Weeeee!!!

We're about to leave for the airport to come get you, bestest! I can't wait to see you!!!

And guess what - we totally scored tickets for the GA/GA Tech game! We were planning to just watch it at home or at our friends' house, but we (OK, the hub) managed to get tickets! We're going to freeze our red and black butts off, but we'll be doing it in style. We've gotta bring it for this game, so I decided it was time to get some red chords...

And I'll be wearing these shoes - they are SO much cuter in person - so fun.

I'm wearing a black sweater - possibly with a collared white shirt underneath - not sure yet. And then a black and white houndstooth headband. SOOOOO Dawg-a-licious!!! GO DAWGS!

Gobble, gobble!

I probably will not be on the 'puter much this weekend with all the festivities going on. The in-laws arrive today. We've got a pre-Thanksgiving spaghetti dinner over at a friend's house that we go to every year. I did not make my grocery run yesterday (the balls of my feet were worn out from my Hobby Lobby run and I can't concentrate at the grocery in heels). So I've got to go this afternoon on my way home from work. My list keeps growing. For tonight, I'm making my yummy spinach artichoke dip. There are tons of different recipes out there for spin-arti dip, but this one is sooooo easy and quick, and it's always a huge hit...


Hot Spinach Artichoke Dip

Ingredients:

1 can quartered artichoke hearts, drained and cut in half (you can cut up into smaller pieces, but I like mine chunky monkey style)

1 -10 oz. package of frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained

1/2 cup sour cream

1/2 cup mayo

1 garlic clove, pressed (I just spoon in some of the jar kind - I'm lazy.)

3/4 cup grated Parmesean cheese



Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375F. Combine all ingredients and spoon into a pie baker (I also add shredded Parm to the top before sticking it in the oven.)

2. Bake 20-25 minutes or until heated through.

3. Serve immediately with pita chips or bread slices. Yields 10-15 appetizer.



Yum-O!

So that's tonight... then for tomorrow I'm making horseradish mashed potatoes and macaroni & cheese. I use Patty LaBelle's mac and cheese recipe. It's cardiac arrest on a plate, but it's delish! And I've totally gotten into mashed 'taters with my new mixer! So fun. I'm experimenting with all different kinds, but so far horseradish is my favorite. Plus I don't use any butter at all with those, so I figure it'll save a few calories on Turkey Day - just a few. It's basically gold yukon potatoes with sour cream, prepared horseradish, and salt and pepper. So yummers. Oh and my chair cover/sash thingees turned out great - I put one together last night and cut the rest of the fabric for the others. I'll take a pic once they're all set up. I'm rather proud of myself - it's my first project with fabric.

After Turkey Day, we are gearing up for midnight madness at the outlet mall not far from our house. Most of the stores open at midnight and it is craziness. We don't really do any serious shopping here - it's more for the fun and the experience. But Pottery Barn is doing 40% off the entire store... Banana Republic is also 40% off... J Crew has some specials but honestly, that crew outlet sucks ass. I'm always totally disappointed when I go in there. I can get better sales through the main store and all that junk is "made for the outlet" anyway - it's not like actual discounted J Crew stuff. Anyway... we'll be heading up there, Starbucks in hand, to join the madness! The hub is totally leading the way - believe it or not, he loves it. Some of our friends even bring walkie talkies - too funny.

Then Friday I will be recouperating and getting ready for my bestest's arrival EARLY Saturday morning. She's flying into town at 6am - yikes - from Hawaii. So the hub and I will pick her up at the busiest airport in the country and then head to breakfast. I'm hoping the airport won't be too bad at 6am! Then Saturday is the Georgia/Georgia Tech game - so we'll be watching that somewhere and hopefully celebrating a big win over those socially inept, calculator-loving nerds. Go Dawgs!

