Quality Over Quanitity, Always

I've always kept an extended circle of friends- more like a complex venn diagram, really- one circle overlaps another and another and suddenly I have lots of friends through different people. In the past, I would bend over backwards to be the one who was easy to get along with, agreeing to plans even if I wasn't interested or going along with what the group wanted because I didn't want to make waves, plus I wanted everyone to like me. Don't we all?

With all the changes in my life recently, I've tried hard to listen to my gut. If an idea to hang out sounds unappealing, I listen to my gut and politely decline, or at least be honest about any reservations I have.

My first mom friend was in my post-natal yoga class, and her son is a month older than my girl. They were similar developmentally, hitting milestones around the same time for about the first year of their lives. When the kids were too mobile for us to stay in the yoga class, she suggested we try swimming at a heated indoor saltwater pool she knew about.

Swimming freaks me out. I'm not good at it. I don't know CPR. Getting in the water with a baby is frightening. I decided to not let fear win, so we started going swimming. It was really great at first- the kids would sit in these floaties and we would walk the length of the pool for at least an hour just chatting. Then the kids got bigger, and wanted out of the floaties, and then it was winter, and then other things started cropping up, so we stopped going.

Now it's almost summer again and she's ready to start going again. I told her again about my reservations, and she suggested we do our own version of swimming lessons, at a more relaxed pace. I'm still apprehensive, but I think we will try it at least once or twice. She inspires me to be honest about whether things work for me or not, because I know she is doing the same for me. If something doesn't work for her, she will just say no. It's my favorite thing about our relationship.

Lately, I also gravitate toward people who I can have a real connection with- not the shallow one based on our shared past. I started meeting up with various friends from growing up when I would go down to Houston. We would set a time and meet up for dinner or drinks.

I reconnected with a childhood friend, and it was great sharing a glass of wine and catching ourselves up on each other's lives since the last time we saw each other- probably high school. I found that a high school friend and I don't have much of anything in common and we can't relate to each other on where we are in our lives- I've dealt with so much death, I get bored with flighty conversation and gossip and those are her main topics. An old coworker and I had dinner once and while I want to try again to meet up with her, time gets away from me on these trips.

One of my favorite times was recently, I planned a dinner with an old friend who just got engaged, his fiancee, and another mutual friend. This old friend inspires me- he's hilarious and silly, and deep, and always up for a conversation, no matter which way it goes. I can really be myself and talk about things that scare other people around him and it's all good. The mutual friend and I were not on the same page for awhile- I wasn't sure what to talk about with him, so I would revert back to asking about his dating life, which he wasn't interested in talking about. We sorted that out over lunch prior to this dinner.

We all sat at an outdoor table (my favorite!) and shared smallish plates (another favorite), while splitting bottles of red wine. Four of us consumed five bottles of wine, and I don't even know how that is possible. We talked about everything: the engagement story, minimal wedding plans, apartment updates, my second miscarriage, adoption, feeling like society says you should be doing one thing, when you really want to do something else. We sat there for hours and my soul was lit up.

The beauty of reconnecting with old friends is that they have seen you at your awkward moments, and can appreciate how far you have come. They can see changes in you, and you are teaching them how to be around you. We always promise to text more, to call about important things, but so far we haven't. He texted me today just to say hi, and a new goal came to mind: to make an effort on this one. Text him if I see something funny, or just to say hi, instead of waiting for him to reach out.

If there's not a response right away, he's busy. No worries- it doesn't mean he doesn't want to be my friend anymore.

The important thing is to nurture connections with people who ignite that fire in you-  that make you want to do your best, and to try harder, who 'get' you and don't try to change you.

And then to put distance where you need it; when the friendship is not genuine or supportive, when it is critical or makes you feel bad about yourself, when you are giving more than you are receiving.

I have broken up with two friends in my post-high school life: one was a friend I met on the first day of Drawing I. We spent lots of time together, since we had most of our classes together. She had wild red curly hair and was into photography and movies. But by our Junior years, the only time she called me was to get her out of a jam- to pick her up when she was too drunk to drive, for instance. The last straw was when she called me, slurring her words, and asked me to drive over an hour to pick her up, then to take her back the next day to pick up her car. I told her I couldn't and didn't see her again.

