- Bigtime Binging -

Last post: May 4.

Today: May 28.

And what we've been up to in the last [almost entireeee] month?

Lots of things.

So today = some bigtime blog binging/barfing.

Get ready.

May 4:  Brian throws up some cabinets in the laundry room!

I thought this would be like a ten second project once the cabbies were delivered, but alas we're on week three of...hopefully three...and it's still a word in progress. [Measure measure, level level, nail nail...how hard can it be?? That damn perfectionism...gets me EVERY time!] We I originally wanted something like this or this or this or this: 

...but eventually settled for stacking the washer and dryer to maximize the space. More pics to come and a post dedicated enitrelyyy to my hot hubby's hard work when it's all finished and beautiful. Praw-mise. And yeah, I take screenshots of things on Pinterest instead of "pinning" them to look at later, so go ahead and judge me real good.

May 6:  Happy Nurse's Day to meeee! ...And also to the many wonderful nurses I've had the pleasure of learning from and working with!  And guess what? Our gift from Mercy was an inkpen.  Yeah, not even joking a little bit.  One nurse's husband brought in a huge box of Gus's Pretzels for us and just like that he immediately topped the hospital's [meeeen-imal and mega-disappointing] appreciation efforts. :/  But who needs a big generous heartfelt "WE [don't] APPRECIATE YOU!" gift from Mercy anyway when we are literally just swimming in bodily fluids of every type and function?  Good geez, nursing da bomb.

We diiiid get a little KSDK feature about our labor and delivery/NICU departments during nurse's week! Thumbs up, friends! Proud of our L&D department and love my awesome co-workers! Check us out!  Oh, and back to those Mercy PENZ FOR THE WIN [just can't get over it]:

A little 4am photobooth action: 

Enough about nursing. Seriously, enough. I've been trying lately to NOT thing about my job when I'm not at my job soooooo...

May 10-ish:  Read alllll about my plant parching fancy right hur.

May 11:  Happy Mother's Day to this one!!! :) 

May 17:  Can we just talk about child sexual abuse for one hot second? Sidenote/back-story: Brian and I signed up to work the margarita tent at our church's huge fundraiser/carnival/festival, and [low and behold] one of the requirements to volunteer in the Church these days is to take a class called Protecting God's Children.  It used to just be mandatory for church personnel working directly with children, and I remember my mom taking it when I was younger.  But now...errbody.  Sad evolution but good idea, I think.  Anyway, I took the class one morning this month and was kinda just planning on daydreaming through it and maybe doodling on my booklet during the videos because: I ain't go' hurt no childrens and I'm NEVA go' be associatin' wit' no predators. But hooooooly wow. Is it just me, or is it jaw-droppingly shocking that 1 in 5 adult women were sexually abused as children and 1 in 8 adult men?!  Whatttt?  Those numbers are huge. And most of the abusers are adults who the children and parents already deeply trust and it's a s...l...o...w... g...a...m...e...  Slow and horrible and ohemgee, I hate it so much.  BUT! But...we can do something to help, and it all starts with being educated and then not being afraid to report suspicious behavior.  Helping the Church exude holiness is a serious and obligatory job for each of us, SO...two hours later and a million times less naive, I walked out of class being an officially certified "protector of God's children."  And since then, I've been mega-aware. [...Even to the point of calling out suspicious looking people who are probably actually not suspicious at all: "Brian! Protecting God's children, 2:00!" And he whisks around to whatever direction I call out and just shakes his head and laughs.] But for real, watch out sex abusers...I've got my eye on you!!!  More to come on this some other time, but I'll jump off my soapbox rightaboutnow.

Because...

May 24:  MARGARITA TENT.  The reason I got all caught up in the Protecting God's Children business anyway.  We love love love loveeeee our new church and were eager to sign up to help at its annual festival. St. Boniface's "Bonifest." Ha. Ha. Haaaaa. So cute.  But I'm kinda getting tired of rambling and typing my thoughts..... Yeah definitely. Just sit back and wait for a bigger better post on this coming soon.

May 26:  Annnnnd she made it!  Thumbs up to this grad!  Way to go, Chrissy-mon!!! :) 

May 26:  Happy Memorial Day! Thank you to all military men and women!! :) My grandpa died four months before I was born, but his legacy of service to God, country, and family lives on through my mom and aunts and uncles and all of our awesome extended family!!  Thank you for all you were, Grandpa Beeler! Happy Memorial Day in heaven!

