Up All Night- The Growing Prysocks

David came home with these today...

I really did marry the sweetest man.

Each year in the District, the view of the tidal basin blooms into a sea of pink and white. The annual cherry blossom festival was one of the things I was told about when we moved up here and something that I have been really excited about.

Little did I know, that I wouldn’t have to go anywhere near the tourist-heavy locations to see a cherry blossom tree.


In fact, I can just look outside of my window.


And that’s what I have been doing for days. Laying in my comfy bed, curled up with a book, and staring at this gorgeous tree. I'm amazed that I have been taking pictures of this tree for months without realizing how gorgeous it would be in the spring!

Even though David and I have had a ton of free time together lately, we’ve been wanting to re-institute Date Nights. Dave says we need to be watching our budget, so we were struggling to find inventive at home dates besides snuggling up and watching a movie.

Enter Project 52. I discovered this wonderful idea through the wonderful world of blogging and quickly hoped that this would work for David and I. I pursued some of the ideas, tweaked them a little and came up with our first official at home date night: Fondue Night and “Would Your Rather.”

The fondue was a delicious recipe that we modified. It was so much fun to lay by our fireplace, eating yummy, cheese-soaked food, drinking a bottle of wine and playing such a silly game.

And even though the question we came up with were sometimes silly, we still both felt like we learned a lot about the other person. This is one date I would definitely do again!


Date night number 1: Success!

Since we’ve been in D.C., David and I have created a tradition that we dearly love: pancake Saturdays. The premise is simple: Each Saturday we sleep in {usually David has to eventually come in and wake me up because I really love sleep} and then David makes pancakes.

We’ve made pancakes using Bisquick, old-fashioned buttermilk pancakes, waffles and peanut butter, blueberry waffles and most recently tried our hands at blueberry compotes.

Beesly loves Pankcake Saturdays too.
With each yummy people-pancake, David makes tiny Beesly-sized pancakes:

She’s even learned new tricks to impress us and earn even more treats.

I love pancake Saturdays. Mostly because I get to spend all morning chatting and working beside my best friend. But the pancakes are pretty amazing too!

One of the things we love about David's job is the crazy schedule. Some nights, he might not get home until 8 or 9pm, but he gets to spend extra time at home in the mornings or during the day.

Today was one of those days where he had a few hours to spare in the middle of the day. He came home for lunch and we were able to go for a walk around the neighborhood! I grabbed the camera before we went out, but completely forgot about it until we were almost home. Boo.

However, I did manage to capture a few pictures to prove that Spring is here!

I was beginning to wonder if I could ever learn to love the weather here in Virginia. Granted, we've only lived here for six months, but I desperately missed the heat and humidity that I'd grown up with. However, number one on my list of weather wishes was thunderstorms.

Today I got my wish. Thunder, dark skies and a downpour made me very happy as I puttered around the house today. After the rain subsided a little, I grabbed the camera to take a picture of the tree that resides right outside our window.



Sometimes, it's the little things that make you feel at home.

Technically, neither David nor I get a traditional Spring Break anymore. David still has clients to see and paperwork to complete and I still have daily chores that have to be completed. But this year, we were lucky enough to have two of our fabulous friends come and visit and help us to have an unofficial spring break.

Jordan and April came in late Monday night and we were ecstatic. 11:30pm couldn't get here fast arrive fast enough and, though we were all tired, we stayed up for awhile catching up before finally heading to bed.

Really, I think David and I are at a loss for words. The week was absolutely fantastic. We had so much fun and were extremely sad to see them go. So rather than try to detail our every action we decided to commemorate our week in list form.

1) Port


2) Robin Hood
3) Sunny, 75 degree weather every day


4) Walking 10 + miles every day
5) "That's what she said"
6) Wine


7) Getting in my map
8) Turtle love
9) "Stop"
10) Seeing DC through fresh eyes


11) Port & Wine


12) Unintentional rhyming
13) Ferocious Beesly


14) Lisps
15) Wine & Port

16) People-watching on DC Metro
17) Getting to spend time with some of our favorite people


"Thanks so much for coming to visit! It meant more than you know and we love you so much!"

Last summer, David and I were pretty unsure of what our future held. Graduation was looming and we hadn't exactly nailed down our plans. In fact, at our graduation banquet, each graduate was required to stand up and say what they were doing. David and I listened to all of our friends announcing their prestigious doctoral programs and great jobs and somehow managed to stand up ourselves and shyly mumbled something about maybe having an interview somewhere.

Two days after we graduated, we flew to DC for David to interview at Youth Villages. It went well, but they were very tight-lipped about whether or not he had the job. We flew back to Abilene and had a week to be out of our apartment. And no place to go.

But God is so faithful and minutes after we locked up our apartment and turned in the keys, David received a call offering him the position. We were elated! We spent a couple of weeks bumming around Texas and visiting family before making the {excruciatingly long} drive from Houston to D.C. {in which I was the perfect wife and never whined once.}

Exactly 6 months ago today, David and I officially moved into our new apartment in Alexandria, VA. It’s been an incredible 6 months and I wanted to mark this day with things I have learned since leaving Texas and moving DC.

1) Heat is a luxury. A wonderful luxury, but a luxury.
2) In-unit washing machines and dryers are also a luxury. But I really really love them.

3) As much as I like our dishwasher, I could live without it.

4) Borrowing books from the library is, honestly, just as good as buying. At least most of the time.

5) Moving far away from family is perfect for learning to trust yourself and your spouse

6) Having four seasons is pretty wonderful…
7) …but I am definitely a Texas girl that prefers the heat and humidity over the cold, snowy and windy

9) Learning how to live outside of academia takes a little getting used to. I totally missing having a grade assigned to my work. Who knew?

10) Making meals that remind you of your dearest friends and family makes you not miss them quite as much
11) But you still miss them. A lot.

12) Material possessions don’t matter as much as a wonderful husband and a happy home life.