Day 14

I saw and loved Beautiful today (and by today I mean day 14).  (That's why I was going on an hour bus ride and needed the big purse--see yesterday's blog if you have no idea what I'm talking about.)

Day 13

I was heading on an hour bus ride on day 14 so I packed this big purse today (day 13) so I could fit a book in it to read on the bus.  I love the color (love purple), but I'm not used to carrying such a big purse.  Feel like I can never find anything because it's so big!

Day 12

I meant to have my husband take a picture of me looking frustrated because after my 12 hour work day, I then spent an hour and a half on the phone with Comcast trying to figure out why I had no internet connection.  One person I spoke with was incredibly rude!  He even hung up on me.  The next person was nice enough, but he couldn't solve my problem.  Long story short--they promised to send me a new modem or something. They made me unplug and replug everything in several times so here is a pic of the mess of wires I unplugged.

Day 11

Day 11, I didn't have to work so I ran a couple of errands and bought this shirt.  I really like the color as I don't have a ton of stuff in that shade of blue.

Day 10

Why do I have a picture of my tv screen, you wonder.  Well, because I had Nov. 11th off so on Nov. 10th I went out to trivia, had a drink, came home, and managed to stay awake late enough to watch Jimmy Fallon.  It's been a while since I've stayed up that late during the week, but since I could sleep in on Wednesday, I went for it.  :-)

Day 9

So I've been on an apple kick lately and I ate one again today.

Day 8

I have not fallen off the face of the earth.  I have just been without internet for over a week.  I don't think you realize how much you use the internet until you are without it.  Sigh  Anyway, there are certainly worse things in life, but I will attempt to catch up on the pictures and blog so as not to turn my 30 days of pictures into 300 days of pictures.  On day 8, it was my hubby's birthday and apparently, I was incapable of taking a decent picture of him.  This is pic is from dinner time.  His family came up and we went out to dinner.

Day 7

Went to two craft fairs, saw lots of great stuff, but all I bought was pumpkin granola.  On another note,internet is out at home til mid to end of next week.  Ugh!  So have a legit excuse for lack of posting lately.  It's been out since Wed.

Day 6

OMG, I am the worst blogger.  You'd think 30 pics in 30 days would be easy enough, but instead life gets in the way and it's turning into 30 pictures in 60 days.  Oy vangy.  Better late than never though, right?  So here is picture 6 from last Friday.  Why, you may ask, do I have a picture of a clock?  Because that's what time I went to bed.  For some people that's probably a normal hour on a Friday, but for me that is early.  I was exhausted.  The week caught up to me.  I try to get to bed by 10:30 on work nights, but that didn't happen last week so come Friday when in theory I could stay up late, instead I crashed.  I was struggling to stay awake at 8:00 that night.  Ugh.  When did I get so old?  :-p

Day 5

Had ballet tonight.  Not sure why I only took a picture of 1 shoe though.

Day 4

Went to the mall today.  Hadn't been in months!  Here is a bag from one of the stores where I shopped.

Day 3

Perhaps the reason I cannot lose weight is because I keep eating too much leftover Halloween candy like these, which I had today.

Day 2

I call my grandmother once a week. When I talked to her today, we were talking about some Thanksgiving decorations she gave me a couple of years ago.  Here they are.

30 Pictures in 30 Days: Day 1

I'm slacking again!  So to get myself back on track I'm going to do my "30 pictures in 30 days" a month early this year.  Picture one is from last night.  Since technically the Halloween party I went to went past midnight, it continued into today, Nov. 1st.  It's hard to tell in this picture, but we are Charlie Brown and Sally Brown.

Food Addictions

So I'm going to keep this one brief because I have lots to do, but I'm trying to at least blog once a week since I do enjoy it and as we all know I go through phases where I am a terrible blogger. So tonight I present my latest food addictions.  Do you ever go through phases where you want/make certain foods all the time?  You may remember that a while back it was hummus.  I still enjoy hummus and have it quite regularly, though maybe not quite as much as a while ago.  My two latest:  dark chocolate covered almonds and zucchini chips.  I read somewhere that almonds are good for you and I had some leftover from something I baked so I started sprinkling them on top of my salad.  Fast forward two weeks later and someone at work brings me dark chocolate covered almonds (she didn't even know I'd recently starting eating almonds on my salad).  They were SO GOOD.  I loved them so when my husband was going to the grocery store the next day, I mentioned that if he saw any and wanted to buy me some I would be very appreciative.  Sure enough, he came home with a container full.  Let's just say it was a a struggle to limit myself to one serving a day. My other recent addiction is zucchini chips.  Basically, you slice zucchini, mix it with a little olive oil, bake, and enjoy.  I made them three times last week.  That can't be normal!  And as I sit here typing they are cooking in the oven right now. I suppose there are worse things to be addicted to, but those are my latest food obsessions. How about you?  What foods are you loving these days?

