Fab weekend.

I am getting ready to wrap up the weekend and head to bed. I figured I would write a little post about our weekend now or else it might not get done. And we had such a great weekend that it would be a shame to not recap. Unfortunately, my camera was dead the entire weekend so I have no proof of this amazing weekend. :)

The weekend started with a surprise birthday party for my stepmom. My dad did an awesome job planning everything and keeping it a secret. Somehow, he got my stepmom on the golf course the evening of her birthday. While they were golfing, we got a room inside the country club set up for the party. My dad sent us a text when they were making their way onto the 9th tee. One of the country club staff members tied some black balloons to the flag in the hole. We watched them walk closer to the green and then everyone that was there for the party walked out to surprise her. Saying she was surprised was an understatement...she definitely cried.

Once we surprised her, we all made our way into the party room and got the party started. My main job for the party was the create a slide show for her. We kicked the party off with playing the slide show. Not to toot my horn or anything, but that slide show rocked (toot! toot!). She cried again...and so did I. I am a sucker for pictures set to music. I will pretty much cry every time.

We hung out at the club until about 11 and then we headed to my dad's to continue the party with her closest friends/family. I am not certain on the time my stepmom went to bed, but a few of us (including me, my dad, Justin, and some other friends/family) stayed up until about 3 or 4 in the morning on my dad's back deck. It was a lot of fun.

Needless to say, Saturday we needed some recovery time. We left my dad's around 11am on Saturday and made our way to my inlaws. They were out of town, but it's easier for us to stay there with Lucky. After eating some lunch, we all (Lucky included) fell asleep. We slept from about 1 until 4. It was a much needed relaxing day.

We might not have woken up, but we had another birthday party to go to that night. It was a birthday party for Justin's cousin, Jenn. She turned 16 today (Sunday). This party was a bit more low key, but definitely also a lot of fun. We had some good food...including cake and ice cream. We were going to go swimming in their pool, but it started to rain. We watched a bit of the Chief's preseason football game. It was pretty boring so we played Monopoly Deal. It's basically Monopoly in card form. It was a lot of fun. We played that game for about 4 hours. I am sad to report that I did not win a single time. I could have continued to play for 4 more hours, but Justin was ready to go home. We left a little before midnight. It was great to just hang out with the family and celebrate a BIG birthday for Jenn. :)

We used Sunday as another day to relax. We slept late, ate some lunch, watched golf, and napped on and off throughout the day. Speaking of watching golf...we witnessed golf history today. Y.E. Yang won the tournament (PGA, maybe??). He is the first Asian person to win a major tournament. I am not a big golf fan, but it was definitely cool to watch history in the making. I never thought I would be blogging about the winner of a golf tournament, but this definitely deserves a shout out.

We got back to KC around 8:30 tonight and have been doing laundry and a bit of cleaning to get ready for the week. Fortunately for us, we have a short work week. Justin only works 2 days and I work 3 days. We are leaving Wednesday evening for Iowa. Justin's cousin, Kyle, is getting married this weekend. I will charge my camera so I can have show some pics of that (hopefully).

I hope everyone had a great week. Happy Monday..ick.

This weekend.

I cannot even being to tell you how excited I am for this weekend!! I have so much to look forward to...I cannot wait.

First of all, I am off on Friday so I have a short work week and a long weekend. That is always nice. It's too bad I have to use vacation time in order to have off on Friday. Oh well, it will be worth it.

When Justin gets off of work on Friday we will head home to Columbia. He will either be off the entire day or he will only have to work 0600-0900. Either way, we will be home about mid-day/early afternoon on Friday.

Friday evening my BFF, Katie, is coming to Columbia. I am super excited about that because since she has moved away I only see her about every 3 months or so.


Friday night we have a game night planned with my family and Justin's family. I am about the biggest fan of game nights ever. I love board games. My favorite right now is Apples to Apples. If you have never played, add it to your list of things to do in the near future. It is a blast. Game nights are always a good time...I am excited to have Katie join us for this one. :)

Saturday is 4th of July (duh!) aaaannnddd my mother-in-law's birthday (how cool is that??). I am pretty sure for as long as Justin and I have been dating, we have gone to his grandparent's for the 4th. They live on a private lake that is very fun. We will be going to their lake again this year. I am pretty excited for some time in the sun and on the water. I have all appendages crossed that it will not rain. That will definitely put a damper on my weekend.

