Let's rehearse, shall we?

Friday night we got all dolled up to practice for the real thing. We went to St. Anne's Church in Esky, where Ali's parents got married 30 years ago today... pretty cool!  The priest who married Ali's parents is the same priest who married Chris and Ali.

Matt and I are so good at practicing. We are available to participate in all of your special occasions. You can rent us just for the eye candy. We also walk the perfect wedding aisle speed.

Chris and Ali are pretty good at practicing too.

After the rehearsal, we went to the Escanaba Country Club for a Kentucky themed rehearsal dinner.

Chris's sister's mother-in-law embroidered all of these darling napkins. So cute!

Ali and her mom

Mandy getting cute with the groom

Chris and his mom.... any guesses where his smile comes from??

The adorable flower girl and ring bearer with a surprise guest - hey Maisey!

Chris talking about his friends

The boys get cute; we all start to cry.

Matt and Mandy

The good thing about everyone at the wedding being from out of town? The hotel bar is hopping!

With goofballs like these:

We had the practicing part down pat.... now what were we supposed to do on Saturday again? Oh right... that whole Chris and Ali getting married thing!

Going back in time

I know you probably thought I'd disappeared - sorry for the long delay in posting! We were out of town this weekend for a FABULOUS wedding, so I'll try to make it up to you by giving you lots and lots of details!
Remember Chris and Ali? It's finally their wedding weekend! Ali and I met in grade school in Escanaba, Michigan, where my family lived for 8 years while I was growing up.

You haven't heard of Escanaba, you say? Here's a visual:

Yeah, that's pretty north. And pretty far from Cincinnati, OH!

As we traveled north for the Kirby/Johnson wedding extravaganza, I couldn't believe that I recognized so many things. There were a lot of familiar sites, and it was fun to see everything through grown-up eyes.

The Mackinac Bridge! You can't get to the UP without crossing this guy (well, maybe you could, but you shouldn't try it!).

Welcome to the Upper Peninsula!

Cool to see a sign pointing us to Escanaba!

They say that the UP is a lot of undisturbed natural beauty. Case and point - this is the rest stop.

Fall is in full-bloom up here... and it's cold!

The first thing we did when we arrived was go see our old house. It felt so strange to be driving that way. My mom and I agreed that if you didn't think too hard about it, it just felt like we'd never left.

The sign at the base of our old neighborhood. So glad it hasn't changed!

Our house! We moved in here when I was 6, and left when I was 14. We have a lot of really wonderful memories in this house.

After this blast from the past, we went to visit our Grandma Mary. Grandma Mary is our adopted grandma from Escanaba. She was so glad to see us, and we were so glad to see her! I snapped this picture of her talking with my cell phone to send it to my sisters; my mom has better quality ones so I'll post them when I get them.

Some people never change!

You know what else never changes? The magnets on Grandma Mary's fridge:

Yeah, my business card looks a little different these days.....

Going to visit Escanaba was like going back in time, and it was wonderful. I am so glad that so much had stayed the same! More details to come about the wonderful wedding weekend!

Fall Perfection

Beer cheese soup + fresh bread + cool, crisp fall weather = AMAZING.

Weekend Update

Heh, I just giggled a bit because it reminded me of SNL. That part isn't really an update thought...

I had a great weekend! My grandparents were in town from NY, and so my parents and grandparents came to see our house.  Emily surprised my parents and flew in for the weekend, so I got to spend time with her, too.

I ran some errands and found myself at JoAnn's. I always seem to have either a million coupons or no coupons, and this weekend was one of those times where I have tons of them. Unfortunately, they're only good on regular priced items, and 99% of the time the items I need are on sale.

I had my eye on a new cutting board (my old one had an unfortunately run-in with the iron a few weeks ago) and  was thrilled when they weren't on sale! I know that's strange, but the 40% off coupon is usually a better deal than the sale. I decided to splurge on the largest one they have, and I am SO glad I did! Having a new, giant cutting mat has made a huge difference already.

I don't usually use their fabric for quilting. I'm kind of a fabric snob.  I'm always skeptical of how the JoAnn's fabric will hold up with lots of washing and wearing.  I do use it for other things though, like wall-hangings and projects that probably won't get washed often. I walked away with this stash:

I'll tell you what it's for after Christmas... 

I also volunteered at the Walk to Stop AIDS this weekend as a marshal. Basically, my job was to make sure people turned right and not left. Really tough. Oh - and this was the view from where I was standing....

I love this city!!

I hope you had a good weekend... the weather in Cincinnati today is cold and rainy, and it feels wonderful!! I have some plants that are just soaking up the rain, and it turns out our house is as pleasant when it's cold outside as it is miserable when it's warm out.  Yay - Happy Fall!

Beautiful

I guess that butterfly bush was worth the money??

A peek into my closet

I can't wait any longer to show you my new closet!

