Three day weekends

Starting today I have Fridays off again. . .yeah!! I have this schedule now for 2 months so three day weekends for 2 months sounds pretty freakin good. This morning I met up with Laura and we did a bit of running around. It was mostly in and out of a few different stores looking for shoes for the wedding. . . which unfortunately I did not find. I know its only 3:00 pm, but I was tired of looking. We also ran over to a rental place so I could set some rental items up for the wedding and over to Party City so I could price some things for the wedding. Somewhere in the middle of all that we met up with Beth and my mom for lunch at Fazolis. Hanging around with Laura and the kiddos was fun. . . but exhausting. I underestimated how much longer it would take with getting the kids in/out of the car, their seats, their coats. It probably was too much to be lugging them in and out of some many places just to look at shoes, but I am glad she went with me. This is just a picture I snapped of the boys after loading them back into the car one of the times. Well, I don't really have any other news. I think I stayed up too late last night because I am exhausted. I am seriously considering a nap, which I hardly ever do in the middle of the day. I do have some other stuff I could work on. . . like scrapbooking and wedding stuff. . . there's always that to work on. . .or cleaning the house. Hmmmm. . .

Well, I think I am going to get off of here for now and see if I can't find something I feel like doing other than napping. I keep accidentally thinking it is Saturday. . .so that's always nice when I remember that it is only Friday. Love the three day weekends!

76 Trombones. . .

So I was misinformed and the play we saw this weekend with his parents "The Music Man" was not at the Gillioz, it was at the Landers. I was excited to go in the Gillioz, but that's okay because the play was **INCREDIBLE**. I thought it was excellent and four of the guys that Michael sings barbershop with acted as the barbershop quartet and they also were excellent! Michael said he is going to send out an email to the barbershop group about how great they were. The Show-Me Statesmen normally do an annual show sometime in May, so that would be great if they gathered some more interest.

I actually kind of wish I had thought about going to see a play in December because I would have loved to see Narnia. I guess that's okay though. . . we spent enough on tickets for Casting Crowns and Jim Brickman in December. I think I do want to see one of the upcoming plays from the Springfield Little Theatre. . .they are performing "Mulan" April 2-12, 2009. That is one of my favorite Disney cartoon movies! Judge me all you want, I don't care. I wonder what their 2009-10 season will consist of and how much their season tickets are. . . I might have to check into that.

Lets see. . . what else happened. . . Saturday I went and hung out at my parents. I did get my invitations ordered so yeah for me!! There is so much I still need to do but I think my brain is taking a break from wedding stuff for the night. I don't want to think about it right now. I also don't want to think about cleaning my house which I really, really need to do. But as Scarlett says in "Gone With the Wind", I can't think about that right now. If I do, I'll go crazy. I'll think about that tomorrow.

Beth wants me to go walk with her tonight, but I think I am going to pass. After work today I went and got groceries and ran to Hobby Lobby. Now I feel extremely exhausted and I just want to lay down. Actually, I think I am going to go lay down. The house. . . wedding stuff. . .that can all wait until tomorrow. After all. . . tomorrow is another day.

(I really want to watch Gone With the Wind now. ;)

Later gator,

Lisa

California Dreamin'

I am getting really excited to go to California in June/July! I got this travel guide in the mail the other day and I keep looking at it thinking about what we should do while we are spending 2 whole weeks in sunny California!

I have also spent quite a bit of time online searching flight/car/hotel options. I think I have found the best flight and car options so that is wonderful news. . .now I just need to get Michael in here with his credit card to book them. **smile** Honestly though I am ready to go back and sit on the beach and listen to the ocean. I have only experienced that once about 2 years ago. It's kind of ironic that the second time will be in the OC, which is where the first time was so I will be seeing the same beaches (++much more!!). The first time was for a work trip back in April 2007. There are many things I am looking forward to. . .the beach, Disneyland (my first time!!), Mission San Juan Capistrano, spending 2 weeks with Michael, the barbershop music, and crashing in a wonderful comfy bed at the Hilton!! We are going to try to get the Hilton anyway for the week that the Barbershop Convention is going on. . .if not that then the Marriott. The rest of the time will probably be spent in much cheaper hotels, but that is okay.

I cannot believe I haven't blogged in 9 days. Shame on me! Lets see. . . what else has happened since then. . .the Singing Valentines all went well. I ended up not really helping very much, but I don't think they really needed me. Michael came with a quartet the Friday before Valentines Day and sang to me at work. It is getting less embarrassing as the years go by. . .considering this is the fourth time. . . but I am pretty sure my face was still quite red.

