Wordless Wednesday: vacation

This is what my day looked like...

Wordless Wednesday: a present for sam

While purchasing my adorable new shoes this past weekend, I came across a running log that is being sold as a fundraiser for one of my favorite races (Living History Farms). So, I purchased a log for myself and one for my friend, Sam.

I doctored up the back cover (see below) and sent it to her on Monday.

Before



After (that's me on the left and Sam on the right).

Stupid, I know...but I still can't stop laughing about it!



Last Weekend: full of babies!

On Friday afternoon I picked up the two most adorable babies in Story County and took them out for lunch at our local eatery. The place was packed when we arrived and I was so proud to have the two most adorable dates there. The two of them entertained the entire restaurant with their cuteness.

After lunch we went home to bundle up before heading to the park. I told Kennedy that she had to go potty before we left. She said she didn't have to go and I explained that she might not have to now, but she might at the park. Her response: "my mommy said I can go in the grass."

Obviously, I laughed.

...last summer, my mom took Kennedy and Quinn to the park; my mom had her head turned for a minute as she video-taped Quinn, and when she turned around, Kennedy had her pants at her ankles and was popping a squat right there in the middle of our city park. And yes, it's all on video.

But I digress...

Once at the park, the babies had fun playing on the tire swings and slide, climbing over everything, and racing me back and forth to various trees and other landmarks.

I bundled her up with pajama bottoms (under her dress) and both of them wore socks for gloves (or "glubs" as the babies would say).

Kennedy "catching" Quinn as he came down the slide.

Such brave ones!

After the park, the babies and I went home, played catch, jumped on exercise balls, chased each other around, and eventually settled down to read Green Eggs and Ham ten times and watch some cartoons.

This is my "I am so lucky!" face. The babies were too into their cartoon to smile with me.

My mom brought home some coloring books and paint (per Kennedy and Quinn's request), so the evening was spent painting pictures for our fridge (and great grandma's), helping out in the kitchen, and playing in an extra bubbly bathtub. 

Kennedy and Great Aunt Marcy checking on the cake.

The babies proudly holding their masterpiece.

My mom and Quinn

Kennedy insisted on wearing giant headphones the entire night and eventually fell asleep with them on while rockabying (is that how that's spelled?) with her Great Aunt Marcy.

Around 3AM, baby Quinn woke up missing his mama. I rockabyed him for a while and soon Kennedy joined the party and asked if we could watch cartoons (what kind of a second-cousin would say no to a 3AM party with her baby cousins? ...not this girl!). After one episode the babies were still awake, so we went back to bed where I read them Green Eggs and Ham (again).

Once I thought they were asleep, I moved to the basement but wasn't too surprised when I heard the pitter patter of baby feet and "Anny?" echoing through the hallway. How precious. Quinn and I cuddled some more and soon he was back to sleep again. I just love these babies soooooo much.

The next morning we enjoyed--*drum roll, please*--green eggs (and toast) for breakfast and that afternoon the babies went back home to their mama and daddy.

This is Quinn's "Cheese!" face.

She loves playing dress up!

The rest of the day was spent shopping for a much needed new pair of shoes and some running clothes.

On Sunday, I finally did my taxes (talk about last minute...) and really not a whole lot else.

All in all, one heck of a great, baby-filled weekend!

Not a good day. Not a good day at all.

I was four miles from work today (after already driving 35), and what do you know? …the car in front of me was a cop. The cop pulled over to the shoulder, I continued to drive passed him, he pulled back onto the road, turned on those obnoxious blue and red lights, and well…you know the drill.

What erks me the most: I wasn’t even in a hurry or trying to speed—I simply wasn’t paying attention to how fast I was going (which really wasn’t even very fast). AND MORE IMPORTANTLY, since he was in front of me, he was obviously going just as fast as I was. What gives him the right to speed?!

What erks me second most: I got a speeding ticket just a month and a half before this. I feel more deserving of that one, though, as I was in a hurry and was knowingly driving too fast. 