The other was a work friend who I spent a tons of time with both in and outside of work. She had a way of viewing things in a negative light and Bean once mentioned to me that after I came home from visiting with her, I always had a negative mindset and was complaining a lot. I didn't want to be that way, so I let the friendship fade. I should have done it in a better way, but I wasn't strong enough then to tell her the truth.

I had a friend cease contact with me too, and it hurt like a motherfucker. She was one of my closest friends in high school. We had all of our classes together, worked on every project together, were in band together, and I suspect that I'm the only person that ever went over to her house- that one time. There was a misunderstanding about Senior Prom- I had my venn diagram of friends and planned to go to dinner and split a limo with one group of friends that she was not in. My understanding is that she thought we were going to do a band group and stopped talking to me after I said again that I was going with the other group.

I don't know if she is someone I would want to be friends with today, and I did run into her at a baby shower for a mutual friend last year which was extremely awkward for both of us.

The journey of finding friends that inspire you is a fun one for me, especially with my journey of trying to find more local mom friends. I enjoy a little bit of small talk, and the getting to know you talk is always split up into several sessions when there are kids in the mix. I have no doubt that I will find new friends that are just as important as Bud and Donna were to me.

Bud inspires me to be sillier, friendlier, to make plans, to go to festivals, and to be myself. She was my soulmate, the one person in the world who was most like me, and I think about her constantly. When something feels calm to my soul, I know it's her reassuring me.

Donna inspires me to recycle every single thing (I recently upped my recycling game when I found out we can put plastics #1-7 in our bin, not just #1 and #2!!), to think about our planet and conservation, to be kind, and of course to laugh hysterically without reservation.

I miss them, I'm teaching my daughter about them, and I'm so lucky to have them watching my back as I continue finding other friends that inspire and uplift. Quality over quantity, always.

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Girls Weekend 2015

This weekend we picked back up with our Girls Weekend tradition. We started in 2006 at Brittney's surprise bachelorette party when Donna said that we should plan to get together every year for a weekend. 

The next year, we surprised Donna at the hospital while she was doing her cancer treatments. Our originally planned Girls Weekend that year was spent together at her funeral.

2008, 2009, 2010, and 2011 we jumped around to various houses including Jess's house, the Bay House, and Liz's parents and her own house. 

2012 we got together the weekend of our 10-year high school reunion, which was weird for Jess because she didn't go to high school with us! Liz and I announced our pregnancies to the group together and I loved having couch time with her after the reunion to just relax and watch bad TV. 

2013 we didn't have an official weekend, but we did all see each other at Liz's funeral. 

For 2014, we started planning too late and ended up with this January. If we don't end up getting together another time this year- probably not- we will count this one for 2015 also. It was perfect and good enough to count for two years, in my opinion. 

We were all there the whole time- both nights- and 80% of the time was spent sitting on couches talking. Whit made a zucchini lasagna for Friday night, which we ate around 8pm when Rachel finally arrived. We stayed up until 2am on the couches, and continued our conversations in the various bedrooms until even later than that. 

Saturday we were finally all awake around 10am, got dressed, and went to Gloria's for lunch (my favorite), then got pedicures and were back home on the couches by 4pm. Where we stayed until around 8, when we had my orzo pasta salad/chicken breasts for dinner, and then moved back to the couches until midnight. 

Sunday we woke up fairly early because half of us had to get on the road first thing. Whit, Rachel and I kept the weekend going- Rachel and I went to Starbucks while Whit ran a few errands and then we all had lunch at Red Robin before heading home. Also, I got my car deep cleaned on the way home!

It was just such an easy weekend. I don't even think I could recount what topics we covered- everything from our new families, to our parents, high school people we knew, things we remember from middle school, of course Liz and Donna, pregnancy (we even had a new pregnancy announcement!), and sex. Even when I brought up the topic of circumcision and I was the only one with a different opinion, I loved hearing what everyone had to say!

We are all very different but we have key things in common with each other that keeps us together, not just the deaths of two of our girls. Parenting is a huge common denominator now. Lauren and Britt each have 3 kids and they were the most tired of anyone, and also the most positive/easygoing about raising kids and dealing with all their 'stuff'. Brittney and Rachel are similar in their marriages, Lauren and I share this hippie thing/interest in tattoos, Jess and Rachel and I have lots of things in common, including enjoying a stiff drink sometimes- and our college experiences were the most similar. Lauren and Whitney have similar stories about past relationships. I could keep going on this, but while we have so many things in common, we probably all feel like the odd man out sometimes. 

