CATS.

I was going to refer to this as some sort of weekend recap but in looking at the few photos I took/am posting I notice a theme: cats. My life, in one word, really.

Friday night M and I made dinner and had a couple over for some impromptu drinks when I happened to see them while driving home from the grocery store.
Weekends (and really every day, now) means tootie gets to snuggle, so here we are spooning before bed.
This is actually how we sleep (minus the eyes open and the light on)- he's my little spoon. Love him.

Saturday I was pretty spectacularly worthless. 

I had every intention of being productive but when M left for an all-day golf tournament with my dad, brother and cousin I found myself on the couch watching back-to-back(-to-back) episodes of Sex and the City on HBOGo. [As an aside, it's amazing what I see when I watch them in order and after all these years I can finally say I sort of understand why people hated Big so hard. I get it.] 

I did manage to put away heaps of laundry that had been sitting in my closet for most the summer, but this picture of TJ pretty much sums up the day: 

I had plans to go over to my dad's and hang out with them after the tournament but I should've known what I was in for when I got a text from M as I was heading over that simply read, "sleepy." .... sure enough I drive 25 minutes and find 2/3 of them passed out on the couches. My 1/3 being one of them, my brother the other. Oy. I lasted 40 minutes before telling them I'd see them the next day (which was consequently my brother's birthday) when they were all more conscious, and I dragged M home. 

Sunday we lounged, I went to the gym and Costco, and we ran errands to Goodwill and Target. I got some new flats for Italy, since my other ones have the bungee-heels that KILL my ankles after a long day, and I actually bought 2 shirts at Goodwill (LC|Lauren Conrad top and a brand new with tags on top from Target for a total of $11 !!!!)-- I need to shop here more often. I exercised some self restraint in re-shelving a top from Banana Republic and American Eagle as well. I have to say I'm usually not big on Goodwill because I hate picking through the racks but I may be a convert (also, see the previous post on the B word..). 

Sunday night we picked up a small strawberry tort and headed over to my dad's for a birthday dinner for my brother. We plopped Lucky at the table and he thought this slice was his. #cruel 

Don't feel too bad though, dad snuck him a lick of whipped cream (in case anyone is wondering why this cat is like.. 100 lbs.)

The big 2-4!

Overall a low key weekend. 

The next 2 weeks feel packed- tonight we're using a Let's Dish gift card to make ourselves some freezer meals for when we inevitably return from Italy and are jet lagged and lazy; a HH on Jess's patio is on deck, and another HH/movie night with book club to discuss Courtney Robertson's book, "I Didn't Come Here to Make Friends" (#BachelorNation- yes, it's true) and watch If I Stay, which was last month's book. 

So, stay tuned. Maybe I'll take photos. 

I've also been thinking about my mom a lot lately.. per usual, but have a post drafted and a few others stewing so maybe I'll publish those as well. 

WALK MS: 2014

This past Sunday was the Walk for MS.
It also marked exactly 2 months since my mom's funeral.
I feel like I have a lot to say about it and nothing at all.. you know how that goes.
It was a chilly but beautiful morning in Minneapolis and the route was perfect- through Minnehaha Falls Park and along the Mississippi River. We wound up having about 60 people (WOW, didn't realize that until I counted the people in the photo) show up for the walk and raised right around $4,500. On short notice, I'm pretty proud of our efforts. I think mom would've been proud, too.

Now that the event  has passed, I feel like a weight has been lifted. For the first time in.. maybe.. a year, I'm not the "point person" on some organized effort. All of last year I was planning the wedding, fielding questions, and organizing people. The wedding came and went, we got back and were embroiled in the name-change-buying-a-car process for the next few weeks, and then I found myself in the position of family spokesperson when my dad had his heart attack. (If we're being honest I still can't believe that happened). We were finally entering "fully recovered" zone with him when my mom was admitted to the hospital. Once again I was family point person, fielding phone calls, organizing items, making decisions- which of course led into the MS Walk where.. you guessed it.

That's not me complaining.. although it's been entirely overwhelming at times, I don't mind (usually). But I realized that for the foreseeable future, I have nothing to plan or organize and I'm feeling a sense of freedom. It's nice.

We had M's dad and sister from Michigan in town as well, and went out to a fantastic dinner Friday night with both his sisters, his dad, and my dad. I love that our parents are all familiar and comfortable with one another, and we actually get together quite often. M's mom and step dad were at the walk on Sunday, as well.

