Hey, Hey, Hockeytown!

For Valentine's Day this year I wanted to give my husband something really special. While no moving plans are final or even realistic right now, I thought about IF there was anything about Michigan that we would miss and suddenly....

I realized that quite possible the one and only thing we would ever miss about living here is our beloved Red Wings. So why not experience them as much as we can and the best that we can until we are fortunate enough to move?

For those of you who know me, when I think of something, I need immediate results. So within 20 minutes of hatching the plan I had picked out the most perfect (and painfully expensive) pair of tickets on center ice 7th row! I had my doubts but as soon as we settled in our seats, I knew that it was well worth the money!

Since the game was the Sunday before Valentine's day and since my husband isn't what one would deem "easy going" (read: hates surprises that require travel plans), I gave him his present one week early. I think every night one of us would say, "I'm so excited for Sunday." It was so great to have something to look forward to. The Joe is a 2 hour drive, but I wish we did it so much more often! Here we are decked out in red ready to go (Ash, see how I am looking elderly around the eyes and those smile lines?!)!!

One of the reasons we were so excited was to see our favorite player, Cat Soup. What? Don't recognize that name? Well that is because it is really spelled Datsyuk. For whatever reason I had him pegged as my "fav" even though 13 has never been my favorite number. After making such an informed and important decision, I asked my husband what what his name was to which he replied, "Datsyuk," as I was walking out of the room. "Cat soup? What a ridiculous name!" I replied. Needless to say it was a "you had to be there" sort of thing, but we were rolling on the ground and ever since that time, Pavel has fondly been referred to as Cat Soup in our household. Here he is in action:

Doing some pregame lunges, very important....

Okay, enough of those. Time to play hockey.....

Rounding the rink telling the Ducks to "get the puck otta here."

We seriously could not have been more thrilled. Here is Zeterburg looking quite wolverine like.

And the bench....

The best moment of the game was when Downey got into a fight with a member of the Ducks, Parros. I have seen many a hockey fights and they are always just a random punch out of nowhere and then they go at it. Fine. But I have never seen two men literally put their dukes up and circle each other for what seemed like the longest time like this! See if you can see this extremely tall man's stache!

Some of the funnier comments I heard amongst the crowd were:

"Come on, Downey. Punch his mustache off."

and, my personal fav:

"Why is Downey fighting a 1970s porn star?"

By this point, we were having such a good time I had to snap one last pic of the happy couple.

Sadly the Wings didn't pull out a W, but that is okay. We had a great time and they still need to lose something like 12 more games to lose hold of first place.

As for the actual Valentine's Day, I ordered this heart-shaped pizza from Papa J's and picked up this cake along with some wine and heineken. Mmmm.

I hope you all had a nice day with your someone special too!

Ashley's Wedding (AKA The longest and most over due post EVER)

So as you know, I had the priviledge of attending my friend, Ashley's wedding, which was in November!! Time really does fly by when you neglect your blog! But I can't move on to Christmas until I do this, so hopefully I can stop being 3 months behind.

FRIDAY

On the Friday after Thanksgiving, 51 guests boarded the Carnival Fascination cruise and were immediately greeted by dozens of fruity drinks with umbrellas in it. It was so much fun to see everyone and meet Ashley's family! The energy was so charged with excitement of the impending wedding that it was impossible to not be having a good time!

As mentioned, we were greeted with drinks so we all got a prompt start to our weekend. Our waiter was kind enough to provide me with my fav, strawberry margaritas, and he made sure that by the time I had a 1/4 left of my drink, he brought over a new one! Gotta love excellent service!

Isn't this just classy with a k?? Red tongue and my magic blue drink card that allows me to get said unlimited margaritas and pay for them later is tucked into my bathingsuit....nice! We are only on Friday, folks, so keep up!

Friday night dinner was great, but I was fairly tame since I had an early morning wakeup call. All of the guests were seated in one area, so it was easy to mingle and enjoy everyone's company. This was the night we discoverd the melting chocolate cake desert that all of us ordered, without fail, each evening! Oh how I miss it, I wish I would have taken a picture to capture it in all its gooey glory! Here I am on the way to dinner, apparently thinking I look hot to trot judging by my pose:

Again, klassy right?

