056. It's a Sad Blogger Day for Me

So, I wish I could say I have all kinds of fantastic pictures of the wedding last night to share with you all, but sadly I don't. I think my camera is dying a slow and painful death. Every picture I took last night came out super blurry. I noticed this problem in my New Years Eve pictures a little bit, but it wasn't terrible. My dad is trying to see if he can fix it, but I might be in the market for a new one very soon. Until the problem is resolved my photos are going to be pretty limits and taken with my iPhone.

The wedding was fantastic. It was such a great time, and it was so awesome to see a bunch of my friends that I haven't seen in at least a year. My friend Dan managed to break his nose. How does one manage to break their nose during a wedding reception you ask. Well, back in high school at a NYE party this tradition of singing along to Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody got started. It starts with the guys and the girls in circles swaying and singing along. When the song reaches the "heavy" part the girls get the hell out of the way and the guys start moshing. Once the song slows back down we all end up in one big circle. This was repeated at every party and major even through high school and college. We even managed to pull it off at senior prom. It's also been part of every wedding as well. The whole thing is ridiculous, and to an outside observer we probably look positively insane, but it's part of the tradition of our friendships. Anyway, during the moshing Dan's nose connected with our friend Atom's head and Atom's head won.

I definitely drank a bit more than originally intended, but I only had a slight hangover this morning. It was nothing a couple huge glasses of water couldn't fix.

This morning I went out with my family for a late breakfast at Flapjack's Pancake House which is my favorite place to go for breakfast. I had stuffed French toast with apple compote and a side of hash browns.

My mom and I ran some errands. I managed to get my hands on a pair of YakTrax. Now I just need the temp needs to increase a few degrees so I can test them out. I would really like to go out for a run this afternoon, but it's so cold outside breathing would be a struggle. I do think I'm going to head over to the indoor track once Chris gets home from work.

I really need to get some run time in. I'm running a virtual 5K on January 23rd. The three girls I ran with for the Santa Shuffle 5K and I are going to run a 5K on treadmills on the 23rd and report back to each other. It's a pretty brilliant idea if you ask me. A great way to keep ourselves motivated since it's not really race season in the Midwest right now.

Since breakfast was huge, I had half an everything bagel with some onion and chive cream cheese for lunch just now.

I'm quite tired today so I'm going to go relax on the couch and read a book (I've got both of my container gardening books to get through, and I just started reading Skinny Bitch.) or watch some TV with a cup of tea. I also need to decide what to make for dinner tonight. Any suggestions?

055. Going to the Chapel...where my friends are getting married

My friends Jennie and John are getting married today!!!! I've very excited for them, and who doesn't love weddings? They're so much fun! My goal today is to keep the drinking in check. This should be somewhat easy as I am driving. I also want to make sure I fully document the evening so I can share.

Quick morning recap: breakfast was an open face fried egg sammie with sharp cheddar and some of the potatoes I had left over from yesterday morning.

After I ate I Whittled My Middle, and Chris and I had to make a trip over to his mom's house to try and find his black dress shirt. We didn't have any luck.

I am absolutely in l-o-v-e with my dress/ outfit for today. I picked up the dress at H&M for about $35. I was the first (and only) dress I even tried on.

I loathe dress shopping. I'm very top heavy (large chest, wide back, swimmer shoulder's and tiny little hips on chicken legs) which makes it very difficult to find dresses that fit properly in all the "right" places. Add to that the fact that nothing causes my self esteem to plummet quite like dress shopping. Anyone with me on that one? I find when I'm dress shopping, I always end up having to go at least a size or two larger than my pants/ shirt size. I'm currently in a M top and size 8 bottom so why is my dress a 14? I know size is just a number, and I generally don't put much thought into it, but really, I just don't get how stores size clothing?!

Anyway, I'm sure you can imagine how stoked I was when I not only found a dress I loved that fit perfectly!

I paired the dress with the sweater and shoes I bought Wednesday and a bracelet one of my co-workers bought me for Christmas. Personally, I think I look adorable! Not to toot my own horn or anything. :)

I'll be sure to post all about the wedding tomorrow.

052. Breakfast Mash-Up

First things first my dear friends, HAPPY NEW YEAR’S EVE!

