Tagged again!

I was tagged by the lovely Sarah Danielle at Jeune Marie.

The "rules" are as follows:
1. Link to the person who tagged you.
2. Post these six rules on your blog.
3. Write 6 random things about yourself.
4. Tag 6 people at the end of your post and link to them.
5. Let each person you have tagged know by leaving a comment on their blog.
6. Let the tagger know when your entry is posted.

6 Random Facts about Aimee:

1. I have a grouping of freckles on my left forearm that looks like a 5 on a die.

2. When I was younger, I didn't like that my name was spelled differently. My best friend was a girl named Amy, and I wanted my name to be spelled like hers. I love that it is spelled the French way! (It means beloved in French.)

3. My dream has always been to be a "mom" when I "grow up." Funny story somewhat related: When I was little, I apparently asked my mom (who stayed at home with us) what she wanted to be when she grew up. Apparently, she didn't appreciate it!

4. I have turned down at least 4 brides for the weekend of my wedding. (Apparently the first weekend is really popular in St. Louis!) By turn down, I mean I've had to tell them I can't play the harp at their wedding.

5. My mom and I are a LOT alike. We both have played several instruments (I played 3 and she played 4). We both are good at foreign languages (she majored in French and German and minored in Spanish; I majored in French, took classes in German and Italian in college, and took a year of high school Spanish). We look alike (straight, brown hair and brown eyes). We're both pretty stubborn about some things. In contrast, my sister is not good at music or foreign languages and has almost black curly hair and hazel eyes.

6. My middle name is the same as a street in St. Louis. My initials (for a few more months) also happen to be the same as the high school I attended (Alton High School). It was incredibly annoying when people asked, "Do you know you have the same initials as Alton High?" Really? I hadn't noticed! My initials are also the same as the American Harp Society.


I am tagging:

Lauren (LiveLaughLove)
Darci (With This Ring...)
Maria (When In Rome)
Jennelle (The Fabulous Adventures of Jennelle)
Jamie (All Things Jamie)
Amber (Bad With Conviction)

Goodbye tonsils!

I went for my 6 month check-up with my ENT on Monday afternoon. I figured he'd just check my nose, ask how the allergy shots were going, and I'd be on my way.

Oh, no! He tells me I need to have my tonsils taken out! Lovely! Especially since I teach in a year-round school, and we've already started our school year.

Since my wedding is over our fall break, I'm going to have to miss some school. The surgery (yikes!) is scheduled for August 11th. I'll be out that whole week!

I was kind of proud of the fact that I'd made it to the age of 28 with my tonsils and appendix. I won't be able to say the same when I turn 29 next year.


**Yes, I know I've been a BAD blogger! With the start of the school year, I haven't been home much lately. The beginning of the year is always hectic and time consuming.**

My first shower

I had my first wedding shower earlier this month. It was fabulous! I'm waiting for my dad to send me the photos my sister took with his camera. (Ok, so I just asked him tonight, since I actually had a little bit of free time!) When I get the photos, I will post about the afternoon.

My work shower is scheduled for the end of August. Exciting!!

Spray tanning (long post)

I decided to try out spray (airbrush) tanning yesterday. I have my first shower today (Sunday) and thought I might as well try it out for that. I went to a place in St. Charles recommended by a few ladies on the boards. A couple owns the tanning salon, and the wife does the spray tanning.

I was SUPER dark when I left. It was pretty funny, actually. My teeth looked insanely white! They told me not to be alarmed at the color, because the top layer will wash off. It just helps them see where they've sprayed. It was funny to look at my pale skin that wasn't sprayed right next to the super dark tan.

Some of it did come off on my clothes. I was warned, though, and brought some old clothes I didn't care about with me. Make sure if you go, wear loose fitting clothing after. It will help the tan not to come off.

This morning I took a shower, approximately 16 hours after I was sprayed. A lot of color did come off, as they told me it would. I'm definitely tanner (which isn't hard, since I'm pretty fair skinned). It looks a little dark to me, but I think that's because I'm so used to being so fair. I haven't been even slightly tan in a LONG time! (My aunt and cousin who haven't seen me in several months - so they aren't as used to my super pale skin - liked the color and said it looked natural.)

