Wedding Weekend!

 Last year i was in my friend Julie's wedding, and this year Greg was in his friend Ben's! It was nice being the one in the audience for a change! We decided to bring El because we thought she would love it.....and we were right :)

Mama has been waiting a long time to do El's hair like this :) We got more comments about it than from any previous style :) El loved it, of course. It is, after all, princess hair :)

Here's El's hot daddy :)

And our pretty family, my two loves :)

Here's how El entertained herself during the service.....hahahahaha :) (There are about 20 more including the light fixtures, the photographer, my chin, her hands, her drawings, the window outside and last but not least, my cleavage...... but I'll spare you :)

And of course we had to take advantage of the beautiful flowery decor for some photo ops :) She is such a model.....geesh!

The reception was fun, but we wish daddy could have been at our table. That's OK, though because we were with Uncle Chris and Aunt Penny. We did get to do a lot of dancing with Greg and let me tell you, dancing is Ellie's FAVORITE thing! She learned the electric slide, chicken dance, hokie pokie, locomotion, YMCA and cupid shuffle :) I hear the chicken dance and hokie pokey were her favs :) At the end of the night when we got home she said "I am so exhausted from dancing all night...." cute now.....not so much when she is 16 :)

All in all, Ellie's first wedding was great and we had a pretty good time too :)

Guess what I did?

Before (Yeah, I know, it was pretty, but I was ready for a change :):

Now (Love it......10 inches to donate to charity :)....there's highlights in the front too, but they are kinda subtle :)

I have been tagged.....

Tessie tagged me to share 7 random thought about me......this is kinda hard because my life really is an open book and I have shared so much on here already. Alright, here goes......

1. I wore a mouth extender (that you had to turn the key on and crank every night) for 1 year, braces for 2 years and a retainer for lots of years after that (full time at first and then only at night all the way through my freshman year of college!). I have the littlest mouth known to man and never understood how God could make a mouth teeth couldn't fit into. Thank goodness for technology.......and my dad's pocketbook. I will be forever grateful for my smile!

2. My latest FAVORITE juice in the whole world (because I haven't posted about juicing in a while.....) is:

Orange

Apple

Nectarine

Wheatgrass

Ellie and I love it so much we fight over who can have more!

3. I am shamefully reminiscent. I love facebook because through it I have re-established contact with SO MANY old friends.....and when you moved around like I did as a child, you have lots of them! I now have several friends from every move, even 2 from when I was only 3 (right, Wendy and Becky?)

4. I used to send friends birthday cards......EVERY friend on EVERY birthday. Then one day I woke up when I had about 40 cards or so I was sending out........and realized "hmmmm, I get maybe ONE card for my birthday every year (thanks, Krista, you always remember!!!!)." I know it shouldn't be all about what I get in return, but I have to tell you, I stopped sending birthday greetings. I even sent stuff for anniversaries......oh well.

**** IN THAT SUBJECT, HAPPY BIRTHDAY MY DEAR KRISTI C (yesterday!!). I thought about you and hope you had a GREAT day with your family. I wish I could celebrate with you!!!!

4. I have very low tolerance for several things, but one of my biggies is judgemental legalism. Please PLEASE don't get me started. I'll stop there for the good of everyone.

5. I LOVE the High School Musical movies! I just watched both of the them for the first time because someone said I would love them and guess what.....I am 28 years old and am like a kid. I love it. Haha! I know I am a dork! I want the soundtracks for Christmas because I know El will love it too and we can sing and dance in the car to Zac Efron. We already have the Hairspray soundtrack memorized:)

6. I am afraid of technology.....or perhaps it is afraid of change! I like what I know and don't like to learn new things.....I would rather stick with a camera or a phone that I know and love than switch to something better. I don't know why. Greg is good for me like that because he stretches me and tells me I will love something....and then I usually do. He just reminded me of the time I was anti-high-speed-internet. HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!

