baby spazzy.

As I have told you before, one of my best friends, Megan is pregnant!  She is due February 16th, so she is about 6 1/2 months along.  Her husband, Mike, has been in Georgia since the beginning of October for SS training, but will be back in time to spend the last few weeks of her pregnancy with her!  I am looking forward to holding Megan and Mike's sweet tiny baby in February. :)

Megan and Candice came this weekend to visit so we decided to take a few maternity pictures.  We had a gorgeous fall day to work with and Candice was very helpful as our set director! haha

Megan looks so pretty and I hope she likes the pictures...keep in mind - I am NOT a professional!



A few of my personal favs...

 

 

It will take me a while longer to process all of the pictures so I will post a whole album on Facebook later in the week!

xoxo

st. marys.

So, last week I went to church for the first time on my own in my adult life.  I had thought about going after I found out that one of my best friends, Candice, told me that her Aunt Linda had been diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer that has already metastasized to her liver.  I know you can pray for someone outside of church, but for some reason it seems like the prayers get to God faster in church.  So, I decided to bite the bullet and get my ass to mass! (hahaha)

Sunday morning I woke up and thought - I can either put on my old sweatshirt and Christmas socks and plop on the couch for a few hours, or I can get in the shower and go to church.  Thankfully, I chose the latter.  I decided to go to the church that was built around the time I moved to Richmond by our old town house.  After looking at it online I realized that it was more of a modern style church, but I thought I would give it a try.  Emily had been to St. Michaels (another Catholic church in the area) and wasn't very impressed, so I thought I would try St. Marys to see if this would be the church that I wanted to bring my family to in the future. 

I knew that I would think of Grandma during church because she, along with my mom, have been the two biggest faith figures in my life.  I remember going up for communion and spotting Grandma and Grandpa in the pews on my walk back and being soo excited because I knew they would insist on taking us to McDonalds for lunch after mass!  Anyway, as I sat down last Sunday I became somewhat overwhelmed by the memories of Grandma.  I kept thinking - she would think this church is stupid...way too modern for her taste.  It didn't help that November in St. Marys is the month where the congregation brings pictures of loved ones who have passed and put them by the altar to be prayed over.  So, as I sat there I got to the point of choking back tears...it doesn't seem to get easier that she is gone.  I cry at random times, but sitting in a church where I know NO ONE is not the best place to have a break-down!  I almost had to get up and leave, but I was able to get it together after a few minutes and decided I would stay.  It would make her happy and I hope she was proud that I went...


As I said before, I knew the church was more of a modern style, but I realized as I walked in that the church was VERY modern and I didn't enjoy the set up at all.  The 'altar' was towards the middle of the room and wasn't even a real altar...it just didn't feel holy enough to me.  I don't know, it felt weird...so as I sat in the pew I realized there were NO kneeling benches.  Ummm...did they expect me to kneel on the floor?  How rude.  Well, it turns out that, no, they do not expect you to kneel on the floor because they don't kneel in this church!  Wtf?  I hated kneeling as a child in church, but now that I'm older I realize that it is a part of mass and quite frankly, I was irritated that they took that out of the mass.  Then I realized that the altar boys (ok, I guess they are called altar 'servers' now, but I think it is stupid to have girls do this because traditionally it is boys...don't judge me) weren't even wearing the cloak things!!!  They were wearing regular clothes!  What kind of operation are these people running?!?!  Then, the last straw was the fact that they give wine at communion.  REAL WINE, PEOPLE.  Not only that, but everyone drinks out of the same cup!  WTF?!  First of all, it's flu season, second of all, it's 2010 it is NOT ok to share a cup with another 100 people.  Good God....needless to say I skipped the wine station.  Sick. 

I was less than impressed and will probably be on the lookout for a new church.  This week I found a BEAUTIFUL cathedral in downtown Richmond that is actually closer to my house and looks phenomenallllllll.  However, it faces Monroe Park which is the park where all the homeless people congregate in Richmond.  Soooo, I need to think about that one for a bit.