Time to Go Home

After we left the mall, we did finally go back to our hotel.  We had vouchers for a free drink at a bar in the hotel so we went there.  The drinks were delicious, but it's a good thing we got one for free because they were $13.00!  Needless to say we only had one each!  Spent the rest of the afternoon (what little was left of it) checking out a few things in the hotel--remember the Vegas hotels/casinos are huge!  Later we had dinner at one of the buffets in our hotel--too much good food and then spent a little time in the casino--I mean we were in Vegas.  Didn't do too much damage, but had fun playing the slots for a little while.  Then sadly, it was time to go to bed and the next day we flew home.  If you ever want to feel old, get up for a 9am flight (had to catch airport shuttle at 7) and watch all the young people coming back from a night out.  So yeah, we were getting up as they were going to bed.  Wow!  Those days are long gone for me.  Anyway, we got home that evening and a couple of days later it was back to work and back to reality, but we had a great honeymoon.  And look it only took me a year and a month to write about it. Geeze!  Maybe I'll do a little better this year.

Celebrities: Fake and Real

The next day once we were ready to go, we went to check out Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum.  I had been before, but my husband had not.  We had fun posing with the characters.  I won't bore you will all of the pics, but here are a few fun/funny ones.

When we were finished at the wax museum, we wandered down the strip a bit.  We decided to check out High Roller, which is kind of like a big Ferris wheel.  It wasn't too crowded so we didn't have to wait long and we had great views.  

After that, we went by some bakery to check out the treats.  We got one and right afterwards, we noticed they had a cupcake ATM.  How cool is that???  Then it was time for lunch (because you know it's "normal" to get dessert BEFORE lunch, right?  Um, yeah...) My beer-loving husband actually ordered a fruity drink at lunch.  I tried it and I liked his drink MORE than mine.  That never happens because usually he has beer and I generally don't like beer.  (The food was good too ha ha).  After lunch, we wandered the strip a bit.  We were getting hot so we didn't go as far down as we originally planned.  We decided to head back to our hotel.  We were walking along and then we both got hot again and went into Casear's for what was supposed to be a minute to just cool off, but we ended up walking around quite a bit in there and checking out some of the shops.  Emit (sp?) Smith was at one of the stores autographing things so my husband decided to check that out and I went to H&M and shopped around there for a little bit.  I can't remember what I bought, but I believe I spent $25, which was much less than hubby spent to get his autographed picture.  Anyway, it was pretty cool that he got to meet Mr. Smith, but even though I'm not a football person, I wonder if I should have gone because meeting a celebrity is on my bucket list.  And it still remains on my bucket list.  Anyone know any celebrities they want to introduce me to?  ha ha   

A Tiring First Day in Las Vegas

The flight to Las Vegas wasn't too bad.  It took us a while to get our luggage, but not too long after that we were en route to our hotel.  I have never applied for or paid for early check in before, but I was so tired that my husband said let's just do it so we spent the $30 to check into our room early.  We peeked around the room, read some of the brochures they gave us, and then I took a much needed nap and my husband went off to explore the hotel a bit.  Later on, we had lunch with Hawaiian themed food and drinks then went off to explore the Las Vegas strip for the afternoon.  We had fun checking out some of the hotels and casinos.  After dinner, we visited the casino for just a little while then I went up to bed because I was still so tired from not sleeping the night before (I only napped for an hour earlier in the day).  I read my book for a little while then went to bed.  My husband had a second burst of energy so he asked if I minded if he stayed at the casino for a while.  I was fine with that.  I wanted to be well rested for the next day in Vegas, which was also the last day of our honeymoon before we headed home.  :-(    

Volcanoes, Valleys, Lana'i, and the great bagel search

Our next day in Maui, we went to Haleakala.  Apparently, many people get up early (or don't go to bed???) and leave in the middle of the night to watch the sun rise over Haleakala.  Although, I'm sure that is lovely, I was on vacation and the thought of getting up obnoxiously early did NOT make me happy so we decided to do Haleakala at a more reasonable hour.  If (no,WHEN) we go back to Maui, we may stay for a whole week and do the sunrise tour--have to save something for a future trip, right?  ;-)  Anyway, we did enjoy Haleakala.  Great views and I became rather fascinated by a plant called silversword.

  Turn your head sideways for this one because it won't let me rotate it.  Oops

This was also the only time in Hawaii I wore a sweatshirt as it was a little chilly up top.

After Haleakala and a lunch stop (delicious eggplant panini), we went to the Iao Valley, which also had some nice views and pretty vegetation.

Later that afternoon, we went to happy hour at a place in Lahaina and tried the famous hula pie.  It was delicious, but too big.  I don't think I finished it.

