4th Annual Friendsgiving weekend

I just want to extend a big THANK YOU for everyone who attended our party this weekend!! It was SUCH a good time and it was awesome seeing everyone! It was our best party yet and we can't wait for next year!!!

That out of the way, I will start a recap.

Friday was a fun day. Andrea called into work that day so we could really get things situated around the apartment and such. We started the day off by running to the bank and getting her car registered. (She, too, had an expired tag. Luckily for her, she was able to just pay and be on her way. Not so easy for me.) Anyhoodle, as we were going to pick up lunch, we saw our Aunt Diane. She just happened to be in the area so we invited her over to our apartment. She stayed for about an hour and a half and it was just really nice to see her. She's so fun its great having her around!!

After Aunt Di left, we prepared ourselves for the invitation lady to come. We had met her at the Bridal Expo show last weekend and said she would come out to my apartment and go over invitations with us. What an awesome time that was. She had so many to pick from!! She was able to help us with color combinations and cut of the invitation. I really hope she comes back with a great quote on them. I should hear back from her this week! *crosses fingers*

Later that night, Andrea and I decided to run some more errands. We ended up going to Home Depot, Wal-Mart, and Kohl's. (At Kohl's she had a 15% off coupon). While at Kohl's, we ended up finding wedding jewelry for an incredible price!!! Walked out of there feeling on top of the world!!

We settled back in at home and waited for Mikey and Per to arrive. They arrived pretty late ...and with Mishka in hand. Mishka is the tiniest little dog ever. It was SO SO SO cute. Makes me want a dog!!! Anyhoodle....we settled them in, played some cribbage, drank some wine, and it was time for bed.

Now onto Saturday. Saturday was such a fab day. Kathie was cooking the turkey in three different places!!! She had it down, though. We would see her every hour while tending to the turkeys. While she was doing that, we were greeting guests that had arrived earlier (Lori, Tim, Becky, Ryan) and were hanging out with them. There was laughter all over the place (Earmuffs, Lori) as well as a lot of cooking. Perhaps my green bean casserole wasn't as time consuming as the potatoes Andrea was doing.....but I'm sure Andrea wouldn't want it any different. She's the queen at potatoes and thankfully, we had enough this year.

We headed over to the party room shortly before 4PM to greet guests as they came. No one really showed up until 5:15"ish" which was fine by me. We stood around talking, drinking, and taking down most of the appetizers!!

After a comical run to CVS made by Lori, Kary and myself, the party was underway. The food was SO GOOD and we didn't run out of anything. We had just enough food for everyone and even had an extra turkey. Who woulda thunk? But I am just super glad everyone had a great time and left full!!!!

After the party, a bunch of us went out to the local watering hole in Pewaukee. We met Nick (co-worker) and his girlfriend Anna out. We had so much fun there. We played, probably, the longest game of darts in history of the game. Ah, oh well. It was tons of fun!

After bar time we then headed to Nick and Anna's house for an after bar. It was tons of fun over there playing with their dog, Brandi ....but Per wasn't feeling to well. So we all stayed for about a drinks worth of time, and headed home where we all pretty much passed out right away.

Sunday was breakfast at the Deuce Tree. Lots of laughs, again. Oh, and I just want to point out something HILARIOUS that happened. Kathie, my aunt, was handing our waiter (or so she thought) her bill. Turns out it was Ron, the busser. All of a sudden, out of nowhere, Ron queened out.

"Oh, nuh-uh...I aint no waiter. You can just, uh, go ahead and, uh, give it to that guy right up there, ok?? "

I remember looking around the table thinking, " Does anyone else think this is funny? "

After saying our goodbyes to everyone, the weekend was STILL not over. It was time for Bridesmaid shopping. We headed over to David's Bridal and met Becky, Aunt Kathie, and Aunt Diane there. What a fun group....to be at such a crappy place. David's Bridal is in the middle of construction and it was MAD chaos in there. Apparently everyone and their dog wanted to go dress shopping that day. Not to mention the ladies there were kind of rude. Needless to say, I didn't want to be there. But, we did find *one* dress that was "ok".

