Lots of bad news and a few good things!

Not much has happened in the past two weeks since my last post except for a lot of bad news. My grandfather is not doing well and my mom has been visiting him and my grandmother to help take care of them. They are now having hospice come to help (which I think is a great idea). It stinks that I have no vacation and can't get up there to help but at least she doesn't work so she can be there.

On another sad note, my old co-worker, Sarah's, father just died last Thursday. Some of my other co-workers and I stopped by her parents house on Saturday afternoon with coolers of drinks, celebrity magazines and cards and sat with her for about an hour. I plan on going to the viewing tomorrow but will probably miss the funeral on Wednesday.

On ANOTHER sad note, I got a call this morning from Tiffany and our friend Mike Hayes just had a heart attack either this morning or last night. He is currently in surgery to have a stint put in place and to see if he'll need any other surgeries. Hopefully, this all will go well for him. It's kind of scary to think that I'm at the age where heart atacks, although rare, are possible.

And, finally, on an EXCITING note, Steve's friend, Adam from Atlanta is visiting us this weekend. We'll pick him up from the airport on Thursday and he leaves on Monday. Steve and I will be going to his 10 year high school reunion on Saturday and most likely staying in a hotel in Springfield. And, Sunday, I'm planning on going horseback riding with my friend, Lisa, and some other people. I'm excited for that but not excited to miss out on some of the football games that day. Oh well, there's always highlights if anything that exciting happens.

And, on another good note, we got access to the website which holds our engagement pictures. I like a lot of them and don't like a lot of them but we have a lot to choose from and we already have our Save the Dates designed thanks to Steve. One day this week or next, we'll have to go into his office and print them all out to get them sent out by 2 weeks from now.

So, that's about it as far as anything new. Hopefully, I'll be able to get some pictures up here from when Adam visits this weekend.

Weddings, Weddings, Weddings

It always seems like when we have a busy weekend, most of the busyness is always falling on the same day or time frame. This weekend was definitely one of those. Friday we had nothing to do, so we ended up meeting Nate (Steve's friend), Kristen and Jose up at Coastal Flat's. We ran into some old friends, Nate and Boone and stayed up there for a little while and then went back to our apartment where Nate came back and we played the Wii for hours.

Saturday is where all the time juggling went and I didn't manage it too successfully. We were supposed to go to Grandma Charlotte's house and help with yard work and then I needed to get a bridal shower present for Jessica and rush to her shower in Leesburg at a winery. There was also some Bull Run Beer Festival and my boss had a Liberian prenuptual cookout. It ended up raining so many of the things didn't seem like they were going to happen. The Bull Run plan was definitely off and I had already decided that I wouldn't be able to make it to my boss' party. We were supposed to be at his grandma's house by 9am but we didn't make it until 10am and got right to work. We finished up that by 12pm and I went to Bed, Bath and Beyond where I thought my friend was registered but it turned out that she wasn't so I had to face the dreaded mall on a Saturday afternoon. After running around while Steve and Onyx sat in the car waiting for me in the mall I ended up leaving Williams and Sonoma with a bar shaker and a bottle opener which cost me about $80. That place is expensive! I decided that by the time I took a shower and tried to find this winery out in Leesburg, the party would be over. So, I watched the season premier of Grey's Anatomy that I DVR'd and took a nap and then met my friends at the bar next to our apartment. Steve stayed home (wisely) and slept.

Sunday, we went to my boss' wedding. It was very interesting to say the least. Cathy (her boss), Steve, Cathy's husband and I were easily the only white people there. It was fun though and cool to see other cultural wedding traditions. We went to the reception and left pretty early because we all had to work the next morning.

Nothing much has been happening this week. We met with our wedding officiant last night and liked him. We pretty much design your own ceremony with him. He gave us a packet and we pick out the parts and readings that we want included. I actually just emailed him to officially reserve him for our date.

Tonight, we are meeting one last time briefly with the photographer that we like so that she can include the album that we like in our wedding package. And, I emailed our wedding planner to go ahead and book the ceremony muscians.

So now, we have the following officially booked (or at least lined up):

*Ceremony & Reception Venue

*Photographer

*Officiant

*Ceremony Musicians

*My dress

We still need to book these pretty quickly:

*Reception Band or DJ

*Flowers

*Cake

*Transportation

*Bridesmaids Dresses

*Tuxes

Other than that, I think the rest is minor details like decorations, hair and makeup, etc...

I feel like I'm accomplishing things....and draining my wallet.

Here are some photos from my boss, Facia's wedding (we didn't take many and these aren't even from my camera):

This is my boss' boss, Cathy and her husband Bob:

Steve and I:

Facia (my boss):

Their first dance:

The butterfly release that the did (but it's a great picture of the head dresses they wore there):