Showering my dear friend Rachael...

My dear friend Rachael and I have been friends since high school. She is so near and dear to my heart...we even have the same birthday!! Rachael is pregnant with her first child, Brooke, due June 4th. Friends of her mom threw her a baby shower the other week. It was so great to see her and some other friends from high school. The shower was during the few days of our summer like weather...so it was a hot one!!

 

Mommy to be!

Tiauna and I...we were the only ones there from high school who weren't pregnant!

This was Rach's favorite book/song growing up. Now she can read it to Brooke.

I knitted a baby blanket for Brooke...my first one ever!! 

Me and and the preggo girls...Jen, Rachael, and Becka

Grandma and Mommy to be

They are going to make wonderful parents! 

Hip and Purple 

(our high school nicknames for each other...don't ask)

Friends and the Wii...

I have been blessed with some amazing friends. Whenever we get together there is always fun and laughter. Bryan bought Rock Band the other week...so we ecided to try it out! I learned quickly that I am not a Rock star! It was a great night! Here are some pics to enjoy...

 

Bryan Rockin out on the guitar!

I gave the drums a try with Jeff's help...I was PATHETIC! 

Steve-O giving the guitar a go!

Brian looking like a Rock Star! 

Leslie and I gave singing a go...she was much better than I was!

Jeff, Bryan, and Brian...Rock n Roll! 

I was much better with the guitar...and Les was good on the drums! 

Meghan loved her man's singing! 

A Weekend of Extreme Relaxtion...

S and O's family bought a "Mountain House" 3 hours west from here. For Christmas they gave me a weekend at the house which I took last weekend. Five of my friends and I packed up and headed west. The weather wasn't that great, but it aided in the extreme relaxation. We didn't have any plans for the weekend, so we just hung out, read books, played games, slept, and soaked in the hot tub!!! I honestly cannot think of anything that could've made the weekend better.

Here are a few pics:

Mike and I stopped at a "scenic overlook" on the way. After he pulled the car over and started driving the WRONG WAY until I decided what we were going to do for dinner. 

 

The living room while standing in the kitchen

The dining room

The kitchen

The HOT TUB!

This was the GLORIOUS bed I slept in. Mike made sure that I kept the "Princess room" (Master Bedroom) instead of giving it to one of the married couples. 

S and O have built a tee pee in the backyard. Its soooo cool!!! Complete with moss carpeting! 

 

The boys playing Golf Putters Pool

 

The house is at the top of the double black diamond ski slope. We decided to check out the slopes!

 The boys threw an airplane off the Mountain...

  

Wolf helping Mary and Rex up the mountain

Everyone joined in! 

We came back to relax...and the snuggies helps that!

This was the best weekend! I'm so thankful for my friends!

O Christmas Tree...O Christmas Tree

This past Saturday I went with some friends to get my Christmas tree. We went to a little tree farm near my friends' house. We weren't sure what we would find...but we were pleasantly surprised! We cut them down ourselves...and it was only $20!!!

Here are some pictures...

Mary and I were really excited!

Mike cutting down my tree...

Dragging to the car...

Loading it on top of the car...

Last year my once my tree was wrapped in netting it fit nicely inside my car. We didn't have any netting this year, but we decided to put it inside anyway. Wolf was pushing it while Mary and I were in the front seats trying to pull it in. The tree was a bit bigger than we thought!

It looked much smaller on the tree lot!

All decorated and ready for Christmas!

Friends and Football kind of Weekend...

This past weekend I took a mini road trip to see friends and the end result was supposed to be the Ravens/Giants Football Game...but that didn't happen.

My dad, Kyle (my brother) and I are all huge football fans. My dad and Kyle are Giants fans, and I'm a Ravens fan. Back in June I started talking to Kyle about our dad's birthday in August and suggested getting tickets to the Ravens/Giants game in November. That was the plan...and I told him that he was in charge of getting the tickets since I was going to be out of the country. Well...the short answer to a long story is that we never got tickets...GRRRR. But we still decided to get together in NYC to watch the game...which I turned into a mini road trip.

Saturday morning I left and headed about an hour north to visit my friends Lori and Dan from college, and meet their adorable 7 month old son. It was great to catch up with them, see their beautiful house and play with the baby. He is teething so his bottom lip is MIA from him sucking on it so much! :) Here is a picture from our time together...

