Goin' to the Chapel

One of my good friends, Molly, was planning a big wedding next month and asked me to be one of the bridesmaids! I was really excited to be a part of her special day, as we all know how much fun weddings are. Unfortunately some complications arose, which caused her to call off the wedding a month before the date and elope instead. However a week later she announce that the wedding is still on! She is unfortunately not going to have any bridesmaids or groomsmen, so I won't get to get all dolled up and wear my guava dress...but I am REALLY thankful that I even get to be there on one of the biggest days of her life. I would have been really sad if I had to miss it.

At the time of the party planning she was still eloping, so we weren't even sure if brides who elope have the pre-wedding parties, but we decided to have them anyway since they were already planned. Two weeks ago was the bridal shower in Sacramento. It was a lot of fun and surprisingly went off without a hitch (with only 2 weeks of planning).

The one thing Molly told us she wanted was cupcakes. So we took that and ran with it making it a cupcake cake themed party.

Our friend Amy was in charge of the food, and let me say she made the BEST finger sandwiches I’ve EVER had! They were really tasty.
Molly’s boss offered to make the cupcakes and I’m so glad she did. Everything was from scratch and they were really good. She made red velvet, chocolate orange, and raspberry lemon.

Click photo to enlarge

Molly also got some really nice gifts. Is it bad that I’m posting a photo of the gift I got her? I can’t help if its if super cute. Molly is the BIGGEST fan of bacon that I know, so when I saw these cards on cakespy I HAD to get them for her.
Her boss came through (again) by making this frame out of Molly’s grandma’s china. (Molly was getting rid of it at a garage sale, and her boss bought it). It was such a sentimental gift and even more special as molly never thought she would see the china again.
This past weekend was the bachelorette party here in SLO, and let me say I am still recovering from it! (Post coming soon)

Wedding #2

This past weekend John and I headed up to Napa for his cousin’s Val’s wedding. I love Val and I have actually unofficially adopted her as my cousin. John has quite a few cousins that are close to him in age and I’ve been telling him for years that he is so lucky. I have two cousins younger than me but they live on the East coast and I think the last time I saw them was 20 years ago. My other cousins I see every so often but they are all 10+ years older than I am. I had no idea how great it was to have cousins within a 5 year age span. Even if John doesn’t appreciate it at least I get to!

I was so excited to cruise through Napa with John. If you remember…I visited Napa for the first time this past March when I had my girls weekend. The whole time I was there I knew John would love it as much as I did, and I was right!

I was totally sketched out by our hotel as it looked like a total dive, but then once we got into our room and saw that it was nice and clean my attitude changed. I knew I had checked the reviews on tripadvisor.com and I remembered after the fact that the reviews said it had been recently remodeled. Thank goodness!

Saturday morning John went and played golf with the family and I had a mini adventure morning. One highlight was definitely all of the hot air balloons that I saw BOTH mornings! How cool!!!! Some flew right over the hotel. I am all pumped up about hot air balloons right now because we are going to the hot air balloon festival this weekend in New Mexico. It is one of my life dreams to ride in one but we won’t be able to do it in N.M. That is ok though, because I’m hoping to return to Napa for a ride and a meal at French Laundry. I may need to find a financial sponsor for that trip though. Anyone?

John's Grandpa on the course.

I know Napa is filled with spas so to treat myself, I got a massage. At which spa you ask? Try a place in a strip mall! I know, I know…I was totally weirded out at first but they seemed pretty legit and were actually a chain. My masseuse seemed a bit sketchy but after 15 minutes I was like WHATEVER get that knot out of my back! Plus it was only $50 for an hour. I hope I never become a massage snob…I love a good deal!

For lunch I was able to take John to Taylor’s Automatic Refresher…our 5th Triple D restaurant together. So tasty!

Val and Ron’s wedding was at Aburg De Sol. It was up a hill in Rutherford and had a great view. Here are a few of my fave shots of the night:John and his Grandpa

Me and Auntie Jane (Mother of the bride)Us with John's cousin Robert

Gramp and his kids...John, Jane, Allison, and Phyllis.

Keeping ourselves entertained while we wait for the party bus.

The next day John and I headed up north again to Yountville to go to Bouchon. If you recall…when I was there last March Molly and I surprised our friend Jeremy who was working there. Unfortunately he is no longer working there so we could not go behind the scenes and act all cool. Dang!

