3 am to watch history in the making.

It was refreshing to see the bride utter the word "wow" after stepping out onto the balcony at Buckingham Palace. It's like she almost forgot she just became an icon for an entire country.

For the record, I loved her dress. Classic.

I love corny photos, even at 4:30 in the morning.

This one is better because of my face.

Abbey did not want to wear a crown...

My sweet boy came to help eat cake and make sure I didn't fall asleep while driving to Mom's.

Surprise raspberry filling.
Yum.

Apparently she thought she was the only one without makeup on.

I love that my family gets up in the middle of the night (despite recording technology) to watch history in the making so we can tell our kids we did it.

i hope you still get excited for true love.

easter dinner

Easter adventures...

Hello all! I hope you had a wonderful Easter holiday with your families/loved ones! I had the pleasure of spending mine with my Dad, my littlest sisters, my step brother, and my new family <3. I'm going to be honest, I was super nervous it would be awkward and our families wouldn't mesh. After about 2 drinks each it was clear that we will be spending all of our holidays with our new big, happy, and intoxicated families. How lucky am I?

Devyn, my stepbrother being his super cool self.

Clayton's Dad.
Sweetest man. Ever.

My Dad with Clayton's Mom and Aunt Kris.
Yeah, my Dad was totally doing the dishes.

The handsome Nelson boys.
:)

I cannot believe how mature my sisters are becoming.

Yet again, we totally did not mean to match but it looks pretty awesome.

Abbey is the only one on her game here.

I love my sisters.

The best part of the night for me was my Dad pouring sips of champagne for everyone and proposing a toast to Clayton and I. I can't remember word for word what he said, but the line that has stuck with me is this:

"To Aimee and Clayton for bringing our families together."

Cheers!

i hope your easter was wonderful.

job offer

(big girl) job adventures...

So this last week has kept me busy, since I got a job offer from St. Joe's to work as a Certified Therapeutic Recreational Specialist! That's right folks, I am quitting my day job to work part time as a therapist in both in and out patient neuro-rehab. I couldn't be more excited! I am still in the transition process, but feel very blessed to have the opportunity to use my education and help others in their healing process.

i hope you love what you do.

besties and brunch

This last Sunday I attended the Elusinian Brunch hosted every year by both the Psi Epsilon Chapter of Chi Omega and the Phoenix Valley Chi Omega Alumnae Chapter in celebration of Chi Omega's Founders Day.

You can read about last year's brunch here.

I loved getting to see familiar faces, the best part is looking back at photos taken from last year and comparing them to this year's.

I can't believe it has been an entire year since I lived with these girls!
They are amazingly entertaining and wonderful secret keepers :)

Miss Lane and I

This is my little Chi O family, my little sis and her two littles!

Haleigh has a few cute ones of her and I on her camera, but it seems she isn't very good at working email otherwise I'd have them to post for you. Anyways...

One of the best parts of Elusinian is showing off the pictures... undoubtedly someone will ask "where were you guys, Hawaii?" duh.

i hope you're enjoying the sunshine.

to whom it may concern

Dear friends, family, and all other individuals in my life,

Yes, Clayton and I have made the decision to share the rest of our lives with each other. I will be the girl that gets married at 23. People will either be happy for us or whisper about us and talk about all the things we are "giving up" by getting married so young.

I would like to take this opportunity to let you know that if you are of the whispering camp you can keep it to yourself.

I will not allow you to ruin my happiness because you do not have your own.

love,

aimee

hoping for happy thoughts and wishes.

the story of how i officially came off the market

adventures of the luckiest girl in the world...

So this weekend after Clayton and I attended the fabio-mueller wedding, we decided to end our trip with sunset on the beach before the treacherous drive home. Clayton took me to Crystal Cove where we walked along the ocean and explored caves and man made waterfalls.

Of course we rolled up our jeans, and proceeded to leave them rolled the rest of the trip.

I thought I should cut out the sign that read "danger! drain water keep children away".
I read that and realized I was standing barefoot in the drain water. eww.

I swear we didn't coordinate the matching colors before hand...

We finally found a spot to lay our towels out and enjoy the ocean view for a little while and bask in the sunshine.

There I was, drawing in the sand with my fingers and taking pictures of the ocean minding my own business.
aimee: why are you being so restless? it's like you can't stop moving
clayton: i dunno... just trying to get comfortable. we are on sand.
.....
....
...
..
.
clayton: hey watch out, i saw a piece of glass by your towel. i don't want you to hurt yourself.
aimee: okay. (sweet to warn me)
clayton: just be careful, it looks sharp.
aimee: (i'm not moving around like you spaz, i'll be fine)...o-kay.
...
..
.
clayton: okay, can you just move it? i really don't want you to cut yourself.
i huff, but reluctantly get off of my belly and start to search for some dangerous glass in the sand.
i find it. it's slightly buried. actually, i'm surprised he even noticed it since it's barely peeking out of the sand. i pick it up.

**i would like to note that at this moment all my Nancy Drew instincts escape me**

aimee: OH MY GOD! its a bottle, it has a note in it!!! i bet its from the ocean, it looks so old!
clayton: open it!

here i am clamoring on about how this is the coolest thing and in my head i'm dreaming of who sent this and what european land it came from.

i finally get the note out of the bottle and start to read out loud. about halfway through it is apparent that the author of this note has had his heart broken, as a matter of fact he hasn't seen his true love in quite awhile. the bottom is signed "who am i? i used to be her boyfriend".

the note makes me confused and sad. but then i notice the handwriting kinda looks like clayton's. i turn to him to try and get to the bottom of this mystery.

and there is clayton holding a box with a pretty little diamond ring in it.

clayton: i don't want to be your boyfriend anymore. i want to spend the rest of my life with you. will you marry me?

aimee:.... are you being serious?!?!
YES!!!

yes ladies and gents, that's how it really happened.

so i guess i'm engaged now :)

For your viewing pleasure I took a picture of exactly where he asked me.
(right where the coast starts to curve!)

I'm currently floating on cloud 9.

i hope you're as weightless as i am.

fabio-mueller wedding

a wedding adventure...

This past weekend I spent three whole days in Cali with my fabulous traveling partner Clayton. We were visiting for the wedding of a close friend of Clayton's (he was in the wedding!) The ceremony and reception were held at the Houdini Mansion, and it was absolutely stunning. Of course I took photos of the grounds and tried to capture a few of us too.

The forties themed wedding was set perfectly in the Hollywood hills.
I snapped a quick shot of the bride and groom as they were posing for the photographer.

Since it has been raining a ton there the grounds were lush and green.
So pretty!

The bride is Italian so to honor her family two Bocci ball sets were placed in the grass for guests to play before the ceremony started.

I know this one isn't very clear, but I wanted to give you an idea of it anyway.

This switch back stair case served as the background as the couple read their vows beneath a wrought iron arch. It leads to a hiking trail that takes you to the top of the mountain the house is built on.



And the view from the top of the stairs.

The view looking out from the reception area.

Where they made history.

It had rained on my hair twice before the ceremony started, otherwise there would be no excuse for frizzy hair at a wedding.

The tables before the delicious food was served.



One of my favorite things about the wedding was the cake, the bride hand painted their cake topper and the carrot cake cupcakes melted in your mouth.

My prince in his wedding clothes- so very handsome.

How lucky am I?

i hope you count your blessings.