Our Garden...Sort Of!

I would love to have a garden with fresh vegetables and herbs; however, we are very aware that is not possible with these two in our house.



We are almost positive that they would think we planted everything for them and dig up/eat everything we planted. For Christmas Andy got a Topsy Turvey from Shelley. At first it was kind of funny because of all those old school 30 minute commercials on the Topsy Turvey. Well at the end of January Andy decided to plant tomatoes and herbs in our Topsy Turvey.


Then at the end of February he decided to hang another Topsy Turvey for strawberries.



Now we have all this basil.


Awesome tomatoes growing.


Fabulous Chives.


Strawberries growing.




All of this and the doggies have completely left it alone. Good thing this Topsy Turvey hangs up off the ground. We just love this thing because now we can have a garden without worries about Madison and Izzy getting into it.

Happy Easter!

It's Easter Sunday and we spent it getting stuff done and relaxing...sort of. I got the house cleaned from top to bottom and did 9 loads of laundry. Once that was complete Andy and I went through our wedding checklist to see what was left and make some solid decisions. The only thing left, that we know of, is to put the playlist together for our DJ. We are almost complete, but that task takes longer than we thought. We started it on Thursday evening last week and still haven't finished. Each time we started we shared wine together, so that might have something to do with it.

Also, today Andy made a very yummy ham!


I made my favorite potatoes to go with the ham and we had corn and rolls. It was just the two of us on this Easter holiday, but it was nice to spend the day together while we got a lot of items taken off our wedding to-do list.

Asian Burgers

This girl I went to high school with is a stay at home mom and just started a cooking blog called Dinners, Dishes and Desserts. I need to improve my cooking skills so I figured what better way than to follow a stay at home mom's cooking blog, especially someone I sort of know. This week I made her Asian Burgers and I served them with tator tots.


You can find the complete recipe here. I thought it turned out great! I was worried Andy was not going to be a fan of me using ground turkey so I tried to hide the ingredients from him. Mmmm...that didn't last long. Andy is not a huge fan, but I think that is because he couldn't get past the fact he was eating a turkey burger. I will make this again and hopefully Andy can get past the fact it's a turkey burger.

Presents for Doggies

Yesterday was a day off from work since it was the day after tax day and I did my usual trip to Ryan's Pet Warehouse. I get to go there two times a year since their hours are 9am - 4pm Monday through Friday. I needed Andy to go with me to wrangle me in and not go overboard, but he couldn't because he had to work. I did do what I feared...went way overboard. The guy checking me out was trying not to laugh that I bought all these items for two dogs. Hey, my babies are super spoiled and I only stock up like this two times a year. I had a great time buying everything in sight since it's soooo much cheaper than PetSmart or any other pet store. Here is what my spoiled babies received when I got home.


Here is Izzy with her favorite toy out of the whole bunch...the pig that makes pig noises when squeezed. Kind of annoying, but Izzy loves it.

Bachelorette Party

This past weekend was my bachelorette party and my friend Kelli flew in from Wisconsin on Friday night. Andy, Kelli and I went to dinner on Friday night and then back to the house to do some wedding crafts. It was only about an hour or so, but Andy definitely complained the whole time about having to cut paper. I am going to admit that I had my first slight bridezilla moment on Friday night during craft time. I sort of freaked on Kelli because one of her squares was not straight. Ooops! I did apologize because it's not Kelli's fault that I was stressed out about not knowing anything planned for me that weekend and just received some interesting news that added to my stress. Here are my awesome helpers.


Then on Saturday morning Amber and Kim picked us up and we headed to the Westin Kierland Resort to meet up with AJ and Jessica for spa day. It turned out to be a great day as Andy bought me a champagne and chocolate scrub and the ladies got me a facial. It was so nice and relaxing that I would love to do that once a month. Then the ladies got us a cabana by the pool where we chilled the rest of the afternoon. This resort had a lazy river in it so we grabbed some cocktails and floated in the river for a couple hours. It was a perfect day. Then it was time to get out of the sun and get ready for whatever they had planned next.

