excited for tomorrow!

Tomorrow is my bridal shower and I am very excited! It has always kind of seemed like this day would never come. As of today I have only 50 days left until the wedding! That seems so crazy. . . this last year or so has just flown by. I really cannot believe that Michael has been back home from Iraq for almost a year already!
Anyway. . .pertaining to the wedding. . . all of my invites are out except about 11 which I was waiting on addresses for, but those should be going out by Monday or Tuesday, my trial run for my hair is tomorrow morning before the shower which makes me excited because I love having my hair done up all pretty!

Following are some pictures from my niece's birthday party last weekend. This is Sasha and she just turned one. She was all about the presents to start with, especially this round one. . .betcha can't guess what that one was. :) She did tire of opening the presents fairly quickly so her brothers helped open the rest of her gifts. This is Taylor being happy that she is holding the new baby doll. Sasha got a little baby doll for her birthday and as soon as she set it down Taylor scooped it up. When she had to give it back to Sasha there was a little fit, so there was a little lesson taught about how it was Sasha's baby doll and it was so nice of Sasha to let Taylor play with it. The next time when Sasha came looking for her baby doll, Taylor handed it right over. Kids have such great imaginations. I think this toy is actually a fire truck with a yellow ladder on top (not really sure what the blue thing is) but all Trey saw was that it looked like binoculars and he kept pretending to look through them. I wish our imaginations as adults were as active as they were when we were kids. And what is a first birthday party without an individual cupcake/cake for the child to devour. Sasha fulfilled every expecation. She had that cupcake everywhere and she was just raking in the attention, which was very unlike prior birthdays with the boys when they were almost too shy to sit there and even open presents in front of everyone. Laura says she is all girl. . .she loves pretty clothes, she loves chocolate, and she loves being the center of attention!

Eating this cupcake was very serious business and what better way to eat it than to take all the good stuff off the top first!Won't she love these pictures when she is older. Hee hee hee. She was covered in chocolate and perfectly content until her cupcake was gone. Well that's all for now. I am currently in the process of cleaning my house. I am in the middle of washing the dishes and doing laundry. I still need to vacuum my floors but that sounds very unappealing. . .Beth just called and I think I am going to take a short lunch break and go to Arby's with her and Mama.

Until then.

Lisa

a late Easter post

These are some pictures from last weekend that I am finally getting around to posting. On Friday I went out to Laura and Shawn's and helped Shane and Cole dye Easter eggs. When I got out there they were actually sleeping so Laura and I worked on addressing wedding invites a little. But after the boys woke up from their nap they were ready to go! Laura and I ran the show and actually limited the boys action to putting the eggs in the color and pulling the eggs back out. They loved all the different colors (some of which didn't dye very well but thats ok). This is a pic of all the different colors with an egg going in each one. and then the end result. Aren't they pretty?!

And of course I had to take some pics of Shane and Cole with their first egg dyeing experience . . . so this is Shane and one bright yellow egg! I think Shane liked seeing all of the different colors when they were done.

And then Cole with his blue egg. His favorite part was putting the eggs into the color. We had a minor issue when there were no more eggs to put in, but he moved past it fairly quickly!

And then Sasha with her 'buggy' as Laura calls it. This stuffed ladybug was Beth and I's inspiration when we planned Laura's baby shower for the coming Sasha. We did everything in black and red and had this cute ladybug there. Laura gave it to Sasha just recently and she loves it! She flops it on the floor and rolls all over it which is very cute! I was glad to see if was actually being used past the shower because I thought it was just adorable when we bought it.

Then a few days after dyeing Easter eggs with the boys came Easter Sunday. Michael and I went to church that morning where he sang the solo part of one of the songs we (the choir) sang for the service. He did very well despite his allergies acting up. After church we headed out to Fordland for an Easter dinner with my family. Michael and I were the first ones there so we had my mom snap a few pictures real quick. I swear. . .I hope our wedding pictures are good because it doesn't seem like we can hardly get a picture of the two of us where we both look good. The two following pictures are both ok, but in one I am making a face like 'take the picture already' and the other one was after a few shots and Michael was tired of trying to get a good picture.

Becky and Hugh were not there with their rugrats, so I just took some more pics of Laura's kids. Obviously they are not looking at me in the following picture because Mama/Grandma was standing off to the side trying to make them smile, which they did, just at her. I love Sasha's open mouth in this picture because it just reminds me that she was squealing and giggling! They are all wearing their Easter color tops that their grandma made for them.