I did this one scrapbook page sometime within the last week. It is the three different shots I took of my Christmas tree and I love this paper. It is **fun** Ki Memories paper that Beth picked up over a year ago. There was a specific snowflake paper that I bought winter 2007 for a scrapbook "Date Night" book Beth and I did for my parents full of different gift cards. I really loved the paper and wanted to go back and buy some for myself but I couldn't find it for several months. Beth finally found it in a big Ki Memories paper pack full of different holiday papers, so she bought the pack and we split it. All of the paper is fun, pretty colors and I think I am going to try to use all the coordinating Christmas paper for all of my Christmas 2008 pages. It is mainly a couple different shades each of red, green, and pink with some other accent colors. This one I pulled the pinks out, so I will have to pull the green and red out of the others.

I am sitting here listening to the Moulin Rouge soundtrack for the first time in a while. I forgot how much I like this CD and listening to it makes me want to watch the movie!

I work tomorrow which is stinky, but after work Michael and I are heading out to Fordland for the evening. I think I am going to gather up some wedding stuff to take out there and work on. I know I have said before that I was going to be ordering my invitations soon. . .but I never did. I have every intention of getting that done tomorrow after I ask my mom and sisters for some opinions on a couple things. I'll have to see what other things I can round up to work on out there tomorrow. . . maybe some craft things. We will have to see.

On Sunday after church Michael and I are going to see The Music Man at the Gillioz Theatre here in Springfield. I love to see plays and shows and it does not happen near enough. I am also really excited though to go inside the Gillioz because I never have.

Well. . . I think that is it for me tonight. I actually want to try and head to bed earlier tonight but we'll see how that goes.
Once again,
Lisa

Oh yeah. . .I had mentioned last time that I was going to be meeting my mom briefly to go over my reception layout and food ideas. . . that 'brief' meeting turned into a THREE HOUR wedding discussion while sitting at Subway. I reeked of 'Subway scent' after leaving. I noticed the next day that even my purse smelled like it. . .still!!

Moving right along. . .

All of the wedding plans are moving right along. . . yesterday I bought Michael's ring and I got an email today that it had already shipped! Before I bought I read a lot of reviews from the website I purchased it from, and they had really great reviews so hopefully I have a great review for them also.

I just finished booking my makeup artist. . . so yeah! I will have pretty makeup. Oh my gosh though. . . I am so glad I booked my reception hall for the day before also so we can go in and decorate. Working backwards my wedding day timeline is already planned for several hours before the ceremony with just pictures and makeup. I haven't even set mine and Beth's hair appointments yet!

I need to look over some more wedding details tonight. I am meeting my mom briefly tomorrow after work to get her opinion on my layout and food order. I am also working on gathering addresses right now so I have that all ready for invitations.

Wedding stuff is pretty much all that my brain wants to think about right now. . . but that's not good. I think I am actually going to get off of here for now, quit thinking about it, and spend a couple hours making dinner, cleaning, and catching up laundry.

I am going with Michael tomorrow evening and then on Valentine's Day to help with the Singing Valentine's that his Barbershop chorus does so I won't be home then to get anything done.

Hmmm. . . what do I want to make for dinner??

Once again,
Lisa

Good times

So I am a few days late getting some of these pictures posted, but Saturday did turn out to be a good day. I got some scrapbooking done, Michael and I went to eat at Bob Evans for dinner which turned out to really hit the spot. It was delicious!

After that we headed out to Pleasant Hope and hung out with some friends. Michael and I aren't really NASCAR fans, but we had two TV's on out there . . . one on the race and one that we were playing on. We played Guitar Hero with the whole band, drums, guitar, bass, and singer. I kind of wish we had that version rather than the one we do have because I knew more of the songs on it. We also played around some with American Idol karaoke. After playing out there Michael wants the drum set and I want the microphone . . . even though I can't really sing. It was a lot of fun! So this scrapbook layout is from the Fourth of July, when I had too much sun, their was too much noise, and too much food . . . hence the title. I really am not liking this page too much though. I think it's because the top is too blank so I think I am going to run some ribbon along the top.

And this layout made we think about the day we got engaged. It makes me smile still to think about. I didn't want the layout to be too girly, I think it turned out really well with the brown and blue. I had a hard time getting a very clear picture of this layout but this was the best one.

This layout from our "Halloween in the Halls" at school I actually just finished up tonight. I was tired of having it laying on my desk halfway complete. I loved our decorations for our jazz club and I am still happy that it came out as I had envisioned it.

