Let the wedding festivities begin...

The wedding weekend has finally arrived. 5 years ago this month I introduced my brother to a co-worker of mine & at the time I never thought we would be where we are today - celebrating the wedding of my brother Steve & dear friend Meghan.

All our family arrived to KC today & everyone is staying at the Hilton by the airport. I am staying at home tonight but will check in to the hotel Friday to be closer to family. Plus it will save time & money not having to drive back & forth to the Northland everyday.

At 4pm I made my way north to meet everyone at the Hawthorne House chapel for the rehearsal. We went through the "walk-thru" of how the wedding is going to take place & spent some time visiting with family.

Afterwards, we headed over to the Zona Rosa area for the rehearsal dinner at the Hereford House. We dined on a dee-lish KC BBQ meal which consisted of a salad, chicken breast, brisket & beef ribs with garlic mashed potatoes & broccoli. Then a huge piece of chocolate cake was served which made for a yummy ending to an awesome meal.

After we ate, we all headed back to the hotel & all met in the lounge for an after-dinner cocktail. It was nice to be able to visit with relatives I hadn't seen in awhile & spend some down-time with my family.

Top 2 Tuesday

This week's topic is your top 2 Bachelorette "picks" from the show but seeing how I haven't been watching this show then I really can't participate. So instead, I decided to pick a different topic. With my brothers' wedding coming up this weekend, I have chosen my top 2 favorite things about weddings :)

1) the "moment" when the bride walks down the aisle & the look on the grooms face when he sees his bride for the 1st time is truly priceless. It makes me all warm & tingly inside to see the joy on their faces as well as everyone around them.

2) cake - I LOVE me some wedding cake - especially white cake with a raspberry filling & buttercream/almond icing. I don't know what it is, but wedding cake tastes SO much better than regular cake. It is a perfect ending to any reception.

Bravo

My "blog girlfriend" Desiree is in town from Dallas this week & I was lucky enough to be able to spend some time with her during her visit. We met at Bravo's at Towncenter & enjoyed a beautiful night out on the patio sharing a bottle of wine, enjoying fabulous food, as well as a yummy dessert.

We lost track of the time with all our chit-chat & pretty much shut down the place. It was awesome getting to see her again & I look so forward to seeing her over the holidays.

Thanks Desiree for a wonderful evening :)

SATC2 gathering

Today officially started the 3-day holiday weekend & for once I don't have to carry a pager, I don't have anywhere to be & there is nothing on the calendar to do - finally! Seems I have been go-go-going since mid April with weekends jam-packed, stuff going on & places to go so this is a very nice & rare treat!

I started my day by taking Neo to Petsmart to get groomed & then ran errands for a few hours waiting to pick him up. Came home, cleaned the house & then got ready for an evening with the girls. My friend Deanna is in town for the weekend, so I met her & our friends Kari & Heather (HK) at Baja 600 on the Plaza for dinner & drinks before we headed on over to the theatre to see Sex & the City 2. We ended up sitting outside & enjoyed the beautiful evening while catching up with each other.

After dinner we walked over to Brio's for martini's & were they ever strong - but very good!

We each ordered a different flavor of martini & enjoyed sampling each others - Blue Raspberry, Key Lime, Cosmo & a Bikini martini. Soon after, we were headed to the late showing of SATC2 & settled in our seats for a great movie. All us girls went last year to the late showing of the first SATC so it seemed fitting that we all go together again for the 2nd one! We all agreed it was a cute & funny movie & very SATC-like! Thanks girls for a wonderful evening!

Date-Night

Tonight the hubby & I have a date - dinner & a concert :)

This evening we are heading down to the Power & Light district for dinner & then walking over to the Sprint Center to see the bands Cavo, Lifehouse & Daughtry. We have both seen Chris Daughtry before when he opened up for Bon Jovi so we knew he would be a good performance. We didn't expect to enjoy Cavo or Lifehouse as much but were pleasantly suprised!

Cavo is a new band out of St. Louis & Lifehouse is a band that has been around awhile who both Shane & I enjoy. They both rocked the house & gave awesome performances. Then came Daughtry & he didn't disappoint either. He sang songs off his new album coming out this summer as well as all his well-known hits.

By the end of the night we both agreed that we enjoyed Lifehouse's performance the best even though we enjoyed seeing all 3 bands. Maybe it's because we had seen Daughtry in concert already!? Regardless, it was a great evening spent with the hubby!

Top 2 Tuesday

This weeks topic: Top 2 Favorite Dates that you have been on:

1) Dinner & a concert - this is one of my favorite reoccuring "dates" with the hubby. We really enjoy going to concerts together & have seen many in our 9 years of knowing each other. From our first concert together at Rockfest '01 to Poison, Def Leppard, Kenny Chesney, Bon Jovi, & the latest concert Daughtry just to name a few. Looking forward to what concerts the rest of the year brings us!

