Here Comes the Maid of Honor

This week on Show Us How You Live over at Kelly's Korner, the topic du jour is Bridal Parties and Flowers. I was the maid of honor in my best Sara's wedding, which was shortly after I graduated college. It was The Event of the year- 12 months of non-stop planning, 4 showers, a week of pre-wedding festivities, 300 people in attendance, 4 musical soloists - including a song written for them, and a toast given by yours truly (in front of those 300 people!). It was one of the most beautiful weddings I've ever been to, with every single detail meticulously planned by Sara.

This is me walking down the aisle. The color of my dress was Tiffany Box Blue- no kidding!

The roses look red, but they were a deep magenta.

I'm not naked, the picture just cuts out my dress. Can you tell how excited I was for them? As MOH, it was my job to keep the couple happy and iron out their kinks during the previous 12 months. This is my thinking to myself "job well done, Katie!" (And you look beautiful, Sara!)

All of the bridesmaids had different dresses in the same color.

And this is the happy couple, with Sara in the most beautiful gown I've ever seen.

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So if and when I ever do get married, I like this bridesmaid dress. In the picture it looks floor length, and I would want it to be tea length, but I think it's simple and elegant.

For the flowers, I want a bouquet of ranunculus and a centerpiece of peonies. I think both of these displays are lovely.
And that's the end of my wedding experience history and future. Can't wait to see every else's fabulous dresses and flowers!

**See I Have a Child. The Jig is Up for further wedding explanation**

SYTYCD - Results Recap

This episode made up 10 fold for the dud that was last night. They brought back all of last year's Emmy nominated routines and had the original dancers perform them. First was Jessica King and William Wingfield performing Tyce Diorio's Adam and Eve routine, then Katee Sheen and Twitch Boss making out and kicking each other around to Mia Michael's The Door/Mercy, Chelsie Hightower and Joshua Allen dancing to Dimitri's A Los Amigos, and again, Chelsie Hightower and Mark Kanemura dancing to Tabitha and Napoleon's Bleeding Love.

Going Home Tonight:

• Melissa
• Ade

Alright, I'm MAD! Both of my favorites are gone, and I'm sorry, but Evan is not even in the same league as Brandon and Ade! How is he in the final? I'm calling conspiracy.
And I'm pretty freaking sure that next week it will be Brandon FTW.

Girl Talk, Girl Time

A couple of pictures that I took last week when my friend Stephie was in town. I meant to put them up earlier, but I forgot.

We did deep conditioning hair treatments on or hair, so I had to take a picture. I don't think I've deep conditioned my hair since before Spencer. Before that, I did it every week, so my hair was very grateful for the TLC. Sometimes you just forget about these things when you have kid! Right?

We went to Sephora one afternoon because I had a gift certificate I needed to use. This is me with my new makeup on. Steph always makes me feel girly again, which is so good, because I forget about (suppress) that part of me sometimes.

I had such a great time with her! And even though it wasn't the kind of raucous fun we used to have together, it was just as wonderful. Thanks for coming Stefania- and even though Spencer woke you up every morning at 7am and I made you watch So You Think You Can Dance, I still hope you had fun!

So You Think You Can Dance - The Top 6 Dancers

Overall, I really wasn't all that impressed with the performances tonight. There were some very good routines, I loved Jeanine and Ade's hip hop routine, Kayla and Brandon's Disco was super fun, and Brandon's solo was one of the best I've ever seen on the show. Nigel agreed with me. Here's the video of it.

Next week is the finale, so I was hoping that tonight was going to be some of the best dances we've seen all year. Not so much.

These are the dancers who I'd like to see be in the Top 4 Finale next week:

• Melissa
  
• Jeanine
• Ade
• Brandon

It gets so hard when they narrow it down this far, but those are my favorites. As a 27 year old, I identify with Melissa and I think she's been a great example for other women in their mid-twenties who may be too intimated by their age to audition for SYTYCD. And not only is she 29 (which is young in real life!), but she's a classical ballerina who had only taken ballet classes! I just think that's amazing.

