My friend Shannon (who I went to HS with and who also happens to live just a couple houses down from me) had a jewelry party at her house the other night with some friends from high school. I haven't seen many of these girls since I took a break from scrapbooking, so it was nice to catch up a little bit.
Thanks for getting everyone together for a night of fun, Shannon!
Last weekend was my long-time amiga Cassie Rae's birthday so a small group of us went out to celebrate at Pizza Luce and then we went back to Cassie's place where we stayed up late catching up (and eating popcorn and drinking Chai Tea!)
I made Cassie pose for a couple of pics....
Cass took a couple of pics of me too! I don't like them because I look like crap but here they are anyway (proof that my hair is in total chaos-yuck)
Cassie has all sorts of cool stuff around her place to take photos of so I took advantage!
I loved the shadows that this awesome crystal chandelier creates
Photo Settings: 26mm F/5.6 1/125 (Totally Rad Action- "Pross Crossessed")
Photo Settings 55mm f/5.6 1/125
Photo Settings: 38mm f/5.0 1/8 ISO 1600
This was a light at Pizza Luce that I thought was pretty cool
Photo Settings: 40mm f/5.3 1/8 ISO 1600
Glad we got to hang out Cassie, thanks for inviting us!
The full moon on December 31st, 2009 was the 2nd full moon in December, making it a BLUE MOON. It was FREEZING cold outside but I braved it anyway (for a few minutes!) to take my new camera and tripod outside to try to capture the special blue moon.
Have you ever tried to shoot the moon??!! It is hard! Every time I try (here is another good pic of the moon I took with the Canon G10 back in September) it takes a lot of playing around with the settings before I get it right (otherwise it looks like a blurry white orb). This was taken with my 55-200mm Lens at f/5.6 1/320
New Years Eve was pretty laid back again this year. We had a very nice (but early!) steak dinner at the Lakeside Club, which has become a New Year's Eve tradition over the past five years. We had planned to go to a party later at our friends Miles & Becky's pace but opted not to drive all the way to NE Mpls. Too many cops and drunk drivers on the road made me feel safer at home!! I hung out with my neighbors for awhile and played a few games of darts
Noemy also stopped over for a little bit and since we were both wearing hats, I made her pose for a pic with me :) Now honest truth.....do I look like Elmer Fudd in that Hat??!! I thought I saw a wabbit!
Whether you went out or stayed home, I hope everyone else had a nice New Year's Eve too!
One of my newer favorite traditions is getting together with a some
dear friends the night after Christmas and making lasagna. This is the
2nd or 3rd year we have done this now and I love it. 'Tis the season
for feasting!
Browned and bubbly
Beautiful salad
Thanks L & R, love you guys!
I spent Christmas morning baking a few different cookies to take along to my in-laws for dinner and to a party at my neighbors' house later in the evening.
Peanut Butter Blossoms- The best!!! I had never made them before but they turned out amazing. Looking at this photo makes me want to make more right now just so I can have some again. I got only two out of this batch because they disappeared so quick!
White chocolate chip macadamia nut (with coconut). Another fave of mine :)
The weather was slushy and snowy on Christmas Day this year so I am glad we didn't have far to travel to get to my in-laws'. We had the traditional turkey/stuffing/mashed potatoes/ham/creamed corn meal and it was delicious!!
After a few hours we headed home, relaxed for a little while and then headed next door to a birthday party for Darrell who shares his birthday with Baby Jesus. Every year Darrell and Denise throw a Christmas/Bday party for friends and neighbors. It is so much fun! This year we had smoked pork carnitas with fresh pico and rice. Fabulous. If I haven't mentioned before how lucky I am to have D & D as neighbors and for Denise to be such a wonderful cook (especially authentic Mexican food), they are the best!!
I hope everyone enjoyed their Christmas too!
It was so much fun to be able to take wedding photos of Noemy & Traves but it was even more fun at the actual wedding/reception! You may have read that Noemy & Traves needed a last-minute change in venue due to a booking error and fortunately they found a place in time. Although the new venue was far from ideal, the important thing is that these two special people were able to make their vows to each other in front of their loved ones.
And WHAT A KISS!!!!!!!!!!
