- #mohangileswedding -

Life has taken a 180 since the carefree days of pulling all-nighters and then rolling out of bed the next afternoon together. What is that I speak of?! Oh yesss yes yes...the glorious days of COLLEGE.  

Meghan and Emily were two of my very first friends at SLU; I remember meeting them on freshman year move-in day and then basically spending every waking moment attached at the hip from there on out. And even though we are all old and growed up now, they remain two of my very BEST friends!  We text constantly and see each other occasionally, but the friendship always picks up right where it left off when we are reunited.  This past weekend, we all met in Michigan to stand up on the altar next to Emily as she said, "I DO!" to the man of her dreams! 

To Austin and Emily the new Mr. and Mrs. Giles: We wish you all the joy, love, and happiness in the world!!! Thank you for hosting us in Detroit and inviting us to be a part of your special weekend.  You are one super stunning married couple!  :) 

Oh, and of course this post would never ever think of ending itself without a sneak peak into my super private mega-restricted Instagram account! Soooo here are some action shots/Instagrams from Friday and Saturday and some "latergrams" from Sunday and Monday.

Welcome to #mohangileswedding in a nutshell! 

*****

Reunitedddd and it feels SO GOOD! Let's get this par-tay started!!!  #mohangileswedding

[We rolled into Detroit Friday evening and checked into the hotel.  The bride-to-be was out to dinner with her family, so Meghan and I and our man-candy trotted over to TGI Fridays for some dinner and drinks!]

Bottoms up + face smoosh.  Feeling: confused.  #mohangileswedding

[Seeing a long-lost best friend + $3 margarita specials = easy explanation for that caption?] 

"Why's it so busy, aren't people supposed to be at work?" -car pilot Meghan  #mohangileswedding

[Heading from hotel to a nail salon near Emily's house. 30-ish minutes with Meghan behind the wheel and we only circled the drain of death about three times.  Not too shabby. ]

Bride-to-be getting her nails did!  #mohangileswedding

[Was waiting for the Chinese woman to yell, "NO FOTO." But she never did. So we kept snapping away.]

Coffee and nails w/ the maids!  #mohangileswedding

[Starbucks and mini-lingerie shower after the nail salon!]

Nailz that match the jewelz?  Don't mind if I do! #divadeluxe #mohangileswedding

[Because selfies are my self-righteous specialty.]

Rehearsing a little and picture-taking a lot.  #mohangileswedding [#latergram] 

[Friday night rehearsal at the church before an AWESOME will-never-be-matched-ever-again rehearsal dinner at Local!]

Throwback Friday?...to Mardi Gras 201? with the bride- and groom-to-be!! Who knew back then that these crazies would be tyin' the knot TOMORROW?!  #mohangileswedding

[The crazy college days! *sigh* Miss them.]

<3 <3 <3  #mohangileswedding

[My besties. Love them forever and ever amen.]

It's the crack of dawn but it's WEDDING DAY!!  #mohangileswedding

[We ate a quick continental breakfast together before going to Emily's house to get our hair and makeup done for the ceremony.  And the boys...well...I think they went back upstairs to bed and then watched basketball all day!]

Mornin' sunshines!  #mohangileswedding

[Emily's dad had the coffee pot brewing as soon as we walked in the door! A man wise beyond his years!]

Role reversal!! ;)  Love this pic and this BRIDE!!  #mohangileswedding [#latergram] 

[Felt like just yesterday she was standing up for me!]

Goin' to the chapel!!!  #mohangileswedding

Da maids!  #mohangileswedding

[LOVED the sister-of-the-groom Anika!!! She fits right in with all of our weirdness!]

Color me purple.  #mohangileswedding

Garter up, bay-bay!!!  #mohangileswedding

["Is that high enough?" -Meghan  ...Yes, I think so.]

Here comes the brideeee!!!  #mohangileswedding [#latergram] 

[10 minutes before her big walk down the aisle and she was sooo calm!]

#MCM [+ no filter bc he's THAT CA-YOOT.]  #mohangileswedding [#latergram]
[My babe lookin' real Miami in his pinstriped suit!]

Congrats to Mr. and Mrs. Giles!!!!!!!  #mohangileswedding

[First limo ride ever! Loved it!!!] 

CHEERZ.  #mohangileswedding

 

Then and now! Meghan -- you're next!  #mohangileswedding

Newlyweds' first dance!  #mohangileswedding [#latergram]

[The dancing part of the reception was outside on this beautiful patio.  It got chilly when the sun went down, but there were these huge fire lamp pole things to keep everyone warm.  It was the perfect reception!]

