homecoming weekend

For the past few years of my college life I slowly began to realize that I didn't need to drink until I forgot about my night. I also realized I didn't even need to drink to have fun.

I began to slowly veer away from the crazy college scene I had been in for the first two years of college and actually enjoy waking up with no hangover on Sundays. Well, at least most Sundays.

It was pretty great.

I still have fun. Always. But {for the most part} I didn't lay in bed for the following day feeling like I was dying a slow, slow death. I finally learned that there was a way to stop that feeeling. Smart me.

Thank goodness Jeff came into the picture that sophomore year also and calmed my wild little self down.

Whew.

Then comes this weekend.  The football game was at 11:00 AM {ya, our football team really is pretty awful right now}.  I realized the drinking would start around 9-10, which it did with some delish mimosas.  What I did not realize, however, was that the drinking and eating would not end until about 2 AM that night.

Thank goodness we all had waters in between our whiskeys & bacardi's and was able to survive the crazy night after a who knows how many dollar bar tab, 26 dollar cab drive, and a 21 dollar pizza later.

All in all I must say homecoming weekend was a major success, and I had a blast with not only my number one but also his good friend from college who flew down from North Carolina and his wife.

Now everyone left me, so I decided to sleep a bazillion hours to catch up from yesterday.

To the books I go! Only two weeks of student teaching to go. Craziness!

Love good weekends with good people!

Hope everyone had a fab weekend as well.



fiance returns, for good....sorta

Yet another wonderful weekend with the best family in the world.

I really can't get enough of them. Which is probably why I try to make it home whenever I have a chance. To me, there is just no greater thing than the gift of family. You betcha bottoms when I have a kid I want my family to be a HUGE part of that little wee one's life so it can get all the love I have received from them.

& I would be that person that would be perfectly content being my parents neighbors until ... forever.

I love my family. More than anything in this world. Even more than buffalo sauce. Yes, my love is pretty darn intense. I'm sure all of you know that though, I talk about them about once a day on here.

Poor Jeff, his ball went into the pasture on one hole.

Anyway.

Fiance came back to Kansas. About gosh darn stinking time. Right?

And it's for good this time. Sorta.

I will get to see him every single weekend {mostly} until we move in together after we get married next August. That news makes this girl extremely happy and feel like these past 7 months dragged on long enough. The team is back together, watch ouuuuut.

We spent the weekend golfing {me watching}, eating, drinking, hanging out, having lunch with Jeff's mommasita, enjoying the beautiful weather, and checking out the venue we are going to use for our wedding! {more on Wedding Wednesday}.

side note here: some how beer gets into a lot of my pictures but the funny thing is I hardly ever drink anymore. So no worries, I'm no alchy. Just an occasional drinky drink here and there.

The weather is absolutely PERFECT right now and wish it could be like this every single wingle day of my life. Fall is by far my favorite season and for some reason I have a feeling it won't be here long before winter storms in. Kansas weather never likes to keep the nice days long. Bummer. Oh well, I will enjoy them while they are here! Bring it on swearshirt weather & bundling up.

Now let's make this week speed on up so the weekend can come yet again. 3 weeks to go in my student teaching too! Can't lie, I'm ready to have my own classroom or own "office" when I do school counseling, this sharing business is for the birds. The kids aren't too fond of listening to three different teachers, and I wouldn't be either.

 Hope everyone had a fabulous weekend and have a great Monday!!!!

cheers to the freakin' weekend

I don't even know where to start with this weekend.

So much went down.

I found MY DRESS
which I decided to save until Wedding Wednesday to talk about

I got to see the WHOLE family
and if you have read my blog for at least a week you know much familia means to me

It was my little cousin's 1ST birthday party
and even with a ear ache he still rocked the party

KU whooped up on NIU
take that one haterswho said we'd be 1-11. BOOM. 2-0

&

I took a THREE hour nap.
and now I will probably never sleep

Today is also a day to remembered all of those who got their lives taken on a

very tragic, awful day 10 years ago. However, I am also so thankful for all of those men & women

who risked their lives to save many, many others. Thank you for your service, time, and love!

God.Bless.America.

P.S. 11 months until the big DAY.



so fresh & so clean clean

After a day full of wild kiddos ready for the weekend it was so nice to get to spent the evening with the
familia. If only they all lived CLOSER.

This fam including two of my aunts, uncle, cousin, and her hubs.











After work my Aunt Janet and myself went to pamper ourselves a bit and got some mani's and pedi's.  Thank you times a million for the nice and needed treat :) Really, my toes were looking ROUGH. And rough not as in little paint chips, rough as in ummm it had been so long that half of my toes were painted, half not. Awful. But they are looking fly and fresh once again. Thank goodness.

