Wedding Wednesday

It's nice to have something to read while you are waiting for the big event to start, but nothing beats a wedding program with some personality...

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Check out the link for the entire program and it's contents.  I must say, not just any couple can pull this off, but if you are one that can, you gotta do it!!

You can check out this and all my pins on my Wedding Wednesday Pinterest Board!

Happy Hump Day!!

Wedding Wednesday

If you are someone who doesn't think that giving money at a wedding is personal or thoughtful enough, here is a way to dress up those dollars and make them more fun!

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I think one of the things I love most about this picture is that there are $2 bills in this balloon... where do you even get those anymore?!?!

You can check out this and all my pins on my Wedding Wednesday Pinterest Board!

Happy Hump Day!!

School Starts Monday

Well, it's been a crazy week getting ready for the start of school.  For me, this means welcome back events, employee training and just an overall amp up in the level of activity in our building.  This year was extra intense because we reopened one of our gyms that has been closed for over a year!  It was closed at the beginning of last summer (2011) to fix the roof, and then a worker caught the roof on fire, causing thousands of gallons to be dumped on the roof, and into the gym, ruining the basketball courts and track.

SO, we've been without 10 of our 15 courts, which is Indiana is just tragic, and after a really tough year, the courts reopened yesterday!  It was built in 1924, it used to be the place that the IU Men's Basketball Team played, and it's historic.  The remodel didn't change the look, and though we still have some work to do, but what matters most is that it's open and the students are back and playing!

We even had an IU Basketball Alum come and play today... we were excited to have Eric Gordon back, and he certainly drew a crowd!!  He was a really nice guy, too!

One more employee training tomorrow and the school kicks off on Monday!  The late nights and long weeks don't end, though... I'll be keeping some late hours for the first couple of weeks of the semester to be around to help the employees out!

Hope everyone is enjoying the weekend and have a great week!!

Wedding Wednesday

As you may remember, we had sparklers for everyone during our exit from the reception (our little piece of 4th of July on our July 2nd wedding day)...

Our awesome Maid of Honor and Best Man were in charge of getting everyone's sparklers lit and they did a fantastic job, but how fun would it have been to have these

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This site lets you personalize the match boxes however you want, and they look so great!  If everyone had their own matches, it would be a great way to make sure your sparklers all get lit  :)

You can find this and all of my Wedding pins on my Wedding Wednesday board on Pinterest!

Happy Hump Day!!!

Mingle Monday

I actually got home at a decent time tonight, and as I was reading through the blogs I follow, I was SO excited by this week's Mingle Monday topic over on Life of Meg



What fall activities are you most excited for??
There are SO many things I'm looking forward to and as I begin the hardest and most intense two weeks of my year, I can't help but be excited by the anticipation of being able to actually do some of these things once my work life settles down a little.  So, here are my Top 5 things I'm looking forward to...
1. Football Season - Can't wait for my Longhorns to kick their season off... my expectations are fairly low this year (it could be a tough one for us), but I will watch any and all games I can get!!

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I am kind of said that we're missing Texas/OU this year... it's something I look forward to, but just not something we can afford this year.

2. Fall Leaves - Fall is my favorite season and it's in large part because I love the colors that come with the changing season.  I'm hoping we get some more consistent rain here so we have colors other than brown this fall... look how pretty my tree was last year!!!

3. A journey back to Chicago - we are kicking off our Fall (which I consider to be after Labor Day) with another trip to Chicago.  We'll be there for a weekend, we're meeting J's friend from high school there, and we're going to see my cousin play against the Sky.  I love Chicago and I'm really looking forward to our trip!!

4. Fall drinks - I love apple cider... not enough to drink it all year round, but as soon as fall hits, I'm ready for it!!!  I feel the same way about pumpkin spice lattes... Starbucks gets much more business from me in the fall than any other time, that's for sure!!

5. Running - I don't do well in the heat, so I'm excited for it to cool down.  I'd much rather run when it's 40 degrees than when it's above 80.  I have had no motivation/desire to go run lately because I hate to run inside.  I know I want to do a 10K next, since I haven't done one, but if we have a good fall/winter, there may be another half marathon in my future!!

A big thanks to Meg for getting my mind off of all the stuff coming up in my next two weeks and helping me look ahead to the great things to come this fall!!!

Where is this week going?!?!?

I woke up this morning and all of a sudden realized it's Thursday.  WHERE DID THE WEEK GO!?!?

I obviously missed Wednesday, which resulted in no Wedding Wednesday.  I promise that even though the next few weeks are going to be crazy insanity for me (the Fall semester is about to start), I will not miss another Wedding Wednesday.

I'll also try to do some highlights of the stuff my husband did while I was away last weekend, and some cute new stuff I've found

Let me just give you a glimpse into what those of us who work on college campuses will be going through for the next few weeks... with the help of #WhatShouldWeCallStudentAffairs going to be dealing with for the next two weeks...

