Christmas fit for a King (or two)

Christmas is upon me whether I'm ready or not. Thankfully, I'm ready. Scott bought our last present yesterday. All, save the a fore mentioned, is wrapped and under the tree. Did I mention that today (technically yesterday) was Scott's last day of school for a whole week and a half!?!? Hallelujah! He needs it more than I do but I'll be glad to have my giant teddy bear around all the same.  Anyway, if you'd like take a gander at what our little castle looks like during the Christmas season scroll on down!

All wrapped up and ready to go!

Wrapping paper compliments of TJ Maxx. Also this may seem lame but I always choose two different wrapping paper designs. One for the guys and one for the gals.

My mom gets us a new ornament each year. S is for Sarah and Scott!

Scott calls this my Charlie Brown Christmas tree. But I like it and besides I needed some Christmasy-ness in our dining room/kitchen! 

We started this tradition last year. We saw off the a little bit of the stump and make it into an ornament for each year. Pretty neat. Can't say we thought of it though. The guy who sold us the tree gave us the idea.

My natural tree in the dining room. I used decorative lights I had around the house instead of Christmas lights, hung pine cones, and used little decorative balls from a bag of potpourri. 

I used some left over balls from the tree and filled in this tea light holder for a Christmas-y feel. Also I found that reindeer in our attic.

The view from the couch. I love coming home to this!

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

lookin' all official and such

Hello long lost friends! I have not dropped off the face of the earth nor have I forgotten I have a blog. I seem to have become really busy over the last month. I guess my excuse is the holiday season. (Not sure if that is actually accurate but we'll just go with it.) To catch you all up I'll start with where I left off. November.

Scott got his White Coat on November 20th! I have to say, I got really excited and made a few things to commemorate the event. Peruse pictures below if you haven't already seen them on Facebook.

But before you do, let me just tell you little about why he got his White Coat. It basically is a rite of passage. It encourages the students and I think it makes what they are striving for more tangible. From my understanding it is a fairly new tradition to the world of medicine. Fun Fact Alert! Medical students have shorter coats than doctors. Once they graduate they get their real coat which are longer. Scott, being Scott, decided he had to be different. He got a XXL big and tall size so his coat would look longer. Silly boy! He still looks pretty dashing!

Front of invites I made. If you didn't get one it's only because they were very time consuming to make not because we don't love you!

 I made White Coat cookies to commemorate. They didn't turn out as well as I imagined but does anything ever?

Front of the program on the big day!

Processing into the ceremony

Waiting his turn

Scott's Dad putting on his coat. Only a doctor can put a coat on a medical student. Since Scott's dad is one it made the day even more special.

Reciting the Osteopathic Oath

Being silly with Granny

The whole gang!

So proud of my hubby! Notice what's in the background. That's where we got married over two years ago.

 

Turkey Day

Thanksgiving is right around the corner and I'm rather excited about it. It's a lovely holiday. You get to see your family but not be broke from gifts. Also you get to stuff yourself as full as the turkey on the table. What? Just me. Er-uh, moving on. Recently, I realized from talking to my married friends I have yet to go through an important rite of passage. I have not cooked a Thanksgiving meal. Dun Dun Dun. Scott and I have been married for two years and I have yet to baste a turkey or bake a pumpkin pie. So I've been sitting around listening to those a for mentioned friends, who are nervously planning a every minute detail of their Thanksgiving meal, and I feel completely incompetent. Not incompetent enough to do any thing about it mind you. I will continue to bask in my lack of duties and be served delicious food by my mother. I wonder though, is that a bad thing? Possibly. I'll probably be 30, children running all over the place, and be 2000 miles away from my mom, begging her through tears to tell me how to fix the blasted turkey over the phone. Oh well. I'm ready to deal with the consequences later. For now I'll continue to gorge myself on the delicacies presented to me by the expert- AKA my mom.

Yup. Thanksgiving is awesome.



What's your favorite part of Thanksgiving?