Well, on Sunday Beth and I watched 'A Night at the Museum' while we counted and rolled all of the change that Michael and I have been saving up for a while to go towards the wedding. That movie is so funny and I think it is my favorite Ben Stiller movie. Beth was quoting the stone guy for a little while afterwards, "Did my dum-dum bring me gum-gum?" and "It's Atilla the Hun-Hun, you better run-run". It was quite funny.

So this was all of the change that we rolled up. We actually ran out of quarter rolls so I need to go get some more of them, but our grand total was. . . .

$459.50. That is a lot of freaking change! My fingers were so dirty afterwards and smelled like metal I was definitely ready to wash them. Money is really so gross! Some of you may think Beth was crazy to help me count all of that, but what you may not know is that Beth loves to count stuff, so you see I was actually doing her a favor by letting her help me. Isn't that right Beth? ;)

Today after work Beth and I met up at Hobby Lobby. They had a whole bunch of their scrapbooking stuff on sale like albums, adhesives, paper, stickers, and some embellishments. I love their sales! I think there was maybe one thing I bought today that was not on sale. Even better is that I still had gift cards from Christmas. I think this was my third trip to Hobby Lobby since then that I have just been able to use a gift card. It was grand! Although, I am now on my last card and I think it only has $10-$15 left on it and that could go really fast. This is the new album I purchased to start for 2009. Isn't it pretty?

Well I guess that is all for now. I need to hit the shower and then hit the hay. I think tomorrow after work I am going to work on a little wedding planning/organizing. I swear there are just way too many details!

Once again,

Lisa

Breakfast at Panera

I just got back from having breakfast with Lauren. We went to Panera and just sat and talked while we ate. It was so nice to catch up! I definitely agree with Lauren that we need to start hanging out again more often. I almost forgot that I wanted to get a picture of us, but luckily I remembered when we got back to the house! We used to take pictures all the time. We would go to the Nature Center or the park and just take lots of crazy pictures. It was fun and those pictures always make me smile. Maybe we should do another park visit with lots of crazy pictures. Of course we will have to wait until the parks are actually pretty again, but what do you think? Beth should come too. Well. . . first part of the day is done and so far. . .great! I need to get some laundry started and then its time to start scrapbooking :)

Be back soon,
Lisa

Hoping for a great day!

Well, last time I said I was really liking getting off at five. After working Friday I don't think I like it so much anymore. I feel like I had no Friday. Oh well. . . one month and then I go back to the other shift. I also said last time that I was going to get offline and go do some more guest pages. These are the two more that I got done that night.

And then I did this one tonight after doing a little cleaning and making dinner. I am not sure if I really like this one, but it will do. I think I am going to do some actual scrapbooking tomorrow afternoon. It has been awhile and I am really tired of just working with black, white, and red again. I think I am only going to do about 3 more pages for the guest book, but they can wait a little bit longer.

I am really excited about tomorrow because I am meeting up with my friend Lauren for breakfast. It has been way, way, way too long since I have seen her! I don't really know yet where we are going so I guess we will figure that out in the morning. I think I am going to try to remember to take my camera also because I could not even tell you the last picture that I have of us together.

Anyway, so I am really hoping that between meeting up with her, getting some scrapbooking done, and hanging out with Michael tomorrow night it will be a wonderful day!

It is after midnight so I should really get off of here and head to bed. Maybe tomorrow I'll have some pics again of something other than wedding projects! :)

Lisa

Productivity

I am liking the 8:30-5:00 job right now. It's different. It is really nice getting off at five, although the traffic stinks a lot more than it does at 7pm. (We will see if I still like it come Friday though. I am going to miss not having Friday free)

I actually came home the last 2 nights and cleaned a little and made dinner. I felt so productive! I am not cooking tonight though. . .we are having leftovers! Yum. . . It works though.

Tonight after I got home I got on the Wii Fit for the first time in far too long and actually excercised some. I have REALLY got to start being better about exercising. My problem is I always think about it right before I go to sleep and instead of getting up right then and doing it. . .I think that I will get up earlier in the morning to just get in 20 minutes even. Then the morning comes and I don't remember my decision from the night before, the only thing I think is what is the latest I can sleep in and get ready. As I said, I REALLY need to start being better about it. . . all of it. It is supposed to be 50-60 degrees for the next 4 days, so maybe I will go walk outside with Beth or Michael.

Nothing else really going on. . . I reworked my sample layout for the reception hall and I think it is better than the prior one. I want to get someone else's opinion though before I place my rental order.

I gave Michael all of my tax stuff this morning for him to get my taxes done today. It would be nice if I got a chunk back, but realistically I will just be happy if I don't have to pay in.

I think I am going to go work on my guest book pages some more.

Hugs,
Lisa