Michael likes to make funny faces in pictures and he likes to encourage kids to do so too. As you can see, Shane was happy to oblige. All the little nephews love their soon to be 'uncle' Michael.

Well. . . that is really all for now. I am exhausted and I need to go to bed. Michael is out of town tonight for a 5K that he is doing tomorrow morning with a friend. Which means I have the bed all to myself, yeah! I spent all of today with Laura and her kids again, first shopping and then helping her get food ready for Sasha's birthday party tomorrow because she just turned one! So that is where I will be tomorrow afternoon evening, and while there hopefully I can con some people into helping me stuff enclosures into wedding invites and sealing them, or helping me make up favor bags. Hopefully I won't have to con anyone and they will help willingly.

Also big news possibly coming up because there is a chance Michael and I are buying a house! We put an offer on one the other day and are just waiting to hear a response. The waiting is torture! I am trying not to think about it. . . Michael kind of made me put the brakes on when I started asking about paint colors!

Ok so that really is all for now. We'll see if I can get any good pics tomorrow at the birthday party. I need to get up in the morning and clean my house. Yuck.

Be back soon,

Lisa

ketchup

Well. . . I guess you could call this my catch up blog seeing as how it has been almost 3 weeks since I was on here. Not tons going on since I was on here last. . . pretty much just more of the same thing. I have still been working 4 10 hr days. I am actually home sick today. I hate being sick, but I figured it would be a good time to jump on here and post while I am waiting for the Nyquil I took to kick in. . . then I am going to go take a long nap!

On Friday 3/20/09 Michael and I went to the Circus with Jason, Paul, and Olivia. It was pretty good. It had been years since I had been the the circus. We should have gotten in line much sooner than we did because by the time we got in we could not find 5 seats together. We did find a grouping of 3 and 2 kind of close so we took those. Some of the acts were just really stupid, but my favorite parts were the animals: the tigers, the sheepdogs, and the little dog in the stuffed elephant costume.

It was funny though because when the tiger guy came out, Paul made a comment about how he looked like an 80's wrestler, which was very true! Some of the tigers were roaring and 2 of them kind of got into it at one point, I just wish I would have been close enough to get better pictures and hear their roar!

I think that my least favorite part was actually the ring master. She was really annoying and I thought that the way she enunciated everything made it much harder to understand what she was saying. On Saturday 3/21/09, I went to Trey's birthday party out at Becky and Hugh's new house. Her kitchen makes me want a new kitchen. . . . which I will get eventually. Trey got new toys most of which were outdoor toys. Unfortunately, it was yucky and muddy out so they just played ball a little out on their front porch. Becky, Beth, and I mainly just stood there and talked (and froze) while they were playing.
These are the two baskets I got done sometime within the last few weeks. The first one is going to be set up at the wedding on the gift table for cards.

This one is the basket for one of my flower girls. I didn't get the other one finished but once it is finished I will post a pic of it.

I got the gifts that I ordered for my two flowergirls in the mail yesterday and they are so cute! I am kindof thinking about posting a pic on here because I am pretty sure that they don't look on this site. Hmmm. . . I'll have to think about that.

Well, it is time for me to go nap and hopefully when I get up my cold will be gone. Lets see where wishful thinking gets me.

Later,

Lisa

Counting down. . . .

So you are probably expecting this to be about counting down to the wedding, right? Wrong. . . right now all I can think about is counting down the minutes until I break free and get to walk out of this building for three whole days! Which means. . .yes. . . I am being bad and blogging while sitting at work. Shhh! The weather this week has been so nice and and it has been miserable being stuck inside while I know it would feel so wonderful to just park my bum somewhere outside and feel the sunshine on my face. Spring is creeping in and it is wonderful. I am so not an extreme weather person, I don't want hot or cold, give me a nice gentle breeze and the warm sunshine. I am not sure what all this weekend will hold for me. . . I need to get some more wedding planning out of my head and into action, I am going to my nephew Trey's birthday party on Saturday, and I need to get some cleaning done . . . we will see what happens. I also really need to make it to Walmart to add a few things to my registry that it will not allow me to add online. I tried to do this last weekend at my normal Walmart, but according to the employee I talked to, their in-store registry was down and would be down until further notice. . . which means I need to head to a different one.

Well, I guess that's all for now. Michael will be out for awhile tonight at barbershop, so I think I am going to go home and relax with a glass of wine (or two!) and make an action plan for the next three days.
I am now down to about 11 minutes. Yeah!
Lisa

Guestbook pages done!!

