The Dirty Thirty

At lunch

Even though I was super sick for my birthday, Mark still made it a great one. We went out to tons of fun restaurants, had a great lunch with friends at Lenox, went to the Governor's Mansion to see the Christmas decorations, and went to A Christmas Carol at Shakespeare's Tavern. And now I'm 30. Holy crap!

In front of the Governor's Mansion

Thanksgiving Weekend

Since we have BIG Christmas plans and won't be able to spend time with my family then, we made the drive down to Florida for Turkey Day. Mark's doing much better and survived the car ride ok, and I think it was definitely worth it. Some of the activities we enjoyed were...

Making "Pilgrim Hats"A Thanksgiving Day walk (just in the neighborhood, around the golf course)
Making butterEating, of courseCelebrating ChristmasAnd just hanging outWe capped off the fun weekend when we got back to Atlanta with some time with The Rockettes. It was a lot of fun and we are definitely in the Christmas spirit now!

Cavalia

Mark's Uncle Bob is always super generous with his Christmas gifts, and gets us tickets to whatever cool show is in town (in the past 3 years, we've been to Cirque du Soleil twice and the circus once). This year he got us tix to Cavalia, which was created by one of the founders of Cirque. We were totally excited to go, and see some insane horse tricks...and then we were really let down when the show started. We were extremely under-impressed. I kept waiting for the horses to do something spectacular - never happened. But it was still a fun date day; Atlantic Station is so fun during the holidays.

Trying to Become a Redhead

I'm in love with Scarlett Johansson's hair from her photo spread in Glamour's November issue. She looks great, right? So I sent a pic of it to my new hairstylists and we gave it a go. First try...didn't really work out. Apparently my hair doesn't take color too well (I learned). She used a ton of red dye and it basically just looked really dark.

Yes, Mark is a sicko...but I look cute so I'm posting this picture anyway!

So I went back a week later and we tried again. Still doesn't look like Scarlett's (unfortunately) but it's still pretty fun, and I've been getting tons of compliments so that's always nice.

Nerd Alert

Ok, so this post is totally nerdy but oh well. For the past week or 2, I've been trying to get into couponing. Exciting, I know. But, as I have no job and basically no life, I have some free time and decided I should try to save some money. (Next task...start cooking. We'll see how that one goes!)
Anyway, I have to share a recent deal I got, so you can see that couponing may actually be cool.
I went to Walgreens and bought the following:
5 tubes of Almay One Lash Mascara (four were $6.99, one was $7.99)
A pack of 3 little stretchy headbands ($1.29)
Almay foundation ($9.99)
Mouthwash ($1.99)
So here's the fun part...I paid $17.96 for everything. Good deal, right? And that's not all. After paying, I got $15 cash back (in Walgreens money). So basically that's $2.96 for everything. And I'm set for life with mascara.
Do any of you coupon? What are your favorite stores/websites/etc?

In The Heights

We worked this show at The Fox last night and I just loved it! You should definitely see it if you have the chance!

Mark's Status

While I'm blogging like crazy, I'll go ahead and throw out a Mark update. He's slowly getting better. He finally got the PICC line out of his arm 3 weeks ago. His labs are looking good (ie infection free). He should be starting physical therapy this week. He can stand a bit straighter and isn't using his walker every day; hopefully the improvements will keep coming.
As for the long run, the doctor still doesn't really know what the end result will be. He says maybe 6 months...maybe a year...maybe longer until he's as good as he's gonna be, but we really just have to wait and see.

Almost forgot...

...what made my trip complete. Oh Cafe Rio, how I miss you!

Utah

At the end of July, I was able to go to Utah for 10 days, specifically for Carly's wedding but with lots of added perks. It was such a blast seeing all my best buds. Here are some of the highlights...

-Hanging out with the girls at Snowbird and lounging at the pool

-Chelsea’s baby shower

Me and the guest of honor

Finn and Tiana

Long live the Yellow House!

Lachelle, me, Michelle, Chelsea, Shari, Christi, Tiana

-Yummy Guru’s – and the surprise run-in with Carl and her hubby-to-be

-Hanging out with Christi all week – love ya, girl!

-Lots of shopping

-Visiting Chelsea, Shari and Michelle’s houses – they are all so cute!

-Catching up with my BFs from freshman year

Rebecca, Katie and me

-An amazing French dinner with Matt, with his friends playing the Amelie music in the background (I’m so sad I didn’t take a picture!)

-Finally getting to meet all the newbies (Finn, Lily, Madison, Eni)

With my new boyfriend, Finn

Chels, Eni, and me after some great Thai food

-All the fun “Carly time” – helping her pack for the honeymoon, the beautiful rehearsal dinner and, of course, the amazing wedding day. What a gorgeous bride/couple/day! I'm so happy I was able to be there and can't wait for the next visit!

Scott and Carly at the rehearsal dinner

Christi, Carly's best friend from Seattle, Niki and me

Ryan and Christi

Christi, Niki, Carly, me

Love the classic "We're married!" picture!

SLC Temple

Hmmm...models?

Her bouquet was beautiful

Posing for the photographer...right after he said I looked familiar and
Christi said "Oh...she used to get around Provo". Classic, Chris!