Wedding Wonderland to Thee and Thou

We traveled to Slocomb this past weekend to attend my friend, Lauren Brooke's wedding!  It really was a relaxing and beautiful weekend for an outdoor wedding shindig!  Steve and I drove down on Friday evening and relaxed all day Saturday before heading to the church at 5pm.  The ceremony was beautiful and short and then we got to walk across the street to Lauren's family's home for the outdoor reception!  It was a lot of fun and georgeous weather! 

So, apparently, I am not well versed in my wedding ceremony lingo.  The whole part where the bride and groom say their vows  - I was completely confused what "I thee and thou" meant and why they each had to say it to one another! What are they "theeing and thouing" to one another?! So, Rich and Laura tried to look up what I was talking about and had no luck.  Then, I asked LHo if she remembered the part in her vows where she said this "thee and thou" and....

Wait for it...

...That's right folks, I CAN'T HEAR at ALL!  She started chuckling and said "you mean when we said "I THEE ENDOW?!"  Well, Why yes, silly, of course...

That's what I said, didn't I?!

Thankfully, my friends love me and for the most part, know I can't hear...or I am REALLY blonde...secretly

Misfit Easter

We had a houseful of company for Easter this year!  Quite honestly, I was nervous at first about entertaining so many guests, but I really enjoyed all of it!

Jade and Gasper arrived on Thursday afternoon and that evening we drove to Montgomery to pick up Khiri! 

Friday, Jade and I went to get "hot stone" massages as a sister activity.  I am not sure who enjoyed the massages more - us or our massage people listening to us talk about the hilarity that is our lives!  We all met up with Steve's grandparents who had an unexpected stop in Alabama due to car troubles on their way back to Michigan from Florida.  I told Steve that the car troubles were God's way of encouraging his grandparents to spend some of the Easter holiday with us.  Then, that evening, Justin arrived to begin the holiday festivities!

We spent Saturday "touring" Birmingham, with stops at Vulcan, Jim N Nicks downtown, Charlemagne Records and Birmingham Botanical Gardens =)  Jade and I made everyone color eggs with us, too!

Sunday, I got up bright and early and went to early church service with Justin and Khiri.  It was a great way to start my morning out.  We then got home and started cooking and sat outside and enjoyed mimosas until dinner!  We had plenty of company for Easter, too! Claire, Rhiannon and Joel joined all of us and participated in the Pinata and Egg Wars!  Steve managed to corral several people for games fo "cornhole" and bocce ball before he "retired" for the evening in the hammock.  I think it's fair to say it was a long but exciting day for all of us!

Monday we took Jade and Gasper to The American Village in Montevallo and then to eat at Joe's Italian in Alabaster.  Jade and I quite enjoyed ourselves and the historical "living" characters we had the opportunity to chat with throughout the village.  Steve, however, was on the grumpy side from a recovery from Sunday and Gasper I think just thought Jade and I were weird.  George Washington seemed to enjoy us, though! HA! 

Lazy Days Lately... This is from the last weekend in March...

Graduate School and Work have once again taken over my life and made me incrediably lazy when I am home...thus, no posts.

The last weekend in March, Steve and I went to the Air Show in Montgomery.  We met up with my cousin, Justin, and while we had a great time, managed to fry ourselves in the sun WITH spf 45 on.  I  managed to get some fairly good shots of different planes on the warm and sunny day. 

Steve and I also managed to NOT get jumped while walking 5 miles to the airshow from our parking spot despite passing a gang of 15 or so and several "unlucky" looking fellas along the trek.  You know it's a bad area when a truck pulls over and offers you a ride into the base because the driver is a homicide detective for the city and tells you the only reason we weren't jumped in broad daylight was because there were so many people around.  I just said hi to everyone we walked past as they eyed my purse because I figured if I was more friendly they would be less likely to jump a nice person...trying to psyche myself into positive thinking about the human race - HA!

what else can I do aside from run...

Today I went on the treadmill at the gym for 30 minutes.  Key part of this previous sentence, went on, not RAN on...HA! 

I am so cardiovascularly out of shape it is ridiculous - my heart doctor told me I need to strengthen my heart to reduce my palpitations and get my heart rate up and likewise, increasing my blood pressure.  Isn't that the opposite of what most people are told?  I eat enough salt for a daily salt lick and my blood pressure is still incrediably low.  Explains why I almost used to and sometimes still do practically faint when I stand up. 

SO, today, since my class was cancelled upon arrival, I drove to the sporting goods store, bought a sports bra, socks, pants and shirt and then drove to the gym.  I decided that today would be the most appropriate day of all to put my 50 dollar per month gym membership to good use since ummm perhaps last October and that is being generous! 

