I found this on my phone today...

...along with a text caption that reads, "Kurt Cobain is dead. This is special."

The Edible Symbol of Our Love

In my post yesterday, I mentioned that all the girls who came to the sorority BBQ had been in my wedding. It's true, Carrie, Kelly and Sara were 3 of my 4 bridesmaids.

I'm sure that part of the reason that I thought of this was because I have been thinking about my wedding lately. Our 5th Anniversary is quickly approaching! On Friday we will celebrate 5 years of wedded bliss.

In honor of our big day, I dug out some old photos. Today I'm going to post some pictures from our Rehearsal and Rehearsal Dinner.

Three Bridesmaids: Katie, Kelly and Carrie
I still want to know where Sara was when this picture was taken.

Sara, Carrie, Me, Kelly, Katie
Sarah

Chris, Kevin, Kris, Kyle
John, Sean, Me, Kevin, Ashish, Mike
Caleb

Good gracious! We definitely had more boys than girls in our wedding party. That's because Kevin had four groomsmen to match my four bridesmaids, and then we each have two brothers.

Come to think of it, there were more boys than girls at the sorority BBQ this weekend, too! That's because there were four sorority sisters, three husbands and four little boys. In fact, the girls were outnumbered nearly 2 to 1. We just seem to have more boys around.

The Groom's Cake

We had our Rehearsal Dinner at Buca di Beppo. It was fun and casual (even though we were all dressed up) and perfect for a large Italian family gathering. We brought our own Groom's cake.

The Groom's cake. Doesn't it just look wonderful? It was!

We didn't save the top layer of our wedding cake for our first anniversary. We're the kind of people that like to have our cake and eat it too, so we decided to serve the whole cake at our wedding, and we planned to order a smaller version of our wedding cake for our first anniversary, so that it would be fresh. Well, a year after we were married, we did order a new cake from our baker, but instead of getting a replica of our wedding cake, we ordered a smaller version of the Groom's cake.

And on our second anniversary, we ordered another one. This has become our signature cake. If you wanted an edible symbol of our love, this cake would be it.

Our 3rd and 4th anniversaries passed with no chocolate-dipped strawberry-covered chocolate cake, I'm sad to say. There were other varieties of chocolate and strawberries, though.

But this year will be different. This year we will return to our roots, and eat our traditional cake.

A Study in Perspective: Annual Sorority BBQ

Glass Half-Empty Version:

We hosted the annual spring BBQ for my sorority this past Saturday. It was the 5th year that the event took place at my house. But honestly, it was something of an experiment, as the alumnae had gotten wind of a total sorority meltdown during the past year...I guess all the girls got in a huge fight and no one is talking to each other. No one was even planning the spring picnic at all, so I went ahead and did it. I was pleased, though, when I sent out the invites, as I had a pretty good response.

But no one showed up.

We had too much food.

We got rained on.

BBQ. Fail.

*************************************************

Glass Half-Full Version:

We had a BBQ on Saturday with a few of my best friends. You know, the kind that were in our wedding and whose company is enjoyable no matter what you are doing.

(Carrie snuck out before we snapped her picture. And she looked totally cute in her green top and brown skirt.)

Connor and Lex had a ton of fun playing with their friends, Ethan and Noah. All the boys are finally old enough to play together.


We had plenty of food (and beer!) for everyone, and the sun shined for a better part of the day!

Flashback Friday: AOE Spring BBQ Edition

2006

2007

2008

I can't find a group picture from last year's party! Did we not bother to take one?

Also, I can't believe that this year will be the 5th BBQ that we've had at my house already!

The Summer BBQ Season Has *Officially* Begun

Our 2009 Summer BBQ Season had it's official beginning this past Saturday, when we hosted the annual Alpha Omega Epsilon Senior Send-Off and Alumnae Reunion. (Try fitting all that on a t-shirt.)


