Girlyfriends.

This just put me in a Valentine's Day mood--and with it being one of my favorite holidays EVER--I wanted to post about my mother-in-law, Pam's, glamorous and "girly" bracelets. She has made a few of them for me and I love them! The PR in me (yes I did a public relations internship and it eventually led me to change my major) just wanted to get the word out about these gorgeous bracelets!

Go here to check them out and here to view her etsy page!

To Those I (and Elliott) love.

Dear Baby,
I'm sorry I said you were going to "ruin" my anniversary for that is not what I meant. What I MEANT was that the birthing process would most definitely "ruin" my anniversary but that it wasn't your fault--or anybody's fault--because we both know we can postpone, put off, or completely not celebrate our anniversary the way we usually do and still feel as though we couldn't have celebrated our second year of marriage any better way. Stay healthy. Loves, your mama. xo

Dear Church,
I'm sorry I said you were going to "ruin" my Valentine's Day. Even though that is what I meant, I know "deep down" it'll still be the best way to celebrate Valentine's Day since that is the place where Elliott and I met. Besides, he proposed to me the day AFTER Valentine's Day so that really is the more special day. It's like two holidays in a row!

Dear Jonny,
We never said you were fat, because you're not. Hope you're getting better. Much love always, Elliott and Alisa

Jimmy John's

[Elliott Post]

My love affair with Jimmy John's started about the same time as my love affair with my wife. In the fall of 2007 I was traveling for dental school interviews. Alisa and I had been on 2 or 3 dates and earlier in the evening she had helped me over the phone to navigate through the Milwaukee ghetto and find my hotel. After getting off the phone I checked in. Being starved, I asked the young African American gentleman behind the counter if anything was still open (10:30PM).

He suggested pizza... said, "maybe Jimmy John's."

I asked, "what is Jimmy John's?"

He gasped, "you aint never had Jimmy John's? Oh, they deliver"

So, I had found it. He gave me a menu, I called, and within 7 minutes I had a hot 'Billy Club' delivered to my hotel room door. I felt so happy to see this delivery boy and my sandwich that I tipped him more than the cost of the sandwich. I think I gave him $15 for like a $6 sandwich. I have rarely been as happy as after that sandwich.

Ever since, I have been hooked. Alisa had already known about JJ's. Alisa and I have been to Jimmy John's in Denver, Las Vegas, and Tucson in the past year. We have greatly lamented that they skipped the valley of the sun in their locations. WELL EVERYONE, GOOD NEWS. JIMMY JOHN'S TEMPE!!!! Maybe this is old news to some but not to us. We will be celebrating. Our suggestions 1. The Billy Club and Alisa's regular 2. Roast Beef Slim (she loves the bread and the beef).

***We do realize this is the second of the last three posts about a sandwich shop. We have a problem, the first step is admitting and we're working on it.

Also, I felt the baby kick last night. True Highlight of my week. He's got his daddy's soccer legs/stumps.

All The Small Things

I've been sick for about 10 days now. Surprise. The worst is most definitely over but I've had lingering throat and nose "issues." My nose decided to get it's act together but my throat won't leave me alone. It's like a snail, but I doubt gargling salt water would even get rid of my "issues."

Because I'm pregnant, I can't really take a lot of (as in any) medicines so I've been doing what I can (as in nothing) to get better. I've tried to keep up on my Vitamin C and Tylenol count but I think my mentality has been to just ignore it, which hasn't helped either. In fact it's made it worse because ignoring it has caused me to forget taking my two allowed medications. Anyway, yesterday I decided to get back on the ball and resolved to at least drink lots and lots of liquids--especially Oj and H2O. This morning I woke up especially hoarse and sore to the point where it was hard to talk. Walking to the fridge, I found this: My favorite part is that it's on a tooth posty note cause it's cute.

In other happenings, the baby room isn't completely finished but definitely getting there. I absolutely love it-- the paint and the look we've decided on. I promise to post picture later! The pregnancy is coming along great but we are dying to figure out some solid names. Suggestions? I'm also dying to figure out how some of these recent mom's I see gained their pre-pregnancy weights BACK. Suggestions? Thannnks.

