August 9, 2009

Happy Birthday Bridgette! I can't believe we have been friends for 10 years. CRAZY! This week has been hectic/fun. Tuesday was our softball championship. We beat the number 4 seed (green team) to make it to the finals and had to sit and watch blue vs. black to determine who we would play in the finals. Black was definitely a better team all summer but blue battled and won by 1 run. We won the championship and had a blast doing it. Everyone seemed to hit and make some pretty awesome plays. It was a blast. We got a big huge trophy and went out to Duffy's afterwards for pizza and celebratory beers! Nate and I stopped by Double D afterwards to say hi to Sarah and Bronson and have a beer.

On Wednesday, Porscha and I ironed on fun rhinestone designs on the back of the girls shirts for the float trip :-). Then I watched Race to Witch Mountain (cute) and got my nails filled before Nathan got home. I also had a major headache and laid in bed for 2 hours. Hormonal issues...... Nate was planning on golfing with Joe and Nevitt and since he would have to ride in the cart all by his lonesome (which isn't fun) I offered to go ride along. haaa. Little did we know, this place doesn't rent out carts after 530. Their tee time was 6. Neat huh!? So I just wandered around with them and walked the 9 holes. Well, they only got through 7 because the sun went down. We went to Fortel's afterwards for a late dinner and then off to DD to meet Sarah and Bronson and Ann (Antwan :-/ long story). We had a really good time hanging out with everyone and a lot of the fun regulars were there like Kevin, Leonard, and Jason. We stayed till close and got home to SURPRISE dexter puked all over the bathroom floor. UGH!! So I drunkenly cleaned up puke before bed, while trying to hold back my dry heaves lol. Then we ate our white castle we had picked up on the way home. YUM YUM!!

Thursday was fun because Nate worked from home and we got to relax all morning. In the afternoon, we ran to Sams for some shopping and Nate picked up some light at Sears for his bachelor party camping trip. Then we cleaned house the rest of the afternoon before I picked up my mom to meet with the florist in Collinsville. We are doing fake flowers for bridesmaids and groomsmen but my bouquet, Nate's bouttoniere, and our parents flowers will be real. It'll be a nice mix. I hope everything matches and looks good. That was a two hour meeting figuring things out and putting down a deposit and this and that. My mom and I went back to her house to eat dinner with my daddy before heading off to the Muny to see Hairspray. SOOOOO GOOOD by the way!! I loved it :-). Nathan packed his car for his camping weekend and helped finish up some cleaning and laundry around the house. Soooo sweet!! I was all wired after seeing Hairspray and stayed up and watched the movie Obsessed with beyonce. I really liked it!

Friday we finally got Dex to eat his normal amount of food without barfing and then let him spend the afternoon outside while we met Bo for lunch and a beer at Hot Shots and then went to his house to help him load up his truck for Nate's shindig. We had to put in coolers, a grill, generator, propane tank, firewood, etc into his truck. It was nice so he could just be ready to go in the morning and not sweat his ass off carrying all that stuff. Nate wanted to get to bed early so he stayed in and watched the Cubs game and Ann came over and played guitar hero for a little bit. Then we got ready to go out and stopped at DD for a beer and 2 shots before going out downtown. It was nice to visit with Sarah again and make fun of everybody in there. It was sooo crowded but everyone was already drunk and just like standing around dazed. Kinda funny. We went down to Morgan St. and realized we didn't have cash for parking and had to pay in quarters lol. Fun times. We stood right in front of the stage and danced for hours and would take turns getting beer and sharing it. I of course didn't drink as much because I was driving but I did want to have some three olives bubble ( the new bubble gum flavored vodka yum yum) and they had 2 dollar shots of it mixed with creme de banana. Ann hated it but i HEARTED it. We had a blast catching up and dancing our butts off. We didn't get heckled by many guys either b/c we were right up against the stage which was nice. We got up on stage for the last 2 songs which was fun and then sat outside and cooled off for a little before heading home. We were considering going to big daddy's for another hour because its open later, but opted for taco bell and sleep. We went to bed at 4 and next thing I knew Nate's alarm was going off at 5. UGH!

Nate left at 530 for golf with the boys in alton and then got changed at Greg's before lunch at the duck and then out to the land to get wasted and be crazy. I hope he is having fun!!!! He even called me a few times too which I wasn't expecting. It was sweet. :-) Ann and I got up around 830 or so and got ready for Raging Rivers. We spent the day riding slides and fighting waves and then ended with a yummy cheeseburger and floated around the lazy river 3 times. We had an awesome time together and I got to see her 3 times this week which was awesome. :-) .