But, overall, it felt good to go to mass and I am really glad I did.  I hope to try to go more often from now on. (you know, more than once every 5 years) I plan on raising my children Catholic, so I should probably get right with God before I start preaching to the choir, but I've got plenty of time to do that because there are no babies in my near future!

toodles.

baby fleish :)

I'm going to be an auntttttttt!!!  EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEKKKKKKKKKK

Now I have two babies that I get to play with next year and then give back to mommy and daddy when they poop.  Life is good. :)

Baby Spaziani - February 16, 2011
Baby Fleisher - May 27, 2011

come stay awhile.

Now that the wedding is over Chris and I have found ourselves with a bit of extra time than we had before, so we took on another project :)  The guest room!  We got a beautiful comforter set from Chris' Aunt Heidi for my wedding shower and we were anxious to get it set up!  We pulled the wall color from the comforter and LOVE it.  It is probably a bit bright for most tastes, but Chris and I have found that we aren't afraid of color so we went with it!  Below are some pictures of the transformation...

Enjoy!

 Prepping the room - I am an excellent taper!

Cutting in - that's me too!

Bauer worked very hard...

VERY...

hard...

Final product! (Comforter needs to be steamed!)

It was really dark in the room, so this picture didn't turn out that great! But, it is the perfect room for my beautiful centerpiece that my wonderful Aunty Peggy made Chris and me for the wedding!! XOXO

We also were able to hang some other things we bought/received for the wedding...

Two are in our hallway upstairs (here) and two are in our family room downstairs :)

Kitchen wall - FINALLY something on it!!

And last but not least...My mom made this for Chris and me for the wedding.  We love it and it is hanging in our hallway upstairs. xoxo

We were able to make more progress in our house in one weekend than we have since we moved in!  We have a few more plans for next year, but we'll need our tax return check first! hahaha

new adventure.

With the wedding and honeymoon stuff I forgot to post about my test scores!  I PASSED both VCLA tests!!!  I got a 278 on reading and a 271 on writing.  I honestly thought I had bombed the writing portion, so I am glad they were lenient.  My prompt was horribleeeeee, but at least it is over.

I also got my official acceptance letter from Mary Baldwin College yesterday.  This is where I will be completing my teaching license.  My orientation is on December 13th and I am really excited!  I can't wait to start working towards this career...I HOPE I have finally found my place in the working world.  This comes at a perfect time as I just had my one year review at my current job.  I got all great marks (duh), but NO raise...again!  Nothing, nada, zip.  Oh, but they want me to take on more work and responsibilities...typical.  Oh well, at least I will have school to keep me busy next year and a goal in sight!

2011 will be a busy but AMAZING year!  In more ways than you all know yet...stay tuned ;)

few more.

For the full gallery of pictures from the wedding click HERE and then enter the pass code: 1092010

If you have facebook I will be posting some of these in albums once we get the DVD of images! :)

best night of my life.

We are anxiously waiting to get the pictures from our wedding from the photographer...but today they sent us a slideshow/collage/video of pictures and I have to say it is AMAZINGGG.  They chose the pictures and the songs and the pictures are AWESOME and the songs they chose are perfect.  I LOVE LOVE LOVE it!  It made me cry, smile, and laugh.  I knew our wedding was fun, but after seeing these pictures I am fully convinced that we had the best wedding in the world.  My 'vision' came together 100% and my MOM and AUNT PEGGY deserve all the credit.  They worked their asses off and it really paid off.  It was by far the best night of my our life. 

Please enjoy - KEARNEY WEDDING VIDEO

antigua.

It would take waaaay too long to give a recap of our honeymoon, so here is a QUICK summary.

• Our first flight was delayed by 9.5 hours and we missed the flight to Antigua.
• We spent the first night of our honeymoon watching the Caps game with my parents.
• All flights to Antigua on Tuesday were smooth.
• Antigua is amazinggg.
• All flights back to Dulles were smooth.
• We had a short, yet amazing, honeymoon!

 Rainbow on the flight from Miami to Antigua.

We actually made it!

Antigua airport

Lobby at the resort where we were greeted with champagne and a cold towel (both much needed!)

First night enjoying a bit of the beach - can you tell we were exhausted?!

Now that's what I call paradise!

We got to eat dinner in the sand!

AWESOME pool with giant swim up bar and tables.

I already love being married :)

This is what I did...for 4 days.

And this is what Chris did!

Our little room.

