Hello, Goodbye May!

Life has been...busy. To say the least, therefore, I haven't had as much time as I'd like to dedicate to blogging. I've had a quite a few projects at work to complete, my birthday came and went (yay lower insurance rates!), and made a trip to the OH-IO for my BFF's wedding, and now it's magically Memorial Day Weekend....time sure does fly!

For my birthday, I had a pretty typical day, most of which was spent working - ah, adulthood. How I've never looked forward to you! But, I got a cake and card at work, and came home to a house filled with balloons!!! (My boyfriend is brilliant, btw). Not only were there balloons scattered through the house, we tied balloons to the animals collars and got to watch as they meandered around the house. Now this may not seem fun or entertaining to most, but boyfriend and I took much amusement from watching balloons move on their own throughout the house. We then later went to Steak & Sirloin, for some yummy food. The food was pretty good (I had a tasty ribeye, while boyfriend enjoyed the chicken alfredo), but the staff was a little creepy. The waiter didn't come to our table for about 15 minutes after we sat down, and in the mean time, the hostess and manager both came over to the table offering drinks and just generally hovered over our table. Once we received our food, everyone left us alone and we devoured a delicious meal!

Celebrating my birthday, Sides family style!

My actual birthday, with some of my balloons!


Then 2 days after my birthday, Elphie and I road tripped to Ohio for Christen's wedding! It was a very busy time, but wonderful to be there for Christen leading up to and during the ceremony. Though there were a few minor hiccups over the weekend (boyfriend missed his flight, schedule coordination issues, the groom was fighting off a cold, and a bridesmaid's dress didn't get picked up and we didn't find this out until a few hours before the wedding), everything turned out well, the wedding was wonderful and Christen made a beautiful bride!

Christen & I at her bachelorette party!

The ceremony!

It weather was pretty warm that day, and as you can see, Christen & I were quite hot in our dresses.

In my rare downtime, I've been reading Water for Elephants, which has been a great read thus far. Once completed, I hope to see the movie, but when purchasing the book I was told by the Borders cashier "It's not as good as the book". Um, duh. That's usually how it works.
Hopefully, I can get another knitting project going once complete with the book. I have yet to finish the socks I was trying to knit, but I've also got play practices starting soon, so hopefully I can knock those socks out then!

Have a safe and peaceful Memorial Day weekend!!

Wedding Season

Hello everyone!

Last weekend I had the privilege of exploring the town of Bakersfield, CA while attending Aaron's brother's wedding. It was a lovely little ceremony and a HOT town. Not "omg, that's so hott," kinda hot; more like "holy sh*t, my clothes are soaking wet and it's only 9am", kinda hot. Even the ice cream INSIDE at Baskin Robbins was melted a little. Yeah. But aside from the intense heat, the weekend was fun and very laid back.

Here's Aaron and I after the wedding. I'd like to point out that I was the ONLY person wearing yellow at the wedding and the reception :)

Here's the couple at the beginning of the wedding. Since Gloria, the bride, is Mexican and Catholic, the wedding had a few interesting differences from the hum-drum typical weddings. Not only do the bride and groom exchange rings, but the bride's parents give coins to groom who takes the coins as a sign of his monetary responsibilities in the marriage. He is to provide for their household and she, in return, accepts the coins and her responsibility to manage the and take care of the household. Then, the bride's grandparents took a rope and lasso'ed it around the bride and groom, displaying how they are "tied together" or connected for life (I think). What eye opening experience.

Here is Aaron's grandma and his Aunt Tammy. Before last weekend, Aaron's grandmother had never painted her fingernails or toenails, she had never had her hair done and she had never had her eyebrows waxed. Well, that all changed last weekend and here is Grandma Betty is all her beauty and glory (Aaron's sister and I did her make-up!) She's a new woman!

Here's a really awesome shot of Phoenix, AZ from the airport. My plane took off an hour late so I got to see a beautiful sunset over the city and got to capture some of it on camera for you.

Oh and by the way, I had a hair catastrophe right before the the wedding. I was attempting to dye my back to its normal color of brown but it turned out red. RED. So, of course, I freaked out and had to go get some profressional help from Salon Dacota and this how my hair turned out :)

All-in-all, it was a good weekend, a good wedding, good people, good times. I'm looking forward to a relaxing weekend. To everyone traveling (LUCKY), be safe and take lots of pictures! Until next time...

Wedding Dance

I've never been much of one to think about or plan out my wedding because I'm just not that kind of person, but my friend Bobby sent me this video and there will definitely be something fun and unexpected like this at my wedding (that is IF I ever get married).

After being wow'ed by this video and dancing along with it in my seat, I read some of the comments in response to the video on the blog it was posted in. I was shocked that some people would be up in arms about doing this at a wedding ceremony. Weddings are for the people being united, not what Aunt Susie and grandma Jean want. I am at the age where all my friends are talking about getting married and the pressures of things they "have" to do because their families want it to be a certain way, which absolutely boggles my mind. I believe that it's the bride and groom's wedding and their day to be happy and no one has the right to ruin that. But I've gathered that a large problem comes from families paying for the wedding. I say, pay for it yourself if you don't want to have your wedding be the way someone else wants it. Otherwise, you're gonna have to listen to family moan and complain about thigns. That's been my plan all along and I'm sticking to it.

For all the brides and grooms to be, Good luck and remember that no one had the right to ruin YOUR day!
For all the family members out there, take a chill pill and let the kids do as they please.
Until next time...