2) Harley rides & an afternoon matinee - once the weather starts getting nice, the Harley comes out & the many afternoon-date-outtings begin. I love our weekends where we hop on the Harley, ride through the Kansas countryside, stop for lunch & then see an afternoon movie. It is always a wonderful day spent with the hubby :)

6 years & counting

Six years ago today I stood in front of God, my family, & my closest friends & said "I DO" to the most
wonderful man in the world...the love of my life!

Sometimes I still can't believe it. Until I met my husband, I used to think that a girl was really lucky if she found someone who she could just get along with. I didn't think that all that starry-eyed fireworks stuff was actually real...until I found it. I didn't think that I would ever find someone who gave me "butterfly" feelings in my stomach everytime he walked through the door. I didn't think a man could be a girls best friend. I didn't believe in soulmates.

During these six wonderful years I have learned that all these things are possible & I consider myself to be one of the lucky ones.

Top 2 Tuesday

It's time for Top 2 Tuesday & this week its Top 2 things to do before I die. Taylor's blog always has the best topics on her Top 2 Tuesday posts.

Not going to lie, this one is one that will most certainly make you rack your brain as I did, but it's also a "bucket list" of sorts and of course we all have things we want to cross off our list before our time is complete. Mine are these:

1) Become a mother. As much as other things can help make your world complete, I don't think there is one single thing I'd rather do on earth than become a Mom. Being surrounded by such a loving family since I was little, I can't help but hope I get to have that experience someday & surround my own little one with such love!

2) Go up in a hot air balloon. There are several businesses in KC that offer balloon rides to the public but unfortunately it is pricey ($185/person)! Maybe someday I will be lucky enough to be able to cross this request off of my "bucket list"?! Anyone be willing to go up, up & away with me?

Visit from the In-laws

Since I got back from Vegas, my weeks have been a blur! Last weekend I was on call & the weekend before that was spent trying to catch up from being gone. It unfortunately rained the entire weekend so I didn't get much done but did enjoy some R-n-R with the hubby on the couch catching up on DVR'd shows & watching movies. If felt SO good to be lazy for a change!

This past weekend, Shane's parents were in town & stayed with us. It had been awhile since they had been back in KC so it was very nice to see them & all spend some time long over-due time together.

Saturday afternoon we had Shane's brother & his fiance Anna over to the house as well as Shane's nephew Jordan. He is in the Army & is soon leaving for Korea for a year so everyone gathered to spend some time with Jordan before he leaves. It was nice to get to spend time with his side of the family for a change & thankful we could all get together.

Sunday I ran some errands & cleaned up the house a bit while Shane's parents went to visit his aunt & uncle. I had decided to make us all a nice dinner since it was their last evening with us. I had gotten a recipe last week that I was dying to try but it makes ALOT so with Shane's parents here, it was a perfect time to try it out.

The recipe was for Spinach Stuffed Shells

It turned out awesome, was dee-lish, very easy to make & plenty left over to freeze for another day. It is also a Weight Watchers dish for those of you on the WW diet - 3 shells are 6 pts! I ended up serving the dish with a Cesear salad & garlic bread - not on the WW diet :) We all stuffed ourselves but made sure to leave a little room for a quick run to Sonic for chocolate shakes...yummy! Later in the evening, we all settled in & watched the movie The Blindside which was excellent!

All in all, it turned out to be a great weekend spent with the hubby & the in-laws!

Top 2 Tuesday

It's that time of the week again...Top 2 Tuesday

This weeks topic is "Dream Houses"

When I lived in South Carolina, my favorite place to go visit was Charleston. I fell in love with this city & would LOVE to live there someday. So it seems fitting that my 2 favorite dream houses would be:

1) a historic Charleston home

2) a beach home overlooking the ocean

Chelsea Hander

Tonight I spent the evening with my neigborhood girlfriends along with my friend Susan for dinner & a comedy show. We all met at On The Border for some margaritas, good food & great conversation.

Time flew by & before we knew it we were paying our bill & on our way to the Starlight Theatre to see Chelsea Handler. For those of you who don't know, Chelsea is a stand-up comedian who hosts her own late night talk show called Chelsea Lately on E! & she is hilarious. She has also written a few books which are definitely worth the read.

She had all us girls crackin' up with all her humor & left us wanting more. It ended up being a bit chilly out at Starlight but nothing a couple of beverages & a few good laughs couldn't take care of.

Thanks girls for another fun evening out!

10 years & still going

Every year the hospital I work for puts on a Recognition Luncheon to honor staff that have worked there for 5, 10, 20+ yrs. This year I was in attendance along with a few of my co-workers. I am proud to say that I have been at St. Lukes for 10 years & can honestly say it is a fabulous place to work for. We had a dee-lish 3 course meal starting with a cranberry/walnut salad w/goat cheese, then the main entree consisted of a beef rib w/bbq sauce, chicken breast with a honey mustard glaze, garlic mashed potatoes & vegetables. The dessert was last & it came out to us looking like this:
This is a neopolitan mousse atop a brownie w/raspberry sauce & it was oh soooo good! It turned out to be a really nice luncheon & was a nice gesture by the hospital to be honored for all our years of service.