Plus, after being on your feet all day it really felt like heaven! Too bad I can't have someone do that to my feet every day. They should would be a lot happier!

And it's definitely always a good time to enjoy trying to figure out what the heck those people are saying to each other in Vietnamese. They talk a bazillion miles per hour I don't even know how they know what each other is saying. Whew, wears me out trying to figure it out.

 I still think they don't talk in English so they can make fun of us. Especially when they talk sometimes in English. Those tricky boogers.









After we were feeling so fresh and so clean we picked up a few last minute party assesories for my little cousins first bday party tomorrow and then headed for some grub at none other than OTB. I could barely walk out of the place I was so full. Probably was the three buckets of CHIPS we had. Gets me every.single.time.





Then we just got to hang out, watch the aunts put together some birthday stuff, and just chatty chat chat. Now time to pass outy out out so I'm awake to hopefully find a WEDDING DRESS tomorrow and party on for little Packsons birthday.

Oh happy days and HAPPY WEEKEND.

Surprise, Surprise

Remeber Momma J's birthday last Tuesday?

Well this past weekend my Dad & Little Brother put together a

surprise party for her on Friday night in honor of the big day.

Even after plans changed, they were still able to pull off the surprise

and really get my mom. Little Brother only had a few hours to pull off making the food,

setting everything up, and even had to work that day.

{i would have helped but i had to work in a town 2 hours away so I wasn't able to

get there until an hour before mom got there}

He deserves the "child of the year" award.

Surprisingly as well, mostly everyone we invited for the shindig showed up.

Jeff even showed up at midnight after driving 8 hours from Minnesota just to make

it for the party. Ya, I think I'll keep him. :)

It was a blast celebrating her big day with her closest friends and family

and obviously partying the night away.

Saturday my older brother & his wife showed up and I got to see

my adorable little niece.
 She can "pound it" and quack like a duck. She's legit.

Later in the day we all went to the

Interstate Fair & Rodeo in a town near by.

I stinking love fairs.

Especially this one because it means so much to Mr. Fiance.

Jeff got the ol VIP and we were able to park behind the stage for the concert.

Two Steps Back, Casey Donahew, & Joe Nichols were the acts for the night.

Pretty awesome line up and we practically had front row seats

without having to deal with the crazy teenagers screaming for 4 straight hours.

Minus the fact that right when the leading act {joe nichols} came on it started raining and lightning.

Guess it was time for us to leave and hit up the town.

 

Then Jeff, his friend, and I went out to boogey the night away at a local bar.

I, however, decided I would drink about 50 beers too many.

Always a bad idea.

Oh, and to make it all peachy....we had to meet with Father in the morning

to talk about what we had to do in order to get married in my church.

Fail again.

The good news is we made it to the meeting with Father on time

and it went really well. Or in Jeff's words "that was cake".

I was stressing for nothing.

Then we had a fabulous home cooked meal by my Mom,

and slowly the crew started to depart and head back to their homestead.

If only we could all live in the same place....

Hope everyone had a fabulous weekend!

Later Michigan, It's been real

It's been a few decades since I've posted,

and here is why.......

Michigan Street has been laid to rest and I'm moving out.

This is where I've been keepin' it real for the past two years.

Where many of beer bongs were bonged.

Where plenty of tailgates went down.

Where many  of people slept on couches.

Where many hours of HGTV were watched.

Where there were lots of laughs with my roommates.

And only a half a block from my favorite bar in town.

Win-Win-....Win Situation.

Needless to say, I'm gonna miss the heck out of it.

I know the gals moving in after me so at least I know it will be in good hands.

And if we don't get our deposit back someone is getting chuto chopped.

Lots of memories in the Mich Street house but I guess it's time to move on.

Sadly. Moving on is never too fun.

My days in college town USA are dwindling down so I better make the best of them.

Until then I'm going to tailgate my booty off, visit all the restaurants I have missed,

have a bloody mary at my favorite bar every Sunday, take walks on campus,

and tear up Mass Street like the good ol' days.

And always remember....the best is yet to come.

Cheers to the good times!

&

THANK YOU Mom, Dad, & Jeff for helping me.

Love you guys to the moon and back and appreciate

all of your help....and muscles :)

Heat Wave

Heat wave is exactly what Kansas was experiencing this weekend.

Holy hotness.

But the heat couldn't even stop us from having a good weekend.

Jeffy came up Friday and actually was able to get here by dinner time.

It's nice having someone to eat with, and crazy how much you take advantage of

it when it isn't there!

We spent Friday night at a local restaurant in town that just so happened to have

a broken air conditioner. Front row seating to the fan was a must.