You may remember a long time ago (like, April) when I noticed a little "nook" in our bedroom that was the perfect size for a closet. So perfect, in fact, that I convinced Zac and his dad that we should turn it into one.

See, I'm sort of the ideas person in this relationship. I say things like, "Wouldn't it be cool if we built a second closet? How long would that take, like 2 hours?"  Six months later, I'm eating my words.

I'm convinced that the secret to marital happiness is going to be having two closets. It's not that I don't love Zac. I do. And it's not that I don't want to have children with him. I do. And it's not that I don't want to grow old together. I do. I just don't see why our clothes need to be squished together while we're doing all of those things!

The closet started out looking something like this. (Note to self: stop forgetting to take before pictures). This is actually the closet in the sewing room, which is a mess. Don't judge.

Door open

Doors closed.

A quick note on mirrored closet doors. I hate them. Sort of. I got used to having a mirror when I got dressed so quickly, and while I miss that, I can't say I miss living in an aerobics studio!

So... here's the transformation!

I love this guy.

I think it looks like I need more clothes??

Yay! What do you think?? Obviously the room itself has a lot left to go (like painting), but I think this is a big improvement!

Oh, and I can't tell you how to do it. Because apparently it's super hard and takes about 6 months. The fact that our house slopes seemed to complicate things. And it cost WAY more than we expected. But I love it!

Friend Day and the cutest front porch ever

So... it's already been a long week, and it's only Tuesday afternoon. I guess if I'm just now posting about Saturday, it's probably not getting better anytime soon!

This weekend was a lot of fun, but we sure weren't home much. My two bestest friends from college (who are also my bridesmaids) and I realized over the summer that we need to add Friend Dates to our calendar. Otherwise, way too much time went by without us seeing each other.

Mandy lives in Lexington and Katie lives in Louisville, so we're essentially living in cities that make a triangle. Our plan was to meet once a month in one of the cities and do something fun! Last month, they came to Cincinnati and we picked out bridesmaid dresses.

Since Katie's birthday is in September, this month we went to see her! Lesson learned:

Lunch + shopping + cake + your best friends = a really really great day!

Katie modeling her birthday presents. To make this make more sense to you, you need to know that her kitchen is almost finished being completely remodeled, and that the only food this girl ever cooks is cereal. So we got her the Cereal Lover's Cookbook and an apron so she can use her new kitchen!

Happiness.

Saturday night I went to my friend Erika's house for a housewarming party. This girl moved in a month ago and her house is already perfect.  She had this on her front porch:

And she moved in a month ago!!!!!!!!!!!!! She said I can take pictures of it for my blog, but I thought her other friends would think I was weird, so maybe next time?

Sunday we went to Lexington to get together with some of Zac's family... and then the weekend was quickly over! The only thing saving me this week is that all of my favorite TV shows are on new this week! Tonight, I have a date with GLEE!!!

About all this "grown-up" stuff

Over the past few months, it's hit me hard - I'm a grown-up. I don't know when it really started, and while it seems to have been gradual, lately it feels like it's hit me like an ice cream truck. That's my favorite analogy - because it's all good stuff but it still hurts!

Was it when we decided to get married? Sitting on the floor of my sewing room tonight, I'm looking around wondering if it has something to do with this house? Was it going back to school or something at work? Was it watching my sisters get older, or my friends start to move away?

  

                                                          When did I go from this... to this... to this?

All I know is that somehow, things are different. I walked up to my friend Katie's door today and thought, "Wow, her liriope are just goregous!" I'm decorating my house for the seasons, the way my mom does. I'm opting for clothes that are more practical and makeup that stays on all day. I'm noticing things that I never noticed before, like why you close the blinds when you're changing and it's dark outside. I want to know what cleaning product my friend Ashley uses to make her house smell so good.

When did we start talking about having kids like it will actually happen (relatively) soon? When did we hang paint samples on the living room wall to choose between fourteen shades of WHITE? When did we figure out there was more than one shade of white to begin with?

I'm totally freaked out, and at the same time, I feel more comfortable than I have ever been before. All I know is that this grown-up stuff is totally crazy.

And that I love it.

If Facebook had been around forever

This is way too funny not to share. Warning - some objectionable language included below! I think "France likes this" is my favorite!

I love you today.

Warning: the following story will probably make you sick. Because it's honestly that cute.

My co-worker's husband goes to work earlier than she does, and he sends her a text message very morning that says, "I love you today." This isn't even the cute part.

Today she woke up and he hadn't sent the message. She sent him a text teasing him that he forgot. A little bit later, he sent her a message telling her to look at the window.  And we saw this:

Oh, you can't see what that is? Look closer:

Still not sure? Try one more time:

ARE YOU KIDDING ME? It's a sign stapled to a tree across the street from our office that says, "I LOVE YOU TODAY."

You already know that my darling fiancé doesn't read my blog, so if you talk to him, mention that it would be cool if he did something like this. I'm happy to email your significant other to suggest it for you.