Voting Numbers for Tonight:

• Kayla - TEMPO 01
• Ade - TEMPO 02
• Melissa - TEMPO 03
• Brandon - TEMPO 04
• Jeanine - TEMPO 05
• Evan - TEMPO 06
  

When I Grow Up

That's how I still think in my head, "when I grow up I want to be a ..." and then I realize I am grown up. But even that doesn't really deter me, I like to think about what I would want to do if I could do anything I wanted. If there was nothing holding me back, money was not an issue, and I already possessed the ability/education/talent requirements - what would I do?

When I was three years old I knew exactly what I wanted to be when I grew up- a Fire Fighter, a McDonald's worker, and Strawberry Shortcake. In the bliss that is youth, these seemed like the best jobs in the world, I mean, what could be better than getting to slide down a pole everyday, playing with a hose that shoots out geysers of water AND having a cute spotted dog that would be my best friend? Nothing except working at McDonald's, where I could eat chicken nuggets dipped in honey whenever I wanted and then go to play in the huge ball pit. Of course I was going to do all of this while also being Strawberry Shortcake.

As I got older people would always say to me "I bet you want to grow up and be a famous doctor just like your Dad!" And oh how I did. I wanted to be a neonatologist until I got to high school. By then I realized that science wasn't exactly my strong suit and I loved history and government classes. I never stopped wanting to be a doctor, I just began thinking about doing something different. Even after I applied and had gotten into William and Mary, I was fully planning on majoring in both Government and Biology, that way I could postpone having to make the rest of my life decision for four more years.

Then came that first Bio class... lets just say it left me irrevocably scarred and I never looked back, I was going to be lawyer and that was it. Except it didn't work out like I had thought it would, but I'm fine with that. Even now, that's not what I would want to do if I could do it.
There are so many things I would love to do, it would take multiple lifetimes to accomplish half of them. And they're always changing, well they rotate in importance. So here's my number one, if I could be anything I wanted to be, job. Don't laugh at me!

Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. Health care reform is something that's very important to me. I'm not saying I agree with or want a national federally run health care program. But so many people are up in arms about not wanting their health care to be regulated, but it already is, it's regulated by insurance companies.

When I got pregnant with Spencer I had the best health insurance available- there were no better policies/plans than the one I had. And I was denied coverage for anything related to my or Spencer's prenatal health. Every single doctor's appointment I went to, I had to pay $500. And here's the real kicker, I was also ineligible for Medicaid and FAMIS because I had health insurance! Even before the astronomical hospital bill covering our 5 nights plus emergency surgery, I had already payed close to $7,000 in medical bills, and those were just routine checkups. Can you even imagine how much it would have cost if there had been any kind of complication?

And once again, I'm not trying to make a partisan statement here, but something needs to be done. Of course I don't have all the answers now, although I'm pretty sure I do (haha). But as the Secretary of DHSS, I would know EVERYTHING and everyone would listen to me and all would be right with the world.

Fantasy Land, how I love thee.

So what would you do, who would you be if could do anything?

Trying Days

Spencer goes through phases so fast, that by time I've gotten a grasp on how to handle it, she's moved on to the next one. And it applies to everything, behavior, likes, dislikes, sleeping, eating - pretty much all major aspects of life.

Some of them are so cute.

Like when she insisted on wearing my Kappa flip flops until she broke them.

Or when found my makeup bag, gave herself a makeover, and then wanted to do it everyday - even with blue magic marker.

And then some are not so cute, like the two weeks where she made herself throw up every time she cried more than two tears. NOT cute, but just as soon as I began effectively dealing with those tantrums, she had moved on something else.

And today was not cute. She's begun a few new things, I'm not sure which is driving me the most batty at the moment. Is it the game she plays with me, where I call her name and she looks at me and smiles, turns her back, runs into her room her slams the door? Is it the game where she lifts up my dresses, skirts, and shirts when we're in public? Or is it the all all consuming, body heaving, sobbing that she does when I don't want, or like, to play these games?

