4 Weddings and a Family Vacation: Wedding #1

This is the summer of four weddings and a family vacation for Craig and me. On Saturday we kicked off  the first leg of this summers nuptuals  by attending the wedding of JoAnne Elizabeth Dickens and Jonathan Wade Hodges.

JoAnne and Jonathan have known each other since the eighth grade and I think they started dating when they were sophmores or juniors in high school. They both went on to Appalachian State and soon after they gratuated they were engaged. After they return from their honeymoon they will be moving off together to Georgia to begin their new life together.

JoAnne is the youngest daughter of one of my mother's best friends from High School, and she and I have grown up referring to each other as "cousins." I also want to note here that she is the youngest of 5, which I think adds to her spunk and tenacity. She is a writer who not only planned her wedding this year, she wrote an entire novel! I really truly believe that she has the strength and determination to succeed in anything she puts her heart and mind to.

On Saturday, they didn't have a mass celebrated during their wedding, but they did have a few readings and songs which really enriched the ceremony. Father McConville spoke about marriage and was both funny and poignant. I really enjoyed his homily.

The reception was at the North Raleigh Hilton. It was the first time in a long time that I had a sit down meal at a wedding as opposed to a buffet. Both Craig and I had the prime rib-which I must say was pretty darn good! I think whenever there is a choice of beef, fish or chicken I am going to opt for the beef from now on. As the evening progressed so did the party. Lots of dancing and good times!

One of the details I really liked was that at each table they had placed different photos of themselves along with some facts about their relationship. For example at our table the facts told us about how Jo and Jonathan celebrated their anniversaries. Jonathan would take Jo out to a fancy restaurant every year and Jo would get Jonathan the appropriate year's edition of the John Madden football video game.

One of the highlights of the evening was Jo Anne and Jonathan's first dance, they had a music montage of both romantic and fun songs. They even incorporated a very cute personally choreographed line dance that just HAS to make it to youtube!

Photo Journal: The Big Surprise!

This was Mariucci's face when she saw her friend, Buffett, who had flown in from Texas as a surprise for the Christening.   It was awesome!

Busy Busy Exhausting Weekend!

I think I have finally recovered from our weekend of catering. Craig booked two parties this past weekend. On Saturday he catered a small wedding for the mother of our friend (and Craig's co-worker/employee, Kevin) and on Sunday he catered a retirement party for my mom's friend/hair dresser. I was his kitchen helper.

My role as helper actually started during my lunch break on Friday when I ran errands such as, making the car payment at the bank, picking up the car magnets and driving across town to pick up a giant cutting board, a platter and some table cloths from United  Restaurant Equipment. Then after work I ran to BJ's to get 24 loaves of bread for sandwiches and french toast that Craig would be making this week. Luckily the AKC is pretty centrally located between all of those places with I-40, I-540 and Glenwood Ave at my disposal.

Friday night we stayed at the kitchen until nearly 10 p.m. prepping and cleaning.  Then we got up at 5:07 in the morning to head back to the kitchen. I know it was 5:07 because I allowed us to hit the snooze button once.  We were actually in the kitchen and working by 5:20.  Craig left with the food at 9:30 in the morning while I stayed behind to sweep up and finish cleaning some sheet pans etc.  Then I went home, cleaned the bath room, took a shower, had a egg salad at sandwich Harmony Café, went back to the kitchen to load up my car with the food for the halfway house (this food was actually prepped on Friday so it was ready to go), drove across town and delivered it.

By the time I drove back home and relaxed just a little bit, Craig sent me a text message to tell me that it was time  to clean up at the wedding-so off I went to the wedding reception site. I helped load up the car and bring things back to the kitchen. Then I was cleaning all sorts of platters and pans all over again.

Much to my dismay, we ended up staying at the kitchen until 10 p.m. again as we prepped for Sunday's party. However, I tried to put on a happy face about this. Craig said I could go home but I didn't want to leave him to do everything by himself. Things did get a little punchy when I was slicing the cheese for the cheese platters on the slicer. Craig and I volleyed a lot of "cutting the cheese" jokes.

