Bev's Wedding and How I Showed My Butt at the West Town Mall

Today was my friend Bev's wedding.  She was a beautiful bride and looked positively Thrilled to be getting married.  I was so glad I got to witness her special day.

I really liked her table centerpieces.  It was so simple but fresh and pretty.  Plus her family used to grow baby's breath so it had a sentimental aspect to her.

Here is the bride and me together.

I'd like you to look at my dress.  It's cute, summery.  The big part of Bev's day was getting married.  The big part of my day was that dress. 

I have gained some weight this past year which is sad, but a goodly portion of it has gone to my boobs which is good.  I packed this cute little flower patterned sundress to wear to the wedding.  I had shoes that exactly matched the Barbie pink that was in the flowers.  Josh had had an appointment in Knoxville on Friday so we had stayed the night at a hotel to avoid driving back and forth on two consecutive days.  I say to say, I couldn't just change outfits at a whim.  We had to leave our hotel at 11 and had to kill time til the wedding at 3.  We shopped and hung out and at 2 we went to McDonald's to change in their bathrooms.  I slip into the dress and realize it will not zip.  I get in the car and get Josh to try to zip it.  After removing my bra and being told to "suck in my boobs", we finally get it to zip.  Okay, so I think all is well as long as I don't take a deep breath until I leave the wedding and can unzip the dress.  Josh takes one look at me and says there is no way that I can go out in public without a shawl or a new dress.  I'm debating with him on whether or not my boobaliciousness is that bad when I realize that the dress is so cutting off my circulation that all the veins in my boobs have turned bright bright blue and are starting to stand up.  Like, stick in an IV kind of stand up.  It is now about 2:10.  We run to Belk because we are close to West Town Mall and we are running trying to find a dress.  I have never shopped for clothes for myself with Josh.  Turns out we have vastly different tastes.  He picked out FIVE mother-of-the-bride dresses that he thought would look nice... if I was 55!  We grab two dress and run to the dressing room to try them on because this HAS to fit.  The first one looks like a board meeting type dress and I didn't like it.  The second one is the one that I chose.  Josh didn't like it and he kept saying "I don't like it.  I liked the other.  It looked better" and I kept saying "I like this one!  Let's just move on!".  So as I'm saying this I am booking it through the store trying to get to a checkout.  All of a sudden, I feel Josh messing with my tuckus.  I am shocked!  I whirl around to ask what in the world he is doing!  I mean this is public!  He then hisses to me that my dress is tucked into my underwear.  Because the original dress had a white background with the pink flowers, I was wearing the only white underwear I could find, lacy butt cheek baring things that have a tendency to ride up, Way up!  So yeah, I just went part of the way through the store showing my hiney to anyone who cared to look.  I was mortified.  I also gave the girl at the checkout a pretty good frontal view when I was trying to find the ink/don't-steal-me-tag somewhere in the folds of the skirt (turns out there wasn't one).  It was 2:20 by that time and the venue was 25 minutes away.  We had to break the speed limit by quite a bit to get there on time.  So, we stayed overnight to make it to a wedding that we were almost late to and I showed by posterior to several people in Belk.  Yeah, glad to be home.  Congrats to the new Mr. and Mrs. Holland!

Play-Doh and Sheep's Blood Agar

I love Fridays.  Well, everyone does so that doesn't really mean much.  I love Friday especially because I only have half days (woot woot!).  Usually I hang with Mom and we shop and eat out and whatnot.  Today, though I got to visit with this cutie pie and her sister whom I hadn't met yet!

It was Caylee's happy un-birthday.  If you don't celebrate happy un-birthdays you should definitely start, like tomorrow.  They are great.  Anyway, Caylee had a cupcake with a candle and a present.  She got Play-Doh!  I LOVE Play-Doh!

We made sea creatures.  Mom made Flounder from the Little Mermaid and I made this wonderful lobster.

I got a call from my boss while I was hanging out with Caylee.  It was a little funny:

Boss Man:  Did you order the Sheep's Blood Agar?
Me:  Yeah, it hasn't come in it. 
Boss Man:  Guess that's why I can't find it then.
Me:  If it hasn't come in by Tuesday I'll...Sweetie, don't, use two handies..call them about it.
Boss Man:  Huh?  Sierra?
Me:  Sorry I was telling my cousin to use two hands on the cup.  She is used to a sippy cup and this is a big girl cup.
Boss Man:  Ooooh.  It was like a totally different language!  I had no idea what was going on!

It was fun to hang out with them!  They are such cuties!  Now I am gearing up for a fun weekend.

Flowers Die But Books Are Forever

My husband loves me.  He also really knows me.  Together these two facts resulted in this wonderful set of books coming to live with me.  I am mildly obsessed with this series (the Outlander Series by Diana Gabaldon if you couldn't tell).  I get super super absorbed in the books.  Josh makes a tiny bit of fun of me because he will be talking and talking and I will just be grunting in acknowledgement.  My excuse is that it takes a while to emerge from 18th century Scotland.  Besides, if I don't read quickly Claire and Jamie might die!  Their very fictional lives depend on me reading at a good clip! 