I really don't know the answer. Each one is exasperating, but it breaks my heart when she's crying, and in between gulps for air, says "Why" gulp "NOT. Mum Me?" gulp, cry, gulp "Oh, no Mum Me" cry, breathe "Pweese, Good Gul Mum Me!" Like she's trying to get the point across that it's just a game, she doesn't really mean it, and why don't I want to play with her?!

But then again, I was pretty MAD at the Dollar Tree today when she kicked up my dress with her foot, got her shoe caught in it, and my unmentionables were on display for the gazillion people all staring at us, as I tried to free her foot while she's wailing because I'm not playing this game with her. I don't think there's a color that would accurately describe the shade of red that was my face. Even Fire Engine sounds too pale. Is this the worst? I can't decide.


So yes, these are trying times, but hopefully, this too shall pass. Until then, I think we'll be avoiding stores, especially the Dollar Tree. Who knows when I'll be able to summon up the courage to ever go back there again!

Baby Stellan Needs Your Prayers NOW

It's not looking very good for Baby Stellan, he's in critical condition and is currently being airlifted from Minneapolis to Children's Hospital Boston. MckMama twittered that it might already be too late for this, his heart has just given out. He needs a miracle.

My First Real DIY Project

I would like to preface this post by reiterating that I am NOT, not in the slightest, artistically talented. And my creative side tends to be a bit linear and inside the box. Good, so now that I've let you know this, I just finished my first major DIY project! I can't believe the sense of accomplishment I feel, you'd think I'd just painted the Mona Lisa.

The largest room in our house is Spencer's "playroom" I use quotations because it's not even close to resembling a playroom yet, but since that's what it's eventually going to be, I call it the playroom. Essentially, it's a room filled with my Mema's old (with a few exceptions)- furniture that my mom doesn't want, but also doesn't want to sell or give it away. None of it is good furniture, so I didn't feel bad about re-purposing this china cabinet/hutch.

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Seriously, does this look like playroom to you? Not to me, so I decided to redo and re-purpose it. I really didn't like the hutch before, okay, I hated it; it was a china cabinet with no china and it was brown. I had no idea what I was getting myself into. This piece of furniture was so poorly made, that it was virtually indestructible. I know that sounds weird, but it's true.
For example, in the top part, the center panel doesn't open and there's a piece of glass inside of a makeshift frame that sits out about a 1/2 inch from the base. Well, that glass was glued in, caulked in, and nailed in. There was also an additional frame behind it, on the side you couldn't see, that must have had over 100 tiny nails keeping it permanently attached, forever and ever.

After an hour of trying to get that center panel out, I gave up. I took off the doors on the top and the drawers in the middle, sand papered, and primed the hutch. It took two coats of primer because the wood was so dark and not the best quality, so I wanted to be on the safe side.

Did I mention that the shelves were glued on and the back panel was staple gunned in all the way around it? Because that's what it was! I tried for awhile to get it off, but then I gave up. Oh, and the hardware on the bottom cabinets were screwed AND glued in. When I started trying to get the glue off, some of the wood began to disintegrate, so I just decided I would paint them too. It's not something I would have typically done, but my options were limited since I couldn't remove them. Please take note that the glass pane is still in place!

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No more glass! I didn't take any pictures of the stage in between because I was so In The Zone. But I managed to pry the back panel out, pull over 50 staples from it (there were still a lot I left in there poking through, but I couldn't take any more staple pricks on my fingers), re-sand, paint, and nail back into place. I don't have a staple gun, hence the nails.

Getting that pane of glass out in one piece almost killed me. At one point I thought about trying to break it with my hammer, haha, luckily, the rational part of my brain took over before any shattering occurred. I finally managed to remove all the caulk and glue, but it was taking down the back panel that really made it possible. With that out of the way, I was able to get at some of the shoddy, behind the scenes, framing. Once I had one side banged out, it gave me some room to turn it enough that I was able to shimmy out the glass. Success!

