Good-Bye July

I can't believe it's the end of July which means in my mind it's the end of summer. Being that I work at a university, one of the busiest months is August because all the students come back to campus and there are lot things that need to get done before school starts. So please keep in your thoughts this month because life is about to get CRAZY!!!

However, I'm going to enjoy this last day of July and give you a recap of the wedding shower fun I had this weekend! This weekend both the hubby and I attended our friends Joel and Casey's wedding shower.

I'm not sure was is up with my hand in this picture. Casey said it looks like I'm holding an invisible beer, and Joel said it's the "pregnancy" hand- neither are true but I can see both of those options.

Their shower was at Arlington Race Track. It was a pretty cool place for a shower because it was a great way to encourage guys to actually come to a co-ed wedding shower. Plus the cost seemed really reasonable because you can actually bring in your own food so you don't have to pay a high catering bill that most reception halls would change you. I think I may keep this place in mind if I have to throw a shower for any of my friends.

Typically Sam isn't one to do too much gambling, but he figured he would try his luck and surprisingly it didn't go too bad. From the race that is pictured above, Sam won $33. However, he kept betting and started losing. In the end he walked home winning a grad total of $1.10. Well at least he won right?

So even though I know August is going to a crazy month, September is going to start off awesome because it starts off with these to two kids getting married! So let hurry up August, I got some important things to do in September!

Camping with Friends

Being that I can't seems to motivate myself to write regular posts, here's a recap of the fun that was had last weekend.

I have to say three day weekends throughout the summer is pretty awesome. I love having Friday to myself filled with my own plans, but last Friday Sam was able leave work early so we could start our weekend plans. So off to Wisconsin we went...

 

The weather was prefect! Also, we were staying at our friend Lindsay's dad's house, so that was nice because it meant the trip was happening on the cheap, which is always nice. However, the best thing was that he has property right on a river so we could really enjoy to beautiful weather in the water.

 

Once we got there we got right into our swimsuits, we grabbed our chairs, a drink, and headed out to the sandbar in the river to start our vacation out right.

The next morning we had plans to tube down the river back the campsite. In true "float trip" tradition, we start off with some shots. Here before going on the river...

 

Here is the an after...

 

Oh how I love my friends. They are always so entertaining and make for a great time!

This weekend we are out to a co-ed wedding shower for these two lovely people at a local horse track. 

Here's to another great weekend with great friends!

Weekend Recap- Michigan & Family Reunion

This weekend was a good one to start of the string of weekends that are coming up. This weekend include sometime lazy time at the pool, a trip to Michigan, and visiting with family. Here are the highlights-

After getting a bit fried from the pool on Friday, I was tried but excited to hit the road on Saturday and head to Michigan. Sam had made a request that we stop at Bell's Brewery in Kalamazoo.

We had gone there before our Michigan reception back in 2011 and Sam really enjoyed it. I have a feeling that this may become a traditional stop anytime Sam is with me on a Michigan trip. Sam got a "flight" so he could try a lot of different beers in one shot. I'm not much of a beer drinker, however I did really enjoy the Mead. This was really light and kind of tasted like a cross between hard cider and wine.

After the brewery, we were off to check in to our hotel. Once we checked in, we meet up with my grandma and my uncle Dave for some dinner. It was nice to see them, and over dinner I came to realize that the last time I saw them was at Christmas. Oh how time just seems to slip by you. However, I won't have to wait nearly as long for our next visit because I have more Michigan trips planned in the next two months.

Sunday was our annual family reunion (the same one you may remember from last year that was going to get cancelled- read about that here.) This year the reunion was held on my grandpa's farm, so it was nice because Sam and I could just head straight there after we checked out of the hotel. Also, it worked out well because we were able to help my grandpa set up the rest of the tables and chairs for the party.

Another great thing about having the reunion on my grandpa's farm- free black raspberries! My grandpa has a lot of black raspberries bushes on his property, so we spent some time just wandering around picking berries. The only sucky thing is that I was eaten alive by mosquitoes. Oh well, I guess I'm just that sweet.

On the way home, Sam asked if we could stop at the local Meijer to pick up these mini kegs that we saw the night before. They're from Bell's Brewery and they'll be a good addition to our plans for this upcoming weekend!Only two more days, and I get to start my weekend. I'm excited!

