Long Overdue

I effing hate squirrels:
Well, now that I have that off my chest, let's address my inability to blog. Well, in all fairness, things have been a tad nutso lately. I spent months complaining about my crappy work situation, then spent time soul searching, then Erin and I created FBG. Next, I lost my mind working with the Small Business Association, started interviewing for jobs, finally landed a job that was created for me (both figuratively and literally), had a bizarro hush-hush-quit-my-job experience, went to Chicago, and now I start my new job on Monday. Phew. And to think that I once thought that my 26th year of life would be the most exciting. 27 ain't too shabby all in all, and God knows what 28 holds.

This weekend also marks two exciting things: 1) Ryan and I's one-year anniversary is on Sunday, and I'm so excited for it. We really picked a beautiful time of year to get married, and it's so nice that each year I can look back on that beautiful day. Awesome. 2) Siena's estimated birthday is on Monday! The booger turns 1, and I plan to spoil her rotten with doggie ice cream, a new collar and a new leash. No cake though, I'm not that nutters.

The only other thing that I should mention is that I recently made and decorated the ugliest cake imaginable. And I really tried to make it pretty (I swear!), but apparently my cake skills are in need of some serious sharpening. As is my recipe for icing. See?

Why did I, a Mizzou grad, bake and decorate a cake that says Texas on it, you ask? I lost a bet. Damn Longhorns.

Wedding Photos as Promised

Take a look at this lovely family and beautiful wedding!



The cake and matching champagne glasses:

The groom's cake had Dave lyrics written on it's side. Love it.

The table decorations (they were able to use the mirrored tiles from my wedding -- yay!).

The ceremony, not a dry eye in the house:

A sweet moment between Nana and Drew:

The well-dressed father of the groom:

Mother and son:

The Walters and Shavers watch on:

Seriously, it doesn't get much more beautiful than this (and Brandi in that dress!).

Happy Memorial Day Weekend

I hope all had a fantastic Memorial Day weekend. I know I did. Ryan and I spent lots of time with friends, family and the backyard. In our attempts to "go green" and save money on produce, Ryan and I spent five-plus hours in the hot, hot sun Sunday, planting our very first vegetable garden. We did some serious manual labor, but we're anticipating our sunburns and extreme soreness will be well worth it in a few months when we have fresh tomatoes, grape tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, squash, green bell peppers and two varieties of basil. BLTs, cucumber salad and pesto abound this summer.

I've been slacking on the blog and photo front lately, so I made sure to document our 16-foot by 4-foot backyard transformation. (Taking photos also gave me a good excuse to take a break. hehe.)

First, Ryan and I started strong, removing the grass from our area. Then our wheelbarrow's tire went flat and Ryan broke the hoe (too many jokes). Here's the state of the "garden" before going to Sutherlands for the third time this weekend:



While there, Ryan and I upgraded our work gloves. They make purple ones!


It reached 90 degrees while we were out there, and Siena figured out that the coolest spot to be, of course, was in the middle of our workspace.


All of this tilling was done with love/cursing and sweat. No machine can do better, although next time I think we'll investigate our rental options...


Finally! We get to plant.


Tomatoes, yum.


And the payoff: leisurely watering the garden.


This weekend, Siena also learned a few things. First, her love of ice cubes continued to blossom. I've learned that if I fill her water dish with ice cubes and water, she'll stick her nose in and bob for them like you would for apples. Here you can see her cheating with her paws.

And, Siena made a buddy! Below is our neighbor's dog Izzy. She's half Whippet and insanely fast. Siena tries her best to keep up for the first five minutes or so of playing. Then she just flops down and wrestles around with her.

I love how dogs look up at you when they're happy.

Here they are patrolling the backyard.


Memorial Day weekend isn't over for me though. I've taken today off to get some things done around the house this morning, and this afternoon the hubby and I are cruising down to Springfield to see my cousin marry his high school sweetheart. I have to give them both a shout out. Drew's my only cousin and, having no siblings ourselves, we've always been more like brother and sister than cousin. So congrats Drewbaby, and welcome to the family Brandi!

Obligatory New Year's Day Post

As Outkast once sang, "Feeling good, feeling great. Feeling great, feeling good, how are you?" And, dang, I'm feeling good! Mizzou just won the Cotton Bowl by a landslide, and it's 2008, baby!

And to recap, I feel very blessed for the last year. 2007 was full of some major life changes: buying a home, moving, getting married and even welcoming a fuzzy new member into the fam. It was one hell of a year.

Next year, I have just a couple of simple things I'd like to do and continue doing. Here's my goals/resolutions for the next 365 days:

1. Play more (Siena can help with that quite a bit)
2. Don't take life too seriously (goes nicely with #1)
3. Continue eating well and working out regularly (not too much, not too little)
4. Develop a regular meditation practice (eventually doing yoga and/or meditation almost every day, even if it's just for a couple of minutes)
5. Try lots of new stuff (get Zumba certified, continue cooking new foods, host events, meet new people, continue taking photos, etc.)
6. Finish de-wallpapering and painting the Nut
7. Travel to see my long-distance BFFs! (I have 15 days of vacation this year!)

Happy New Year, everyone!!! May 2008 be grrrrrr-eat!

The wait is over

Since the wedding, I've had a lot of requests for photos -- people who weren't there, people who missed the ceremony, anxious family members, people who want to know how goofy they look dancing or if their face gets red when they drink too much, etc. Anyways, after sifting through more than 1,000 photos from the photographer, (we ended up finding this awesome photographer on Craig's List -- we only paid him for his time and the digital files, which saved us some serious cash, but left us with a little more "clean-up" work to do on the pics) we chose a few of the most notable shots to share with you.

The plan is to eventually design and print a wedding book that we can share with all of our friends, but until then -- enjoy!

Ceremony:

Wedding party:

Tasty cake:

D-Money serenades us:

We boogey: