My Bachelorette Weekend Recap - Part Two

For Part One, go here!

Saturday morning (I may or may not have woken up a tad hungover), we all got gussied up and loaded up into the limo to partake in some wine tasting!!!

The weather was absolutely perfect on this day - I couldn't have planned it better myself!

Beautiful, isn't it?

We drank.

A. Lot!

We became good friends with this guy. I can't remember his name but he's a sommelier. He was fun.

We had our own private room at this winery!

I couldn't get over how amazing the view was!

Alana's in school to become an interior designer and she was obsessed with this door! Ha!

I think this weekend was much-needed for everyone. :)

After all the wine tasting, we headed back to the house and relaxed on this patio outside since the weather was so nice.

That night we had a great dinner and then the rest is kind of blurry and I don't have many pictures because I was too busy drinking having fun. ;)

It was definitely a weekend to remember with a great group of friends. And a HUGE thank you to Maygan for being the best hostess and friend a girl could ask for!

The end.

My Bachelorette Weekend Recap - Part One

Quick sidenote: Just to give you a heads up, I'm going to be recapping three different bachelorette parties this week: mine (from oh...TWO MONTHS AGO), Alison's and Maygan's.

Back in July, Maygan (who was my Maid of Honor) threw a bachelorette party for me - and it was one of the most fun weekends I have ever had!!

She had thought of the cutest little touches to make it extra special.



That blowup doll in the background was supposed to be "Kevin." Ha!



The adorable candy bar!

Maygan found these chalkboard decals through Etsy! They were great to have because we could all keep track of our wine glasses. If you want the Etsy site, let me know and I'll ask Maygan for it.

Nine of us girls stayed in a house in Sonoma that we rented for the weekend. It was beautiful and perfect for our group (minus the no hot water - but that's beside the point ;) ).

We had great food, lots to drink and even better company.

Alana and Maygan

Me and SIL, Courtney

 I was so thankful that all these girls took time out of their busy schedules to celebrate with me for a weekend!

Alison and Breanna

Kaitlyn and Elizabeth

Kallie and Me.
Kallie was such a trooper. She's currently pregnant with sweet Maycie and she stayed up late with us and hung out with us the whole weekend and never once complained about being tired or anything. She is the sweetest friend!



Breanna and Me

They also gifted me with some very great gifts. I'm not going to post all of them because the lingerie and what-not should remain between that weekend and Kevin and myself (ha!), but I loved everything!

OH! And I must not forget to add that Planking was happening on all accounts that weekend. I honestly didn't/don't know much about this whole Planking business, but some of the girls were all for it! And I have to admit, it made for some pretty awesome memories! And I will say that I am somewhat impressed with the following pictures because I wasn't exactly sober when I took them. See for yourself...

Why Elizabeth has a whisk in her paw, I do not know. I also carried a whisk around that night. Fun times!

Skill

And there you have it; part one of the recap.
Since I have so many pictures from that weekend, I'm going to break this up into two posts. I'll fill you in on the wine tasting deets tomorrow!

XOXO,

A couple special dates

Friday (September 23rd) was a year since we got engaged. You can read our engagement story here. It feels good to be married now! :)

Today is Kahlua's birthday! She's six years old. I was looking back at some pictures of her when she was just a wee thing and boy has she gotten grey around the face!

Kahlua at 11 weeks. Awww...

Kahlua being six years old.

To celebrate, Kev took her [and Stella] on a long walk today and she got a special bone that she went to town on. I think she's enjoyed her special day. :)


 Hope you all survived this Monday!

Five on Friday

1) That Crockpot Orange Chicken I posted about the other day? Ya....it didn't turn out so well. A portion of it managed to burn in the crockpot. How is that even possible!? I don't think I mixed it well enough with the liquid. Besides that, it just didn't taste very good. So I won't be making that again.



Yuck!

2) However, the Fried Rice was most excellent!!!

3) Kevin made the executive decision that I needed to stay home this weekend. And even though I hate to admit it, he was right. Therefore, I plan on getting a lot done this weekend. Which includes finally decorating for Fall!

4) I found this new app for the iPhone called "Sleep Cycle." It's supposed to determine when you're at your most awake and when you're at your most asleep when you sleep at night, and then it gradually wakes you up when you're at your most awake so you wake up not so tired. Something like that. Anyways, I used it last night and it totally worked! I tend to be one of those annoying people who hit snooze for a good 45-60 minutes before I ever drag my butt out of bed and even then I feel so tired. But this morning, even with only seven hours of sleep, I got up after only 30 minutes of snoozing and felt great!

4.5) I found this spider in our kitchen. I kind of think it was a black widow. The key word there is was. Said spider no longer exists.

5) Maygan's wedding is in two weeks and one day!! I'm so excited for her. Hmmm...I guess I should post about her bachelorette party before she ties the knot. Makes sense...

Happy Friday!

What's for dinner?

1. I somehow managed to get dinner made for tonight, made my lunch, stripped the bed and started a load of laundry -- all before leaving for work this morning. However, I look like a hot mess today. It's a trade off I guess. And as k told me, if I were to do all that and look beautiful I'd be a robot. Well said my friend, well said. :)

2. Crockpot Orange Chicken is currently cooking away right now.

{via}

3. I'm making this Fried Rice recipe to go along with it (I don't know where this recipe came from, otherwise I'd link to the source. Mom emailed it to me about a year ago).