We were able to sleep in a little bit on Sunday--if you count sleeping until 7 a.m. as sleeping in. Then, we were off to the kitchen again! This time Kevin was working and he came in around 9 a.m. at which point I was relieved of my kitchen helper duty. (yey!) I went over to Starbucks  and bought Craig a Chai though because I thought he would like it. (Kevin didn't want anything).  After that I went home, cleaned the rest of the apartment and got ready to go over to the retirement party to take some pictures of the food.  Over all, both parties were a success and Craig received a lot of complements. I think he really got a lot of good exposure.

Here are some pictures of Sunday's event (Craig forgot to take pictures on Saturday, although I think Kevin took some and we may be able to get some from the wedding photographer):

Fruit and Cheese:

The Spread:

The Team:

Spinach Dip:

Tending the Bar:

Refilling the Vegetables:

 Mr. Powers and Dad, Ironically Dressed the Same:

Governor's Club Table:
(Wow! Did my mom drum up all that business for Eva?)

Create-A-Dog Day

This month at work we are having the second annual May Days events put on by the employee events team (EET). Last year we had a week of events (which, by the way, I headed up and subsequently was awarded Employee of the Month for). Last year, the week, called May Days, included handing out free sunscreen  to everyone; stocking some mail carts with snacks and pushing them around the building to deliver snacks and drinks to everyone at their desks; dressing up for a fiesta on Cinco de Mayo (we weren't allowed to serve margaritas like we wanted to); creating sculptures of dogs out of Play-Doh & having them judged by conformation judges as well as fellow employees, giving out Krispy Kreme donuts to everyone; and a grand finale of setting up two wii stations in a conference room so people could take their break by playing on the wii.  This year they learned from last year's trouble spots and decided to spread the events out a little so that the May Days are spread out throughout the month. I also learned from my trouble spots and opted not to be a part of the subcomittee that planned this year's events!

Yesterday, we had our "Create-A-Dog" event. Instead of making sculptures the team decided that people could use several art supplies such as construction paper, crayons, colored pencils, glue etc. to create a piece of dog artwork. The only major rules were, you could only use supplies that were provided, you could not trace anything and it had to fit on an 8.5" x 11" sheet of paper. For the second year in a row my friend, Karen, walked away from the competition as a winner. Last year she won first place with her pink play-doh Scottish Terrier. This year she won second place with a pink "hole-punch" poodle.
 
Let me back track for a moment. On Monday, my friend Jennifer who works in HR called me. She told me that she was signed up for the Create-A-Dog Contest at 11:00 and that I had to participate with her. Since, "no," was apparantly not an option I hesitated and said, "uh, okay, but Karen has to participate too then!" That is how Jennifer, Karen and I ended up participating in the contest.  While we waited for Wedneday to roll around Karen and I hemmed and hawed about not knowing what we were going to do for the contest. We also waxed philospohical about how we could create dogs that were 1D since the email advertisement for the contest said you could create 1D, 2D and 3D artwork.
 
Then, yesterday, at 11:00 a.m. we were sitting in a conference room, with our art supplies in front of us, waiting to begin. Karen, was giving the EET members in charge a hard time by asking if she could tear a page out of the Complete Dog Book they provided her with as a point of reference and then joked that she was going to glue some of the pages together (she is such the class clown!). When the signal was given to begin Karen picks up a piece of pink construction paper and a hole puncher and proceeds to rhythmically punch holes...Punch! Punch! Punch Punch! Punch! (Like a timer of some sort). She was driving the rest of us in the room crazy with her punching!  She did this whole hole punching bit for at least 5 of the 20 minutes we were given to create our dog masterpieces. At one point I even thought that she was just punching holes in that paper out of spite to annoy us all because she didn't really want to participate. In the end, she created a pretty polished looking cartoon poodle. She had glued the "pink holes" onto the paper so that it became the poodle's signature puffs, bracelets and pompons! I must say, I think it was pretty awesome.