I painted the drawers and backing the same coral shade that the accent wall is painted in the room, so it would all tie in together (remember the linear thing?). And I figured I had to paint the handles, because it would look weird to have some that were painted and others that were untouched brassy metal.

I think it looks a lot more kid friendly now! I'm going to use the bottom shelf to put some of her books on and the top shelves (the ones she can't reach) with some of her keepsakes and mementos. The cabinets will hold toys, crafts, coloring books, DVD's, etc.

The final product. I have to say that I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out. Even though it's not perfect by any means, it's so much better than it was before. And that was really my goal when I started this project- to not make the After picture worse than the Before picture.

• I used an ACE paint for the green - Royal Touch Satin Wall and Trim in Parrot's Feather. Cost: $9.99
• For the coral, I used the end of the gallon of paint from the accent wall - Behr in Cool Lava Cost: Free (well for this project at least!)
• The primer was ACE's 1-2-3 Primer Cost: $6.99
• I already had most of the supplies I needed, but I bought some extra roller heads and two brushes. You can never have too many brushes. Cost: $6.50

Total Cost: $23.48

Total Time Spentt: Approximately 6 hours of actual labor, not counting drying times.

So there you have it, my first DIY project complete. I definitely learned a lot, so hopefully my next undertaking will go a little more smoothly!

I Have a Child. The Jig Is Up.

This week on Kelly's Korner Blog Carnival, (it used to be Show Us Your Home) the topic is wedding dresses. Well, I haven't gotten to wear a wedding dress yet. Since I have a baby, I'm pretty sure that if I ever do get married, my dress will look nothing like the one I'd envisioned before the kiddo. I still want to wear a beautiful dress, I just don't think it would be appropriate to wear the big, white, 50 foot long train (haha), poufy but still classic dress I thought I was going to wear.

In my head, or fantasy land, I always envisioned myself in a Grace Kelly-esque (a little more modern though) dress.


The reality, was more like this. I would have loved to wear a dress like this- it seems so romantic and beautiful.

This is the back of that dress


Now, I think I'd like to wear something like this. It doesn't look to I'm a trying to be a blushing-bride-without-a-child, at least I don't think it does! I think I would probably like to have little caplet sleeves and have it be a little more ivory and a lot less white. Like as least white as possible, while still being ivory-ish. The last thing I'd want someone to say (besides Doesn't she look fat?) is Why is she wearing white?

I can't wait to see some of ya'lls dresses, I'm sure there are some really fantastic ones! Oh, and the title is a SATC quote that's always made me laugh.

SYTYCD - The 100th Episode

So I thought I'd semi-live-blog this shindig, since it's supposed to be fan-freakin'-tastic! So far, we're 27 minutes in and I don't think anything mind blowing has happened. I'm anxiously awaiting Katie Holmes, Nigel! Hok Konishi an Jaimie Goodwin performed their Wade Robeson Hummingbird routine - which I think was just as good as the first time.

The Bottom Two (Four):

• Kayla
• Janette
• Jason
• Brandon

I'm a little surprised by Janette and Brandon both being in the bottom, I thought it would be Evan and Jeanine. But I am SO, SO, SO glad that Ade and Melissa are safe!!
Travis Wall and Heidi Groskreutz just performed their Emmy Award winning routine Park Bench. It was choreographed my Mia Micheals and danced to Celine Dion's Calling You. I think it was better than the first time they did it! She may be a little (lot) of an odd ball, but when Mia Michaels in on, she's on.
The dancers do their solos and they were pretty good, nothing to write home about. Next is another Wade Robeson choreographed routine - it's to Ramalama (Bang Bang), by Roisin Murphy. There's a lot of previous SYTYCD contestants dancing in this piece - Benji Schwimmer (Season 2 Winner), Travis Wall , Allison Holker, Ivan Koumaev, Dmitry Chaplin, Donyelle Jones, Heidi Groskreutz, and Martha Nichols. It's weird, off course. Zombie weird. But I enjoyed seeing all the old dancers again!