What erks me third most: The cop today was a giant jerk face. AND, I swear he was intentionally taking his sweet time writing up that ticket of mine (he highlighted just about every word on it—is that really necessary? I can see it just fine, jerk!) and I ended up waiting in my car for more than ten minutes. 

Thank goodness I did not write this post about 6 hours ago as if you think I am angry now, you can imagine how unhappy I was at 7:00 this morning! But, I know, I know…it’s no one’s fault but my own.

My new goal: use cruise. all. the. time.

Marathon Monday / Counting my blessings

My amazing friend, Samantha Ford, qualified for the Boston Marathon when running our last marathon in October (see picture of us after finishing here). Once you qualify for Boston, you have to run it within the next two years. So, Sam had to decide whether she would run it today, April 15th, or in April 2014.

I told Sam I would absolutely be on the sidelines cheering her on whenever she decided to run it.

In February of this year, Sam was studying abroad for school (which would make marathon training very difficult), so she decided to wait until next year to run Boston.

After hearing about today's tragedy, I couldn't help but selfishly think, 'we could've been there...'

What in the hell is wrong with our world? This sickens me.

My thoughts and prayers go out to all those affected today.

I will see you next year, Boston.

Depressed

Yesterday was such a great day until about 7:00 last night when I was looking over some old blog posts of mine and noticed that ONE WAS MISSING! I must have accidently deleted it when I was deleting old draft posts…ug. This realization sent me on an internet quest searching for ways to recover deleted posts. And although there are ways, I came up empty-handed. The missing post was written in March—sometime after the 21^st and was titled Three EL Bees (or something to that effect) and was about Trent’s birthday weekend (of course, it had to be one with sentimental value…).

So, beloved followers, if anyone happens to still have this missing post on their “reading list” please send me the link (apparently that’s a way to recover them). I would be forever grateful.

Luckily, I still have an original draft and can somewhat recreate the post if I have to…but it won’t be the same. And that depresses me a lot.

Sincerely,

A Depressed Girl Who is Still Very Clueless about the Blogging World—Especially When It Comes to Undeleting Posts

A Bridal Shower

I had been planning my sister's bridal shower for what seemed like months, and two weeks ago, the day had finally come!

My sister (being the outgoing and lovable person she is) invited 74 people to her shower. SEVENTY-FOUR! Granted, several of those people were aunts and cousins who live out of state and we knew wouldn't be able to attend....but holy crap, that's a lot!

I designed the invites myself using the Printshop Deluxe software that my parents have. Staples printed all of them (I printed 80) for an unbeatable price of $50 (which included a box of 100 envelopes). FYI--you can save 10% on all prints if you sign up for their rewards card (not a credit or store card, just rewards).

Aside from the blurred words (the lighting is doing that...), this is what they looked like!

We had the shower in my small town's community center which is full of Lyons Club photos, 40-year-old microwaves, and lovely wood paneled walls. It definitely was not easy to make this place look shower-esque, but somehow we managed to turn it around!

This is a glimpse of what it looked like before...

This is a glimpse of the after--we covered all of the ugly wall hangings with white paper and other decor, moved the random microwaves, added some tule, and wa-la!

I made a date night jar (thank you, pinterest) and as people arrived they were invited to fill out date ideas for Abby and Dave.

We had a mimosa bar with orange, cranberry, blueberry/pomegranate, and pineapple juices (and champagne, of course) with sliced oranges, pineapple, and strawberries to add for garnish.

 

The food was prepared by my mom and Auntie Rita. I wish I had taken more pictures of the food--it all looked and tasted so good.

Once everyone was settled, the first thing I did was ask everyone to introduce themselves, where they were from, how they knew Abby, and who their "groom" was...

I had taped an envelope that said "Who has the groom?" under everyone's chair. Whoever had Abby's groom--Dave--won a door prize. All of the other grooms were ridiculous men--(Chuck Norris, Homer Simpson, Keith Morrison, etc.). My grandma ended up with the prize!

                                                   That's ^ the groom! (with the gray background)

We played three games...

