Carl and I will celebrate our six month anniversary this Sunday- can you believe it!? October 29th feels like a lifetime ago, but at the same time it seems like I blinked and here we are. Some pearls of wisdom I've learned in the past six months:
*Marriage is nothing like it is on sitcom TV. But then again, is anything in life? I hate to say it, but we're pretty boring on a day to day basis. We've come to terms with the fact that something exciting doesn't have to always (and probably won't) be happening in order to enjoy each other's company. We also like to pull pranks... and by we I mean me. I'm already plotting my next good one.
*Changing your name is really annoying. So much so that I haven't officially done it yet. I changed it at work so I do sign Allison Bussells at least 20 times a day, but the government still knows me as Allison Wonus. The problem is that we keep buying plane tickets, and the name on your ticket has to match your i.d. The other problem is that I'm lazy. I WILL become a Bussells officially when I get back from Boston, I'm determined. But my email address and countless other usernames will have to stay in my maiden name for the time being- I'm telling you, name changes involve a lot more than they used to.
*A lot of people assume that as soon as you get married you plan on spitting out babies. And while we do look forward to having some very cute and short children one day, we still enjoy being reckless and irresponsible. Not to mention, the dogs are quickly chiseling away at the baby fund. Next time you see me and I've gained weight, don't get your hopes up. I'm not pregnant!
That's about all I've got! And in case you missed it on Facebook, we made a little splash on The Wedding Row as well as Reese Moore's blog. Here's the various links:
http://theweddingrow.com/allison-carl-thomas-bennett-house/
http://reesemooreweddings.tumblr.com/post/20583551616/allison-and-carl-on-the-wedding-row-another
http://reesemooreweddings.tumblr.com/post/20392663294/love-these-boys-how-can-you-not-adore-these
http://reesemooreweddings.tumblr.com/post/20694747666
http://reesemooreweddings.tumblr.com/post/20825708570/allison-and-carl-with-allison-and-carls
Here's to another wonderful six months, and hopefully by the time a year rolls around I'll have gotten my act together and changed my name!
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Great Friends and Good Reads
Hello! Hope everyone is having a great start to their week. This past Friday I got off work a little early and booked it to Greenville to spend a weekend with some good friends. I've never actually been to Greenville, aside from driving through it on my way to Clemson, and I wasn't let down. I didn't have a single bad meal, all the bars that I remember going to were fun, and of course I was amongst great company.
On Saturday we went to the Upstate International Festival of Beers, and it was truly life-changing. Carl was a little bummed that he missed out, especially since my brother, Nick, made the trip down to crash our girls weekend (he had no idea what he was getting into!) and enjoy the beer fest. Basically you just pay to get into the festival and are given a little sampling mug to take to the various brewery tables and pick which one of their beers you'd like to try. It went something like this: stand in line, sip, stand in line, sip, dance, eat pretzels, stand in line, sip, sip, sip. I was a little shocked to see multiple people with babies in attendance- what the heck, get a babysitter! Between the loud music and a huge crowd of drunk people, those poor babies will probably scarred for life. There were also a few pregnant ladies, but Nick pointed out that they were probably DD's for the day. Still, that seems like torture. Let it be known that when I am pregnant, any person who dares drink beer in my midst will feel my wrath.
Here's us, towards the end of the festival if you can't tell.
I definitely plan on making another trip to Greenville soon. What a fun weekend!
Aside from visiting new places, I've also been a busy book reader lately. I mentioned a few weeks ago that I finished The Book Thief, which was amazing. Maybe it's because I felt gipped in the World War II history department all throughout school, but I've always had an interest in any and all World War II fiction. The Book Thief is about a little German girl and the impact that Nazi Germany had on her childhood, as narrated by death, or a grim reaper-esque character. Sounds really uplifting, right? It actually had a surprisingly perfect mix of sad moments and laughable scenes, especially given such a heavy subject matter. Two thumbs up.
I also read The Other Queen by Philippa Gregory, the author of The Other Boleyn Girl. I'm sure there's a lot of criticism about her interpretations of history, but I really enjoyed this book. For all of the Shakespeare and accompanying history that I was force-fed as an English major I somehow couldn't remember learning about Mary, the queen of Scotland (aka the other queen), who was held captive in England throughout the middle years of Queen Elizabeth's reign, when it was up in the air as to whether she would ever get married and have a son to be heir to the throne. Whenever I read books about royalty I can't help but think how lame it would have been to be pretty much everyone else back then. If you weren't some sort of nobility you had to slave away your entire life for someone else, only to get beheaded or hanged or die at the hands of some disgusting disease. I guess we've got it pretty good now!
Last night I finished Jodi Picoult's Lone Wolf, also a great read. I've always been a big Jodi Picoult fan, although the last few books of hers that I've read have been somewhat similar in terms of the story being told from multiple perspectives and hinting at some plot-twisting secret that doesn't come out until the very end. I will say, the ending is never what I expected so she's got me there, and her subject matters are always different. She also does a thorough job researching her book topics and shedding light on flaws in the legal system as well as sticky moral dilemmas. In this book two children are forced to decide whether or not their father, who suffered severe brain trauma in a car wreck, should be taken off of life support or kept alive in a vegetable state. He had dedicated his life to the research of wolves, hence the title, which meant that I learned a lot of cool wolf facts along the way. Definitely a tear jerker- don't read it in public.
