We met with our reception coordinator today and made a lot of decisions.  I am feeling pretty good about how the wedding plans are coming along.  We have chosen the two choices for our entrees so go to our wedding website to check them out!

We finished registering for gifts for the wedding so that is also one more thing out of the way.  Next is booking our flight for our honeymoon.

Since we got all new fixtures for the bathroom we decided to paint it as well.  We are going to have to put on two coats of paint because the color is darker than what was in there.  Michele, you will have a nice new looking bathroom to shower in this weekend. :)

We went out to get the paint on Saturday and when we came back we noticed our yard was mowed.  Our neighbor mowed our yard for us!!  He used to always do it for the guy that lived here before.  Don said that he hadn't seen us in a long time so he thought that we were gone and decided to help us out.  I thought that was pretty nice.

Have a great week!!

Ok...So I have been a complete slacker and haven't viewed this wonderful website in a few weeks....

Things have been very crazy on my end.  I know I told you all that I went to Texas and had a great time.  Then how the hurricane hit and my brother was evacuated.  Well, I then kept you hanging after that.  So.....my brother's house survived Hurricane Rita.  He is currently living in an R.V. camp with other coworkers (the fed gov't put them up)...he works for a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Refuge.  He is working with his insurance company and also FEMA aid to fix his house....he had water damage on his floors, so he ripped those out...a couple windows were damaged and he mentioned that he needs a new roof.  All in all he was very lucky.  So we're hoping that he'll get to move back home by Thanksgiving...if not sooner....

I experienced California for the first time at the end of Sept-beginning of October.....I went to San Francisco for a work training and stayed at the Sir Francis Drake.  That was a cool hotel.  Besides attending work stuff, I went to Fisherman's Wharf, ate good seafood, walked the crazy steep hills, had a beautiful view of San Fran from on top of Coit Tower, went through Chinatown.....on Saturday, I biked over the Golden Gate Bridge and into Sausalito!!  Now that was a cool trip!  Very very foggy that day......My brother's friend (who lives in the area) took me to Napa Valley and we had wine....yummy!

Last weekend, I went to Charlotte, NC to visit my dad and his new wife (Glenda)....they have a GREAT place and we went out to dinner with a bunch of people Friday night.  Saturday, we drove to Asheville, NC to experience Biltmore Estate.  Lynn met up with us there, since she is now living in Knoxville (only a 2 hour drive to Asheville).  Biltmore is awesome!  I highly suggest going.....The rest of the weekend was pretty low key....

Now I am back in Chicago.......some things are going on that I will write on more once I know if it's a go......I know....mysterious.....

This weekend I am seeing Wicked, the musical, for a second time with my aunt and uncle......

Next weekend, I am visiting Mark and April!  Yea!!!  :)

I decorated my apartment for Halloween, but I need to get more "spooky" stuff.....

Anyway..that's a quick review of how my life has been in the last month or so.....

I will try not to let time lapse as long as it has in regards to the website...

Tootles for now!  :)

Blog ya later

Michele

Wedding plans are coming along.  We have decided that we are going to have the ceremony at Prince of Peace.  We talked to Pastor Doug and are now getting started on the classes.  I went to get flower ideas from one of the flower shops, but they weren't that helpful.  They never have a lot of flowers on hand, so I had to look at pictures.  From going there I think I may use Konfetti roses and mango calla lilies along with white of both.  The Konfetti roses start out as yellow and go into an orange/red color toward the top.

We finally broke down and bought a new ceiling fan with a light for our bedroom.  The old one didn't have a light and we couldn't find the right size or color to add one.  It is an awesome looking fan and it is great to have an over head light in there.  Before we were using small bedside lamps as our light.

We also bought all new fixtures (toilet paper holder, towel holders, etc) for the main bathroom.  Everything is our house is gold right now and we prefer silver.  We bought brushed silver stuff.  The only thing we didn't get was a shower curtain, so that will have to come soon. 

I started oil painting on one of the canvases that I had.  It has been a long time since I have used oil paints.  I have only done one piece of artwork with oils so I thought that this would take forever.  Once I got started it went really well.  So far it looks good, but I'm not finished so who knows what it will look like in the end.

A lady that Mark's mom knows gave her the recipe for Avanti's bread.  Mark made some the other night and it turned out very well.  We were actually surprised at how close to Avanti's bread it actually tasted.  I think it was better because they don't serve it hot and we were able to eat it hot.  Mark made the dough in the bread machine and then baked it in the oven.