5 on Friday

Another week, another 5 on Friday. Ya ready??

{1}-Another Wedding

Happy wedding weekend, Kelly and Josh!

Have you heard me talk about weddings enough here yet??? Well that's because it has been wedding season BIG TIME around these parts--between mine, the wedding drama couple's, and now MG's cousin. We'll be up in PA (again) to celebrate their nuptials! And after this weekend, we FINALLY have a free weekend to ourselves! (and no more weddings until July and then September--yay Bree!)

{2}-Teacher Appreciation

As a resource teacher (speech therapist) teacher appreciation week usually sucks. It's just a reminder that you're not as "appreciated" as the classroom teachers in your building, despite the fact that you see 50+ kids, multiple times a week. It's actually kind of depressing. Last year my school did a great job of honoring the resource teachers, but this year I'm paired up with 6th grade and they haven't really done anything. Obviously I'm not in my job for the gifts (and certainly not for the money) but it would be nice to be appreciated by even SOME of the kids/kids' parents who I work with on a regular basis, with something small, or even just a card.

{3}-Thank You Cards

ARE DONE! Less than a month after the wedding and we've gotten all of our thank you cards written, addressed and sent out, thank you very much! (pun intended) There was a slight lull in our writing them due to having to order more that had our wedding photo on it, but even still, we got them done. MG was a good husband and wrote out his fair share, too (I've got a good one, ladies!) I'm really glad we completed them quickly so that people know that we got their gifts and how appreciative we are!

{4}-"Wife"
It is something so little, but whenever MG texts me or randomly says 'wife' in his everyday speech, it makes me smile. Yesterday I reminded him of something via text and he wrote back "thank you, wife"....I love that he's using it without prompting--shows me he likes saying it, too :) Seriously, something so so tiny, but it brightens my day tons!

{5}-Blate!
Christy over at Planes, Trains and Running Shoes and I have been trying and trying to get a blate scheduled since before my wedding and we finally have a date set for next week! We've been following one another for a while now and it's gonna be so fun to finally meet up in person. I'm sure there will be lots of wedding talk since she's in the midst of planning hers. Can't wait to meet you, Christy!!

Hope you have a happy Friday and a fun-tastic weekend, lovies!!

What are you doing?

I saw this on Samantha's blog earlier this week, and couldn't resist the urge to participate, too!

What Are You Doing???

Making: a to-do list of all the things meetings I need to schedule before the end of the school year. 

Cooking: shrimp scampi in my Ninja (tonight...not right now)

Drinking: lemon infused water--yum!

Reading: Unwanted Stars....started it on the honeymoon and it's been slow-going since leaving paradise

Wanting: enough money to do/buy everything to make our new home fabulous!

Looking: at my computer (duh)

Playing: Words with Friends

Wasting: my free time on Pinterest...standard

Wishing: for consistently warmer weather....70s and 80s exclusively, please!

Enjoying: looking at our wedding photos (check out my post yesterday for my dress pics!)

Waking: up at 6:30am. Boo...hiss...

Liking: karma

(thanks, Genna)

Wondering: when is the earliest time I can eat lunch without starving by the end of the day?

Loving: my husband (that still sounds so weird to say!) and my besties!

Hoping: to make it to June 25th...last day of work before SUMMER!

Listening: to kids across the hall in the girls bathroom, being silly

Needing: to put together plans for the girls' weekend that my best friend and I were talking about earlier this week. Always good to have fun things to look forward to!

Smelling: umm...nothing right now?

Wearing: comfy clothes because today is Field Day at school!

Following: 141 people on Instagram. Love me some Instagram :)

Noticing: how many awesome girls there are in the blog world (I already knew this, it's good to remind yourself :)

Knowing: how blessed I am to have such amazing people in my life

Thinking: about finally having a weekend of freedom, with no obligations (in a week)

Feeling: heartbroken for a friend who had to have her dog put down on Monday. I can only imagine how hard it's been--sending lots of love her way!

Opening: Pinterest....I need a good time-waster :)

Pinning: anything my heart desires (usually quotes/funnies, cute clothes, recipes and home ideas...so, basically everything)

Giggling: at stupid stuff like this (but it's so true!)

{via} I LOL'ed at this one

What are YOU doing??

Wedding Wednesday: Putting on the Dress

Ready for another round of Wedding Wednesday? This one's a fun one for me...

The morning of the wedding I was pretty tired from not sleeping much the nights before the wedding, and the little party MG ended up having in his hotel room didn't help, either.

