Road Trip!

Today Crystal and I tootled up to chicago to visit ikea! I think people either hate or love ikea and we love it!! We left around 8:30 and got there a little before 1. We shopped and didn't pull out of the parking lot until 4:45....I'm not sure how we spent basically 4 HOURS in there, but we did. She got a bed and dresser because she is fixing up her guest bedroom. I got a desk (finally!) and a bookshelf, so hopefully I can work on assembling that tomorrow and post some pics. I still need to get a chair for the desk and a file cabinet of some sort. They had a few file cabinets there that would go with the desk, but I wasn't a huge fan and feel like I can find something better around here. All righty- off to bed now!

UGH

Why did I have to jinx myself like this by my previous post and Mizzou is up by 13 at the half!!!!!! PLEASE NO!!!!!!!!!!

Gus thoughts

Well, AI turned out as I had hoped-- Michael Sarver went home. Did anyone notice how much Ruben was sweating only 20 seconds into his performance?? How has the guy not dropped dead by now? Megan has been my favorite, but she does need to step it up a notch-- she is just super cute and I love her, but needs to look a little less awkward moving around...it looks like she has absolutley no rhythm if you watch her during the performances- group and solo. And as much as I want to hate Adam, the guy is pretty awesome...just seems like he doesn't even need this show and someone will sign him.

Now I'm watching the Sweet16 and cheering my little heart out for Mizzou to lose. I'm feeling so confident that I'm going to go ahead and post this....despite the fact they are winning 21-20 right now...that can't keep up.
And while I'm rambling about tv- how good is Dancing With the Stars this season?!?! That is a show that in the past I don't really make an effort to watch, but this season I am hooked and cheering for practically everyone! I think it's hilarious watching Denise Richards and Holly Madison dance because they are some of the worst ones...but by looking at them you would just think they naturally would have some better ability! I can't decide who I want to win the whole thing-- maybe Shawn Johnson, she is so cute and really good.

All right, back to a hard night of relaxing in front of my tv!

Another wedding step complete

My big accomplishment for the week is I FINALLY ordered my dress. I'm not going to post a pic cause I don't like the one from the company on the website....so it will just be a surprise!

I emailed yesterday a girl for hair and another for makeup because they are really reasonable priced and recommended by a lot of other girls. I couldn't believe my luck that they were both available....then I come back from a meeting today and the girl for the makeup is booked now. I told dustin it is like I have a big target on me that someone is making all this planning so difficult!!!! What are the chances that someone with my same date booked her during less than 24 hours! It's not the end of the world, but just sucks!

I worked on my taxes after work today and it went really fast...has me a little nervous! I still need to fill in all my donations, so that will be rather time consuming.

If you are looking for a good summertime recipe, you gotta try this grape salad. It is very tasty and easy to make. You just put red and green grapes in a 9x13 pan- I think the recipe suggested 4lbs total, but I just bought 1 bag of each at the store. Then you mix 1 package of cream cheese and 8 oz sour cream and 1 cup sugar together. I just mixed in a bowl, but think it would be better if you beat it together. Dallop that on top of the grapes and spread out. Then combine 1 cup brown sugar, 1 cup chopped pecans, and 1 T vanilla in a bowl. It will make a crumbly mixture that you can sprinkle on top. (I actually doubled the white mixture when I made it because I didn't feel I had enough to spread on the grapes, so may want to have some extra ingredients on hand.)

Fun dresses for wedding activities

So I'm struggling with just committing to ordering my wedding dress and it's just been annoying. I just feel like there isn't anything super-cute or exciting about the dress i have as my top pick, but I really like it and is what I wanted to find. And I don't want a dress that is too trendy that I look back a few years from now and just think it is atrocious. So I'm thinking I should just order this dress and then focus on finding really cute dresses for the rehearsal, shower, bachelorette party, etc. Anyways, here were some dresses I found this weekend I thought would be fun for the rehearsal:

White House Black Market always has great dresses, but usually a little pricey for me unless on sale. Here were a few I thought were cute for things:

Dustin's Bday Weekend

So Dustin turned the big 30 this weekend! Just means my time is getting closer than I want! We really didn't do anything super exciting or extravagant, but dustin had a good time I think. Friday night we went to the Scottish Arms for dinner and 2 other couples met us there, then we just went to the Mauritson's to watch the bball games afterwards. Then on Saturday we had our families over here and we hung out up on the roof cause the weather was sunny and probably about 55-60 degress-- pretty much perfect! We played washers, watched bball, ate lots, and just sat around. The Shonks gave dustin this hard hat with his name plastered across the front that was hilarious-- we're thinking he needs to show up on the first day of his strike assignment with this hard hat along with a shirt I made him for xmas that had Dustin across the front of that...he'd definitely look a few screws loose and maybe they'd send him back home!

Stupid Illini

By the title of my last post- "Get ready for the madness"- I should have taken my own advice and got ready for the madness the illini thrust on me last night!!!!!! They just looked so awful playing Western Ky, from the lame Sunbelt conference of all things. Then they finally start pouring it on in the last couple minutes and made a game of it and we got within like 2 or 3...but was just too late.

