Show Us Your Life - Wedding Party & Flowers

My husband and I were married on May 31, 2008. Our ceremony and reception were both held at RH Philips - a winery near our hometown. For our wedding, we each had four attendants. Here are mine:

From left to right - Michelle, Stephanie, myself, Shara and Carrie. Michelle and I met on a house boating trip in 2004. Friendship was instantaneous with her, Carrie and I.  Stephanie became fast friends with Shara and I in the sixth grade. Shara and I have known one another since we were three and in preschool, the rest is history! Carrie is also Matt's sister. She actually used to be Shara's after school "nanny" and is the reason that I first saw Matt at age 15. Three years later, she showed up at her brother's to find me on the couch. She and I became close quickly, and couldn't be happier to not only be friends, but sisters too!

Here are Matt's groomsmen, plus my brother and his Dad:

From left to right - Justin, Zach, Marc, Matt (the groom - what a hottie!), Jeff, Mitch and Jason. Justin and Matt have been friends since they were babies going to the same day care. Zach is Carrie's (Matt's sister) husband, he fits right in with all these boys. Marc has been Matt's step-brother for seven years and they are pretty close. Jeff is Matt's Dad. Mitch is my brother. Jason is Matt's good friend, and was his best man.

And here are just some fun pictures, taken after the ceremony:

The whole wedding party - Justin, Zach, Mitch, Marc, Jason, Groom, Bride, Carrie, Steph, Shara, Michelle....

                                                                   Matt and the Girls...

Me with the Boys...

I have to include a special picture of my brother and I. Our Dad passed away when I was 17 and Mitch was 14. On my wedding day, I couldn't imagine anyone other than my little brother giving me away. He did an amazing job and it was so special to share that walk down the aisle with him.

And here's a picture of my Mom and I. She was wonderful on my wedding day, and on all of the days leading up to the wedding - thank you Mom!

I didn't have a lot in the way of flowers for our wedding. Our ceremony and reception was held at a winery, so I felt like the natural landscape was pretty much enough in the way of decor. For my bouquet, I did orange-red calla lilies. Matt's boutineer matched. The girls had bouquets of white callas and the groomsmen, my brother, and Matt's Dad also had white.

My centerpieces were Gerbera Daisy's in a square container with silver-black marbles. They were on all of the tables, as well as the table that held the guestbook.

For ceremony music, we had our DJ pick a classical piece for the parents to be escorted down to. Then, our wedding party walked in to Pachebal's Canon in D. Finally, I walked down to "Unchained Melody" by The Rightcheous Brothers. Untraditional, but I loved walking toward Matt while that song played. Here are some pictures of my husband and I that day. A year later, I couldn't love hime more!

I'm so excited about these show us your life posts!! It's really fun to go back to the best day of my life and share!!

Blah

It's just one of those weeks. Mostly because I'm sick. It started Sunday with a sore throat that came out of no where, and by Monday morning I was in full blown head cold mode. Stayed home from work and slept ALL DAY. I was back at work yesterday, but still under the weather. Hopefully I'm back to 100% by the weekend. 

Matt left for Tahoe to do a job up there on Monday afternoon. He's coming home today. But, because he was gone and I'm sick, I slacked on my menu planning this week. Last night I had a frozen dinner. I don't remember what I had on Monday. I have some ground turkey defrosting at home now, so I need to find a recipe to make that (I already have a few, but I want something new). I also plan to make lemon basil carrots as our veggie. Tomorrow will be Matt's night for dinner. My prediction is Vince's!

Other than that, things have been "normal". School starts back up for me on August 17th, so I've begun to think about spending an arm and a leg on textbooks. The Yolo County Fair is the same week that school starts, and we're going to the destruction derby on Sunday night. Also, that same weekend we'll be in Tahoe with the Allen's. Should be fun! Since I have no pictures to share, I'll just include one of my favorite spots in Tahoe, Sand Harbor. We love to take the boat over there for the day and swim, people watch, snack, and chat! This makes me excited for our weekend up there!!!

