Hello?

*tap tap tap* Is this thing on?

1. I'm here! I promise! Life has been hectic. I have so many pictures and things to post about, I just need to find the time and patience to update this poor, neglected blog of mine.
2. Let's see....since I last posted the weather has gone from rain to over 100 degrees. And our A/C doesn't work. So luckily that's getting fixed today.
3. We had a THREE HOUR meeting with our DJ last Friday. That may seem excessive, but we are determined to have an awesome DJ for our wedding and it required us meeting with him so he could get a feel for who we are, what we like and how we want our day to go. He's awesome and expensive!
4. We went up to Lake Tahoe last weekend for a nice, long stay because Kevin's cousin, Les, got married. It was a great wedding and so fun! We were definitely able to get our groove on. I have a lot of pictures (read: over 200) that I took with our new camera but I'll spare you and only post a few, soon.
5. I played a round of golf with Kevin, my BIL and MIL on Sunday. I didn't do too bad considering I haven't played in like a year. Now I'm kind of addicted and can't wait to go play golf again - SOON!
6. I'm obsessed with Pinterest. The end.
7. The amount of complaining on the FB is T.M.T.H (that's: Too Much To Handle, in case you didn't know - ha!)! I'm hiding people. I prefer positive, up-beat and funny status updates. Thankyouverymuch!
8. Lots of exciting things have been happening in my bloggy friends' lives! *Michelle has announced she's expecting and their wedding got moved up accordingly. ;) So happy for her! *Emily and her hubby just bought the most amazing house (it's house #2 in that link)! I'm so happy - and a tad jealous ;) - for them! *After dealing with infertility for over two years, Julee recently announced she's expecting, and they just found out yesterday that they'll be having a girl! I've been praying a lot for Julee and her husband and I'm glad that it was in God's plan to answer those prayers for them.
9. Our home office has been overtaken by wedding stuff. Pretty much everything has been ordered and is here. Just a little over a month away.
10. I have my first dress fitting on Saturday. I know I should be excited and look forward to it - but I'm kind of not. I don't feel like I'm where I want to be weight-wise yet, and Mother Nature will be making an appearance at that time and the extra inches due to Her will not make me happy. *sigh*
11. My boss and manager are both out this week. Ahhhh...it's much more relaxing in the workplace that way. :)
12. Kahlua has been at my parents' house this whole week and we miss her like crazy! Even though she's tiny and doesn't make much noise, the house seems so quiet without her there! I can't wait to get her back on Saturday. Pretty sure she'll be glad to get back to us too, so she will no longer have to be tortured by my parents' Devil Dog.
13. I love my friends.
14. Kevin and I took Monday off to recuperate after our long trip to Tahoe. It was wonderful! We haven't done that in like - NEVER! I cleaned the house, designed our menus and table numbers for the wedding, and Kevin went grocery shopping (love him for that!) and went to hit some golf balls. :)
15. I could really go for having every Monday of the week off.
16. I've been craving fruit and yogurt like no other this week! I think it's just my body's way of telling me that it had enough of the fried food I consumed last weekend (please reference #10 - that may be why I'm apprehensive about fitting into my wedding dress, haha!). 
17. Wedding's are expensive! 'Nuff said.
18. Kevin and I have converted from the Today Show to Good Morning America. We watch news while we get ready in the morning and GMA just seems like it has more news-worthy info than the Today Show.
19. My A.I.M. Express message to Maygan this morning: "I'm trying to be good this week and only eating healthy stuff. But I REALLY want some french fries and chicken fingers. And mac-n-cheese."
20. Bless you if you've made it to #20! ;)

 

Artichoke Potato Salad

Last week my office had a potluck so I thought I’d try my hand at making some type of salad. I’m not a big green salad fan but I love me some potatoes! I found this recipe on Taste of Home.

Ingredients
2 pounds of red potatoes, boiled until soft

1 can (14 ounces) water-packed artichoke hearts, rinsed, drained and quartered

1 small red onion, chopped

1 cup (4 ounces) cubed brick cheese

1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese

3/4 cup vegetable oil

1/4 cup red wine vinegar

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 teaspoon dried rosemary, crushed

1 teaspoon dill weed

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

 

Directions:

1. In a large bowl combine cooked potatoes, artichokes, onion and cheeses.

2. In a jar with a tight-fitting lid, combine the oil, vinegar, garlic, rosemary, dill, salt and pepper. Cover and shake well.

3. Pour over potato mixture. Toss and coat.

 

Notes:

I didn’t peel the potatoes.

I am not a fan of blue cheese, but with everything mixed up I could hardly taste it!

The cubed cheese I used was havarti cheese and I cut it into tiny, bite-size cubes.

I’m thinking to make this a little healthier you could probably use olive oil in place of the vegetable oil.

Let me know if you try it and how you like it.

Enjoy!

Sweet Baby Girls

Last weekend Mom and I got to see my BFF’s twin baby girls. I have one word…

PRECIOUS!!!

These little ones are just so beautiful and sweet. I could just eat them up with a spoon! We spent about an hour and Mom and I each got to hold both Kesara and Mikaela.

 Mom snuggling with Mikaela. You don’t think she wants a grandbaby, do you??? ;)

Mikaela, peeking up at me.

Sweet Kesara!

Kesara and I are pretty much BFF’s. We were able to do a lot of bonding. :) This picture is definitely getting framed!

 Sweet Mikaela!

Snug, as a bug, in a rug!

Sweet angels.

The girls are eight weeks old today! They’ve been home a little over two weeks now and are thriving and doing so well. Their mama, Michelle, is such an amazing mother. And by the way, she does not look like she just gave birth to TWINS two months ago. She looks great!