Today I finished the last page I am making for our wedding guestbook! After I finished this one I went back and added small details to some of the other pages. There are a total of 15 pages and then I also cut out extra white squares, so if more are needed people can just sign the white square and I'll make them into another page later. I don't really think that I will need them though. I am very glad to be done with that project! I also got two scrapbook pages done today. One is the bright button pictures from the buttons I gave Beth on her birthday, and the other one is my responses to my 2008 Resolutions. I didn't do so hot on my resolutions last year, which makes me want to do much better on my 2009 ones.

Well, tomorrow is Monday again and believe it or not I suprisingly feel kind of prepared for a new week. That never happens! Usually I am like oh my gosh tomorrow is Monday already and I have not gotten anything done this weekend. Not this time . . . all of the dishes are done, all of the laundry is done (except Michael hasn't put his clothes away), the house is fairly straightened up, I already have my lunch for tomorrow in the fridge ready to go, and I think I even know what I am making for dinner tomorrow. I know, shocking isn't it? There are a couple things I probably should have done like dust and vacuum the floors, and I didn't get any more scrapbook pages planned. That's okay though.

Now comes the real challenge . . . keep the house clean through the week, along with dishes and laundry caught up. I don't think I have any plans for this coming Friday, but on Saturday I work for about 4 hours and then we are heading out to Becky and Hugh's house in Fordland.

Maybe if I am like really on top of things I will even get some scrapbook pages planned this week. . .

Well, I stayed up way too late the last couple nights so I think I am going to go jump in the shower, update my planner for the week, and go to bed!

Later, Lisa

another day gone. . .

Oh why do the days off seem to fly by so quickly. . .

I worked on my wedding guest book pages some today. I wanted to do three more and then work on my actual scrapbook some. Well, I got two done (see below) and the third one is almost done. I need to wait to put a few eyelets on it until morning because I am pretty sure no one would be very happy right now if they got woken up from me pounding!

I am glad to be almost done with our wedding guest pages. It is one of the larger wedding crafts I took on and it always feels good when you finish a craft project. It will be nice to just set that aside now and work on something else. I will just use the loose pages at the wedding and then after the fact they will just slip nicely into the wedding scrapbook that I am sure I will do!

I did not manage to work on my actual scrapbook at all today. . . maybe tomorrow. I really don't have many actual layouts I can do for my scrapbook, I mainly just need to get some planned. I am not sure what I am going to do tomorrow. . . Beth is going out to Fordland in the morning and I may go out there with her, or to church, or just stay home. Hmmmmm. . .

Lets see. . . what else. . . I did try my new Wii game today, the Dance, Dance Revolution game. It was really hard at first but I think I was starting to get the hang of it, definitely not ready for anything beyond just the basic levels. Michael did a lot better on it than I did, and went ahead and tried one song at the expert level, which looks so challenging. I think he barely made it through the song without failing.

Well, it is imperative that I now go to bed. I so should have gone a while ago considering it is one a.m. without the time change. Yikes!

BBlater,

Lisa

Red shoes!

While at the mall today with Lauren, we found red shoes for me to wear for my wedding! I am so lucky they had some that would fit me because they only had two sizes left. Aren't they fun? I never even considered just wearing white shoes. . . from day one I have wanted to wear fun red shoes with my white wedding dress! Best thing is they have enough of a heel that I won't have to get the hem on my dress altered, but not so much that I feel like I am going to break my neck. Yeah! for no neck breaking. ;)

After we found the shoes and left the mall, we wandered over to JCPenney home store so I could possibly add some things to my registry in store that they did not have online. Well, that turned out to be very frustrating because most of the stuff in-store that wasn't online I could not add to the registry. When I scanned it, the scanner said that it was a discontinued item so I could not add it. Oh well. . .guess I'll have to find those things at one of the other places I registered. After the disappointing experience at JCPenney, we went and had a delicious lunch at Chili's. Gotta love their Chicken Club Tacos and Strawberry Lemondade. . . very, very yummy!

The rest of the day passed in a blur of house cleaning and playing online. It is just ridiculous how time flies when you are online and suddenly it is 2 hours later! I also ran to Walmart tonight with Beth to grab a few things, such as Dance, Dance Revolution for the Wii. I have not opened it yet. . . Michael was already in bed when we got home because he has to get up early tomorrow for drill. I did not want to be stomping around and disturb his beauty sleep. Tomorrow I will have my first attempt at it. . . probably good to do it when no one is here to laugh at me, except myself!

I think it's about time to call it a night. Tomorrow I am going to play on the Wii, do a few more loads of laundry, and hopefully scrapbook some. We'll see how that goes. . . .

and once again,

Lisa