Mmmm like butta'

Elliott took me here last night:

We ordered this:

The Meatball Sub

And something that looked similar to this:

The Firehouse "Hero" Sub. It had roast beef (my fav), smoked turkey breast and Virginia Honey Ham. This picture is pretty spot on with representing the sheer amount of salivating meat that's piled onto the bread.

We got both as larges so that we could each trade and share our halves. They slid down my mouth so easily, though most things do when I'm starving, but the food was beyond delicious. Elliott usually goes there during his dental school's lunchtime with some classmates--ironically we even saw one of them there eating--but he held off going for a while to take me!

Elliott ate leisurely and was easily filled. I ravaged the subs, ate the pickels that came with each sub and was ready to take down more. I told him that the only explanation for this was that I had a mini- Elliott inside of me (no, that's not going to be his name, but he'll most likely continue the Elliott Brennan legacy of massive food take down without even a single burp or cringe). Those are my babies!

This morning as Elliott was getting ready for work I mumbled, "Mmmm meatball and hero subs." His only response was, "So that's what you're dreaming about these days." As I said previously, I have a mini-him eating right along side (and inside) me.

"It's Gonna Be A Holly Jolly Christmas--Cause You're Jolly With Your Belly."(shakes belly mockingly)--E.B.

Elliott and I always use this time of year to make our house a little more festive, a little more piney smelling (from our artificial "Evergreen" spray) and a little more... more... fattening, though when is it not?

This is my baby bump at 20 weeks. Enough said. Though I will make the comment that my shirt cost me $2.50 at Pac Sun. Sometimes it does pay to brave Arizona Mills. But only sometimes.

I told Elliott we absolutely HAD to use colored lights on our house. It's the next best thing to those old-fashioned pepper lights. It may have required an extra trip to Target to finish the job but it was beyond worth it.

While I was at the store, Elliott used the rejected white lights and decorated our lawn. I told him I thought his "spiraling" on the tree was preeeettttyyy impressive. Ugh, this picture reminds me of how badly I want--and nearly need--a new camera. A 4mp Kodak is going to take crappy pictures of even the cutest baby in the world (which will be ours). Anyone wanna get us some sort of Canon Rebel or any type of SLR for that matter??

I absolutely love our tree. It has a shimmery green star tree topper and is starting to become more and more covered with elegant and kitschy ornaments each year. My favorite holiday tradition growing up was receiving a new ornament from my mom each year. The Christmas after we got married--uh, so last Christmas--she gave us a beautiful porcelain ornament of a man dancing with his wife. It's a little hard to see in the picture (again, the camera problem) but I always put it right up front. I also got a vintage-looking brass ornament when we were in New Zealand of what else, but a map of the country.

I feel another blog post coming on completely devoted to my ornaments.

THIS is THE baby room. I can't wait until it's finished. We're painting it a green that I paint matched from this jewelry box I "bought" at Anthropologie. Granted, I had to return the jewelry box after I paint matched it because... It's overpriced... No surprise. We also got a quart of the navy color (just in case).

Can you guess what this picture is??

Here is an update of my Winter Break To-Do List:

1. Done. And it's a boy in case you couldn't tell by that in your face TMI picture.

2. Done. And it's Directv.

3. Partially Done. Arizona Mills doesn't count.

4. Done. But I'm never satisfied.

5. Starting full-time tomorrow at ASU. Doing what? The same thing I've been doing off and on for almost two years. I don't think I'll ever address it on this blog so go ahead and email or Facebook me if you're dying to know.

6. Not necessary. We turned up our heat-- har har har.

7. Well... I'd say I'm making a bigger effort this year than last so let's just label this as "improving."

8. Done. I got this and found an online coupon for $10 off!

9. Done. But thirsty for more. Thanks to number 2, we're geared up for Monday night football tomorrow!

10. Elliott said today "We should just put that puzzle away." So... fail.

Oh, and that snow day? It's coming. Mark my words, it's coming.