Is everyone ready to put 2009 behind them and start fresh?

While 2009 was by no means a bad year for me (I made a lot of really positive changes in myself and my life,) I am so ready for a new year to begin. I’m really looking forward to making even more progress in my life and my happiness this year. I’m looking forward to checking of most (if not all!) of the items on my 10 in 2010 list!

This morning was one of those mornings where there wasn’t anything particular I wanted to eat. I wasn’t in the mood for oatmeal which has been my go-to breakfast recently. I ended up throwing together a totally random breakfast. I had an open-face egg sammie with a bit of sharp cheddar cheese and a bowl of vanilla Okios with a sliced up banana and a ¼ c. of Kashi Honey Almond Flax cereal. (Holy protein Batman!) Despite my not being in the mood for anything, my breakfast really hit the spot.

This evening Chris’ mom, grandma, and brother (and possibly his friend Mike) are coming over for dinner. His mom and grandma haven’t seen our place yet, and they wanted to come see our tree and Christmas decorations before they get taken down. I figured tonight would be a perfect night for that since I’ll be getting out of work early which will give me lots of time to cook.

I’m planning to make spaghetti squash with marinara topped with sautéed garlic and zucchini and some fresh mozzarella. I’ll probably add some Boca crumbles to the sauce as well.

What are your plans for this evening? Do you do it up big on NYE or keep it low key?

I think NYE as a whole is pretty over-rated. I much prefer a low key evening with friends to heading out to a big party downtown somewhere. In high school, my friends Scott and Sarah always had a big party for all of us at their house. This kind of celebration is definitely my favorite way to ring in a New Year.

Chris and I decided last night to stay in tonight and have a few people over to have some drinks and play some Wii or Rock Band on the xBox. His brother Tim is coming and his friend Mike. I invited my friend Nicky over as well. My friend Jennie is having people to her house as well for I may go over there for an hour or two. Like I said before, I much prefer low-key celebrations with friends.

029. Partying Hard

I wanted to get this blog (as well as three others) written over the weekend, but that didn't happen.

So Friday I had my office Holiday Party as well as my Nicki's brother's wedding reception. Both were a great time with a lot of fried foods and even more booze.

First the office Holiday Party. I love my office holiday parties because it's not just a sit around stuffing your face and chatting event. For the last two years, we've got to Lucky Strike Lanes. We have a bowling tournament and there are prizes for the winning team, highest female score, highest male score, and lowest score. They even got little trophies.

We all piled on our school bus at 11:30 to head to the bowling alley.



I didn't get pictures of the food, but the menu was pretty fantastic. The only downside was all of the appetizers were fried. We had potstickers, mac n cheese bites, coconut shrimp, and chicken satay as appetizers. Lunch was pomegranate turkey breast, tri-colored veggies, traditional stuffing, pumpkin risotto, and mostacolli. Finally dessert was pumpkin cheesecake which was AMAZING, and a cookie tray with chocolate chip and white chocolate macadamia nut cookies. I had a little bit of everything but the mostacolli.

We we at the bowling alley until 3:30 then headed to Timothy O'Toole's Pub a couple blocks away to continue the party. Unfortunately I was only able to stay about an hour because I needed to head back home to go to the wedding reception.

Rob and Lillie's first dance at the reception.

The wedding reception was really nice. The bride (Lillie) and groom (Rob) actually got married in Hawaii (where Rob is stationed and Lillie lives), but they are here for about a week while Rob is on leave so his mom had a reception/ party for them.

My brothers Nick and Alex, Nicki (Nick's girlfriend) and her brother Rob at the "DJ booth".

My brothers were the DJs as the kid who was supposed to do it backed out Thursday night. Thankfully we have a PA system from when Nick had a band in high school. Dinner was your standard midwest catering food - fired chicken, beef sandwiches, baked mostacolli, and salad. There was an open bar which meant more Malibu and pineapple juice for me!

I ended up leaving the reception early becuase my stomach was bothering me. I think I'd had too much booze and fried food throughout the day.

All in all Friday was an awesome day, and I had a blast at both of the parties! There was definitely some over indulgences, but both were special occassions! What's the point if you can celebrate with friends and family every now and then.

Here are other photos from the wedding reception and my work party.