9 Days

This past week, we've been marriage license-ing...

Birthday partying...

And picture taking!

We have NINE DAYS til the big day, and two more days until my spring break!  Next week, we'll be finishing up some last-minute crafts (yes, Justin will be making some pretty pastel decorations!), buying Wal-Mart's entire supply of mason jars, doing a hair run-through with the lovely Mallory McVey, assembling the homemade favors, and loading up my car to the brim with all things wedding. 

Since the date was set last spring, Mom has been worried about March's unpredictable weather.  In my overly-optimistic mind, I never once thought my wedding day would be anything but sunny, cloudless, and the most perfect spring weather.  Now, James Spann is saying we're in for a cold snap next week.   Here's hoping the cold only lasts next week, and by Saturday it will be an absolutely beautiful day!  I'm hanging on to that hope, but even if it's 40 degrees and a downpour and we are all crowded in a room at Puckett, I will be marrying my bff and love of my life, and March 30th will be a day I will never forget.

See you soon :)

Showers, surprises, and snow (in March)!

So. There are MANY different words that can describe this past week.  From sick and scary to surprised and shocked to showers and SNOW, it’s safe to say that March has definitely come in like a lion!

On the health front, I am doing 100 percent better!  I still have a purply bruise on my arm from the faulty IV, but other than that, I am healthy and happy and ready to get in a wedding dress!  Hallelu!

Friday was VERY eventful to say the least.  I have been busy at work lately perfecting the summer and fall 2013 schedules and tallying up scholarship scores.  In the midst of my busy-bee-ness, I never once noticed the flurry of activity all around.  My co-workers took long breaks, and sometimes were nowhere to be found (Gemini, if you’re reading this, I am talking about you ;) 

Around 2:00, our program chair, Cathy, asked me to come upstairs to her office for a second.  At that time, I was the only one in the office due to my missing co-workers, and our student worker was off work at 2:00.  The following is my conversation from the bottom floor balcony with Cathy on the second floor:

Me (running outside): “I can’t come- I’m the only one in the office!”

Cathy: “It’ll only take a minute!  Bring a notepad and pen.”

Me: “Our student worker leaves at 2:00 though!”

Cathy: “Just run up here!”

Me: “But who will answer the phones when I’m gone?”

Cathy: “It won’t take a minute! Just come upstairs and lock the door behind you”

Me: “But no one else has a key!”

Cathy: “Brittany.”

So I take my notepad, pen, and keys and head upstairs as instructed.  I open the door, and I find almost every instructor, staff, plus students from the Art Department saying “Surprise!”.  They threw the most PERFECT surprise shower!! This was my “surprised” face.

 It is VERY hard to get anything past me, and if someone tells me they have a surprise for me, I demand to know what it is.  I’m not fun like that.  But this time, I suspected NOTHING and was so touched.  And, not to gloat, but I got an ICE BLUE KITCHEN AID-STAND MIXER!!  To which, upon opening it, I exclaimed “oh my gosh, I don’t even have a hand mixer!!” (opening gifts in front of people makes me say strange things.  Blog post on this later).  And then, wouldn’t you know my next gift was a Kitchen Aid hand mixer.  Perfection.  They even had my two favorite snacks- sausage balls and MACARONS!  This was a big deal!  I really work with the most thoughtful, sweet people.  I hope everyone is so lucky at some point in their careers.

On Saturday, my bff Holly and I made the trek to Tupelo for my second bridal shower.  Even though the snow flurries started early, we did not forget how to drive as most Southerners do, and made it to the shower on time without being too late.  My Aunt Deb had the cutest idea to throw a shower at Tupelo’s pottery-painting store, Wet Paint!  I was so excited to see so many of my old friends from Tupelo.  You know those people you don’t see often, but when you do, it seems as if no time has passed?  I am lucky enough to have lots of those friends in my life!  It was one of the most fun showers I have ever been to (complete with homemade strawberry cake mmmm!!)  and I hope everyone who came had lots of fun! 

After dinners with our respective mommas, Holly and I headed back to T-town and jammed to some En Vogue, Boyz II Men, and Celine Dion, because that is some underrated music, people.  The pure emotion of the songs wore us out, and we were BEAT by the time we got back to town.

