It comes but once a year

Okay, I'm 26- It's official. 

The first sign of celebration came in the mail from good old 

Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards and my Allstate Insurance agent. 

That was kind of depressing. 

Just kidding. 

No really, it was sort of lame . . . but funny, though. 

But after that things got much better.

On the anniversary of my birth (February 20th, 1983) 

I cam home from work to this delicious cake, 

made by my cute Top Chef husband:

I was SO happy to eat cake off my Happy Birthday plate (below).

I made this plate and painted on that cup cake with NO stencils. 

(I'll give you a moment to soak in my 

awesomeness . . . okay that's enough soaking)

My kids will eat off this same plate on their

 birthdays one day, and think of how crafty and 

awesome their mom is while they are eating off it. 

(Hmm, I guess I better not have twins since 

there is only one awesome plate made by "mom")

Birthday Present Wonderland:

Then Robbie took me to this yummy New Orleans style restaurant:

Heaven on Seven. So good. 

I'd been wanting to try it- and he remembered

all on his own! Good husband-ing skills!

He especially liked all the crazy hot sauces. 

Especially the ones that had "ass" on them.

Cheesy "Celebration in Restaurant" picture:

Then we walked around and Robbie took me to use 

some of my birthday gift cards. We rented Changeling 

(even though Angelina Jolie is my nemesis) 

and  snuggled.  Aww, perfect!

We really like movies

Like I just said, we really like movies. We love watching movies. We really love talking about movies. I mean, we don't promise to be profound or life altering or anything, but we like putting our opinions on movies out there for the world. 

If your interested: Culp Movie Reviews or just click the link on the sidebar. 

V is for Valentine's

First let me say, that even if this is a little cheesy or gushy- I don't care. Not one bit. Not only did I love my Valentine's Day, but this is my birthday week so I get to do what I want. 

That said . . . 

Here was my awesome Valentine's Day in chronological order. I came home from the gym and babysitting our friend's cute kid to this:

(Translated: Walk on by, Ignore the dishes, --there were, in fact, a LOT of dishes in the sink at that moment . . . currently actually, too- Cause soon you'll have some Valentine wishes!)

Sour Patch Watermelon are my favorite candy (can you tell?)

And I just had to try a few of the delicious chocolates right away . . .

Robbie then walked into the bedroom to find his Valentine surprise:

He likes space things . . . 

We set up the camera to have a Valentine photo 

shoot before our marathon date began 

(which was all a complete surprise to me, from my sweet Robbie)

I accidently poked Robbie in the face with this rose-- oops, sorry

But luckily he recovered in time to take another picture

I had been wanting to try this restaurant for so long

 . . . it was freakin' delicious

After yummy Italian food, we wandered around downtown, looking in shops and just poking around. I had a blast shocking Robbie with how expensive things can get on the Mag Mile. I took him to Saks (his very first time!) and showed him $3,000 shirts and dresses.

He puked, and then our adventure continued . . .

We were too full for dessert, but we played around 

at the Hershey's Factory anyway

But then, after wandering around for awhile and being shocked by over-priced crap and window shopping and getting free samples and being cute we did end up craving a sweet Valentine's treat.

So we went to Sweet Mandy B's, an adorable little bakery, and indulged our sweet tooth and put our diets on hold for one night only 

THEN (yes, there is another then) we went to see Coraline in 3D

I thought it was really good and creepy (although, Robbie is a 3D snob, and is not happy unless flying swords and comets are soaring from the screen into face non-stop - but he mostly liked it, too) 

Overall, this is how we felt about the marathon Valentine's date:

Excuse, me?

I'm still relatively new at my school, but the kids are getting the message fast that I mean business and that my freckled, pale face is in no regard an indicator of how much I can "bring it" if I need to. (And that's "bring it" as in Bring It On, the cheesy, white, cheerleader teen movie.) I had to lay the smack down on a couple of students on a few occasions when they decided to cuss me out or something . . . my lack of fear, coupled with the fact that the administration made me sing at the Christmas concert in December, officially made me a fixture in the school. 