24 going on 84

As many of you know I just had my 24th birthday. By most people's standards I'm still a youngin' but at times I question my youth. It's not really aches and pains or pops and creaks. It's something more important. You know how they say an elephant never forgets? My friends, I'm no longer an elephant! My memory is quite terrible. The problem is I really have no excuse. Most people have some reason for their "senior moments". Like having kids, a stressful job, or getting on in years. I have none of the above so what the heck is going on? You may think I'm joking. Well, let me give you an example. This story requires a little set up to understand so bear with me.

Ahem.

When we moved into our house in August 2010, I wanted Scott to change the lock on our front door. You know, just in case someone out there had a key. We painted the front door that day and were waiting for it to dry. It was getting late and we realized we had not bought the doorknob/lock for our door. We could not go to bed without one because I didn’t want any creepers creeping into my house! Scott went to Home Depot and grabbed one. It was the type where you can turn the door knob on the inside whether it’s locked or not. You can probably see where this is going. Anyway, we’ve lived with it like this for a year and never had an issue. My first “Sarah moment” as I will call it, happened at the beginning of August.  I grabbed my purse, my lunch, the Netflix to mail, and out the door I go. Notice anything missing? My keys. I’m now locked out of my house and my car. Scott is in class. My parents are 40 minutes away.  I call my newly made friend Sarah Pupillo (Our husbands are in medical school together) and she graciously took me to work. (I’m sure she thought I was crazy!) This was my first offense so I thought no big deal. False. The very next week I did the exact same thing! I walked right out the door without my keys. As of right now I’m having another “Sarah Moment” and I can’t remember how I even got to work but I got there late. Fast forward two weeks. We have an audit a work that day, which is a big deal. Guess who walks out the door that morning without her keys? Yes, you guessed it. ME!!!! My poor parents had to come get me because no one close by could help me. (If I ever move away from them I’m in big trouble.)  I got to work an hour and half late. It was so embarrassing on so many levels. I’m the office idiot. This is not the last time.  I did it again on a Saturday when I was meeting my mom and my sisters. I had to walk down the road and across Main Street to Books-A- Million and loitered around for an hour. My question is who forgets to get their keys 4 times in the span of a month? I think I’m the youngest person ever with Alzheimer’s! We have resolved the issue so I can’t lock myself now but that in itself is embarrassing, that we had to make “special” arrangements for my brain. On the bright side it makes for good stories!

Time to make me feel better! Have you had any “Sarah Moments” recently?

Steppin Out With My Baby

Almost two Saturdays ago Scott and I went to a Gala held by Virginia Osteopathic Medical Association in celebration of VCOM's 10 year anniversary. It was held at Hotel Roanoke. We got to get all dressed up and PAR-TAY! It was good times with good friends. We didn't take too many pictures but the few we did are below.

Also a brief life update. Scott is almost done with his first block of medical school! Wooohooooo! Can you believe it has been 10 weeks already? We certainly can't. He has two more finals this week and block one is in the basket!

Our fabulous friends and neighbors Steve and Sarah Pupillo!

After Dinner

This is Scott's artistic shot of the night- everyone walking to their cars!

Our first fight

As many of you know we've been married two years. However, our first real fight happened about two weeks before our two year anniversary.  We've had our moments don't get me wrong but this was our first real all out screaming match. What, you might you ask, could bring these two wonderful, self controlled, mature adults to do such a thing? 