Last night :(

 We were Room 801 hehe

Already looking forward to our next trip...in a few years :)

mallory jane kearney

Just thought I would introduce myself  :)

More blogging to come later this week...although with all that happened over the past week I'm not sure where to start!

help?

Panic is starting to creep in...3 more days.

I'm also very sad that we'll be leaving Bauer for 10 days!! :(  He totally knows we are leaving too.  He's been extra cuddly this week (if that's really even possible).

I love this dogggggggggg.

Case of the Mondays.

If you had a bad day like I did today (hate my bossssssssssssssss) ...please let me cheer you up...

This dog kills me.

Let the festivities begin...

I know this post is a little late, but with the wedding only being 5 days away now, we have been sooo busy!

An update on my VCLA test...it sucked.  That's about all I have to say about that!  I hate writing and I reeeeally hate writing while I'm in a freezing cold elementary school library sitting at a wood table that's made for little people NOT giant monsters like me.  I had to sit side-saddle the entire 3 hours I was there and after an hour of testing I could not feel my butt.  No bueno.  Looks like I'll be starting my schooling at the local community college in Richmond and get some classes out of the way while I try to pass the VCLA in the Spring.  But, who knows, maybe a blind person will grade my test...  One can only hope.

Moving on!  While I was on my hiatus from my blog last week Emily threw me my bachelorette party!  It was sooo much fun and I wish we could do it again and again and again :)  A few pics below...

 A little fuzzy...my camera confuses Mark :)

 My hair was ruined as soon as it hit the outdoors.  FML.

 Oh yes.  Penis straws were in full effect.

 All she needs is a bud light in her hand and she's a happy yady :)

Lauren walking to Cha-Chas: "I just wanna DANCE"

 And dance we did!!

 Me and the mommy to beeee!  That's right, my pregnant friends are not off the hook for my bach party!

 Love the "Richmond, VA" in the back of this pic.  "This is my towwwwn" (country song)

 I was soo happy to have my friends from all phases of my life together.  I really am a lucky girl!

Still trying to convince her she should move to Richmond...

 Will she be next?!  Maybeeeeeee!

Thank you to my seeester, Emily, for making this such a FUN night!  And, thank you to all of my friends for coming to Richmond for my partayyyy!  See you all at the wedding xoxo

2 or 26.

So, I'll be walking down the aisle in 19 days.  nbd.



Ok...who am I kidding?  Every time I think about walking down the aisle I immediately start sweating profusely (which doesn't say much for me) and panic a little inside.  Nothing that a few deep breaths won't fix, but geez louise it's getting close!  The marriage stuff is the easy part, in my opinion.  It's the walking down the aisle and having everyone stare at us for an hour part that is a little nerve wracking!! OMG What if I trip?!?!?!  Ok, next subject before I start hyperventilating...

Mark's birthday dinner was fun.  You can see more about that on Em's blog here.  If you've never been to Bass Pro Shop I would definitely recommend going at least once.  Even if you are not a hunter/fisher or don't even like the outdoors (me!).  It's quite the show and the people watching is almost as good as the beach :). And, the restaurant was pretty delicious!!  However, if you do not know what you are getting into it can be a little overwhelming.  We were getting a gift card for one of Chris' relatives before we found Em and Mark in the store (the store is UGEEEEEE) and, as always, I turn around for one minute and Chris is gone.  It's like having a 2 year old sometimes, I swear!!!  So, after panicking and swearing to myself that I'm going to buy a monkey book bag leash for him, I started looking around for him.  I didn't see him downstairs so I went upstairs (WARNING: SERIOUS HUNTER TERRITORY).  Em had said Mark was playing a hunting game, shocker, so I went over the the gun area...which led me to the bow and arrow area...which led me to being terrified!  Everyone clearly knew I was out of place and I looked like a lost 2 year old.  I was wandering around and at some point I ended up in the camo section.  The light started dwindling as I went deeper in and I'm pretty sure I heard something howl....so I grabbed my phone and sent her a text saying "Help.  Lost in camo forest."  I finally found my way out and headed to the other corner of the store where I finally saw Emily :)  I made ittttttttt!!!  When I saw here she said "where is Chris?" and I said "He wandered off again" and she said "well I just gave my husband $4 in quarters for the hunting game..."  That made me chuckle. :)  So, the moral of the story is, whether 2 or 26 men will ALWAYS be big kids. 

adios.