Here is Connor, sitting at the kids table. Sadly, he was the only one who was both small enough and big enough to sit there this year. Next year, hopefully E and N will be able to join him.


Here are E and N, trying out Connor's chair. Poor E, Connor kept almost knocking him over while trying to get a better look. I love their "Got Twins" t-shirts.


Then, Connor decided that it was his turn with the camera. This is his photograph of E. I think he's getting better with the camera.

Really Sweet

My sorority sister made this incredibly cute hat for Connor. Her name is Really and her maiden name is Sweet. She has sisters named Truly, Very, Always and Forever. They really are a Sweet family.

On a related noted, another one of my sorority sisters, Carrie, got a bunch of us a knitting class for Christmas. We are going to start to learn soon, and hopefully I will be able to make Connor a scarf or a sweater to match this hat sometime in the near future.

2007 Spring Picnic

Last year, we held the annual spring picnic for my sorority at my house, and it worked really well, so we hosted the picnic again this year.

This is a picture of all the girls, and it was taken right before a huge downpour started and we all ran inside. Someone actually had the good sense to think to suggest to take the picture before the storm, and then everyone produced a camera and Kevin and Jason snapped this picture over and over. This is the version from my camera.

The picnic was a good time, even if we did spend most of it indoors, first because it was too hot, and then because it was raining.

Other than that, Kevin has been home with me so far this week, as he is sick. He went to the doctor yesterday, and he seems to have the flu. He's been trying to stay away from me, and so far, I haven't gotten sick, which is a good thing.

I think that's it for now!

Virginia Tech Shooting

So, even though I've been trying to avoid the news coverage of this tragedy (which is hard, because it is everywhere) because the newscasters are making it so sensational, I've found out that one of the people who was killed was connected to me, in a way, even though I had never met her.


Maxine Turner was a founding member of a chapter of my sorority at Virginia Tech. I was a founding member of the chapter of my sorority at Ohio State. I can only imagine what the other sisters there must be feeling.


So far, it's been a bad month for my sorority, as one of the alumnae members of my chapter passed away about a week or two ago from a drug overdose. I can't recall ever hearing about any other sorority members passing away before this, as they would put information like that in the national newsletter.


Here is a link to a profile for Maxine Turner:

http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2007/virginiatech.shootings/victims/profiles/maxine.turner.html

I love this picture!

I didn't even know this picture from the 2004 AOE date party existed until recently, when my friend Sara posted it on her Facebook account, but I love it!

I can't get over how much younger Kevin and I look, even though it was only 3 years ago.

Other interesting tidbits: This sorority date party was held at Bexley's Monk, and it was a really good time. The food there is great, too!

First Picture from Sorority Formal

I stole this picture from Jenn's MySpace page, but I feel that I am entitled to conduct such theft because:

1. She promised to send me copies of the pictures she took when she figured out how to get them off her camera because I forgot mine at home that night;

2. It is a super cute picture; and,

3. I'm in it with her!

Anways, this is a picture from the Sorority Formal that was in April, and that is me with Jenn. As you can see from the redness of my cheeks and chest, Kevin was buying me Cosmos that night to drink.

Kittens!

Well, the sorority bbq was a success!! I'll post pictures when I get back to work this week, as it is easier to upload them on my pc at work than it is to upload them on my laptop at home.

But, one of my sorority sisters discovered a litter of kittens in our backyard. I think that the mother must have just moved them there recently, or maybe I just missed them before. I looked up some information about kittens online, and I am guessing that they are between 2 and 3 weeks old. There are four of them.

Our next door neighbor feeds stray cats, and there is quite a colony of kittens going on. Last summer there was a litter of 6 when we moved in, and now one of them has had a litter of 4. I can only imagine how many there will be by the end of the summer. I haven't seen a bunch of the other cats lately, and now I think they might be hiding with their own litters. I guess we shall see when the kittens get older.

