Wishful Wednesday

This week's topic is:
'I wish' .... I could go back and spend one day working at a job from my youth, and it would be ______!

BABYSITTING!

Oh wait... I kind of still do that. Except, I call myself a nanny these days. Because, well... I just like it better. :) Honestly, I have always loved kids. Especially infants to about 4 yrs old. They're so fun for me to watch learn and grow. I can't wait to have my own someday. *yikes*

More specifically, I used to watch our neighbor kids. It started out with the little boy named Evan. He was such a cute little toehead. I must have only been about 13 at the time and our houses shared a private driveway. He'd toddle over to our porch and ring the doorbell randomly and yell "DING DONG!" It was the cutest thing. He also called me "CHESHI" which was cute too. When my family moved into that house Evan was about 2 or 3 and his mom was preggers with his baby sister. I remember when Emily was born too. My BFF Liz who also lived in our neighborhood would come over and braid Em's hair after I gave her a bath. I watched those kids grow up until they moved away... :( Now they are in 6th grade (I think) and middle school. Crazy! I certainly feel old! I last saw them at our wedding and they're gorgeous kids and I can't believe they're so BIG! :)

Recently I have been able to watch another two little girls. I love it! In fact, I fear the day that I have to get a "real job." I am currently watching my nephew's cousin. She's such a firecracker! Her 1st birthday party was just this weekend and I got her one of those Playschool shopping carts and filled it with fruits and vegetables. I also got her some wooden cars and a pull along wooden alligator from our local toy store... so fun!

Anyway, that's my job I wish I could go back to solely! If only I didn't have my own house to tend to, school and another job!!! :)

Hope on over to Kelsey's to read other fun Wishful Wednesday posts!

Wedding & Road Trip 2010 Part 1

Long time, no post. The story of my life, it seems! This will be a bit of a picture overload, FYI! It just makes it more interesting that way! :)

We pulled out of our driveway at 10:45pm on a Tuesday night headed for the sunny state, CA. We picked up a friend in Portland and continued on our journey throughout the night. Brandon and I have become a great road trip team... he does most of the driving but I stay awake in order to entertain (annoy) him so he won't fall asleep! We made the 18 hour trip very quickly, so it seemed! We arrived in SoCal at rush hour on Wednesday and we were lucky enough to miss out on the traffic! Whooo hoo!

Thursday was the Bachelorette Party day. I still had some running around to do getting some last minute things for the party. We ended up having a blast! We started out at this swanky little bar in Pasadena that provided an awesome atmosphere for us gals! We played some fun and mildly inappropriate games that kept us all entertained! She was a pretty freakin' hot Bachelorette! She had on some killer leopard heels too! :)

TinyPic" border="0">
We took a limo into Hollywood from Pasadena and went to a club called My House. It was pretty awesome too. However, speeennndddyyy! They make you buy bottles at these clubs in order to reserve a table for a bunch of people. So, the ten of us split a $300.00 bottle of 3 Olives Berry Vodka! Sheeeesh! But, the plus to buying a bottle is your own private seating, all the mixers you want and servers to help you out! Our feet got a bit tired after dancing and we needed a place to sit anyway! :) After we all had our fill of dancing the limo took us back to Uriah & Kristine's condo in Pasadena. We found the boys like this... They played Xbox 360 the entire time we were gone! Typical!


Friday was the rehearsal and then the rehearsal dinner at Old Spaghetti Factory in Fullerton. Nothing too exciting happened this day, just the typical prep for the next day like getting our nails and toes done! :) We also ate out at the Yard House which I miss from when we lived in AZ! Love their food... and the atmosphere is great too!

This is our Saturday "Wedding Day" in pictures...


MOH and Bridesmaid taking FULL advantage of the Embassy Suite's AWESOME complimentary breakfast!


The bride and her mom waiting for their pampering...


Bridesmaids following the esthetician's directions: Wash, rinse, scrub, rinse then moisturize!


Hair, hair... HAIR!


A teary exchange as the bride's mom gives her a ring to wear that her late father once gave to her mom... All three of us cried, actually!