This weekend, I felt like I was in a glass box because of my most recent miscarriage, giving me an equal number of pregnancies as Brittney and Lauren, but only one child to show for it. I'm the only one with any miscarriages and nobody knows what to do about it. The most common thing I hear is, "I don't understand what you are feeling" and "I don't know what to say" (sometimes preceded by or followed by silence). This is definitely NOT to say that my close girlfriends only responded this way, just a generalization on most people. 

If it had come up naturally, I would have loved to explain what it feels like, but it just didn't. I'm comfortable talking about it, but other people are not. Rachel's response to that was that it doesn't matter what everyone else thinks- and I agree- but seeing the looks on everyone's faces is so uncomfortable for me. I wish I had been more brave and just interrupted whatever conversation we were having with this topic. I think I might reach out individually instead because the responses I've gotten just from my group of girlfriends has been so different and I would love to give feedback on how each of them affected my experience- mostly positively. 

I felt so weird talking about being pregnant because it was like a reminder to everyone that I've been dealing with some painful stuff for the past couple of years. Near the end of the weekend, I think it got easier because I just did it- I talked about the nausea, the messy house, the worry/anxiety of this most recent pregnancy, and the loveliness and how great I felt with the pregnancy before. Part of me felt weird talking about this most recent one because it didn't work out and also none of my friends knew about it until it was over. I wish they had known the whole time- but when I was in it, I didn't want anyone to know. What a catch-22. 

The bottom line is that everyone has a different perspective on hard situations and generally want to be supportive, but sometimes it comes out as nothing/completely blowing it off, or over the top/rambling suggestions, or somewhere in the middle. (Again, not just talking about my girlfriends here). 

What I wanted to hear is "I'm so sorry for your loss", what I wanted to see was flowers delivered so I had something pretty to look at- I did get one bouquet, and I felt most supported by the 3 friends who brought dinner over or had it delivered so I didn't have to worry about one more thing. I support myself by writing and allowing emotions to come up when they want to instead of pushing them down like I did last time. 

My favorite long distance hug was a text Lauren sent with a picture of her sushi dinner the same night we found out and were having our own sushi dinner- the note said something about celebrating the future of the Bell family. That was exactly what I needed- someone to be with me and be hopeful in the moment. 

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Cancun

Each year we've gone on a summer trip with our friends from college. Usually we go to the river, and usually we are with at least 4 more people (about 10 total). There's usually drama, something usually goes wrong, and usually I can't wait to get home. Not so with this trip!

It was whittled down to just us 6 for various reasons, but I couldn't be happier with how the trip turned out. We travelled very well together, didn't have fights or drama, and I think grew closer as a result of the trip. In the past I haven't been very concerned with growing my friendships with the girls- when I had the perfect opportunity (my wedding), I was so consumed with everything going on with my other friends that frankly I didn't care about growing new relationships with any female besides my other girls.

Now I realize that these girls will always be a part of my life, just like my other girls.


And these boys will be too- they are important to Bean and they are important to me. I always felt so lucky to have everyone that is important to me standing up for me on my wedding, because I had my girls and Bean's boys. But now I feel like I left out 2 important girls. How naive of me. The reason all of the wedding thoughts came up is because Joey and Elissa got engaged our first morning in Cancun! She called our room to tell us that they were going to take a short stroll on the beach and they would meet us at some tables so we could eat breakfast. When they came up from the beach, they spilled the news that he proposed! Her hand was shaking like a leaf and she was in shock- just like Steph and I because we screamed.
Us girls talked about this 'issue' for a couple of hours the night before. Joey and Elissa have been dating for over 6 years, and he kept insisting it was going to be next year when they got engaged. She said she was scared for him to propose because then she'd have to think about planning the wedding- she is not looking forward to the details, but I'm sure she'll get the hang of it! By the end of the trip we read a Brides magazine on the plane and she was starting to think about her dream day. So who's next?