Anyways, one of the kittens in this litter hasn't opened one of its eyes yet. I'm afraid it might be a serious genetic problem, as there was one like that last summer that never opened one of its eyes. I think it finally died. I'm still considering what to do about this cat.

In fact, I'm considering what to do about the un-fixed cat colony as a whole. There is a program with a hotline that we can call to report our neighbor for feeding and keeping cats outside that aren't fixed, and they will come, trap the cats, fix them, and then return them.

I might just have to go meet this neighbor and talk to him about the cats. I'm sad to say that I've never really had a conversation with him yet, and he lives right next door, and we've been here almost a year.

So, I'm thinking about it all. But the kittens are really cute. Anyone want one in a few weeks?

My Weekend was Good

Friday:

The sorority formal was a great time! It was held at Confluence Park, and coincidentally, my old high school (CAHS) was there that night, too, having their prom! I stopped in to see if I knew any of the teachers that were chaperoning the dance, and I saw a couple that I knew:

Mr. Fawcett, my old chemistry teacher and The God of the Theater, remembered me and was very pleased to meet my husband. He was totally cool about us being there for the formal.

Senora Condron (Spanish teacher), recognized me, but was totally confused about why I was at prom with my husband. But, she was nice enough to Kevin.

Mr. Ramsey, the art teacher at CAHS, didn’t recognize me at all, and he didn’t have any interest in talking to anyone who wasn’t another teacher, so he very quickly brushed Kevin and I off with a “Have a Nice Prom!” (I only ever took one art class, so I can’t really blame him for not realizing that I wasn’t actually at prom…also, I guess that means I still have all of my youthful beauty, although I would prefer it if my youthful beauty was a little bit more like a 20-something, and not a teenager.)

I saw Mr. Wieland and his wife after that, but since I only ever took government with Mr. Wieland, and I was already miffed about Mr. Ramsey telling me to have a nice prom, I didn’t stop to talk to them before heading back to my sorority formal. I guess Jimmy V (Mr. Velo) was there, too, but I didn’t see him.

I forgot to bring my camera to the formal, so I don’t have any pictures yet. But, my brother was there as one of my sorority sister’s dates, so he let me borrow his camera for the night. I am hoping to get copies of pictures from him when he develops his film, and copies from a few other girls who did bring their cameras. When I do, I will be sure to post them!

Saturday:

Golfing was a blast!! We played 18 at the Gahanna Municipal Golf Course, which only has nine holes, so the back nine are just the front nine played over again. I did better the second time around. I even landed a ball on the green off the tee on a par three hole, and I was super happy and proud of myself. But then, I three-putted it into the hole, which sucks. By the second time around, I was really tired and totally sunburned. I am glad that I got to play, though.

The next time we go out, I think I only want to play 9. And, I would love to play a par three course. This course was a little hard. There were only two par three holes, and the rest were par four and fives.

After we were done golfing, we went over to Don Pablos for dinner, since it was actually my mom's birthday. I love Don Pablos, so that was good.

Sunday:

Church was packed on Sunday!! Pastor Dan was really excited, too, and he kept jumping from subject to subject. He has been running a little bit long lately, and instead of stopping at noon, he has been stopping closer to 12:25 and 12:30. But, he managed to end right at 12:00 this week.

We went out for dinner (Cheeseburger in Paradise) to celebrate my mom’s birthday on Sunday (since Chris wasn't with us the day before), and she really liked the gift we got for her. We bought her a Pyrex Portable set, which consists of a baking dish, lid and carrying case with both hot and cold packs. (It was something that she really wanted, trust me. I got one for our wedding, and it is fabulous, and she was jealous.) We also got her an ice cream cake from Dairy Queen, because those are the best!

I was a little bummed out on Sunday because I was so tired from golfing the day before that I kept falling asleep (thankfully not in church), and also because I was too sunburned to wear the new sun dress that I bought last weekend. I was so bummed out about not being able to wear my new dress that I just wore jeans to church (but so did Kevin, so it was alright).

