Doin' The Happy Dance

This weekend was FABULOUS! My Italian is pretty worn out from getting up early for work all week (not that he wasn't in the first place. He was getting up with me). We've decided to get up at 5 so I can get some sort of movement in before work.

Saturday he decided to sleep in. The poor man still woke up at 8. I got up an hour later, fed the cats and closed the door to our room to let him sleep. Or so I thought. Apparently he laid in bed for 4 hours trying to go back to sleep . . . it didn't happen. (I probably should have put Moulin Rouge in for him. That would have knocked him right out!)

We had to get all of our chores done Saturday, since we were spending Sunday at my folk's. Grocery shopping, laundry, cat box scrubbing (thankfully just a once a month chore. My Italian (Lord, bless him) cleans out the box every other day) and other various things. I'd vacuumed Friday morning since we had poker at the house on Friday night (another reason we slept in).

Sunday we got up raced off to church and while my Italian stayed for Grace Cafe (once a month our church has a meal after church) and the pinewood derby I raced out to pick up Baby Bro & Dad's birthday presents. Then it was back home to pack up the van (seriously! Going to my parents with my Italian, since his surgery, is an adventure).

Manual wheelchair . . . check
Accoutrement to wheelchair . . . check
Presents . . . check
2 sticks of butter Mom asked me to bring . . . I'll grab them in a minute
Husband . . . check
Off we go!

Yeah. I forgot the butter. No worries though because Mom sent Dad to the store for ice right after we got there, so he picked up butter too. Phew! Crisis averted.

Future sister-in-law and . . .

wait for it

ARMY BRO!

arrived next!

I haven't seen him since Christmas. It was SO SO SO! good to see him. He's on leave for a week. Tomorrow bright and early he and future sister-in-law (I'm really gonna have to find a new name for her) are headed down to North Carolina to do wedding stuff for a couple days only to turn around to head back to Virginia to meet with the guy who is marrying them for marriage counseling. (That's kind of hard to do when you're on opposite coasts).

Army Bro flies back on Saturday I think. I'm hoping to get to see him on Friday for lunch. That would be fabulous.

Once he flies back to California, he won't be back until Labor Day weekend. He's almost literally flying in to get married. He'll fly in Friday, Baby Bro will pick him up and they'll go down to NC with the other groomsmen for a bachelor party. Saturday is the rehersal and rehearsal dinner. He gets married Sunday and flies back to California on Monday.

A whirl-wind wedding weekend!

In other news . . .

My Italian is LOVING his job. He told me "It fits well with my OCD" one evening when we were driving home from work. I quite literally had to stop the car and pull over I was laughing so hard! He is so happy too.

We're still ironing out the kinks of transportation, but we're getting there.

Picking him up in the afternoon . . . SUCKS!

It takes me 20 minutes to get from his work to mine in the morning. 45 to get from mine to his in the afternoon! Eeewww!

I still want to move over there though. Next summer . . . Hopefully . . .

OH! Speaking of weddings (Yes, I'm a little ADD). I did mention that I wanted to be under 200 lbs for my brother's wedding right? Well, we're a month away and I weight 210 lbs. (Solid. No point anything.)

Needless to say, I'm getting a little nervous about it.

The bridesmaids' dresses have come in and future sister-in-law is dropping mine off at my parents' on Tuesday. So Saturday I'll be able to try it on and see how it fits.

AND

Go shopping with Mom for a rehearsal dinner dress and shoes for both dresses (as well as a pair of black flats for work and more sheets for our bed.)

It's been great! I've gotten to see my parents three (will be) weekends in a row! That NEVER happens. It's not like we're that far away, but its far enough away that when I do go up there, I want to be there all day long.

(Which reminds me, maybe I can get up there early on Saturday and Mom and I can go blackberry picking! YUM! I heart blackberries)

Okay, I've got 15 minutes left in my lunch. I need to go make my salad and food my self . . . er . . . umm . . . feed myself?

Romaine lettuce, carrots, almonds (maybe), grape tomatoes and pepperonis.

Okay seriously . . . Off I go!

OH! I forgot the pictures for the last post! I will pull those off my camera soon and repost it with all the loverly pictures. (And maybe some beach ones too?)

Family and more family

How was everyone's Easter?

Mine was amazing. Well . . . once we (I) got to church. The waaay . . . morning earlier was brutal. My poor Italian wasn't feeling well so we were up at 2:30 and again at 6:30. He stayed up after 6:30 and we got him dressed and he went to Sunday School. I stayed home and slept until it was time to head over to church. 

My sister-in-law, her husband and their 5 kids were at church too. They're down from NY for spring break. After church my sister-in-law took our van and my Italian (her brother) to their folks house and I gathered up the sheets and towels and started a load of laundry. I was supposed to make a jello salad, but I didn't realize it was going to take me 3 hours to make it, so I gathered everything up and took it up to my folks. (We usually do separate Easters.)

I love going home. It's not the house I grew up in, I only lived there for 2 or 3 years before I moved out and moved to Richmond. But Mom and Dad make it home. My Army brother's girlfriend came for Easter dinner. That was a lot of fun, especially since he's in California right now learning Farsii. My cousin was also there and then my mom's parents and my aunt and her husband arrived shortly there after. 

Dinner was fabulous! Ham, fresh cole slaw (w/o a mayo base), rolls, potato salad, olives, pickles, pickled eggs, red and white wine and dessert was a strawberry shortcake and key lime pie. Both homemade. The strawberry shortcake was incredible! I was only able to eat half of it. (I know, I know . . . what about my no sugar thing? I sorta ignored that yesterday . . . and today. But today was my youngest neice's birthday!) I did pretty well with dinner too. Each food item had space around it. As my leader at WW says, it was it's own island. And I only had 1 plate. I was quite comfortable after dinner. Didn't feel stuffed or overfull. Simply content. 

Between dinner and dessert we went to go look at the land my parent's bought and will be building a house on this summer. It is gorgeous! My cousin left from the land and everyone else except my brother's girlfriend and I left after dessert. 

The four of us sat around talking, discussing my lil Army brother and his gf's wedding plans. He'll still be in language school, but they're planning on getting married and she'll move out there. I'm so excited for them. 

Originally I was leaving the same time she was, but I started talking to my parents outside and was able to spend time having them all to myself. It was wonderful! I was able to express my concerns with my Italian's health and they offered a lot of really good advice. Some of which is a future blog post. I'm still thinking it through fully. 

I got home from my folk's house about 10:30. So much for going to bed early! Oops . . . I think we got to bed about 11:30 last night.

After work today, we were back at my in-laws to celebrate our youngest neice's birthday. I came straight from work. It was fun. She is so cute! 

But under no uncertain terms do I want children right now. My biological clock has not only stopped ticking . . . it's been smashed to smithereens and the smithereens have been burnt to ash! I think that's what happens when you have 7 neices and nephews running around like crazy people though!

OY!

How was your Easter?

No, no exercise has happened in the past 2 days . . . Tomorrow . . . I promise. I have WW, Curves and I'm going to do 30 Day Shred. Maybe try to run, it depends on what time my Italian gets home from his folks house. (When his sister is in town the family gathers at my in-laws everyday for dinner. I learned pretty quickly that I can't do that . . . I need my down time, and time away from them. I can't do everyday. I love all of them very much . . . just it's sensory overload!!)