[Mom of a Dog]

Let's face it. I'm probably being a bad "doggie mom" right now. I put our little cocker spaniel outside for some fresh air about an hour ago and she's beginning to worry that I forgot that she exists. I can see her standing on her outside doghouse trying to look into the living room window (we have blackout curtains - I can see her, she can't see me) and she is whining at the top of her little pup lungs.

Bad mom or not, she's staying out there. We have to push the little birds out of the nest every once in a while, right?

[his job sucks.]

I have finally discovered the first suckage of our married life: Mr. C working 12 hour shifts all week. I know it could be worse, but it is what it is. Don't get me wrong, it definitely does not suck to read InStyle, drink ridiculous amounts of coffee, and lounge in yoga clothes while watching Bridesmaids for a couple hours before he gets home but that begins to make me feel a little Real Housewives.

I mean, last night I cooked this big dinner and everything was all lovely when he got home, but let's face it, I would be burnt out if I tried that every night. Tonight Mr. C is going to have to settle for clean laundry and the pets fed. Don't judge, it's easier to feed a dog and a cat than it is an adult man. ;) If I could pour some dry food into a bowl and set it on the ground and he'd be happy; I would probably do just that.

I just realized that sounds demented. Don't call a psych ward; I promise I don't feed my husband cat food.

On that note,
Mrs. Coons

[we're married!]

I know that by now I am you guys' worst friend ever, right?

If you have decided to love me again then you are the bomb.com but if you have deserted, I cannot hold it against you, I've been gone for 2 months!

We finally have internet in the house! Whoo! I went without it for the past 2 months, aside from Facebook and Pinterest via my handy little Droid, but it really isn't the same as having all of my favorite bloggers on my big ol' laptop screen.

As I mentioned, I am now THE Mrs. Coons! Holla!

We were married on September 24 on Tybee Island. PS I can't believe we've almost been married a month! We-erd.

We then lived in wedded bliss with a side of stress since our reception was on October 8 back here in Atlanta. I had to finalize everything while being newly married AND both of us working our little arses off at our jobs. Don't get me wrong, my little Kindles (these would be my students) are great and I love teaching, but it is HARD to be on while your mind is focused on a wedding/reception.

Anyway, the reception turned out beautifully and I was so happy to have my very best friends, Colin and Heather S. at our home and reception. They helped me more than they will ever know! I wish I had all of our reception pictures back from our photog, but as a wedding photographer

myself, I know that these things take time! Here are some from her sneaky peaky though:

So now that the festivities are over for the most part (after all, we still have our honeymoon next weekend) it is nice to settle into marriage.

We are enjoying not having to plan a time to see one another. After all, I know he'll be home eventually. ;)

What is your favorite part about being married? Or your favorite part of not being married?

The now Mrs. Coons

BAM!

I know that you are all ready to give up on me! I am so so sorry that I have been AWOL, MIA and all of those other fun military terms about leaving people hanging.

The reason for my absence is that I have been working from morning to night in various areas. Here are the awesome things that are going on which wake me up super early and then make me pass out from exhaustion when the day is done:

1. Teaching Kindergarten! We don't get the kiddos until tomorrow, but if you've ever taught or know about the pre-planning, post-planning, and teacher workdays, you understand that I've been working my btuschkas off getting the classroom ready and being in in-service meetings. Maybe students are correct in thinking that we live at the school?

2. The lady finally moved out of our house! However...she left it a DISASTER! The carpet needs to be steam cleaned probably 8 times before we can get the dog smell out. Plus we need to paint, scrape faux stucco off the walls, and pressure wash the siding. Let's not even think about landscaping yet.

3. Wedding & Reception. Holy geez. It makes me so sad that these have been all but put on the back-burner. I'm hoping that I'll get up some energy soon so that I can finalize all of the things related to marrying the Mr. :)

4. My car is having electrical problems. So (almost) husband and I have had to switch cars just about every other day. I just want MY car! It is just a headlight relay or something, but I can't drive to work (early in the morning) or in the evening without a headlight!

So with all of these exciting things, I am unfortunately slacking in the blogging department. And all of a sudden I just BAM! hit you with all of the fabulous things going on in my life. I hope you have fabulous things going on in yours too!

[awkward & awesome thursday]

[Click the photo to link up with Sydney]

It's that time again, folks. Awkward and awesome Thursday!

Awkward

1. Moving all of my bedroom furniture into the center of the room so that the drywall guy could patch  the walls and then finding out that I have to go to bed with the walls still undone and all of the furniture still in the middle of the room.

2. Husband-to-be taking me out to celebrate (see Awesome section) and then finding out we were going to Buffalo Wild Wings...with his brother...and I was ignored the entire time...because they were talking about football...but not the real football, fantasy football. Clearly someone wasn't getting my "hints" about P. F. Chang's. As in "Hey babe can we go to P. F. Chang's? I have a coupon for a free appetizer." :)

3. All of my guests will be getting wedding invitations probably today. All of fiance's folks will get them in a couple days (we were in charge of mailing our own batches). I hope I don't get mean phone calls about this.