Saturday was spent running errands in preparation for Sunday.
Some more photos from Sunday:

{Errybody's favorite: LO & the Jess-ster}

Unrelated, I finally cleaned up my office and am starting to settle in.
If you're doing the math on when I started my job (September) and thinking "just settling in, now?" that's okay. You see, since I started, I've been told "we're moving." First it was January, then March, then April, then May. Things just weren't going smoothly in that department and rather than force through a move, we re-signed a year lease in our current building. SO, I've been in this weird state of limbo with a semi-unfinished office.

Yesterday I cleaned up and hung up a few smaller items, but need to get a drill/hammer/nail situation in here to hang my diplomas and art. Maybe after that I'll snap some pics. If you're anything like me (read as: nosy) I figure maybe there's some interest in what my office looks like. I've also been meaning to do one of those "hour a day" posts because again, if you're like me (read as: super nosy) maybe there's some interest in what it is I do throughout the day.

Hope you all had a good weekend!

BELATED EASTER WEEKEND

I'm hopping back in time to document my Easter weekend (hopping- GET IT?!). Moving on. 

Saturday of Easter weekend I hosted a bridal shower for Leah. Due to the number of RSVP's we moved it to Cooper at the West End and it was such a great decision. The food was amazing, the room was perfect, and ZOMG it was so nice to not have to do ANY cleaning and just go home and crawl into bed for a nap. 

 

 

The bride with her mom and grandma. :) 

I think a fun time was had by all, and Leah scored some sweet wedding gifts, so that's always a bonus. 

I was sad to have missed the bachelorette that was this past weekend but I was in NYC for a wedding (more on that later this week!) but the wedding will be here in just a few weeks! 

Easter was the following day and we had M's dad and his girlfriend staying with us, and his sister, her boyfriend, and my brother all came over for brunch. It was my first time cooking ham, and I tried to replicate my grandma's strata and I have to say- my brother proclaimed it better than grandma's. Success! 

  

I had a much better day than I had the night before. I guess that's just how grief works. 

Selfie we sent my dad who was in NYC visiting my cousin. M wasn't supposed to be in it but that, my friends, is what we call perfect timing: 

Overall it was a busy but really good weekend.
As I mentioned, this past weekend we were in NYC which was fun, and also exhausting, and I'll post more about that later. This coming weekend we have M's dad AND sister from Michigan in town so the hours are being filled rapidly, OH and Sunday is the MS Walk in which we've raised over $3,500 and I'm coordinating a team of 50+ (I won't mention the anxiety that I have that not everyone has registered online so I have no REAL idea how many people are going to show up. hmpf)... It'll be fun, and I do enjoy hosting and planning things, but the fun stops when I try to have to anticipate every contingency, question, thing-that-will-go-wrong when dealing with humans. This is a built in part of my job as an attorney I suppose and it carries over in my day-to-day life.. which makes me sleepy.

I'm going to need a weekend to recover from my weekend's soon.. although the next few weekends through May are filling up and then summer craziness starts. Is it nap time yet?

MERRY AND BRIGHT

I'm a walking cliché with that post title, and I'm fine with it.
Things finally feel like they're calming down a little bit, and for that, I am grateful.
Last weekend M and I parted ways and finished up some last minute Christmas shopping. We had an unexpected visitor when Dana got trapped in Minnesota another night due to an ice storm. It was nice having her- and we met up with one of her college friends to brave the Mall of America the Saturday before Christmas. It sounds like insanity but we lucked out in finding a parking spot, and everybody maintained their sanity.

Saturday night we went to M's friends' parents house for a fondue party and giant Jenga. It was a lot of fun, and I'm always so thankful I married someone with such a great group of friends. As someone who doesn't have a cohesive "group" (I seem to have collected a hodge podge from various areas of my life) his is a lot of fun for me.

Sunday night we had Christmas round 1 with M's mom and sister in the cities. We'd be seeing her Christmas Eve, too.. but didn't want to lug presents up north when we live 7 minutes away in the cities.

{some Christmas scenes from around our house}

{helpless when a good chin scratch comes around}

Monday after work we headed up to M's dad's in northwestern Minnesota. It was nice to hang out and have some drinks and relax after a long drive.

(and sample some slightly burnt almond bark popcorn..)

