- May the 4th Be With You! -

Sum-It-Up Sunday

Happy Independence Day from the Fleming brothers and their awesome firework show! 

May the 4th be with you! ;) 

 

Other week highlights: 

-- The Band Perry at Fair St. Louis! 

-- Fireworks galore! 

- Reunited!... -

Sum-It-Up Sunday

...with THIS GIRL in Cleveland!

Tons of pics coming! 

Other week highlights: 

-- Roadtrip to Cleveland/New York! Stay tuned!

- Montgomery County Pageant -

Sum-It-Up Sunday

Another year...

Another summer...

Another county fair season...

And another Montgomery County Fair Queen!!! 

Congrats to our county's new beautifullllll 2014 royalty, Shayla Grosenheider! :) 

This was my third year having the best seat in the house...back stage left on the emcee mic! Nothing beats having a front row view of the competition!  Steal/borrowed a couple pics from the always amazing Studio 131 Photography:

--George and I emceeing!

--Summer warming up for the Star-Spangled Banner!

--2014 Miss Montgomery County Fair Queen Shalya and 2013 Miss Montgomery County Fair Queen (annnnd 2014 Miss Illinois County Fair Queen) Summer!  Two beauties!

--Missy and her new queen!

Once a queen, always a queen!!! The Montgomery County Fair is so big and generous and loving, and we "has-beens" are so honored to be a part of this fair family forever! 

Surprised by a couple of my 2010 county fair queen loves! Montgomery -- Edgar -- Georgetown! Four hours in 95-degree humidity ain't got nothin' on us! Love you ladies!! So great to see you!! 

Congratulations again, Shayla! You rocked the stage and stole the show! So well deserved and so proud of you. Welcome to the crazy county fair club...you're in for the best summer of your life!!!

Other week highlights: 

-- Pageant practice practice practice makes perfect! 

- Father's Day -

Sum-It-Up Sunday

Semi-ironic that today is Father's Day since I'm mostly just doting over all the mothers......

...but we'll just take one hot second to pretend the whole labor/delivery/pushing out a watermelon process is actually about the fathers.

I mean, it sort of is.

Turning men into dads...it's what we do best! ;) Bring on the Father's Day bay-bayyys!

But really.....  Happy Father's Day to all the great dads out there, especialllllly mine who is off spinning his bike wheels somewhere in between Oregon and Wyoming! Love you and so proud of you always, Dad!!!!!

Other week highlights: 

-- Brian had a 4-day conference full of meetings and eatings in St. Louis this week, so Purina sprang for hotel rooms. Mini STL stay-cation on the company credit card? Yeah, sure! It was super convenient to drive 15 minutes in the mornings after work instead of the normal 40+ back to the Illinois side, so I slept in the hotel all day while Brian worked. Loved it!...minus the housekeeping woman that knocked on the door 3 times mid-morning in spite of the "DO NOT DISTURB" door hanger. Brian said they probably were starting to wonder what was going on in that room by the third day of having the hanger on 24/7. Ha! Just a super sleepy night shift worker passed out, duhhhh.

-- Dueling pianos at Mt. Olive Homecoming! 

-- Brian's family reunion! 

-- Irish Days in Farmersville! 

- Strawbaliciousness -

Sum-It-Up Sunday

Scored some of Resa's [handpicked!] homemade white chocolate-covered strawberries this week!! 

My FAVORITE!

These are a product of her second trip to the local orchard, and you would never even be able to start guessing all the straw-ba-licious things that have emerged from that kitchen this month. Strawberry pizzas and pies and jams and everything in between and I'm glad Brian doesn't know all of this is going on or he'd be devastatingly disappointed in my mediocre housewifery habits. 

Anyway, my mom is pretty freakin' awesome and these sweet snacks were pretty freakin' delish!  Thanks, Mom! 

A little more [wedding week!] chocolate-dipping funness in momma's kitchen:

• Chocolate-covered spoons

• White chocolate-covered pretzels

Other week highlights: 

-- Happy wedding day, Chris and Stephanie!! You are a gorgeous couple! 

-- TWO nights of the Bachelorette! Be still, my soul.

- Fiona's Baptism -

Sum-It-Up Sunday

Check out Uncle Brian taking his first stab at being a godparent...

You're a pretty calm and accepting guinea pig, sweet Fiona! ;)  Happy baptism day and welcome to God's family, baby girl! 

#thegodfather

Other week highlights: 

-- Happy Memorial Day! Thank you to all the men and women [past, present, AND future] who have protected our freedom. We appreciate you! 

- Chrissy's Graduation -

Sum-It-Up Sunday

She did it! Congrats to our pretty little niece, Chrissy! Class of 2014, booyah baby!

Sandwiched between her uncles:

Other week highlights: 

-- BACHELORETTE PREMIERES!!! Holy smokes, can't even contain myself. Monday nights for the rest of the summer: you own my soul.

-- Happy graduation, Kata!

-- Happy baby shower "sprinkle", Nancy! 

- Malpractice at Thurman's -

Sum-It-Up Sunday

F
I
N
A
L
L
Y

REUNITEDDDDD with these great great friends! Read about them here [or an updated version here] because it's same story over and over and I'll just go ahead and save myself some blabbering.

