Well, I haven't been here in a rather long time. We've had a lot of things happen and a good deal of them were pretty stressful. Let's not dwell on those though, done and dealt with!
Coming into 2010 is pretty busy so far. Ryan finally got his probation straightened out and has everything back in line, so hopefully he'll be driving again pretty soon. All the court dates to get this back into good standing has really sucked. I've decided that I really don't like sitting in court rooms all that much and will happy if I never do again. lol His classes start mid April and run for 10 weeks, then he’s finally done with everything until October when probation actually ends.
My stove has taken a turn for the worse. I discovered a while back that the self cleaning cycle no longer works! That was not fun, I had to clean the darn thing myself, blah! It’s ok, I got through it. lol But then a couple weeks ago, we were going to be out all day and I was making lasagna for dinner, so I set the turn yourself on, so it would start and be already cooking when we got home. Guess what, it’s a good thing we ended up getting home about 30 minutes after it was supposed to turn itself on because apparently that function has decided to stop working too! All was good though and dinner turned out yummy. I have picked out a new stove, but we decided to wait until after April to get it. Why wait? Keep reading…
The disc drive in the Xbox has gone bad yet again... This is box 7 I think in 2 years! But this time we had to repurchase the extended warranty, only to be able to do that I had to pitch a fit at the store manager over them making a mistake and marking the last one as fulfilled when it should not have been, so they of course didn't want to honor it, I was not a happy camper to say the least. But after him making few calls we now we have a new warranty with which we can continue to play this stupid little game of taking the Xbox back when the drive stops working and exchange it for a new one. I wonder how many more times we will continue to do this. lol
The biggest news though is that our daughter Natosha and her man, Eugene are getting married. The big day is April 24, 2010. They were going to just go to the JP and then do a big party, but changed their minds and decided to have a Ceremony. It's going to be a backyard wedding so we are keeping it pretty small, pretty much closest friends and immediate family, but it will be great!
So, I've been quite busy helping them budget consciously planning this little event and making things for it. First we had to get rings for the kiddos, and Dresses for Tosh and her girls! Done, check and double check! Sales, discounts, and free giveaways! Sweet!
Then we got the invitations taken care of. The kids picked the paper stock (from Wal-Mart, see cheap), I added a watermark as a background to pretty it up, and then we changed the original ribbon to match their wedding colors. They turned out pretty.
Then we got busy on the centerpieces. Tosh had a couple ideas in mind for what she wanted, so I took those and ran with them and came up with an idea that she really liked. I burned 2 fingers at the same time with the stupid hot glue gun while we were putting them together. Don't worry, I survived, hehehe. They look great, but I might be a little biased.
We have the reception favors done too, that was a lot of busy work. For such simple little things, I think they took the longest to complete. I am so done tying bows. lol They decided to use bubbles over rice or bird/flower seed too, so everyone get ready to blow hehehe.
The kids were getting a little stressed at this point though because they were having trouble finding an Officiate under $300, it’s just crazy what people want you pay for this service; it’s not that difficult of a job! Really! But a few days later they found one... and they let you do whatever kind of customization you want, so the kids pieced together a Ceremony from the samples they had on their website, but I thought they needed something a little more personal, so guess what I did… ;) Yes, I did.
We hammered out the menu and yes, we will be making the food ourselves. I’m glad I have family that can cook because they are being recruited for this mission! Pulled pork, bbq beef, potato salad, coleslaw, salad, desert items, and some fruit will do! We already decided on an excellent pulled pork recipe, but the bbq beef left a little to be desired in comparison to it, so it was to the Lab (aka the kitchen) for me to come up with a new one. Sure wish I had that new stove! So anyway, I’ve spent some time spicing and mixing and simmering and then redoing it all again until I came up with a recipe that will compliment.
Tosh wants her girls to have the same jewelry, but for the Maid of Honor’s to be a different “specific” color. This, my friends, is not so easy to find! So, she found a style that she likes, but of course, not the right colors! So I took a real close look at it and you know what, it didn’t look that difficult to duplicate, so I hit the craft store, found all the materials and I added jewelry making to my already endless list of hobbies! Now they will all have matching jewelry, but in the colors Tosha wanted them to be in.We got the cake and flowers ordered last week. We are going with separate cakes decorated the same and will tier them on different height cake plates. Cheap, cheap, cheaper that way! It will be in the $65 range instead of $150-$200.
We got some flowers last week and tried out how well we can construct a bouquet! Did I say we were cheap yet? Well, apparently not that cheap. lol It looked good, but I thought it best to have a florist do it after all. The bouquet that Tosh likes is like $120 at the cheapest, but we found a florist that worked with us on the style and price and we are getting the flowers for Tosh and the girls for $80. The guys didn’t want flowers, and neither did us Mother’s… allergy season! No flowers near the nose!
Tosh and Gene are still working on the music they want to use for the reception. One of Gene’s buddies is going to MC for us. We purchased this nifty little PA system to use for the reception. It can play music off any IPod/ITouch device, or cd player and has a mic. All the inputs have their own volume switch, so they can be turned up and down independently. What’s better is that it has a dual purpose for us because Rich will use it as a guitar amp afterwards, that’s why we went ahead and purchased one instead of renting one. Problem is, now I’ll have to buy Rich a new guitar...
Other daily grind stuff, I have the spring yard work done, and part of the spring cleaning! Yeah me, just have to finish it up now. So, I guess you are pretty much up to speed on what it going on in my world. I’ll try to keep this page more current, but I make no promises. LOL
