Wedding Bells

Five years ago one of my good friends Shelly met this wonderful guy Erik.....this past weekend they tied the knot and it was one of the most beautiful days and beautiful ceremony's I have seen.  I was honored to be a part of it. I wasn't able to help her out as one of her personal attendants before the wedding too much (Thanks Juli and Melissa for picking my slack) but I knew at least I would be able to rock it out the day of wedding for her.

 
Mike and I headed up on Friday for the rehearsal, grooms dinner and to check into our hotel. It was at the fabulous Breezy Point Resort where Mike and I are timeshare owners. We were a little early for the rehearsal so we stopped at the good old Fleet Farm - if you haven't been to a Fleet Farm you need to check it out. They have EVERYTHING. From toys, to clothes, to food, to licenses for hunting to hunting gear and attire. I think in Iowa they call it Farm and Fleet ;)

After the rehearsal dinner, Mike, some of the bridesmaids, attendants and I finished decorating the reception hall. Shelly had it decked out and did a WONDERFUL job planning it all and getting all the supplies. Those who know Shelly know she can get a bargain and she sure did with this. Hats off to you Shelly. I learned a TON of you and learned a TON about you!

Those planning a wedding or a large party - Pay attention to below.

Shelly wanted the tule and lights hung. Her now Hubby hung them for her (great job Erik!) and she got the material and the lights for cheap by keeping an eye on craigs list.

At first I didn't understand this, but this is Shelly's Candy Bar (I had never seen it at another wedding). It was a HUGE hit - especially with the kids. Sorry parents! She had all different kinds of candies for people. She created the cutest signs.

Beautiful center pieces. One thing to keep in mind (although it only happened to one of them) the candles did burn one of the flowers. The flowers are all fake (although you couldn't tell, another money saver).

Another cute idea that I just loved! making her own Mrs and Mr chair covers for the head

Very cute place settings. When I first saw the tables I hadn't realized that Shelly brought the teal fabric and the gray ties for the chairs. She saved a TON of money by doing this herself.

Shelly really outdid herself. She bought paper umbrella's and put wonderful sayings on them - all different with stencils. She had 8 of them to do. I knew she was creative and talented but never really knew how  much.

Saturday was an awesome day. I was tired by the end of it - okay by the time the ceremony came around at 2:30 I needed a nap, but it was totally worth it. Up at 6:30 to get ready and help the bride. I do want to thank my husband for running to Brainerd (which is a 1/2 hour from Breezy Point) to get the flowers for the bride and the balloons. Shelly needed these for pictures.

I was honored to be able to be the one to help Shelly into her dress. I have NEVER tied a bride into her dress, only ever had one with a zipper, so this was a new challenge for me. But it was wonderful to see how beautiful she looked. We got her on the shuttle and down to the pier where she could meet her soon to be hubby and start pictures. They were able to take pictures on the point at Breezy Point and it was such great lighting and a slight breeze which made her long veil look wonderful.

The Bride and Groom out in front of the lake

The Bride and her personal attendants - We did not even plan to all wear black.

After pictures, we headed to the church to finish decorating and get everything ready for the ceremony. I have to say that I liked decorating, it was a ton of fun. I also liked that we were able to take the stress off of the bride and just let her be her and relax before the ceremony.  It went off without a hitch.

We cleaned up and then headed back to Breezy Point to finish a few things before the reception. The reception was wonderful as was everything else and everyone had a great time!! I was so excited and honored to be apart of Shelly & Erik's big day. Mike and I were so busy throughout the day that I never once though to take a picture of the two of us dressed up. I am pretty bummed, but we at least got a picture the next morning (thanks Keelyn).

Thanks to my parents and the IL's for watching Gabby and the pup so that Mike and I could go to the wedding. We also got to sleep in until almost 8 on Sunday morning - YES! So nice....and I even made it until 11:30 the night before at the reception. WAY past my bedtime. But Shelly girl you were worth it.

As I sit here writing this, I am thinking of my anniversary coming up here at the end of the month - 8 years with my best friend. I wish all the best to you two. Shelly and Erik you guys mean a lot to me. I was apart of your relationship in the beginning and saw you guys start out. I know we have had our rocky moments but I am so glad that you are both in our lives and you both deserve the best future. You are a great match and I am glad that you found your way to one another. Love you both and Congrats!!