(Marcie, Ashley, Kemely, Chrissy, Me, Rachel and Emily)

SATURDAY

Saturday morning was an early one. I woke up and had breakfast with Chrissy and Jess before meeting the bride and her wedding party so the limo could pick us up at port and bring us to Compass Point, the ceremony location.

I knew that I would like Compass Point just fine, but I was not prepared to fall in love with it! It is so colorful and festive that you are automatically placed into a good mood! The views were beatiful and I could not stop gawking. If I had the magic ability to freeze time, I probably would have done it, but more importantly, there was a wedding to get ready for!

The ceremony site

The fabulous view from the bridal suite

Here is Ashley's gorgeous gown after an hour of ironing ;) Hopefully somewhere I will find a picture of the back so you can see the beutiful, mermaid-like train in the back!

For you wedding buffs, some of the accessories and little something extras for her big day. The lace is actually a part of the sleeve from her mother's wedding gown. The brooch is her grandmother's, if I remember correctly, and was placed onto her bouquet. And most touching, was the pink cancer awareness pin that she had to remember the spirit of her husband's mother who couldn't be with them on their wedding day.

My role throughout the day was to do Ashley's makeup. Unfortunately, her hair lady was a wee bit late so I only had 15 minutes to do a girl's makeup on the most important day of her life!! My hands were shaking up a storm! I was so incredibly nervous. I would have preferred to take my time and perfect as I went along, but I had to move quickly. It was hard to mess her up though since she is beautiful without a stitch of makeup on the first place! Once she had her hair and makeup done, it was time to get in the dress and, of course, the waterworks began all around the room! One of the most emotional things to see is a girl transformed into a bride and then, a wife! I felt so lucky to be a part of the process!

Courtesy of Art of Light Photography

The ceremony was held out on the pier overlooking the ocean. It was one of the most emotional ceremonies I have attended and I loved every second of it. Unfortunately, all my pictures from the ceremony came out really dark, so I refer you to Rachel's blog entry on this because it has better pictures. I doubt she would mind if I stole hers, but either way, she has many a funn entries, so go over there anyway.

Here is "THE KISS" that I have about 10 pictures of because it was the longest kiss ever! The happy couple are finally a Mr. and Mrs.

After the ceremony was the cocktail hour by the water. In my white dress, I steered clear of the incredibly red rum punch. Besides, I knew what was going to happen later.....

We then all convened back at the boat for dinner before going to the after party at Señor Frogs. THIS is why I didn't drink during the cocktail hour nor at dinner......
It all started out with a little Bud Light....

But I switched to Tequila and started dancing....Keep your shirt on Marcie, I am almost done! (PS, while I am getting down, I think Em is getting "jiggy" with it as best as I can tell).

Thankfully, I had the foresight to switch to water.

What, you thought my day was over? No, no, no, my friends! That is simply not how I roll.

This is us at the after party's after party at "Club Diamond" -- yep, you heard me correctly. This was the only "club" open and I think it was for the tweens on the ship. It was great fun and provided us with an Epcot-esque laser light show (who doesn't adore a laser light show when you are feeling tipsy). Rachel is in her PJs and I love it! We were soooo past "caring" at that point, we just didn't want the night to end.

SUNDAY

So finally Saturday has ended, Mr. and Mrs. W are Mr. and Mrs. and it is now Sunday morning.

Needless to say I am hungover. Not only am I hungover, but I am hungover in rocking box!!! The cheapskate that I am opted to save a whopping $50 and take an inside cabin with no window. So there is no window and my box is going back and forth, back and forth, BACK AND FRIGGIN' FORTH.

Clearly, I was dying, so I threw on the suit and ran to the highest level of the ship to get a bloody mary and some air. I think we all pull off "the morning after" quite well.

By dinner, I was feeling fancy free again. Here are some of the girls in the wee hours of the evening after all the men had ditched us for their beds.

It was such a great weekend!! Thanks girls for keeping an eye on me and obeying by the "10 feet" rule at all times (special thanks to Chrissy, Rachel and Jack for that one).

I had so much fun and here's a belated CHEERS to the newlyweds! Congratulations!!

Meet My Friends

I am not even sure how to sum up the wedding I had the priviledge of attending this Thanksgiving Day weekend. Accompanied by Chrissy, Rachel, Marcie, Kemely and Emily, we attended the waterside nuptials of our dear friend, Ashley, in the Bahamas. But before I try to post about what an amazing time we had, I will post seperately about this first, because this is a sort of serious tribute to these ladies and Ashley deserves a post all about herself and all about her beautiful wedding.

Some of my hometown and college friends wonder where these names came from? And rightfully so since I don't talk about them in real life too often. However, more and more their names come up naturally in my everday discussions and so it is about time I shed some light on our friendships.

Admittedly, we all met under odd and even dorky circumstances. We were all engaged around the same time in late 2005/early 2006 and subsequently were all planning late 2006 or 2007 destination weddings. As you know, my wedding was not destination, but logistically, it was out of town for me and so that is where these women came in handy. I started chatting with these girls through the wonder that is The Knot about favors, dresses, and how to get your dress on a plane. With all of us bouncing ideas back and forth daily, it was only natural that conversations took a turn to include personal information about ourselves. How many siblings did we have, what did our fiance's/husbands do, is anyone else's mother-in-law driving each other crazy? Et cetera. So yes, I have Internet friends. There! I said it!

I have grown to know these women over the past year and while some will say, "How can you form real friendships that way?" or "They are not your friend, I am your friend." I say to you that these women have checked in on me non-stop. They have followed up when I had a bad day or personal problems, and they have shared their entire lives with me throughout this time. So yes, prior to meeting them in person, I did/do count them as real life friends. They are just as important to me as any friend could be and the more I get to talk to them the more that friendship grows.

If you are my sorority sister, or have ever been in a sorority or fraternity of your own, you can understand how bonds are formed in a blink of an eye and how you are sort of taken aback at how one common thread can hold a group together. It is the same exact sort of thing that I experienced being a part of Kappa Delta.

So from now on, I will no longer be saying the words, "Ashley, she's my friend from The Knot, said that...." [insert appropriate name]. So learn their names and adjust people! ;)

To Ashley, Chrissy, Rachel, Marcie, Kemely and Emily, I am so happy to have been able to get to know you over the past year plus, and I am thrilled to have been able to share this past weekend with you. I "get" the MSP thing now and why you all felt so bonded. So I guess I am late on all of the warm and fuzzies and that you all are ahead of my game, but I just adore you all and had the most fun I have had this weekend since my wedding!! So thank you for that! I am so lucky to have you all to lean on!

As we know, there are others like the above mentioned girls that hopefully one day I will get to see too and after seeing how wonderful it was to spend time with the others, I am that much more eager to see you all again or for the first time.

So before I blog about the most amazing wedding I have ever attended -- Come! Meet my friends!

Marcie, Ashley, Kemely, Chrissy, STACY, Rachel and Emily!

Ashley's Wedding Day Countdown!

26 days from now my dear friend Ashley will be marrying her fiancee, Joey, in the Bahamas! This days seems like it has been so long coming as Ashley is the last of a string of weddings we have had lately, including my own in May. I am really looking forward to the vacation along with some very much needed girl time since my husband can't make it. I cannot wait to tell you all about it in just 26 days!

Ashley will be a vision in white as will all of her guests! Yep, you heard me right! It is a white out wedding! All of the guests have been asked to wear shades of white and khaki. I think this is a great idea to sort of unify all of the guests and make everyone there a part of their ceremony in essence. Equally as important, imagine the pictures! They are going to be to die for!

When I started out planning my suitcase for this wedding weekend I thought, piece of cake right? Just throw on a white dress and be done with it. NO! WRONG! First of all, finding a white dress in Michigan at the end of summer beginning of fall was downright impossible. I thought it would be all the more reason for me to find a "steal of a deal" but alas, I was sadly mistaken.

As of today, I bought 5 dresses!! Living in the sticks is annoying because I had to ship back 4 of them :) and we know how much I hate paying for shipping, it is a pet peev of mine! But I am happy to announce that I finally have the jewels, the stems, the bag (almost) all nailed down! And since there will be many girls wearing white dresses and the risk of wearing the same thing is high, I shall put it all out there so we can all compare :)

Here are some pictures of my outfit. My shoes photograph a bit gold, but I think they are a bit silvery in person so just keep that in mind.

I am not sure which bag I am going with yet, that is the only thing to be determined. Sorry for the shoddy photo quality, blogger is acting up a bit.

Mackinaw Island

I am about two and a half weeks behind on my life overall. Bills I was supposed to pay 2 weeks ago, gifts I was supposed to send, Emails I was supposed to return, and blogs I was supposed to write are just now getting taken care of.

