Friday, April 29, 2011

It Was Acceptable In The 80s

Happy Friday all!  I thought I would give you a little picture recap of the 30th birthday celebration for one of my dearest friends (and bridesmaid).  She and another friend of ours, who have been friends with each other for a very long time, wanted to celebrate their 30th birthdays with an 80's themed roller skating party.  Enjoy!












And now I will leave you with the random video that inspired the post title:



Happy Friday!

Thursday, April 28, 2011

Proud Uncle, Proud Sister

You might remember THIS post from a while back about my superhero bro.  When he is not busy keeping the streets of our city safe from riff raff and crime, my brother (also a new father) is out on the track trying to get NASA (not aerospace) certified to be a real-life race car driver.  I have yet to make it out to the race track for one of his race weekends due to scheduling conflicts, but hope to soon.  He spends the weekend running laps with an instructor and in between runs hanging out with his pit crew (family and friends). 

(Uncle working on the car in the pit)

This past weekend he got promoted to the next level which means driving without an instructor.  My uncle, who is part of the pit crew, sent out the following email in response to this link my bro sent out with his pics from the weekend:

Some things I want:

1) I want all of you to look at these pics and take note that the driver is "elbows up" and workin' it.

2) I want all of you to look at these pics and take note that in more than one instance, there is a fair amount of air under one or more of those front tires.

3) I want all of you to know that after more than a hundred miles of speed over two days, your driver was passed exactly zero times!

4) I want all of you to know that your driver passed more than 50 cars!

5) I want all of you to know that after I played with the setup a bit, your driver could tell the difference and report exactly what he felt.

6) I want all of you to know that multiple drivers and instructors came by our pit during the weekend and offered praise, encouragement and just flat wondering what was under the hood.

7) I want all of you to know that after suffering a slight bit of dissapointment over an issue of what I think was a bad call by officials, your driver was still gracious (sp) enough to help a fellow driver on the track to advance to HPDE 3.

8) I want all of you to know that with the competition classes turning 2:05 to 2:10 times in their races and your driver doing respectable 2:30's to 2:50's all weekend, the very last session of the weekend when we were all tired and had our fill... well your driver clocked in a 2:15 which caused a change of wardrobe for your's truly.

9) I want all of you to know that I had a freekin' blast and and am very proud of your driver.

10) I want one of you to post this info somewhere out in social networking land for others to see what's up.

...just a few things I wanted you to know.

I am required by #10 to post this here.  LOL! 

Pretty proud of my bro.  My uncle sent a follow up email to point out that he also managed to get in some quality time with his wife and baby during the weekend as well.  There are other pics of him loving up on my niece, but this is my fave pic of the weekend:

(My bro with his 3 loves)

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Wedding Wednesday: 2 Months To Go!!!!!

Time is FLYING, people!  I can't believe we are at the two month mark already!  This year is not wasting any time!

We had a meeting with our venue coordinator last Friday and it went really well.  I feel much more at ease about the details and the way the day will play out and firmed up some things that had been lingering questions.  We also saved a bit more money in the process. 

Soooooo, this is where the ceremony will take place


The arbor down at the front will not be there.  I am not really sure if we will have anything there yet because we are basically surrounded by roses, but the coordinator did give us an idea that another couple used that I might steal.  The rose garden has been used for many ceremonies, but the covering is brand new as of last August.  It has ceiling fans and a shaded material over the top to block out the direct sunlight and heat that will be going on at 4:30pm.  The shade you see in the bottom left corner is coming from the ballroom where we will be having the reception immediately following the ceremony.  It looks like this:


If only I could afford uplighting like that.  Sigh.  It will definitely be decked out in black and fuchsia though, don't worry.  Initially we only needed half of the ballroom since we only have 70 people, so they charged us half of the facility fee.  During our meeting and setting up the floor plan, she ended up just opening up the whole room for us an no extra charge!!

Also, we were pushing the limits (okay, and a little more) on the budget for the DJ, but they were a preferred vendor of the venue and came highly recommended by friends who had used them and attended weddings they were at, so we went for it.  We paid for a 5 hour block of time,  but since the ceremony starts at 4:30, they need to be on the clock at 4pm, which means we only have the DJ until 9pm.  This is fine with us since it's a Sunday wedding and we will be continuing the party down the street at the casino hotel/resort.  When we told this to the coordinator on Friday, she said, "Well if you aren't going to need that extra hour, that will save you $100!" 