38 Weeks

Tuesday I will be 38 weeks...hard to believe - I know I know I keep saying that, but it really is. I am really starting to get more uncomfortable, but nothing I can't handle....She is still moving around A LOT, which is good to know she is still doing well. My appointment last Thursday went super well. I found out I tested positive for Group B Strep, but all that means is that I have to have an antibiotic at the delivery - two times, if there isn't time to give me both sets of the antibiotic then they will test her when she is born and give her some antibiotics.

Mike and I had an awesome weekend. Friday I went wedding dress shopping with a great friend of mine. It's so different to go back and look at the dresses now after I have been married for so long. My friend Juli and I (She is due early September) were reminiscing and talking about wanting to get married again :)

Saturday Mike had a great morning golfing with my Dad and my uncles. Nesting has definitely kicked in for me, I made a bunch of meals for after the baby comes and froze them, cleaned up around the house and made up some favors for my cousin's wedding shower. We then headed up to my BIL's house to have dinner with the family. Mac cornered a woodchuck under the deck and my BIL got it out by poking it with a rake. Never have I seen an email run so fast and climb a chain link fence in my life.

Today we had an awesome day. Our friends Brian and Aurora came over and we headed down to my parents to take some pictures. We went to a park in town that has the falls from the Cannon River and then headed to my parents house to take a few more. We also dug up some hostas for Aurora, had a great lunch. One of the best parts of the day was taking our other dog to the lake.

Jager lives at my parents house because our other dog Mac and her don't get along. She LOVES it down there (Thanks Mom & Dad!). They have 10 acres and other puppies that she loves to play with. We took her out to the lake in town and had to wait awhile because of some kayakers, but we still had fun. She refuses to retrieve a dummy, but she will retrieve sticks for hours. Luckily a swimmer that was around got the dummy back for us, otherwise I would have been buying dad a new one ;)

Here is a video of her swimming. If you listen carefully on her way back in you can hear her whistling. Overall it was a great weekend!

Baby Showers!

I never posted the pictures about my baby shower that my mom & aunts threw for me. So here they are. It was back on June 5th and Mike and I had a great time. We got lots of neat stuff for the baby, including the mattress. Thanks to my family for all that they do!

A fleece tie blanket that my cousin Sam made for peanut

My cousins Rachel and Sam - Rachel is going to be a big sister soon...August 26th

This is our mattress - Creative wrapping job Kelley!

My best friends Jenny & Brenda threw me a shower this past Sunday. We had a great time. Filled with some fun games. Those that know me, know I don't like games usually, but these were fun. We played "Name that Baby Animal" - We had to write down the name of a baby animal that corresponded to the name of the adult animal. We then played "Guess the Candy Bar" had to guess what Candy bar was melted in the diaper.

 My MIL - Barb trying to figure out which Candy it is

My Friend Nicole and I having no idea what is in there....At least me.

It was actually a lot of fun! I didn't win, didn't even come close. In fact I came in last, but still had a lot of fun! We also played "Guess the baby food" without smelling it. I got most of them, but still lost :( I didn't win any games, but that's okay. We had an awesome time.

Thanks to all my friends and family that came to the shower! It was a great time. Here are a few more pictures

The adorable cake they got me...isn't it cute?

 Books that my mom got me. "That's not my Dad" and "That's not my Mom"

Dr. Browns Bottles

Paparazzi, Chocolate & Friends

Mike and I had a great weekend...sadly I don't have any pictures. We were having so much fun we forgot to take any.

We went up to Duluth, MN this Saturday for a friends Graduation Party. We got to have lunch with my BFF Crystal!! Who I haven't seen in forever at our favorite place - the BrewHouse. It's almost a sin for Mike and I to go to Duluth and not make a stop at our favorite place. My BFF's Karin, Crystal and I used to go there after our Thursday Night class. Because they make their own beer there and Crystal and I didn't like it, we used to Chug it - to Karin & Mike's dismay :) I have grown to appreciate it now and my favorite is the Apricot Wheat...so when I can drink again and we are up there again I will be enjoying a fine glass of Apricot Wheat.