The next day (our last day in Hawaii, waaahhh), we had to check out of our hotel by 11 or 12, but our flight wasn't until around 10 that night so we were on the hunt for a full day trip of sorts.  We decided to do the day trip to Lana'i.  The boat picked us up around 9 or 10, they fed us delicious cinnamon rolls, a light lunch, and then we had several hours to enjoy the island of Lana'i.  My husband went snorkeling, but I just enjoyed the beach instead. Later I did the island tour, then we met up for an early dinner (included with our tour), and soon it was time to get back on the boat for dessert and a drink.  We spotted quite a few dolphins on the ride back to Maui, that was pretty cool.  After that we pretty much just hung out in the hotel lobby area until our shuttle came to take us to the airport. The airport is quite busy at that hour, but the staff there are pretty nice.  The flight itself wasn't bad, but I couldn't sleep well so when we landed in L.A. for our connecting fight, I was exhausted and I really wanted a bagel.  Such a weird thing to crave after flying all night, but that's what I wanted.  You'd think at 6 a.m. it'd be easy to find a bagel, but NO.  I walked and walked and walked and finally found one then tried to stay awake while we waited to board our connecting flight.    And then it was off to  Las Vegas for a couple of days before we headed home.

The Road to Hana

On our second day in Maui, we did The Road to Hana tour.  I, for one, was glad I did NOT have to drive on that road, but rather could just be a passenger and enjoy the many great views.  It's a good thing they don't have crazy winter weather out there because I can't even imagine driving on that road in snowy/icy conditions.  So yea, we were on a small bus tour and we really enjoyed the tour.  It was a long day, but well worth it.  It was probably one of my favorite parts of Maui, just so scenic.  Waterfalls, delicious banana bread, swimming, pretty flowers, nice people, some historical spots, fun facts, horses, tress to play in (yes, really, this banyan tree was so big, you could walk through the middle of it), great views, nice beaches, good food, pineapple wine tasting, and just a nice day.  Can I go back?  :-)    

Aloha Maui

Sadly, on Sunday morning, it was time to leave Oahu, BUT we were heading to Maui so yay, for that.  I really enjoyed Maui and want to go back (for the record I would go back to Oahu too).  Anyway, the flight to Maui was fairly short so we spent more time at the airport than on the plane.  We got to our hotel before check in so we had lunch then walked around Lahaina for a little while.  After check in, we explored Lahaina some more and later had dinner, where I enjoyed more coconut shrimp (yum!) and a Mai Tai.  The restaurant was really crowded, but I enjoyed the atmosphere, good music, nice people, etc.  Plus you're in Hawaii, it's just not right to complain lol

And this is a funny picture choice, but this sign just cracked me up.  How often do you see a sign like this? It was at our hotel.

The Rest of the Week on Oahu

Thursday of our honeymoon, we went to the Iolani Palace and did a tour.  It was pretty cool.  I'm a dork and like certain historical things though.  I really don't know a ton about Hawaii's history so it was a mini lesson for me.  After that, we went to the beach for a little while.  The beach was busy, but nice.  The water was so warm.  We were supposed to go on a boat ride, but due to an impending hurricane, it got canceled and we weren't able to reschedule it.

The next day a hurricane was supposed to hit so everything: beaches, attractions, etc. except for some stores and restaurants were closed.  So we spent most of the day hanging out at the hotel since there really wasn't much else to do.  The hurricane mostly missed us. It did rain, but Oahu didn't get hit too hard. We were supposed to go to Diamond Head that day, but that got canceled as did the luau we were supposed to do; thankfully, we were able to reschedule those.  We were able to go out for dinner that night, but it was BUSY.  We got take out for lunch, which was busy too.  I guess when everything else is closed everyone goes out to eat.  :)

Saturday:  We hiked Diamond Head, it's a fairly easy hike and well worth it for the views, plus it was probably good for us to get some exercise since we were sitting a lot that week.  It was a little steep in a few places, but we did it.  That night we went to the luau, which was a good time.  

Hawaii Days 2 and 3

So Pearl Harbor may not be the most romantic spot to go on your honeymoon, but if you're in Honolulu, you've got to go to Hawaii and despite the sadness that goes with it, we did enjoy it. Again, I would post pictures, but you've all ready heard about my picture drama so I've only got one that I saved elsewhere.  (I saved about 50 pics to my computer in addition to loading them on Shutterfly).  I took approximately 681 pictures during the whole two week honeymoon.

In addition to going to Pearl Harbor on a bus tour, the tour included a brief city tour.