While I was getting ready in our villa I started to notice the girls being discreet so I knew something was up. Especially once I figured out that Kelli and AJ were in charge of entertaining me while I was doing my hair. This had me worried they got a stripper because I did NOT want a stripper. Kelli promised it was not a stripper and that I would like it...and she was right. It turned out to be a passion party. It was so much fun. We laughed and laughed and laughed throughout the whole party. The ladies prepared hors d'oeurves and had wine for the passion party as well. Everything was tasty. This isn't everything the ladies did because I took this picture before I was banned from the living room.


After the passion party we all walked over to Tommy Bahamas restaurant in Kierland and my meal was so yummy! By the time dinner was over at 11pm we were all exhausted and were ready to call it a night. I was not interested in whooping it up all evening long and was ready to head back to the resort.


On Sunday we checked out and headed back to the pool where we met up with Andy, Brian and baby Stella. We floated down the river, had lunch and frozen drinks on a beautiful 95 degree day. Here is Kelli and I on Sunday before we packed up and headed out.


I had such a great bachelorette party and I couldn't have asked for anything more or less. These ladies know me well and it was perfect. I didn't want anything crazy and definitely no "suck for a buck" t-shirt while bar hopping. That is not my thing. All that was important to me was spending quality time with my girlfriends who I am super close with...mission accomplished. Thanks ladies!

A Soap Incident

My girlfriend, Kelli, is coming to town for the weekend and in preparation of her arrival it was time to do a deep clean of the house. Andy helped out with the deep clean and did the showers before I got home from work yesterday. This is always great because I hate cleaning showers. When I got home I noticed he didn't put everything back in the showers, but instead left the items on the bathroom floor. Once I confirmed that he was done cleaning I offered to put everything away for him. While picking up the items off the floor I noticed a half a bar of soap that looked like it was possibly eaten...by a dog! I asked Andy why we have a half bar of soap and if he thinks one of the dogs possibly ate half the bar. He knew immediately that one of the dogs ate half the bar of soap because it wasn't half a bar when he took all the items from the shower. Well, Andy was worried that this could be harmful for the dogs so he looked into it, but learned that it's not harmful. Andy checked both dogs mouth and breath to learn that the soap eater is....Madison...shocker! Madison then strolled her butt into the kitchen and laid down looking like she might have an upset stomach. Hey, that will teach her a lesson. Obviously she learned that soap is not the best snack since she only ate half of it and not the whole bar of soap. Just wait until she poops out the soap. Ha Ha!

Andy's Birthday Weekend

Last weekend was Andy's birthday and anyone that knows him understands that he does not make a big deal out of his birthday so it's me who is saying he got the whole weekend and it's me that got everyone to go out for his birthday. On Friday night I took him out for his birthday dinner and then a relaxing night in watching a movie with drinks.

Then on Saturday it was Culinary Fest. It just so happened this year Culinary Fest landed on the same weekend as Andy's birthday...lucky guy! Yes, I have blogged about this event every year since I have been blogging because we have been going every year since we moved to AZ..and this year was no different. The only difference this year was the weather. Normally every time we go it's really hot and everyone is sweating and trying to stay hydrated, but this year we had some crazy weather. It was barely 50 degrees and ended up raining in the evening. This was perfect drinking weather and did not deter us from whooping it up for Andy's birthday in the vodka tent.

Just after 7pm it started to rain hard so they closed down the festival and we were booted out of the vodka tent. This was not going to ruin Andy's big celebration so we went to a local dive bar called Rusty Spur to keep the festivities going. At the Rusty Spur we got the bar to sing Happy Birthday with us to Andy. Then AJ got the band to do the same. You can imagine how thrilled this made Andy since he does not like to draw attention to himself.

After the Rusty Spur it was time to "feed the beast" so we all headed to Los Olivos for our annual meal to end Culinary Fest. Here is a group photo the waiter took of us. We then hopped in a cab to head home.

On Sunday, it was present opening time. I will only post one of the photos because Andy was not thrilled that I took many pictures of him opening all the presents like he was a little kid.

Happy Birthday Anders! Until next year.

Happy 30th Birthday Anders!

More to come later as I am extremely exhausted from the crazy weekend!

