Amy and Joe's Wedding

What a busy weekend we it. The pictures for some reason posted in random order and I do not have enough time or patience to rearrange them.

On Thursday, we arrived in the early evening to get checked into our hotel. Nearly all of Amy's attendants came in from out of town (Portland, OR and Vegas were the farthest away). So we had a girls night out in Broadripple. I had taught all day and then drove almost 2 1/2 with Indy traffic and Karol had been traveling since early morning (and she is three hours behind us) so we decided to go to dinner and then head back to the hotel. It was a great convenience that our hotels were close to each other. We had a nice dinner and Broadripple is always a fun place to explore.

Friday morning, Karol, Ellie, and I got up and went to get our nails done. That nail salon in Carmel was amazing. My nails had never looked so good (and I have yet to find a place to measure up). After getting our nails done we stopped by a kids consignment sale that was right by our hotels. When we finished we went back to get Bob and Ellie and headed to the gold course to decorate for the reception. After a few hours of decorating (and when the room looked amazing) we headed back to the hotel to rest and get ready for the rehearsal and dinner a few hours later. The rehearsal went by fast without any problems. The church was beautiful. After rehearsal we all loaded up and went to Maggiano's for dinner. I LOVE italian food, and this was perfect. The spread was amazing. No one should have left hungry (well except my girls who only eat chicken nuggets and mac and cheese), I just wish I had more room for all the yummy food. We were exhausted by 10:00 and the girls were getting tired. We had an early wake-up call.

On Saturday Mark took Karol, Ellie, and I to meet up with Amy and the other girls and then we met the limo that would chauffeur us around all day. We started our day at the hair and makeup salon in Broadripple. We we styled and airbrushed. I loved my makeup, it was beautiful, but the hairstylists was not good. Several of the things the girls ask of her she could not do. However, Amy's hairstylists was awesome and I learned a few tricks from just watching her.  Around noonish (we started at 8:00) we got back into the limo and headed to the church to get ready. We were running a bit late, but that was the story of the day because the limo driver kept getting lost. After getting Ellie and myself dress, Bob brought Maddie to me to finish up. Shew-it is hard getting myself fancied up (which is why I do not do it often) but all three of us was tough. We got Amy into her dress and then it was go time. The wedding was so beautiful, except for the minister who was a little odd at time. But Amy was gorgeous. We hung around after the wedding for a bit-then we headed to the golf course to take photos. It was a little chilly, and it seemed like the pictures took forever, but the photographer go some great shots. We had a good time at the reception, and were so exhausted by the time the festivities were in full swing. I think we cut out about 8:30 because the girls (and us) were barely hanging on. Bob had promised Ellie that he would take her swimming when we got back to the hotel. So while they went swimming, Moo and I showered and got ready for bed. 

Sunday- was bittersweet. I had enjoyed spending so much time with Karol and Amy, but I was ready to get back home and sleep in my own bed. Karol and Mark had gotten sick the night before and were really not doing so well. I felt so bad for them because they had a long travel back home. We got up pretty early, loaded up, and then headed into Indy for brunch at Granite City Brewery with the bridal party. The place that we ate was awesome. Bob and I talked about it all the way home, and we are planning to take a trip up there just to eat the Brunch there. I think that it was the best brunch I had ever seen. On the way home I could resist stopping at Edingburg to pick up a few goodies. 

What an amazingly, busy weekend-celebrating my best friend marrying her best friend. 

Ellie caught the bouquet

We realized when we got back to the hotel we did not get a family picture

Having fun in the hotel

Rehearsal

Maddie made a new friend (Joe's Niece Libby)

Karol and Mark at the wedding

Love this pic of the girls

Ellie strategically choose the flowers to throw down, when the wedding was over, she had to go pick them all back up

Dr and Mrs. Joseph Turner

Gotta take a silly pic or two

Girls' Night Out

After decorating was complete

Rehearsal Dinner

Ellie was excited that her place card at rehearsal dinner had Belle on it

Before hair and makeup limo pic

After pic

January-April

New Years 2013 was pretty uneventful. 