Last year I brought a little concoction I like to call the Paint Can to your 4th of July/MIL's bday celebration. I believe I have started a new tradition. I definitely plan on bringing the ingredients to make 2 or 3 of these Saturday. They are great on a summer day. :) Plus, I love me some Vodka so that makes the paint can just as good for me.


Happy 4th of July to everyone! I hope your work week goes by quickly and that you have good weather for whatever you are doing to celebrate.

Happy birthday, Husband.

I dropped the ball yesterday and didn't make a post for Justin's birthday. Sorry dear. Yeah right, he doesn't even read this thing. :)

I planned a surprise birthday weekend for him last weekend. It was a good time and he was definitely surprised. I will make another post about that some other time...when the pics are uploaded.

Happy birthday, Justin. I love you!

My birthday wing-ding.

This Saturday we had my birthday celebration...wing-ding as it was named on Facebook.

Some of our family made the trip from our hometown. Justin's parents, his brother, and my dad all made the trip. It meant a ton to have them there; especially since the weather didn't really cooperate and forced them to take an alternate (much longer) route.

The fam L-R... my husband, dad, FIL, MIL, BIL. I love these people!! :)

We had a table reserved at Paddy O'Quigleys (my absolute favorite bar in KC) at 6pm on Saturday evening. We had dinner with just the family and a couple of close friends. Everyone else arrived a little bit later, but we definitely had the party started very early on in the evening.

Justin and me.


There were lots of drinks drank.

I got the best birthday surprise ever...one of my very good friends, H, made the trip from Springfield. She led me to believe earlier in the week that she would not be able to make it. I was completely surprised and of course cried. Ha. :)

Yay for awesome friends L-R: Megan, me, H (!!!), and Beth.

We sang 2 or 3 karaoke songs, dance for hours, and just had an awesome time. I wish I could have a birthday celebration more than once a year. I always have an awesome time.

I was very relieved to wake up on Sunday without a hangover. Instead, I woke up with an extremely sore body that is even worse today. I feel like I ran a marathon on Saturday. I did not run a marathon, but I definitely danced a marathon. So fun! :)

Thank you to everyone that came to celebrate with me!!

Happy birthday, katie!!

Happy Birthday to my BFF, Katie!!!

Katie is my bestfriend from college. We met while playing soccer. She thought I didn't like her at first (like most people do), but about our 2nd semester of college we became super close.

Katie and I lived together our sophomore year. That was quite the interesting living arrangement, but we made it! :) The next 2-3 years we lived super close, but not together.

Unfortunately, Katie moved back home to St. Louis a few months ago. It has definitely been an adjustment, but luckily we get to see each other about once a month.

Another good thing about it being Katie's birthday is that means it is my birthday in 6 days!! Yay!!

Happy birthday, Katie! Love you!!

A very typical pic of us together.

Tiffany's birthday celebration.

I had a BLAST on Friday night celebrating Tiffany's birthday.

We went to Tengo Sed Cantino at the Power and Light District in KC. It is a Mexican restaurant by day and a dance club by night. Many of the bars in PNL are restaurants during the day and bars/clubs at night. It's a pretty cool area.

Here are a couple of pictures from the night...

I love these girls. Me-Michelle-Katie-Tiffany. Celsius Tannery girls.


Me and Katie. An unusual "normal" pic.


There was a little bit of dancing going on...just a little bit. :)


Just me...but you can see the poles in the background. There are 2 on the bar for anyone to dance on.


There were a couple of shots taken through-out the night.


And this is the look after a VERY successful 21st birthday celebration.

Happy birthday, Tiffany.

Happy birthday Tiffers!!

HAPPY 21ST BIRTHDAY, TIFFERS!!

Today is Tiffany's 21st birthday....FINALLY!! :)

Cute pic, Tiffers! :)

Tiffany and I met while we were working at Celsius Tannery. I worked there for a couple of years during college. Tiffers was in HS when she started there, but graduated and went to KU (boooo!!!). I have since forgiven her choice in going to KU. She is doing awesome there and I am so happy for her. She is going to be an awesome teacher...as long as she doesn't use too much Jayhawk influence in her classroom. :)

I am so excited for her birthday celebration tomorrow night and PNL. PNL is awesome; I wish it was around when I turned 21.

Katie is coming in town. The three of us always have a good time together and it should be cool to meet all of her other friends.

It should be pretty interesting since Tiff is not a big shot person. Well, I am so GET READY TIFF!! :) And remember some of those pics you took of me on my bachelorette party?? Pay back is a bitch! Haha.

I love these girls. Katie, Tiffers, and me.

Happy birthday, Tiffers. I hope you have a great day and I will see you tomorrow night!!