The reception followed immediately after the ceremony < Puerto Rican Style Fun!!>
I took many photos at the reception but I am only going to post this one of me with Denise and Noemy. These two have been BFFs since Jr. high and I was lucky enough to meet Noemy a few years ago through Denise (who is not only my next door neighbor but also one of my besties). I love these girls!!
Fun times celebrating with ya'll!
Almost every year our friends Matt & Colleen throw a big costume party for Halloween. Last year was the first time they made it a "themed" costume party, with "Musicians" being the theme. This year the theme was Super Heroes. Since I am not the type to prance around in my tights and underwear, this was a really hard one for me. I ended up going as "Spider woman" or some sort of variation. I had a sexy black dress and a transparent cape with spider webs all over it. I sewed little fake spiders onto the cape and had my bestie Denise crimp my hair. It looked pretty cute but I didn't get any good pictures. Here is me with Heather (Mystique) and Colleen (Wonder Woman)
Since Colleen went as Wonder Woman, her husband Matt went as her Invisible Jet. Time for a plane ride!
My bff Sonja (aka Little Red Riding Hood) decided to come at the last-minute, it was nice to have her there too!
I was too busy having fun to take pictures, but here are a few:
It was a lot of fun, thanks Matt & Colleen!
Well, the fruits of our labor were realized on Friday with a very successful Benefit on behalf of baby Jake. Many friends and family were able to make it out for the event and we had a great time while raising $$ for Jake. We only had one camera between all of us for the evening, so it got passed around quite a bit. Here are some of my favorite photos from the evening....
(The t-shirts were designed by me and Mary)
Grooving it up on the dance floor.....
The BFFs
One of Dad Brent and Mom Kim
One night last week I met my friend Chaitra for dinner at a Mexican restaurant called Pappasitos Cafe.
We had Fajitas
(and a margarita!)
Our service wasn't that great and the fajitas were way over-priced, but it sure was nice to spend time with my old friend from high school! Thanks for meeting up with me, Chaitra!
I spent some time on Friday night over at Mary's house. What was supposed to be a low-key evening with a few of us girls turned into a backyard get together with several of our group. Amazing that it worked out that way on a Friday night!
I was only able to take a few photos before my camera battery died....
Chase and Angelina dressed up with power tools
The kids checking out baby Jake
Isn't Jacob precious?
Lanee & Rog
Mary, Kim, and Me (This was the last photo and then my camera battery died)
Luckily Kim has an phone with an awesome camera so we were able to get one of just us girls....
I hope we're able to get together a lot more this summer!
It seems like I rarely do a weekend recap on this blog anymore (especially not one big post), but I am going to do just that today.
I am sure I'll be back with more blogging soon!
This past Sunday night I went to a show that Buried by Hope was playing to raise money for the family of Bob, their bass player who died tragically a few weeks ago. This is the band that my friend Rich plays drums for and the lead singer Jeremy is also my friend Heather's boyfriend. I didn't know Bob at all other than seeing him play at shows, but I thought it would be a nice gesture to go out and show my support for my friends who lost their buddy and band member.
Rich on drums
Me and Heath
Heather and Jeremy
And that is all I have time to update for now. So much to do and so little time!!
PS Let's all hope and pray that my brother Jeff and his girlfriend do not contract the darn swine flu and can make it back to the USA from Mexico safely. They have been there since Sunday.
Yesterday was my bff Kim's bday. An extra special one because this was the first time we have gone out together since Kim had her baby two months ago. A group of us met for dinner at Grumpy's in Roseville.
Kim and her honey
Kim Mary and Me
It was a nice time out :)
It was nice that I was able to spend some time with my Bffs over my break: Bradie on Wed, Lanee & Sony for a bit on Thursday and Kim & Mary on Friday. Mary had Kim and I over for dinner on Friday. I love it when Mary cooks! This time she made us chicken gyros which were quite good. One of the best parts of the night was snuggling with Jacob, Kimmy's new baby. What a little sweetie! He has been kind of fussy for her lately but he was on his best behavior with us. I can't believe he is almost 7 weeks already. Remember when I met him when he was one day old? That time went too fast!
Mary and Kim with Jacob. Kim looks fantastic! You'd never know she recently had a baby (if the adorable proof wasn't right there!)
This is Mary's son, Chase. He wanted a piece of candy and accidentally grabbed a super sour one! This look on his face is priceless!
Mary is also one of the world's biggest animal lovers. Here is her pretty kittie Louie
As soon as I took a picture of the cat, the dog was also in my face!