Hawaii Five-0 anyone? Shortly after we booked our honeymoon, we started watching Hawaii Five-0, got hooked on it and then bought/rented previous seasons and got all caught up.  We still enjoy the show now, but it does make us want to go back to Hawaii.  Sadly, we didn't get to meet "Steve" or "Dan O," but apparently we missed them by like a day as they were filming by our hotel the day before we landed and if we'd done one of our tours a day sooner or later (I forget) we would have seen them filming then too.  Aww man.  :-(  But we did get the picture that makes you think of the show.
The tour only took about half a day--we were done in time for lunch--so that afternoon we went back to the Dole Pineapple Plantation to finish looking around--our tour stop there the previous day wasn't too long and there were still things we wanted to see/do.  We did a train ride, shopped, and explored the gardens.  And I tried a delicious pineapple smoothie something or other.  Yum!   I also tried some of Hawaii's famous shave ice that day.  Because you know I was finally happy with my weight so why not stay happy when I could pig out and eat all these sugary things.  OOPS!  I gained four pounds on my honeymoon, but we don't need to discuss that now.  :-)  

The next day we went to this place called Kualoa (sp?) Ranch, where many movies and tv shows have been filmed.  We did the Movie Sites and Ranch tour.  It was okay.  There were some nice views and we got to see a few things from movies and the tv show Lost.  Jurassic Park 4 was filmed there about four months before we were there.

After the tour, we went to the Polynesian Culture Center, which was pretty interesting.  Learned a little bit about a lot of different cultures.

I'm hoping to visit Easter Island some day, but until then what I learned about the island at the PCC will just have to do.  And that night I was very excited to have coconut shrimp for dinner--one of my favorite summer meals. 

Hello Hawaii

Since it took me a year to finally write about my wedding, do you think it will take two to write about my honeymoon?  I'll spare you all the details, but I'll highlight a few things in the next couple of posts.  After the post-wedding brunch, we went back home for a little while to pack some stuff up and we were both in serious need of a nap, but also too excited to sleep much.  I also will confess, I got briefly depressed.  I was really sad that my wedding was over.  All that planning and excitement and suddenly, it was done.  I joked that weddings should last longer.  Anyway, I eventually cheered up again--the thought of going to Hawaii helped.  Did a little laundry and my husband had some last minute errands to run.  We spent the night at his parents house because they live much closer to the airport than we do and they were driving us in the next day.  So we drove down to their house that evening, ordered pizza, ate dinner, and then it was time for some much needed sleep as we had a fairly early flight.  The next day we flew to Hawaii for our honeymoon.  One of the airports where we changed planes was so tiny, but it was nice enough, and despite its size, it had decent food.  We were very excited to land in Hawaii, but also tired as despite the fact that you're just sitting on a plane and not doing a whole lot it is still tiring (or maybe it was the lack of sleep from the previous nights).  Our hotel room was really nice, it had a little kitchen area, small sitting area outside, and an indoor sitting area.  I tried to post pictures, but I can't seem to get them off of Shutterfly and on here, despite a half hour of trying.  That'll teach me to wait a year to try to put pictures on my blog!
We had scheduled a tour of Oahu for the next day.  We enjoyed the tour and got some nice pictures, but I won't bore you with all of them mainly because I can't load them.  Here is one nice view from a stop on our tour.

My husband had one of the best meals of his life on that tour--he still talks about it a year later.  I would show you a picture of the meal, but alas I can't get that to transfer here either.  I forget the name and he is at work, but it's something like loco moco and it includes  rice, a hamburger, egg, gravy, etc all on a bun.  I didn't have one.  I did enjoy a pineapple whip later in the day at the Dole factory.  It's kind of like soft serve ice-cream.    I also tried some macadamia (sp?) nuts, which I enjoyed more than I thought I would.  We even bought some to bring home.  All in all it was an enjoyable first full day in Hawaii.

Party Time!

The limo ride to the reception was a little crowded, but fun and entertaining.  All the bridesmaids and groomsmen were there (and of course my new husband and me).  We got there and nearly immediately began posing for pictures.  It got to be a bit much.  I was starving and ready to be done.  I had originally thought it would be nice to get some pictures by the gazebo and by this nice bridge at the reception site, but we were just so done with posing for pics and we were starving so when the photographers said we could be done if we wanted, we didn't push for any more.  Instead we ran in, joined the bridal party for apps and drinks and very soon it was time for introductions.  I won't bore you with all the details of the reception.  It's true what everyone says:  it goes by fast, you don't eat a lot. The introduction and first dance were fun.  I ate the first course, but then I was so excited I didn't eat much more.  Plus I wanted to get around and say hi to everyone at all the tables before it got too late. That took a while, but we got it done.  The few bites of food I did have were good and people to this day are still talking about how good the food was and how much fun they had dancing.  The dancing was great.  I had so much fun, but it went by so fast!  My maid of honor and matron of honor did a really nice job with their speeches.  Overall, people seemed to have a great time!  I know I did.  And my husband did too.  The last hour went a little slower, but it wasn't long until it was all over. My maid of honor hosted a small after party and we went to that for an hour or an hour and a half, but we were getting pretty tired by that point (Remember how little I slept the night before?  And the night before that my brother woke me up with his 3 am arrival and I had to be up for work at 6:30 am so sleep was definitely lacking in my life).  Our hotel room was so nice.  I wish I had more time to spend there.  The next morning we had a nice post-wedding brunch.  About 30 people came.  And then it was time to pack up and head home.      