But ANYWAY -- the Mass choir director also has a band on the side and they play classic rock/blues/funk/soul/80's pop at all kinds of STL bars and venues! They graced Thurman's in Tower Grove this week, so we hopped down there to guzzle some drinks and bask in some legit music.

The gang minus a few: 

Way to go, Sean-o!

Other week highlights: 

-- Protecting God's Children........another rant for another day.

- Mother's Day -

Sum-It-Up Sunday

Happy Mother's Day to a great mom who just keeps getting greater!  

Momma Bear and her three cubs...

Coffee and coffee cups and a Cupcakery cupcake for this special lady! 

Too sunny for pics...

...But squinty eyes or not, I think we've come a LONG way since Mother's Day 1995(?)...

Happy Mother's Day, Mom!  

Hope all you mothers and mothers-to-be had a great day! 

Other week highlights: 

-- Friday night date night with Chad and Val!  We grilled out at our house and then ventured 0.5 long miles down the road to the movie theater. Spiderman 2! Thrilling and heart capturing and everything like Spiderman 1 and all the other Spidermans before [because I am totally a Spiderman expert/guru, obvi]. Great night! 

-- Saturday night date night with Piels and Duncans at the Belleville racetrack! Fun night miiiiinus being slowly and torturously deafened by "midget" race cars and all these other weird looking race mobiles + being pelted with the occasional dirt clod clump.  Notes for next time:  bring ear plugs and don't wear a white shirt!! ;) 

- Tres de Mayo -

Sum-It-Up Sunday

Tres amgias with endless drinkas? 

Yeah.

Because who wouldn't opt to start celebrating Cinco de Mayo on "Tres" de Mayo? :)

Had fun with you L&D lovelies...thanks for inviting me out! :) 

Other week highlights: 

-- Home from Michigan! 

-- Work work work ... sleep sleep sleep ... eat eat eat ... repeat repeat repeat.

- Michigan Roadtrip -

Sum-It-Up Sunday

We're on the road to Michigan for my college bestie's wedding...weeeeeee! Nine hours to read/chat/sleep/do-anything-except-stretch-out, and at the six-hour mark I remembered that I steal-borrowed this CD from my mom a while ago!  I've always hearted Matthew Kelly books and this recording did not disappoint either. Even Brian didn't fall asleep during it...which I guess is a good thing considering he was behind the wheel.

I also have his book Rediscover Catholicism and would be happy to lend it out to any thirsty readers. All ya gotsta do is ask! :) 

Other week highlights: 

-- Mom and I had a quick breakfast with Pat and Laura this week. She is moving to Nebraska in June, so we are trying to optimize the little time we have left! :(  Looking forward to a few more coffee dates before the big move!

-- Little Mel spent the night at our house Wednesday! She was bouncing off the walls til 11pm then flipping on our bedroom light switch the next morning before the sun even rose. Wish I had those sleeping habits or even just a fraction of that energy! :/ 

-- "Michigan Roadtrip" because...AUSTIN AND EMILY'S WEDDING!!! More posts to come! 

- Happy Easter! -

Sum-It-Up Sunday

Somehow Easter slipped through the cracks without a solitary picture for the blog archives, yet this year was absolutely one of the best. Ever. 

After a tiny tragedy that shook our world in March, we have been looking especially forward to Easter and new life with our chins up and hearts open.  Holy Week was so special this year, and attending the Easter Vigil at our new parish was incredibly refreshing. I love watching people come forward to be baptized and confirmed and receive their first Eucharist as a Catholic, but the best part is watching these hearts go forth from the arms of the Church marked with the sign of our faith. So pure and vibrant and beautiful, and you can see through their eyes how their cups runneth over. Wow. Claimed for Christ. Heaven meeting earth. Literally one of the best things in this world. I love it.

So that Mass was at 7pm and lasted a couple hours, and then Brian and I hit up the movie theater to see the late show of Heaven Is For Real. [If you haven't read the book, jump on this link and have it shipped right to your doorstep! Such a quick read and you'll be to the last page in a few hours!] The movie is just like the book [which is awesome, because I hate movies that don't follow the book's storyline at ALL] and ... holy cow.  I think it just passed up Simon Birch for the #1 spot on my favorite movie list!!! Wowza. Sat through the whole movie with a lump in my throat and on the verge of tears and I can't wait to see it again! If there's ONE thing you do in the next six months, treat yourself to this movie. I promise you won't regret it! Here's the trailer... Watching it just now almost made me cry again! ...Especially the first 24 seconds... Am I turning into a softie, or what?!

[Making a conscious effort to wrap up this post, I know I know.]

Sunday was spent with both sides of our family, and that's where I can't believe we failed in the picture realm! 

SO...for the sake of documentation purposes...

...Here's to spending the first post-Easter Wednesday in style with coffee and blogging and simpicity and new life and...

...most importantly, a new favorite bracelet! Happy Easter to me from...me! :) 

Not trying to take this post off on a huge tangent, but what do you think of the new sideways cross jewelry?  I love it!!! Thought it was just a new little faddy fad until I randomly found this blog and several others like it... 

...Not trying to be silent Christian rebel...just like the new style!

What are your thoughts?! 

Other week highlights: 

-- Happy Holy Week!!!