Music and People Who Love You Make It All Better

Wow. Last week was seriously the worst week EVER. I won't go into detail because you never know who is reading these things, but seriously. Week. FAIL. By Friday afternoon, I was in such a bad mood I was ready to punch somebody in the head. Literally.

When I got home Friday afternoon, I took a nap with Sadie. Step One to healing. I love that dog. Seriously.

Friday night, I had a super yummy dinner (Mexican!!) and a great evening! (Thanks, G!) Step Two. Definitely starting to feel better.

Saturday, I went with Jilly and Chris to the lake. Step Three. The Elks were having a fishing tournament and it was lovely to sit by the lake with friends and enjoy the beautiful weather.

Sunday, I went to church with my family. Several good friends were there to tell me that they love me and are there for support. Lunch at Mom and Dad's is always good for what ails you. I got to hang with Colin and sweet little Brenna, who has finally decided that she loves me. It only took some cake and a few milkshakes. ;)

Sunday night, I went to see Legally Blonde: The Musical!!!! :) Definitely feeling better! I met Kathy, Katie, Katie's friends Brett and Sara Ashley, and SA's mom at Ruby Tuesday for dinner. SLOW. SLOW. SLOOOOOOW people. Then we headed off for Ovens.

Omigod, omigod you guys! What a great show!! The cast was great. I love going to shows. :)

When it was over, we went to the stage door to greet the cast as they came out. They were all so nice! Here are some pics from the stage door:

Me, Brett, Katie, and Sara Ashley at the stage door!

Sara Ashley, Becky Gulsvig (Elle Woods), and Katie. She signed autographs with a pink pen. :)

Me with D. B. Bonds (Emmett Forrest) He had a lovely voice!! And as Kathy said, "That's not all that was lovely!"

Girls' Night! Woo!

Yay! Krystle, Tara, and I had a girls' night out on Friday night! They left their husbands at home. I left Sadie at home. Heehee. It was SO fun!! :)

We met at Tequila for dinner. They had chicken quesadillas and I had chicken fajita nachos. SO GOOD!! I love the food there. Yummy!!

Then we headed over to the Longbranch to see the Truckstop Preachers. It was Tara's first TSP experience. Heehee. It's hard to prepare people for the boys...I think she loved it. :) Tara and I did some Wii bowling too. They've got the big projection screens on both sides of the room. She beat me most of the time. :(

It was a super fun night! Here are some pictures:

The boys. Yes, Nathan has a deer on his head...

Girls' Night--Woo!

Glenn came over to say hey.

Zoo!!!!! :)

Yay! Friday we went to the zoo!!! Corey, Meredith, Colin, Brenna, and me!! :) It was Brenna's first time. I love the zoo.

First stop at the zoo, the bears. I think Brenna liked them. She giggled. Then we walked over to the creepy bird place. I stayed on the little bridge while everyone else went up close to them so Colin could read the signs. OK, so maybe it is an irrational fear. Maybe it's ridiculous that I'm terrified of birds that are clearly contained in their little zoo habitats. I accept that it's kinda goofy. But rather than place myself in the path of an anxiety attack, I just stayed on the bridge. Then we headed over to the sea lion habitat. It was almost time for the show, so we hung out there for a bit. Zuma was waiting very patiently for his trainers to come out. It was very cute. When the show started, Zuma was very cool doing all of his tricks. I like that the keepers at Riverbanks work with the animals so much to keep them stimulated. Here's Zuma working it for the crowd:

After the show, we paused for a diaper/potty break. Actually, I went to hang out with the flamingos while everyone else took a diaper/potty break. I was trying to get new/more pictures for my bathroom, but didn't really get any that I like any more than the ones that are already in there. I did get to see some pretty fun flamingo fighting though. Heehee.

Moving right along, we tried to see the gorillas, but they weren't out. Gorilla. Fail. We moved on through the small animal tunnel where the cute little monkey like creatures hang out. And oh yeah, the bats. Eep! (Yes, I know...another irrational fear. So sue me.) Outside the tunnel, Aunt Steppy started to get excited. The elephants were right around the corner. :D



After a brief stop at the meerkats (SO CUTE!), we were in my favorite spot in the zoo. The elephants! Happy day! All four girls were out. They're so pretty.

