HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!!!

Oh yeah, and Merry Christmas to you!

Today I turn 30.  Three-to-the-oh.  Dirty Thirty.

I should be out celebrating, but it's Christmas, so I have no one to celebrate with except for the sad, lonely people that are at bars on Christmas Day.  Nothankyou. 

Why do people get so weird about turning 30?  Or birthdays in general.  Why is there this stigma attached to aging?  I don't get it.  Maybe I don't get it because I am so happy with my life and I feel like I am in an amazing place at this point in my journey and I can't wait to see what more is to come.  Maybe it's just people who think they should have done more or should be more by the time they hit this age that dread it.  I dunno.  What I do know it that I thought this would be a good time to reflect on everything the first 30 years of my life has given me...

• Wonderful and supportive family
• Realizing my love for reading at a young age
• Realizing my love for dance/performing
• Countless friends, some of which are still around from way back when and a few amazing ones I picked up a little later in life
• Steady and continuous employment since the age of 15
• Amazing camping trips
• A couple of trips to Hawaii
• Many trips to Vegas
• A couple of trips to the East Coast
• A few cruises
• The loss of too many friends and a few family members
• Falling in love a few times
• Having my heart broken once or twice
• An Associates Degree
• A Bachelors Degree
• A Masters Degree
• Employers that let me work around my school schedule
• A Honda Accord
• A VW Jetta
• A Scion TC
• Owning my first home at 21 years old
• The ability to purchase another home at 28 years old
• Confidence in myself and my abilities
• A lot of debt that I was able to pay off a couple of times and rack back up again (Yay America!)
• Tens of thousands of life lessons
• The experience of a sorority (AXO for life!)
• A couple of minor car accidents
• The privelege of being engaged...twice
• The strength and wisdom to follow my heart and end the first engagement
• The ability to bounce back from that and find love again
• Getting married to a man I love more and more each day
• Becoming an Auntie
• A commitment to health and wellness
• Travels to Europe
• An awesome blog community
• Being a Matron of Honor
• Seeing some of my best friends find happiness in life and love
• Countless other experiences for better or for worse

It's been an amazing thirty years and I can't even imagine what is coming my way in the next thirty.  I hope to strengthen all of the relationships I have and maybe even make a few more.  Who knows?  Thank you for being a part of my journey.

Friday Funny: From My Honey

Unlike me, JB has the day off today and was up this morning to make me breakfast and coffee before I left for work.  He usually leaves before me, so breakfast together on a weekday is unheard of in our household.  As we were sitting at the table eating our breakfast and watching the local morning show, a commercial came on for TJ Maxx and Marshall's.  It's a Christmas commercial that shows a bunch of people singing and doing choreography around a mall telling you why it's better to go to their stores than the mall.  It's pretty cheesy.  As the commercial is running, this comes out of JB's mouth:

"If I wasn't gay, I would probably be good at that."

As we both sat there and processed what he just said, and realize it at the same time, he says:

"I think that came out wrong.  I meant the opposite of that."

We.Were.Dying!!!  Laughing, crying, pounding the table, stomping our feet, DYING.

I'm pretty sure I have evidence from last year's Pigeons Christmas card to substantiate his first claim.  What do you think?

Merry Christmas Eve-Eve everyone!!!

Friday Funny - TMI Edition

This is a conversation had today between me and a friend over IM.  I wouldn't be surprised if I lost a few readers over this, but I was basically ROTFL so I need to share:

Me: I don't like it


Me: and I feel bloated


F: TMI


Me: I ate beach hut and chips for lunch

Me: so much salt



F: You realize I am not your husband right?



Me: and processed white bread



F: keep some things to yourself



Me: BFF



F: If that is what BFF means I think we can go ahead and end it

F: I don't tell you about how I had buffalo wild wings for lunch and my tummy is rumblin



Me: but I wouldn't care if you did

Me: cuz I am all in



F: Well in that case

F: I was crankin on the toilet, holy smokes. It was like a rainstorm with thunder and liquid spraying everywhere

F: Had to cough every time the thunder came so the guy in the next stall wouldn't have to hear it

F: Think I got some on my pants

F: Burned like fire coming out too

F :Man oh man

F: Had to check to see if there was smoke

F: There wasn't, don't worry



Me: OMG I am dying right now



F: You should have seen me on the toilet



Me: this is awesome!



F: Sweating all over the place



Me: I want to post this on my blog



F: Please do

F: Still BFFs


F: ?

 
Me: always

Oh What Fun!!!

