Weekend Review

I had a great weekend and wish I’d had my camera to document the fun! Unfortunately, my camera’s LCD screen recently shattered and it was in the shop all weekend getting fixed up.

Friday night, I went to my first outdoor movie of the summer. This was my first time to do this in Central Park and it was great! We saw the movie, “Moonstruck”. No one could believe I’d never seen it before. The weather was perfect and we brought yummy snacks and wine for dinner. Unfortunately, we had some jerks sitting next to us. These things are always packed out and when we got there, the space on the ground was limited. We found a small spot and worked on putting our blanket down, trying not to disturb the people already there. The edge of our blanket was just barely touching the one next to ours and the man made a big point to pick it up and move it off his. He then proceeded to move over and lay down along the very edge of his blanket so that there was no way any of our stuff could touch his. Mind you, he and his wife had a blanket big enough for a queen size bed and when we got there, they were sitting in the middle of it with plenty of room on either side of them. They literally had more space than anyone in the entire park. I got up the nerve to ask, “Excuse me. Do you have more people coming”? To which the man responded, “Yes. Four more people". I was skeptical, but gave them the benefit of the doubt and thought if they really were sharing their blanket with 6 people, they did need all that space. But, of course, their 4 friends never showed up. These people were about 50-years-old behaving like 3-year-olds. So rude!!! But, the weather was great, movie was fun, etc…. Afterwards, Rosella, Christina, and I were heading to grab a drink somewhere and happened upon the set of Gossip Girls! We watched the filming for over an hour and it was so much fun!! We saw Serena (Blake Lively), Dan (Penn Badgley), Nate (Chase Crawford), and Bart Bass (Robert John Burke). We stood by the craft services table, which was interesting in itself. They had SO much junk food!! Tons of candy, salty treats, nuts, bread, PB&J, cookies, etc…. I also enjoyed watching Blake & Penn interact off-set (they date in real life). Their interaction, was actually very little! Penn spent most of his time chatting w/ the crew while Blake spent most of her time in a little tent that we assumed was pretty fancy on the inside. After watching the filming, we were too tired to get a drink so I walked home.

Saturday, I met up with 2 girls from church, Sarah & Jen, and one of their friends to go to a BIG 12 bar-b-que. Sarah is the president of the OU alum club in NYC and Jenn takes part in both Colorado and UT events as she went to Colorado for undergrad and UT for grad school. For most of the time, I was the only Baylor person there, but a couple of people I know showed up as we were heading out. UT definitely had the most people there and I’d say Mizzou probably had the 2nd most, although they had way less than UT. I met some of the Mizzou people, including 2 people who grew up in Columbia, so that was fun. We spent 4 hours sitting out in the sun chatting and snacking and I ended up pretty sunburned on my shoulders! One of the most fun parts about the event was that it was on Roosevelt Island and we got to take the tram across the river from Manhattan. I had never been on the tram before and it was a fun ride with some good city views!

Sunday I went with Christina and Rosella to the Mets/Astros game. Christina plans events for the University of Houston alum club, so they were going to support the Astros and she invited me and Rosella to come along. We started out by getting lunch at JG Melon on the Upper East Side – great burgers. It was a fun afternoon and so nice to spend the majority of one of the last summer weekends outside!

Remind me....

...to not move in this city during summer time again. I feel like the move has sucked my whole summer up! I spent most of June looking for my apartment, then I packed up, and now I am still trying to get settled!!! I know, I have SO little compared to many of you in big houses with entire families. I am unpacked now, but there is still stuff everywhere. Mostly what is left are things that need to be hung on walls…one set of blinds, several shelves, pictures, etc…. It’s really all the errand running that has taken up so much of my time – 2 trips to Home Depot, 2 trips to Bed, Bath, and Beyond, an evening spent going to every Hardware store on the entire Upper West Side, etc….. Getting anywhere in this city takes forever!! Plus, I haven’t been home for significant chunks of time and I need that to accomplish much! Granted, it’s entirely my fault – choosing to go lay out on a Saturday rather than do chores at home doesn’t get me far! But, there have been several kinks along the way….had to get a new air conditioner, when I went to buy blinds they only had 1 set of the ones I wanted and I needed two, then the blinds I bought didn’t fit the window which required some very hard labor on my part to “make” them fit, the internet cable modem wasn’t turning on requiring a Radio Shack run, etc…. Nothing seems to have gone smoothly with this move, other than the move day itself! Anyway, progress is made daily, just slowly!

What else have I been up to? Not much, honestly. Work has been a little busy – at least one night each week I have to stay late to “babysit” the auditors. Tonight is that night and it’s 9:30. Who knows how long I’ll be here, but hopefully not much longer.

Friday night, I met up with Rosella and Christina and one of Rosella’s friends at Rodeo Bar – a southwestern bar/restaurant. Christina and I split some awesome chicken fried chicken that came with delicious veggies (seriously…veggies that were sooo good)! Our plan was to watch the Opening Ceremonies there, but since the sound wasn’t loud enough we kind of gave up on that. We sat for hours talking and laughing though. I also enjoyed some Irish Cider (no, not Bulmer’s, Tonya, but it was still good)!

I’ve been watching Olympics quite a bit. Haven’t missed a Michael Phelps swim yet! Did you see that relay – wow!?!? Love the gymnastics, too!! And the synchronized diving! Can’t wait for track & field to start so I can cheer on the 4 Baylor Bears running this year.