Holler!

It also means that we don't need security for that extra hour so that saved us some money too.  She then informed us that we didn't have to pay for the plates to feed the vendors.  They make enough extra so the vendors don't have to eat on our dime.  This was a relief because we have 2 photogs, two videographers, and the DJ to feed.  Five plates along with associated tax and service is a good chunk of money.

It was a great meeting (did I mention we got free drinks during the meeting?  That was JB's favorite part!) and it's such a relief to have the majority of my questions answered.  Next month we have our meeting with the DJ to go over schedule and timing of the reception and song choices and whatnot, so that should bring even more clarity.

What is your must-play song at a wedding reception?  The song you most look forward to hearing/dancing to at a wedding or event?  

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Peanut Butter is the New Ranch

Anyone who knows me knows that I am a ranch dressing fiend fanatic.  I like to consider myself a ranch connoisseur (yeah, I had to spell check that, so what?).  I don't keep it in the house.  Bottled ranch is gross, for one.  If the bottled stuff was as good as say the stuff at Red Robin or Round Table, I would be in deep, deep trouble.  My friends joke that if I ever get pregnant, I will have an IV ranch drip and a rolling IV hanger with me at all times.  Shit, why wait for pregnancy, amiright?  Hook.Me.Up.

(A pic my bro drew of my prego SIL with a ranch IV)

But seriously, I eat certain foods solely because they are a vehicle for ranch dressing.  Okay, I'm not saying that pizza and french fries and fresh veggies aren't delicious all by themselves, but I wouldn't eat them nearly as much if they didn't make the perfect dipping items for ranch.  It's quite ridiculous to hear me order lunch at BJ's Brewery.

"Yeah, I'll have the turkey club with ranch instead of blue cheese, with fries and the house salad with ranch, and a side of ranch.  K thanks."

So, about 6 months ago we started frequenting the local Cold Stone ice cream shop.  For some reason the chocolate ice cream with a scoop of peanut butter and a brownie mixed in sounded so delicious.  Big mistake.  Huge.  It was soooooooooo NOM!  Hence the frequenting that ensued.  It got pretty bad.  But then I noticed that I was way more into peanut butter than ever before.  I really look forward to my breakfast each morning; slice of wheat toast with a bit of honey and peanut butter with sliced banana on it.  The people at work comment on my kindergarten breakfast.  Whatever.  It's delicious AND nutritious.  Bite me.

But then....


Peanut butter was working it's way into other meals of the day.  Snack time was celery with PB or apples with PB or bananas with PB, dessert (instead of the ice cream) was a dab of PB on a semi sweet chocolate chip...or ten.  If I get ice cream at all anymore it has to consist of chocolate and peanut butter.  And now I am turning into a peanut butter snob!  All I eat on the regular is this:


It makes me feel less terrible about eating so much peanut butter.  Because, you know, it's smart.  And better for you because it has Omega 3s and less sugar.  I just tell myself that since the fats are good fats, it's okay.  Sadly, there are no good fats in ranch.  But then the little single servings of ice cream were on sale at the store for $1 and they had reese's PB cup in vanilla with a PB ribbon.  Not good peanut butter.  Such a shame, but good because then I didn't want to eat a ton of it.

That's my random Tuesday rant.  I have been thinking about writing this blog for like, a week.  Because telling you all that peanut butter is the new ranch is so important and all...

Monday, April 25, 2011

Ask and You Shall Receive


A couple of weeks ago I sent and email to the Glamorous Newlywed for some help with outfits for my upcoming wedding events and today she posted THIS!  Go ahead, click on it.  It's amazing!  Then come back here and tell me what you think:
  • about the outfits
  • about her
  • about Polyvore
I personally think that the outifts are so cute and so affordable!!  Her sense of style is classic and super cute!  If I could hire a personal stylist, it would be her.  I just think that Polyvore is the greatest new find!  I have never seen anything like it and it just makes my life so much easier to see the outfit together with the links to buy everything from different places.

Add her to your RSS feed, you won't regret it.

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Guest Appearance!

I'm filling in for Mrs. Bear over at Think Happy Thoughts while she is on vacation.  Go check out my guest blog about my favorite cruise ever!  I'll give you a hint, it involves these people:


Don't forget to come on back and let me know what you think!

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Wedding Wednesday: "Day Of" Schedule


One of the things The Knot suggests you do is create a "Day Of" schedule and distribute it to the folks in the bridal party.  This schedule tells them what time to be where and any other important information for the day of your wedding.  It will also include the event timeline for the reception.

