All Things Must Come to an End

I'm sorry I've pretty much fell off the face of the blog earth. Life has been little rough this last week and a half, so I've been dealing with each situation the best way that I can. Today was a good example of the different things that have been happening in my life. Today was my family reunion and lets just say it didn't go they way I expected it to.

Each year the family picks a different place to hold our family reunion. This year we had it a VFW hall in the little town of Springport MI.

This year only my mom and I made the 3 1/2 hour drive and because most people don't know who I am in relation to the rest of my family, my mom and I decided to dress a like so everyone knew we came together.

I was nice to really start piecing together how everyone in the room was related to me and I finally feel like I got it down pretty well this year. However, that knowledge isn't going to be really needed because the decision was made the today that this was going to be the last family reunion we have.

I have to say this did make me kind of sad. Being that we live two states away from most of my extended family, the reunion was a nice with to visit with family we don't often get to see. Plus, this year marked the 65th family reunion so it sad that this long lived tradition had to come to an end.

On top of going to my family reunion today, we also attended the wake of my great aunt Dorris (my mom's aunt). The wake was held in a same town as the reunion so we all just move from one venue to the other.

At the wake there were many photo albums around, but one album really stood out- the album with old photos from a bunch of our different family reunions over the years. I saw pictures of my mom when she was just a baby to pictures of me and my cousins as little kids. There have been a lot memories made over the years at these reunions so it sad to see it end, but at least we still have pictures to remember them by.

I do ask -if you are a religious person- to send prayers to my family as we go through this hard time and transition in our family.

4th of July Recap & Week 5 Weigh-in

Being that the 4th of July fell on a Wednesday this year, I wanted to keep my plans low key because I had to go to work on Thursday. So I thought it would be fun to make a "girls night" of it and go and see Magic Mike.

Also, we thought it would be fun to go to the local movie theater that does a "dinner and show" idea. The theater offers a full menu of food and drinks. Here's how my thinking went: What's better then watching half naked men? Answer: Watching half naked men while having an adult beverage. Plus, this theater is also fun because of the different decor in each theater. Here a pic from the inside our theater-

I love the little winkle lights on the ceiling! It gives the room an awesome look. As for the movie itself- well the storyline was pretty weak and a movie felt like an "indy" film. But I mean who really would go see this movie for the storyline- not this girl. Hot men, shirts off, and tasty drinks- what more could a girl ask for!

As for my weekly weigh-in here is where I was at yesterday:

I'm up about a half of pound, but that's not too bad considering I only made it to the gym every other day throughout this whole week. However, this week I'm back to work and should be back to my regular routine so hopefully that will help.

I hope everyone had a great weekend!

The Name Change Game: Part 3

I'm officially another step closer to completely changing my last name. I have been trying to make sure I got to the important things done while I'm still on vacation- so I made sure I focused on changing all the plastic in my wallet. This included both my bank and credit cards.

 

(Source)

First I started by visiting my local bank branches. When I arrived all they really seemed to need is my old ATM card and my new drivers license. However, one bank did want to see my new SS card to confirm the change and another bank where I have a joint account with the husband needed his signature to confirm the name change. Even though each bank did things differently, all of them made it pretty easy to change my name on my accounts.

Changing your bank information is important, but considering how often I use my credit cards I wanted to make sure my name got changed on those asap. For one of my credit cards, it was issued by one of my banks so the banker at the branch was happy to call in the name change to my credit card for me- that was nice. As for my other credit card, all I had to do was call the customer service number on the back of the card, answer some security questions, and they made the change to the account. Now it's just a waiting game for all the new cards to come in.

Summer Days of Fun: Jimmy Buffett Concert

This was my first Jimmy Buffett concert but my friends Mike and Tommy are old pros when it comes to Jimmy Buffett concerts. The video above was taken while we were tailgating before the show and I had to share it with the world. Thanks Mike and Tommy for the entertainment!

If you have never been to a Jimmy Buffett concert let me tell you it's an all day event. First is 4-8 hours of tailgating then there is the 2 hour concert. Here are some of the pictures from tailgating-

 (Sam and I)

(Random drunk lady with fake pillow-boobs we met while walking around)

(Sam playing bartender)

(Our group on the right side of the tent)

(Our group on the left side of the tent)

(The front side of the tent- plus Sam's foot)

Being that I was a "Buffett Virgin" I had no idea how crazy / fun Jimmy Buffett fans could be. People decorated their cars, brought a ton of food and booze, and people even had different drinking games set up throughout the parking lot. Needless to say it was really easy to make friends (like pillow boob lady). 

Once I got into the venue the sea of bodies just amazed me. The place was packed with people of all ages who were just looking to have a good time. 

Also while in the venue we were able to take a few group pictures. (These pictures I had to steal from EverLynn's facebook because for some reason I didn't think about taking out my camera)

(Our group of boys)

(Our group of girls)

All and all it was a great night filled some great memories and new stories that will last forever. The hope is to keep the Buffett tradition alive and there is plans to do it again next year!

Weigh-Ins: Week 3 & 4

I know I didn't post my weigh in from last week, but I did do my weigh in on Sunday (I wasn't able to make it to the gym on Saturday). Here is was it was at last week-

And here is today's weigh in:

I know it look like a loss of 2 pounds, but like my 10 day weigh-in showed my weight varies a lot. So unless I see the number keep going down I'm not going to get too excited yet. However, I have started lifting  weighs more regularly this week in hopes to see more results faster. Only the next few weeks will tell if this is going to pay off.

 I'm off to a Jimmy Buffett concert! I hope everyone has a great Saturday!

Friday Night Fun

I spent the evening with my college roommate Katie. We always have a good time but maybe I had a little too much fun when we made a Walmart run tonight. She needed to buy baby stuff and I wanted to buy wine... and this is was happen.

When I first put the wine in the basket they started clinking around so I figured the teddy bears could be use to cushion the bottles, but then I thought making the bears look like they are drinking the wine would be funny.

And this is why I'm not ready to be a mom- I'm just saying.
Have a great weekend!

The Name Change Game: Part 2- It's Official!

Being that is was Sam's birthday on Tuesday, he needed to renew his drive license because it had expired. Also, being that we both had yesterday off, I figured I would go with him to keep him company. Right before we started getting ready to leave this thought popped into my head... "I wonder if my new social security has came in yet."

Well, it had came. So it's official, I have officially given up my maiden name. I'm still not sure how long it's going to take me to get use to, but I had to practice signing my new last name about 10 times before I felt comfortable enough to signing my SS card. With my new SS card in hand, Sam and I were off to get our new driver licenses. After about a 20-30 minute I had my new license in hand.

Can I just say I have never had a good driver's license photo, but this picture is 100 times better than my last one.  While I had luck getting my new license, the husband wasn't so lucky. He was told he needs to take the written exam and the Secretary of States office we went to doesn't offer the written test. So Sam gets to try he luck again today to get his new license.

Being that yesterday was the first day of my vacation, my hope is that by the time I go back to work (after the 4th of July) that I will have changed everything to my new name. Today I'm hoping to send out the information to have my name changed on my passport.

The only thing I'm worried about doing my passport next, is that I have to send my marriage license in as proof of the name change. Currently that is the only copy I have of my license (that I can find) so I am worried that I'm going to end up needing it for proof and not have it. Well, here's hoping that I'm making the right decision to do my passport next.

That another thing down- many more to go!