We stopped for a minute at the baby elephant statue for pictures. Brenna wouldn't let me hold her long enough for a picture, so it was just me and Colin. He's getting so big. Not at all the tiny little dude I had my picture made with in this exact spot just a few short years ago. *Sigh*

Next up, the giraffes. There is a new baby giraffe at Riverbanks. Absolutely adorable.

We cruised past the zebras and ostriches and the alligator, who, contrary to the opinion of the genius parent who was talking to his kid was, indeed, quite real, and made our way to the Riverbanks Farm to see the goats, cow, owls (ick!), bunnies, and the llama. I don't know why the llama is on the farm. Whatever. Then it was on to the psycho monkeys. One of them was SO loud. They're super funny to watch, swinging around and looking mad at everyone. Heehee. Silly monkeys.

We headed around to the koalas. Thankfully the lorikeet feeding place was closed for the day. That seriously creeps me out. All of those birds flying around your head and sitting on you and stuff. TERRIFYING! Ugh. The koalas were super cute as usual. They were sleeping when we went in but their keeper came in and they woke up! They're never awake!!! It was very exciting. Of course, my camera chose that exact moment for the batteries to die. Camera. Fail. Anyway, here's a sleeping koala...

Apparently it was naptime at the zoo. Most of the next animals were asleep. The tiger was asleep. Most of the lions were asleep. The hyenas were asleep. Whatever. Brenna, Meredith, and I waited very patiently (mostly) while Colin and Corey went into the reptile/aquarium complex. They were in there forever... Then it was on to the Birdhouse. Not my favorite place, but that's where the penguins live. They're so cute. It was hard to get good pictures of them though because the glass was so dirty! Boo!

Last animal stop: the lemurs. Also hard to photograph. Then it was gift shop time and out!

We had a great day at the zoo!!! I'm so glad Meredith and Corey let me tag along on these adventures!! :)

Reason #83372837481724 Why I Love This Dog...

She watched Gone With the Wind with me last night. :)

Happy Easter!!

Easter!!!! Hooray!!! Super busy day..here goes!

There was lot to do on Easter Sunday. There was a sunrise service at church. I didn't go. As Kathy says, "If the Lord had meant for us to see the sunrise, He would have made it later in the day." I agree. There was a church breakfast. I'm pretty sure I was still sleeping. :) Who needs breakfast when Easter lunch is coming?!? Church was an hour earlier than normal, starting at 10:00. Meredith and I had the nursery, so that was fun. For the first hour....Seriously. Church started at 10, it was over at 12!!! AAAAAAHHHHHH!!! Every toy was out of the toy box. The children were restless. The adults were restless!!! *Sigh*

When church was finally over, we went to Lancaster to Grandmother and Granddaddy's house. It was a full house! Grandmother, Granddaddy, Mom, Dad, Brent, Deborah, Pete, Helena, Meredith, Corey, Colin, Brenna, Kathy, Hoppy, Katie, Bobby, Uncle Arnie, and me. Whew. We had a super yummy lunch. :)

After lunch we walked up to the church to take some pictures with the flowers. It was prettier there.

After pictures, it was back to the house for Easter egg hunting. Good times. :)

Brenna found a calculator. She loved it. :)

We had a great day. I love spending these days with my family. :)

Baby Shower!

Today was Kim's baby shower! It's been a super busy couple of days, but it was worth it for my buddy!!

First of all, I spent several hours working on Kim's present. A "diaper cake". Being the cakemaker that I am, I thought it would be appropriate. It served nicely as both decoration and as a gift! It had two fuzzy crib sheets, 5 receiving blankets, about 20 cloth diapers, and 20 washcloths in it, as well as two wrist rattles, a fuzzy elephant, two pacifiers, and a teddy bear.

I also spent a good amount of time working on the real cake! It was yummy chocolate with Speppy icing. I checked out the crib bedding Kim and Dat picked out and copied that onto the cake. 'Cause that's how I roll.

