MIA

So - yeah, I haven't really found time to keep Peep up to date, but thought I would attempt to try not to go years without a Peep post. I think the closeness to Easter and peeps everywhere made me think that it was time for an update. Oh - and there's this amazeball place I must visit soon - Peep Store.

I started this blog back when I was doing a lot of work to sell my parents house. So since then, I did sell it, put a LOT of things in storage, got married and bought my own house. The next logical step was to empty the storage unit - check! After three years, Matt and I coordinated movers to pack up the storage unit in Woodbridge and empty the contents into our basement, garage, dining room, and attic.

Here's a fun picture of the packed storage unit - although it doesn't do the space justice.

A big shout out to Car, Em, and Lis who came over to help me start sorting through the madness. As you can imagine, Veitch Street now is packed full of furniture, stuffed animals, yearbooks, tools, approximately 15 boxes of Christmas decorations, a motorcycle, piano, pool table, and a partridge in a pear tree. I think we have one of everything - really.

It's been nice to go through all of these treasures again, and after five years - I'm having an easier time parting with things. I do recall getting into it with Angela over some tupperware she wanted me to pitch when she was helping me clean out the Woodbridge house years ago - ha!

Matt and I even made a trip up to Pittsburgh to give my Aunt (or force upon her) a few things I thought she might need for her place. It wasn't the smartest trip - we rented a 14-foot truck in a snowstorm on the turnpike to haul our crap up north!

And, we're preparing for another yard/garage sale in a few weeks along with some of our neighbors on Veitch Street. Man, I love a yardsale! I had lots of amazing helpers at the last sale.

So - anyone out there -please come buy my crap on April 17th - you won't be disappointed!

Another One Bites the Dust

We spent the weekend in Michigan celebrating the wedding of Matt's childhood friend Matt or 'Johnson' and his gal Jodi. I do love being back on the other side of weddings now, but I found myself picking out things that I wish I would have done. Jodi was uber organized and they had a wonderful ceremony!

So Michigan is cold.

Here are some fun shots from the weekend, although I didn't get any of me (and my team) kicking butt at Flip Cup on the night of the rehearsal. The groomsmen kept singing 'Ring of Fire' in honor of their outfits.

On another note, HAPPY BIRTHDAY Kelly CashTracy!

Peep Makeover

In honor of my wedding colors and my commitment to being more regular about updating the blog, I decided to give Peep a little makeover. I hope these changes will encourage your continued interest (and I have to try and keep up with Kelly's cool blogging)!

It may also be a good time to explain Peep's roots. Peep was the cutsie nickname that my parents called each other in their early years together (although I don't know who or how that originated). After I was born though, my Mom used this nickname primarily for me. So, I guess we were all Peeps at one time or another. My Mom took the Peep theme a step further and always bought me little chick things (you can imagine this was especially fun at Easter). I think she even brought me a cake to my freshman dorm room for my 19th or 20th birthday with chicks on it...oh trying to be cool in college is tough! But, I loved it.

Here are some favorite Peep pics.

Hello?

Is anyone still out there? Well, now that we've got the wedding, honeymoon and house buying activities (almost) out of the way, I figure that it's time to fire Peep back up. I'm also trying to find work on a new project at SRA, so I'm covering all my bases on concurrent life changes. Stay tuned for more regular updates.

13.1

Race day started at 4:30am in Nashville on Saturday. We woke up to the sound of pouring RAIN..ugh, I hate running in the rain. Lisa, Eileen and I left the hotel at 5am and didn't get to the start line until after 7am. Apparently Nashville doesn't have a good system for directing traffic for the race.

The Country Music Half-Marathon started at 7, but there were so many waves of starters, we jumped in the long line of (slower) racers. About 3 minutes before we crossed the start line, the rain stopped and never made another appearance. How lucky!

The whole experience was amazing! I had never run a half-marathon, but there was so much more city and crowd support than some of the 10 milers I've run. It was motivating, and so were the live bands playing inspirational songs along the course. I was pretty nervous about being really slow, but I actually ended up having one of my better races and completed it in under 2 hours. I felt like the miles were clipping by until I hit mile 11 and 12...those were tough and the whole course was pretty hilly (my legs were sore until the following Thursday). Lisa and Eileen were rockstars and had great times too!

It took us quite a while to get out of the parking lot, but after Lisa started directing traffic, we sailed out (it's so obvious she's from New York).

We hit the honky-tonk bars the rest of the day and night on Saturday. We met up with Rachel's cousin Tim and his cronies at the Second Fiddle.

We later found out that Joe (Rach's Dad) was up early tracking all of our race time results live on the web! He is THE best sports fan! And of course, we made a stop into my fav, Tootsies.

On Sunday, the gals and I dropped in on Nathan, Hollie, Charlie, Kaylee, and Jake. I am so impressed at how easy they make having triplets look! They have a beautiful home and were great hosts.

We rounded out the weekend with a mad dash for souvenirs on Broadway. In our night out on Saturday, Lisa made me put a cool pair of cowboy boots on hold (with PINK stars), and I did end up purchasing them completely sober (unlike Lis, who bought a genuine Stetson leather cowboy hat Saturday night!)

27 Dresses

In honor of our bridesmaid dress shopping trip today, Ang sent me this fun link.

I hope we can find the perfect dress...I'm picturing the girls in taffeta, poofy sleeves, and bows, lots of bows!

March Madness

Ok, so this whole wedding planning thing is really eating up my spare time and regularity of blog posts. Matt keeps saying that I'm going to lose my readers. If anyone is still out there, here's the quick update from the last month or so...

February 19 - March 6

I was traveling for work in Tbilisi, Georgia; Yerevan, Armenia; and Baku, Azerbaijan. It's tough to sum this trip up, but it was great, despite the protest rallies and state of emergency in Armenia. I think the highlight was skiing in the Caucasus mountains of Georgia (I even got to enter an amateur competition).

Let me say that Matt really took over the reigns on the initial stages of the wedding planning during this time. I'm sure he was hoping that's all he would have to do, but I keep suckering him into tasks. Actually, it's a very nice partnership. I also discovered that checking the wedding task list on http://www.theknot.com/ will not make me feel good about the pace of my planning. I've got about 160 actions, 50 overdue.

March 21 - March 25

Matt and I finally made a visit to Denver, Colorado and spent Easter weekend with Rachel and Will! We had a great little vacation and went skiing, hiking, and beer tasting (at the Coors brewery). Rach and Will were perfect hosts, and it was so nice to spend time with them together in their new home.

March 29

Angela Strom passes the CPA exam!

March 31

My GOLDEN birthday. 31 on 31. Matt gave me golf-themed gifts for the upcoming Campsky Open at the wedding. Oh, and I did manage to put together a wedding website. I may be a slacker bride, but at least I'm a techie bride.

April 2

Matt's birthday. He's so easy to please, we went to Lauriol Plaza for dinner.

April 11

Our bridal party threw us an amazing engagement party. I am still flying high and overwhelmed with everyone's efforts to make it such a special evening. A special thanks to long distance attendees...Sunil, Aunt Janet and the Camps. And yes, I'm still working on my thank-you notes.

April 18 - April 20

Matt and I road tripped to Hilton Head to meet with wedding vendors. We made some pretty good progress and even managed to slip in a quick visit with Aunt Carol, Uncle Alvin, Cousin Mistie, Dan, Maddie (my flower gal) and Kolby.

April 26

Next up...Country Music Half Marathon in Nashville, Tennessee with Lisa and Eileen. Needless to say training hasn't been too intense. We may get the chance to see Nathan, Hollie and their triplets!