That's it for now!
I spent some time the other day with Bradie and her girls, they're getting so big!
Later that night Bradie and I went and spent some time at Lakewood Cemetery. It was practically sun down by the time we got out there, so we must've been a sight wandering through the graveyard at night. We've already had more than our share of ghostly encounters together. Check out my graveyard pics. (It was much darker than it appears in the pictures, my camera is just good at compensating for the lack of light!)
Had a good time last night while out with some friends to celebrate Heather's birthday. Despite the venue (WB Legion) and still not feeling too great, I enjoyed myself watching the assortment of people sing karaoke, some talented, a few brave, and a handful of awful. The crowd was spared a horrible rendition of anything by Prince because I had a sore throat and swollen glands. Ha ha .....those of you have heard me sing know I would never torture the audience with my horrible voice. Not solo anyway ;)
Heather's boyfriend Jeremy was really good (although he is a lead singer in local band Buried by Hope).
Heather got up there a couple of times with her sister and friend, they were super cute! I took a video but I promised Heather's sister that I wasn't going to put it on Youtube. So I guess her stardom will have to wait another day. lol
Tanya and Dana met us up there also, it was a nice reunion (we all went to HS together)
Now enjoying the rest of my afternoon before going to see Sevendust @ Myth!
Its been 4EVER since I blogged a real post, huh?
Going to just jot a few things that have been going on lately in La Munda de Kristi
Friday night was the last birthday celebration in my group of BFFs. WE finally made it through birthday week! lol. I love hanging with my girls and its great to see each other at every opportunity. This time we were celebrating Sonja's daughter's 4th birthday. She had a party with a bunch of little kids on her real bday, so Friday night it was just a few of the girls in our group of friends. A few pics:
Angelina and Sony. Her cake was so cute!
Leah
Mary, me and Sandra
That's all for now!
I think it has been at least five years now that I have celebrated Valentine's Day at Fuddruckers with my Valentine and various friends. Its a great place to go as a group, and isn't as busy or expensive as other restaurants. Its also cool that each person can order what they want and pay before eating, eliminating the need to break down the tab. My favorite reason to go is for their World's Greatest Hamburgers. Every single time I go to Fudd's I always get the Southwest Burger. My appetite has been out of control the past week or so and I not only ate all of my burger, but I also splurged and got a strawberry malt. Ice Cream is like Heaven to me, I have the hardest time saying no to something that feels so right. LOL.
Anyway, this year one of my buddies who came along was a Fuddrucker's Rookie.
Other friends that joined us were Ang, Brandon and Richie.
The only only photos of myself that were taken that night are this one and this one of the socks I wear only once a year!
I hope everyone had a nice Valentine's weekend!
Had the awesome opportunity to see Cynic at Station 4 later on Friday night. They were really popular underground in the early 90's before breaking up. A couple of years ago they got back together to create a new album, Traced in Air. I love it! I was really looking forward to the show so I went despite having a monster of a headache for nearly 48 hours. The show was pretty awesome! It was very hard to get decent photos of the band from where I was standing, but this one turned out pretty cool
I also captured a couple of videos (which reminds me that although my Canon G9 takes awesome still shots, it has horrible video quality. Should look into a video recorder)
Here is Cynic performing Adam's Murmur and Integral Birth
Heather and Jeremy were down at the show as well, which was great because I hadn't seen Heather since the Halloween Party!
Heather and Jeremy
Happy Birthday today to my BFF Lanee Valentina!
How cool would it be to have your bday on Valentine's Day? Sonja planned a little surprise party for Lanee last night and I was able to go hang out with my girls for awhile and be there to surprise Lanee before having to leave to go to a concert.
A few photos:
Heart shaped goodies in honor of our Valentina
Sonja, Leah and Me
Happy Birthday Lanee, I hope your birthday is wonderful :)
My birthday yesterday was really great! I felt the love coming at me from all directions and when that happens, it is pretty hard not to enjoy it. Thanks to everyone who sent wishes and warm fuzzies throughout the day. It was especially a surprise to see so many people write on my wall on Facebook. There may have been over a hundred wishes. Whoa!