THEN, Sunday afternoon, bestest and I are hosting a trunk show at my house. So we will be going nuts getting ready for that. I've been putting stuff together for it all week and I'm hoping I can get it all done! The trunk show is really 80% her stuff - she does beautiful handbags, accessories, items for baby and kids, and all kinds of stuff. And then I'll be selling some stationery packs and gift tags and such. My stuff is made-to-order, so this is the first time I've made stuff ready to sell - so it will be interesting to see how it goes! I also made these display boards showcasing a selection of my past work. They turned out really cute! And we're also going to have a ball decorating... we're going for the whole preppy pink and green feel. I've got my pink Christmas trees ready and I'm also making a ribbon topiary (Belle-ah - you totally encouraged me with your daughter's birthday pics!) The topiary is almost there - it's looking great so far. We also are serving up cosmos during the trunk show - keeping with the "pink" part of the pink and green. And we'll do a few munchies to keep our shoppers' tummies happy. Any suggestions for some easy and fun girly treats? Emphasis on the the *easy* part as we have so much else to do!!! I will take lots of pics of our setup - I'm uber excited.

After Sunday, I'm taking Monday and Tuesday off to spend some quality girl time with my bestest. Monday, we're going to Intimacy at Phipps for bra fittings. Then we'll probably hop around in Buckhead and probably Atlantic Station too, since she hasn't seen that yet. I'm not sure exactly what all our plans are, but I do know they'll be good and girly!

And perhaps at some point this weekend we'll attempt to get that Christmas card shot again... we'll see. Well, I wish all of you a wonderful Thanksgiving Day tomorrow! May you take a moment to reflect on all of your many blessings and say Thanks! And in keeping with that, I wanted to name five things that I'm especially thankful for...

1. My wonderful husband who makes me smile everyday. He is the biggest dork and I love him for it!

2. My amazing parents who love me endlessly and would do anything in the world to make me happy.

3. Our three silly doggies that put joy into all of our days (and sometimes poop).

4. My fabulous girlfriends that encourage me, laugh with me, and cry with me.

5. My amazing God who loves me and without whom, I'd be one hopeless lunatic.


OK and one more...

6. The amazing deal I got today on these Kate Spade's I've had my eye on... Thank you, Nordstrom. And thank you, Shop-it-to-Me, for your timely sale alerts. I love you.

I heart Hobby Lobby.

So it's pretty bad when the cashier checking me out today says, "Weren't you here yesterday?" Yes... yes I was. Well I needed more stuff, you see. Their wrapping paper is on sale this week - although it's not on the weekly flyer and they don't have the usual sale signs up next to it. But it is 50% off. If y'all have a Hobby Lobby near you and need some more holiday wrap, this is totally the place to go! Rolls are $5.99 for 100 sq feet of wrap - so only $3 at 50% off! And they have really beautiful paper. I'm a gift wrappin' fool and I LOVE good gift wrap. This probably isn't the thickest of papers, but it's definitely not the cheap thin crap. And it has that grid on the back side (like at Hallmark) that I LOVE. And several of their "Christmas" papers can be used year-round. Like the black paper with big white polka dots that I got - omg SO cute! I don't even plan to use that for Christmas. They also had a black and white houndstooth print - super cute! Lots of fun preppy ones... a red and green argyle. Tons of foil papers if you're the metallic loving type. Those are also priced at $5.99 regularly but are only 60 sq feet instead of 100 - still a major deal. They also have tons and tons of bows for packages. I don't really use those a lot because I'm a big ribbon person, but they have some really good ones - like nice looking ones and ones made out of grosgrain - super cute. So anyway - if you're in need of more holiday wrap, definitely seek out your local Hobby Lobby! The rolls are going fast!

I also bought my first yards of fabric there today. I was soooo excited. I often creep by the fabric section, but I've always been so intimidated by it. Bolts and bolts of fabric... and what the heck am I supposed to do with them? I'm learning to sew (slowly but surely) and Santa is bringing me a sewing machine for Christmas, so I've got to get comf in the fabric section. Although I don't have a sewing project, I needed fabric to dress up some rental chairs my mom got for the "kiddie" table at Thanksgiving. I found this great fall pattern on clearance. I had no freaking clue how much fabric I needed, so I just guessed and hopefully I got enough. My mom rented those white wooden folding chairs and wanted something to make them more fall looking. I'm running by my parents' house on the way home to grab one of the chairs so I can play with it tonight. In my head, the sash I have in mind looks awesome. We'll see how it translates in real life...

Oh and on another unrelated topic, we got up early this morning to try and capture "the" Christmas card picture of the 3 dogs. After about an hour, we had a nearly empty box of treats, two pissed off parents, and no picture to show for it. We may have to get in the picture afterall, if for no other reason than to hold the damn dogs still. Charlie, the boy, was a total gem. He stayed and looked at the camera and was the perfect little gentleman he always is. OR usually is. Belly and Gertie, however, were total spazzes and refused to cooperate! I will have to post some of the blooper photos because they're rather hilarious.

