Mi Vida Ocupada: My Busy Life!

The Wedding & Reception.......

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!

Jake's Benefit was a Success!

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

Thanks to everyone who came out, to everyone who made donations and to everyone who bought raffle tickets from me.  We all appreciate it!!

State Fair Food Diaries ~ Round 2

Labor Day is always the last day of the 12-day Minnesota State Fair and like other years, I had to make it out there for a 2nd time to sample the treats we only get to eat once a year.  We met up with my brother Jeff sometime in mid afternoon and took the Park N Ride to the Fairgrounds. 

There were a LOT of people out at the Fair on Labor Day!

I made Jeff bring his camera along so that I could document more of our food buys which consisted of:

• Cheese Curds
• Philly Cheese Steak

• London Broil Sandwich
• Deep Fried Ravioli
• Deep Fried Snickers

• Reuben Pretzel (eeeewww.  I love Reubens and did not enjoy this at ALL)

• Deep Fried Sunfish with Lindon Berry Sauce and Walleye Cakes

We were out at the Fair about 4 hrs until we were pretty hot and stuffed and decided to call it a day.

It was another great year at the MN State Fair!

Great MN Get Together

Last weekend was a lot of fun while having family in town visiting from Chicago.  It has kind of been a tradition for them to come to MN at the end of the summer and for us all to go out to the State Fair, so that's what we did last Friday night.  I still had my dad's camera so I was able to take some photos.

My favorite thing about the Fair is the Food! Isn't it for everyone!?? LOL.  IMO (in my opinion) it is always best to share food at the Fair, that way you can try small bites of a lot of different things.  This time at the Fair I sampled bites of:

• Fried Ravioli
• Cheese Curds
• Fried Green Tomatoes & Corn Fritters with honey butter
• Bacon-wrapped turkey tenderloin
  
• Italian Gelato
• Scotch Egg
• Roasted Corn
  
• London Broil
• Corn Dog
• Sweet Martha's Cookies

My favorite food?  Cheese curds, of course!!

 

We walked around a lot and I took some random photos here and there

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Check out the size of this Oinker.....

 

It was a lot of fun and I'm glad most of the family could make it up this year! (D & K, wish you could've come too!)

Benefit Planning for Jake: Hope for Sight

For those of you who really know me or have been reading my blog over the years, know that I have  20+ years of friendship with a very special group of BFF's: Mary, Kim, Lanee and Sonja.  We have been through everything together over the years and right now one of us is facing a life-long challenge.  Two months ago Kim and her fiance Brent learned that their baby boy Jake has a rare genetic eye disorder that has left him almost blind:

On June 20^th, 2009 at the age of 4 months, Jake was diagnosed with a rare genetic eye disorder called Familial Exudative Vitreoretinopathy, aka “FEVR”. With this diagnosis it was discovered that Jake has only “light sight” and minimal peripheral vision. On July 16^th & 17^th, 2009 at 5 months old, Jake underwent double eye surgery to reattach his retinas and remove fluid blockage. With his first surgery there are hopes of him to have the chance to see at least shapes and shadows. It will be 4-6 months before they will know if the surgery was successful. What is known is that Jake will need extensive eye therapy, glasses and most likely multiple surgeries. FEVR is a progressive disorder with no known cure. The only thing that is certain is that Jake will be fighting for sight for the rest of his life.

Brent & Kim have been through so much in such a short time as they do what they can to help their little guy. On September 18^th, 2009 there will be a benefit held in Jake’s honor. The money raised will help ease the financial burden Brent & Kim are facing and will continue to face as they provide the special care Jake will need.

The girls started planning this event over a month ago while I was out of town and have made great progress getting donations, etc.  Last Friday night Mary and I met Kim and her good friend Daria (Benefit Coordinator) to nail out some of the final details.  I hadn't seen Jacob in a few months and he has changed so much!

 

Kimmy with Jake

Here are me and Mary designing the Tshirts we will all wear at the Benefit.

  

The Benefit is going to be a very fun event and I would love to invite all of you to come! 

Friday, September 18^th, 2009 4:00 pm-12:30 am 

FRIDLEY VFW, 1040 Osbourne Road, Fridley MN 55432

   *$5 Raffle-~many items including an LG 42” Flat Screen Television

*Silent Auction *Chili Feed *Bake Sale *Cash Bar

*Live Music

     www.arenarocks.com        www.freedomstation.com       

The Benefit is going to be a very FUN TIME, so please mark it on your calendars! We will start pre-selling Raffle Tickets starting later this week or next week, $5 per ticket will enter you in drawing for chance to win 42" Flat Panel TV, and several Gift Cards to local restaurants (need not be present to win). The Chili Feed and Bake-Sale are going to be amazing as well, not to mention cool cover bands playing later in the evening! 

Hope to see you all there!

If you would like more information, please visit Jake's Benefit Website, Our Visions of Hope.

Surprise for Valentina

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 :)

Party time for Sally!

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. 

So many babies!

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!

Party Time!

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!

Wedding Recap.....

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!

Bridal Shower.....

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!

Wacipi Pow Wow 2008

This weekend I had the opportunity to attend the annual Wacipi Pow Wow in Shakopee, hosted by the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community.  I had been wanting to go to a pow wow for a long time since I hadn't been to one since I  lived on the Tohono O'Odham Nation in Arizona (ten years ago now!).  My friend Kara and her husband live on the reservation in Shakopee, so we took Olivia to her very first pow wow. (Next year she'll be old enough to dance!)

I can't describe the feelings I had watching the dancers make their Grand Entry, but it moved me in many ways.  If you have been with me long enough, you know I feel a very strong connection to the Native culture and feel a deep sadness for everything they've lost in the past 300 years.  Instead of getting sad about it now, I would like to share photos of the dancers in their traditional dress.....

It was great (other than the heat!)
Everyone should attend a pow wow at least once in their life!

Look who turned 3 today!

My niece,  Annika Leigh!

 I can hardly believe how fast the time went! Some of you may remember how excited I was on the day she was born because that is the day I became an Auntie.  My SIL Michelle also details an account of Annika's birth on her blog today.

Every year I have made a collage for Annika, celebrating the past year of her life.  First year, second year, and now her third year......

Brian and Michelle had a party for Annika at their house yesterday and the girls had a great time and enjoyed their new gifts. (It is Bianca's half-birthday today, they are exactly 18 months apart)

Annika and her daddy

The girls both got baby dolls, which they loved so much!

 Bianca is totally in love with her new Elmo

Me with Bennett

Oh, he makes the cutest smiles!

A huge thanks goes out to my dad for letting me borrow his awesome camera! Its been killing me not to have my own for all the random Kodak Moments.

The 60th was a hit!

Words almost can't explain the emotions of having everyone together to celebrate my Gram & Gramps 60th Anniversary.  My camera broke again but I was able to get some pictures from my dad and also from  my cousin Dan....

 

My Gram and Gramp with 7 of their children..... (Don't you hate it when there are a million papparazzi around so no one knows where to look??!!