I have been very busy at work with several things but was able to take a longer lunch to met up with my BFFs for lunch. Sonja, Angelina, Leah and Kim treated me to a really awesome lunch at Bennett's (I will link to the review as soon as I can get to it). I also got a beautiful bouquet of flowers from Sony. It was awesome that Kimmy was feeling good enough to come meet us.... she id due to have her baby literall any day now. I was hoping for a birthday surprise but this little guy is still a cookin'. The girls all plead with me not to take any photos of them, but I told them they had to.
Angelina was willing to pose with me!
In the evening it started to snow a little and the temps dropped so the roads weren't in the best shape so rather than driving to Minneapolis to try something new, I decided to go to one of my old-time favorte places, the Lakeside Club. I had a delicious steak and for dessert I got a chocolate fudge parfait. Wow!
So yeah, I am feeling pretty fabulous at 32 :)
I am not the best at coming up with titles to my blog posts, but I do love to use alliteration! Last night I kicked off my birthday with a dinner at Akita Sushi & Hibachi. I met my girls Dana and Ang at the restaurant for some all-you-can eat sushi action. Heaven for sushi lovers! We definitely ate enough to get our money's worth. Fo' Sho. I don't know if I have ever been that full in my life. I ate at least 10 of everything and dang, was it good! Check out my review of Akita on Twin Cities Restaurant Blog.
Now besides the excellent food, it was also great to hang out with the girls (and the hottie who joined us). Here is a photo of us. They have more photos in the posts they each wrote about our dinner. Here is Dana's, here is Ang's
It was great dining with you lovely ladies! Thanks for helping me to kick-off a really wonderful birthday :)
It was a cold but sunny day for Sally's wedding! I have known Sally since my freshman year of college. We first met because her cousin Laura (blonde), lived next door to me in the dorms (with Farrah) and became a very good friend of mine. Laura (brown) lived next door to me on the other side. The Lauras and I got an apartment together our sophomore year. We all hung out together all the time. Junior year, Sally and some of her friends moved into the apt. across the hall from us. We were all together every single day- the most fun days of our lives! I moved out a year earlier than the other girls (I moved to AZ) and when I did, Sally took my room. Sally and many of the other girls were roommates even after college, until they all started getting married.
Sam, Sally's new husband, used to live downstairs from us in that same apartment building. There were only 8 (4 bdrm) apartments in the building, so we all got to know each other pretty well. Sally and Sam were friends back then and maybe even smooched a couple of times. They didn't see each other again until about a year and a half ago when they reconnected online! They started dating, fell in love and the rest is history!!!
I only took a fraction of the photos I would usually take because my camera kept dying, but here are a few.
They were married at Assumption Catholic Church in St Paul, the same place where D & D were married.
Me and Sally
College friends Laura (brown), Kelly, Greg and LindsayLaura (blonde) and her husband Jeff (Here I blogged about their wedding)
My dinner companions
And then my camera died! I will add more pics later when I get the rest from Laura!
The reception was a lot of fun. It was great to have all the college girls and Sally's fun friends together. Many of Sam's old college roommates (the guys who lived downstairs from us) were also at the reception. I hadn't seen or thought about some of these people in 10 years, what a blast from the past!
The hot mama I'm talking about is my BFF Kim, who is just entering her last month of her first pregnancy.
Lucky girl, the only weight she has gained is baby belly ;)
Anyway, last Sunday my other BFFs (Mary, Sonja and Lanee) and I threw a little shower for her. What a nice time! Here are a few pictures. You can see more on Kim's post about the baby shower.
A bunch of Kim's friends she hasn't seen in awhile all came so we ate, talked, watched Kim open her presents and also played some games. One of the games we played was matching celebrities a list of baby names to their celebrity parents. A few of the girls knew their celebrities so well that they didn't even need to look at the parents' names! (I am terrible at this game because I rarely pay attention to celebrities). Would you like to see how well you do?? Here is the list of baby names:
a. Apple
b. Harlow Winter
c. Prince
d. Chastity
e. Suri
f. Rumer
g. Ryder
h. Rocco
i. Willow
j. Pilot Inspektor
k. Chelsea Belle
l. Ireland
m. Jett
n. Shiloh
o. Coco
And if you need some help, here is the list of celebrity parents:
1. Kim Basinger/Alec Baldwin
2. Cher/ Sonny Bono
3. Courtney Cox/ David Arquette
4. John Travolta/ Kelly Preston
5. Michael Jackson
6. Jason Lee
7. Rose O’ Donnell
8. Brad Pitt/ Angelina Jolie
9. Nicole Richie/ Joel Madden
10. Tom Cruise/ Katie Holmes
11. Madonna/Guy Richie
12. Will Smith/Jada Pinkett
13. Gwyneth Paltrow
14. Bruce Willis/Demi Moore
15. Kate Hudson/ Chris Robinson
ETA: Typepad is currently having issues with comments. Hopefully it will be back up and running again shortly! Come back again later if you'd like to leave a comment :)
Some of the highlights of my year, in pictures. I know this is a long post, but there are a lot of Kodak Moments in 366 days :) And this post does not include any photos from any of the concerts I went to which could be a whole post in itself.