Anyway, I digress.  Josh got me this entire series on Amazon at a fairly amazing deal.  He almost managed to surprise me with them too.  Josh Cannot keep secrets from me! I've known for months what my birthday present is because he just can't stand to have something exciting to tell me but not be able to.  He only told me one day before these arrived that they were coming. I was very proud of his endurance lol.  I am super duper excited to finish the series so you may not hear from me until these are complete.  Not really, even in great books I don't like to read them back to back. 

So, that's just me bragging on how awesome my husband is.  He knows to get books instead of flowers AND he gets me the WHOLE series.  I know, I know, you're jealous.  But if it makes you feel better you can borrow my books so long as you don't open them all the way and crack the spines.  :)

Bev's Bachelorette Party

Last weekend was hectic because one of my dearest friends had her bachelorette party.  It was in Knoxville.  I made crab dip...in the shape of a penis.  Yeah, I blushed a little while I was trying to shape it! Lol.  I also made some really good punch.  Well the punch had a great flavor but it didn't have time to freeze.  If you have an occasion make this stuff, so yummy!  Plus it is pink and that is great for a bachelorette party.  We also went to this painting place and painted Gerbera Daisies.  I do Not paint!  I am also a little neurotic particular and I want everything to look perfect.  Naturally, my painting doesn't look perfect, but it was actually fun after I relaxed a little bit.  In real life, the bottom daisy kind of matches the paint. 

Bekah made the headbands.  They have our names embroidered on them.  Bev's sister made the sashes.  They are Bev's wedding colors, awww how presh!  Bev's wedding is weekend after next and I know it's going to look great!  Congrats Bev! 

I've Got a New Face!

I have had the same glasses forever.  It doesn't seem like it's been that long.  Josh kept saying that it was past time to get a new pair and I kept saying it hadn't been so long since I got a new pair.  I got them for my 18th birthday after all.  Then I counted and realized that meant I had had the same pair for five years.  Man, where did that time go?  It doesn't seem like that long at all.  Anyway, I finally caved and got a new pair!  I can see without having to look through a ton of scratches.  I didn't realize how bad mine were lol!

I don't normally like taking pictures of myself a la arm outstretched like so many girls do on Facebook.  I think it looks a little silly, no offense.  I am making an exception today because I want you to see!  They aren't the Harry Potter glasses that I really liked from months back.  Josh says they make me look "lighter".  Heck I am for anything that makes me look lighter, thinner, or cuter! lol

There was a deal going on that made it better to get two pairs so I got sunglasses too.  I've never had prescription sunglasses and they are So cool!  I used to having to choose between  being blinded by the sun or just being naturally blind.  Seeing is wonderful.  Plus I think they look good!

Yet Another Dumb Idea

I am soapboxing in a Big Way today!  Last night was the Miss USA pageant and one of the questions concerned NYC new ban on sugary sodas.  I had not heard this and so I looked it up today.  Apparently Mayor Bloomsberg is proposing to no longer sell regular sodas over 16 oz.....

There are a Crap TON of issues going on in our nation (and in NY) and banning 32 oz sodas is the best thing Mayor Bloomsberg had to do with his time?  Let's look at some of the issues of which I see several.

1.  They are still offering 32 oz drinks in diet, fruit juice, dairy products and alcohol.
    1A.  Diet drinks are filled with with unnatural chemicals that may not make you fat, but are inconclusive on whether or not they will give you cancer. 
    1B.  Fruit juice rarely is made with much actual fruit juice.  It is Filled with sugar!
    1C.  Dairy products-why yes, you may have a 32 oz hot fudge milkshake, because that has no sugar.
    1D.  Alcohol?  Really?  Need I say more?
2.  America is supposed to be a nation of freedom.  Why is it acceptable for someone else to legislate what you can drink when you are a grown adult?  We aren't even talking about people under 18, we are talking about people who should be able to make their own decision.  Where is this going to lead?  No where good.  Yes, sodas can make you fat.  So can eating McDonald's three times a day.  You can guarantee if this goes through, then other things, like eating McDs will be legislated too.  Not that this will stand up when (not if) it is brought up to court.
3.  Who in the world is going to oversee this?  Who is going to watch the soda machines and make sure no one gets a non-free refill?
4.  And then there is this quote from the CBS article:  "If I'm given huge amounts of food, I'm going to eat it,".  This is a quote from a professor of nutrition in NY who supports Bloomsbergs proposal.  This is a self-control problem.  If we allow the government to legislate our self-control issues, then we have some major problems heading our way.  What happens when the government gets to dictate how many Hershey's Kisses you can eat in a sitting?  I know my Valentine's Day would be sadder.

I don't live in NY but where this starts it becomes a precedent that can be cited in any court case and that is bad.  It's dangerous to let the government make decisions for us.  We need to think for ourselves.  Don't be a sheep.  Don't follow without questioning.

P.S.  On another food related topic, the month of vegetarianism is going really well.  I'm not craving meat at all.  I've had a lot of veggies.  The only issue is that I am hungry constantly.   You just don't get full on peppers and kale.