On Sunday, I woke up bright and early, watched some Fashion Police because I think Joan Rivers is one of the funniest people on the planet and I don’t care what anybody says, and gave the pups a bath!  They were being very rambunctious, so we played with their ball and worked on their fetching and sitting skills.  After a grocery run to Target, Justin and I decided to load the boys up and take them on their first visit to Pet Supplies Plus!  The twins will be ONE WHOLE YEAR OLD next Monday, and we wanted to get them some new rawhides for an early birthday present (we are those people).  So we attached their leashes and loaded them up in the car on the way to the store.  Thankfully, they have gotten MUCH better about riding in the car and only shake a little and don’t get car sick.  But, as soon as we walked in the door, Fitz decided he did NOT want to walk around this new store and promptly ended up in the buggy.  He was very happy to get his new rawhides

Gatsby had fun walking around the store and looking at the different squeaky toys, but then rounded a corner and saw a MASSIVE bulldog!  The boys took great pleasure in alerting the whole store of the imminent danger of this wild beast, and Gatsby had to join his brother in the buggy as he could not be trusted to keep quiet on the leash. 

After picking up some food for Mr. Kitty, we headed back home to let the boys run around the backyard and calm down.  Needless to say, it will be a while before we have another family outing to the pet store.  Oy vey!

Three weeks, y’all!  Flowers are ordered now, and there are LOTS of crafts I should be doing!  Now I’m praying I find the motivation to actually do them… ;)



30 Days!

POSSIBLE TMI ALERT: If you get queasy, don’t read it.  But this is life, and my blog, so there you go.  That was your disclaimer.

Kidney. Stones.

Who knew something so teeny tiny could cause so. much. PAIN?! 

It all started Friday afternoon, when I got the BIGGEST wave of nausea and spent part of the afternoon lying on the floor of my boss’ office with a trash can at my side.  I ended up picking myself up off the floor because I had made plans to drive to Tupelo to go to a Father-Daughter banquet for my stepdad, and once I put my mind to something, I WILL do it.  This hard-headedness has caused me to have some serious determination, but has also been the reason for some not-so-good decisions in my life! 

Everything seemed fine that night until I woke up in the morning with some mild bladder pain.  I have had this kind of pain before, and I figured it wasn’t anything that a few cranberry pills couldn’t fix.  Mom and I had a busy Saturday planned, and getting sick was not on the agenda.   Mom and I met Teresa and Tyler at Sweet Pepper’s in Tupelo (one of my favorites!) to have an early lunch and talk wedding reception plans!  I am so SO glad that the Camps are helping so much- not once have I thought of what kind of cake stand I want to have, when the first dance will be, what kind of tablecloths I will use, et cetera et cetera!  I guess in the back of my mind, I just figure that all these tiny details would work themselves out.  Thank goodness everyone was there to ask me all of this, because I would have never thought of these things on my own!  I also brought some wedding crafts that I had been working on to show off, and I am so excited about how everything is turning out!  Now, I just have to dedicate my weekends to being in CRAFT-MODE in order to get everything done in 30 days.  Piece of cake!  Hopefully :)

After lunch, Mom and I headed to Hobby Lobby to look at some fabric when I literally felt the most intense pain of my life in the lower left region of my back.  Mom immediately knew it was kidney pain, and we decided that I would go to the doctor first thing when I got back to Tuscaloosa.  Needless to say, on the drive from Hobby Lobby to Storie’s baby shower (I am SOO sorry I missed this, Storie) we decided that we had to see the doctor RIGHT THEN!  A few hours later, I had a shot for pain in my hip and we were off to fill three prescription meds for a kidney infection.   The plan was to gets lots of rest, and to head back to Tuscaloosa Sunday morning whenever I felt better.  So of COURSE, in my painkiller-stupor, I drive home Sunday morning to collapse on the couch and writhe in pain.  Monday morning I got up and forced so much fluid that I couldn’t stand it anymore and, to Justin’s joy, threw up everything I had eaten for the past two days.  It wasn’t pretty, folks.  And Justin cleaned up everything.  This one is a keeper, I tell ya.