Ready?
Laura's baby shower with my college girls
My niece Bianca's first birthday celebration
Mary's 30th (Golden) Birthday with my BFFs
Kelly's Bachelorette party on the Pink Panther bus with my college girls
Watching Rich play drums and catching rock shows with these cool chicas
Yummy Mexican lunches with my dear college girls
Holding my nephew Bennett for the first time on Easter
Heather's Birthday Celebration
Dinners around town with Jenny
Having my BFFs all back together again
Trip to Duluth
Dinner with these lovely ladies
Rick & Janeen's wedding
BBQ's over at Jeff's house
BBQ at Kim & Brent's with my BFFs
Laura's 31st (Golden) Birthday Celebration
Girls scrapbook trip with Michelle and her friends
4th of July Party at the Lake with my Koch family cousins
River cruise on the Andiamo
Celebrating my Gram & Gramp's 60th Anniversary with all my cousins
My niece Annika turned 3
Being on the boat while watching the sunset over the lake
Spending time with Leslie and Eva before they moved to AZ
Spending quality time with Bradie and her three daughters
Lunches with Kara and Leah
Hanging out and watching the Olympics with my girls
Attending the Wacipi Pow Wow
Bridal shower for Denise
Eating at the MN State Fair
Labor Day on the lake
Many, many nights with my BFFs
Darrell & Denise's wedding and fun on the dance floor
Trips to the Apple Orchard
Hanging out with Jeffy and his lovely ladies
Hanging out with Kara and the girls at Olivia's 1st birthday party
Sunday get- togethers at my parents' house every month where I get to
spend time with my nieces and nephew (and the rest of the gang too!)
Disk Golfing while enjoying the Great Outdoors and getting some exercise!
Having
the mayor, dist. superintendent and my principal together to show their
support at our school's Bridge Dedication ceremony
Andrea's baby shower with many of my HS friends
Having dessert & wine for Michelle's bday (who I hope still loves me after I posted this photo!)
Catching the full moon as it rises
Walks through Tamarack in the fall
Dinners and many restaurant reviews with Bradie
Annual Halloween party
Sonja's 30th birthday celebration
Thanksgiving
Getting Denise to come out for live rock music
Annual holiday get-together with my HS girls
Sally's bachelorette party with my college girls
Seeing how big and cute Bennett has gotten as he celebrated his first Christmas
Christmas cheer with several of my beautiful little cousins!
All in all, 2008 was a pretty good year. There are literally countless other moments that I had the past year that were just as wonderful as those posted above, but were captured with my memory instead of my camera.
I have been rather lazy about taking photos lately, but I did take these three on New Year's Eve, which was a very relaxing, low-key evening spent with the neighbors.
Hope everyone had a fun & safe New Year's!
Attended a bachelorette party last Friday night for Sally, one of my college girlfriends. I always have fun when I am reunited with these ladies :) It was a Black (with Sally in white) theme and we had a green party bus. Fun stuff!
I am by no means a downtown party girl, but there is ONE club downtown that I have consistently had fun at over the past 10 years because it is such a good place to dance...its had many names over the years but has gone by The Annex for many years now :) We spent the last couple fo hours at that bar shakin our groove thang and then slumber party.
Every year in December a group of my HS girlfriends and I try to get together for a special holiday meal (two years ago we went to Saji-Ya and last year we went to Bucca. We thought we'd try breakfast this year instead of dinner and include some of the new babies. We went to Elsie's in NE Mpls. It was great although only four of us were able to make it.
Ready for some baby cuteness?