My Wedding Ceremony

I don't think I can accurately describe my wedding in a blog post.  I'll give a few highlights.  When I walked into the church, my brother greeted me, told me I looked beautiful (so not how he usually speaks to me) and suddenly, I was bawling.  And nervous and exited and I had to go the bathroom.  It's rather embarrassing at my age to have to have someone help you in the bathroom, but my mom came with me and held my dress and told me to stop crying. (Mothers!  She's usually more sensitive!)  I couldn't help it.  I cry easily so I was surprised I lasted that long without tears.  When I was done in the bathroom, the priest wanted all the bridesmaids and my parents to gather for a quick blessing.  I was told again not to try and I assured the priest they were happy tears, but I just couldn't control them.  And then after a quick blessing, we lined up and the wedding party walked down the aisle.  And suddenly it was my turn to walk down with Mom and Dad.  I was still crying, but I also had a huge smile on my face. I was trying to take it all in and see everyone as I walked down the aisle.  I almost forgot to look at the groom!  The priest did a nice job, the ceremony was a bit long, but it went well.  I wasn't in any rush anyway.  I was enjoying the moment.  I kept looking around and smiling and thinking this is really my wedding day, these people are all here for us.  :-)  It was surreal in some ways, wonderful, but surreal.  The priest surprised us a bit with his homily.  It was pretty funny.  He had asked us to write a paragraph about how we met and why we liked each other.  We both put a few funny (but true!) comments in what we wrote, but we didn't realize he was going to read them!  So most of our guests had a good laugh!  I shed a few more tears, but Kate had tissues on hand for me.  There were a few minor glitches here and there, but nothing major (I tried to get my flowers at the wrong time--too soon, and I looked at the priest and I was supposed to look at my husband--the priest called me out on that--I thought you were supposed to look at the speaker, he goes you're not marrying me, look at him). Then back down the aisle, a few more pics, and out a secret exit 'til the crowd departed, then they ushered us back in for more pictures before we went to the reception.   

T Minus 4 hours

Shortly after we got home from make up, my hairdresser called to see if I was ready for her to come over.  In the mean time, my aunt and cousin stopped by for a minute to say hi.  My hairdresser came by and began the process of making my hair look good.  A little later, my mom came by to help me get ready.  And before I knew it the photographer, videographer, one of the florists, and my bridesmaids were here.  My hair was done, photos had been taken, the dress was on,  and then it was time to check that everything was cleaned up and put away (I was staying at the hotel that night and wouldn't be back 'til the next day).  A side note on the florist:  Forever ago, I think I mentioned some flower drama.  We used the included centerpieces, but one of the groomsmen has a girlfriend who does flower arrangements so she did all the flowers for the wedding party and I'm biased, but I think she did a really nice job. Back on track here, suddenly, I was on the look out for the limo.  I got a little nervous because it was late, but he made it and then it was time to board the limo bus--our wedding party was too big for a regular limo, more pics and video, and off we went to my parents' house (they live around the corner from the church) for family pictures.  The limo ride felt long and short--if that makes any sense.  I was excited and nervous, but glad to be with my girls.  (Mom had gone back home to finish getting ready so it was just my bridesmaids and me.)  Now my home is approximately 10-15 minutes away from the church.  We did not get any rain, but apparently, it rained there (and at my parents') a few min before we got there, but it had stopped by the time we were there.  We were all like, why is the ground wet?  (We're smart, huh?)  We took some pictures at my parent's house.  Pics with my parents, pics with my grandmother, and pics with the fam and girls.  My brother couldn't be there because he was a groomsman so he was at the church.  So we all went back to the limo and rode the approximately 2 minute ride to the church, where everyone was allowed out except for me.  I have to say it was a little weird to be sitting there all alone watching everyone.  I was kind of excited to see friends/family arriving, but it was weird to not be allowed to go say hello.  And then a couple of minutes later, they let me out and it was ceremony time.  

The Morning of the Wedding aka Don't Look Now!

