My first (wedding) shower!

My first wedding shower was held in Alton on July 13th (the day after my birthday). It was great! A family friend hosted the shower at her house. The attendees were all from Alton, excepting my cousin (bridesmaid) and aunt who drove in from Ohio.

The cake was based on the design of the shower invites that said "Showers of joy..." They thought it was cute with my last name. :-) I think the baker must have scanned in the invite, enlarged the picture and words, and laminated them to put them on the cake. It was delicious. I love white cake!

Photo of me and my 2 bridesmaids. My sister, Shannon, is on the left. She's the MOH. Yep - we look nothing alike. On my right is my cousin Kristin.


Photo of me with 2 of my good friends. Anna is on the left and Alison is on the right. Anna and I have known each other since we were about 5. I've known Alison since 6th grade. They are going to be readers at the ceremony.


Alison didn't get the memo about colored shoes. All 3 of us happened to wear black and white. Anna had pink shoes and mine were red.


We had a yummy lunch of chicken salad sandwiches, pasta salad, mini quiches (spinach and bacon), and salad.


My sister got me a little crown that I had to wear while opening my gifts.

My mom and my sister made yummy butter cookies as part of the favors for the guests. They also got lotion from Bath and Body Works. We decided on sweet pea because I am going to have sweet peas in my bouquet. (My umbrella cookie broke on the way back to my house.)


My work shower is coming up later this month. I can't wait!

Invites are out!

We actually sent the invites out over a week ago. I just haven't had time to post about them.

Here is the front of the pocketfold with the band around it.


Main invite inside

Reception card


RSVP card



I bought a calligraphy pen that came with a little book telling how to make the letters. It didn't have cursive in there, so I just printed. It looks nicer than my regular writing. Apparently several people asked my mom who did the writing on them. :-)


I don't know why this one look kind of orange. It's the same color - white.

Hair trial

Last week, I went to get my hair dyed and trimmed. The stylist also did a trial for my wedding hair. It was ok, but I don't think it's exactly what I want. The dye didn't take right in my hair, so I'm going back today (right after my make-up trial) to get the top a little darker. I asked if we could do another quick trial, this time without the curls. I thought I would like them, but not on me.

Side view. I like the poof on the top.


Back view. The top is really poofy here and the bottom is small. I think I just want a simple chignon.


Another back view:


I want something more along the lines of the styles below. Simple and classic. I won't be wearing a hair comb in my hair during the ceremony because I have my mom's gorgeous cathedral length, Belgium lace veil. I think I'm going to buy a hair comb, though, to put on for the reception.

Shoes!

I love shoes. I have WAY too many pairs, but that's ok. This post is dedicated to my wedding shoes. I've had them for a little while and forgot to post about them.

I wanted fairly traditional shoes for the wedding, but I didn't want white shoes. I wanted to get a pair I would actually wear again. Since there is some silver thread and light beading on my gown around the waist, we decided silver would look nice. These are Naturalizer, so they have a little extra padding in them compared to most heels. I also bought some foot petals to put in to help.



Next are my reception shoes. I love the photos of the bride showing her colored shoes and the groom showing his colored socks. (Still working on the socks - haven't seen any yet.) My FI is Taiwanese, and red is a lucky color to the Tiawanese, so I thought it would be fun to get some red shoes.

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Since they're a wedge, they're comfier than heels that are that high. I'm probably going to bring a pair of flip flops along just in case I need them.

Surgery

Yesterday morning I went in for my tonsillectomy. It is so odd being awake, feeling fine, and then next thing you know - they're waking you up telling you it's over!

I did well at first. No nausea when I had some ice chips or a popsicle. However, when I stood up to change into my clothes several hours later, I was feeling REALLY nauseous. It got better when I sat down, so I was fine on the car ride home. However, just getting in the house from the car made me really nauseous again. They said it's because a bit of blood gets in your stomach. Luckily, I've only been nauseous once today. I was able to talk yesterday, even, without pain. We think that's because some of the anesthetic was still in me, as well as the morphine they gave for the pain.

Today, though, my throat is hurting more (even with 2 different kinds of pain meds). It really hurts to swallow and to talk. I've also had the hiccups twice today, which really doesn't feel good, either! Coughing hurts, too! :-(

The ENT said my tonsils were really infected (lovely) and that they also took my adenoids, because I guess they were really large. Adenoids can also cause excess mucous production, which I have had problems with. It should help that and hopefully help with me not getting so many sinus infections. Yeah!

My mom ended up staying over last night because I had to get up every 2 hours to take pain meds. FI offered to stay, but he had to work today. My mom didn't, so it made more sense for her to get up with me throughout the night. I'm using my cell phone to set an alarm for every 2 hours. Between being sleep because I'm getting up every 2 hours and the medicine making me sleepy, I'm sleeping quite a bit!

FI was sweet and brought over some of my favorite flowers - purple tulips. He even brought my mom and bouquet for taking care of me. How sweet!

How cute!

My sister introduced me to LOLCats a while ago. It is one of my favorite blogs to read (Icanhascheeseburger.com) They always make me laugh or go "Awww!" Apparently they have one for dogs now, too. I'm a cat person, though, so I stick with these. Here's a few. Hopefully they'll make you at least smile! :-)


I saw this one the other day and thought it was so adorable! I want that kitten!






This is like my cat. She loves to sit in all kinds of things. Her favorite, though, is boxes and paper grocery bags. She especially enjoys sleeping in a box in which she BARELY fits.