My favorite part is my legs. I've been wearing some dresses and skirts lately, because they fit my body better than pants right now (due to my hips being significantly larger than my waist). Well, my legs pretty much never see sun, so they were even paler than the rest of me. I LOVE that they're tan now!

They even sprayed my face. My dad (and 2 aunts, nana, and cousin) stopped by this morning so my cousin could see my house. He commented that it looked liked I had a lot of make-up on. I don't have any more than usual. I think it just looks that way to him since my face is tanner than normal. (Plus, my mom doesn't wear make-up, so he's used to that.)

I'm curious to see how it fades in the next few days. I'm thinking maybe if I go on the Wednesday before, it will be a little faded by Saturday, but I'll still have some color. I'm going to try to remember to take photos so that I can see how it fades. I wouldn't go any later in the week than Thursday before the wedding, but that could leave me a little too dark.

Overall, I think it was a success. I'm pretty sure I'm going to do the spray tan either at this place in St. Charles or a place near West County Mall a few days before the wedding. I just don't want to look like a ghost in pictures with my pale skin and white dress!

Here are some pictures of before (super pale), right after (super tan!), and one day after (still pretty tan).



A few weeks ago after I lightened my hair.


Random before shot - I think I was looking at how my bangs looked on different sides...

Right after I got home. (Pardon the awful hair. I wasn't really doing anything important, so I just let it air dry and had it up in a ponytail. I wanted to see how it looked with my lighter hair color, so I let it down. Also, no make-up since I had just gotten back from being sprayed.)



Don't you love the blue painter's tape in the background? :-) We only got half the hallway painted. The tape is still up for the other half. Hopefully that will get done next weekend, along with the staining of the deck.


Two close ups right after I got home.


These are from Saturday, after I had taken a shower and the top layer of color washed off. I know I still look quite tan. I think the photos from Friday (right after) don't show quite how dark I was.

How well do you know your colors?

39

Created by OnePlusYou

I saw this on Yara's blog. I didn't even realize some of these colors existed! Tyrian purple, safety orange, and rose taupe? They're really colors?!

I think it's interesting that it doesn't accept any "neon" colors, like pink, yellow, and green.


PS - It's my birthday today! :-) I am getting closer and closer to 30...I'm 28 today.
PPS - This is my 100th post. I never thought I would reach that many posts!

What in the world is that?

Let me preface this entry by saying that I MUCH prefer Target to Wal-mart. (The Wal-mart by me isn't exactly the best. Luckily, they're doing a bit of remodeling and turning it into a Super Wal-mart.) However, Wal-mart is on my way home from school. I pass right by it. Target isn't exactly far away, but when it gets to be 4:30 pm or a little later, I run into a bunch of traffic getting to/from Target.



I stopped by Wal-mart after working in my classroom today to pick up a few things. I go up to the register, turn around, and am a bit startled. The cashier chuckled and said she was startled, too.



What startled us, you ask?
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A REALLY large service dog that was with a woman. I swear, looking quickly, the dog looked like a bear! (You couldn't see his face - just his massive body with brown fur.) Here is a picture similar to the woman's dog. The dog is a brown labradoodle. I had no clue they were so fluffy and big!




How cute are labradoodle puppies?!

The joys of owning a home

I have hardly had much time to be online the past few days. We started working on things around the house on Friday. My house now looks like a disaster zone! I would take pictures, but I think it's too embarrassing! The master bedroom furniture is scattered in a few rooms, the downstairs bathroom fixtures and table are downstairs, there are various tarps/brushes/paint cans around, there is blue tape on some of the walls...

Friday, my parents came over, as well as my sister and her boyfriend, for a late lunch. After that, we went to Home Depot to get the paint for the master bedroom and a cream color to repaint a good part of the house. The house is about 10 years old, and we don't think parts of it had been painted since it was built. Friday evening, we painted the downstairs bedroom.

Saturday, the guys (dad and FI) worked on cleaning and taking the stain off the deck while my mom helped me out with a wedding. The guys also cleared out the master bedroom. Our new bedroom set is arriving next week. (Yeah!) Late that afternoon, we put the primer on the master bedroom walls. FI made us a yummy dinner of a couple of Asian fusion dishes - spaghetti (with some soy sauce in it, and pork and beef) and pesto (with macadamia nuts instead of pine nuts).