Apparently Yountville was having some sort of parade and we totally got caught up in it trying to find a parking spot! It was madness….for a very small parade. Needless to say we finally made it to Bouchon and feasted on some of the best bread in California…and two awesome cappuccinos to boot. It was so nice to sit in the sun and treat ourselves…I felt totally spoiled. I also wound up with two loafs of sourdough as I got one when I was there before and it was by far some of the best bread I have had.After our morning/afternoon exploring John drove me to the Oakland airport where I caught a flight home…but to Phoenix first. (A direct flight from SFO to SLO was $600). John is currently up in Fortuna spending the remainder of the week with his family. I had to pack my carry on very carefully. It consisted of my sleeping boot/sling, my cosmetics, my new pair of GAP pants (their outlets there are really good), and of course my two loafs of sour dough bread.

Work of an Artist

A few weeks ago John’s sister Molly got hitched down in Pacific Palisades (north of Santa Monica). John and I were both very excited to be a part of her big day…I was a bridesmaid and John was the officiate. Molly and her husband Michael planned the wedding in three months and considering that time frame they did a great job.

One of the highlights was when one of Michael’s brothers got up during the toasts. Now Michael never officially named a ‘best man’ as he was worried what they all might get up and say. Needless to say that his preventative actions didn’t help. At the end of the brother's sentimental toast he finished with ‘At least we know Michael isn’t gay,’ and then walked off. It was so funny and uncomfortable at the same time.

I was going to post some of my photos, but why do that when I can steal…I mean copy and paste some of the professional photogs photos? I was lucky enough to convince my sister-in-law to hire my friend Ken to shoot the wedding. (Do you remember the awesome photos he took for John and I last year?) My sister-in-law was definitely hesitant with hiring a photographer that was way more than she had budgeted for but I kept telling her that when the day is over all she will have left is the photos. If you have to cut corners…cut it on the flowers. They are dead the next day anyway. I think a tiny miracle happened when she decided to take my advice and hire Ken…and let me tell you that she told me I was right. I mean take a look for yourselves!

I am still amazed when I look at these photos. During the day I thought ‘how is he going to make these photos look as good as his others?’ I was there…looking at the same things he was and I wasn’t seeing it. However that is why he is the professional.

10 Things

I totally thought I was back in the blog of things, but apparently I’m not. I was so motivated for what…a week? Yeah I know that’s pathetic, but a thing called life kept bringing me down, and when that happens I have no desire to write.

Since this is my first post in over a week, (minus The Hangover post), I’ll entertain you by giving you 10 tid-bits of what’s been going on.

1. I will be starting (another) new job in a week! Crazy right? I feel really bad leaving my current work place because I was hired on to help out a friend, and I was only there for 2 months. Not the best employee I know, but this new job is with a local company who produces eye wear. What is exciting is that I will be designing for the product (packaging/displays), and it includes web work! I feel so blessed to have landed this job, as I really didn’t think I had a chance. (I had interviewed there twice before). Another plus is the company is pretty big and everyone I met seemed really nice. One downer is that I won’t start accruing PTO for 3 months. I know I don’t necessarily need time off since I just had 10 months, but I still like to know that if I need to I can take a day. It also means that I probably won’t be able to make it out to Georgia this year which stinks. Georgia you say? Why would I want to go to Georgia? That brings me to #2…

2. My best friend, Rebekkah, and her family are moving to Georgia in two weeks for two years! It shouldn’t affect our relationship that much since we currently live 5.5 hours away from each other. However it will definitely make it harder to have a weekend visit with her. I am so excited for her and her family to have this once in a lifetime experience. They found an AWESOME rental house in Atlanta and I really can’t wait to visit. A few weekends we headed up north for one last visit. Here are a few photos:

3. I recently went and saw an orthopedist about my Achilles (since it’s been injured for 9 months now). After looking at my MRI he basically didn’t have any new revelations for me. He was concerned that I didn’t know what has caused the injury since I’m so young. He told me to continue to stretch it and ice, and if it was still bad in 3 months to go back and see him. He also told me of this new treatment where they take some of your blood, put it in a centrifuge and then re-inject it in the injury. Hopefully there will be some place that local that could do that for me. I’m getting desperate! One good thing that came from the visit is that he had me go get a nighttime sling. This sling allows my Achilles to stay stretched while I sleep. So far I think it is helping. Both mornings when I woke up it wasn’t that sore. Hopefully this will be the trick. Isn’t it stylish?

4. John and I have also joined a semi-private training group at a local gym. Let me just say that I’ve never done anything like this before AND I cannot believe I’m paying for it. John and I were SO sore for the first two weeks it was horrible! It’s gotten a little better but I dread it every time we go. Seriously…the warm up is sometimes harder than the workout! I blame it on the planks…front, left side, right side, and reverse. How can there be so many different ways to torture oneself? On a positive note, our work outs are customized for our injures…(John’s back, and my Achilles and shoulder). For me it’s totally trial and error in seeing what exercises I can do. For example…last night I was to do 30 30’s for 30 minutes. (30 seconds really fast on the elliptical and then 30 seconds at a normal pace for 30 minutes.) Let me just say that I was SO tired after this, but my Achilles felt fine…until I got home. It started to get sore right before I went to bed and in the middle of the night I was in so much pain I could barely put any weight on it. Luckily by morning it was better but still not back to normal. This was the first time where I had no warning that the exercise I was doing was hurting my foot. It’s extremely frustrating to not be 100% healthy and being so limited in what I can do. I would love to do some aerobic activity. Oh well…hopefully it will get better.