Adios to our seniors (pictured on the right)! I was really happy for Trent Meachem because he had a GREAT game and at least was a good way to end your career. Frazier didn't play and we still aren't sure what the full story was on his injury. I thought Brock did okay and played with a lot of urgency and passion when needed. And I just learned that this dude- CJ Jackson is a senior when I found this pic...I don't have anything to say about him and not sure if he even played this year.

On a better note, my brackets are looking good! I've only missed just a few games and none that really mattered too much. Mizzou just pulled off their first round win, so that makes me want to gag. Hopefully they hit the end of their road on Sunday....pretty please with a cherry on top!

Get ready for the madness!

So tomorrow starts one of my favorite times of year-- march madness!! Unfortunately I don't think IL is going to do too well....but you never know with them and they also could get lucky and play well and really beat some teams too. So, here are my picks...I did 2 brackets

Bracket 1:
Winner: NC
Finals: NC and UConn
Final Four: NC, UConn, Louisville, Villanova

Bracket 2:
Winner: Pitt
Finals: Pitt and Louisville
Final Four: Pitt, Louisville, Oklahoma, UConn

I wanted to try to vary my picks from dustin cause I thought it was dumb for us to enter one with the same final four and such...however, we both filled ours out almost exactly the same, so I varied some. Here is what I am really thinking-- Finals have to be UConn and NC if that player is healthy. I think UConn has best chance of winning the whole thing. If any #1 has chance to get out early I think it is Louisville. There you go- Gus called it, no need to watch.

Happy St Paddy's Day!

It's been killing me that I've been such a slacker on this, but we've had some nice weather and just been too busy! I'm off to work in a bit, so that is not too fun....but we did celebrate st paddy's day earlier with a bar crawl in soulard that was a lot of fun.

Spent this last weekend watching IL lose an awful game in the Big10 tournament to Penn St. They have a 5 seed in the ncaa and start off with Western Ky. So this Thursday at 9pm I'll have to force myself to stay up late and watch. If they win, they will play Gonzaga on dustin's bday...so I was first thinking, well that has to be good luck. Then I remembered how dustin has the worst luck possible of anyone I've ever met....so we are probably doomed to lose that game. All right, well I've been up since like 3 cause couldn't sleep, so I gotta get into work and try not to fall asleep!

Catch-up Time

Argh- so I've been a slacker again, but partly have an excuse. I've been sick since mardi gras- started as sore throat, then turned into a cold, and now has turned into nagging cough. So now I have too much stuff to update, so will have to give the quick recap of everything. So this last weekend we went to a Trivia Night which we do every year to support a friend's rugby team. I think we placed like 18th out of maybe 25 tables-- not very impressive. It didn't help that they really lacked on the pop culture type questions. I was proudly able to contribute the name of the woman who just had the octuplets and that was about it. One category that unfortunately was worth double was a sheet of pictures of people-- you had to give their name and what cabinet position they hold or other white house type job. Ummmm ya-- did not even recognize one face on the sheet. I think we got 1 right!

I've also done some dress shopping- gone out 3 different times to a total of 4 more stores. Saturday I went to Blushing Bride in Shiloh and then Elegant Brides downtown and found possibilities at both of those. Still nothing that just strikes me as perfect, but I think I'd be happy with one I found.

Lots of good stuff on TV lately. Mondays are killer because I watch The Bachelor, 24, Heroes, Gossip Girl, and How I met Your Mother. The rest of the week I'll just watch American Idol, 90210, and the Office...so at least it slows down.

Ok, so my AI thoughts...I LOVED Megan Corkrey from the 2nd round, but she has not made it through...yet. I agree with Kara she is just the package deal-- she's absolutely gorgeous, just very unique, and something about her that I think people will follow her and like. So she better get through to the top 12 or everyone make me boycott! I also really like Felicia Barton from the 3rd round, so I'll find out tonight if she gets through!

Megan:

And I lastly have to comment on the Bachelor. I must admit I've been quite the devoted fan to this stupid show. So I didn't want to believe the rumors "Reality Steve" posted, but he was mostly right. Jason, the bachelor, I thought was just like the best ever-- he seemed like an extremely nice guy and just had everything going for him. So he ends up picking Melissa, but then realizes after the show ends that he has feelings for Molly and should have picked her! So they do an emergency taping to have him break it off with Melissa and then ask Molly to give him a chance. Supposedly he is still with Molly and she is moving to Seattle. I guess if it all works out, then great...but just seems odd that if Molly was the one for him that he didn't choose her to start with! And all these rumors are swirling about how much the producers and abc were involved in all this. Today some emails between Melissa and Jason were posted where he even says the producers were involved in so much of this. Anyways, what a fiasco and I swore I was done with the show. Until they announced that Jillian will be the next bacheloretty and she was my absolute favorite from this season- just so down-to-earth and seemed so normal. So let's hope she can find a nice guy!

Jillian, Melissa, Jason, and Molly: