Sexy Six. Or something like that.

Happy 6th Anniversary to my dear hubby!  And bless him, because our anniversary was anything but sexy with how huge I feel lately. 

Things were a little different this year since we had a tag along.  No pub crawls or casinos like our previous years of celebrating.  No trips, gifts or romantic dinner over bottles of wine.  Lucky for the little miss.

We started out the day with brunch at the Bristol, did some shopping for the nursery, and ended our day with ordering pizza.  My world revolves around food. 

It was quiet, it was simple and I wouldn't have changed it for anything.  It was perfect. 

Side note: apparently after 6 years of marriage, you start to dress alike.  Isn't that just precious?!  Vomit. 

So thanks to my husband for a wonderful six years!  And for giving me a pass on the sexy part.  There's always next year, right? :)
  

5 years

Oh hello there, it's almost the end of August and I haven't blogged since the 1st.  It's not that I don't have things to blog about or time to do it (work), it's just that I don't have the motivation to do it lately.  I do better when people harrass me about being a crappy blogger.  So here you go harrassers...

So what's been going on in the Line household?  Well, we had our 5 year wedding anniversary.  FIVE years!  Holy moly.  We should have like 4 kids by now... or something like that.

Instead we chose to spend our special day celebrating in style, our way.

I woke up super early and couldn't go back to sleep because I had received Tony's gift in the mail the day before and he wouldn't let me give it to him early.  I am so so so bad at keeping surprises when it comes to giving gifts.  Since it's our 5 year, the 'traditional' gift is wood.  I was at a loss for a long time and then my mom suggested a lady in GB who does amazing carvings.  Hence the final product:



She could not have done a better job.  Powercat- check.  Dental Medical sign- check. Wedding date- check.  Margo Largo- double freaking check. 

We couldn't get over how much detail is in it.  If you look at it in person it is unbelievable.

We started off the morning by dropping off Marg at school and heading down to the plaza for coffee and shopping.  We went to Starbucks, ordered a coffee and muffin and went to sit outside.  This was out of my comfort zone.  I just can't imagine doing that on a regular basis... it's like people go by themselves to get coffee, sit outside and read to themselves to show everyone else that they're reading.  It's odd to me, but whatevs.

 

I have the best husband ever, he let me pick out my own gift.  Seriously, that could have been dangerous, I really need a new car*.  Too bad there aren't any dealerships on the plaza.

We walked around for awhile before strolling into Tivol and I knew then exactly what I wanted.  A ring for my right hand.  I wanted something that I could wear everyday and it would always be a reminder of our 5 year anniversary.

I bring you gorgeous David Yurman:

I actually opted against this exact one with the diamonds b/c I fell in love with the 2-toned one that I don't have a picture of at the moment. 

Did you know that dogs can go into Tivol?!  I just laugh at the thought of bringing Margo into a jewerly store.  Or any store for that matter. 

Next on our list was heading out to the Legends. We were starting to get hungry so we stopped at Granite City and had beers and an appetizer.  Then we went to the casino.  What?  Not a normal anniversary celebration?  It's right up our alley.  We love us some roulette.

After a couple of hours, Tony was up and I was only down $5, so we decided to jet back to our house and clean up for dinner later on.  Somehow we found a 2007 bottle of cab in our stock and excitedly popped it open since that was our wedding year. 

Our ride came to pick us up for dinner and we continued our way to The American down in Crown Center.  I loved everything about this restaurant and it was worth every penny.  The food was amazing, the service was amazing, and of coarse the wine was amazing. 

Tony had arranged for 2 glasses of champagne to be brought to us when we sat down.  Then we ordered a bottle of wine.  The waitor came back and filled up our champagne and I could tell Tony was confused.  He had only ordered two glasses, but sitting behind him was a BOTTLE of champagne in a chiller....  Oops.  Guess we were drinking that too. 

I had the artichoke soup, heirloom tomato salad, halibut, scallops, and nickers bar.  All of it was fantastic.

I'm a big Top Chef fan and I've been watching Top Chef Masters this season so I knew Debbie Gold was a contestant from Kansas City and worked at the American.  I was talking to our server about it and the next course that came out was presented by Debbie herself.  I about died.  She was so friendly and just a doll.  I was a few glasses of wine in, so I'm sure my excitement to see her was a bit over the top.

Before we left, we had an adorable little surprise from the Calhoons and our waiter brought us over our menu with our anniversary date on it and signed by Debbie Gold.  So so sweet!

