Ahoy, and other nautical expressions!

Today was good, and that's the truth.

A mini blog about food - one of my life's truisms that today sparks some excitement. Jake and I went to the caterer today and taste tested food for our wedding! We expected little samples of each item on the hypothetical menu, but the woman gave us a schmorgesborg of tastiness. I ate until I felt like I was going to die, and then I thought about licking my plate but due to the fact I already had a smudge of peanut butter on my pant leg from earlier I thought it wise to try and act like a lady... don't want Jake getting scared off, now do we?

The official menu is (drum roll please)

Appetizers of fresh fruit skewers with pina colada dip
BBQ meatballs (of the non-skanky variety)
Hot spinach artichoke dip

The real deal meal:

Rosemary pork tenderloin
Chicken breast stuffed with mushrooms, roasted red peppers and fontina cheese
Red skin mashed potatoes
Mac and cheese (thigh quiver)
Corn bread stuffing
Buttered corn
Green bean almandine
Italian pasta salad
Spring Mix salad (with fresh strawberries, mandarin oranges, asian noodles and amazing citrus vin)

Are you drooling yet? I AM! Ladies, don't get those dresses taken in too much, and fellas - make sure that belt has an extra hole on the end, because we mean business!

I love it when a plan comes together :)

DRINK ME

“Our battered suitcases were piled on the sidewalk again; we had longer ways to go. But no matter, the road is life.”

We left for New York Wednesday at 3:00 in the morning. It was exciting to ride the train – I had only ever ridden when I was little with my family. We packed WAY too much food… apparently the thought of being on the train for only eight hours, in the middle of the night, didn’t really register to me as a situation that only merited a snack. 30 dollars later, we finally got to Syracuse.

Courtney and Lily picked us up and we went straight into the city for lunch and wedding dress shopping. Jake stayed low key in a nearby café while we went to a boutique called Spybaby. It was pretty small, but they had a lot of beautiful dresses to choose from. The woman who was helping me was really nice at first, but about 15 minutes into the search Lily got out her Doritos and apparently the girl did not like that. Yea, Lou is pretty wild, but it’s not like she was going to trash the dresses with cheesy fingers. Courtney and I shot each other looks and just kept looking.

I tried on about 6 or 7 dresses… only really liked two. It is so funny how I could tell almost instantaneously if I was going to like a dress – as soon as I put it on. The dress we kept coming back to was made by Pronovias. It was definitely different – I don’t even know why I grabbed it off the rack. The halter neckline had a row of ruffles that added a lot of flare; the bodice was tighter and when you got below the hip line the dress became full with larger ruffles that matched the top.


I just kept staring at it expecting Courtney Lauren to say something like “that is God awful – absolutely not.” It’s not that uncommon for her to think that about half of the stuff I wear hahaha. But she LOVED it – I mean she just thought it was the mst amazing thing. It was a pretty edgy dress, and I thought about it all day and night for the following two days, but I just didn’t FEEL that feeling… and it was freaking expensive.

The next day we went to this bridal shop in Massena called Lasting Images. Courtney had NO idea what it would be like, she just knew it existed. When we walked into the store, I immediately looked back at her and thought to myself “Oh Lord…” It looked exactly like the dress Cameron Diaz and Christina Applegate go into in The Sweetest Thing to find dresses for the wedding. I was waiting for the montage. We walked up to the woman at the counter… she was in a self-bedazzled pink crushed velvet jump suit. Her pants were too short so they showed her mismatched socks and magnified the ugliness of her clunky black shoes. She told us that no one could look at the bridal section without her… ok, fine. She then proceeded to say all of the following BS–