SO, I thought to myself, I will go on the treadmill.  Avoid the gym meatheads and stick with a cardio machine.  My headphones broke last week so I figured I would just watch a tv show and try to read lips...that should keep me occupied for 30 minutes, right?  WRONG.  The tv on my treadmill only works with headphones plugged in.  DUMB.  What do deaf people do?  They don't need the headphones so why waste the energy?   Then I decided I would walk for say, 10 minutes then run for a few and walk some more - you get the idea.  Well time did NOT pass quickly.  I counted meatheads walking into the gym from the second floor window.  I tried to guess the names of cars driving by outside.  I color coded people by their shirts.  I tried to guess the barbeque people were leaving with from the Johnny Ray's next door.  I tried to peek at the time left and heart rates of the two men running on both sides of me.  Epic Fail on all accounts.  I started counting in my head.  Then I started a mantra - One more minute, One more minute - for 29 minutes. 

Needless to say, on all accounts, I will be purchasing new headphones.  I ran a total of perhaps 10 minutes and walked the other 20 in a mixed combo...not bad for an exasperated couch potato. 

Tomorrow I am swimming.

Pasta Weezie!

Now I know many people don't celebrate Valentine's Day because it is a "hallmark" holiday.  I have a few thoughts on this whole issue.  First, regardless of it being a "hallmark" holiday or not, there REALLY is a St. Valentine; second - is it really so terrible to set a day aside to spend with the ones you love?  I realize that we all should tell and show the ones in our lives that we love, we love them everyday, but let's be real people - we all have bad days and don't necessarily put forth our best effort to support and be kind to those that are important to us.  SUCK IT UP and take a minute, five or heck, twenty-four hours to do something nice for those you really value in your life.  GET OVER THE HARD ASS STIGMA - "happy singles awareness day" or whatever you call it - so you don't currently have a significant other; I bet if you take 3.5 seconds to think about it you have MANY SIGNIFICANT people in your life that would appreciate a "thank you, "I love you", "you make my days better"...I am so tired of people letting society and others dictate their emotions.  You feel and act how you CHOOSE to feel and act so if you are going to be a "negative Nancy" perhaps that is why you are lacking a signifcant other.  If you are not one of the aforementioned, then perhaps, you truly value your morals and are not willing to lower your standards and expectations to simply have a companion - if you are this person, I appreciate you!  You should thus spend Valentine's Day loving yourself =)  You are strong, independent and unwilling to accept less than what you deserve and you know the value of your own love! 

Steve and I decided we would have a "low key" Valentines Day...not spend a lot of money and do something at home for dinner.  SO, we decided to FINALLY use the authentic Italian pasta maker my Dad got me for my birthday (June) and make some homemade pasta sauce while we were at it.  It turned out pretty tasty if I do say so and it was fun to make a meal at home with him.  That is one of the things I really enjoy doing with Steve when we are both home - make homemade meals together!  We have braved pizza from scratch, halloween sugar cookies from scratch (icing and all) and now pasta!  Every time we always end up spending way more than a few hours doing what we thought would be only an hour prep for a meal - lol...we should really know better by now!  In any case, here are a few pictures from our pasta tonight!  The first is with Steve using his pasta rolling skills and the thin white pieces are all the pasta pieces drying in order for use to cut them with the pasta machine into strips...the latter, of course, our tasty homemade, from scratch meal =)  Homemade pasta really does taste much better than store bought - is this because of all the hard work one puts in to create it?  Who knows, all I know is that I was taken back to my time in Italia this past May...sigh...one day we will return...

Walmart Adventures

Steve and I went to Walmart on Lakeshore on Thursday evening to pick up a few items after buying our new freezer for the half cow we are getting.  

As we were walking into Walmart there was a grill sitting in the parking lot next to a Buick with four people in it.  At first, Steve thought that they may be waiting for someone else to come and load the grill.  I thought it was strange overall but we just went in to the store.

As we were leaving about 30 minutes later, the Buick was still there, the people still inside of it and the Grill still sitting next to the car and the cart return.  Suspicious, possibly not...until you notice the hose still attached the grill with the price tag and chain to keep it from being stolen.  Great Job Walmart on your theft protection; Great job theives on your escape plan - next time you may want to bring a getaway car that fits large items with four people...just a thought

ONE shoe? Really people?

I would first like to say that I have tried MULTIPLE times to connect my blackberry to this blog - sent pictures, text, etc - but to no avail it is going to internet lala land apparently - grrr...

As I was driving today I encountered, not one, but two shoes in the middle of the road.  Now, mind you, these were not a pair of shoes, they were two seperate shoes, in two totally different places on Morgan Rd.  They did not belong to young children, unless of course, young children wear heels and like size 10 aqua shoes.  I have always wondered, how does one lose ONE shoe in the middle of the road?  Were you driving and decided that your resting foot needed some air?  Or, were you on the phone while driving, get mad at something the other person said and when hitting the dashboard didn't fulfill your craving for rage, decide it was best to chuck your ONE shoe out the window?  If so, I bet you are really regretting that choice now.  Those shoes are probably out of production and no longer in your size - let's just hope they weren't your "favorite" pair.  Perhaps you had a carful of shoes and one day decided it was time to clean house - maybe you should have thought that one out a little better - just like there are starving children, there are also barefoot children - I heard that consignment shops give money for shoes in good condition, too.  But, now you can't even do that since the one shoe is in the middle of Morgan road, weathering the elements and 2 ton cars and trucks driving over it.  Nice job ace.