The Culprit

Yes. It's true. We are such fatties that we had our first fight over cupcakes. But let me just clarify, they were not just any cupcakes. They were Georgetown Cupcakes. You know, the ones that are on the TV show D.C. Cupcakes that everyone raves about. Well, as you can see, we had already devoured two, the other two my sister and her boyfriend ate. We saved the last two for later. Obviously, we were up in D.C. when we got these but we left that day to come home. We didn't get back until late. I think it was around 11 pm. Scott wanted to leave everything out in the car. Me, being a girl, needed stuff in my bags. Then Scott, being a guy, decides he is taking everything in at once. I loaded myself up too but not quite as much. How Scott managed to get the cupcakes on top of that pile of stuff in his arms I don't know, regardless he had THE precious cargo. Scott got up to the door while I was still getting stuff out of the car. I look up and he is trying to get the mail. I said "Just leave it I'll grab it when I come up."  but he persisted. I'm pretty sure I was midway in saying that again when I hear something crash. I come running up and there is the box of cupcakes laying upside down on the floor. I was sooooooooooo angry. I don't even know why. I guess being tired and stuck in a car for 5 hours got to me. I pick up the box and open it up, hoping, no praying they were intact. Instead I find a cupcake massacre. I couldn't even figure out who's icing was whose! I started screaming things like "WHY CAN'T YOU LISTEN TO ME?" and "LOOK WHAT YOU'VE DONE?" and the best one "YOU'VE RUINED EVERYTHING!" I'm sure I said some other things but thankfully I can't remember them. Scott, who at this point had put everything down but the mail, gets in my face, and I mean in my face. He shouts "YOU ARE SO IMMATURE THAT YOU WOULD GET THIS UPSET OVER CUPCAKES!!!!" (touche) I wouldn't have had anything to say back if he hadn't swung open the door and thrown the mail out on the wet grass. I screamed back "OH YEAH THAT WHAT SOOOOOOO MATURE!!!" (Thus making myself even more immature) We then stalked off, fuming at each other. Don't worry it didn't last long.  Soon after, we made up and happily ate our pile of obliterated cupcakes. 

Don't judge.

For those that want to know...

Scott:
He is now done with three weeks of medical school! Yay! Of course that's really just a drop in the bucket but it's something.  The first week was mostly orientation. Then his second week was full on classes. The third week started tests. He has at least two tests a week from here on out. Usually on Mondays so I don't see him during the weekends. Well, I don't see him during the week either! I was warned about that many times but that doesn't make it any easier. We set aside Friday night for date night though. We usually try to have a few dinners together during the week as well. I think we are getting into a groove now. Also for anyone that would like to know this block he is taking microbiology, immunology, histology, pathology, genetics and a couple of others I can't remember! The way they have classes set up at VCOM is in 10 week blocks. So he starts a new block in October with new classes. Below is a video from the first week of school if anyone has some time to kill. You can see where he takes class, see some of his professors and classmates. Scott is in there a couple of times too!


Sarah:
Let's see, um... well hmmmmm. I finished watching all the Harry Potter movies. Yup that's about it.


Here is the video for Scott's first week of class:

Won't you not be my neighbor

Neighbors... everyone has them and everyone has THAT one. In our case, we have a few and they are up on my nerves. Here is a little background as to why.

In our townhouse complex each building has four units. It's basically divided into four squares. We live in the front left unit. The neighbors in question live on the back right unit and another neighbor lives in another building entirely and even further to the right. They have three cars between them and they park their three cars in front of our house!!! All the while, the spots that are closer to their side of the building go completely unoccupied. I'm not exaggerating. That leaves Scott and I to park four to five spots from our house. They are either big meany pants or completely unaware of their geographical location. Seriously, it takes them longer to walk from our side of the building all the way around to the other side then it would if they parked on their own side!!! I don't think very highly of their manners and/or their intelligence. I know that we sound lazy but it's the principle of the situation. Anyway, this has a funny story at the end of it. No, it's not a hilarious confrontation (though that might be coming soon). It's something Scott said.  A little more of background is needed. Tonight, we are dog sitting my parents dog, Toby. We pulled in this evening and I was having a mini-tantrum about the parking situation. We (really I) started plotting my revenge. One of the more tame schemes has to do with the new sod one of the neighbors put down in their yard. They told us how they just couldn't get their grass to live through the winter (boohoo!) but had hopes for this year. I said we should go park our car on their special sod and see how they like that! (insert evil laugh) Anyway, the funny part of the story is as follows:

Scott said, "We could get Toby to go poop on their grass."
I was like, "How does that help our situation?"
He said "Well, since they poop their cars on our spots, we'll get Toby to poop on theirs."

