Yesterday, we saw our friends Jen and Gerald get married. They had a beautiful ceremony and reception. I usually cry at weddings, but I was surprised at how well I held it together. Even Jen held it together most of the night. It has to be so overwhelming for the bride. The months of planning…getting the perfect dress, who do we invite?, what food should we serve?, where’s the perfect location?, the fighting between bride and family that thinks THEY know how YOUR wedding should be…and then it’s finally here. Finally, it’s all over. Your getting MARRIED. That would be enough to make anyone cry.

I told Dave early yesterday morning that I was going to take a long time to get ready, but he still insisted that we go waste an hour and a half getting breakfast all the way in Tampa. He also insisted that I do my nails since I’m a bad biter, so now I have these stupid fake nails on that is making typing extremely hard. I can’t wait to rip these damn things off.

We got home and I showered, shaved, and lotioned myself. I started doing my hair because I knew that was going to take the most time. I wanted to do something different than the normal, straight hair I sport. I was going to buy a curling iron, but my sister let me borrow her hair straightener and showed me how to curl my hair with it Friday night. This didn’t work out nearly as well as it did when she gave me the how to like 12 hours prior. I would take a chunk of hair and try it and half the time it would curl and the other half I got a weird wave that wouldn’t straighten out so I could start over. I sort of got the hang of it halfway through my head and it was after 12:00 and we needed to leave no later than 1:00 to make it to the ceremony on time and my hair was nowhere near done and I wasn’t even dressed. At 1:00 Dave was shouting at me to hurry up because we were going to be late and we rushed out of the house quicky. I ended up forgetting the memory card for my camera, so I got no pictures at the ceremony. Jen looked beautiful, though.

We had a little over an hour to kill in between the ceremony and the reception, so Dave and I stopped at K Mart so I could pick up a memory card. The pictures I took made me realize just how badly I need a new camera. Many of them turned out dark or blurry. I’m extremely disappointed in the photos; they don’t do any justice to how pretty everything was!

This was the first time in our year and a half relationship that I’ve seen Dave in a suit. I regret not taking a picture of him with his jacket on because he looked great.

There was a lot of dancing, a lot of eating, and a lot of fun.

Gerald was pretty drunk and he kept rubbing Dave’s head and saying, “When we put our heads together, it looks like an ass!”

Jen and Gerald are the kind of couple that I hope Dave and I will be if we get married. They’re just completely happy and comfortable with each other. It’s comforting to see a couple like that when we live in a world where people seem to always want more than what they already have.

Tags: friends, fun, life, outings, photos

It’s officially summer in Florida when it rains everyday. Before 2 weeks ago, it hadn’t rained in like 2 months. Water restrictions were in full effect-no washing your car, no watering your lawn. Then it started raining, and it hasn’t stopped since. I’m really getting sick of it. I want to go swimming.

I had a nice holiday with my family. We headed up to my parents house for a BBQ. They definitely have more friends than I do. There was a bunch of people there that I didn’t know. My parents are way cooler than me. My Dad told me on Saturday about how they went to their friends house and hung out until 3am. I’m glad they have friends now. For the longest time, they didn’t really have any. When we lived in NJ, my Dad worked all the time and my Mom was either working or driving my sister and I around. They had a few friends, but mostly they just had each other. It’s cool to see them getting out and having fun for a change.

My sister brought her friend Angelina to the BBQ. We were sitting down at the table eating, and this little kid comes up to Angelina and starts talking to her. I can’t remember the exact way the conversation went down, but this kid was hilarious:

Kid: My mom made those brownies (Kid takes a brownie)

Angelina: Really? They’re so good.

Kid: You’re pretty

Angelina: Thanks

Kid: What’s your name?

Angelina: Angelina. and this is..(Angelina introduces us) What’s your name?

Kid: Michael, Jr. The fat guy sitting down over there that looks just like me is my Dad

Everyone: bawhahahaha

Michael Jr. takes another brownie and goes away.

He comes back 5 minutes later and takes ANOTHER brownie. That’s 3.

Me: man, you really like those brownies

Michael Jr: yeah (to Angelina) You’re really thin.

Angelina: Thanks. You know, that’s a good thing to say to girls. Did your mom tell you to say that?

Michael Jr. No

Angelina: Your Dad?

Michael Jr. No. I learned it from TV

Angelina: oh, gotcha

He talked to her for like another 10 minutes, telling her about a story he was reading, his annoying little sister, and how he thought school was stupid and dumb. I was cracking up at how honest and sociable he was. I don’t really remember being 8, but I’ve been shy my entire life, so I doubt I’d ever have a conversation with anyone 15 years my senior.

We left the BBQ fairly early because Dave needed to get Dali some food before Petco closed. I went to the mall to get shoes to go with the dress I got for Jen and Gerald’s wedding and realized that all the stores (except Macy’s and Dillards) were closed. It was like 7:30. Since when do they close so early? Maybe because of the holiday? I ended up scoring some really good deals at Dillards. $100 shoes marked down to $23 and two shirts at $8.70 each. (BTW, I’ve totally gone over my $75 budget. I guess I kind of new that was going to happen from the start, although I wasn’t expecting all the car trouble.)

While at the mall, I got a text from Bob asking if I wanted to grab a beer at The Brass Tap, the bar in the mall. Since I was already there, I said yes, then called Dave so he could meet us. We drank a few beers and talked. Bob’s swamped with work. I’m swamped with work. Dave’s just got the normal work load. We leave around 11 and I go to sleep early.

I know this week is going to fly by super fast. I have a lot of things to do at work and not enough time in the day to get them all done. At least we are busy! The wedding this weekend should be fun. I still have to figure out how I’m going to wrap all the presents…

Tags: family, friends, holidays

My goal whenever I go shopping is always to save more money than I spend. I had to buy drinks to take to the BBQ at my parents house tomorrow, so I made a quick trip to Publix and picked up a few things for Dave as well:

2 Pepsi 8pk cans @ $2.99 BOGO
Wheat Thin crackers @ $2.79 BOGO. Had coupon for free wheat thins with the purchase of Ritz crackers. The Ritz were $3.39 and the cashier took off $3.39 instead of the $2.79 for the Wheat Thins, so I got 3 boxes of crackers for only $2.79
Jennie O Turkey Burgers @ 8.49 BOGO – 2 $1.00 coupons that were on the boxes= $6.49 for 2 boxes
Kraft Singles cheese @ 2.59 BOGO
Kraft Salad Dressing @ $2.99 BOGO – $1.50 coupon= $1.49 for 2
Publix Iced Tea gallon @ $2.39 BOGO
Publix 24 pack spring water @ $3.99-.50 store coupon=$3.49

Total with tax= $23.11

Total Saved= $29.63

Tags: deals, savings