Newest addition: Andrea's baby Lucie (on her one-month bday)
Mandy and Madden (6 months)
Bradie and Neven (almost 6 months)Our group
We plan to have another Girls Get Together some time in February so that some of the others can join us :)
Had fun on Friday night when a big group of us got together at La Casita to celebrate Sonja's (and Cynthia's) 30th birthdays. I only took a couple of photos:
The birthday Girls
Ahhhh, what a busy but fun weekend!
Time flies when you're having fun!
Friday night I passed out candy for a little while and then got together with a bunch of the neighbors for a little fire. Its great having cool neighbors to hang with and still be within feet from home!
Saturday night was the annual Halloween Party at our friends' place. I have to give a huge Thank YOU shout out to Denise for helping me put my costume together and doing my makeup. It was a musician-themed party so I went as....... Crazy Britney!! Many people wore costumes that were not music-related and it was still cool!
Here I am with my friend Heather (aka Poison Ivy)
There were some great costumes at the party and I don't think I took nearly enough photos, but here are a few. Some of the guys jammin out on Rock Band
Unfortunately I am unable to post a photo of my favorite costume of the party......the Snake Charmer! Seriously too funny!!!
On Sunday night I went with a big group of friends to The Soap Factory's Haunted Basement. We were brought deep down into the chambers below the Factory (in groups of four) and had to discover our way out (ALIVE!) It was the scariest haunted house any of had ever been in, but I think I was more disoriented that scared. I was more concerned about finding my way out and making sure I didn't trip in the dark that I didn't really allow myself to be scared. It was still cool and glad I got to go!
Hope everyone else had a nice Halloween weekend too!
Spent most of Friday with my oldest and dearest friend, Bradie. We spent some time with her three young daughters and her mom, then left the girls with Grandma so that Bradie could take some much-needed-adult-only time! We went to a Mexican restaurant called Morelos Mex-Grill and did a review while we were there. While taking pictures of the food, restaurant, etc, the couple sitting at the table across from us volunteered to take our picture. I know its not a good picture of either of us, but that's us in the moment :)
On Saturday I went to a baby shower for an old friend of mine, Andrea. It was nice to see some of my old friends from school who were also able to come. Would you believe that we had four babies among the group?? Bradie, Anne, Mandy and Gretchen all have new babies, and they are all so cute! Of course I took a bunch of photos!
Andrea with all of us girls
Andrea opening her very own copy of Porn for New Moms
Bradie and Neven
Anne and Sammy
Mandy and Madden (You may recall Mandy was in the Hot Mama contest back when she was preggo)
Me and Bradie
Congrats to Andrea and her husband on the upcoming arrival of baby Lucie!
My friend Kara's daughter is turning one in a few weeks so she and her husband threw a birthday party at their house this weekend so that they could take advantage of the warm fall weather (and their gorgeous, newly-landscaped backyard). What a doll Olivia the birthday girl is!
Her hat is courtesy of the balloon man who was there to make fun creations for all the little kids.
There was also this fun jumpy thing for the kids to play in:
There was an outdoor BBQ for lunch and then a fancy schmancy cake. (How cool is that?!) The inside tasted as good as it looked!! The smaller cake was Olivia's personal cake :)
Olivia wasn't quite sure what to do with her cake at first, but with a little help she figured it out!
This adorable little cutie is Shannon & Jere's little guy, Jonah. He also has his first birthday later this week!
The party wasn't ALL about the kids, the adults had fun too :)
Mary, Leah and Me (whoever took this pic was aiming right at the bright sun!! Oh well, still cute- just a coincidence that we were all wearing shades of turquoise and teal)
Shannon and Gina
And one with Kara and all her girls
Thanks for the fun party, Kara and Jesse!
Spent some time on Friday with dear old friends Jeff and Toni. Yummy chicken sausages on the grill and fun times watching their little girls playing. Wish they didn't live so far away!
I can't believe Georgia is already old enough to be missing her front teeth!
And Cydney is just too cute! (I wish I could take credit for this photo, but it was taken by another papparazzi)
Toni and Me
Gotta do this again soon :)
It was a beautiful, somewhat cool day on Saturday for Darrell & Denise's wedding. They were married at the gorgeous Assumption Catholic Church in St Paul.
We had a limo for the evening with our other awesome neighbors and good friends, Jere and Shannon...(Thanks again for setting that up, Shannon!) It was nice to have all that space for just four people!
