The Mailbox and Back Injuries

So last weekend I almost crippled my fiance (all because I hate his cookie burning stove). 

He seems to be walking just fine now but there for a while getting him up and down the stairs was a chore.  As mentioned before, we moved alot of heavy appliances on Sat.  On Sunday (after refusing a back massage cause he wanted to get to work on the flowerbeds), Shea went out to the back of the house to dig holes and I went to the front to dig more holes.  He said he was on his second shovelful when he heard the pop in his lower back.  Long story short, we iced him down, put him in a chair and gave him pain meds.  He's working from home this week, seeing a chiropractor and as of yesterday, he no longer needs a cane!  Anywho why the mailbox you might wonder...its because since he's home, I'm getting immediate access to the mail.  I've been calling him in the afternoon to find out who RSVP'd.  Immediate Gratification. Yep, silver lining and all, maybe not for Shea, but I'm sure enjoying having him home (Prince and the kitties are enjoying it too!)

Bridesmaid dresses arrived and Taste Testing went really well!

So if you're wondering what you'll be eating at our wedding reception, well now you know the menu:
beef, chicken, mashed potatoes, salad and veggies.  hahaha  Went to the Hyatt and they did a fancy taste testing.  Liked the food alot, liked one better then the other.  We also went over other issues like white table clothes or black, extra black napkins for men, check.  Anyway, I think Mom, Don, Shea and I all agreed on our choices.  Hopefully you too will enjoy the food.

Oh ya, to cap off the week, the bridesmaid dresses came in and we've already UPS's Emily's dress to Cinci.  Check that off the list. 

Looking forward to relaxing this weekend.  We're meeting up with friends so should be fun.  Hope you too have a wonderful Memorial weekend.

Office Shower - a few more pictures!

Shea, Me and Henry Talavera

Sally Lunday, me, Shea and Kayla LaRue, our wonderful amazing hostesses

Picture in foreground is our shower gifts (CHINA); in background is downtown Dallas from our conference room

Frig, Stove and the Goose

First off, the wedding invitations were sent out on Friday, yeah!

Today, Shea and I bonded by moving large objects from our house to my old house and back to our house.  We moved Shea's icky cookie burning stove over to my old house and took my stove and fridg back to our home after I dumped the contents of the freezer into a cooler.  Shea did the heavy lifting; I made helpful suggestions.  Smirk. 

Shea decided that my fridge should be in the kitchen and his should be outside in the garage; I agreed.  So... I moved the contents of his fridge into mine and then we switched them out.  Then Shea got to play with hooking up the ice machine.  fun and excitement.  quick comment, the floor under stoves and fridges that haven't moved in 10+ years is DISGUSTING; thank you to the makers of 409!  After cleaning my stove, I baked chocolate cupcakes with custard centers and chocolate frosting for Jim and Christina's potluck.  Had a great time and my cupcakes weren't burnt!  Yea stove.  Last but not least, we moved the cement goose, which now has a place of honor on the front porch.  It was a warm day so she's got on her hot pink plether swimsuit and flowery straw hat.  I feel "moved in" even if there's still some items that need to come over after the wedding.  Shea and I are beat!  Oh ya, I forgot, we also stopped at home depot and picked up some flowers and flowering bushes.  2moro, we'll plant them.  Goodnight all.

Pictures of Julie's Office Shower and China

Office Shower - WOW!

I can’t thank my office friends enough.  I’m so excited.  Tonight I’m going to serve Shea leftovers on our new China.  Shea actually ewwwwed and awwed with my boss Henry when each piece was opened.  Today we received another setting of my china from my parents.  From my office friends, we received all the serving pieces AND 3 accent plates AND 2 crystal wine glasses among other items (including this incredibly pretty butterfly chip and dip platter).  WAY COOL.  Pictures to follow…

Closing in on 2 months Til the Wedding

Bridal Shots
Today, Mom, Don and I wandered around the Arboretum with our wonderful photographers Lydia and George Troop. I was gussied up in my wedding finery.  Mom and Don were the spritzers (the bouquet)and carriers (the train).   It was pretty fun, weather was in the 80s.  The flowers were gorgeous, wish we could have stayed there to play.  Asked Mom why she wasn't carrying the gown like Pippa and she said if there were thousands of people watching, she'd carry it that way too!  Anyway, after seeing the photographers in action, I'm feeling really good about picking them and I can't wait to see the pictures.  Too bad Shea won't see them until after the wedding lol.  Mom and Don...thank you thank you for everything!

May 25th
Mom, Don, Shea and I are scheduled to taste some meals for the reception at the Hyatt.  Can't wait, Holly mentioned that they would decorate the table in the colors to see if we liked them.  Yep, this part is fun and hopefully quite tasty!

2moro
More fun 2moro as my officemates are throwing us a shower at lunch.  Thanks in advance to Sally and Kayla for hosting the party.  You both are awesome!

On the ukky side of preparing for the Wedding...
We went over to my house on Sunday and started cleaning.  Shea vacumed and I cleared a path so we can move my frig and stove over.

