Showing posts with label Shopping. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Shopping. Show all posts

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

South Florida Wedding Adventures

WOW!
It's so good to be home. 
Seriously. 
I don't think I've ever been this happy to just....do nothing.
And by do nothing I mean I'm back at work.
Man that sounds bitter.
Did I mention that I hate my job?
I suppose I'm lucky to have one.

 
First of all, the week leading up to the wedding was insane. Talk about exhaustion and deliriousness.
I think I spent 60% of my trip shopping. Which would normally be great, but no one likes to pressure-shop. I vaguely remember screaming at David to hurry the f* up...in my head...quite frequently. Sigh. Men don't understand urgency. We managed to get in some great quality togetherness, despite all the weddingness. 

I love these hats. I have about 8,234,238,765 pictures like this one. Just different hats. One day, I will collage them all for you.
Beachy! Sorry about forgetting to put sunblock on your other shoulder, baby.
My cutie and I waiting at the drive-in! This is when having a convertible works wonders.
Cabin in the Woods....eh. At least it was on a huge screen.
We love us some water parks! I got slashed on one of them, though. I'm likely to have contracted the HIV.
 We ate a LOT of food, but only ran one time over the course of 10 days. 
Neither of which was a good idea. Dammit. Yolo, right?

Yay, for FINALLY finishing the C25K. Now it's just maintenance. INSANITY starts May 1st! I'm sure I gained some weight back on the trip. I'll do a fitness update with details soon.
My absolute South Florida favorite! Havana's Cuban cuisine :D
California Pizza Kitchen: lettuce wraps, dynamite shrimp, and delicious pizza creations.
Dada's: amazinnnnnng rehearsal dinner. Baked brie is so wonderful.
While I'm not a fan of Mediterranean food, this arrangement made it look quite enticing. Not that I tried any of it...
This pizza (and three others) was delivered to us like this. Was it in your briefcase, delivery-man-sir? I got white-girl cray cray (more like Jersey girl crazy) and got us four FREE new pizzas.
Preparation for the wedding was ridiculous, if I do say so myself. So much to do in so little time!! We were working ourselves to death, but the wedding, itself, was beautiful. Everyone's hard work was definitely worth it. 

Midnight cake ball prep for the bridal shower.
The bridal shower Bunco was a hit! It was definitely one of my favorite nights of the week. Well, except for a bachelor party (ahem) mishap. The consensus is that men are generally stupid and inconsiderate.
Flower selection was a tedious (cold!) job. But we wound up having beautiful arrangements thanks to Donna (the groom's mother) and yours truly.
Check out these nails! We looked so hot after waxing (my first Brazilian!!), manis, and pedis. Being a woman is hard (expensive) work.
David, Me, Connor (Laur's brother), Lauren, and Tyler at the rehearsal dinner.
It was a great week for pictures. We got a new Panasonic Lumix for an awesome shelf deal!! Much more convenient than carrying around my huge Canon. 
11 years of awesomeness. And I finally found a coverlett for my dress that I loved!
We're seriously adorable. I love this man. Never in my life have I been so grateful.  
Wedding day prep! Lauren got all the girls customized hangers, bags, and robes. I can't wait to see the bridesmaids' photo shoot. Only slightly provocative and risque.
Damnnnnn, I looked good. Kristen (makeup) and Amanda (hair) were stellar. I actually ended up wearing a pair of the photographer's throw away contacts because Lauren decided she wanted me sans-glasses. I guess it worked out. I looked hot. :P
Forgive the boob grab picture. We were getting her into her dress. She looked great!
I love this picture. While it looks like Sky is getting ready to hit me, we were actually showcasing our dance moves for the bridal party.
What an awesome bridal party: Nick, Me, Connor, Lauren, Ty, Sky, Lopez, Amanda, Kyle
A balancing act: this is what happens when the bride is super short. Thank God for parking garages and car stops.
Yay! Post "I do" pictures.
Decorating this gymnasium (which also doubled as my high school IB testing site) only took about 5 hours. I wish I had gotten a picture after all the flowers and centerpieces were out, but it still looks awesome in this pic! Great work, decorating team!
Sweaty dance faces. What a trooper.
My other David.
A hilarious rendition of the garter find. The flower girl thought it was a cute game and wanted in.
He totally showed me up on the dance floor, which doesn't surprise me. I tried though, I really did.


