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Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Memorial Day Weekend!

Hi everyone! Hope you all had a nice Memorial Day weekend and that you're surviving the week. Just wanted to do a fun post about the great weekend I had. As you may recall, a bunch of friends got together for a Brewer game and an extended weekend. There was lots going on all weekend long, so it went fast, but it was a great time!

L came down on Friday night, and much to our (unfortunate) surprise, I didn't have hot water. The day before, our landlord had emailed us that the hot water was out, but on Friday morning, I had a hot shower, so it was odd to have it be cold again. Come to find out, they had just done a temporary fix, so that's why I got a hot shower on Friday. He suffered through a freezing cold shower, and his sound effects were quite hilarious. We went to bed having been told that the water would get fixed in the morning. Sadly for me, it wasn't ready in time for us to go, so I just washed my hair with cold water to get ready, and we went on our way to our friend Matt's house. He hosted the event, so that's where everyone congregated. We had 3 vehicles for the Brewer game, and we all managed to get in the FRONT row for tailgating. It.was.awesome. We tailgated from noon until the game started, and then we headed into the stadium. Most of us didn't even go to our seats (which was kind of to be expected based on how the event went last year), and we hung out in a bar in the stadium for quite some time. I must admit, the end of that and the post-game tailgate is a bit of a blur for me... ;) After the game, we went back to Matt's place and everyone hung out there. Sadly, I think we were in bed by 10:00, ha!

On Sunday, we got up and went for brunch, and then we found like the one and only bar in downtown Waukesha that happened to be open and went there for a good chunk of the day. It actually ended up being a really cool place and we had a great time. After that, a couple of the people in our group had us over to their house. They live on a lake, and it was really pretty. Unfortunately, it was a bit cold out, so our original plan to go full-on boating didn't happen. We did, however, go out on a pontoon, which was fun. After boating, L and I decided to go back to my place that night. We didn't get home until like 11:00pm, so that sucked, and what sucked even more is that we found out my apartment was STILL out of hot water. Seriously?! If you know L, you know that he absolutely loves his night showers, so he was not a happy camper. We went to bed not long after we got home and just hung out for a bit on Monday before he went back. My whole Monday felt a bit 'off' because of the water situation, and I was sad to have L leave. Fortunately for me, I get to see him tomorrow night already because I head to Madison so we can leave for Florida on Friday. Can't wait!!!!!! (The water was finally fixed yesterday around noon. Since it was six days without water, I requested a credit in rent, but my landlord ignored me, go figure.) Oh well. Anyway, all in all, a great weekend, and I've included lots of photos below for those of you who haven't seen any yet.

Before leaving my apartment to meet everyone!
 
 Ladies of the tailgate! We were there so early that we parked in line and waited for them to let people into the lot. This resulted in front row parking for all three of our vehicles. Who the heck knew you could drink in line before they even let you into the lot?! I sure didn't.
Just a small portion of our delicious spread!
The boys were excited about Smith Bros. brats and hotdogs. :)
Leave it to my camera lighting to be a bit funny. I like this pic though! (Me, Erin, & T)
L's friends from his high school days. Great guys!
 
The whole crew before the game!
Inside the bar we stayed at most of the time:).
 All the beautiful ladies. I love this picture!
L and his boys (above and below).
Me and T in the bar!
A little drunk? ;)
Leaving the game. This pic is so random. I love it!
A few of the ladies!
I don't know what we're laughing at, but I love this picture. :)
Back at Matt's after the game!