About to take this to a whole new level: paparazzi-ing the paparazzi.  #mohangileswedding [#latergram]
[A little depiction of what Meghan and I are most famous for... Good to see things aren't changing in the post-college life! ;)]

CONGRATULATIONS, Austin and Emily!!! Your wedding weekend was just beautiful and everything went off without a hitch!  I hope it was all you ever dreamed of and more!

More non-Instagram pics to come.....so stay tuned! :) 

- 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! 

- Flowers FINALLY! -

The time has come...

...after a desperate plea for help...

...for landscaping day!

Wait whaaa? It's FINALLY here?

Yep.

It's here.

[But it took this, this, this and this to get to today's starting point.]

I'm usually mildly obsessive and compulsive, but mostly always just super IMpulsive. When a project is waiting to be started and/or I get an idea in my head, I have to jump on it RIGHTNOW.  Quick decisions, no second-guessing myself, and absolutely NO looking back.  So Friday night we decided to landscape over the weekend and Saturday morning we woke up early + bought the flowers + planted 'dem all. 

And justlikethat it was finished.

So from the beginning:

Asked for a rough idea slash quick sketch of our landscaping plan and got a scaled blueprint masterpiece.  [No denying ever ever again that I married my dad! Dayummm.]  30-ish minutes later and we were on our way to the nursery...

Left: Mastermind holding McDonald's coffee in left hand and blueprint layout in the right. Ready to get down to business, and we all know the boss is a lot bossier happier after one cup of caffeine mixed with one cream and two sugars.
Right: Day in the life of a drudge. Following orders and loving it! ;) 

Ready, set, PLANT.

Me: "Are you taking a picture??? Don't get my pale legs!"
Brian:  "Sorry, it's kinda hard not to....."

First watering sesh! 

Grow little beauties, grow!

- The wisest wise thoughts of B.D. -

Just re-ran across this framer! A little glimpse into the 5am mindset of one of night shift's finest: 

"When I eat potatoes and gravy I get chapped lips." -B.D. [<---- using initials to save her reputation]

Hahah! So thankful for this girl who is a pro at getting me [happily] through the dreaded wee hours of the morn!  :-*

- 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!!!

- Because I can. -

So many Holy Week thoughts and so little time to type... 

Just gonna steal-borrow the post I made in 2012 and call it a day...

Happy [re-]reading! ;) 

*****

Oh, but here is the video again in case you are too lazy to read the entire original post! 

- Spring sprang-ded...and we need some HELP -

Spring is spranging at this house!!  #aprilshowersbringaprilflowers! <--- Which is queer, because I always thought the old motto went like: April showers bring May flowers. But whatev.

I am thrilled that some surprise random flowers are shooting up! ...Minus a little less than thrilled over the fun fact that only a few clumps are left standing because Brian thought they were "weeds" [weeds with blossoms?] and plucked half of them out of the mulch already...SO.

Anyway.

While we're swimming in the pool of spring and flower-ness, I mostlyyyyy am writing this post as a desperate plea for help beCAUSE we need to get in gear with a landscaping plan.  Stat. Rightnow. ASAP. Brian finished the landscaping wall late last fall [beating a dead horse even deader with pictures of that here, here, and here], and at that time we decided it would be best to leave the area covered in mulch for the winter and plant trees/flowers/bushes in the spring..... And now it's spring.  And everyone else's plants are blossoming. And we're the only house in the subdivision who has a landscaping area flourishing with...dirt.  And and and.  

Where do we begin???  Real-life ecology/botany isn't quite my thing and the world wide web's "starting pointers" are overwhelming for my pea-brain, so suggestions from friends like YOU would be suuuuper duper appreciated!  

Oh, and added into the night shift/daytime sleeping habits + a tiny bit of overall laziness, I am guessing I won't have the greenest of green thumbz so would maybe prefer plants that don't require multiple/daily doses of water/fertilizing treatments?! 

Thoughts? 

Ideas? 

Or is it already too late to plant?

Are we doomed?! :/

Help!

- Anna's Birthday -

Happy birthday to this breath-of-life, super sweet, totally timeless GREAT friend!! Thanks for letting us celebrate your 27th anniversary outside the uterus!  

Love ya, birthday girl!

- Picnicking and Picturing -

First day of spring-ISH weather is here and we are gonna shout it from the rooftops whilst simultaneously doing three hundred jumping jack/fist pumps. But only after we pack our little picnic lunches and dash off to Forest Park to let our pale skin soak soak soaaaak up some sun.  There is light [and heat] at the end of the tundra tunnel. Finally.