After that incident, we promptly made our way to the doctor to make sure fluids were getting in me, when he mentioned the dreaded phrase “kidney stone”.  Eeek!!  I ended up getting the first IV of my life, and three veins blew in my left arm, and I currently look like a hardcore heroin shooter-upper.  After pumping me with two bags of fluid, meds to break up the stone (gross), and yet another shot of pain killers (we’re BFFs now), we headed on our merry way to Rite-Aid to get three MORE prescriptions filled.  And when I say “we”, I mean I went home and lay in the bathtub while Justin did all this for me (and bought me an AWESOME heating pad).  Again, he is a keeper. 

Thankfully now, I have only a dull pain in my kidneys and bladder, and I am weaning myself off of the pain killers.   Almost all of the stone has passed (hallelujahr), and I have a protruding water belly.   I think if someone were to stick a needle in my stomach, a steady stream of water would shoot out, much like a water balloon.   I am repeating the phrase “HEALTH BEFORE WEDDING DRESS” in my head as I chug more and more water, but with my dealings with my ED in the past, it is a little difficult! In elementary terms, my kidneys have gone from shriveled up raisins to plump little grapes, and I am trying to be patient while this extra plumpness goes away.  Pray that I continue to put my health FIRST! 

Also, 30 DAYS!  Considering there is no February 30^th, I can’t say “one month”, but it is basically one month until I get a new last name and am a married lady!! I also have another bridal shower coming up in Tupelo on Saturday at Wet Paint!  So excited to see more of my friends and family, and to paint some pottery!

40 Days

So, I think I have neglected this little blog of mine for way too long.  I could say that this is because I have been busy with wedding things or have been too exhausted to blog, but those would be lies.  Truthfully, I have been a lazy bum lately and have been watching copious amounts of Lost and Sherlock on Netflix.  Really though, Justin and I joined Planet Fitness and have been working out a bit, and I have been able to spend lots of times with friends and family before it starts to really sink in that I have a lot of planning to do!

I had my first shower on February 2^nd, and to say it was beautiful was an understatement- mason jars, a bunting banner, and stripey straws were all included, and it was oh-so-sweet! 

Mom even surprised me by making a cake for the shower!  She should be a full-time baker, right?  Right J

I was so glad to get to see a lot of my sweet friends and catch up!  I had forgotten how much I missed Columbus and seeing these girls every day, not to mention family that came from out of town.  Justin and I should find an excuse to get married every year just so I can see everyone!



Some of my sweet bridesmaids- excuse the blink!



Lovely Lockhearts!



After the shower, we had a little bachelorette party in which my only request was that I get to eat crab cakes for dinner.  So off to the Grill we went, and crab cakes were devoured.  Success!

And NOW we have 40 days!  40 days people!  And honestly, I really don’t have THAT much left to do.  Bridal party and family gifts have been ordered and wrapped, decorations have been gathered, color-coordinated stripey straws are here, and cute shoes have been purchased!   I am picking up my newly-altered wedding dress in two days, and will probably need to be dissuaded from wearing it around the house, and this also means I should probably stop giving in to all my pepperoni pizza Combo cravings I have had lately.  Sigh.  Thankfully, UA employees get the entire week of Spring Break off, which happens to be the week before the wedding, so I am saving major crafting time for then!  I have never been one to over-stress.  Rain or shine, goof-ups or none, at 3:00 on March 30^th, I will be a wife, and besides, Mom has already done enough stressing for the both of us!

So in celebration of the 40-day mark, I have a few things to look forward to until then!

40 DAYS UNTIL

My vows HAVE to be written- no going back and making correction after correction!

I can have Combos again J

I get to see my 8 pretty girls getting ready with me

I officially gain another sweet family

I un-follow ALL wedding boards on Pinterest

I get to see Justin’s face when he sees his bride-to-be the morning of

I become Brittany Herndon Quinn!



Showers, Sweets, and Santa!

Happy December!  Much like the Christmas elf I am at heart, I have been running around decorating, making Christmas goodies, and trying to find the tackiest Christmas outfit possible.  These past two weeks have been anything but calm, but thankfully, I love being busy doing the things I love, and especially having time to do some of the million crafts and recipes I have on my Pinterest boards!

