Wedding {check}

Yay! We went to Zales today to get our wedding bands! What fun! Excuse the 'outlet' part of the sign...they actually had the ring that I wanted there...and if we could get it for cheaper, well then, duh?! :-) I can't wait for them to come in! I'll post a pic after the wedding :-)

{Strangely} unusual

I'm truly addicted {and other weekend jaunts}

On Saturday, I went scrapbooking for my very first time. I've actually dabbled in it a little bit before, but was never truly aware of the vast aray of materials available to use.

I must say, I am addicted!

I went with Lori (future sil) who is a scrapbooker herself. We had a really fun time. It was nice to spend some time with her and I got to learn how to do some different things. I just love it!

At first I was excited but a little worried. There are so many different options that I thought I wouldn't be able to decide on what to do or where to start exactly. Then it just kind of came to me. Not to mention, we were in a scrapbooking store working on our stuff, so the world was at our fingertips.

Here is some of what I did. I am so proud of myself for being so crafty! Who would have known?!


I love the cover!

This is my first page. I want to write some 'memories' likes dates and such or a quote on the little sticker on the right.
I love this page, its one of my favorites.

So cute too! I especially love the quotes.

Another one of my favorites.

Today, I got to sleep in a little bit and then my friend Jenny came over. She did my hair...thank you so much Jenny!!! Then we went to Zales so she could get her ring cleaned and inspected. I also tried on some wedding bands (we're going tomorrow to buy them...yay!). We had a nice lunch and went to David's Bridal so she could purchase her bridesmaid dress for our wedding. All in all, it's been a busy (but fun busy) weekend. It's not over yet! We have Monday off together and have a few plans in mind. Stuff to cross off the wedding to-do list!

We're a little goofy

Sometimes we like to wear the same exact thing and wear our matching glasses! ha! :-)

Friday night birthday celebration

We went to a little bar/pizza place on Friday night for Cody's (my cousin) and Morgan's (my sil) birthdays. Cody's was about a week ago and Morgan's is coming up this week. We had some yummy beer nuggets and some pizza! It was a fun time, although it was loud in there and there were so many conversations going on around my head that I couldn't concentrate and it was driving me crazy?! Yeah, I know, I'm a little weird! :-)

Adam (brother) and Dad

Ava and Cody

My Mister and Mom

Me and my love

Happy Birthday Birthday Boy!!! Nonnie and Zizi Nikki...these pics are for you! :-) Oh and there would be pics of the birthday girl, but she doesn't like getting her picture taken. I've had to take it off the blog before! :-) Happy Birthday Morgan!!!

feelin' crafty

Check out my new blog.

It's just an outlet for me to record projects that I find and want to remember.

I thought it would be a good idea so that I don't have so many pages book marked or written down everywhere.

There's not much on there yet, but...stay tuned...

Click HERE to check it out!

Bits & Pieces

A few random things here...

I have to give props to this awesome blog Bits & Pieces. Seriously, it cracks me up. It's just a bunch of random funny things from the internet. Fun times. Good entertainment.

Also, another thing I found while reading through blogs on my Google Reader was Lush. I'm really just posting this here so that I can remember what it is and to check it out...but I thought I'd share as well!

Lush products are vegan/natural products. I have yet to browse the entire sight. I mostly just looked at the shampoo bars. Yes, that's right, I said bars. I've been reading a few reviews from people who said they thought it would be a bust to use shampoo that looks like a bar of soap, but they were shockingly suprised when the 'volumizing' bar actually worked. Check it out...I maybe have to get some stuff...

Like this one that promotes shiny and bouncy hair...ooh la la!

There are plenty other cosmetics aside from shampoo though. And they are so bright and colorful!

Tasting

Astoria

We had our tasting last night for our wedding reception. It was actually really nice. A bit shorter than we had anticipated, but that was to our liking.

We got to nosh on cream cheese filled cucumbers, mini beef wellington (our fave), calamari, filet, chicken parm and chicken marsala. I think there was a little too much wine in the chicken marsala, but we're not having that...so that's a good thing! :-)

We had a really good time together though and it was something fun to experience together.

Pardon my no pictures. I DID bring the camera, but completely forgot to take any pictures!

I loved going back to Astoria to see the place again. It reminded me of how much I love it there!

Props to my future hubbs

First off, this post is coming a day late. I meant to post it yesterday, but it got too busy at work and why would I blog at home?! ha! Just kidding...after staring at a computer all day long, it's the last thing I want to do while I'm home, usually...

I'm sure I've mentioned this before, but I'm a bit of a neat/clean freak. That said, Ryan does his part (as much as I let him, did I mention I'm a clean freak and a little controlling when it comes to that?!).

To my suprise when I arrived home from work on Monday, the house was all picked up, clean and even vaccumed (totally spelled that wrong)! It was awesome! Plus, he had ran out and got us the first season of Hell's Kitchen (we're obsessed). Dinner was almost done (see below...mmm!) and it smelled so good. I didn't have to do anything but change my clothes and sit down!

To top it all off, I was have tummy issues all day long and felt horrible and you know what he did?! He ran out to Walgreens for me, even though I'm sure he just wanted to sit down and relax before going to bed.

Isn't he just the best?!

I think so and I thank my lucky stars each and every day that I have him.

I am so glad that we get to grow old and grey together. It's the best feeling knowing that it'll be with him!