My Gram and Gramp with 18 of their grandchildren (I am #1).....

Me with my Aunt/Godmother Patti

Cousins Dave, Andrea and Cassie....

Tyler, Segen, Brian and Bennett

Part of the Tucson crew... (Michael, Matt, Patti & Rudy)

My cousin Casey and his girlfriend...

Aunt Connie and cousin Genevieve

My mom and Annika....

We socialized for a couple of hours before dinner and then after a yummy dinner we had our "entertainment" portion of the program, with my brother Jeff as the MC.  He gave a great speech (I will replace this shaky, crappy-quality video with the hi-def version after I get it from my dad)

The speech is kind of a tearjerker toward the end and if that wasn't enough sentimentality, next came my 49-minute-long video which included the interview/slideshow that I worked on all of last week (and months before that, scanning photos!). Definitely a tear-jerker! Everyone loved it and they definitely appreciated that I made them all copies of the DVD to keep.
Other than being a very hot, muggy day, the party was a hit and I can't imagine not being there to spend the special day with all of my mom's side of the family :)

Rick & Janeen's wedding....

Had a fun time on Saturday at Rick & Janeen's wedding!

Party for Bennett's Baptism :)

My nephew was baptized yesterday :)

I took a ton of photos at the church, but used Brian and Michelle's camera, so hopefully Michelle will post photos on her blog when she gets around to it.... she is finding life with three kids taking up all of her time and being the top priority, so we may not see her posting as much on her blog.

I did however, take quite a few pictures at the after-party.....

Can you believe how big Bennett is getting? He is two months old today!

My Gram and Gramp just came back from AZ (They have a summer home here in MN).  This was their first time meeting Bennett.  You would never know from this picture that just a few hours prior, my Gram was at the funeral of her sister :(

Me and Brian....

Molly and Michelle

Ms. Bianca  and then Annika with Erin and Stew

All aboard the Pink Panther Bus......

Last night was a really fun night.....a personal shower and bachelorette party for Kelly, one of my college girls.  Up until Friday night I wasn't sure if I'd even make it, having been sick earlier in the week and overworked the rest.  Laura (brown) told me I better go...it was too long since "party Kristi" had come out with them.  Too true...I couldn't let my girls down and I knew I'd have fun.  It was a pretty wild night, very few of the pics Laura and I took will actually make it to this blog!
We started with a personal shower for Kelly. Whoa, nelly! I think the "cleanest" gift that she received was this pink John Deere hat  (Kelly will soon be living on a farm after her wedding) I don't dare show you any of her other gifts, but you do realize this was a bachelorette party....use your imagination!

Here is Laura (blonde) with her 10-day old baby girl, Keira.  I'd kill to have a body like hers just days after having a baby! Laura didn't come out with us on the bus, but we sure missed her...

After the shower 19 of us girls piled into this bad boy: The Pink Panther bus. We started the night at Shamrock's, then to Moose Country to shake our booties, then finished the night at Bogart's to see the Johnny Holm Band.  Such a fun time!  I still had a ton of fun even though I kept it pretty tame...I tried to drink but they just didn't want to go down so good. Being there with everyone and seeing the drunken fun was worth it!

Me and Laura.  Notice the wavy hair? I used my three-barrell for the first time since this time. I kinda felt like a had a fro! I also bought a new outfit on the way to the party.  Gotta love that!

We got back to Kelly's sister's house late at night, ate a ton of munchies and then had a giant sleepover.  Laura and I stayed up most of the night, looking at all of our pictures and laughing our asses off! Ah, it was almost like the old days when we all lived together in college.  I miss those days so much when I hang with these girls.  I love them! I will post a group picture when Laura sends me her photos.

Sweet Baby B turns 1!!

Happy Birthday to my sweet little niece, Bianca, who turns one years old today!
Some of you have even been on this blogging adventure with me for a long time now and may remember when she was born. 
How fast this year went!
Today is also Annika's half-birthday (2 1/2 years old). Remember when Annika was born? It's really cool that I have been blogging long enough to document it all!

Brian and Michelle had a really nice party at their house yesterday, the girls had a lot of fun opening presents and playing with all the new toys! I tried to get a photo of them in the matching dresses I gave them for Christmas, but you can imagine how easy that was to manage! LOL

Bianca can be so sweet and her smile melts your heart.  Isn't she a doll?!

Baby Shower Photos....

Boy, I have really gotten lazy about blogging this year so far, haven't I? Well, I have been crazy busy at work and have had a bunch of other stuff going on.  Its kind of nice taking a little break....
Wanted to share some photos from a baby shower for Laura (blonde) last weekend.  Its always great to see my old college roommates and friends....we enjoyed catching up and eating yummy appetizers. Laura is likely to have her baby right around my birthday (Feb 11)...that would be fun!

Foosball Tourney XXI Recap....

As I mentioned previously, my family holds a Foosball Tournament every year when we all get together for the big Birthday Party.
This is serious business in my family, folks..... no kidding! For 21 years now we have been having the tourney and my dad is the official "Commissioner" of The  Foosball Tournament.
Partners are drawn from a name in the hat and then written into the tournament bracket system....

Winners from past years are recognized in a variety of ways:

The Championship pair must choose between them who will take home the coveted Toilet Bowl Trophy.  They are responsible for re-painting it for the next year's tourney.  Check out the 2008 version! Looks pretty good considering there are 20 coats of paint under the current look!

This year I was paired with my cousin's boyfriend, Tony.  He is really good...so good that we went all the way to the Championship Game!!! Unfortunately we lost :( It was nice having so many of my cousins at the party....this is just a fraction of us!

Wanted to share a few other family pics from that day.....

Erin & Stew, happily married!

Friday night was the long-awaited wedding of Michelle's little sister Erin and her sweetheart Stew.

What a beautiful wedding and reception!  Both were held at The Great Hall downtown St Paul.

Besides having Michelle as her gorgeous Maid-of-Honor, Erin also had several beautiful bridesmaids and Annika was the flower girl.

Ready for a few pics?

 

The full album is here.

And Annika had the time of her life dancing for nearly two hours straight! I don't know how she did it without a nap and nothing but a piece of cake to eat all night, but check out this cute video of her dancing and watching the lights!

It was a very special evening and I am glad Erin and Stew included my family on their special day :) Check out Michelle's blog for more wedding photos :)

Peanut Butter & Jelly

I know it may seem silly, but my friend Leslie and I have had these nicknames for each other since we were three years old.  She is Peanut Butter and I am Jelly.  You see, Les and I went to preschool together at Oak Hill Montessori and our moms carpooled since we lived so close to each other.  We would usually go to either my house or hers after preschool and whenever our mom's would ask us what we wanted for lunch, I would say "peanut butter" and she would finish it by saying "jelly"!

Now my dear old friend is on her way to motherhood...just 6-7 more weeks or so and her little one will arrive :)  One of Leslie's friends threw a baby shower last night at her home in Coon Rapids.  All went well (except the fact that I got lost because my exit off the freeway was closed and had to take a 10 mile detour).

