The Secret is Out!!!



Ryan and Jess are getting married!!!!!!!!

The Future Mr. and Mrs. Ryan Warner



Dear Warner,

We’ve been friends for… well… forever.  We met at Beach Week in 2004 and never looked back.  You’ve always been the best friend to me- including when you drove me all over Myrtle Beach to find a pirate costume in ’07.  From dancing on picnic tables, to Disney World, to having the courage to introduce me to Jess so early on in your relationship… I’m so lucky to have you as a friend. Congratulations, Brother!!!

Awkwardly not knowing each other in 2004

Best Pirate friends in 2008

Dearest Jess,

The night I met you was unforgettable.  Actually.. more like unrememberable… But I digress.  After losing my purse and going camping and getting yelled at for inviting you on the cruise because it was “too soon”, I knew that you’d be in my life forever… as Warner’s WIFE.  I know he is the luckiest guy, but I’m also lucky cause I ended up with a wonderful friend! I love you SO much and I am so excited for you guys!! (as you already know).

 

Me and Warner on our way to the Grassy Knoll to find my purse.  Didn't find it.

I guess you have now figured out that the big news is that two of my best friends are getting married! What an amazing couple. I wish them nothing but happiness for years and years and years.



I can’t wait to grow old with you both!

Love,

Sarah (and Joey too!)

CHEERS to the happy couple!!!!!!!!!!!

PS: There will be a separate note from your niece and nephew later…

I have some big news!

…But I can’t share it yet.  And what you are thinking about RIGHT NOW is the reason why I am writing this.

I am not pregnant! And I guess I just get really annoyed when that is the first thing people come up with.  The moment we got engaged, it was like people skipped the wedding all together and wanted to know when we are having kids.  I know it’s innocent and in no way meant to be malicious but it’s also pretty rude.  I don’t know if I feel like telling you about my sex life…. Ya know?

I can’t post ANYTHING vague on Facebook because people automatically assume.  I don’t necessarily blame them for their curiosity and excitement, but I wish people wouldn’t blatantly ASK me.  What happens if we’ve already been trying and we CAN’T get pregnant?!?! How would you feel knowing that?  It is not true, but what if it was???

A good friend and fellow blogger, Kelly, wrote this post a little while back.  It encompasses my feelings about the subject pretty well (minus the whole Catholic thing, but the last part is pretty funny).

http://www.mrsintraining.com/2010/01/lets-talk-about-sex.html

So, please be polite and let my husband and I figure out when we’re going to have a sibling for Doc and Chloe.  And I promise, PROMISE,  PROMISEEEEE that you guys will be among the first to know ;)

~SG

PS: oh, and that big news…. I’ll explain ASAP!!

Not-Surprisingly, I am OK with this.

Could eating chocolate make you thinner?

House Tour

I had some girlfriends over this weekend, which presented a great opportunity to CLEAN THE HOUSE.

It was greatly needed.  After the cleaning frenzy, I took a bunch of pictures, cause the house will probably not look this good for a while...

I've also decided to include some "before" pictures here and there, to give you an idea of what the place looked like back in August.

Enjoy!

1. We'll start in the master bedroom. 

August, 2011

March, 2012. Not much of a difference, just furniture and curtains.

2. The master bath

August 2011. You can't see the ginormous mirror and horrifying light fixtures.  You should be glad.

March 2012- Beachy.

3. Guest rooms

Don't have a before pic.  This is the "office".  This is the least finished of the bedrooms, (not counting the basement).  There are no curtains, but there is an air mattress for when you have 6 girlfriends coming over to drink wine ;)

Another guest room

Another guest room, with Grandma's quilt.

4. The hall/guest bathroom

August 2011. Nice blue paint...

March 2012.

5. The "room-that-has-yet-to-be-named"

6.  The Family Room (note the cornices!)

August 2011: Goodbye "wood" floor, gold fireplace, bannister, and ugly fan.

Hello rug, tile, red chair, and cornices! Woo!

Up close and personal. Yes, I took off the trim.  It will come back when I can get it straight...

7. The Kitchen

Kitchen. Ignore the gun box on the table...

It's not delivery.........

Hope you enjoyed our little tour.  In sad news, I'd like to update that the beautiful pink flowers that were all over our tree are now all over our yard/driveway/LIFE. 

Maybe I'll do a landscaping reveal, kind of like the basement...

Hope you all had a good weekend and are making it a great week!

~SG

Since it's been a while...

How ‘bout a little HOTD action too, while we’re at it!

Today’s Headline is about some Firefighters who were dressed in drag for a parade, when a fire broke out!  They saved the day by fighting the fire in their dresses.