When I finally gave up on falling back to sleep, Kate came in and we hung out for a bit, then she went down the street to get a coffee.  I am not a coffee drinker so I had nothing to offer.  I tried to fall back to sleep when she was gone, but no luck so I finally got up.  I don't remember everything that happened that morning.  I know there was some TV watching, some chatting with Kate, texts and calls, Facebook (so strange to see people posting about me on Facebook), and breakfast.  And it wasn't long before it was 12:00 and time to go get my make up done and drop off the last minute stuff at the reception (the make up place was in the same building as my reception so that made it quite convenient).  The building is also a hotel and my future in-laws, the groomsmen, and my husband to be were all staying there.  I didn't think any of them would be around, but it was almost noon and I suspected they'd had a late night so they could very well be congregating for lunch.  I made Kate go first to check to make sure the coast was clear (you know because the bride and groom aren't supposed to see each other on the day of their wedding until the actual wedding).  She said we were good to go.  I spotted some groomsmen down the hall, but no fiancé.  So I started to walk in--WAIT!  He's there, hurry, hide!  Okay, I don't think those were her exact words (it was 11 months ago), but you get my drift.  I went and hid behind a pole.  Then my in-laws popped up out of nowhere and my future father-in-law and wanted to know what I was doing hiding behind a pole.   It was kind of funny.  Eventually, the coast was cleared--for real.  I dropped off the stuff I needed to drop off (my computer for a slideshow) and I sent Kate to give Mike his wedding gift from me.  Kind of ironically, we got each other similar gifts.  The night before he gave me a necklace and I gave him a new charm for a necklace because his broke a while back. 
Then it was off for the possibly nerve-wracking process of having my make up done.  It didn't end up being so bad this time.  Thankfully, there was water proof make up this time so my eyes did not look crazy!  No baseball or raccoon look this time.  And the make up lady was so patient with me as she knew I had issues with eye make up, but she said I did much better.  She did a great job and then it was back home to get my hair done.  Only a little over 4 hours until wedding time! 

Pictures

So I finally figured out how to get the pictures from my old phone onto my computer from the rehearsal dinner.  So here they are...

In case you were wondering, this is what approximately 175 mini loaves of bread look like.  (We dropped these off at the reception the day before the wedding.)  Below are pictures of friends and family at the Rehearsal Dinner. 

The Night Before the Wedding

With a title like that I feel like I should be rhyming, Twas the Night before the wedding, and the bride couldn't fall asleep.  She was so tired, she wanted to weep.  She just settled down for a nice summer's nap, but no sleep would come, she could have probably gone and run many a lap.  Okay, I'll stop before it gets any worse...
I don't know if anyone is even still reading my blog since I've been out of blog land for SOOOO LONG.  It wasn't always on purpose.  True some nights, I just didn't feel like blogging.  I preferred to read a book or watch tv, but other nights, I really couldn't blog.  Other nights I had a TON of work to do.  Then I was away for one week in April, which at the rate I'm going, you'll probably hear about next April.  Then work got busy in late May through the end of June and my computer broke AGAIN!  So I finally had free time to blog (time off in June) and NO computer.  Such is life, right!  Then I just hasn't blogged in so long that I wasn't in the mood, but here I am again.  I know I told you I would pick up from my rehearsal dinner and post pictures, but the pictures were saved on my old computer (which broke ages ago) and I'm just too lazy to hook up my scanner and scan in the pictures.  I even spent the past half hour trying to get them from my old phone to my computer. No luck!  So I tried to e-mail them to myself, well, the e-mail on my phone keep freezing and closing.  :-(  So if it ever works, I'll post in a future blog, but for now my apologies.  That'll teach me to wait 5 months to finish a blog! 
I did my best to mingle with people.  It was good practice for the wedding--trying to get around to see everyone!  I think I did fairly well though.  My brother was quite the schmoozer too.  He hadn't seen some of my friends in years, but he made the rounds, met the in-laws, met the friends he didn't know, etc.  I must have done quite well because I LOVE dessert and I didn't get any because I never saw them bring out the dessert tray because I was chatting.  Anyway, I thought dinner went well, the food was good (well, one person didn't like it, maybe two, but I THINK and HOPE everyone else did, many people told me they liked it so I hope they were telling the truth, but why go out of your way to tell someone the food is good if it's not? Wouldn't you just not say anything?  So maybe it was just that one guy).  I think my parents secretly enjoyed hanging out with my friends because they used to see some of them like every week, but now that we're all grown up, they hardly ever see my friends any more and so it was nice for them.  And they finally met my friend Natalie who they'd never met before because she lives far away (and they still sing her praises!).  I think it was a long day for my grandmother, but she seemed to enjoy meeting everyone.  I was thrilled she was able to make it because she lives a plane right away and has had a few health issues over the years so I was a happy girl to have good friends and good family surrounding me.  I wrote a little thank you speech for the evening as a prequel to the gift giving.  I think it went mostly well, despite my fear of public speaking.  I rushed a bit to make it not as long, but I mentioned everyone who was there--even the spouses of people in the wedding--they got a kick of that.  So yeah, and then way too quickly the dinner was over and people began leaving.  I had  great time though!  The groom and groomsmen all had big drinking plans and some of the girls had families to get home to so we were done before 10:00. Thankfully, I did not have to go home alone. My maid of honor wanted to stay with me.  When she first offered, I thought wouldn't she rather stay in a comfy bed in her mom's house instead of my semi okay futon in the guest room, but in retrospect I'm glad I had a good friend to hang out with me the night before the big day.  So after dinner, Kate and Natalie came over.  Natalie had never been to my house before (remember she lives far away) so I made sure the house was clean.  :)  (Okay, that wasn't the only reason, I knew people would be coming by and of course there'd be picture taking and bridesmaids getting ready so I was extra careful about cleaning the place up).  Anyway, we had a great visit and Natalie even blogged about it.  If I were smart like her, I'd put a link to her blog here, but I'm not tech savvy.  :-)  She left a while later and Kate and I hung out for a bit, checked some last minute wedding stuff, and then started to watch 27 Dresses (or what some people refer to as the story of my life, but that's a story for another blog post, maybe next time I have a brain freeze on blog topics, I'll blog about that).  I figured if we were going to watch a movie, it should be a good wedding one.  I had a plan to watch a bunch of wedding chick flicks in the days leading up to my wedding, but I was too busy to watch many.  I started getting tired so I called it quits part way through the movie and went to bed, BUT I got VERY LITTLE SLEEP.  I was tired so why couldn't I sleep?  I even got up around 1am or so to see if I had Benadryl or Nyquil or something to help me sleep.  No luck!  I kept looking at the clock, closing my eyes, not falling asleep.  I don't think it was nerves because although I get nervous about everything, I didn't feel that nervous.  I was excited, but I was tired too so I don't know if I was too excited or too nervous or what!  I think I only got about three hours of sleep, but much to my amazement I was NOT exhausted at wedding time and I did not have big bags under my eyes--thank goodness!  And all of a sudden it was my wedding day! 