Christmas Eve day was pretty lazy.. we lounged and watched a movie and wrapped a few last minute gifts. That night we went to M's mom's extended family's annual Christmas Eve. You follow that? The unfortunate part was that the aunt and uncle who were hosting lived over an hour away from M's dad's (which was already a 3 hour drive from home) so Betty (our car) logged a lot of miles this week.

We played a white elephant game in which I nearly won a shirt that said "Behold, fartacus" .. only to be saved by M's step-dad, go back to the pile of wrapped gifts, and come out with a Duck Dynasty shirt. M really wanted a gift that came with a mason jar with some hot apple pie (a sort of moonshine, if you will): said gift also happened to come with a Duck Dynasty chia pet. I haven't seen a second of the show and after .. ahem.. "recent events", I only wish we had a fire place so I could burn them both. Woof.  

 

{Christmas Eve}

We woke up bright and early Christmas Day to eat breakfast and open gifts with M's dad, his dad's girlfriend, and both of M's sisters. I'm really not a "post my gifts on social media" person.. it's not that I'm not proud of them but I don't like that it feels like a competition. That being said, I have to brag on Natalie who got me the most thoughtful gift that I have been wanting, and putting off buying, for myself: a BEAUTIFUL leather camera bag... a CUTE camera bag- it's a cross body and I am obsessed with it. Which is perfect because M got me a 50mm/f1.8 lens for my fancy camera (can you tell by the return of the "nice photos" on the blog!?). I'm so excited I'll be able to carry my camera without fear of it getting smashed on things or flopping around a normal purse. She got me a special insert that real camera bags have, too.. so once I get that (shipping mishap), my baby Canon will be coming errywhere with me. It's also perfect for Paris in March. I'm not sure if I've mentioned that on here? I'm going to Paris in March. Will have to post appropriately about that at a later date.

We left his dad's around 2:00 and headed back to the cities to pick up some dinner and do one last Christmas with my immediate family.

I have to say one more thing about gifts: I don't like giving "lists" to family and friends. If they ask, sure, I'll point them in a good direction... but lists feel like grocery shopping, and to me, a present is more than that. It also helps that I'm not picky, and generally, have been really happy with most the gifts I've been given over the years. So when my brother asked what I wanted, I told him scarves, mittens, and what colors I liked, and when I opened the two adorable scarves he picked out, it means a little more to me because these aren't just "things I asked for".. these are things he carefully selected, and are from my brother. I just prefer it that way.

I also generally prefer putting my thoughts into what gifts I'll be giving, and this year, I was MOST excited about one in particular: my brother's. After my dad got out of the hospital M was able to hook him up with a first generation iPad since his work was upgrading theirs. For a very UN-techy man, my dad was hooked. But I noticed something else, whenever Stephen was lounging in the living room, it was so much easier to just pick up my dad's ipad than get his laptop. I should mention his laptop is from 2008, and if it comes unattached from the charger for even a SECOND- it crashes. So, I thought, a tablet would be an absolutely perfect gift for him. We got him a Samsung Galaxy S4 (I think that is the right one) and impatiently waited for Christmas to give it to him. What followed was HILARIOUS and absolutely made my day.

<<Stephen starts to tear into his gift>> "oh,... wow! This is uh, way nicer than my cell phone."

pause... I slowly realize what's going on: he thinks it's a cell phone (he doesn't have a smart phone).

Me: Uh, you know that's not a cell phone... that's a tablet. Like Matt's. and Dad's.

Stephen: WHAT?! OMG that's even better! Oh god I was just thinking, "uh, I can't afford a data plan for this thing.... bahahah!" ...

I just lost it. Poor kid thought we got him a smart phone that came with a plan he couldn't afford. Once he realized that was not the case, the gift was about 10 times better. It was so fun watching him play with it, and kept saying how cool it was... and the google-search-voice-recognition thing? Both he and my dad were having a blast. M and I don't use our Netflix nearly as much as we should, so we gave Stephen the password so he could use it too, and we'd get our money's worth.

It absolutely made my Christmas to see him so happy. The stress of living at my parents still, especially with both my dad and my mom around 24/7, and he and my dad butting heads... often, I thought he deserved something nice.

And lastly, because as if you need a reminder what blog you're reading, some gratuitous cat photos:

Hope you all had a great Christmas weekend as well. :)

THANKFUL

I am going to guess most of you know where I'm going with this, but that's okay. I still want to say it.

This Thanksgiving is very special for my family.

This Thanksgiving could have looked a lot different. It could've been our first "without".....him.