Luckily I had some great girls around me and it all came together! My girls Genna and Crystal and I had breakfast early at the hotel and then the girls who were doing our hair came and got to work, and a little later the girl doing our make up showed up.

Let me tell you, my girls looked BEAUTIFUL! (more of those pics coming later)

And once my hair and make up was done, and I saw it all together, I couldn't believe it. I felt gorgeous.

My photographer showed up around 1 to start taking pictures. Here are some of the highlights (warning: lots of pictures!)

my best friend and maid of honor :)

Who needs to toss a bouquet when you can toss your bra?? :)

And on went the veil....

My "something blue" was the messages that my girls wrote on the bottom of my shoes in blue :)

I felt like a bride :)

My Writing Process: a blog tour

Last week my good buddy Trish (or Trishy poo as I call her) tagged me in a post about her writing process, which means now I get to share about my writing process with you!

1. What am I working on?

 Some wedding posts (trying to get the pictures all organized and picked out), and some funny more creative posts that should be coming your way in the next week or two! (Are you excited???)

 

2. How does my work differ from others of its genre?

I'm not sure that my blog IS that different from other blogs, other than that it's about MY life. Recently, more about weddings and buying a house than anything else (and probably soon about moving and house projects haha). But, it's mainly about what's going on, and when I need advice about stuff, this is a great place to turn because everyone is so open and honest with their thoughts and opinions.

3. Why do I write what I do?
 For the most part, it's a way to document my life now. I've definitely gone back and re-read some posts from my past and it's amazing to me how different things can be--I find it fun to look back on things. Especially with the engagement, wedding and things like that, I'm sure it will be even more fun to look back on these posts in the coming months/years and see where I was, and reminisce. 
 

4. How does your writing process work?
If it's about day to day stuff, I kind of free-write and then I go back and edit, to make sure I didn't make any mistakes and that what I wrote makes sense. I try not to be TOO wordy since that can get boring I think (but sometimes I can't help it). If it's something more creative, an idea in my day-to-day life might strike me and I try and write it down somewhere so that I don't forget. And then I'll brainstorm about stuff when I have free time, often times on my drive to and from work, and then I get to writing it down/typing it when I have the chance.

That's it! Nothing too fancy or probably too out there, but it's how my writing process "works" for me!

You should check out Trish's blog (she's quite the crafty and witty person!), and in addition to that, check out these two lovely ladies' blogs:

It's All in the Details

Illegally Blonde

They'll both be sharing their writing process on their blogs next week!

Hope you had fun reading about my writing process! :)

Weekend Recap

Whew! Another super busy weekend in the books, and I'm wiped!

Friday night MG and I had plans to hang out with some friends of ours, but due to some last minute events, those plans got cancelled so MG and I went out for dinner ourselves and enjoyed being lazy on the couch, watching tv. Just what the doctor ordered!

Saturday we had to get ready for the wedding drama couple's wedding, and an hour drive to where the wedding was taking place. Unfortunately, leading up to the wedding day some extra crappy stuff happened (MG was uninvited to the rehearsal dinner 3 days before the dinner under the premise that the guest list was too large and they were keeping it to the immediate bridal party, not the ushers, etc. and then found out that the other 2 ushers were still invited, and also included in the pre-wedding activities like golfing etc, and MG wasn't...which just left kind of a nasty taste in our mouths after everything that's happened up until this point).

But, despite all of that, we got ourselves ready and attended the wedding. It was a short, but sweet ceremony and very pretty. The bride's dress was very pretty and the bridesmaids dresses were also really nice, in different shades of purple. (And, despite not changing anything in relation to our wedding, or "coordinating" our weddings, both weddings were totally different and lots of fun.)

After the ceremony there was a bit of rain that came through, but that lent itself to a double rainbow, which was pretty symbolic since the groom's father and his friend/best man had both passed away within the last year and a half.  I was happy for him that he had that reminder that they were there that day--it was a really special moment.

The reception was in a tent on the same site. It was really fun getting our escort cards and seeing my new last name on it. MG seemed pretty pleased by it as well :) 

We had a great time with our friends and enjoyed a long night of eating, drinking and dancing.

We spent some time at the hotel lobby with everyone after the ceremony was over, and then made our way to sleepy town.

I'm hopeful that we can all put the drama behind us now and move forward, in whatever direction that may be.

Sunday we made the journey back home, picked up Cooper from my parents house (he had a nice night getting spoiled by my parents), ran our weekend errands and tried to recoup before another week, and another wedding next weekend!