A wonderful anniversary with a wonderful husband.  I can't wait to spend the next 5, 10, 20, 50, etc. years with you! 

*And that's another story in and of itself for another day....

Flip It and Reverse It

After that title I can't stop singing lil' kims rap song from the 90's... anybody??

On Saturday we did an overhaul clean of our front closet.  Believe me, it was so necessary.  I should have taken before and after pictures.  I found two TWO k-state sweatshirts that I thought I had lost. 

Do you want to know what else we found?  A K-State starter jacket.  Legit starter jacket.  I have no idea how it got into our closet.  I will tell you that it was Tony's and not mine.  I'd like to think his parents brought it up at some point to get it out of their house, and that he hasn't moved it around to 4 different houses since he was... 13. 

As we were shuffling through the 28 coats deciding on what we could donate, we had a convo that went like this:

Tony: I feel like I wear most of these jackets still.
Me: Can we at least get rid of the k-state starter jacket?
Tony: Man, that thing carries around lots of memories...

I go to let Margo out in the backyard, as I turn the corner to the living room I hear 'Cal, we can't get rid of this, it's reversible!!!' and then I see this:

You better believe I made him prove that it was reversible.  And it is...

I told him we could mail it to Bill if that would make him feel better.  In which he replied, 'I think he already has it.'

Sorry folks, everyone is out of luck, it has a new home at the GoodWill.  If you hurry, you might be able to still get your hands on it!

Smokin'

This is a tad overdue, but I just figured out how to get pics off of my new point and shoot camera.  So the next few posts will be overdue as well.  Get used to it.

Tony has a new love in his life.  It's not his truck, however his truck is still ranking before me in the line up.  This may be second in the running for now, but I think I can inch above this one eventually. 

Meet the new smoker. 

Ain't she purty?

I came home to him putting this together with the biggest smile on his face.  Margo likes it too.  That's her smiling model face. 

We'll be testing her out this weekend for the KSU game.  Ya'll are welcome to come over and taste the masterpiece.  Hubs likes compliments.

1, 2, 3, 4...get your booty on the floor.

Are you prepared for a super cheesy post?  Good.

Happy Anniversary to my hubs!  4 years from today was the best day of my life.  4 years, I know right?!  FOUR freaking years!  I can't believe it's been that long.  It seems like just yesterday we were walking down the isle to Baby Got Back and the pastor was calling Tony, Todd.  I should clarify... we did not choose to walk down the isle to Baby Got Back, but the people above our room chose to continue their afternoon reception during our ceremony which led to 'my anaconda don't want none unless you got. buns. hun.' to be playing coinciding with our big moment.  It's a good thing I wasn't a bridezilla, or someone's ass would have gotten kicked.

So back to my love bug of a husband.  I couldn't ask for a better partner in crime life.  He is truly my best friend and I'm so thankful he puts up with me.  Call me crazy, but I think the most important trait in a marriage besides Trust, is letting your significant other be themselves.  He lets me be me, and I'm so grateful for that. 

Wanna know what we are doing for our anniversary?  Well, Tony's going on a bachelor party float trip.  Doesn't that sound so romantic?  I know, what a sweetie.  Kind of kidding, we are hitting up The Skies for dinner tonight and going to Mexico for Dave & Em's wedding next month.  We thought that was a better trip than having me ride in the back of the canoe on the float trip this weekend.  (you're welcome Heck.)

So last night we opened gifts.  Tony tried to get me to open mine on Monday.  What a spoil sport.  I wanted to wait until tonight, but he was evidently super antsy, so we opened them last night.  I got an awesome wine rack that holds 54 bottles of wine.  It's like my dream gift.  I love it!  Tony got a KSU beer pong table.  Do you see where our priorities are?  Booze & Booze.  I was so excited to give Tony this gift b/c I knew he really wanted one.  Well, it showed up at the door on Tuesday night... while I was at Whitesnake.  It was in a big box that said  KSU PONG TABLE.  Way to be discrete, Amazon.  So he had known what his present was on Tuesday, what a bum! 

Here's some pictures from our wedding.  Remember, it was 4 years ago and the quality of copying them off of Facebook doesn't really make them crystal clear, but you get the point...

Adorable Flower Girls & Candlelighters

Ring bearer Kemper.  He is SO big now!!