Finally, after we got home, Kevin and I watched Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, which was a good movie, even if it was totally a chick flick that made me cry.

I'm a happy girl

Last night, I hung out with a new Alpha Omega Epsilon candidate, Janeen, at Panera. I love Panera, and I also love Janeen. I am really glad that she is joining the sorority, and I was glad to be able to help her fulfill her alumnae interview requirement. We had a good time chatting, and I was very happy to learn that she is recently engaged! Her boyfriend proposed last Sunday, so we were able to talk about wedding stuff, which is another thing that I love.

After I got home, Kevin and I went for a bike ride on our new bikes. The Blacklick Creek Greenway Trail is really close to our house, so we went for a ride on that. We started in the middle of the trail, and we rode it all the way to one end and back. We were gone for about an hour! The trail is lovely and the woods are beautiful. We passed a lake where some people were fishing, and it looked like they were catching some yellow perch (see how I pretend to know all about fishing?). Anyways, a good portion of the trail has been completed, but it is going to be much longer, and branch off in more directions. We've been reading about it in the local paper, and at first, we were surprised that the project was so expensive (something like $3M-$4M, if I remember correctly). But, after riding the trail last night, I can see why it would be so expensive, and it is totally worth it, because they are doing a beautiful job.

I was really proud of myself yesterday, because I made dinner for Kevin in the morning, and put it in a crock pot, so that it would be ready to eat when he go home, even though I wasn't going to be home right after work because I was going out with Janeen. I had a little bit of it when I got home, and it was pretty good, too!

Tonight is the sorority formal, and I am super excited about that, too! I'll try to take lots of pictures and post them online. Come to think of it, I'll also take pictures this weekend when we go golfing (the weather looks like it is going to be beautiful) and when we celebrate my mom's birthday on Sunday. :)

A Farm Kinda Weekend

Well, on Saturday, I bought a dress for my upcoming sorority formal, but I don't know whether or not I'm going to actually wear it. I might return it and wear one that I already had, as I had forgotten that I owned it, and Kevin recently reminded me. I have yet to decide.

But, the new one is black, with an empire waist and spagetti straps. Above the empire waist part, the material is a nice green color. The dress is tea length (which means that it hits at the bottom part of my knee), and it has a nice tulle underskirt, so it's nice and full and flirty. I really do like it, but I have another dress that I could wear that I also really like, and I've only worn that one once. Sigh...decisions, decisions.

In general, I think people should invite me to more parties where I can wear party dresses, so that when I do get to wear one, it isn't such a big decision.

I also got my hair cut on Saturday, so it's all the same lengths now (even though I have layers in it) and it looks much better. Even though I got about 3 inches cut off for the summer weather, it's still pretty long, and it looks pretty much the same as it did before, just nicer.

Kevin and I went to Sara and Jason's house on Saturday night, and we had some smoked ribs, and Sara and I worked on putting together scrapbook pages. It was a ton of fun, although I'm not sure what Kevin and Jason got into while we were busy with girl stuff. I think I finished about 10 pages or so, so I made some pretty good progress on my wedding scrapbook.

I'm going to put working on my wedding scrapbook on hold for a bit, though, so I can work on my grandparent's 50th anniversary gift first. I'll pick the scrapbooking back up after that, and I hope to have the scrapbook finished by the end of the summer.

On Sunday, Kevin and I went to Sarah and Isaac's farm, and we saw their pig and chicks. Kevin is going to help Isaac build a chicken coop sometime in the near future, and he may even help with building a new fence so that they can bring home the horse and cows that they have purchased. They live even more in the country than we do, and they are going to have eggs and milk on their farm for themselves now. They have a whole patch of asparagus in their field, and they can't get rid of it. Apparently asparagus is really hard to kill off, which may be good, since I really like it. I'm thinking I might plant a bit of that in our backyard, along with some strawberries, this spring. (I haven't asked Kevin for his opinion about that yet, so I don't know for sure whether or not I will.)