We made a stop at Il Vesco Vino for appetizers and drinks before the reception. I will be doing a review very shortly! The restaurant is in an old converted mansion, with a gorgeous patio and gardens.
The reception was at Christo's in the Union Depot.
The dinner was awesome! The dessert was even more fabulous (Milopita~ Glazed apple slices baked in phyllo with ricotta and cream cheese ) .... too bad I never got to eat more than a bite of mine before it was cleared away :(
One of my FAVORITE parts of the evening was the Mariachi Band. They serenaded everyone throughout dinner. I love Mariachis!!!
I spent the night "getting low, low, low" and "dropping it like its hot". I love to dance! My dang feet hurt so dang bad by the end of the night!(And my whole body hurt the next day when I woke up! LOL)
We all had fun dancing.....
Pics of me with the Bride.......
and Groom......
We stayed at the party until the very end and then Darrell and Denise jumped in the limo with us and we all went back to our neighborhood. The bride and groom left just a few short hours later for their honeymoon ;)
Felicidades, mis amigos!
We had our monthly BFF dinner this past Friday night at Mary's. (These nights are always special to us and this is the first time in awhile that we were all able to make it). Our theme of the evening was homemade mini-pizzas...so easy and yummy! We always decide what to have ahead of time and each of us brings something to contribute. We were going to try beergaritas, but ended up making regular margaritas instead.... I guess I'll have to try them another time and report back!
We had no kids or guys with us this time, so we had to use the self-timer on the camera to take a group shot We were finally satisfied with the 10th take ;)
Kim, Mary, Lanee, Sonja and Me (In Mary's gorgeous kitchen that she designed herself)
I didn't take photos of the pizza (I think Kim did, hopefully she'll post one on her blog.) I did get one of the ice cream cake that Lanee made. Muy deliciosa!
After dinner I had to head home so that I could finalize the wedding video for Darrell and Denise. Denise stayed up with me until the video was finished around 1am (yes, the night before her wedding!).
The wedding was beautiful and a really fun time. I'll be back tomorrow with photos :)
On Sunday I went with Denise and her daughters to a bridal shower that her sisters were throwing for her. It was a nice time!
A couple photos.....
Denise and her BFF Noemi (I love this girl!!!)
Just a couple weeks now until Denise and Darrell are officially married and I can't wait for the wedding!
Sonja hosted a small-scale Girls Night at her place on Friday (not everyone could make it). We hung out and had dinner (Sony made Tortellini Alfredo with Chicken, Mushrooms, Peas and Turkey Ham- Geez, listen to me- can you tell I write restaurant reviews or what!!?? LOL) Besides eating a ton of good food, we were excited to see Kim's ultrasound pictures, as she had come straight from having her first ultrasound. I made her pose for this first photo of her and the baby....
Sonja's daughter Angelina is such a funny kid, she cracks me up! When it was bedtime she had to show off her pajamas (Hey Helmey-do you see the Olympics on the TV in the background there? Proof that I am not a Communist after all!)
Group shot using the self-timer
Thats all for now.....
Yesterday I had a little lunch-date at Ciao Bella with Leah, Kara, and Kara's daughter Olivia.
I am seriously in love with Olivia, she is the cutest thing! Can you believe those big brown eyes or those cheeks??!!
Kara often puts the cutest clips in Olivia's hair and has passed along the link to Lil Sugar Plum in case anyone wants cute accessories for their little girls!
A few days ago I spent the day with my oldest and dearest pal, Bradie, and her three adorable daughters......
The youngest, Neven, is just 7 weeks old. What a little sweetie!!!!
I have mentioned Bradie on this blog many times over the years, but now it is time for some of you to get to know her yourself! Bradie now has her own blog, Cloud 9. She is a very busy mommy of these 3 girls so she doesn't promise to post regularly, but she would like to get back into writing for fun and maybe even do a few Wine-o Wednesday posts (Michelle, I think you've started something here!) Please go show Bradie some love and welcome her into the blogging community :)
A couple of days ago I spent some time with my friend-since-preschool, Leslie, aka Peanut Butter. We had lunch at Moe's and then I helped her pack the last of her belongings into a moving truck which will take her to her new home in AZ. I look forward to a trip down there soon, hopefully this fall when it cools down a little. I love AZ so much and I miss it tons.....can't wait to see Leslie along with all of my family who live down there!