Mike and I then headed to our favorite Italian Import Shop - Coppola Art Imports. I LOVE LOVE this place. Every time Mike and I go up there, we stop by and get a hand painted fish there. This time we got a whale and another little red fish. All the items in the shop are hand-painted from Italy. If you ever go there, stop by.

Then we headed to Canal Park, did some looking at antiques. My armoire was still there, even after a year and a half. Alas we have no where to put it, so it will stay there...We headed to the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory and had a snack and then to the hotel to check in and off to our friends place.

We have known Heidi and her two boys for about 10 years now. Mike has known them longer...and they have been like another family to us. We have watched the boys grow up and now they are both young men. It's amazing how fast time goes. Layne graduated from High School this year so we were up there for his grad party and had an awesome time seeing them, and some other friends. We hung out at their place until almost 11 - I was surprised I made it that long ;) and then headed home this morning. It was a whirl wind tour of Duluth, but we had a blast!

Now you might be wondering where the Paparazzi part of the title comes in....Well as Mike and I were driving down Superior Street in Downtown Duluth and Mike saw all these people on the right side of the street with cameras, and telescopes looking across the street at the hotel...We thought, Celebrities shooting a movie in Duluth (it's been known to happen), or something. We definitely thought it was the Paparazzi waiting for that hard to get shot of a celebrity in Duluth MN ;) Sadly it wasn't, it was just some Bird Paparazzi, watching some Peregrine Falcons that have nested on the top of a hotel in Downtown Duluth. But I thought it was pretty funny....

17 Weeks

Another week down and another week closer to meeting little peanut. I am still convinced Peanut is a boy and I will be super shocked if in 2 weeks when we go to the Ultrasound (if Peanut cooperates) they tell us Peanut is a girl...I will be super shocked. This past week was good. I am starting to get a bit more uncomfortable in my clothes...Specially jeans..All I want to do is wear comfy PJ's. some friends of mine gave me jeans, but my butt seems to be too large for most of them, so I am going to have to break down and buy a pair this week before we go out of town.

I got to see my little Munchkin - Alyssa three days in a row this week! She is getting super big and just about crawling! I can't believe it, and in June she will be 1 year old. Seriously where does time go??

Not much else going on this week. I have to say I am very touched and overwhelmed by the kindness of the girls from the Waiting to Try Message board that I am part of. I wrote about Carly a few posts ago and her husband was murdered last week and we all decided that we needed to help her somehow. So one of the girls started a collection and with that collection we raised about $1,000 dollars, to buy Carly her carseat for little Tadpole (she is due in April) and now a bunch of other things, plus send her some money. She doesn't have a lot of family around where she lives and wasn't able to have a shower, so she had a lot of stuff on her registry that Rob and her hadn't gotten yet. I just hope she has some support to go through what she is going through. She is constantly on my mind. and even thought she is an online friend, I have known her for years and I can't imagine what she is going through. Please keep her in your thoughts.

On another note my insurance company finally figured out our chiropractor stuff and reprocessed the claims. so I have to call tomorrow to make sure that I do indeed need to send in a check for the overpayment for the FSA stuff...what a mess!

14 Weeks and Counting

We have hit the 14 week mark....This week was really different for me. I spent most of it in CT away from Mike and he and I had a really good weekend which was nice. a week from this past Monday I will be at my 2nd prenatal visit and get to hear peanut's heartbeat.

 

I had a dream last night that I went in for my 15 week appointment and she is like "Surprise! We are doing an UltraSound to find out the sex of the baby!" and I was like no we can't Mike isn't here. But in the dream I had them put it in an envelope like a co-worker of mine did with both her babies(She is about 10 weeks farther along than I am with twins). and then Mike and I opened it up, but before I could find out in my dream I woke up. I truly think it's a boy. Mike voted for a boy my poll as well but I don't know if he actually has a feeling or not about it :)

We saw some friends last night that we hadn't seen in awhile and two of them said I had the "pregnancy glow" about me. Which was very sweet.... I didn't think I did. Right now I am struggling with my jeans. I have about 1 pair left that will still fit me. I can't find one of my Be Bands to wear to hold my jeans up, so it's frustrating but I am sure it's somewhere.....

11 Weeks

Can you believe I am 11 weeks already. Seriously where did this time go. I still remember just finding out I was pregnant and now here I am, almost at the end of my 1st Trimester.

I want to put a disclaimer on this entry: I am not complaining about being pregnant. I am enjoying the fact that I am pregnant, I just am having a bit of a funk....

A couple of my friends are going through some struggles with their marriages. They are people that have been married for 10+ years and have hit some problems in their marriages and some of them are on their way to a divorce and I am truly saddened for them. I have only known a few people that have gotten a divorce and maybe because some of the problems they have had are ones that Mike and I have had and we worked through them. We were one of the lucky couples that became healthier for ourselves and thus it made our relationship and our marriage healthier. A year ago we were almost them and I am so Grateful today that we aren't. That Mike and I are together and are looking forward to a WONDERFUL life together.

Okay, enough about that....I struggled getting the motivation today to work out. My back has been hurting all day - and I want to Thank all of you who have suggested things to do....People keep telling me to go to the Chiropractor but I just can't do it. I didn't have a good experience at one and I felt worse when I left. and I really don't think that this is the time to "chance" that it will work this time. Yes I could have gone to a bad chiropractor and my parents who used to say they don't do any good, now go to one, at least my mom and it's totally helped her.  I think it's one of those things where when you get sick people give you all this advice on how to get better, and while somethings worked for one person it may not work for me. I don't want people to think I am not grateful - Again see above, I think I am in a funk....

But I have to say that I am SUPER excited about being a mommy...I look pregnant even more so then the picture above. I feel pregnant, I feel like people are seeing me as pregnant now and it's a good feeling. Mike leaned over last night in bed and put his hand on my tummy and said "goodnight peanut" and it made me feel so good and really excited about becoming a parent. I know that we can do this. I know that it will be scary, and crazy and we will lose a TON of sleep but it will all be worth it when we see our little peanut for the first time and when peanut grabs our finger for the first time or says Mommy or Daddy...

I am hoping my funk will be gone tomorrow. I am sure it's just the gloom that has been over our state for the past couple of days and things with my friends. On the plus side I get to share my pregnancy experience with 3 of my good friends and my aunt. Who could ask for better companions~

I'm Grateful for....

I was driving to work the other day - Tuesday and there was fresh ice on all the trees and it was gorgeous! I wish I had my camera so I could have stopped to take a picture of it. But this morning it was sort of the same, except just foggy. But for some reason I got this grateful feeling that came over me. I am not sure what it was, but it made me want to write some things down.

I am Grateful for....

   My husband! Who cleans up the tuna pan from last night's dinner because it was going to make me yack if I did it....Who loves me even though I feel like crap right now and feel that I look like crap right now...Who tells me I am beautiful despite the ever growing acne on my face and funny walk I have when I sit on the couch too long because my back hurts :)

   My wonderful Puppy! Who drives me crazy when she only has to go outside once during the day, but 7 times within 4 hours at night (Because she wants to find the mouse living outside our house). Who almost got away this morning because she wanted to chase a squirrel in our neighbors yard in a tree. Who sits next to me at night and keeps me warm when Mike is working. Who tries to eat my yarn from the project I am working on for peanut.

   My awesome group of Friends and Family! Who are super excited for us for this little life we are bringing into the world. For my Cousin Jenny who is excited for us, even though she is going through her own struggles right now (I LOVE YOU!).

   My Job..which I am lucky to have, although sometimes I wish I could just become a stay at home Mom.

   My Little Peanut - Who although he/she is only the size of a quarter right now has already filled my heart with so much love that I am not sure if it can fit anymore. And who I am super excited to meet and while I am super nervous about becoming a mom, I can't wait for the next 7 months to get over with so I can meet this little one.

There is plenty more - I am grateful for my relationship with my husband and how over the past few years it's only gotten stronger...and we are better people and have a better relationship and right now I am the happiest in my life that I have ever been.

What is everyone else grateful for?

P.S. I didn't take this picture, this was taken in St. Paul by someone on the internet :)