We picked a chill night and just picked up a redbox and relaxed since

Jeff had to drive 6 long boring hours to get here.

We watched The Roommate.

Ya, don't rent it.

Really creepy...and just not very good.

Unless you are into the whole roommate obsession killer thing.

Saturday we had big plans to do a number of  fun things.

Eat with Jeff's old boss.

Shop til' we drop.

Or window shop til' we drop.

Go to the Royals game.

Brew up.

Cheer loud.

Spit Seeds.

Eat some good ol' fashion baseball food.

And then go home and pass out of exhaustion.

Only a few of those things happened.

We did meet with Jeff's old boss, we did shop around not only at one place but two, and we

did brew up...but in the AC.

It was so stinking hot outside you could barely breath.

So we opted for the bar to watch the baseball game and have

beers and cheer in the nice cool leather seats they provided us.

Add a buffalo chicken salad.

With hott company.

Life was obviously good even without being physically at the game.

We then ended up going to the store to pick up a few candies to go to the movie with.

And accidentially walked out with 5 buckeroos worth of candy.

Only half a box got eaten.

Until today...that is.

We watched Horrible Bosses.

Please if you haven't seen this movie go see it

NOW.

Hilarious.

I laughed the entire movie.

Good stuff right there.

Today we ate lunch with Jeff's wonderful momma, and then go to see

my brother, my sister-in-law, and my beautiful niece.

I feel like we loaded a whole month's worth of fun into

one weekend and got to see lots of people we loved

that we hadn't seem in awhile.

The only bad part is some hooch stole my bike.

No, I wasn't going to ride it.

Yes, the tires were flat.

But NO I did not want it gone.

What is this world coming to with people

stealing bikes with flat tires right by your front door?!

Sheesh. Get a life.

And your own bike.

HAPPY SUNDAY.

I want a bloody mary!

Knock the case off of it

"Knock the case off of it" was probably my favorite line of this entire weekend.

This line was said by a four {he insisted on adding and a 1/2} year old.

Everytime his brother was up to bat he would yell this

and I would die laughing.

This is the same kid he told his mother "Please don't stare at me, Mom." while he was

petting a dog in front of her.

Kids are the freaking best.

This weekend was way too fast. As usual.

I got to spend the weekend in the hott as sin Minnesota.

I didn't know Minnesota could get in the 100's.

However.

 The first day I was there....I experienced this.

And seriously thought I was going to get blown away.

Far...far away.

And then I experienced a servere heat warning.

haha. Good thing bipolar Kansas prepares me for these types of things.

It didn't stop me from enjoying my weekend with the one and only Jeffro.

I I will miss Minnesota when he leaves and boy I never thought

I'd say that. I think he disagrees though. He's a true Kansas boy at heart. :)

It was a little different trip than usual because I spent more time on the bleachers than I did with him,

but I loved watching him coach. Oh la laaaaaa. Their team was so close to winning the tournament, but unfortunately they lost in extra innings in their second game today.

{I think it was because their good luck charm-me,obviously-had to leave}.

So we spent the weekend eating as usual, drinking as usual, and watching lots..and lots...and lots of baseball.

Now I am just counting down the days until I get to do it all again. Minus the hours and hours of baseball in the bazillion degree weather. At least next time I will bring a cooler. {which someone...not naming any names....told me you weren't allowed to bring them in the tourny.}

And I think someone knew I was about to fall asleep driving because I even got to see the Oscar Myer Mobile driving down the interstate in Iowa.

Woke me right up!

Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend!

Back on the grind tomorrow.

Welcome to "Minnesota" where the playas play

Yes, I know the song is welcome to Atlanta..but I changed it up a bit.

I am in Minnesota though.

YAY.

Finally made it after six of the most boring hours of my life.

Thank the Lord for audio books. Seriously.

{Got half way through Something Blue. Does anyone else get

annoyed by the bitchy blonde's perspective of the story?} She has complained and whined

for the five hours I have listened to it. Love the book though. And I really want to meet Dex. HA.

Anyway.

I came up to Minnesota this weekend to watch my handsome devil Coach {fiance}

take his baseball boys to state. {this is where the "where the playas play" comes into the title}.

He has been coaching for years and I've never got to see him in action, so I am flipping pumped.

It's been raining all morning so I am praying they aren't cancelled.

This may be the last visit I make to MN while he is here, so I better make it a good one!

We will definitely have to come back up here to visit after he is gone,

I think I'll actually miss it. Or maybe just miss traveling. Will be nice to get my fiance two hours away instead of six.

Hope everyone has a lovely Friday!

Pray for no rain outs, lots of brews, and a sunflower spitting good time.