Gotta run by the grocery on the way home tonight also... SO much to do for this week! The in-laws are arriving tomorrow and then my bestest arrives on Saturday!!! We're planning to do the midnight shopping madness Thanksgiving night... I hope I can stay awake. So much to do! So much to do! More on all that later...

Doodie. And the boys.

So I apparently spilled a crumb or two from my little Ghiradelli dark chocolate square on my lap while munching on it after lunch. Because... I just looked down and saw not one, not two, but four chocolate smears on the crotch of my light grey pants. Great. Now it looks like I have doodie stains all over me! Thank goodness this occurred after my lunchtime run to Hobby Lobby.

While at Hobby Lobby, I got a call from one of my doctor's nurses about the hub's test on his boys. Poor thing had to spew his goodies in a cup once again. All is good but the volume is still a bit low. I'm sure he loves me sharing this information. Low volume, but ULTRA manly, honey! Anyway, as with our plan - not sure I mentioned this before - my doctor wanted to skip the whole "on our own" portion of the plan if the boys were low again - meaning we'd go straight for IUI. So the hub is calling the doctor today again to see if that is indeed the plan. Well, we still were able to get one try in, so there's always a slim chance we got the job done on our own. Only time will tell! :-)

Doctor, Doctor, give me the news!

OK so we had the follow-up consultation with my doctor early this morning. He told us pretty much what I was expecting to hear, as far as what's going on up in my uterus. I really hate the word uterus, by the way... I hate saying it. It's just an icky word - which is why I often refer to it as my "oven" instead. Males especially cringe at the term. Anyway, there does appear to be a residual septum left in my oven - which may or may not be an issue. I love those open-ended answers. Nothing is ever black and white in the world of infertility, I've learned! So in other words... a 3rd surgery may be necessary.

BUT my doctor recommended, and we agreed, to just give it a go on our own for a few months and see what happens. He really wants to attack the fertility issue and not worry too much about the septum issue right now. The septum, as it stands alone, is not necessarily an infertility issue - I could get preggers having a septate uterus - er - oven... but I would most likely miscarry, as it makes for a not-so-suitable environment for the bun. So here is our plan of attack...

• Try (completely) on our own for 3 months (and our recent try counts as month one, so really just 2 more months) and if that doesn't work...
• I'll be put on Chlomid and we'll start trying with IUI (turkey baster) for 3 additional months, and if that doesn't work...
• We'll move onto IVF (groan!) and if that is the case, we will definitely have to do the 3rd surgery to get me as "perfect" as possible before shelling out the big bucks. I have no idea where those are gonna come from... haha!

So, we're of course *really* hoping for some success within these next few months. I'm really excited about trying again and if we could get it done on our own, that would be SO great. Nothing is cheap about any of these treatments, and we are already thousands of dollars in. Mission number one is to get preggers soon... and then mission number two is to hold on tight to my baby because I will certainly be a high-risk pregnancy. If I do get pregnant, the plan is for my fertility doctor to keep a super close eye on me through the crucial first trimester. If we make it out of the 1st trimester, he's confident any residual septum I have will not be an issue. So even though I would be SUPER excited to get a positive pregnancy test in the next few months, it will also be a long first trimester.

I have had so many friends lately that have miscarried and I told the hub that we are NOT sharing any baby news till we are in the clear. I just don't want the attention of "OMG you're finally pregnant - yay!" only to make those "nevermind" calls a few weeks later. So yeah - the first trimester is going to be a LONG one. Which is another reason I'm so happy to have this blog as an outlet, because believe me I'll be shouting it from the rooftops (of my blog) when I see that double line or smiley face or "pregnant" on that pee stick. So of course my bestest will know - shoot, I wouldn't keep it from her anyway... but we're really going to do our best to keep it on the DL till we're "safe."