Instead I'll most likely be swatting the second helping of canned cranberries out of his hand tomorrow and making sure he doesn't go for the salt shaker.

I'm still thankful for my health, my home, the rest of my family... but mostly, overwhelmingly, I'm thankful for his health.

In some twisted way, I'm thankful it happened-- or at least if it had to happen, that it unfolded the way it did. That even if he didn't have any warning then- we have warning now. I'm also thankful it's given me the chance to say all sorts of things to him I'm not sure I ever would've verbalized. I've always been close with my dad, or at least he was always special to me, but it was more of an unspoken feeling, than anything else. Don't get me wrong, I always told him I loved him, but I've never said all the other mushy things until now. It's brought us closer than we have ever been, and for that I'm incredibly thankful. I don't know how much longer we'll have together, 10 years, 20 years, 30 years.. the same can be said for anyone, but I do know that the years will be so much more special.



Happy Thanksgiving.

WEDDING RECAP // FAMILY PHOTOS

Hi, still here, still rolling.

In honor of this gloriously short Thanksgiving week, work has decided to actually be busy! That's a lie, everybody else is busy but they just weren't handing stuff down to me as efficiently.

No weekend recap this weekend. In blogger-sinful-fashion I had Friendsgiving with Lo, Syndal and Jess and our men. I spent 50% of the night eating cheese, and 50% of the night petting Jess's cats. So overall it was the best night of my life.

But seriously, Jess made SUCH a ridiculously delicious meal, I know without a doubt it'll be better than my real Thanksgiving meal, and if you couldn't tell I'm hungry right now by the way I'm fawning over it.. well.. I don't know what to tell ya.

So there's that. Rest of the weekend was spent relaxing, was at my parents on "dad duty" for a bit while he and M went to the UMD/UMN hockey game. Bulldogs won. WOOP WOOP (my alma mater). Really I don't care though, I'm the worst alumni ever. I actually usually prefer the Gophers.

Moving on- more wedding posts:

Ahhhh family photos. 

They were rapid fire, they involved a lot of smiling and swapping out family members. I won't bore you with all of the 100 combinations. They're a necessary component of a wedding day, and I know our parents will really like them, but they're just never my favorite. Don't get me wrong, they're nice photos, but I prefer the more editorial style of the rest of the photos. 

Since I've started this post out on SUCH a high note (;-)) here they are!:

Up next: the ceremony!

STEWARDSHIP // ON BELIEVING IN THE CHURCH AGAIN

I was born and raised a Catholic.
I'm sure I've alluded to that fact now and again on this blog, most likely poking fun at some of the dogma that is stereotypical of the Catholic Church. The truth is I joke about it because I've had a hard time with it the last 5 years or so. Mostly, to be blunt, a result of the combination of the child-abuse scandal and the church's views on same sex marriage. It's easy to lose faith when there's so much hate, so many excuses, and so much intolerance.

If any one single thing has restored my faith in Faith itself, and in the church community- it's been my dad's heart attack. It's hard to not look at, and admire, someone with as much faith as he has. He's a man of quiet faith.. we never really talked about it outside of school and/or church, so I never realized how deeply held his beliefs were until later in life.

My dad works as a custodian at our church and the affiliated grade school, where I went. (I don't know why I feel the need to tell you this, likely because I'm proud and defensive of my dad: he was a fiber optical engineer at Qwest for 25 years and was let go in favor of a younger employee about 10 years ago- he jokingly calls this his retirement job). Our family has been a part of the church for as long as I can remember, but my dad has remained a more integral part of it with these younger generations since my brother and I have been gone, through his job.

I thought I knew all my dad's friends. I truly did. He doesn't lead a wild social life, he's pretty low key, so I thought I knew them all. I was wrong. The number of emails I've received from people asking to help, many of whom I don't recognize at all, is astounding. These are largely, mostly, church people.

The point of this specific post though... stewardship. My dad is a member of the church's Men's Club, and they reached out pretty early on to let me know if  we needed anything, to just ask. We haven't had as much work as we've had people asking, so a few of the guys asked about donating money. I was VERY hesitant to accept any, because truthfully his medical bills are covered by insurance for the most part, minus a decent sized deductible... and we think (and are in the process of finding out) he's got some decent disability pay, so he'll really be "ok" through all the time off he'll need. One of the officers reminded me though, and it's good to be reminded, sometimes people just really need to feel like they've helped. So, I set up one of those fundraiser websites for my dad, thinking it'd be nice if we could at least cover his deductible for him, if anything. Aside from emailing it to the Men's Club, and sending the link to a small chain of family on Facebook whom I'd been keeping updated on my dad, I haven't promoted it at all.