The next day, we went to L's friend's daughter's first birthday party for a bit. After that is when we went to a bar and to the friend's place who live on a lake. Great times!
 L having fun blowing bubbles for Dylan to chase.
 Oh, num num. Cake!!
Goofy faces.
 Me and L at Bernie's Tap Room in Waukesha. Fun! (Disregard my sunburned face;).
View of the crew from inside the bar. Neat place!
 Feeding the fishies and waiting for the pontoon!
On the boat! :)

Sunday, May 19, 2013

Target Truth

Two blog posts in 12 hours?! Somebody mark the calendar! ;) But for real... Let me tell ya about my trip to Target yesterday… Before going, I saw Target’s status update on Facebook, which coincidentally asked the question, “Target Truth #74: Quick decision time: Cart or basket?” In my mind, I had this little debate, because I usually always start with a basket and quickly realize that I should have grabbed a cart to begin with, but not this time, my friends. Cart it was! Funny story, though. I’ve been on this kick of bringing in my own bags to stores, probably just because I love this one and this one that I got from World Market and feel cool carrying them around, ha! They’re awesome. Anyway, because I ‘just needed a few things,’ I decided to only take in one bag. Big mistake. I left with much more than I intended to, as alwayyyyys, and I could have saved myself another five cents had I just brought the second bag in like I thought I should in the first place. ;) So folks, if you don’t know it, Target gives you 5 cents off per reusable bag you bring in, just an FYI. Or at least they do at my Target (and my grocery store). Why not help save the environment and save a few pennies at the same time?!

The rest of my Target story goes a little something like this… Mission: plain white tank top. Not a cami, and not a ‘wife beater’ (for lack of a better word), but something in between. I wanted a white tank top for two reasons; one, to go under my new Brewers shirt I got for our Brewers weekend (see photo below), and two, to have for Florida because I have a pair of shorts that I want to wear with a white tank. I haven’t had much luck lately finding good white shirts, but fortunately, I found exactly what I was looking for today! I may or may not be slightly obsessed with Target’s microrib tanks. No joke, I probably have a total of like 10, three of which managed to find their way into my cart today. Oops! But come on, only $7?! And they’re so comfy! So, with the two extra tank tops beyond the white tank, I was already past my mission, but sadly, that didn’t stop me.

Next came a dress. Not like I necessarily needed it because I just bought three dresses there a couple of weeks ago, but I couldn’t resist… Damn you, Target! I’d link ya to the dress, but I don’t think the site does it justice. It’s another maxi dress, same style as another one I got there. Oddly enough, despite it pretty much being exact same dress but in different colors, the one I got today has probably 2-3 less inches of fabric at the bottom, which is perfect, because then I can wear it with flip flops. The other one will require heels, so while it is probably more Florida-esque than the black and white one I got today, it may stay home from the trip so I don’t have to take special shoes along. I hate packing….. Ha.

Speaking of packing, I then made my way to the travel section of Target, where I proceeded to get like 50 different little travel items for our trip. Seriously?! I mean, it’s a little more justifiable than some of my other recent purchases, but how does a person NOT pick out one of everything in those adorable travel-sized packages?! I even bought stuff I don't even use on a regular basis (i.e., Wet Ones, hairspray, etc.). Needless to say, I should be more than prepared for Florida. ;)

Last thing I got there was a new set of sheets. Random? Yes, but I also just got new bedding today at Kohl’s. I wasn’t seeking out new bedding by any means, but after recently washing my current comforter and putting it back on my bed, I realized how worn out it is. Go figure that I’d find myself in the bedding aisles at Kohl’s, and that in that process, I’d find a comforter that contained the exact color scheme I currently have. How does this shit happen to me?! Ha. I wanted to keep the same scheme as much as possible (was originally just thinking a solid brown comforter) so I could keep all my current pillows, so this seemed like a match made in heaven! It was already on sale for like $90, and then I had a 30% of coupon, so I felt like I couldn’t pass it up. What’s even cooler is that because it was a big set, it included 3 decorative throw pillows, which we all know I love! I was going to get sheets at Kohl’s too, but damn! I guess I never realized how expensive sheets are! :-/ Even the ones I got at Target were almost $40. Yikes. Happy I got them, though!

Looooooonnnnng story short, I bought a lot of shit today. All shit that will serve a good purpose at some point, but all shit that I could probably live without at this point in my life. :-/ I always go back and forth between justifying it and feeling guilty, but for now, I’m happy, so we’ll just go with it. ;) It helps that some of my faithful readers experience this same sort of phenomenon at Target. It’s nice to know I’m not alone! In case you care, I’ve included a few random photos related to this post. Fun!
 My beloved totes:). I have two of the front tote.
My new Brewers zip-up. LOVE it! (Underneath is that lovely microrib tank I mentioned above;)
 Split-screen view of my old (top) and new (bottom) bedding. So similar!
Full view of the new bedding.