Now I'm sitting at work completely exhausted because I was in the sun and water all day and now I'm trying to stay awake and focused. UGH. Debbie is off so it's even busier without the extra person. Tomorrow I'll be getting no sleep either b/c I'm getting up for my new niece's baptism. Well, I better wrap up some stuff before it gets too busy again.

August 2, 2009

WOW! A whole month...I know! I suck :-(


In the past month, I've gone to Wrigley Field for a Cards/Cubs game with Nate and his friends Joe and Castro and others, and also met my Aunt Patty and cousin Michelle at the game. It was my second time to Wrigley, but first time in the bleachers. It was an awesome time, even though the Cards lost. I'm pretty sure we drank for like 14 hours....ugh. Here is a pic or me, Nate and Michelle, and a pic of me, my aunt, and michelle.

Nathan and I went to the Botanical Gardens with my mom and Uncle Raymond one Saturday and nate rented a macro lens and got some awesome shots! I got a little more comfortable with my camera and took at least 450 pictures that day. We watched the All-star game at home together...the one game we cheer for the same team all year :-). We dropped off some wedding stuff in Springfield to be engraved and met Bob and Taush for sushi YUM YUM, I bartended 2 more times, and Nate went on a golf trip to springfield with Nev, Joe, Kevin, Foster, etc one weekend. Bridgette got me awesome Bare escentuals makeup at the galleria and then we went to cheesecake factory with Nate and Joe afterwards. We went to Dave and Busters for Colin's Birthday (guy from work) and met a whole bunch of other work people there. It was nice because Nate got to finally meet all these people I had been talking about for the last year and a half lol. We have one more night of softball, but it keeps getting rained out. We are in 1st place and we just have the playoffs left. The black team proves to be our only hurdle of getting 1st place overall. :-/ We'll see..... I got my hair trimmed and highlighted, and have my practice updo coming up next month. I just need to print my address labels and get Nathan to print his and we'll be ready to send out our invitations. After that are the rehearsal dinner invites and then programs. We have to meet with our officiant first to discuss the order of things before doing program. We got our guestbook and pen ordered and our favors done...just need to be bagged up the week or two before. Porscha and I made tanks for the bachelorette party (pink of course) with iron on words and fun things on the back with iron on rhinestones from Joanns and Hobby Lobby. We are going to look so cute. I just hope it won't be cold or rainy! Nate's Bachelor party is this weekend and the weather is supposed to be gorgeous. I'm so happy! I have to get back to work because Debbie left me by my lonesome tonight :-(

Sorry for such a disorganized blog...just trying to get everyone up to speed.

July 4, 2009

Yes, it's the 4th of July and I'm writing a blog while sitting at work. Fun Fun! We aren't too busy right now, so I'm watching Lost (season 4 woot!) and then going on top of Z building to watch the fireworks with Debbie. Romantic huh? lol.

On Tuesday, we lost our first softball game :-( but I had the more fun than I have all season b/c the other team was good and I got a lot of ground balls at 2nd :-) I hit like crap though (to the shortstop every freakin time!).

Wednesday was awesome. I picked up Nate from work for lunch and we went to Trainwreck. We sat out on the patio and ate and then went to Schillers (camera store) and got a UV lens filter for my camera and a lens wiping cloth. Nathan also reserved a rental for a 100mm macro lens for when we go to the botanical gardens. I can't wait. I spent the afternoon finishing season 5 of one tree hill. It's awesome!! I can't wait to watch 6 and for 7 to start on tv!! When Nathan got home we had turkey club and guacamole for dinner and then went to St. Charles to take pictures of the old building decked out in flags and banners for the holiday. We both got some great shots! After sunset we went to the mills mall and saw transformers 2. It was really long but good. Not as good as the first one though.

Nathan worked from home on Thursday so we could go to my parents for an early dinner and go to the Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp concert. The concert was like 5 hours long and we waited in line for an hour to get good seats. It was a great show. It's funny how old they all are and can barely move around the stage but the music was still awesome. We ended up staying the night at my parents that night since we got home so late.

On Friday we woke up and met Debbie and her family at Grant's Farm for the day. We had fun feeding the goats, eating snow cones, and taking pictures. The free beer was great too lol. I still have to load and process my pictures from then but I'll put some pics from St. charles up.

Also, my barn HDR I took of a random barn driving from Springfield to Carlinville.