“There’s one price for every wedding dress in the world. One price, it just changes depending on where you buy it. That’s why I’m in business here, not in Syracuse or some big city… That’s why I am in business. I am a shipper. Half of my business is done by shipping. I’ve shipped to Russia, Saudi Arabia, Europe. I have four weddings in Alaska this year already… I am in magazines. See? Look – here’s my ad.” Courtney just stared and looked like she could vomit at any time. After this woman decided to shut her mouth for three seconds, she asked me what I was looking for… then we followed her down to the basement. She got out a couple of catalogs and started flipping through, telling me that (based on what I told her,) THIS dress would be perfect. “THAT dress I sold, so you can’t have it. Once I sell it, it’s gone… sorry.” I didn’t like any of the dresses she was showing me, and Courtney knew that I just wanted to look myself at her collection… so she brought the camera over and showed the woman the dress from Syracuse, saying I liked it and asked if she had something similar in this store. The woman looked at it and immediately said “Oh no. I would not sell that dress.” Courtney asks why, her voice loaded with sarcasm. “That’s awful. No one wears wedding dresses like that. No, no, I don’t have anything like that. No, I think you’d like this dress here…” Courtney storms over to where we set our purses down and grabs our stuff, then storms back over to where the woman is still running her mouth, proceeding to shove the pamphlets she gave us when we walked in her face. We stormed up the stairs and the woman is yelling at us saying “I HAVE 79 BRIDES WHO ARE MORE THAN PLEASED WITH MY BUSINESS!” Courtney looks back and laughs and says “Oh I’m sure! I’ll be sure to spread the word about how great your business is… you need to learn how to not offend people.” Some other grunts and laughs were exchanged, but we made it out of there just before the claws came out. Needless to say, no dress that day.

We went a few cities over the next day to this small boutique. Right from the get go the women working there were really nice. They told us where everything was and let us loose. I got to grab whatever I wanted and just put it on… they weren’t nosey or obnoxious and let us have our time together, which I loved! I tried about 6 dresses on but ended up only really liking one. The first one. THE one. I put it back on and had the woman lace me up. I just stood looking in the mirror for about a half hour. The proverbial feeling came and I knew, it was my dress. I could see myself walking down the aisle in it. I felt that Jake would see it and think “how beautiful.” I Courtney sent my parents and Darren a picture and then we called. They all gasped and loved it. I walked around for a while longer and then finally took it off to get measured and PAY! It ended up being way under budget and more than what I wanted. What a blessing to have that off my list of things to worry about.

The rest of the trip was so much fun! Courtney made wonderful food, I think Jake and I both gained 5 pound in 5 days! I hate the fact that both of the babies were sick… because Courtney was just so exhausted. Colton wouldn’t eat, he was throwing up or pooping himself sideways every night, and then refused to go back to sleep. I know having visitors messes up the kids’ routine, but this was just terrible. Even with being sick though, Lily and Colton were adorable. Lily is a SPITFIRE.

I mean, the things this girl comes up with just amaze me. She is so full of life and energy… she’s so silly and knows how to make people laugh. Very intuitive, that little girl. And Colton… oh my little cuddle bug. He loves to be held and loved on.


He just smiles and laughs and looks at you like he could spend his whole day just sitting there being your best friend. They are beautiful babies and I am proud to call them mine!

Courtney took some wonderful photos of Jake and I our last afternoon there.


It was sooooo sunny that some of them are just all squints, but she came up with such fun poses. It was very natural having her take photos, and we were comfortable enough having her around that we could just be ourselves and goof off. The pictures she took really capture our silly nature as a couple. Her photography is really taking off, can’t wait until she comes home in the summer and she can take more. We’ll be using one of the photos to put in the paper with our engagement announcement.


This was one of the first trips Jake and I have taken together and it was great… it’s going to be a good life :)

My brother got his thesis approved first try! I want to send BIG congrats his way, I never ceased to be amazed at his intelligence.

I start babysitting tomorrow. 630-5 pm. I hope the kids are good and I can focus on how much money this job will bring me, instead of any negative aspects. The kids are cute, well, most of them anyways… but they family is eral Catholic and strict. No TV, no sugar, very family oriented… we’ll see if I can hang.

Catering taste test this weekend – so excited! I’ll keep you guys posted on what we decide….

This was a real boring post, I know, but I’m tired now and just wanted to post a little something this week.

Juan – te mando mis condolencias. Por favor, no te desanimes y recuerda que hay cosas en esta vida que no podemos controlar, pero son parte del plan de Dios. Lo siento mi amigo, yo pensaré en ti <3>