The Beach

We just got back from a week on the beach in Fort Morgan, Alabama. It was the most amount of time I've had off work since.....2008. I only took 2 days off work for my wedding, so having a whole week to relax has been heaven. AND Monday is a holiday so I'm off work for that too!

This is where we lazed out big time.

My sister's dog would have nothing to do with any ocean.

Mary and Ryan constructed several epic sandcastles.

We also outlet shopped, boogie boarded and got TAN. How did I fill the rest of my time?

And lots of it.

It was to die for!

I am so fortunate.

(Aren't I the runt of the litter?)

We were ready to get home and see these guys though:

Next travel goal: Honeymoon!

New Addition(s)

We have been BUSY lately!

A couple weeks ago, Ryan and I doubled our family size--we adopted 2 puppies from a no kill shelter!

The blonde is a girl, and Ryan named her Ninja. She does these flying Ninja lea

ps that suit her name perfectly. That handsome thing you see on the right is Oscar, our little man.

They are beagle/schnauzer mixes, and they are 4 months old. We love them to pieces!

As you can see, they have it very rough.

They have plenty of toys, but of course the most attractive toy is the one the other dog has. Watching them trot around neck in neck with the same toy in their mouths is unbelievably cute.

They put on the most pitiful act with baths. They shiver and carry on, and we feel sorry for them of course.

We are so lucky to have them! They're so sweet and friendly.

As far as potty training goes, I think we're on track. They go out every 4 hours or so (even in the middle of the night, ugh), and we still have a couple accidents that happen when we deviate from that schedule. They know how to sit, and they mostly listen. They have these crazy spurts of energy for a couple hours then they absolutely collapse. They are happy little puppies, and we adore them.

We have officially joined the ranks of the Newlyweds with dogs! It's good practice for parenthood, right?

Bachelorette

Saturday night we threw Melissa the best bachelorette we could manage! With everything that has been doing on with her, we just wanted her to have the best possible time. Mission accomplished!

Everyone minus me and plus a few others took a bus to some wineries all day. I met up with everyone for dinner and the bars.

We dressed up to go out downtown in the worst b-maid dresses we could find.

This picture is from the local paper's online photo gallery for Halloween. The caption below it says "A bride and her groomsmen walk down Main Street on Saturday, Oct. 30th." I personally don't feel as if we look manly, thank you!

I pinned a bow to my dress to give due honor to the classic bridesmaid butt bow.

No idea:

It was a great night, and I hope Melissa had a blast!

Also, a hangover at age 24 takes much, much longer to shake than a hangover did a few years ago. Who knew.

What did you dress up as for Halloween?

Wedding Day Salutations

RYAN GO AWAY.

Sorry to ask you to scroll lovelies....but its in the interest of secrecy.

So I really want to get Ryan a funny/sweet card to open the morning of the wedding. Here are the contenders:

Up first, one that references Ryan's love for aging video games.

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This next one will probably offend someone, so if you are a Conservative Christian you might want to skip this.

I just think it's hysterical, but I think this might be more of a I like it deal than anything else.

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I think this one might be it. Because let's just say that he feels very liberated...so liberated that he has held me down and farted on me before. Yes, I am still marrying him after that.

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Are you getting your hubs a funny card for the day of the wedding?

Bunions, and Why It's Time to Get Married

It's time to get married.

How do I know?

Ryan asks how my bunion is doing.

(DO NOT google bunions to try to find a picture of them. Serious ew. Trust me on this.)

Ryan knows so much about feet. He's been working at a specialty running store since last August, and he knows when people are wearing the wrong shoes, which shoes they should be wearing, and all kinds of other super detailed stuff. We'll be out at the grocery store or something and he'll nudge me and whisper "See that guy over there? He's over-pronating. He should be wearing XXXX shoes."

So of course he's glanced at my feet before, and a while ago he noticed that my left big toe was pointing just a little towards the other toes on that foot, and not straight ahead. I'm growing a bunion, it's super sexy.

But he didn't just notice it, comment on it, and leave it, oh no. When he was down for the weekend he casually asked "how's your bunion doing?"

It's like a starter bunion, you'd have to know what you were looking for to notice this thing. So it's not like it hurts or anything, he just wants to stay updated on the progress of my weird toe.

