sarah's wedding: photo theft edition

sibling photobomb!

the great thing about facebook is i can still have a blog even when i don't take all the pictures!  thanks to my mom, my brother's partner david, and college friend teresa for documenting all the fun!

i'll probably continue with wedding photo overkill once my sister's friend and photographer, oliver, gets her some digital images.  such a good day to remember, it's definitely worth the excess of pictures!

sarah's bridal shower!

i stole some photos off my madre's facebook of my pretty sister's bridal shower last weekend!  my aunt hosted the party at the cutest little tea house and we all got to eat yummy finger sandwiches and played a few games before sarah opened her new kitchen.

i say this because that girl is stocked with kitchen wares now!  if anybody is looking to have a tea party in michigan, i'd highly recommend sweet afton's tea room in plymouth.  it was adorable and delicious!

as maid of honor, i enjoyed the duty of making some bizarre bouquet of bows that really looked more like a hot mess of purple and orange tulle.  my on-the-fly repurposing DIY bouquet skills might not be top notch.  oh well.  maybe it'll get spruced up a little before the rehearsal dinner.

since the shower was near ann arbor, sarah and dave stayed with me steve and bert and even though it was a little tight in our one bedroom apartment (it may have inspired us to add a new air mattress to our wedding registry) we miss you guys already!!  hoepfully we'll be making our way closer to the west coast asap!

happy friday everybody!

he isn't in this alone

hello my dear readers!

i hope nobody will mind my plug for an incredibly noble cause today.  pictured above is the adorable grove family! nina and andy grove were both high school classmates of mine, who married in 2011 and now have a son together named kody.  in september, andy was diagnosed with stage 2: large B-cell non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma just before his 24^th birthday. 

unfortunately, before andy's diagnosis, the grove family chose to forgo the high costs of health insurance in order to afford their basic necessities.  throughout his treatment, andy continues to work fifty hours per week to support the family in this difficult time.  

in a world where everyone is busy fighting over who should and shouldn't have access to healthcare, there is a family that both needs and deserves your help and generosity.  a crowd-sourced funding campaign has been set up to assist the groves with the tremendous healthcare costs brought about by andy's tragic cancer diagnosis.  if it is within your means, please consider making a donation to the "He Isn't In This Alone" fund, to help offset the mounting bills for a family with such a difficult battle ahead.

every little bit counts!  please click here to make a donation now.

over the river and through the woods

merry christmas eve everyone!!

have you notice that i'm obsessed with the holidays yet?

at first, christmas landing on a wednesday seemed like a big fat pain.  now that the time has come around, i'm loving it!  it's like a hanukkah-lenght christmas celebration!  weeks of christmas is definitely more fun than just one day.  last weekend we partied with my half of the family and next weekend we get to do it again with steve's!

we both got extra days off work this week (sadly they don't overlap) so we're going to pack in all the holiday cheer we can between our family sandwich.  i couldn't be more excited about spending christmas morning with steve and bert.  even though i know i'll just be playing santa for myself, i can't wait to stuff our stockings, play some carols, and curl up with claymation christmas specials and some form of breakfast casserole before we head to my aunt's for christmas dinner.

last year on christmas eve, steve and i marinaded, broiled, and topped with pan-fried onions two incredibly delicious steaks while we played christmas carols in the basement of his fraternity's empty shared senior house.  we've decided to make our christmas eve steak night a new tradition.  

it's pretty great to have so much love coming from all directions while we start our new little family... new traditions are the name of the game now that everyone's merging families this year!  i'm sure glad ours is as delicious as boursin smothered beef.

merry christmas to all and to all a goodnight!  and happy holidays and mini-vacations for those who do not celebrate christmas!

xoxo-ho-ho-ho

word count: 36,443

we are what we walk between

happy hump day!  it feels very good to be halfway through this week!

things are still hectic as expected around here, but i'm excited to tell you all about it once everything gets into  place. a few fun things that we've been smiling about lately:

1.  my little etsy vintage shop had it's first sale... and then it had another one!  i'm currently on the look-out for more vintage pieces to put in the store!

2.  pedestrians have abandoned ann arbor (aka all the students went home for the summer) which means i can actually drive from point a to point b again!  (on the minus side, this means the shady people who flock to ann arbor in the summer are starting to come out of their open sewer pipes...boo).

3.  bert, the weirdest cat in the world who prefers to eat popcorn over chicken, has finally found a toy he likes!  peacock feathers forever!

4.  sun sun and more sun!  i cannot get enough of this lovely weather!

hope everyone makes it through the second half of the week!
<3<3<3

big huge happy weekend

i can't decide what i should say about this past weekend other than:

it was AWESOME!

saturday i met up with steve's family and we all watched him graduate from college!  (ok maybe we watched thousands of little black specs graduate college, but one of them was steve!)  the weather was beautiful so we spent the afternoon picnicking at steve's house with his roommates and their families.

 sunday, after we both caught up on some much needed sleep, steve and i headed over to the west side of the state and spent a few hours enjoying the sunshine by lake michigan.

i don't think we could have asked for a better weekend!  it really feels like the end of an era, but it definitely went out with a bang and we couldn't be more excited to start the next chapter!

congratulations stevedor!  

hope everyone has a lovely week!

 

more happy things and birthday photos

happy thursday!  i don't know about you, but i am really geared up for this week to be over... like now please?  well since i've still got to get through two more days so let's make a list of the good stuff lately shall we?  i'll throw in a few pictures from my birthday with my family to lighten the mood (excuse my hair and overall look of death pale... i was probably still a bit hungover when these were taken).

mmm spaetzle

1.  steve's interview last week went very well and his interview with a company in chicago, which was supposed to be today was pushed back one week (which was a life saver since he's been working and writing nonstop for the past week and still needs a haircut and new shoes).

2.  we are almost 2 weeks in to april which means we should know pretty soon if / where we are moving.

3.  i ordered an excellent looking floor lamp that will hopefully provide some actual light in the living room.

4.  i think i've successfully established a balance to managing my modest income.  saving for retirement makes me feel like a grown up.

5.  in a temptation that contradicts number 4... i have discovered that fancy camera lenses are a lot cheaper on ebay... 

6.  i still have about half a carrot cake in the freezer for whenever i want to num it.

7.  ann arbor got a shout out in one of the clues on jeopardy last night and it was amusing.

8.  on at least two occasions i have been able to walk around outside without a coat.

9.  arrested development's season 4 teaser posters have been popping up around the internet and it is very exciting.

10.  even though the past week hasn't been stellar... there are lots and lots of lovely things coming up soon to look forward to.

hope the rest of you have some happy things going on!