Our Wedding (Looking Back)--The Great Storm!

When we originally set our wedding date, we made SURE it would not coincide with a home K-State football game.  Living here, we knew that on game days traffic would be horrible; hotels would be booked a year in advance; and a game would create stiff competition for attendance!

Well, Bill Snyder decided to come back and rescue the team (if you can call it that) and as a result, the schedule was changed.  September 25, 2010 was now a HOME football game!

The morning of our wedding was finally here and as my Personal Attendant and I left our hotel room in Junction City--I told ya hotel rooms in Manhattan would be booked!--the sky was darkening.  Jill and I got my stuff to the church, I hopped in my dress and the sky grew scary.

I'm no meteorologist, but by the looks of the clouds, I was convinced a tornado was headed our way!  Thankfully, there was just tons of wind and rain...nothing that us Kansas folk haven't dealt with before.

The upside to our wedding being on a home football day???  There were tons of people around to get great pictures of the super weird cloud formations and they always remember the morning of our wedding!

And if you're in the mood for some folk gospel, off-beat humor and bits of ADHD, check out this YouTube video...I don't know why, but the storm clouds always make me think of this song!

Kyle & Lori's Wedding

Our friends and neighbors, Kyle and Lori, got married this past weekend at their family ranch just south of Clinton Lake (near Lawrence, KS).

As we arrived at the wedding site, the skies opened up and it started raining cats and dogs...they always say rain on your wedding day is good luck, but Lori was supposed to arrive at any minute.  Those last few minutes before you walk down the aisle are so nerve-wracking anyhow, then to have a game-delay because of rain?! 

Thankfully, the rain moved through pretty quickly and everything was put back out.  It was time for Kyle & Lori to get married!!!

All in all, it was a gorgeous wedding!  The evening turned out to be beautiful--not too hot or too cold--the pasture setting was spectacular, Lori's dress and all the detail work was breathtaking, the food and margaritas were super tasty and their "wedding dogs" were super adorable! 

We wish the two of you a VERY happy and blessed future together!

What We Ate Last Week

I apologize for the non-existent "What We Ate Last Week" posts as of late.  But truth be told, when Justin is on the road, I don't cook full meals!  Some nights it might just be cheese and crackers for supper :-)  In fact, some of the meals right before he left weren't all that exciting--ie Chili Dogs--but I wanted to make sure he had some of his favorite meals to eat before he left!  If you missed the story of Justin going to New York City with Hurricane Irene, check it out here.

Now that Justin's home, things are back to normal with planned meals!  God only knows that if we didn't get back into a routine and soon, it'd be take-out for the next two months!

So...

What Did We Eat Last Week?

Wednesday--Dirty Rice with Black Eyed Peas* and green bean casserole

Thursday--Coca-Cola Porkchops with Brocolli and Quinoa casserole

Friday--Chicken Jerusalem* over Saffron Rice with roasted brocolli, carrots and yellow squash

Saturday--We attended the wedding of our friends and neighbors, Kyle and Lori, at their family ranch just south of Clinton Lake.  We feasted on margaritas, a chips and salsa bar and an amazing Mexican buffet.  We wish the two of you a very blessed future together!

Sunday--Chichen and Black Bean Enchiladas Casserole

The Learning Curve(s):
*In the African-American community, black eyed peas are thought to bring good luck and prosperity to those who consume them on New Year's Day...well, we are still quite a ways from January 1st but I love black eyed peas with my dirty rice.  And honestly, can't we all use a little good luck and extra money every now and then?!  Rather than going the usual route of opening a can and seasoning them, I slow-cooked the peas with a hamhock and a bunch of veggies all day long.  When supper came, Justin was very appreciative of the extra effort and the tasty results.  As expected, a little pig fat always saves the day :-)

*I had seen a recipe for Chicken Jerusalem II on Allrecipes.com several weeks ago...As it involved making a reduction for the sauce, I knew it would have to wait for the weekend.  If you like chicken and artichokes, this is your dish...the creator definately knew what they were doing when they paired it with saffron rice.  Great combination!  Feel free to check out the recipe here.

Our Wedding (Looking Back)--The Not-So-Traditional Music!