Art Hill, how we love thee.

A little nostalgic considering our old apartment was across the street from Forest Park and these were my old daily napping grounds...BUT...nothing a little 30-minute drive can't fix. ;) 

Brian's work gave us tickets to see Once at The Fox, so after our picnic and before the show we had a little time to burn... Majority voted to take the new camera to SLU [also some old stomping grounds that bring on SEVERE nostalgia!] and practice shooting in manual mode.  We are still pretty lamesauce behind the lens, but I guess that's what the delete button is made for! 

Spring is spranging, which means much much muuuuch more picnicking and picturing to come!!! :D 

- Opening Day -

Sum-It-Up Sunday

One of my favorite things about St. Louis is the way we pull together during baseball season and go WACKO [or Wacha?] for our beloved BIRDS! 

And one of my NOT so favorite things is working a 12-hour shift the night before AND the night of the Cards' home opener... :( 

...So cheers to sleeping soundly through Opening Day?  But 'tis still the life when the Cardinals bring home a "W" and we get to nomnomnom on day shift's leftover hotdogs! Who knows how long these doggies were out [tray probably delivered around 11 in the a.m. and night shift starts at 7 in the p.m. sooo...?] but can hotdogs even spoil? Nah. Didn't think so.

PS - Still wondering why day shift always gets a spread of food for the smallest of small special events and we get.....nada?  But I'll leave that injustice untouched for now. 

Other week highlights: 

-- Happy birthday, Anna!

- Worthy Is The Lamb -

I always HATED practicing for piano lessons.  I started them at the beginning of second grade [because back then you had to wait until you could read to start taking lessons and...I think my brain growth was stunted or something because now kids learn how to read in preschool but...enn-bee-dee] and every day my mom set the oven timer in the kitchen for TWENTY MINUTES. That seemed like an eternity to sit there and plunk out a page full of black twisted up notes, and I remember wishing on the daily that the piano would just learn how to play itself. [Although looking back, those twenty minutes were probably more of an eternity sensation for my mom and any other poor soul who was stuck in the house listening to the garbled up clunkity-clunk-clunking.  And on total tangent thought, she also suffered through countless hours of my saxophone practicing -- so at least we can smile and be happy that a) the piano was guaranteed to be in tune and b) the piano never emitted any sort of high-pitched squawking.]

Wow that was an intense paragraph and all I really wanted you to know was that I hated piano lessons...

...But now I LOVE that my parents forced me to take them!!! 

Because life rocks when you're a master of eighty-eight black and whites.

*nose up*

*left shoulder brush brush*

*right shoulder brush brush*

Jay-kay.

But not really. 

Almost 20 years of piano playing is securely fastened under my belt now, and it feels good to be able to sit down anytime and pound out a little emotion and make some music in the process. ;) 

Oh, and my mom obvi set that 20-minute timer every day because my grandma set that 20-minute timer for her about 30 years ago and so.......

Check out our latest homemade video:  

"Worthy Is The Lamb" 

Four hands, two hearts, one love for Jesus! 

[Try this link if the video doesn't play.]

Happy Lent/Easter 2014 from my sweet momma [the 20-minute timer setter] and me!

- Dad's Birthday -

Happy birthday to my old man!  50-something never looked so young! ;)  We celebrated with the fam at Texas Roadhouse then had cake and ice cream afterwards at our house. 

Birthday boy got a loud and proud, "YEEHAW!" from the Roadhouse dinner guests but was too embarrassed to straddle or ride the birthday saddle!  Oh well... To each their own.

Happy happy day, Pops!

- Photography 101 -

Sum-It-Up Sunday

So shooting this camera in auto mode is awesome, but it does have a ton of other bells and whistles that I also want to master! I'm not tryin' to be a full blown professional photog here, but I do enjoy a little fun photography as a side hobby and don't want to be clueless when it comes to using this thing in its full capacity!  As mentioned before, Brian has this friend James (owner of Labonte Photography!) who is a genius in the camera world and is a pretty creative and skilled photographer himself. He holds classes in his home and/or studio occasionally when he finds a couple people who are interested in learning, so of course we jumped right on that bandwagon. And "Photography 101" was a huge success!!! Plus after we learn what he taught us in this 4.5 hour session [which by the way, he only charges $35 for THAT ENTIRE TIME], he is gonna schedule a "Photography 102" class! 

^^ Pressure's on to get out there and practice, practice, practice! 

Anybody wanna be my practice victim? Hit me up. :) 

Other week highlights: 

-- Happy birthday, Dad!!!