So here's to a productive few months ahead! I'm praying I'll have some fun news to share before too long! I know we'll get there someday. Someday soon is extra fun though. :-)

Custom Baby & Kids' Bedding

One more quickie before I do some real work... I came across this site last night and I am IN LOVE! I just saw a random blurb about the site on Posh Cravings - a great site about mommies with style (since I'm a wannabe posh mama!). It's associated with Posh Tots - a great site for baby bedding and all kinds of decor. (And also good for a laugh - check out the playhouses.) Anyway, I linked over to this custom bedding site - Javis Davis - and drooled. SUCH fun fabrics and color combos and I love the way they do the bumper ties. Look at the fabric combos as well as the quick pick crib sets to see how it all comes together. I totally bookmarked this one for future consideration. And the great thing about it is that it is really affordable. I've seen lots of beautiful bedding at some of these high-end boutiques selling for $600+ per set (on the low end). And most of the sets on Posh Tots fall in that range too. The sets on Javis Davis fall into the $300-400 range - which I think is very good for what appears to be really good quality bedding. Has anyone ordered from this site before? I'd love to hear about your experience if so!

Edited 6.28.09 to add: It's so funny looking back on this post from almost 2 years ago. Javis Davis has grown SO much and I'm proud to now be the design partner for Atlanta! For custom crib and big kid bedding, come check me out over here!

This made my day...

I strolled into work (a bit late) and found on my chair 3 yoga DVD's with a sticky-note attached. At first glance, I thought Christmas bride (who is a co-worker) left them for me because I just started going to yoga again this week. I figured she had some old DVD's she thought I'd be interested in borrowing. After throwing my coat and bag aside, I picked up the note and realized they were all pregnancy work-out/yoga vidoes. And the note was from another one of my co-workers who is a mommy of two, and it read...

"Everytime I come across this stuff, God keeps telling me to give them to you! So who am I to argue with God?!"

This put an immediate smile on my face and totally warmed my heart. And how funny that I received these the day after my previous post - hahaha! She has already given me her Baby Wise books - which she swears by. Anyway, it's the little things that get me going! I really feel like God is preparing the hub and me for some big changes. Maybe it's a baby, maybe something more, but I just really feel him tugging at my heart these days. I'm just trying to be patient and listen...

Bow chica bow bow!

Guess who (FINALLY) got a positive reading on her ovulation test this morning!!! Fingers crossed applesauce, ladies. Not counting on anything, but hey - it's the first time we've been "allowed" to go for it in about 6 months - so we're gonna give it the good ole college try!

We still haven't gotten the full report on my HSG results yet from my doctor. We see him early Thursday morning - so we'll learn more about all that then as well as whatever the next steps are for us. I'm hoping all news is good and that we can be pretty much on our own from here on out, but who knows? Hopefully we don't have to resort to IUI (the turkey baster method), etc - but if we do, we do. Positive thoughts for now!

In other news... I barely made a dent into my closet project this weekend. We ended up running around so much on Sunday that I seriously had only a 2 hour window to get anything done. I did get started though and made sure to get some "before" shots - so more on that later...

Countdown to the weekend!

Oh TGIF, people! I woke up in a great mood today - it's Friday! Woot woot! I was trying to get off to work early, but of course that didn't happen. Partly because I hit snooze a few too many times, but really because our doorbell rang as I was drying my hair. What in the world? It could be one of only two people... our strange neighbor asking us to water his plants because he'll be out of town this weekend (why he never thinks to ask at a normal time, beats me), or the hub's redneck buddy Glenn coming over for some reason. Well it couldn't be the first one since we're in a total drought - no outdoor watering. It must be Glenn. What the heck does he want? Turns out it was one of the little girls down the street, with her new dog, Mango, in tow. She shows up randomly sometimes asking to play with our dogs - but usually in the evenings (and certainly not at 8:30 in the morning). My three dogs were going NUTS so I quickly shoved them out the back door so I could see what the girl wanted...

Me: Hey Courtney, what's up?

Courtney: Hey, I was coming by because my family is going to a cabin this weekend and we were going to take the dogs, but the cabin is really small and we can only take Dewie and my mom said we can't take Mango because she's not totally house-trained and it's a really nice cabin and we thought we were going to take them both, but now we're not, so I was wondering if you could watch Mango while we're gone? I'm sorry it's really late notice.

Me: Oh wow, that's fun... when are y'all leaving?

Courtney: At about 6 o'clock tonight. I'm sorry it's such late notice. My parents just changed their minds last night. I'm really not happy about the situation [that line cracked me up - she's 9].

Me: Oh well I understand, and we're in town so it should be OK.

