Bridal Shower

We are officially 5 months out from the wedding and Saturday I had my first official wedding event! My bridesmaids and my mom hosted a shower for me at my parents' house. I could not have asked for a better day; sunny and 65 degrees! The day started off with a trip to the airport to pick up Shannon, Scott and Millie. When we got to my parents house my mom and the girls were hard at work decorating and getting all the food together. Check out the spread!

Everything was delicious! My friend Kelly's boss made the amazing cupcakes! They tasted as good as they looked!

It was great to see some of the ladies from my family and several of my girlfriends. I really appreciated everyone taking time out of the busy holiday weekend to celebrate with me!

I received tons of fabulous gifts! Unfortunately, most of them will have to remain in their boxes at my parent's house until Jason and I are able to buy a house with a bit more space.

I love the Waterford toasting flutes my Aunt Donna got us. They are gorgeous!

We played two games. One was a "How Well Do You Know the Bride" quiz. My friend Kimmi won - she got almost all of the questions right! I guess being friends for 12 years payed off ;) I read through everyone's answers last night and some of them made me laugh.

Question: Where is Lauren going on her honeymoon.

Answer by Jason's Grandma: wherever Jason goes :) - True!

The second game was a guessing game for me. I received an apron with a bunch of kitchen gadgets attached to it and I had to guess what each one was and how it was used. I did pretty well. I think the only ones I missed were the pasta measurer (who knew they even existed!) and the cake tester (I've always just used a toothpick). Now I have a new apron and a drawer full of kitchen gadgets - Thanks Emily!

The day really was perfect. A big thank you to my bridesmaids and my mom for all of their hard work and making the day so special!

My big news...

Last week I posted about some exciting news that I wasn't actually able to share yet, but I finally got the ok. Some of you may already know, but if you don't, last week I found out that my sister, Scott, and Millie (and baby to be of course!) are 100% moving back home this summer!! YAY!!!! I am so excited! My sister and I have not really lived in the same town since she went away to college 15 years ago! I was only 12 at the time and really too young to appreciate my big sister. Our relationship has grown so much since then and I can't wait to have her close by so we can do fun sister things all the time i.e go shopping, double date with our hubbies, gossip over coffee/tea ;)

I obviously can't wait to have Millie close by. I have always hated being so far away from her and felt like I missed so much even though I've made an effort to see her as much as possible. When she was born I was literally ready to pack my bags and move to Connecticut just to be close to her. Jason kept telling me to just be patient and wait a couple of years and maybe they would end up back here. He couldn't help but give me a big old "Told ya so" the other night at dinner! Millie is growing and changing so fast and I can't wait to be a hands on Aunt and do all kinds of fun things with her. I can't wait to see this little face everyday

I am also really excited that I will be able to play an active role in the new baby's life pretty much from the start. My sister is due in July and they will likely be moving in August. With the wedding in September it's going to be a very busy summer for our family!

I'm really happy that things worked out for Shannon and Scott. Scott is lucky enough to actually keep his current job and work remotely from St. Louis which will allow my sister to take some time off and be a stay at home mom for a while. Things really could not have worked out better for them! They are in town this week and are going house hunting all day tomorrow. Hopefully we will be neighbors :)

This past Saturday was my first bridal shower! I have tons to post, but it will have to wait until tomorrow. Jason is on his way home from class and it's time for some relaxing on the couch :)

Food, Family and Fun

As usual, the weekend flew by way, way, way too fast. But we had a lot of fun.
Friday night, Lauren and I went to dinner at Araka . We had a nice leisurely dinner and the food was fantastic. Everything about the dinner was great (we were celebrating so I suppose that was fitting). We had lobster BLTs for an appetizer, Lauren had scallops (awesome) and I had a strip steak (I wish I had another in front of me right now) and then we topped it all off with a chocolate chip pound cake with ice cream. If anyone is looking for a nice place in Clayton for a special occasion, I would highly recommend Araka.
We made it home in time to watch the Blues clinch a playoff spot. While this meant very little to Lauren, I appreciated her willingness to indulge another instance of my love of sports. Speaking of sports, my cousin Jake and I went to the Cardinal game on Saturday. We met my friend, Luke, and his girlfriend, Kim, before the game and enjoyed a great day and an even better baseball game (a grand slam and a three-run home run by Albert Pujols).
Lauren didn't make it to the baseball game because Saturday was her wedding shower (I'll let her recap that).
Easter Sunday I had breakfast with the Ross', went to church with my family and then had lunch with my mom's side of the family. Unfortunately my sister, Erin, had to work so I didn't get to see her. I finished the day back over at the Ross' where I was determined to remind my goddaughter, Millie, that she did in fact like me . It was great to spend the day with family but Monday just came way too fast. I hope everyone had a happy Easter.

Mixed Emotions

Today was a day of mixed emotions. I received some not so good news and then some very good news!

It's been a rough week for me at work. Last week my company had to lay off 260 employees, two in my department, one of which is a good friend of mine. I am very grateful that my job is safe, but it's really hard to see people react to the news that they are not so lucky. I work in a small department and losing two people plus one who retired is going to change up the whole dynamic of the group. I'm hoping that ultimately this will be my time to shine and really prove myself. I know my workload is going to increase but I actually welcome that because in all honesty I've been pretty bored at my job for a long time. Just as I am getting used to the smaller group and settling back into my normal routine, today a mass email went out from the president of the company. A salary cut across the board. UGH. I knew there might be some other cost cutting measures taken, but I didn't see that one coming. Even though I know I did nothing wrong, it's still a bit of a blow to the ego. Thankfully Jason continues to do very well at his job and his company is doing well despite the poor economy. I know things could be much worse and again, I'm very grateful to even have a job. I just really hate this economy and having to deal with all this grown up stuff!

Shortly after I got the not so good news, I received some very good, very exciting news! Unfortunately, I can not go into details just yet but will share as soon as I can. Jason and I are both very excited and happy though and this is something that I have been waiting for for a long time! Oh and just in case anyone is wondering, no, I'm not pregnant ;) I know the rules: First comes marriage and THEN the baby carriage :)

So it's been a busy day in my little brain trying to process all of this information and a bit of an emotional roller coaster. At the end of the day though, I feel very blessed to be where I am in my life, grateful to have a job and really looking forward to the future.

The Great Outdoors

Lauren and I recently realized that we don't take advantage of some of the great activities and destinations in St. Louis. This revelation came about after visiting some local parks and having a great time. A couple of weeks ago we visited Lone Elk Park with Lauren's parents and her brother, Brandon. The hike revealed that there is a definite reason behind the name of the park (see below).

However, the elk wasn't quite alone. We saw somewhere around 10 elk and then we found a "slightly" larger species (photographed through the car window).

This weekend we visited Forest Park. We went without a plan and wound up walking around the Grand Basin, up Art Hill and then to the Boat House.

While at the Boat House we decided to take a paddle boat ride (which, oddly enough, neither of us had ever done). This was a lot of fun once we figured a pace that allowed us to "evenly" power the boat. Direct quotes after 5 minutes of pedaling: Jason - "man, this is really hard"...Lauren - "really? I think this is pretty easy"...I proceed to stop pedaling...Lauren - "oh, is that what it has been like for you this whole time?"...Jason - "are all of the muscles in your legs on fire?"...Lauren nods with a grimace...Jason - "yep, that's what its been like"