Travis and Stephanie! We all agree that now that Travis has seen Joey go through it, he will be more interested in taking that step as well. I feel very privileged to have been a part of their engagement trip. It feels wonderful to be important enough to someone that they want you there for such a private and life-changing time. That was certainly the highlight of the trip.

We went for a nice dinner at the resort that night. Other highlights include the foam party where my wedding rings almost slipped off and we all inhaled quite a bit of soap; trying every frozen drink under the sun; not reading all three books I brought because we talked so much; the channel on the TV that played one song continuously with pictures of a foam party; quoting SNL characters as much as possible; having 2 Australian guys talk to Steph and I at the bar and then leave as soon as the boys came back; re-living the proposal and every detail with Elissa; and seeing our guys moon another boat that was mooning them- both sides had their butts over the side of the rails and were spanking themselves as the boats passed each other.

And this is my favorite picture from the trip.

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5 down, 2 to go...

Lauren and Dan were married this past Saturday. She was a stunning bride and he was such a handsome groom. My favorite picture of their wedding is of their kiss:



It's perfect- the angle of their faces, their hands, the bend in her arm. The recessional song was called 'Perfect' and they played it at the rehearsal dinner in a slide show of pictures of them. It was a very sweet song. I'm going to pretend it's 'their' song, although since there was no dancing at the reception, I cannot confirm that it is indeed 'their' song.
This was my first experience being in a House Party. I'd heard of it once, when my roommate from college was in one. She had a positive view of being in the House Party, so I was happy to be included in Lauren's. I just wanted to spend the time before her wedding with her, being excited for her, and helping in any way I could.
The first thing I will always remember about this weekend is what an awesome time I had with my girls- the other House Party members. I think we really grew closer this weekend- as much as I felt connected to them before, it was magnified by this experience. The next thing I will remember is just how beautiful and happy Lauren was.

For as long as I can remember she has wanted to be a wife and mother, and I'm so happy her time is here. During the rehearsal dinner, there was a time planned for toasts. Whit did an excellent job as Matron of Honor and all of the groomsman had us laughing. Britt was rather hilarious herself with her 9-month pregnant self mentioning that she didn't have much marriage experience- "I have more than 9-months worth!".

I've thought about it some, and if I had been able to compose myself, I would have told the story of how in middle school, Lauren was the 'mom' of the group. We were called 'The Preps', probably because Lauren herself was a preppy dresser, and loved that style. At one point, I remember her wanting to have shirts and hats designed that said 'The Preps' and almost all of us rejected the idea, only because we didn't know if being a 'Prep' was a good or bad thing. I can say wholeheartedly that at this point in my life, it is a very good thing- to be friends with such a wonderful group of girls.
There is one part of the weekend I need to mention, the only part that really hurt my heart. Since our first wedding as a group- when Whit got married in 2005, whether we were bridesmaids or not (in that case, Britt and I were not), we all took a group picture at the reception- just a casual group photo, with our arms around each other, excited for our friend's new chapter in her life. I have one at Whit's wedding in 2005, Britt's wedding in 2006, my wedding in 2007, and Rachel's wedding in 2008. I was so excited to have Lauren's in 2009 because I recently started converting these pictures to sepia tone and hanging a 5x7 of them in my living room along with pictures of Bean and I. I realized as we were walking out to send the newlyweds off that I hadn't spoken to Lauren at her reception, and we hadn't taken our group picture. At that point, there was no way to go back and make it happen.
I'd spent the better part of the reception cutting the Groom's cake- a task I was happy to take on, until I realized it felt exactly like work. I get stressed when there are people around me, waiting for me to get something ready for them (like mix their paint, or cut their cake). I have had panic attacks at work from that exact feeling, and I have had nightmares at night about customers watching me, waiting for me to hurry up and finish the task. When all the guests were swirling around me at the reception, I couldn't help but feel those familiar stressful pangs. I was mad at myself for letting them get to me, and hurt that I let them get in the way of being a gracious and happy House Party member.
All in all, I think this weekend crystallized some things that may have been brewing within our group for months or years now. I'm sure that we will be able to work through any hurt feelings and figure how how we will move forward with our friendships from here, but I'm nervous about the conversations that will happen to get there. All I know is that aside from my husband, these girls are the most important people to me- we have been through so much together- and they mean everything to me. And now I'm crying. Excellent.

