Happy Birthday Nugget!!!

Today, Nugget turns 1!!!  I can't believe she is already a year old!  You can read about her arrival here.  Little Miss Juliana started walking in the last couple of weeks and is saying a few words, including "eyes".  She also enjoys playing the guitar like daddy:

Happy birthday JJ, I can't wait to see what you will do next!

Wedding Wednesday: Bridal Shower!!

Last weekend kicked off the official wedding countdown with my BRIDAL SHOWER!!!  My bridesmaids did a wonderful job of decorating and hosting and I feel like the luckiest girl in the world!  I got a sash and a pin that said "Bride to Be" and all of my BMs wore black and fuchsia (wedding colors).  Best.Day.Ever.  Until the bachelorette party in a couple of weeks, and then the wedding. 

There was so much yummy food, including cupcakes made by my SIL, lumpia that my MIL brought, and a delicious fruit salsa with cinnamon and sugar tortilla crisps.  One of my bridesmaids also made sangria and her recipe is to die for! 

Everyone went around the room and introduced themselves and said how they know me, and those that had them shared fun stories.  It was a touching moment.  They had an advice book in place of a guest book which was such a great idea.  My sister put together the actual book and then put pieces of black and pink paper out for everyone to write their bits of advice on and then glued them into the book.  Later I went back and put all my cards in there too.  Some of the stuff they wrote was touching and other things were hilarious.

Of course I didn't remember my camera until I was too far away from home to turn around and get it.  FAIL!  I had one of my BMs take some pics with her camera, so until I see more from others, this is all I have.  Sorry folks!

I want to give a huge THANK YOU to my awesome bridesmaids who threw me this shower!  You ladies are the best and I can't wait for the bachelorette party and the wedding day!  I also want to thank everyone who was able to come and celebrate with me.  I feel so fortunate to have such wonderful people in my life!

Wedding Wednesday: Hair and Make Up

That's me with a couple of my bridesmaids.  That girl in the middle there...that's my MOH:

(It's hard to be this sexy)



Okay, I should probably put up some better pics of her:

(This is pretty much what we do when we are together)

(This was before a Heart/Journey show.  Isn't she purdy?)

She also happens to be doing my hair and makeup for my big day.  I went over to her house on Saturday before the Drennon Wedding so we could do a trial run.  You can check out that post for some pics with better lighting, since the ones below were with my phone in her bathroom.  Anyway, here's the finished product:

She's amazing!  I will also have a flower hair piece that my friend, Regyna is making me.  It will have jewels and pearls and lace and feathers :)  Not sure if it will go on the side with all the hair or in the back.  Decisions, decisions.

What do you think?

Weekend Wrap-Up: Drennon Wedding

Check this out:

That's yours truly at jr. prom.  Best night ever!!  Troy and I did not have dates and decided to go as friends and it was seriously the most fun night!  I loved my dress, my hair, and the place we went for dinner.  It was also my first limo ride.  It was such a great time. 

This past weekend Troy got married.  It was such a beautiful wedding and an awesome venue!  It was pretty much a high school reunion of sorts.  I will have to update the post later with pics from my camera that actually include the bride and groom, but for now you can have fun with these bad boys from the photo booth.

 (Can you tell which one was from later in the evening?  Holy wasted face!)

Congratulations Erin and Troy!!!  You're the best!

Happy Gang Fight!

Back when The original "Friday" video came out, everyone was highly annoyed by it, including me.  A friend of mine sent this to me shortly after and I died watching it.  Now every Friday is referred to as "gang fight" instead.  Enjoy!

PLEASE READ! HELP NEEDED!!!

This normally isn't my thing, but of course it involves someone in my family so I need to reach out as far and wide as possible and I know I have wonderful people out there in bloggy land and you also have some fabulous readers that might be able to help. If you can take a moment to read below and maybe send an email I will love you forever and ever.

I received this email from my SIL, a Forensic Investigator for Sacramento Police Dept. this morning:

I need your help!

The City of Sacramento is proposing to make disastrous cuts to law enforcement, including replacing fourteen Crime Scene Investigators positions (such as mine) with sworn officers. I have worked for this department for 10+years. My co-workers and I are passionate, dedicated employees. We are all highly trained individuals that have processed thousands of crime scenes, hundreds of homicides, and have been a critical component of countless convictions. We have an extensive amount of experience, education and training. In order to be adequately replaced by a sworn officer it would take a great deal of not only money but time also.

I know some of you aren’t residents of the City of Sacramento but you may work or spend time in the city. These proposed cuts will affect you too. Sacramento is the 2nd most violent major city in California, and with these cuts, there will no longer be investigations for burglaries, vehicle accidents, and many misdemeanors crimes. As I am also a visitor of Sacramento, the thought of being a future crime victim worries me, especially knowing that the Sacramento Police Department most likely will not be able to investigate the crime.

With the popular CSI television shows, and the jury expectations of CSI, the forensic field has come such a long way over the last few years. The way our crime scene diagrams are now computer generated, the quality/quantity of our crime scene photographs, the detailed and descriptive reports, the complete processing of a variety of crime scene from burglaries to homicides, and the expeditious results when it comes to fingerprint identification, are just a few examples. It would be a shame for crimes not to be thoroughly investigated or not investigated at all.