Then she goes on to tell me all about Mango and how she plays well with others and what they do with her during the day and at night, etc, on and on for a good 15 minutes. And of course we said yes - the dog is a total cutie and we keep friends' dogs all the time (I mean, when you have 3, what's one more?). But here's the thing... why the hell did her parents send their 9 yr old daughter (at 8:30am the day they're leaving town) to go ask a neighbor if they could watch their dog over the weekend? We've never kept her before and she's never been around our dogs. I find this very strange. The hub is calling her parents today to synch up and get phone numbers and such and now we have to make sure one of us is home at 6pm to take the dog. Doable, but it involves one of us leaving work a tad early to make sure we don't get stuck in traffic. And she's lucky she caught us - we're usually gone by 8:30am. They should be thanking my snooze button and toasty electric mattress cover. But seriously is it just me or does that seem totally inappropriate to send over your 9 yr old to do your bidding? I'm not a parent yet, so I don't like to point fingers (out loud anyway), but share your thoughts please.

...Oh and just for reference, this sort of thing has happened before with this same family. Not quite on the will-you-keep-my-dog-over-the-weekend scale, but one afternoon Courtney came by and said her mother instructed her to come play in OUR backyard till she (the mom) got back from the store. OK... translation - we just got trapped into babysitting for half an hour. We were home and staying home that evening, so no biggie - but we don't have kids and our schedules are not at all predictable... many times we're not at home on weeknights. Stop dumping your kids and dogs off on us! Don't get me wrong - we love little Courtney, but seriously... they're taking advantage of the childless, dog-lovin' fools in the neighborhood.

Alright I feel better after that little rant. Now in other news... I spent half the afternoon on Horchow since they're having a killer sale! 20% off sitewide and no minimum purchase required! (Enter code DREAM at checkout.) Well I've blogged before about their monogrammed towels and how it's one of my all-time favorite gifts to give. It's my staple wedding gift but I also am getting creative with them for Christmas gifts too. Well not only is the entire site 20% off, but they are having their "event" pricing on the towels currently - so they are already marked down to their lowest price. So let's just discuss this whopping good deal for a minute...

Monogrammed Bath Towel at Horchow (with event pricing and 20% off) = $7.99
Monogrammed Bath Towel at Pottery Barn (regular price) = $24.00 + $6.00 for mono

Yes these are different towels, but I own sets of both. The PB Classic towels are definitely much thicker, heavier towels - but I personally like plush, soft, and cozy towels - and that is what the Lauren by Ralph Lauren ones at Horchow are like. I've bought these countless times and they've always turned out beautifully - they do a beautiful job with personalization and they have a ton of thread colors to choose from (much more than PB). I love creating fun color combos. Here's what I ordered today...

For my godmother who just got remarried in September (I'm always late with wedding gifts) - two hand towels in vanilla with a light brown "F" on them for their new last name. I always use the single letter for marrieds as I'm anti-married-monogram, and I LOVE the script/style they use for single letters at Horchow. So pretty! And then I'll get some fun hand soap to go along with the towels - just a little set for their powder room. I think this makes a great shower gift. They asked for no wedding gifts as they're both in their 60's, but I thought this would be a fun little treat. So the price for the two hand towels? $12.78 - BAM!

For one of my girlfriend's little 2 yr old daughter for Christmas - 5 washclothes monogrammed - all in different pastel colors with different pastel threading. So each one is different, but they all go together. I can't wait to see how they turn out!!! And it's something that is timeless - so she can use them till they fall apart. Now I must say it took some patience adding these to my basket because I had to do them one by one. I jotted down the colors and what thread colors I was pairing them up with so I could keep it straight and not duplicate any of them. I plan on rolling them up cute and securing them with a fun ribbon - oh I can't wait! Total for the 5 waschloths.... $21.96 - POW!

And for moi.... (couldn't resist!) - a couple of Christmas hand towels for our powder room... I did one in red with a light/sage green thread that reads "Ho Ho Ho" - I tried to get a little creative, I mean it doesn't have to be an actual monogram! And another one... I think the light/sage green with my monogram in red. Oh and then another one - the peony pink with my monogram in orange (for our guest bathroom upstairs. Bestest - you will get to use those when you come down in a couple of weeks!). What are some other fun Christmas words or phrases I could put on a hand towel? Can't be too long of course.