Subtle. I like it, but would Mr. Rogers approve? Most likely not. But he must have had a pesky neighbor somewhere along the way. I need to brush up on my Mr. Rogers to see how he dealt with this situation in the Neighborhood of Make-Believe.

Do any of you have tips on how to deal with inconsiderate nincompoops (aka neighbors)?

The itsy bitsy spider....

 For everyone's information, I just hopped on the Harry Potter bandwagon. I know, I'm a little late. Anyway, I decided to have a Harry Potter marathon. The other night I was watching Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets on my computer in the bed. Scott was writing a birthday card right next to me. He would tune in every now and then but was only half paying attention. Well, just in case anyone is as behind the times as me, in the movie there are several scenes with spiders. These spiders come along with spider-y music. Seriously, if spiders had a theme song then it's on this movie. Anyway, I'm sitting there and I'm totally into the movie. It starts to get intense because there is spider music playing so I know spiders are coming. Then you see them creeping all over the screen. Suddenly, Scott screams! Yes, screams.  He then proceeds to throw the card at me and run out of the room. I had just been in a scary place with all those spiders so I assumed he had been too. But he didn't stop yelling. I became concerned and thought it was serious. I go to check on him and he is running up and down our hall waving his arms frantically. I started to laugh. I told him it was just the movie. He could not form words. He just kept freaking out and slapping himself to, at the very least, paralyze the spider that may have potentially been hiding somewhere on his body. I laughed harder. He stops running and rips his shorts off then keeps on going. That's right my friends, he is now running around our house boo-tay naked. I was laughing uncontrollably. I mean who wouldn't? My huge hulk of a husband is in his birthday suit freaking out over spiders in a kids movie. I guess me laughing made him mad. He kept saying "I'm serious. I'm so serious." in the most serious voice you can imagine.  Now I could not form words but for a different reason. He slightly calmed down and said there had been a REAL spider crawling on the birthday card. (Which I would like to point out was thrown in my face. Chivalry is dead people. ) I still couldn't take him seriously though. I just kept laughing. He dragged me into our room, still naked by the way, and guess what? There really was a spider! Sadly, poor Mr. Spider came to a tragic end. I, on the other hand, got to laugh until I cried and found out about my husband's arachnophobia. Thank you Harry Potter!

Eat - Sleep - Repeat.

Scott and I just recently got back from our vacation to Folly Beach, SC. We had a wonderful time and we were only 15 minutes from Charleston. It was the best of both worlds, a city and a beach! We did what people mostly do on vacation, we ate and we slept... and it was awesome! Really, that's not all we did. We did some sight seeing which, worked up an appetite so we ate some more.   Here are few pictures from when we weren't sleeping and eating.

Day 1: Get some sun!

If you are ever looking for Scott at the beach look for a burly guy with an old man hat and lots of chest hair. You can't miss him!

It's a tradition for us to eat Italian for our anniversary. I mean we've only had two but it's definitely a tradition.

St. Philips Episcopal Church, Downtown Charleston

Scott thinks it's weird that I like old cemeteries but, what can I say, I do!

Morris Island Lighthouse.

Rainbow Row

King Street. Sweet.

I love this.

We can all guess what he was getting at!

Great balls of fire!

For immature audiences only...

Scott and I visited my sister in Washington D.C. for the Fourth of July. Needless to say, it was hot and crowded. ( I don't know why we expected anything else. The fourth is kind of a big deal.) We had a good time and Scott, an aspiring urologist, found a new hobby for when we travel. Take a look at the photos below to see for yourself.

Scott means no disrespect. He thinks the male, er...uh, organ to be a thing of beauty and should be depicted in art accordingly.

The Princess and The Pea

We all know the story of the princess and the pea. If for some reason your mother did not love you enough to share this story with you, here is a brief synopsis.

