Weirdo

It's always a little weird when your husband walks in and says, "Hey, watch this. This guy reminds me of you." :\

But, in this case, he's totally right. I'm just like the kayak guy in this American Express commercial.

And Levi is like the salesman... the guy who nods and says, "Oookay."

It's important to keep an accurate record.

Sometimes Levi writes down things I say so that we can laugh about them later. For example:

"I want a dolphin SO bad, and you haven't gotten me one yet, and I don't know WHY!"

Living On the Edge

Last night, a little evening stroll somehow turned into me sitting in a pharmacy at 10:45 getting my very first flu shot.

That's what we call spontaneity.

Bringing back the 90s

First of all, this counts as a dress???!! It's more like a tee shirt.

And secondly, I wore almost the EXACT same babydoll dress to my first school dance in the 6th grade when I was 11 years old, except mine was navy blue and had white daisies on it.

Isn't it weird when things you wore as a kid come back in style? It makes me feel a little bit old... and nostalgic. Long live the 90s!

(And, for the record, I did NOT buy this dress... waaaaay too short.)

She was my idol.

When I was little, all I wanted was to be just like Shirley Temple. I wanted to watch The Little Princess every single day, and I wanted to wear my "Shirley Temple dress" to church every Sunday... not sure what made me think it was a Shirley Temple dress... probably because it was short. That was my look - short dresses, curly hair. Just like Shirley.

One of the patients who came into the doctor's office my mom worked at knew that I was a big fan, so she brought me a cassette tape full of Shirley Temple songs. I played that thing nonstop and learned all of the words. I would stand on top of a big counter we had in the living room and put on shows all by myself. I still know many of her songs. They randomly pop into my head sometimes. Tonight, I started singing Polly Wolly Doodle out of nowhere. I love that those songs are still buried in my brain. And I love that Shirley Temple was my idol.

She's pretty dang cute.

This Week.

This week has been one of the happiest I've had in some time. Levi and I got to spend a ton of extra time together, and we made good use of it. We didn't slip into any stupid, pointless arguments. We didn't have any conflicting agendas. We both wanted to be together, and we both wanted to just enjoy ourselves. It was pretty great.

My alone time this week was pretty great too. I've been feeling really guilty, anxious, and overwhelmed about how I spend my time lately. These feelings never get me anywhere. They don't motivate me to a place of productivity; instead, they paralyze me into doing absolutely nothing. I hate when I get to that place. That didn't happen this week. I made great use of my time. And instead of sitting motionless on the couch, staring at some mindless television show once all my work was done, I made a point to actually enjoy my spare time. I did yoga. I read. I flipped through magazines. I cooked. I felt inspired, happy, and satisfied.

See?? This is what happens when the kitchen is completely clean for the first time in three months. I can only imagine what next week will bring if we clean the rest of the house over the weekend...

Weirdos

My friend, Colette, shared this with me the other day:

"We are all a little weird and life's a little weird, and when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall in mutual weirdness and call it love."

- Dr. Seuss

Here's to a happy life of mutual weirdness with my own weirdo!

jason segel

the other night, i had a dream that i was dating jason segel. he was a really sweet boyfriend, by the way.

i forgot about this dream until i saw an ad for a new movie last night.

when the ad came on, i said to levi, "hey! i just remembered that i had a dream i was dating jason segel!" just to be clear, levi and i don't do that whole fake boyfriend/fake girlfriend thing. we don't have a freebie list. we don't talk about celebrity crushes. i, honestly, don't even have any celebrity crushes*. the only crush i have is on my husband. gag me, i know.

so i was surprised when levi laughed and said, "i ain't mad at you. you go get him, baby."

we really like jason segel.

*actually, i have always sort of had a thing for darrell hammond as bill clinton...

stating the obvious

this is me spending less time on the internet.

maybe i'll read today too!

have a great weekend!!!

lots of love,

jasmine

xo

may goals & beautiful macarons

since we're in a new month, and since my whole world seems to be changing right now, i think a little goal-setting session is in order!

my goals for may:

1. start doing yoga.