Love, love, love!

Wedding Hair and Makeup Trial Run

On Sunday, Mom and I headed to San Luis Obispo (SLO) to have my wedding hair and makeup trial. It was so much fun! I told my hair dresser (Stefani) that I think the last time I was all done-up was for prom in high school! Kind of pathetic, isn’t it? ;)

I was so pleased with the end result. Here are some pictures I had Mom take so we could remember it all. Stefani doesn’t do eyelashes in the trial, but I’ll have fake eyelashes for the day-of. Also, I think I’m going to have her bring the chignon a little more to the right so it’s a little more noticeable from the front.

Stefani “setting” my hair. It was so cool the way this whole “setting” thing works. I’m going to try to do it myself for a wedding we’re going to on Saturday.

 This will probably be one of the only times you’ll ever see me on this blog without makeup. Ha!

Makeup all done!

The ‘do…

 I love this sparkly hairpiece that I found. It goes perfectly with my dress and I think it contrasts well with my dark hair.

 

When I was getting all gussied up, I was getting so excited for our wedding. Little butterflies were creeping up in my tummy – but they were good butterflies.

Only seven more weekends until the big day! Eeek! :)

Excited,

A Dose of Useless Info for Your Friday

• T.G.I.F.! Can I get an 'Amen?'

• Work has been cray-cray this week. Yesterday, I just wanted to crawl into a hole and not come out until ... well until never.

• WW is going well. I have reached my 10% weightloss goal, so that was a nice little surprise this week. I'd just like to say that you know you're going to have a good day when you put your jeans on and they're not too tight in the tummy area. :)

• I get to see, hold and love on these two beauties tomorrow. I think excited is an understatement. *squeal!!!*

• I have a love-hate relationship with The Facebook. I love being able to see pictures and keep up to date on my friends and their kiddos. I hate it because the amount of complaining on that thing by some people and unwanted opinions, gets on my last nerve.

• I have my wedding hair and makeup trial on Sunday with my hairdresser! I'm really excited. Here's a little idea collage of what I had in mind for my hair and makeup...

• Hillary posted a video on her blog today of her precious little baby. I suggest you go take a peek if you need a smile and a melted heart. :)

• The other night I made dinner for Kevin and myself, as well as an artichoke potato salad for work the next day (I'll be posting recipes for both this weekend). Both turned out amazing and Kevin says to me, "Wow babe! You made two really good things tonight. I'm impressed!" Thanks...I think...

• It's finally starting to feel like Spring around these parts! It's been between 75 and 80 this week on the homefront and it feels oh. so. good!

• Thank you for your advice on this post. I've decided to go with the pomanders on the vases. We're not making the pomanders ourself, so that helps. It'll all depend on when I get the samples next week, so I may change my yet again. Ha!

• I'd really love to fill you in on some more randomness, but work is a-callin'. Boo. :(

• Hope you all have a nice weekend!

Peace out my homies,

A Pretty Shoe Box + Heels = An Awesome Maid of Honor!

See this pretty little box?

My BFF / MOH, Maygan, decorated it for me. I love the box itself almost as much as what’s inside of it. Aren’t the feathers, ribbon and satin cute?!

Wanna know what’s inside of this pretty little box?   

Those would be the shoes I will be wearing on my wedding day! :)

Maygan gave me the best gift at my first bridal shower – and that would be these heels to wear with my wedding dress. I did pick them out, but Maygan decided to be the bestest friend ever and got them for me.

The shoes actually came in a pink shoe box, but Maygan felt that the pink didn’t go well with the red, so she covered and decorated the shoe box so that everything would match. :) It’s possible you’ll find this shoe box (with shoes inside) very near to my desk in our office because I like looking at it so much. Ha!

I’ve always loved Nina shoes. They’re made well and they are super comfortable. These heels are perfect because the folds match my dress exactly and they’re only 2” high, which I like because comfort and steadiness on my feet on The Big Day are both important factors to me. Ha!

It’s taking everything in me not to put these bad boys on all the time and strut walk around the house in them!

Thank you Maygie Sue! I love them!!!

xoxo,

Wonderful Weekend

That pretty much describes how the weekend went. :)

Mom and Grandma Ruth came up Friday night and we got to spend a lot of girl time this weekend, just the three of us. I don’t really spend a whole lot of time around Grandma Ruth so it was nice to spend some good, quality time with her this weekend. She’s pretty funny!

Saturday was my bridal shower thrown by my future SIL and future MIL. It was so great and so fun! They did an awesome job. Once I get pictures I’ll tell you more about it.

Since my showers are all done now, I went through all of our new dishes, china, flatware and silverware to make sure nothing was broken or missing from the sets.

Here is a portion of what we’ve received. We feel very blessed and grateful for all of this.

Our flatware in the sink, waiting to be washed.

According to our registries, we’ve received full sets of everything at this point. I’m so surprised and thrilled because people have told me that it’s no fun having to fill in sets after your wedding, but luckily we won’t have to! :)

Among all the great gifts we’ve received, I am BEYOND EXCITED about this one…

Please excuse the gnarly scratch on our old desk. ;)

Kevin’s aunt and uncle graciously gifted us this wonderful camera – a Canon Rebel. I am obsessed with it and have been playing around with it all last night and all day today. Here are a few photos I’ve taken that I thought turned out pretty well for a newbie…

 My handsome [future] hubby.

Some roses from my shower. 

Kahlua looking at me like I’ve lost my mind! 

The stink eye.

As you can see, Kahlua is my primary subject of photos at the moment. Trust me, I have way more on the camera, but I’ll spare you. ;)

So, like I said, it’s been a wonderful weekend. We’re feeling very loved and blessed.

Thankful,