He even remembered to take pics for the blog while he was making us dinner! It just kept getting better and better! :-)

The finished product. Doesn't it look great?! We have made Chicken Parmesan before, but it has never looked this good. Plus we usually always use Ragu and bake it in the oven. Thanks to Jenny for this modified version...I just love it!

Our babies names

Ryan and I have been talking a bit lately about when we are going to start making babies. Then, the subject switched to names. While we have had our boys name picked out for awhile now, we've had to have some fun discussion on our girls name.

Obviously we're hoping for one of each! ha! :-)

Since God works in those ways. Right.

No, whatever we have, we just want it to be happy and healthy!

So back to the subject at hand.

Jack Ryan. This will be our boy's name. Jack was a dear friend of Ryan and I. He was an older gentleman who worked at the hotel where Ryan and I met. He would stock all needed things at the hotel and run errands as well as drive guests around. He was the most kindest man and really got to know each of us. We consider him a dear friend. He passed away last year and we wanted to honor him. Plus, Jack goes with our last name (or my future last name...)! His middle name, Ryan, is for obvious reasons...that's his daddy's name!

Oh and p.s. there will be no calling him J.R. for short...hate that...ick!

Now before I tell you our little girls name I want to tell you what I had originally liked. And that would be Madison. However, Ryan doesn't like it because he claims it's a strippers name (sorry if your whild is named Madison...I love it! It's not me!). I just like the nickname Maddy and it also goes so cutely with my {future} last name. So I told R that IF we have 2 girls (and my future sil doesn't use it...she liked it too) then maybe I'll just have to have my way! :-)

Olivia Bea. After my original name was rejected I was on the hunt for a cute name. I thought of Olivia before, not necesarily as my childs name, but thought it was cute. While I can't stand Olive, I do love Liv as a nickname. Too cute! The middle name would stand for a couple of things. Ryan calls me B all the time or BB...it's his little nickname for me, has been since maybe before we even started dating. Also, my Nonni's (Grandma) name is Beatrice, Bea for short. So we would be honoring her (hi Nonni!)(she reads my blog!).

I had originally thought of Olivia Grace, but I like that Ryan put some meaning behind it. It makes me glad to know that we both thought of a name for our little girl!

Pretty cake

cake courtesy of here...check it out, she makes some cute cakes!

Isn't this such a pretty yet simple cake?! We were originally planning on (well I was) a plain white cake with maybe some pearl decorations on it. Since I've seen some cute cakes with black (one of our colors) bands around the tiers...I may be leaning towards something different like that. Just an idea. And I found this cake and it looks so yummy and pretty! Minus the pink flowers...

Working 9 to 5

Well those aren't necesarily my work hours, but I am sick of it!

Is it time for me to retire yet?! haha!

Really, can we win the lottery or have some strange luck come our way?

Because that would really make my day right now...

Homemade ice cream cookie sandwiches

I had a craving for chocolate last night. We didn't have any real chocolate, but we did have brownie mix...and ice cream! :-) I thought I'd make some homemade ice cream sammies using brownie cookies and chocolate ice cream.

I made the brownie cookies (so good) and then gave up going any further. I got kind of tired.

This morning, I finished the process and they just look so good. They are currently chilling in the freezer waiting ever so patiently for us to eat them!

Don't they look so good?!...

Mirrors mirrors on the wall

We ran out to the local Super K on our way to get dinner today and picked up a few things (i.e. new cushy bike seats so our bums don't hurt, sand paper for a project I'm working on {see below}, and some other odds and ends).

I'm always looking for something decorative to make our house a cozy home and add depth to our rooms. I happened upon a set of mirrors and have kind of been looking for something like this to go next to our door. We put them up when we got home and I think they look cute!


See our faces in the mirrors?! ha! :-)

We put them to the left of the door. Slowly but surely we are gaining little decorations!

Then we had a little bit of fun with them. Okay, maybe a lot of fun!

We got those cool hooks that are long and you push all the way in the wall...you know what I'm talking about?! I see infomercials on them all the time and they actually really work well. I'm a sucker for infomercials!

In other mirror news, I have this new mirror that I got from my mom. She was going to toss it and I thought I could create some sort of crafty refinishing project. I already stripped some paint off of the actual mirror and washed it. Now I'm thinking about painting it black and finding somewhere to put it. I was trying to think of something cute and crafty that I could do/add to it, but am at a loss. Any ideas? I have it sitting next to the doorway at the moment and Mason couldn't care less if he saw himself in the mirror. Roxy (the cat), on the other hand, is being so funny with it. So found it yesterday after we brought it inside and randomly just sits in front of it and stares at herself...it is just the funniest thing!

A drive to Rockford

On Saturday, I so graciously offered myself up for driving Grandma to Rockford to attend her sister's 60th wedding anniversary lunch. I had Ava for the day, so she joined us too!

It was a fun time, kind of, and it was nice to spend some time with my Grandma, but we were in the car for an awful long time and I, of course was the only driver. Add on top of that, a 5 year old who got pretty bored pretty quickly and decided to act up...

Boy oh boy was I wiped out by the time we finally got home and oh so happy to go home to a nice quiet house. It was a fine day though!


Grandma and Ava

The granddaughter and great granddaughter

Isn't she so darn cute?!

Grandma and her only living sibling. Grandma was a bridesmaid in Aunt Til's wedding. I got to see all the wedding pictures from back in the days as well as hear their stories and all that they are thankful for. I can't wait to grow old and grey with my Mister!