Belfort is like Disney World for furniture. They have four different showrooms with all kinds of different styles and options. We were browsing their clearance section when we spotted this modern, tan, two-piece sectional.

The fabric is microfiber, which is easy to clean as well as comfortable against the skin. Most of the other microfiber furniture had a suede texture but this piece had a kind-of tweed texture to it. This stood out to us as it made the couch look a little more sophisticated. Plus suede can look weird on large furniture because it looks lighter or darker depending on how it is rubbed.

The cushions also felt better than the other sofas we tried. Our couch strikes the delicate balance of being firm yet comfy The cushions on another sectional that we looked at felt weak and we were worried they would become too mushy/clumpy after a couple of years of use.

We also got a giant ottoman to stretch out and rest our feet on. I like this better than a hard coffee table.

We got our three pieces of furniture to our place in Alexandria thanks to my dad and his pick-up truck. We had to tie the smaller section to the roof and put the ottoman in the back of the crew cab but we got everything home in one trip. We’re really happy with our furniture purchase and look forward to lounging out on it (just like I’m doing now writing this post) for years to come.

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Below is a sampling of pictures but the full set can be viewed on Flickr or Facebook. If you want to order a copy of any of the photos for yourself, our photographer has set-up a site where you can do that.

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Kristina is planning which furniture will go where in our new bedroom at our place in Virginia. We’ll start moving in this weekend.

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Kristina and I both were so happy to just hang out and have a blast with our friends and family before the big day. The gathering wasn’t just a place for everyone to mingle, it was also a good practice run to make sure I could stream the wedding live. It looks like everything worked just fine. In case you missed it, embedded below is the entire 3+ hour live stream that I recorded from the BBQ (check out the 2:52:00 mark!)

If you want to tune in to the live stream of the ceremony, just head to our homepage around 5pm, May 29th.

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Is this what happened to the last groom?

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Look at all of our escort cards lined up in rows! they turned out great …. goodluck finding ur name on saturday!

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Bride and maid of honor are up late burning the midnight oil. The last minute details are almost all ironed out in preparation for Saturday.

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We got our Marriage Licence today at Montgomery County District Court! 4 days and counting … we are so excited!

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We took photos at the Grosvenor-Strathmore Metro station, Book Hill Park, and along the streets in Georgetown, DC. Kristina spotted a big, green chair on her way to work and thought that would make a terrific spot for our engagement shoot.

The photos came out great and working with Joe, our photographer, and his assistant, Adam, was a pleasure.

Below are a few of our favorite photos from the session.

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Hurry only 45 more days! It is so weird seeing our wedding date on billboards! That just means it is getting close.

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We had to go all the way to Fair Oaks to get them but we now have purple ties for all of the groomsmen and ushers in our wedding. They match the bridesmaid dresses perfectly.

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After most of our friends and family arrived we started the afternoon with lunch. There was Red Hot & Blue BBQ, hot dogs, purple potato salad and other homemade dishes. The bridesmaids got the featured cakes (a strawberry shortcake and a red velvet cake) from Desserts By Gerard and friends and family brought other yummy desserts. The bridesmaids announced to the guests to try to take the “Russell and Kristina Trivia Quiz” while eating lunch. I had some guests try to ask me questions off of the quiz and I almost unsuspectingly answered them. I caught myself however and avoided giving them the answers (how sly of them).

After lunch we moved on to another shower game called “The Soon-to-be Newlywed” Game, which involved Russell and I sitting back to back in the center of room with our own dry erase board and marker. My Maid of Honor, Jeanette, asked us questions to see how well we knew each other and then she turned the questions over to our guests. I just kept thinking, “No matter the outcome or the score, we are still getting married!” I think we fared pretty well. We have so much history (9 years to be exact) that it was hard to recall the details of our first date!

The next game the bridesmaids planned was the toilet paper bride game … with a twist! Since it was a co-ed wedding shower, the men were included in the game as well. The guests were divided into groups with each group getting black crepe paper and white toilet paper. Their job was to pick two people in the group, a “bride” and a “groom”, who were to be outfitted with a gown and a tuxedo made entirely from the materials. It was hilarious seeing everyone trying to create their best paper outfits. The results were fantastic given the constraints but I don’t think we will be contracting anyone to be our outfit designers for the wedding day! Here is the winning couple …

After all of that fun, we continued the night with some awesome line dancing! I had the best time and some of our guests got a sneak peek into the line dances that will be played at our wedding. Before the guests left there was a “Well Wishes” bird-cage, where they would leave words of wisdom or happy thoughts for us. Also, there was a candy bar for guests to fill small Chinese-takeout boxes to take home as their favor. The candy bar consisted of purple Mike & Ikes, purple yam (Ube) gummies, green watermelon jelly beans, green M&M’s, green apple gummy rings, and white candy covered chocolates. The candy bar was displayed in elegant apothecary jars and the Chinese boxes stacked next to it with little “R & K” logo stickers on them.

