TGIF: kitty in a suitcase edition

You guys are in trouble.

 

Wanna know why?

 

Guess who figured out how to upload videos to youtube and then post them on her blog!?

 

If you enjoy dozens of still photos of TJ, you'll surely love live-action TJ. He's a hoot.

 

Live every day like a cat in a suitcase.

 

TGIF, people.

 

If this video is still showing up sideways, I apologize. I am, after all, still a rookie.

 

-Kelly

 

NOTE: My voice in this video is what I refer to as LOLcat TJ voice. I don't always sound like a 6 year old gremlin. Apologies, people. 

Bridesmaid Dresses

M's sister Natalie is in town for the month of September taking a break between PA school and starting her new job, sooooo we decided to do dinner, which turned into dinner with both his sisters, which turned into dinner plus bridesmaid dress shopping (at her suggestion!) 

I think it's safe to say we annoyed the bajeezus out of the sales ladies, and I'm not sure why. They're guaranteed 6 sales (or at least, DB as a WHOLE is) from us... but man did we get some dirty looks trying on tiaras and veils. What?! every girl wants to be a pretty pretty princess bride. 

 

  

I honestly had written myself off as a "veil" bride. 

I think they look pretty on some people, but I felt a little cartoonish. Or at least I THOUGHT I'd look cartoonish. BUT between Katie talking about veils and putting a few on, I'm starting to reconsider. We'll see :) 

On second thought.. maayyybeee it was this that annoyed them:

 

Katie rocked the veil. 

Both the girls ended up falling in love with the same style! They didn't order yet, but these are the front runners (Katie on the left, Natalie on the right) (but in black, obviously): 

OH, and I impulsively (sort of) ordered my wedding shoes! 

I had tried these on for Meagan's wedding last October, since you can order them in any of the DB dress colors. I LOVED the style, and they were super comfortable. 

SO, when the girls were trying on dresses, I wandered over and tried them on again. Here they are:

 I really wanted a blast of color under the dress for the shoes, ...you're really not going to see them much/at all, so why not have some fun with them!? and let's face it, the "pulled up front of the dress shoe shot" is one of my favorites. I wasn't dead set on the "something new, old, borrowed, blue" thing either, but if I could find a pair of blue shoes I liked I was going to try to do it. 

old: my grandpa's law fraternity pin on my dress/bouquet

new: dress (cop out? meh)

borrowed: going to get a broach or some jewlery from grandma - she has FANTASTIC jewlery (and maybe get one of each, from each grandma)

blue: shoes 

My other stipulation was, I wasn't spending tons of $ on blue shoes that, lets face it, I may never wear again. These were only $50! I'm undecided, but I may add some bling like Syndal did on hers.

I got home around 9, and with M out of town last night for business.. TJ was extra snuggly. 

The up side of having a pet, especially a kitty, is when the bf/fiance/husband is out of town.. you never have an empty bed. TJ is such a good little snuggler. Until about 4 a.m. when he gets hungry and starts sticking his paw in your face and whiskers up your nose. Alas, he's worth it. :-)

Overall, a fun fantastic little Wednesday to get me over that hump and looking forward to the weekend!

-Kelly

The crazy anti-baby-makers.

I'm here to share a story of how a generally pleasant girl turned into a total psycopath.

 

Maybe this is oversharing, maybe not, but I figure it's got to ring true or maybe even help at least one other person out there.

 

Summer 2010 I started BC for the first time.

 

(For reference, it was Microgestin FE..looked like this:)

 

 

Go ahead, throw stones, I was almost always "safe" in the other sense of the word (heaven help me if my family reads this. I am almost positive they don't...) I was on it while in Malta, and continued on it into the fall. That's when things started to change.

 

I was snapping on M more, getting hysterically upset about things that would NEVER phase me before, crying at the drop of a hat, turning small tiffs into bigger "is this symptomatic of US" worries, I was moody, and everybody annoyed me.

 

One day, maybe after seeing an ad that potential side effects of a different BC involved mood, I hopped on The Google. Praise The Google. I found myself on a forum full of women complaining about how BATSHIT crazy they were on the pill. AH! So maybe my issues weren't entirely ME. They may have been exacerbated by this teeny tiny pill.

 

I went off, after chatting with M, as an experiment. He even commented I seemed a lot happier and there was a noticable difference in my mood.