Let me tell you, I have nightmares about the day of the wedding and they are usually about the scheduling and running behind.  As a matter of fact, I just had one last night.  My girls were late and not even ready when they showed up.  My hair and makeup artist was nowhere to be found and we had an hour to get to the venue.  It was a complete and literal nightmare.  I am hoping that after this Friday's meeting with the venue coordinator, I can compile a "Day Of" Schedule that will put my mind at ease.

I found a great template here to get me started and another much more involved one here.  All you really have to do is google "wedding day itinerary" and you can find a ton of resources.  I will probably use the first one and tweak it just a bit to add or delete things.

Alright brides-to-be and former brides, aside from the obvious, what should I have on this schedule?

Friday, April 15, 2011

Looky What I Got!!!


This was in the mail when I got home last night!  An invitation to my very own bridal shower!  Could it BE more perfect?  Check me out chillin' with my big ol' rock on my finger.  LOL!

Seriously, you should have seen me dancing around the kitchen saying, "OMG, OMG!!"  JB was like, "Don't you wish you could get married all the time?"  Yes please!

My bridesmaids have been amazing so far.  I can't wait to see what they have in store for me.  I feel oh so special.

Happy Friday all!

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Wedding Wednesday: Tidbits

Can we please just take a look at the counter over there and note that there are only 74 days left until the big day!!!  Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!

I have my to-do list in about five different places, but the most noticeable place is on the whiteboard on the fridge.  I want JB to know what we have left to do as well so he doesn't think I am a crazy when I tell him we need to get stuff done.  There are a lot of little things left, so bear with all the words in this post.

JB finally went and got the guys' shirts last weekend, so I can finally check that off the list.  I think all we have left for him is shoes and a tie.  No sweat.  I still have to find ties for the guys, but am waiting for the BM dresses to come in so I can match the tie color as close to their sash as possible.  After that, the guys will be done.

MY DRESS IS IN!!!  It came in last Wednesday, but I was too busy to post about it, so now you know.  I haven't been in to see it yet.  This weekend we are going shopping for my mom's dress, which is when I will be getting my accessories and under-the-dress essentials and my shoes came in TODAY(!!!) so I wanted to wait until I had everything to go in and try it on again.  Can't wait!

I sent out invitations last Monday and am getting a few response cards in the mail every day.  It's so exciting!  24 people have responded so far and only one of them won't be able to make it.  He is the husband of one of JB's friends (the one who made our invites).  We are sad he can't join us, but are glad she will still be able to make it!

I still have to take care of table signage and pics for the reception. We decided not to do a slideshow because to me it feels awkward when you stop the flow of the wedding to have everyone watch it.  We are doing a collage instead, so people can look at their leisure.

I took care of gifts for the bridal party.  Well my part and half of JB's.  I didn't really give him an option on the stuff I got, but given the ideas he gave me of what he wanted to do, and his lack of follow through on things, I just decided to take matters into my own hands.  If he ends up doing what he suggested, so be it, but at least I will feel good about the other part.  LOL! (FYI, I suggested to him to get the things I got and he liked the idea, but wanted something "better".  We'll see.)

We have a meeting with our wedding coordinator at the venue on the 22nd.  This is the meeting I have been waiting for!  This will help us to plan out the day and set a schedule that I can then communicate to people and other vendors.  Not to mention we will finally set a rehearsal date, so I can actually plan the rehearsal dinner.  Stressing me out!  Apparently they don't guarantee a rehearsal time until 8 months out, so I have been waiting.  It's hard to say when it will be since our wedding is on a Sunday.

The centerpieces are assembled and ready to go.  I get to drop them off at the florist the week of so she can take care of setting them up the day of the wedding.

My bridesmaids are busy planning my shower and bachelorette party.  I think I will be getting the shower invite in the mail either today or tomorrow.  I am so excited!!  It will be so weird to open gifts in the middle of the year (being a Christmas baby and all).  I know they are working hard and I am so grateful for them!

I think that's it for this week!  Happy Wedding Wednesday!

The Double-Edged Sword That Is Spring

Who doesn't love Spring?  Flowers are blooming, birds are chirping, love is in the air, and summer is just over the horizon.  Back when Myspace existed and everyone used to fill out those worthless, time-killing surveys and one of the questions was "What's your favorite season?"  my answer would always be Spring.  And I meant it.  I mean it.  Where I live Spring is basically a blink in the seasons.  We usually go from Winter to Summer, so I have learned to cherish Spring and all its glory.

