Since I know everyone looks to me for fashion advice (or not), here is my first post. I'm in a place where I'm trying to be purposeful about what I wear, not spend too much money, and try to mix and match my pieces. One of my favorite blogs for inspiration is Audrey's blog. She is adorable, modest, relatable, and has really great outfit ideas!

I wore this outfit tonight on a double date with Clarence and a couple of our friends. It was comfortable and also kept me warm in the typically cold dining room of the restaurant.

Jacket: Target, Shirt: Cotton On, Chevron Skirt: veryjane.com, Shoes: Target

I had been looking for just the right denim jacket that was a good wash and worn in enough to roll the sleeves. I ended up seeing a perfect one at Target, but they only had a size XL in the store. Boo! I ended up ordering this one online and am really happy with it!

Comfy and cute. I was happy with how this outfit turned out!

Girls Road Trip!

Last week my mom, sisters, and I embarked on an epic journey. It wasn't just a journey to Charlotte, North Carolina, but a journey into our past. We were headed to a concert that could've as easily been performed in the 90's as now. We witnessed this:

And I must say, we had such a great time! Hannah drove from Nashville to join us and it was the first time I had seen her since I'd been back in the States. It was so good to hug and laugh with my sister.

You have no idea how obsessed we were with New Kids on the Block when we were kids. We would put together hour-long shows for our parents, and not just the 3 girls, all 5 of us kids would participate! Don't let the boys tell you any different. Our sets included dining room chairs covered with blankets that we could pop out from behind during climactic moments of our show. It was quite the performance. We even have videos of these shows (though those will, for now, remain private). Hannah was probably three years old and was singing lyrics like "love the way you turn me on". Hilarious.

We had full sized posters in our room (which I might have occasionally kissed) along with other random merchandise. I swear someone is super rich off all the New Kids on the Block crap they sold to young girls back in the day. Amazingly we still had a few things left and decided we had to take them to the concert. Hannah and I had Jordan Knight huge buttons and Leah still fit in a shirt she had made when she was about 12 years old! 

Yes, that is her and Jordan Knight on that shirt. I have one too, but considering I was 8, that sucker definitely did not fit me anymore. But for your viewing pleasure, this is what it looks like: 

And yes, that is during my mullet days. Ahhh memories. 

I was also a huge fan of Boyz II Men. And I must say, they were the highlight of the night for me. Their harmony is still amazing and the songs are classic! The night overall was so much fun. We danced and sang our little hearts out and it made it that much better to spend it with my mom and sisters. We spent the night in a hotel though we didn't get any sleep because we are party animals! Actually, because my mom snores (love you mom)! At one point during a really breathy snoring moment I commented to Leah, "She sounds like Darth Vader" to which she responded, "I am your faaaather" and we couldn't stop giggling about it. The lack of sleep might have had something to do with that.

Anyway, it was a great, though short, trip. Now it's time to find the next girl's trip concert!

House Hunters

Hi, I'm Rachel and I'm obsessed with HGTV.

Source

Ok, I feel better now. The first step is admittance.

One thing I am really looking forward to now that we're back in the US is becoming home owners. That may not happen right away, but I'm so excited to have our own place that we can work on together and make our own!

For fun, Clarence and I will occasionally get on zillow.com or trulia.com and search for homes that we would buy as if we were on House Hunters on HGTV (though I wouldn't make such a big freaking deal about double sinks in the master bath...or a lot of other things selfish Americans seem to complain about on that show!)

If I could pick a dream house it would definitely be a craftsman style home like this:

source

My dream craftsman would be more of a sweet, cozy bungalow with beautiful built-ins, a porch swing, beautiful detailing, etc. One day. And ideally it would be kind of a fixer-upper. Clarence and I both hope to buy a house that needs a bit of work. Not a total gut-job (we are amateurs here), but something we could put our own style into. A little sweat equity. When we house-hunt, we are always looking for the potential. We also don't want one of those new builds in an area where all the trees have been knocked down and the houses sit on top of each other. We don't mind knowing our neighbors, but don't really want to see everything that is going on in their house. Some things are meant to be kept private, am I right?

A craftsman house on a large lot with mature trees all around...and nice sidewalks to go on family walks...and a nearby park. I'm not asking for too much am I?

What kind of house do you want?

Practice Round

It is no surprise to our friends and family that I want a baby. Clarence probably hears about this at least once a day. While he also is excited for us to start a family, he's not quite as psychotic about it as I am.

This past weekend I decided to give him a little practice in being a daddy. We kept my nephews Gavin and Caiden at our house. It was so sweet to watch Clarence play with them and talk to them. To be honest, it did nothing but make my womb jump even more. Poor guy doesn't stand a chance. Even now he sleeps blissfully unaware beside me. But really, how can you resist hilarious cuteness like this?

I mean who doesn't want to wear a bumbo as a hat?

One afternoon we had laid Caiden down for his nap and a few minutes later he was calling out my name. Clarence went up to check on him and never returned. After a short while, I went upstairs to try to find out where he went. I checked in our room. Not there. Bathroom? Nope. Then I go in the room where Caiden is supposed to be napping. He'd used his sly toddler ways on my unsuspecting husband...he pulled the old "I can't sleep, will you lay in the other bed?" routine. And my sweet, unaccustomed husband fell for it. Still, by the end of the weekend we had a lot of fun and I was so proud of Clarence. Have I mentioned I have the best one? Well I do. I'm looking forward to seeing if he handles baby poop explosions with as much grace. I'll refrain from posting pictures of that.

Here we go!

Welcome to our new blog!

You can read more about us by clicking on the welcome box over there ---->

It's been awhile since I first started blogging years ago on xanga...anybody else remember when that was the place to blog? Did I just completely show my age? Yeah well I played Atari too, so there.

Anyway, all that was way before I met and married my awesome husband, Clarence. Now that we are starting fresh with a move to the US, we're making a fresh start in the blog-world as well. I plan (and hopefully will accomplish my goal) to share some things that I love. Basically the things listed in the menu bar above. Though this first post starts off the "family" portion, I hope to be posting about much more cute (and likely barf-inducing) things like....half-asian babies! And no we're not pregnant yet.  We are just praying our kids won't end up looking like this composite of our two faces. Otherwise, I don't think reproducing would be the right thing to do to the world.

Well, what better way to end our first post than with something that will give you nightmares? But please do come back. I promise every post won't be as horrifying.