So go get you some towels while they're hot! One of my all-time favorite bargains, for sure! Do any of y'all have any staple gifts that you go back to time after time? Do tell! And of course Horchow is good for more than just monogrammed towels! They have lots of fun gifts. Here are some other cutie items I found today...

Painted hair dryers - so cute for a little girl! Kinda pricy... but hey, 20% off!

Adorable Christmas gift labels and return address labels - great price too.

Lots of fun labels for kids too - so cute!

Closet clean-out!

Well my Paige maternity capris came in yesterday (though I didn't notice them on our front porch till this morning - the poor things must've been freezing!) and they are awesome! And Awesome with a capital *A* since I only paid a whopping $43 for them! I tried them on and they're perfect. Which for me, is so rare with jeans since I have SWBB syndrome (that's Small-Waist-Big-Booty syndrome, for you skinny minnies). They fit great and I have a little room to grow too when I get preggers. So after getting these jeans, I am suddenly inspired to clean out my closet and do a major overhaul on my wardrobe.

Now my closet stays pretty neat and organized for the most part, but just beyond the borders of my closet is a disaster of dirty clothes, unmatched socks, and clothes to be dry-cleaned. None of these piles ever seem to fully go away. (And I won't even go into the perfect storm that is the hub's closet.) Also, in our spare bedroom (which I'm hoping will be a nursery someday soon) is my "someday closet" - which is a total mess. All kinds of crap is thrown about in there. It's pretty much a junk closet right now and it's driving me NUTS. The junkiness is contaminating my cute someday pieces! And the room itself is empty but for some random crap on the floor. A bag started for Goodwill... more sweaters to be dry-cleaned... gifts we received for Christmas last year that haven't been put away/put to use (holy cow are we a little behind or what?!)... etc, etc. That room has kind of become the dumping ground, and I'm just over it. There's also a bathroom in there that the hub likes to sneak off to - so the room is a dumping ground in more ways than one. There are also bathroom fixtures we bought forever ago at the Pottery Barn outlet that are still sitting in their boxes on the floor by the tub. So there's a lot of help needed in this room! And for some reason, I'm suddenly inspired to get all of this done once and for all!

This weekend, I'm going to go through my closet - item by item - and pull out stuff for Goodwill and also stuff I think they might take at Plato's Closet. I have some Paper Denim & Cloth jeans that I wore all of one time before wondering why the heck I bought them (they didn't fit great). I'm sure they'll take those. Much of my other stuff I'm sure they'll think is too "old lady" for their teeny-bopper clientele, but maybe I'll find some stuff. There's just so much in my closet that I never even touch - it's time to give myself some tough love and part with it.

So I'm getting this out now so I can hold myself accountable! This is my major to-do for the weekend and I will take some before and after shots so you can appreciate the madness. We've also got to do the same overhaul with our basement, but that's a whole other, truly embarrassing issue. Baby steps...

Chicago pics!

As promised - some pics from our wonderful few days in Chicago!

A great shot the hub took during his two day museum fest.

A pic from our architectural boat tour.

A great tour - I definitely recommend!

A shot of Michigan Ave from outside our hotel.

A cool view of the Sears Tower (from the boat tour).

Our hotel is the tall building here in the middle.

We were on the 33rd floor, overlooking the river - a GREAT view!

A Kuntry Wedding

So kuntry bride's weekend was lots of fun and I'm finally taking a minute here to blog about it! Gosh I haven't danced that much in I don't know how long... it was a whirlwind weekend for sure and I was truly exhausted come Sunday. As it turns out, the bride didn't require any drugs on her wedding day (though I was tempted to slip some in her water bottle Friday afternoon).

I left work around noon on Friday to drive down to the bridesmaids' luncheon. The restaurant where the luncheon was held was really nice and the food was pretty good. So that was a good time... Oh and side note - during the luncheon, the hub sent me a text message saying he had spoken with my doctor about the HSG films and my doctor said not to worry at all - that it was totally normal. So that set my mind at ease on that issue. We're supposed to talk to my doctor again this week - more on that later.