While we’re talking about Firefighters and in light of his recent engagement, I’d like to brag about my brother, Alex, of the Malvern Fire Company.

He is currently Lieutenant and Vice President of the Company where he has been serving since 2004.  Thanks for being a hero and to all the FF/EMT/Police out there for keeping us safe!!!

Happy Friday!

~SG

A Dose of Pin

For your Friday.

CONGRATULATIONS!!!

I’m going to have another sister!!

My brother, Alex, and his girlfriend, Corinne, were engaged last night on her birthday!

CONGRATULATIONS!!!

Sneak Peek

First of all, I would like to report that one of the trees in our front yard has exploded into a frenzy of white flowers.  It looks beautiful, but it raises my blood pressure slightly as I am becoming more and more aware of the severe need for landscaping out there.  We literally haven’t done anything aside from pulling up a few trees with a chain and a pickup truck last summer.  So we are in dire need of a chainsaw (goodbye, lollipop tree), a shovel, some pruning shears, mulch, flowers, and some fertilizer.  Joey also gave Grandmother Willow a haircut the other day and she looks much better.  You can see her creeping in the background on the bottom left corner.

Secondly, I finished the first cornice and made asked Joey to hang it last night:

  

It still needs to be tweaked, but I think I like it.  Although I’m sure you didn’t even notice it, because how could you with the

 

HI. I’M A RED CHAIR!

in the center of the picture.  But don’t worry. I already have plans.  I was excited about the red chair but not so much when we opened the box and realized it was neon red.  Didn’t know they made that color?  Ikea does, apparently.  So it’s a little more red than anything else, ever.  But I already have a few ideas to tone it down a little bit.  Such as: adding a pillow of a less offensive color, same with a throw blanket to drape over the back.  Any other suggestions?  And no, I'm not getting rid of it JOEY.

Next up is to finish the other cornice, get it hung up, and take some pictures of all the adjustments we’ve made lately.  Which includes a lot of red.  But I’m okay with that.  And I know my Mom will be too ;)

Hope you enjoy this sneak peek, which I almost didn’t want to do because I’m not happy with how it looks.  But then I decided that I want to keep it real for my fans... :-)

~SG

Weekend Roundup

Saturday morning I woke up bright and early and met up with a girlfriend at the National Marathon.  We donned our volunteer tee shirts and helped pick up trash and discarded clothing at the start line before heading to the finish line to unwrap and hand out medals to the half marathon and full marathon finishers.  It was actually a lot of fun! I also got to see a few friends who finished the race, so it was doubly rewarding.  Here is a picture I snapped of the half marathon winner as he crossed the finish line.  Can’t read the time? It says 1:06:30-something.  INSANE.

After making my way out of DC and back home to pick up Joey and some Chik-Fil-A, we turned around and went back into the city.  The reasoning was that we did not want to have both of our cars in DC.  We met up with good friends Jess and Ryan, and re-visited our college days a little bit by playing “Slap the Bag”… then we bar crawled randomly around Northwest DC until we landed at a little Italian restaurant called 'Luigi’s'.  It was a delicious way to end our “Adult St. Patty’s Day” and we arrived home to the Pins by 10pm. 

My camera didn’t make it out with us, so the only pics I got were on my phone. 

Proof that we have matured.  Wearing garbage bags so we don't spill wine on our shirts...

Just a touch of class...

From the backseat of a cab to a computer screen near you!

Sunday we spent a great deal of time on the house.  I am excited to report that ONE of the cornices is complete!!! I have no pictures to share as of yet, but here are some other updates we’ve made:

-Joey painted the workout room in the basement!!

-He also installed new light fixtures on the porch and garage

-Added new curtain rod/curtains to the kitchen

-Added some doodads to the family room

-1 cornice is finished

-We purchased the red chair!!!!!!

My goal is to finish the other cornice before this weekend, so hopefully I’ll have a finished product pic to share ASAP!!

Hope you all had a good one, and are making it a great Monday!

~SG

Dear Chloe,

You are such a sweet little girl. You are inquisitive, curious, precious and loving towards your Mom, Dad and your brother.  You are so eager to please us- or maybe it's the treats...but you come when you are called, know "sit" and "treat" and sort of know "shake".  You are always interested in what is going on, you are great with strangers, and only bark when the evil neighbors walk across our driveway.  You are cuddly, snuggly, and so adorable when you sleep on your back.  You are the best little girl I could have asked for.

