Happy Weekend!

I love the weekends! Hubby and I don't have a ton planned and thats just what we need!  Some errands, some football, some relaxing! Plus, it's really feeling like fall out here and I am really loving breaking out my riding boots!

  We are both meeting friends for happy hour drinks so I wanted to get something prepped for dinner before I headed out..( since I know after a glass or two of wine its better if I can just stick something in the oven when we get home!) I have been craving poppyseed chicken, like thinking about it all the time..funny thing is I've never had it!  I saw this recipe on Kelly's recipe blog and I just NEEDED to make it...please tell me that happens to someone else?
Plus, you tell me to crumble ritz crackers  and pour some butter on top and I'm sold. Good old fashioned comfort food!

Poppy seed chicken

2 or 3 chicken breasts, boiled and cut in small pieces
1 16 oz sour cream
2 cans cream of chicken
2 tbls of poppyseeds (I don't measure - I just shake a ton in)
Ritz crackers
1 stick of butter

Mix the first 4 ingredients and put in a baking dish. Cover with crushed up ritz crackers. Melt a stick of butter and pour on top. Bake for 20-30 minutes at 350.

photo courtesy of Kelly's recipes...

PS. The adorable little boys across the street are running back and forth across their driveway howling like ghosts and pretending to ride on broomsticks.. glad we picked up some serious Halloween candy for trick or treating!

Obsessed.

 Warning! I am going through a BIG neutral phase. I want everything white, not boring, just white ( with some pops of color). Ask my poor husband, everything and I mean everything, we registered for was white. White dishes, white china, white towels and when we got to CA he bought me some white furniture. I think I have a problem. There was no color at our wedding except for the long black bridesmaid dresses. White flowers, linens, all white cake etc etc.  I swear it's not because I hate color or can't make decisions on color, I just find neutrals really calming and classic. Here are my latest obsessions....

designfabulous.com

I honestly die over this dining room.....

mabeslor.com

pink but still neutral

designfabulous.com

decorpad.com

kraftmaid kitchen

PS. I also believe you can NEVER have too many chandeliers...

Dreamy Whites

You must go here. She has such amazing style, has five kids, a cowboy husband and an all white house!

See what I mean? It's bad people, really bad :) 

Cleaning up and Cleaning out...

Shhhheeeeesh!

 I am embarrassed even writing this post hahah.. In our house we have two good size bedrooms both with closets built in and the master closet is really large (Not to mention 2 dressers in there as well)...now with all this space my hubby still has to go to both rooms every morning to get dressed for work because his clothes wont fit in our room :( ...haha yes I feel bad about this. I counted this morning, I have 72 pairs of shoes stuffed in my room!

      I also have things like  two drawers and bins full of heavy winter sweaters...I used to live in Blacksburg and New York City so I can see where I accumulated them but in SoCal they realllllly aren't necessary are they? Yikes. Sounds like I need a closet overhaul so my sweet hubby can live in our room :) I'll be overhauling and making some serious donations today while he's at work.... wish me luck! Maybe I'll get them looking like this......

P.S Im hoping my mom doesn't read this post because she always ALWAYS tells me the amount of clothes and shoes I own are " Sinful, just sinful"....welllllll then maybe we shouldn't have ransacked the J.Crew sale together :) ...hahaha she's a funny gal!

Happy Wednesday!

Here are a few things I am absolutely LOVING on this (finally) beautiful Wednesday.....

1. I'm loving that the rain is temporarily GONE!!! It has been cloudy and misty for about a week now and it was getting a little old :) BUT I did like the cooler temperatures that def made it feel like fall.... 

We can finally see the water again!

2. I'm loving our cute new neighborhood and how great it is to walk to the parks, beaches and so many great restaurants...even if it means we haaaaave to walk and get frozen yogurt every night :) It's starting to feel like home...

3. I'm loving that I got to spend 5 days with some best friends that flew alllll the way across the country to visit. I have known these gals for 15 years! Even though it was a little dreary we definitely made the best of our time... lots of cooking, wine, dancing and beach walking...doesn't get better than that

Lizzie exploring the caves.....

Protecting the beaches from the life gaurd stands... with our future home in the background obviously

Did I mention we did a LOT of eating.....

Engagement photo in the vineyards...haha not sure why we did this, keep in mind we were at a petting zoo/winery so anythings possible

 Road overlook on the way to Temecula wine country....

Apparently we were really cold in the wine cooler areas...

Walking the hundreds of steps down to thousand step beach..

Liz. me and Maria 

I had such a blast with my gals! Hubby was very sweet and accommodating with three girls running wild all over the house......it can't be easy coming home after a 12 hour day to old friends already deep in a bottle of wine..... AND for that reason plus a million more...

4. I'm loving my wonderful husband and how blessed I am to have him......

Top 2 Tuesday...

   

The cutest gal Taylor, over at The Undomestic Momma, always does a Top 2 Tuesday that tons of blogging gals link up with, so I thought I would join! 

This T2T is top 2 old, fav, photos...however old, doesn't matter...I cheated and did 3 :)

My apparently hippie MOH Kate and I as kids...it cracks me up because we are showing off  the sports watches we swore by, dandelion headbands and as always, holding hands! ( It's our signature pose haha) It's a miracle we don't have matching outfits on bc I swore we wore them everyday...

This literally makes me cry I laugh so hard every time I look at it! This was from my bridal luncheon the day before our wedding. Someone taking the pics said to jump so we all did casual, 1/2 jumps and then there is Kate rockin' the serious air! Wearing her bridesmaid robe of course. Plus, all of our faces are priceless...

When I lived in New York City J would fly in to visit a LOT....we really loved our NYC weekends together and were just talking about how we loved our time there. This was taken by our friend Megan while walking down a NY street. I absolutely LOVE it. In fact, my incredible and super sweet sister -in-law Katie had it made into a charcoal painting for us as a wedding gift and it now has a front and center locale in our new home! She even had them paint in the chrysler building in the background because it was a fav of mine and she replaced the ugly van with a taxi cab. The top of the cab even got monogrammed to say " East Goes West" and our wedding date...Its seriously my fav thing!

(excuse the weird glare)

WOW

It has been way too long friends! So much has happened and the last month has been a crazy, non-stop adventure to say the least. We got married, J started his job, we are settled in our house and everything is starting to feel like home! I even can drive places alone now without getting lost.. ( which is HUGE for me haha)... soooo new state, new life, new blog! Starting......now

In 65 days...

You can find me here.....

We newlywed Kennedys will have drinks in hand while sailing,  snorkeling, sunning and relaaaaaxing. I. can't. wait.

Date.

      When you date for a long time, are super busy with everyday routine, get tired, get selfish, get lazy etc it's sometimes hard to spend quality time together.  J and I live in separate cities most of the time. In fact, the whole time we've been together. Law school, chasing a New York dream, moving and relocating kept us apart. It makes me personally value him and the time we do have together much more.
   
        With that being said, my adorable fiance has embarked on the 12 hour a day study routine called "bar exam prep". It is grueling, debilitating, and just plain crazy. He watches videos for hours, writes essays and responds to questions in a 900 page study "guide". His determination, focus and drive to succeed are just a few of his qualities I fell in love with. When studying all this mumbo jumbo I can't wrap my head around, he's in his element. I am incredibly proud of and awed by him and this journey he's on. It's only a few days into studying but we needed a good old fashioned date night. 

(P.S. At one point in my life I too wanted to go to law school. I will admit, however, it was because I had seen " Legally Blonde" one too many times. Embarrassing but true).

See,  I could rock that.

In addition to being a future lawyer, J is also a huuuuuge Conan O'Brien fan. (I've had to tell him multiple times that his "I'm with CoCo" poster must hang in his office only) ... A while back when tickets for his 32 city tour came on sale he was first in line so to speak. The show sold out in 2 hours so he was super pumped to get a few tickets. After much debate over the last few weeks, "should we go?" "Can I take the time away from studying" etc etc, we hopped in the car and headed for DC. We knew we wouldn't regret it, it was a blast! We had an amazing dinner before and it was a perfect night for a walk to the theater. Plus we randomly, in a city of thousands, ran into my dear friend Alex on the street!
      The show was HILARIOUS. Like belly laugh, tears come out of your eyes funny. My favorite part? Looking over and seeing him die laughing with a huge smile knowing that for a second, he forgot about all the studying and pressure and just relaxed. It was incredible but a late night nonetheless. Considering I only slept for about 3 hours before work  I think I was pretty on my game. I ripped 3 signs taking them down from the wall, tripped one of my children, fell off a table, and stapled my capri leg to the carpet. Sounds about right.
 

Blurry cause he was dancing so much!

A date night for the books indeed!

Worst. Blogger. Ever

Hi!

      I've thought about blogging every day but it just never seems to happen. I've been super busy with J's graduation, wedding planning, attending some friends weddings, a fab bridal shower given by my sweet MOH, finishing up kindergarten, packing for the move, horrific dress fitting etc etc etc. Soooo really I'm just tired :)  My precious kindergartners graduate next Wednesday!! Graduate you say? From Kindergarten? youuuuu betcha. Prayer service, play (with costumes), part of a mass, a psalm read by yours truly and a donut reception in the cafeteria. Sounds like graduation to me! I've been either a student or a church member at St. B's most of my life. Not once have I gotten to read at the vestibule with a mic. I now know why. No one and I mean NO ONE should ever give me a microphone. End of story.
   
    Things for the wedding are going great... I'm sure I'm forgetting some major detail that I will realize the night before but hopefully not... and if I do... Mazel Tov. I still get to marry my best friend so who cares about the monogrammed napkins. I mock them but sure enough I'll have them. I'm not doing a ton of decor since the venue has floor to ceiling windows with view of dt Richmond. I'm worried the dance floor is too small etc etc. but lets face it, you give my girlfriends (and most of my family) vodka and they will dance anywhere. I mean that in the best way ladies. Bottom line I'm super excited and will be doing a details post next about some fun things we are doing.

    The move is coming along? My incredible mother has packed and repacked our already received wedding/shower gifts into numbered and lettered boxes with inventories to keep it all straight. We are blessed! As school winds down and I can pack up more of my clothes etc. the boxes will keep coming. I'm very much in a nesting phase. To those of you reading this, J and I do not have a definite place to call home yet but sure enough in my head its perfectly decorated :) I'm into mirrored bedside tables right now.... will I love them or would I wake up wondering why I want to see my reflection first thing in the morning? Anyone have any thoughts on these?

I can not wait to unpack everything, clean, organize and decorate our little piece of the California coast.  

Its been a while...

      I'm due for a mondo blog update which I will get to later.... I just wanted to test out our new computer! If you couldn't tell, I'm not into these crazy things but we just got the new MacBook Pro and it does make blogging a tad more fun! Technically, I guess, J bought it buuuut seeing as how we are getting hitched I inherit these things as well :) I'm now currently taking suggestions for other things I can convince him "he" needs. 

      Things have been super crazy lately with the wedding, family and school but all in good fun. Tonight we are getting together with one of/if not  our favorite couple friends.... Nick and Emb. Dinner at Crazy Greek and much needed laughter I'm sure.