Body Pump

Donna (who doesn't have a blog...hint, hint) and I went to Body Pump tonight at Club Fitness. The class is 1 hour of weight lifting - tons of squats, lunges, arms, crazy tricep exercises, biceps, etc. There is a small ab section at the end. Here's part of the entry on Body Pump from Les Mills website (the creator of the class):

BODYPUMP™ is the fastest way to shape up and lose body fat. It’s a toning and conditioning class with weights and is for just about everybody who wants to add strength training into their aerobic workout. The simplicity of the class makes BODYPUMP™ a great starting point to develop strength and confidence. Hot sounds and compelling choreography keep you going through each 45-minute or one-hour workout. You’ll use a step platform, a bar and a set of weights.

This website talks about the various parts of the class:

http://www.lesmills.com/midwest/en/members/bodypump/a-typical-class.aspx


It is a hard class! The first time we used only 1 small weight for the entire time. This time we did 2 small weights for some of the exercises. Our legs were shaking like crazy after all the leg exercises! The plan is to go again on Thursday evening, providing we're not still insanely sore! I highly recommend the class. I did way more reps than I would ever have done on my own.

I'm going to do some cardio and abs (about an hour total) tomorrow evening after my WW meeting. Hopefully I'll have a decent loss. We started back last week after being gone for a while. I met my 10% goal while we were gone. Woohoo! About 18 pounds left to my goal, although my ultimate goal would be to lose about 30 pounds.


I thought I'd post a picture, and this was one that came up when I Googled weight lifting. Um...disgusting!

Interesting cakes...

I found the blog Cake Wrecks the other day. I was scrolling through some of the old posts and found some very interesting cakes!

This first one isn't the most interesting of the few I'm posting, but I just thought it was bad that this was from an upscale bakery! Apparently they lost the customer's order. So, they grabbed another cake, wiped off the writing (notice the smear marks), and then piped on this message. Why did they put quotation marks around the message? And what is that word - congraniation?


Um...what is this? When would naked babies riding carrots ever be appropriate to put on a cake?!


Seriously?! For a baby shower? Why isn't the mom wearing a hospital gown at least? Not that it would still be really appropriate, but at least it would be a little better!




This one is just creepy! Yes, it's a cake.
I added this to my Google Reader so I can see more cake wrecks!

Please vote! Help me decide on my haircolor! (Sorry, another long post due to all the pictures.)

**Please vote! I'm going to a hair appointment on Wednesday, so need to make a decision by Tuesday evening.**

I'm really having trouble deciding what hair color to have for the wedding. I like the color right now, but I feel like it's too light for my natural skin color (or maybe just the wrong shade of blonde?). They say your hair color should enhance your natural color, not make you feel like you have to put on more make-up. Right now, I feel like I need to put on a lot of make-up. Here's my hair color right now. (No make-up - I wanted to show how the hair color is with my natural skin color.) I feel like my skin looks super pale and like the hair color doesn't help it.





This is the same hair color, but with make-up on. I still look super pale. The hair color doesn't seem to enhance or flatter my skin tone.

Here's the same hair color, but I had gotten a spray tan, so I was nice and tan. I think the hair color looks much better with my skin tone. However, I will not be this tan all the time, which is why I think I need to change the color a bit. The first one is with no make-up right after the tan (at my darkest).

This one is the day after. Still pretty dark, and I have make-up on. If I were this tan naturally, I would definitely keep the hair color as is. I think it looks great with tanner skin.


This is a school photo from last year, I think. I think the color is a little too dark here.


This is another school photo from 2 years ago (I think). I think the color looks good here.






Please help me decide! Please vote based on my natural (pale) skin, not the super tan me, as I will be pale pretty much all the time.

Which do you think looks best?

-Light color
-Dark
- Kind of in between (I think with a slight bit of red) - the last photos

SYTYCD (loooong post)

Yes, I know this first part is "so last week," but I haven't had time to post.

I am so mad that Mark is still on the show and Will had to leave! Will is an absolutely amazing dancer. I'm bummed I won't get to see him dance on the show anymore. Mark is ok, but I don't think he deserves to be in the top 6. That's my personal opinion, though. His style of dance is a little too weird for me.

My favorite season was last year - season 3. There are some good dancers this year, but I still love Danny, Sabra, and Neil from last year. (Will reminds me a lot of Danny, who also had amazing technique.) While he wasn't technically as good as the 3 I mentioned, I really liked Hok, too. His hair drove me nuts, though. FI took me to see the show last year. I wanted to get a pair of scissors and cut the super long parts of Hok's hair!

Overall, I like the routines from last year better than this year. More of them stick out as memorable to me. These are just a few of my favorites. There are a ton of great routines from last year, though!

This routine from Danny and Lacey was definitely one of my top favorites of the season. So sexy!



As for Neil, how could you not like him? His turns and leaps are insane! Pretty much every routine he did I loved. I absolutely loved the jazz routine he did with Sabra.



The intro before the hip-hop dance with Neil and Sabra is hilarious. Shane (the choreographer) said that Neil lacked sex appeal. (Seriously...is Shane crazy?!) Anyway, Neil said that asking him to be sexy is like asking Nigel to be British.



The contemporary dance with Neil and Danny was quite interesting, too.



They weren't my favorite dancers, but for some reason, I loved this routine.



This clip is from season 2. I loved it! Neither of them is even close to a hip-hop dancer.



I wish Shane Sparks didn't leave the show to go to America's Best Dance Crew. I miss his great hip-hop routines.

Does anyone know if there's anywhere to buy past seasons of the show? I would love to own seasons 2 and 3!