Weekend in Pictures :)

Some pictures ran away but the weekend also included a little pool time.

Sista got a little color back.

And hopefully this time it didn't cause 5 degree burns.

Beautiful weekend. Beautiful family. And this weekend I get to see Jeff again.

Life...is just really not too bad.

And sorry for the MIA action around here.

And major...major slacking. {I'm sorry!}

I've been trying not to blog when I'm with

cool people like my family and hunks like my fiance.

More time for fun!

I'll be back in no time :)

XOXO.

Red, White, & Blue

Happy 4th of July!

& Thank you troops for letting freedom ring.

It has been the fastest weekend in history.

{and the longest blogpost in midwestern history..whew.}

Three day weekends seem to go faster than two, how does that work out?

Maybe because I was with some pretty special people that time always flies with.

Jeff came into town Friday night after a long, not so fun month of being away.

He ended up surprising me and getting to my house a few hours earlier than he said

he was. However, I had just gotten out of the shower so I wasn't looking quite my spiffiest. Whoopsie.

So.good.to.see.him though. And that is the longest I'll ever have to be from him again.

Yahoo.

So Friday night we went to our "place" which so happens to be On the Border.

Don't ask me why, but something about it made us go there like once a

week when he lived in the same town as myself. Maybe it's the gigantic dos equis?

That could definitely be it.

So we ate and then came back home and watched a movie {I forget the name...Varsity Blues? maybe}.

Perfect, simple start to the weekend I have to say.

We both got to sleep in {well, I tried but Jeff was shaking me to get up..the usual}.

I woke up to him saying "mmmm...these are so good"...he had already eaten a cupcake.

haha. I knew they wouldn't last long.

So Saturday we spent the day wondering around the main street in town and doing a little shopping.

Shopping led to hungry stomaches so we ate at the Ingredient, which has the

most amazing flipping salads that I cannot even describe. ahhh. Yumm.

After walking outside in the crazy hott weather, we decided it was time for the

Mexican beer and limes.

After downing a couple we decided we would hop in the truck and head

to my hometown to see the fam and shoot off fireworks.

We seem to not stay in one place for long.

So Jeff grabbed his brownies and beer and we headed the two hours homestead.

That night my Dad grilled some burgers and brats and we had a mean homecooked meal.

Something about food on the grill is just the absolute best. Get.in.my.belly.

After we were full to the very brim, we headed out to get some fire works and blow some stuff UP.

After having a few turtles and tanks on fire, we went out to our old land where you can see the whole town and everyones big fireworks.

So so cool. You could almost see three towns worth of fireworks going on.

Sunday we woke up, went to church, checked out a few wedding venues, had to break into our house, and tried to keep cool in the blazing heat by dad rigging up the hose to spray {or soak} us on the front porch/patio. Little brother and I then thought we'd get everyone cooled down by buying some water balloons and having a water balloon fight, but we were the only participants so that died off all sorts of fast.

Then the rain came, the breezy weather appeared, and we sat outside enjoying not wanting to pass out from the heat exhaustion.

Dad once again cooked up a delicious grilled dinner with bacon wrapped chicken with some bell beppers and jalepenos. holy heaven. It was amazing. For sides we had chips, corn on the cob, salad, bread, cheesy potatoes, pasta salad, mac and cheese, and veggies. Ya, I think I gained 500 lbs on that one. Who cares though it was amazing!! So A+ work to Dad for the grilling, and A+ work to Mom for all the side dishes!

When the rain didn't stop we decided it was just not gonna be a firework blowing up things kind of night, dad and Jeff got an ice cream fix from Braums instead. I just enjoyed my popsicles. On the way home we stopped and grabbed a Red Box DVD of The Dilemma. Pretty funny movie. Never fails with Vince Vaughn in the house!

Today Jeff & I headed back to town around noon so we could enjoy having out with each other for awhile before he headed back. We relaxed at the house, Jeff got a Sonic Happy Hour drink {Route 44 lemme tell ya}, and we walked around downtown where they were having a little "shindig" in the park. I have no idea what to call it but they had tons and tons of vendors from local restaurants set up selling food and beer, live music, a comic artist, and I'm sure a lot more I couldn't see.

As usual... the fun has to end at some point, Jeff went on his way, and I am finishing up packing, listening to fireworks, and getting ready to start another week. {4 day one I must add..whoop whoop}. Although the weeks aren't too shabby because I get to watch the most adorable & fun loving little boy in the world. He makes my days without Jeff much easier.

Hope everyone has a HAPPY & SAFE 4th of July.

And if you are at the lake, ocean, or anywhere near water...you suck & I envy you.

:)

XOXO.