So as I may have mentioned, my parents came to visit us in Michigan for the first time! It was pretty exciting having them come and visit. It was almost like after 3 years of living here, they were finally putting their stamp of approval on my life.

After a week of in-depth cleaning, something I never ever do, the house was as ready for company as it could be without selling our dogs and moving.

They flew in on Friday and courtesy of Airtran (the same carrier that granted me my worst travel day ever, as you may remember), their flight was late forcing them to take a later connecting flight out of Atlanta. So the day at the cider mill was cancelled much to my dismay. We figured if we can't bring the folks to the cider mill, then we would bring the cider mill to the folks. So they finally got in from their flight with fresh apple pie, cider and cider donuts awaiting them.

After settling in we went to Genji's -- a great Japanese restaurant in town. It is the kind that cooks in front of you; although, we really could have done without that because the food is good on it's own. By the time we got home it was fairly late (around 10:30) so we had some coffee (I guess that is what parents do at all hours) and then hit the hay because we had an early morning planned.

Saturday morning we drove up to Mackinaw Island. It is an island in between the upper and lower penninsulas of Michigan. They allow no motors on the island so the only mode of transportation is by horse, horse carriage, bike or by foot. It is really quaint and pretty. They have one of the largest population (? is that the right word) of lilacs and have a big festival there in the springtime. Our purpose for going was to see all the leaves change color and to travel a bit further up north so my parents could experience the fall air. Sounds silly, but if you live in Florida, you would appreciate it.

[side note: do NOT stay at the Chippewa! It was a nightmare! $150.00 a night and our bathroom smelled like mold and our external AC flooded all over our suitcase. They were kind enough (NOT) to give us a $30 discount.]

Here are some pictures from our trip:

My favorite church that was shipped over from France...or England...somewhere, I forget.

I just adore this little pig!

Our horses: Molly and Cody.

The only horse my husband tells me I ever might own - It's wooden. But hey, I kind of like it.

Little Stone Church and LOOK! There is a bride getting ready to walk down the aisle!! Naturally I wanted to stop the horses but I tried my best not to look crazy. They say that it is a two year waiting list to get married at this church and that people often put their name down even if they don't have a fiance! Not sure about security deposits, that is the firs thing I thought of too.

Sunday we traveled home along I-19 which runs along Lake Michigan and has been dubbed, "The Tunnel of Trees." It is a small, barely two lane road with no center line (which is incredibly scary) and all of the trees form together over the roadway to make a holloway. It was beautiful! There are ginourmous houses tucked back in the woods if you look closely also. We thought it would be a cute 20 minute drive to get to our destination, Petoskey, but it was more like an hour drive. I am glad we went that way, but after the 1st 20 minutes, we had seen our fill of trees.

Forgive the not-so-creative photos here. Picture me in the back seat wiggling my way out the sunroof with my camera and my dad getting very angry at me. It was a snap and go situation.

Our next stop was Petoskey, a small town with lots of shops and boutiques. My mother and I went shopping and the men headed off to the casino. We spent about 3 hours walking around from shop to shop and figured it was about time to make sure our husbands weren't spending more money than we did. Well we got there and they were not pleased, which meant that we were heading no where fast.

To get us to go away, they gave us money to gamble with. Typically when this happens, my mother and I disappear and pretend to be playing slot machines and then just tell them that we lost our money. But this time we were stupid and bored and actually gambled our money away. Needless to say, the house always wins and the odds were not in our favor. Like ol' Kenny says, "You've gotta know when to fold 'em." Clearly, we did not listen to ol' Kenny.

So around 7 we decided to start our 4 hour drive home!! Kill me now! It was such a long day!! We had a great time though.

Monday came and went quickly. We went to Bronner's Christmas Store and bought a bunch of Christmas supplies and then went to the antique store and did some shopping. Tuesday we bid farewell. It was just the perfect length of time to see your parents.

This is the first time I ever had "company" in my house though and let me tell you...it is exhausting! Hubs and I went to bed every night so mentally exhausted you would have thought we spent our days curing cancer -- we felt like we were using our minds that much.

So that catches you up on "me." Thank goodness for blogs or else I would be lost in terms of what everyone else has been up to. After this post, I am officially caught up on my emails and everything else that has been sliding by :) Hope everyone had a good weekend!