But then...

Spring means allergies (thanks Zyrtec, Claritin - you suck).  It also means that the weather is often bi-polar (not to be confused with bi-winning) and you usually have to wear layers to keep you warm in the morning that you can then peel off after lunch when it's 65+ degrees outside.  And with those blooming flowers comes these:


and these:


And aside from the flying crazies, there are these:


I seriously just started sweating and experiencing elevated heart rates googling pictures of spiders/jumping spiders.  NIGHTMARE!!!  And....now I have a headache.  Damn you, adrenaline.

I have a really entertaining story about one of those bastard jumping spiders being in my car once.  It's not the same when it's not animated in person, but let's just summarize by saying I was more than willing to leave my car on the side of the freeway (since I made my BF at the time come out to me to help me find and kill it to no avail).  Not to mention I nearly wrecked my car by trying to get as far away from it as possible and it was right above/in front of my head/face while I was driving.  I seriously stuffed the place between the top of my car and the windshield with tissue, since this is where it emerged from on both sides of the car, wore gloves while I was driving around for the next few weeks, and then kept them handy in the car in case I needed to kill the thing with my bare hands.  Ugh.

And don't even get me started on the wasps. 

I lived in this awesome apartment complex about 5 years ago.  I had the greatest roommate situation, since she was a flight attendant and not home much, and then fun to hang with when she was home.  We had dual master suites and an awesome, big, covered patio.  Everything was picturesque when we moved in in October.  Then Spring came around and we found out that the place was infested with paper wasps due to the empty fields and lots that surrounded the complex. 

When I say infested, I shit you not, my friends.

I'm talking hundreds, if not thousands, flying through the air from sun up to sun down.  Since we lived on the second floor, I had to get to the stairs, up the stairs, unlock the door and get in the house.  By the time I locked the door behind me, I was shaking.  There were a few times I sat in my car for a good 30 minutes before I could work up the nerve to attempt getting out of my car.  I was paralyzed with fear.  The management had people come out and knock down the nests and spray, but there was no residual effect from the spray, so it had to be contact kill or nothing.  It sucked so bad.  I started leaving the house before the sun came up and doing what I could to avoid coming home before sunset.  I definitely had a few panic attacks during the Spring/Summer months there.

I'm sure it was quite comical to someone who happened to catch me trying to leave or enter my house.  I thought I would minimize my chances of getting bitten (because wasps don't sting like bees and die, they just bite repeatedly) by covering myself from head to toe.  100 degrees outside and I have pants and a hoodie on to get to/from my car.  So ridiculous.  Not to mention I would squeal or scream anytime I heard one of them buzz my ear or fly directly in front of my line of sight.

After we found out from management that they were in fact paper wasps, I read up on how to get rid of them or keep them at bay.  Supposedly they are very passive unless you attack their nests, which happened to line the eves of our building.  No big deal.  I also found out that they only respond to certain hormones as far as drawing them in or keeping them at bay, so any traps we used had to contain the right stuff for paper wasps.  We found that the wasp spray from Home Depot with the 40ft stream worked well and would not open the door unless we were armed with a can.  It also had some risidual effect so it kept them at bay for a few days at a time.  We couldn't use our awesome back patio for summer BBQs either because we would be swarmed.  So lame.

So, yeah.  About Spring...

It's basically the season of Breezy vs. Nature.  Breezy wins, my friends.  Breezy wins.

Monday, April 11, 2011

Sloppy Seconds

In a seemingly typical trip to the store on Friday evening, JB was telling me about this guy he knows who was a semi-pro or pro golfer or something and had made quite a bit of money doing so and had also played a lot of celebrity golf tournaments. Through these different events, he ended up becoming good friends with Justin Timberlake. Not "good friends", but actually good friends to the point where they talk at least once a week or so. Then this convo transpired:

Me: He know's Timberlake? You know, I have a 30th birthday this year, maybe he can come perform.

JB: Yeah, I wonder who he's bangin' right now? I'm sure she's hot.

Me: Or you can just ask for Jessica Biel's number.

JB: Yeah, I wouldn't mind taking Timberlake's sloppy seconds.

Me:  Word.

He's with me, ladies. He's all mine.

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Stylish Blogger Alert!


To completely accept this award you have to do these four things...