On the first day of December, I got the opportunity to throw my first-ever bridal shower!  My good friend Brooke is getting married this New Years Eve to my other good friend Deepanshu, and I am always up for a celebration!  This also marked the first time that I have made cupcakes since I moved to Tuscaloosa in May, which is a BIG DEAL for me.  Ask anyone from the Delta State Alumni Association :)  Since a lot of my decorations were already pink, I decided to make a white cake with whipped strawberry icing and marshmallow fluff filling.  OMG.  I will brag a little, and that's okay. They were good.  Aside from the cupcakes, I was honored to share one of Brooke's special days with her, and can't wait until New Year's Eve!  I got to meet some of her really fun friends, and we all had a great time being silly :)

The next day, we did a little Christmas decorating, and put up our "big" tree, our baby silver tree, and our stockings.  My goal one day is to have a tree in every room, and to have a white tree with blue ornaments.  I don't know why, but Justin doesn't seem as excited about the idea as I am.  Maybe I have made him watch Elf five too many times.  He is just lucky I haven't stuck with my original goal for this season, which is to watch a Christmas movie every day until the 25th.  Compromises.  Blah.  I still love him.  I digress...

Yesterday afternoon, I threw on my standard Sunday afternoon outfit, which includes no makeup, hair in a ponytail, and a big ole sweatshirt, and hopped over to Target to load up on some Christmas baking supplies.  Christmas and other holidays or special occasions are typically the only time I utilize the kitchen, and utilize it I do.  And by "utilize" I mean use more dishes than humanly necessary and leave behind an ingredient crime scene.

I say it's all worth it for some Reindeer Chow, right?  Right!  Justin helped me double a regular batch of Puppy Chow and add in some red and green M&Ms, which officially makes it Reindeer Chow!  I got the recipie from the Urban Daisies Blog.  Sooo good!  And I had some leftover mason jars, which I filled up with the chow and labeled them for our student recruitment group for the art department, the Art Ambassadors.  These little decorative touches can make anyone look like Martha Stewart.  That is why I love Pinterest!  And mason jars. A lot.

Up until Christmas break, I have three holiday parties to go to, and all of the chocolate chips, almond bark, and powdered sugar will be made into cute desserts that I will have to exercise my best will-power to stay away from (or just have one or two bites!).  Unfortunately, when you choose to have a March wedding, bridal fittings start in January which is RIGHT AFTER my most favorite holiday of the whole entire year, and the time when faculty members decide to gift you packages of Lindor truffles that you can't eat!  Why do you hate me, Christmas gods?!  Sorry for the rant.  Just know that on our honeymoon, Justin Quinn better buy me my own whole package of Lindor truffles which I will polish off in one sitting with no regrets at all.

Also, tomorrow it is this little one's birthday.  She's NINETEEN!  If you see her, make sure you give her a hug or some chocolate.  I love you, Kater Tot! 

Anatomy of a Cupcake

We all know I am not the most skilled chef, nor do I have a desire to slave away in a kitchen, but one thing I DO love is making cupcakes!  I love experimenting to make the cutest and/or healthiest cupcake recipie.  There is something about those little cakes with fun frosting and wrappers that makes me actually WANT to be in the kitchen. 

My mom and my sister are avid bakers, and have piping bags with different decorating tips, and even make their own batter and icing.  One day, I'm sure I'll reach their level of cupcake-mastery too.  Maybe.  Anyway, these are some that Mom made over Thanksgiving weekend that she took to the Egg Bowl...

I'm making my first cupcakes in my kitchen in Tuscaloosa tonight for Brooke's bridal shower tomorrow!  Pictures (not nearly as cute as these) to come!

Also be thinking about this lovely momma, who will have her first child AT ANY TIME!  Whoa!  Hopefully I will get to see them BOTH this weekend in Hattiesburg! 

Looking forward to hosting a shower for the first time, road tripping, and seeing some long-lost friends (KZ!) this weekend!

The giving of thanks!

This Thanksgiving break was by far one of the most filling I've had in years- filled with food from two different Thanksgiving lunches; filled with miles of traveling to Hoover, Homewood, Plantersville, Tupelo, and Oxford; and filled with lots of love from some of my favorite people who I don't see often enough.  Even though I abstained from doing the Facebook "thirty days of what I'm thankful for" posts, I have lots to be thankful for this year!  I live in an awesome town with true, uplifting friends all around me, I have a new job which I love (and helps pay for graduate school!), and I have two little pups who show me unconditional love with endless slobbery kisses.  To top it off, I get to spend every day with my number one man, AND things have been coming together for our wedding in a way that I never dreamed, both logistically and financially.  YAY!