I feel very fortunate that I was able to reconnect with one of my oldest (or longest?) friends.  It will be fun to see Leslie as a mother!

First wedding of 2007....

I am sure most of you who have been following this blog for the past couple of years are shocked that this past Saturday was just the first wedding I have attended in the 2007 calendar year! I think that I had already attended at least 5 weddings by August every other year for the past eight years now! LOL.

The wedding I attended was for Tina, a former classmate of mine.  She married a man named Rusty in a small outdoor ceremony in his parents backyard in New Richmond, WI.  Despite it being Hotter than Hades (the humidity was THICK), it was a nice ceremony and gathering.

A couple of our other friends, Miles & Becky, were also in attendance (Becky was actually one of two bridesmaids).  It was really nice to see them too!

 

Becky and me...sweating our you-know-whats-off!

I stayed at the party for a short while, but it was just too darn hot to sit outside.  Once the storm clouds started rolling in, we took that as our cue to hit the road!  Aye...how many more days until FALL???? As much as I love summer, I am ready for a cool-down :)

Baptism Pics...

My niece Bianca was baptized on Saturday.  Here are some pics from the ceremony and from the party afterward.

Bianca was so good...not a peep out of her!

Biance with her parents and Godparents (Nicky E & Steve K)

Michelle and me...

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Gram & Gramp (I have seen them more in the past few weeks than in the past year!)

and how cute is Annika?!

BBQ Party...

It was a lot of fun over at Jeff's place Friday night for his BBQ party!!  With a little help from his good friend Hucky, the two of them made 12 racks of ribs, a 16 lb Beef Brisket, and a couple dozen brats.  Delish! I made fresh pico de gallo and also a couple of trays of layered taco bean dip with tortilla chips and my mom made her broccoli salad and several strawberry cheesecake pies (with graham cracker crust) for dessert.  Hucky's wife Toya made potato salad and Coleslaw slaw.  Everything was so good it vanished pretty fast, especially the brisket!! There were about 40-50 of Jeff's friends/family at the party, including my Gram and Gramp! It was nice to see them now that they are in MN for the summer  (I hadn't seen them since last October).

I also invited Sonja and her daughter Angelina to the BBQ.....  Angelina and Annika got to know each other and played for quite awhile.  So, so, cute!  They were taking turns getting a ride" in this vintage 60's chair (made by a well-known artist, Herman Miller)

The fam all left Jeff's BBQ at around 9pm, but that is when the fun partying was just beginning!  I ended up staying until around midnight :) Here is the the album of my pics.  Glad you had a nice birthday, Jeff!

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Looking forward to more BBQ's at Jeff's house in the future!

Hard to stay away...

Its only been a week since I last had a meaningful post and I thought I would be fine to let it go for awhile, but what can I say?  I love blogging too much to stay away too long.

Does that make you happy to hear?!

Thanks to all of you who were concerned about my apparent hiatus.  Nothing to worry about! There was some concern over how much time I spend on my computer.....TOO MUCH time.  Time that I should be spending on other priorities when I actually have time to spare.  Its hard though.... there is just so much to do on my computer....checking e-mails, IMing, blogging, reading all the blogs in my blogroll (I have about a gazillion), keeping up with Scrappjazz message boards & gallery, online shopping, MySpace, Facebook, tracking my finances & paying bills, photo editing and uploading, scanning and stitching layouts.....I could go on & on.  How have I let myself get so wrapped up in all this stuff???  Is there a way I can balance all of this and continue to lead a busy life? To maintain a healthy relationship with those who mean the most to me?

I've had all sorts of stuff to blog about this week, try to make this short and sweet :)

We had a BLIZZARD last night.  Like12 inches of snow.  Whoa!

Instead of staying home all safe and warm and snug, I went to a party in honor of Lanee's 30th birthday...good thing we live so close or I would not have gone.  The roads were treacherous because the plows couldn't possibly keep up with the blowing snowfall.  Only half the guests were able to make it because of the weather, but we still had a lot of fun drinking, playing cards and eating a ton of good food.  Me duele el estomago hoy!

Lanee had several beautiful flower arrangements and while I was trying to get a shot of these pretty lilies that were in her bathroom, I attempted a self-portrait in the mirror.

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Earlier on Saturday I went to Bri & Mich's to scrap with Michelle.  We both got some really cute pages done :)

Ms. B is getting big!  It was fairly easy to scrap with her around because she was content sleeping/laying in her little chair.  Annika, however, couldn't resist all the beautiful supplies we had strewn all over the dining room.  Can you blame her?  Too much new, fun stuff to look at and touch.  It'll be great when she is old enough to do some scrappies with us!

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Here is one other funny picture of my cat Phoenix.  He sleeps like this all the time....he is part dog, ya know.

Have a great week :)

Happy Birthday to me!

Here I am, 30 years old!  That sounds ancient to anyone 28 and under, but really, it doesn't feel any older than 29, or 28.  I don't even have any wrinkles, and maybe just a few gray hairs (which I attribute more to teaching than old age!).  LOL!

Had my voice back and felt good enough to keep my birthday plans last night...dinner at Boca Chica on the West Siiiiiiiiiiiiiide.  This place is fantabulous!!!!!!  Authentic Mexican. My new favorite :) I was feeling good enough to actually eat a couple of tacos and have a few drinks.

It was a nice dinner with some of my best friends (Erick, Roger and Troy too!).....

 

There were musicians that serenaded our table and sang to me.....

If you would like to see the rest of the pics from our dinner, check out this album.

One last thing, new banner!

I think today is going to be a great day!

A few pics from Mary's bday...

We had a really great time on Wed night when our little group went out to dinner at Rudy's Red Eye to celebrate Mary's bday.  Here we are (minus our men) ....not a great picture, and some of the group couldn't make it, but it was us in the moment...

Mary and Troy...

and how about this birthday dessert??

After several hours at the restaurant, we all went back to L&R's to hang out some more.  Good times!

Is it Wed. already??!! Time flies...

Wow, this week has flown by so far! I guess the expression is true, that "time flies when you're having fun".  Lots of fun so far this week.  Had company over on Sunday afternoon and then later we went out for pizza with Lanee & Rog.  Had dinner with them again on Monday night....homemade spaghetti...yummmm! I know I've said it before, but it is great that they live so close and like to get together so often (usually last-minute).

Last night Brian & Michelle had our families over for homemade pizza.  This date had been scheduled for about a month now...originally it was a "night before baby party" since Bianca was scheduled to be born by C-sect today.  Since she came 11 days early, this was a "welcome home, Bianca party" instead!  Also a chance for us to see my parents before they leave this Thursday for Florida (gone for 5 weeks).  The guest of honor was one sleepy baby....

Unlike her baby sister, Ms. Annika was wide awake.  I just can't believe how cute and sweet she is!!! And funny too....I totally need to take some video of her talking gibberish.  She has a lot to say, you just can't understand any of it!!