Ingredients
1-2 green onions
2 large eggs
1 tsp. salt
Pepper to taste
4 Tbsp. oil for stir-frying, or as needed
4 cups cold cooked rice
1-2 Tbsp. light soy sauce or oyster sauce, as desired

Preparation
1. Cook the rice the night before.
2. Wash and finely chop green onion. Lightly beat the eggs with the salt and pepper.
3. Heat a wok or frying pan and add 2 Tbsp. of oil. When oil is hot, add the eggs. Cook, stirring, until they are lightly scrambled but not too dry. Remove eggs and clean out the pan.
4. Add remaining 2 Tbsp. oil. Add the rice. Stir-fry for a few minutes, using chopsticks or a wooden spoon to break it apart. Stir in soy sauce or oyster sauce as desired.
5. When rice is heated through, add the scrambled egg back into the pan. Mix thoroughly. Stir in green onion. Serve hot.

Notes

• I am not a fan of oyster sauce, so I stick with the soy sauce.
• I'll usually add some peas and carrots in too.
• If adding other ingredients, increase the number of eggs to 3.
• This is really good!
• Makes 4-6 servings.

What are you having for dinner tonight?

Plugging back in...

Hi friends!

• I'm pretty sure I have never gone this long without posting. Life has been beyond busy.

• I have photos dating back to before my wedding that I still plan on putting on my computer and blogging about one of these days.

• Speaking of computer: Dad is giving me his like-new laptop! This means I can blog from pretty much anywhere now and I'm not stuck in our tiny office to do it. Hopefully, that translates into blogging more.

• A couple weeks ago I hosted Maygan's bachelorette party. It was a success!

• This past weekend I was the day-of wedding coordinator for my friend Alison's wedding. It was also a success!

• I have yet to decorate for fall. :(

• I did a little tally this morning and discovered that I have only been home for 16 weekends out of 38 weekends, as of the beginning of this year. And that isn't even 16 weekends in a row.

• In addition, I'll have been out of town seven weekends in a row since the beginning of this month and my first weekend home will be the end of October. I'm ready for things to settle down.

• I still want a baby (bad).

• I've gained six pounds since our wedding. Which I kind of expected. However, I have to somehow manage to squeeze fit myself into two different bridesmaid dresses in October that were snug when I was six pounds lighter. Sooo...that means I'll be talking with a seamstress soon to make said dresses a little more comfy.

• I think Stella is finally used to us and the house and her backyard. She doesn't destroy things back there near as much as she used to. She follows Kevin around like a shadow. She's learning to be more aware of Kahlua and gentle with her. Kahlua is learning that Stella isn't going anywhere.

• I may or may not be a little lot envious of newly married couples that get to go on a honeymoon. Or even a small trip after their wedding. We didn't get to do that and I'm not sure when or if we'll be able to. :-/

• I am now the owner of a new pair of glasses that I'm supposed to wear 24/7. Basically, I'm pretty much blind out of my right eye. I've had them for about a week and I'm getting more used to them every day.

• This week it's supposed to be near 100 degrees; but next week it's supposed to rain. What gives!?

• My Fantasy Football team kicked some bootayy this week! :)

• I've been keeping up with all your posts and try to comment when I can. I hope to be back in action again soon!

The end.

Some of my favorites...

I thought I'd join in today with Kelly's Korner Show Us Your Life, about my favorite blogs.

One that has been my most favorite recently is NieNie Dialogues.

Nie (aka Stephanie) has an amazing story. She has four beautiful children (and a fifth on the way!), a sweet husband and an experience that has changed their lives forever. But it turns out their life has been changed for the better. Her and her husband were in a plane crash three years ago. They both survived but Nie ended up with burns over 80% of her body. Her determination to make every day the best day and give glory to God for allowing her to continue to live, is inspiration at it's finest. I also love her blog because she has the best, eclectic taste, she's so quirky and I love the way she's so in love with her hubby!

Another blog I love to read is Katie's blog at It's in the Details.

Each week she will post about some of her favorite ideas she's seen in the blog world. Some of the things she finds are so cute and creative! Katie's become a great bloggy friend over the past year and she doesn't take herself too seriously and she cracks. me. up!

I randomly came across k's blog, Two Adults, One Brown Baby about a year ago.

She's also become a great bloggy friend and I look forward to her posts every day! She's hilarious, has adorable brown babies, and I feel like every mom (and non-mom) could relate to her everyday musings. I know that whenever we have a baby, I'll be hitting k up for some mommy advice because she just seems like the best mom to her two cuties.

Of course, the well-known Pioneer Woman (aka Ree - I like to pretend we're on a first-name basis) is a favorite of many, and a favorite of mine as well!

And I cannot leave out BooMama. If you need a good, hearty laugh, head on over there. You will not be disappointed!

And here are some of my other top favorites:
In This Wonderful Life
Tales of the Trees
Our Best Bites
Kaite's Keepers
These are the Days
Kelly's Korner
A Turtle's Life For Me

I love the connections you can make in this bloggy world, and the support you can get from other ladies out there. When I first started blogging I didn't even know that it could lead to these great things. And I'm pretty glad it has!

I hope you all have a safe and fun holiday weekend!

xoxo,