After the luncheon, we spent the afternoon running errands. Kuntry bride was clearly stressing. She wanted to go to the hotel where the rehearsal dinner was being held to see if the room was ready. Apparently Miss Valerie (the groom's mother) was supposed to get flowers for the rehearsal dinner, but this seemed to have slipped Miss Valerie's mind. So anyway, since bride was unsure of how the rehearsal dinner room was going to come together, she had a couple of the bridesmaids and one other girlfriend go ahead and start putting the tables together and such. One of the groom's aunts, Aunt Kathy, was evidently put in charge of this task originally... because when Aunt Kathy came in the room and discovered these three girls working away (two of which are preggers by the way), she gets this look of absolute horror on her face and screams, "I'M GONNA KICK YOUR F*CKIN' ASSES!" Yes. Now keep in mind she has never met any of these three girls, nor them her... so these literally are the first words out of her mouth. I guess she was offended that her "job" had been taken over. So the girls quickly vacated and handed over the reins before further attack. The funny thing is... no one has told kuntry bride about this little incident yet. We certainly didn't want to stress her out any further. So that will be a fun one to share when she returns from her honeymoon. Even more funny, Saturday morning she was going on and on about how *sweet* Aunt Kathy is.

The rehearsal went OK... it was just rather cold because the ceremony was outdoors. And something kuntry bride and her hometown clan always do is have a stand-in bride. Does anyone else do this? I'd never heard of doing this till her wedding. She has a friend stand in as the bride and she sits back and watches the whole rehearsal. Towards the end of the rehearsal we noticed Miss Valerie was on the phone a lot and she didn't look happy. Turns out the caterers "got lost" and the food had yet to arrive at the rehearsal dinner site. It was supposed to arrive at 7:15. They didn't have it set up and ready till 8:30... so we were starving to say the least! The groom was pissed and kuntry bride was certainly not pleased, but it all came together in the end and it was fine. It was actually really yummy - not sure if that's just because I was on the brink of starvation or not... but it was damn good. They had their favorite local Mexican joint cater and it was yummers - a fajita bar complete with cheese dip. Mmmm!

After dinner we went back to the bride's house for the night. We stayed up while she finished packing for the honeymoon and just had some good late night girly time. Then kuntry bride got a call from her fiance letting her know that he invited someone else to the wedding. WTF? Men are freaking clueless! So she had to drag out her seating chart and figure out where the heck to put her. And seriously, what kind of person accepts an invitation to a wedding that takes place in less than 24 hours? An obvious afterthought - goodness. Anyway, we finally called it a night around 1:30am. I was excited to get a bed all to myself and some peace and quiet for a few hours... but then I felt something strange in my bed. A sippy cup that had spilled all over the bed - her nephew apparently had left it there the night before. Yikes... there's no telling what else her nephew and niece left for me in that bed. I stuck to the dry side of the bed and tried not to think about it. I was exhausted.

The wedding day started early. The hair and makeup girls were arriving at 8:30am... keep in mind the ceremony didn't start till 6:30pm! So I had to get up much earlier than I would've liked to. I was a bit nervous about having my hair put up by people I've never used, but it was all good - they did a good job. I didn't have my makeup done, but they did have an extra pair of faux eyelashes, so I totally had them put those on me! So fun! I've always wanted to try them. They felt weird at first, but as the glue dried, they didn't bother me at all. Kuntry bride also had some put on - hers were even more va-va-voom. The wedding day went pretty darn smoothly. And of course we had time to spare since we started so early! So it was nice to not have to be so rushed. We arrived at the venue around 3pm, got dressed, and did pictures and such before the show started at 6:30. Everything went well and most importantly, the bride and groom had a blast. We really had lots and lots of fun! But wow, I'm glad it's over. I know the bride is too. She's probably googling at her new husband across the table at a romantic dinner on the beach right about now... I'm so jealous!!!

Here's the bride getting her face on.

Rolling in to the venue...

Here's the bride writing sweet nothings to her soon-to-be-husband.

Tomorrow, one of the other bridesmaids (my girlfriend who also ventured down to the kuntry with us this summer) is going with me to sneak in to the bride's house and decorate it for the newlyweds' return. We're going to put up streamers and other silly stuff and leave out everything they need to make an easy pasta dinner when they get home. Plus we'll do whatever cleaning we can so that the house looks nice when they get back. There's nothing worse than coming home to a messy house from vacation. It's like a punch in the face - welcome back to reality!

How precious...

...are my babies?! Just came across these photos from this summer and I had to put them up really quickly. And if you haven't guessed yet, we have decided to keep our foster doggie afterall (surprise, surprise), so we are officially parents to three doggies now. So our house is a total zoo.