I have to admit...it was kind of fun to write the post about our wedding's Save the Date card.  I won't bore you with every single detail of our wedding (it was just 1 year ago this month!) but I will highlight a few things over the next few weeks...especially those wedding "things" people tend to get excited about.

To begin this post, I need to admit one more thing.  I was NOT the most traditional bride (is anyone surprised?!) and when it came time to pick all the music, I definately wanted to avoid all the traditional songs.

Rather than using the usual, "Here Comes the Bride" ditty (which made me want to gag), I entered to Grand March by Verdi.  It was more unique and frankly, our pipe organ can take people off guard!  This song was much better suited to my personality and wouldn't scare people half to death :-)  Oh...and for your listening pleasure, I have included YouTube videos of each musical selection!

Once we got to the reception, we opted not to use another overly common entrance song--any pump-'em-up song that you would hear at a K-State game.  Yes, it would have been totally appropriate for us but again I didn't want something so predictable...plus, we weren't having a dance so this would have to be "our song" of the night.

What did we pick???  "You Rock My World" by Michael Jackson!  Justin wanted so badly to dance at our wedding so once we walked into the depot and posed for a picture, he started busting out his dance moves! Nobody was expecting it and it turned out AWESOME!!!  His surprise really set a fun, lighthearted tone for the rest of the evening.

As the evening progressed, we knew it was time to shake things up a bit and get everyone on their feet.  My girlfriends, Erin and Angie, are both from Western Kansas...if you know anything about Western Kansas weddings, the reception is not complete without doing the "Grand March."  I had never seen the dance until I went to Angie's sister's wedding in Hays and I have to say, it's awesome!  Thankfully, they were both willing to lead it as none of us "north central Kansas" folk knew how to do it.

Unfortunately, none of us could track down a copy of the original Grand March song (who knew so many "Grand Marches" existed!)...so I played around with iTunes and settled on "Love Train" by the O'Jays!  Amazingly, the beat worked well and everyone had a blast!

And those were our music selections in a nutshell..not too predictable but not too weird!

HE'S BACK!!! Justin's Trip to NYC with Hurricane Irene

My husband works for a company that is contracted by our local electric utility to do line clearance...basically, they cut trees away from power lines.  It's not the prettiest sight once they go through your neighborhood and homeowners have no say in the matter, but you'll be thanking them next time a storm--ice, wind, whatever--rolls through town!

On occasion, Westar will subcontract the guys to other communities when storms hit...or even when another utility finds themselves in need of routine line clearance.  The move is a huge money saver for Westar (and it keeps them from raising our electric rates!).  As a result of the subcontracting, Justin has been to Texas and Louisiana for Hurricanes Ike & Gustav; Oklahoma and the Mexican border for ice storms (yup, you read that correctly); Iowa  and Wichita for windstorms; and finally Dallas and Seneca, KS for routine line clearance. 

When they're "called out," they may be gone anywhere from 2 days to 6 weeks.  Sometimes you can tell it will only be a few days...all other times, bags are packed with 2 weeks worth of clothing and ya just sit back and take it day by day.  The 4 and 6 week jobs really get old after a while, but I never complain.  I have too many friends and family who get sent into battlefields for 15 months at a time...who am I to complain?

Once Irene started making news, his crew went on stand-by on Sunday, August 21...just as they pulled in from another storm! The call finally came in Thursday night that they were being released and they hit the road at 5am on Friday, August 26.

When they eventually left, all Justin's crew knew was that they were heading East.  Where to?  Only Irene would know.  They spent the first night in Ohio and the next night they stayed across the river from Manhattan to ride out the Hurricane in a hotel.  Trust me, I wasn't too keen on the idea of my husband being sent INTO a hurricane with a motel room as his only shelter!

Once Irene hit, they immediately had a contract lined up and their crew moved into New York City...NEW YORK CITY! *In my best ever Pace Picante Sauce commercial voice*  When I went to church the following Sunday, everyone was asking where Justin was.  I told them, "He's in New York City--for a hurricane."  That's not something you say very often! 

The guys finally got back this afternoon.  There's such a high level of energy as the guys unpack their huge orange trucks and the wives pull into the parking lot.  You know everyone is ready to be back and excited about leaving the 16-hr work days behind!!! 