Whew! I feel like I just wrote three very incomplete book reports. I didn't want to give too much away, though- there's nothing worse than starting a book and knowing how it ends. If you have any good book suggestions, let me know... unless it's Twilight. I refuse to read those books.
 |
| Out celebrating Katherine's birthday! Katherine, Liz, Alex, and me. |
Here's us, towards the end of the festival if you can't tell.
 |
| See my little sampling mug? |
Aside from visiting new places, I've also been a busy book reader lately. I mentioned a few weeks ago that I finished The Book Thief, which was amazing. Maybe it's because I felt gipped in the World War II history department all throughout school, but I've always had an interest in any and all World War II fiction. The Book Thief is about a little German girl and the impact that Nazi Germany had on her childhood, as narrated by death, or a grim reaper-esque character. Sounds really uplifting, right? It actually had a surprisingly perfect mix of sad moments and laughable scenes, especially given such a heavy subject matter. Two thumbs up.
I also read The Other Queen by Philippa Gregory, the author of The Other Boleyn Girl. I'm sure there's a lot of criticism about her interpretations of history, but I really enjoyed this book. For all of the Shakespeare and accompanying history that I was force-fed as an English major I somehow couldn't remember learning about Mary, the queen of Scotland (aka the other queen), who was held captive in England throughout the middle years of Queen Elizabeth's reign, when it was up in the air as to whether she would ever get married and have a son to be heir to the throne. Whenever I read books about royalty I can't help but think how lame it would have been to be pretty much everyone else back then. If you weren't some sort of nobility you had to slave away your entire life for someone else, only to get beheaded or hanged or die at the hands of some disgusting disease. I guess we've got it pretty good now!
Last night I finished Jodi Picoult's Lone Wolf, also a great read. I've always been a big Jodi Picoult fan, although the last few books of hers that I've read have been somewhat similar in terms of the story being told from multiple perspectives and hinting at some plot-twisting secret that doesn't come out until the very end. I will say, the ending is never what I expected so she's got me there, and her subject matters are always different. She also does a thorough job researching her book topics and shedding light on flaws in the legal system as well as sticky moral dilemmas. In this book two children are forced to decide whether or not their father, who suffered severe brain trauma in a car wreck, should be taken off of life support or kept alive in a vegetable state. He had dedicated his life to the research of wolves, hence the title, which meant that I learned a lot of cool wolf facts along the way. Definitely a tear jerker- don't read it in public.
Whew! I feel like I just wrote three very incomplete book reports. I didn't want to give too much away, though- there's nothing worse than starting a book and knowing how it ends. If you have any good book suggestions, let me know... unless it's Twilight. I refuse to read those books.
Monday, April 16, 2012
Beach Day
As a resident of a coastal city, the amount of time I actually spend at the beach is something of a disgrace. It's about a half hour drive from our house without bad traffic, so by the time I make it out I feel obligated to spend at least an entire afternoon there, which is a pretty valuable chunk of weekend to dedicate to wind, sand, and water. This isn't to say that I don't like the beach, just that a lot of the activities that I so enjoy partaking in at the beach can also be done at our neighborhood pool or backyard or on the couch (ahem, day drinking). Yesterday, however, the stars and planets aligned just right and we packed up the Subaru for its first trip to the beach:
And then the thing that you always hope doesn't happen at the beach (but statistically has to), happened to poor Carl:
The reason he doesn't look as upset as you'd expect is because even though I scrambled to get my phone to capture the moment (such a good wife I am), the shock had worn off and the poop wiped and when I said, "act like you just got pooped on by a seagull," he took a little light-hearted offense. So really what I captured was his reaction to my obnoxiousness.
 |
| Look at the trunk space! |
Carl manages to go to the beach all the time with just a surfboard and towel, but for some reason my involvement makes things a lot less simple. Two beach chairs, two beach bags, a cooler, a bocci ball set, a surfboard, some road rage and 3 stops later we arrived at the beach!
I hunkered down with a jumbo bag of boiled peanuts:
Once the sun came out we started up a game of bocci ball:
 |
| The boys all called each other before hand and agreed to wear their red shorts. |
 |
| Seagull poop to the face. |
All in all it was a great day! If sunburns were a measure of beach day success then yesterday is a chart-topper.
Monday, April 9, 2012
F is for Failure
I'm going to let the title of this post speak for itself rather than making a laundry list of all the ways that I've failed in my attempts to live and eat more responsibly with the ABC's of 2012 over these past couple weeks. I've been pretty bad lately, but I'm content to move on and settle for less than 100% success. I haven't blogged in a while because I knew that in doing so I would have to admit my shortcomings and I didn't want to be judged. After thinking about it, though, I'm almost positive that I'm the only one doing the judging, and quite possibly the only one reading half of these posts anyways (except for my mom and Carl- hi Mom, hi Carl!), so I'm back and I'm feeling shameless, if not somewhat lacking in the motivation department. When I say that I'm back what I really mean is that I'll be back soon- with something really cool to talk about, I hope- and with more regularity.
Quick Updates:
The Book Thief was awesome. If you haven't read it that needs to change.
I'm going to Boston next month!! Jessica graduates law school and I needed something to look forward to. A workout tally might be in order.
Melman lost 2.5 pounds. So proud of him!
I had my first "Carl hangover" yesterday. For those of you that have been to Ihop or Waffle House or Cracker Barrel with Carl while he's hungover you know what I mean. For those who haven't, consider yourself lucky. Anyways, I must really be getting old.
Annnd that's about all the news I have. Be back soon!
Quick Updates:
The Book Thief was awesome. If you haven't read it that needs to change.
I'm going to Boston next month!! Jessica graduates law school and I needed something to look forward to. A workout tally might be in order.
Melman lost 2.5 pounds. So proud of him!
I had my first "Carl hangover" yesterday. For those of you that have been to Ihop or Waffle House or Cracker Barrel with Carl while he's hungover you know what I mean. For those who haven't, consider yourself lucky. Anyways, I must really be getting old.
Annnd that's about all the news I have. Be back soon!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)