Wedding Dress

So, this is late, but I really wanted to participate in the installments of Kelly's "Show us your life - wedding dresses". So, here's my wedding dress:

A fun night out and Wish List Wednesday!

Last night, Carrie, Bonnie and myself went out for a couple of drinks. With Bonnie having Jackson now, this time together was planned way in advance and we had all been looking forward to it for about a week! We decided to go to Morrison's. Dummy me, I should have known that it would be packed due to a funeral for a local young man. It was just too busy, impossible to get a drink, and I almost got in a fight over an available table. We decided to leave and go elsewhere. While heading over to Tazzina (I've heard they have a great bar!), Carrie mentioned that The Stag was an option too. That sounded more fun, so we went! Oh my gosh, it ended up being better than Morrison's ever could have been!! The three of us sat at the bar and talked and laughed for a good two hours. Then, to end the night we all sang kareoke to Debbie Gibson's "Shake Your Love"!!! It was a blast!

Now for my wish list items. Here they are, in no particular order:

A professionally landscaped back yard (along with two dogs that won't tear it up!)

A weekly, one hour massage for the rest of my life. 

A personal chef. Oh wouldn't that be nice. The only catch, the chef would have to let me cook when I wanted to - I do like cooking dinners and such, but sometimes thinking of WHAT to make gets tedious.

This duvet cover set. Maybe I'll be able to find it on Ebay for less expensive than the real thing!

To be able to quit my job and go to school full time. This is actually a pretty serious wish list item. Matt and I have been talking, and it's looking more and more possible. Keep your fingers crossed!

Menu Plan Monday and Our Weekend

I started off this week by cooking our first meal last night. We were boating all day and I decided that having a crock pot dinner ready when we got home would be best!

Beef Chicana in tortillas with corn on the cob (it was delish and totally hit the spot after a long day on the water!)

Cheese tortellini with vodka sauce, green salad, and bread (our vegetarian meal this week)

Pork ribs (made in the crock pot) with corn on the cob and potato cakes

Matt's night this week is Thursday. He had me take some hotdogs out of the freezer this morning, so I have a feeling that will be what he makes : )

I have to say, I'm loving this whole menu plan thing. It's nice to have three meals picked out for the week and to go shopping on Sunday morning when the store is EMPTY! I also feel like I'm doing better at eating somewhat healthier because I'm not constantly popping something quick and easy into the microwave. 

So, our weekend was great! It actually started a day early on Thursday evening. Matt and I took the boat to Swabbies with the Allens. It was a blast, though I was feeling it on Friday morning when the alarm went off at 6:15!!! Ha! Well worth the headache though! Friday evening, we had another couple of hours with the Allens and Emmy. Dinner and visiting, then we went home and flopped. Saturday we had a wedding of a friend of mine in Nevada City. I was WARM, but a nice wedding and Shannon looked gorgeous. We had a nice time. Sunday, we took the boat out with half of our siblings....Carrie and Zach, Marc and Melissa. It was a nice time. We were out there for the better part of the day having fun. 

As for this week, I plan to swim today, Wednesday and Thursday with my Mom. Tomorrow night, Bonnie, Carrie and I are going to Morrison's and Sunday we are having dinner with Matt's Mom. Should be nice!!!

Lastly, this is the day I said I would start with WW during the day. So, for breakfast I had one of their frozen quesadillas. It was four points. For lunch, I'm actually having some left overs and from what I can tell it should add up to about 7 or 8 points. I've also had about 2 points worth of cashews. So, let's say that after lunch I'll be at 13 points. That will leave me 8 points for dinner which is great!!! Plus, I'm swimming today so even better, right?

I need a grocery shopping trip to stock up on some healthy snacks and frozen Smart Ones!!!!

Menu Plan Monday...Ahem, Tuesday

Alright, I slacked yesterday on dinner plans. I really don't have quite the menu I was hoping for this week anyway as it's gonna be another crazy one. Instead of three meals, I have two. They are as follows:

Asian Chicken Lettuce Wraps with Won Ton Soup and Portobellos

Mustard Salmon with Squash and Red Potatoes (yes, I am carrying this over from last week!)

