Molly and Kevin's Wedding

This weekend I had the chance to go up to Austin to be in one of my very best friend's wedding... Molly & Kevin. It was so much fun, so I thought I'd share some of the photos from the highlights...

Here's the rehearsal at the Umlauf sculpture garden - their good friend Carmen officiated the wedding and just knocked it out of the park - her sermon was so touching and there wasn't a dry eye in the house!

Kevin's mom hosted a great rehersal dinner at the Brick Oven -
complete with an armadillo grooms cake.
Kevin decided to start cutting from the back end.... =)

Here we are waking up on Molly's wedding day - we had a great balcony room on the top floor of the Hyatt - and we were both so excited that we got out of bed early and watched the sun rise!

Even though Molly's dress looked like it was pretty simple... I don't even think there were buttons... it took one mom, one sister, and one aunt to get her all zipped up!

We headed down to the Hyatt bar and Molly kicked off the afternoon with a shot of tequila!

Kevin's sister Jenny is a great photographer, so we took some shots of Molly before heading over to the ceremony!

Here comes Molly - she's going to surprise Kevin.
This is the first time they saw each other!
Such a wonderfully happy couple to take pictures of!


The unveiling - Molly was just stunning and I loved the flowers in her hair!

Here's the wedding cake, and in the background the crowd is beginning to fill in for the ceremony...

There is a slight gap in photos, since I was actually in the wedding...but here is the happy couple on their way out of the reception!

Just gives you warm fuzzies, doesn't it!

So everyone is talking about the economy, cutting back, spending less, and saving more. Well, I'm doing my part by cutting back my $4.5o/a latte Starbucks intake. I'm pretty sure the amount of money I've spent at our neighborhood Starbucks has put a couple of those baristas through college or at least paid for those fancy smanschy coffee machines they have.

So, I would like to introduce you to my personal barista that I now have in my own apartment. ...And you thought I wouldn't have room for a barista after having the two kayaks in my living room!

So here is what I like to call my big warm fuzzy. I am the owner of one of those really fun "single cup coffee makers" by Keurig. Each morning I get to turn it on and pick my brew, I get a warm-fuzzy! So come by any time and I'll make you one too... (my friend Molly likes to come over to visit just so she can press the little brew button - so I have to hold her back from giving cups of coffee out to the whole neighborhood!)

Since Jeremy dislikes coffee soooo much, even just the smell of it makes him gag - I decided to use one of my birthday gift certificates to Amazon and purchase this little beauty above!

It's great - I just wake up, turn it on, pop in one of the pods, (depending on if I want tea, coffee, decaf, regular, etc,) press brew, and voila, I have my own cup of coffee. Then all I do is pop out the pod and I'm done! (Yes, I was dorky enough to by the little spinning carousel thing that holds the coffee pods).

So I just wanted to share with you my warm fuzzy of the day - though, watch out, that Rain Forest Nut one was STRONG - I am typing faster than I have in my entire life - crrrazzzyyyyy!

Better than Papa John's

So as part of my birthday gift, my parents gave me a gift certificate to the Central Market Cooking School. I picked one of their pizza classes and brought Jeremy along to learn!

Step 1: Learn how to make a deep dish pizza and a calzone. Above is our first attempt at the deep dish pizza... so far so good!

Now we get to "eat our mistakes" as Jeremy puts it... though I have to admit they were surprisingly good!

Step 2: Learn how to make a New York style thin crust... mine got a bit oversized - so I was a little concerned when he told us that we were going to have to throw it into the oven very quickly - to keep as much heat in there as possible. Feel free to watch my attempt at being quick and agile with my pizza...

Finally, my masterpiece - and actually it was really good! They served us some Italian Sodas and all in all I'd say we're much better pizza makers now...though I'll leave the oven part to Jeremy!

Finding a Cheap Photographer

So I headed back to the Alma Mater this evening (Trinity) for a "Making Connections" event that they hold each year. Juniors and seniors come to mix and mingle (or get free food) with Alumni, in hopes of finding out about the perfect internship or job.