Got home and found all four of my cats chillin together on the bed...

Don't I have a good looking family of felines??!!

Had to change my banner again.  Can you see it up there? Sometimes I have to republish my site a couple of times before the changes take effect.  Loved this photo I found on Flickr of the snow in Tucson last week.  I like to use the "print screen" function to capture the image...that way I will have a record of what banners and schemes I used in the history of this blog.  I wish I had learned how to do that two years ago when i started blogging!  I love having a widescreen monitor too, you can see so much more :)

Looking forward to a couple of new features I am adding to my blog.  I will tell you more about it when I do what I want to do :)

Looking forward to dinner with my girls tonight to celebrate Mary's birthday.

Ciao!

Pics from the Bachelorette Party....

Another bachelorette party!! Another friend getting married :)

This time the guest of honor was Mandy G, a friend of mine from high school who will be getting married in mexico in a few weeks.  At around 4pm Bradie, Jessie and I took a cab from Bradie's house to downtown St Paul where we met the rest of the party at Pazzaluna for a few drinks before heading across the street to the Lowry Theater to see We Gotta Bingo, an interactive dinner theater.  The show was alright....not as good as I had hoped it would be.  We played four games of bingo and were served Simek's-quality lasagna for dinner.  We all agreed that the dining experience was a disappointment, but it was a nice, different idea than the typical bachelorette party. The show was done by 7:30!

We went to Great Waters Brewing Company after the show for a few drinks and to hold a personal shower for Mandy.  She got some really great lingerie! Later we went to Fhima's for a few more drinks.  This place was cool but VERY laid back....those of us who were still left wanted to go somewhere in St Paul that we could shake our booties....so about 7-8 of us found a ride and headed to the Wild Onion on Grand Ave around midnight.  We definitely did some booty shakin' up in there!  All was well until bar-close when Bradie realized that someone had stolen her purse.  Her gorgeous purse she bought in Rome with all her credit cards, ID, check book, car keys and Jessie's brand-new celly.  Effin bummer, it was!!!  The bouncers at that place were pretty big A-holes about it too.  Effers!!!  We took a cab back to Bradie's and finally went to bed at around 4:30 am.  Woke up the next morning at 9am.  Not enough sleep at all!

***ETA: I removed the slideshow because it was slowing things down a bit.  If you would like to see the rest of the pics from the bachelorette party, check out this album!

So that's a brief review of the party.  Congrats to Mandy on her upcoming tropical wedding, wish I could be there!!

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Other stuff:

**I wanted to point out a fabulous new feature that I have added to my blog.  If you run your mouse over any link that is highlighted, you will see a preview of that site.  Try it out...pretty cool, huh??  My fellow bloggers can install this feature by going to Snap.com and getting an html code.  I love it!

**My deepest sympathies to my friend Lori who buried her mother today.  So, so sad.  Lori, I am so sorry I wasn't at the funeral...if I had known I would've been there in a heartbeat.  Love you. Call me if you need anything.

**A layout I did awhile back but forgot to post.  The background paper has a scallopped edge, but you totally can't see it with the white background of the blog :(

** I discovered how to use Photoshop Actions after finding this site.  Way cool!!!!  Check this out:

Have a nice week everyone!!

Pizza & A Movie....

On Saturday afternoon I went to see Night at the Museum (Ben Stiller) with my family, in honor of my dad's birthday.  We do something special every year on his birthday, usually pizza and a movie.  The movie was pretty cute and enjoyable (unless you have people behind you who have an obnoxious laugh and tend to laugh at everything).  Julie, I totally forgot about the mini-donuts! Maybe next time :)

Afterward we went to Davanni's for deep-dish pizza.  They are the best local place for deep-dish...I highly recommend the "pink" sauce which is just an extra garlic sauce that goes under the cheese. Next come all the ingredients.  The chunky red sauce goes on top of the pizza so not to make the crust soggy, of course.  Totally delish!

Only took two pics this time.  First the guest of honor.  You may remember this post a year ago about his famous birthday.

And here is the other. Sorry Bri & Mich, don't know why I didn't take one of you guys? Probably 'cuz I took so many at Christmas! LOL

What do you think about me with my wavy hair? I bought a 3-barrel curling iron so I could do my hair the way that Sonja sometimes does hers. (Its totally cute on her!)  Just wanted to give it a try, not sure if it is a good look for me or not? I had perms most of my life so this isn't that big of a shock to see myself with big hair.  I don't think its that bad (just different), but E thought it looked kind of crazy. Men are so weird about change sometimes! I had to take another picture once I got home because I am not sure if/when I will ever do this again!  If you think its a nice change, please do me a favor and let me know :)

Today is New Year's Eve and I am not sure what (if anything) we are going to do tonight.  Nobody has anything planned and I really don't want to go to a bar or be out on the road with all the losers who will be drinking and driving.  I've had terrible headaches all week, so I kind of want to see how I feel.

Hope everyone else has fun tonight...please be safe!

Steak & Lobster

Had a special birthday dinner planned at  Morton's The Steakhouse, downtown Mpls.  We invited Lanee & Rog to come with us (last-minute thing) and despite the crazy expense of the place, they happily agreed to join us.

Morton's was definitely the nicest and most expensive restaurant any of us had ever eaten at! From the valet parking to the complimentary coat-check to the dim-lit atmosphere, this place was a class-act.  We started our meal with a lovely white wine.....they had so many nice expensive varieties, I cannot remember exactly what we ordered, but it was really good!  Instead of just giving you a normal menu to choose from, the server brought a cart to our table to show us all of the cuts of meat, live lobsters and whole vegetables that would be used to make our meal.  Everything on the menu was ala carte and they were not shy at all about their prices!!

I  ordered a Ribeye steak.  Rog got the New York Strip and Lanee had crab cakes.  This was the "small" ribeye I ordered and it was the best steak I have ever had in my life!!!!!  We also had sauteed mushrooms and potatoes on the side.

As if the steak wouldn't be enough,  I ordered a jumbo lobster tail to share.  Why not over-indulge at that point????

Did I mention yet the second bottle of wine that we ordered with our steaks? A fabulous Pinot Noir.

We had a wonderful time :) Extra glad we had the giftcard when we saw the bill.  With tip included, it was $434 for the four of us!!

Lanee & Roger: Wedding Recap

Saturday turned out to be much nicer (weather-wise) than many of us had expected, given the cold dreary weather we had all of last week.  It was only about 50 degrees, but the sun was shining and the wind was mild....not too bad for an outdoor wedding! The wedding was short and sweet....Lanee & Sonja's brother Matt played his guitar and sang them a couple of love songs.  It was so sweet!!! I also had a job during the ceremony...leading the guests in The Lord's Prayer :)

Of course I have pictures to share, although I didn't take nearly as many as I usually do..... (Kim, have you looked at yours yet??  Please send them to me!)