It's like a constant mood swing... from this...

to this

to this

to this

And back around... over, and over and over again!!!

So, bear with me as school starts... move in starts this weekend... they're coming back to take over our town

Exhausted from so much Bachelorette FUN!!!

I'm officially too old to stay out late.  It takes me days to recover and if you add alcohol to the equation you can also add a couple more days!

We celebrated my cousin and her waning time as a bachelorette on Saturday, and it was SO fun!!

We started at the lake with a fully stocked cooler...

We stayed out too long without sunscreen and all of us got a little crispy.  From there, we hopped on the train and went to Chicago where a limo picked us up and was ours for the night!  We finished getting ready at my cousin's apartment and then we hit the town!!

We started with a girl's dinner at Niu Japanese Fusion restaurant.  This was a really amazing place to go for dinner... they have a great drink list and really reasonably priced sushi, and the atmosphere is awesome!!

The Rainbow Roll was GREAT!

I would definitely recommend this for anyone who likes sushi... the variety was great!  I will say that one of the girls had a little bit of an issue with her sushi... her fault, not the restaurants

MAN DOWN!!

After dinner, we met up with another cousin and his friends at Moe's Cantina, where a couple of my friends also met up with us.  After that, we went from there to Hubbard Inn and then on to The Leg Room, where apparently they thought we were pretty so they gave us the VIP treatment, include a free bottle of champagne.

Unfortunately for my readers, I will not divulge the details of the night... let's just say it was awesome - there was a little drama here and there, but overall, nothing that caused tears.  The bride also had a great time which is really what matters!!!

On Sunday morning, we woke up after about 4 hours of sleep, got our stuff together and set out for breakfast.  McDonald's was calling our name and after we fueled up, we had a little time before the train, so we stopped by Millennium park and visited the bean... one of the things that I've always wanted to do.

I wish there was a better way to take pics...
I don't like the fact that you can see my phone/camera.

We hopped on the 10:45 am train and headed back home, but have a lot of great memories (and some pictures that I didn't share) of our fun night in Chicago!!!

Michigan Ave from Millennium Park

Bachelorette Weekend Fun!!!

I'm heading up north this weekend for a fun Bachelorette night for my cousin!!!  We are starting at a lake on Saturday during the day and catching the train into Chicago for dinner and a fun night!!  This is really all I know about the weekend... the Maid of Honor was in charge of this party (I did the shower) so I'm excited to see what she has planned for us!

I took her out for her 21st Birthday and this was the scene...

The plan is to top this, but not feel like crap on Sunday   :-D

Have a great weekend... see you on the flip side!!

You Look Ridiculous...

So, I was sitting at a stoplight yesterday, waiting for the light to turn green, and across the road I saw a man standing on the corner holding a cardboard sign.  I don't remember exactly what his sign said, but it was in no way profound like the guy in Bruce Almighty (I love that movie)

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No, this is not the first time I've seen a person holding a cardboard sign, but what I saw next was...

He would hold the sign up for a few seconds, and then all of a sudden his arms fell to his sides and he looked like he was pouting.  He would shrug his shoulders and raise his arms like he was saying "WTF?" and I even saw him kicking the bushes that he was standing next to.

How could it be possible that someone could be so exacerbated by the fact that no one was rolling down their windows and just handing him cash?  SERIOUSLY???  Don't get me wrong... I feel for those families who have been hit hard by the recession and understand that there are some that have done everything they can to get by, but a lot of people who are struggling are also working their asses off, do whatever they can find to do so they can put food on the table, rather than standing on the corner waiting for a hand out.

This guy needs to take his huffy attitude and energy and go to the unemployment office, go walk around the city and find a "help wanted" sign, and realize that there have been too many news reports about how much money pan handlers make!

Sure, I have everything that I "need" and life, and much more... but I worked hard in school, I worked hard to get the job I have now, I have no credit card debt and if we make a big purchase, it is very calculated and we never over extend ourselves on frivolities.  I also donate money to those causes that are important to me, help little cousins and co-workers kids with school fundraisers, and I try to take my employees to lunch or have them over for a meal now and then because I remember what it was like to be a poor grad student... those are my priorities - not the guy standing on the corner, who I don't know, asking me for cash and giving me a dirty look when I don't.

So, guy on the corner - get over yourself... your bad attitude and pouting is not making people feel worse for you - it just makes you look ridiculous.

Whew... thanks for letting me vent... the stress of the coming Fall semester is making little things really get to me these days.  I hope you have a great day!!!

Wedding Wednesday

I'm back with more cake inspiration.  I know that a lot of people want their cakes to make a bold statement, but I am all for a statement being made with simple elegance.  I just love these three cakes... they are beautiful and ornate.  I am so drawn to them!!!

Ross Ben-Israel on WeddingClan.com

Zoe Clark on WeddingClan.com

Mark Joseph on MarkJosephCakes.com

You can check out all of my Wedding Wednesday pins on my Wedding Wednesday Pinterest Board!

Happy Hump Day!!!