 

and so it stayed until May 2012.. when I went to the lady-doc and decided to tell her what happened and try to get on a different pill. She prescribed TriNessa, another low-dose pill.

 

For reference, looked like this:

 

So la-ti-da I start it in July and things are fine. I'm in the midst of studying for the bar exam.. so I'm a bit edgy and chalk it up to studying. Have a few breakdowns, which I documented here, but think nothing of it. Then the bar exam is over, and we roll into August.

 

As the horomones build up, I start to get more edgy, irritable, snippy at M, and all around SAD.

 

There was a point a week or two ago when I considered buying a plane ticket to the east coast and calling M and telling him I went on vacation alone. Now, I still feel like doing that today--however it's more of a "I want to travel! fun!" bug and less of a "I need to run away from EVERYONE and EVERYTHING" bug.

 

I cried, over every little thing. How's this for nuts: I was playing with burlap downstairs and the mac was nearby. M brought down a mini apple pie and set it down near the computer. Then he got upset about something "getting in the port" of the computer and I THOUGHT he meant the burlap pieces that flake off when you touch it. So what does any normal person do? Break out in 30 minutes of hysterical crying. He comes downstairs and I'm sobbing. He finally tells me he was upset at HIMELF for getting some of the ice cream on the computer when he set it down.

 

That was the turning point.

Once again, I turned to The Google and researched. Once again I found a forum of women describing the same symptoms that I had.

 

Remember the "funk" I described before the surprise weekend? THIS was what was causing it.

 

What scared me this time around was, when I went back on the pill I SWORE to myself, "Self. Now that you KNOW you went crazy, you'll be able to recognize it and control it better." and really is there any more helpless and scary feeling then not recognizing yourself slipping into a mild depression becasue of a pill? and KNOWING that's what it is but not being able to stop it? I also struggled with, "how much of it is the pill, and how much is ME just being ME?" ... I've been known to get easily annoyed, and snip here and there.. but it was like the worst parts of me were magnified.

 

I pulled myself off it a week and a half ago.

 

I feel more optimistic, happier, I don't want to kill everyone who looks at me.

 

I share this story to let people know that it can happen.

 

I so often heard of only "positive" side effects of BC: skin cleared up! (I have fine skin) bigger boobies! (didn't notice that) and side effects like these were nothing I was aware of as a possibility.. until I started. M's best friend's girlfriend had the same issues. She went on, went crazy, went off as an experiment, and then went back on again to see.. annndd bam- crazy again.

 

I know this won't be the case for everyone, but if you're on BC and not feeling like yourself- it very well may be the BC.

 

this is my PSA for the day.

 

 

NOTE: I know it takes a certain amount of time for your body to adjust and that taking myself off it without consulting a doctor probably wasn't the proper decision, and that this won't be the case for everyone. I was just not willing to play with my mental health anymore.

 

Wedding DIY: Anniversary books & hanger sneak peak

Are you sick of DIY yet? No? Hope not... because as I was telling a co-worker, I just keep looking at Pinterest not because there is anything else I NEED to make, but because I want to keep crafting. I'm going to wind up with 100 totally unecessary DIYs for this wedding and I'm fine with it. :)

 

Today we're talking about anniversary books. I had seen this idea on Pinterest and loved it. The couple had a book at each table that corresponded with each table number that requested a note for that years' anniversary.

 

I love the idea of getting to relive a little bit of your wedding, and have a little bit of a surprise of seeing what people wrote every year for the next 22 or 23 years (depending on the number of tables we have!)

 

So my hangover and I went to Michaels on Sunday to purchase some supplies.

 

I got 11 pages of scrapbook paper (at 6 for $1!) in a tan color with a bit of texture to it.

 

I then cut each piece in half, so, 2 books per page.

 

M had a drawing book/diary thing his mom had bought him that I knew he'd never use, so I've been using the pages for wedding crafts. It's a nice tan antique color. I pulled out 3 pages, trimmed them so the ends were neat, and folded them in half. 12 "pages" (front and back) for each book total. Since we're having 10 to a table I figure that was good.

 

I then trimmed the scrapbook paper so pages were about an inch inside each cover, like so:

 

Again, trying to keep these projects as economic as posisble, so instead of buying a hole punch (like, $7. Who knew hole punches were pricey..)