The email with the link went out to the Men's Club this morning,... a mere 7 hours ago. We're nearly halfway to our "goal", the deductible amount, already. I'm blown away. I don't know how to separate whether this is a testament to my dad, and what an incredible person he truly is, or a testament to our Catholic Church, and how much they support their own-- and knowing my dad I'm not sure they can be separated.

I do know that this has helped restore my faith. My faith in humanity, in people.. and in Faith itself.

UPDATE

I wanted to start by saying thank you for all the thoughts and prayers and those of you who sent a message (I didn't mind :)). I appreciate it more than you know. Everybody always talks about how much family and friends pull together when things like this happen and you really can't understand it until you experience it- it's so overwhelming, in such a good way.

I had an earlier draft of this post written and then so much changed in the last few hours. That's always how it goes, isn't it? He's already heading home tomorrow .They said he's been doing really well, and I've noticed changes even in the last few times we've visited. He's more lucid, complaining less of pain, and is more mobile. (Updated to add: He's staying until Tuesday or Wednesday. He said he just wasn't feeling ready yet and the doctor either picked up on that and is letting him stay and also said he wasn't looking 100% (still gets dizzy and heat flashes when sitting up) so he'll still be under their watchful eye for a day or two more! Which he seemed relieved about, so that's good.

He's still really sore, obviously- but he's been saying mostly that the pain is from the cracked rib, not the giant incision down the center of his chest.. go figure. My original plan was to get the whole first month figured out but they're making it sound like he may not need 24 hours of care for the entire month, so instead we're taking it a few weeks at a time. So far we have the first two weeks covered- either my brother, Matt or I will be there with him at night, and my mom's PCA is there during the day. We've also got 2 and a half weeks worth of meals covered. We'll reassess then, see what he needs, and ask for more help if need be. I figured that was better than having 30 meals made and him being far more functional than we guessed. Of course people will drop by with meals, too, so... at least we're accounting for some of that.

I was pretty spazzy this morning about getting everything coordinated, mostly because everybody is looking to us for direction and when I'd tried to coordinate with my brother he was taking much more of a "calm down, it'll get figured out, we have some time" approach. When we heard he was coming home tomorrow he suddenly became much more amenable to talking out our schedule and coverage for the first 2 weeks.

The only frustrating aspect has been how quickly the conversation has changed from concern and deference to our family handling things and offering to help to this wave of questioning whether we are prepared, what kind of care he'll be getting, whether we've asked XYZ questions, etc. It's almost as if some people expected us to just roll him home, plop him down, and then wing it? or that there would be NO follow up from the hospital? I don't mind the concern, but the fact that their automatic reaction seems to trend towards "we don't trust you guys to handle this".... bothers me. I'm a functioning and capable adult, thanks.

So, that's where we're at. This was really word vomity. I may not resume wedding posts until I feel like we have the home situation taken care of, and some semblance of a schedule set. So.. sorry. Stay tuned?! Ha.

LUCKY

That's the word I've been heard thrown around more than I care to hear over the last 36 hours.

I struggle with how much to share, because I'm so not a facebook-prayer-requester kind of person. It's just not me. I don't mind telling people when I talk to them, but I'm not a broadcaster. That being said, I do want to explain my absence a little bit, and let you know I haven't decided how to continue with wedding posts, at least for the next few days, because responding to chipper emails about the wedding doesn't feel "right" right now.. although things are going better. I also want to document this for myself.

On Wednesday, October 30th (the morning of his 60th birthday, no less) my dad collapsed on the handball court at the YMCA, from what we later learned was a heart attack, triggered by some major blockages in his arteries, which then triggered cardiac arrest. They've also referred to it as "coronary arterial disease" (from what I recall). His friend who he was playing with performed CPR, clinically cracking a rib in the process (which means he did it right) until the Y staff located and used an AED on him. It worked, he was revived, and then taken to the hospital. They discovered 4 pretty serious blockages in his heart. Although he was stabilized they decided not to wait since he was otherwise healthy, and they performed quadruple bypass surgery on him yesterday afternoon. (Things I learned: "quadruple" sounds way scarier than plain ol' bypass, but it's actually no better or worse. Just signifies the number of bypasses they made). I was there all day yesterday, and this morning. He's already had his breathing tube removed, was standing a bit with assistance, and while he's in a decent amount of pain, is otherwise looking pretty damn great all things considered.