So I might have jumped the gun a bit by sharing my story on Tuesday about my family's tradition with Christmas tree decorating, but I decided to link it up today over at I Love You More Than Carrots anyway.  Head on over there and see what kind of traditions she has in her family and link yours up if you want to play along!

Wedding Wednesday: Bridal Party

And now for pics of our gorgeous bridal party!  I love that our personalities show through in the group pics.  So hard to stay serious for two seconds.

 

 

 

 

 

Photographed by Trizza Grantham Photography

Oh Christmas Tree

We decorated our tree on the 4th, but as usual, I am a total slacker and didn't get anything up about it.  When I lived at home, and even after both my brother and I had moved out, my mom always wanted to go up to Apple Hill and find our tree and cut it down/decorate it as a family.  This usually required getting up really early on a weekend and sacrificing spending a whole day with the fam.  My brother would make chili and we would decorate the tree in the evening.

Over the years my parents moved closer to Apple Hill, but farther from me and my brother and it became more of a hassle to keep this tradition going with our busy schedules.  Last year JB and I bought a fake tree (I am not a fan of sap, bugs, or fire hazards) and I decided to have everyone over here and make chili and decorate the tree, once again reviving our tradition somewhat.  So they came over again on the 4th and we decorated the tree:

We don't have a tree skirt and it was off-balance so we had to stick some folded cardboard under one of the feet, which is why I cut off the bottom of the pic.  LOL!  This what we call Christmas Corner.  What do you think?

Weekend Wrap-Up & A Recipe

Friday night I went to a Christmas dinner party that my friends host each year.  JB and I made sure to reserve a room at their house since we knew there would be drinking involved.  We ate too much, drank waaaaaaay too much, had some Dance Central 2 battles (which I dominated, BTW), and made some great memories with great friends.  Of course I don't have any pictures to show for it.  FAIL.

Saturday morning I woke up pretty much hating life.  We had breakfast and I tried to choke down a bloody mary in hopes that it would make me feel better, but my headache would not go away.  Four hours, six ibuprofen, one bloody mary, one cup of coffee, and a water bottle later, I still felt like crap.  I knew I had to rally though because I still had my mani/pedi date with Mrs. Monologues.  She came and picked me up around 3:15 and I had managed to shower and make myself look somewhat presentable.  I felt better, but was still pretty tired and I'm sure I wasn't very good company.  Pictures, you ask?  Nope.  Not one.  FAIL.

Later that evening JB and I went over to his coworker's apartment to watch the UFC fights.  My headache had started creeping back in and my stomach was in no shape to be away from home, but I powered through it.  I took some Excedrin Migraine and had a few beers and managed to have a good time despite my condition.  The fights were AMAZING!  Bones Jones is a gangster and I was so glad to see Frank Mir get a W.  Hoping to see the Jones/Silva fight in 2012!

Sunday I woke up with my throat full of gunk, but I felt okay otherwise.  I laid in bed and caught up on Private Practice on the DVR and JB brought me Starbucks for breakfast.  I was excited to find out that they decided to switch to showing the Patriots game and got to watch the last half of the game and see the Pats get a W!  After the game ended I retreated back to the bedroom for some more DVR and didn't emerge until 3pm.

I decided to use the rest of the afternoon/evening wisely and prep some of my food for the week.  I cleaned/chopped/packaged a bunch of veggies to take for snacks:

I made some of Jamie Eason's Chicken Meatloaf Muffins and a pot of brown rice to take for lunches:

I also decided to make a new recipe for dinner, Butternut Squash Soup.  I have never made this before because I was not excited about peeling and cubing the squash, but I found a package of it pre-peeled and cubed at Costco for only $4.99 and it was the exact amount of squash that the recipe called for!  I had everything set out to take a before pic and totally forgot.  And then I was too hungry to remember to take a pic of the finished product, so the only pic I got was a during:

It was soooooooo yummy!  Here is the recipe I got from a friend of ours:
6 Tbsp chopped onion
3 Tbsp butter
6 cups butternut squash, peeled and cubed
1/2 tsp dried marjoram or parsley (I used parsley)
1/4 tsp pepper
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
8 oz. cream cheese (I used Horizon reduced fat)
3 cans (42 oz.) chicken broth (I used lower sodium, organic)
Salt to taste (I used a teaspoon)

• Saute onions in butter until tender
• Add all remaining ingredients EXCEPT cream cheese
• Boil 20 minutes or until squash is tender
• Puree squash and cream cheese in batches until smooth (I used the blender)
• Return to pot and heat through, but do not boil.

