Labor Day Vacay

Dear Blog,

I meant to look up the origins of Labor Day and why we have it off but I got sidetracked on Perez Hilton listening to Brit Brit's new single that just dropped, (which is OKAY but I'm not running out to buy it anytime soon. Does anyone miss vintage Britney?? Sigh...) But, if anyone out there knows why we have Labor Day then feel free to write in. Actually, this seems like a good job for Tony Ritz because he likes to do random stuff like this and I haven't heard from him on the blog in a while.

Aaron and I had big plans for the holiday, like fly to Vegas or Palm Springs and just live it up. But slowly, ever so slowly....reality checked in and our trip got downsized, BUT we are still taking a trip! We're going to Wilmington for the weekend and staying in a cute Bed and Breakfast! I'm excited, and I'll have my laptop with me so if any of you know of anything we HAVE to do in Wilmington, just write in and we'll do it.

While many of you will be at some sort of football game this weekend, think of me and Aaron chillaxin' on the beach.

Happy Labor Day!!

xoxo,
Alison

Possibly. The. CUTEST. Baby. Ever.

Dear Blog,

I'm going to take this moment to blog about something other than myself! I know some of you are shocked and may be saddened, but I think at the end of the post, you will feel all warm and fuzzy inside and want to rush out to the nearest Pottery Barn Kids and buy oodles of little, cute, smooshy, baby things.

On August 23rd at 7:08 pm my BFF's Leigh and Kyle welcomed their little nugget of love into the world. His name is Miles Foster Young and seriously he might be one of the most precious babies I've ever seen in my whoooooole entire life. He is absolutely perfect. Y'all know that I'm honest and if I didn't think he was cute and perfect and absolutely wonderful I would say something like, he has both ears and all of his toes and that would be about it. He DOES have both ears and all toes but that is in addition to him being like the CUTEST little baby boy that I have ever seen.



A little bit about the parents/Ode to Leigh and Kyle. Leigh was my big sister in our oh so wonderul sorority and I truly believe that she was a God send :) Anyway, in the past seven or so years I have looked up to Leigh and her strong morals, beliefs, values, and cool haircuts ever since. I think if anyone can have a life mentor then Leigh would be mine, I look up to her and value her opinion probably more than she knows, although if she reads this blog then she will mos def know :) And now she has set the bar for having babies so incredibly high, I don't know if I will ever be able to measure up. I think being pregnant just suited her and of course she had the baby natural and with no drugs. Who does that? Oh yeah, Leigh Young. Leigh and Kyle are such great friends to me and Aaron and have been by our sides from the beginning of our our courtship all the way up to standing by our sides as we got married. We could not ask for better friends and are so thrilled with the addition of Miles to their family! We know they will be the best parents to baby Miles and we will try to be the best stand in Aunt and Uncle that we can be.

Much love to the new Young fam!





xoxo,
Alison the proud auntie

Detox

Dear Blog,

A couple posts ago I talked about how much I looooooved pilates, and I still do, don't get me wrong, but today I was a traitor and I went to yoga with work BFF Jaimi. Jaimi is in such good shape it's insane in the membrane and when she told me that she only does yoga, I was like "sign me up!" So today I went with her and y'all, yoga is hard. For reals! I consider myself to be in shape, you know, running marathons and being advanced in the pilates but this was IN to the TENSE. Not only were the moves strenuous thanks to us going to an ADVANCED CLASS, (THANKS JAIMI FOR WATCHING OUT FOR YOUR GIRL...) but, they turn on the heater or something so it's like 100 degrees and extra humid in there. I know I exaagerate in the blogs, but this is NO exaageration. I felt like I was experiencing Dante's Inferno, doing these crazy poses and sweating like a beast.

So I'm in there getting my zen on and Jaimi's telling me I'm doing all good and I'm really proud of myself! Our Yogi is telling me that I'm really going to detox and get all of the toxins out of my system and if I'm tasting a grody taste in my mouth then those are the toxins being released. I'm like, wow, this is really starting to pay off because I was tasting some grodiness in my mouth. Well then, all of my fellow class takers started looking at me REALLY STRANGE and I'm like, HELLO I'M TOTALLY ZENNING OVER HERE. I figured they were jealous of my hot moves.

Then class was over and I drove home and I looked in the mirror.

This is what I saw.



Apparently, I'm toxic.

xoxo,
Alison

Chocolate Milk and Calzones

Dear Blog,

I love themes! Different phases of my life have different themes and I even have themes for my outfits that I wear everyday. It's gotten to the point where I walk into the office and my boss asks what theme I'm wearing today. Just for your information, today my theme is Intellect. I'm wearing my smart glasses (shout out Tony Ritz), an oxford and smart little plaid capris that just scream "BUY ADS FROM ME BECAUSE I'M SMART!!!!!" Whether or not this works, I will have to let you know.