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Their reception was at the White Bear Country Inn.  Yummy dinner, the 617 House Band was jammin, lots of dancing and drinking.  Great being able to celebrate this joyous event with my best friends!!

Here are a few others.......

Matt & Jacquie........Lanee, Kim and Mary

Me and E (who HATES having his picture taken and refused to smile.  Grrrr!)

and Taylor, Mary's daughter.

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Mary & Roger......Lanee and I

Lanee & Sonja's dad plays the harmonica and played a few songs with the band....he was awesome!!!

We stayed at the reception until it was over at midnight.  I had a lot of fun and I paid for it most of Sunday! L & R are leaving today for their honeymoon on Madeline Island :)

Have a great week!

Surprise shower!

On Sunday afternoon, my best friends and I threw a surprise bridal shower luncheon for Lanee (which is pronounced Lah-nay, not Lan-nee) at Mary's house.  Only it turned out not to be a surprise because Lanee figured out that we were up to something.  Or Sonja spilled the beans!? Oh well, it was still a great time!  We had a taco salad bar (thanks to Decoy's in WBL for making us the yummy shells) and spent most of the time chatting and eating. I realize I should have taken this picture before I mixed everything up in the salad...it looks kind of gross, but it was very good!

Check out the full album of bridal shower pics. I am really looking forward to our girls retreat (me, Lanee, Sonja, Kim and Mary..plus Lanee's cousin Olga) this coming weekend at Madeline, Island (Lake Superior).  Going to be a great bonding experience....I hope!!!! Aye, we have all been BFF since Jr. High and we have been through everything together.  As much as we all love each other, we don't always get along.  The five of us haven't all been together to spend time like this in a very long time, so this is going to be very special:)

After the shower, I drove up to my parents house for Sunday Dinner with Gram and Gramp.  They had all come at noon to watch the Vikes game on my dad's new big screen HD TV.  (The Vikings ended up winning in OT 16-13....E was at the game with a buddy, but I of course, did not see any of it being at the shower). 

Look at how big and adorable Annika is getting!  And Michelle looks wonderful for 20 weeks! We will hopefully know by the end of the week if the baby is a boy or a girl.  She and Brian leave for Maui on Friday morning...omg, how fun would it be to buy some baby Hawaiian clothes?! Annika would be so stinkin cute in a little hula outfit!

Me and Jeffrey with Gram and Gramp. They head back to Scotsdale in just a few weeks.  I hope I can go down there to visit this coming year!

Kara and Jesse Wedding

Kara and Jesse.......Happily married as husband and wife.

So much in love!

And I couldn't be happier for them :)

They got married at St. Mark's Cathedral in Minneapolis.  Gorgeous! The bells chimed for a good 15-20 minutes after the ceremony.  Such a pretty sound!

Their reception immediately followed at Windows, on the 50th floor of the IDS Center.  What a cool place, especially at night! They had cocktails and Hors d' Oeuvres in one big room for an hour or so until dinner was called, then they shifted us all to the dining room. 

Dinner was excellent! The choices had been walleye, chicken or filet mignon.  Filet all the way for me, baby! I was so full from dinner but I had to try the cake...amazing! There was one of these on every table.

We ate the cake while watching Kara & Jesse's wedding video....pics of each of them growing up and then pics of them together.  Very cute!  The

After dinner we shifted back to the room we had been in earlier where the bars and dance floor were set up.  Dancing and drinking all night long! Fun times.

I took too many pictures to put them all in this post, but they can all be viewed here: Kara and Jesse wedding pictures. 

Two of the coolest features of the night were the chocolate fountain

and the Photo Booth.  Mary and I were lucky enough to catch Kara when it was our turn so that she was able to jump in with us!

Not only did they have a fairy-tale wedding, they are also leaving tomorrow for a fairy-tale honeymoon.  Two weeks in Italy and then two weeks in Fiji. 

Congratulations, guys! xoxoxoxo

Bachelorette Party and a whole lot more!

Ahhh, the past few days have been a blur.  A blur because I have been out having fun and not getting enough sleep for like the past 4 nights now! Before I post a million pics, I feel like I need to apologize to a few friends who have been neglected lately......Lindsay T, sorry I didn't e-mail you on your b-day....please see tag below :) Keith, sorry I haven't called you back.  Bradie, we will try to connect or at least talk in the next few days.  Susan, dinner next week works for me if you have time before your big European vacation.  Aunt Patti in AZ, sorry I haven't responded to your e-mail.  Jenny, I have been meaning to call you.  I could probably go on and on!

***Now that that has been said, lets move on to the fun stuff... Kara's bachelorette party was a ton of fun! We had a personal shower for her at a hotel in Stillwater with tons of food and drinks.  At around 10pm the Coach Limo came to get our group of 14-15 girls and we went to the Freight House for a few.  Ran in to my girls Jesse and Sarah (and their husbands) out there, so that was fun! The limo then took us to Myth Nightclub where we had a prime VIP area overlooking the stage complete with our own waiter, bottles of booze and a mini keg.  I think everyone had a jolly good time drinking all that liquor! We ran into some people from highschool, Billy and Trina, who were out celebrating after their wedding reception earlier that night with a bunch of other people we know.  Congrats to them for tying the knot after 9-10 years!  Here are some pics from the night.....

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***I wasn't feeling too hot on Sunday, so stayed on the couch and read an old book by Janet Evanovich, Full House.  Kind of a cute story....not as good as Stephanie Plum books though.  Later that evening our friends Rusty and Alex came over with their baby, 3 week-old Kylie Lynn Marie. She is pretty sweet! And yes, I seriously have about 20-30 babies in my life.  Its crazy!

***Here is a big shout-out to my girl Lindsay T for her b-day!!!!!!! I hope you has a fabulous day! Did you see your birthday thread at 2Peas on Saturday!? Hope so! xoxoxox

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***I also forgot to post this layout I did almost two weeks ago of me and Jenny.  This is the first and only layout that has gotten some "new paper" love.  I am loving this new Basic Grey.  Can't wait to find some time to work on a whole lot more cute layouts of my fun times of late! The Bohemia line by MME is calling to me...

***Speaking of scrapping, I have been closely following the Dares' Last Scrapper Standing competition.  WOW.  Blown away by all the amazing talent and effort of all the girls who entered that baby.  I couldn't possibly pick or predict a winner because the work is ALL amazing!!  I was totally disappointed and shocked that my Scrapjazz girls Christina P and  Kelli J were eliminated after the 3rd and 3.5th rounds.  Their stuff totally rocked! 

***Muchas Gracias for all the nice comments about my sassy new hair.  Even E likes it! Hopefully I can work on a banner and new color scheme this week...this blog is ready for a change again!

***I visited with Lanee on Saturday afternoon after I got my hair done.  Her surgery went okay and she is doing pretty good, but has a lot of pain.  She showed me some of her final wedding stuff....only 6 or 7 weeks away! I cannot wait for our girls weekend up North in September.

