The Conversation, Volume 1 Part IV

Read about this series based on Lifetime's new show, The Conversation, HERE.
Today, the last batch of answers from the question I asked people in my life a few weeks ago:

In three sentences or less,
What would you tell your 14-year-old self?

{Courtney's Blog}

Best Friend Cute Apartment couldn't keep it down to three sentences,

rule breaker that girl is.

{Cute Apartment's Blog}

And lastly,

my three sentences to my 14-year-old self:

(You can read an entire letter I wrote to myself at age 15 HERE.)

Summer Vacation

Y'all, I've got one exciting summer vacation coming up.

And I bet you wanna read all about it, right?!

Well, head over to my Best Cousin's blog right now and you can!

 Ready?Set!GO!

Quotable Tuesdays

Hey Baby, What's Your Name? {Part 4}

Time to explain where some of my Handsome Husband's friends got their bloggy blog nicknames.

Also, {sidenote} one of my all-time favorite things is when HH's friends refer to each other of themselves as their blog nicknames.  I die!

Does this really need to be explained?  Clearly, Dodger is a big fan of the Dodgers.  He and my HH met playing soccer at their alma mater for undergrad.  He could also go by nicknames such as Ultra Athlete, Big Brother and Best Friend Compassion - the kid just cares about other people.

Clearly, this nickname came about when I was still doing wedding recaps on the blog (which, by the way I never finished...such a fail), but I love it so much I'm not willing to change it!  Also, Dr. G has referred to himself by this name more than once, so he's clearly a fan!  Dr. G is heading to med school shortly, and we are so proud of him!  He and HH also met playing soccer in undergrad, and he has been such a positive influence on HH - his study skills are incredible, and he is just uber nice.

(PS - Dr. Groomsman, do you know how hard is it to find a photo of you not making a funny face?!  I had to settle for this horrific photo of myself, just to find one of you smiling!)

Conussion is probably not a huge fan of his nickname, but look at the awesome photo I used of him!  He too played soccer with HH in school, and was known for playing hard.  Concussion would do whatever he had to do to get the job done, be it getting a concussion or rolling an ankle.  He was certainly a fun player to watch from the sidelines, and I loved making friends with his family throughout the years I spent watching their team play.

Next Time?

I'll tell you (or show you, in video form) how HH's friend YouTube Star got his name.

This is a post you won't want to miss.

Wanna read how others in our lives got their blog nicknames?  Check out the last installment of this series HERE.

The Nail Files

Linking up for one of my favorite weekly link-ups with Tara and Vicki!

I'm showing off my Palm Springs nails from Memorial Day weekend today!

I'd been wanting to try white for a while, but hadn't got a chance to buy some, so when Twin Beauty School showed up with some in her arsenal, I was all over it.

I loved the white, but 2 complaints:

1. It shows ALL of your mistakes - shaky hand nail-painters, beware!

and

2. It chipped in less than 12 hours!  I don't usually use a good top coat though, so that would be my b.

The colors I used:

What's on your nails this week?

Lots of Link Love

 

Like Tara, I think it's important to emphasize the importance of community in the blog world and not only focusing on ourselves and our own blogs, but to spread lots of blog love to those who deserve it.  Every other Thursday, I will highlight the posts over the last two weeks that touched me, made me laugh, pulled at my heartstrings, and inspired me. 

• Nicole talked about utilizing her strengths (and her husband utilizing his!) to come to a compromised arrangement that works best for her family.

• Stephanie shared some exciting news (no, she's not preggo!) - her and her hubs bought a house!

• Chelsea blogged about some options for tagalong forms of alcohol - great for on the go!

• Shellsea wrote a sweet letter to her almost 2-year-old little munchkin.

• Stephanie shared the sweetest photos from her early dating years with her husband.

• Jeannett told us some great tips on how to get products and companies to sponsor giveaways on your blog.

What links are you lovin' this week?

If I Could, I Would

Just Saturday we celebrated the birth of my twin Sisters Singer and Swimmer.  And just a few days later today, we celebrate the birth of my Gardening Mom.

Gardening Mom before kids, law school and Orange County changed her life!