7. Hmmmmm.........I first shaved my legs in 6th grade. There I sat in a room full of girls with naked legs and just felt like a freak when I already had no friends. That year I was in and out of the hospital a LOT for sometimes months at a time and it was hard on me to make friends. Anyway, I had begged my parents to let me and they had to basically have a conference.....Ok, for the record, mom and dad, it really wasn't a big deal. When all Ellie's friends are shaving their legs, guess what? She can shave too! Haha.......so I actually DISOBEYED and went behind their backs and did it......DRY! After that, my mom bought me a safety razor because once you shave, there is no going back. I didn't get punished, but I think I probably wore pants around my dad for a while! He wasn't a horrible dad, for the record, but I think in this instant, he may not have wanted me to grow up :)

Alright, that's all.....I tag anyone who wants to do this.....I would love to see your 7 random facts. And it is now 9:15 on Thursday morning and here I sit on the computer in my PJ's.....so I had better get going :)

The saga of the yuck smell.....

I have overly sensitive olfactory sensors......ever since I was pregnant with my El, smells literally make me VOMIT. So, I am very sensitve to cats and dogs and really try to keep my house clean!

So, imagine my dismay, when all of a sudden about a week ago, I start smelling something in my kitchen. The smell is so strong, it makes me cough back the bile that rises in my throat every time I am in there.....and Greg said he couldn't smell anything. Well, whatever, I could and it was HORRIFIC! Not only that, when we would come home, it was the first thing I smelled and I just was horrified and embaressed beyond belief!

I went on a mad search for that smell. I disinfected the garbage.......I cleaned the inside of the dishwasher.....I even self-cleaned my oven and cleaned all cabinets inside and out......and STILL it remained! I was craziness looking for this thing and finally.....you are going to think this is so silly and retarded.......but I prayed that God would reveal the smell.

Well, I guess my small prayer was answered because then I knelt down and began sniffing the floor and FOUND IT! It about knocked me over. It was then that I remembered when the electricity was off, we had several things go bad in the frig and freezer.....and I cleaned out our entire frig so it was SPARKLING......but some stuff had leaked out.....and I cleaned it up, but apparently didn't clean it good enough and it ROTTED IN MY FLOOR!!!!!

So, what to do?

1. My all-purpose spray. So did not work.

2. Let's go stronger......Pine Sol! I read the directions and diluted it and cleaned......So did not work!

3. STRONGER would be Pine Sol withOUT dilution.......at first I was excited because it seemed to work. Then it dried and obviously did NOT do the trick!

4. Baking Soda!!!! On the box it says "makes smells disapear on contact." Woooo! So, I sprinkled it all over my floor and it seemed to work as well! I thought, "wow! This is my miracle!" But guess what......then I swept it up and......it hadn't worked either.

5. Then I had the brilliant idea to have Greg move the frig. out for me so I could clean under it and sure enough, there was gunk underneath it........so right now there is Pine Sol on my floor and baking soda and the frig is moved out and our kitchen is in dissaray.......

So far people have told me to use: straight bleach, tomato juice or vinegar. Believe me, I'll let you all know if this next step doesn't work. Ewww.......if there is even mold or something horrid growing under the linoleum, I'll just die. but, then I might get the tile I have been wanting......like we have the money for THAT.

Does homeowners insurance cover this?????? Wouldn't that be amazing!!!!

Prima Ballerina.....Year One :)

Get prepared for some unparalelled cuteness :)

First we have to warm-up!

Then we worked on leg-extensions (I am using the term "we" to mean, "Ellie with me watching")

At ballet class, Ellie is making new friends! Her friend Ay'Lanna is a friend from church, AWANA, her summer Good News Club, and now ballet too! Ay'Lanna is 6, though and in the upper ballet class. But, today they were combined!

And some beauty shots....because let's face it.....she is :) Dad, are you crying now that you never let ME be a ballerina??????? I never wanted to live vicariously through my daughter, but.....I am :)