***I am back at work.  Met some staff at my new school.  Going to be a very busy week getting ready for school to start next Tuesday.  We are also looking forward to a visit from Erick's cousins Dana (Kevin) and Jasmine this upcoming weekend.  That means we will get to go back to the State Fair this weekend when they are here!

Been Busy & Discovered Google Earth

Just got on my computer for the first time in almost 3 days!

Too tired to post all my fabulous pics from the past couple of days, but we'll start with a few from Georgia's (Jeff & Toni's little girl) 4th birthday party on Saturday afternoon...

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And here is one from Sunday afternoon.  My parents had our family up to the lake, along with my mom's cousin Vicki, her husband Eric, and their three girls, Nicolet, Gabriella and Isabelle.  Here are the girls with Annika!

I just discovered the coolest Program in the WORLD.......Google Earth!!!  For those of you who do not know about it, it is a virtual 3-D earth that is composed of pictures taken from a satellite.  You can pinpoint any location in the World (by giving an address or city and state or country) and zoom down to that location to see an aerial view.  I found my house, my parents', family in AZ, the schools I work at, etc. It gives you the exact coordinates of each location and you can "mark" specific locations so that you can go back and find them at a later time. The only drawbacks I have found is that you can't zoom super close to any spot without losing some resolution, and the pictures were taken like 2-3 years ago, so it does not show what the earth looks like currently.  New Orleans looks pre-Katrina.  Also, you can print or e-mail images, but you cannot save them as jpg files, which is  a bummer.  I was about to show ya'll the view of my neighborhood!  It is overall a very cool program!  Here you can download it for free as a program.  Try it out and let me know what you think and where you travel to.......so far I have seen the pyramids in Egypt, The Statue of Liberty,  Paris France and Barcelona Spain.  It is also great for directions and other points of Interest.  Have fun!

Baby Shower....

Cass and I went to Mandie's baby shower together on Saturday afternoon...we had a nice time and Mandie got tons of great gifts :) She has about 4 weeks to go before her little Aubrionna (sp?) is born.  Looking great!

Check out how stinking cute this little "diaper cake" is! I do not know the name of the woman who made it to give her credit, but I do know it was "Terri's mom". It is embellished with baby socks, teething rings, etc.  So cute!

 

Mandie also got these mini "Ruby Slippers" (although they are hot pink, not red) from Cassie.  How cute!! A little bling-bling for her baby girl!

I took a few more candid pics of that day, but here are a couple posed ones too.

Me, Mandie, Raylene and Kara.  Is there anyone who could photoshop that painting OUT of the background for me?  Let me know and I will send you the original jpg file.  Thanks in advance...I know it is probably very easy to do, but I lack the skills!

and me and Cass.....

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Speaking of babies, I wanted to say CONGRATULATIONS to our friends Rusty and Alex who had a little baby girl last week.  Can't wait to meet their little peanut! They brought her over on Saturday but I was actually at Mandie'e baby shower and missed it!

And since we're talking about babies, what do you all think of Baby Suri?  I mean, do any of you have theories why no one has seen Tom (Cruise) and Katie's 4 -month- old baby yet??  Pretty weird, huh? Heather came over on Saturday night with a bunch of gossip mags, so then we tried doing a little research.  Read this blog thread and all the comments.....apparently people have many opinions! Does this baby even exist??  Is it healthy or have some weird birth defect? This is probably OLD news to most, but I am just picking up on it now!

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Heather and I went to see Pirates of the Caribbean yesterday but it was sold out.  Waaaaaahhh!  She made me see Talladega Nights with Will Farrell instead. Save your $$$$ people....it is cheesy and not very funny at all!!

Two more weeks until I return to work.  Man, had this been a B-O-R-I-N-G summer!!!!  My knee has been hurting a LOT more these past couple days.  Probably because I am walking on it more and trying to increase my ROM. No fun at all!!  I think I am finally in the clear to submerse my leg though, so I hope to be swimming and finally getting a tan these last two weeks.

Have a sweet week, ya'll!

PS.....this blog hit 40,000 hits this weekend!

Hola Amigos

Hi! You think I would have so much time to update this blog at the moment, but I am really just lazy!

Thanks to everyone who commented on the album I made for Kara....I worked really hard of it and am proud of the way it turned out! And I think it is safe to say that Kara *loved* it!!

Here are a couple of pictures from her shower on Sunday afternoon.  We had a really nice time!

Leah, Mary, Mandie, Me and Kara.....

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I started a new book yesterday called The Rome Affair by Laura Caldwell.  This is one of the books that Kristin Harmel (who wrote How to Sleep with a Movie Star) recommended for her book club this summer.  Whoa! It is a psychological thriller about a young married couple and the wife's crazy best friend.   I found myself up until like 3am last night reading it about half-way through. Can't wait to see what happens next!

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I also tried to get caught up on the blogs I read last night and came across a very interesting link on Kristi Conte's website.....Blogshares.  It is an Fantasy Stockmarket for Weblogs!  What does that mean, exactly? I am still trying to figure it out, but this is the gist.  Anyone who has a blog can make it "public" and people can buy and sell shares for different blogs.  5000 shares per blog! Popular blogs can be worth a pretty penny, because each share is worth more money.  Each person gets $500 to start with and can buy/trade available stock.  Although I have no idea what I am doing, it sounds pretty fun!!  Anyone with a blog should get in on this action!!  One thing I have found though, is that that website is kind of hard to navigate.  Try it and tell me what you think!!  Anyone already have their blog listed with blogshares???

I guess that is all for now...gotta go run some errands!

Brunch for Mom with a really cool view!

My wonderful mother...

In honor of Mother's Day, my dad made reservations for us to take my mom to Windows on Minnesota for brunch.  This is on the 50th floor of the IDS building, downtown Minneapolis. (Unfortunately (for us) Brian and Michelle are on vacation in San Francisco and couldn't make it.  E was doing something with his family and couldn't come with either.

I had never been up to the top of the IDS, but had been wanting to check it out ever since my friend Kara booked it for her wedding reception this coming September.  Very cool place!  From the top we could get a pretty good view of the city.  Here is one of the University of St Thomas, where I went to graduate school.....

.......and here is one of the Metrodome, aka "The big, inflatable toilet" where the Minnesota Twins and Vikings play. (If all goes well with the Stadium referendum's around here, this place will be OLD NEWS soon!)

Its funny....50 stories doesn't seem that high at all after being at the top of the Stratosphere (110 stories) in Vegas last month!

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We stopped by my brother Jeff's house after brunch.  He wanted to show us his roommate's new African Gray Parrot (only 5 months old).  He is going to teach this bird to talk! They can say up to 1000 words :) She likes to give Jeff kisses before crapping all over him! LOL. Jeff...don't kill me for posting these! Its just that you have such a way with birds.....  hahahahaha

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I got some awesome Mail Love from Muriel and Alex on Friday.........

My birthday tags!  Thanks again for all who made them :) It was fun to finally get them!