Arizona Bridal Shower

My parents were in town this past week and the main reason for their visit was my Arizona bridal shower. My mom really wanted to be here to share in my special day and that was awesome to have my mom attend my first bridal shower. To be honest I was unsure about a bridal shower since I am not your typical bride and not a fan of traditions, but once I got there I had a great time. My friends, Amber and Kim, put the shower together and they did an amazing job. The decorations were awesome as the theme was around the wedding colors and wine...my favorite thing! My friend Kim always says how she is not crafty and lacks the ability to create anything...after this bridal shower I am going to call her bluff. Every detail was absolutely perfect and unique. I couldn't believe these girls did all this just for me. I just loved it. Here is a picture of my mother and I at the shower.

Here is a picture of my Arizona girlfriends...aka monthly ladies wine and sushi night.

For more on the bridal shower please see Kim's blog as she detailed it perfectly with great photos that I was unable to capture. I am looking forward to my shower in Wisconsin; however, I am going to have to be better about taking photos at that shower for my blog.

Wedding Dress and Shoes Update

My wedding dress arrived this week and last night was the time to go in and try it on. It was finally the time to find out if I still had the same love for that dress now as I did six months ago when I bought it. As my blog followers know this is something I have been completely worried about. I was having nightmares that it's the wrong dress and I have been stressed out that I am going to hate the dress when I see it and there is no room in the budget to get a new dress. Even if there was room in the budget we are out of time since these dresses take so long to get in. I was worred that I would have to settle on a white dress that I found at the mall. And by worried I mean stressed, anxious and freaking out. I am not an outward emotional person so all this has been kept deep inside me so Andy wouldn't know the true level of stress over this dress. If he knew he would just tell me to stop watching Say Yes to the Dress. I do agree that I need to stop watching that show, but it's like my crack because it is very addicting. So, I arrived nervously to the dress store and my parents met me there. Yes, my parents are in town this week and I am very glad because then they are able to see the dress before Mexico since they were not there with me when I bought it. Once I got the dress on I wondered why I was so stressed out about it because the dress is aboslutely perfect! I just love it and I am happy with my dress choice. I was also very pleased with how well it fit me. The only alterations I need are "up top." Basically I can't gain a pound or lose any weight from now until then since the dress fits so perfect! I told my mother that if she would have blessed me more with my top half then the dress would be perfect with no alterations needed and that means savings in her pocket. So, yes, the top of the dress not fitting snug is my mothers fault for providing me with "little genes." HA HA! Just kidding, but my mom did find my comment funny and so did the bridal consultant. My dad didn't say much about my joke; however, he did provide opinions and ideas. I was shocked because my dad is not one for words so I really liked to hear what he had to say. I had my shoes (more on the shoe drama to come) and they look amazing with the dress. The shoes are perfect and thanks mom for finding them because I love them. My dad didn't understand all the drama over the shoes since you can't see them under the dress, but that's ok because he is a dad and they generally don't understand that stuff anyway. The Shoe Drama: In my last post I discussed the anxiety over getting the perfect shoe. I first ordered a pair and they were not the right shoe. Then my mom found a pair for me, but JCP didn't have the right color or size and it was back ordered on their website. That caused my mom to run to the JCP in Madison to pick up the right color in a size 7 and bring them with her to Arizona this week. Ok, we are up to speed. When they got here on Wednesday night we were talking about the shoes and how she brought them out, etc. She went to get them so I could try them on and make sure I still like the them. I put one shoe on and immediately loved the shoe so I reached in the box for the left shoe and it wasn't there. I immediately thought maybe my mom was looking at them in their bedroom and it was just in the other room. Then my mom was shocked when I asked for the second shoe. We realized it was probably the shoe on display back in Madison. This was a tad bit stressful because I really wanted the shoes for the dress fitting the following night. Of course my mom was on the phone to JCP in Madison to explain what happened and asked them to fix the problem. After much discussion we found out there are only two stores here in the Phoenix metro area that had the color and size in stock. One was pretty far from our house and the other was in the ghetto of Phoenix. The JCP of Madison contacted the JCP in the Phoenix ghetto ensure they would hold the shoes for us. So, the plan was my parents were going to head to the ghetto to pick up the much needed shoes for my dress appointment the following day. My mom will take the one shoe back with her to the JCP in Madison next week. This story was too funny. I wasn't mad because I figured I had at least one shoe with me to see if it would work with the dress, but JCP came through and solved our problems. So, I LOVE the dress and the shoes. Now, if I can only figure out how to calm my stress and nerves so I don't lose any weight from now until then everything would be perfect!