Leslie's daughter Eva is 9 months old now and she is too cute!
Got back yesterday afternoon from a fun weekend filled with scrapping....
As I mentioned in my last post, I went with Michelle, Erin and eight other girls to a scrapbooking retreat in northern MN. Wow, I have never scrapped so much or for so long in my life!!!
The building we were in is awesome! The lower level is half scrapbook store called Once Upon A Page, the other half is a large crop room. Here is what that room looked like with all of our stuff spread out at our tables.....
Notice the table in the middle full of snacks?????!!! We had a wide range of goodies to keep us going!
Erin and Michelle, getting their scrap on!!
Scrapping for hours and hours on end is really exhausting, both mentally and physically! I was so tired!
So that was the crop room. The upstairs of the building was the living quarters (which was really modern and great!) Besides this Great Room, there were three bedrooms to sleep 10 girls (plus one more on an air mattress) and two full-size bathrooms. We had everything we needed!
We had pre-arranged for small groups to provide each meal, so we had baked mostaccolli on Friday night, and then waffles, sandwiches and enchiladas on Saturday.
It was a nice trip and I got just about everything I wanted to get done finished. I will post my layouts later!
Thanks for inviting me, Michelle, I had a great time!
PS They had some great product in the store, but I didn't allow myself to even go inside until Saturday, 30 minutes before they closed. I was the only girl on our trip who did not spend a single $$$$$. It took some restraint, but I will not buy anything else for a long time. I have too much as it is and I just cannot justify spending $$ on scrapbook stuff with as much stuff as I already have!
Saturday night was my dear friend (and former college roommate) Laura's 31st birthday. Since she was 8 months pregnant last year on her 30th and couldn't really celebrate, she threw a party for herself this year in honor of her 31st Golden Birthday. Fun times! I had been really looking forward to hanging with our other college girls, Laura, Sally and Kelly, but another severe storm in the southern 'burbs where those girls were prevented them from being able to come :(
I had a good time anyway....glad I know Laura's sisters and a couple of the other girls who went out with us. We had a big party bus and went bar-hopping. Here are some photos:
This is a crazy picture, but I like it anyway!
At the last bar we were at, Laura jumped on stage and jammed with the band!
Nothing like staying up 'til 4am, having a good time!
Love ya, Laura! So glad I was able to come celebrate with ya!
Kim and Brent threw a BBQ/bonfire at their place on Sunday night, so once I knew that my house was still standing after the tornado came through, I went straight over there from Jeff's house.
It was a fun time (although I was somewhat preoccupied because of the tornado. I might've spent as much time answering calls and texts as I did talking with my best friends.)
Early in the evening.....
Later in the evening.....
Had a fun time on Saturday at Rick & Janeen's wedding!
Richie's band played last night at the Rock.
Fun times!
I love photographing him, I just wish I had a better camera (c'mon, stimulus check- I have plans for you!)
Cheddar Cheesey Corn and Kritti Krack Korn
**PS - So happy Boston is moving on to the next round in the playoffs. I want my man KG to get his championship!!!!!!!
Today's status: much better mood!
We'll just wait another month until the Praxis results come back and then I will see if I need to retake it. Its over now, no need to dwell on it anymore.
I had a fun time last night with Janeen and her friends. We went to a nice Italian restaurant that I hadn't been to before and then hung out at her house afterward. 
I went home early and finally got a good night's sleep and feel more rested today. I will be studying most of the day, with a dinner intermission at my parents house to celebrate Brian's birthday.
I cannot wait for this week to be done....I really want to scrap instead of studying!!!!
I had a nice evening last night with Bradie, Mandy and Dana. We had planned for a large group of friends from high school to join us, but for one reason or another half of the girls couldn't make it. We had a nice time anyway and the Thai food was really yummy!
Can you even tell these two ladies are 35 weeks pregnant? (You may recall that Mandy was in a Hot Mama clothing contest a month ago)
Me and Dana
I actually got to go somewhere for my spring break after all! Lanee had to give her brother a ride up to Duluth yesterday, so e and I decided to tag along with her and make it a fun road trip! The weather was sunny and nice, so we spent part of the afternoon down on the rocky beach of Lake Superior....
It was a great time!
So glad I got to go somewhere, even if it was just two hours away!
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