4. Running into people I hadn't seen in a LONG time at the home improvement store. When I hadn't showered yet that morning because I just ran there to get paint for my family's demo project. Oh and ps I was covered in sweat and drywall...yay... "So nice to see you too."

Awesome

1. It's official! I'm the new Kindergarten TA at the private academy where I substituted last year! I am so excited to be working there full time. It's a relief for Mr. C especially because we have a house payment now..

2. Wedding invitations have been sent (by me at least).

3. The person who is renting the house that we are buying is moving out next Saturday! We get to get in there on the 7th! It's time to roll up the sleeves and start painting!

4. I got the most adorable shoes that I have ever seen in the mail yesterday! Perfect!

What are your awkward and awesomes for the week? Link up with Sydney by clicking the photo!

[shoes]

I know you are so intrigued by my title. I also know that you think, "Wow, that Kayla sure is clever. She states one word encompassing what the entire post will consist of and yet she doesn't bother to make it witty or thought provoking, she just inserts one, singular word. Brilliant."

Well, I should tell you that shoes are my, like most women's, addiction. It's true. I hate that I love them so much, really I do (no I don't, who am I kidding?). This isn't really a problem for me and the (almost) husband. However, he does get a kick out of telling me, while I'm drooling over a particular pair, that I have two pairs just like it on my shoe tree. "But not THIS pair...."

Okay, the addiction is bad, I tell you. Admitting is the first step, right? I have 52 pairs of shoes. I'm turning into Imelda Marcos (minus my husband being an embezzling crook) oh and also minus the fact that I have 1, 008 less pairs than she did...

This 31 for 31 has taught me that I miss my shoes more than anything else that I can be content with fewer clothes and with being more creative. I have had to survive wearing only 6 pairs of shoes for 24 days now, all the while my other little pretties are beckoning me to secretly wear them around the house and then change into the challenge shoes when I go out (what? that doesn't happen...clearing throat...)

During the 31 for 31 I'm not supposed to buy anything new. And I hadn't...until yesterday. Here's the back story:
I found these adorable heels at Urban Outfitters way back at the start of my challenge but said, "no, self, you cannot buy those lovely things until you are done with your challenge." So I refrained from buying them and instead contented myself with pinning them on Pinterest and subsequently going to urban outfitters online to look at them daily (I'm not obsessive, I'm not obsessive, I'm not...). Well then one day last week I visited my favorite shoes and the most horrible thing popped up on my screen! It was a white box with menacing blue letters which read "Sold Out." Noooo!!!! I was pretty sad about it. I think I even told MC that I cried over them (I didn't, but I wanted to).

Fast forward to last night. We were sitting on the couch watching How I Met Your Mother re-runs and I noticed that Robin was wearing Louboutins. I said this aloud, not really to MC, because I know he doesn't care, but aloud nonetheless. Which he then responded to with, "huh?" "Louboutins. Like the shoes." "How do you know they are Lou Vuitton?" "Louboutin, silly. And because they have a red sole which is specific to him." "Oh..."

I then proceeded to pull up the Christian Louboutin website on my phone and show him shoes with red soled. Mistake. I started drooling. I pulled up shoe after shoe, showing it to him and oohing and ahhing but ultimately asking him to guess how much each cost and then shocking him by quoting a price that was 10x what he guessed. This inspired another game.

I would open up the thumbnail page that showed 4 shoe thumbnails at a time and would make him guess which ones I liked best. I told him I was training him for the day when he goes out and buys me shoes on his own to surprise me. I did this with several other websites, gradually getting less and less expensive until I was on the Aldo shoes website showing him shoes. He picked the shoes he thought I would like for a couple of times until he noticed the prices on these shoes and said "Hey these are cheap! Why aren't we buying you these?" Now that is the attitude I like to hear!

Eventually I went back on the UO website to see if perhaps something close to my shoes resided there and you know what?! They were back in stock! $20 cheaper, I might add! (Insert Hallelujah chorus) Without even thinking of my challenge I pushed the "add to cart" and "checkout" button in less than a second. The process ended with me hugging the hubs and telling him that "I am just so happy."

I know that was a long story, and congratulations if you made it this far. However, if I can't share my joy with you over shoes, what can I share with you?

[fill in the blank friday]

1.   One of my happiest moments ever was      the day I got engaged. There was just joy and hugging and calling friends. 

2.  Summer is wedding season and weddings are   awesome when you know that people are meant for one another. It sucks when you know that people are getting married for the wrong reasons.

3.  This summer    could definitely be better. It is an icky summer. It is hot and humid here in Atlanta with no signs that it will let up any time soon. 

4.  My summer food of choice has been   salads. They are so light and healthy so you know you don't have to worry about losing bikini body.

5.  My summer uniform has been    it has been a lot of tees and tanks with pants/shorts or maxi dresses.

6.  If I could spend the entire summer in one location I would choose      Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. Away from all of the cares of the world.

7.  My summer anthem is     Harder to Breathe by Maroon 5. Love that song!