Anywhoodle, this all leads into my theme for this past weekend; The Reunion of Friends. So, last Friday I met up with Mate and Drew for a trip to Charleston, SC. Now Faris and I have been making weekend Charleston trips for the past 4 or 5 years and we always stay with Bebe and Buddy in Mount Pleasant. We have small rituals/indulgences that we must follow or the weekend will not be the same. This trip we invited Drew to join for no other reason than she is the shiz and we knew she'd like our ritualistic trip. Not to bore my readers, but our hostess ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS buys us chocolate milk and Sister Shubert's cinnamon rolls to eat for breakfast when we're there. I joked that the three of us would be 30 years old and Bebe would still buy us chocolate milk to drink and we still drink the whole half gallon before we left on Sunday afternoon. We love it and we always look forward to our chocolate milk drinking. Also, the theme of last weekend was; FAT. We ate a ton and just wallowed on the couch like beached whales. Oh well, these weekends only happen once a year. I had a great time with these two and am already looking forward the next one. Holla! (Pictured above from left to right, Moi, Bebe, Drew, Faris a.k.a Mate)

Normally, I'm sad when I leave Chuck town on Sunday but this time I wasn't too, too sad because I was going to have dinner with my two friends from highschool on Sunday night, JCG and Ambular! Amber and I just reunited after like 4 or 5 years of a drought and then I haven't talked to Crist (not Christ...I talk to him daily thank you very much) since hmmm..prolly 1998 when she graduated. We went to dinner and chatted over calzones. Hence the ongoing themes of Reuniting of Friends. We all got hooked up thanks to a little thing called Facebook, you might have heard of it? I'm addicted to it like Spencer Pratt is addicted to being a douchebag, sorry Hills reference.


xoxo,
Alison

Game Over

We've reached about 20 comments on the 'Spit Spot' post and I think it's reached the point of saturation. No one guessed it or had the nastiness to write what it was in the comments section so I think I'm going to let sleeping dogs lie and end it. I've spoken to most of you in person and told you what it was and I think that will suffice.

A recap of my fun weekend will be coming in a later post.

Amen and amen.

xoxo,
Alison

Spit Spot

******WARNING: THIS POST IS NOT FOR THE FAINT OF HEART OR FOR ANYONE WHO HAS AN OUNCE OF CLASS********


We've all seen 'em, in fact, some Bella French readers might even have one, but shhhhh...don't admit it for goodness sake! I'm sure people have heard of the aptly named Tramp Stamp and know that it refers to a tatoo placed expertly above one's bum, mostly on females. I'm trying to think of what I would put on my lower back were I to get a tattoo, it would probably read something like "Quit looking at my butt...thanks" Well, maybe that's too long. Maybe something really classy like "Juicy" or "Princess" ohhh, maybe "Holla Back" I don't know. So, none of this has anything to do with the charge I'm about to give Bella French readers. This does NOT apply to Tony Toni Tone, Paul or Prof because they were all with me when I learned what a spit spot was. So, whoever comes up with the correct definition of Spit Spot AND writes it in the comments section of the blog, I will give a SUPER SPECIAL Bella French prize.

Good luck and thanks for playing.

xoxo,
Alison

"Feel the rain on your skin...."

Dear Blog,

Really, I'm so excited about today!! Keep in mind that what I'm about to say is of no relevance to the world as it is today, Bush is still in office, our climates are still inching slowly upward and we're fighting an obesity epidemic, but really who cares about all of that when The Hills Season Premier is on tonight!?! LIKE O.M.G...I'm excited. Really, I am. I know that some of you are inwardly cringing (DAD) about a relatively intelligent female such as myself getting excited about a totally fake reality show but oh well, I never claimed to be deep. I love me some Lauren and cannot STAND Spencer. I wish he would choke on a piece of pizza crust and not die but damage his vocal chords so I wouldn't have to hear his annoying voice anymore. Blah. So, be there or be square all you Hills lovers and haters alike tonight at 10 pm on MTV, it's bound to be one big catfight and we all love a catfight, especially when we're not involved and they're just on tv with little socialite 21 year olds.
xoxo,
Alison

Pilates

Dear Blog,

Every year I have a new fitness goal. 2005, I ran a half marathon in Charlotte. 2006, I ran/walk/limped the Chicago Marathon. 2007....drum roll please...I'm going
to become a pilates instructor! There are many reasons for this pilates instructorness. I will tell you because I know you are just DYING right now. Whilst Aaron and I were on our honeymoon we saw many beautiful sights...and many not so beautiful sights. I saw one too many flabby stomachs, boobs, arms, thighs, calves and sadly...toes. I thought to myself, "Self. You will never have flabby toes. You will do pilates." When we got back from the honeymoon, I swiftly ran to the next Pilates class at the Y. Love it, love it, love it. Had a bad day at work? Pilates. One too many cupcakes? Pilates. Too much time in front of the tv? Pilates. Cures all evils. Another reason to love the pilates, you can incorporate it into your everyday life.

Par example;
Want to read a magazine? Do the plank!



Want to rest the old back while doing some work? Put the laptop on your "tabletop"!





And finally, if you've had too much to drink and you just can't take it anymore. Bend yourself over and hang in the monkey position. Works everytime.




P.S. You do not have to always wear yellow patent leather flats when you randomly decide to do pilates. That's just my thing. You can do what you want.

xoxo,
Alison the pilates instructor