And every time he asks how my bunion is doing (it's just fine, thanks) he comments on my finger toes. My toes are super long. He also likes to tell me that I'd be a whole shoe size smaller if my toes weren't so abnormally long. He's not at all mean about any of this, he talks about my weird feet like we're discussing the weather or something.

Time to get married? I think once you casually ask your future spouse how their slightly deformed/odd foot is doing, it's definitely time.

Anyone want to share something odd/funny about their partner?

Bachelorette Debauchery

So, my bachelorette par-tay was Saturday, and it was out of this world.

The day started off with a present for me to wear for the day. It's a personalized bride shirt from the Wedding Chicks, and it was so, so cute.


Alli and I dropped Henry off at my parents for the day and picked up Mary. Henry sits in our laps while we drive. He isn't spoiled or anything, I swear.


We made a pit stop in Perryville at Hoeckle's donuts. It's pretty much the highlight of the town. Obviously:

Our next stop was close to the City Museum, so we stopped for a pic. If you ever visit St. Louis, definitely go here, it's amazing.

Then we were off to the London Tea Room for lunch/tea! Melissa had called ahead and had dessert waiting for us (bad*ss), and we had a lovely lunch and Alli and I shared a pot of tangerine ginger tea.


The tea was awesome. Iced tea would've made much more sense, since it was 90 something outside with 90% humidity...but then we wouldn't have gotten to pour it out of a tea pot, and that just couldn't happen.

My lovely Maids of Honor.


I was presented with a gift at every stop that day (so much spoiling), and Alli got me a mug from an Etsy seller with a Pride and Prejudice quote on it that said "You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you." I love it. I love it even more because Elizabeth totally turned Mr. Darcy down after that proposal. Hehehe. I've had my eye on that mug for forever, thank you Alli!

Then we went antiquing on Cherokee street, which ruled. I love thrifting/antiquing, and new stores are always fun. The owner of the following shop was a real artist, he had stuff I have never seen before, like old circus advertisements. I scored a copy of Pearl S. Buck's Imperial Woman (it's my FAV Pearl S. Buck book, and it's a pretty copy) at the coolest bookstore ever. Hammond's books was a maze and shelves of books were absolutely everywhere. I am 100% going back to spend the afternoon the next time I have a chance.


After 2 and a half hours of antiquing, we saw a restored mansion, the Chatillon-Demenil house. Our tour guide was really quirky and funny and she was an architectural preservationist of some sort, so she had some really interesting things to say about how the home was restored.

Then we went to the zoo! I LOVE the zoo, it's such a happy place. No room for sadness at the zoo. I was forced to wear a crown with a veil (I obviously didn't mind) and one little girl thought I was a princess. My ladies certainly made me feel like one!

The ring is ON IT!


Then we rode the train around....I love this train so much. And Melissa, love her so much too.

See how wonky my hair is? Thank you humidity...another reason I was so impressed that my hair trial worked out!


So it poured after we got off the train but we waited it out at the train station and then headed to dinner. The rainbow made it worth it.


Melissa went to dinner there the night before to drop off centerpieces. She made these herself...isn't she the best?


All of the ladies at Square One Brewery. Yum, beer!


Me and Alli.

I am 99.9% sure I said something totally inappropriate and told my sisters to put earmuffs on. I love how grossed out Mary looks, hehehe!


Do you SEE Alli's face here? I am obviously talking nonsense. That's what 3 beers does to me. Yup, 3 beers...that's why Ryan's marrying me, I'm a cheap date.


Then Alli drove us back to Cape. It was a day that made me feel so cared about and loved. Everything was so thoughtful and amazing and I felt so spoiled. I can't thank Alli and Melissa enough for putting everything together, and all of my bridesmaid's for pampering the pants off of me!

What did you do for your bachelorette party? No bad*ss dance moves like you, Em, the only moves I have I learned from the Wii Dance game!

Brain Dump

-We definitely are getting a new pastor for the wedding, according to the church event coordinator. None of them require pre-marital counseling, so Ryan is in the clear. Hopefully we will meet with them soon. And they asked me if we had a preference for the gender of the pastor...and I'm going to be reverse sexist here and say having a female pastor would rock my face off. I was raised Catholic and didn't see a woman preaching until I went to a friend's confirmation my freshman year in high school. It blew my mind to see a female bishop!