Here's the thing when shopping for GM:

She has just about everything she needs (and thanks to her insanely hard work, so do the rest of us!).

She can buy things she wants, when she wants them.

And she works hard for that liberty, and to be honest I think she should treat herself more often!

But the conundrum every year is...

What do you get the woman who has everything?

And if you're me,

you get a blog post all about the things you would do for her, if you could.

And if I ever have the means to be able to do these things, you better believe I will!

So, Gardening Mom, if I could...

I would have you quit your job, and I would take care of you like you have taken care of me.

I would buy you your dream house, with a huge garden for you to spend your time designing and redesigning as the seasons and your tastes change.

I would send you to places you've never been before and to places you've loved and would love to see again.

I would take you on garden tours, home tours and musicals galore, like you have always taken me to things that interest me.

I would go on a long vacation just the two of us, so we could drink cocktails and talk about life which we don't get to do nearly as much as I'd like.

For you, Gardening Mom, I would do anything, if I could - like you have always done for me.

Quotable Tuesdays

The One Where Best Friend Swagger Chases Shia LaBeouf Down the Street

Yup.

The title really does say it all, doesn't it?

This is one of my all time favorite memories of Best Friend Swagger, and that is saying a lot cause I've some good ones.

Let me back up and explain a bit...

One winter break, a few years back, one of my girlfriends had the ingenious idea to head to LA for a day while people were in town from college and see this little gem filmed:

Oh yeah - those of us from the TRL generation remember this guy being quite the stud and we were an excited group heading up to see him in person!

We left super early to avoid the dreaded LA traffic, and ended up getting into town by the studio over an hour early.  Someone suggested Starbucks, and with there being one on every other corner, it was easy to find a Bucks to pull into.

We all got our caffeine fix, and were sitting in the car, mind you with the windows rolled completely down and car door or two open, when one member of our little posse said...

"Is that Shia LaBeouf?!"

pointing to a rough looking dude leaving Starbucks.

A few seconds went by with all of us straining our necks to see who she was talking about, and when we all realized it was - 4 girls barely out of their teens screeched together,

"Oh my God - it is!"

in not quite our finest moment.

But that wasn't it, somehow we convinced Best Friend Swagger that she should go ask him if we could take a photo with him.  (Though he was seriously not in photo form - dude looked about one missed paycheck away from living in a box.) If I recall correctly, it didn't take BF Swagger much convincing before she was out of the car and sashaying down the sidewalk to catch up with Shia.

The picture on the right freaking kills me -  Swaggs looks so casual.

BF Swagger caught up to him,

and here comes the shocker.

After asking him for a photo,

He said NO!

WTF, right?!

The face of let down.

Deafeated, Swagger came back to the car and told us the sad tale of how Shia LaDouche turned her down.

For years after that day, I only referred to him as Shia LaDouche because really:

1. Who says no to a photo with a fan?

and

2. Who says no to a photo with a fan as hot as BF Swagger?

(And it's funny how now we don't refer to him as anything, cause he sort of dropped of the planet.  Looks like somebody should have been appreciating those fans when he had them!  Burn!)

She mentioned something about seeing paparazzi but we didn't think much of being that LaDouche looked like LaShit and the photog couldn't have possibly thought those photos were all that important.

We thought wrong.

These photos did find themselves published, and in more than one spot!

We saw it on two online celebrity gossip sites, and Us Weekly Magazine!

One of the gossip sites really bashed Swagger, which I'm pretty sure didn't phase her but instead made her feel even more like a celebrity.

By the time it was published in Us Magazine, Swagger had left the country already for a semester abroad so I did what any best friend would do - immediately contact her via every social network possibly and buy a copy and stash it for her for almost six months.

Need proof? Check it out.

Put Your Party Hats On!

That's right, folks, put your party hats on, because these two hotties are LEGAL today!

I really truly cannot even believe my wittle baby sisters are 18-frickin-years-old today.

It seems like just yesteday I was prentending I was their mom (at the ripe old age of 6), carrying them around, chaning diapers, and realizing how much I loved being around these little teeny babies.

Happy Birthday, to two beautiful people who deserve a beautiful welcome into adult world.