The Price is Right was the first. I bought 15 random items (applesauce, bug spray, tampons, etc.) from Wal-Mart and everyone guessed how much I paid for each item. My little cousin, Lindsey, was my helper and walked around all the tables to show the guests the items.

I made this on Photo Shop too!

Lindsey showing everyone the items

The second game was 20 Questions. Everyone was given a mustache on a stick and lips on a stick (which I spent an entire day cutting out--but it was worth it as they turned out so cute!). I had a list of questions (for example, "who has had more speeding tickets?" "who was born on a Friday?" and "whose childhood nickname was 'Sexpot'?") and all of the guests held up the mustache if they thought the answer was Dave, the lips if they thought the answer was Abby, or both when necessary.

...in case you were wondering, it was my sister who was called "sexpot" as a kid ("sex" for short). Of all people, my MOM gave her that nickname (and still calls her that today). Weird family, I know.

   

Our family friend and neighbor, Amy

One of Abby's bridesmaids, Lindsay, and her mom

The last game we played was Pass the Presents. The tables were set up in a circle and I randomly handed out five or six presents. My Aunt Donna read a story and each time the word "left" or "right" was said, the presents were passed in that direction. The people that had the presents at the end of the story got to keep them.

Then, my sister opened all of her presents--she is so blessed, that beautiful bride! Everyone gave her such great gifts!

These are the gifts Abby had BEFORE any of her 30 guests arrived. A lot of her family from out of state sent gifts through the mail. So sweet!

My baby second-cousins insisted on "helping" with the presents and constantly reorganized them around my sister. ...it was so precious :) Eventually my Auntie Rita (their grandma) asked them not to touch the presents. So, the two of them sat down in the middle of all the tables and Kennedy put her arm around her little brother to try and console him. Of course, the "aww"'s came from everyone and people pulled out their cameras...which led to Quinn sitting straight up and saying "Cheese!" over and over. It was the cutest thing anyone had ever seen.

After all the presents were opened, one more prize was given to the guest who had collected the most pins (using paper-rock-scissors as the tie breaker) during the shower.

And that was the end! It was such a great day!

I forgot to take a picture of this at the shower....but we had a basket full of cookies/"cake" and this sign sitting out as people made their way out.

The prize table! The bags at the back were for the babies/kids and had either a coloring book and crayons or a stuffed animal in them (depending on the kid's age). The adult prizes were various things purchased from my very favorite kitchen store--"hot shit" and "bull shit" spices, black bean salsa, measuring spoons, dish towels, mixing spoons, spatulas, etc. All of which were quirky/random/fun/cute/couldn't-pass-up kind of gifts.

Current count down--41 days! I can't wait!!

Wordless Wednesday: buh

Lucky me...I got to spend the evening with my friend and her cute baby!
BUH! How are they so cute?

Relief.

The last two weeks have been absolutely crazy for me. Advice to all: do not throw a bridal shower and a bachelorette party on back-to-back weekends.

It wasn't originally planned that way, but that's how it worked for everyone, so that's how I did it. Anyway, it's all over now and I have never felt so relieved! Everything went so well and (it seemed like) everyone had so much fun! I will post pictures later (that kind of post requires more time than I have right now).

Another thing that I completed this weekend...I redid my resume, wrote a cover letter, and applied to a job that I've had my eye on for a while now. So what if I submitted my application and resume a month after the deadline? It's in, and I am so hopeful that I get considered. Even if this job doesn't work out for me...oh well, my resume is complete and ready for anyone who will look at it!

One more source of relief: I went shopping this weekend and was too lazy to try anything on. So, when I bought two pairs of shorts in the size I wore last summer, my fingers were crossed hoping they would actually fit when I got around to trying them on. And to my surprise, they did! If you haven't gathered from my previous posts, I am the queen of a fluctuating body weight--Oprah, step aside! ...in a 3-month period, my weight will typically fluctuate between about seven pounds; this is why my dresser has a designated "fat drawer." But heck no new shorts, you do not belong in there!

Cheers to a wonderful, 72 degree Monday!

Wordless Wednesday: summer

Why can't I wait for summer, you ask?

Cuz I'll get lots more play time with these cute littles...