The Moment We've All Been Waiting For...

Katie Holmes

(Who I used to love before she became a pod person)

She's singing and it's Hollywood noire. Her voice is very good, much better than when she sang On My Own on Dawson's Creek. Well, upon closer inspection, she's lip synching while dancing, but it's still her voice. She looks very pretty. She doesn't do all that much dancing, I'm pretty sure we did the same thing in show choir. But she didn't embarrass herself and she looked more Katie Holmes than Kate Cruise, which I like.

Going Home:

• Janette
• Jason

I'm really surprised about Janette, she did NOT deserve to go home. She's danced like a hot tamale, ball of fiery goodness every single time. I think it should have been Kayla, but that's just me. What did ya'll think about tonight's show? I'm sad that there weren't more performances by SYTYCD alumni. I would have LOVED to see Danny Tidwell do something and Twitch- actually any of last year's Top 10. Why were they just in the audience?

How Cute Is That Face?

So You THink You Can Dance - Melissa and Ade

This is a MUST watch video of Ade and Melissa on SYTYCD. It's just beautiful. The best performance of the night, in my opinion. It's about a woman with breast cancer and the man she leans on.

My Favorite Recipe- Blog Hop

By far, the best, most delicious thing I have ever made is This Chocolate Brownie/Cake . It is so delicious that I can't make it very often or I'll devour it before it's even cooled off. Trust me, it's TO. DIE. FOR!

It should be illegal to be this delicious.

Me icing the cake/brownie

RECIPE HERE

Manic Monday

It hasn't really been a manic Monday, I just thought it was a good title. My VERY good friend and sorority sister was driving through Richmond today and so we got to have lunch with her! We went to Chili's and Spencer wasn't all that great. Not terrible, but not good. I meant to take some pictures of us, but I forgot and then it started raining, and somehow life got in the way of my camera. Next time she drives through, she's going to spend the night (Right!!??) and that should be much more fun and much less stressful.

Tomorrow, my friend Stephie from college is coming to spend a few nights with us. I'm not really sure what we're going to do, but hopefully see a movie, among other things. I will try to do some posts about our adventures, well, more like how she copes with having a two year old in her face at 7am, haha!

I hope everyone had a great weekend. I did- I got to take 2 naps (two naps!) courtesy of Spencer's MiMi. It was great, really great!

Spencer's Birthday Party!

Spencer's birthday party, celebrating her 2nd year, was last Saturday. It was a beautiful day, in the mid 80's (which is very cool for Virginia in July) and it was a great party.

I had a local farm bring their mini animals and some others, for a petting zoo party. They brought pigs, goats, a lamb, bunnies, chickens, a mini horse, a pony, an alpaca, and a donkey! There were 10 kids and about 30 adults, so we had a full house, um yard.

The backyard before the party started.

Some of the animals "grazing." I really want a farm now. Well, except for the poop!

Moriah the Pig. She liked to have her belly rubbed, and when you were doing it just right, she'd snort, roll over, and pass out. It was so cute! The other picture is of Spencer playing dress up with the mini horse, who was so gentle and sweet.



That's the Alpaca, and she liked to hum. If you hummed, she'd join right in and try to match your tune.



Chickens, roosters, bunnies and pigs.



One of the goats and the lamb.

A chicken, isn't he/she cool looking? And that's Spencer trying to give one of the bunnies a kiss.

Patting the donkey with one hand, a chip in the other!

She kept walking back to the chip table, she couldn't resist them.

She was very nervous on the pony. Thankfully, she didn't cry, but she didn't smile either.

Can you see her red cowgirl boots?

SO serious! She still won't smile for the camera, or look at it for that matter.

Her cake. Now that looks like a pig!

Blowing out her candle. I don't know why the cake isn't facing her. Ooops.

Enjoying her sugar - the rush did not end until MUCH later that night! It was a really wonderful day, stressful and exhausting, but well worth it.


Us. (How do like that Big Gulp!? ha!)