My pops

Love you babe!  Can't wait to spend many many more years with you!  Muah!!!

Say A Little Prayer

Tony went to the Royals game last night and had pretty amazing seats behind the plate.  He was on TV all night.  I told him not to pick his nose.

Here's the text message I got from Erin. 



Dear God, please let Callie be sober when I get home. 
Amen.  Tony.

Hutch High 2001

Two weekends ago, we made the trek back to Hutch for Tony's high school reunion.  I had absolutely no idea what to expect.  Me being all young and everything, we haven't had ours yet.  Next year.  See, I'm so young. 

We met up with some people at the Rusty Needle on Friday night.  If that name doesn't intise you, I'm not sure what will.  Turns out, it's connected to a tattoo parlor, hince the name.  Through the night I gathered that it was called The Needle for short.  Much better.  Not knowing who we would run into at The Needle, and me not knowing a sole from Hutch High, we consumed multiple cocktails before arriving.  There was a huge nasty storm that came through about 10:00, that's when the roof started leaking.  In about 17 places.  It ended up being a really fun night and from what I know, nobody ended up with any Hutch High tattoos.  We got to see Tony's friend Ryan and his wife Joah, who we hadn't seen since their wedding a few years ago.  She is kind of my sole mate.  Thank God she was there. 

Necessary

The next morning I ran over to my grandmother's house for breakfast.  She always does such an awesome job with meals.  Check out my plate.  So pretty!

There was a school tour in the afternoon, but we got caught up in laying by Tony's friend's pool instead.  I made a comment that it was the first time I'd been to a pool all summer.  Tony quickly corrected me that I was just at a Vegas pool about 2 weeks ago.  Ahh, yes.  He always keeps me so in check.  Even though there was vodka present at this pool, it wasn't really on the same level as Veg.  That's clearly what I was thinking when I said that.  After a lot of the sun's rays, and beverages we had to go get ready for the actual reunion at the Ramada.

Can you tell which one I'd been drinking with at the pool all day??

Sometime in between absolutely nobody dancing besides the wives that didn't attend HHS (above), and the corregraphed dance to Men In Black done by a guy and his girlfriend/wife/baby-mama in matching wife beaters, Joah decided that we needed a break from the reunion.  I believe her exact words were 'these people are so lame, let's go take a shot.'  Twist my arm...

So we headed across the hall to the hotel bar, which is really actually considered a club in Hutch.  The next few pictures speak for themselves...

#1 - tequila

I told them I was terrible at shots, however, the situation desperately called for me to pull it together.

#2 - Starburst

#3 - tequila.  Again.  Wth.

This has got to be my favorite picture.  Besides Courtney's face and her upside down name tag, my shot DID NOT go down well.  I grabbed a beer from the stranger sitting next to me and used it as a chaser.  I don't even think he noticed.

The rest of the night went the same way.  I have no idea what our husbands were doing besides sitting next to the bar.  I wore Joah's name tag around and told people I was in their class.  Joah told people she was the Swedish foreign exchange student.  We might have been the most fun people there.  Well, at least in our minds. 

My name is not Joah

It was actually a really fun weekend and I'd love to see them all again really soon!  Hopefully nobody will remember me at Tony's 20 year.  Maybe I'll be better at taking shots by then.

Happy Wife Happy Life

I was wrong when I claimed I didn't have pictures of the bday celebration.  I found this one :)

Birthday Post

I'm really late on a few posts, but you see I haven't learned how to get my pictures off of my FANCY camera yet.  I thought Tony would have figured it out for me by now, but that's not happening, so I might actually have to read something.  Gasp!  Then I realized that I don't have any pictures from my celebration night anyways, so I might as well just blog about it already! 

My bday was last Tuesday, and knowing weekday birthdays are the worst, and we would be out of town all weekend, Tony planned something for the Thursday night before.  He didn't work on Friday.  I did.  Selfish much?  Totally kidding, he out did himself this year. 

He told me not to worry about what we were doing, 'just chill' I believe were his exact words.  I figured dinner and drinks were in the works.  On Thursday morning I woke up to a note on the mirror saying something along the lines of 'don't worry tonight will be great, next clue is this afternoon so you'll just have to wait.'  Now, my husband is a sweetie pie and very thoughtful, I've known this, but I don't think I've ever gotten a rhymn out of him before so this was extra special and I chuckled a bit thinking of him coming up with it. 