Saturday, May 18, 2013

Open House!

As I mentioned in my last post, I have a lot of fun things coming up in the upcoming weeks. One of those things was the Smith Bros. Meats Open House last weekend. For those of you who are unfamiliar, my family owns a meat market, and for the past several years, they've been holding a customer appreciation event every Mother's Day weekend (in conjunction with a few other local businesses). They do free food samples, grill demonstrations, in-store specials, you name it. The event is always a huge success, rain or shine, and this year was no different. Last year, L and I went back to Colby and just helped out randomly. This year, I actually got a phone call to ensure that we were coming, so I knew we must be important. ;) His sister T ended up coming back with us this year too, so that was a lot of fun. While she wasn't originally scheduled to work the event, they sure used her!

When talking about the Open House with my coworkers before I went home for the weekend, I literally said, "There is one thing I don't want to do this weekend: park cars." Unfortunately for me, I talked to my mom on the phone that evening and was informed that that was in fact my job. What?!?! I've never really done it before, but I remember being asked to take over for a few minutes last year, and that was enough to warrant me swearing it off forever, ha. (After experiencing it this year, I will continue to swear it off;). I tried really hard to get out of it, but sadly, I had no luck. It was cold and windy, and we had TONS of people coming in and out all day long. Directing traffic in a lot that isn't really meant for a ton of cars is not an easy feat, let me tell ya. For me, the main thing that sucked about it was simply that people forgot about us. Several hours into the event, I had to call like 5 people until someone (L) answered their phone to see if they'd be willing to bring my mom and I something quick to eat while we stood out there. It also was sad because the event was held more indoors this time due to the cold, which meant all the other workers were in a completely different spot from us. Kinda lonely. :-/ Anywayyyyyy. This took way more of a whiny tone than I meant it too, ha! I guess it should be considered a good problem that we had to park people in the field next to the shop, in a parking lot across from the dealership, etc. Just not a good problem for me and mom. :P

Once we finished that up, we walked over by where everything was happening to take part in some of the action. Was nice to get a teeny peek of everything before it shut down at 2:00pm. By that point, mom was stiff as a board, so she went home. The rest of us hung out a bit, and then me, L, and T went back to my parent's for awhile before heading back to the post-event party. Saturday evening ended up being quite lowkey for us, and then on Sunday (Mother's Day), we did a nice breakfast with most of the fam. Yum! T had to head back to Madison that afternoon because she worked on Monday, but L and I had Monday off, so that was great. We drove down to LAX so I could get my hair done, had sushi at L's favorite sushi place (mom came down and met us for lunch), and then headed back to Madison. We ran into some standstill traffic which sucked, and then we almost forgot that we had to go pick up L's car from T's house before going back to his place. Once we got to T's, we ended up staying there for a few hours chatting, and by the time we got back to L's, it was almost 10:30. Ick! We went to bed not soon after, and then back to work it was. Story of our lives... I cannot WAIT for the day when I can wake up next to him on a weekday knowing that I don't ever have to drive an hour and a half back to work again. A girl can dream, right...? Anyway, that's kind of a recap of how last weekend went. Had a LONG week at work this week, and now I'm relishing this free weekend in MKE. Next weekend will be the Brewers extravaganza (I bought a new shirt for it, stay tuned to see pics), and then the week after that, we leave for FL. Ahhhh! So much to do, so little time. ;) So yeah... Enjoy a few pics from the Open House. I apologize that most of them are of me and L. I intended to take more of the food but wasn't by the grills at all, so that didn't happen. Pics from the next few weeks will probably be a bit more exciting, so stay tuned! :)
 Aww. :)
 The one and only food photo I got at the Open House. Raw chicken, yum! ;)
 Sporting my winter-esque gear after the Open House!
 L took a liking to baby Meg! I think a baby looks good on him. ;)
 Couldn't resist a photo considering my dad and L dressed so similar on Mother's Day, ha!
 Happy Mother's Day, mama! :)
 Homer opening his gifts from me!
 T stealing my camera for a selfie!
Mud Bar (above) and VFW (below)!