From there we went to the mall to try Boston Store and JCP. Nothing too great was found. By this time I was pretty tired and just wanted to go home and take a nap. But after leaving there, we went to Applebee's for dinner. Kathie wanted to treat us to dinner, so who could say no to that? Not I.......not I.

Anyhoodle.....we came home and we all pretty much passed out. I think I was in bed by 9:30 that night!! It was an incredibly long weekend ...but I had SO.MUCH.FUN and would do it again in a minute!! I wish I could see all those people every weekend. *insert frowning face here*

Phew. Ok, that is a long enough post and I am sick of typing.

Hope everyone had a great weekend!!!

Loves!!

P.S.

I really still do love David Gray. Whenever I hear certain songs off of his album White Ladder, I takes be make to my first year of college and oddly enough, Lori and her ex-boyfriend to be exact. (If you could clear that up why I think of you and Kaz...that would be great.) But everything was so new then. Carefree and fab.

Wishful thinking

I wish that smoking was illegal. I wish that somehow it really hit home what it does to me. Perhaps if my parents had died of lung cancer, I would feel a lot differently towards smoking. My Daddio died of skin cancer and I haven't seen the sun in over four years. Why can't I do that with smoking? Why can't I see what it does?

I remember when I really started smoking. It was College. Jamie Bauer and I would just sit outside our dorm room and smoke. It was social then. I made so many friends that year, most likely, through smoking. The second day I was at college I went outside to smoke (a pack that was probably half done from the entire summer itself) and I had lots of students (ok, ok...they were male) come up to me and introduce themselves. Perhaps I didn't realize the correlation between the two until now....but it really helped me meet people.

I am at the age now where I don't meet as many people. Friends are set in stone. The chances of meeting someone while out smoking has diminished dramatically. Smoking is becoming more and more of a habit and not as seen as something "cool". And as I'm older, I am thinking more and more about health issues. I want to be a runner. I want to be in the best shape of my life. But smoking does not fit into those categories. At.all.

Both my parents were smokers at one point. I only remember my Dad smoking and it was while we were in Kinderseley. He was sitting at the kitchen table with his leg crossed and smoking. But that's it. I don't ever recall any other time. Apparently my Mom (who was, in her prime, quite motivated and a fantastic runner), had quit cold turkey without telling my Dad. I remember him saying he was upset that she didn't tell him. But, that made him quit, too. My Mom and Dad were quite active and here I am...smoking. Its almost the least I can for them.

Openly smoking in front of my parents was really never an option. My sister and I may have "stepped outside", but never while we were visible to them. They knew.....we knew they knew....but nothing was really ever said about it. But honestly, we were of age, what could they do but say, " That's bad. " I just remember the only we had a conversation about it was when I was home from college and I hadn't smoked a cigarette all day and I told my Dad that and he looked so happy. That was probably the first time that we both acknowledged out loud what I do. (.....I left that night to go back to LaCrosse and smoked a bunch to "make-up" for what I didn't smoke that day.)

I suppose I need to treat this like it's an addiction. Because it is. At the moment, its a drug to me. I need to treat it like one. I want to be healthy so that one day, when I do decide to have a baby, my body is a healthy home for it.

Oi. I know its just a matter of making a decision to quit but it feels soooooo much deeper than that. As I'm sure it is, I want to somehow find the strengh the beat it.

Here's hoping.

Obama, YAY!

I just want to say that I am very proud to be an American right now. I think America did the right thing. We needed change and I believe we will get it. Such a great time in history and I'm glad to be alive for this!

Secondly, but not most importantly, I want to make a soundtrack to a movie. I have so many songs swirling around in my head that I want to put to a story!!!

Like this song.

le sigh.



*****Why do people put good songs to weird Anime movies? I just don't get it. Shield your eyes while listening.