Clue #2 came via picture message over my lunch break.
When you get home and changed be ready to go. I'll meet you at the place where the plates are small and the Sangria does flow.
Perf!  We were going to LaBodega.  I met him around 5:30 and we had a tapa (goat cheese bruschetta is da bomb) and a drink. 

Then I was handed Clue #3
So long good tapas and food but we have to roam.  It's no longer in Great Bend but it's still called home.
Off to my parents we headed and my gparents, and aunt were there too.  My mom had some shrimp cocktail and mini crabcakes accompanied with some summer beer.  By this time I realized that we were on a mini pub house crawl and was loving it!  After a few super embarrasing old birthday clips my dad broke out, filled with scrunchies, glasses, and shoving my brother (he deserved it), I got the next envelope.

Clue #4
Your family is great, it seems like we just said hi.  But now to a place where Bang Bang isn't from a drive by. 
This one cracks me up.  I immediately said 'RA!' and Tony looked at me like noooo.... then I thought it through and Bang Bang Shrimp is from Bone Fish.  Duh.  We stopped out front and I thought we were eating there, but a waiter walked out and gave us 2 orders of bang bang shrimp and we were off.

Clue #5
Now that you have the shrimp we should get on our way.  To their 'first house' we go so that we can say HEY!
I knew Andy & Andie had just gotten the keys to their house that day, so we were off to eat shrimp and drink wine with the Verns.  Disclaimer- they are not married yet, but both named Andy(ie) so it's way easier to say The Verns.  or The Andy(ie)'s whichever you prefer. 

Clue #6
It isn't a Tuesday, or Thursday or Sunday but off to pretend it's Bachelorette Monday! 
Back story- Usually on a Monday (or Tuesday or Thursday) you can find me at Gina or Em's having Happy Time aka watching the Bachelor or anything else that might be on TV.  We catch a lot of slack from our significant others. 
I figured this one was coming since The Verns just moved a couple blocks from Gina & Em.  So us 4 were off to Em and Dave's for more appetizers and drinks! 

Clue #7 was in puzzle pieces divided into the different clue envelopes.  So I had to put it together to read the last one.  And it just took me about 5 minutes as I type this to put it together again...
Happy Birthday my love, I love you so much.  This was my version of Survivor, Amazing Race, and such. I hope you had fun chasing around my clues, but don't let a missing present give you the blues. If this were hot and cold we'd be in some heat, it's been riding around behind you in the bench seat.

And that is the story about how I got my AMAZING camera!!  We've taken lots of pictures, I'm still learning how to use it, and I'll upload pictures as soon as I can. 

I was really impressed with Tony's plan.  It was so much fun cruising around town and seeing everyone!  Thanks babe, you're the BEST!

Bedtime

Lately we haven't been able to budge Margo to get her to come to bed after she falls asleep on the couch.  So here's our solution...

Tony has to scoop her up, while trying not to break his back, and carry her like a baby into the bedroom.  She grunts like we are really 'putting her out' the entire time. If only we could find a blanket big enough to swaddle her.  Who says we aren't ready to be parents?  At least I know Tony has enough muscles to carry around a 13 year old in the future...

Walllaa!

We finished the island last night, so here's the final outcome. 

We took this sad guy that my mom and gmother found at an estate sale:

Worked and worked on him...

 My mom and I painted him, my mom cut the tiles, and Tony adheased them to the larger top we had cut at Home Depot.  (I'm like a regular there lately between the spray paint ordeal and this). 

After adheasing the tiles, we had to wait 24 hours to grout it.  It went better than expected, until I tried to help and accidently sat on the bucket-o-grout...

Warning: objects in this picture may appear larger than they really are

After the grouting it was all pretty and we ended up with this!

Now we just have to seal it in 3 days and it's officially done!  Thanks to Tony and my mom for all their hard work.  I would have done the tiling, but Tony is too OCD to let me handle something like that.  He's probably right, mine would have ended up crooked for sure.  I mean I did manage to sit on the only object in a 5 ft. area while bending over.

Pouring from the Heart

Tony and I were invited to Pouring from the Heart, an event benefit for the Oncology Dental Support Clinic at UMKC.  We went last Thursday and it was pretty amazing.  It was the first time we have gone so we weren't sure what to expect, what to wear, etc.  I played it safe with a black cocktail dress and was glad I didn't wear anything more casual.  Some people were in full blown gowns - wowza! 
Here's the rundown...

