I'm a lousy blogger

Yea, I need to be better at actually writing... so I will attempt to do some catching up over the next couple days.

Two weeks ago, we had some visitors- Mom, Dad, and Sarah!!! It was great to have them all here for the awesome engagement party that Jon's mom threw for us.

Since Sarah has 1209843094 days of vacation every year, she flew down on Thursday to play with me. We hit up The Big Cheese, home of $9 meals for 2 and the most delicious garlic rolls on the planet. We had some good, quality lazy sister time... it was perfect!

We spent Friday shopping, including buying Christy her Emmy dress- a fabulous purple ballgown. I can't wait till Emmy #1 has some company! Mom and Dad got here at about 6, and we went to Taverna Opa for dinner. Opa is a great restaurant, one where it's not only acceptable, but expected, to dance on tables- and sometimes with the belly dancers!

We spent Saturday hanging out on South Beach, and going to Versailles, home of cheap and delicious Cuban coffee and pasteries. On Saturday, it was also home of a bunch of politically charged Cubans making a last ditch effort to get John McCain elected president. Evidently, the old school Cuban Americans see Obama in roughly the same light as Castro... They even had shirts that said "Cuba wanted change in 1959- be careful what you wish for."

Jon's mom put together a fabulous engagement party for on Saturday night. She had huge pictures of us in Israel and Japan, and pictures of Paris, hanging on the walls. Dinner was sushi, middle eastern food, and crepes made by the French crepe chefs. It was great to actually meet her friends that she's been talking about for so long and so much. We even got to see baby Unay, who has easily tripled in size since the last time I saw him. That is one cute baby.

Dad had to leave Sunday morning, so the ladies plus Jon spent the day shopping and visiting with Jon's cousin. Monday, we went to Ikea, and Mom left. Sarah left Tuesday morning, after I went to vote.....

It was a fabulous weekend!

Wedding Bells!

This past weekend, the entire family met in Rome, GA for Kathryn's wedding.

Alan, Stephanie, and I arrived close to the same time into Atlanta, and we spent the day adventuring in downtown. We walked through Olympic Park, went to the Coca-Cola Museum, and Underground Atlanta. We met up with everyone else later in the afternoon and drove to Rome for the rehearsal dinner. We stayed there until close to midnight- it was so much fun to see everyone. Alan has had to miss every similar gathering in the past four and a half years because of deployments, so it was great to have him there. Everyone was excited to catch up with him.

Saturday, we went out to lunch then went back to the hotel to get ready for the 3:00 wedding. The wedding went really well- it was all outside, and we had perfect weather. As always, I love weddings. The reception went well into the night, and fun was had by all. Our family had taken over the bed and breakfast for the weekend, so there was no need to monitor our noise level... which, if you've been around my family much, you know can be quite loud.

I took a ton of pictures- I put some of my favorites on Facebook. I also have the full album available on Kodak Gallery.

My shower

You can't have a shower without an umbrella... of course!

The gracious hosts of my shower were kind enough to put it all together prior to the big move. Sarah and I both really wanted both of us to be there, and with our travel schedule in the upcoming months, it's questionable when we would be able to all get together.

Even without the gifts (which were lovely!), just having everyone get together to celebrate was a lot of fun. We played some games (which were hard!), had some great food, opened gifts, and ate fabulous dessert. Overall, it was a really great afternoon, and the perfect send off. We got all the plates we registered for, a fondue pot, a crock pot, cook books, baking materials, storage containers, and a lot more! People all brought their favorite recipes too, so I'll have something fun to cook.

The adorable centerpieces, made out of my dishes

















The drink table- Sangria, iced tea, and punch












My favorite food - the giant fruit salad


















The whole group












The guest of honor (me!) with the maid of honor












Me with my mom, and two of the women in my life that I love nearly as much as my own family- I'm so lucky to have them... thanks for hosting!