Me post-haircut!

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Exciting Events!

Hi all! I don't necessarily have a major post to do here, but I thought I'd update you on my always busy life. There are a number of things coming up in the next few weeks that are making life so much more exciting for me, and I figured I might as well take a stab at making all of you jealous! ;) In all honesty, putting this stuff down on 'paper' helps me stay focused and happy. As usual, I get caught up in a lot of daily things that I forget to stop and appreciate things. Therefore, I'm doing this more to remind myself of happy things than I am to make you jealous, in case you were worried about that. ;) So, here goes!

My youngest nephew Homer turns 1 tomorrow. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, HOMER!! :)

This weekend, L and I (along with his sister T) will be heading to Colby. Suuuuuper excited! It's the Smith Bros. Open House, as well as Mother's Day weekend. I'm really looking forward to it, and so are they! We will be heading to town on Friday night, and we'll be greeted by ribs on the grill. Awesome! Probably keep it lowkey since L and I will be working at the Open House, but we'll see what happens. He and I both took Monday off as well, so there's an extra day off. Yes! Not only that, but we'll be driving down to La Crosse on Monday morning so I can get my hair done! (Yes, I'm weirdly loyal to my hair stylist there;). After that, we'll have lunch out L's favorite sushi place and then head back to Madtown. It will be a great weekend all around, and I genuinely can't wait to see everyone and have a good time!

The following weekend, I have no plans, but knowing me and L, one of us will probably be visiting the other. Ha! The weekend after that (Memorial Day weekend), we have a big Brewers weekend planned. A bunch of people from the 'core' group will be heading to Milwaukee for a weekend full of fun. Not really sure how the weekend will begin, but we'll be tailgating at Miller Park on Saturday and then going to the game that night. They did this event last year (I wasn't involved), and it sounds like there wasn't much game watching happening. People had a little too much fun before and after, ha! Either way, I'm super pumped. Also, because it's a long weekend for everyone, I believe everyone is hanging around on Sunday as well. Some of the people in the group live along a lake, so we'd potentially have access to that and a boat, weather permitting. I can't wait! I must confess, I'm selfishly pretty pumped that I don't have to travel much for this event. I feel like I'm always on the go, so it'll be nice to be in my stomping grounds!

Then comes probably the most exciting event..... At the end of the month, L and I are heading to Florida for a week. Ahhhhhh! I seriously could not be more excited. Not even sure how the convo originated, but he is going to Florida for a work conference, and somehow we got to talking about how it'd be kinda fun if he could extend it and if I could come along. After some thinking and planning, it's happening! We'll go down a few days before his conference starts and stay in a different hotel, and then once the conference starts, we'll switch over to the hotel where the conference is located. The beautiful thing about that lies in the fact that when we switch to the second hotel, his work pays for it since he's there for the conference! I'm all about saving money when I can. ;) I have bought a few new outfits in preparation for the trip. I must say, I think I'll look pretty cute. Ha! Gotta control myself though, because there have been a few unexpected expenses that have popped up lately. Anyway, I am SO excited for this trip, not only as a chance to get away, but to spend a whole week with no one but L. It will be amazing, I already know it! :)

Lastly, towards the end of June, I will be going to Summerfest to see Pitbull with a colleague from UWM and some of her friends. That may not be as exciting to you if you don't know who he is, but I'm pretty sure you live on a rock if you've never heard a song with him in it! ;) Should be a lot of fun!

If you're lucky, I may even be doing individual posts about each of these things when they happen, but for now, I just wanted to share all the fun stuff coming up in the next few weeks. It's gonna fly! I'm afraid summer's gonna disappear right before my eyes. :-/ But hey, at least I'll be doing things I enjoy! Can't wait, and hope you are all getting ready to do some fun things over the summer!