Wedding Rehearsal

So let's rewind to the day before my wedding.  When I left off in my last pre-wedding post, I had just gotten my nails done.  My now husband was upstairs hanging out with his groomsmen.  So I went upstairs to see them.  I hung out with them for a few minutes, then it was back home to get ready for the rehearsal dinner.  Time to change--I even ironed and I really don't like ironing--and make sure all the thank you gifts were good to go.  We loaded up the car and off we went to the church.  I was so excited when I got there.  And I was even more excited to see some of my friends all ready waiting for us.  I was especially excited to see a friend who had flown all the way in from Arizona.  :)  She came all the way from Arizona and got there before me, I wasn't late for a change, but others were early ha ha.  After some greetings, introductions, (an excited me!), we rounded everyone up--well, nearly everyone, there were some late arrivals due to traffic, but they made it, the rehearsal began.  The woman in charge was a little intense, but she kept us all in line and the rehearsal went well.  I couldn't believe in fewer than 24 hours I'd be getting married!  But for now, it was off to dinner and time to celebrate! You'll just have to wait for the next post to see that--mainly because I have a few pictures that I want to upload, but I've never uploaded any pictures to this computer since it's newish so I have to figure out how to do that.  I'm hoping it's as easy as my old computer.  :)      

Why I've been MIA

Did you like how I said I would have more time to blog and then I disappeared?  Nice huh?  Well, I can assure you it was not on purpose.  My computer broke!  Thankfully, unlike some other broken things around here, it was still under warranty.  Is it just me or do things seem to break all at once?  We'll get to that later.  Let's start with the computer.  It was really slow one night after it allegedly made some updates, but such is life.  The next day I tried to turn it on.  Nothing happened.  Tried a few more times then gave up.  Tried again the next day and still no luck so I called the customer service number.  45 minutes later--yeah, I was late for my dance class, it was still not working after following all of their suggestions.  Long story short, they told me where to get it fixed and just under  two weeks later all is well. Yay!  It was kind of annoying not having a computer--remember the days before we had computers?  But I got through it.  I'm sure glad to have it back though. 
Also, annoying, but maybe not as annoying or maybe more so depending how you look at it, was not having a functional dryer.  It could be worse though.  At least I could wash my clothes and air dry them.  I do that with a few items of clothing anyway.  A couple of years ago, my washing machine was broken.  That was worse because I had to go elsewhere to wash the clothes.  The other stuff was minor--one of the closet doors is broken.  It's functional, but some day when we can nicely ask a friend with a truck to help us, we'll get a new one as a new door will not fit in my car or my husband's car.  My ice dams are finally gone so the "joys" those brought seem to have passed.  Now it's on to finding long term solutions so they don't cause problems in the future.  And of course the car, always the car.  I think I was due for a car issue anyway.  I guess I need new struts.  Mine are leaking.  Let's not talk about how much that will cost.  Let's just say my husband and I really wanted to go to Italy (maybe me more than him since he's been there before), but we couldn't really afford to go when I wanted to (August) so we didn't book it.  But we came close.  I finally convinced him we should do it, he said we'd be broke, but fine, he'd go because he knew I really wanted to go.  I finally did the math and good thing I didn't book the trip since we've had all these unexpected expenses.  Isn't growing up fun?  But at least the computer works now, and the dryer, and with a little luck (and the sound of me crying as I empty my checking account) in another week or so I will get my struts fixed.  Sometimes I want to move to a city with public transportation and not have to deal with cars anymore.  But then I remember how cold waiting for public transportation can be in the winter. In them mean time I guess I can always dream about Italy... 

One Day To Go: The Morning and Early Afternoon

I'm back!  I started this post before the 30 days of pictures and never finished and posted it, so here it is. I have some semi-funny winter posts along with wedding and maybe finally honeymoon posts to get to in the next couple of weeks. 
This one was going to be a bit long so I decided to break it up into a couple of posts.  To say I was tired on the day before my wedding was a bit of an understatement.  Staying up 'til midnight and then getting up at 3am, then going back to bed to get and getting up at 6:30am is not smart many nights and it is especially not smart so close to your wedding.  I like my job and all, but if I were to get a redo on my wedding stuff, I would NOT have worked the day before my wedding.  Work wasn't bad and I'm not sure I really had a lot I could get done during that time of the day anyway, but I could have used some more sleep.  As you may remember, my brother arrived a little before 3am and then I had to get up for work at 6:30.  Somehow I made it to work on time, had a decent day, and my boss let me leave a few minutes early.  I was home by just after 1:00.  I had time to come home, finish last minute favor assembly, make sure all the wedding party gifts were good to go, pack a bit, eat lunch and then head to the hotel where we were having our reception to drop some stuff off including the favors. Wow, that was a run on sentence. My English professors would not be proud.  Sorry!  I had wanted to go to the gym, but there just wasn't enough time so no gym for me.  My fiancé took a half day off from work so he got home as I was in the midst of all this and he helped me get things loaded into the car and ready to go.  Then we headed off to the hotel in separate cars.  I got there as his parents were checking in, which turned out to be perfect timing as they were able to help my fiancé and me unload the car and then they sent me in to get my nails done (there is a salon in the hotel, the same one where I'd had my pedicure and make up trial) and they finished unloading the car and then parked my car for me.  The lady who did my nails was the same one who had done my trial make up.  She was nice and we made small talk.  While I waited for my nails to dry,  I realized it was the first time I'd really had a chance to sit and relax that day.  I kept thinking of the last minute things I had to do, but in retrospect it was also nice to have a few minutes in hiding and not have to do anything besides just sit.  I'm not that good at sitting still doing nothing, but I had allowed myself enough time so I wasn't constantly watching my watch and I wasn't feeling too stressed at that point.  :)  Soon my nails were dry (and if I may say so myself, they looked good). 
Next up:  Rehearsal and Rehearsal Dinner

Picture 30

We had company the weekend of day 30 and one of the people who came commented that I had a nice Christmas village.  I know I've posted a pic of it before, but it's one of my favorite Christmas decorations and I tend to get a new piece for it each year.  And that is the last picture in my 30 days of pictures until next time.  Enjoy! 

I've got a fun weekend coming up and then work will be quite busy for the next two weeks or so thus I may not be back to blogland 'til February so until then have a good one! 

Picture 29

I have had this decoration since my junior year of college.  It adds some festivity to the guest room door.  However, it's ripping in several places so sadly, this is the last year I think it will go up. 

Picture 28

So technically this pictures is from the 26th, but I don't have a good picture from the 27th so shh.  :) Grinch kabobs.  Delicious and mostly healthy

Picture 27

Every year I have three friends (and their significant others and new this year--a baby) over for a Christmas gathering.  We've been doing this for over a decade, although I only took over hosting duties a few years ago. Over the years it has grown from the girls to the girls and boyfriends, fiancés, husbands, and now the first child addition. 

Picture 26 Christmas Morning

Opening presents on Christmas morning. 

Picture 25 Christmas Eve

I only took a few pictures on Christmas Eve and most of them were of my nephew.  I don't like posting pics of other people's kids without their permission so instead of cute kid pics, here is a pic of Christmas Eve dessert.  I made most of the desserts on here and a few more.  I didn't make the things in wrappers on the bottom right or the turtle things. 

Picture 24

I am not a coffee drinker, but I love this mug.  I just think the design is so cute.  Someone gave it to me for Christmas today (day 24, not the actual date I'm posting this). 

Picture 23

As you know, I love the holidays.  Here are my festive nails.