June 27, 2009

I didn't do anything too exciting this week. I got a lot of errands done and wedding stuff accomplished. On Thursday night Debbie and I got our CPR certification. We had fun making fun of the guy on the video and also learning CPR/AED. Her arms are sore and my hand is bruised though. :-) We are wimps!
On Friday, Nathan and I drove to Springfield to drop off some stuff to get engraved and check on progress of our wedding bands. Nate's is done already but mine is still getting made. Hopefully its done soon lol. We dropped off the name plate on our cake topper, our cake serving set, and some groomsmen gifts to get engraved. We will have to head back in a week or two to pick everything up. We got to see his brother for a little and meet his friend Jason for lunch at this yummy sushi restaurant.
Friday night, my mom and I got some ribbon to decorate the unity candle, an ivory toss garter, some ivory paper to put hotel info on and stuff in invitations, and a few other odds and ends things. I also ordered some silk ivory carnations online to attempt to make the bridesmaid's bouquets. I'm not a very crafty person so we'll see how those turn out lol. Nathan is going to pick out a unity candle holder this week and order that at work. I love that he wants to be involved and helpful. I've heard so many brides complain about the guys just not caring. I think Pt and Bridgette also decided on Sept 12 and 13 as bachelorette party/bridal shower weekend so that's good too. Nate and I got our new laptops today (mine is pink YAY). We were playing on them today and trying to get things loaded on them. I still have to transfer pictures and music which is going to suck.
My work is still down, so I'll be reading and watching Lost and One Tree Hill. Fun Fun! Nate and I are almost done with Lost season 4, which sucks because we will have to wait 6 months for season 5 to come out on DVD AHH!! I don't think I'll be able to wait, so I might have to watch it online at home. Our flight itinerary for our honeymoon randomly got changed today, which I got really worried about. They just changed our layover to be in Atlanta instead of Miami now so that's not a big deal I guess. Kinda random though.

June 23, 2009

I figured while I was waiting for my sample to finish sonicating that I should write my blog for this week. I've been putting it off all weekend even though we have NOTHING to do at work. The plant has been shut down for almost a week and we have just had a few odds and ends things to do. In between, we have been watching Lost, One Tree Hill, and reading. I finished From Baghdad, With Love. It was only 200 pages and a really good, quick read.

Tuesday's slowpitch doubleheader was cancelled once again (6 weeks in a row now). I didn't really mind though, because I'm always exhausted on Tuesdays. I went to the Mexican grocery store to get arrachera meat and lime juice and then got a pedicure with my mommy before going home and mowing. Nathan and I watched Lost until we fell asleep (which was at like 930 lol). Nate worked from home on Wednesday and we cleaned up the house and tried going through some books in our office piled up that we want to donate. Shaun and Samantha came over for dinner and we watched the new friday the 13th movie that just came out and then played guitar hero. After that we went to the theater to see The Hangover which was HILARIOUS!!

Nathan took a vacation day on Thursday which I was kind of suspicious of until a package came with a new Canon 50D 15 megapixel camera in it for me!!!! He is soooo sweet. It was such a wonderful surprise and as soon as my battery was charged we went out taking pictures at this conservation place on the river. I got lots of pictures of toads, turkeys, deer, flowers, etc. I'm so excited about my new camera!! He also spoiled the surprise that he ordered us both new laptops which are coming in about a week. Mine is pink! YAY! Both of our laptops are at least 4 years old and about to die on us (his already did). He is so sweet! I love him and am so glad we are getting married in 4 months!!! AHHHH. I'm getting so nervous that I'm not going to have everything done on time or that I'm going to forget something. I got the invitations and reply cards printed and my mom is going to get stamps and stamp them all. Then I'll just have to go buy labels and print them all and send them by mid-July. After that will be the rehearsal dinner invites which me and my mom are making. I got the unity candle bought this weekend along w/ a cubs garter (something blue and cubs for nate). Nathan ordered napkins today too and is trying to get a copy of an engagement picture so we can post announcement in the newspaper. Things are moving right along. I still have to figure out this mess with the bridal shower and bachelorette party and see if they will be on same weekend or what's going on. Other than that, nothing much new in life. Jenn got to bring her baby home which I'm so excited about!! I can't wait to see pictures of their family at home!