Side note:  Chris WAS found.  No worries :)

yayy!

Sorry I have been absent all week...I was studying mathhhhh.  UGH!  But, it was well worth it because I passed the Praxis I Math test!!!  I needed a 178 and I got a 185, so I am on my way to getting my teaching license.  I have to pass the reading and writing VCLA next week though, which is a FOUR HOUR test.  I am NOT excited about that one.  But, I'll cram for it like I did the math test this week and hope for the best!  If I pass these then I can start school in January which is reeeally what I need to stay on track to start teaching in Fall 2012 :)

On another note, happy birthday to Mark!!  We are having dinner with Em and Mark at a place called the Fish Company...more on that tomorrow!

yum-o.

For some reason this morning I got a hankerin' to make a new recipe for dinner.  This one came from The Pioneer Woman who I am OBSESSED with.  It was really easy and really good.  However, next time I'll either have to invite people over or half the recipe because we had way too much!

Let me introduce you to a little something I like to call heaven...

random.

I've done a little blog makeover.  What do you think?  I'm not satisfied just yet...I will probably change it again, but this is good for now.  I think it is nice and fallish :)  Speaking of which, I am SO ready for Fall!  For many reasons (including our wedding!!), but mostly for the cool CRISP (love that word) weather.  This summer has had oppressive heat and I hate to admit it, but we stayed inside most of the time.  We took Bauer to the dog park quite a bit, but only lasted about 20 minutes at a time because Chris and I would be drenched from sweat. So, bring on the cool weather that with it comes jeans and sweatshirts and cozy nights on the couch cuddled up!


During the entire time I was just updating the blog I had a black man laying on my lap.



THIS guy.

It's a good thing he only weighs 75 pounds now.  That whole 95 pound thing was killing our cuddling game.  Don't be worried though; it is totally normal that he lost 20 pounds.  Most of the weight loss is from his change in diet.  As previously posted this little cuddle bug has a food allergy.  He eats this food:

Which smells horrendous and makes his breath smell awful too.  This 16 pound bag costs us $54 and lasts about 2 1/2 to 3 weeks.  Very pricey, but nothing is too good for our baby.  Plus, since he can't have treats of any kind anymore we save money by giving him baby carrots as treats.  He loves them, and to be honest other than the cheese I don't think he misses them.

Moving on...Chris and I are done with pre-cana and are now ready to get married in the Catholic church!!  I'm sooo excited and so thrilled that Chris was willing to go through the year program for me.  It really wasn't that bad.  Except for the meeting with the couple who told us to stop watching porn (we do NOT watch porn).  That was probably the most miserable 1 1/2 of my life and I would never do it again.  Other than that the program wasn't that bad and I really am super excited to get married in the Catholic church.  I think it's going to be beautiful and very touching and emotional.  With Grandma passing in May it has been very hard for me to go through the meetings with Father Bob.  The whole church, the readings, the smell, everything just remind me of Grandma and, God I still miss her.  I miss her everyday and sometimes I can't figure out if I'm more sad or angry about it.  I hate HATE that she won't be at the wedding.  I hate that she won't hold my babies.  I hate that she will never walk up to me, take my face in her hands, kiss me, and tell me how good-lookin I am.  She was such an amazing person and I will forever love her.  Great, now I'm crying...and so is Emily (I know you are!!).  Father Bob said my tears were a tribute to her life and that she would be telling everyone in heaven how proud she is of us on our wedding day.  I know that's true.  She'll have a front row seat. 

While on the wedding topic...  Our rsvp's were due yesterday and we are still missing 23 of them.  What the hell, people?!  We gave you 3 weeks to respond!!  I just don't understand it.  Hopefully we will get most of them this upcoming week.  Otherwise, they will be getting calls!  I hate people when people are late (Emily...) and this is no different.  On a good note we got our passports for the honeymoon.  On a bad note I look like a freaking weirdo. I've been so crazy with wedding planning that I haven't even had the chance to look forward to Antigua.  THAT will be amazing. I can't waittttt.

I think I'll eat breakfast now.

Toodles.

remember me?

Worst blogger ever.  I'm sorry...