"Now all that's left is yours!" I can't begin to tell you how many times I've heard that lately. Jesus, people. I'm trying to get my life on track here! Stop pushing me! It did, however, redefine the reasons I'm in love with him. Weddings and stress always do that. I'm a lucky girl. Without him, I would have been an anxious, crazy mess.

The last exciting adventure happened just when we thought we were in the clear. The exhaust manifold in my car completely cracked, leaving my car sounding much like a run-down, old, crappy motorcycle. If it's not one thing, it's another with this stupid car. The repair barely burned a hole in my wallet, but the mustang sounds better than ever. All that's left now is unpacking, organizing, and getting back on schedule by eating properly and exercising regularly. Oh yeah, and catching up on the 70-some-odd blogs that I read. Hello!



xoxo
Missed you guys!

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Bye Bye, Birdies.

I briefly mentioned here that David and I had registered for a 5k here in Tallahassee. If you have a chance, please read this article about fallen detective, David White. The David White Memorial 5k will be held on Saturday, May 19th at 9:00 at Tallahassee Community College campus. All proceeds and donations will be donated to the detective's family. If you're interested in walking or running, visit this site to register. It's cheap, it'll be a good time, and it's for a great cause. If you're in the area, please come out and support us!

Though I'm committed to being frugal {let's get real, I've never been frugal in my life...except when I have no money.}, I know that my weight loss journey demands appropriate gear. In this post, I talked about some of the stuff I want to help me get my butt in shape for up and coming 5k-ness.



I was able to get these from here. Vanessa from Ruffles With Love (an etsy shop) was absolutely awesome! On Monday, we talked about the possibility of her making the shirts and then getting them here before I left on Friday, and she was all for it! I checked my email Tuesday morning and I already had a tracking number waiting for me. That's some serious production power. Thanks, Vanessa!!

Also, I headed over to Target and picked up my first pair of compression shorts and four new {neon!} C9 sports bras: yellow, blue, pink, and lime. Perfect in time for summer.


Face it, I look fab. {lol.} But seriously. I'm feeling super good about my weightloss. I'm down 13 lbs since February. Sometimes I look in the mirror and don't feel like I've made any progress, but when I can fit into pants that I haven't worn in about two years....it's hard to deny.

A slight change of plans is allowing David to leave town with me on Friday. While I was anticipating spending five days away from him, it looks like I'll just have to be forced into his company. {Please.} It doesn't count that the real reason he wants to come with me is not because he'll miss me, but because he doesn't want to miss out on epic waterpark-ness going down on Tuesday. What a guy.

Anywho, I'm not sure how often I'll be blogging from South Florida, but I'll only be away from you fine readers until the 23rd. Look for my Thursday and Friday link-ups before I head out of town. Happy week, darlings!

Monday, April 9, 2012

The incredibly long post that describes my terrible pre-Easter Saturday.

School starts today.
South Florida in 4 days.
DB and David and Miami in 9 days.
Wedding in 11 days.
Busch Gardens in 12 days.

I hope everyone enjoyed their Easter/Passover weekend. Mine was absolutely ridiculous. Let me recap for you:

Saturday, David and I brought my car in for an oil change. Yay for knowing the manager and getting $20 off of my service (for a grand total of $18.60).

In the midst of making sure I have everything I need for the wedding, we headed to Ross to shop for a dress for the rehearsal dinner. After dragging David around for a little under an hour, I finally found four that I thought would be winners. Less than five minutes after I tried them all on, I realized that I had left my phone in the fitting room and went back to retrieve it...only to find it empty. Panic set in after trying to remain optimistic about the loss, but after making several calls to my phone, the "finder" (that sounds so much better than thief) turned it off. Lost forever.

As a side note: Friday night, David and I found a phone on a bench at the lake where we run. Despite his protests to just leave the phone where it was, I called the numbers on the recent call list to locate the owner, and was able to return it. You'd think I'd have stirred up some good karma, right?

Anyway.

