A very special day

Today is a very special day... it's my Mom's Birthday.

My Mom is one of the most caring, thoughtful and creative people I know.  I am so lucky to have her as my mom and because she does so much for me & J, for her Birthday, we got something special for her... we are taking her (and my dad) to see...

She is very excited, and even though it's not until the beginning of December, it's something all of us have to look forward to!

Happy Birthday Mom!!!

Well Hello There September!

After spending most of my time on the couch this weekend, trying to recover from whatever it is going on in my sinuses, I got the strength to get my computer out and write my first legit blog of the month.

I can't believe it's September and we have a LOT of stuff coming up in the next couple of months, so I'll delay the Labor Day trip recap a little longer and share the things that I'm looking forward to in the next 6-7 weeks!

I have a lot of work this week... I'll be there late Tuesday and I'm on call next weekend (good time to get some crafts done), but I plan on taking advantage of some flexibility in my schedule and sleep in this week so I'm not exhausted again by the end of the coming week.

J and I took some days off the following week.  We are going up to the lake for our last trip of the "summer", and just taking a couple of days to relax and hang out with each other!  Then we will head up to Michigan for a family gathering.  My uncle is an amazing artist, and has found a spot in the Art Prize weekend in Grand Rapids, MI so there are about 25 of us heading up there to see his art and to spend some quality time together.  We are actually planning to camp in my cousin's back yard, and so we ordered these...

They are only rated for 50 degrees, but I feel like I could wear some long sleeves and sweat pants and I'll be plenty warm... especially with that cozy hood  :)

The following weekend, J is going to meet a bunch of his friends in Wisconsin for Oktoberfest so I'll be left here to play Glee Karaoke on Wii fend for myself.  I also have a very special Birthday party to go to... our friends from work have a little boy who will be turning 1... and I get to take pictures  :)

The following weekend is my cousins wedding... SOOOO excited, so I'll have a short with that week, too.  I can't wait for their wedding day... I know she is so excited for it to be here, and I'm so honored to stand beside her on her special day as she did for me!  I may need to write a speech for this...

We have a weekend "free" (although I wish we were going to Texas that weekend for the Texas/OU game) and then the following week we are going to see Chicago (the musical, not the city this time) and then my mom and aunt will be here the weekend after that for a visit and to celebrate my mom's Birthday!

To round out the month of October, I'll be heading up to Detroit to present at a conference.  I'm feeling exceptionally special about this because they actually contacted me to ask me to present, are paying for me to fly up there, and taking care of all of my accommodations.  It makes me feel so fancy!!

So, as you can see, our next couple of months will be very busy, but hopefully that also means I have a lot to blog about!

What do you have on your agenda to kick off the fall?

Happy Halloween (yesterday)

My parents visit last weekend was awesome... my mom and I did a lot of shopping and my house is all ready for Thanksgiving now!  I think one more trip up to their house and we will have all of the furniture for the house, too!  Once we have all the furniture it will be so much easier to really get things put where they belong and where they are going to live permanently.

Obviously yesterday was Halloween and it was kind of a depressing Halloween for me.  We had friends in Texas who always had a Halloween party and there was always a group of us at work who dressed up for Halloween... this year we sat at home and watched Hocus Pocus (DRVed from ABC Family) and gave candy to a few trick or treat-ers.  I dressed up for work, but I was one of only about 3 people who did so I mostly just felt silly, rather than festive.

I'm leaving for a 2 day conference on Thursday morning so I probably won't be doing much blogging this week, but I'm hoping that I will actually have some time this weekend to get some more house projects done and actually convert my blog, which I've been talking about for a while but haven't gotten around to yet.

Wedding Wednesday tomorrow!!!

Last Weekend and This Weekend

J and I went up to Ft Wayne last weekend to see my parents and to get more of our stuff, specifically our dining room table and beautiful hutch that's been sitting in my parents' garage for about 5 years, since my aunt handed it down to me.  The dining room has been a major catch all up until now, and we were running out of places to put serving dishes that we got as wedding gifts, so we really needed to get the hutch down to our house.

Before we left for Ft Wayne, we got up extra early on Friday morning to go and get...

Yes... that is the iPhone 4S and I am now the owner of one... a white one... it's pretty!

So, once we got to Ft Wayne, we went for a run (which I just realized I needed to log on my Mini Marathon Blog) and then spent the evening relaxing at my parents' house.

On Saturday, my mom and I went shopping and got pedicures and then we went our for her Birthday dinner. The place we had our rehearsal dinner sent us a gift card as a thank you, so what better time to use it than for dinner, drinks and dessert!

My mom isn't really hard to shop for, but she is hard to surprise, so when I saw that this was coming to the Embassy Theater in Ft Wayne, I had to get tickets for her and my dad.

I really wish that J and I could have gone with them, but it's on a Tuesday and that's a long way to drive.  Hopefully they will have a great time!

Sunday was spent around the kitchen table for a long brunch and then packing up our car so we could head back home.  We got the dining room table and hutch into J's truck and he hit the road to beat the rain.  We got 4 of our 6 dining room chairs in my car along with a few other wedding gifts that still remained  at my parents' house.

Our house is finally coming along!!!

We are running a 5K this weekend and making dinner for my co-workers who had a baby a few weeks ago, and then I am hoping to make our couch pillows and get some stuff done around the house.  Hopefully we'll have house pictures coming soon!