 

I folded each book and cut 2 triangle notches for the "binding"

I then fed some twine I had purchased through each hole, so there was a strip in the center of the book and both ends poked out the binding of the book. For a little extra reinforcement, I laid some hot glue down the binding and squeezed.

I made 6 of them last night while watching Sex and the City.

 

 

Here they are without the writing on the front: 

 

I then played around with how I wanted to write out the note. I had gotten some "marquee" stickers, I guess you'd call them, in the scrapbooking section.

 

Here is one of the final books!



I like how they turned out.

I wish I had a LITTLE "cooler" handwriting, but I'm trying to get over the fact that my own handwriting looks weird to me. haha.

 

I could have printed it on a computer, but I like the handwritten look.

 

Overall cost:

$2.00 for the scrapbook paper

$2.99 for the white stickers

$2.00 for the twine

 

I already had the "filler" pages and hot glue. So, about $7 total for 22 books!

 

In other DIY news, I was apathetic about getting the "bride"/bridesmaid hangers with names. Mostly, I wasn't paying $25+ for a hanger that I'm really only getting for a cute photo op.. then I saw on Pinterest a girl who DIYed it.

 

So, yesterday I headed out to Home Depot to look at wire. The size wire (12 guage) that it looked like the etsy people used was IMPOSSIBLE to bend. I gave up and went to Michaels to get anniversary book supplies.

 

That's when I found 12 guage floral wire in silver. I picked it up and it bent SUPER easy. This must be what they use, or at least, it'd work for me! So I bought one roll to test it out. The first 6 inches were a fail as I got the hang of twisting it.

 

I decided "Mrs. _ _ _ _ _ _ _" (the length of M's last name) would be WAY to much to cram into a hanger's length. So I settled on "bride" and started bending.

 

I then scoured the house for ONE wooden hanger, and lucked out in the last closet. I broke off the wooden dowel that ran along the bottom, and used a drill to make 2 small holes on either side to put the wire in. I shot some hot glue into each hole, and stuck the wires in. For added strength I put more glue outside the hole around the wire.

 

Here's the finished product via a crappy iphone pic.

(the "d" looks way more janky here then it is in real life. I tweaked it a bit too after this photo.)

annnd ta-da! Pretty pleased with how it turned out.

 

I had the hanger, and the wire was $3 or so. Much more cost effective than etsy, for me!

 

I don't think many of my bridesmaids read this religiously, if at all, but I've made 2 more wires with 2 of their names so far (Tori and Molly.. notice, I'm leaving Natalie--the harder names-- until I have more practice! haha). I am going to buy more wire for the other 4..and these will be a part of their gifts!

 

weeeeeeee for wedding crafts!

 

(also, I'm going to be unloading/selling as much of this stuff as I can after the wedding -- at least the non-personalized, non-gift stuff, like the "thank you" banner and the table runners... SO, if you know of anyone who will be looking come next October, keep me in mind ;-) )

 

-Kelly

Wisconsin wedding weekend

This weekend two of M's friends, well.. I guess my friends too now :).. got married in the little farmy town of Barron, WI. 

We hit the road Saturday after having lunch with my dad. 

That's when we spotted this gem on 35E north.

 

 I mean really.. who DOESN'T wake up one day and think "man, it'd look REALLY cool if I spray painted my Chrysler with tigers and got a vanity plate that says 9 LIVEZ" (with a Z, obvs.)

I showered up in St. Paul, and just had to do my hair at the hotel. We met a bunch of the other couples in the lobby to carpool to the ceremony, since they were going to have a shuttle running from the reception back to the hotel.

M's got a good looking group of friends ;-) 

(from L-R, Dan, M, Ben, Jordan, Brian, Brady, and Brett)

 

 The ceremony was beautiful and the bride's cousin was an OUT OF THIS WORLD singer. 

The groom and his brother own a music production business, and Phil Solem (lead singer of the Rembrandt's, also known as the band behind theme song to the hit show FRIENDS) is a mentor of theirs. They also are friends with Michael Bland (who played drums for Prince). Both of them, along with a few others they handpicked, made up the band.

Between my sore legs and the hangover I had this morning, I'd say we all had a good time!

Father daughter dance 

annndd Jordan photobombing M. haha

The "L" was Jordan's girlfriend, Shannon's idea... she called it the "future lawyers of America" photo. Jordan is entering his 3rd year at the U of M law school. 