To say I've been a bit traumatized is an understatement. When you spend your whole life worrying about one parent (my mom) and then this happens to your "healthy parent" it's a very huge wake up call. This is a person who plays racquetball twice a week, and handball twice a week. He doesn't eat UBER healthy but he's also not at McDonald's every day. He's not overweight, not a diabetic, and not a smoker. They said this is largely genetic and has been building for a while.  

I really have been having a hard time putting into words how grateful I feel, mostly because it means articulating just how close it was. There were so. many. things. that, had they gone differently, I've been told I'd be planning a funeral instead of a month of meals and home care. I know that's supposed to make me feel better, how fortunate he was, but really it just freaks me the F out. Besides Matt, this is the single most important person on this PLANET to me. Yes, if you made me rank my family, I'd put my dad at the top. It's just the blunt truth. I don't love my mom and brother any less, but... he's just my dad.

So, thanks for your patience. I think I'm going to turn the comments off, just because I'll feel guilty not responding and things have been pretty busy. But I appreciate any thoughts or prayers you want to extend to him.

Kelly

WEDDING RECAP // REHEARSAL DINNER

Guess what I got on Fridddayyyy?!?! WEDDING PICTURES!

SO, super brief weekend recap since I took no photos: Friday night M and I went to my high school's football game (which came about as a result of a certain type of coffee I drank). It was at St. Thomas (where we got married :)) and my high school won handily. Per usual. ;-). We went to Davanni's before for a fabulous dinner. I could live solely off their hoagies. It's probably one of the only foods I eat dangerously fast because I honestly can't get enough.

Saturday I cleaned, lounged while M tailgated, and then we dropped an absurd amount of wedding money at Target and essentially redid our entire living room: rug, 2 end tables, 2 lamps, frames to do a gallery wall, new tray, 3 new throw pillows. But- I am now 100% obsessed with the room. With the addition of our third, and FINAL couch, the room is now complete. When I get my act together I'll try to find some before photos (I was too excited to take any Saturday as we were setting stuff up) and show you!

Sunday was actually pretty exciting: Leah asked me to be a bridesmaid! Wee! She's getting married next year at the historic courthouse in Stillwater. I'm pretty pumped about it. The card was adorable and she's got some great ideas for the wedding, so I'm looking forward to be a part of it! We went to the bridal consignment store in town since it was the grand opening. Let's just say I'm glad I never went while I was wedding planning because I would've changed my mind 100 times- they had SO MUCH STUFF. My favorites were the chargers (actually nice plastic chargers for like, $1.50)- all the mason jars, and the wood candle holders. All very rustic! Leah tried on a few dresses (none of which were "the one") and we called it a day!

NOW- onto wedding stuffs:) The rehearsal dinner!

Friday night October 4th M and I picked up my MOH and headed to the chapel to rehearse. 

We were running late, (sadly, per usual) and were the last ones there, and we walked in to the back of the church to cheers and claps, which if we're being totally honest, totally unnerved me. It was the start of a weekend of focus on us, an idea that made me uncomfortable, but it was also really special. 

 We ran through all the Catholic-basics of the stand-sit-repeat-after-me's.

After rehearsal, we drove over to Uptown (in Minneapolis) and had dinner at Amore Victoria. We had a semi-private room tucked near the back of the restaurant, with our own little bar, and it was perfect! We had 5 ridiculously tasty entrees to choose from, and everybody seemed to have a great time. It really helped to kick off the weekend on a good note, and got me super excited for Saturday (as if I wasn't already, haha). We handed out wedding party gifts, and both M's dad and M's mom gave a short speech thanking and welcoming everyone to the weekend.

Mom & pops (blurry, womp):

Outrageous tirimisu: 

My "little" brother:

Grandma and I:

(Lol, when my mom leans back in her chair, the tips of her glasses "catch" and pop up like you see in these photos.) My grandma, aunt, and mom: 

Family, minus brother bear:

I drove home with my MOH and Dana met us at the house for a slumber party. I couldn't sleep a wink Thursday night-Friday, which is So unlike me ... I rarely have trouble sleeping. The good news was it made me EXTRA tired Friday, so I was actually able to sleep from about 11-6 a.m., when I woke up, rolled over, and just couldn't fall back asleep.

Up next: getting ready