Sunday, my parents had to take care of some things around their house. FI and I painted the master bedroom. It took us quite a few hours to do each coat, and we had to let it sit 4 hours in between. We were so tired in between that we laid on the couches downstairs and watched Flipping Out. We didn't finish until about 9 pm. We had a light dinner of left overs because neither of us was going to cook!

My mom came over yesterday to help with some more painting. We painted the small hallway outside the downstairs bedroom and painted the downstairs bath. Boy, painting in small spaces is not easy! I had to do a few touch-ups after we bumped into areas that were already painted! She deep cleaned the master bedroom carpet while I finished up painting downstairs. We also got half the upstairs hallway painted. We ran out of paint, so that will have to be finished another time.

I had never painted a room before today. My parents' house was built by my great-grandfather, who was president of a lumber company. There is wood paneling in every room except bathrooms, kitchen, and downstairs. We weren't able to paint the walls or anything when we were younger. I had no clue who tiring and time consuming painting is! I've woken up the past several mornings with sore arms and legs, feeling like I exercised a ton!

FI obviously enjoyed it, too. Sunday, he said, "Are we going to have to do this again when we have a baby? Paint it's room?" I was talking about what color drapes we should get for our room. I mentioned white might be good, because then if we change our bedding, the white would still match. He wasn't listening very well and said, "Change? We're not changing the color!" I don't plan on changing the paint color, either! I am not repainting that room again!

I will post pics after we have the bedroom furniture.

We didn't look quite this bed (we didn't use such vibrant colors), but we did have a lot of paint on our hands, feet, arms, and clothes!

Happy 4th!

Happy 4th of July! I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend.

Unfortunately, mine's not going to be overly fun. Today, we're going to go get the paint for the downstairs bedroom and paint it. If there's time, we will move the current master bedroom furniture down to that room. My sister, her boyfriend, and my parents are coming over for a late lunch.

We found out our master bedroom furniture needs to be delivered very soon. So, this weekend will also involve deciding on the paint color for the master bedroom. If time, we will start painting it as well, since it would make sense to paint it when it's empty. I have a wedding to play at on Saturday, too.

Not much relaxing going on this weekend, but that's ok. This stuff needs to get done!

What a mom!

I found this blog through another blog I was reading. This mom makes amazing lunches! I wonder how long they take her to make? I love the little containers she has in there to separate the foods and keep them from getting smushed.

Here are a few pictures of lunches:




After reading the blog more, I found that the containers came from here. I might actually order one (or two) of these. I feel bad about how many baggies I use, but the idea of washing them all to use again does not sound fun! I would have to go to Ellisville to buy them at a store, so I might order them.

Aimee needs...

I saw this over at Small Things Considered and thought it would be funny to see what comes up. Basically, the premise is that you type in your first name and the word “needs” in the google search. What follows is hilariousness and fun…. or something like it.

Here are my top 10 favorites (not in the order they appeared on gooogle):

1. Aimee needs: more hours in the day (This it definitely the truth! Between heading back to school in 1.5 weeks, playing at weddings and meeting with brides, planning my own wedding, taking care of my house...)

2. (Princess) Aimee needs: to go potty (Well, I've been drinking a LOT of water while I'm off school, so this is pretty true! I think the most I drank is 100 oz. one day.)

3. Aimee needs: our help (Well, my mom and sister have been helping with wedding related projects...)

4. Aimee needs: a neti pot. (I have one, actually!)

5. Aimee needs: to have longer hair. (It's driving me nuts already. I don't need it longer!)

6. Aimee needs: a vacation. (So true! Yes, I was off of school for a few weeks, but I could use a vacation where I get to go away somewhere for a while and not worry about things!)

7. Aimee needs: to get her a$$ kicked or go home. (This apparently is a comment about a gal on the show "Bad Girls" on Oxygen. I don't think it applies to me!)

8. Aimee needs: new fairy wings. (Haha! That implies that I have old fairy wings!)

9. Aimee needs: to stand on a box the next time we take a photo. (Well, I am kind of short.)

10. Aimee needs: more wine. (You can never have too much of a good thing!)

How cute are these?

Bakerella made her adorable cupcake pops with a 4th of July theme. They're adorable!