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Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star

We showed Brittney and Baby James how loved they are! I used Brittney's camera to capture most of the gift opening at her shower on Saturday, but I couldn't resist getting her opening part of my gift with my camera:



I wanted to get little Jeans and Bean wanted to get a little plaid shirt, but I didn't like the plaid shirt and he didn't like the jeans, so we decided on the polo and khakis instead. Everyone said, "That looks like a little Sam!"

Let's backtrack a little bit into the planning and details of the shower. The theme was 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Star'. Jess made the invites by hand which were awesome- dark blue paper with silver stars and a sheet of vellum with the invite info on the top.


What is this thing? Oh! It has ice in it!



For decor, we found the idea to hang twine and put up onesies with clothespins. Jess found these that had the star theme on sale and baby clothespins to hang them with. We were both completely lost on how to throw a baby shower that wasn't too corny but that was still nice and cute and fun. I think the star theme was cute but not too cutesy.


Mrs. Martine had sandwiches made and petit fours that I somehow missed a picture of. They had sparkles on them and some had silver frosting! I would love to learn how to make those. There was also an overabundance of Greek salad, fruit and veggies and other finger foods.



The guestbook was a onesie that everyone signed- another cute idea Jess found on the Internet.

Rachel and Britt did the 'Homecoming Dance' pose. Obviously Rachel is the guy since she has on shorts and Britt is the girl with her dress on.

They had a really great hug when Britt arrived but I took too long to get my camera out.

One of the games was for the guests to bring a baby picture and everyone would guess who was who. Lauren ended up getting all 17 of them right! Her prize was a box of chocolates. Another game was BINGO aka 'JAMES' during the gifts where everyone would cross off items that she received. Aunt Jodi won a box of chocolates for that.



We also had a drawing for a Marble Slab gift card for anyone who brought a package of diapers. Connie won that one! And you can see on the table next to the diapers, the biggest project I worked on for the shower:

Cake Pops! These were chocolate cake with cream cheese frosting inside dipped in vanilla melts (they don't make blue chocolate) with pearl sprinkles or glitter sprinkles. They turned out much better than the others. I couldn't share them last week for fear that Brittney would see them on my blog and know that I made them for her.

Now Bakerella has a post about Cheesecake Pops. They sound crazy delicious. Will the insanity end?

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Cake Pops!

I found a recipe for Cake Pops at Bakerella. Of course the ones she makes are super cute and creative. I thought they would be so much fun to experiment with. What's better than cake balls covered in chocolate?

I used her traditional recipe- red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting. I used a boxed cake mix since it was my first try, but I did make the icing from scratch. It's nearly impossible to find pre-made icing that doesn't have all of the chemicals in it (partially hydrogenated oils...yuck!). I know the boxed mix probably has that stuff in it too, so ideally I will use a scratch recipe next time. The icing was super easy to make- cream cheese and butter, plus powdered sugar and vanilla. Or if you're me, low fat cream cheese and organic butter, plus powdered sugar and organic vanilla.

I used the melting chips you can find at Hobby Lobby for dipping, and I experimented with a star shape on some of them. Here's how they came out:



They look pretty good here. The sprinkles were easy and fun. I learned not to push the stick all the way to the other side of the ball- halfway in is better. Otherwise there will be a hole in the top (see picture on right). The balls should be frozen for awhile so they are easier to dip. Make sure to have enough chocolate in the double boiler when you're dipping.

And mistakes taste delicious!



Here's what the inside looks like...and what they look like when they fall. Again, they taste just as good, but you can't wrap them up all cute.

So since I had all these extra cake pops/balls, I decided to take them to Jess' surprise birthday party on Saturday. It really was a great surprise.




We had dinner at Blue Goose Cantina. The food was excellent, great tortillas and margaritas. Then we went back to Jess and Bonnie's house and hung out and played one of her birthday gifts: Loaded Questions the Adult Version. It was hilarious and we stayed up way too late- at least for someone who had to work today. But it was worth it!

Happy Birthday Jess!

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SUSHI

I don't think I've ever mentioned how much I love sushi. I love rolls, I love sashimi (that's just the raw fish on a plate), and I just learned how much I love edamame. Bean and I found a place near our house that has half-priced sushi and $3.50 martinis on Tuesdays. We went two weeks in a row. Maybe I'll convince him to go back tonight... I digress...

I was thrilled when Maggie called and said that she and her mom had an extra ticket to a sushi making class at Central Market this past Friday. It was a blast! The picture above is the other 1/2 of the sushi we made that I didn't eat that evening. We made smoked salmon/cream cheese rolls, tempura shrimp rolls, crab/cucumber rolls, proscuitto wrapped asparagus rolls, and spicy tuna rolls. I was so glad Maggie and her mom don't like spicy stuff either so I wasn't alone in not wanting the all of the seasonings.

We learned about how to make sushi rice, how not to smash the rice down, how to roll them into shapes like squares or triangles, how to drink wine while making sushi, how to put water on the knife to cut the rolls into bite-sized pieces, and how delicious sushi tastes when you just made it. The best part of the class was that they did all of the prep work for us. We didn't have to make the batter or fry the shrimp or cook the rice or slice up the veggies with a mandolin.

I think these cooking classes might just become a new part of my life. What a great way to spend an evening with someone special.

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Mardi Gras 2009... who found the baby?

After being able to avoid finding the baby in the king cake for over a day, this is what we discovered during our dessert after breakfast:


Now, I've heard different things: the baby means good luck, the baby means you have to throw the party for Mardi Gras next year, the baby means you just bring the king cake to the party next year, and our idea that if you find it, you're going to have a baby this year. So who found it?


Yay for Maggie! She found the baby the day after we went to a parade in Baton Rouge:

Those are jello shots... in a large syringe. I've never seen anything more fun or overpriced.

There's Bean, James and Jamie at the parade. Jamie was so cute in her pink (that's the theme color of that particular parade); luckily Maggie had a pink sweater and a pink scarf for me to borrow.Bean blocking Jamie from getting beads just because he's like a foot taller than her.

Now I'm just going to throw it out there: 95% of the pictures from the next day in New Orleans are just plain ridiculous. We just look stupid; it's fun to laugh at, but stupid drunk pictures aren't something I feel the need to share with everyone. Therefore, out of over 120 I took off of my camera from the weekend, I have 3 from New Orleans I'd like to share:

That is Val Kilmer, the 'famous' guy and head guy in the Baccus parade, the last parade of the night on Sunday. I don't really know who he is, except that I knew a girl when I was in daycare who thought he was cute. And that was over 15 years ago.

There's me and Maggs on Bourbon street. It wasn't really that bad during the day, but we were back home by midnight, so I think we avoided most of the dangerous activity. The streets were pretty gross, but none of us had to throw away our shoes as we expected.

One of the most interesting things we saw were religious zealots walking the streets with these signs and yelling at people through a megaphone. I knew they were crazy when they had another sign that said something about 'drunks, adulterors, and Mormons'. They certainly got some attention! I won't post a picture of the lady and man in french maid lingerie standing right near them. We saw 4 pairs of boobs. Maggie and I each had a hurricane and a grenade. And we finished the evening at Cafe du Monde.

The next day we drove home; and the day after that, I found another baby: myself! I cut my finger on some metal shelving at work in the morning while I was still there by myself. I thought I was going to pass out so I called the nearest store and the manager came right over to help me get bandaged up. It's the deepest cut I've ever had and it grossed me out. Seeing a flap of skin like that is not something I'm interested in ever seeing again.

Then I had the privilege of listening to everyone give their opinion on the split I wore to avoid bending my thumb and reopening the wound; their opinion on me getting gangrene and having my thumb cut off; having metal particles in my body that could poison me; getting tetanus and dying, leaving my husband by himself; and all kinds of gross wounds they themselves have sustained. I'm hoping after this experience I've learned to tune all of that out as white noise, because all it did was make me worry.

And I discovered that I really am a baby because I didn't have a doctor look at it to avoid getting stitches (I've never had them and they scare me); and I waited 3 days to get a tetanus shot, simply because I was so afraid. The good news is: I'm not going to post a picture of it. And it's healed well enough that I've had no bandages on it practically all day today, and I'm using it to type right now!

The other good news: the freaking out over the shot was pointless because I could hardly feel it. It's a little sore now, but the actual shot was nothing. I officially consider myself a tough lady. I got a shot all by myself and dealt with a nasty wound without having stitches.

