{ happy valentine's day }

Every year my best friend Megan from the super cool blog Take a Megabite hosts the most amazing Valentine's Day brunch ever.  She fills her apartment with hand made decorations, spends months planning the menu and days making the food, and designs the cutest valentines to hand out to all of her lucky guests.  She asks us each year to bring nothing but a bottle of champagne and our love of love.  

This was the 5th year in a row she's hosted the brunch, and it was the best one ever!  We started at 11am and were still going strong at 9pm.  The love was flowing almost as steadily as the champagne.  Almost.

{ little signs }

Do you believe in signs?  I sure do.  I think that when you open yourself up to the universe, you start see things align in seemingly coincidental ways.  And then, after enough coincidental situations, you start to realize they aren't actually coincidences at all!

Mark and I started to see these signs from the very beginning of our relationship.  We'd be talking about a song, and suddenly it was on the radio.  He found a short story he had written years ago and Katie was one of the main characters of the story!  His younger sister found a drawing from elementary school of her fictional Cocker Spaniel named Penelope.  I mean, these things all seemed to point to the fact that we were always meant to be in each other's lives.

Oh, and one of the best signs of all:  I was finally dating a guy who I was compatible with based on the Chinese restaurant's place mat Zodiac signs.  I don't know about you, but that pretty much settled it in my mind.  This boar and that tiger are a match made in heaven.

The most recent sign presented itself while we were on our way to get our marriage license. We burned a cd of our wedding playlist to listen to in the car and Bonnie Raitt's version of "Women Be Wise" was one of the songs we wanted to play during our reception.  Although its not a typical wedding song, it's soulful, and has a really good message we ladies need to keep in mind.  :)

Anyway, after driving home from Toledo with our marriage license in hand, we stopped at Green Dot Stables to celebrate with some burgers.  We sat down, ordered a beer, and guess what song started playing in the restaurant?  Yep, Bonnie Raitt's "Women Be Wise."

So, there are two messages I can take away from this sign: 1) Our marriage has been blessed by the universe and the spirit of Bonnie Raitt, or 2) I best be keepin' my mouth shut about how awesome my dude is.

Look at us eatin' those burgers.  

A Costa Rican Wedding

I can't believe our wedding is over.  It came and went so fast, sometimes I forget it even happened at all.  I look down at this ring on my finger and remember.  Or I refer to Mark as my "boyfri...I mean husband" and remember.  I'm a married lady now.  And I scored the best husband money can buy.

We got married on Playa Conchal in Brasilito, Costa Rica on January 26th, 2013 at sunset.  As we were saying our vows, the sun was going down on one side of us, and as we were toasting with champagne, the full moon was rising on our other side.  It felt like a dream.

My aunt took about 500 pictures of the wedding and the rest of our time spent in Costa Rica, but the lady left for a cruise right after our trip.  What a bitch.  So we'll have to wait for the rest of the photos.  Here are the few she edited.  They'll do for now, I guess.

(Photos by PhotoMcgee)

Says My Yoga Instructor

Last week's yoga class was a complete disaster.  In the span of an hour, my yoga instructor managed to step on my head and spill my water.  She blasted Led Zeppelin like a teenage boy.  She got all political on our asses about gun control, consumerism and just the overall sad state of the world.  She scoffed at lululemon yoga pants and shunned anyone who stopped to take a drink of water (culprit).  It was a bit awkward, to say the least.  I found myself rolling my eyes a lot, which isn't at all zen-like.

Tonight, though, she really laid it on thick.  She told us this story about a hallucination she had when she was coming out of a meditation about a dialogue between "Allison Wonderland" and the Cheshire Cat.  Apparently "Allison" was confused about what road to take and stopped to ask the Cheshire Cat for directions.  "Well, where would you like to end up?" asked Cat.  "I don't really know," replied "Allison".  Cat thought for a moment and offered this mind-blowingly wise piece of advice, "Then it does not matter what road you take.  It only matters how long you walk."  

And then she repeated, "It only matters how long you walk."

She asked us to then lay in Savasana to really let that last bit sink in.

Profound, right?  I mean, wow.  There are no words.

Namaste, bitches.

Ring It In // NYE 2012

New Year's Eve 2012 was my favorite of all time.  We spent it with great friends, delicious food, amazing drinks and, most importantly, tons of dancing!  Oysters, Gun Club Shrugs and Michael Jackson records were flowin', baby.

{ getting healthy }

With the wedding only 18 days away, and a new bathing suit sitting in my closet that I can barely fit into, Mark and I have made the decision to kick it into high gear and lose some weight!  Or at least get healthy.  Or, like, tone up and stuff.  Honestly, it makes me feel guilty to say this, but its actually way easier than I thought it would be.  We've kinda paved our own way as far as meal go, and I probably don't exercise as hard as I should, but I've already lost 5 lbs!  And I really don't crave unhealthy food like I did when I was eating whatever the hell I wanted.  Coffee was kind of a breeze to give up, and I don't mind not having major hangovers on Sunday mornings, so alcohol wasn't too difficult to cut out either.  Bagels, eh.  Cookies, take 'em or leave 'em.  Pizza, who cares?  

Gee whiz, who am I?  I'm one half a grapefruit away from agreeing with Kate Moss: "Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels".  Just kidding.  That bitch needs an ice cream sandwich, pronto!  

But really, massaging kale and mashing steamed sweet potatoes ain't no thang.  I should continue eating like this more often instead of homemade pizza with prosciutto and goat cheese and 3 beers on a Tuesday night.  After that I'd sometimes take Ben & Jerry to bed with me.  Man, was such a food slut.

My Golden Year

On December 29th I turned 29.  That's right, this is my golden year!  And it's going to be the best year I've ever had, I just know it.

Mark and I spent my birthday at Toasted Oak in Novi.  We stayed at the restaurant for just about 3 hours!  Luckily it's not the type of place that rushes you out after an hour.  Or at least I never felt rushed.  Maybe I was just drunk.  Anyway, their charcuterie and cheese boards are amazing, so of course we had to order both!  We also had steak tartare as an appetizer, the Farmhouse Lyonnaise salad, which has fried pig ears on it, and chocolate mousse for dessert.  To drink we ordered a Spanish wine flight and another bottle of Malbec, hence the drunk comment earlier.  Mark's a crazy dude and actually wanted to order a steak after all of this food, but I talked him out of it.  That boy's eyes are wider than his stomach!  We love ordering a few dishes and sharing them, so we always get a big variety of things.  It works out so well, dining with this guy.

After dinner, we bought a bottle of champagne and took it up to our room.  We were smart and thought to get a room at the hotel attached to the restaurant, The Hotel Baronette.  It's super swanky with a really modern decor and interesting details.  Just the kinda thing I love!  And about that bottle of champagne...I was poured a glass of it...I may have had a few sips of it...It was gone by the morning.  My guy sure knows how to finish what he's started.

The next morning we went back down to the restaurant for Pajama Brunch.  They clear out their private dining room and turn it into a slumber party for all the kids.  They play a kid-friendly movie, have bean bag chairs, blankets, a pancake stations with all kinds of toppings set out on this giant credenza.  Obviously we weren't invited to that party, so we sat in the regular old dining area.  I ordered the Chicken & Waffles and Mark got the Israeli Shakshuka.  Both were pretty delicious.  I think mine was better though.  The waffle was cornbread, for crying out loud.  C'mon, man.

(The first image is from my instagram, the bottom two are from Toasted Oak's website.  The restaurant was too dark to get any decent food shots.)