New Camera!!

Our new camera arrived the other day (we ordered it through Sears with a couple of wedding gift cards). Jake did a lot of research to find the best one in our price range and this is what he came up with:

I need to learn how to use it, but here's what I've taken so far:

This one is for my mom :)

Jake just started to take piano lessons. He's being a good student and practicing at home!

This is my new craft room. It was an office, but we never went in except for to get things out of the closets. I went to Wal-mart the other day to get some storage containers to organize all my craft supplies and I found these cute curtains. I also covered the desk with a cheap table cloth so that it won't get ruined with paint and glue. I'm very excited to start my Christmas crafts now!

Weekend Update

I've been complaining a lot lately about how there is NOTHING to do here, but this weekend was very eventful and wonderful so I guess there are things to do (you just have to travel a little bit to do them).

We started off with a hike on Saturday at the state park. This was fun until the end of the hike when Jake decided he wanted to go off the trail for a bit. I voiced my opinion repeatedly about how I thought it was a bad idea. He should have listened. Right as we were nearing the clearing we went through some type of poisonous plant that made our legs instantly itch and burn like they were on fire. Luckily we had some type of poisonous plant wipe thing in our first aid kit, but we still have no idea what it actually was. The pain lasted the rest of the day, but it seems to have healed.

http://www.clearlakestatepark.org/

After the hike we went home and got ready to leave for Santa Rosa for the night. I found out a few days ago that Tainted Love (my favorite 80's cover band) was playing in town.

http://taintedlove.com

The show didn't start until 10pm though so we spent the day at Bed Bath and Beyond using our wedding gift cards, shopping at Michael's for craft supplies to make Christmas presents, and dinner with Jake's grandma and sister. It was a super fun day and it was nice to be in a well populated area for the afternoon/evening.

We slept in this morning and then headed home around 11. On our way back we decided to try this restaurant in St. Helena called Taylor's Automatic Refresher. I saw this place on Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives (one of my favorite shows on the Food Network) and have been wanting to go for a while. I have this personal goal to go to as many places that I can on that show and the show Man vs. Food. So far I've only been to 3 from Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives, but I'm still young and have plenty of time. The food was really good and the drive through St. Helena was beautiful.

After we got home we went to play tennis for about an hour. The weather was perfect and even though we didn't play very well we still had a lot of fun. It was a wonderful weekend and I'm sad it has to end. Next weekend I have to work and Jake has to take a test in Sacramento so I won't have any more fun weekend updates until the next weekend. We'll be spending the next Saturday and Sunday in San Francisco for the half marathon!

P.S. Our new camera should be arriving soon so look forward to some actual pictures!!!

New Favorite Show

It's called Man Shops Globe and it's on the Sundance channel Wed. @ 10pm. It's about a buyer for Anthropologie (one of my favorite stores) who goes all over the world in search of cool things for the store (to decorate with and to sell). Little known fact: ALL of the decorations in the stores are for sale. Based on the 2 episodes that I've seen I'm guessing that they are very expensive and out of reach for most customers. This past episode featured a huge chandelier made out of recycled materials that was AMAZING. The store had a special exhibit to showcase the items the buyer found in South Africa and president Obama bought it for his daughter's room! Anyway, it's a great show and I wish it was my job to travel the world for Anthropologie.

Sorry for the delay...again!

Ok, let's move on to the getting ready part. Since my friends and family were setting everything up, I had plenty of time to do nothing all day. I started my day with a short run, cleaned up around the house, and then hung out with Nick (bridesmaid's boyfriend) until around lunch time. It was actually a very normal day and I don't remember feeling nervous or anxious at all. The girls started to arrive around 2 or 3 and we started to get ready. Aunt Terri and cousin Adair came over to make us look pretty. I am so grateful they were there because I don't know how to do anything with my hair besides pull it back or straighten it. Here are a few pictures from the wonderfully talented Sara Gillespie. Request to be her friend on facebook and see all of her awesome photo albums.






The following picture is not by Sara, but had to be added because I think it's going to be a crowd favorite. Let me preface the picture by saying that all of my bridesmaids are naturally gorgeous so it didn't take everyone long to get ready. We actually had a long time before our rides to the wedding arrived and I noticed a mess on the floor and thought I better sweep it up. Not many brides have a picture like this on their wedding day:

Let's not forget about the boys!! Here are some pictures of them:


You might be wondering what the deal is with the Butterfingers. Let me explain....several years ago (when Jake was younger and not quiet as mature) he explained to me that getting married was like having a Butterfinger every day for the rest of your life. It would be fine at first, but then you'd get tired of it. Well, I thought it would be funny to send a Costco size box of Butterfingers to him while he was getting ready. I LOVE that they took pictures with them!

That's all for now. I might wait until I get more pictures from Sara before I post more recaps. We'll see....