2. spend less time on the internet daily.

3. institute computer-free weekends a couple times this month.

4. start reading again.

i think i'm going to share some of the books i've been dying to read next week (or maybe tomorrow?) to get me inspired to read again. i used to read constantly, but haven't really been in the mood over the last year or two. that needs to change.

alright, now that that's done, let's talk about macarons. ohhhh, how i love paulette macarons! they are exquisite. i'm so glad that levi appreciates them (almost) as much as i do.

yes, we toast with macarons.

they're so beautiful!

how's that for a random post??! ;)

things

things i want right now:

1. the magical disappearance of 15 pounds from my body... overnight

2. the magical disappearance of all my student loan debt... overnight

3. another toasted crumpet with butter and apricot preserves

4. a baby

things i'm looking forward to:

1. friday's launch of the violet magazine

i got a sneak peek, and it is amazing. i'm not just saying this because camilla is my friend. it's gorgeous. be excited.

2. getting my Paragard IUD switched to a Mirena and living a life sans horrendous cramping every single day

3. accompanying levi on a small work trip to san luis obispo in may

4. the fair this summer

things i dislike at the moment:

1. being ill

2. my crazy neighbors and disrespectful apartment manager

3. my dirty kitchen and bedroom and living room and bathroom. my dirty house.

4. the fact that stacey and camilla don't live nearby

things i love always:

1. God

2. my husband

3. my family & kitties

4. flowers & coffee

how 'bout you?

confessions

these are my confessions.

1. i'm prone to exaggeration.

i.e. i say things like, "this is the cutest thing i've ever seen" and "i love it with all my heart."

2. i abuse exclamation points!!!!!!!

3. i don't care the teensiest bit about prince william & kate middleton or their upcoming wedding.

4. sometimes when levi has asked me to take care of something before he gets home from work, i wait 'til he texts me to say he's coming home before starting it.

5. i often eat the same exact thing for lunch (or breakfast or dinner) for weeks at a time.

6. some days i don't leave the house until the sun has already gone down.

7. i have a backlog of pictures and stories for blog posts that i'm too lazy to write.

8. sometimes remembering to take pictures when i'm out feels like torture (please see #1).

9. however, i have 166 pictures of the sky on my iPhone... all taken in one day.

10. sometimes it takes me a month (or more) to wear something that i absolutely had to have.

11. i can be a raging bitch some days for no apparent reason.

12. i don't like having my picture taken, but i do like having pretty pictures of myself.

13. i have a collection of kelly dolls in a box in my closet. sometimes i look at them.

14. i stopped watching the oscars because i never see oscar-worthy movies anymore. i prefer films like the lizzie mcguire movie, which i saw while it was in theatres. i also saw spice world at the theatre.

15. i can be a terribly pretentious snob.

16. i have to check my heart rate while playing tiny wings. i'm serious. i'm not exaggerating on this one.

17. last night, i wore ugg boots with rolled up jeans and a sweatshirt with no bra or shirt underneath. OUT IN PUBLIC.

18. i wanted to come up with a good final item for this list, but i got distracted... and then i forgot... and now i'm just too lazy...

four very important things

1. i got tangled yesterday.

2. i got a (very) used bike on monday.

3. i'm on instagram! my username is avec_la_fleur.