Wedding Reunion

My fourth and final wedding since August has now come and gone.  My sweet Laura Blonde is now a wifey! She and Jeff got married last Saturday in a small town south of the Twin Cities.  It was a beautiful, warm fall day.  The ceremony was held in this very cute, old church:

Here are the newlyweds immediately after the ceremony.  They make an amazing couple!

Me with Laura Brown and Laura Blonde.  My college roommates....some of my fondest memories are with these beautiful young ladies! And yes, they are named after their hair-color! That's how we told them apart while we all lived together.

Me holding Laura Brown's new baby, Noah.  Just 4 weeks old and one adorable little guy!

A couple of our other dear college friends, Sally, Kelly and Lindsay.  They made such gorgeous bridesmaids!

Other friends:  Greg & Megan, Heather and Davis

We had time to kill between the wedding and the reception, so several guests went across the street to the local drinking establishment.  Good times!

The reception was about 20 miles away and when I was nearly there, the power steering in my car went out.  I recalled my incident that I talked about in this post last June Do you think this is a sign? when the serpentine belt on my car snapped and I needed a replacement.  I turned on the A/C to check and sure enough, it was blinking like it had before.  Dammit!  I was very close to the reception hall so I decided to figure out what to do about it once I go there.  My luck couldn't have been better that day because directly across the parking lot from the reception hall was a Tires Plus.  It was 5:15 and they had just closed at 5, but two young guys were still there and took a look at my car.  It was indeed the serpentine belt, but it had only slipped off and had not snapped.  After 45 minutes of their own time, these boys (Cody and Chris) were able to fix it for me so that I could attend the reception AND make it home safely! Dinner was great... Especially since I was starving and had thought just an hour earlier that I would end up missing it because of that darn car!

I left the reception shortly after 8....I rushed home to find a costume and hook up with my other friends just in time to leave for Matt & Colleen's party.  A very busy but fun day!

PS   I went out looking at cars on Sunday afternoon.  I might be making a move soon.

Thanks for looking!

Baptized!

My baby niece, Annika, got baptized on Sunday!  I had not been to Mass in such a long time, but it felt really good to be there...the Priest seemed like a really cool guy.  I am one of the Godmothers (along with Michelle's sister and best friend) and my brother Jeff is the Godfather. Annika didn't make a peep throughout the entire mass, she is such a sweet baby!

Here I am holding my sweet Goddaughter in her pretty little christening gown:

Seeing that this was such a special occassion, Bri & Mich had invited many family and friends over to their new home, just a few miles from the church, for brunch.  What a treat! We had bacon, sausage, three kinds of baked egg dishes that Michelle's mom made and then my mom made several pans of her famous pecan caramel rolls...a secret family recipe :) Mmmmm....are you drooling yet??!

I also thought this would be a good opportunity to take a family photo:

I have mentioned this before, but I have a very large, Catholic family.  Both of my parents have many brothers and sisters.  A few of them were at Brian and Michelle's house yesterday.  While I was there,  I found out that a cousin of mine on my mom's side just had a baby.  This cousin and I used to be very close while growing up but then we both went away to college and grew apart.  Then four years ago her father got into a big argument with my grandparents and ever since their family has exiled themselves from the rest of the family.  It is very sad that this happened, but I have gotten over it.  I guess my attitude is that if they don't care about the rest of us, then I am not going to make any effort either. I moved on a long time ago.  My grandparents feel terrible about the whole situation and want nothing more than to make amends, but that family wants nothing to do with any of us.  I am angry at their attitude and the way they have treated my grandparents.  I never thought something like this would happen in my family.  And now my long lost cousin has had another baby that I will probably never see. Se la Vie....

So what else is new?

****I HATE Mondays.  No matter how much I relax over the weekend or if I decide to go "all out", I am always exhausted on Mondays.  I hate getting out of bed at the crack of dawn when the sun doesn't  come up until after I am already on the road or at work....and then it it is often dark when I leave to go home.   I hate it when day light savings time ends!!!!!!

***I am glad I took it easy this weekend because I have a long week ahead of me.....have to work late Mon-Wed.  And it is only Monday!!  Why in the heck did I agree to teaching the after school program??  Every year I say I am not going to do it again, but I have taught either a morning or an after school program every single year that I have been teaching.  Remind me not to say "yes" to doing this next year!!

***I spent almost the entire day on Saturday working on my scrapbooking while E had some of his buddies over to play video games.  I have three more layouts started that I will hopefully finish sometime this week.

***I have gotten addresses from most of you girls who want in on the post-card swap.  I think there are 8 of us.  If anyone else wants to join in on the action, drop me a line with your address.  We are sending postcards to each other from where we live!

*** A friend of mine just told me that she is expecting a baby! She and her husband had been trying desperately for 4 years.  I am soooo happy for them.  Yay!!!!!!

That's all, Folks!

My 3rd wedding in 5 weeks!

It seems like weddings always come in streaks for me and I am toward the end of this season's weddings......Mandie and Jason's was the third in just 5 weeks! They got married at a church in Shoreview and had their reception at the Double Tree Hotel in St Louis Park. Everything was beautiful! Mandie looked amazing and had one of the most gorgeous bouquets I have ever seen.... there were over 30 pale purple roses surrounded by a row of white star-gazer lilies and one in the middle too.  Incredible...this picture doesn't do it justice! The bridesmaids (Kara, Raylene and Herlie) also had gorgeous flowers and beautiful purple gowns :)

Crazy about Purple!!!!

Mandie and I both share purple as our favorite color, so I was thrilled to see so many accents and details in purple.....myself included! (I went on a shopping spree Saturday morning). Cassie (another purple-lover) was on the same wave-length and wore purple too!  Here are some pics from the evening....

***I am now on wedding vacation until October 29th when Laura Blonde (my college roommate) gets married!

Matty got married!

Today (Sunday) has been a hungover, tired, lazy, waste of a day! I have no idea what I am still doing up at 1am because I am so effin tired! I had a headache most of the day and couldn't bear to turn my computer on until just awhile ago......

Matt and Colleen's wedding last night was very beautiful and very fun! Colleen looked gorgeous...what a fabulous gown she wore! And Matt looked pretty hot himself :) The ceremony was held at the pavillion on Raspberry Island in St Paul at 6pm and the reception was at the Boat Club on the same island immediately following.  I thought this was a really cool place to throw a party....terraces on either side of the building, overlooking the Mississippi River on both sides, with a large dance floor in the middle.  The food was great...buffet-style catering by the Radisson Riverfront.  Excellent tortellini!

The free beer and wine helped everyone loosen up....the boys got pretty fun as the night went on....I love dancing at weddings! My heels were killing me, but you wouldn't know it if you saw me and the girls out there on the floor! I tried to get some great shots of Matt's dad, Mr. H, doing the "YMCA", etc, but then my darn camera battery died.  I hate it when that happens! Good thing this was late in the evening, because I was still able to get some nice pictures:)

We ended up staying at the reception until it was time to close it down for the night....a shuttle brought us all back to the Radisson where the funnest of our "group" stayed and partied until 3 am.  It was a very late night!