Most importantly... Helping her into her FABULOUS dress. She was stunning.


We got her in the car without getting the dress dirty! That was amazing, since our car had traveled all the way from WA and was DIIIRRRRTTTYYY!


She looks cool as a cucumber on our way to the park to take early pics of the bridal party...


We were a pretty serious bridal party. Pretty.damned.serious. :)


The bride's uncle made an emergency run to the store for us. On his list? Snacks and BOOZE! :) This was RIGHT before we walked out the door (and right before a bridesmaid tripped and fell on her face... lightening the mood for sure!) and we were both a touch nervous.

That's enough pictures for now, right? I was so dang busy being IN the wedding I don't have any pictures OF the wedding. Plus, we haven't seen the professional pictures yet either... They will be amazing, I'm sure! Betsy Blue Photography is a dream to work with... she does amazing things!

I will write another post soon... but until then, ta ta! :)

A Little of This... A Little of That...

First... I've been following Emily's blog since she was preggo with little Miss Cate. Cate is SO cute, by the way. She's doing a giveaway over there, so go check her and her cute blog out!!!

*******************************************************
The weather here in the PNW has been oh.so.typical this week. Tuesday was my late step dad's birthday, I thought of him all day. I still can't believe that he would have only been 62. That is just TOO early. Anyway, I especially thought of him when I was cruising down the freeway during a 5 o'clock HAIL STORM and there was a little convertible with its top down. Um, news flash!!! It's MARCH! And, it was NOT a nice day... at all! HAHA! I laughed so hard and I knew that my step dad would have too. :)

Yesterday I started my new set of classes. I have "Organizational Development: Change Management" Um, sounds ENTICING! I kid... And, this Prof is super strict and we have a lot of homework. Not to mention, I'm going to miss one, possibly two classes this term. It's kind of a big deal when you only meet 8 or 9 times. Oh well, I have a wedding to be in!!! :)

Speaking of that wedding... I am trying to make lists like a mad woman and prepare for the road trip, let alone the actual wedding. I'm going to pick up my dress from the bride-to-be's mom today. Have I shared about the dress yet? If not, here it is:


I am happy with the choice. I will admit that it is a bit spendy... we got the jersey version because in our opinion, the satin looks a bit cheap and the jersey is much more versitile but it is still a $250 dress. But, it can be worn SO many ways it is cool and I will definitely wear it again. Since I am the MOH, mine is ball gown length and the other girls' is tea length or shorter. If you haven't seen this dress before, check it out here! It seems that no one is ever happy with bridesmaid dresses and I think that this dress solves a lot of issues. All of us girls can wear it however we choose and we can all wear it again. The bride initially was having dresses made for all of us girls. But, that turned into a HUGE ordeal and we aborted that option about four weeks ago. Yes, six weeks from the wedding we chose different dress options... YIKES!

So, as I said, I'm the MOH for this wedding. I'm a little freaked out. I've been fine so far with all of the planning and jobs of the MOH. I threw them an engagement party in June of 2009... I threw her bridal shower this February... I've tried to help her in any way possible. I'm starting to get nervous though. The wedding is in 10 days and I can feel the grumbles in my tummy starting. Mostly because it's in another state and I have a ton of things to do to prepare myself and Hubbs for leaving our house, animals, jobs and school for a week but mostly I'm SUPER nervous about the speech I'm supposed to give. The bride and I have been friends for many years... but I'm not sure how to approach this. Should I be safe and just say the cliche things that everyone says? Should I try to be funny? Should I get sappy and cry? Please, someone give me some advice!!! I want to say nice things but I don't want to sound like a dumbass! I have never really paid much attention to speeches at weddings and my MOHs didn't give extra long or special speeches at our wedding. However, I did have a bridesmaid tell an embarrassing GAS story. *GASP!* I will NOT be doing that. Thank.you.very.much. Good thing I'm easy going... Errr...

So, that was my random post for the week. I need some feedback on this if anyone has any advice... I'm really nervous. Anyway, happy Thursday to everyone in Blogland! :)