Dear American Airlines,

I am 99.9% sure that I left my silver iPod on your plane on Sunday, July 26th. Despite my best attempts with your customer relations department, and multiple calls with the DFW airport, all of your people are insisting that they do not have said iPod. Please inform your employees, for future reference, that items left on the plane are not theirs for the taking, and that it would be good practice for them to make every effort to return those items to their rightful owners.
Also, why don't we get peanuts anymore? Are they really that expensive that you can't even serve a credit-card-sized bag that is half full of peanuts? Please re-instate the snack - I don't think that's too much to ask.
Sincerely,

Brittany

Trip Recap

A quick (read: very thorough) photo recap of our trip to Maryland/DC!

Just after we flew through the storm on our way to Baltimore
The bridesmaid's luncheon that my Mother-in-law hosted for Matt's cousin Laura
Matt and I at the open-house BBQ that the groom's mom hosted
And our whirlwind trip to DC (we were on a mission to see how many monuments we could see in just a couple of hours). We managed to see the Treasury, Capitol building, White House, Washington Monument, World War II memorial, Vietnam War Memorial, Lincoln Memorial and the Pentagon (by car).

Albert Einstein statue
Department of Treasury

My father-in-law and I holding up the Washington Monument

Matt and his dad standing by their states at the WWII memorial
More WWII memorial... (It was H-O-T, hence the rolled up jeans)
Each star represents 100 soldiers who gave their lives for our country

Standing on the steps of the Lincoln memorial
I didn't get a good picture of the Vietnam memorial, but this is the flag right outside of it...
And last but not least... the happy couple!
And the other happy couple :)

All my bags are packed, I'm ready to go...

Umm - actually they're not, and I'm not - but blogging is more important, right?

Can you believe the two bottom corner pictures are cakes? YUM. Anyways - Matt and I are off to Maryland for the weekend for his cousin's wedding. Looking forward to some cooler weather and family time!

I'm drooling over...

For some reason - every time I've been on the internet lately, this Cole Haan internet ad has been following me around. Having worked in advertising for a few years, I know this isn't a coincidence, but it still freaks me out a little... and I'll admit, I've clicked through more than once (I know, I'm only making it worse). Too bad the internet ad peeps can't also give me the $450 it would take to get me this bag.

Speaking of change...

In lieu of coloring my hair, I decided to "color" my kitchen island.

Here's the before


And here it is after 2 coats of paint...

And one with a flash... in the morning (when I took this) all of the sun is at the front of our house, so it's hard to get a good picture in natural light this time of day.
I can't decide if it's got too much gray in it or not. But, I definitely like it better than the "before" picture, so I'll live with it for awhile. On a decorating note, I wanted to share a quick picture of a new pillow I found on clearance at TJ Maxx the other day!

I think it goes great with the apple green accents I have in our family room -- like my other favorite pillow...

Change is...

apparently something I need on a regular basis. I'm not talking about ground-breaking, life-altering changes like a move or a career change (although I have made both of those within the last 6 months). I'm talking about small, visual changes like taking a different route home, dying my hair (which those closest to me do NOT like), and now, apparently, these changes have reached my blog. I'm slowly learning the basics of blog design, writing html code, etc... and I'm having a lot of fun! I'm not sure if the new post title font is too difficult to read or not... I may change it again, but I like it for now!
What do you think about change?

A few summer house updates

Sorry I haven't been very creative at the blogging titles lately -- or blogging in general for that matter. I just thought I'd write a quick post with a couple updates on the house this summer.

First, I had to share a picture of my crepe myrtles out front. We didn't know what color they would be since we didn't pick out all of our landscaping, but they just started blooming, and I love them!
I also finally added a (very small) bit of greenery to our front porch. Eventually I'd like to get two rocking chairs and a table to go out here, but until the budget permits, we'll just make do with what we have :)


The last update is inside -- we just updated our mantle with a new picture and I think it looks great!

Other than that, life is pretty boring right now. I'm still trying to find a teaching position -- 7 district applications and over 100 different open positions applied for so far. I'm starting to think that the applications are disappearing into cyber-space! If you happen to know any principals in the Dallas area -- send them my way!

Dear Lake LBJ,

I'd like to return the souvenir my skin decided to take over the 4th of July holiday. You see, it didn't really know what it was getting itself into, and would like to get a full refund on that burnt top layer of skin you sent it home with.

Regards,
Brittany

Somehow I made it a whole week in Cabo without burning, and then we head to Horseshoe Bay for a short weekend and I fry my top layer of skin off. I really tried, though. I started with SPF 4, quickly realized it wouldn't be enough and about 30 minutes in switched to 20 (I had 50 on my face all day, so my face is fine). I reapplied about 5 or 6 times throughout the day... but apparently I managed to forget to apply or reapply to my stomach. I guess I was just going through the motions -- legs, arms, chest, back, face.... check! Oops.

Anyways, despite the sunburn, we had a good time celebrating the 4th of July at a friend's lakehouse. As usual, good food was involved, along with a boat parade, and fireworks.

Here's a few pictures from our weekend...

watching the boat parade from the deck - in our festive, patriotic-ware.

The best boat-float in our humble opinion.

Watching the fireworks from the dock.

I hope everyone had a happy 4th of July!