There was a prince and he wanted to marry a princess (the usual). Well, the prince searched far and wide but could not find the right princess (high standards). He came home from his search quite downtrodden. Later, on a stormy evening, a knock came from the door. The prince opened the door (of course, the butler had to be off).  There stood a girl, drenched with rain, who claimed to be a princess. Well, as these things usually happen, the prince was smitten. His mother, on the other hand, was not. The queen decided to test the "princess". The queen went and heaped a lot of mattresses (the exact amount is to be debated) on top of a pea. The queen knew only a true princess would be able to feel a pea under all those layers. The next morning the queen asked the princess how she slept. The princess said it was awful. The bed was so lumpy she was bruised (princesses are delicate you know). That was proof enough for the queen. Soon after, the prince and the princess were married and they lived happily ever after (this is also to be debated). The End.

My friends, I have a confession. I'm the princess. Yes, 'tis true. I mean, Sarah does mean princess in Hebrew so it's no wonder that I have princess tendencies.  Especially when it comes to my sleeping environment. They are as follows:

1.) Bed. It really has to be my bed. If not, I cannot, will not sleep well.
2.) Human contact. When Scott and I were first married I could not go to sleep with any body part of his touching me. I have actually gotten over this. But it is limited. A hand or a foot, but that's about it. 
3.) Darkness. I have to have complete darkness.
4.) Noise. I cannot have noise except from my fan. See number 6.
5.) Sheets. They have to be straight for me to get in the bed. I don't like twisted sheets.
6.) Fan. I have to have the noise of a fan. This is where it gets complicated folks. It can't be just any fan. My fans are held to high standards. It cannot click or make any repetitive noises. It has to be on low.  It cannot point at me ( I don't like wind in my face.) It has to be facing a certain direction. I can tell if it's not in the correct direction by the sound it's making.
7.) Pillow. It HAS to be my pillow. I also can only sleep on a certain corner of my pillow. Scott has tried to see if I really HAD to have my pillow and switched it out with his. I knew instantly. Don't mess with my pillow!

If any of these things have not come to pass the night before, the princess (that's me!), will have dark circles under her eyes and be very grouchy the next day. Some might say I'm neurotic. Well, probably most of you do. I'm sure any guy that's reading this is thanking sweet baby Jesus that they didn't hitch their wagon to mine. It takes a special guy to deal with a Hunter gal. (That's another blog in itself.) Thankfully, I found that special guy who can deal with my "princess-ness" aka my neurosis. So, what are you supposed to take away from this entry? Deep sympathy for Scott, I would think.

Welcome to the King Spa...

It's beauty night at the King house. Actually, Scott and I just wanted to see how nasty our pores were.

Katie graduates

This entry is somewhat about Scott and I, but it is mostly because of my sister, Katie.  Katie graduated from Virginia Tech on May 14th!!! Her degree is in communications with a concentration in public policy as well as a minor in political science. All this and she graduated with honors! Needless to say, my family was beyond proud. To celebrate such a huge milestone in her life, I wanted to throw her a party at our place. This is where we come into the picture. I had other, more selfish, motives for throwing her a party. First off, I wanted Scott to clean off the patio, which we never got around to last summer when we fixed up the rest of the place. It was a nasty mess with a broken rusted grill and an even more broken and rusty fire pit along with leaves, an old hose and a tarp that had, well I assume had, creepy crawlers in it. I was not a part of the removal process for that reason. I also wanted to get a patio set from my parents' house. Scott's dad generously gave us his old patio set when we were first married, but we lived in an apartment and had no place to put it. So I let my family use it until we got a place that had a patio. Well, they got attached to it. My family knew it was ours but didn't want to see it go. I felt guilty, but as Katie so wisely put, not guilty enough. (See why she graduated with honors?) I thought having a party would be the perfect excuse to commandeer the patio set since we would need more seating. We borrowed my Dad's truck and loaded it up. Scott and I got the patio looking fabulous. I even planted some plants! (I wasn't born with a green thumb, I'm forcing it.) Guess what happens after we do all this work? That's right, it rains on Katie's graduation day. It was all for nothing or at least in the immediate sense. We had to have it all inside. Which I feel like the rain is partly because of my selfish motivation for throwing the party. We ended up having a really good time, rain or not. Katie's boyfriend Prabhaav (who "secretly" reads my blog) came down from the Washington D.C. area. My grandparents were able to come all the way from Georgia thanks to my Aunt Wanda and Uncle Randy bringing them half way and my Uncle Mark for taking them back. We had the essentials, fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, macaroni and cheese, green beans, pasta salad, and Katie's favorite, poppy seed cake. Oh, and of course, some sweet tea. A nap soon followed.