Ok, seriously, that's all for now. I can't even type two more words. 

Kbye.

- Darcy's Unity Candle -

After I made the unity candle for our wedding a couple years ago, I got kiiiind of addicted to the "wedding DIY-ness" and now still love doing crafty things for other people!  Sweet Darcy married the man of her dreams this past weekend, and I was lucky enough to be the candle-maker for their special day! I love the finished product...just perfect for these two and their sassy, fun-loving relationship! 

Congrats, Darcy and Cody! 

[Also snatched a couple pics from Darcy's FB page of the candle in its glory! Looks great!!]

SO...yeah...this is kind of a plug for my unity candle love affair. 

Know someone getting married soon?! I'd love to make a beauty for them to burn! Hook me up, yo.

[Also check out our unity candle and Nikki's unity candle!]

- 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! 

- Plant parcher no mo'! -

Summer 2013:

And you're definitely getting sick of all these landscaping posts I KNOWWW. But, I used to have a very very bad lethargic habit of watering plants, so I vowed to be better in 2014...

...and I think I am...

...so I have to toot my horn a little bit...

...or I guess sometimes a lot.

[And besides, I don't have kids to water and keep alive and brag about, so 'dis is it.]

New flower pot for the porch today!  

I am a plan parcher no mo'! Grow beauties, grow!! :) 

- 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.

- Damn Pansies -

I just realized why lame, wimpy people are called "pansies." 

Because these flowers are EXACTLY that, and they're the most delicate, temperamental, hard-to-keep-alive little shits.  

One day of:

...no water or too much water...

...no sun or too much sun...

...one little gust of wind...

...one rabbit turd too close to the blossom...

...and they're wilted over and gasping for their last breath of life.

Damn pansies.

But at least they're pretty, yeah? :)  Sidewalk lining -- annnnd check.

- 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!! ;) 

- Concocting cocktailz... -

...because Colace ain't mah style...

...and constipation ain't no joke.

TMI? 

No, never ever.

Some very angelic person that can remain anonymous [because I realize most people are more embarrassed to talk about their #2's than I am] introduced me to these "colon cocktails" a couple years ago, and let me just say that life has never been so sa-weeeet.  Colon-changing events should be shouted from the rooftops SO...in case you share my pooping problems...take note.

*****

Colon Cocktails 

Prep/Total Time: 5 minutes

• Applesauce
• Wheat germ [kind of hard to find, I got this at Dierbergs]
• Prune juice 

Mix [whatever portion of] 1:1:1 equal parts together in bowl. [I use 1 cup of each and then freeze in ice cube trays for easy access!] Eat one spoonful per day and be amazed forever and ever.

*****

Disclaimer:  People are ALWAYS asking for this recipe, so there's 95% of the intentionality of this post. Other 5% is to gross you out, obviously.

Brian opened the freezer door and found these that night and says he will never be able to use ice cube trays again. Sorry bout it! Heigh hooooo, welcome to the sweeter side of marriage, friend! ;) 

- Window Washing Wonder -

My very own window washing wonder:

My grandma LOVES washing windows, my mom "likes" it, and I despise it [plussss ain't got no time for it]. 

So all you washing fanatics come visit me anytime and wash wash wash away...and you just miiiight get a free dinner out of it! ;) 

Thanks for making our windows sparkle, Momma!! 

- IKEA table -

Goodbye big bulky massive huge coffee table...

...hello [exact same style] small cute dainty perfect coffee table!

I've been hatin' on our mega-sized IKEA coffee table that looked super great in my old apartment but takes up way too much space in our new living room.  On our drive home from my BFF's wedding in Detroit, we stopped into IKEA "just to look" [<---ha. ha. haaaa.] and walked out with this $19.99 gem!  Same exact table as the first, just one-third of the size.  Be still, my heart.

Twenty minutes of screwing sawdust into sawdust and voila!  Looks good, no? :) 

- 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.

- #mohangileswedding [Part II] -

More [as promised] pics of...

Rehearsal!

Rehearsal dinner!

Girls getting ready before wedding!

Reception!

We left the ceremony photos and all the other "important stuff" to the photographer, but I'm so happy captured some of the in-between moments when she wasn't in the room! :)

Happy marriage, best fren!!!