After spending the afternoon with Lori and Dan I headed to the Jersey Shore to spend the night at Gina's house. Her husband was away for the weekend, so we were able to have a girls night! My 2 and a half hour drive turned into 4 hours due to the pouring down rain. I hydroplaned many times too! Not a fun drive! Gina had made dinner and we spent the evening talking and catching up. I was really glad to see her since I missed her baby shower a few weeks ago because of our high school retreat.

At one point Gina opened the front door for some reason and there was a little slug on the screen door. Gina started freaking out and even called her husband about it! Before we went to bed I decided to open the door and see where the slug was...and it was gone! Gina freaked out even more, afraid that it had come into the house, but I found it...it went back outside. Here is the little slimy thing...

Gina made breakfast in the morning, we took some pictures...

I'm still half asleep here

Gina is so cute with her baby bump! I can't wait to meet little Gracie!

Off to NYC I went! The drive was much better in the daylight and no rain! I do have to admit that I was very impressed with myself driving through the city. I'm always surprised by how easy I'm able to get around there. Here's the skyline on my drive in...

I met my dad and Kyle in front of Kyle's apartment...and we found 2 parking places in front of his place!! That is unheard of!!! We walked several blocks to a sports bar to watch the game. Oddly the bar was packed with Broncos fans! Who would've thought?!?!

Sadly, the Ravens lost...though I still think they played well. There was one guy in the bar who was an obnoxious Giants fan (and no, I'm not talking about my dad!) When the Ravens scored their touchdown I started cheering and he started mocking me. Then he started mocking my dad...who was cheering for the same team as he was! Anyway, once the game was over my dad tried to get me out of there quickly because all the Steelers fans were coming in and he wasn't sure if I had enough self control! hahaha!

We headed to a museum that had a Grant and Lee exhibit about the Civil War. It was interesting and neat to see. My dad is a huge history buff so he loved it. We headed back to Kyle's apartment, and my dad and I took off. Kyle's roommate left and took all the furniture a few weeks ago and Kyle has been stressed trying to find a new place, so we decided to let him work on that. Here's the 3 of us...and of course Kyle isn't smiling...

Other than the scary drive Saturday evening and the Ravens losing it was a great weekend! Especially since I got home in time to see the Redskins lose!!! :)

Laughter

They say that laughter is the best medicine...and I think I agree! Not that I needed medicine last night, but I honestly can't remember the last time I laughed that hard.

Last night my friends got married. It was a long awaited (they dated for 6 years) and wonderful event. The bride was beautiful, the wedding was great. The reception was outside with white Christmas lights, candles, and even the neighborhood across the street had fireworks. Absolutely amazing!

With that said...there were many "memories" (as I like to call them) made. I started typing the whole elaborate story of each event, but this post would be forever long, so you get the shortened version. Someone forgot to light the unity candles, so during a prayer in the ceremony one of the groomsmen quickly goes to light the candles, but lights the MIDDLE ONE...the one the bride and groom are supposed to light! He quickly blew the candle out and lit the correct ones. I helped set up the beautiful dessert reception after the ceremony. Two of the 3 tier gold cardboard cookie trays collapsed while people were taking them to the tables, and sent cookies FLYING! Someone was trying to place her cookie tray at a table, tripped and knocked all the drinks over on the table. There were 2 chocolate fountains, as someone was pouring the melted chocolate into the fountain the wind picked up and blew chocolate everywhere. To try and block the wind they brought out a divider that blew over and knocked the entire fountain off the table! All of these received a good hearty laugh.

As the bride and groom were leaving my friend Amy and I went walking around the "getaway car" to observe the new decorations. Many inappropriate but very funny comments about sex were written all over the windows. The best was on the bumper it said "Bump Her" Amy and I laughed as we walked into the parking lot, to the car and drove all the way home...10 miles. We tried on many occasions to stop laughing, but the more we tried to stop the more we laughed. The whole way home I was trying not to wet myself! As I pulled into Amy's driveway I ran to her door and tried to unlock it. I was jumping up and down because I had to pee so bad and still laughing but could not get the door unlocked. Amy walked up and just opened the door, it wasn't even locked! We both doubled over in even more laughter crossing our legs so we wouldn't wet ourselves. The babysitter came in and looked at us like we were insane. Needless to say, a lot of fun was had at the wedding, and more laughs that I can't even remember happened.

Its great to have good friends that you can laugh at everything and nothing with! :)