The Perfect Dress

Well, I had such a crazy busy weekend, but the most important and exciting thing is that I found a wedding dress. I am super excited and can't believe I have to wait until March before it arrives. How is that fair? I went shopping with my friends, Kim and Amber, on Saturday just to make sure the dress I found in Wisconsin indeed was the one. I really didn't think it was possible to top that dress and I kind of went just for shits and giggles since I had my heart set on the dress back in Wisco. After about seven no-go's I tried on a dress that I just loved. I became very confused because "what about that dress back in Wisco?" I mean, I couldn't just fall out of love with that dress and in love with this new dress that fast. This became very stressful and not something I was prepared for. I didn't realize how stressful dress shopping can be and hard decision making is when it comes down to buying "the dress" for a very important day. On top of falling in love with this new dress I learned they are having their trunk show this weekend and all the 2011 dresses are 15% off, and that included the new love of my life dress. I now had until 5pm on Sunday to make a decision. All of this was too much so I needed to think about it over night. Of course the first thing I did was call my mom when I got in the car. Two and a half hours later I was still confused. I was trying not to dwell on it, but I just couldn't get the two dresses out of my head. I contacted Andy's mom, Laura, in the morning for some more advice and then another call to my mother. With 24 hours, and many of those hours spent on the phone, later I went back to Demetrio's to try the dress on again. I took one look in the mirror and said "this is the dress...this is the perfect dress." I am so excited to have found my perfect dress. I wish my mom could have been there, but I did have two great friends with me who shared this special day with me.

Dress Shopping

This past weekend Andy and I went back to Wisconsin for the Ohio State/Badger game. While I was there I thought I was a good idea to do the mother/daughter wedding dress shopping together. I also invited Andy's mom because she has two boys and no daughter of her own and who knows when Ryan is going to get married. While we were at it my aunt and cousin came along and at the very last minute my friend Kelli surprised me and made it for the day of shopping.

Kelli is my very good friend who moved back to Minneapolis and recently started a new job as a registered nurse so she couldn't get off to make it back to Madison. I was super bummed about this but not just because of the dress shopping, but because this will be the first Badger football game that I will go to that she will not be with me. This all changed with a very nice surprise at the airport when Kelli showed up with Laura, Andy's mom.

The night before we were to fly out Andy told me that his mom will drive me home from the airport so my parent's don't have to pick me up. I thought that was a bit odd and not necessary since it's not on Laura's way home and my parent's don't live that far away from the airport so it's not any trouble for them to come get me. His response was "My mom wants to go get a drink with you." I thought that was also a bit bizarre because Laura is no boozer so it sounded odd that she wanted to go get drinks on a Thursday night at 9:30...mmmm...getting weird to me. Andy then said she wanted to talk dress shopping with me...also weird. What is there to talk about? Plus, I said I would be tired and would just want to go home, but Andy told me too bad because we are going for a drink. I still found this bizarre and felt like something was up, but I had no idea what. I was thinking Laura wanted to talk to me about getting married and maybe how I should take care of her son, blah, blah, blah. When we were in the MN airport for our layover Andy and I got a couple drinks and being in the MN airport I started to get sad about missing Kelli and I was telling Andy how much I was going to miss her this weekend and I even posted a comment on her Facebook page about how I was thinking of her. Little did I know she was cruising in her car on her way to Laura's house. When we were heading down the escalators on our way to baggage claim in the Madison airport I saw Laura and gave her a big hug and then I saw Kelli. I was so surprised and happy to see her that I actually cried. For those that know me really well you know that it takes A LOT to get me to cry, so it meant a lot to me that Kelli made it to Madison for the dress shopping. She wasn't going to make it to the Badger game because she was going to have to turn around and drive back to MN to be on call Saturday afternoon. Oh well, I got to see her for a few hours and spend an important day with her.

This is Kelli, Laura and myself at the bar on Thursday night getting a couple drinks.

