Currently.

UGH. I just got all hyped up to write a "currently" post and Darcy got out of her collar while being brought inside. She went running down the street and it's a really good thing she stayed out of it, because it would have been a close call. Now I am too wound up to think about blogging! 

Hope you all have a great Tuesday; I'll try again tomorrow :) 

Steph

I need to go to Ireland.

Last night, I spent a good couple of hours putting together both a Facebook page and an Indiegogo page to help raise money to send myself on a missions trip to Dungannon, Ireland with Vineyard Church Cincinnati.

I am hoping to get the word out about my goal and am counting on help from friends, family, and strangers (and maybe a miracle) to raise the $2,500 it will cost to go. Please click and share the link below! Love you all!!

<3 Stephanie

Shoe Review: TOMS Desert Wedge

I bought these shoes for myself on a whim between Thanksgiving and Christmas. I never buy fancy stuff and I RARELY dress up past a scarf and a long necklace with my TOMS or boots. So I thought these were a happy medium that would fill a "dressiness" void in my life while also not veering far from my comfort zone and personality.

First of all, I get a million compliments a day on these shoes when I wear them. At work, grocery shopping, at family get togethers, out to dinner.... AND they feel like sneakers. They are SO incredibly comfortable. The color is gorgeous and goes with everything, and you can really wear them with any outfit.... I wore them to the ballet with black skinny pants and a frilly scarf, and I wear them with jeans on a regular basis to dress up a scarf and tee-shirt outfit.

Bret thinks I'm a hipster because I have such a dedication to TOMS. Well, for serious. I got these awesomely fashion forward shoes, comfort, AND I helped a child in need. How much better does it get? They were a little steep at $80 (for a whim purchase) but worth every penny (on my credit card, who are we kidding). I wear the crap out of these things and even inspired another teacher at work to track down her own brown pair. WIN!

Happy Sunday!

xo Stephanie

Presentz.

Let me tell you something I love. Presents. I love presented because I LOVE picking out something for another person that I am SO excited about, I can't stand the thought of waiting to give it to them. And I really love seeing what people pick out for me.... especially when there is thought behind it. So I have a couple of gift stories from the holidays to share.

For our anniversary, Bret and I decided on giving each other one big thing each. Originally, we were not going to get each other anything at all, but then he came up with a REALLY good idea and then I came up with a really good idea. Here's what they were:

He got me this:

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I know, right? I was ecstatic. Like, jumping up and down and squealing, unreasonably excited. Right away, I bought this Incipio Feather Ultra Thin Snap-On Case for it:

And then reused my Vera Bradley Kindle 2 case (which fits PERFECTLY in Mocha Rouge.)

For his present, we got tattooed together. I got my sleeve fixed and finished as you saw earlier. And Bret got a piece of his fixed and two added on. A special part of each of our pieces were....

Left: Bret Right: Me

Our first ever tattoos together. Of course, that only sparked a Christmas tattoo with my brother... something we have been talking about for ages. You all remember how he broke his leg in July? Pretty severely. As a joke between us and also as a nod towards the fact that we are both incredibly awesome.... we got this: 

Sorry for the blurriness.... iPhone pictures! For the record, the bar is in his left leg.... ;)

I think my new favorite thing to give as a gift is definitely tattoos.... I am sure my parents are thrilled.

To top it all off, Bret got me the most amazing Christmas present, ever. If you look closely, you'll notice that it matches the top of they key he got for my lock... awwwww. 

Obviously he DEFINITELY won Christmas.

Happy Sunday.... Back to school tomorrow for us! It's been a long and relaxing break and now it's time for the long stretch between Christmas and spring break. Thankfully we have exams next week which will break up the time nicely. 

So far I am doing pretty well at keeping up with blog posts.... fingers crossed... 

xo

One Year. (or How I met Bret Bohannon)

It has already been one whole year. Today marks the day that I met Bret a whole [quick, amazing, eye opening, happy] year ago. Our relationship happened fast. If someone had told me then that I would be living with and planning much bigger things with someone right now, I would, without a doubt, tell them they were wrong.

I'm not positive that I fully explained our story here before, so here it is.

This time last year, I was looking for someone to fill up empty space in my life. I have always been a relationship person but never a "going out" person. Even in college, I didn't hang out in bars or go to parties very often. I prefer being at home or in small coffee shops surrounded by people I already know and am comfortable with. But there was still something missing.

I know a lot of people who tried online dating and found it successful, and after a few nudges from some close friends, I decided to try it. I settled on eHarmony and it just so happened that the weekend I decided to try was free.... which if you know anything about online dating - it can get expensive. The thing about the free weekend? You are matched with people.... and you can see their profiles.... but you can't see their pictures. They can see yours, though, if they are a paying member. Bret still thinks it's weird that I went along with this with no pictures.

I told myself (and still claim to this day) that this was a test for myself. I wanted to talk to a couple of people and see who I found interesting without knowing what they looked like. Right away I was matched with about 10 people. I did the obligatory question answering and multiple choice selecting and the first person to contact me was Bret. This began on a Thursday or Friday morning and throughout the day, I got a few other emails from matches. Honestly, I kept saying to myself "I wish that one guy would just email me back already...."

There was a lot of patience on my part, and over the next two days, Bret and I were exchanging emails and then texting each other non stop. Eventually I asked him to send me a picture of himself and that only sealed the deal. Right away I thought to myself: "Not my usual type of guy, BUT TALK ABOUT GORGEOUS." We decided to meet for lunch that Monday after talking for only three days.

Of course, I made sure that a bunch of different people knew where I was going, what time I would be there, and what I was wearing in case this guy turned into a major creep. ;)

Obviously he didn't. And we spent a good three hours sitting and talking and laughing and eating at a table in a [hipster-y] cafe in Northside. I was smitten basically right away. I was excited when he sent me a text message right after we left telling me how excited he was that we clicked right away. We made plans to see each other that Friday night and ended up spending most of the weekend together.

Now, a year later, we are here in our very own house with a puppy daughter of our own [and the 3 OG pups]. Working on getting ourselves together so we can make this place perfect for us and so that we can start having an awesome life together as soon as possible......

I met my one and only online. What creeps. :)

<3 <3 <3