March 23, 2012

Celebrate Good Times

This past week was spring break and my birthday/St. Patrick's day. I felt so celebrated and blessed by my husband, family, and friends! The celebration started the Tuesday of Spring Break with a couple's dinner with Luke and Leah. Leah's birthday was this week so we decided to celebrate early before her and Luke headed back to Austin for the weekend. We went to Tillman's in the Bishop Arts District. I love that area of Dallas because you forget where you are...it reminds me of the Meat Packing District in NYC. Everyone needs to try Tillman's as well as Bolsa for dinner, and Oddfellows for brunch. so good. Hatties is also on my list of must try places as well. Anyways, Lucas and I love hanging out with Luke and Leah. When Leah and I lived together in Austin, the boys would come visit for the weekend and we would have the best time together...eating, going out, telling people Leah is Persian. the usual. So when we get the opportunity to hang out together we do. Dinner was a blast and we ordered alot of food including s'mores for dessert...so campy. By the end of the night we had planned a trip to Napa, and made friends with a homeless man who talked to us about how rich people wear loafers and Michael Jackson wore white socks in the Billy Jean music video. Success.

The celebration continued when we went to Sushi Axiom for my birthday dinner last Friday night...delish. Hands down my favorite sushi in the Big D. Lucas got me a scrumptious cake from La Duni and number 2 & number 4 sparklers to put on the cake. I was sooooo happy. I really wanted sparklers for my 21st birthday cake. It didnt work out so my long lost dream of having sparklers on my birthday cake was finally fulfilled. When we walked into the restaurant we gave the cake to the hostess and told her about the sparklers, she then proceeds to ask which number goes first. really? Lady do I look like I'm turning 42? absolutely not...way to freak me out into thinking I might need Botox before I am 30. Dinner was great except for the part where we were getting rushed at the end for reaching our 2 hour time limit...not cool Sushi Axiom, but that didn't stop us from going out and having a good time. A REALLY good time. I do this to myself every year. I go out the night before my birthday, have too much fun, and then feel miserable the next day on my actual birthday. I have vowed that next year I will not do it again...it stinks to feel under the weather on your bday.

The next day on my birthday we made our way to the block party/parade on Greenville. It was my first St. Patrick's day in Dallas and I was so excited to experience the trashiness of the whole event. Thank you Marc Cuban for saving the holiday....Dallas loves you! Well we missed the parade but we were determined to make it to the block party....it took us a little longer than we thought because A. it was like a one hour walk from our apartment which Lucas said would only take us like 20 minutes B. we were not on our "A" game physically. We finally made it and everyone was ready to have a good time...again. blah. The best way to detox is retox right? no. I was out for the count but loving life observing all the crazy people celebrating...especially some of the chicks' outfits...scandalous. We ended up being at the block party for an hour, getting a cab to Jake's to eat, and then heading home to nap and watch the Baylor game. Overall it was blast minus feeling slow on Saturday.

Paige was unable to make it to dinner with us last weekend because she was in Austin with her family for a baby shower and her sister Holly's wedding shower. No worries though this darling doll doesn't miss a party without making it up later so last night we had dinner at Toulouse. Perfect. Lucas isn't a huge fan of Toulouse so he never wants to go...they have this amazing Lobster salad that I have been craving since the last time I was there so when Paige suggested it I was ecstatic. I was running late (what is new), and when I walked in Paige was at our table taking a large gulp from her glass of wine...that a girl. I would not expect less. Then we both realized we were rocking bright pink. It wasn't planned but we weren't shocked. We obvi ordered a bottle of wine and started off our conversation right where we let off last time we saw eachother like a month ago.

Lucas got me a certificate to get my eye lashes done for my birthday...love. Once you get lashed you wont go back. Its addicting because when you don't have them you feel so bare. Lucas thinks its ridic but since it was my bday he caved. What a wonderful hubby. Just make sure if you get them done, you go somewhere that uses Xtreme Lashes products! So as soon as I sat down at our table for dinner Paige immediately said "I love your lashes." That is why we are friends....she is just as over the top as I am and doesn't think I am crazy for it. Love her. We ended up ordering a chocolate souffle for dessert. yum. The waiter brought it out, made a small hole at the top, and poured a little bit of the side of fudge inside. As soon as he put it down and walked off, we poured the rest of the fudge in. We are ladies but we like to eat. fatties at heart for sure.

Our night ended in typical fashion by digging in the trash in the bathroom. normal for us. We were in the bathroom washing our hands when Paige's ring went flying into the bottom of the large trash can. We wrapped our hands in paper towels and started digging past lots of papertowels and a few feminine products. Gross but fall on the floor laughing hilarious. Overall I felt like I got so much love on my birthday and I am so grateful to have surrounded myself with the people I have. I can't wait to make all my friends feel just as loved on their special days!