On Friday was dress shopping day. I had no idea what to expect, but I went with an open mind and I had a great time. I enjoyed trying on a lot of dresses and I even fell in love with a dress that is totally me. The first store was Brandi's Bridal in New Glarus, WI. It was such a great boutique and had plenty of unique dresses for me to try on. They were also very pleasant and fun to work with. The lady that I worked with was very nice and knowledgeable as she gave me a lot of advice and tips on dress shopping. The second store was Julies Bridal in Monroe, WI and they didn't have my style of dresses, but I was still able to try on a variety of dresses and I learned what I don't like on me. We went back to Brandi's Bridal and I tried on my two favorite dresses that I narrowed it down to earlier. One of the dresses got me teary eyed so I knew that was the dress for me. Instead of buying it that day I decided to get measured and have them keep my information on hand so I can shop in Phoenix this upcoming weekend. If I don't find anything better than that dress then I will call the bridal shop and order that dress. I just want to make sure this is the dress. I am pretty positive, but this is my first time wedding dress shopping so I just want to make sure I am getting the right dress.

By dress shopping I learned that I am definitely not a typical bride. Actually, that is nothing new because I kind of always knew that, but Friday really proved it. I wasn't into picking out my dresses to try on as I enjoyed everyone just handing me dresses to try on. I also didn't like trying on every dress in the store like some brides like doing. I only wanted to try on the dresses I thought had potential. I also didn't like traditional dresses. It was an interesting day.

The only thing I regret from that day is not taking pictures of the group of people I went dress shopping with. This was an important day with very important people in my life and the only thing I regret is not getting a group picture, or even a picture of me in the favorite dress with my mom. I did get plenty of pictures of me in the dresses I was trying on, but I wish I would have done a picture with my mother and another group picture. My only regrets!!!

Who Wants A Treat?

So, every night after dinner it's the same routine. I have a dog (ah hum, Madison) who stares at me until I give her a bone (aka treat) to chew on. It's kind of creepy when Madison stares at you because she won't stop until you offer up what she wants. Even if I try to say NO, she continues to stare you down. Then when I say "Who wants a treat" both dogs go absolutely nuts and run for the kitchen cupboard where we store the dog chews. They both sit their butts down and I give them their treats. Unfortunately some time way back when Andy and I started this bad habit and now they both think they will get a treat every night after we are done eating dinner. The other thing is Madison has turned into a chew snob. Not any chews will do as she only likes certain (aka expensive) chews. There have been times where I have given her a chew that she didn't approve of and she dropped it and looked at me and ran back toward the cupboard door. That is where I draw the line though. If she doesn't like what I give her too bad. Once she realizes she is not getting anything else then she will settle for the bone she dropped on the floor. Anyway, this is our nightly routine and the best way to show you is through video. I used the flip video the other night to capture this ridiculous behavior.

For Goat Cheese Lovers

So, as I said before I love goat cheese, so when I was in Washington DC this past June I had a goat cheese and pesto grilled sandwich. It was AMAZING and I was determined to copy it at home, so while I was eating my grilled cheese sandwich I definitely took notes on what was in the sandwich: pesto, goat cheese and tomato. Super simple! So, I made this yummy sandwich again for lunch today...minus the tomato. Andy makes an awesome homemade pesto sauce and I normally make this sandwich when we have leftover pesto; however, I was craving it today and we didn't have any of Andy's homemade pesto in the house. Good thing I recently purchased my Wild Tree pesto stuff. All I had to do was add water and Wild Tree Grapeseed Oil to make the pesto. It definitely does not stand up to Andy's homemade pesto, but it worked to satisfy my craving.

I spread pesto on one piece of bread and goat cheese on the other. Put the pieces together and buttered the outside of the bread and put it on the pan to heat up. Flipped it and heated the other side. I did not add the tomato, but the sandwich I had in DC had slices of tomato between the pesto and the goat cheese and that was pretty yummy too.

Here is my final product in a very blurry picture.