 I made a pencil drawing of a Doberman Pinscher but it didn't place. I spent a lot of time penciling the shape of the dog but I ran out of time before I could really shade it very well. I decided to do a pencil drawing since I did a pretty good pencil drawing in a HS art class once and recieved accolades about it somewhat recently from a good friend of mine, Nina, who I consider a great artist. I think my sketch, yesterday, sort of resembled a deer more than a dobe, but my friends assured me that they thought it looked really good. I usually am my worst critic so I'll take their word for it. Maybe, if I have time, I will go out and buy a sketch book and try it again . . . this time without a time constraint and in a quiet peaceful place.

65 Red Roses

A few weeks ago I read about Eva Markvoort, a young Canadian woman who had lost her battle with Cystic Fibrosis and her body's chronic rejection of  a pair of lungs she had received two years ago when she had a double lung transplant.  She was just shy of her 26th birthday when she passed away.

Since I read about her death, I  have spent the past couple of weeks reading her LJ account 65_Red_Roses.  I started reading her blog from the beginning. Let me tell you, it is amazing. I highly recommend people read it. I don't think I can take any part of my life for granted ever again and the phrase, "at least you have your health," has a totally new meaning to me.   If you are interested in reading her blog here is a link to it: http://65redroses.livejournal.com/

It was so interesting to hear Eva's thoughts about her love of life and what her life was like living with a chronic disease.  She was vibrant and creative. She loved life and fought for her life until the very end. In the process she touched countless others whether they be people she actually knew or people she met online through her LJ account.  She posted pictures and videos of herself during her best moments, her worst moments and everything in between. At times you can see how she is a young 20-something just living life and at other times you hear about her struggles and loneliness when she is stuck in the hospital for weeks at a time. Towards the end she was receiving mail from people around the world wishing her well. She started what she called her, "Wall of Love," by putting all her cards and letters and pictures she received on her bedroom wall. She even thanked many people personally for the mail they sent by showing pictures and videos of all of the mail she received . . . until she was no longer strong enough to do so.  One of her important messages was how she was amazed by how she had put her love out into the world and she was receiving it back through the letters of people from around the world. She began to realize that even though she would die that she wouldn't be gone because she would be remembered by the love of the people she had touched.  Between her words and her photos you can tell she was just a beautiful person both inside and out!  I wish I could have discovered her blog before she died so that I could have sent her a card or a letter as well.  

Two major causes that Eva worked hard at was raising awareness about Cystic Fibrosis and the importance of being an organ donor. Friends of Eva's who were film makers made an award winning  documentary called 65_Red_Roses that showed her wait for a double lung transplant. I am going to purchase a copy. You can pre-order a copy of the documentary until the end of May at http://www.65redroses.com/

Time Flies When You Are Having Fun

Boy, it has been nearly a month since I last posted. So much for posting every day until June 30th!  So, what has happened since April 15th . . . .

Well, on April 15th Craig and I went out for appetizers and drinks at Mccormick and Schmick's with our friends Rob and Kim.   The restaurant was running a special so we got these coupons that were for $10.40 off of our next visit before the end of May (excluding mother's day of course).  We went back last week for dinner and used one of the coupons. Dinner was really good but we also had dessert which made me feel pretty guilty afterwards.

We went rode our bikes a few times on the greenway. We were able to go farther and faster every time we went out. We bought these little speedometers that we attached to the bicycles. We can record how fast we go, our maximum speed, average speed, how long we rode, how many calories and fat calories we burned, what the temperature was etc. We are keeping a spreadsheet of all of this information on our computer to see how we are doing. We are also thinking of trying new trails on the greenway for variety.

