Wedding Teaser

Here are some photos from my trip to Florida for Courtney and Matt's wedding. I returned with a tan, beautiful memories, lots of funny stories, and so much happiness for Courtney and Matt.

Before the wedding in St. Armand's Circle

Rehearsal dinner with Dad

Rehearsal dinner with Grandma

Photos at The Ringling Museum of Art

Outside the church, before the ceremony. Courtney and Matt were married in the same church my parents.

Courtney and her college roommate bridesmaids

Ky, Court, and me on the beach at sunset

The lovebirds.

Getting down on the dance floor at the reception!

My sister is going to the chapel!

My sister is getting married this Saturday and I cannot believe it! I am experiencing a broad range of emotions ("I'm in a glass case of emotion" for the movie-lovers) right now. Courtney's wedding is in less than a week and in 24 hours I will be arriving in Florida. My suitcase is pretty much packed, but my mind hasn't caught up with what I am doing and where I am going. May 3rd seemed so far off, but it really sneaked up on us! I'm sure my time in Florida is going to go by so quickly! I honestly can't wait for Thursday, a.k.a. "Girls Day" because we are getting massages and our nails done, laying out, and going out for drinks in the evening and will meet up with the guys. Friday most of the guests will trickle in and I think we will spend the day on the beach and we will all meet up at a restaurant on the beach for dinner. Saturday we have to be up and ready to get our hair and make-up done at 6am (eeeek!) and then we will be busy with pictures, pictures, more pictures, and then the wedding! Courtney and Matt are getting married in the same church our parents were married in, so the setting is very sentimental. It is so neat to think she will walk down the same aisle my mother did. Kyleigh and I have been trying to work on our toast for the reception and I am worried it will be a disaster. Hopefully all the guests will have a couple drinks in them and will love whatever we say.

I need to finish up packing because I am doing what I do best, procrastinating! I have laundry to do and kitties to cuddle, so I must be going now. I will be sure to post lots of great pictures upon my return.

Courtney's Bridal Shower Photos

Nothing but Neti

Enough! I know I have been neglecting my readers, but I am back after a few complaints. No more bunny. At least I gave you something cute to look at while I took my blog hiatus. But actually I have some good excuses about why I have not been writing.

1. My sister's wedding took over my life for a short while. I had to go home and then spend a lot of time putting together my sister's slideshow to play at her wedding. This project soon became a nightmare because Courtney mailed me CDs of photos, I had my own digital ones, and we had real photos. How do you put these all in order? How do I know if Matt looks 6 in one photo and 7 in another? It was definitely a headache to prepare, but I still love you, Courtney and Matt.

2. I spent a long weekend in Atlanta with my sisters for Courtney's bridal shower (pictures to come). We had a great time and I miss them already.

3. I've been sick. I have Nyquil in my system as we speak, so don't look for errors in this post because you will probably find them and I honestly I am not in the state to care.

4. I have spent a lot of time with my new best friend, Neti. I had heard about Neti pots because Oprah talked about them some time ago. Anyway, I tried it for the first time and I am a fan. At first I was a bit anxious to try it because I didn't know if it would feel like I was inhaling water, but it wasn't bad. My head is so stuffy, it feels like the only other productive thing I can do besides blowing my nose non-stop. Anyway, I totally recommend it for anyone with a bad cold or sinus problems.

I will try to get pictures up soon. My pillow and Nyquil are beckoning me to bed. Goodnight!

The cutest thing ever

Bill Clinton Ruined My Day

Well, Bill Clinton ruined my day. I like saying that. I feel like only a privileged few have actually been able to say that and mean it. I have to admit that Bill didn't actually ruin my day, but I felt like the headline packed a punch.

Bill Clinton came to Bloomington yesterday to campaign for Hillary. I decided to try to catch him on my lunch break because he was supposed to speak at 2 pm. Honestly, my vote is still undecided but I really wanted to see Bill speak. It felt like something I shouldn't pass up when he was speaking 5 minutes away from where I work. Some friends and I headed out of work to catch him and stood in line outside of Assembly Hall (where the Indiana Hoosiers play basketball). We were herded like cattle up the to seats and I thought we would get some pretty bad seats. But for some reason, the ushers kept telling us to keep walking down the steps of the stadium. Soon we are on the floor and quickly ushered to our seats on the side bleachers. Our seats were amazing! I had my camera phone ready and was excited to see former President Clinton. The only downfall was I never got to see Bill Clinton. (Cue the Debbie Downer music) My friends and I sat, sat, and sat some more. We tried to be patient as our bottoms grew numb on the hard wooden bleachers. We all felt so cramped and were packed in like sardines. I was really getting sick of the two 12 year-olds taking pictures of themselves with their camera phones in front of me...non-stop. I know that age is pretty self-consumed, but sheesh! Enough is enough. Also, there were only so many times we could hear the same songs repeat on the campaign CD. Eventually, our excitement turned into annoyance and anxiety. I had visions of my phone ringing off the hook, the receptionist paging me, and my inbox full of panicked emails. I guess the others I was with thought the same thing...after a while we exchanged anxious looks and headed out. We couldn't wait for Bill any longer. Way to ruin my day, Bill Clinton!

