Engagement Celebration!!!

Last night we had an Engagment Party and it was a great time...Dustin and I are paying for it today though- haha! We really appreciated everyone who was able to come and especially those who travelled from out of town...and unfortunately we missed some close friends and family who couldn't be there. We used an empty loft here in dustin's building and just tried to spruce it up some and I thought it turned out really cool looking. Missy worked hard on cd mixes of a lot of our fave songs...unfortunately it was so loud with the talking that we couldn't hear a lot of the music until later in the night when we turned it up much louder. But I still loved what I did hear and think I heard most of the good ones! My parents did sooooooooo much for the party on top of trying to move next week, but I think it all paid off cause the food was great and we had so much fun. It was just a blast!!!!!! Cleaning up today-- not so much of a blast though-- we really should have used more disposable cups and such! Now I know a tad how people feel about weddings-- I was bummed as people were leaving because I felt like I didn't get to talk to them enough and spend time with them. I needed to have done a better job at making the rounds. And I felt like I hardly spent time with Dustin at all and this was to celebrate our engagment! Once only the latenight partiers were left, we went down to dustin's to play rockband...I decided to just be the groupie though and observe cause was too tired by that point! It was so much fun though....let's do it again next weekend! I still need to get the bulk of the pics from mom's camera, so I'll probably do a later posting with those. Oh, and best part of the night is as my dad is giving a speech and says that dustin's parents must be proud of him and Mandi accidentally lets this snicker out loud....it was absolutely hilarious!!!! I'm still laughing about that one days later

Illini RULE!!!!!!

Does anything more really need to be said about this trip than the score shown in th epic to the left?!?!?! I'm a little behind on posts because last week was super busy, but last weekend Dustin, Missy, and I went to Nashville to watch the Vandy-Illiniois basketball game. It was a great game because the lead would change back and forth and was close most of the game....but the illini came out on top!!! We also were able to sit in the vandy student section, so that was fun being amidst the rivals and we were probably only 10 rows from the court...something you don't get to experience at assembly hall! The rest of the weekend was a little boring-- we went to the same bar every night and it was dead and had horrible odor (see pic below of me holding my nose with the 2 other lone patrons). Dustin's friend we were staying with had a friend who owned the place which is why we continuously had to go there. We did go to dinner to a place called Sambuca for dinner that was super awesome-- good food and atmosphere. They are a chain, so if you ever run across this place- go there!!!

Execution Day - 9.26.09

As Dustin's friends were joking last night, Dustin's execution will be 9/26/09 because that is when we are getting married!!!!!!!!!! Now I just need to keep hoping for good weather so it can all go as I want. Our ceremony will be at the botanical gardens in the rose garden at 3:30. I'm thinking we'll then take a ton of pictures all over the gardens since they are really beautiful and have lots of cool scenery. We booked the reception at Windows On Washington which I'm also really excited for. We wanted the reception to be downtown so it would be convenient for most guests staying down here and they can walk to bars before or after the reception easily.

I can't get a photo of the rose garden site, but here is a link where you can click on the box on the left of the page where it says Experience more of this location/see more photos: http://www.cateringstlouis.com/weddings/loc_ceremony_lehmannRoseGarden.php

Not sure yet what colors will pick and that our room will look anything like this, but these were the pics I could find for Windows On Washington (aka WOW). We like it because I think it has a little more urban/lofty feel to them:

Hangin Tough

Monday night Missy and I went to the New Kids on the Block concert and it was a blast!!!! We bought these tickets back in June and paid waaaaaaaaay too much for them...but it was worth every last penny. Dustin was making fun of us that we'd be the only 2 fans in the building....so please take notice of the thousands of other crazies that were there. I used to have the big crush on Donnie, but I think now it may be on Joey. They closed with Hangin Tough which was just so great....man, I think I need to go to another city and see them!!!!!

Halloween

Well this will be a short post, but I've had blog-guilt lately of neglecting it so I know I gotta get something out here! We went to some halloween parties last weekend and had a good time. Friday night we went to another party downtown here at a loft and was lots of fun and a beautiful night out. My cat costume is from that night-- ya, don't ask- it was easy to do...and lame!

Then you'll see I decided last minute on Saturday to make better costumes...so we went as olympic champs Michael Phelps and Nastia Liukin. I made dustin take pictures of me in my gymnast pose and trying to do cartwheels-- the cartwheel pics did not look so great, so i'm just going to forget I ever tried those! Dustin's costume I thought was great-- he wore some tight leggings of mine and we cut out felt that said USA and decorated it with red/blue stars. We then got some alphabet stickers that had flags on them and spelled out PHELPS on his swimcap. I just modified an old dance costume leotard to look more american-like and then wore the ponytail with a lot of barrettes and put on glittery eyeshadow. I had fun making them, so I guess that is all that matters! One of our friends below was chris farley/matt foley motivational speaker and was hilarious-- he ended up winning the costume contest at the party saturday night.