We have some office stuff to do in the evening, so for my third night of cooking I'll probably do something easy (i.e. the frozen lasagna I have on hand with a green salad). Also, Matt mentioned that for his night this week we should go to Morrison's and have dinner in the bar! I'm okay with that : )

Our weekend was good. Friday night I had some girl time with Jordan and little Lainers, which was great. Love spending time with those girls. Saturday we headed out to Pine Ranch for the night.  Pine Ranch is up in the Capay hills. Shellhammer Construction built a 7,000 square foot house there, along with a 3,000 square foot guest house a few years back. The Pines recently added a pool to the compound. It was a good time and I'd love to go back someday.

It's funny, I feel like there isn't much to talk about this week and yet, I feel super busy! Hoping to get some boat time in at some point. We are going to Folsom on Friday night to see Isaac's girlfriend Liz sing and then Saturday we are going to the wedding of my longtime friend Shannon. I'm really looking forward to that!

SUMMERTIME

Alright, even though I already posted once today I thought I would share this little summer survey thing (plus, I'm bored at work!):

Favorite Summer Food? Anything bbqed!
 
Favorite Summer Drink? Lemonade. Oh, and of course the summer staple, beer.
 
What do you look forward to when summer comes? Boating boating boating
 
Do you join any sports? Um, no.
 
Favorite Beach? Third Beach at the river
 
Would you rather it be winter? No.
 
How many times do you hit the beach? Not too many
 
How many BBQ's do you have? Lots
 
What time do you go to bed in the summer? Around 9:30-10:00 normally
 
Do you go camping? We don't have any regularly scheduled camping trips, but we've gone twice this year so far!

Flip-Flops or shoes? Flips
 
Beach or Pool? A beach at the river.
 
Bug-Bite or Sun burn? Sun burn
 
Layout or fake bake? Layout
 
Hit the clubs or BBQ's? BBQ's
 
In a relationship or single? Happily married
 
Hang with friends or Family? Both!

Last Summer:

How old were you? 23
 
Did you go to Clearwater Beach? Um, no.
 
What Vacations did you go on? My honeymoon to Puerto Vallarta
 
Who did you hang with everyday? Matt
 
What was the worst memory of last summer? Don't have one.
 
How did you celebrate the Fourth of July? At Jason's house
 
What was one thing you did EVERY week last summer? Boating
 
Favorite summer clothing item? Flip flops
 
Favorite song? Johnny & June
 
This Summer:

Where will you be going on vacation? Um, we went to SLO
 
How will you celebrate the Fourth of July? We had a BBQ with friends and neighbors
 
The best place to be this summer? On the X-10 floating down the river.
 

Thankful Thursday & Our Fourth of July Weekend

Things I'm Thankful for this week:

That we had a fun and safe Fourth of July. Although the Fourth is my favorite holiday, I constantly worry about someone blowing a hand off or our house catching fire.

Good friends and neighbors. We truly have the best of both. I don't know what I would do without them.

A husband who is super mechanical and was able to fix our boat (we think) without having to pay top dollar at the dealership

Our home. I'm trying to keep in mind that we are sooooo fortunate to have a roof over our heads (and a nice one at that), even when the floors are dirty, there's dishes in the sink, and the bathrooms need to be cleaned!

Again this week, our health. My co-worker's mother goes in for surgery today to get the rest of the malignant tumor removed. And, I realize some people may say, "But Lindsey, your husband has been diagnosed with the beginning stages of MS, why would you say you both are healthy?" The answer is, we both ARE healthy. Even though we are dealing with that whole thing, it's manageble. It's not a death sentence, or even a "sick" sentence. He takes a shot once weekly, meds twice per day, and visits with a doctor at UCSF every few months. The rest of the time, no one would even realize that he's dealing with this. And for that, I'm thankful. It really could be so much worse.

The desire to be healthier. Because let's face it, if the desire weren't there, it simply wouldn't happen.

Onto the weekend.... finally have some pictures to go with my weekend post. Ha!