From L-R Shannon, Eve and Megan

From L-R Jordan, M and Eric

Brooke getting ready for Zach to fish the garter out...

I think she was yelling at him to crawl for it here...

which he did. 

Love the facial expression here, haha

and then we all took photos with the garter on our head like a ninja. 

Here's Andrea: 

There's a photo of me wearing it floating around there somewhere

Eve, me, and Shannon

Josh, Eric and myself

Josh, Eric, M and Pete

Overall, it was a heck of a good time! For unexplained reasons I sobbed for a half hour in the hotel room. Woke up with a mound of tissues and zero recollection of why I was crying. 

yes, I was "that girl" ...woops. 

M and I hit the road early, hit McDonald's, and I even mustered the energy to go to Michael's to get more crafting supplies. I have a couple cool projects to share!

M and I have a liturgy planning session tonight at the church. I'm really excited, since I don't have a solid idea about what we'll be doing. I'm not sure if we're just going to chat about the process and get a booklet with a selection of readings, or what. Regardless, I'm looking forward to going back to the church. I love it so much. :)

Hope you all had a good weekend! 

-Kelly

Let's chat politics. (kind of).

Hold yer britches, this isn't the type of politics post you're expecting.

 

This is about the politics of: weddings.

On the eve of M and I departing for a wedding in WI, and conversations I've been having with people lately... I am fascinated by wedding politics.

They say, or so I heard, that weddings bring out the worst in people. The crazy, the unusual, the unexpected. I scoffed it off.. I know my friends, I know my family, it'll be fine.

It has somewhat amazed me the types of opinions people have, and on what things.

The people I THOUGHT would have strong opinions or I'd need to wrangle in (i.e. typically the MIL) has been laissez faire. My dad on the other hand? Almost had a coronary when I offhandedly told him we may have the guys purchase suits instead of rent tuxes. He told me they'd "look like crap" next to my "fancy dress"... I had to remind him, they're not wearing flannel. Suits are still formal. (He's since settled into the idea a bit,... I just think his default setting is "SPAZ")

He also wants to invite my like, my great aunt who I have no adult recollection of ever meeting. Um, this isn't a family reunion pops. "But, she'll send you a gift still, even if she doesn't come!"
a) I don't want an old lady's money when we all know we're not expecting her to show up
b) OMG what if she DOES show up, as well as those 20 other "they won't come's!" you had me invite!

It almost makes me want to do this:



via

But just almost. More or less, I find it fascinating and amusing seeing what other people choose to fixate on.

M and I? Cool as can be. I only feel comfortable saying this because my PA Leah told me recently that I'm the farthest thing from a Bridezilla. It doesn't really upset me when people pull their crazy cards, it fascinates me. The psychology of weddings - it'd be a bestseller.

I quickly learned what  some of the hot button issues are in wedding planning:
1) Guest list (ESPECIALLY if you're cutting it down within the family, to certain generations, OR.. gasp.. no kids. Oh man, the crazies really come out of the woodwork then)

2) Weird registry items- like, how do you go about asking for just $ when you live together already without offending people who may not know you live together and/or sounding super klassy by writing "GIV US MONEEE!!" on the invite? (girl I work with, Hi Sara!, told us the other day about someone she knew that registered for EPT tests and lube. BAHA. I think that one wins).. and "Honeyfunds".. depending on which generation you talk to- totally cool, or scandalous.

3) The trend towards informality- like, the wedding we're going to tomorrow was an email RSVP. There are people who think "sweet, streamlined, save $ on stamps" and others who think "tacky" and probably elderly people who are all "what's a Gmail??!" ... Weddings bring together the generations and it's often difficult to mix modern trends in without flustering someone.

Then there are those people who are not even involved with your wedding, or A wedding in general, who have opinions. Nothing irks me more then seeing "OMG I'm unfriending the next person who posts about their wedding or engagement on FB." -- I get it, there are people who abuse the interwebz and tread the line into becoming insufferable.. but really? Grow up. Be happy for people. That post just makes you look a bit.. I don't even know what the least offensive adjective is but "pathetic" or "sad" or "immature" all come to mind. I get it that it can be hard if you really want a wedding or engagement, but you just sound like a brat by posting that shit.