June 13, 2009

WHEW! I just finished 3 crappy drug chem samples. I'm glad those are over with. Now hopefully I can enjoy the rest of my night and catch up with Debbie and watch One Tree Hill or read Angels and Demons in my free time. I'm officially hooked on OTH and Lost. It's fine now b/c I have the seasons on DVD but when the fall comes I need to make sure I'm caught up so I can watch them when they are on TV. Then that'll be two more shows added to the list I need to watch every week. It's been fun watching Lost with Nate and guessing what's going to happen and who will die and this and that.



Not a very eventful week. Softball was rained out AGAIN and Nate and I cooked quesadillas for dinner and watched Seabiscuit...an old movie, but I'd never seen it. Nate bought us a bluray player for our bedroom which is exciting. I can't believe how clear the picture is! It's crazy. So I bought Night at the museum and Da vinci code on blu ray because they were on sale for 12 dollars. Nate bought me Bride Wars too :-) yay. He got a whole bunch of blu rays for cheap at best buy this week also, now that we have two blu ray players we aren't as limited of where we have to watch them.



We went out to dinner with our neighbors (Rich and Kathy) on Wednesday to this Chinese restaurant on Olive. It was yummy ( a lil spicy but good) and then went to an asian grocery store afterwards and bought some candy and different sauces and stuff. Ohhh I also bought those fun bowls and spoons you use for soup at Chinese restaurants. They were like 10 bucks for the set so I couldn't resist. Kathy gave us authentic chopsticks from Japan to match our set so that was pretty cool.



I bartended Thursday. It was pretty slow and uneventful, but once again it was fun and good easy cash. Nate worked Fri and Sat and there was a huge fight and he had to jump over the bar and tackle this guy because he had the door guy pinned against the wall. It was pretty crazy. I got there around 11 and hung out and just wanted a few drinks and then I ended up helping close out tabs and clean b/c Nate was kicking ppl out and the cops were there too lol. We got out of there at 2 on a friday night which is like a world record tho :-0.



We didn't get too much accomplished wedding-wise, but we got our readings and songs figured out for the ceremony which will be good for when we meet with our officiant.



Here is a picture of my niece Maia. :-)

June 7, 2009

Not really in the mood to type a blog right now, but I know if I don't do it now it won't get done for another week. Our slowpitch got rained out on Tuesday (my raindance beat you Debbie!!) and I was so looking forward to a relaxed night at home to catch up on shows and movies and snuggle with Nathan. Well, guess what!? The storm made our power go out. There went that plan! Nathan also forgot his key and the garage door wouldn't work without power so he went and wandered around Target until I got home to let him in. We sat outside with our neighbors and drank a few beers and then went to Ruiz for dinner since our lasagna plans wouldn't work without an oven. We started a new TV series this week....LOST! It's really good so far. Castro let us borrow the first two seasons and we are about half way through the first season and we both really like it. I'm excited for the upcoming seasons to see what all they put in it to make up 5 + seasons. I'm intrigued. Nathan's sister Emily left for Utah this past week, and her and Devon found an apt out there until they start their camping/job shindigs. We went to see Night at the Museum 2 on our date night wednesday with Sarah and Bronson and went to Texas Roadhouse for dinner. I loved the movie and can't wait to buy it. Not a very eventful week. I had my alumni Extreme Fastpitch game today. It was sooo great to see everyone and I got to pitch and play 2nd. It was fun. I felt pretty old and fat though with all those college softball players in their prime. lol. oh well....

We had rehearsal dinner drama last week. The lady double booked us on accident, but its all squared away now. We have the room for an hour less than we were supposed to, but she isn't making us pay for the room fee now b/c she messed up. YAY! Nathan took care of booking our hotel room at the renaissance by the airport for our wedding night and we blocked off rooms at the Hampton Inn for everyone else on friday and saturday night. My mom also helped me book hair appts for me and her and all the bridesmaids. YAY! I feel like I'm getting things accomplished with the help of my mom and Nate. Porscha is on the task of bridal shower and Bridgette on the bachelorette party so things are moving along well. The cake is ordered and we found the perfect cake topper. We just have to make a trip up the springfield soon to get everything engraved.

Jenn's baby is doing better by the day. I'm so happy. I sent them a gift on friday :-) woot. Can't wait to see a picture. And my brother BJ and his wife had their second baby....Maia. So now I am an aunt to 2 ppl...scary i know. I can't wait to meet her!!! Well, I gotta get back to work since we are super busy without my partner in crime Debbie here tonight. She is at Nico's recital! Can't wait to see the video tomorrow. Here are some pics. The first is the crappy tile I talked about last blog with the things peaking through the grout. The second one is of the different tile with accent pieces. And the third pic is of my boys hanging out together....so adorable!