As such, many students that are not from my class have learned my name, and address me in the halls. The other day, a couple of students were playing around and one of them laugh-shouted down to me: "Hey, Teach, can you get her? She's hitting me." 

I stopped and gave a weird look, "Teach??"

"Oh, I mean Mrs. Culp."

Apparently, we were time warped back to the 1960's or to an episode of Welcome Back Kotter. What the heck? 

Over Due

We've been busy- and definitely had some catching up to do. So, I know that three posts at once is a lot, but here it is: Inauguration, Super Bowl and Christmas. The universe is finally at peace again: updates on Sarah and Robbie's life are complete. ;)

DC or Bust!

The drive to DC was about 12 hours, not including a stop in Pittsburgh on the way there and back (which entailed a visit to the hospital to watch open heart surgery with my dad and some good ol' Pittsburgh style sandwiches- that's fries and slaw right on the sandwich- yum). So it was an eventful trip all around.  

Kelli and I were almost too intimidated by the long drive and taking off work to make the trek, but we were SO GLAD that we did. It was a once in a lifetime. JoAnna was nice enough to put us up while we were there and show us a good time. It was so nice to hang out with her, as well- sister bonding is always high on my list of things I love to do. 

Kelli and I indulging in a little bit of tourism 

the day before the "big day"

P.S. It was freakin' freezing

I gave my students a writing assignment on how they felt about President Obama, one of them said that they thought the White House, should now be called the Black House. I mean, I could live with that. Why not?

Troops touring about the WWII Monument

Does this seem falic to anyone else? 

I think I might have mentioned that before . . . but really?

They funneled us all into The Mall through two entrances. It was like a maze trying to find the way to get into the viewing area for the general, non-hooked up, non- celebrity, non-VIP, non-ticketed public. (Although we did come very close to getting tickets- thanks Haley for trying- we appreciate it!!)

O say can you see . . . 

Now, we woke pretty close to the crack of dawn to get to the Inauguration  early enough to even see little stick figures in the distance walking around on the Capitol steps. 

But, apparently some people were there even earlier- huddling for warmth in the dirt . . . Oh, and P.S., we ending up getting even closer than these over-nighters. :)

The jumbo-trons were very helpful for getting all the details

It was amazing. People were hugging and crying (including me) and 

I just loved hearing President Obama's speech in person- it was very powerful. 

Did I mention it was freeezzzzinnng?? (But worth it)

I bought my flag the night before at Whole Foods. I guess some other people had a similar idea. These two shots are some of my favorites. All the red, white and blue just really made you feel proud to be an American. (I think I'm ready to burst into song now.)

THE most people I've seen in my life- hands down

Getting home was an adventure to say the least. Coming to the inauguration, at least we all trickled in somewhat, so it wasn't quite as crazy; but the mass exodus after the inauguration was intense. Highways were closed off and the metro stations were packed. 

We just started walking . . . 

the crowd really didn't give us much of a choice. 

This was walking through a closed off tunnel - it was weird.

I asked a cop for directions, and he told me

 to take the next exit on the right. So we did. 

Just walked on up the exit ramp with the other millions 

of people walking down the four lane freeway. Of course. 

After that long and eventful day, we needed an Obama cookie for refreshment.

Having sister time (with Jo below), visiting my family in Pittsburgh, road tripping with a good friend and being apart of history . . . not bad for a long weekend.

One for the OTHER thumb!!

First of all, I busted out all the Steeler paraphernalia I owned 

and brought it to the Super Bowl party we attended 

(which was hosted by Cardinals fans . . . boo)

How much Steeler gear can you pack into one night?

ALOT

We had our terrible towels (of course) and our Steeler water bottles, 

place mats, t-shirts, sweat shirts, socks . . . and I even made

some Pierogies to give the party more of a Pittsburgh feel :)

Even nay-sayers (like our friend Tyson here) gave in

He's wearing my Neil O'Donnel signed hat

Kelli, me and Tanya

They were nice enough to pose with me for a victory picture, 

even though their "husbands' team" was CRUSHED by us :)

This is how we felt when we won our 6th Super Bowl:

"Here We Go!!"