I’m desperately asking for your help. Some of you may have been victims of crime yourself or know someone who has. Please think of how the Sacramento Police Department/CSI helped you.

Please email, call, and/or write to your City Council member and plead for them to reconsider these drastic cuts (especially for the Forensics Unit). Feel free to forward this email to anyone who you think would like to support the Sacramento Police Department’s CSI (Forensic Investigators).

http://www.cityofsacramento.org/council/index.html (If you don’t know who your city council member is through this link you can find out by typing in your address).

http://admin-101.granicus.com/content/sacramento/10-eComment%20InformationSheet.pdf

The city council meeting that affects the police department’s budget will be May 17th. If you could please send your support before then, it would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Sincerely,

Megan
Forensic Investigator
Sacramento Police Department

Wedding Wednesday: Cake Stand

It's still Wednesday on the West Side and I am having trouble falling asleep with wedding stuff on the brain so I might as well post this.

Look what I made:

I used 4 different sized round cake boards and covered them in black foil, 3 different sizes of styrofoam cylinders also covered in black foil, and then hot glued fuchsia ribbon around the edges.

It should be big enough to hold our small top cake and 70 cupcakes all made by my lovely SIL.  It's my only DIY project for the wedding as I'm not very crafty.

What do y'all think?

Wedding Wednesday: The Dress!

Don't worry, folks.  That is not my dress.  I wouldn't go blasting it all over the interwebs before the big day!  I do, however, have my dress in my possession.  I mentioned a few weeks ago that it had come into the store, but for some reason I was stalling on going in to try it on.  I finally went last Friday and...

It's WAY too big on me!

So, back in October when I tried the dress on and got measured for it, I was still taking birth control pills (which were not only making me nuts, but apparantly also making me gain weight).  The sample dress was a size 12 and fit perfectly aside from being a little snug on my "birthin" hips (as my step-dad calls them), so I thought it would be best to order a size 14.  Now, unlike most women, I did not freak out when I heard the number 14.  I understand that dress sizes are different than regular clothes sizes, and I am very comfortable knowing what my regular clothes size is.  So, 6 months ago, I ordered a 14.

Shortly after that I realized what the BC pills were doing to me, even though I have been on several different forms of BC over the past however many years and never noticed side effects from them, I decided to stop taking them and immediately dropped 5-10 lbs.  Not to mention I have also been in the gym going hard instead of going home since late January.  The combination of these two things = giant dress.

The lady at the dress shop that was helping me asked when my wedding date was (June 26th) and then acted like the alterations lady was going to be mad at me that I hadn't called yet to get on her schedule.  Well, guess what?  I called this morning and she doesn't even want me to come in until May 27th.  This kind of makes me nervous since everything I read says you should have your initial fitting 6 weeks out, but whatever.  This woman works closely with all the brides from my dress shop and from what the dress shop says, she is really good at what she does and fairly priced.

I will have to have it taken in a lot and hemmed, a lot.  I am also going to forgo the undergarment and just have her build a support system into the dress.  I sure hope these alterations don't break the bank.  I can't wait to try the dress on when it actually fits me...like a glove.

Former brides:  Anything I need to know going into the initial dress fitting?

Body By Groupon/Living Social

Disclaimer:  No I am not being paid to write this post.

Now, on to the rest of it...

I can't recall when I actually joined Groupon and started taking advantage of their deals.  I think it was last year when the boot camp I found at a bridal show put one out.  Since then I have come across many great deals, but mostly on fitness programs that I would otherwise be unable to afford.  It's been a great way to get back into shape and figure out what works for me and what doesn't.  The following are some of the deals I have gotten:

Downtown Adventure Boot Camp - 1 month of camp (3 days/week) for $20, normally $150
The Dailey Method (Barre Method) - 3 classes for $15, normally $18 per class
California Family Fitness - 1 month family membership, 2 personal training sessions, 4 tanning sessions for $39
Bikram Yoga - 10 class card for $25, normally $100
Prime Time Boxing - 30 minute one-on-one training session, 45 minute group session, jump rope for $25

Obviously the idea behind these deals is to get you in the door, get you interested, and get you coming back for more.  I ended up doing a few months of the downtown boot camp, a month of The Dailey Method, and a month of the Prime Time Boxing (I still haven't tried the yoga).  I might revisit some of these places once the wedding is over and we have some cash flow again.

A few months ago I stumbled upon Living Social.  This is another similar site with amazing deals.  Last week I came across a 6-week bootcamp that is actually in the area where I live.  Normally $129, the camp was on living social for only $35.  I'm using it as my last chance workout to keep me motivated before the wedding/honeymoon madness kicks in.  It started last night, so I will keep you posted on how the first week goes.  It's three days a week, so I can probably work in some cardio on my off days.

During one of my training sessions with California Family Fitness, I joked with my trainer that I had become quite the Groupon whore when it came to fitness.  He told me that I need to get a "Body By Groupon" shirt and that I should write Groupon and tell them about it.  Hmmmmm...

Are you subscribed to Groupon or something like it?  Have you scored any amazing finds?