Since there isn't much substance to the soup, JB and I added some brown rice to it and had a couple of the chicken meatloaf muffins with it to add some protein.  I really like what the brown rice added to the soup.  JB actually put his chicken muffins into the soup, but I just dipped my pieces in there.  I can't wait to have it again for lunch!

How was your weekend?

Friday Funny



Nothing captures laughter like an LOL

Let me set the scene for you:

I'ts 5pm and I am waiting for the elevator to arrive on my office floor so I can head home.  In the foyer, near the elevator, is where we leave our items to be picked up by UPS.  We leave them in a stack right by the elevator and there are usually several items of varying size.  On this particular day, there is only one overnight envelope.

I have worked in this office for 4 years and we have had the same UPS guy as long as I have been here, so we often share the elevator and some small talk down to the lobby at the end of the day.  As the elevator arrives, I almost crash into the UPS guy as he is exiting.  We both laugh and I look over at our one little item to be picked up and I a say....

Wait for it......

Waiiiiiit foooooor iiiiiiit.....

"Looks like you have quite a large package today!"

Way to go Breezy.  Completely unintentional, but hilarious nonetheless.  He kind of laughs as I realize what I just said and I start uncontrollably laughing.  Needless to say, I didn't wait for him to finish scanning said package and join me in the elevator.  I just let the door close and laughed my ass off all the way to my car.

You're welcome.

New Layout!

My blate with Mrs. Monologues was AMAZEBALLS!!  So much so that we have another one scheduled this weekend to go get some mani/pedi action.  Which reminds me, I need to call and make appointments for us...

Anywho...

So yeah, we were talking about regular stuff, but we also talked about blogging, obviously.  Later that night she told me that she was going to make me a new layout.  24 hours later, I got this!  I just love it.  SO PINK!  And I have been wanting social media buttons and a picture header for so long!  What a dream come true!

What do you beezies think of the new layout?

Also, don't forget to change my URL in your reader to http://www.breezyinbloom.com/.  2 Legit 2 Quit round here!

PS, if you are wondering where our awesome, rambling, 10 minute vlog is...it's still on her iPhone.  She is having issues getting it to youtube, so when it's live, you will know about it.  Because I know you are all DYING to see how ridiculous we are in the middle of a sushi restaurant after two glasses of wine.

Wedding Wednesday: Details...and an Announcement!

No, I'm not pregnant.  Now you can take your time and look at the pics instead of rushing to the bottom to find out what I am announcing.  LOL!  It's okay, I do it too.

It's almost 6 months after my wedding and I am still posting these pics.  I wish I could be a super blogger like all of my favorites.  I just have too many things going on always and can't seem to be consistent.  Anyway, here are the pics of the little details of our big day!  We didn't have a ton of details because frankly, I didn't want to deal with coordinating all of that stuff or paying for it, but I loved what we did have.

  

Cake table.  Cake and cupcakes made by my SIL.

My shoes on top of the box our invitations came in.

  

My vows to JB.

My mom had this made for me from the gold and diamond she had melted down from her wedding ring from my dad.  She had it re-plated in white gold for me and it was my something old and my somethind new.

My hairpiece made by the lovely Regyna, along with some bracelets I didn't end up wearing.

These are the cuff links JB wore.  They have been passed down from pigeon to pigeon for each wedding.  The first one to get married bought them for the next and they have been worn by all of them :)

Borrowed these candleholders from Mrs. Awesome.  She used them at her wedding with a similar setup, so I basically stole her idea.

Card Box.  I bought the black and white damask print box at Michael's for $20 and then decorated it with pink bling and had my friend Monica help me with the engagment pic editing.

Placecards.  The Flower on some of them let the waiters know who had the veggie option :)

LOVED our guestbook!  There was a page for each guest to fill out with how they know you, where they traveled from, and advice for the couple.  They even had to draw a pic of themselves.  It was so much fun to read them after the wedding.

Since our first love connection was at The Palms Hotel in Vegs we did the table names in a Vegas theme.

Cupcakes for our guests

Pigeon Pin.  All the Pigeons wore them.  Read about The Pigeons here.

My garter

Bracelet and earrings on top of our cake stand

Instead of doing a slideshow we made a picture collage with our names.  His hame had all pics of him, mine of me, and our last name had pics of us together :)

 

Sweetheart Table



Close up of the cake topper made by Bling Diva Designs

 And now for the announcement.  Probably not as exciting for you guys as it is for me, but I am uber excited!!  This lovely couple recently got engaged...

That's them at my wedding :)

...and she has asked me to be a bridesmaid in their wedding!!!  These people have been part of my life since college and I am so happy that they are finally going to tie the knot.  I feel so honored to be asked to be a part of their big day!  Hooray!