Bauer just farted next to me.  And it smells...



BAD.

I wish I had pictures to show you from the beach, but I don't because I took NONE!  The beach this year, for me, was a time to get away from everything - work, photography class, new career goal, and wedding.  I was SO overwhelmed when I left that I could do nothing but lay on the beach and stuff my face with lasagna (yes, lasagna at the beach), candy, and cookies.  And, that's what I did.  :)  Now I'm BACK and hopefully I'll be blogging more!

So, for those of you that know my sister you know that she has been fighting the deamon named Praxis for a few years.  I am now joining her in the fight and quite frankly, I'm terrified.  I have to pass the Praxis I Math test on September 18 or I will not be accepted into Mary Baldwin for the teacher licensure program in the Spring.  I studied a LITTLE at the beach (refer to paragraph 1) and just took the practice test tonight for the first time to time myself and see how much I really know.  I scored a 183 and need a 178 to pass.  So, I would have passed...but not by much.  I got 26 out of 40 questions right and if it were a test in a class I would have got a 65%.  That sucks.  The main area I need to work on are fractions that I have hated, despised, and cursed since the 5th grade.  I mean really...there are calculators now.  WHY DO I NEED TO KNOW THIS CRAP BY DOING IT ON PAPER!  (Oh yeah, no calculators are allowed on this test...) I'm so annoyed. 

In addition to the Praxis I have to pass the VCLA reading and writing tests on Sept 25 (also the same day as my bach partayyy!!), so I will have to start studying for that soon too.  Good grief.  Why couldn't I have just decided to be a teacher while I was still in college?  Oh right...I was going to be a 'business woman'.  How's that working out for me?  I work some Saturdays, holidays, no insurance, no 401k, low ass salary, no overtime pay...yeah, I think I'll become a teacher :)

I'm now going to eat a big bowl of ice cream at 9:45 PM.  My wedding diet is going great! :) mwahaha

toodles.
 

bananas.

Ok, so planning a wedding is officially BANANAS.  I am sooo busy every night doing stuff for this wedding; it's crazy!  Invitations, shower thank-you's, wedding day shoes, hair appts., priest meetings, etc, etc, etc...!!!  So, for now I will just continue to use this as my excuse for being a terrible blogger!

Although I am super busy planning the wedding I did have some time this weekend for my bridal shower!  My mom's long time friend, Lee and my Aunt Peggy threw a wonderful party!  All of my friends and most of my family were there and I felt so blessed by all of the wonderful gifts I got!  We really did make out like fat rats and feel sooo lucky!!  Thank you to everyone who shared this day with me :)

Since all of my friends were able to come into town we obviously did not want to waste a perfectly good night to go out!  So, we had a little after-shower/pre-bachelorette party.  Why not?  It was so great to be able to let loose and I really needed it after these past few months at work and with all the wedding planning!

Until next time...which may be after the beach next week.  Don't hate meee!!

busy, busy, busy...

Oh, hello.  Remember me?  Worst blogger ever?  Ok...it's really not my fault this time!  I am SO completely swamped with wedding (and other things) lately!  I have been trying to chill out about the wedding, but there are SO many details and so many decisions that have to be made!  I know I have got a lot done in the past week, but it seems you make one decision and that spawns 10 other decisions!  Good grief.  Anywho, we are leaving for the beach in a week and a half and that will be my relaxing time.

Along with the wedding I have also decided to go back to school...not for my MBA (I'm not that crazy), but for my teaching license.  I have debated about it and done some serious soul searching and have decided that I want/need/should be an elementary school teacher.  Most of my friends/family who hear this for the first time say "What?!?! YOU?!?!", but my career path up to now has been...well, less than stellar.  And, I will have summers off, and get to write on a chalkboard!  And I get to celebrate every holiday and season like a 7 year old again!  This seems like a win-win situation to me.  So, hopefully I will be enrolled in the Spring in the program, but before then I have to pass the Praxis I - Math and the VCLA tests.  It would have been so much easier to make this career decision while I was still in school, but why would I ever want to do anything the easy way?

Oh, and I have been gathering pictures for our wedding slideshow and thought I would share a couple...look how stinking cute my boys are ;)

Glad to see his posture has improved over time...

Off to work I go...fml.