My break started Wednesday night, when I got off work and plopped down on the couch to soak in the fact that I HAD FOUR WHOLE DAYS TO DO WHATEVER I WANTED!  Needless to say, I was ready for a break!  That whole "soaking up" moment lasted approximately five minutes, and then Justin and I decided it was time for a date night!  I changed into a t-shirt, shorts, and sneakers and threw my hair up in a ponytail (because I'm 24 and that's how I like to dress for date night sometimes), and we went to the only place we can usually agree upon- Applebee's!  We are always thankful for their 2 for $20 deal, being that we're usually poor.  After dinner, we headed over to Midtown Village where I picked up a few Christmas presents, and we stopped by Barnes and Noble to pick up some books to read over the break.  Why I thought I would have time to read, I don't know, but I DID pick up a book I have been eyeing for quite a while now (Mindy Kaling's Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me) because, thankfully, I was able to find it in paperback, and this gem that we found on the "Humor" table...

The pull-out poster was really the selling point.

Thursday was spent waking up early and heading out to Hoover to have Thanksgiving lunch with Aunt Mary Anna and Uncle Stuart.  We helped Aunt Mary Anna get some dressing, mashed sweet potatoes, and raspberry pie together (thankfully all gluten-free!), and then we set out for Homewood, where we joined LOTS of family for our first Thanksgiving with them.

After lunch, we headed back to Hoover to decorate their lawn for Christmas.  This may sound like no big deal, but when the tallest of the bunch is 5'10, stringing net lighting on trees over 6 feet tall is no small task.  After all of the eating and decorating, we were pretty pooped and decided to head back to Tuscaloosa, passing LOTS of people standing outside at Target and Belk at the cities that are on our way home.

The next morning, I woke up before 8:00, trying to remember where I had stored all of our Christmas decorations from the move (I am THAT crazy Christmas lady). The pups and MK helped me hang garland and ornaments, and by "help", I mean they either tried to eat everything or carry it off into another room.  By the time 9:30 hit, I had a beautiful, Christmas-y home, but felt like I had been to war.  Nothing like chasing down some animals for Christmas ornaments to work off a Thanksgiving meal! 

At 10:00, Justin and I decided we would do our "Black Friday" thing (late, I know) and headed to Pet Supplies Plus, where we got some awesome deals on a puppy bed, some toys for MK, and a car seat for the boys to ride in to Tupelo.  We were officially on the road to head to Mom's by noon, and thankfully, the car seat was a HUGE help!  If you've read my previous blogs, you know that the boys hate traveling, and tend to vomit all over everyone and everything in the car.  I can gladly say that no dogs threw up, and Justin and I were VERY thankful for that!

Two hours later, we arrived at the most magical place on Earth- Mom's!   There is nothing like coming home to a cozy house, Christmas decorations up, and Mom and Neil's hugs.  One member of the family who was not excited to see us and two little pups was Lucy.

This is Lucy, not-so-affectionately known as Lucy Furr when she is being bad, which is about 95% of the time.  Lucy was not a fan of the pups, or anyone who came into her home unannounced over the break.  As you can see, Lucy does not like to be held or loved.  We are also thankful that she does not have claws ;)
After lunch, Mom, Kate, and I headed to Hobby Lobby and Kohl's for a little momma-daughter time while Justin and Neil layed on the couch watching football.  The rest of the night was spent decorating the tree and introducing Mom to Grumpy Cat.  Did I mention I love being at home?  I love being at home.

Saturday was EGG BOWL day! 

We spent seven hours in the Grove, and I was thankful to catch up with old friends, sip on some white hot chocolate from the fiance, and relax in a tent with a heater!  The game was not so good, and Kate and I ended up heading back to the tent at the third quarter because we could no longer feel our extremeties, and watched the beat down ensue from there.  Fun times.

This weekend, I was reminded how thankful am for so many things in my life, sleep and rest being near the very top of that list. Hopefully you were able to eat some good food, spend time around those you love, and get lots of much-needed rest!

This weekend will be packed with hosting a bridal shower for a sweet friend, and then traveling to Hattiesburg to see my Big (and possibly her new baby!), and my long-lost friend Katrina!  More traveling and blog posts to come!