Here comes the Bride... finally!

I'm probably going to over-explain this blog entry in the hopes that I have some random blog follower out there who actually cares... Carrie, you're the only person I know that actually reads my blog, and I'm sure you already know allllll about last night : )

But, for my random blog follower (whoever you may be), allow me to explain: I met Carrie almost 2 years ago when I took a job with the bank back in Ionia. Quickly, I learned that Carrie's older sister was my 8th grade biology teacher (longer ago than I care to think about...) and she was engaged to a guy I went to high school with, Jim. Carrie and I became very good friends and last night I had the privilege of attending Jim and Carrie's wedding, a night 2 years in the making. I only have one picture of the couple together, but as you can see, the only thing more beautiful than Carrie's dress was the love these two have for each other (yes, that was a cheesy line, but it's so true). They are obviously meant for each other, and as Jim's brother pointed out in his toast, opposites that have been drawn together.

During the first dance as husband and wife :)

The boys attempting to do some soulja-boy moves. They were hilarious and did a great job!

Hmm... I'll let you make up your own caption for this one...

Me, sandwiched between the only single guys over the age of 21 that were at the wedding. Lucky for me, they happen to be 2 of my very good friends.

Yay for single girls! (PS: This pic is creeping me out because I think I look exactly like my mom...)

Another happily married couple! Aaron and Robyn : )

Grease is the word...

For Christmas this year, my sister and I decided to buy our dad, stepmom, and brother tickets to see Grease at the Wharton Center. We had Karen, our stepmom, help us plan and keep it a secret from my dad and Justin. For dinner, we went out to Olive Garden, one of Karen's favorite restaurants. She just made lifetime membership at Weight Watchers, so what better way to celebrate than with a huge steaming plate of chicken alfredo and endless breadsticks! haha.. Anyways, my dad and Justin thought we were just going out to dinner and then going home. But, at dinner, I pulled out the tickets and surprised them.

Here's the fam at dinner! The five of us haven't gone out to eat together in quite some time so we got a pic : )

Here's my ticket! We were in the sescond row on the balcony and the seats were amazing. We could see everything perfectly and from a higher angle so it was great. Taylor Hicks, from American Idol, was Teen Angel and sang "Beauty School Dropout." He did a great job! The stage performance is quite different than the movie, as far as the plot is concerned. They changed some things around, but all in all it was the same songs that I've been singing for years. I even danced a little bit in my seat... Hand Jive anyone?? : )

Awful pic of Lindsey and I before we went into the show.

I'm thinking of seeing Legally Blonde next year when it comes. I love the movie and I'm sure the stage performance would be just as great!

Black Friday

Over the past 3-5 years, it's become tradition for my sister, my three cousins, and myself to venture out into the madness that is Black Friday to get some good Christmas deals. Well, this year we decided to kick it up a notch and go to Birch Run for their midnight opening. We left Ionia around 9:00 to try and be the some of the first 500 people in line to receive a nice gift bag. Wellll.... I got us lost (kinda) and we ended up in the wrong line, so we didnt get a gift bag : ( Oh well, we still had a lot of fun. But we unanimously decided we will NOT return there next year.

Steph and Linds on the way up, singing Christmas songs the whole way : )

Passing the time playing cards in line
I kept walking on my pants, so I decided to tuck them into my shoes and make my own tapered windpants.... HOT!
Ali and Karlee bummed that we didnt get the gift bags... but checking out the coupon books insteadClock shot while we wait for Steph and Linds at Gap

Karlee and Ali drawing obscene stick people on my car windows on the way home

I got home around 5am and slept! I was hungry and exhausted! Then I woke up around 10am for round 2! Only 27 days til Christmas : )

Thanksgiving Eve!

It's that time of year again! The night before Thanksgiving is said to be the biggest bar night of the year, and 2008 was no exception. Unfortunately, many of my friends were unable to make it home for the holiday due to family and career obligations, so this year it was just Jenna and I. One thing about Jenna and I is that we can go for weeks without talking and pick up right where we left off. I've known her since 6th grade and we've been friends ever since. Wednesday night I went over to Jenna's house for some pre-bar Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy, and then we headed to Gregory's. Gregory's was pretty packed, but nowhere NEAR as busy as last year. There, we met up with Jessica and some other friends and had a great time catching up. I only have one picture of the night, but luckily it's a good one! Although my eyes are kinda wide open... oh well!

Bachelorette Madness- Must be 18 to view!

One of my good friends, Carrie, is getting married in December! We celebrated the upcoming end of her freedom (just kidding : ) ) last weekend at the Marriott in Grand Rapids. Carrie's sister Julie and soon to be sister-in-law Stephanie orchestrated a night of fun filled activities. First we met at the Marriott for drinks, appetizers, and a lingerie shower for Carrie. She had to guess who brought which piece of lingerie for her. She ended up getting 4 or 5 correct, so not too bad! For each correct guess she made, Carrie could delegate one of her "tasks" to one of the other girls. Some of the tasks included getting a guy to write his number on her back, kissing a bald man's head, and dancing on the dance floor by herself. Now, those examples I gave are pretty mild compared to others. And Carrie, being the perfectionist that she is, completed all of them with flying colors! We all were very proud of her, and thankful that she didn't choose to pass them on to one of us!

Modeling the sock monkey pajamas - a gift from her sister

The pinata that was custom made by one of the girls at the party

Modeling one of the gifts ; )

I believe the quote from this picture was "Which way does the penis go?"