Friday Fun Day! Summer Edition

Happy Friday! I hope that you are having as nice of weather as we are having. It's going to be sunny and the mid-80's all weekend. We have many fun plans for the weekend, so I'll be sure to be back with a recap. However, today these are my plans...

Jen's pool... here I come! Happy Friday! Have an awesome weekend everyone!

Happy 4th of July!

Happy 4th of July Everyone! I hope you had a great day because I know I did. I've seen other people do these hour by hour photo posts and I thought today would be a great to do one myself to recap my day...

8:00am

 

I enjoyed sleeping in, and started my day off with the morning news and...

9:00am

... my bowl of cereal.

10:00am

 

I spent sometime being a good pet mom and I had to cut up my fur baby's meds. Who knew that a cat nail trimmer would make such a great pill cutter.

11:00am

 

 

The hubby and I made sure we made it to the gym considering we knew we would be eating a lot of good food later.

12:00pm

 

I got in a few games of Candy Crush (I got high score out of my friends!) before...

1:00pm

... hitting the road to visit with the in-laws.

2:00pm

The weather really couldn't have been nicer so I sat by the pool to soak up some sun.

3:00pm

Like I said it was really nice out so I didn't move, but I got some extra entertainment.

4:00pm

 

Desert time! How cute is this cake?

5:00pm

I forgot to take a picture. Whoops.

6:00pm

We did a little grocery shopping because we were almost out of food.

7:00pm

Sam did some "fancy" cooking and made homemade burgers. 

8:00pm

 

More food! I love me some grilled corn on the cob!

9:00pm

 

We skipped out on fireworks and enjoyed one of my favorite shows- How I Met Your Mother.

10:00pm

Finishing this blog post and going to head to bed. I'm one of those "lucky" people who has to go to work in the morning. Good night!

Happy 4th of July!!!

Sam's Double Birthday Surprise

Wednesday marked Sam's 27th Birthday. If you have been following my blog for a long time you know that birthdays aren't a big deal because we don't really do much for each other. Here is what happened for Sam's birthday last year. I'm not the only one bad about birthdays- I asked Sam last weekend "Did you get me anything for my birthday? If so, do you remember what it was?" His answer: "I have no idea.".  Yeah- we're that couple.  

On my way to work on Monday I realized I had one personal day that I needed to use by the end of the month or I was going to lose it. So that meant I had to take it sometime this week. Once I put two and two together; Sam birthday & my extra day off, I knew I want to do something special for him this year but a plan needed to be made.

My first idea was to surprise him at work with lunch and cookie cake. I have been asking Sam for months now about meeting up for lunch being the he works right down the street from my school. So I figured- if he hasn't set up a lunch date, I will- behind his back! After a few emails between a friend I know who works with Sam, we had set the whole thing up with his boss so I could come in and surprise him.  

 

If this surprise wasn't enough, I decided that if I surprised him once, he really wouldn't expect a second. So I called our friends in the area and his family to come over for a surprise dinner.


In order to pull off the whole day of events- I had to convince Sam that I had to work (which I did for two hours- but that's another story) so I made myself get up, get dressed for work, and left the house at the normal time to go to work. However, little did Sam know, when I left for the house I was going to the store to buy his cookie cake and other items for his surprise dinner.

When I was originally trying to figure out the menu for the party, I knew I wanted to have food that was quick, affordable, and allowed for people to customized their meal. So what better then having a Mexican Fiesta- taco bar! It went over really well, and it allowed for a lot of snacking while we waited for Sam to get home. 

Surprise! Nothing better then a sweaty hubby after coming home from the gym. He was surprised, but he did kind of figured out something was up before he got into the kitchen because he saw the extra chairs around the dinning room table. Oh... the dinning room chairs- well I'll keep that in mind if I throw him another surprise party.

 

We have great family and friends. They always shower us with so much love. We are so blessed.

It was a great night and I know Sam had a great birthday. Here's to another year old, wiser, and hopefully more awesome than the last!

Lazy Pet Parenting

I hope everyone is having a nice weekend so far. Here's a little entertainment for your Saturday night. Lazy pet parenting at its finest.

Hey whatever works. Have a great weekend!