Tonya & Sean are here for work this week, so they came over on Tuesday night to watch gymnastics and order-in dinner. Little did we know that the gymnastics wouldn’t start until 10:30…geez!! We persevered and waited for it to start. We ordered Pinch & S’mac (pizza-by-the-inch and Sarita’s Mac & Cheese) for dinner. Tonya and I split a little pizza and a little mac…yum! Fun to see my friends, too, and catch-up on all their travels, wedding planning, and the big birthday shin-dig coming up in Dallas for Tonya, Elizabeth, and Tamara who all celebrate BIG b-days this year!

That’s about it…still waiting for those auditors to leave – don’t they want to go home already?!?

Cowboy Weddin'

This past weekend was my cousin's wedding in Rowan, Iowa. Christopher met his Iowan bride a few summers ago when they both worked at an elite, upscale ranch in Colorado (costs thousands of $'s to stay & play there). Chris was a fishing guide and Abbey was a horse riding guide. Abbey is Christopher's perfect match as she loves the outdoors as much (maybe more?) than he does. This weekend was my first time to meet Abbey and although I had heard only positive things about her, she was even more adorable than I expected! She is an extremely outgoing & confident and super cute girl!

I somehow managed to get to Des Moines by 10:20am on Friday morning...this was even after a 1 hour layover in St. Louis. Basically I had to leave my house by 4:15 that morning - it was sooo early! My family spent Wednesday and Thursday nights in Columbia and then drove to Des Moines on Friday morning to pick me up. I knew I would have time to kill in Des Moines, so I had my old friend, Kerri, come get me for lunch. I can't remember the last time I saw Kerri - for sure not since college. We have not stayed in super close touch, but always exchange Christmas cards at the very least. Kerri and I grew up going to church together - she was 1 year behind me in school. One of my earliest memories is of going to Kerri's house for a pig roast. Our dads and other men had camped out in her backyard all night long roasting a pig in a fire pit they built. The next night, all the women and children showed up for the feast! Our families were always friendly with each other, but Kerri and I became closer on a ski trip my junior year of high school and then my senior year when we actually had Humanities class together and got to sit next to each other every morning during 1st hour for the whole year. Anyway, it was great to see Kerri and we had so much fun catching-up!

My parent's, sister & fam finally arrived to Des Moines to fetch me a little after 2:00 and we were off to the prairie land! It was great to see the boys for the first time in 5 months (that's way too long)! We checked into our hotel in Hampton, Iowa and promptly took naps! That evening we walked across the street for the rehearsal dinner at a steakhouse. It was a fun evening. Good food, family, toasts, etc.... The kids had a blast playing together - just wish I'd gotten more pics of the adults!!

Ryder is just a few months older than

Canon - they have such fun together!

Megan dancing with the boys

Megan & Beau look so much alike they could pass for brother/sister Beth & Ry

Amy & Jaxon

Saturday morning, we were able to take advantage of the free breakfast at our hotel. They even had a Belgian waffle machine - yum! My family spent the rest of the morning/early afternoon exploring the small town of Hampton and attending the Dow's Corn Day Festival in Dows, Iowa. The festival was really small-town Iowa!

We had fun eating free sweet corn, watermelon, and ice cream. Ryder had a blast on the bouncy obstacle courses and a riding a cute train.

Beau-diddleOnce again, we took afternoon naps and then got ready for the 4:30 wedding.

Abbey's grandma lives on a farm and that is where the wedding took place. Christopher's metropolitan cousins weren't sure what to expect from a cowboy/western wedding, but it turned out very cute and fun!

They had a bunch of golf carts that took people from

their cars to their seats - the system worked terrific! When we got to our seats, it was just as I had envisioned it - horses just off to the side of us! Actually, Abbey's family has mules, but they look just like horses.

The music for the entire ceremony was a mixture of country and bluegrass. The bridesmaids & groomsmen skipped down the aisle to the tunes and did a little twirl when they reached the front.

Two of my cousins were in the wedding as ring bearer and flower

girl and they looked so cute in their cowboy hats and boots. The sweet ring bearer bolted down the aisle at full speed!!

The ceremony was done by a cowboy preacher - that's what he calls himself. It was a very nice Christian ceremony. I loved watching the bride & groom - I don't think I've ever seen a more excited couple.

They both grinned the whole time
and there were lots of giggles, too. The best part was at the end of the ceremony when Chris & Abbey hopped upon their mules and rode away - very fast -- Abbey's dress and veil blowing in the wind!

The reception was fun, too. Bar-b-que for dinner, then ice cream sundaes for dessert since the B&G don't like cake. There was dancing all night long and it was fun to watch all the crazy cowboys/cowgirls doing their dances. Christopher said he doesn't dance, but I thought he did quite well! My dad was in an extra good mood that night and jumped up to dance with a bridesmaid, which took us all by surprise. He also grabbed my mom and I later. Since dinner was so early, they brought out snacks for the late-nighters and I thought that was a nice touch.

Abbey & Chris getting into a line dance

Christopher & his boys

Ryder managed to hijack the ring bearer's

cowboy hat for most of the evening

Ryder showin' off his moves

Sunday morning, we went back to Abbey's grandma's for a Pancake Breakfast courtesy of the local Lion's Club. It was awesome!! Poor Beau got sick half-way through the meal. Somehow it didn't totally gross me out - guess that's what happens when you love 'em so much!

It was a fun weekend and so great to see my family -- all of them, immediate and extended! I wish I had gotten some pics of my sister and I with our girl cousins :( We always have such fun together and I love their families, too.