As much as I miss Justin during the storms and *hopefully* he misses me, there are some upsides to him being gone...

--Hello, overtime pay!!!  Because they're union, they lucked out and ended up on New York's wages...Justin was loving it!

--Justin eats out nonstop on the other utility's tab and I don't have to cook unless I feel like it!  Once again, because of their union they were on New York's (generous) per diem...he definitely ate much better than I did!

--This time around, they lucked out and got individual rooms at the Courtyard by Marriott (huge improvement from the trucks and SuperDome they slept in during Hurricanes Ike and Gustav) while Mitz and I had the bed to ourselves...

--I can keep the house however messy or clean as I want it to be...Justin gets daily maid service in his room!

--I can go to bed whenever I want!  I can't necessarily say the same is true for Justin but at least he doesn't have anyone nagging at him to turn the TV come bedtime...

But the best part is knowing he's home safe!  The combination of water + chainsaws + electrical lines always makes me nervous!  Justin's also been gone 5 of the last 6 weekends so I'm hoping the remainder of Hurricane/Thunderstorm season stays quiet :-)

Looks like they managed to have a good attitude while they were hard at work!

Stepping in Line With the Oxford Trend

I like to think that I keep up on the trends and remain fairly fashionable.  That is--until I go on a clothing strike to buy stuff for the house and all of a sudden I feel terribly outdated!  But regardless of whether or not my wardrobe is the most current, many styles I can wrap my mind around and come to accept.

This fall, Oxfords are all the rage...I have to admit that I am having a VERY hard time with this.  They remind me of ugly old lady shoes.  The design of the soles are ugly.  The lacing is ugly.  It's all pretty much ugly.

However, according to Hollywood, I seem to be the only person who thinks they're ugly.  Look at all these ladies who left their house in them?!  *GASP*  I'm pretty sure that I will never, ever be caught dead in a pair of Oxfords.  

But I will admit--they don't look too bad with the outfit in the upper right hand corner...What is that?!  Is someone waivering?!  I may have also said once upon a time I would never own a pair of cropped boyfriend jeans back when Katie Holmes debuted them and guess who has a pair...Guilty as charged! 

So maybe the traditional Oxford loafer isn't me...now something like this, I could maybe do:

It's the $34.99 "Shootie Oxford" that Payless just introduced!  Wouldn't it look super cute paired with some skinnies, a corduroy blazer and a fun scarf?!  Or even a skirt, dark tights and a sweater???  It may not be a shoe that come 5 years from now will be the most stylish but at that price, why not step in line with the Oxford trend?!

Our Wedding (Looking Back)--Save The Dates

Today is September 1st.

It's crazy to think that just one year ago this date completely freaked me out.

When I flipped the calendar over to September 2010 it meant that our wedding was just 24 days away...school had just started back up and I had so much to get done in the next three weeks.  I wanted it to still be August but sometimes you just don't get your way!

We ended up having a small wedding.  I always thought that when you have a small wedding, there are less stressors.  Ha!  Turns out, with a small wedding you have all the stress of a large one--plus, you end up dealing with the hurt feelings of all the people who were not invited.

Because the wedding was small, there was one thing in particular that a lot of people never got to see...our Save-the-Date card.

I may be biased but I happen to think it's the greatest Save-the-Date ever!!!!!! 

First, please excuse the quality--I couldn't find an electronic copy so I took a picture of the card!

To this day, I still love it!  I had found a doggie veil for Mitzi and a tuxedo vest for Malcolm at Hobby Lobby...I took pictures of the two of them all dressed up and then my friend, Erin, photoshopped them so they would be sitting together.  Next, I gave her a picture of our church's entrance and she made it look like the animals were actually sitting on the church steps!  I was kinda worried what our priest would think about it but he thought it was hilarious!

But you know what's even more hilarious?  We didn't even notice it until after the fact but...Malcolm, he's a black male dressed up as a Groom...Mitzi is a white female dressed up as a Bride.  Justin is a black male and I'm a white female!  Hahahaha!  I don't know if anyone else noticed it, but we sure did!

Thanks again to Erin for all of her awesome graphic design skills!  If you ever want to check out more of her work, go to http://eringarrett.wordpress.com/.  She doesn't disappoint!