Happy Monday and Happy Cinco De Mayo!

5 on Friday

WOOOHOOOO! It's Friiiiiiday!!!

After my first FULL week back to work/reality, I realize more and more....

that I should go back to Antigua and get a job there so I can live in paradise :)
Since that's not a realistic choice right now, let's do some 5 instead...

{1}-New House!

In case you missed it yesterday, MG and I closed on our house on Wednesday afternoon! It's definitely overwhelming to think about all of the things that need to be done between now and when we move in (not to mention the YEARS that will be spent paying it off), but it's also REALLY exciting that we have our first house together, purchased together, and as a married couple. It's pretty damn special :)

{2}-Wedding Drama Couple's Wedding

This weekend is the wedding drama couple's wedding. I'm glad that the weather is looking nice, since I think everything is outdoors, and no one likes rain on their wedding day. To be honest, I'm glad that their wedding is finally here and that after this weekend we can finally put all of this stupid wedding drama behind us, hopefully. And I'm extra curious to see just HOW similar our weddings will/won't actually be since I didn't change everything for our wedding we didn't "coordinate"  on anything, as she had hoped. I have a feeling it will be very different!
I'm trying to refrain from posting pics from the wedding or our honeymoon this weekend to be respectful of the fact that it's their wedding weekend and I don't want to take anything away from that, even if we aren't the best of friends.

{via}

{3}-Orange is the New Black

Since MG and I FINALLY had some down time this week, we were looking for another show to get addicted to into and we'd heard really good things about Orange is the New Black from several people so we tried it out, and ended up watching 2 episodes in one night. Yes, it has some gratuitous nudity (what doesn't anymore, seriously?), but the show itself is pretty interesting. Since we're only done with the 2nd episode, I'm curious to see how the rest of the season goes.

{4}-Spring Cleaning

It's Spring (altho the weather has recently had other ideas about that), and with that comes the urge to purge! With our upcoming move, it's a great time to go through everything and get rid of things we just dont use or need anymore--less stuff to pack!! We started this process last night (ok I did, and that's all it takes for MG to get on the purge train), and there's already a big pile waiting to be donated by the front door. I think this 'cleanse' will continue into the weekend, followed by a trip to Goodwill with a big haul of stuff. It always feels good to get rid of the old, so you can welcome in the new.

{5}- #weddingfails

I love Jimmy Fallon. I also love all of the little sketches he does on his show weekly, like Thank You Notes....but I also really enjoy his #hashtag segment. He sends out a hashtag looking for tweets on that topic. Last week's was #weddingfails, and since we had just gotten back from our awesome wedding and honeymoon, I was pretty interested to see what came up on this segment. I'll let you take a peek for yourself, because some of them are pretty funny:

Hope that helps to get your weekend off to a fun start! :)
Happy Friday, lovies!

Excitement and a Book Review (Little Girl Lost)

Before I get to the book review, I have to share that MG and I officially closed on our house yesterday afternoon!!!!

Although we won't move for another month (which is a blessing right now!), it's really exciting to actually own our first home together, as husband and wife! Woohooo!!!

Ok, now back to business....

This is another book that I read on our honeymoon and I whizzed through it. We're talking, I started and finished it within 24 hours.

The book was called Little Girl Lost by Brian McGilloway (another one that was $.99 on Amazon for the Kindle)

{via}

Here's the Amazon.com summary:

Midwinter. A child is found wandering through the snowy woods, her hands covered in someone else's blood. And she cannot—or will not—speak, not even to share her name.

Who is this little girl lost? The only adult she seems to trust is the young officer who found her, Detective Lucy Black. Before long, Lucy manages to connect her case to that of a missing teenager, the kidnapped daughter of a local real estate tycoon. As the investigation twists and turns, Lucy is forced to question not only a range of dangerous suspects, but also everything she thought she knew about her own past.

I picked this one because the other 3 books I had on my Kindle were love stories and since I'd just finished Must Love Otters, I wanted something a little different. I was really intrigued by the "mystery" component to the book and underlying story which got me hooked instantly. During the course of the book, several different stories and events unfold into a really engrossing story. It's really interesting to see how it all pieces together and connects in the end. Apparently this book is part of a series (Lucy Black Thrillers), and I have a feeling I'll be checking out some of the other ones after reading this book.

I really recommend this one. I read it super quick and was into it the entire time that I was reading it. And, for 99 cents, what's there to lose?

Don't forget to check out my Book Reviews tab at the top of the page for more recommendations (or warnings!) 

Happy May!!!