In Mid-January we celebrated Eme turning four. She celebrated at her home with Hello Kitty.

We decided to make some much needed improvements to the house. We finished a paint job that began last summer. We finished painting the great room. Bob also wanted to lay down tile in the girl's bathroom. He did such a great job, I was hoping that he would continue on in our bathroom (he was not as willing-and decided to save that job for another cold month).

In February, we had our annual Zollman birthday celebration. Each year we celebrate Bob's uncles and close friend's birthdays. There were several people that could not make it this year, but we had others who came for the first time. We ended up with about 45 people and had a great meal and wonderful time. The girls played so hard and would sleep well that night.

In March, we celebrated Spring Break with snow. We did not have a lot of snow this year (which I am quite ok with), but getting it on spring break is NOT cool.

Twice a year we have a parent viewing at Ellie's dance class. Bob goes one time and I go the other. She has improved so much since September. I love seeing her grow in something that she enjoys. She has made quite a few friends this year in her dance class.

I heard about Lowe's and their Build and Grow activities that they have on weekends. I signed Ellie and Bob up and they loved it. Lowe's has pieces of a craft laid out and the parent/child team assembles it using the directions. Ellie was so proud of her craft. The best part was that it was free.

For the Spring Production we performed The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. This was such a classical yet amazing show. I had a great time with the entire cast, but especially my seven seniors. I will really miss them and all the talent they brought to the CHS stage.

Bob has been traveling A LOT lately, which makes life a little crazy for us. Each time he is gone I am more appreciative of him and all that he does. I also am very thankful that I am not a single mom, I know that is one of the hardest jobs. One of his trips was to Texas. While he was there, he brought the girls back some boots. They loved them and we could not get them off until bedtime. 

My Ellie had her first trip to the Urgent Care that resulted in IV fluids. She had been sick for most of the day on Friday in March. By the time I got out of school to pick her up at Janet's she had dark circles under her eyes and was pretty weak. I decided to go ahead and take her to the Urgent Care and Bob met us there. The doctor said that she was a little dehydrated and that we should give her a bag of fluids. About an hour in she was getting her color back and believe it or not, she never ran a fever at all until right as they were taking the IV out (the doctor wanted us to stay until they closed-so we were there about five hours). They gave her a dose of Motrin and sent us on. She was a little tired on Saturday, but seemed to get better because we made her keep drinking fluids. It is so hard when your baby is sick. But she was so good, we were quite impressed with her.

Over Spring Break, Ellie and I went to Indy to have a bridal brunch to celebrate Amy's upcoming wedding. It was such a good time, even though we did not get much time to spend with Amy. Indy had just received their biggest snow storm of the year the night before (7-9 inches), so there was a lot of snow on the ground and quite cold. But we made the most of it.

Easter was nice and crazy as always. We have to go three different places and it is always a fast busy day and we hardly ever get to really enjoy the day or the moments in it. But we make do and the kids always seem to have a great time. The Easter bunny came Saturday night while we were out to dinner. The kids were happy to find their little treats when we got home. We do not make a big deal out of the Easter bunny, but it is just fun.

Ellie started with her first 4-H club this year. She is an explorer. She enjoyed her first meeting.

Camp Kindergarten was a sad but good time. Ellie is going to be a great fit for Kindergarten, but I am a little sad that it is already that time. She is a special girl with such a big innocent heart and I cannot help but to worry about her while at school.

April ended with prom. Meg was again my date. I believe this was our forth Prom together. We had a nice dinner at our fav Kansai and then headed to IUS to chaperone. There were a lot of kids there and a good time was had by all.

May was crazy busy and I will share that in my next post. 

First Day

It is so hard to believe that it is already the first day of school. I am pretty excited this year about school because I am teaching all seniors. I have five English classes and Government AP. I am grateful that we have 3 teacher days before the students come in because I am no where near being ready.

Pinterest

I have been adding pins on Pinterest for a while, but never had really tried anything besides a few recipes. This weekend I put this together. It turned out quite nice. I love how I can see everything all at once.