Key Players:
Luke and Leah- I believe it was Leah's sister Bri who said at their rehearsal dinner that Luke has never had a bad day in his life. I believe it is true. Luke is one of the happiest and easy going people I know...its so refreshing and admirable. He didn't even get frustrated when moving a mattress out of our apartment with Leah. what a saint. Leah and I lived together in Austin and I am so happy we did. I feel like I got cheated in college because I didn't know Leah as well as I do now and can definitely say I missed out. I am so grateful to have built a better friendship with her while being roommates and can now call her a close friend. I dont think I will ever find someone who loves Brie as much as I do like Leah. we love the Laniers.

March 18, 2012

Gilt Groupe Obsession

Gilt Groupe. I have a love/hate relationship with this website of amazingness. I first found out about Gilt Groupe about a year ago when my sister was shadowing a really trendy, young vet in McAllen. One day she told Dan that she loved her Tory Burch flats and asked her if she had gotten them on Gilt Groupe. Dan said no, but of course asked what Gilt Groupe was. The vet invited Dan to join, and then Dan invited my mom and I to join...big mistake. The three of us are hooked (sorry Lucas) and we keep getting other people hooked as well (sorry Kels). I also found about how dogs squeeze their anal glands while Dan was working at the vet's office. gross.

When Dan first invited me to join, I was sceptical about how good of a deal these "flash sales" really were, but they are incredible. Some things are up to 70% off! Between the Wilcox women we have purchased quite the array of items including trips, bags, shoes, clothes, jewelery, food, house items...the list is endless! Our Thanksgiving turkey was even from Gilt Groupe...Gilt Taste to be exact. Our turkey was the loving "pet" of an Amish family who obvi lived in an Amish community. The turkey was also only fed organic foods, and it lived a happy life until the time of its unsuspecting execution. true story. so ridic. I thought it was a little over the top, but Big Pat and Big Martha are very into the organic thing, and they swear it was the best tasting turkey they had ever had. IDK how they are going to top that for next year's Thanksgiving, but I am confident Big Martha will find something.

Everytime I get a package at our apartment with the Gilt Groupe logo on it, Lucas gives me the "did you just buy something from Gilt Groupe again look" but when I tell him what a good deal it was he can't help but laugh at me and say fine...especially when I order something he has been wanting like the great deal I got on a French Press he wanted. We have a coffee obsession so naturally anything coffee related is a must. I have the Gilt Groupe app on my phone, and I get a text from them before every sale begins at 11am, 3pm, and 8pm. Warning: you have to jump on these sales fast because things fly in like 2 seconds flat. I always miss the 11am sale because I am in class so i'm upset when they have the really good stuff at 11am. The good thing is that if you are in love with something and it is already sold out you can add it to your Wait List. Don't give up hope on the Wait List...I've gotten emails up to 2 months after i've added something to my Wait List telling me my item is now available. I actually just got an email about a Kooba bag I had added to my Wait List back in January which I didn't end up buying, and my mom just got an email about some Missoni flats she had added that she did end up buying.

My mom and I currently both have some Ippolita rose gold bangles on our Wait Lists. I love love love these bangles and missed them because they were on the 11am sale. My mom knows i've been wanting some so as soon as she saw them she added them to her Wait List too. Total coincidence and we told eachother about it later...I hope one of us gets an email.
And now that they have been on Gilt Groupe for half the price there is no way I could make myself go out and buy them full price...that is the downside to Gilt Groupe. You either say to yourself A. I will wait to buy it until it is on Gilt Groupe B. I really hope that is on Gilt Groupe.


They have had pretty much everything on Gilt Groupe from Kate Spade to Pour la Victoire. The one thing I can't believe they haven't had is Stella McCartney handbags. I have been dying for the Stella McCartney Baby Bella Tote in Blush for like 2 years. If it is ever on Gilt Groupe beware ladies I am coming for it. If it is on the 11am sale I will literally skip class and have my phone/laptop/ipad ready to go for when the sale begins. I will recruit my mom and sis to do the same in hopes that one of us snags it. Until then it is wishful thinking until I graduate from law school. It is the #1 item on my "when I graduate from law school list." An anniversary trip to Napa is at #2 and the list gets a little fuzzy after that since its pretty long. The Cartier Love bracelet is def on the list, but Lucas and I have decided that it can be the push gift for our first child which is definitely a LONG ways away so i'll have to wait for that one for a while. No problem waiting.


It would match everything. I die.

Until then I'll be waiting for my Ippolita bangles and hopefully Baby Bella Tote. Happy Shopping!

March 11, 2012

House Hunting Blues

So the lease at our apartment is up this week but we are staying. blah. When we first started looking for places to live before we got married (almost a YEAR ago...one year anniversary coming up soon!!!) Lucas wanted to live in a house. I said no. Before you think to yourself "is she crazy?" the reason I said no was because I didn't know much about Dallas except how to get to Northpark and La Duni. literally. How would I know what a good area of town to live in would be? But now that we have lived here for almost a year I would consider myself a Dallasite (not a local...i'm proud to say that I will always be from McAllen and that is has an extremely special place in my heart even if some people think it's ghetto) and think I can make an informed decision about where to live and look for a house.