We've been out for ice cream and slushes a few times. There is a new ice cream place that is just minutes away from our apartment. They the ice cream they sell is from a local farm in Carborro. Everything is organic yada yada yada. It is pretty yummy though. I am sort of a purist when it comes to ice cream and I have had chocolate and strawberry so far. Craig has tried some of the other flavors such as Carolina Crunch and Chocolate with Almonds.  The Sunset Slush place is a little farther away from where we live but definitely worth the drive. They sell slush that is sort of like an italian ice but much better. I'd say it was like gelato but I have never actually had gelato (I think). It does not have dairy in it so it is very low in calories and I don't think it has any fat in it at all.

My God Son was baptized in April. It is pretty neat that my sister lives across the street and down the block a little bit from the church. A lot of us walked from her house to the church before the ceremony. I liked that it was a little procession with Andrew in his christening outfit and the family behind him walking together to the church. It reminded me of what it might be like if we lived in some small european town where people actually walk to church.  Afterwards my sister and her husband threw a nice party in their back yard. They had fried chicken and pork bbq, hush puppies and all the fixin's. They  had tents up in the back yard which came in handy since it rained a little bit. There were little kids running around playing and the adults sat around the tables talking, eating and drinking. It was especially nice to see friends and family from out of town who had flown in for the baptism. One of Marybeth's good friends, Jennifer, from College came to town from Texas and surprised her. It was great! I'll have to post a picture of Marybeth's face when she saw her friend standing in her kitchen! I'm especially proud since in my family I am given a hard time quite often for not being able to keep a secret, however I was an integral part of keeping the surprise a secret and I did it! Mb gave me kudos since kudos were due!

Ironically, on the same weekend of the Baptism, it was the First Communion for one of our nephews on Craig's side of the family. Craig and I woke up early on Sunday and drove to Wilmington for the occasion. It was a very nice ceremony because there was only one class of about 14 students who were receiving their communion for the first time. Most of the people at the mass were family of the recipients and the mass itself was very intimate. Afterwards we went to a Japanese Steakhouse for lunch and cake. After lunch Craig and I went over to his parents house for a little bit and had tea and just talked for a while before we had to drive back to Raleigh. Before we left, Craig's mom gave me a really pretty candle holder made of wrought iron and hand blown glass that she said she had and kept forgetting to give to me. I think she may have picked it up during our vacation in the Blue Ridge Mountains last year during the Freeman Family Vacation but I am not sure.

I went out for sushi with a co-worker one night after work. She and I had said that we would go out for sushi for at least 5 months now and we finally did it. I really like her a lot but we don't get much opportunity to hang out together. I think we have a lot in common and I hope we get more opportunities to hang out. I am a little worried though, that I may have bored her with my conversation. I hope not!

Craig and I vowed that we were going to lose weight before we went to NY for Josephine's wedding but  even though we have been trying really hard by exercising more and eating better we really haven't lost any weight--which is kind of frustrating. I guess we will have to do even more exercising and stop going out for ice cream altogether --boo!

I guess the last thing we did since my last post was that we went to a party of a friend of mine, who I went to HS and college with, last weekend. We stayed longer than I thought we would -I'm not really sure how late I actually thought we would stay but we ended up staying until about 11:30 p.m.   We were not the first to leave but there were still a good number of people there when we left. My friend's husband grilled some very nice kabobs and vegetables. He had different sauces for the kabobs, one was african, one was peanut and the last one was a cucumber dill sauce.  My friend had fresh pita bread and made a nice tsatsiki sauce and home made hummus for dipping. Their two year old daughter was the star of the party as she kept going to the cooler and getting beers out and handing them to the adults. People were joking and calling her a beer wench. My friend's husband is part Scottish and part Norwegian.  One thing that blows me away is when she talks to her little daughter in Norwegian. I told her, if anyone would have told me back in HS or college that she would know how to speak Norwegian I would  have said they were crazy! But it is true, she speaks Norwegian and even goes to Norway for several weeks every summer! How cool is that?