Invitations
Last but not least, this Friday, we drop off the invitations into the mail whooohooo!

Hot in July - A Funny Accounting

Shea told me when we were going camping last July, that its Hot in July in Texas.  So along those lines, here’s a humorous ditty that has been roaming around the internet for years:

Dear Diary,

May 30th -- Now this is a state that knows how to live! Beautiful sunny days and warm balmy evenings. Mountains and deserts blended together. What a place!  Watched the sunset from a park lying on a blanket. It was beautiful. I've finally found my home I love it here.

June 14th -- Really heating up. Got to 100 today. Not a problem. Live in an air-conditioned home, drive an air-conditioned car. What a pleasure to see the sun every day like this. I'm turning into a real sun worshipper.

June 30th -- Had the backyard landscaped with western plants today. Lots of cactus and rocks What a breeze to maintain. No more mowing for me. Another scorcher today, but I love it here.

July 10th -- The temperature hasn't been below 100 all week. How do people get used to this kind of heat? At least it's a dry heat. Getting used to it is taking longer than I expected.

July 15th -- Fell asleep by the pool. (Got 3rd degree burns over 60% of my body.) Missed two days of work, what a dumb thing to do. I learned my lesson though: got to respect the ol' sun in a climate like this.

July 20th---  I missed Tabby (our cat) sneaking into the car when I left this morning. By the time I got out to the hot car for lunch, Tabby had swollen up to the size of a shopping bag and exploded all over $2,000

worth of leather upholstery. I told the kids she ran away. The car now smells like Kibbles and BITS. No more pets in this heat!

July 23th---  Dry fetchin' heat, my butt. Hot is hot!!  The home air - conditioner is on the fritz and AC repairman charged $200 just to drive by and tell me he needed to order parts.

July 30th -- Been sleeping outside by the pool for three nights now. $1,100 in darn house payments and we can't even go inside. Why did I ever come here?

Aug 4th--- 115 degrees. Finally got the air-conditioner fixed today. It cost $500 and gets the temperature down to about 90. Stupid repairman pissed in my pool. I hate this fetchin' state.

Aug 8th--  If another wise cracks, "Hot enough for you today?", I'm going to tear his swollen throat out. Darn heat. By the time I get to work the radiator is boiling over, my clothes are soaking wet, and I smell like roasted fricken Garfield!!

Aug 10th -- The weather report might as well be a damn recording: Hot and Sunny. It's been too hot for two dang months and the weatherman says it might really warm up next week. Doesn't it ever rain in this barren desert??

Water rationing has been in effect all summer, so $1,700 worth of cactus just dried up and blew into the swealtoring pool.  Even a cactus can't live in this heat.

Aug 14th---   Welcome to Hell!!!  Temperature got to 123 today. Forgot to crack the window and blew the fricken' windshield out of the Lincoln. The installer came to fix it and said, "Hot enough for you today?" My wife had to spend the $1,100 house payment to bail me out of jail.

Aug 30th---  Worst day of the damn summer.  I'm not leaving the house. The  fetching monsoon rains finally came and all they did is to make it muggier than hell. The Lincoln is now floating somewhere in Mexico with it's new $500 windshield.  That does it, we're moving to New York for some peace and quiet.

More Hot Enough for you Jokes.  Warning on content.  http://www.yuksrus.com/weather_hottemp.html

Invitations

Invitations as Good as DONE. Guess what, Shea and I stayed up late to finish the invitations last night.  We're all but done.  The only thing left to do is lick em and post em.  I thought maybe the dog and cats (Prince, Mary Margaret, and Kathryn) could help us but for what ever reason when I mentioned this, the animals scattered.

Pictures of our combined animal family (no fish pictures, sorry).

Pictures of the Cincinnati Shower

Pictures of the Cincinnati Shower - My soon-to-be Sister in Laws were awesome, they picked out my favorite desserts and made the shower alot of fun.  My sister Sarah and her group won the games, they were un unbeatable team!

 

MOBs Dresses and a couple pics of the Flynn family shower

Hi all,

Shea and I were busy this weekend!  We moved my living room furniture over to Shea's, hung the curtains in the living room and even hung more pictures.  Sweet, another house thing to cross off the list! 

We were writing and stuffing wedding invitations when the news about Osama bin Laden came out.  We stopped what were doing and were glued to the TV for the next 1/2 hour until I fell asleep that is.

Other good news, the MOB and stepMOB have both picked out their dresses.  GORGEOUS.  But you'll have to wait to see them at the wedding.

Below are pics that my sis Sarah took while up in Cincinatti.  Shea and I took them the Davis' to Skyline and Graeters...yum.

Skyline Chili. 

Mini Ice Cream cones at Graeters

Bridal Shower time!

Favors (Sarah and her hubby Joey have the same initials as Shea and me)

Beautiful Bride to be!

Thanks to my lil sis Sarah for providing the pics.  The only time I took pictures up in Cincinnati was to take pictures of pictures and at the Navel museum up in Dayton.  Here is a link to Sara's webpage:  http://ohmygish.blogspot.com/