The night got off with a bang... or a funny twist is more like it. I met with an alumnae who was a professional photographer. We were discussing my new Nikon D60 when another alumnae (Alumnae #2) walked up and said...

Alumna #2 Guy: "Did I hear you say you were a photographer?"
Photographer Alumnae: "Well, yes I am!"

Alumna #2 Guy: "Great, can you take a head shot photo of me then?"
Photographer Alumnae: "Right now?"

Alumna #2 Guy: "Yes, see I brought my disposable camera!"
Photographer Alumnae: "Umm, okay... (two second pause)... Let's take it with you leaning over here by the fireplace. Cross your leg like this and lean into the mantle..."

... and then I proceeded to have to follow them around because I somehow was holding both of their drinks.... and we took another half a dozen shots in different poses while I was critiquing if he was holding a powerful pose.

It pretty much cracked me up a lot... this guy was forward thinking enough to know a photographer would be there...and even had the extra expensive kind of disposable camera with the flash! =)

And see, I was expecting a lot of that, "Hi, How are you? What do you do?" kind of conversation and what I really got was a chance to be a camera assistant.

For the rest of the evening I met with some timid students, gave them advice on life, job searching, career paths, and working for "the man." It definitely took me back to my senior year of college and trying to figure out what to do with your life....oh wait, I think I still might be doing that! =)

So here's a note to any of you headed to some making connection events - bring your camera, you never know who you can run into!

Beading it up!

This weekend I went up to Austin to hang out with my friend Molly - who is getting married in less than 12 days! As her gift to us (the bridesmaids) she had a beading party for us at a local bead shop to make the jewelery that we are going to wear on her wedding day. (Yes, I too wondered if this is the best time to try making my first pair or earrings to wear in public!)

Now, I know what you are thinking - beading and party don't go together! But I beg to differ... and I am now an official beading/jewelry making nerd! =)

Here is the very Austin-y beading store called "Bead It" - a whole store/house devoted to every kind of bead under the sun!

Here is one of many walls of beads.

Checking out the store and getting ready to bead it up.

More beads - went a little camera crazy!

Getting our beading-on.

The final product. We are making them to match our navy dresses. Any guess one which two are mine?

Overall, I'd definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a fun weekend activity in Austin - sure makes you look at earrings in a different way. Those wire wraps take some handy work!

How long are you a newlywed?

So the other night I was at a Junior League mixer and we had to sit at tables based on our lifestyles. Singles, married with children, newlyweds, married, etc. dispersed throughout the room.

Without a thought I headed to the newlywed table and took a seat. A few of the girls were talking about their weddings/honeymoons. One got married in June, one in July, another just three weeks ago, and suddenly the hamster started running on its wheel inside my head and I asked, "So did any of you get married more than four months ago?" And there was a resounding "no" at the table. So I just smiled and took my 14 months of married life with me to the "Married - No children table."

What can I say, I still feel like a newlywed, make fun of the weird habits Jer has around the house (like leaving a bread crumb trail of clothes, socks, etc. wherever he goes!). So that's the questions - when do you stop being a newlywed? Anyone have thoughts on this one?

I went home and told Jeremy about it and he said, "I keep telling you to stop calling us newlyweds. We are definitely not newlyweds!" I said in response, "Well can I help it if you spent the first 8 months of our marriage either on crutches, bed rest, or at the doctors office?" =) I think I technically get a "newlywed rating" longer if that gets me more flowers! =)

Learning to walk again

Now, while most of my friends are posting blogs about their little babies learning to walk, with cute little pictures of baby's first steps, I have a different kind of kid to report on...my husband!

Today Jer came back from his bike workout and started doing his physical therapy exercises... and well, I'll just let the video do the talking.



Do you think he resembles a penguin, or is it just me? =) Apparently "heel-walking" is another important step along the road to recovery. I personally think the physical therapist is just testing him to see if he'd really do it! =)

I'm pretty sure that if I ever break my leg I might not get too much sympathy from him after this little blog posting! Hopefully I can capture more crazy physical therapy exercises soon!