1. Thank and link back to the person who gave you the award.

2. Share 7 things about yourself.

3. Award 10-15 blogs you feel deserve the award.

4. Contact these bloggers and let them know about the award

I received this award almost two weeks ago from Ramona over at Bubbi and Boo, copied and pasted it in a new post to get back to later, and then forgot to get to it.  FAIL!

First, let me say that I am honored to receive such an award.  Part of me feels like I earned it with my new layout and recent improvements to the blog, but the other part of me thinks that it might be because I actually know Ramona in real life.  :)  Anyway, onto my sharing:
  1. I am terrified of bees, wasps, and mostly spiders (post coming soon!).
  2. All I have ever wanted to do for my birthday is have a pool party.  My birthday is on Christmas Day.  Yes, it sucks.  No, I can't have a half birthday because my brother's birthday is June 24th. 
  3. Sitting still is not something that comes easily to me.  I am always on the go.  The longest period of time that I am in one place is M-F from 8-5.
  4. We have lived in our house for over a year and still have no backyard.  We probably won't be able to do this until next Spring...maybe.
  5. When using my "Next" button on my browser toolbar to read through my blogs, I always get sad when the Google message pops up that there are no more new posts.  Every single time, I do the Snooki whine, "Meeeeeehhhhhh!"
  6. I want to form a Bunco group, but fear is stopping me.  And lack of free time..but mostly fear.
  7. I get really excited to see I have new followers, and even more excited when they are people I don't know.
That's all for sharing time!  Now I get to pick 10 lucky bloggers to receive this award as well!  In no particular order, they are:
  1. Ashley from Oh Me!
  2. Erica Marie from Young and Fabulous
  3. Melissa from mrs.csunsweetie
  4. Kaitlin from Life of a Busy Wife
  5. Erin from Life of the Broke and Slightly Well Known
  6. Steph from Montessori Free Fall
  7. Regyna from The Shoe, The Owl, and The Monkey
  8. Monica from The Painted Pisces
  9. Mrs. Bear from Think Happy Thoughts
  10. Jaimi from Jaimi Lynn Photography
Hope you are all having a fabulous weekend!  Go check these ladies out!

Friday, April 8, 2011

New Phone

I did something I never thought I would do.  I finally got rid of my iphone and switched to verizon.

AT&T doesn't get service at my house, so I had to do it for my sanity.  Not to mention I kind of need people to be able to get a hold of me for work purposes.  It's definitely going to take some getting used to, but I think I'm gonna like it. 

For instance, I'm using swype to write this entire post.  I just drag my fingers in the direction of the keys and it knows what I'm trying to say.  If it doesn't, or if there is more than one option, it will ask me to choose a word from a list.  It even puts the spaces in for me.  I can also do talk to text with pretty good accuracy.

I am still mourning the loss of my iphone, but I do enjoy being able to use my phone in its full capacity in the comfort of my own home.

We'll see how it goes.

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Girls Night Out

I got a good posting streak going last week and then fell off.  WTH? 

Anyway, a local country radio station hosted a Girls Night Out concert last night with these three hotties:

 Jarod Nieman

 Lee Brice

Walker Hayes

The tickets were free, so I decided to grab a pair and take one of my bridesmaids for her birthday that was last Friday.  It was 98% women and it was a very intimate show.  We got there just before the show started so a lot of the seats were taken.  We walked up on the side of the seats closer to the stage to get a better look at the boys and my friend's coworker was there.  Apparently she had gotten to the show and waited in line for an hour before they opened the doors and ended up with seats in the 3rd row!!!  There were two open seats between her friends and another group of girls, so we were able to join them.  HOLLER!

Those boys are even hotter up close!!  All three of them were on stage the entire time with just their guitars, along with a few other guys that accompanied them on guitars and a keyboard throughout the show.  They were passing around a bottle of tequila and drinking beers on stage and joking around.  The guys sang some songs together as well as some of their songs individually.  I die!  I just love acoustic music and live shows.  It was pure heaven!

Another exciting part of my night was seeing one of the bloggers I follow, West Sac Honey.  I have never had this happen before, so sad to say, I didn't introduce myself to her because it felt really weird to me.  "Hi, you don't know me, but I stalk follow your blog!"  I felt kind of creepy doing that, so I didn't.  But now I kinda wish I did.  Oh well, I know she is from around here, so I may run into her again.

Have you run into one of your bloggers before?  How did you handle it?  What should I have done?

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