Pomp and Circumstancing

There was no air conditioning...

The Gang

Love Birds

Southern essential

More essentials

Nehi... so retro

Grubbin' it up as Scott would say

Opening the spoils of the day

Proof

Living with Scott

OK. For those of you that don't know Scott and I live in a townhouse. It's a quite neighborhood with some students but mostly families.  The unit to the right of us has been empty ever since we moved in August 2010. A few months ago we found out that it had been foreclosed on. Well, Scott decided he was going to become a real estate tycoon and he was going to start with buying the place next door.  With what money and resources I don't know. Details, you know, just details.  That's the thing about Scott he can take the smallest thing and run with it. Definitely a dreamer. I'm the practical one or as my sisters would say a dream crusher. Anyway, he did some inquiring with a Realtor but we were told the details weren't available. They would contact us when they were.  The following Saturday I was bumbling around and noticed a few people walking up the sidewalk to the unit next to us. They went in with a Realtor. I called Scott into the room. We proceeded to peek out the window. (Yes, we are nosy neighbors.)   Scott was upset to say the least that the other Realtor hadn't gotten back with us. I was over it and was about to go about my business when Scott was like "No! This is not OK! I have to do something to stop them!" He then proceeded to stomp around our house screaming over and over "YOU"RE GOING TO HAVE LOUD NEIGHBORS! YOU'RE GOING TO HAVE LOUD NEIGHBORS!" I was mortified. I mean the only thing that was separating him from those people was a wall!  I tried to get him to stop but he just kept on going.  Scott then decided he wasn't being loud enough. He scooped me up for extra weight and continued galumphing around the house but this time with me slung over his shoulder! Needless to say they left fairly quickly. Scott thought it was hilarious. I can't say that I agreed. But let's face the facts if I hadn't married the fun loving little boy at heart that is Scott King, I would probably be (even more than I already am) a boring goody two-shoes. Oh and someone bought the house. Let's hope they can deal with loud neighbors.



Life Update- Scott finished his post baccalaureate program at Virginia College of Osteopathic Medicine (VCOM) last week. He starts medical school at VCOM August 1st. I had my last day of work at BB&T today and start at Stifel Nicolaus, an investment firm, this coming Monday. Lots of changes for Team King!

will + kate

Ok. I was (kinda still am) obsessed with the royal wedding. I know some people are haters of the royal fever but how can you not want to watch a fairytale come to life? It's like a Disney princess movie!

A little background on my obsession. I grew up following William and Harry's life. It all started because of my mom. She took off work when Charles and Diana were married. She continued following Diana throughout the rest of Princess Diana's life and that meant I followed it as well. When Princess Diana passed away, which coincidentally was on my sister Katie's eighth birthday, my mother was in tears all day. Needless to say that probably wasn't one of Katie's favorite birthdays! Anyway as soon as William and Kate announced their engagement I was hooked! I read every article on Yahoo about the wedding for months gearing up for the big event. I'm a goober, I know.

In celebration of the royal wedding I threw a party. Well, it wasn't much of party because we were quite bleary eyed and nauseous from awakening at the ungodly hour of 5:45am. I'm no ray of sunshine in the morning as some of you might know. My guests were my mom and Katie. Here are a few pics of our morning.

The real deal.

English tea, English muffins, and marmalade. So English.

Can't have tea without tea cups!

Cheers!

That's about as exciting as our party got but we can say we watched Will and Kate tie the knot in real time. We got to see the dress (uh gorgeous!) hear the vows, the crowds cheering, and watch history in the making while making some memories ourselves.

-Sarah