When we returned to work everyone was asking, "How was Bill?" We had to say, "We sat there for an hour and half and decided to come back to work. No Bill..." I heard he showed up 2 and a half hours late, but gave a good speech and agreed with his daughter Chelsea about how Hillary would be be a better president than he was. He also cracked a joke about how "No Child Left Behind" has not been successful which drew applause from the audience. He said he could be standing in the middle of Idaho without a Democrat around for miles and that an elk would applaud him for that stance. That kind of made me laugh when I read that because I really liked the way Bill painted that picture with words.

My dreams of seeing a former President with my own eyes were crushed, but maybe another opportunity will arise. Until then, I will keep a personal grudge....how many people can actually say they have a personal grudge against him? Well probably a lot, so I'm not that special. But anyway, he like totally ruined my day...

My Green Kitty

Two Thumbs Up

Lately I have been feeling like a pop-culture critic because I just finished up a great book and watched a movie that was very well done.

Water for Elephants was such a page-turner and kept me up way past my bedtime lately. Written by Sara Gruen, this piece of historical fiction details the life of Jacob Jankowski while he was in the circus. It is narrated by Jacob, a ninety-something-year-old man, and how his life was quickly affected by love, loyalty, power, and murder. Honestly, if you are interested in reading this book, I shouldn't say much more. Those who are interested will want the story to unfold as the pages turn!

The other night I watched There Will Be Blood on the big screen. Bloomington has kept it in the theaters for some time, as it will be available to rent this week. I thought the movie was so well done. It definitely isn't "the feel good movie of the year" as my friend at work pointed out, but it kept my eyeballs glued to the big screen for the whole two and a half hours. Like the book above, you don't want to know much about this movie before you see it. All I went in knowing was the movie was centered around a man in the early 1900's who was creating an oil empire. I knew it touched upon the topics of greed, corruption, and power. I think it is the type of movie you want to see again because more things will make sense the second time around. I went with some There Will Be Blood Fanatics, one of whom was seeing the movie for her sixth time! Everyone else had already seen it too, but wanted to catch it on the big screen one more time --- so you should have seen the look on their faces as I mumbled it was my first time. After the movie was over, it was required to have a debriefing to discuss everything.

Let me know if any of you have read Water for Elephants or see There Will Be Blood. I am curious to discuss them both. In the meantime, enjoy this crazy video of an elephant painting a picture of one of its kind!

What I Have Learned in Twenty-Six Years

I have learned…

Life is unpredictable
My family is eternal love
My sisters are my best friends
Laughing feels good
Heartbreak feels horrible
Love feels wonderful
What loyalty is all about
What it feels like to lose one of the most important people in my life
Love cannot keep someone on this earth
It feels good to make others feel good
My family can come together and get through anything
Some things become so difficult that prayer offers the only comfort
What true happiness feels like
My cats have comforted me in my sadness and seek me out on my hardest days
In the hardest of times, a friend on my doorstep can bring me to tears
People will travel across the world to say goodbye
Dancing makes me feel good
I need to take care of myself
I love to travel and I want to see more of the world
I feel a connection with animals and nature
It feels good to show and tell people how much I care about them
Life is hard
Life is good

Easter Cuteness!

You all know how much I love my animals, so with the last 30 minutes left on Easter Sunday, I am bringing you ultimate Easter cuteness.

Happy Easter and My 3-Day Weekend

Flex week was a bit rough at work, but having a 3-day weekend was wonderful. Thursday evening some friends and I went out to Crazyhorse for dinner and drinks after work to celebrate my birthday. John joined us as well and it was a very nice evening. When we returned home, John surprised me with my birthday gift. He gave me a beautiful pearl ring with two small diamonds and I love it! It truly is very unique and beautiful to look at. When it is on my finger, I can't help but stare at it!

On my day off, John worked from my apartment and I just hung out with him, did some things around the apartment, and watched some basketball. Friday night John and I went out to Nick's to watch the IU game, which ended up being a disappointing loss. On Saturday John and I were very lazy and then headed out to Yogi's, one of our favorite bars/restaurants to watch more basketball. We returned home to watch Ratatouille, which was really cute. John hated any clip that showed more than a few rats in it because it made him feel all creepy crawling. I thought the rats were pretty cute!

Today John and I spent most of the day in Hoosier National Forest and Lake Monroe (Fun fact - this is where John Mellencamp lives). We checked out the flooding in the area, climbed the fire tower in the park, one of our favorite places to go in college, and enjoyed all the scenic views. On our way back, it started to snow and we couldn't believe the size of the huge snowflakes. We decided to duck into a little place to grab some lunch and I felt like i was in a different world there. Let's just say it was full of down home folk and a large man dressed up as the Easter Bunny. The waitress offered the "hot dog special" to us, which was a hot dog, chips, and a drink for $2.oo. I didn't know anyone sold food that cheap anymore.

When we returned home, we participated my favorite Easter tradition - we dyed eggs! Even though all our eggs ended up being pretty much the same few colors, we started out with lots of different color options and also a tie-dye kit. It was a lot of fun and it made it feel much more like Easter. Enjoy the pictures and videos below!

At Crazyhorse taking Bailey's shots in edible chocolate shot glasses!
Lake Monroe - it looks a bit gloomy outside!

We saw over a dozen deer today!


The fire tower from the ground looking up!


Another view looking up


Looking out over the treetops


Another view


Video from the top. Note: Not for the seizure-prone!


Flooding in Lake Monroe



More flooding


Where we stopped for a bite to eat


Easter egg dying factory!


Eggs for Bella and Diego


Happy Easter!


The egg burglar




Easter egg mess!


All our eggs!