We showed up to the Weston and a silent auction/cocktail hour where they were serving champagne & had a vodka bar.  The people we were with ordered dirty martini's and I was intrigued.  I've always wanted to like them and not sure why I don't b/c I love olives.  The bartender told me to order it 'extra dirty' (I feel dirty saying that), but I guess that means they add more olive juice.  That = less vodka for those of you keeping track.  So I pulled the trigger and ordered it adding extra juice and extra olives.  Apparently that night I really liked dirty martini's...and the next morning I hated them.

We all sat down and I took a look at the menu.  It listed a 5 course meal and wine pairings for each.  I casually slid my martini to the side knowing I'd better saddle up, it's going to be a long night.  More on the food later...

A speaker starting talking about a VIP table that you could bid on.  I'm still not sure what that included since we were all getting food and drinks anyways, but everyone had bid cards and she started the bid off at $4,000 for the table.  Wth?  Maybe they all got diamond earrings under their chairs.  Knowing I did not have $4,000 and if I did I sure as hell wasn't buying a table, I wasn't really paying attention to the bidding and my back was turned in that direction.  I was looking around for anyone I might know and I saw some people a couple of tables over.  You know where this is heading right??  I raised my hand in the air to wave and say hi and the speaker was like 'maam are you bidding?  Where's your bid card?'  Well, I don't hear her and I'm still waving and smiling, oblivious to the world.  The girl next to me grabs my arm and pulls it down.  My whole table was like in slow motion 'Noooooo!!!'  Then I realize what just happened.  I was completely embarrassed, not to mention our whole table almost killed me.  Later on, the people I was waving to came over and said 'that was almost the most expensive wave ever'. 

Back to the food.  I took pictures don't worry.  I was like the homeless girl at the table that had never seen nice food before.  I kept telling my table 'sorry, I have a blog.'  Blog friends, you understand right??
So here's the list of the coarses, wine, and my thoughts.  I actually stole the menu in my clutch so I could remember the courses in detail.

The Starter (or Amuse Bouche as they called it)
Cranberry poached shrimp and a bloody mary shooter
Wine: 2008 Shannon Ridge Sauvignon Blanc

-Insert picture here- 

oh I ate this one too fast to take a picture - sorry, the word shooter is in the description, what do you expect? Just know it was pretty.  And tasty.

Salad
Beet and goat cheese salad - hearts of palm, roasted red and yellow beets, candied walnuts, citrus champagne dressing
Wine: 2009 Windsor Vineyars Viognier Sonoma Valley

Remember how my camera sucks?  Well this salad did not suck.  It was outstanding!  I actually ate beets and liked them, that should tell you how good it was.

Entree
Pan-seared diver scallops.  English pea puree, red and yellow grap tomato confit and lemon oil
Wine: Dominique Cornin Macon-Chaintre
(are any of you even following these words?  I don't know what half of them mean)

It was alright.  I thought I liked scallops, but the more I have them I think I don't.  Tony's always said he thinks they have a funny texture and I agree with him now.  I kinda felt like these might have been under cooked, so that made me nervous.  I ate them anyways... duh.  Wouldn't want to be rude. 

Intermezza
Mango Sorbet

I don't know what Intermezza means, probably to clense the palate or something fancy like that, but I'm thinking it's like an early dessert. 

Main Coarse
Broiled beef tenderloin- horseradish and blue cheese gratin, artichoke ragout, broiled spring onion, bordelaise.
Wine: 2007 Youngberg Hill Jordan Block pinot noir

I guess I started eating before I remembered to take the picture.  I was on like my 4th glass of wine, give me a break.  This was really really good.  Tony and I both raved about it.

(sorry to any vegetarian's out there... you are probably vom'ing from this pic)

Dessert
Spumoni Bavarois with chocolate accent with hazelnut fuilertine, carmel and creme de banana.
Wine: 2007 Toscolo Dolce Moscato

It was pretty and delicious!  The wine was a port wine, which I am not a fan of.  I think I gave mine to Tony. 

Overall it was an amazing dinner and I learned a lot about wines.  Something other than drinking red with all food groups.

And now for some pictures of people.  Here's the girl that kept me from bidding on the VIP table.  Thank you.

And here are the people who brought us.  Had a lot of fun with them! 

Hopefully we will be invited back next year, I don't think I had that many dirty martini's to get the boot.  Had I won the VIP table, it might be a different story.