This was rambly and probably all over the place but just some things I've been thinking about.
I LOVE seeing photos on FB or attending a wedding in person to see how different people do things differently. That's the beauty of a wedding- they're all so different!

So here's a question, and since there are allegedly 42 of you who read this shit, I'm hoping to prompt some of you out of the woodwork, I know ya'll have a story or two

What's the craziest/strangest thing someone fixated on or had an opinion about regarding YOUR wedding (or! for you non-marrieds- what's the craziest/strangest/tackiest thing you've seen or heard of at a wedding of another?)
ya'll can keep it anonymous too on the "other people's wedding" portion.

Ready, set, GO!

 

Labor Day weekend....finally.

Weekend recaps are okay as long as you can still "round down" to last weekend.. right? I figure Wednesday night is safe. I suppose most of you won't read this until Thursday, which makes me lame, but whatever. I totally forgot M had a LIVE fantasty draft last night... not to be confused with the auction draft from Monday night.. which means he bogarted the computer yet again. 

Moving on, I'm here to finally share some photos from this past weekend! 

We took a half day of work Friday and headed up to Perham, MN... about 3 hours northwest from Minneapolis.  Friday night we hung out, ate steak & corn, and drank by the bonfire. 

Saturday morning the girls went for a walk, while the guys fished. We came back, and hung out by the lake... and threw the ball for the dog(s). Mostly, Nina, the golden retriever (she's a white golden).

 Kirby the chihuahua kept his distance. 

 We stayed at M's friend Brian's cabin. He has a cabin that's about 100 yards off the lake, and also owns an empty lot between his place and the lake itself. In addition, our friend Shannon's family has a cabin right next to Brian's lot. Basically it formed a giant backwards L. So, we spent most of our time down at the lake on the empty lot and at Shannon's cabin.

Brian's puppy Max got tired of getting beat by Nina, so he'd lay in the grass and "hide" and then spring up and freak out when Nina brought the ball back. It was entertaining to say the least.

Another couple friend of ours arrived around 2, and we headed 20 minutes away to Detroit Lakes, MN. DL, as its called, is also home to the famed "WeFest" country music festival in early August. Tis quite the gong show. Brian's grandparents have a boat on the lake, so we took it out to DL's version of "big island" (which is on Lake Minnetonka- and is actually not an island at all, but a bunch of boats anchored out "gettin loud all summer looonnnngggg"-- as Rodney Atkins would say [get it? Red Neck Yacht Club?,..moving on.])

We sat, we chatted, drank, played frisbee in the water, listened to country music.. it was the quintessential "Minnesota summer Saturday" 

Afterward we went to Zorbaz in Detroit Lakes. Apparently, living in MN and having never been to a Zorbaz before is like, blasphemy. They're mexican/pizza restaurants located on several lakes (and lakes only) in northern MN. 

Half the table: Shannon, Jordan, Brett & Gretchen, (from L-R.)

annnddd our half of the table: Andrea (wearing Brady's T-shirt), Brady, Brian, Eve, me, M (from L-R). 

Sunday we had breakfast at a cafe in town, and then lounged around at the cabin for the morning. We headed over to Paul Lake (yes, that's 3 different lakes in one weekend, for those who are keeping track) to one of Brian's family friends' and played volleyball. We headed out to make our tee-time back by Brian's house. 

and when I say "make our tee time" I mean, I cruised around in the cart and read a book.

Don't get me wrong.. I golfed for about 7 years.. until my dad gave my clubs to my brother. I also only have the patience for about 9 or 10 holes, and anything over a Par 3 I get frustrated with because I don't have the power to drive it and get anywhere close to par. Therefore, I avoided the frustration. At about hole 9 I decided to drive the cart... which was a total blast. I love tooling around in a golf cart. 

For a small town golf course, it was really beautiful. 

We went to Zorbaz in Perham for dinner again so we wouldn't have to clean, and M ate himself sick. 

Literally. 

He laid on the ground and moaned for about 20 minutes when we got home. M pulled through, I fell asleep on the couch at 9:30 while the others played cards. We were in bed by 10:30. Wild weekend, folks. :P It's okay, I much prefer laid back. 

and THERE IT IS. Labor day, 3 days later. :) 

We have a wedding Saturday in Cumberland, Wisconsin... which should be a good time. As a girl with my own wedding impending, I'll be sure to pay more attention to the details AND take lots of pics for you fine people!

-Kelly