Bacardi Gras

On Friday night, Kevin and I went to a Bacardi Gras party that one of my sorority sisters was having. We also invited some of Kevin's old roomates, and we partied like we were 21! Except, we aren't 21 anymore and some of us (I won't say who - but it wasn't me!) spent a ton of time in the bathroom at the bar (because we had to leave the party and go to the bar in order to really party like we used to) throwing up. Then, we ended up sleeping on a futon at one of my other sorority sister's places and eating lunch at McDonald's for breakfast. It was fun, but I'm almost glad that I'm getting to old to do that all the time. It's exhausting. I did have a really good time hanging out with my ladies, though. I am really excited about having a big BBQ this summer for all the actives and alums so that we can all get together. The best thing about it will be that it will happen at my house, so I'll get to sleep in my own bed even if I am too drunk to drive. (That futon wasn't very comfortable, but I don't know if any futon really ever is.)

Hooray for Three Day Weekends!

Friday night Kevin and I went with my sorority and Triangle frat to Magic Mountain to play laser tag for my sorority's date party. It was so much fun! I forgot how much fun it is to play laser tag, and I think it was really good because everyone we were playing with was our age, so we didn't have to worry about running any little kids over. Kevin totally beat everyone, but I was on the winning team, so I didn't mind.

Yesterday, Kevin and I bought some filing cabinets so that we could get our office area organized. They are made of wood, and we had to assemble them ourselves. We got both of them put together last night, after which we realized that one of them had a huge scratch on the top of it. So, we took it back to the store, fully assembled, and exchanged it for another one, which we are going to put together right now!

Thursday

So far, today has been a completely ordinary day. Actually, last night was a pretty quiet evening as well.

Kevin and I had pasta and garlic rolls for dinner, and we did dishes and laundry. He did some reading while I went to the grocery store for a quick trip (bread and apples) and to fill my car up with gas. Then, since he was still reading when I got home, I finished up the second Magic Kingdom of Landover novel, The Black Unicorn. The whole story is about how frustrated the king, Ben Holiday, is with figuring out the spell that the wizard Meeks has cast on him, so it was really frustrating to read, and it took me forever to finish. I kept picking up other things to read instead.

Then, today, I went to lunch with Sara at Grinders where I ran into Courtney, but I still feel like today has been kind of a blah day. I think that may be because it is raining. Even though there is going to be crappier weather tomorrow (cold and snow), I think it will be a more exciting day.

Kevin and I are going to go to my sorority's date party, which involves laser tag and should be a ton of fun. I haven't seen some of my sorority sisters in forever, and I'm really looking to catching up with them. Or at least getting drunk and shooting things. (Apparently, there is going to be both a pre-laser tag keg and a post-laser tag keg. I hope there is something good in the keg, for Kevin's sake. I'll be bringing wine coolers or mudslides, or maybe a bottle of something else entirely.)

Which reminds me. How lame is Dick Cheney (don't get me wrong, I really like Bush and Cheney, and I don't want to get into any type of political debate with anyone)... but, the last time that one of our American Vice Presidents shot someone, it was when Aaron Burr killed Alexander Hamilton in a duel in 1804. (Ahh...1804...that was a good year.) That was totally intentional, and so much cooler than accidentally hitting an elderly lawyer in the face and chest with buckshot while hunting quail. I mean, who hunts quail these days anyway? With buckshot? And an elderly lawyer?!

What ever happened to the good old days where people solved their differences by dueling with pistols? As Red Foreman once said, "If you aren't mad enough to bare-knuckle box, then you aren't mad."

I guess that maybe I'm feeling blah today because I don't feel the need to bare-knuckle box or pistol duel with anyone over anything. Sigh. But tomorrow, people will be shot with lasers. I'm looking forward to that.