So why, WHY, WHY must you keep me awake all night long?? You got enough sleep during the day, eh?  So you want to go "exploring" in the bedroom all night? Eat some more underwear?? HUH?? Or maybe that's not enough for you.  So you go sit by the door and BARK every 5 seconds for an HOUR because you want to go outside.  And then I'll put you in the bathroom and you bark at that door... so then we go outside at midnight and all you want to do is SNIFF AROUND?!?!?!

So then I take you and your brother who is SO TIRED into the spare bedroom so we can let Daddy sleep, and you sit on the edge of the bed and bark at the CEILING LIGHT?!?!?!

Chloe, Mommy loves you. But please.... let me get some sleep!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Last of the Running Blogs

This Saturday, I’ve volunteered to help out at the National Marathon.  You know… just to check it out… Gulp.

I originally thought I’d be handing out water or Gu, but it looks like that’s for groups of people- not nerds who sign up by themselves.  Whatever, I can be a loner. I don’t mind!

I think a really fun job would be to hand out medals.  26.2 miles is such an accomplishment!  I giggled to myself thinking how funny it would be if one of those medals accidentally ended up in my backpack… but then I thought of how hard I worked for each of my medals.  And I decided against it. AND I decided to share my medals on my blog, lucky you!

Each one of these babies has a story behind it.  I won’t get into major detail, but I will tell a quick ditty about each one.

1.       Baltimore Half Marathon, Fall 2008

This was my first half marathon ever.  Ask me how much training I did! Hardly any.  This is also possibly the hilliest course in America.   Between that and the crack houses/roadkill, I’m pretty sure I won’t be repeating this one.  I remember hitting the Mile 6-7 point and thinking I was going to have to quit.  It was horrible.  I sat down around Mile 10. SAT DOWN. Who does that?!?!?! I finished in just under 3 hours, around 2:54.  I remember crossing the finish line and immediately sitting down because my legs simply couldn’t carry me any longer.  Way to go, stud.  Next time try training??

2.       Army 10 Miler, Fall 2009

Let’s try this distance running thing again, shall we?  Trained, but didn’t do any long runs.  Notice a pattern here? I’m lazy.  I liked this race, but I remember that I walked early on and I was upset with myself.  Knowing what I know now, it’s not a bad thing to take walk breaks.  This is a new concept for me and I’m having trouble accepting it.  Anyway, I finished the ATM in 2:02. 

3.       Shamrock Half Marathon, Spring 2009

Can we say “PR”?! I’ll chalk it up to slightly more training, running with a fast friend, beautiful weather, and a flat course.  I finished this one in 2:28.  Probably could’ve done faster if I wasn’t a slacker and drinking beer on mile 10 ;)

4.       Disney’s Princess Half Marathon, Spring 2010

Didn’t exactly train for this one either.  No long runs.  But I did get a “PR” of sorts on this race- I ran for 8 miles before I took a walk break.  That is a personal best!  I finished this one in 2:45.

5.       Disney’s Princess Half Marathon, Spring 2012

Actually trained for this race.  For the first time ever, did long runs every weekend!  Finished in 2:31, as you know. 

I’m proud of the story  behind each of these races, because they are miles that nobody can take away from me! And that’s why I decided not to steal a Marathon medal.  Cause maybe someday I can earn my own!!!

~SG

PS: I will now cease talking about running on my blog.  If you are interested in tracking my progress, you can head over to Athlinks: http://athlinks.com/racer/106190634

A Day in the Life

The other day I was thinking about writing about our daily routine.  Except one thing- I don’t really do “routines”.  See, I like to blame this (and a lot of other things, as you know) on my time spent in a ballet studio growing up.  Doing the same thing over and over again gets old real quick, especially when you’re 13 and you know everything.  So I think this has carried on into my adult life.  While I do mostly the same things every day, I notice myself trying to change things up a little so as not to fall into a boring routine. 

**Note: I am fully aware that the birth of a child will completely ruin this.

 Mornings for us, however, are usually the same.  So I feel I can give you an accurate picture of what goes on in our house at the beginning of each day.  So I’ll start out with a typical morning in the Gish household-

6:45: My alarm goes off (for the first time).  I hit snooze and everyone pretends to still be asleep.  Either that or I miss my alarm going off. 

6:55: Alarm goes off again. I hit snooze and Doc and/or Chloe stands up and rustles around under the covers before plopping back down in someone’s crotch/armpit.

7:00: My alarm goes off again, and Joey’s goes off at the same time.  Both hit snooze.  Dogs roll their eyes.  Joey taps me and motions for the remote control to the TV.  He can’t talk, because the moment he says something, Doc will emerge from under the covers and pounce on his face.  Nobody understands why he does this.