-The church wants $70 to use their fellowship hall for our rehearsal dinner, which sucks because we're paying them $800 for 3 hours of church rental and the services of a pastor. Kind of a lot.

-I watched Food Inc. last night and I'm going to be the crazy mom who won't let their kids eat meat unless I know where it came from. There was a food safety advocate in the movie who lost her 2 1/2 year old son to E. Coli. Also, I can't eat meat anymore unless I know where it came from. Those Centralized Animal Feeding Operations are the most disgusting and inhumane things I have ever seen. And Tyson and the USDA are the devil.

-I also watched the PBS Masterpiece version of Wuthering Heights last night while I worked overlays for the reception tables (I get to re do 75% of them because the glue seeped through....super pumped about it ) and Heathcliff is one crazy *sshole. How Emily Bronte dreamed up someone like him after living such a cloistered life I will never know. Now that I watched the movie and kind of figured out what's going on, I might attempt the book after I finish Sense and Sensibility. I also watched The Diary of Anne Frank and it was AMAZING because it was so accurate that it was creepy. The characters were much more like they were in real life (Anne's diary was not kind to Mr. Dussel, but he was really a debonair womanizer who missed his fiance) and the set was perfect. They worked really hard to make it historically correct, and the 5 diary pages Mr. Frank pulled from publication are reflected in the story line. Definitely the best adaptation I've ever seen, and you can watch it here for free until May 12th.

-I talked to the girl who's doing my hair for the wedding last night and she is super cool.

-It's sunny out today for the first time in a while!

-My bachelorette party sounds like so. much. fun, from what little I've picked up.

-My pansy dog caught a blue jay today....bad*ss.

-The dress shop has completely forgotten about me. My alterations were supposed to be done last month but they haven't called, and I'll feel like the B word if I call to ask if it's done even though I shouldn't feel that way...they were supposed to call me weeks ago and haven't. I also had to call the shoe shop because they forgot to call and tell me my shoes were done and the church forgot to call me too. Isn't it dumb that I feel bad calling these people? It's all those B words out there making me paranoid about sounding like one.

-Kristin Chenowith freaking owns and Sue Slyvester's quip about Kenyan racing teams was the best.

I laughed...hard

I had a conversation a while ago with a student teacher friend of mine, it is as follows.

Her: So one of my students is in ISS all next week.

Me: What'd they do?

Her: He pooped in the sink.

Me: He what?!

Her: He pooped in the sink, like a cat.

Me: ??!!

Her: Like a pissed off cat.

Happy Friday everyone!

Do yourself a favor....

Have you ever seen "The Room?" It's pretty much the worst movie ever made, but it is so bad that it's hysterical. The star of the movie, Tommy Wiseau, wrote, directed and produced the film and it's just....wow. I mean, check out the delivery of this first line:



And this one...the passion, the angst:


The guys at work quote this movie constantly, it is so funny. Apparently some theaters are showing this movie and allowing the audience to dress up a participate.

Anyway, if you're looking for something that is so bad it is great, go check out The Room.

Real Life Musical

My deepest, darkest desire is to have a "my life is suddenly a musical!" moment.




And Zooey does it so well. The new She and Him album comes out the 23rd!

Quilting

Tomorrow is the last day to enter the Threads Remembered giveaway! Find out all about it here. I'm glad I'm using a random number generator to choose a winner, if I had to choose on my own I would be a basket case, there are so many good ideas in the comment section!


Quilting and blanket making is a big thing in my family.

My MeeMaw used to make blankets out of old double knit fabric. She was ahead of her time with the upcycling! The blankets were not the prettiest things to look at but they are so warm; I have one she made me on my bed. When Ryan and I had just started dating, there was a vicious ice storm and almost everyone in my hometown lost power. He was in his last semester of grad school at the time, so he lived in Cape and had an apartment. My sister Alli and I, my grandma and Ryan all stayed at my parent's house for 3 days because my parents luckily had power and none of use did! That's when my mom found out that the only blanket Ryan really owned was a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fleece throw. So in the 3 days we were iced in, mom and grandma made him a double-knit blanket with flannel on the back. So warm! (Also during that ice storm, I really started falling for him. He got along so well with my family and he was just...amazing. He dug my car out of 3 inches of ice after dropping me off at my job at 5:30 a.m. Hello, keeper anyone?)