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Crazy times!

As I was walking onto the plane on Thursday to head out of town, I got a call from our property manager with details about the application we received on our house. She gave me all of the info I needed, and I called Bean, and we decided to approve the application. The good part is that they are paying our asking price, which gives us a whopping profit of $7 each month. (at least we're not losing money like we anticipated!)

We flew to New Orleans, had dinner at an average restaurant, had hurricanes at Pat O'Brien's and hung out on Bourbon street until 3am. Here are my 3 favorite pictures from that leg of our journey:

That's my dad wearing 'beer goggles'- just hilarious! Introducing Jess to the supreme sugariness of hurricanes. The only good thing at dinner: double chocolate bread pudding.
The next morning we work up at 7:30, got dressed, and loaded into the car for Mr. Toad's wild ride! Dad was driving like a maniac, we felt sick from all the sugary drinks, Connie was singing along to Mama Mia...it was comedic to say the least. I felt much better after I got some real food at Applebee's for lunch before picking Liz up at the airport. We made it to Destin about 45 minutes before the rehearsal, which gave us just enough time to freshen up and change clothes.
The rehearsal dinner was at an Irish pub across the street, out on a covered patio. The weather was obnoxious- raining, and windy which blew the rain in onto the tables and chairs. We had a good time eating good food and catching up. Here's the bride enjoying her last single dinner:
A huge cheeseburger! And that's the reception hall after we decorated it; and the bride's silly mom and aunt.

The wedding day was a little hectic, but we managed to pull off everything we needed to. The ceremony was gorgeous, the weather was perfect, and everything went off without a hitch! My proudest moment was setting up the bride and groom's first meeting with the rest of the girls. It was my favorite moment of the weekend, and it's when I started to cry:

I guess I was just remembering how I felt the first time I saw my groom. I was so nervous and excited, but I knew that if I could just say hi to him and chat for a minute I would be calm again. I'm happy that Rachel and Jason got to have that moment with each other before their whirlwind day got going. Here are a couple of my favorites from the ceremony:

We had a ball dancing at the reception, and having girl time afterwards. It was so strange to be on that side of things. This was my first time as a bridesmaid and it was an interesting experience. I just wanted Rachel to come back to our room and hang out!
The next morning, we left the hotel around 10am and drove back to Pensacola, where we dropped Liz off at the airport. We were back in New Orleans pretty early, and we had an hour or so to relax before we went to my favorite restaurant of all time- Mr. B's Bistro. It's the place that used to give out bells at lunch time, and the reason we gave out bells at our rehearsal dinner. I had the excellent barbeque shrimp:
I was relieved that everyone thought the food was great- it's tough to pick a restaurant and rave about it, because what if nobody likes it? Then you just feel dumb. Dad said it was one of his top two favorites in New Orleans, which is a huge compliment because they go there at least once a year! We ended up staying out until 3am again (can you believe it? I didn't fall asleep at 9:30 as usual). We had a couple of extra hours to rest the next day before catching an earlier flight back home.

Absence really does make the heart grow fonder- I really missed Bean and had a dream about him at least 3 of the 4 nights. We had dinner and went to sleep early. The next day we woke up and went to work, then had an appointment to look at more houses. I guess I forgot to mention that 'our' house- the one we were ready to buy- was stolen from us, and we found out the day before we approved the application. So it was bittersweet looking at houses. I was overwhelmed because we were really picky about what we wanted to see, and two of them were really good, but one really stood out (although I had a hard time picturing us there, I got over that when we got home and I saw the pictures again).

We put in an offer yesterday afternoon and are waiting to hear back.

In the meantime, Bean packed a lot of stuff up this weekend while I was gone. The lease was officially signed yesterday, so it's final. They are moving in on the 15th. I got us a PO box today, and called the electric company, internet, cable, and water to get our services terminated or suspended. We plan to move all of the big stuff to a storage unit this Sunday, then take ourselves and Eucie to an extended stay hotel on Tuesday night. Except that I have to work open-close tomorrow and this weekend. But I have Monday off to try and tie up any other loose ends.

Tonight we're packing up the entire kitchen. Which I think Bean has already started, so I should go be a good wife and help him!

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