7:01: Chloe is still passed out, sprawled on her back, in the middle of my spot.  Her tongue may or may not be hanging out of her mouth like she is dead. This has caught me off guard and caused major panic in the past.  Don't worry, she's alive.

7:05: I guess I better get up…  I get dressed and ready, and take the dogs downstairs to go outside.  [If it is raining, nobody wants to go outside.  If I can catch them and throw them out there, they stand by the door looking sad.]

7:15: I leave for work.  Yes, I can get dressed and out the door in 10 minutes. I've perfected this science.

8:00: Joey sets up the Pins in their palace with breakfast, water, puppy pad, some toys and a nice comfy blanket.  And making sure the doors are closed in the bathroom so nobody eats any underwear/rugs/cleaning materials… then heads off to work himself.  He'll be back around lunchtime.  The Pins actually have it pretty good. I'm kind of jealous.

....And there you have it! It's not much, but it's a typical morning in our house.  What are your mornings like?

**Note: Actual times may vary

I can’t wait til 10 years down the road I re-read this post and laugh at myself.  “6:45?!?! You lucky b*tch!!!”

But for now, I will say that I do enjoy my mornings hitting snooze with my Pins.  

Happy Pi Day!!!

~SG

He Ain't No Dummy

So a little while back, before it turned into summer and it was actually a little chilly, the dogs and I went outside to enjoy the sunshine.  They tried on their new tee shirts in order to stay warm (yes, this is what I tell myself).  They sniffed around for a bit and then Doc got smart.  See, it was nice out and he wanted to be outside, but it was a little cold for his 7 pound frame.  So he shacked up under the warmest spot in the yard-

The Dryer Vent!

No big deal, Mom. I know I'm sitting in a pile of leaves, but man is it warm under here!

Everything was fine, until the annoying little sister decided she was going to be a copycat (er...dog?).

Oh hey Doc! I'll just sit down right here...

Doc was pleased.

Embarassing Basement Reveal

Well folks, I promised I would and I avoided it and avoided it but here we are. I'm going to show pictures of our never-before-seen basement. The one that I pretend we don't have. The one that once it's finished will probably be very nice. But... that involves alot of cleaning, painting, carpeting, MONEY, etc....

So without further ado, here is the big reveal:

Welcome to my lair.  Let's walk down the steps. Please be careful of staples and large nails sticking up out of this molding that's resting peacefully there on the left.  (Don't worry- dogs and small children are not allowed down here.)

Looking back up the steps. Yes, the balloons are still hiding from Chloe.  Please note that when we moved in the basement was "Carpeted" with an ugly blue thing that we immediately pulled up. When we did so, we found some lovely linoleum-type floor.

When you turn right at the bottom of the steps, you enter the "gym" (someday the "play room").  The mirrors will be on the walls and the weight bench and cardio equipment will go in here.  (What cardio equipment? Um, working on that.)

This is the main area of the basement, er, Man Cave. Yes, those are the Christmas decorations in boxes in the middle of the floor...

Looking down the hallway... what could possibly be next?!

This is the back bedroom, or the "In-Law Suite".  Someday we might knock out the wall between this room and the gym.  But for now we're going to furnish another bedroom.  This one is nice- has 2 closets. A normal one and a "Cupboard under the stairs".  The stuff piled up by the window?  Leaves.  Guess we better buy a rake...

Hallway coming out of the bedroom, looking into the storage area laundry room.

Turn left right before the laundry room and you'll hit another full bath.  Go ahead, vomit. I did.  Note the toilet and sink are missing. They have been removed because they were so gross. My next task is actually to clean this bathroom from top to bottom (with bleach) and remove the wall paper around the top of the walls.  The new toilet for this room is currently in its' box in our kitchen.  Nice.

Beer Pong Laundry room/storage area.  The only unfinished part of the basement. 

One more look at the Man Cave, for good measure.  Check that flooring!!

This is how I feel when I look at the basement.

So, in summary-

1. We don't judge one another here at OhMyGish.
2. It has potential!
3. Anybody wanna come help us paint?
4. Don't expect any updates on this for quite some time. The landscaping out front is more of an issue right now, as everyone can see it.  Maybe I should do a post about that... hmmm....

TTFN!

~SG

Ooooooops

Better late than never!! I forgot to tell you guys- A little while back, I listened to your blog poll results and I went back to brunette!! I also cut off about 4 inches of hair.  Below are some pics taken by my superfabulous hair dresser, Jackie.

Please focus on the hair, not the no makeup. Thanks.

Whaddaya think???