We started looking for a house at the beginning of the new year. Problem #1 aka biggest problem: I am extremely picky and Lucas is not. We were looking for a two or three bedroom house so that we can have a guest room and an office to study in, a big backyard for Bocephus to run in, wood floors, large closets, updated bathrooms and kitchen, in a good part of town, and with an alarm system (Lucas works the night shift at the hospital sometimes so I am most certainly not going to be by myself in a house at night without my hubby...he wouldn't allow it and I would freak out). Phew. Talking about all my "requirements" wore Lucas and our realtor out. They were always asking me if I would be willing to budge on at least one of my "requirements" but the answer was always no because it was a carefully selected list of items that had already been reduced down to my must-haves. I'm not saying I need to have stainless steel appliances and granite counter tops (even though I would definitely not object to it), but I absolutely do NOT do laminite floors, brown carpet, flowered wallpaper, wood paneling, or bathrooms with brightly colored tile straight from the 70's. gross. I would rather stay in our apartment thanks.

Finding a home is hard. We would find a house we liked, but then discovered it was somewhere shady like Oak Cliff. Then we would find something else we liked, but then found out it was built for a stackable washer and dryer, and since we bought brand new side by side front loader washer and dryer (weirdly obsessed with how great they are) right after we got married, that was not an option either. Then we would find something really great again, and realize that it wasn't pet friendly. We started to feel like we were never going to find something. Then we did. We found this adorable two bedroom two bath renovated home in the old Lake Highlands area. It was PERFECTION. It had wood floors, an updated kitchen and bathrooms, a laundry room, large closets, an alarm system, large backyard with a wooden fence and landscaping, two car garage, and an electric gate to get in to the back. It was also near White Rock Lake so Lucas could ride his bike around the lake like he does now, and I could take the pups on walks. And for a great price!

It all seemed too good to be true. It was. Two girls in nursing school had just put in an application. grrrr. So we scurried, got the paper work filled out, and put in our application too. It was going to come down to whoever had the "better" application. Turns out the owner of the home isn't a huge fan of having pets in his rental properties, and since the other girls only had one 10 lb. chihuahua versus our 20 lb. cavalier and 75 lb. german wired haired pointer...the girls got the house over us. ugh. Lesson learned. Next time we put an application in Bocephus will not "exist" until after we have signed a lease. Needless to say we are a little bitter about it, and haven't been able to find something we like as much as the cute little house on Hambrick Road (mostly because we keep comparing everything we find to that house).


       How cute is it?! It even looks like there is a shining light from Heaven casting down on it. tear.

Because we don't want to move just for the sake of moving, and because we don't want to move into a place we don't absolutely love, we decided to extend our lease for three months. In the end it will probably best since we are both really busy right now, and the summer will be a better time to move and hopefully find more homes. Plus side to not having found a place is that we finally got all the junk out of our apartment and into a storage unit. We had my college mattress and box spring, our christmas tree, a bike rack, an ottoman, and boxes of ornaments/decorations in our living room and back patio. We looked like the people from the TV show Hoarders: Buried Alive. It was so ghetto. We didn't want to get a storage unit since we thought we were going to move soon, but since that isn't happening for a couple of more months we moved it all out. Thank the Lord. I was so happy that all the shiz was gone that I decided to "feng shui" our apartment one day when I got home from school while Lucas was out. I moved all our furniture around by myself. bad idea. Lucas got home and was like why didn't you wait for me to help you? Idk. My back hurt for like a week, but whatevs it looks so great now.

Until then we will continue to be in our little one bedroom apartment happy as clams. Even though sometimes we both complain about how "cozy" our apartment is, we wouldn't trade spending our first year of marriage learning to deal with eachothers quirks and building our life together anywhere else for the world. Our first married apartment will always have a place in our hearts, and I am sure 50 years from now we will laugh about how we both couldn't stand in our closet at the same time (mostly because of how many shoes and bags I have. sorry babe.).

Side note: I am obsessed with Downton Abbey. If you haven't seen it, it is a must. I love a good period piece. Kelsey and I went through a phase in college where we rented every period movie at the Blockbuster in Waco and would stay up watching them. The Young Victoria is one of my favorite movies of all time. The next cavalier I get is going to be named Dash. Not after the Kardashian's store Dash, but after Queen Victoria's tri-color cavalier Dash. Needless to say I am anxiously awaiting the third season of Downton Abbey's release in September. Check it out.

Key Players:
Bocephus- aka Bo or Bobo. He is named after the dog in Kenny Chesney's song "Keg In the Closet." Bocephus is Lucas' dog and he is quite the character. Very destructive, lots of energy, doesn't get along with other dogs, and kind of territorial. Sounds bad but he really is the sweetest dog and loves Lucas so much. He currently lives in McAllen with Lucas' parents because he needs a backyard (we learned that lesson after he destroyed Lucas' apartment in college). Lucas misses him everyday and we can't wait to move into a house so that we can bring our "gaurd dog" with us. I can't imagine having to leave Lilly behind because she didn't fit our current lifestyle. poor Lucas and bobo. But that little monster will be in Dallas soon enough!