**I heard that my class reunion last night was also a lot of fun.  Too bad I couldn't do both...hope everyone who went enjoyed themselves:)

And now I cannot keep my eyes open and need to get to bed!!

Roommates: Back Together Again

On Sunday afternoon I attended the baby shower of my college roommate, Laura Brown.  It was very cool to see several of our college friends, including Cora, another one of our roommates.  In fact, this was the first time that Laura (blonde), Laura (brown), Cora (isn't that a mouthful?!) and I have all been together since we lived together nine years ago! I thought it would be fun to do a comparison shot:

Laura has definitely "popped" since I saw her two months ago...whoa mama! There were three other pregnant women at the shower and Laura's sister also had her newborn twins along...I told you I am surrounded by babies!!

**I had dinner with E and a friend at Khan's Mongolian Barbeque.  This place is so good! They have a buffet line of raw veggies, sliced frozen meats, noodles and different "sauces" for you to choose from and then you bring it to the chef's who will cook it up for you on the hot "Mongolian Barbeque" (which is not like a grill, more like a very hot skillet).  If you like stir-fry, this is the place!

**Went to see The Devil's Rejects with Erick and Rich.  This is the 2nd movie by Rob Zombie, not as scary as his first one, House of 1,000 Corpses.  Too much unnecessary killing for my liking.  Lots of creepy characters!

**Saw the best film ever, Baraka.  Have any of you seen this yet?? It tops my "You have to see this!" list.  It is hard to describe what it is about, so I am going to steal someone else's review:

""Baraka" is a stunning visual essay on the relationship between Man and the Earth, set to haunting music from around the world. Without the use of dialogue and merely relying on a series of hypnotic images, this film has a quiet eloquence about it, following in the footsteps of its predecessors, "Koyaanisquatsi" and "Powaqqatsi".

If interested, please read more of this Review:Baraka.  The film is incredible... better than anything I have ever seen on National Geographic or at the Omni Theater. Go out and look for this and let me know what you think!

Mary's Wedding

We had a beautiful day on Friday for Mary's wedding.  She and Troy were married at Albertson's Farm in Stillwater, a beautiful piece of real-estate overlooking the St Croix River, complete with flower gardens.  I was not able to take many pictures at the farm because they had hired a professional and he wasn't going for it.  Waaaaaaaaaahhhh!

Immediately following the ceremony, those of us in the wedding party hopped in the limo and made a stop at PD Pappy's bar while Mary & Troy went up to Pioneer Park for more pictures. Let the party begin!!

The reception was at the Hampton Inn in Shoreview.  Delicious meal of Sirloin Steak or Champagne Chicken.  That chicken was delish!!! It was great to be there with all my best friends and my parents too!

Mary's Bachelorette Party

Have I got your attention yet??? LOL. 

I promised I would show you the project that Sonja and I were up to.....

These awesome, handmade rhinestoned, t-shirts!!!! Sonja worked very hard to make them for us and they turned out awesome!!!!!!! Very bling-bling

We got an awesome room at the Radisson Riverfront downtown St Paul and then went bar hopping.  We sold suckers throughout the night to make some $$ for Mary.  All was fun until we hooked up with the Bachelor Party later in the evening.  Remind me NEVER to do that.  RUINS the FUN! And THAT is all I am going to say about THAT!! For those of you who were there, you know what I am talking about!!!

Showered with Love (and lots of HOT weather!)

One just never knows what the weather will be like 6-8 weeks ahead of time.  So how was I supposed to know that the day I had set for Mary's outdoor Bridal Shower would be in the middle of the longest heat streak in probably a hundred years or so?! We had the shower at Pioneer Park in Stillwater, overlooking the St. Croix River.  Thank Goodness for a nice breeze and a covered shelter to give us a little more relief from the 100' temps.  We had a pretty good turnout despite the intense heat.  Thanks to everyone who came! I know it meant a lot to Mary :)

Sonja, Kim, Lanee and I  brought a ton of ice and water and had some great food too.  Sonja thought ahead and brought a bunch of squirt guns which Taylor kept filled and came around to "refresh our feet".  It felt very nice!

Here are some random pics from the shower:

****As I mentioned before, Pioneer Park has a very beautiful view of the River.  There were two wedding parties that came to the park to take pictures while we held the shower.  What do you guys think of this dress????

My Cousin's Wedding and the After Party

I was in a rush all morning, but somehow I made it to the church where my cousin Theresa was to be married at 11am.  The church was about an hour away from my house, but I stopped and picked up my brother Jeff along the way to keep me company.

The ceremony was just about a half hour and then the guests were invited downstairs in the church for a light lunch reception.  I helped Theresa out by taking many pictures of her guests, half of which were probably our family members (our dads came from a large Catholic family).  One thing the family was very excited about was getting to meet my cousin Dave and his wife Kim's identical twin boys.  Liam is the cutie on the left and Aidan is the sweetie on the right! The boys will be just three months old this week and have gone from 4lbs to 15 lbs.  Holy smokes, these boys are cute! And those chubby little cheeks and rolls everywhere!We hung out for just a couple of hours and then saw Andrew and Theresa off...

Since it was not even 2 pm yet and we had many of the Sauer family members together, we all went to my uncle Joe's house for an after party.  I had even more fun over there! Many people bright a change of clothes and food to do a pot-luck dinner. Theresa's mom and dad were staying at Joe's for the evening, as was Theresa's sister Katie. Katie lives in Boulder, Co where she is conducting her final research which will earn her a PhD in Economics.  Katie is one of the funnest, coolest and smartest girls I know...we used to be roomies in college when we were working on our undergrads.  Here is a cute one of us this afternoon sipping away like the good old days! We take advantage of any time we get to see each other, since it happens so rarely with Katie living across the country. She is so much fun, I miss not seeing her more often, but we keep in touch over the web, etc.

It was finally a dry afternoon..the best we've had so far this entire month...so we all sat out on the deck, passing the twins around, drinking, talking and of course, eating!! 

I stayed for several hours and then was pretty tired from all the excitement of the day's events so I headed home, which is thankfully only about 15 minutes away from my uncle's. 

I have had such a nice time reflecting on my day, but now I am so tired, I must turn in for the night!

Buenos Noches!

My future niece is already spoiled!

So...instantly I got a stuffy nose overnight, but E and I ran around for a little while and then I had to rush home to get ready for Michelle's baby shower. Whoa Mamacita, she is getting huge...and only 26 weeks along!  I am soooo excited for my niece Annika to be born! At the shower we all decorated these baby socks and wrote warm wishes to her to read as she grows up...I told her that I hope she has lots of brothers and sisters to grow up with. Ahhhh! Warm fuzzies :)
This little baby is going to be so cute in all the great outfits everyone got for her..hopefully she has a chance to wear everything at least once!

Kim and Katie are having a party tonight (proceeds going to charity) but I just want to stay home and relax!!!!