So, as I mentioned, the holiday weekend worked out so that it was a three day-er for me. Nice! Friday, my Mom and I went shopping in Natomas. We hit up Mimi's first for a delicious breakfast and then headed over to Off Broadway Shoes. My Mom found a few pairs of sandals, and was nice enough to treat me to some cute flip flops (as if I need more, right?). Then, we went into Target. I happened to come across a cute sundress that looks great. I can wear it to work this summer, and also to a wedding that we have in October. Last, we went to Kohl's. The mission on this trip was to find a dress for my friend Shannon's wedding, and the mission was accomplished! I found this dress that wasn't wonderful on the hanger, but looked great on! Yay!!

Saturday was the Fourth of July. In the morning, Matt and Macy took off for some time on the ranch with Gil. I took Cash for a walk, and then cleaned. After that, I vegged on the couch for a bit. Then, I decided I was bored so Skylar and I went on a bike ride. Matt got home, and it was time to get ready to head to my Aunt's house. She does a BBQ for the family every year, and we wanted to make an appearance prior to being at home for the evening with the dogs. Anyway, it was fun for the hour or so that we were there. Right as we were getting ready to head out, Jordan and Nick showed up with Laine. I had to get some baby time in, and Matt even held her. Completely melted my heart!! He's going to be such a great Daddy, but not anytime soon!!!

Saturday evening, we grilled with the entire culdesac. We even had some great friends join us!! Hansi, Bonnie, Jerod and Jackson, as well as Shara and Chase came over. Some how, there isn't a picture of Shara and Chase from that evening, so I'm including a cute one of them from another day : ) 

We had a great Fourth with awesome friends, good food, and great fireworks. The dogs did alright, but we definitely will not be going anywhere in the future. We need to be able to be home with them so that they can stay inside with the television on. 

Sunday, we went (where else?) boating with our neighbors. Our boat was still on the outs at this point (but has been fixed since), so we took their boat. We got to the lake at about 10:40 and didn't leave until a little after 7:00. It was a fun day of sun, water, beer and friends!

WW...We'll find out!

So, my original plan for today's post was to talk about the weekend and our Fourth of July. But, I have a confession to make...I NEVER take any pictures. Ever. It's really terrible, I have a digital camera and just need to get a bigger memory card. It's just not something that's at the top of my priority list, but it really should be. Anyway, so, I never take pictures. Which means that in order to have pictures of events on my blog, I steal them from others. I know, terrible. The reason I can't post about this last weekend today is that I'm waiting for a friend to post pictures on Facebook so that I can steal them to include in my post. I know, horrible!!! I'll get better soon, I promise.

Anyway, being that I'm not posting about our weekend today, I thought I would post about my current diet/health plan. First off, I have a disclaimer. I detest dieting. Absolutely detest it. I think it creates horrible body image, and half the time is a lot of effort for little to zero results. I am, however, a huge proponent of exercising. I know I feel better when I work out, and I think it's pretty much that way across the board. I think the trick is to find an activity that you enjoy to be able to burn some calories off.

Now, I am not a gym girl AT ALL!! I have been a member at two gyms. The first one, I was faithful for maybe 6 weeks. The second I went to for about 6 months consistently, then fell off the wagon. The problem was that it became a chore. Not fun at all. So, I have found my "fun" exercise: swimming. I have always loved the water, and still do. When I swim, I love that I am able to have some alone time to just be. No conversation, just me and my thoughts. I also love the idea of running, which I started in June, but fell off once it hit 90 degrees. So, the goal is to be a swimmer in the summer and a runner in the winter. I will do either activity three times per week for forty minutes. So far, so good. If I want to throw a little extra in, I plan to do squats, crunches and push-ups at my leisure (i.e. while cooking dinner, doing laundry, etc.). Every little bit helps right?

So, my true weight loss journey began last March. My Mom, Aunt, Cousin and I started a biggest loser competition. At the end of the month, I hadn't lost very much, but I did lose some. It was encouraging. Then, I weighed myself again at the end of April....I was down 12 pounds in two months. Not bad. And the thing is, I can't even really tell you what it was that did it. I swam, but only about 2 days per week on average (sometimes more, sometimes less). I cut out my wine whilst making dinner, which was probably a little help. Plus, I just kind of cut down on portions. But now, I've stayed there (at least I haven't gained) and I want to finish up by ending at 140 pounds, so I've got about 18 or so to go. I know to get there, I have to get more serious. So here's the eating plan:

Weight Watchers. But here's the thing, I refuse to go to weekly meetings and I'm too cheap to sign up for their website. I have a lot of the materials, so I'm just going to do it on my own. Also, my meals at work for breakfast and lunch will be the WW Smart Ones frozen meals - super easy. I know this will be okay, because I buy them to eat even when I'm not doing WW, and I like them. In fact, I have a love for their breakfast quesadillas that I cannot shake : ) So, it will be Smart Ones for breakfast and lunch, and fruits and veggies (maybe popcorn on occasion) for snacks in between. Dinner will be normal, because I don't really cook too terribly to begin with! This will all be starting as of July 20th. Until then, I'm just going with the flow.

So there it is, my plan. We'll see how it goes, though I already have a good feeling about it. Here's to being the hottest I've been in years in a bikini next summer!! Cheers!

Menu Plan Monday

The three meals for this week will be the following:

Quesadillas & Green Salad

BLT's & Tomato Soup (or maybe green salad if it feels too hot for soup)

Mustard Salmon with Squash & Red Potatoes

I'm going to try and make one meal per week vegetarian (we need a little less meat in our lives), so this week the veggie meal is the quesadillas - made with cheese, black beans, corn, and olives.

Thankful Thursday

Okay, to start, I just have to say I rock! I've been doing pretty good at posting a few times a week. And that makes me happy.

On a side note, being that I have a THREE DAY WEEKEND for the Fourth of July, my next post will be Monday, which means it will be Menu Plan Monday.  This weeks events have made me decide to tweak how I am going to treat my menu planning. From now on, I will have three meals per week planned, with no particular schedule as to when they will be made and eaten. The reason for this is our schedule. We're just busy in general, and always have last minute stuff popping up. For example, I had planned to make certain things on certain nights this week, and I have made ONE of the planned meals. That's right, ONE. And it's Thursday. Tonight, we are having left overs from that meal. Then, tomorrow we're eating out for Gram's bday. Saturday we're grilling for the Fourth, and Sunday I am making a second planned meal. Anyway, the point of this is to say that if I have three meals planned, and especially one that can carry over to the following week it will be less food (and time shopping) wasted. Kind of a rant just for menu planning, sorry.

On to Thankful Thursday!! Thankful Thursday is going to be based on what I am thankful for in the current week. Obviously, I am thankful for all of the people and things in my life, but to write a post about it all would take months. So, weekly I will write about my thanks for that week. Here we go....

This week, I am thankful for:

A boss that is understanding and considerate - he is paying us 4 days early so that we have money for the holiday weekend.

A husband who doesn't get upset with me when I get tipsy on a weeknight. Last's nights boating trip was fun, but I'm paying the price now.

My health. A co-workers mother was diagnosed with cancer this week. Enough said.

A husband (yes, I'm thankful for Matt twice this week) who is all that he is. Last night I saw some old friends (and "the one that got away") after boating. The song "Unanswered Prayers" that Garth Brooks sings went through my head all night long : )

Nicotine Patches. Slowly but surely, I am kicking the habit. By October, I hope to be smoke and patch free.

Three day weekends. There's just something about that one extra day.

Our military. I am a proud American, and it's in thanks to the men and women that serve our country every single day that I can wear what I want, have a relationship with my God, go to school, get up every morning and come to work, and be free. To all of those who serve and have served, thank you. I hold you in the highest regard.

The Fourth of July. It truly is my favorite holiday. I'm glad it's here again, and that it's rolled into a three day weekend. Yay!!! Bring on the fireworks smell!!!!

That's it for this week. Count your blessings, and make your Thankful Thursday list. It's a good feeling! Cheers : )