One of my drinks, complete with the drink tag that Carrie assigned to me


Carrie enjoying some laughs at Dr. Grinns in the BOB. And yes, that is a penis glass.

Jill and I - The only single girls in the bunch! She was so much fun and I'm sure we'll be hanging out together at the wedding too

Analysts on the Town

Apparently not much happened for me from the end of October and the middle of November because I dont have any pictures on my camera! Oh well...

A few weeks ago the credit analysts I work with met up in East Lansing again for a night on the town before an EARLY morning meeting. We got rooms at the Marriott and headed out to Rick's for some drinks and dancing. I'm so lucky to be good friends with most of the people I work with, so it was really just like hanging out with my friends. However, I did miss Carrie SO MUCH! She got an amazing opportunity to work for the State of Michigan and left the bank at the end of October. I really realized how much I miss her when I was the only girl out with 7 boys. Being typical guys at a bar, they were saying "guy things" and making me wish there was more estrogen present! All in all it was a GREAT time with my great friends. Oh yeah... and that early meeting came about 4 hours after we got back to our rooms. Needless to say, everyone was suffering from some pretty serious hangovers the next day. Us bankers sure do know how to have a good time : )

Garrett would not stop texting the whole night!

Kojo being a rock star while Matt looks lovingly at Garrett's mad face. I love this picture!

I should have taken pictures at the beginning of the night instead of the end. I'm sure everyone would have looked much better! Matt and I at the Post. This is the pic where I'm not literally hanging all over him trying to get him to smile... I won't post it because I would like to salvage a little bit of dignity.

Garrett and I. Probably my favorite work person now- we've become good friends over the 18 months that I've known him. My hair looks super stringy but I think it's because it was snowing/raining when we were walking to the bar. I almost didn't post this one either, but it's kind of charming.

Carter time!

On October 25th, I went over to Ashley's mom's house to see Carter and his cousins getting ready for Halloween. Ashley's dad was carving pumpkins and Carter was painting inside. He was definitely getting into it and painting his paper, hair, face, and the table. This boy loves drawing and painting and gettin' messy!

Mixing up the colors so they're juuuuust right

Painting on the Dora tablecloth

Yay for the big pumpkin papa carved for me!

Crawling around on the table so everyone can get a picture

Afterwards, we took him to my mom's so he could meet Frank. Of course, he fell asleep on the way over and would not wake up for anything! Painting and carving and posing for pictures can really zap a 2 year old's energy! Frank fell asleep too, and we got the cutest pictures of the two of them together!

New Addition to the Family!

My mom and Jim welcomed a new family member in October for Jim's birthday. He weighed in at 2.9 pounds when they brought him home. His name is Frank (after the Men in Black dog) and he's a pug. I like to call him Francis or Frankenstein and he likes to chew on my shoes. He's so sweet and cuddly! I love him : )Just trying to figure out where he is... at this point he was afraid to walk on the linoleum or hardwood floorsGetting a little more adventurous and coming to see me : )

Posing for the camera. I love how he sits crooked like that. He's a keeper

Day out with my Sister and Brother

On October 18th, I treated my sister and brother to lunch and an afternoon at the public museum in Grand Rapids. They have an exhibit going through January on the science of solving crimes. The exhibit has a crime scene set up with clues and stuff to help you figure out whodunit.

It all started with getting mug shots taken. As you can see, we're all very sad.
Lindsey and Justin getting friendly with a witness they're interviewing. They missed the sign that said "don't touch the display". oooops
They projected a real autopsy onto a plastic body. It was intense and very lifelike!
Checking to see if they came to the right conclusions... They did! Super sleuths!

Later on throughout the museum exhibits- Justin and Lindsey had some fun taking random pictures. Gun show...

Stop looking at me swan...

Yes... Picking a moose's nose. Only my brother and sister would do something like that... and let me take a pic.

Homecoming Parade!

October 10th was the IHS homecoming parade! Since I work downtown again, I have prime seating (not that it's ever that crowded). The parade was actually about 10 minutes long, which is probably twice as long as it was when I was in high school. It was nice to see the elementary schools and clubs get involved, too.

Justin being too cool for a pic

Haha I gotcha!
Bulldogs! Go Dawgs!
There's Ali carrying sign for the high school marching band!

Of course we lost, but it was a fun time to go to the game. You know you're old when they start asking homecoming trivia questions over the PA system about the year you graduated! And the sad part is that I couldnt even remember who the homecoming king and queen were that year. I finally figured it out with the help of my sister. Man, 5 years out of school and I feel SO old!

FINALLY catching up on my blogging

Ok so I'm seriously lame. I havent blogged since the end of September! oops! I've really been busy though, so cut me some slack. Well, needless to say, lots has happened since the last post! I'll start out with October. My cousin Sam got married in October. She's two years younger than I am and so I felt like an old maid. Seriously though, I'm not even close to wanting to be married yet! Her colors were brown, cinnamon (a rusty orange), and ivory. It was BEAUTIFUL! My sister and cousins and I decided that we wanted to get more dressed up than normal, so we had a great time!

Lindsey, Steph (AKA Boobs) and Me
Me, Ali, and JustinComparing cleavage... I'm on the left of course

I went to the bathroom and came back with like 34 of these pictures on my camera!

Unfortunately, I dont have any pictures with the bride! For the dolla dance, my sister, my 3 cousins, and myself paid $5 (and I got to take all of the shots for the minors) and did a huge group dance with Sam. It was so fun...

And of course I have to welcome Kurt to the family! Here's a pic I scammed off Sam's facebook: