Anniversary Week - One Year

2008 - For our first anniversary, we spent the weekend in downtown Omaha.  We got all dressed up and went out to dinner at a fancy steakhouse and then walked around in the Old Market.  

The next day, we went to the zoo.  It happened to be one of the hottest days of the year, but we still had fun.  I may have been projecting my own feelings onto the animals, but don't these otters and rhinos seem like they are in love??

Our actual anniversary was on a Monday, so John sent me flowers at work, and then we had dinner at Noodles&Co and then had cake at home.  The idea of year old cake didn't sound appealing to me, so we had eaten our real cake topper on our one month-iversary.  For our first year, I just ordered a little cake from the same bakery, and got a bottle of our sparkling raspberry juice that we had used for our toasts.  Both were delicious!

Anniversary Week - Gettin' Hitched

Yesterday, I kicked off anniversary week with a little story of how John and I got together.  Fast forward one year, and we are Mr. and Mrs. Smith!  I've already shared some of our wedding pictures on the blog, so I'll just share one more of my favorites.  This was right after the ceremony, before we went to the reception.  I pretty much love this picture.  

Our ceremony was at 2, and only took about 15 minutes.  Our reception was also pretty low-key.  We just had food and cake and had fun talking to all our friends and relatives.  We were out of there by about 5pm and already knew where we were going for dinner:  

Originally, we thought we wouldn't get a chance to eat at the reception, so we'd go straight there in our wedding clothes, but we actually got some food at the reception, so we went to dinner later, in normal clothes.  I wonder what the staff and other patrons would have thought of us in our dress and tux.  It's become kind of a tradition for us to get Noodles and Company for our anniversary each year.  It's a pretty financially sustainable tradition!

Anniversary Week - How it started

This coming Saturday marks 5 years of wedded bliss for John and me.  I decided to be ridiculous and dedicate the week to all the July 28th celebrations of the past several years.  If you hate love, feel free to come back next week!  I think I will continue daily outfit posts, too, so you'll be getting a double dose of Smithiness each day.   

Let's just start at the beginning!  In the summer of 2006, I was living in Indianapolis.  John was living in Omaha.  After almost 2 years of being close friends, I think we both knew we should just give it up and get married.  Like a true gentleman, John decided he should come visit me for the weekend.

I picked him up at the airport, and we met my sister and nieces at Chick-fil-A for lunch.  We also went to Dick's Sporting Goods to get a frisbee.  I think we went to the park and threw the frisbee first, and then went to get sno cones (or did we throw the frisbee after?  My memory is fuzzy).  Sitting on the benches by the sno cone hut, John asked me to be his girlfriend and I happily accepted.  I think this picture was taken just before we had the talk. 

That evening, we went on our first official date:  dinner at the Cheesecake Factory and then bowling.  Our waiter was kind enough to snap a picture of us at dinner. 

Anyway, that was July 28th, 2006.  We spent the rest of the weekend exploring Indianapolis.  On Sunday, we went to church (where my dad just happened to be preaching about how to find your spouse) and then I had to send him back to Nebraska and spend a whole month in Indy.  Usually, I didn't want summer to end, but in 2006, I was ready to get back to college!   

If you are paying attention, you know we got married exactly one year later - but more on that tomorrow!

FBFF - Summer Reading List

On the beach in St. Croix

The FBFF theme for this week is reading.  I love to read and originally thought I would do book reviews on the blog every so often.  So far, this hasn't happened.  I don't think I am naturally talented at articulating why I liked or disliked a book.  My reviews would be like "awesome" or "boring" and that might get a little, well, boring.  (unlike my outfit posts, which are SUPER interesting). 

My goal is to read 50 books in 2012, and I am currently at 27.  Since May 1, I've finished 14 books.  I won't bore you with the full list, but here are some of my favorites:

• Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman - last summer, a friend told me to check out Neil Gaiman's books, and I was like "Neil Diamond writes books!?".  No, Gaiman with a G.  I've read 3 so far, and enjoyed all of them.  This one is my favorite. 
• The Cousins' War series by Philippa Gregory - for some reason, I had previously been under the impression that Philippa Gregory books were trashy romance novels pretending to be historical fiction.  I was wrong.  These books were really interesting, and well-written.  They cover the War of the Roses from the perspective of various women.  There are 3 books already out, and I'm excited for the next one to be published this fall. 
• How We Decide by Jonah Lehrer - really interesting book about how our brains make decisions.   
•  Let's Pretend This Never Happened: A Mostly True Memoir by Jenny Lawson - if you have read Jenny's blog at all, you know how hilarious she is.  DO NOT read this book if you are easily offended.   

Have you read anything interesting lately?  I'm always looking for suggestions of what to read next.
  

Deep Thoughts on Fro-Yo

A few weeks ago, I went to Red Mango with some co-workers.  It was my first time at one of the new (to Omaha), hip fro-yo places.  I wasn't sure I would like it, because I'm not a big fan of yogurt.  Turns out it was delicious.  Then I convinced John to swing by Peach Wave when we were running errands on a recent Saturday.  Also delicious.

We noticed that Orange Leaf just opened at the mall near our house, so on Tuesday night, we just had to go try it out.  This was my outfit of choice for a date to the fro-yo shop.  Turns out Orange Leaf is a pretty popular hangout spot for suburban teenagers, too.  At first, I thought this was weird, but then I remembered my friends and I used to hang out at Krispy Kreme (since it was open til midnight), so I really shouldn't be judging today's youth for their hangout spots.  I will continue to judge their outfit choices.  Seriously, put some clothes on!

Shirt: Gap
Shorts: American Eagle
Belt: TJ Maxx
Purse: Liz Claiborne (via Goodwill) - modified!
Shoes: Carlos Santana via DSW

Check out these linky parties!

Skirting the Issue

This skirt is a dress.  I bought it at H&M in 2007 over Memorial Day weekend when we were visiting my family in Indy.  If memory serves, it was about $15, and I have worn it so many times over the last 5 years.  I love it when "fast fashion" turns into a closet workhorse!  The last few times I have pulled it out of the closet, I've folded the top under and worn it as a skirt.  The top just doesn't fit quite right anymore, so I'm thinking about committing to the skirt and chopping the top off.  I think I am getting addicted to easy refashions!  Soon all my dresses will be chopped into skirts!   

Top: Gap
Belt: Francesca's
Skirt: H&M Dress
Shoes: Steve Madden
Sunglasses: mall kiosk

How to Confuse a Barista

If you ever want to confuse the baristas at Starbucks, just go in and order a venti skim milk.  They will look at you like you are completely crazy and then ask you approximately 7 questions clarifying what you want:  Coffee with milk?  Oh, just milk?  Steamed?  Iced?  Just milk?  Seriously?  How much do we charge for this?

Yes, some people just want a glass of milk in the morning!  I've decided I need to come up with a complicated way of ordering it, like "Venti Decaf Skinny Calcium Juice!"

In other news, I'm trying to be better about taking pictures outside.  It was just a tad sunny when we took these, so I had to shield my eyes and then look away.     


Cardigan: Gap
Dress: Old Navy
Belt: Urban Outfitters
Shoes: Target
Sunglasses: Fossil
Pearls: gift