Besides the cake, I threw together some snacks for us too. :) We had popcorn chicken with ranch, honey mustard, or barbecue sauce, barbecued meatballs, an apple-grape-and-cheese tray, a vegetable tray, and some mints. No southern shower is complete without the little pastel mints. :) Oh yeah, and pink lemonade. I almost forgot!

I remained calm with decorations. I didn't think they were all that necessary. I did hang a banner across the fireplace that looked like a clothesline. And I used two of my gifts to her (a book and a toy) to decorate on a table. I also moved a picture of Kim and me with Chalica to this table. I wanted to feel like Chalica was with us, even though she's far far far far away in Korea. I missed her today!!

Kim and her mom arrived at my house, followed closely by Megan and Katie. It was so good to see them!

Everything was ready, so we ate, Kim opened presents, and then I cut the cake. Kim did a great dramatic reading of Moo, Baa, La La La! for us.

We had a vreat visit with friends and then it was time to go. I made a picture of everyone with Kim and her belly!

I hope my buddy had a good time. I'm so excited about meeting Miss Annabelle Elizabeth!! :)

Random Wedding Pictures

More pictures from the wedding...

I think this is my favorite one of me...

Cheesin' with Kelly

And Susan

Posing with the bride, groom, and the cake

Um, "Brian", did you leave cake for anyone else?


Great face on a very happy groom!

Cheesin' with Chris

Taking my own picture. Silly.

Again, silly.

Chris and Krystle's Wedding...Part Three

(I decided to do this in several parts so that it wouldn't be the longest post in the history of my blog!)

We left the church after pictures and made our way to the country club. After a few more pictures with the photographer, the bridal party made their entrance to 2001. Yay! (Go Cocks!) I had a hard time not cheering like I was at a football game, though. :) Chris and Krystle went straight to their first dance and then the bridal party was released from duty to party!

Step One: Flip Flops! Ouch my feet.

I ate a quick bite. The food was really good! Chicken, veggies, fruit, meatballs, sandwiches, very sweet tea. Yummy! We did all the typical reception events. Brian gave the toast and they cut the cake. Yay cake!!! :)

The bouquet toss was ill-fated. She couldn't get the bouquet to fly. Couple that with the fact that none of us really seemed to want to catch it, and the poor bouquet spent a lot of time on the ground. The boys were almost as enthusiastic about the garter as we were about the bouquet.

Then it was back inside for more dancing and eating. Chris and Krystle did a fake exit at 8:00. The briday party lined up with sparklers and everyone else had bubbles and they did their exit for pictures. Then they came back and we partied for a few more hours.


The wedding was beautiful and the reception was super fun. I hope Chris and Krystle will have a long and wonderful life together!


Stay tuned for one more post of random wedding related pictures!

Chris and Krystle's Wedding...Part Two

Saturday was a very busy day!! I got up very early to decorate the wedding cake. Then my dear, sweet sister came and drove the cake (and me) to the country club for setup. We met Krystle and her mom and I put the cake together. It took awhile to get all of the flowers arranged the way I wanted them. Krystle's mom was very sweet and ran out to get some baby's breath to add the final touches. We got a picture just in case we couldn't get one later. We looked rough...

When the cake was all finished, I went back home, ate a quick lunch, and got ready to go to the church. I did hair and makeup and everything at the church. It seemed like the thing to so, since it was rather windy outside! I had fun getting ready with the girls. Krystle was very calm. Here are a few pictures from the getting-ready process...

When we were all ready, we went up for pictures and then just stayed upstairs waiting for the wedding to begin.

They called me out to go play for the grandparents to be seated at 4:45. I waited, and waited, and waited, and waited for the signal to begin. Some of Chris's family were late and we were waiting for them. Mom was running out of music, so I was trying to find stuff for her. I felt kinda dumb standing up there not doing anything. Eventually I saw the grandmothers come out and line up to walk down the aisle, so mom and I started to play. But the grandmothers didn't walk. So we ended up playing Ave Maria twice. Oh well.

The ceremony was lovely. Krystle, who had been so calm all day, cried. I had to choke it back so I didn't cry too. The unity sand ceremony was neat. I had never seen that before. The ceremony was short and sweet. After the ceremony, we took the big group pictures, and then it was off to the country club for the reception to celebrate with Mr. and Mrs. Mizwa! :)