Gertie (our former foster, now forever dog) is the yellow lab/pit mix. Charlie is the brindle one... and Belly is the little black one (and the leader of the pack - most of the time).

OK for realz... I'm posting more tonight on the wedding and also Chicago pics... back soon!

Five Years!

Today is our 5-year wedding anniversary! Woo-hoo! And we'll be celebrating... at kuntry bride's rehearsal dinner! Hahahha... yeah that's why we had a fun dinner last week while in Chicago. But wow, I can't believe it has already been five years. And my parents share the same anniversary (which is why we picked the date) and they hit 39 years today. In this day and age, that it such an accomplishment and such a testament to us. So Happy Anniversary all around! :-)

Yesterday afternoon was quite the downer, but I'm feeling better today. I have kuntry bride's wedding weekend to distract me. It's going to be a fun-filled weekend and I'm super excited. Let's see if I can dig up my outfits for today... I think I still have the old pics (I refrained from buying anything new!)...

Well I couldn't find my old pics of my luncheon dress and shoes, but the dress and shoes above are what I'm wearing tonight for the rehearsal dinner. And instead of the black sash on the dress, I'm wearing a purplish colored sash. Not like grape purple - I'm not a fan of purple really - this is more of a warm violet. Anyway - super fun and I'm carrying a SUPER cute clutch my bestest made that has a Pucci like funky pattern. So fun!

I'll recap the weekend on Sunday - I'm sure I'll have some good stories. And I promise I'll get those Chicago pics up then too... Have a great weekend!!!

HSG Day!

Did you know it's HSG day? Well, it is on my calendar anyway. I'm leaving in about an hour and a half to go have what I *hope* is my final "procedure" with this infertility mumbo jumbo. But I'm certainly not counting on it being the final one... just hoping!

For you Fertile Myrtles, an HSG is the "dye test" where they shoot this colored dye all up in your girly parts to see if all is in order, if your tubes are clear, etc. I've had one before and it's not exactly fun, but it's not all that bad either. The worst part (besides lying on a cold exam table with your nether regions exposed) is the insta-cramps it gives you. Not super fun... so I'll be downing a few Tylenol pretty soon here to prepare.

From what I understand, if all looks good, my doctor plans to give us the green light to start TTC again. Which is exciting, yet somehow totally weird-feeling because it seems like it's been SO long since we've been able to actually "try." I've got to stock up on ovulation kits and all that jazz again... so it's really like we're starting over. I'm hopeful and certainly optimistic, but I'm really not expecting to get preggers right away. There's that little seed of doubt in my head that says it's still not going to happen... that we're going to discover something else is wrong... I'm trying my best to suppress that doubt, but at the same time, I don't want to be overly optomistic! But I have faith that it will happen when it's meant to happen. It would just be really cool if it was meant to happen soon.

So.... to calm my nerves a bit, I caught an irresistable sale from my daily shopittome.com email and snagged a pair of these...

Paige Denim Maternity Capri's - originally $179, and I got them at Bloomingdale's for... wait for it........ wait for it........ $43!!!

(All their sale stuff is an additional 40% off when you enter code SV111 at checkout. Actually it may just be women's... but who cares about the men's stuff anyway?)

So my insanity for buying maternity jeans before being prego can be overlooked when the price is that darn good. And hello - totally Ebay-able if I never am able to wear them. Totally. (This is what I'm telling myself, so don't rain on my parade!) I think I'm going to have to do a dedicated post to my someday closet... it's become quite the closet as of late.

I'll let you know what, if anything, I find out today about my HSG. The last time I had one, the radiologist just said a bunch of big words and "you'll have to talk to your doctor." So who knows if I will really have any solid answers this afternoon... I'll check back in a little later!


P.S. I'll post some Chicago pics and also some Halloweenie pics later tonight...

Update: Just got back from my appointment... nothing much to report. It was a little discouraging actually because the image on screen looked no different (to me) than the first time I had an HSG. In fact the radiologist says, "OK looks like we have a broad septum here..." Um, isn't that what I just had removed in surgery? WTF... The results are being sent to my doctor so hopefully I'll know more soon. I'm trying not to read too much into it before I speak with him. Back to twiddling thumbs for now...