My mom now makes double knit blankets just like her mom did, and her best friend Suzanna always comes over to help us tie them. Tying a quilt is when you connect and secure all 3 layers of the quilt-the top, which is the part with the design, the batting, and the backing. We use my MeeMaw's old quilt frame to do. Then Suzanna takes the quilt home and does the binding by hand.

My grandma has won prizes for her quilts. She has been quilting with a ladies group at her church for years and they donate the money they make to the church. I remember sitting in mass with my grade school and opening a new hymnal to see a note that said it was donated by the quilting ladies and being so proud. Her quilts are more works of art than blankets, in that you can't throw them in the washer when they get dirty like you can the double-knit blankets.

I would love to be able to make a quilt for Ryan and I, but I like the more non-traditional quilt styles. I checked out Flickr, and I'd love to do something along these lines:

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I wish I could do the hand-quilting, but it is so time consuming that I have a really hard time even fathoming it. Paying to have a group hand quilt is very pricey for obvious reasons, so whatever quilt I end up doing will be machine quilted. I think that simple straight lines fit what I have in my head the best.

Sidenote: My mom says I fixate really badly on stuff I want, and I think she's right. Like with wedding dress shopping, I knew exactly what I wanted and that's what I ended up with. I get a very specific image of what I want and the problems come when I deviate from this!

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I like this too, it would be perfect if the lines were vertical. I know that fabric isn't as long as I would need it to be, so some of the strips would have to be made up of 2 different fabrics.

I might attempt a baby-sized quilt for practice first. My mom's going to help me, I'll probably need all the help I can get!

Any projects you're looking forward to starting as soon as you take a big chunk out of that wedding to-do list?

Please Watch This

I found this video on The Frisky, and trust me, you really need to watch it. It's called "OMG, Is This What Women Women Sound like on Wedding Message Boards?" and it's a woman who re-enacts a conversation among several different women. It's genius. Here's the link. Enjoy.

Cake

My mom made me this cake for my birthday last weekend (I am now 24, officially in my mid 20s). It's shaped like a giant cupcake!




She used a cake pan similar to this to make the cake.

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It's a devil's food cake with whipped cream icing and sliced strawberries all over it. Delicious and fascinating because of the fun shape. I haven't had an amusingly-shaped cake in years!

How cute would this be for a cupcake-themed bridal shower?

You know you live in Southeast Missouri when....

....your local mall has 4 wheeler tractor things on display. In the mall.





We don't get out much!

Letters to Juliet

If you have a sec, you should go check out the trailer for this new movie, Letters to Juliet.

How good does that look-and I love Amanda Seyfried!

During the trailer some words flash up that I love...."the greatest love story ever told is your own." I love that, especially now when we have so many movies to fill our heads with what a relationship should look like.

What do you think? Will you see the movie?

I was just rocking out to this at work on Pandora while I write a script for an Ohio show and I had to share....




Oh my gosh I love it! I still want to be just like Belle, not going to lie. I know, Disney has horrible female stereotypes, but I was quite the bookworm when I was little (still am) and I loved Belle for it.

Just wanted to thank everyone for sharing what they think about the Bee. It is such a revered institution, and it seems like you only hear about how great it is....so it's pretty amazing to hear that other women out there feel the same way.

In the interest of full disclosure, I was rejected as a Bee blogger, but this was months ago, and I didn't write today's post in anger about it. I happily continued to read the Bee for months after I was rejected, and me unsubscribing had nothing to do with being rejected.

Anyway, thanks for the discussion ladies! Also, Bowie Bride is pretty much a genius and has her own little hive in the works, you all should go check it out!

Ok, and if I'm going to be 100% honest with you all, when my sister Alli and I were little we had a tape of Beauty and the Beast and whenever we acted out the movie, I always made her be the 3 girls who were in love with Gaston. I'm sorry Alli, it would not have killed me to let you be Belle at least once!

How Cool!

RYAN GO AWAY...PLEASE!

This is a potential gift idea for you, so buzz off...if you're reading this, which you probably aren't, but still.




Ok ladies, check this out.....

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Sorry for all the scrolling. They're Transformer Autobots and Decepticon cufflinks! I know I'm not the only woman out there who's man wants to name their first born child Optimus Prime. Wouldn't these make a great gift for your favorite Transformer's fan?

I found these on Etsy, home of wonderful things.