I left my information with customer service, and we headed back to the house so that I could activate an old phone that I had before my Android. Weirdly enough, this old phone was apparently "tied to another account" that was not mine. It would take at least 24 hours to investigate. Needless to say, David and I made a trip to the store to get a new phone that I didn't have the money for.

After that was taken care of, we headed to the mall to take pictures with the Easter bunny as a favor to my mother (a long standing tradition that she cannot survive without). I would post it if I had thought to scan it in before work. My hair looked absurd (and had--very obviously, if I might add--caught in the bunny's costumed hand...sigh) and we have our thumbs up like idiots. But much appreciation to my wonderfully supportive boyfriend. He stood in line for a whole hour while nap-deficient, rowdy kids swarmed around us like flies. We rewarded our patience with Auntie Anne's pretzels. Also a tradition.


And just because:


Right before we left the mall, a man called to say that he had found "a phone" in his girlfriend's purse, and saw that David had texted to "do the right thing" with his phone number. I'd like to believe that he was, in fact, doing the right thing, but my Droid became absolutely useless after I turned off the service and flagged it for theft. Then we got the call that it was "found". I'm hoping it was just a coincidence. The pickup was arranged, and I was ecstatic. It was a few moments later that I realized that my new phone was useless...and a complete waste of money.


Dammit.

What we were looking forward to was our Easter dinner plans with Mallory and James. My mother had reserved us a Honeybaked Ham that we were headed to get after our mall adventure. When I called to confirm with her, however, she told me that was supposed to have picked it up before 3pm. Cue aggravation. After arguing with her, Mallory suggested that we go to the store to see if anything could be done.

We went.
They provided.
Yay, ham.

Before heading back, we stopped at Sam's for remaining Easter dinner ingredients. Bravely, I decided to call my bank to see how much money was left from my pathetic paycheck. Did I even have enough to make the drive to South Florida? When I heard the balance, I almost had a heart attack. My new, non-smart phone phone was incapable of bringing up my bank account, so I used Mallory's. That number was no lie. I had miraculously acquired a substantial amount of money. What?? A little more investigation revealed that after two months of waiting for my tax return claim (there was some information that needed to be disputed), it had finally posted to my account. It was all I could do to hold back the tears in the middle of the checkout line. God is SO good!!

Sunday was much less frustrating. Church, nap, cooking, dinner, walking, David's house, Pirates of the Caribbean, home, Airplane, sleep. I meant to take a picture of our superb cooking, but I was too busy being a lard. I ate everything in sight. Yay, diet. We even decided to forego Day 2 of Week 8 in remembrance of the Resurrection Day (ie. we're fat and lazy and needed nap time). Also, most of my nails broke throughout the day. So now they're short and useless. Perfect timing, nails.

Oh, and David and I have registered for our first 5k on May 19th. If you're local, support the cause here.


***


There is still so much to be done before I leave for South Florida this Friday. I'm requesting prayers for David's sanity this week. I suppose for mine, as well. I can NOT wait for this month to be over. Happy Monday, dolls!

Monday, April 2, 2012

BEAST MODE

I'm super excited for all things healthy. It inspires me daily to keep working as hard as I can. When I'm able to get some breathing room to develop my fitness wardrobe, there are new things to get for my lifestyle change:

I absolutely can NOT wait to get a garmin GPS watch. I'll be able to track my time and distance.  
I'm frequently worried that my iPod touch (and soon, my iPhone!) will get drenched when it rains and I'm running. I'd like to have more protection for those pricey electronics!


These Ruffles With Love tanks are to die for! I'm going to get a few :)






And this one from personTen.


 
C9 by Champion (available at Target) has gotten great reviews. I need these compression shorts!

I also need some new SUPPORTIVE bras. The ones I have just aren't cutting it for me.




Aside from getting new and properly fitted shoes around August, this should at least make running more comfortable, if not more enticing.  


xoxo friends!!

Thursday, March 29, 2012

A little shoe assistance, please?

Lauren wants us to wear silver shoes for the wedding. I'm having trouble deciding what to go for that will be comfortable and chic.

These are some of my options:













I already really love one of these, but I wanted to get your opinion first. Let me know your favorites!