4. i get to see stacey today!!!! levi's making her blonde.

sitting

on sunday morning, my family all met up to see our unborn nephew in an ultrasound (so cool!). later, we had plans to meet up again for dinner at my brother and sister-in-law's house.

this meant there was time to kill in the middle of the day.

we ended up passing this time by sitting.

levi, my sister, and i sat all over the place: couches at anthropologie, coffee shops, restaurants, shoe-shine stations, random thrones...

it was an interesting day.

random, but enjoyable. just the way i like it!

cross it off the list

remember this post when i complained about all my favorites that had been changed or discontinued?

well, guess what?!

i can remove ruby red squirt from that list!

huzzah!!!

funny story

hopefully, levi doesn't get upset that i share this little story.

last night, i asked levi if he wanted to do the "waist slimming" section of my pilates dvd with me. it's only 10 minutes of ab work, and i think it's pretty easy. plus, levi has a full-on six pack, so i figured he wouldn't mind. so anyway, he said yes.

a couple-few minutes went by before we moved into our lateral abs. apparently, levi was starting to get sore because all of the sudden he exclaims, "this is bullsh*t! i can't do this anymore!"

i almost DIED laughing. it was hilarious. he said he felt like his muscles were tearing. (this is how my chest feels when i do push-ups. he can do those all day.) i seriously couldn't stop laughing.

now to be fair, i have pretty strong abdominal muscles (definitely no visible six pack though...anything i have is hidden by my keep-a-baby-warm squishy layer). my dance teachers make us do really crazy ab workouts, so i kinda feel like i could do sit-ups all day. also, the pilates sit-ups were really slow and controlled. levi's probably not used to that. once he quit, he kept flipping his head back and forth between me and the pilates instructor in awe. he couldn't believe we were able to sit up that slowly and extend our legs and point our toes all at the same time.

boys are so cute.

also, i don't think it's fair that levi has a six pack...and that he can eat any amount of any food and stay so thin. what a jerk!

tales of tininess

remember the shake & bake commercials with the little southern girl who says,

"it's shake & bake, and i helped!"

when levi was little, he thought she said,

"it's shake & bake, and i hate 'em."

this seriously cracks me up.

singsingsing

i love to sing. i'm probably singing or humming something during about 50% of my waking hours...and i swear i sing in my dreams, so you could probably throw some of my sleeping hours into that statistic too.

i have favorite driving songs ("let's get it on" and "sexual healing" - strange, yes), favorite cooking songs, favorite getting dressed songs, etc. but, i think we'd all agree that, the best place to sing is in the shower. therefore,

my top 3 favorite songs to sing in the shower are:

1. "son of a preacher man"

2. "a change is gonna come"

3. "oh, holy night" (??)

if you were stranded on a desert island (i know this doesn't make sense; just go with it) and could only choose 3 sing-it-in-the-shower songs to have with you, what would you choose?

brain fever

levi and i are sick, so we spent all day yesterday laying around the house.

which means i had a lot of time for weird dreams (about glee characters and twin babies named after wrestlers), random thoughts, bad movies, and playing cooking dash on levi's iPhone.

illness-induced random thoughts:

isn't it funny that everyone has the same words available to them, but we all use them so differently?

the secret to life might be learning to enjoy awkward, uncomfortable, & unpleasant moments.

i seriously hate shaving my legs and tweezing my eyebrows. what do i have against hair removal??

i was serious about those bad movies. has anyone else ever seen my fake fiancé starring melissa joan hart and joey lawrence? truly awful. levi was horrified.

alright. that's all i've got for today. i'm gonna go try to get better.

i never wear shorts.

this might be my most embarrassing post ever.

it's all for the love of a rainbowed butt.

first of all, i am the goofiest clothes model on the planet. i just never know how to pose, so i do really dorky stuff.

and secondly, i know my bra is visible in a lot of these. i was wearing a pajama shirt that is, apparently, see through when the flash hits it.

anyway, remember my beloved rainbow butt jeans?

i decided to try to repurpose them.

this is how bad they were:

(fierce.)

so, i went out to levi's studio to have him cut them into shorts for me.

(super duper fierce.)

here's the thing i never wear shorts.

never.

ever.

NEVER.

NEVER.

so, if i ever get brave enough to wear these, this is how i might do so:

(and, of course, i'll be sure to strike all these poses if the shorts make it out of the house.)

the end.