5. I just finished my last book club selection which means the group will be getting together in a few weeks to pick our next round. Exciting!

6. My friend Steph had her second child last month, a girl named Sydney. I’ve been so busy with work that I haven’t even had time to meet her. I definitely wasn’t prepared at how much my life was going to change once I went back to work. I think I’ve only gone to the grocery store 2 times in the last 2 months and I think the only meal I cooked was over the 4th of July when my parents were visiting. It makes me sad that I don’t have time to cook anymore or do any of the other crafty things I used to do. I’m hoping that my mind will (sooner than later) forget what it was like to be a house wife.

7. In wedding news…my sister-in-law hired the photographer who took the anniversary photos of John and I last year. I am SO excited! I love being able to give referrals to people who I think do great work. I was worried that I would never find him a client(s) since most of my friends have gotten hitched, but I lucked out! I might have to strategically park the mini in the background so it can make it in a few shots. Speaking of the Mini…

8. Looks like our customized plate MINIBOO is taken! I know!! I can’t even believe I have to think of other options when we’ve been planning on that pate for years! ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! Please let me know if you have any good ideas. We would prefer to have the word ‘mini’ in it somewhere. I’ve seen two good ones around town. They were ‘MINUTE S’ and ‘SLO BRIT’. Both pretty clever. Mine needs to be better though!

9. We are heading up to the bay area this weekend for a baby shower and I can’t wait! I know it will be lots of fun. We are also going to get to meet up with some friends of ours who just moved to San Jose so I’m excited to see them as well.

10. Also in a few weeks we will be headed back up to the bay area to see my neck doctor for a post opp ultra sound. I got some blood work done a few months ago and there were still signs of thyroid cells in my blood. I guess before the surgery it was 3.8 and now it’s a 1.7. It is good that it is lower, but it should be undetectable. So hopefully the doctor will find out where they are hiding, although I’m not sure if that will mean I will have to go under the knife again. However if she can’t find them that probably means waiting for another ultra sound. Or maybe if she can’t find them I’ll have to have more blood work done and maybe they won’t be there anymore! Wishful thinking right? Here’s an updated photo of my scar. I was taking them every week, but I fizzed out after the first few months. I really wanted to show the progression of the healing. Oh well.

Who’s got the time?

How do my summer weekends get filled up instantly? Ok, so it wasn’t instantly, but I think it only took a month. In the beginning of May I thought, ‘Man! I only have 2 things planned all summer! This is great!’ Then a social calendar tornado from hell came out of no where and filled up my summer. It only took the month of May to fill up 3 months. How is that possible? Am I the only one this happens to?

Almost every weekend is full. Ok, not 100% full but close enough. I have something to do on every weekend in June, and July (minus one weekend…the 3 day weekend, which makes no sense).

My August is also rapidly filling up, however I’m trying to leave some open weekends because John’s friend (Jon) from NYC is supposed to be coming to CA that month. I emailed him a few weeks ago and have not received any word of his plans. This wouldn’t be an urgent matter, however I’m trying to coordinate a neighborhood garage sale in August, and I can’t set a date and then flake on it. How bad would that be?

I also just found out that my sister-in-law just got engaged (Yeah!) and she is hoping to be married in 3 months! Seriously. So now I’m wondering…am I going to have to fit in a bachelorette party and a bridal shower in the next three months? That should be no prob since I have so many available weekends right? Don’t worry, I’ve already emailed her asking about the plan. But does she know the answer…that is the question.

Even if she doesn’t it’s fine with me as she asked me to be one of her bridesmaids!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I cannot tell you how excited I am. I seriously thought my bridesmaid days were over. There is almost nothing better then being a bridesmaid, in my opinion. Granted I’ve only been in two weddings, but I had so much fun on those two days that I cannot wait to do it again.

Needless to say I feel honored that she asked me to be a part of her big day. Oh and guess who else is a part of the day? John…but not as a groomsmen…as the officiate! He says he won’t be nervous, but I don’t by his macho act. I am also praying that my Achilles will be healed. I really need to dance…I am seriously having withdrawals! Plus I don’t want to be limping down the aisle! How embarrassing!