The whole day was so much fun and time just flew by. It’s scary to think that our wedding day will seem to go by even quicker. It was wonderful to see all of our family and friends come out and make our wedding shower truly memorable.

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Friday started off with everyone in the DC area getting off of work early in anticipation of the big storm. The snow started falling around 1pm. By 3:30pm I measured accumulations of 2 inches or so around the apartment. Throughout the evening the snow kept coming down. Kristina, the roomies Josh and Denise, and I went sledding down our steep hill right outside our front door. We didn’t have any proper sleds, so we tried a few things that we had laying around the apartment. A plastic Ikea bag and a plastic container with wheels did not work at all. But the slick-bottomed boogie board was a hit.

When we came back in we spent the rest of the night watching Funny People and Groundhogs Day.

The snow fell throughout the night and we woke up with a good foot on the ground and it kept snowing all day (see a timelapse of the snowfall in Glenmont). Around 11am we got our snow gear on in anticipation of another sledding session. Just before we left, our power went out. Thinking nothing of it we continued on to our hill. Kristina brought her snowboard along and there was plenty of fluffy snow for a smooth ride.

After sledding we came back to a powerless apartment. The sun began to set and boredom was setting in. To pass the time we played a rousing game of Monopoly which killed several hours. As darkness overtook daylight we began to get hungry. Luckily the snow had stopped (but not after dumping 30 inches of snow in our area) so we could venture out to our nearby shopping center in search of food. The only place open was, of course, McDonalds.

Hooray, McDonalds is open after the Snowpocalypse!

The restaurant was hopping as other locals without power had also flocked there for some relief. After filling our bellies we stopped by CVS to stock up on candles to light our dark apartment.

Later that night we started to worry about the food we had in the fridge. Kristina and I keep a cooler in the back of my Rav-4 which came in handy for storing our food on our deck. There was so much snow that in order to get to the back of my car I had to shovel snow to get the door open.

My Rav-4 was completely buried.

We spent the rest of the night playing the card game asshole and having a good time despite the lack of power or the dropping temperature of our apartment. Everyone was sleepy but I still had some energy so at 1:30 am I went out to shoot some night shots of the snowy landscape.

The tree by our apartment covered in snow.

That night we all went to bed in long sleeves and several blankets to keep warm. It was actually quite cozy.

The next morning we were still without power/heat/hot water. Fortunately the roads were passable and Josh’s parents had power. We made the trek up to Laurel to hunker down until our power came back on. Our friends Pammy and her husband Chris stopped by and we all went sledding at my childhood middle school, Hammond Middle. The snow was knee deep and untouched which made for some awesome sledding runs.

Kristina sledding down a hill at Hammond Middle school.

After sledding we got hot showers and settled down to watch the Saints beat the Colts in Super Bowl 44. We spent the night there and the next morning we heard our power came back on. Once we got back to our heated apartment it was time to un-bury our cars though that wouldn’t last long.

Our parking lot buried in 2+ feet of snow.

Much of the DC metro area was closed including the local Metro subway system making getting to work impossible for us suburbanites. Plus, another winter storm hit us Tuesday night through Wednesday, February 10. The new storm system brought us a fresh foot of snow along with blizzard conditions. The second storm brought our total accumulations for this winter to 54.9″, breaking the previous all-time record of 54.5″ set in the winter of 1898-99.  We stayed inside most of the time and our power held up the whole way through this time.

My leg in a knee-high snow drift after the two storms.

Now it is Thursday night and the cars have been dug out again, the streets are somewhat plowed and the Metro is running. It looks like we will all go back to work tomorrow, just in time for the 3-day holiday weekend. Oh and the forecast for Monday, February 15… chance of snow.

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We enjoyed the many interactive and compelling exhibits the Newseum had to offer. Some of the top sections that we enjoyed were:

• Athlete: photos from legendary sports photographer Walter Iooss
• The largest glass elevators that take you to the top floor where they have a great view of the US Capitol and the Pennsylvania Avenue Terrace
• News History Room where they had over 500 years of newspapers in glass drawers
• The Internet, TV and Radio Exhibit
• Today’s Front Page Gallery, where they have more than 80 newspapers from across the U.S. and around the World

Russell and I are out on the Pennsylvania Avenue Terrace with a great view of the U.S. Capitol in the background.

I was so amused by these artifacts at the Newseum!

The last thing we did at the museum (except check out the gift shop which is always a highlight) was go to the Interactive Newsroom and I actually had a chance to read a teleprompter and be a television reporter. If you ever have a chance to go to the Newseum, I highly recommend it. When you go you can choose from 6-8 different backdrops ranging in topics from sports, weather and even landing on the moon. I chose a prompt that was about the latest exhibits going on at the Newseum; I felt it was appropriate so I could remember the day. Russell wanted me to give a special shout out at the end, so take a look and see how I did.

Russell took a picture of me in action.

And with that this is Kristina, signing off!

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